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POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

Overly rude trainers are kind of a pet peeve of mine in fics. Not that there aren’t people like that in real life (or even in canon), but a character whose entire role is composed of insulting the protagonist, ridiculing everyone else’s skills and the way they treat pokemon and brutalizing every opponent, it becomes way too obvious that this isn’t a character so much as an aritificial tool to try forcing catharsis on the reader when the asshole inevitably gets everything they stand for pounded into the dirt later on.
I mean, personal experiences do open up eyes. I did once meet an abusive pet owner who is also an insufferable narcissist. Had to call the cops on them. I do understand your point in this being a cliche (especially when they lack any nuance and are just two-dimensional bullies), but don't dismiss real-life cruelty. There are indeed people like that in real life and they're more common than you think. And some never got their comeuppance.

Would pokemon be capable of drinking like humans do?
Most likely yes, like real animals do. If they ingest fermented food or drink alcohol, they can display unusual behavior like making loud noises and making uncoordinated movements. Smaller animals with small livers tend to get drunk rather easily, while larger animals with larger livers can resist the effects. Some animals live on fermented foods and do not get impaired.

Berries are a major thing in the Pokemon world and may ripen. If they get too ripe, the sugars can convert to alcohol. So it's fair to assume that alcohol can indeed make Pokemon drunk.

A Lucario can be cunning or rash. Like the one who I travel with in game.
By extension, any Pokemon can be like this as it's clear all individual Pokemon possess a personality (unless it's legendary, which there is 90% of the cliche'd "behold my majesty, mortal! Fear me for I am all-powerful!") Legendaries behaving more modestly can be a major breath of fresh air.
 
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I mean, personal experiences do open up eyes. I did once meet an abusive pet owner who is also an insufferable narcissist. Had to call the cops on them. I do understand your point in this being a cliche (especially when they lack any nuance and are just two-dimensional bullies), but don't dismiss real-life cruelty. There are indeed people like that in real life and they're more common than you think. And some never got their comeuppance.
Oh, I wasn’t dismissing anything, I do agree that there is plenty of scum out there. My point was that even the worst people have some sort of complexity and don’t exist just as a stepping stone to show how righteous someone else is. I’m all for all kinds of maniac in fiction, provided you can describe more about their psyche beyond how much they love drowning kittens.
 
Not sure if this counts as cliché or has already been mentioned: having the protagonist start in the first town of each region (Pallet, New Bark, Littleroot, ect).
Like, do you need to start there? Why not start at Pewter City? Especially if your character is interested in Rock Types. Heck, if doing a monotype run, why not have your character start in the town that has the gym of your type (assuming there is one)?
 
Legendaries behaving more modestly can be a major breath of fresh air.
My favourite depiction of legendaries is Dialga and Palkia in The Rise of Darkrai. It's almost Lovecraftian; these cosmic beings don't talk to humans because they don't even notice them.

Also, it seems to be considered taboo to have multiples of a legendary in your fanfic, even though the canon is inconsistent about most of them.
 
I don't include multiple legendaries for the same reason that I don't include multiples of regular Pokemon that are important to the plot: less clutter and confusion that way.

"Look, its Zapdos."
"Which Zapdos? The one we met yesterday or the one we met five years ago?"
"Hell if I know, they all look the same."
 
Most likely yes, like real animals do. If they ingest fermented food or drink alcohol, they can display unusual behavior like making loud noises and making uncoordinated movements. Smaller animals with small livers tend to get drunk rather easily, while larger animals with larger livers can resist the effects. Some animals live on fermented foods and do not get impaired.

Berries are a major thing in the Pokemon world and may ripen. If they get too ripe, the sugars can convert to alcohol. So it's fair to assume that alcohol can indeed make Pokemon drunk.
This is a very interesting idea. I could use that in my fanfics.
 
I don't include multiple legendaries for the same reason that I don't include multiples of regular Pokemon that are important to the plot: less clutter and confusion that way.

"Look, its Zapdos."
"Which Zapdos? The one we met yesterday or the one we met five years ago?"
"Hell if I know, they all look the same."

"What do you mean there is more than 1 Zapdos?"
 
I just don't agree with the idea that there are multiples of every single legendary Pokemon within a single universe. There can be multiples of some, but definitely not all of them.

Now here's another cliche I keep finding: Constantly teasing very specific important future events. I know foreshadowing is important for a richer story, but too much ruins the satisfaction of actually getting to that point. I see this being done in way too many stories and I'm surprised that kind of cliche wasn't even mentioned.
 
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Well I don't know how big of a cliché this would be and how often seen it is. But if a female protagonist like Leaf/Green or Kris doesn't have a specific role or expanding a role where they're an assistant or something, with their expanded they're often given the role of coordinator.

I know you want to make your characters different with different goes, but when coordinators are often the girls I feel like its gender stereotyping because of it. I blame the anime where the major role of the rotating female protagonist were coordinator/performer (which isn't much different in my opinion). Especially when it seems we see both male and female trainers in Contests, but we never saw a big female rival for Ash until somewhat recently though at a sparse scale like Korrina but I don't watch Journeys so I can't answer correctly (Maybe Bianca in BW could count but I don't think they ever even fought in the Unova league) while he shared a rival with Dawn in DP. So it's okay for guys to do both but not have the girls outside of gym leaders be in the gym challenge or literally do anything else. We had a somewhat break with Iris in the anime but we went straight back with the Serena who was so feminine that you couldn't believe she had such a tomboy of a mother and was interested in "performances" which is just contests sped up cause at the point those were introduced her only unique character traits in my opinion were really be in love with Ash for her whole life and not wanting to be a Rhyhorn racer.

I never watch the Sun & Moon anime, nor have I watch anything of Journeys so I can't say anything for the SM Girls or Chloe/Koharu, though I wouldn't be surprised if people make Chloe/Koharu go down the contest/performance route, especially with the selection of Pokémon she has now that I know of seems very suitable to that role (Yamper, Eevee and after a look up, by proxy for Galarian Ponyta).

It just feels weird we have some of these characters who have no real defining role at all but people are so quick to put them in this single role but characters like Ash and Nando can do both but the girls have to be put into this specific role thanks to the anime.

I will give credit to the mangas making the girls more into the Gym Challenge than the guys or non-contest roles s like originally with Green/Blue, Sapphire being a wild child, Platinum being the only one in her group in the challenge with Diamond & Pearl supporting her. Like Ruby was into contest more despite being the son of a gym leader and not going into the role that most male protagonists do in Pokémon but TPC doesn't really like acknowledging the Adventures Manga for some reason.
 
In Kris' defense, her anime counterpart is a Coordinator. But (for the record, since you didn't mention Crystal) her manga counterpart (the only version of her I've really become all that familiar with) is a peerless capture specialist. (So the same discipline as Goh, I guess.)

For the rest... White doesn't battle much but she runs her own business as a teenager, Y focuses on the niche Sky Battle format, Moon is a pharmacist who loves Poison-types (and uses a bow to launch Poke Balls,) and Shieldmilla is a techno-savvy researcher of Dynamaxing.

None of the SM girls were interested in Coordinating or Preforming (it was much weirder than that).

The Sun and Moon anime was interesting because everyone had very different talents. Ash, meanwhile, was good at battling... and mainly just that. He tended to be a Butt-Monkey when it came to most other things.
 
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