Fanfic / The New Normal

The New Normal is a Pokémon: The Series Self-Insert Fic written by Cartec on SpaceBattles.com.

For most, becoming a member of the Elite 4 would be the culmination of their Journey. A great achievement that solidified your status in the annals of history. For me, it was just the start of my journey. Hopefully, everything stays Normal.

A pre-canon self-insert into the world of Pokémon.

Inspired by Viva01's Hard Enough. Also crossposted on FF/QQ.

Updates Mon/Fri. Short Interludes on Wed.

Spoilers are unmarked!!!

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The New Normal contains examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the games, anime, and all other spin-offs and adaptations Giovanni doesn't create Team Rocket thanks to John's Positive Friend Influence and seeing that there are other options that would allow him to help the region of Kanto without creating a paramilitary shadow group. It also helps that Giovanni is more of a Kanto nationalist with sympathetic and legitimate grievances against Champion Pryce's current policies benefiting Johto's economic status more than Kanto than a power-hungry villain bent on world domination.
  • John’s influence ensures Shelly never joins Team Aqua. Instead, she plays a role in the development of the Up-Grade and the evolution of Porygon 2.
• Adaptational Nationality: In the core series games and the anime adaptation Whitney is a native of Johto and grew up in Goldenrod City. In the fic, she's a Kanto native who was born in a rural family on the outskirts of Cerulean City.
• Adaptational Protagonist:
  • In the fic, John Smith is The Protagonist and the older brother of Whitney the future Goldenrod Gym Leader. Whereas in the core series games, anime, and all other adaptations of the Pokémon franchise, there's no mention of Whitney having an older brother, never mind the idea that he even existed.
  • In the core series games, anime, and other adaptations of the Pokémon franchise Whitney is mainly the Gym Leader of Goldenrod City for the protagonists to battle to earn their Plain Badges. Here, she's a recurring side character with a journey of her own to complete during the Interludes.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Unlike the games, anime, and most of the other spin-offs and adaptations, Giovanni's portrayal and goals in the fic are much more sympathetic than the source materials. Instead of a power-hungry villain with dreams of world domination, Giovanni is a Kanto nationalist with legitimate grievances against the way the Indigo League is being run during Champion Pryce's reign; mainly that Pryce's policies benefited Johto's economic status while Kanto is being left in the dust. Even his initial intentions of creating Team Rocket were rooted in preventing Kanto from being subordinate to Johto, along with the fact that it was his late mother's idea for such a shadow paramilitary group.
• Badass Normal: John's current roster of Pokémon is all made up of Pure and Dual Normal-types (two of his Pokémon are half-Fairy but have yet to be formally announced until chapter 7-8) and the fic starts with him coming home after winning the Indigo Conference and being promoted to Elite Four status.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Mentioned. John’s victory in the Indigo Conference involved Tyrant defeating three of Shin’s Pokémon.
  • When Team Rocket attacks at Olivine City, John and his team demolished the grunts without mercy.
• Cypher Language: Downplayed. When writing in his secret notebook, John uses the standard American English writing system in case anybody in the Pokémon world secretly finds his notebook and tries to read it.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Giovanni has been absent from Silver's life for a few years but started to reconcile with him thanks to John's influence.
  • By the start of chapter 5-10 - Interlude - Brock, Flint abandoned his children in his own flawed way of pushing Brock into inheriting the Pewter City Gym.
• Enemy Mine: Team Magma and Team Aqua united under one banner. However, tensions still remain between both sides.
• From Zero to Hero: John Smith was born to a poor family of Miltank farmers but later rose to the status of Indigo's Elite Four at the age of 16 thanks to his Past-Life Memories of the Pokémon series and the conveniently vacant seat in the Elite Four.
• Invincible Hero: A frequently mentioned flaw of the story. John not only never loses, he almost never even comes remotely close to losing; despite fighting Elite-level trainers with decades more experience than him, Elites with type advantages over him, and even future Champions. This goes doubly so for Tyrant the Slaking, who has casually won every single fight he has ever been in-including against powerhouses like Bruno's Machamp and Flint's Infernape-and is stated to be as physically powerful as it is possible for a non-Legendary Pokemon to be, capable of defeating Cynthia's Garchomp, and probably capable of doing the same to Lance's Dragonite.
• Killer Gorilla: John's Starter Mon Tyrant is a Slaking who is much more proactive than what his species is known for.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Zigzagged. In John's narration, Pryce and Giovanni are ultimately two sides of the same coin regarding their power complexes and willingness to cross the symbolic red line needed to bring prosperity to Indigo and Kanto respectively, and choosing to side with either one of them would have its own set of consequences in the future. In the end, John chooses to side with Giovanni over Pryce despite Giovanni (as far as he knew) committing worse and illegal actions in the past; mainly because Giovanni is still capable of keeping an open mind for more ethical alternatives to achieve benefits for Kanto (e.g. he doesn't form Team Rocket in the fic) whereas Pryce's only goal is keeping the status quo and his power in check and serving his interests first and foremost.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: When it comes to the realpolitik of the Pokémon League, it's common for everyone to operate on Grey-and-Gray Morality and John Smith is no different. While John Smith's use of his meta-knowledge does give him a relatively unfair advantage by becoming a member of the Elite Four at a relatively young age, using his scientific "discoveries" in a calculating manner to increase his popularity, and having some selfish desires regarding some of his actions, he does have good intentions regarding his family's wellbeing and bettering their former low socioeconomic status, advocating for the unity of both Kanto and Johto regions into a single unified region known as Indigo, and preventing future threats that would've popped up during Ash Ketchum's Pokémon journey.
• Meaningful Name: In general, John Smith is a ubiquitous full name and it reflects his humble origins as a Miltank farmer of poor financial status and his specialization with Normal-type Pokémon. However, it has plenty of meanings that reflect his character and status:
  • "John" is a name often worn by emperors, kings, saints, athletes, soldiers, explorers, and scholars, befitting his status as a member of Indigo's Elite Four at the beginning of the fic, an up-and-coming Pokémon researcher making multiple breakthroughs in the scientific community, and his intentions of exploring the ruins of Sinnoh. There is also the fact that he's known to advocate for the unification of Kanto and Johto into Indigo and for creating connections with other regions, which in turn, would enrich the next generation (i.e. Ash Ketchum and his companions) to have a much better time in starting their journeys than they would have compared to the canon anime similar to how "John the Baptist" is known as the forerunner of Jesus in Christianity. As for the meaning of the name, it is 'God is gracious'; he's the firstborn son of his family, and his unique status as a reincarnated person could be attributed to the "divine".
    • Negatively, "John" can also carry more unfortunate implications. For example "John Doe" (the go-to placeholder name for an unidentified male corpse), John's original identity in his past life is never explicitly revealed and his new life in the Pokémon world had a rough start. Also, John can be used as slang for a prostitute's client; Karen is his Love Interest in the fic and while she's not a sex worker, Karen does have a seductive and flirtatious air to her character, is known to specialize in Dark-type Pokémon (with Dark-type Pokémon having a reputation of specializing in trickery rather than brute force), was initially regarded as "being too good of a romantic partner" for John by the public opinion, and her name (the dub version) is also used as a slang typically for a middle-class white woman who is perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal. Finally, "going to the john" is an informal expression of someone needing to use the toilet or bathroom; referencing John's private partnership with Giovanni who had done illegal activities in the name of Kanto's survival.
    • Given the number of meanings that the name John can have, both positive and negative, correlates well with John's current position as an Elite Four; often praised and/or often criticized, whether it be politicians, the general public, or even members of the Indigo League due to his relatively young age and the common realpolitik attached to a high governmental status.
  • "Smith" derives from the Anglo-Saxon smitan, meaning "to smite or strike," and it correlates to John's efficient personality and methods in either Pokémon training and battling, advocating for policies to help the general public, securing public safety, advocating for the unification of both the Kanto and Johto regions into Indigo and advancing the scientific community. Also, Smith and its derivations are an occupational name for a man who works with metal (smith or blacksmith), one of the earliest jobs for which specialist skills were required; John was born in a family of Miltank farmers and is a rising figure in the Pokémon scientific community for his discoveries of Regional forms/Regional variant Pokémon-types and the induction of the PIT technique (Parent, Intent, Type Technique).
• Meta Guy: In the GAMER omakes, John Smith's game character functions as this; a Recurring Extra who often meets the player character at every major location, espouses that he's in a video game and vague spoilers of important plots, gives various Mythology Gags of both the canon Pokémon franchise and his own story, point out the absurdities regarding the laws and culture of the Pokémon world, and often get the player character to buy his family's Moomoo milk.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Justified. Ornstein is never called a "Galarian Zigzagoon" because he wasn't born in the Galar region and was the result of John and Karen's experiment of creating Regional forms/Regional variants by artificially and gradually exposing his unborn self to Dark-type energy. For the time being, he's labeled as a "Dark Zigzagoon/D-Zigzagoon".
• Patchwork Fic: Similar to Hard Enough, the fic combines elements of the anime series (mostly), the core series games, and many other adaptations of the franchise.
• Pride: A major driving force for Lance and Pryce, both as characters and during their battle for the position of champion. The champion battle explores the consequences of such a quality. Agatha mocks them mercilessly for it and warns John to not be like them.
• Properly Paranoid: Due to his meta-knowledge of the games, John knew Porygon-Z would become corrupted from its evolutionary items. He managed to convince Shelly to use more caution when working on the Up-Grade.
• Rags to Riches:
  • John Smith went from a nobody born to a pair of poor farmers living on the outskirts of Cerulean City with no chance of getting a sponsor and barely able to afford a Poké Ball to a respected Elite Four member and Pokémon researcher.
  • During their conversation in chapter 7-16, Will is revealed to be of the working class (not as severe as the Smith family) before rising to the ranks.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Not soon after becoming a member of Indigo's Elite Four, Champion Pryce sends John off to Hoenn as part of a "diplomatic mission" to show off Indigo's strength. But in truth, it's to prevent John from becoming a potential political threat to the status quo and Pryce's current reign as Indigo's champion.
• Recursive Fic: The fic's setting and lore are inspired by Viva01's Hard Enough.
• Teen Genius: Justified. Thanks to John's Past-Life Memories and meta-knowledge of the Pokémon franchise, he was able to attain his status as one of Indigo's Elite Four at age 16 despite starting his new life with low resources. He also re-introduces further evolutions of Standler and Ursaring with Klaus (Wyrdeer) and Vordt (Ursaluna) respectively and later co-patent the PIT technique (Parent, Intent, Type Technique) with Karen after gradually exposing the unborn Ornstein ("Galarian" Zigzagoon) to Dark-type energy.
• That One Boss: In-Universe. How John Smith would be portrayed if he existed as a game character shown in OMAKE - GAMER POV, with his boss fight being incredibly annoying and having Roguelike mechanics; his Slaking not sticking to its truant ability and attacking at every turn, Tyrant being a Gen 3 Pokémon despite John being an Elite Four of Indigo, using Pokémon that shouldn't exist in a game with only the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn regions (Wyrdeer and Ursaluna), and even if the player resets the game to face him again, John's tactics won't go the same way as the previous battle.
• Underestimating Badassery: Many characters at the beginning, in both the League and the general public, often underestimate John's abilities and political acumen due to his relatively young age and the conveniently timed empty spot on the Elite Four (i.e. John didn't have to challenge an Elite Four member to a battle to take their spot). They get a big wake-up call when John manages to prove his strength in a Pokémon battle against Elite Drake of Hoenn and later his ability to make good judgments as a member of the Elite Four.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: John is only 16 years old at the start of the fic but he proves himself to be more mature and aware of his newfound Elite Four status thanks to his Past-Life Memories and growing up in a poverty-stricken socioeconomic background in the Pokémon world.