Pokemon Sword And Shield Anime - What If is a series of Fanfic videos written by Zactoshi. It is a retelling of Pokemon anime's adaptation of ''Pokémon Sword and Shield", making it a more true to text adaptation of the game.
The story is divided into three seasons: "Sword and Shield", "Armored Adventures", and "Crowning Legacy"
This series can be found here
The fanfic contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Team Rocket steals their own Dynamax Band to use on Meowth and their Pokemon.
- Chloe is depicted to be capable of battling with other Pokemon and owns a Frosmoth.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- Gloria takes the place of Ash's main travel companion.
- Chloe actually abandoned her Eevee due to her inability to evolve.
- Goh is now a Shiny Hunter.
- Team Rocket gets new Pokemon in the form of Sinistea and Impidimp for Jessie, plus Cramorant and Pincurchin for James.
- Mohn takes the place of being Calyrex’s vessel during the adaptation of the Crown Tundra's story, and the King of Bounties is revealed to be the one who saved Mohn years ago.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Sordward and Shielbert originally appeared after the Darkest Day, but here, they make an appearance harassing Sonia before Ash can have his official gym battle with Raihan.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Chairman Rose's Darkest Day plot becomes a lot more central to the story, and the results of his many experiments causes Dynamax Pokemon to go rampant, leading Ash and the gang to deal with them.
- Instead of just being randomly picked up by Opal to be her successor, Bede is scouted by her after his loss in a tournament against Hop, and states she could help him improve.
- Adapted Out: Ash’s entire Journeys team (Lucario, Dragonite, Dracovish, Sirfetch’d, and Gengar) is replaced with an entirely new team (Urshifu Single Strike Style, Drednaw, Rillaboom, Centriskorch, and Corviknight)
- Ascended Extra:
- Compared to their small appearances in the anime, Hop and Marnie retain their status as main rivals in the game to Ash.
- The Isle of Armor main cast gets much bigger roles beyond their role in the DLC. Mustard acts as main trainer for Hop and Ash when they both reach slumps, with Klara and Avery acting as regular annoyances, with Avery in particular being Gloria's rival.
- Both Peony and Peonia play a much larger role in the Crown Tundra arc, with Peonia becoming much more central during the Calyrex arc.
- Big Damn Heroes: Peony makes his return during the Darkest Day arc to take over fighting Rose after Ash and Bede exhaust their Pokemon.
- Big "OMG!": Ash lets off this face when he discovers Melmetal is capable Gigantamaxing.
- Broken Pedestal: Bede was already weary of Chairman Rose after his disqualification from the League, but he loses all respect of him once he sets the Darkest Day in motion.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Ash's Torterra finally manages a victory after evolving when he returns for the Galar League.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Dawn returns during Season 3, attending a Sinnoh Festival.
- Brandon appears for the Crown Tundra arc, on the lookout for Regidrago and has already captured Regieleki
- The Aether Family make their return during the Calyrex arc.
- Ash's decides to bring in some of his old Pokemon for the Galar league.
- Call-Back: The fic contains many aspects of recurring Pokemon anime tropes and references to past moments:
- Ash's team in Galar is much more like his usual teams in the anime. Region starter? Grookey. Regional bird? Rookidee. Water type? Chewtle. Fire type? Centiskorch.
- Gloria is the usual female protagonist companion, with Eevee acting as her walking Pokemon.
- James captures a Cramorant that regularly bites on his head, similar to how his old Cacnea and Carnvine have a habit of attacking him.
- James uses his Poke Ringer experience to help train Ash's Corviknight.
- Gloria's Toxtricity doesn't obey at her first and is actually mean, similar to Iris and her Dragonite.
- Her Toxtricitiy would later become obident during an encounter with Mamoswine, which was the first case of a female companion having a disobedient evolved Pokemon (like with Dawn).
- When Jessie hears about the Pokemon Contest in Galar, she decides it's time for Jessilina to come out of retirement.
- During the Galar League, Ash pulls out old techniques when using his Pokemon from past regions, like Buizel's Ice Aqua Jet and Infernape burning Toxic Spikes with an underground Flare Blitz.
- When Infernape is sent out for the Galar League, Team Rocket are ecstatic to see the former underdog Pokemon again.
- During the final match against Marnie, just like his match against Hau in the Alola League, Ash is almost eliminated due to his sleeping Pokemon being mistaken for being knocked out (this time it's more justified though: Urshifu was hit with G-Max Snooze just a moment before).
- Like in his final battle with Paul in the Sinnoh League, Ash only uses his main Galar team for his final match with Hop.
- Character Development:
- Ash’s new title of Alola Champion has clearly gotten to his head, and the expectations that come with it made him overconfident. It isn’t until his loss with Piers and his calling out that Ash realizes he’s gone soft and relying too much on Dynamax. This makes him revert to his usual unpredictable battle style.
- Bede ultimately grows out of needing Chairman Rose's approval.
- Cutting the Knot: Bede tries to finish Melmetal off with a Psychic Terrain boosted Max Mindstorm in the league, but since Melmetal used G-Max Meltdown just before, he's unable to use the same move twice in the row.
- A Day in the Limelight: There are several segments dedicated to Hop's journey with Gloria getting an episode detailing her backstory.
- Decomposite Character: Gloria and Victor are separate characters, with Gloria as Professor Magnolia's assistant and Victor as a Gym Challenger.
- Demoted to Extra: Goh and Chloe get less appearances in this story.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The credits of the completed series contains an appearance from Penny.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Zacian joins Ash’s team after the League.
- Foil: Chloe to other past trainers who abandoned their Pokemon. While they are genuine jerks who never learn a thing, Chloe is more sympathetic and realized what she did was wrong, stating she was inexperienced and didn’t realize bonds with Pokemon were much more important than their ability to get stronger.
- Freudian Excuse: Peony implies the reason for his brother's obsession stems from when their father first died.
- Mythology Gag:
- Gloria’s Eevee can’t evolve, but can use the moves of a Partner Eevee.
- Three of Goh's Shiny Pokemon are Scorbunny, Scizor, and Voltorb, which were some of his original captures in the anime.
- The Rocket Prize Master gets to appear for one episode.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- When Dawn returns, she reveals she achieved her dream of becoming Top Coordinator.
- During Brandon's return, he mentions to Ash that Paul managed to defeat him.
- Running Gag:
- Gloria’s sprite showing an unamused expression when encountering Klara, Avery, Sordward, and Shielbert.
- Ash’s habit of forgetting Pokemon types comes up during his league match with Klara, when tried to use a Dragon Pulse from Gible against her Galarian Weezing (who is part Fairy).
- Skewed Priorities: Peony's main reason for wanting to stop the Darkest Day? It's interfering in his bonding trip with his daughter.
- Supreme Chef: Victor is frequently seen making curry, and his goal is to make the ultimate Curry Dex.
- Took a Level in Badass: Dawn’s Quilava had evolved into an Hisui Typhlosion.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Victor suggesting that Hop gets new Pokemon to help is what inspires him to abandon his old training methods.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ash calls out Hop during their full six on six battle over switching out his Pokemon for ones to counter Ash, leaving out Raboot and neglecting to actually bond with any of his new team besides Squirtle. He tells Hop to stop worrying about what others think and that he should focus more on bonding with his Pokemon.
