Trope of the Month May: Tournament Arcs

[Beth Pavell]

Ah, the tournament. One plot trope anyone who reads Pokémon fanfiction wouldn't be surprised to see. We've had a recent thread talking about this trope, but I felt it could do with dedicated focus this month.

I suspect the tournament arc is more often thought about than written. It's the theoretical climax looming at the end of the majority of journey fics, and hence, rarely drafted or finished. The reason for this is fairly obvious. Both the games and the anime have some sort of knock-out challenge as the ending of a given game or season. Fanfiction, taking its main inspiration from the canon, seeks to come up with its own take on the idea. But getting to that point even in a relatively short story is still a feat of dedication, and so most stories will be abandoned well before that point.

Tournament arcs are where the differences between writing for a visual medium (In the case of Pokémon, TV), an interactive medium (i.e: a video game), and prose really show up. Video games are relatively kind to tournaments. Players are automatically at least somewhat invested in who wins or loses on the basis that the player's avatar will be one of the competitors. By contrast, a TV show or fanfiction has to work to give the audience a reason to care about who wins or loses. This is where some of the subtle challenges of writing a tournament appear. Establishing who the rival characters are and why they have a stake in the outcome presents a challenge to accomplish in a concise manner. The consequences of winning or losing in what is essentially a sporting tournament may require some close attention paid to the characters and just what success or failure really means to them.

Stories about sport, such as sport anime, which revolve around winning or losing, may give the Pokémon fanfic author some ideas to crib for their own arcs. This feeds in to a cliché in fanfiction that's often overlooked - the protagonist with a fierce desire to be a regional Champion, but with no stated reason as to why, or what the idea of Championship means to them. This is something the Pokémon anime has been guilty of since Episode 1, which may explain why its so routinely overlooked in fanfiction.

Tournament arcs are a big topic, and far be it from me to have the entirely conversation about it by myself. This has been discussed a few times, so some questions to spur your thinking:

• Are there any tournament arcs you're particularly fond of? Why is that? Why do you think they work where others don't?
• Do you prefer tournament arcs in any particular medium?
• Have you ever written a tournament? What was your experience?

 

[LightningTopaz]

If you want a GOOD example of a tournament, I would highly suggest Yu Yu Hakusho's Dark Tournament arc. This has it all--high stakes, thrilling battles, character development for both the heroes and the villains, and great worldbuilding, as well.

Far too often, Pokemon Leagues have Ash (or the Ash stand in) just want to be the very best at whatever. Think about WHY your hero wants to be the very best at whatever--is it to prove themselves to a disapproving family member? Will the prize money help a friend or family member? Or something else?

 

[Juliko]

I tend to not like tournament arcs very much, usually for one reason: Most of the ones I've seen go on forever, with resolutions not coming until much later. I only just started one in my story, and I intend to keep it rather short, focusing solely on the characters that matter.

 

[Daren]

It's the most obvious answer, but I think all three of the tournament arcs in the Dragon Ball manga worked well, not just as stand alone stories, but also in the way each one increased the competition and stakes from the previous one. They were also the main opportunity for the non-Goku fighters to get to show their improvement.

The first one is particularly noteworthy in that we're given good reason to want Goku to lose.

 

[Greninjaman]

You have to also balance the characters that are taking part. If the main character is curbstomping their way through, than readers will lose interest because it will be obvious who will win.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

I don't think I've ever read a tourney arc, and I haven't watched any since I was a kid. I get the appeal, but I'm not really one for tournaments as a goal in and of themselves — I feel like they should be the circumstance and setting of an interesting plot, rather than generating it.

If I were to write one, I'd probably abstract most of the actual tournament. It doesn't all need to happen on the page.

 

[Greninjaman]

I don't think I've ever read a tourney arc, and I haven't watched any since I was a kid. I get the appeal, but I'm not really one for tournaments as a goal in and of themselves — I feel like they should be the circumstance and setting of an interesting plot, rather than generating it.

If I were to write one, I'd probably abstract most of the actual tournament. It doesn't all need to happen on the page.

Yeah. Of course, if you do it right, you can create a plot using a tournament.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I think it depends very much on whether the tournament is the plot or the setting. If the tournament is a main part of the plot, even if the point isn't necessarily whether the protagonist (Or anyone else) becomes the tourney champion, you have to take that seriously and be prepared to show a major chunk of it. This remains true if the tournament is a way to show character development. If the character has to get past a personal issue in order to win, it's liable to fall into "telling not showing" if the audience doesn't see the consequences in an actual match

 

[Daren]

I think it depends very much on whether the tournament is the plot or the setting. If the tournament is a main part of the plot, even if the point isn't necessarily whether the protagonist (Or anyone else) becomes the tourney champion, you have to take that seriously and be prepared to show a major chunk of it. This remains true if the tournament is a way to show character development. If the character has to get past a personal issue in order to win, it's liable to fall into "telling not showing" if the audience doesn't see the consequences in an actual match

The Pokémon anime conveniently gives us examples of both types back to back.

The Hoenn league was about the league--Ash didn't really have any serious rivals he wanted to disprove like Gary; Morrison and Tyson were both chill guys. His longest battle was against Katie, a character with no buildup.

Conversely, Sinnoh was mostly the setting for the resolution of his rivalry with Paul, to the point I think he battled Paul for as many episodes as his other major opponents combined--and once Paul was defeated they used Tobias as an overpowered plot device to knock Ash out in an episode and wrap it up.

 

[Greninjaman]

The Pokémon anime conveniently gives us examples of both types back to back.

The Hoenn league was about the league--Ash didn't really have any serious rivals he wanted to disprove like Gary; Morrison and Tyson were both chill guys. His longest battle was against Katie, a character with no buildup.

Conversely, Sinnoh was mostly the setting for the resolution of his rivalry with Paul, to the point I think he battled Paul for as many episodes as his other major opponents combined--and once Paul was defeated they used Tobias as an overpowered plot device to knock Ash out in an episode and wrap it up.

What about the other leagues? What type (setting or plot) would the other leagues be? I am of course talking about the Kanto and Johto Leagues, as well as Unova through Alola.

 

[Daren]

What about the other leagues? What type (setting or plot) would the other leagues be? I am of course talking about the Kanto and Johto Leagues, as well as Unova through Alola.

Honestly I chose those two because of how neatly they slot into the two categories. If I had to try:
*Kanto--hard to gauge, to be honest. In theory setting since he was trying to defeat Gary, but Gary got knocked out without meeting him. I think I'd go with Plot in the end.
*Johto--Setting. It was all about resolving his issue with Gary.
*Unova--Yeeeaaah, I'm gonna level, here. I didn't watch BW at all and I wasn't even following events online by this point, so my info is shaky.
Based off what little I read later...I still have no idea. I guess plot since he defeated Trip right at the beginning?
*Kalos--Like Hoenn there was no huge rival he had to prove wrong--Ash was pretty friendly with Sawyer and Alain and won most of his matches with the former. If Ash had won I'd go with Plot since you could argue it was about him surpassing Alain--except he never beat Alain. So I say setting based off us skipping Ash's early matches making it clear this was just overhyped setup for the Flare arc.
*Alola--I lean towards plot; it wasn't all about Ash this time since his classmates were in as well and got focus.

 

[System Error]

*Kanto--hard to gauge, to be honest. In theory setting since he was trying to defeat Gary, but Gary got knocked out without meeting him. I think I'd go with Plot in the end.
*Unova--Yeeeaaah, I'm gonna level, here. I didn't watch BW at all and I wasn't even following events online by this point, so my info is shaky.
Based off what little I read later...I still have no idea. I guess plot since he defeated Trip right at the beginning?

Mmm, I'd say for these two...

Kanto: This was in terms of the overall plot about giving Ash a reality check. He thought he was hot stuff, but he got owned by himself in the end due to Charizard not obeying and him choosing to use it anyway. So Gary being knocked out early aside, it might be setting or even a mix.

Unova: I'd say this was actually bad writing. This was notoriously panned for Ash losing 6v5 when he was the 6 and shonen-hero-level-intellect opponent was the 5. Trip was handled early and almost as an afterthought, and then he lost to the eventual winner who didn't battle Ash at all. And second place was a character who simply existed for the most part. It's an excellent example of some things not to do in a tournament arc.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'd argue that the Kanto arc was really - in my pretty simplistic schema - a plot-based tournament. Certainly, it was about Ash's own laziness coming back to bite him, especially in regards to Charizard. But his character development in the arc only makes sense in light of the battles. We had to see him win a few through gumption and spur of the moment strategising, and subsequently see him lose to someone better prepared. Glossing over that would have weakened the plot (It's interesting that Gary gets knocked out earlier. Or perhaps surprising that the storytelling here is quite subtle for Pokémon. We already know that Gary is a more diligent trainer than Ash. His loss foreshadows Ash's own defeat).

It occurs to me that you can directly compare the Johto and Sinnoh tournaments as two ways to approach using the tournament as a setting. Notably, how they're concluded. In Johto, Ash loses after a hard-fought battle to someone who is very much a minor character. In Sinnoh, he's unceremoniously booted out by an even more minor character. In neither tournament is the losing battle really the climax of the arc - but in one the battle is treated as an engaging epilogue, whereas in the other it comes across as so much admin to get out of the way.

That being said, it's easier to get away with a two part (I seem to recall it was two episodes, anyway) battle on screen than it is to do a two-part chapter in prose. It's much easier to keep the audience's attention through half an hour or so of animation than it is through 6000 words, or whatever, of prose.

 

[Daren]

Yeah I'm unsure on Kanto myself. I can definitely see the argument for it being a plot based one.

Unova: I'd say this was actually bad writing. This was notoriously panned for Ash losing 6v5 when he was the 6 and shonen-hero-level-intellect opponent was the 5. Trip was handled early and almost as an afterthought, and then he lost to the eventual winner who didn't battle Ash at all. And second place was a character who simply existed for the most part. It's an excellent example of some things not to do in a tournament arc.

Well, as mentioned I didn't watch BW but it certainly always sounded like bad writing to me. I only read about what happened quite a bit later and was aghast that my own very low expectations for BW were actually too optimistic.
The theory I'd read is that they had to promote BW2's near release so the league got rushed through, but that doesn't explain why he got booted out by someone portrayed as clueless like Cameron (unless every single thing I've read about him is lying I feel comfortable calling this guy I never saw clueless). Maybe he was supposed to be a likable underdog, and I've read he is more popular in Japan, but in the west he may be the least liked character in the show.
...come to think the other candidates are Alain and Tobias, which is a pretty good sign of how badly the league endings were being received for a bit.

We had to see him win a few through gumption and spur of the moment strategising, and subsequently see him lose to someone better prepared. Glossing over that would have weakened the plot (It's interesting that Gary gets knocked out earlier. Or perhaps surprising that the storytelling here is quite subtle for Pokémon. We already know that Gary is a more diligent trainer than Ash. His loss foreshadows Ash's own defeat).

That was the writers intent, but I don't think it really worked since Team Rocket weakened Ash beforehand, so Ritchie's win doesn't come across as based off anything more than "he isn't being stalked by villains".

It occurs to me that you can directly compare the Johto and Sinnoh tournaments as two ways to approach using the tournament as a setting. Notably, how they're concluded. In Johto, Ash loses after a hard-fought battle to someone who is very much a minor character. In Sinnoh, he's unceremoniously booted out by an even more minor character. In neither tournament is the losing battle really the climax of the arc - but in one the battle is treated as an engaging epilogue, whereas in the other it comes across as so much admin to get out of the way.

Johto was the least controversial league overall, it seems. Kanto had the aforementioned issue with Ritche having outside help, Hoenn had terrible pacing, Sinnoh had Tobias, Unova had it's issues, Kalos was rushed and hurt by the show hyping it too much just to end in status quo, and Alola had small battles and some very unpopular matches early on.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the World Champion; one hopes it'll get the time it needs since it's such a grand aspiration, but considering the stated intent of not having many mulipart episodes because of the Sunday timeslot there's plenty of room for concern about how that will go.

That being said, it's easier to get away with a two part (I seem to recall it was two episodes, anyway) battle on screen than it is to do a two-part chapter in prose. It's much easier to keep the audience's attention through half an hour or so of animation than it is through 6000 words, or whatever, of prose.

I think this is one of the really hard parts about doing a tournament in a prose format. Smooth and interesting animation can make a battle fun to watch, but it's harder to pull that off in prose.

 

[Beth Pavell]

That was the writers intent, but I don't think it really worked since Team Rocket weakened Ash beforehand, so Ritchie's win doesn't come across as based off anything more than "he isn't being stalked by villains".

I don't know about that. Sure, he had a pokémon removed from his team through fatigue, but the meat of that loss was the pidgeys coming home to roost regarding Charizard. Despite the occasional refrain of "Charizard needs training", he'd repeatedly chosen to avoid the problem rather than deal with it. We'd explicitly seen that he only battles on his own terms back in Volcanic Panic! Too dazzled by the win, Ash fails to notice the warning in that his pokémon would rather let him die than bother to do grunt work.

It's a message that could be strengthened. Richie doesn't have anything to parallel Charizard in the form of a would-be stubborn pokémon (It couldn't be a Charizard or Ash trying to throw him out as a trump card wouldn't make sense). Likewise the anime consistently dodges the discipline issue - the Charizard arc ends up with Ash still not dealing with the problem, but with Charizard growing a conscience.

 

[Daren]

I don't know about that. Sure, he had a pokémon removed from his team through fatigue, but the meat of that loss was the pidgeys coming home to roost regarding Charizard. Despite the occasional refrain of "Charizard needs training", he'd repeatedly chosen to avoid the problem rather than deal with it. We'd explicitly seen that he only battles on his own terms back in Volcanic Panic! Too dazzled by the win, Ash fails to notice the warning in that his pokémon would rather let him die than bother to do grunt work.

It's a message that could be strengthened. Richie doesn't have anything to parallel Charizard in the form of a would-be stubborn pokémon (It couldn't be a Charizard or Ash trying to throw him out as a trump card wouldn't make sense). Likewise the anime consistently dodges the discipline issue - the Charizard arc ends up with Ash still not dealing with the problem, but with Charizard growing a conscience.

His party was in awful shape for the match, though; Pikachu was tired but still had to go in out of desperation, Bulbasaur and Pidgeotto both had to stay out, and being nabbed means he couldn't handpick a team for the match, such as bringing in his powerhouse Kingler.

Maybe Richie would still win, but I think TR having such a visible role in the battle makes it too murky and weakens the effect of his failure regarding Charizard.
Edit: The silly "sleep = KO" role hurt, too, since it got Squirtle removed quickly and cheaply.

 

[Greninjaman]

Edit: The silly "sleep = KO" role hurt, too, since it got Squirtle removed quickly and cheaply.

That rule was very dumb. Like, that made sleep-inducing moves very overpowered.

 

[KrspaceT]

Currently writing a Pokemon tournament in Reset Bloodlines (my fic), and I have a few thoughts on the process of them.

1: They are very easily expandable. My word count for chapters gets quite large just from doing the bits about expanding things out with stuff like the set up for the oneshot opponents. I could very easily make 100,000 word chapters just giving all the major non-Ash characters a few battles and I'd honestly do it if my co-writers could tolerate 40,000 word chapters+

2: Battles, at least on my end, can often be easier to write than the personal downtime.

3: Good to have a balance of jerk opponents (for example Indigo's Mandi) and sympathetic ones (say Ritchie).

4: Not the easiest to balance out the other cast: Ash by nature eats up a lot of roster time and it isn't as easy to give the others stuff to do. Props to the co-writer to suggest dates...