A Mid-Sinnoh Night's Dream is a Pokémon fanfic that started with one simple question. "What if a Golurk punched Giratina in the face?"
Thus began an AU fic that started with the male protagonist from Pokémon Black and White, Hilbert, moving back to his home region of Sinnoh (Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum) before the events of either set of games take place. With him, he brings an odd partner and an odder perspective.
Heavily influenced by Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the story is somewhere between parody, plagiarism, and a bundle of references. Self-admittedly, the author does not take the story too seriously, and advises all readers to adhere to an ideal similar to Bellisario's Maxim.
It can be found here
and here.
According to Word of God , the AU will contain other stories set after the events of Hilbert's journey within the same universe, though they have posted nothing as of yet.
This fic provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Maylene, who runs her own gym (For humans and Pokemon), Cynthia, the champion of the Sinnoh Region, Cheryl and Marley, who, while not participating in the Gym Challenge, are competent ace trainers in their own right, all play a part in the fight against Team Galactic.
- The All-American Boy: Very downplayed, but in the sense of being a hands-on fighter, having a fairly mixed team, and constantly making pop culture references, Hilbert is this. He also grew up in Nuvema Town in Unova, which is analog to the suburbs of New York state.
- Author Appeal: The author has admitted that he prefers the DS-era games, thus a lot of focus is placed on Pokemon originating in Johto, Sinnoh, and Unova. Golurk is also Hilbert's partner for this reason.
- Battle Aura: While not visible in most cases, Hilbert explicitly has, and learned how to use this, after studying under a council of Lucario for a month. He has the ability to see this in others when he focuses. All living things have this as well, to a lesser extent. This justifies why nobody dies from the slapstick, as it acts as a Required Secondary Power of endurance.
- Completed Fic: The main story was completed as of October 10th, 2021, though epilogues were posted afterward.
- Crack in the Sky: When the Heavens Shatter, this is how it's described
- Freudian Trio: Downplayed and Lampshaded. The protagonist, Hilbert (Ego), balances out his hot-blooded childhood friend, Barry (Id), and Barry's stoic childhood friend, Lucas (Superego). Hilbert is somewhere in-between both of them, possessing both common sense as well as a healthy amount of hot blood, though Barry has some battle sense and Lucas has a growing streak of defiance. Cheryl remarks in Chapter 17 that the three of them balanced each other out, until Hilbert's enthusiasm became infectious and Dawn had to step in as the responsible one.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Abra. The word 'Psychopath' came after the naming of Psychic-types, so it seems.
- Hidden Depths: Hilbert. He's got something of a Jerkass darkside hidden beneath the bravado, which is revealed when he argues with Cresselia in chapter 25.
- Hot-Blooded: Multiple trainers in the fic practically run on spiral power, which shares many aspects with the main power source Hilbert draws strength from, Battle Aura.
- Insecure Love Interest: Hilbert. He tells Dawn that he doesn't think he deserves that sort of love. He tries to ignore his feelings for the sake of team cohesion, even invoking No Hugging, No Kissing at first. Even when he eventually does get into a relationship with her, he's still averse to making any progress. The context of the Relationship Upgrade was hypothermia and a private lodge where There Is Only One Bed. He only got into the bed when he remembered that sleeping in snow-soaked clothes wouldn't be the best idea.
- Lighter and Softer: Zig-Zagged. The author attempted to make the tone light. Not because of the horrific, dark, and gritty tone of the anime and the games, but to contrast the (alleged) tendencies of many Pokemon fan works to become dark fics.
- Magnetic Plot Device: Aura is this, at least according to
Word of God. The more of it you have, the more weirdness you encounter. Ash has a lot of it, as per the movies, and Lucas has it, which wasn't discovered until Hilbert is half-way across the region, because most aura seems small compared to him. - Rocket Punch: Golurk is revealed to have this ability in Chapter 16. It's also the chapter that he becomes a legitimate mech suit, so take that how you will.
- Rule of Cool: Many of Hilbert's exploits are loosely explained by aura, which does seem to have some sort of rules, but this is the main one.
- Running Gag: On multiple occasions between the narrator and the characters.
- What.
- "What?"
- Well said, [Character].
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Golurk's speech is interpreted as "Clank" by the narrator, even when Hilbert's aura is properly trained. They do this on purpose, that is exactly what they're saying.
- Villainous Breakdown: Giratina when Hilbert proves to be more powerful than they imagined. It's downplayed and rather short, but the breakdown of bravado is clear.
- Weirdness Magnet: Invoked by many characters to describe Hilbert's tendencies to do things such as become best friends with a experimental mecha, beat down two out-of-control mega-evolved Pokemon, have said Pokemon join him, obtain a psychopathic psychic-type, have a supposed myth decide he's a decent guy... the list goes on.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed on multiple occasions. For the most part, Psychic-types are only a step below humans, as they are as or more intelligent than most humans but are still definitely Pokemon. The same goes for most others, excluding the majority of Water and Bug-types, as fish and bugs are generally accepted to not have sapience. It's implied that fish are the only legal source of meat in-universe. Hilbert considers everything else to be around the same level of existence, and tries not to place himself above his partners.
