Fanfic / AAML: Diamond and Pearl Version

AAML: Diamond and Pearl Version is a Pokémon: The Series shipping fanfic created on March 20, 2010 by EchidnaPower which has gained quite a bit of notoriety in the PokéShipping (Ash and Misty) community.

After a battle with Dawn, Ash rediscovers Misty's handkerchief that she gave him after their adventures together ended, and starts to miss Misty even more than he already does. Little did he know that Misty missed him as much as he missed her. After some advice from Brock, he realizes that he misses Misty because he loves her, and after he flies to Cerulean City to confess his feelings for her. She thrillingly accepts, and the fic takes the job of remaking the Diamond and Pearl series starting with the Unown and going on from there, sometimes adding new original arcs along the way. Most significantly, Chapter 80 ends with Ash (and probably Misty, Brock and Dawn) being sent back to Hisui in the style of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

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Tropes contained in AAML: Diamond and Pearl Version

• Above the Influence: Ash and Misty, despite his mother's pestering. He may be 14, but he's not a creep. They do share a bed, but nothing nasty happens. It's a K+ story after all.
• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Ash rides his Charizard all the way from Sinnoh to Kanto to get Misty back.
• Acceptable Breaks from Canon:
  • Ash can carry 8 Pokémon, which is impossible in both the anime and games, but his bigger party makes his battles easier (it's explicitly noted that he can still only use six Pokémon in a battle, but he can carry the other two to make it easier for him to train others).
  • Misty's return alone counts as this, which many fans do in fanfics.

• Adaptational Intelligence: Ash becomes a lot smarter over the course of the series. That said, he still doesn't know everything, but is not above seeking help like asking Max for help on his Full Battle with Paul or asking Riley for help when his aura connection with Riolu falters.
• Affectionate Nickname: As their relationship deepens, Ash has taken to calling Misty 'Mist' as a pet name; Misty reacts extremely violently when someone else tries to use it.
• Alas, Poor Villain: This happens to Hunter J, unlike in canon where she's an Asshole Victim. In her last moments she realizes D Shad was right about the fact he needed to save her from herself.
  • It also happens to Charon, just as Rotom convinces him to break away from Team Galactic and let Ash and co. out to save the world and renew their friendship, Charon ends up getting disintegrated by Saban's laser pistol, much to everyone's (especially Dawn's) horror.
• Batman Gambit: Basically how Ash got Misty to travel with him again; by challenging her sister Daisy to a battle rather than Misty herself based on how Daisy had shown a greater interest in battle recently, and choosing Pokemon he knew wouldn’t be a good match for the gym’s water-types, Ash was able to provoke Daisy into a battle to both give her a taste for it and prove to Misty that her sisters didn’t need her to maintain the gym any more.
• Battle Couple: Ash and Misty have become particularly close battle partners over the course of this story, with their team-ups using Charizard and Gyrados (when they need raw power) or Grotle and Vaporeon (when they want a more balanced approach).
• Big Little Brother: Arguably applies to Lucario; as he and Misty’s Marill see Ash and Misty as their parents, they consider each other siblings, with Lucario at one point referring to Marill as ‘big sis’ even though he’s over twice her height.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: As in the anime, Cyrus takes control of the Lake Trio with the Red Chain, and the Trio barely manage to summon Ash, Misty, Dawn and Brock to help before they fall completely under his control.
• Bully Brutality: Paul gradually becomes this over time and brutally enforces this during his and Ash's Full Battle. Charizard's head was swollen and he may have had his skull dented from Electabuzz's Thunder Punch, and Magmortar's Flamethrower charred Sceptile's body completely black and burned off half his tail. Oh yeah, and when Ash's Riolu tried to charge Paul, Magmortar brutally backhanded him.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Misty returns with Ash as they have a Relationship Upgrade.
  • Charizard returns in order to take Ash to Cerulean City, and stays on Ash's team permanently.
  • Sceptile and Snorlax replace Grotle and Staraptor on Ash's team during his and Paul's Full Battle at Lake Acuity.
  • Haunter also joins Ash's team after he helps Ash free Misty from Darkrai's nightmare. Sabrina has no issue.
  • Anabel returns with fellow Tower Tycoon Palmer (Barry's dad) during the Twinleaf Festival.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • The Rotom from the Old Chateau joins Ash's gang.
  • Ash gets a Riolu egg from Riley which instantly hatches with his Aura, just like in the games. Said Riolu uses Ash's Aura and its own ambition to become telepathic, grow larger than a normal Riolu, and essentially evolves into the massive Lucario from Super Smash Bros..
• Cassandra Truth: Arguably applies when they meet Gary, as he initially doesn’t believe that Ash and Misty are dating now and assumes they just claimed that as a joke.
  • In the case of the evil Togepi, Misty refuses to believe anyone when they say that there's something wrong with the Togepi, her attachment to her old Togetic blinding her to the truth until it starts attacking her and her Azurill, which she regrets later on.
• Character Development:
  • Ash becomes a lot more competent as a Trainer and a person especially when Riley starts training him as an Aura Guardian.
  • Misty's new Pokémon (Vaporeon, Surskit) give her a lot of room to grow as a character.
• Comic-Book Time: Completely averted. Ash is 14, Misty is 15, Dawn is 13, and Brock is 18 when the story begins.
• Commuting on a Bus: While Dawn lets Ambipom go with O to train to be a Pokémon Ping-Pong player, O lets Dawn be able to borrow her back for Contests. Kenny asked O for the favor as a sign of his growing affection for Dawn.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Haunter returns to Ash to help him save Misty from Darkrai, and despite its status as The Prankster, single-handedly takes down the ghostly Legendary (albeit through the use of Destiny Bond, which causes Darkrai to faint after it knocked out Haunter).
• Darker and Edgier: This fic can lean into this from time to time, most notably any chapter where Team Galactic or Paul is involved.
  • Gets even more so in the Team Galactic finale arc, which has major supporting characters dying.
• Despair Event Horizon: Misty hasn’t quite fallen this far, but she’s definitely approaching this point when the fic opens, having become so depressed about her separation from Ash that she has lost focus during some of her recent gym battles.
• Equal-Opportunity Offender: Brad, but he actually has a strong point about being this.
  Brad: "If the truth offends a person, that's their problem, not mine. And lemme tell you something else, often times those people who get offended are the people who do the dumbest things imaginable."
• Et Tu, Brute?: Haunter is furious about Rotom's betrayal. He gets better when Rotom messes with Saturn's attempts to locate Spear Pillar.
• Face–Heel Turn: Rotom leaves Ash and joins Charon since they were childhood friends, much to Ash's dismay (and Haunter's fury). Subverted in that Rotom actually proved his true loyalty to Ash by screwing with Team Galactic and plans to come back once he learns how Charon fell in with Team Galactic.
• Force and Finesse: As Ash and Misty become tag-battle partners, Grotle and Vaporeon develop this dynamic in particular, as their team-ups focus on Grotle taking hits and then striking back while Vaporeon uses more hit-and-move tactics to wear their foes down.
• Foreshadowing: When Brandon comes to Snowpoint and learns of Ash and Misty's relationship, he mentions that another Frontier Brain is looking for love. Brock instantly gets excited, and we can all assume it may be Lucy, who did indeed like Brock in canon.
  • When Anabel returns in the Twinleaf Festival arc, she mentions the same thing, but denies that the Brain in question is her, given that she's now over her crush on Ash. She still doesn't say who the real Brain in love is though.
• Fix Fic: It's about how Ash and Misty become a couple. That should tip you off right away.
• Godzilla Threshold: Preparing for his battle with Paul at Lake Acuity, Ash not only brings back a few of his old powerhouses rather than relying on his current Sinnoh team, but during the battle he has to order Snorlax to use Self Destruct to take out Paul's Magmortar, a move that Ash normally wouldn't use.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Surprisingly, Pikachu becomes one for Buneary during the Phione story. He even challenges it to a battle for Buneary and kinda goes a bit overboard.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Kenny joins the gang after the Twinleaf Festival arc at Misty's insistence for Dawn's sake, and remained with them until Chapter 75, at which point he left claiming he wanted to focus on training for the Grand Festival without Dawn being able to see his strategies.
• Happily Adopted: As an extension to being Raised by Humans, Ash’s Riolu/Lucario and Misty’s Azuril/Marill see each other as siblings, with Lucario at one point referring to Marill as ‘big sis’.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: When Ash and co. get captured by Team Galactic, Charon ends up letting them out to make amends with Rotom and vows to become a better person... only to be vaporized by Cyrus' new hired gun Saban.
• Heroic BSoD: Just like in canon, Ash suffers this after his Full Battle with Paul. He won, but his Pokémon were so badly injured that he felt like he may as well have lost and doesn't want them to get hurt that way ever again.
• Kick the Dog: Paul pushes Misty around, insults Maylene to Candice's face, and orders his Magmortar to backhand Ash's baby Riolu and insult it after Magmortar's point-blank Flamethrower charred Sceptile almost beyond recognition.
• Kids Are Cruel: As above, Paul. Surprisingly Reggie remains blissfully ignorant of just how cruel he is until he sees Paul's cruelty first-hand during his and Ash's Full Battle at Lake Acuity.
• Like Brother and Sister: As the group continue travelling together, Misty and Dawn reach a point where they openly state that they consider the other girl a sister, Misty enjoying the chance to be a good big sister to someone after her own older siblings neglected her for so long.
• Love Confession: Ash gives his to Misty in Chapter 7 and the ship goes on from there.
• Love Hurts: Ash begins the story feeling this while Misty has felt it since she left him. They both get better.
• Love Revelation Epiphany: Ash has this for Misty. To be fair, Brock has to spell it out for him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Reggie has this when he sees Paul intentionally hurting Ash's Pokémon during their Full Battle at Lake Acuity, starting with ordering Ursaring to use Hyper Beam on Sceptile at point-blank range. At this point, Reggie realizes that Paul is intentionally inflicting critical injuries on Ash's Pokemon, uncaring of how unethical (or possibly illegal) his actions are, just as long as he wins.
  Reggie: "You were right, Brock. Now I know this was a bad idea."
• No-Sell: When Professor Kodama's machine causes most electric and water-types to become obsessed with each other, Psyduck is unaffected because it's just too empty-headed to fall victim to the effect.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: As stated above, completely averted.
• One Extra Member: Two, actually. In Chapter 15, it's revealed that participants in the Sinnoh League such as Ash can carry up to 8 Pokémon at a time to make things easier for Trainers to train their Pokémon (although they're still only allowed to use up to six in battle).
• Original Character: Quite a few:
  • Brad, based off of comedian Brad Stine, a comedian who shows up in chapter 13.
  • D. Shad AKA David, a citizen of Sonzonia City who shows up in Chapter 28.
  • In Chapter 42, a pair of ciminals, Saban and Vivian, frame Ash and Misty for robbery, but Saban gets away. In Chapter 78, Cyrus hires Saban as backup, and he is far more dangerous and far more murderous.
• Plot Twist: The confrontation with Team Galactic as Cyrus completes his plan sees Ash (and apparently Misty, Brock and Dawn) being sent back to Hisui, much like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
• The Prankster: Haunter and Rotom are both this.
• Previously on…: Misty usually does this at the beginning of every chapter since Chapter 14. The only exception was during Ash and Paul's Full Battle.
  Misty: "Forget it. I'm watching Ash and Paul battle, let's go!"
• Put on a Bus: A minor example; Ash trades one of his Tauros (although he keeps the other twenty-nine) to his old acquaintance, Mikey, in return for the child of Mikey's Eevee, so that he can give the Eevee to Misty to evolve into a Vaporeon.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Unlike in canon, Ash wins the Full Battle against Paul, but his Pokémon are so badly injured by Paul's cruel actions that he feels he might as well have lost.
• Raised by Humans: Played with for Ash's Riolu (due primarily to the bond they share through Ash's Aura) and Misty's Azuril, who each see Ash and Misty as their parents (and Riolu/Lucario explicitly refers to Dawn as an aunt), to the point that Riolu was surprised to meet his biological father; after Riolu learns to talk, he freely refers to Ash and Misty as 'Daddy' and 'Mommy', only amending it to 'Dad' and 'Mom' after he evolves.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Paul gives one to Ash during the Full Battle at Lake Acuity after he beats Charizard and Sceptile within an inch of their lives and backhands a baby Riolu.
  Ash: "Why are you trying to hurt my Pokémon Paul?! Why are you trying to make them hurt?! That's not what battling is about! Battling isn't an opportunity to make your opponents suffer!"
  Paul: "You're a fool. I do what I need to do in order to win. My attacks ensure victory beyond the shadow of a doubt, that's all that's been happening here. If your Pokémon can't take the hits, maybe you should consider a different approach to your training."
  • Ash then gives Paul a brutal one after Paul takes down Pikachu.
  Ash: "I hope you're satisfied with what you've done, Paul. You've proved to me that you really don't care about the well-being of Pokémon. I always thought to myself that way deep down, you cared about Pokémon, and you really did want to be friends with them, but now I see. I see that you really do only see them as tools, and I've never met any trainer that was as cruel to Pokémon as you." (...) "I was there when Brandon swept you, using only Regirock, Regice, and Registeel to do it…you wanna know how I beat him Paul? I beat him because my Pokémon didn't know the meaning of the word quit, they refused to let me lose because they cared about me, and they knew that I cared about them. And until you learn that, you'll never be a true winner like Brandon, no matter how strong you get."
• Rescue Romance: Angie develops this for Ash as in canon, except that this time around it nearly compromises Ash and Misty's relationship because Misty notices Angie's interest and is briefly jealous until others assure Misty she has nothing to fear.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Averted. When Team Rocket captures Ash and Misty after they've reunited, the trio makes their usual joke about them being lovebirds, but are surprised when they don't hear the typical vehement denials, making them realize that Ash and Misty are finally a couple for real.
• Shipper on Deck: Darn near everyone for Ash and Misty. Brock starts the trend on Ash's end, Daisy is all for her sister being happy, and it goes on with all of the returning original cast, even Gary.
  • Ash, Misty, and Dawn are this for Pikachu and Buneary.
  • Misty is also this for Dawn and Kenny.
• Shipping Torpedo: It is eventually revealed that Charizard’s relationship with Charla ended because she chose a Shiny Charizard over him and Charizard lost to his rival in a battle; once they learn about this, Ash and his friends assure Charizard that if Charla’s head was turned by something as superficial as the other Charizard’s color she isn’t worth missing.
• Shout-Out:
  • During the trip into the past to help Arceus, Piplup speculates that Damos’s Pichu may be destined to be Pikachu’s ancestor with Pikachu himself as the other parent as part of a My Own Grampa paradox, similar to a conversation from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”.
• Side Bet: Apparently, during the Kanto/Orange Island/Johto adventures, Jessie and Meowth had a bet going on whether Ash and Misty would get together. Upon seeing they did, Jessie tries to get Meowth to pay up, but Meowth retorts that the bet expired two years ago^note i.e when Ash and Misty originally went their separate ways.
• Spanner in the Works: It is noted that Misty is basically this to Paul’s efforts to undermine Ash; during their battle at Lake Acuity, when Paul accuses Ash of bringing in his strongest Pokemon because he knows his training method can’t beat Paul’s, Misty reminds Ash that he raised his powerhouses to their current level using his traditional training, matching Paul’s reliance on force with experience and compassion.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Conway does this at the Pokemon Summer Academy as he did originally.
• Stalker with a Crush: Conway briefly tries to 'flirt' with Misty, but gets a mallet to the head for his efforts.
• There Is Only One Bed: Deliberately invoked by Dawn. The group only has two rooms to stay, so they have to share. Dawn deliberately gives Ash and Misty the room that only has one bed. At first, Ash decides to leave it to Misty, but when she wakes up at 1:00 am due to the cold, she willingly offers him to share the bed.
• Took a Level in Badass: Particularly applies to Ash, as a few old faces return to his team (Charizard in the long term and Sceptile, Snorlax and Haunter in the shorter term), and he makes a few new captures (Rotom and Riolu/Lucario). This greater experience leads to Ash defeating Paul in their full battle by Lake Acuity, albeit by using Sceptile, Snorlax and Charizard in place of Grotle, Staraptor and Gliscor.
• Unnecessary Roughness: Paul has no qualms doing this during his and Ash's Full Battle at Lake Acuity. The results are not pretty.
• We Used to Be Friends: David/D. Shad and Hunter J used to be a couple until she turned to being a Pokémon Hunter.
• The Worf Effect: During Ash’s gym battle with Candice, Charizard loses to Abomasnow despite the type advantage, with Word of God noting that it would be boring if Charizard could make a clean sweep and justifying this loss as Ash hasn’t spent as much time regularly training with Charizard recently in favor of training some of his newer Pokemon.
• Would Hurt a Child: Paul has no trouble ordering his Magmortar to backhand a baby Riolu just to prove a point.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • Paul grabbed Misty's arm and threw her to the ground when she got between him and the Gliscor he was trying to catch.
  • The evil Togepi also nearly kills Misty until her Azurill evolves into Marill and slams into it with Rollout.