POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Not sure if that counts as a cliche, but many fics rely too much on popular pokemon and shinies to stand out. I’ve seen a few too many stories that were as bland and by-the-numbers as it can get, with the one selling point being something like a Riolu or an Eevee for a starter.

 

[BackSet]

How are they supposed to stand out if everyone's doing that?

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

How are they supposed to stand out if everyone's doing that?

Rule of cool, I suppose.

 

[BackSet]

I do like Lucario so I guess I'm part of the problem.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I do like Lucario so I guess I'm part of the problem.

It’s not about using a Lucario, I just find it annoying how so many stories are as boring as it can get, but... ASH AND LUCARIO

 

[RK9]

Not sure if that counts as a cliche, but many fics rely too much on popular pokemon and shinies to stand out. I’ve seen a few too many stories that were as bland and by-the-numbers as it can get, with the one selling point being something like a Riolu or an Eevee for a starter.

The usage of Popular Pokémon in itself is not wrong. It's what you do with it that counts more, imo.

That said, I don't mind shiny Pokémon either, but if you only use 5 trainers and they have 8 Shinies combined between each other over a ratio of only owing like, 10 Pokémon each let's say, that's... alarming? Personally I think it could be handy to use them to function as a 'mirror' between two certain trainers or if you have a lot of the same Pokémon in a fic to make it easier to notify the 'main' ones in a way that doesn't get confusing. At the same time, that can also be done in different ways while also giving those Pokémon other small differences in appearances that give away a difference. (Something like size or even behavioral patterns that set them apart)

 

[BackSet]

If you give each Pokemon a distinct personality, it doesn't matter (or matters less) if three of them are cyndaquill.

 

[RK9]

If you give each Pokemon a distinct personality, it doesn't matter (or matters less) if three of them are cyndaquill.

That's... literally what I said.

 

[BackSet]

That's... literally what I said.

Oh...

Sorry.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

but... ASH AND LUCARIO

I think what's more annoying is the sub-tropes that come from that:
-Lucario being all mysterious(and 99.9% of them having the EXACT. SAME. PERSONALITY.)
-Lucario calling Ash "master"
-Lucario somehow being able to be understood by every human being even though we've only ever seen one lucario talk in the history of the franchise
-Ash teaching Lucario aura
-Ash gets Lucario as a Riolu

I'm pretty sure there's a lot more, but these are the most annoying ones. Why is Ash getting Lucario always treated as some big mysterious thing? Like, I get it, aura and stuff, but in fanfiction, Lucario feels like a discount Ash-Greninja sometimes.

 

[BackSet]

And now, Lucario is canonically a discount Greninja. Thanks Journeys.

 

[Serverus Snope]

I feel like Eevee isn't quite what it used to be in terms of "NEVER USE THIS POKEMON FOR YOUR OC." It helps that the Eevee population has grown dramatically in the main series games.

...Though that makes "Eevee as a starter" as a key selling point even more baffling. It's not that special anymore, not even in canon.

As for Lucario... You can totally make an enjoyable Lucario. You can totally make an enjoyable any Pokemon. But yeah, it becomes more of a problem when they all behave exactly the same. I wonder if anyone has had a Lucario who acts like a dog... Though according to the Utopus Region series, dogs are the stuff of myth in the Pokemon world. Not to be confused with Pokemon resembling dogs, of course.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Some new cliche I stumbled upon. There seems to be this annoying sub-genre of fics where Pikachu abandons Ash at the beginning of the journey, and Ash is traumatized by Pikachu, and gets a new starter to replace/bash Pikachu. And...that's it. That is literally all that happens. I swear, bashing fics are just so shallow.

 

[BackSet]

Pre-DP there used to be a trend of Pilachu being revealed to be a girl, usually with at least Ash being unaware of this (usually everyone else already knew).

 

[RK9]

Some new cliche I stumbled upon. There seems to be this annoying sub-genre of fics where Pikachu abandons Ash at the beginning of the journey, and Ash is traumatized by Pikachu, and gets a new starter to replace/bash Pikachu. And...that's it. That is literally all that happens. I swear, bashing fics are just so shallow.

Again, bashing fics don't really speak of quality. It shows you can't leave your personal (negative) feelings out of something.

Pre-DP there used to be a trend of Pilachu being revealed to be a girl, usually with at least Ash being unaware of this (usually everyone else already knew).

Bit of a continuity issue there, since before that it was implied to be male through small nods.

 

[Daren]

Bit of a continuity issue there, since before that it was implied to be male through small nods.

I believe I recall Dogasu mentioning that a number of those nods were, for whatever reason, cut from the english version.

Though as I recall a decent amount of female Pikachu fics I saw were for shipping purposes, before more of the fandom decided to embrace the slash instead.

 

[Juliko]

I can totally see why the overusage of Lucario as a Pokemon is considered cliche, considering it's one of the most popular Pokemon ever. But I do echo the statement that it all depends on the execution. Using the same character archetype and story beats for a Lucario can come across as uncreative and lazy. I haven't written any story like that myself, but I've seen a few that have, though not in depth. I actually do have plans to give one of my fic characters a Lucario later down the line, but the Lucario in question isn't going to follow the typical personality traits that are typically hoisted upon it (Mysterious, stoic, hates humans except for its trainer, able to talk, so on). I plan on making it shy, deeply insecure, cowardly, and unable to use aura for reasons that I won't mention due to spoilers.

 

[Daren]

unable to use aura for reasons that I won't mention due to spoilers.

A strange coincidence I was planning on doing the same thing in my current story. His personality traits are significantly different from the ones you mentioned, though. Very different from the standard "Sir Aaron's Lucario" set, though.

I guess doing an "anti-Lucario" is so tempting several people will surely come up with it.

 

[FluffleFi]

Despite Hoenn being my first and favorite region, I absolutely can not stand fanfics written about it. Not because they're all bad, but because they all feel the damn same; May(99% of the time its May playing the lead roll)sitting in the back of the truck, moaning about how she was just days away from getting a starter from Elm before being uprooted. She picks Torchic as her starter(just like May always being the protag, she always chooses the little bird. I've literally never seen a story where May picks one of the other two)and the story tends to follow the plot of the games with no real devation.

Just once i'd love to see a story where May/Brendan are happy with the prospect of moving to a new region, filled with exotic Pokemon they've never seen or heard of and i'd love to see Treecko or Mudkip chosen. Hell, even make one of the evil teams good! Just please do something different.

 

[Greninjaman]

Despite Hoenn being my first and favorite region, I absolutely can not stand fanfics written about it. Not because they're all bad, but because they all feel the damn same; May(99% of the time its May playing the lead roll)sitting in the back of the truck, moaning about how she was just days away from getting a starter from Elm before being uprooted. She picks Torchic as her starter(just like May always being the protag, she always chooses the little bird. I've literally never seen a story where May picks one of the other two)and the story tends to follow the plot of the games with no real devation.

Yeah, that sounds boring. Why follow the story of the game exactly when you can take it anywhere?