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POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

クリスタル said:
This may be a bit off-topic, but may I ask where does it said Hoopa had power of connecting different universe? It may have power to teleport things to somewhere else, but connect to another universe is a complete different issue......

BTW Morningstar, regarding to crossovers, this post written by me may give you a bit of clue of what general kind of crossover stories are there in the internet.
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I'm late, really late, but I always thought something like [Character] challenges Palkia because they travelled to Sinnoh/live in Sinnoh/Found it in Hoenn and fights it. When Palkia uses Spatial Rend [Character] jumps in front of her Pokémon and is sent to the place due to the attack. Since Palkia is the god of space, I imagine they could sent someone across space...
 
Kynacle said:
What I find to be a cliche is the overuse of some Pokémon. There are some that are hardly ever used and I honestly try to use some of the more forgotten Pokemon, and if I'm aiming to use one of the more powerful types like Dragon I tend to stick to the less used and somewhat weaker ones (EG: I gave one of my OCs, who was a fashion designer in training, a Sliggoo who wasn't battle orientated). Eevee, the Lucario line, legendaries... I could go on.
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Just give the characters pokemon almost everybody hates (like Lickitung,) voila a slightly more original fic :p
 
Morningstar said:
Just give the characters pokemon almost everybody hates (like Lickitung,) voila a slightly more original fic :p
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Originality is literally the best thing ever. Use an underrated Pokemon. I wanna see a Qwilfish or something...
 
Eh, part of the problem with avoiding certain Pokemon comes up if you use characters from the game. You might not be able to avoid using a Lucario at some point in the story if, for example, one of your characters is Cynthia.

The other question is, "does avoiding this character people have seen before actually serve the story?"

I have a Gardevoir and a Ralts already presented within the story. The Gardevoir is a foul-minded Pokemon, and that will be explored in Chapter 3. The Ralts, as far as anyone knows right now, doesn't communicate in a way humans easily understand despite being capable of telepathy; this helps highlight that just because it's a Psychic type doesn't mean you'll understand what it has to say. Both of these characters serve to further the plot and help build the world.
 
Kynacle said:
What I find to be a cliche is the overuse of some Pokémon. There are some that are hardly ever used and I honestly try to use some of the more forgotten Pokemon, and if I'm aiming to use one of the more powerful types like Dragon I tend to stick to the less used and somewhat weaker ones (EG: I gave one of my OCs, who was a fashion designer in training, a Sliggoo who wasn't battle orientated). Eevee, the Lucario line, legendaries... I could go on.
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I remember a good number of years ago considering writing a mystery dungeon fic which had the formerly human protagonist become either a Yanmega or a Yanma. Nothing that was any of the conventional 'starter' Pokemon at all.
 
Ereshkigal said:
Eh, part of the problem with avoiding certain Pokemon comes up if you use characters from the game. You might not be able to avoid using a Lucario at some point in the story if, for example, one of your characters is Cynthia.

The other question is, "does avoiding this character people have seen before actually serve the story?"

I have a Gardevoir and a Ralts already presented within the story. The Gardevoir is a foul-minded Pokemon, and that will be explored in Chapter 3. The Ralts, as far as anyone knows right now, doesn't communicate in a way humans easily understand despite being capable of telepathy; this helps highlight that just because it's a Psychic type doesn't mean you'll understand what it has to say. Both of these characters serve to further the plot and help build the world.
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That is a good point though I was mainly talking about the OCs.
 
Why not Dunsparce? Never seen anyone use that in a story that takes itself seriously.
 
Eliza Prescott said:
Why not Dunsparce? Never seen anyone use that in a story that takes itself seriously.
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There's a clear reason for that: Dunsparce is far from a serious pokemon

but for real I really like Dunsparce because it's weird and unique
 
In games, I've always found Dunsparce to be massively powerful depending on when you encounter them. Early on, these things can slaughter teams, even ones that are well-constructed.

I kinda suspect they're overpowered as a starter.

Then again, now I'm really tempted to do it. I mean, I already have a minor character who wields Stunfisks as swords planned to show up.
 
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diamondpearl876 said:
Not sure why, but this image amused me greatly, though I want to ask: why stunfisk as opposed to the honedge line?
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The Stunfisk is entirely because it amuses me, plus it using Thundershock when it hits someone would be quite a lethal combo.

I considered Honedge, until I reviewed its Pokedex entries and noticed it kills people who try that.
 
Ereshkigal said:
The Stunfisk is entirely because it amuses me, plus it using Thundershock when it hits someone would be quite a lethal combo.

I considered Honedge, until I reviewed its Pokedex entries and noticed it kills people who try that.
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Fair enough. All magical swords seem to hurt the wielder in some way or another. :p
 
Kynacle said:
Originality is literally the best thing ever. Use an underrated Pokemon. I wanna see a Qwilfish or something...
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I have been questioning that in more recent years. I've come to find that there are much more important things than not using the "wrong" Pokemon. And far worse things in fiction than Sues/Stus.

I'm also kinda baffled at the apparent lack of popularity/infamy of some lines. The Togepi line has major potential for a Purity Sue/Stu since it hates strife and blesses respectful, kind-hearted people. Like with (a fanon misinterpretation of) Ralts being drawn to positive emotion (misinterpreted as being drawn to good human beings,) the line could be used as an easy shorthand for someone "pure of heart." The Cleffa line has some of that potential too since they are rare and apparently very timid.

On another note, Accelgor is a NINJA yet very few people seem to talk about it.
 
Serverus Snope said:
On another note, Accelgor is a NINJA yet very few people seem to talk about it.
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I think Accelgor's case boils down to two things.

  1. There's a Ninja themed pokemon already (and a starter at that)
  2. In the short time before said ninja pokemon ninja'd any appeal Accelgor has, there is the matter of having to trade it with a specific pokemon to evolve. Which means that It a sa starter would attract more questions then the usual case of starting with pokemon already evolved.
 
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You know what's annoying and almost always done 'wrong' no matter what the story?
'It's Ash but evil!!'
 
Ghostsoul said:
You know what's annoying and almost always done 'wrong' no matter what the story?
'It's Ash but evil!!'
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A villainous foil to Ash could be quite interesting though. Not an "I am evil and use my Pokemon as tools muahahahaha!11!!!" kind of foil, but a trainer with absurd determination and the ability to befriend any Pokemon who uses their unique skills for... not so heroic purposes. Then again, they'd very likely be some kind of anti-villain.

inb4thatdescribesNperfectly
 
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Ereshkigal said:
Isn't that basically Gary?
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Serverus Snope said:
A villainous foil to Ash could be quite interesting though. Not an "I am evil and use my Pokemon as tools muahahahaha!11!!!" kind of foil, but a trainer with absurd determination and the ability to befriend any Pokemon who uses their unique skills for... not so heroic purposes. Then again, they'd very likely be some kind of anti-villain.

inb4thatdescribesNperfectly
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Ah, no. I am speaking about something worse than that.
Changing Ash's character for whatever reason and by whatever means to make them more 'evil' or even 'edgy' in some way.
 
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Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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