DISCUSSION: More interesting ways to train pokemon?

[jasonwolf]

It's a fairly simple question, with who knows how many answers, but its been a thought of mine while I work on my stories. How do you make pokemon training interesting? How do you add in more ways to practice and learn skills? In the games its literally just fighting, but what about the more detailed concepts that we can use in writing. What about teaching things like reading opponents and allies, or teaching subterfuge, or heck teaching something that isn't for combat at all? How can you make interesting ways to teach advanced concepts to pokemon?

 

[diamondpearl876]

Most fics, even journey fics, tend to just skip over the pokemon training aspect - which is a shame, because I think there are interesting things to go about it. But in the grand scheme of most story plots and whatnot, pokemon training pales in comparison.

But! It can work, depending on your story. If your story involves sports and Poemon, for example, you can adopt training routines used in real life. You can also adopt your own version of trials from Sun and Moon, or ideas from Super Training in the games (though I don't remember too much about that feature, so don't quote me there). For myself, I mix pokemon training with a rehabilitation and physical therapy type of thing in one of my fics. The rest, I don't bother with (though eventually, I'll be using a fighting-type dojo akin to the game's dojo in Saffron City).

 

[jasonwolf]

Most fics, even journey fics, tend to just skip over the Pokemon training aspect - which is a shame, because I think there are interesting things to go about it. But in the grand scheme of most story plots and whatnot, Pokemon training pales in comparison.

But! It can work, depending on your story. If your story involves sports and Pokemon, for example, you can adopt training routines used in real life. You can also adopt your own version of trials from Sun and Moon, or ideas from Super Training in the games (though I don't remember too much about that feature, so don't quote me there).

The biggest one I'm working on is actually based on a future version of the Pokemon Rangers (within my fanon the Rangers train Pokemon, and a styler is a tool for only the elite. It takes an iron will and a pure honesty to use it to actually communicate to a Pokemon. It's not so much words, as you challenge each other's views and wills to show what you really believe. Any Pokemon that isn't a feral monster will listen to someone who has that kind of heart. sidetracked much?)

Either way the plot picks up with the MC well into his carear. He's a gold ranger which is right in the middle. He's not a rookie, but he's no commanding officer. After certain traumatic events shuffle around his position he's now top of his rank, but having also been part of said traumatic event is not in ay state to take on the role. He's tried to become stronger, so that events don't repeat themself, and so he can fufil the duties left to him. Chapter one sees him doing well and actually starting to move on. Chapter two shows the sheer size of the expectations place on him. Chapter 3 and 4, are him looking at the training he did, and trying to rebuild that. Trying to make something better. He goes from trying to make his team stronger to trying to make his team a real team. He focuses in on destroying the walls that come up between them. Between the veterans and his newest pokemon. Between his partner/ace and all the others. Between himself and the pokemon he both has to protect and needs to protect him. The thing is that's a lot of emotional and mental progress not exactly riviting action for long amounts of time, but I really want to find ways to show that they actually are putting in full days of this.