Fanfic / Dear Diary

Dear Diary is a story adaptation of a Nuzlocke run of Pokémon Black written by Troper deeman45.

The story is told in the form of a diary written by Prima, a Patrat who loved her home in the wild and never wanted to be captured and is stuck with the Jerkass trainer Blair, but is also increasingly fascinated by humanity and their accomplishments. All of this contrasts with the team's starter Opal, a Wide-Eyed Idealist Oshawott who has been trained all her life to be The Leader of the team and a hero helping to reform Unova, but finds that her belief in Undying Loyalty between human and Pokémon has its own problems. As they are led by their trainer on an increasingly difficult and emotionally trying journey and meet new humans and teammates with very different opinions on the wild and on humanity's relationship with Pokémon, Prima and Opal rely on each other and begin to question their most basic assumptions, while being confronted by Blair's rival N, who is determined to convince them that Pokémon should be freed from humans altogether.

However, it soon becomes clear that the journey of their trainer, Blair, has much higher stakes because, as in the original games, it is all leading up to a battle between Blair and N, the respective chosen heroes of Reshiram and Zekrom. Since Blair's cruelty has the potential to be terrifying with the aid of Reshiram and N's ideology, and the methods with which Team Plasma enforces it has its own problems (especially when Zekrom gets involved), Blair's team decides to try their best to manipulate destiny in their own way for the sake of the people and Pokémon forgotten by the conflict's major players - however difficult such a task may be.

Can be found here (fanwork on this page may contain major spoilers) and here. A reupload of the story is currently being undergone here, note that this page includes spoilers to chapters that have not been posted there.

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Dear Diary provides examples of:

• Accidental Murder: Happens sometimes due to the dangerous nature of Pokémon battles, notably Laguna killing N's guide and Opal killing a Plasma Galvantula.
• A Day in the Limelight: The extra chapters, which are from the perspective of Professor Juniper, Lillil, Mauve, Lufie, and Blair, respectively (except for Extra #3).
• Adaptational Villainy: N starts out as the Anti-Villain he is in canon but steadily gets a lot worse than in canon thanks to the influence of Zekrom's, who along with Reshiram is also an example since in canon they were loyal to their heroes' causes without having ulterior motives. Terrakion and Cheren also become villains when they weren't in canon, with the former becoming He Who Fights Monsters out of revenge and the latter allying with Team Plasma and Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and. And then of course there's Blair, an adaptation of the heroic protagonist who in canon is assumed to be a paragon who cares for his Pokémon regardless of how the player actually treats them, who is now abusive to his Pokémon and gets worse thanks to Reshiram.
• All for Nothing: One In-Universe legend features a part of the story that is mentioned as a legend in its own right the blind Arcanine protagonist racing around the world. But Darkrai already got there in seconds, so it doesn't matter.
• Ambiguously Evil: Kyurem is described in myth as a cannibal but his Chosen, argues that this is false and he maintained the goodness of the original dragon - and though there's obviously an ulterior motive involved and said Chosen acts manipulative and secretive with the team she has Opal's retrieved memories, which don't seem false, to back her up. Ultimately Kyurem is working for the good of the region after all.
• Ambition Is Evil: The Pokémon characters admire human ambition overall, but that ambition tends to be the quality that makes the worst of humans so dangerous to them.
• Amplifier Artifact: The circlet works by amplifying the supernatural powers a human already has, though it doesn't work on a human without those powers.
• An Arm and a Leg: Blair loses a leg in the Desert Resort.
  • Opal loses a leg and is permanently disabled in another during the climax.
  • Cenn loses a horn during the battle against Cobalion
  • The Arcanine in the myth in Chapter 50 loses his eyes, ears and legs competing with Darkrai. Ultimately, Darkrai settles on giving him one of each back.
• Animal Wrongs Group: Team Plasma, as in the games this is based on.
• Anyone Can Die: It's a storylocke (story adaptation of a Nuzlocke challenge) so naturally no one is safe from death.
• Apron Matron: Mauve is a tough and stern but kind mother figure to the starters she helps raise and will protect them with her considerable fighting skills.
• Armor-Piercing Question: N gives one to Opal:
  Cheren. Bianca. The Professor. You claim they are wonderful people—I have never met them and cannot claim to judge. But I wonder... why not include your trainer in that line-up?
  • Dreamtide also gives one to Opal. After she questions why they serve Reshiram despite how he killed hundreds of thousands of people the last time he was awake, Dreamtide asks her why she herself serves Blair and by extension, Reshiram.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Cenn's response to N's query makes him hesitate for the first time.
  I grew up in the wild. Did you even consider that some of us want to be caught? I willingly joined Blair. And given the choice, knowing the sort of man he is, I would do so again. The forest where I lived was hell. I suffered things you can’t even understand. And our friend who died? She died at the hands of wild pokemon. So don’t act as though you’re making some grand utopia by forcing us back into a world of eat-or-be-eaten—especially not when you just ordered the murder of one of my good friends!
• Artificial Human:
  • Dreamtide and the other Sigilyph guides are artificial Pokémon created by an ancient Unovan civilization to serve the legendary dragon trio.
  • Mention is also made about the Darumaka line being possibly the descendants of artificial Pokemon who successfully bred with the wild population after the collapse of said Unovan civilsation.
• The Atoner: Morta is trying to atone for killing Prima.
• Back from the Dead Opal, in-story thanks to Not actually being mortally wounded, but killed by Zekrom's stone as a sacrifice while she was too injured to fight back allowing the Great Serpent to revive her. In-game, said Pokémon didn't actually faint/die but came very close.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Artful and Morta during the fight to protect the graves in Juniper's lab.
• Badass and Child Duo: Prima and Opal play the badasses to Laguna's child.
• Badass Bookworm: Opal was raised by a scientist as a battling Pokémon, so she knows a lot about science and the details of Pokémon moves, not to mention mythology. She is also, as mentioned, a battling Pokémon and is quite good at fighting.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Blair is routinely emotionally abusive towards his Pokémon. In Part 11, when Columbus refuses to take being replaced by Dreamtide lying down, it turns physical.
• Battle Couple: Cenn and Lillil fight together whenever it's not a formal (one Pokémon only) league battle.
• Berserker Tears: Terrakion.
• Beta Couple: Cenn and Lillil.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Kyurem is unfailingly kind to even the smallest and weakest of Pokémon, but if you get on his bad side you should be terrified.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Reshiram, Zekrom, and Ghetsis.
• Big Brother Mentor: Laguna calls Prima her "big sister", and Prima plays this role to her in general.
• Big Good: Alder, as the leader of the League fighting against Plasma and other unsavory factions trying to control Unova, though he himself (despite his genuine kindness and concern for Pokémon) is far from perfect.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The League vs. Team Plasma after N's Guide's death. The League has some corrupt practices, supporting cruel starter breeding centers and Lanville (which uses Pokémon as glorified slave labor) and turning a blind eye to Gym Leaders killing Pokémon in battles, but they genuinely care about Pokémon and are trying to protect the region, and many of its members are trying to reform their worse aspects. Team Plasma, meanwhile, uses methods so extreme (reprogramming, armies of Child Soldiers, terrorist attacks killing hundreds) as to overshadow their goals, which are hardly perfect in the first place, and are threatening to destroy the region by bringing Zekrom into play.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: Laguna decides to Take a Level in Badass to fight N's Sigilyph, who she ends up inadvertently killing. She is horrified by what she did immediately afterward.
• Blood Knight: Lenora is a particularly nasty variant, enjoying making battles life-or-death even against rookies with weak Pokémon.
  • Keen and Columbus are more agreeable examples. They enjoy fighting for the sake of glory, though they have no desire for deadly fighting.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Lenora is portrayed as someone whose interest in history makes her wish that Pokémon battles were life-or-death battles of honor like they were in the past. This makes her The Dreaded as a Gym Leader and puts her at odds with reformers who would prefer the league would be more regulated.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Though Blair was never a nice person, Reshiram's influence on him makes him go from a jerk to irredeemable.
• Break the Believer: Opal starts out believing that her purpose in life is to follow a trainer unconditionally and heroically defend him. Events throughout the story shatter that belief.
• Break the Cutie: Laguna, an innocent young Tympole who is taken away from her family to battle with Blair, naturally gets a lot of this, especially after Prima's death and her role as an Unwitting Instigator of Doom killing N's Guide and letting Zekrom completely control N's mind as a result.
  • Opal gets a lot of this too, between the incident in the Desert Resort, Crown and Coale turning against her, and all of the deaths that she blames herself for.
  • And then there's Prima, who is taken from her home and ends up being an outcast from Opal and her team after she tries to take a stand against Blair but goes too far.
  • Cheerful Bianca ends up being attacked by Team Plasma and watching someone she thought was her friend try to kill her Pokémon and abandon her for being too weak.
  • And then there is N, who becomes very noticeably more insane thanks to Zekrom getting into his mind.
• Breather Episode: Parts 13 and 14,, Parts 29-30, Part 45, Parts 49-52, Part 59, and Part 68.
• Breeding Slave: Many of the female Pokémon "reprogrammed" by Plasma are used to produce new Child Soldiers.
• Broken Ace: Opal is described as the most successful Pokémon of her generation of starters, and seems like the perfect ideal of a trained Pokémon, but she realizes all too well that she isn't what everyone thinks she is, and constantly berates herself for it.
• Broken Bird: Morta's guarded demeanor is largely a result of living a difficult life in the wild and then being shunned by her new team.
• Broken Pedestal: Prima admires N for his empathy and passionate defense of Pokémon, even if she knows he can still be dangerous, before learning that he is the leader of Team Plasma, which she hates. Opal thinks she would have reacted this way if she were still alive.
  • Laguna is shocked that Opal, who she once admired, would let her teammate die that she could have saved due to a Heroic BSoD.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Reshiram promises Blair glory, emotional peace, and to heal back his leg when he is released. Everyone else but Blair can see that Reshiram's promises probably aren't to be trusted, and Reshiram was likely the one responsible for Blair losing his leg.
• Category Traitor: Blair's team members are seen as traitors to all Pokémon due to killing Cobalion and Viridian.
• Care-Bear Stare: Caitlyn weaponizes all of the positive feelings of people and Pokémon; throughout Unova in order to allow Kyurem to escape Giant Chasm.
• Career-Ending Injury: Columbus is unable to fight in battles after his wing is broken.
  • Opal retires from battling due to her injuries from N's Archeops' attempt to take her with him.
• Cast from Hit Points: Morta's barriers.
  • Dreamtide uses an attack like this against Drayden, causing their death.
  • Dusk goes outside her body to help defeat Terrkaion. Though she survives she is permanently injured and will die if she ever does it again.
• The Chains of Commanding: Opal's leadership role really takes a toll on her.
• Cheerful Child: Dusk. Though being this way isn't always easy for her.
• The Chessmaster: Ghetsis stays one step ahead of Blair and N, manipulating N to get control of Team Plasma and then switching to Blair's side and taking half of Plasma with him once Zekrom gets in the way, then taking the Light Stone to force Blair to ally with him if he wants the stone back, winning the alliance of the citizens of Opelucid by portraying himself as the Lesser of Two Evils and sending Blair to take Drayden out to force the fight against N before his side runs out of resources.
  • Reshiram as well, setting up events so Blair will be completely in his debt, getting him captured so Ghetsis can rescue him, giving Reshiram an army and the strongest trainer in the region, and just manipulating everything using his powers on a smaller scale, even the actions of the main characters.
• Child Soldiers: Laguna is a child when she is forced to fight for Blair, and Dusk is one at least mentally. Then there's Team Plasma, which has a whole army of child soldiers raised to believe unconditionally in their cause. Very much played to be tragic rather than "cool".
• The Chosen One: Blair, N and Kyurem's chosen hero a.k.a Caitlyn.
  • Lillil also counts, being chosen by the old growth in Lostlorn forest to join Blair's team and protect it. She makes the distinction between being The Chosen One of the forest and Reshiram's servant, though it doesn't stop her from wondering if she's being manipulated into serving Reshiram anyway.
• Clone Angst: Stravin feels horrible about being a clone just created to be a novelty fossil Pokémon, while the rest of the team are unique individuals.
• Combat Pragmatist: Virizion, unlike his brothers, prefers using the terrain to his advantage and hiding in the forest over a battle on open terrain.
  • Cenn fights Opal's arranged opponent at one time to save her life.
  Cenn: "Honor can go screw itself. You were going to kill my friend.
• Comes Great Responsibility: Like in the games, Cheren settles on this as a motivation for becoming a strong trainer - he wants to use his strength to protect Pokémon from people like Blair who will hurt them.
• Commonality Connection: Blair and Ghetsis bond over their disabilities. Invoked by Reshiram, who let Blair lose his leg in part to get him allied with Ghetsis.
• The Confidant: Prima and Opal both become this to each other.
  • Gnash is initially the only one Cenn talks to about his Dark and Troubled Past.
• The Conscience: Opal is this to Dreamtide, encouraging them to stand up against Reshiram rather then believing they have to follow him.
• Country Mouse: Prima grew up in the wild and would much prefer to stay in her simple life on Route 1, even if she admits that life could be dangerous too. She reacts with wonder at seeing human cities and towns that human-raised Pokémon like Opal are nonchalant about.
• Crossing the Desert: Route 4, naturally. It takes longer than usual for Blair to cross because he's trying to find the Light Stone in Desert Resort before going to Nimbasa.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Dusk is a friendly and happy-go-lucky ghost who was a young girl as a human before she died.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Cenn alludes to having one and describes his life before meeting Blair as horrible, but initially only talks about his past with Gnash. He later talks more about his past with the rest of the team, though.
• Dark Fic: Even by Nuzlocke standards, this story stands out by primarily focusing on the impact of the deaths and trauma the characters endure, featuring loads of Adaptational Villainy and conflicts that go from Gray-and-Gray Morality to Evil vs. Evil. Though this doesn't stop it from keeping the Decon-Recon Switch theme of the games it is based on, just with no easy way out to the reconstruction part.
• Dark Is Evil: Zekrom, Goliath, and to a lesser extent Grimsley.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Artful and Gnash are perfectly nice Pokémon, though their dark type is regarded with In-Universe suspicion.
• Deadly Deferred Conversation: Stravin finally works up the courage to talk to Dreamtide, only to die before he gets the chance.
• Dead Person Conversation: The team speaks to their fallen teammates in Celestial Tower. Opal also speaks with her dead teammates after being killed fighting N.
• Debate and Switch: Defied.. Pokémon activists who disagree with Team Plasma's methods don't want what Plasma does to make people forget about the actual debate on Pokémon, and protest in the streets of Driftveil to that effect.
• Decon-Recon Switch: Of the idea of Pokémon training in general. Dear Diary shows how insincere The Power of Friendship is when one of the "friends is forcing the other to join them, fight and take risks while the other gets the luxury and glory, but then shows how amazing The Power of Friendship can be with a reciprocal relationship, like with Bianca and Coale or with Lillil defeating Goliath.
  • Also of the concept of a Pokémon adventure. Of course in real life the risks of a battling journey, no matter how tough the Pokémon are, will extend beyond just fainting, but the world is dangerous outside of an adventure and, for those who actually choose it rather than being forced, it can be a beautiful experience to face that danger for a purpose rather than just to survive.
• Defiant to the End: Opal in P2 Laboratory. She intends to get herself and the rest of the team killed to spare them from something worse.
• Delirious Misidentification: A dying Prima mistakes the Audino nurse for Opal, who was forcibly kept away from her. The nurse decides to go with it to let her die happy.
• Dented Iron: Pokémon are shown to be far tougher than humans, but some Pokémon characters (Opal and Dusk) get injuries over the course of the story that make them not able to fight as well as they used to.
• Determinator: Whatever else you say about Blair, he has an admirable determination to succeed.
  • The Arcanine in the myth in Chapter 50 exemplifies this as well, confronting Darkrai himself time and again to save his beloved human.
• Desecrating the Dead: Some Plasma grunts try to destroy the graves of Blair's dead Pokémon in Extra #5.
  • It's implied that Drayden didn't treat the bodies of Cenn and Dreamtide particularly well.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Blair. Reshiram uses this to manipulate him by saying he can give him a purpose.
• Determined Defeatist: Bianca fights Blair even though she knows he will always win because she believes someone has to stand up to bullies like him.
  • The Pokémon in Juniper's lab as well, when trying to defend their teammates' graves. They know they din't have a chance but they still feel it's their duty to fight for their friends.
• Deus ex Machina: It seems a bit too convenient that Gnash manages to find a flare when the team is stranded in the desert and Blair could die without prompt medical attention. Implied to be a literal example, in that Reshiram orchestrated the whole incident that got the team into trouble in the first place, and presumably allowed the team to be rescued, too so he wouldn't lose his chosen.
• Devour the Dragon: Though it's not actually The Dragon, but said dragons' Pokémon being devoured, Reshiram and Zekrom gain power by using their chosen's Pokémon as sacrifices.
• Disney Death: Dreamtide is thought to be dead by the team for two whole chapters.
• Dog Pile of Doom: Drayden has all of his trainers attack the team at once, leading to them all being separated and mobbed by many Pokémon at once. Cenn ends up being killed and Dreamtide needs to sacrifice his life to save everyone else from the same fate.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Dreamtide begs Columbus to not continue fighting them in the Relic Castle because they know Blair will order them to kill him and he won't be able to refuse.
  • Cobalion says this to the members of Blair's team as well. Even when they are trying to kill him he sees them as innocents forced into everything against their will and wants to save them.
• Doorstopper: Clocks in at over 250,000 words even without the six extras.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Blair and N are ultimately The Dragon to Reshiram and Zekrom, respectively, but since said Olympus Mons are trapped in stones, N and Blair are the ones doing all the work.
• The Dragonslayer: Lillil takes pride in going after all the dragon Pokémon she can find in P2 laboratory despite a type disadvantage. She also kills Goliath and in-game defeats the Fraxure that killed Cenn.
• The Dreaded: Lenora and Drayden among the Gym Leaders; Lenora for not going easy on anyone and Drayden for just being very difficult to defeat.
  • Terrakion. There's a reason most sensible Pokémon react to an enraged demigod trying to kill you by running away.
  • Opal herself becomes this to Team Plasma. She uses it to her advantage.
• Driven to Suicide: Feste, during the battle with Shauntal.
• Dying as Yourself: Dreamtide is freed from Reshiram in death by making their own choice to sacrifice themselves for their friends, as symbolized by talking normally for the first time.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Prima to Opal, except that Opal wasn't actually there, but Leda was trying to make her think so.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After suffering through unimaginable difficulties and coming close to giving in to despair, the region and the team (at least those who survived) seem on their way to having a better future.
• Elite Mooks: Some of Drayden's trainers are considered as powerful as other Gym leaders.
  • The main cast, in a sense, being the strongest servants of one of the Dragon-in-Chief of one of the the Big Bad Ensemble (even if they really don't want it to be that way).
• The Empath: N's communication with Pokémon is portrayed this way. He uses a mix of subtle shifts in body language and scent and an ability to project images and emotions into Pokémon's minds while interacting with their own emotions.
• Empty Shell: What "reprogrammed" Pokémon become after Plasma is finished with them.
• Enemy Civil War: Team Plasma ends up in a civil war between Ghetsis's and N's factions.
• Enemy Without: Reshiram and Zekrom are the result of the evil parts of The Great Serpent becoming separate beings.
• The Epic: Two opposed gods awaken and use two chosen ones as their tools of a war that will rock the region, leading to a multi-faction civil war, as the Pokémon belonging to one of said chosen ones, who doesn't have the best intentions for the world, joining him on his long journey throughout the region try desperately to defy fate and stop the calamity.
• Evil vs. Evil: Neither Reshiram nor Zekrom have the good of humanity or Pokémon at heart, and are happy to cause tons of destruction and death to get at each other.
• Exponential Plot Delay: After the first three gyms, it takes increasingly longer to get from gym to gym due to the main plot of Blair's destiny with Reshiram getting in the way, notably taking only three chapters to get from Nacrene to Castelia City's gyms and 13 parts to get from Castelia's to Nimbasa's. Lampshaded by members of Blair's team, who discuss how it took so long to get to Nimbasa due to everything that happened in between Castelia and Nimbasa.
• Face Death with Dignity: The whole team when it looks like they will be executed by Plasma.
  • Morta when it looks like Opal is going to kill her.
• Fallen Hero: Terrakion was once as heroic and honorable as his brother. By the time we meet him, he's a completely different Pokémon.
• Fate Worse than Death: "Reprogramming". Opal thinks that Crown's other option counts as well, since all she would be doing would be buying the team a chance to still serve Plasma unwillingly, if with their minds intact, so she tries to provoke the Plasma Pokémon into killing her instead.
• The Final Temptation: A Litwick tries to convince Opal to give in to her despair and die. She would have succeeded were it not for Dusk.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Cenn is reluctant to pursue love again after his first love turned out to be a Literal Maneater who planned to eat him.
• Foil: Laguna and Dusk as described as this by Word of God. They are the two child characters on the team, but Dusk's cheerful demeanor and focus on helping her team rather than wondering if she's really doing the right thing contrasts with the melancholy Laguna, who often worries about whether she and her team has any power to affect the world at all, and if they might just be making it worse.
• Forced into Evil: The whole team. They are kind Pokémon who would be Ideal Heroes if it wasn't for having to work for Blair. Even though they try the best they can to make what they do lead up to a better future for Unova, they still have to make some Sadistic Choices on Blair's behalf, whether out of loyalty or so worse things won't take his place. Especially Dreamtide, who was literally created to serve Reshiram and agonizes over how they want to help their friends but they simply aren't designed to choose their innate kindness over their "Lord".
• Freudian Excuse: Blair's dislike of Pokémon partially stems from how he feels his mother cared for Pokémon more than him. The author notes that though this can help to (but not fully) explain why he is how he is, it doesn't justify it.
• Gambit Pileup: Zekrom gets a chosen with an entire army and completely destroys the mind of its leader, while Reshiram counters by getting a skilled trainer so he can get the most sacrifices in the final battle and using Dreamtide to interact with him in a more measured way so he keeps enough f his intelligence and skills to be useful in battle and then letting Blair lose his leg so he can be in Reshiram's debt and follow him unconditionally despite still having some of his mind, while setting up a Commonality Connection between him and Ghetsis. Reshiram then sends Blair visions in order to take out the Musketeer trio so Caitlyn can't use them and attack Plasma's base to purposefully be captured, so he can ally Blair with Ghetsis. N tries to break free from Ghosts by sacrificing Goliath but Ghetsis uses that opportunity to start an Enemy Civil War to his advantage while going for the Light Stone to take control of Blair, which Kyurem's chosen takes advantage of by allowing Blair to go to the Desert Resort quickly so he will be able to get there before Ghetsis at the cost of him giving the circlet to her, to give her One-Man Army level powers, only for Ghetsis to take the stone anyway, while killing Alder and broadcasting his death to dispirit the region and send it into civil war, allowing him to take power. N takes over Opelucid but Ghetsis pits Blair against Drayden to force the final battle as early as possible while he still has resources, while imprisoning N's supporters but not killing him so he doesn't alienate everyone like Drayden did. Drayden himself counters by setting up an ambush for Blair's team that nearly kills them, but Blair takes advantage of his Honor Before Reason to get a rematch, only for Drayden to try to blow up the gym to kill Blair, which is foiled by Morta's barrier. And while this is going on Terrakion is taking advantage of the war and appearing in the middle of battles between Ghetsis and N's side to kill everyone.
• Get It Over With: Morta tells Opal this when she is about to kill her.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Caitlyn, when she uses her Psychic Powers with the help of the circlet.
• Good is Not Nice: N isn't exactly the nicest person and he spends a lot of his time taunting Blair and calling out people and Pokémon he disagrees with, but he still genuinely wants to help Pokémon and has a deep compassion for them. He doesn't stay that way forever, though.
• Good Is Not Soft: Cobalion is a hero who protects innocent Pokémon, but he won't show mercy to the people he needs to protect them from in the first place.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: The particularly heinous Gym leaders end up siding with Ghetsis or N later in the story, leading the morally ambiguous or outright Token Good Teammate league members remaining.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: The League vs. some of the less extreme Pokémon advocates and N pre-Nimbasa City. The League falls into gray morality for the reasons listed above in Black-and-Gray Morality, while Pokémon liberation advocates are trying to end the League's cruel practices and free Pokémon who were taken from their homes and families by trainers, but at the cost of also freeing Pokémon who love their trainers or would be miserable and likely die brutally in the wild.
• Groin Attack: Happens to a Plasma Grunt in Extra #5. Lufie notes that contrary to what media will tell you, this hurts just as much for women as for men.
• Had to Be Sharp: Wild Pokémon tend to be fearsome and willing to kill opponents in order to survive. Mauve suggests that this is the case for Morta, since the evolved Pokémon in her home being poached meant that she was trying to survive a dangerous life with just a colony of involved Pokémon.
• Hands Play In Theater: Prima and Opal hold hands while watching a play in Castelia City.
• The Heart: Prima, post Character Development.
• Hero Antagonist: N is an antagonist to Blair and thus his team, but it's easy to understand why someone as empathetic to Pokémon as he is would want to stop the world form being controlled by someone like Blair. But not so much when Zekrom takes control of his mind after his guide's death...
  • Cobalion is a legendary hero who has earned his title, and he wants to kill Blair to save Blair's team and to protect the lives of himself and his brothers. The team feels horrible about having to fight him on behalf of a villainous trainer.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Invoked by Opal, who calls her blade appendages swords even though that might not be the proper name for them because it sounds cooler.
• Heroic BSoD: Opal in Chargestone cave, due to her battles with a Joltik horde and N's Archen bringing back traumatic memories of what happened in Driftveil.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dreamtide saves the team from Drayden's trainers by using a Cast from Hit Points attack that knocks out all of the dragons at the cost of their own life.
  • Tinder provokes Blair into letting him stall out Lenora's Herdier so he won't force Prima or Laguna to die for him.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation:
  • Opal constantly blames herself for not being a good enough leader and for the tragedies that befall the team.
  • Strain sees himself as too cowardly to deserve to be on the team, not to mention his other issues.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Laguna and Dusk.
• Hero of Another Story: Mauve had her own journey with a trainer far before the story started, which she recounts in her Day in the Limelight extra.
  • Roxie is leading La Résistance against Team Plasma in a part of Unova that Blair's team never even travels to.
  • Caitlyn spends the story traveling the region to experience all of the kindness and heroism in Unova so she can is its power to awaken Kyurem.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Terrakion decides to fight humans of all factions when he finds even the humans who say they are protecting Pokémon are cruel to them. But his own actions are no better and nothing like the hero he once was, and Laguna calls him out as just wanting revenge, despite his claims of bringing justice.
• Hope Spot: When fighting Thanatos, it looks like Lufie is going to make a Heroic Sacrifice to stop him, only for it to be revealed that she can just use her powers to knock him off the side of the mountain while escaping unscathed. And then Thanatos pulls a Taking You with Me...
• Human Sacrifice: Zekrom and Reshiram need a Pokémon sacrifice to be able to awaken. Dusk suggests that this was common practice in the past and that modern Pokémon battles originated from ritual sacrificial matches.
• Humans Are Special: Prima and Lillil comment on the unique ambition of humans, and how it allows them to accomplish things that no Pokémon would ever accomplish.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: Humans through a formerly wild Pokémon's eyes.
• I Can Still Fight!: Gnash is very insistent in staying in battle even when he is injured, especially in the battle against Elesa.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Prima thinks this about Opal, recalling how in her old home Pokeémon who were as confident leaders as Opalwould never notice her.
• I Did What I Had to Do: The team killing Cobalion.
  • Professor Juniper not reporting Blair to the League. She believes that even if it means Blair's team will suffer in the short run, everyone knowing that her son is a Pokémon abuser will ruin her chance to use her influence in the league to save far more Pokémon.
• Ignored Epiphany: N questions whether helping Zekrom is right in Dragonspiral Tower, realizing how many horrible things Zekrom has done in the past and wants N to do in the present, but goes back to his normal self the next day. It's implied that Kyurem may have been involved in getting Zekrom out of his head long enough for N to have those thoughts.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Cenn desperately wants to be a strong fully-evolved Pokémon rather than a weak bug struggling to survive in Pinwheel Forest.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Dreamtide ultimately just wants to be friends with the rest of the team. That's difficult when you are an artificial Pokémon servant of Reshiram, though.
• Inertial Impalement: Opal and Dusk kill Terrakion by tricking him into attacking a disembodied Dusk and jumping right onto Opal's blade.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Alder catches some Plasma grunts undercover as police when they reference bringing a truck for transport, even though the real police he contacted said they would bring helicopters.
• In-Series Nickname: Dreamtide gives several characters nicknames due to being unable to say names that are more than one syllable long (Prima = Prime, Opal = Jewel, Stravin = Strav, themself = Dream).
• Internal Reformist: Professor Juniper is trying to use her position as an insider in the League to reform its cruel practices towards Pokémon like the starter breeding centers and lack of concern towards Pokémon who die in League-regulated battles.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Most of the Pokémon on Blair's team who grew up in the wild react to humanity react like this to them.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Prima initially refers to Dreamtide as "it" until she talks to them and realizes that they have a personality and desires rather than just being an automaton.
• It's All About Me: Grimsley is horrified by one of his Pokémon being killed without considering how he killed one of Blair's first. The other Elites call him out on this.
• Jerkass: Blair is not a nice person, to Pokémon or to his (former) friends.
• Jerkass Gods: Reshiram and Zekrom use their divine powers as an excuse to constantly make power plays without caring about who gets hurt or killed along the way.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Blair occasionally does the right thing, but he's an asshole at his core. This is best exemplified when he rescues Bianca's stolen Pokemon in Castelia City, only to coldly tell her that he only did so to spite Team Plasma and that she and her team are all pathetic weaklings.
• Jumped at the Call: Several of Blair's team are happy to join. Opal romanticizes the idea of having a trainer, Tinder is yearning for adventure after his old trainer died and he was stuck doing nothing with his life, Columbus and Keen want a chance to be powerful, and Cenn, behind his stoic demeanor, is dying to be with a trainer so he can be free from a cruel and anonymous life in the wild.
• Kidnapped by the Call: Prima and Laguna were both captured against their will. Unlike most examples, they don't stop wishing they could return or hating their trainer for taking them away from everything they've ever known, though both learn to appreciate the friends they made and all that they experienced.
• Knight in Sour Armor: This basically describes Cenn's philosophy. He's a cynic who thinks the wild is horrible, having experienced it, and doesn't have any illusions about life with a trainer either. But he will fight to the death to protect the friends that gave him a purpose in life, and to protect other Pokémon from being forced back into the wild as N intends.
• Lady of War: Lillil is a graceful Lilligant who fights by dancing and is also of the most formidable Pokémon on the team and by the end of the story, in all of Unova.
• The Lancer: Cenn acts as the second in command to Opal and the second member the team relies on, and his practical stoic personality provides a Foil to her.
• Large Ham: Terrakion, to the point where he is first introduced by shouting in all caps from halfway across the region.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Song was raised to kill Opal thanks to her killing her team's previous ace, Song's father.
• Laughing Mad: Opal after being beaten nearly to death by Plasma Pokémon, because she intended to die in the first place.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The entire "boxed" cast of weaker Pokémon, plus Mauve, make a stand against some Plasma grunts to stop them from destroying their teammates' graves.
• Light Is Not Good: Reshiram.
• Literal Maneater: Some Leavanny are this, though as with real life mantids most of them aren't. Poor Cenn had to draw the unlucky straw here...

• Literally Shattered Lives: This is what happens to any Sigilyph that dies, due to them being made of clay.
• The Leader: Opal, nominally, though as Prima notes she's still a Pokémon owned by a trainer and thus the second in command at best. As the team increasingly plans to achieve a goal in the end-game of Unova's conflict that differs from their trainer, though, Opal takes a role as the genuine leader for that endeavor.
• Leader Wannabe: Keen and Opal initially have a rivalry over who should be the team leader. To Keen's consternation Blair's preference for Opal means he never really has a chance.
• Leonine Contract: Kyurem's Chosen offers Blair the chance to teleport to the Desert Resort in exchange for his circlet, knowing that Blair doesn't have the option of going to the Desert Resort at normal speed if he doesn't want all his efforts to be in vain.
• Let Them Die Happy: Leda tells Prima that Opal is with her as she is dying so she will be happy, though Opal is still stuck in her Poké Ball.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Several of the extras focus on Juniper's lab, featuring the boxed Pokémon and Mauve.
• Mantis Mating Meal: It's mentioned that female Leavanny (which are based off of mantises) have a habit of eating their mates after mating (although it's also noted that only about 30-40% of females engage in the practice). This is actually a fate which almost befalls Cenn (a Venipede at the time) before he killed her in self-defense and fled.
• Meaningful Echo: "You have to fight for the memory of the ones you love, even if your life is on the line." Originally said by Mauve when defending the graves in Juniper's lab from Plasma Grunts, and later by Lufie, when she is trying to avenge Mauve's death and save the team from Thanatos.
  • Opal echoes Cenn's advice to her that the important thing is to learn from mistakes rather than not make them after Stravin feels guilty about running away from battle and nearly getting Cenn killed.
• Meaningful Funeral: The team has a ceremony for every Pokémon that dies, though they don't get to attend the actual funerals due to the bodies being transferred to Juniper's lab.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Prima gets her (human) name from being Blair's first catch.
  • Goliath, like his namesake, is killed by a Pokémon much smaller and apparently weaker than him.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: Opal's character arc involves her recovering from her depression and Guilt Complex, and is stated to be inspired by the author's own experience with depression.
• Mind Rape: Plasma "reprogramming".
  "It involves all sorts of things—a daily diet of multiple Confuse Ray and Hypnosis attacks thrown at you at once, to start. That’s just to soften up your mind, of course, so that the Psychic-types and Ghost-types won’t face much resistance when they enter your minds and reshuffle everything. Then they do it again the next day—and again the day after. I’m told it goes on for just shy of two weeks. By the end, the old ‘you’ won’t exist. Not your name, or your friends’ faces, or even a single memory will remain, though your body will retain the combat reflexes it learned from a career of fighting—very useful. You’ll be a blank slate, eminently suggestible. Whatever we tell you to do, you’ll do it."
  • And then there's what Reshiram and Zekrom their Chosen.. For Blair it's described as Reshiram painfully burning away every memory of happiness he ever had and eventually completely consuming his mind.
• Motherly Scientist: Professor Juniper acts as a mother figure to Opal.
• Murder by Inaction: Prima suggests that the team leaves Blair to die when he is trapped under a pillar in the Desert Resort. Gnash calls her out, saying it's no different than murder, while most of the other team members disagree with her decision for various other reasons.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Prima after trying to convince the team to let Blair die.
  • Laguna after accidentally killing N's Guide.
  • Opal after accidentally killing a Galvantula while trying to rescue Stravin.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Opal starts out as believing this, though she eventually becomes disillusioned with the concept. Dreamtide stays this way for much of the story thanks to being created to serve Reshiram and thus Blair, even though their conscience makes them care about protecting the team.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Dusk hates how many other Litwick prey on despairing Pokémon's souls and how they give a bad name to Litwick and ghost Pokémon in general.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Even though this is a Nuzlocke, the wild is even more dangerous than being with a trainer. Especially if you are a bug Pokémon like Cenn, in which case you are likely to spend your whole life just struggling to survive and probably die within a year anyway. Cenn is quick to call out N for wanting to force all Pokémon to return to the wild for this reason. Even Prima admits that the wild is more dangerous than life with a trainer, though she wishes humans could be better than they are since their cruelty is intentional.
• Nay-Theist: Lillil likes to be irreverent towards gods like Reshiram and Zekrom, especially when they are ruining her and her teams' lives.
• Negate Your Own Sacrifice: Prima tries to pull a You Shall Not Pass! on a massive swarm of Pokémon, only to find that since they are all ghost types, she's immune to them.
• No Biological Sex: Dreamtide and the other guides. Dusk as well, though since she was originally a human girl she considers herself female.
• Noble Bigot: Prima admits she has a prejudice against dark types due to spending her time in the wild contending with Purloin as predators.
• Nominal Hero: Blair defends the region from Team Plasma, but because of his pride and dislike for their pro-Pokémon rights rhetoric rather than altruism.
  • Crown calls out Opal for standing by Blair even when he nearly gets Bianca's Lillipup killed.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: Laguna gets two of them - once when she confronts N's Guide and tells them how she's tired of being protected and she won't let anyone die again, and then to Terrakion where she tells him how even if she personally had a happy life in the wild and only suffered due to humanity, the experiences of Pokémon who are happy with their trainers are important as well and those Poémon are still worth fighting for.
  • Lillil gets one during her battle with Goliath about how she's always questioned why the Old Growth chose her but she now knows that it's not about helping Reshiram or any god, but saving Caitlyn from Ghetsis, and so completing her mission to rid Unova of any and every force that tries to harm it.
• No Name Given: N's Guide is never named, presumably because they didn't start out with a name (Dreamtide initially referred to themself as "Guide" and only changed their name when Blair requested it).
• Non-Human Non-Binary: Dreamtide (well, most of the characters are non-human, though Dreamtide is especially alien).
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: It ultimately ends up being Lillil who defeats Ghetsis and Caitlyn who stops Reshiram and Zekrom, thanks to Prima and Opal being (at least sort of in Opal's case) dead by the climax.
• Not Afraid to Die: Terrakion says that he is not afraid of dying, so long as he can kill Blair's team first.
• Not Quite Saved Enough: Opal finally manages to get on the truck where Stravin is trapped, only for Clay to take the rescue into his own hands and inadvertently drown most of the Pokémon inside, including Stravin.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Dreamtide points out to Opal how, though Opal is always trying to convince them to break free from Reshiram's influence, Opal herself is choosing to serve Blair.
• Not So Stoic: Blair has his moments, especially as the story goes on and his involvement with Reshiram grows.
  • Lillil's serious mask breaks very easily, and she often ends a dramatic battle by joking around with her teammates.
• Number Two: Marshal to Alder.
• Obviously Evil: Everyone can figure out that Ghetsis is a villain. He makes it difficult to actually do something about it, though.
• Official Couple: Prima and Opal.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: Opal is laughing after being horribly injured in P2 laboratory, because she knows that she has provoked them into killing her and her team, which will spare them being reprogrammed.
• Omniscient Morality License: Dreamtide uses this to defend why they see Reshiram as worthy of following despite all the horrible things he has done.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Dreamtide not listening to Blair? They knew that if they surrendered, N would kill them. And [[{Determinator}} Blair]] surrendering in the same chapter shows just how hopeless the situation really is.
• Oppose What You Suffered: Cenn is so opposed to N's plans to separate Pokémon from humans and release them into the wild because of how much he suffered in the wild. On the other side of the coin, Laguna especially opposes Blair and other abusive humans because of how she was taken from her home and family in the wild and suffered at the hands of humans. Part of her Character Development is realizing that she doesn't have to automatically take sides with someone like Terrakion who opposes the particularly kind of suffering she experienced, even if they are causing different kinds of suffering in the process, and move more towards not wanting anyone to be hurt.
• Parents as People: Professor Juniper is one of the kindest people in the story but her focus on her job takes a toll on her relationship with her child, Blair.
• The Power of Friendship: Blair's team defeats Ghetsis's team despite the latter being stronger and mostly having type advantages because of how they work together and believe in friendship.
• Power Trio: Blair, Cheren and Bianca and their respective Pokémon. It doesn't last for either trio.
• Pragmatic Villainy: This is suggested to be why Ghetsis doesn't kill his captives in Opelucid - he knows that N's faction is unpopular in the city, and so as long as he doesn't do anything particularly horrible they will support him as the Lesser of Two Evils.
  • The Plasma enforcer in Extra #5 also exemplifies this. He is furious at his subordinates for threatening his hostages because a hostage is no use dead.
  • Blair, to a lesser extent. While he's happy to Kick the Dog at times he's perplexed why people would think he is physically abusing his Pokémon, since he doesn't want them to defy him. If a Pokémon actually does defy him, though, all bets are off. Blair also lets his Pokémon wander free of their Poké balls all the time, not because he cares about them but because he wants to show off how powerful his team is.
• Prehistoric Monster: N's Archeops is portrayed as a terrifying monster, unlike the more complicated other Pokémon. Justified as it is implied that he was "reprogrammed".
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Subverted. The main characters hate Morta for killing a major character they know but are fine with Mauve's Sympathetic Murder Backstory since she killed a stranger and it seems like this will go unquestioned, but then Mauve herself calls them out on it.
• The Puppet Cuts His Strings: Ghetsis intended N to be his puppet and a front for controlling Team Plasma, but N is fully aware of what Ghetsis is trying to do and has his own ideas, especially when Zekrom gets involved.
• Put on a Bus: Blair "boxes" several Pokémon in Juniper's lab.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: Columbus doesn't just get forced to retire in Juniper's lab but is nearly killed by Dreamtide on Blair's orders and then has his wing broken.
• A Rare Sentence: When Blair's team takes on the Castelia Gym, Prima calls it "a beehive full of clowns. ...the things this journey makes me put to paper."
• Rasputinian Death: Virizion is poisoned by Cenn and gets a hole blasted in his chest by Dreamtide.
• Real After All: The Arcanine from the myth appears in real life to Opal in the afterlife.
• Rebel Leader: Terrakion leads an entire army of Pokémon to rebel against everyone, League and Plasma alike.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calculating chessmaster Reshiram is the blue oni to the brute-force-using Zekrom's red oni.
• Retired Badass: Mauve was in a team that was a legitimate contender for the championship in her youth.
• Revenge by Proxy: While fighting Clay, Lillil notes that though the Pokémon she is fighting weren't responsible for Stravin's death, fighting them is the only way for her to get revenge on the trainer who was responsible.
• Rival Turned Evil: Blair suspects Cheren of this due to seeing his support of Pokémon rights as resembling Plasma. He's actually right.
  • Some people suspect Drayden's reluctance to help Alder is due to this, as he was known to be Alder's rival. It turns out that he was Evil All Along for different reasons.
• Red Baron: Opal "The Blue Blade".
• Rousing Speech: Terrakion gives one to his army.
• Rule of Three: The in-universe myth about an Arcane uses this, with Arcane challenging Darkrai three times.
• Sadistic Choice: The battle with Cobalion. Kill a hero who is risking his own life to help you to save an abusive trainer who, if left alive, will awaken a cruel god, likely causing a war with another god that, if history is any indicator, will kill hundreds of thousands? Or let him live and kill your trainer, leaving the region in the uncontested control of another equally cruel god and the terrorist group wrecking the region that supports him, and thus abandoning any hope of pitting Reshiram and Zekrom against each other to free Unova from both?
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Crown offers to free Blair's team from being reprogrammed in exchange for Opal essentially becoming his Sex Slave.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Opal has a reputation for this. Lillil actually does beat bad type matchups quite a few times.
• Second Love: Lillil to Cenn and Opal and Lillil to each other by the end.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: N does one unintentionally (and not literally involving shapeshifting) when he uses an Archen who is genetically identical to Stravin in battle soon after Stravin died.
• Shrinking Violet: Prima, pre-Character Development, is a shy Pokémon who would prefer to write in her diary than interact much with the team.
• Shrouded in Myth: "The Blue Blade" (Opal) is apparently fifteen feet tall, invincible, and has fought hundreds of grass types and won.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Lillil is an apparently gentle and graceful flower Pokémon who also possesses a fierce determination that you would not want to mess with.
• Sliding Scale of Leadership Responsibility: Most trainers fall on the Hammond level with particularly cruel ones like Blair falling into the Magneto level. The story does discuss how problematic it can be for even "good" trainers to make their Pokémon fight for them for glory while sharing none of the risk and all of the acclaim, and shows an alternative with Icirrus City's traditional "Dance of Trust", in which trainers risk their lives by dancing in the midst of their Pokémon's attacks, showing that they are willing to endure risk as well.
• Someone Has to Die: During the battle against Lenora, Blair determines that someone will have to stall out her Herdier so he can use a potion. He was going to pick Prima or Laguna but Tinder made the decision for him.
• Sophisticated as Hell: The narration sometimes shifts from its normal detailed and serious tone to more informal and even profane language.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: N, Caitlyn and Shauntal can speak with Pokémon (though Shauntal can only speak to ghost Pokémon).
• Speech-Impaired Animal: The Sigilyph guides are capable of speaking the human language but can only talk in bursts of one or three one-syllable words.
• Stepford Smiler: Dusk's optimistic demeanor hides how as a ghost Pokémon, she is haunted by memories of her death and it takes extreme mental effort to expel those thoughts.
• The Stoic: Cenn.
  • This is also Blair's initial characterization, before Reshiram happens.
• The Storyteller: Opal has an interest in her region's mythology and often tells stories from those myths.
  • The Arcanine featured in one of her In-Universe stories is a storyteller himself.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Due to Blair being in the area to hunt down Virizion, Laguna gets to return home. But she's the fully evolved Pokémon in the forest now, and too changed by her journey to ever be able to return.
• Summon Bigger Fish: The team's plan is to help summon Kyurem to stop the other two dragons. They know that Kyurem might not be a good guy himself, but it's the only chance they have.
• Supporting Protagonist: Prima, due to being The Heart of the team to Opal's The Leader and Blair's The Chosen One (not to mention how Blair is the human protagonist of the original games).
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Cenn is killed suddenly during the battle against Drayden's trainers. By the time anyone realizes what's happening it's too late.
  • Laguna as well, who is killed suddenly by a random Pokémon of Terrakion's army.
• Survival Through Self-Sacrifice: Opal attacks nearly kills Morta in a rage, asking her to beg for her life. Morta instead says that she understands why Opal would want her dead and that she accepts it, and Opal responds by relenting and sparing her life. She later says that she would have probably killed Morta if she had actually begged for her life.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: Blair gets a point of view chapter in Extra #6, which underscores how he could have been a better person if it wasn't for Reshiram manipulating his loneliness and insecurity to forcibly destroy his old self, and any chance of happiness.
• Taking You with Me: Thanatos takes Lufie over the edge of a cliff with him.
  • N's Archeops, realizing that he is about to die, purposefully collapses a pillar of himself and Opal to kill them both.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Opal pulls this on Song after realizing that she is a Child Soldier who is miserable in her life fighting for Plasma but has never known everything else.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Stravin and Dreamtide, thanks to Stravin hating Dreamtide because of what happened to Columbus.
  • Opal and Morta as well. Like the above example, the latter is The Atoner while the former can't bring herself to forgive.
• Terror Hero: Opal uses her reputation among Team Plasma's Mooks to her advantage.
• Theme Naming: Many of the Gym Leaders and Elites name their Pokémon this way, often after Greek gods or Shakespearean characters. Ghetsis' are after Biblical Bad Guys and other Names to Run Away from Really Fast.
• Third-Person Person: Dreamtide refers to themselves this way.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Juniper trains the starters she raises, including Opal, to never battle to kill, because otherwise they would be no different from wild Pokémon and there would be no point in having a trainer.
• Token Evil Teammate: Lenora and Clay to the Gym Leaders.
• Token Good Teammate: Burgh is the one gym leader who has never killed a Pokémon in battle.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: Due to the nature of its Framing Device, the story often reveals that someone is going to die in a given part, or at least strongly hints at it.
• Took a Level in Badass: Laguna after she evolves.
  • Lillil starts out as badass, but becomes especially powerful after Cenn's death., when she trains intensely.
  • Prima after her evolution.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Cheren describes Blair this way. He was always cruel but he was still someone that you could be friends with, but not so much after he started his Pokémon journey.
• Tranquil Fury: This is the general tone of Blair's interactions with everyone. Sometimes he slips up and shows non-tranquil fury, though.
• Trapped in a Sinking Car: Most of the Pokémon on the truck that Plasma is holding captured Pokémon on drown after Clay orders Titan to break Driftveil Drawbridge.
• Treacherous Spirit Chase: Litwicks do this to their victims, as in the original games. Opal gets lured in by one pretending to be Prima.
• The Unchosen One: The whole team (besides Lillil), as they are trying to influence a world dominated by gods and their chosen heroes in what little way they can, despite having no destiny or natural major role in events.
• Underestimating Badassery: Blair (and deeforty-five, given how it's a Nuzlocke, so Real Life Writes the Plot) tends to have more trouble with gym leaders' "weaker" Pokémon that he underestimated rather than their aces that he was prepared for. He loses two of his Pokémon this way.
• Undying Loyalty: Opal admires the idea of this kind of loyally between Pokémon and trainer, though she learns the problems with this notion. Coale and Bianca have a more healthy and reciprocal version of this trope in their relationship with each other.
  • The Arcanine in the In-Universe story is this loyal to the girl he is protecting.
• Use Your Head: Prima often uses headbutt attacks. She notes that if you aren't careful, you can end up hurting yourself as much as you hurt the opponent.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Lillil ultimately feels this way, not because she doesn't want to avenge her teammates' deaths but because she ends up more concerned about her living teammates who could die right there.
• Vice City: Black City is described this way. Alder suspects that Plasma members will be found there, given that every other type of criminal is there too.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ghetsis after his plans are ruined by Reshiram and Zekrom having way more overwhelming power than he thought. He is still dangerous post-breakdown, capturing another major player Caitlyn to give him leeway and giving anyone who wants to free her a fearsome fight.
• Villainous Rescue: Ghetsis rescues Blair's team from P2 Laboratory.
• Villain Protagonist: Blair, though of the non-POV variety. At least he's the character who's supposed to be the protagonist.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Grimsley is being perfectly reasonable in trying to stop Blair, but his excitement in having a dangerous battle and It's All About Me attitude make him look villainous anyway.
• Warrior Poet: Prima uses her experiences as a battling Pokémon to write thoughtful and poetic entries in her diary.
• Was Once a Man: Dusk was a human girl before dying and becoming a Litwick.
• Wham Episode:
  Part 11 Blair finally confronts his destiny, which involves not only meeting Dreamtide but deciding to put Columbus on a bus and having Dreamtide nearly kill him and then breaking his wing when he refuses.
  Part 12 Blair triggers an attack of Yamask and has his leg crushed, and Prima's suggestion to let him die causes Opal and the rest of the team (except Laguna) to turn against her.
  Part 17 Prima, the apparent protagonist, dies.
  Part 27 Plasma attacks Driftveil, Opal kills a Pokémon, and Clay's mishandling of the situation causes Stravin and many others to die.
  Part 46 The team is captured by Plasma to be "reprogrammed" and Dreamtide is dragged off to be executed.
  Part 47 Crown offers to free the team to a relatively peaceful (though still working for Plasma) role, if Opal agrees to become his glorified Sex Slave. Opal refuses and kills him to provoke Plasma into killing her and the team instead and they oblige, and now they are about to kill the whole team.
  Part 58 Dusk's past is revealed, and Ghetsis brutally kills Alder and Sirocco and takes the Light Stone, getting Blair under his control and causing all of Unova to spiral into civil war.
  Part 62 Drayden's trainers ambush the team, killing Cenn and nearly killing Dusk, and Dreamtide breaks free from Reshiram to save the team with a Heroic Sacrifice.
  Part 67 The team finally confronts Terrakion, but Laguna is killed in the fight and Dusk is close to death herself after what she went through in the fight, and the team are now essentially prisoners of the Elites.
• Wham Line:
  "As she said, I am Caitlyn—and I, too, am Chosen.
  “But thunder is only half of our lord’s domain. He is a dragon god, after all. And it is two sacrifices, not one, which are required to sate his hunger. Seize Goliath!”
  This is the story of how I died.
• We Used to Be Friends: Blair and Opal end up alienating their former friends Cheren and Bianca and their Pokémon - Blair for being a Jerkass who brutalizes Bianca's team and Opal for supporting Blair and doing what he says.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The rest of the team calls out Prima for suggesting that they kill Blair. Cenn in particular points out that in the wild Pokémon would be brutally punished for defying their leader, so it would be pointlessly cruel to kill Blair for what he did to Columbus to go back to the wild where leaders would act the same way Blair did anyway.
  • Professor Juniper calls out Alder for claiming he cares for Pokémon but refusing to use his position of power to reform the league and actually help them.
• Xenofiction: Prima's voice is recognizably that of a Pokémon, though human and relatable. She is perplexed by things like human speech and naming conventions being purely verbal and compares everything she sees in the human world to what she knows from a wild Pokémon's perspective.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Prima and Laguna can't, thanks to being caught up in a journey and having to follow wherever Blair leads rather than returning.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: The Elites note how Blair's skill and determined ambition could have made him a great trainer, had he not taken the path he did.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Everyone suspects this is what Ghetsis intends to do to Blair once he uses him to summon Reshiram. Reshiram ends up killing Blair instead, though he would have been content to just ignore and betray him had he not defied him.
• You Killed My Father: Song wants to kill Opal because she killed her father Crown.
• "You Used to Be Better" Speech: Opal gives one to N when he reveals that their teams will have to fight in a battle to the death to be sacrifices to Reshiram and Zekrom, saying the old N would never think this was justified.