YMMV / Pokémon Retold: Black

• Adorkable: Hil's social anxiety and love of cracking inappropriate jokes or otherwise lame puns make him a very endearing hero.

• Anticlimax Boss:
  • After struggling with four of the five previous Gyms and just being handed over Lorena's badge, Hil defeats Skyla on his first try... without losing any Pokémon thanks to having Prada the Zebstrika mow down her team.
  • Ghetsis, who was an infamously difficult boss in the games, barely has any attention drawn to his fight with Cheren. Aside from his Hydreigon and Cheren's Emboar trading blows, Cheren cleans his clock offscreen while the focus is on Hil comforting N.
• Awesome Moments:
  • When Hil confronts Ghetsis on Tubeline Bridge and is viciously antagonized by the man, all of his non-Prada Pokémon pop out of their Poké Balls and stand up to him on their trainer's behalf, with Noodle and Prada himself trying to attack him for his callousness. The Shadow Triad teleports Ghetsis out of harm's way, but for the first time in the story the loathesome madman loses his shit and lets his calm facade slip while he hollers at him like a lunatic before leaving.
  • When the Gym Leaders rush into N's Castle to hold off the Sages, Clay punches Zinzolin in the face. A fitting end to the coward who allowed Ghetsis to threaten the safety of an entire town to blackmail him into dancing to his whims.
• Catharsis Factor: Not only is Ghetsis reduced to throwing a screaming tantrum when his plans unravel like in the games, but he receives plenty of physical humiliation as well: Cheren decks him in the face before their battle even starts, effortlessly defeats him, and when Ghetsis tries to strangle him to death for revenge, Reshiram hoists him into the air while he innefectively screams and hollers until wearing his voice out. It's too damn satisfying to read after all the horrible things he's said and done, even moreso than in the games.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: A number of fans pegged N as autistic in the games, and it's even more pronounced here, where along with already being socially awkward and a mathematics nut, he has issues with sensory overload and gets queasy from merely being in Elesa's gym due to being overwhelmed by the neon lights and electronic noises.
• Narm:
  • There are about a hundred good ways to describe white colored hair, but "salty hair" is not one of them. And yet, that's exactly what the Shadow Triad's hair color is referred to during their encounter with Cheren in the Chargestone Cave, which seriously deflates the tension in an otherwise serious scene.
  • Noodle is a very cute name for a Snivy/Servine/Serperior, but the cuteness works against in the fic's more serious, emotionally charged scenes where its usage comes off as downright goofy.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Before heading to Twist Mountain, Cheren acknowledges that one of his personal failings as a trainer isn't properly bonding with his Pokémon the way Hil and Bianca has, and vows to spend some hands-on time with them in Twist Mountain. Since Hil agrees to help him out, one might think that there'd be a few scenes dedicated to Cheren's Pokémon getting to show their personalities and quirks on full display... but the bonding process is left entirely off-screen.

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