History FandomSpecificPlot / Pokemon

* In ''Pokémon'' fanworks of all kinds, the idea of Pokémon [[FusionDance fusion]] has been a very popular idea for a long time, thanks it being a feature in other {{Mons}} series like ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', while the ''Pokémon'' video games would only play with it twice (the Gen V trio of legendaries in Gen V has Kyurem able to fuse with Reshiram or Zekrom to become more powerful, and the Gen VII trio has Necrozma able to fuse with Solgaleo or Lunala) after going five generations without it (if one discounts Slowbro), the ''Pokemon Adventures'' manga did this right from generation one by fusing the three legendary birds.

* Fanworks about "Pokemorphs" (human characters who either have the ability to turn into Pokemon or have had their DNA spliced with Pokemon DNA) also show up from time to time. Often, particularly in the "spliced DNA" scenario, the story involves a criminal organisation such as Team Rocket kidnapping a bunch of characters and turning them into human-Pokemon hybrids as part of a scheme to create "the ultimate Pokemon." The appearance of these hybrids ranges from those who still [[MixAndMatchCreature look mostly human (but may have anatomical features such as ears, wings or tails from the Pokemon they are crossed with)]] to those who look like anthropomorphic Pokemon.

* The most popular set of plot points for fics related to the anime: the characters growing/being older, and Ash is/or will become a Pokémon Master (whatever the author decides that means, usually being a Pokemon Master and being one of the Pokémon Champions is treated as basically one-in-the-same). This isn't specific to any single fic plot, but most of the fanfics tied to the anime, regardless of the broader plot, rely on the conceit that the characters can/do age. Particularly any shipping fics, because the idea of 10-year-olds hooking up (frequently followed by sex, shown or implied) is a bit much even for most hardcore shippers to accept. So it will quickly be established that time ''has'' [[FanonDiscontinuity been passing as Ash engages in his adventures]] and the plot will go from there. In more recent non-AU fics, which usually consider the most recent seasons, Ash and the other characters will usually be somewhere around 16-19, rather than canon-declared ten. Ash becoming a Pokemon Master is so common it's usually just a given with ''any'' fic with him as the main character. Frequently it will be a major part of the plot and his goal, other times he'll have already achieved the title.

* "*Enter Pokemon Here* Becomes A Human" fics are not uncommon, especially to work around InterspeciesRomance.

* Most fics about the Pokemon themselves are set in the games universe, however those that aren't tend to be about what the character's Pokemon do when they're not battling or training.

** Oak's Lab in the latter fics is often demonized where, in canon, there is nothing that suggests that the Pokemon are miserable there. These stories also frequently ignore that Ash's team can and have asked, or tagged along with, Ash to come along with him and Ash has no objections (as in the case of Phanpy and Aipom) in order to make Ash feel guilty and ashamed of himself at the expense of implying his team has no agency despite the aforementioned canon examples of said agency. These stories also assume that Ash can only decide to use reserves because of a feeling of guilt or shaming and not simply deciding to use them as he has at several points in time without treating it like a major character shift.

** If the fanfic is set before the capture episode, Ash will only catch one Tauros. There will or will not be a TakeThat at the anime's decision of making Ash catch 30 Tauros. Ash will also catch other Pokemon during his visit to the Safari Zone, with Scyther and ''especially'' Dratini being popular choices.
** If the fanfic is set after that, a very frequent plot idea is Ash trading 29 of those Tauros for other Pokemon, generally done without explaining why Ash, who developed a dislike of trading following his first trade on the Anne, would be so quick to decide otherwise where Ash would more in character to catch new Pokemon instead of obtaining them from strangers, though it should be noted that this is done mostly for the sake of getting rid of the other 29 Tauros rather than giving Ash new Pokemon. These stories often come with the same sort of melodrama that Oak Lab demonization fics employ, treating it as more moral despite no sign that the Tauros are unhappy. In fact, [[MoralMyopia you never see the other 29 Tauros's opinion on the matter raised in these stories]].

* A common premise of Ash/Serena fics is Grace and Serena moving to Pallet Town after Ash meets Serena at the Oak Summer Camp, so she and Ash begin their Pokemon Journey together. Her starter is usually Charmander, also making her a stand-in for the unknown trainer who picked Charmander in canon.
** While these fics at first had Serena explore a variety of possibly paths, the stories eventually settled on the idea that Serena would be a Pokemon Coordinator while Ash campaigned for Gym Badges.

* Having Ash be a Zorua disguised as a human is a small but developed niche of fanfics, exploring what it means to be a Pokemon training Pokemon.
* A version of an alternate Ash journey with Ash focusing on a single type of Pokemon, such as Dragon or Bug, known as Type Specialist Ash stories, began to emerge in the fandom during the 2020s.

* Thanks to popular Fan theories, stories where the [[spoiler:Paradox Pokemon]] are actually Tulpas created by the minds of Professors Sada and Turo interacting with Area Zero itself are surprisingly common. [[spoiler:The [[AmbiguousSituation rather odd cutscenes featuring Turo/Sada]] implying that dimension travel was involved didn't do much to stop them]]

* Thanks to popular Fan theories, stories where the [[spoiler:Paradox Pokemon]] are actually Tulpas created by the minds of Professors Sadand Kuro interacting with Area Zero itself are surprisingly common. [[spoiler:The [[AmbiguousSituation rather odd cutscenes featuring Turo/Sada]] implying that dimension travel was involved didn't do much to stop them]]

* Thanks to popular Fan theories, stories where the [[spoiler:Paradox Pokemon]] are actually Tulpas are surprisingly common. [[spoiler:The [[AmbiguousSituation rather odd cutscenes featuring Turo/Sada]] implying that dimension travel was involved didn't do much to stop them]]

* Thanks to popular Fan theories, stories where the [[spoiler: Paradox Pokemon]] are actually Tulpas are surprisingly common. [[spoiler:The [[AmbiguousSituation rather odd cutscenes featuring Turo/Sada]] implying that dimension travel was involved didn't do much to stop them]]
* Giving greater involvement to Arven, Penny and Nemona in Dlc's story is incredibly popular. This is thanks to a) the other three students being generic NPCs with no real impact on the plot. b) The ''Teal Mask'' releasing months after most of the playerbase finished the main plot.

* Having Ash be a Zorua is a small but developed niche of fanfics, exploring what it means to be a Pokemon training Pokemon.

* Fans have taken the dub of ''Anime/Pokemon2000'' calling Ash the ''Chosen One'' to go beyond the confines on the movie and basically be the default explanation of why he keeps running into strange and crazy events. When the title is used, however, there is also a tendency to write Ash as having angst about the sheer level of madness he deals with that he shrugs off in canon (with one common add-on to this plot during the Sun and Moon series being that he's in Alola to be on vacation ''from'' world shattering events).

* "[[ForWantOfANail What if]] [*insert companion's name here*] didn't leave Ash's group and remained with him for [*insert region name here*]?" Very common plot for shipping fics, for obvious reasons. Said companion will ''always'' be the one the author ships Ash with, and they will usually end up together not too far in. Usually these fics will just {{Handwave}} away whatever reason the anime gave for said character leaving Ash in the first place.

* A popular shipping fic formula that usually uses characters and pairings from both the anime and the games involves putting the characters into an AU where they're put into two different (often rival) groups of high schoolers/secret agents/idols/chosen heroes/etc, usually divided by gender. Naturally, they clash a bit as the plot goes on before eventually falling in love with each other. Pokémon tend to be pushed to the sidelines or nonexistent in these fics, usually so more focus can be placed upon the romantic shenanigans.

* Variations on plots where Ash is betrayed by his friends and loved ones and he goes off on his own with only his Pokémon (except in variants where even his Pokémon also betray him), becoming more powerful are unnervingly common. These fics tend to involve Ash vanishing for years before resurfacing at a tournament and defeating everyone with his newfound strength. Also don't expect the betrayal part to make much sense or be in character. At all. With anyone. The "BetrayalFic" is diffused enough it has finally started gathering parodies such as ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12432002/1/Reunions-Can-Be-Good-and-Bad Reunions Can Be Good and Bad]]'', and is generally considered horrible by a variety of writers up to the point of outright mockery.

* The following formula appears a lot for shipping fics: Misty, May, Dawn and Leaf get together with Ash, Drew, Paul, and Gary, respectively. Insert plot about generic high school drama/alter ego pop idols/secret agents/chosen heroes/and so on in between. Typically without a Pikachu in sight.
** A fic type that existed before the implementation of more real-life educational facilities in the series is an expanded school curriculum before Ash and co go on journeys. Along with setting the age of being a trainer farther along, it typically does include Pokémon somewhere and is often presented as a recent shift, often being within Ash's living memory. Naturally Ash will complain he can't be a trainer at age 10 anymore at some point in the first few chapters.

* Fanworks about "Pokemorphs" (human characters who either have the ability to turn into Pokemon or have had their DNA spliced with Pokemon DNA) also show up from time to time. Often, particularly in the "spliced DNA" scenario, the story involves a criminal organisation such as Team Rocket kidnapping a bunch of characters and turning them into human-Pokemon hybrids as part of a scheme to create "the ultimate Pokemon." The appearance of these hybrids ranges from those who still look mostly human (but may have anatomical features such as ears, wings or tails from the Pokemon they are crossed with) to those that look like anthropomorphic Pokemon.

* Rewriting Ash as stronger and/or smarter, which in turn causes him to win controversial battles he lost.

* The most common change seen to Ash in fanfics of series from Hoenn onward is the wider use of his reserves at Oak's lab. How this is implemented varies, ranging from just deciding to do so to being treated as anything from Ash being smarter to doin so on a whim to even being more moral.

* The following formula appears a lot for shipping fics: Misty, May, Dawn and Leaf get together with Ash, Drew, Paul, and Gary, respectively. Insert plot about generic high school drama/alter ego pop idols/secret agents/chosen heroes/and so on in between.

* Fanfiction, particularly those centered around an original trainer, will [[PatchworkFic often use elements from both the games]], such as the character facing the Elite Four after earning eight badges(not a tournament), and the anime, such as professors routinely handing out the starter Pokémon to new trainers, or the concept of Pokémon [[PokemonSpeak only being able to say their names]].

* In ''Pokémon'' fanworks of all kinds, the idea of Pokémon [[FusionDance fusion]] has been a very popular idea for a long time, thanks it being a feature in other {{Mons}} series like ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', while the ''Pokémon'' video games would only play with it twice (the Gen V trio of legendaries in Gen V has Kyurem able to fuse with Reshiram or Zekrom to become more powerful, and the Gen VII trio has Necrozma able to fuse with Solgaleo or Lunala) after going five generations without it(if one discounts Slowbro), the ''Pokemon Adventures'' manga did this right from generation one by fusing the three legendary birds..

** * In general a fanfic will have Ash and the other characters catch more Pokémon than they did in canon, from a selection of both Pokémon from the anime that the writer wishes the main cast captured to completely original captures of the writer's preference. Any story that focuses on a different take on Ash's adventures will nearly always add to Ash's canon catches, though alongside the later mentioned 29 Tauros, reductions seeing him not catch certain members of his team will also happen.

* In general a fanfic will have Ash and the other characters catch more Pokemon than they did in canon. Any story that focuses on a different take on Ash's adventures will nearly always add to Ash's canon catches, though alongside the earlier mentioned 29 Tauros reductions seeing him not catch certain members of his team will also happen.

* It's not uncommon for fanfic writers to add to Ash's party several Pokémon he befriended but never officially caught, two of the most popular being Lucario from ''Lucario and the Mystery of Mew'', and the Aura Sphere Riolu from ''Diamond & Pearl'', or otherwise getting one of said evolutionary line. The latter became a bit of an AscendedMeme in the ''Pokémon Journeys'' anime, when Ash caught a Riolu for real.

* For fans of Chloe, many fanfics have her start off with Yamper as her starter, instead of her canon partner, Eevee.

* There a lot of fanfics that include terms like "Smart!Ash" and "Powerful!Ash" in the summary (''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has a lot of similar fics). These are re-tellings of the anime featuring an Ash that isn't an IdiotHero. They also very often either include the writer's favorite Ash ship (usually Ash/Misty or Ash/Serena) or are outright harem fics. An even larger number of these fics will have Ash basically being an author avatar and have little to any trace of his canon characterization.

* It is not uncommon in expanded Kanto stories to have Paul show up. In canon Paul had traveled through Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn prior to Ash's arrival in Sinnoh ''and'' the Battle Frontier in the anime is set in Kanto, ''and'' Paul was there at the start of his journey to see Reggie's battle with Brandon, so it is not inconceivable from a in-universe lore perspective to add Paul into Kanto as a rival to supplement or supplant Gary. There is simply no confirming that this happened in the anime, or even that Paul challenged the regions in the same order as Ash did.

* Due to their relationship that developed in the Sun and Moon series, many fanfics about exploring Kukui as Ash's parental figure have appeared, many following in the wake of such stories as ''Fanfic/AProfessorAndAStudent''. These range from the common take of in addition to Delia to an also common, but very much RonTheDeathEater filled fics treating Delia as a bad parent that Kukui and Burnett gain custody of Ash from.