POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

[Elso]

I don't necessarily think many of these cliches are that bad to use. I'm currently writing a re imagining of the Red and Blue Story line Red has a Pikachu and he also got a Charmander from oak. Similarly Blue had an eevee but also received a squirtle. As you may imagine their are cliches abound in this story but I don't think that it automatically makes it bad because it's how you use them. At the end of the day the bad guys should lose as it involves the protagonist overcoming the main conflict (of course their are ways of circumventing that but in general the protagonist should defeat the antagonist.) As for things like pokemon that never die well that all depends on how dark one wishes the fic to be, the Pokemon Anime does not have a whole lot of pokemon die(save for a few times during the movies) because it is a kids show and is not very dark. Artistic choices that make the fice more or less mature does not constitute an over used clique. I could go on but my main point is that most of these aren't over used you just don't think they should be used

 

[Pokemon Gray]

As long as ample thought is given into the why of things, I figure the story'll turn out fine.

 

[ShadowDRGN]

As long as ample thought is given into the why of things, I figure the story'll turn out fine.

A lot of clichés are like that; if there's no good reason why that story element or trope is used, then it's usually either a cliché thrown in to make the work more mainstream or just a bad story element in general.

 

[Drakon]

I just came up with two more:

1.) Pokémon training is depicted as abusive

2.) N is portrayed as a misanthrope

 

[The Dude]

I just came up with two more:

1.) Pokémon training is depicted as abusive

2.) N is portrayed as a misanthrope

The smart thing to do is to portray all Pokemon-human relationships as different from each other, on a spectrum from outright slavery on one extreme to N's relationship with Pokemon on the other. And here's how you make the "Pokemon training is abusive" thing interesting, if it's critical for your fic. Make the Pokemon complicit in that abuse, because they can't imagine any other way of life. hah, that reminds me of probably my favorite Pokemon fic ever. An angry Pokemon furious at the mistreatment of Pokemon by humans starts a revolution, with a grand vision of creating an army of Pokemon to liberate all Pokemon from their trainers/slavemasters. It does not end well for that Pokemon or his comrades.

 

[Drakon]

The smart thing to do is to portray all Pokemon-human relationships as different from each other, on a spectrum from outright slavery on one extreme to N's relationship with Pokemon on the other. And here's how you make the "Pokemon training is abusive" thing interesting, if it's critical for your fic. Make the Pokemon complicit in that abuse, because they can't imagine any other way of life. hah, that reminds me of probably my favorite Pokemon fic ever. An angry Pokemon furious at the mistreatment of Pokemon by humans starts a revolution, with a grand vision of creating an army of Pokemon to liberate all Pokemon from their trainers/slavemasters. It does not end well for that Pokemon or his comrades.

Is that Poké Wars?

Also, I should clarify. My gripe is when all trainers are depicted as abusive dipshits and all the pokémon are heroes. Even if the pokémon are doing things like killing civilians or abusing POWs.

 

[The Dude]

Yeah, I have seen that in a few fics. There was one I got quite deep into reading, god knows why, where the main character was Mewtwo (thematically appropriate, I guess), and every single human being he meets is a sadistic bastard. Bonus points for having Evil Ash as his chief tormentor. Yeah. Whoever wrote that needed therapy. Like, intensive cognitive therapy, because dude had ISSUES.
and no, I'm thinking on it, and I think the fic was called Pokemon Revolution. and the main character was a Linoone.

 

[Pokemon Gray]

Is it a cliche to involve legendary Pokemon in your fanfic? I said a while ago that anything given thought and not just done for the sake of doing it would not be a cliche, but at the same time I feel certain things may be over used. Like Legendary involvement.

Another question is family. I've only read a few Poke-fanfics so far, but how often do people have their main characters start out with no parents?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Is it a cliche to involve legendary Pokemon in your fanfic? I said a while ago that anything given thought and not just done for the sake of doing it would not be a cliche, but at the same time I feel certain things may be over used. Like Legendary involvement.

Another question is family. I've only read a few Poke-fanfics so far, but how often do people have their main characters start out with no parents?

Generally speaking, in journey fics main characters don't have much in the way of family described - I'm told that The Long Walk is unusual in that regard. As for legendaries, well ... I suppose you could say it's a bit of a cliché. With legendaries it is far more important how you use them though

 

[BlackButterfree]

I don't read a lot of PokéFics so I have no idea what is or isn't cliché, but like others have posted, what makes something cliché isn't something that everyone does, it's when you do it BADLY.

No one's mentioned being raised by Pokémon as a cliché, so I'm guessing it's not that common? I've always had the idea for a fic where the main character was found Tarzan-style by two Kadabra and raised with them until something threatens their habitat and he becomes a trainer and tavels with his parents in his party, searching for a new home.

 

[Persephone]

Being raised by Pokemon has become increasingly common in the fan fiction community for a variety of reasons after N came along, but I would not personally define it as a cliche yet. Legendary usage is a pretty broad topic. Most journey fics do involve at least one legend in some way. The exact method varies, but using a legend as a starter or the giver of an ancient prophecy that obviously applies to the main character and the main character alone are probably the most cliche ways of doing it and the first is generally associated with bad, bad fics. I've seen it done well, but that was in a semi-parody of the trope so I'm not sure that counts. Most other legend uses are uncommon enough to be not particularly cliche, if only because they tend to come in late in fics and most journey fics do not get to the late game.

 

[The Dude]

Is it a cliche to involve legendary Pokemon in your fanfic? I said a while ago that anything given thought and not just done for the sake of doing it would not be a cliche, but at the same time I feel certain things may be over used. Like Legendary involvement.

Another question is family. I've only read a few Poke-fanfics so far, but how often do people have their main characters start out with no parents?

About legendary Pokemon: it's really common, and not usually implemented well, but what's cliche are the things done with it.
1. Team Rocket/whatever tries to capture the legendaries for ULTIMATE POWER
2. a legendary blesses Our Hero as the chosen one to save the world

I would not do either of those with legendary Pokemon. But I can't say you shouldn't use them. I intend to eventually feature as many of them as possible in my stories. but with a huge twist. I'm not sure if "all the gods are assholes" has been done much yet. I sure hope not.

and about family, having the main character be an orphan is absurdly common in fiction in general. It's a Campbellian archetype thing. Here's a quote that explains it pretty well, from encyclopedia.com:

Orphan stories chronicle the events surrounding abandoned children forced to navigate life independent of either their biological parents or parental figures. These tales are usually characterized by lost children struggling with issues of past, identity, and emotional security and are often sentimental in nature. A recurring motif throughout children's literature, orphan stories have proven popular among writers for the possibilities it offers in establishing a protagonist lacking either ties or an innate heritage, so as to fully develop the child hero from a blank slate without predetermined guidance. Their popularity may be, in part, due to the inherent sympathetic nature of the orphan, often playing off childhood insecurities about abandonment, displacement, and home. The usage of orphans in children's texts can be traced back to the origins of children's literature itself, with examples of abandoned children populating the mythic and literary traditions of many diverse cultures. Stretching from the canonical legends of such cultural paragons as England's King Arthur and Rome's Romulus and Remus—which depict mystical orphan children growing to epic greatness—to the biblical tradition of Moses, orphan narratives extend across the folkloric fabric of pre-history to the most modern examples of recent children's literature. The Victorian era particularly cherished the developing orphan story canon, with such authors as Charles Dickens establishing a concrete literary standard from which many contemporary orphan narratives are still drawn. Though often highly sentimental, these stories typically featured tragic elements, particularly with regards to establishing the narrator's orphan identity by detailing the deaths of the child's parents, or, in some cases, the dire fate of the child itself, as seen in such stories as Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Match Girl." From these conventions evolved a series of classic young girls' fiction that flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These turn-of-the-century orphan stories usually featured a plucky child orphan forced to live with emotionally detached relatives, as can be seen in Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did (1873), Johanna Spyri's Heidi (1880), Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess (1905), and L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908), among others. The use of the orphan as a literary protagonist remains an important literary device within contemporary children's fiction, adding an important mythic component to such present-day works as J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books.

 

[Gotapennaame]

I am getting sick of Giovanni being portrayed as Hot blooded Psychopath instead of the cold blooded Sociopath we all know and love. I am sick reading fan fic and being all dude Giovanni would not do that evil thing as will not help gain money or power.

 

[Elric von Bek]

The Rockets in my fic have legendaries. I portray Giovanni as a renegade that works with and against the law, secure in the fact that his criminal enterprises are tolerated, as the Rockets protect the scattered towns and cities of Kanto from the depredations of the Glitch Pokémon.

 

[Persephone]

To be fair, Giovanni's motivations in game are by far the least clear of any criminal mastermind. Even the scale of Rocket is left ambiguous in the original Japanese games, implying that he could be anything from a local mob boss to a pawn of a larger and more sinister scheme to a proto-Syndicate boss much like the later generations teams. He wanted a Master Ball, fossils, and money. That's all we know about his goals from the game verse. What he wanted to do (probably catch at least one legend given the Master Ball) is unclear. So it is entirely possible that he would do something that wouldn't gain him money and power, depending upon the interpretation of his character you want to go with.

Writing him entirely OOC is less forgivable, though.

 

[The Dude]

Giovanni is a "legitimate businessman". I think the right way to write him is to watch The Godfather and Goodfellas, and then Wall Street, and then use the characters from those as inspirations.
Also, he is a Terrible Father.

 

[Doctor Floptopus]

It's not really a cliche, but:
Characters with bottomless wallets
Characters who rarely seem to eat or have basic needs like needing the loo
Virtually fearless characters.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

I don't know how true this might be these days, since it's about nine years since I discovered pokémorphs and I've read very little since my binging back then, but at the time, the cliches were rife. Team Rocket creating morphs 'for science!', then abusing them horribly for no readily established reason so that they would escape and destroy everything - that was almost universal, and even applied to my first fanfic. Pikachu line, vulpix line, eeveelution morphs all especially common. Human teens merged with their pokémon only to become superpowered, and then suffer endless poorly-directed angst about being a freak, and fantastic racism on the part of the creators. etc.

Different Eyes was specifically conceptualised as a counter to morph-fic cliches.

 

[Drakon]

Speaking of pokémorph fics, there are two cliches I noticed.

Using pokémorphs and their treatment by Humans to push a "Humans are Bastards" message.

Silph Co./Team Rocket creating pokémorphs as superweapons.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Absolutely. It's pretty much everywhere. I've wondered for a while if there's a link between writing morph fics and feeling estranged from the rest of humanity, actually, precisely because of the ubiquity of 'humans are bastards'.

One might argue the superweapon thing is canon, seeing as mewtwo is, at least in the manga, a pokemorph.