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Fanfic / Poké Wars

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"I think back on those peaceful days we took for granted. When our genocide wasn't even conceivable, when killing a Pokémon was crazy, when a simple Ember didn't end in 3rd degree burns, and when I didn't worry about whether I would live to see morning."
—Intro blurb for The Subsistence

Poké Wars is a set of six Pokémon fan fictions written by Cornova and co-written by Jakayrta/Zarrelion.

The six stories in the series are Poké Wars: The Subsistence, Poké Wars: The Coalescence, Poké Wars: The Incipience, Poké Wars: The Exigence, Poké Wars: The Truculence, and Poké Wars: The Defervescence

Each of the six stories covers a specific arc, but they all tie together into one basic plot: Ho-oh has declared war on humans by removing Pokémon dampeners, making attacks obscenely powerful and ordering the Pokémon to go into a homicidal spree. In response to it, humanity bands together to fight and survive the deathtrap their world has become.

After a couple months of not writing for a while, Cornova decided to render the The Subsistence and The Coalescence non-canon, regarding them as Old Shame, and has begun a Continuity Reboot starting with Poké Wars: The Lapidescence, which is a redux of Subsistence.

Tropes Used In the Series:

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     In General 

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Samurai's katana is capable of slicing solid rock.
  • Abusive Parents: Ho-oh towards the Legendary Beasts, especially Suicune. Best shown in The Northwind Confessions.
  • Adam and Eve Plot: Deconstructed; the Clefairy from Mt. Moon have decided to evacuate Seymour and at least one other human in the hopes of restarting humanity if they die out on Earth. Seymour, being just one nerdy scientist with no experience with women or parenting, rapidly starts cracking under the pressure of such weighty expectations, to the point of being utterly terrified that if he fails and humanity reaches a dead end, he'll be directly responsible for their extinction. To make matters worse, despite the Clefairy trying to be comforting, they approach it all from a cold, logical and, well, alien perspective, which fails to comfort Seymour at all and indeed, he starts to wonder if they're just pitying him.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Ho-Oh is a genocidal Knight Templar who wants to Kill All Humans in the fics, while its lore in the games suggests that it's reclusive but benevolent. Uxie is also a villainous character in contrast to Uxie in the games, who is potentially dangerous but only uses its mind-wiping powers to defend itself or on people with bad intentions. Uxie directly helps to save the world with the rest of its trio in Diamond and Pearl by freeing Dialga or Palkia from Cyrus, as well as in Legends: Arceus by aiding in the construction of the Red Chain. Also Bug-Type Pokémon, who are just as friendly and trainable as any other type in the games but Always Chaotic Evil here.
  • After the End: The Pokémon They Carried takes place a few years after the initial combats.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Bug-Type Pokemon.
    • Especially the Ariados.
  • Alternate Calendar: The survivors change reset the calendar to Before Dampener Removal (BDR) and After Dampener Removal (ADR), with August 16th marking the start of the new era.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Uxie adopted this mindset to cope with the countless wars he's seen over the years. This is also shown to be why he isn't fazed in the slightest at the idea of killing all of the Grimer and Muk.
    • It later expands to all poison-types using Gengiga.
    • As well as Magcargo and Slugma using the Metagross and Alakazam.
    • He's planning on cloning them all once he's modified the extinct species to no longer have their harmful effects.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Quagsire lost an arm defending the train with Gary and Paul on it against a Yanmega. He made her choke an Ice Punch for it though.
  • And I Must Scream: Mewtwo's fate at the hands of Ho-oh, who turned him into a conscious puppet that can't take any action, even self-defense, without some sort of command.
    • Manaphy might qualify depending if he's conscious or not.
    • Ho-Oh has been trapped inside the Reverse World by Uxie.
  • Anti-Hero: Paul without question. There is no debate the he is at least a Pragmatic Hero after his "Desperado Tactic." Unless you don't think said tactic pushed him past the Moral Event Horizon and turned him into a Villain Protagonist.
  • Anyone Can Die: Said by Cornova in The Coalescence.
    Keep in mind that any of the characters in this fic can die. Even if they're main characters. I think I already proved that with Sabrina.
    • Don't forget the trainers' Pokemon. After The Subsistence, it has practically become a rule that a main character has to lose at least three Pokemon.
  • April Fools' Day: The appropriately named Poké Wars: The Nonsense is a collection of silly non-canon short stories by various authors of the 'verse that were usually released on April 1st.
  • Arc Villain: Gengiga acts as the main threat against the heroic Legendaries during The Defervescence.
  • Armor Is Useless: Averted. Samurai is the only armored character in the fic and his armor has saved him from the Beedrill attacks.
  • Asshole Victim: The Muk that attacked Hearthome were much more cunning and deliberate in their wiping out the population of the city. With that in mind, it's hard to feel sorry for them after Gengar absorbs them all.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Blaziken is reluctantly promoted to leader of the group because of his battle prowess.
  • Author Appeal: The authors seem to like gore and intricate battle scenes.
  • Ascended Extra: Lt. Surge, Samurai, Kaiza, Sabrina, AJ, Whitney and her uncle, and several legendaries that only showed up once or twice in the show.
    • Special mention to Brendan, who only appears in three small cameos on the Pokémon movies and now he has a main role in the expanded universe.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Some wild Pokémon are guilty of this. The most egregious example is a Persian inhabiting Celadon with his pack of Meowth. He chucks his whole group at the Kanto survivors, and even after all of his underlings are slaughtered, he still tries using Thunderbolt. He doesn't live long enough to pull it off.
    • Same goes with the Beedrill against Gengiga.
  • The Atoner: Ho-Oh stays in the Reverse World, going through constant death and rebirth, for the damage he's done throughout the cosmos because of his removal of the dampeners.
  • Awesome Personnel Carrier: The Grotle "cargo trucks" in Downfall of a Champion are these in all but name.
  • Ax-Crazy:
    • Lt. Surge seems to show signs of this.
    • Harley's Ariados, until he saves his trainer from a Hyper Beam.
    • Harley's Banette went down this path as well, but seeing the Houndoom afraid of him after he torments, roasts and explodes a Golem purely for his own amusement snapped him out of it. He's very afraid he will act just like he did next time, but an Earthquake from a particularly powerful Golem injures him fatally before he can do it again.
    • Rico could have went this way but he decided to make an Heroic Sacrifice to let the rescue party escape before he could snap.
  • Badass Normal: Tracy, who uses a lead pipe to fend off Pokémon attacks and ripped off a Beedrill's head with his bare hands. Also Ash, whom doesn't have any skills in particular, but can pull off in any field of attack. And Lt. Surge, who held off a group of Electivire and Scyther with his knife. In short, pretty much anyone who gets hold of a weapon quickly becomes this or dies.
  • Badass Boast:
    • Alpha invokes this just before he delivers a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
      My pack is strong. You may have taken many of us, but not all of us are gone, and you will not take another! I will show you their strength, for I carry it on my back! I will defeat you for those that have fallen!
    • Uxie gives one in his own way after his Batman Gambit comes to fruition:
      There was now little to nothing that could stop him, and that which could would be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly before it even realized it could even prove to be a nuisance to him. The universe demanded diversity, and Uxie would make sure to catalogue it before he was forced to subtract from his equation.
  • Batman Gambit: Uxie sending Ho-Oh into the Reverse World was a gambit to get Giratina to capture him, even using the reflective surfaces since it was his method of viewing their world. Once he did, Uxie sent Rayquza in to fatally injure him and attain a sample to clone him, all so that one of the few beings that could seal him away was contained. The only thing he didn't predict was Ho-Oh choosing to stay in the Reverse World rather than returning and being his experiment.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For:
    • Arceus warns Lugia of this when he entrusts him with the orbs of creation. He doesn't listen and creates a brother when he started to feel lonely. At the start it's happy but he still feels that something is amiss, then he learns that what he really wants is a mate. After dreaming with a perfect mate, he makes a wish with one of his orbs and he gets her. His brother leaves them after Lugia decided to use his last orb to give his mate the ability to procreate instead of giving him a mate too, damning him a life of solitude. He would join Ho-Oh's cause in the future.
    • The Rant of Chapter 8 of The Defervescence has Cornova call out the readers on this:
    Over the years I've had so many people repeatedly tell me how much they wanted me to get rid of Ho-oh. So now, there you go. For those of you who wanted it, I hope this sates you. Because now, now you'll simply have to deal with the one who's taken his place, and he's not going anywhere.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Ursaring can get angry if you kill many of their group.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: A lot of the Pokemon that the trainers helped in the past wind up joining them or committing a Heroic Sacrifice to help in the long run.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Mew is very childish but he can transform into any Pokémon he desires and every attack is his to command. To top it off, he can teleport at will.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Legendaries have quadruple helices in their genetic code
  • Black Comedy: Banette's favorite coping mechanism. This exchange from when he died and came back to life pretty much says it all:
    Banette: All I remember was everything being white for as far as I could see. I don't know if I imagined it all, if it was a dream, or if I really died. What really surprised me was that there weren't any flames.
    Cacturne: Banette.
    Banette: Oh come on, you didn't honestly think I was gonna end up anywhere else if I died, did you?
  • Blatant Lies: Banette saying that the the Thunder attack he used on the Golem was For Science!.
  • Blessed with Suck: Dampener removal greatly augments a Pokémon's abilities. Unfortunately, it is extremely painful and results in Power Incontinence until they learn to control it. Even then, their attacks are always lethal and extremely destructive. It is especially magnified for Pokémon like Heatran or Magmar whose body temperature rises to such an extent that being near them is lethal.
  • Blood Knight: Pikachu becomes one for a short time in The Coalescence.
    • AJ in The Subsistence made it clear that he'd kill any Pokémon that attacks humans.
  • Bloodstained Glass Windows: The survivors in Hell In Sinnoh take refuge in a cathedral and one of them curses Arceus for allowing this war to happen. The last "shot" is that of the broken stained glass windows.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Uxie's code of morals isn't based on any idea of good or evil, but rather what is and isn't logically the best outcome. This leads to him making very ruthless decisions for Ho-oh's side, but he doesn't even see them as ruthless; to him, they're the most logical course of action and therefore the best.
  • Boom, Headshot!: This is how Suicune dispatches a number of people inside a Pokemon Center.
    • And how Alex dispatches the gang leader on Rustoboro City to save Katrina from a certain death.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Chapter one of The Exigence is called "Lights! Camera! Apocalypse!"
  • Breakout Villain: Uxie.
  • Break the Cutie: Ash and Tracy in The Subsistence. Oh boy, do they ever get broken!
    • Don't forget May, Drew, Solidad, Harley and Whitney.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Happens to Brock in The Subsistence when he is confronted by an Ariados.
    • Also happens to Weavile in The Truculence after he sees the giant Gengar (Gengiga) wipe out an entire group of Muk.
  • Broken Pedestal: Ho-Oh used to think highly of humans hundreds of years ago, but after seeing their effect on the environment as well as the effects of Pokémon training, he's since decided they're an Always Chaotic Evil species that must be destroyed for the good of Pokémon.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dr. Kaminko from The Pokémon They Carried has a habit of naming his military hardware after Pokémon. Command lets him keep doing this because he's just that damn good at designing weapons.
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor: In a party at the end of The Coalescence, Dawn gets completely shitfaced on a very weak alcoholic drink. Justified by her young age.
  • The Captain: Alpha clearly serves this role for the Houndoom pack.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Andre from Downfall of a Champion fights with a sledgehammer.
  • Cerebus Retcon: When Gengiga and Alakalossal appeared in the anime they were just whacky Filler Villains that parodied giant monster movies. Poke Wars explores just how dangerous two giant Kaiju could be in a more serious work with no Deus ex Machina Jigglypuff to stop them. Gengiga alone effortlessly commits a genocide of Poison Pokémon in Sinnoh and all four Regis are needed to stand up to him.
  • Chainsaw Good: Duplica's Mini-Dit can transform into a chainsaw katana.
  • Character Development: Harley is a good example. At first he's a Jerkass who tells the police that May killed all the people in the contest hall on purpose for no reason other than to cause her problems. Until his own Pokémon start dying, that is. He mellows out even more afterwards, and even prays for May and Drew to die quickly and/or without pain when their situation looks particularly hopeless.
  • A Chat with Satan: Happens in The Defervescence where Giratina meets Ho-oh in the Reverse World and calls him out on all of his atrocities.
  • Celeb Crush: Angela feels this kind of crush on Arthur, after seeing him participating and winning the second place of the Ever Grande Conference.
  • Chestburster: Weedle reproduce by stinging their host and impregnating them with their offspring, which then proceed to eat their host alive. Wurmple use a variation of this with the same disturbing effects or even more.
  • Child Soldiers: If Dawn of a New Era is any indication, a decent portion of the soldiers are teenagers or possibly even younger.
    • And let's not forget the title character. She's fourteen at the time of the story.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: The Golem in chapter eight and nine of The Exigence swear far more than any other characters.
  • Cold Sniper: Dawn in the Expanded Universe.
  • Combat Breakdown: Present in practically every fight so far. The only exception was Pikachu vs. Sandslash, since (despite everything) it was just a spar.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Averted by Paul's Magmar in The Truculence. When he first emerges from the Pokéball, he gives off so much radiant heat that Paul's Honchkrow bursts into flame. In fact, he produces so much heat that he melts a stop sign just by walking past it.
  • The Coup: Uxie pulls one off on Ho-Oh's forces by tricking him into the Reverse World and leaving him there.
  • Crapsack World: Pretty much everywhere, but Johto got the short end of the stick so far, as it was the epicenter of the war and the place Ho-Oh's crew bore down on humans the hardest. It becomes the Big Bad's base of operations later on.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Tons but the ones below are standout examples.
    • Impregnated then eaten alive from the inside out by Weedle and Wurmple.
    • Liquified and then slurped up by an Ariados.
    • Being dissolved alive by a Muk's poisonous touch..
    • Being burned alive, from the inside out, by Will-O-Wisp.
    • Burned alive by a highly toxic and reactive incendiary weapon then dying from cardiac arrest and corrosive lung damage induced by fluorine poisoning
  • Dark Fic: Considering that the series depicts a world at war.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Darkrai is allied with Lugia. The Houndoom near Goldenrod are the only wild Pokémon sympathetic to humans, and even betrayed their pact with Entei to protect May and her friends.
    • The Mightyena pack in Start of Chaos count too, even though they did kidnap Joy, but only so she can heal one of their cubs.
    • Subverted with Ho-oh, who's become a part Dark-type.
  • Darker and Edgier: The Pokémon world has become a world at war.
  • Darkest Hour: Humanity's seen better days, as it only took 10 days for over 6 billion people to die. The only hope is Lugia releasing humanity's dampeners.
  • Death Seeker: Gengiga.
  • Death World: No place is truly safe anymore for either Pokémon or humans.
  • Deconstruction Fic: Completely tears apart the sub-genre of Pokémon revolution fanfictions by pulling absolutely no punches with showing how divisive and destructive such an act would be and how it inevitably leads to War Is Hell. It also highlights how lethal the Pokémon can be.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype:
    • Uxie is a deconstructed version of The Spock. He shows what someone acting purely on logic without regard to emotion is: a complete and utter sociopath.
    • Ho-Oh deconstructs the Well-Intentioned Extremist and to an extent, Wide-Eyed Idealist. He's aware that he's doing evil things to try and bring about his paradise for his fellow Pokémon where they will live in harmony among themselves and free from human interference. But he also shows what happens when zealotry and passion aren't tempered with proper planning. While he gains some ground early on, his lack of planning leads to massive environmental destruction, factional violence between Pokémon and it eventually leads to him getting overthrown in a coup by his ally Uxie.
  • Deus Ax Machina: In Dawn of a New Era, Ash finds a fire ax inside the Celedon City gym and uses to break down a locked door.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Ash and Samurai dislike firearms, but it doesn't stop the former from using them. The latter, however, refuses to use them, only using his katana.
  • Doorstopper: The shortest one of the completed books is 55,073 words long. If all the completed books are added up together, they total 340,186 words.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Ho-Oh's genocide could be seen as this.
  • Downer Ending: The Defervescence ends on this note - Ho-oh realizes his mistakes too late and is forever trapped in the Distortion World, Uxie has complete control over Ho-oh's army and is no danger of losing it, Mesprit was on the verge of a mental breakdown after recruiting the Gardevoir and the Gallade, and Arceus appears before Azelf just long enough to explain why he won't ever return to their world even after the war ends.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Uxie is a far more competent antagonist than Ho-oh lacking Ho-oh's Smug Snake ego. He's the one who constantly upgrades and expands Ho-oh's forces, keeps all of the megalomaniacs that Ho-oh's recruited in line, and basically makes all the plans. Ho-oh has recently realized this and is fearing that he might soon be Demoted to Dragon. Although Uxie just tosses him into the Reverse World and effectively takes over.
  • Drop Ship: The Pelipper class dropships featured in The Pokémon They Carried. It should be noted that these drop ships are designed for atmospheric use.
  • Dying as Yourself: Harley's Ariados gets consumed by bloodlust but when he does a Heroic Sacrifice, he reverts to Ariados that Harley loved.
  • Earth Is a Battlefield: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Orre, Fiore, Oblivia, Almia, and Unova have all become war torn hell holes.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Dawn does not like her nickname of "Blue Death".
  • Emotions vs. Stoicism: On Lugia's side, we have Mesprit, the living incarnation of emotions that is clearly shown suffering after seeing the atrocities of the war-torn world. On Ho-oh's side, we have Uxie, who sees emotions as a distraction in the way of his experiments.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Entei is a sadist that takes great pleasure out of making games out of his slaughter of humans and trained Pokemon alike, but he loves his brothers, and would gladly give his life for them.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Subverted. Ho-oh is at first horrified at the concept of wiping out the entire species of Grimer and Muk. He only goes along with it after hearing Uxie's reasoning, justifying it to himself with the rationale of those Pokémon being by-products of humanity and therefore an extension of humans.
    • Ho-oh also despises clones, which puts him at odds with Uxie when the latter decides to start utilizing New Island's cloning technology.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Banette is a Heroic Comedic Sociopath with sizable sadistic streak and a tendency to make inappropriate jokes. He's utterly disgusted by the results of Entei's handiwork.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: All Pokémon (save for the ones originally owned by trainers and some of the Legendaries) are hostile to humans and will go to surprising lengths to kill them.
    • Going by Harley's Ariados, even the trained Pokémon may be hostile.
    • Tentacruel aren't willing to take sides on the war, but if you set foot on their territory, they won't hesitate to attack.
    • Averted with Azelf, who feels the fight isn't his to get involved, the Shaymin, who don't think they can make a difference, and the Heatran, since they don't see it as their problem.
    • Cornova has posted three tiers of hostility rating on his profile. Kill On Sight, Territorial, and Not Active Instigator. The remaining Pokemon are noted to be "Mostly peaceful, but still dangerous."
    • Also averted by the Houndoom outside Goldenrod City. They hold humans in high esteem ever since one of their group was treated completely for free when he was sick.
  • Evil Duo: Ho-oh and Uxie form this dynamic, and it is very creepy. And then the latter turns on the former.
  • Evil Genius: Uxie: The Being of Knowledge who sees the genocide and everything else as a chance to experiment. He's doing it For Science!, though, and only joined Ho-Oh because he won't complain about Uxie's lack of morality.
  • Expanded Universe
  • Expendable Clone: Uxie aims to use the cloning technology to create an army of clone Pokémon - that way, whenever Ho-oh's coalition goes to war, whatever losses they incur will mostly be clones as opposed to actual Pokémon.
  • Expy: Uxie seems to be one of Mordin Solus from Mass Effect 2.
    • I305 "Lairon" Mobile Infantry Self-Contained Pressurized Environmental Combat Survival Exoskeleton from Poké Wars: The Divergence seem suspiciously similar to the MJOLNIR suits that Master Chief wears.
  • Fallen Hero: The Defervescence shows that while he was always a bit egotistical, Big Bad Ho-oh used to have his heart in the right place.
  • Fantastic Ship Prefix: Human-Legendary Coalition ships bear the prefix "HNS" for "Human Naval Ship".
  • Fastball Special: A variant. Regigigas throws Regirock at Mewtwo not as a blunt projectile but as a grenade.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Ho-oh is trapped in the Reverse World which is becoming flooded with a noxious gas. Thanks to his Resurrective Immortality, he will die and be reborn. Forever.
  • Feathered Fiend: The Fearow in Chapter 9 of The Subsistence were bloodthirsty as all hell. The pack leader is a particularly nasty example.
  • Fell Off the Back of a Truck: Alpha explains that the supplies that May's group uses were "borrowed" from a nearby settlement.
  • Fork Lift Fu: Andre from Downfall of a Champion uses a front end loader to break out of an abandoned warehouse.
  • For Science!: Uxie's sole reason for joining up with Ho-oh; he wants to use the war and genocide as a chance to experiment.
  • Freudian Excuse: Shadow Lugia is pretty ticked off about the abuse he suffered under Cipher.
    • The other hostile Legendaries, save Kyogre, have pretty "legitimate" (in their eyes) reasons to hate humanity.
  • From Bad to Worse: Ho-Oh is usurped by Uxie, who sees everything as an experiment and is far crueler and smarter than any other character due to his lack of emotions.
  • Genre Roulette: The Subsistence, The Coalescence are mostly adventure stories with elements of Survival Horror. The next story, The Incipience, shifts in tone to something resembling a political intrigue thriller. The Exigence returns to the old formula. The Pokémon They Carried and Poke Wars: The Divergence and Poké Wars: The Zero Squad are straight-up Military Science Fiction. Hell in Sinnoh is post-apoc slice of life. Dawn of a New Era has a action-adventure and Survival Horror aspect in the first chapter. The next chapter is a Military Science Fiction slice of life story. Downfall of a Champion is a mix of adventure and Survival Horror. Poké Wars: Ransei Military Files: Weapons and Firearms and The Files of Doctor Kaminko are tech manuals that also dabble in Military Science Fiction.
  • Gorn: The authors occasionally seem to take a little too much pleasure in describing the violence and brutality of the war and the effects of undampened Pokémon attacks on living beings.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Mewtwo beats the crap out of Registeel using the latter's own torn off arms.
  • Guns Akimbo: Dawn uses two handguns to fight off a horde of Cloyster. She doesn't miss.
  • Guns Are Worthless: Averted. Firearms prove to be very effective on smaller Pokémon.
  • The Gunslinger: Dawn. She's a combination of Type A and a little of Type C.
  • Hellfire:
    • Will-O-Wisp is a supernatural purple-blue fire that cannot be extinguished and can burn even rock.
    • A technological version appears in Poké Wars: The Files of Doctor Kaminko with some of the soldiers using the IW-229 "Houndoom" flamethrower to clear Mount Moon of Zubat. The flamethrower uses a highly toxic and corrosive organoborane fuel that burns with brilliant green flames. The fuel reacts to oxygen and water by catching fire and its combustion products are also extremely toxic and corrosive.
  • Heroic BSoD: May, believing her Pokémon have killed an entire contest hall full of people.
    • Whitney after she finds her uncle's corpse.
    • Tracy, after losing all the Pokémon on the ranch because of the Muk, along with all the spare pokeglovs and everything else important to him. He even wished Ash would die.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Sabrina sacrifices herself to teleport everyone to safety after Pikachu ignites the volatile gas filled air surrounding a city overrun by Grimer and Muk, which becomes a massive fireball.
    • Solidad drops off Drew's Flygon, allowing Drew and Harley to escape Raikou's attacks, which the Pokémon couldn't evade due to the weight.
    • Harley's Ariados tackles Harley out of the way of an Ursaring's Hyper Beam. He gets the bottom half of his body vaporized in the process, but gets rid of his blinding bloodlust.
    • Rico buys time for a rescue party to carry back captured people from a Beautifly and Dustox attack, he accomplishes his objective but is killed by a Beautifly's Silver Wind attack.
  • Hero Killer: Besides the Legendaries, the Muk have had the most successful track record of killing off main characters.
    • Gengiga. He singlehandedly killed a regions worth of poison Pokémon, was more powerful than most Legendary Pokémon, heck, other Legendaries feared him. And it took all four Regis, being drowned in lava on top of him wanting to die in order too kill him.
  • Hope Spot: Rayquaza encourages Lugia's brother not to destroy Olivine City under this rationale - if it's left intact, then more and more humans will see it as a place of refuge and flock to it. Then, whenever Ho-oh or one of his allies returns, there will be far more humans to kill.
  • Hostage Situation: The caravan has to confront a gang from Rustboro City who have taken some people as hostages, wanting to exchange them for all their supplies and weaponry.
  • Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Andrew mention this, even using the example of the Skitty and Wailord to point of how weird are egg groups sometimes. Everyone is shocked from the revelation, but he quickly rectifies that it only have happened on in vitro fertilization experiments because in nature, it would be physically impossible to make them breed… Later, Jennifer comments how Arceus have created the world in such a strange way. Andrew responds to her telling that a popular theory is that Wailord and Wailmer where, a long time ago, Pokémon who lived on land.
  • Hover Tank: The Pokémon They Carried mentions one of these, the M009 Blastoise.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Ho-oh's excuse for his campaign. Even some of the good Legendaries admit they think this way.
  • Human Popsicle: Kyogre freezes Manaphy in a pyramid of ice.
  • Humans Are Special: Some of the Legendaries believe humans will earn their place in the post dampener removal Death World. Expanded Universe stories confirm this. Ho-Oh once thought this in the past.
  • Human Shield: Barry, the gang leader of The Sevipers on Rustboro pulled this using Katrina as a shield to demand the rescue team to surrender.
  • Humans Are Warriors - Darkrai's quote says it all:
    Darkrai: Humans are conquerors; whether it with is Pokémon or with each other.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: Uxie to Ho-oh; Ho-oh even admits that the sprite is the only real reason that his plans haven't completely fallen apart. He eventually takes over.
  • The Hyena: Banette has a habit of bursting into laughter at random and usually inappropriate moments. Or when he's called out on it.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: Halfway through his fight with the Regis, Gengiga reveals that he hasn't been using the moves that Uxie taught him.
  • I Call It "Vera": Kaiza's custom built revolver is called "Thunderbolt".
  • I Did What I Had to Do: In The Subsistence, Ash has Pikachu use Thunder on a sinking ferry overrun by Sharpedo and Tentecruel. He regrets that he had to kill everyone on the ship but the Pokémon swarming the ship were too dangerous to leave alive.
    • Hiiro in Fool's Paradise has his Ampharos unleash Thunder in a harbor filled with Tentacruel and their victims, killing everyone in the water so the boats in Olivine City can head out to sea. He calls his plan "a horrible, despicable, but ultimately necessary idea" and he explicitly states "You won't like it" to an Officer Jenny who asks him for a plan.
    • Alex said this to Katrina back on the caravan's encampment after rescuing her from a Hostage Situation.
  • I Die Free: Gengiga prefers death than to remain under Uxie's thumb.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Dawn has more skill than any champion in shooting sports.
    • Ash manages to nail a grenade with a .50 caliber sniper rifle shot. In mid air.
  • Improvised Weapon: Pokémon or guns are preferred weapons but improvised weapons are sometimes used.
    • Dawn of a New Era - Ash uses his Pokéglov as a bludgeon against an attacking Meowth.
    • The Subsistence - Tracy fights uses a lead pipe, and doesn't feel comfortable with anything else.
    • The Survival - The men guarding the caravan leaving Petalburg wield everything from guns to improvised maces, spears and a variety of homemade weapons.
  • Internal Reveal: With his dying breaths, Professor Oak reveals to Ash that he was the boy "Sammy" who Ash befriended after Celebi temporarily brought him to the present from the past in Pokemon 4Ever.
  • Interspecies Romance - Brendan's Aggron and Arthur's Tyranitar are on this. Bannette, while joking, implies this on Roserade and Cacturne.
  • Intrigued by Humanity: In the past, Ho-oh was one who was most intrigued by humans.
  • Invulnerable Knuckles - averted with a vengeance in chapters 8 and 9 of The Exigence. It looks like Blaziken will take a long while to recover after breaking both hands and one leg while attacking the Golem.
  • The Juggernaut: Gengiga, it takes all four Regis to make him fight.
  • Just Between You and Me: Ho-oh reveals to Mewtwo during their battle that the dampener removal gave him the subtype of Dark and therefore made him immune to Mewtwo's psychic attacks. Mewtwo promptly uses Miracle Eye to negate that advantage and then uses Psychic to tear Ho-oh's head and limbs apart.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: Batuo and his Medicham are confirmed to be able to do this, being called a Chi Wave.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Samurai uses a katana and can fire air blades from it.
  • Kill All Humans: Ho-oh's ultimate goal.
  • Killer Rabbit: Uxie should be on the top of everyone's "Do Not Fuck With" List if you value your life. Even Ho-oh fears him.
  • Kill It with Fire: What fire-type attacks now do. Will-O-Wisp is a particularly horrifying example, as it cannot be put out except by the attacker's will.
  • Kill It with Water: Water Gun and Hydro Pump are now capable of dismembering their targets.
  • Knight of Cerebus:
    • While this fic was never Pichu and Clefairy, the arrival of the Muk truly set the tone of this story, causing the first main character deaths outside of secondhand accounts and flashbacks.
    • Uxie ups the ante a billion fold. With his arrival, he turns Ho-Oh's organization from what amounted to an untrained mob into a cold, cruel, efficient army of Hero Killers.
  • Knight Templar: Ho-Oh firmly believes that everything is on the table when it comes to stopping the "enslavement" of Pokémon. Even genocide of the human race. And the Pokémon who oppose him? Well, they're the enemy too.
  • Kung-Fu Sonic Boom:
    • When Regigigas punches Ho-oh, the shockwave produced blows a crater in the ground.
    • The punches of Slakings produces small craters to show how strong they are.
  • Jerkass: Harley, at first. Paul too.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Paul has Marcie's corpse thrown off the train they're on to distract the Drapion despite everyone's protest because they needed the time, there was no way to know if she was contaminated, and they can't afford dead weight.
  • Last Stand: Implied by Harley's Banette that it'll be their way to go when May's group gets surrounded by a pack of Houndoom. Thankfully, they come in peace.
  • Leave No Survivors: Ho-oh orders Raikou to do this when Raikou launches his attack on Goldenrod City; Raikou takes it so much to heart that he relentlessly blasts the nearby ranch where May, Whitney, and Drew are taking cover after he's killed everything else in the city.
  • The Lethal Connotation of Guns and Others: Going along with the main Pokemon series' premise (see the example above), firearms are by far the best sort of individual weaponry available. Almost nothing faced so far couldn't be killed by well-applied small-arms fire.
  • Lethal Harmless Powers: Thanks to the dampener removal, many "harmless" attacks and abilities can be used in lethal and gruesome ways. Some examples:
    • Banette can phase through solid matter (including living things) with ease. Combine that with Will-O-Wisp and he can start fires inside his victims.
    • Gravity originally immobilized its victims and forced flyers to land. Now it can also be used to crush a target to death or turn rain into dangerous projectiles.
    • String Shot originally bound and immobilized its victims. It can now be used as Razor Wire.
    • The Carnevale Masquerade combination move as used by Roserade and Masquerain consisted of a beautiful dance combined with a shower of petals and a sweet odor. It was intended to be used as a flashy non-damaging move in a Pokémon contest. Using against a horde of bug Pokémon resulted in Pink Mist.
  • Life-or-Limb Decision: A Golem in The Exigence smashes his frozen arm to keep the rest of his body from freezing over.
  • Light Is Not Good: At first, Ho-oh. The rainbow phoenix… And mass murderer.
    • Subverted. The Incipience explains that a Pokémon enduring negative feelings obtains the power of darkness, which makes Ho-oh a part Dark-type.
    • The MGM-493 "Arceus" counts as well. It is painted a brilliant white and named after the creator god. The warhead is named W512 "Judgement" after the pokémon's Signature Move which involves countless beams of light striking the target. Detonation of this weapon results in a blinding flash of light that incinerates everything at ground zero.
  • Like a God to Me: The giant Alakazam Ho-oh and Uxie meet in The Defervescence immediately pledges its service to Uxie, given that its species constantly seek knowledge and Uxie is revered as the creator of knowledge. Uxie - who prefers to be seen as the creator of intelligence and the capacity to learn - sees it as blind loyalty, comparing it to the manufacturer of a chisel and hammer being worshiped because of a great sculpture.
  • Literal Genie: Wishes made on an Orb of Creation must be worded very specifically; Lugia finds this out the hard way when he realizes that although he wished for a mate, his wish did not mention anything about the mate being able to procreate. He ended up using his final Orb to give her that ability, which in turn leads to his brother's Face–Heel Turn.
  • Loophole Abuse: In The Incipience, Lugia exploits the fact that humans have dampeners to give an edge to humanity. He also notes that Ho-Oh carefully worded his wish to prevent his own from being undone. We don't get to see the actual wording, though.
  • Love Triangle: between Ash, Dawn, and Misty.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: Not surprisingly, most Pokémon attacks now result in this. Shotgun shells on smaller Pokémon have about the same effect.
  • Mad Scientist: Uxie sees the entire genocide/war as nothing more than a science experiment. And there are implications that he wants to clone Ash.
  • Manchild: Mew is not exactly a bastion of maturity. As evidenced by his words upon meeting Latias.
    Mew: Hi. I'm Mew. Wanna play?
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": Ash and co. in The Subsistence when they realize that not only does Bill's Dragonite Call still work, the giant Dragonite that was called is pissed off.
  • Mass Super-Empowering Event: Aside from the one affecting the Pokémon, Lugia uses his own orb of creation to remove the dampeners of humans.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Professor Oak is discovered dying in his lab by Ash in both versions, and in both versions he uses his last breath to tell Ash about the fact that his child self had an adventure with him thanks to Celebi. Pre-rewrite, he also takes this opportunity to give condolences on Delia Ketchum's death...something which, at that point, Tracy had conveniently neglected to tell Ash about.
  • Mercy Kill: Ash to the unfortunate survivors in the sea of murderous Pokémon and Kaiza, and Samurai to his Pinsir
    • This becomes Infi's default response to anyone too grievously wounded on the train to make the trip to Pastoria. A quick stab to the heart to put them out of their misery was the most energy efficient and humane way of killing them, and even Newton could argue given the situation was that bad.
  • Mini-Mecha: Ransei's GUNDAM Soldiers are these by default.
  • Mighty Glacier: M1-12 Rhydon cargo carriers mount one 105 mm smoothbore cannon, several 30 mm autocannons and are heavily armored enough to shrug off anything short of a Hyper Beam or Legendary Pokémon attack. Their top speed is twenty five miles per hour.
  • Military Fiction: The Pokémon They Carried, Dawn of a New Era, The Divergence, and Amidst Chaos have elements of this genre.
  • Military Mashup Machine: The M1-12 Rhydon cargo carriers mentioned in The Pokemon They Carried are "small" land battleships. They weigh 136 tons, stand 14 meters (46 feet) tall and are armed with 105mm smoothbore cannon on a mount that can rotate 360 degrees along with a bunch of turrets bearing 30 mm autocannons. Oh yeah, they can also carry supplies and troops. And they have armor that is impervious to anything short of a Hyper Beam or Legendary Pokémon attack.
  • Mind over Manners: Sabrina forgets this being so happy to meet Ash again, Lt. Surge and Samurai attempted to kill her. Not to mention the way she embarrassed Misty and Dawn...
  • Mind Rape: Uxie harvests knowledge from the minds of human scientists before killing them.
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye: Roserade was greatly annoyed by Banette, and let out some pretty harsh words to him before he went out to help the Houndoom. She gets very upset when she finds him (briefly) bereft of life in the battlefield, and recognizes that, despite her dislike of his antics, he was the only one that managed to pull their group out of the depressed moments they'd faced so far.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Regigigas and his trio successfully kill Gengiga, assuming Ho-oh had deployed him to attack Lugia and co. If they hadn't done so, Gengiga would have eliminated the poison-types in Kanto, including a certain cluster of Muk…
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Forget most of what you would find in the Pokémon series - there is no Pokémon capturing, badge collecting, contests, rivals, nothing. After the removal of the dampeners, the characters' lives become more similar to Prisoner 849's time in Na Pali than anything else. The Pokémon They Carried has a general atmosphere closely resembling the Command & Conquer series.
  • Not the Intended Use: The fuel used in the IW-229 flamethrower is actually rocket fuel that was rejected by the Mossdeep Space Center for being too toxic and corrosive.
  • Not Quite Dead - Heroic example. Banette gets smashed into a tree by a rampaging Golem and "dies" in Clefable's hands. He comes back to life when the group's Pokemon cry over him, bringing him back with Pokémon tears.
  • Obliviously Evil - Muk only wish to expand their territory, and any sort of ecological damage they may cause is completely unintentional on their part.
  • Open Heart Dentistry - The Convalescence features Sarah Joy. She's the team medic but she's a a nurse for Pokémon. Lampshaded by her statement:
    Sarah: They need a human doctor, not a pokémon nurse pretending to be one.
  • Pin-Pulling Teeth - Ash pulls the pins of some grenades he stole from Kaiza and then blows up a bridge to keep the Cloyster from attacking him and Dawn in The Coalescence.
  • People Puppets: Ho-oh takes control of Mewtwo's body with an orb of creation.
  • Plot Armor - Judging by the Expanded Universe stories, which show the future of the series' world, most of the Kanto arc characters, including at least Ash, Surge, Dawn, Samurai, and Duplica survive and stay sane enough to occupy important posts at the new human coalition.
  • Precision F-Strike: After seeing the town that Entei incinerated, Banette's only reaction is, "that's fucked up."
  • Poisonous Person: Muks for one. Nidoking has poisonous scales too, as one unfortunate bug-type learned.
  • Powered Armor - the I305 "Lairon" Mobile Infantry Self-Contained Pressurized Environmental Combat Survival Exoskeleton mentioned in The Divergence provide protection against extreme environments and battle damage in addition to substantially increasing the wearer's strength.
  • Power Crystal - the crystals used by Ransei are these, allowing them to power virtually everything in their country, ranging from their GUNDAM Soldiers to their vehicles, and even can be used in beam weaponry, making the Heart of Ransei a very versatile power source.
  • Power Incontinence - A lot of trainer Pokémon accidentally kill their allies when the dampeners are removed, including Lt.Surge's Raichu and AJ's Sandslash. The Psychics in Saffron killed everyone, including themselves with the exception of Sabrina.
  • Power Limiter - the aforementioned dampeners.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner - Done by Alpha. "THIS IS THE STRENGTH OF MY PACK!" Cue him opening a can of whoopass on the lead Golem with the move Beat Up.
  • Predecessor Villain: Giratina used to be the proto-Ho-oh to the point that he did something that caused Arceus to create the dampeners in the first place. He's chilled out a lot since then.
  • Pretty Little Headshots - Averted. When Ash kills Kaiza with his own handgun, the end result is quite messy. The trend goes on to whoever gets hit in the head with a bullet.
  • Psychic Powers - Sabrina possesses extremely deadly psychic powers. In the expanded universe, Will and Lucian also possess psychic powers but aren't as powerful as Sabrina.
  • Psycho Electro - Raikou is... rather unbalanced. He does have a moment of sympathy towards humans at first, but decides to have blind faith in Ho-Oh and follow his orders regardless.
    • Pikachu, after destroying a cluster of Muk. The temporary energy gain alters his behavior from "eager to fight" to "bloodthirsty".
  • Rated M for Manly: Intense battle sequences fueled by Rule of Cool and badasses all around pretty much add up to this.
  • Razor Floss: Ariados silk can take this form.
  • Razor Wind: Aside from the standard Razor Wind and Air Cutter attacks from the Pokémon canon, Samurai eventually gains the ability to swing his katana with such force that he can generate a blade of air.
    • Beautiflys can use Silver Wind with deadly effect.
  • Red Baron:
    • In Dawn of a New Era Dawn, get the nickname "Blue Death" for her skill with a .50 caliber sniper rifle. She doesn't like it.
    • Hiiro Mizutani from The Pokémon They Carried bears the nickname of "Black Blade".
    • Mimoru from The Pokémon They Carried is known by the soldiers as "The Marionette".
    • Gengiga is known as "The Life Engine".
    • Uxie is "The All-Knowing".
  • Removed Achilles' Heel: Uxie murders the giant Jigglypuff that can seal Gengiga and Alakalossal leaving them completely unchained and nigh-unstoppable.
  • The Resenter: Shadow Lugia is very much this towards the original, and Ho-oh goads Kyogre into being this towards Manaphy.
  • La Résistance: Lugia's corps of Legendaries and Ash's band are the biggest examples.
  • Resurrective Immortality: Ho-oh has been thrown into a mountain and had his limbs and head torn apart, and come back none the worse for wear. According to Uxie, only a legendary is able to have this ability - if a normal Pokémon had it, they'd fall under Born-Again Immortality. When Uxie decides to take over he mentions several ways to negate it before tossing him into the Reverse World.
  • Rule of Cool: The battle sequences practically run on high-test Rule Of Cool.
  • Sanity Slippage: As Suicune kills more and more people, his sanity has notably deteriorated. It has gotten to the point where he is hearing voices and it's only the second chapter of his story!
    • Rico did know he was slowly slipping after his traumatic experience on the pokemon center basemant. So he decided to pull an Heroic Sacrifice to avoid becoming a danger to the caravan.
  • Satanic Archetype: Both Ho-oh and Uxie fit this trope believe it or not.
    • Ho-oh is a great and noble angelic being of light who's Pride makes him rebel against God's chosen plan in favor of his own vision and he makes other Legendaries/Angels join him by preying on their hidden desires and his fall to evil causes him to lose sight of what he originally fought for turning him into an angry, spiteful, and petty creature of darkness, that gets trapped inside the Pokemon version of Hell, the Reverse World.
    • Uxie is a monster that is sealed away and is released during an apocalyptic scenario who then proceeds to manipulate events from behind the scenes to his benefit, he is a creature that looks like a creature of good and light disguising his evil intent, he believes that he can make the universe superior to God's attempt, and he plans on making mockeries/clones of His creations to act as his army.
  • Satan Is Good: Giratina's appearance in the The Defervescence confirms this though Ho-Oh and Uxie pick up the slack by becoming Satanic Archetypes.
  • The Scapegoat: both May and Harley become this. To put it more clearly, after May's Blaziken destroys the Pokémon contest in a fit caused by his undampening, Harley goes to the police and accuses May of doing so intentionally. The government forces, trying to quench the populace's hunger for any sort of action, gladly goes after her. Why Harley became wanted is unknown, however.
  • Scenery Gorn: Any description of the attacks will go into detail about how much the surrounding environment has been ravaged. The aftermath of Pikachu and Sandslash's "sparring match" in The Coalescence is a particularly detailed example.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! - The Houndoom pack agreed with Entei to attack humans in Ho-Oh's favor. They're not inclined at all on doing so, though - they just agreed to get rid of his overwhelming presence.
  • Seppuku: In Chapter 19 of The Subsistence Samurai stabs himself with his own katana, killing the Golbat that leaves him near death.
  • Serial Escalation: Each battle is more destructive than than the last, and frequently has more casualties.
  • Shapeshifter: Duplica's Ditto can transform into Pokémon, clothes and even humans and will look and act exactly like the real article. Mini-Dit can transform into any weapon it touches, including firearms.
  • Shell-Shock Silence: Solidad gets nearly deafened by an explosion. It's one of the main reasons for her to decide for a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Lt. Surge.
    • It's implied that Kaiza went crazy when he had to kill the Safari Zone's Pokémon to ensure his own safety.
    • If Dawn Of A New Era counts as canon, the eponymous girl also counts. She has an obvious case of PTSD, constantly remembers her times as a Coordinator before the events of the series, and is very bitter about only being recognized by the abilities that gave her the nickname "Blue Death".
  • Ship Tease: In the The Exigence, Drew and May end up sharing a room and May hints that something may be up between the two.
    • In The Coalescence there is a scene where Misty kisses Ash. It's actually Duplica's Ditto, but since it copies the person's personality, it counts.
    • In The Subsistence, Professor Oak, as he provides last-minute exposition on his deathbed, takes a brief moment to state that Ash's mother "was a beautiful woman" and how she was the one who led him to Pallet Town.
  • Shout-Out: "James surveyed his remaining collection of bottle caps that he had brought with him. He had dreamed a few days ago that bottle caps would be the new currency for the struggling survivors of the world."
    "Is the length okay?"
    Ash studied himself in the mirror once more. "The length's fine."
    "How about the style?"
    "The style's fine, just make it a little cooler."
    Misty rolled her eyes and sighed, repositioning her hands to her hips. "Just telling me 'cooler' isn't helpful. Give me something to work with. How much is a little?"
    "It needs to be like fifteen or twenty percent cooler?" Ash offered sheepishly.
    "You're impossible sometimes," the red head grunted.
  • The Sociopath: Uxie has been showing all of the signs.
  • Shoot the Dog: Paul's "Desperado Tactic" when he used his dying Magmar as a bomb to kill a swarm of Muk. It could also be a case of Kick the Dog, but YMMV on that one.
  • Shown Their Work: Cornova really knows the ins and outs of nearly every detail about the Pokémon animé universe.
    • A prime example is how he included an entire chapter on Kaiza, a character from an episode that never made it out of Japan.
    • Also, numerous one-shot characters (Duplica, Yas and Kas Gyms, AJ, etc.) are portrayed perfectly in character.
    • The details about the weaponry and equipment in the technical manuals are surprisingly detailed and accurate as well.
  • Smug Snake: Ho-oh can be this at times.
    • AJ is a heroic example of this trope. He may be part of Ash's team but he is massive prick to everyone.
  • The Starscream: Fear of Uxie turning into this is another reason Ho-oh goes along with his plan to drive the Grimer and Muk into extinction. He ends up betraying him anyway.
  • Start of Darkness:
    • "Lugia's Wish" explains why Lugia's brother is so pissed with him, which eventually leads to him joining Ho-Oh. Instead of using one of the three Orbs of Creation to make a mate for his brother, he instead used the last remaining orb to give his mate the ability to procreate. In the process, he condemns his brother to a life of solitude while he gets to enjoy domestic life with a mate and a child.
    • Ho-Oh's killing of the trained Pokémon and the mystics that attacked him at Pokélantis could be justified as self-defense. But there's no justification for the subsequent massacre of its inhabitants (including the women and children) and razing of the city.
  • The Spock: Uxie, who sees emotions as useless and in the way of his "progress." He thanks Ho-oh for the dampener removal during their first meeting, as the event all but took away his ability to feel emotion.
    • His actions in The Deferevescence are practically a deconstruction: he sees everything as a huge equation, and is perfectly willing to "subtract" something from the equation if he decides that it's going to be an impediment (not to mention that he refers to the others in Ho-oh's team as "lab members.") His Lack of Empathy, meanwhile, makes him unable to comprehend why others could have a problem with his actions, such as Ho-oh being upset by something such as wiping out the Grimer and Muk, or trying to clone Legendaries, or Lugia's brother lashing out violently to Uxie reading his mind.
  • Stripped to the Bone: The Fearow and Muk are capable of this; Tracy notes that it only took the former twelve seconds to reduce all but five of Ash's Tauros to skeletons, while Gary gets a front row seat to the latter doing this to an unfortunate Officer Jenny.
  • Taking You with Me: One of the Golems in The Exigence tries to pull this with Explosion. He fails, thanks to Clefable's Light Screen.
  • Technicolor Fire: In Poké Wars Wars: The Files of Doctor Kaminko, some of the soldiers use the IW-229 "Houndoom" flamethrower to clear Mount Moon of Zubat. The flamethrower uses a highly toxic organoborane fuel that burns with brilliant green flames.
  • Technology Porn: The Files of Doctor Kaminko and Ransei Military Files: Weapons and Firearms are more or less technical manuals that go into detail of the weapons used by the humans. Exquisite detail that'll make any technophile pop a boner.
  • Terse Talker. Uxie prefers to speak in short clipped sentences, since he thinks talking wastes time when you could advance progress instead.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
    • Not content with simply killing all of the humans in and near Goldenrod City, Raikou decides to completely level it, to the point where there's not as much as a pebble for miles around him.
    • Entei operates in a similar manner, at one point burning an entire town to ashes.
  • Token Evil Teammate - Groudon only joined Lugia's coalition because Kyogre's joined Ho-oh. Not to mention, he's one of the ruder members.
  • Took a Level in Badass: A necessity for survival.
  • Too Powerful to Live: Sabrina was too powerful to be introduced so soon. There was no way she was going to survive.
    • Gengiga for the villains, he could absorb any opponent by looking at them, was powerful enough to carry out a genocide by himself, and had countless extra lives from each life he absorbed just in case those powers weren't enough. He wasn't going to be around long.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Paul and Gary's relationship in a nutshell.
  • Tele-Frag:
    • Sabrina's justification for not teleporting from city to city.
    • Likewise, Lugia does not allow Mew to teleport himself and Latias to Alto Mare due to the imperfection of her memories, which could lead to this trope.
  • Translation Convention - Pokémon Speak is rendered in English, though never in any section with human speech, so they don't overlap.
  • Troubling Unchildhood Behavior - Dawn has shot a man, gotten drunk and routinely shoots hostile pokèmon.
  • Tunnel Network - Alola's Underground System is basically this, complete with underground cities and bases for their civilians and soldiers in the event of an island-wide cataclysm.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Sort of; Uxie speculates in The Defervescence that Ho-oh has been utilizing only ten percent of Mewtwo's full potential, and the only reason Mewtwo didn't go all out during his battle against Ho-oh was that he himself didn't realize how much power he was actually capable of utilizing.
  • Undying Loyalty: The Legendary Dogs (especially Raikou) pledged this to Ho-oh, while the giant Alakazam swears this to Uxie.
  • Unsuspectingly Soused - During the party at the end of The Coalescence, Dawn drinks "soda" that gets her completely drunk. It should be noted that the "soda" was actually a very weak wine cooler or mixed drink.
  • Villain's Dying Grace: Ho-oh had the option of escaping the Reverse World at the cost of being Uxie's lab rat, he chooses to stay — not because he fears Uxie — but because he genuinely wants to atone for his sins.
  • Villain Episode: The Defervescence appears to be one of these.
  • Villainous Rescue: Near the end of Start of Chaos, Alakazam's attack on the hideout Dawson's group is taking refuge in is halted when Team Rocket shows up and saves them.
  • Voice of the Legion: Giratina's voice is described as "dozens of voices speaking in some unholy chorus and echoing from the darkest corners of the world".
  • Wall Around the World: Groudon's Wall surrounds the Coalition settlement in Kanto.
  • Warrior Monk: Arthur and his master are the Asian type mixed the Aura Guardians from the pokémon lore.
  • The Watson: Alakalossal briefly serves as one so Uxie can explain his plan to kill Giratina.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ho-oh. He wants Pokémon-kind to live in a utopia… and he does so by engaging in a genocide against humanity.
    • At least until he went Jumping Off the Slippery Slope by doing things like ordering wanton killing of Pokémon contrary to his ideals, utterly ruining the environment and not giving a damn about it, and generally being a filthy hypocrite.
      • And then it turns out that his wish applied not just Earth, but the entire galaxy and beyond, as revealed by Giratina.
  • War Is Hell: The effects of the supercharged Pokemon attacks are described in graphic detail, as well as the feelings of the victim if it's still alive after the hit. The characters' reactions to the more trauma-inducing happenings are just as vividly written.
  • War Fic: The stories are about a group of Legendaries led by Lugia trying to stop a genocidal crusade by Ho-Oh. And of course, the humans end up as a third faction.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Subverted with Uxie, who claims that reflective surfaces are his since he'd see his own eyes and have his own memory wiped. However, it's hinted later on that his eyes have atrophied to the point where he can't see anything, including himself, if he did open them.
  • We Have Reserves: A majority of wild Pokemon are extremely guilty of this trope. The alphas tend to throw waves of mooks at the heroes like they're extremely cheap confetti. Tends to overlap with Attack! Attack! Attack!.
    • The author as well due to the anime's large cast he tends to treat almost all of his characters as expendable.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Tracy gets yelled at by the entire cast after he tries to assault Jessie, James and Meowth after their Heel–Face Turn.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity - Hinted at in The Incipience.
    Having Mewtwo under Ho-oh's absolute control was starting to corrupt him with the sheer power at his disposal.
    • Judging by Pikachu's actions after igniting a cluster of Muk in The Coalescence, gaining too many levels at once results in a power overload that causes a barely controllable berserk frenzy.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • In Northwind Confessions Suicune allows himself to be approached and petted by some children. He then horrifically kills them.
    • Ho-Oh did not spare children when he razed Pokélantis after the city's mystics attempted to capture him.
  • You Always Hear the Bullet: Averted in Dawn of a New Era. Dawn kills three Fearow with long range shots. It is explicitly stated that the sonic booms came after the fatal shots.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Seymour the Scientist gets evacuated into space by the Clefairies, with the very weighty expectation of repopulating the human race if they go extinct on Earth due to Ho-oh's actions no less. Despite having once dreamed of going into space with them, he's ultimately distraught at the realization that he'll never be able to see his home again.
  • You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: Uxie is pulling this trope on the entire human race having deemed them to not be interesting anymore.
    • Uxie has now pulled this trope on Ho-oh, having deemed him too incompetent to properly lead the genocide and has sent him on an all expenses paid trip to the Reverse World with no return ticket. Yes, The Dragon has pulled this trope on the Big Bad. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.
  • You Monster!: How Lugia reacts to what Ho-Oh did to Mewtwo.
    • Gary reacts similarly after learning what Paul did to his Magmar.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: Cacturne accepts that this could be his way to go when he faces off against the pack of Ursaring. Fortunately, he survives.

    The Lapidescence 

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