Battles in Fanfics

[voidcritter]

You sort of have to think about the objective of the battle. If, for example, it's a Gym match or facing the Elite Four, there's going to be lots of powerful moves, but also lots of rules. Both battlers would also be sent out of the way so that they don't also inadvertently get hurt.

The fic I'm working on has most of the main characters being Grunts or former Grunts from Team Rocket. Remember how most Grunts just have stuff like Zubat or Koffing? Most of the time they aren't fighting someone directly; they're trying to disorient or Smokescreen someone so they can get away, or (less likely) trying to directly attack a person.

 

[Legacy]

Battles are very important to my fic.

I think the key for me is trying to write them to be more exciting than the game-verse style (Mon A fired an attack, Mon B dodged. Mon B fired an attack, etc.). To me, in a real battle, the pokemon do not just take turns unleashing single attacks like an RPG.

Real battles to me, seem more like a boxing/MMA match, where it is much more fluid and up to the Mon itself to do the fighting. Trainers in my fic's world prepare their Mon to battle and give some instructions in-battle, but are not like the canon trainers, where they essentially call all the shots. In a 'real' battle, I do not believe there would be time to have the trainer make every decision and command. Much is left up to the Mon itself, ala real sports.

 

[revolvingscott]

I love writing battles but because I don't subscribe to 'Pokemon A uses ___. Pokémon B used ____', my battles tend to get really long and, inevitably, I get tired of thinking 'am I still writing that battle?'. It's more laziness than anything else.

 

[apenpaap]

I always try to make the battles in my fic interesting, not only by making sure I only portray those that are important to the story, but also by making the protagonists win them by using tricks and using moves in unusual ways. For example: In the Gym battle against Chili, Boreas (the main character, an Eevee) defeated Chili's Pansear by jumping up on a table in the restaurant gym, and when his opponent followed him he tossed the macaroni the person sitting at the table was eating into the Pansear's face. Not only did this have the same effect as a sand-attack normally would, namely partially blinding the opponent, but it also startled him so much that he fell from the table he was just jumping onto.

 

[Misheard Whisper]

If you'll allow me to paste in something I wrote recently elsewhere . . . I think this answers part of the question just fine:

Back to the main topic, however - I tend to avoid battle scenes if I can. I hate writing them, simply because every time I do, they seem so horrible and wooden to me, much like the kind the OP was lamenting so vociferously. In any case, that's one of the main reasons why I chose to start Champion Game after the E4 and Champion battles, rather than at the beginning of Ren's journey. I did put one in recently, however, and on the whole it seemed somewhat well received. (That is, I've had one person say they like it, and nobody say they dislike it. It qualifies!) So this of course brings us back to the original question: how do I write them?

Pokemon battles in fanfiction, and my corresponding methods of writing them, vary as much as the characters participating in them do. Some battles might focus more on the 'connection' between Trainer and Pokemon, because that's what the Trainers themselves focus on. Others are extremely straightforward and aggressive, with Trainers simply bawling attack after attack and Pokemon butting heads repeatedly in the arena. (That type's a little more difficult to pull off well, but it's certainly doable.) And of course, the style of my writing will follow. When reading a high-pressure, high-stakes battle, a reader doesn't want to be distracted by too much of the atmosphere. I'll throw in the odd mention of the spectators' (if any are present) general 'mood' and that'll be about it. The rest of the scene will be devoted to the movements of the Pokemon. As well as that, there won't be any big words or words with obscure meanings. Not that I want to patronise my audience - it's just that when the pressure is high, it needs to stay that way, and it's one of the best ways to make sure it does so.

Likewise, when I'm writing about a battle between two newbie Trainers, the focus will likely be on their interactions and how they learn and grow from the battle. There'll be a lot of nervous laughter, perhaps some hyper-masculine showboating and general grandstanding for the benefit of their audience, and some silly mistakes accompanied by taunts from the opposition. The Trainers will banter and laugh, or - depending on their relationship - glare at and bait each other.

In Champion Game, the main character is a funny sort of battler. He instantly calculates possibilities, chances and risks in his head and reacts accordingly. So for his first battle, I set him up with an opponent - Roxanne - who would play well off that. She's generally a smart girl, and one who I imagine would be just as interested as I am in what a Trainer thinks while battling. As a result, when Ren pulled out his 'predict and react accordingly' strategy, there was a good bit of discussion on the topic. It was a little clumsy in that nothing much was going on in the battle while Ren explained his deal, but it does kinda seem like the kinda thing they'd both do - drop everything when something interesting came up, that is.

In future, we'll probably see Ren's mind working, catching glimpses of his thought process as he comes to each decision. I won't have him explain it again each time, of course, but it'll be interesting. The best way, I think, to have Pokemon battles remain 'fresh', is to have a Trainer who does something differently to everyone else. That way it's not quite so predictable. For example, if Trainer A would normally feint with Wing Attack before switching to Aerial Ace to catch Trainer B off guard, we'd have Ren come up against Trainer A. The reader would expect A's gambit to work, because it's been seen to work before, but if Ren predicts it and counters accordingly, it gives the battle a whole new twist.

I like to apply this in different ways. One of my biggest nitpicks I have with people who write battles and OT fics in general is that they tend to have characters who battle very, very similarly. There's no such thing as a strategy, no personality. Characters will be different enough, for sure - Alfred will be calm and cool, while Bob is hot-headed and rash and Charlie is an arrogant womaniser - but when it comes to a battle, it's all just BLAH BLAH BLAH same-old, same-old. So how do we mix it up? We look at each character, and decide what influences their battling style.

Perhaps we have a blind girl. (We do. Or, at least, we will.) She's been unable to see since the age of six, yet she overcame this disability to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a Trainer. What does this tell us about how she battles? Nothing, right? Wrong! (oh lord, I'm preaching. Sorry, but bear with me.) It tells us several things about her.

1. She's determined to succeed.
2. She's used to adversity of one kind or another.
3. She may have suffered some kind of discrimination due to her blindness.
4. And she's blind. Duh.

Each of these things tells us something different about how she will (or may - remember she's your character, here. You dictate everything) battle. Let's take a look~

1. She's determined to succeed. - This means she wants to win more than others. Perhaps she'll even resort to using dirty tricks in order to achieve victory. Maybe she'll rage at you when it looks like she's going to lose. By the same token, she'll likely play strongly but safely from the get-go, not taking risks, but trying to ensure her victory.
2. She's used to adversity of one kind or another. - She's not just going to give up. No matter what you hit her with, she'll keep going. She won't surrender to you just because it looks hopeless.
3. She may have suffered some kind of discrimination due to her blindness. - If you mention her disability, she might snap. Perhaps she's sick of being teased, and will get extremely aggressive in response. As a result, she'll throw away her 'play-it-safe' strategy and go all-out with attacks.
4. And she's blind. Duh. - This, of course, is perhaps the most important factor. Because her sight is impaired (one of the more important senses in a Pokemon battle, for sure) she'll have to rely on her others. By this logic, let's say she has extraordinarily sensitive hearing. This means that if she comes up against an opponent who uses a silent Pokemon, she'll have trouble. On the other side of the same coin, she'll be able to pick up on things a normal Trainer couldn't, such as the sound of a Pokemon shifting its footing to launch an attack.

All these factors will comprise her battling style, and I think it's these that are most important when writing a battle. Note that I built out that somewhat interesting battling style from just a couple of sentences about this girl. I don't know where she comes from, what her family's like, or even her name, and yet all of these will have an impact as well. Characters are alive - they're not just pixels on your screen anymore. Every Trainer in every Pokemon game ever behaves somewhat similarly, battles the same sort of way, uses the same sorts of strategies. It's perhaps a good idea, at the creation of a character, to write down his or her battling style. Make sure it fits with their personality and history, and make them interesting. I don't want to read a fic about cardboard cutouts battling each other, do I? I want to read about people.

Now, let's look at the other side of the spectrum - Pokemon. While not so varied and unique as humans, each Pokemon will battle differently. Zangoose is aggressive. Clefable is defensive. Audino refuses to hurt its opponent. Each of those will have their own personalities, again depending on their history. This influences their battling style as well.

Something I like to see is when a Trainer's method clashes with his Pokemon's. For example, someone who enjoys pummelling his opponents into the dust attempting to make his Plusle do the same. Often, there'll be friction. Better yet is where the Trainer doesn't exactly clash with his Pokemon, but misinterprets their personality/abilities, causing them to do worse than they normally would because the Pokemon isn't fully in tune with its true potential.

I tend not to look at the Pokemon side of the battle so much, personally. Because while they're friends and partners, for sure, at the end of the day, they're just tools to help a Trainer win a battle, much like spells in Final Fantasy or fireballs in Mario. Different writers will put more or less emphasis on the Pokemon aspect, but I tend not to attach much significance to them. While I do respect their essential role in any battle scene, they are, to me, secondary players to the Trainers - the ones who are actually battling. They're the ones who have something to lose, something to gain. I won't by any means downplay the importance of Pokemon in a fic, but to me, it's just not a central concern.

Phew. tl;dr much? As for whether I like reading battles . . . eeeeh. I tend not to be a huge fan, but of course, it depends on the quality of the battle being written. Authors who do the same sort of thing I try to do with the characters and their battling styles - individuality is the biggest seller for me when it comes to battles - are my favourites, but most battle scenes, for me, seem to either blend in neutrally with the rest of the fic (which means they're not fantastic, but not bad either) or stick out like a sore thumb (good or bad, depending). If they stick out, it's either because they're rubbish or because they're amazing. There aren't too many of the latter around, because battles are very, very hard things to write. So on the whole, when reading casually, I tend to look for fics where the battles are that neutral tone of sepia that doesn't stick out too much at all.

Of course, I don't actually read nearly enough fanfiction, preferring to spend my free time writing it, but I do what I can, when I can. Still, I'm far from an expert in the reading of battles - indeed, of fics in general.

Hope I didn't ramble on too long . . . :x

 

[Caitlin]

I don't like writing them simply because I don't feel I do them justice. After awhile, I'm afraid they'll just get repetitive too, so I'm not looking forward to that as I continue along.

As far as reading them... it depends on how well its written really. If it's just a bunch of "CHARMANDER USE YOUR EMBER ATTACK" "PIKACHU DODGE IT" that is incredibly boring and the author could use a few lessons in writing.

 

[Drakon]

I write them fairly well.

Most of my battles draw inspiration from the anime and Cornova's Poké Wars but are (usually) not as bloody. And another thing I like to do is have my characters use moves in an unusual way or use the environment to their advantage.

 

[Glitchipedia]

The problem with Pokémon battles is that the standard presentation seen in the games really only works in gameplay. When a battle is actually happening in a fic/video/whatever, the trainers calling out the attacks is really stupid—you're telegraphing what you're about to do and how to counter it. Furthermore, the constant commands slow the battle down a great deal when it should be all about action, action, action.

My idea is that the trainer formulates a strategy behind the scenes using the moves his/her Pokémon knows, gives it a codename (for example, "Pattern Alpha") and then calls that out during battle, leaving the Pokémon to do the rest. This saves a great deal of time, puts the emphasis on the action and makes it so neither trainer knows what the other is going to do next. Much more realistic.

 

[Shinneth]

From what I've been told by the reviewers, apparently I'm pretty good at writing battles as well as Pokemon Contests. Since my fic is essentially a "Side B" version of the Diamond & Pearl anime, naturally battles are a huge part of the story and the vast majority of my chapters contain at least one battle in it. Admittedly I was nervous about it when I had to write a battle for the first time in the fifth chapter. But since I've got an animeverse fic and I've seen lots of great battles in the anime, they served as inspiration for how I'd be able to write a battle that comes off like an actual anime battle. It's more than just having Pokemon lob attacks at each other until one falls; I liked to focus on the psychology of both the Pokemon and trainer to emphasize just how emotionally draining a battle can be. It also helps to think out of the box... say what you want about the anime, but the later series especially show all sorts of ways a battle can turn around that the game could never showcase, such as taking advantage of certain aspects of the battlefield and considering the laws of nature. If there's a clash between, say, Flamethrower and Ice Beam, and the attacks are being launched from a particular angle, you could say instead of an explosion triggering from the collision of the attacks that the Flamethrower (being shot at from the ground at an aerial opponent) melts the Ice Beam coming from above to hit the earthbound opponent, turning Ice Beam into a makeshift Water Gun which in turn gets the opponent soaking wet. Then with a wet opponent, it would be easier to freeze with another Ice-type attack. Or better yet, totally screw up your opponent by freezing the entire field and watch the fun as the opponent can't keep its balance.

Taking advantage of game mechanics can be fun as well. I didn't realize it until I wrote it, but using Reversal on an opponent that just used, say, Focus Punch on you equals an attack of... what, 300 base power (by Gen IV standards, anyway)? In the language of anime, a 300 base powered attack would be more along the lines of sending your opponent flying back for like a mile until it collides and shatters a freaking boulder out in the distance. The "show, don't tell" thing really does apply here, but the "tell" part isn't necessarily a bad thing if you know how to use it in a way that's appropriate for a battle scene. Heightened tensions and emotions help make battle scenes much more engaging for the reader, rather than a routine going-through-the-motions ordeal.

The tricky part for me in particular, since I've done a few chapters that adapt actual episodes of the anime that already have the battle laid out for me, I have to find a way to still make it interesting and worth reading through since most of my readers already know the battle's outcome and how it plays about. Most fic authors won't have to deal with that kind of thing, but I think it's very important when you're adapting a battle that's already been made that you put your own unique spin to it and add in your own personal twists at any given opportunity. Focusing on areas that the canon didn't also helps.

Anyway, battles always will be a daunting prospect of your writing adventure if you're gonna write for Pokemon. But since they're integral to most Pokemon stories (or at least the good ones), I believe it's important to give it your all and don't take the boring, easy way out of it. A poorly-written battle can really kill the flow of a story, even if the rest of the story has excellent writing. Battles are a necessary evil of Pokemon fanfiction, but if you take your time and concentrate - really visualize the battle you want to write in your head before going in head-on - then you might even find yourself having fun with writing the battles.

Oh look, I talked too much again.

 

[AetherX]

Just realized I never got around to posting in this thread

In Locked in Battle, battling is (obviously) a big part of the fic, but it's done differently so I don't know if it's relevant.

Unpredictable, however, is a journey fic, so there is plenty of normal Pokemon battling. There are actually two types of battles, gym battles and action scene Rocket fights. The latter are usually much simpler to keep interesting, as the trainer is as much a part of the fight as the Pokemon. Battling is left completely up to the Pokemon, so I get to explore some of their personalities in what kind of choices they make in the battle. The trainers have their own problems, turning it into more of a wrestling match or fist fight with their opponents. The only hard part of these is staying detailed and relaying how hectic the situation is without making everything confusing and hard to follow.

Gym battles, on the other hand, are very different. They follow the ordinary anime style. These are few and far between though, as I try to avoid trainer encounters. Gym battles are only in the gyms. The main reason I do this is because I find them fairly difficult to write and keep varied. It's important that no two battles are the same and that each and every match up is suspenseful and exciting (or at least just exciting, my character kicked Surge's ass with only a single Pokemon), not just the final match up. The way I go about writing battles is pretty step by step. Once the rules are down (usually three on three) and I know who is going to win in the end, I pick which Pokemon each character will use and in what order. Then I figure out who wins each match up and if any evolutions are going to happen or new moves will be used. After that, before I even start writing, I come up with the strategy or technique that will be used to win each match up. That's the hard part, but also the part that makes the battles exciting. It's always important to use moves and abilities in a new and unique way.

I've kind of lost my train of thought here so I'll just reiterate what everyone else has said: battles are hard to write, but kind of fun, interesting to read only when there is something special or unique about them, blah blah blah...

 

[Captain GIROG]

Battles are a major part of the Pokémon universe, so they should never be half-assed. The author always needs to pay careful attention to how they're written, and never do too little or too much. Here are some rules I stick to when writing battles:

1. Abandon the attack/defend/attack/defend system. Think about UFC. The fighters never stop to let their opponent get in a hit- they're always trying for offensive domination. It's extraordinarily hectic, and that feel needs to be grasped if you want to make a battle interesting.

2. Four attacks is pure bull-honkey. It was added to the games to simplify fights, but simple fights are boring. A Pokémon should be able to use any attack that is available to it. It makes fights more interesting.

3. "Pikachu used Thunder Bolt! But since Rhydon is immune to electric attacks, it didn't do anything!" That's as dull as a gosh-darned trip to fucking heck. There are two rules in here. First, if a trainer is shouting a command, then go ahead and use the attack's name. Otherwise, describe it instead. Second, try to avoid game terminology. It isn't immune to electric attacks, it's just grounded. "The Pikachu's fur ruffled up with static energy, then released it toward the Rhydon. The Rhydon seemed unaffected- it stayed grounded, making the attack pointless."

4. Motion. Add motion. Motion is important. The Pokémon aren't standing still. They're probably doing more moving than attacking.


I use similar rules when I'm DMing for D&D. My players don't want me to just parrot off information that's on their sheet, they want to actually hear what's going on. Billy the Boxer didn't beat the bear's armor class with a roll of 18 and some +strength. He overwhelmed the bear with his superior skills at fisticuffs, wrestling it to the ground and beating the bear-shit out of it.


If you can turn the first fight scene into the second one by replacing "thunder bolt" with "fire blast," you're doing it wrong. You're doing it very wrong.