POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

[Daren]

To be honest, neither faint nor near death feel like accurate descriptions of what we actually see in the game; a "fainted" Pokémon can still move giant boulders, chop down trees, or fly across the country.
I feel the setting really does not hold up to ethical scrutiny very well. Likely because--if I recall correctly--it was originally inspired by the collecting element rather than the adventuring and battling part, and then some Dragon Quest style RPG systems were put in to give meat to the bones. You can come up with headcanon (I have a few myself) to explain away the whole thing but it probably won't match every adaptation or scene in the game.

I do like that the anime gave Pokémon more agency than the games, even leaving a trainer they dislike.

 

[KrspaceT]

Here's a cliche: Ash having a harem consisting either of OCs, his canon female traveling companions (ash always has co panions and doesn't age. Bam, time lord confirmed. I kid.), or a mix of both.

I never quite understood the appeal of the harem genre. Supposedly it's supposed to be escapist fantasy - I suspect I'm considerably older than the target demographic

As a writer of a harem fic, my own thinking is 'I like a lot of ships, I don't feel like choosing.

I fully admit it is a case of author appeal and something I could easily do without if I made the call for.

Though for a specific issue in such a genre is combining it with Betrayal Fics. Betrayal Fics, if those are less known here, are a thing on FFnet for some reason where Ash basically gets yelled at and told an utter failure by his companions and loved ones, and occasionally his own Pokemon. He generally then returns some years later as some ultra edgy OC who proves them wrong in a tournament or something.

....Those things are horrible (and have thankfully declined in new numbers since Alola League finished up), but doing the same with harem is utterly stupid. For all the issues of trying to do a harem/multi-ship story, at least there isn't emotional baggage or damage.

An Ash who had his friends attack him for 'not being good enough', occasionally even burning his house down and murdering his mother to frame him (no seriously), is not going to be in a place to easily have one romantic relationship, let alone several at once.

He's going to stay up a mountain and basically be Sequel Trilogy Luke.

...Also just to reiterate, those things (betrayal with harem, or otherwise), used to be really common on FFnet. I couldn't tell you why, but they were all eerily identical.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

In Mystery Dungeon, the pokémon fight in self defense... against pokémon, who start fights.

The DP cage match isn't ethical, but it's also illegal. Not really relevant to the wider ethics issue.

 

[Daren]

Though for a specific issue in such a genre is combining it with Betrayal Fics. Betrayal Fics, if those are less known here, are a thing on FFnet for some reason where Ash basically gets yelled at and told an utter failure by his companions and loved ones, and occasionally his own Pokemon. He generally then returns some years later as some ultra edgy OC who proves them wrong in a tournament or something.

I'm not sure what the first "betrayal" fic was, but if it was in Kanto it may have been an exaggeration of Misty being harsh with him earlier on?
It's especially silly since May and the others all failed to accomplish their big goals, too, so they don't exactly have room to talk.

occasionally even burning his house down and murdering his mother to frame him (no seriously),

...
...
...

I really want to believe you only saw that particular plot point once, but I know the internet a bit too well.

...Also just to reiterate, those things (betrayal with harem, or otherwise), used to be really common on FFnet. I couldn't tell you why, but they were all eerily identical.

I only ever read one briefly out of morbid curiosity (and only the first chapter), but I used to see those betrayal fics pop up pretty often.
I've seen similar things in other fandoms; a strangely specific plot being repeatedly re-used. I think it's usually caused by a single very popular fic inspiring others.

Related to the betrayal fics is that I'm pretty sure there also used to be a reasonably common plot point in short one-shots/hatefics about Pikachu leaving Ash for Team Rocket. Now, under most circumstances I'd think that sort of thing was shipping related, but that didn't seem to be the case here, as none of the ones I'd read out of curiosity had any shipping elements.

In Mystery Dungeon, the pokémon fight in self defense... against pokémon, who start fights.

One of the things Pokémon, both mainline and Mystery Dungeon, inherited from other RPGs is that the world is an incredibly dangerous place where stepping one foot out of town is taking your life into your own hands. Less common is how beating these attackers can cause them to join you (Super Mystery Dungeon even had those craigslist murderer quests
where someone invites you to meet them, then when you arrive they ambush you, and then after you fight off the attack they become friends and you can put them in your party).

The Pokémon even seem to go through your wallet and steal your money if they win, at least in the older games, which suddenly has me wondering if the mainline games also have Pokémon towns like in Mystery Dungeon hidden away from human eyes, and after a wild Electabuzz KO's some random trainer and takes his cash they go off to put it in the bank to save up for that head shaped house they want. Maybe those wild Raichu in the power plant in Blue bought elemental stones with money they saved up mugging humans as a Pikachu?

The DP cage match isn't ethical, but it's also illegal. Not really relevant to the wider ethics issue.

Yeah, I think the matches in Detective Pikachu were supposed to be more like Fight Club while a normal battle would be closer to an official boxing match.
*

Actually, this does make me think of how some fics portray Pokémon as weapons/tools rather than living creatures to extreme extents, sometimes just listening to anyone who has their ball, regardless of whether or not they even know them.
This partly might be because of G/S, where Silver steals his starter and it listens to him? I sort of assumed the starters were chosen to specifically bond very easily to someone to make them suitable for a beginner, though.

It's related to people saying Ash should throw a thunderstone at Pikachu to evolve it--making something stronger AND making it dislike you is an obviously terrible idea but they don't think of Pokémon as being living creatures, even in-universe, and don't see the consequences of overriding their wishes for the sake of power.

It's true the games don't always show Pokémon as having tons of autonomy (mostly for game mechanics--your party members often have little agency in other RPGs but I don't see people saying the party members you create in Dragon Quest III are drones that will listen to anybody), but it's there; they can refuse to be released (if they have certain HM moves) and ignore you if you don't have their respect (it's just rare to see since it's only traded Pokémon that do it and the badge limits are generous), and more recent games have had Pokémon decide to join you on their own--not only wild ones but also Korrina's Lucario.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@unrepentantAuthor In Mystery Dungeon, it's implied that the enemy Pokémon in dungeons have been driven hostile by the calamity of the week.

@Daren Your idea of Pokémon buying stuff is hilarious. I don't think I've read any fanfics that treat Pokémon as mindless, though.

 

[BackSet]

When it comes to Pokemon, I don't exactly treat them as mindless, but kevel of sentience and intelligence is a case to case basis.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[...] some fics portray Pokémon as weapons/tools rather than living creatures to extreme extents, sometimes just listening to anyone who has their ball, [...]
This partly might be because of G/S, where Silver steals his starter and it listens to him? [...]

It's related to people saying Ash should throw a thunderstone at Pikachu to evolve it--making something stronger AND making it dislike you is an obviously terrible idea but they don't think of Pokémon as being living creatures, even in-universe, and don't see the consequences of overriding their wishes for the sake of power.

Perhaps some people just play the games and don't pay much attention, and end up conditioning themselves to see pokémon as assets and not as living beings. In order to do this you would of course have to first be wilfully inattentive, and lacking in empathy towards other living beings. I really don't understand for certain why this sort of thinking is so prevalent when it's so obviously both callous and inaccurate, and every explanation I think of involves some variation of "these people are messed up." If you think about it for half a second, this sort of thinking is basically standard pokémon villainy, such as you might get from Giovanni or Ghetsis.

A note on Silver: people seem to think that because he stole his starter, his starter should feel as if they have been kidnapped. This is probably because they think pokémon care about the human concept of ownership and submit to being property, lmao. From Silver's starter's point of view, it has been taken out of its pokéball and told by a human that they are its trainer now and they're going on a journey. It accepts this.

Consider: this is exactly what happens to your starter.

@unrepentantAuthor In Mystery Dungeon, it's implied that the enemy Pokémon in dungeons have been driven hostile by the calamity of the week.

Yes? Non-dungeon PMD pokémon attack each other too. Consider Drowzee in the Explorers games. He kidnaps a child and tries to beat the shit out of the hero so he can obtain treasure. He's not a feral, half-mad dungeon-dweller, he's a member of civilisation. It's not a pacifist utopia disturbed only by natural calamities.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

A better way of putting what I meant is that nothing indicates that PMD Pokémon enjoy battles.

 

[Cresselia92]

I mean, I think there could be some (groups of) Pokémon in a PMD setting who love beating the living lights out of others, maybe because they are bullies or just as a way to show superiority. It wouldn’t be too different from some thugs looking for fights in a human setting, after all, even if the majority of people dislikes physical confrontation.

 

[Serverus Snope]

To be honest, neither faint nor near death feel like accurate descriptions of what we actually see in the game; a "fainted" Pokémon can still move giant boulders, chop down trees, or fly across the country.
I feel the setting really does not hold up to ethical scrutiny very well. Likely because--if I recall correctly--it was originally inspired by the collecting element rather than the adventuring and battling part, and then some Dragon Quest style RPG systems were put in to give meat to the bones. You can come up with headcanon (I have a few myself) to explain away the whole thing but it probably won't match every adaptation or scene in the game.

I do like that the anime gave Pokémon more agency than the games, even leaving a trainer they dislike.

That's the biggest pitfall of the games. The game mechanics overly simplify something that would likely be a far more complex relationship. It's also a reason why I've grown fonder of smaller team sizes in recent years. Fewer mons means more room for fleshing out each one's relationship with their trainer.

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

The Aura!Ash character. It normally goes along with Betrayed!Ash or Smart!Ash (Or both since why the hell not?). Too often, it is just plot convenience. Ash never earns the skill to use the power. Even in canon, the power is fickle and even fatal if overexerted. Either authors just time skip past the training and have Ash be some teen edgelord who is immediately better than everyone else, common in betrayal, or it's a deus ex machina which ruins tension at worst. People have this ripe, unexplored concept to use, but rarely has anyone tried to flesh it out.

The only time I really enjoyed the Aura!Ash character being used is a fanfic which turns Aura into its own lore like the Force.

 

[BackSet]

I remember Ashes of the Past (like Pokemon Reset Bloodlines but lighter and softer. I can't remember which came first) gave him Aura Powers but he wasn't terribly good at using them so he had to train them (with the training scenes actually being shown, along with actual scenes of him training doing actual pokemon training, a rarity in fanfiction).

 

[KrspaceT]

I remember Ashes of the Past (like Pokemon Reset Bloodlines but lighter and softer. I can't remember which came first) gave him Aura Powers but he wasn't terribly good at using them so he had to train them (with the training scenes actually being shown, along with actual scenes of him training doing actual pokemon training, a rarity in fanfiction).

Writer of Reset Bloodlines here: Ashes came first.

The Aura!Ash character. It normally goes along with Betrayed!Ash or Smart!Ash (Or both since why the hell not?). Too often, it is just plot convenience. Ash never earns the skill to use the power. Even in canon, the power is fickle and even fatal if overexerted. Either authors just time skip past the training and have Ash be some teen edgelord who is immediately better than everyone else, common in betrayal, or it's a deus ex machina which ruins tension at worst. People have this ripe, unexplored concept to use, but rarely has anyone tried to flesh it out.

The only time I really enjoyed the Aura!Ash character being used is a fanfic which turns Aura into its own lore like the Force.

Personally to me Aura is useful as a short cut to better mon to human communications....and that's it.

 

[RK9]

Not sure if it is a cliché, but people who permanently give trainers (Be it 'real' ones or OC ones) the 'big' Legendaries like Groudon, Ho-Oh and the lot.

Especially when they just catch them first try and even afterwards, have no trouble handling them at all.

 

[BackSet]

See, the thing is, most legendaries are sentient in my opinion.

Ho-oh and Lugia are definitely sentient. Kyogre and Groudon are iffy as they seem to be the ferocity and extremity of their elements and nothing more but Rayquaza is definitely sentient.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I once read a post on a blog about Mary Sues which says that a trainer in a fanfic should never, ever own a legendary, but what if it was a journeyfic that wanted to be faithful to the later games?

 

[BackSet]

Well that's just plain wrong.

I think that a trainer should be able to own a legendary but only under special circumstances.

 

[Kyuu-Tales]

Personally, I'm a little tired of the "Father!Kukui" cliche. Sure, it's bound to taper off since that big hint/reveal came at the end of Alola that Burnet was with child, but there's a difference between "mentor" and "father" people who use the trope are missing here. Taking it a step further by making Kukui Ash's "long-lost father" makes things worse in my mind as it necessitates shafting either Delia or Burnet, or at least damaging their credibility. (Though I suppose Ash could have a step mother?)

I think it's important that Ash not have a visible, known father so that his native audience can identify better with him. While fanfics might not share that audience, it's one more thing that makes Ash less "Ash-like" in the grand scheme of things.

 

[KrspaceT]

Personally, I'm a little tired of the "Father!Kukui" cliche. Sure, it's bound to taper off since that big hint/reveal came at the end of Alola that Burnet was with child, but there's a difference between "mentor" and "father" people who use the trope are missing here. Taking it a step further by making Kukui Ash's "long-lost father" makes things worse in my mind as it necessitates shafting either Delia or Burnet, or at least damaging their credibility. (Though I suppose Ash could have a step mother?)

I think it's important that Ash not have a visible, known father so that his native audience can identify better with him. While fanfics might not share that audience, it's one more thing that makes Ash less "Ash-like" in the grand scheme of things.

I'd rather those than Chat-fics on Archive, though any issue if I give my own thoughts on this trope?

While I don't really like Kukui as Ash's bio-father, I do actually like the idea of Kukui as a step-father or father-figure if developed that way in a fanfic, versus just thrusting the idea (Kukui adopts orphaned Ash, for example.)

A case of 'Step Father after # chapters or paragraphs'.

Now I'll admit that pretty much every thought I had of Kukui as Ash's step-father is also combined with it being a case of Delia x Kukui x Burnett. As I've said before, I like multi-ships and dislike shipping wars, so it isn't quite what you see a lot and feel the need to vent about.

For the curious, it would also basically follow the logic of this quote by G. R R Martin

Maegor the Cruel has multiple wives, from lines outside his own, so there was and is precedent. However, the extent to which the Targaryen kings could defy convention, the Faith, and the opinions of the other lords decreased markedly after they no longer had dragons. If you have a dragon, you can have as many wives as you want, and people are less likely to object.[11]

Kukui in context hardly being 'Kukui the Cruel', but something like this.

Delia: I mean, I'm surprised I'm as open to the idea of being your second wife...but people will object.

Kukui: They can object to Incineroar.

Burnett: Now, say yes so I can have a step-son.

....Yeah, I'm odd seeing as I've thought of a few stories, all with Shudo's light novels or examining AU 'dark fic' material in new and less murdersome ways, where such a thing happens. But at least neither Delia nor Burnett suddenly turn evil in them.

 

[BackSet]

Kukui: They can object to Incineroar.

Incineroar: Ace Attorney.