All Purpose Pokemon Fanfiction Thread

What's that got to do with Pokemon fan fiction?

edited 19th Jan '18 4:17:46 PM by ElSquibbonator

So, I, uh, wanna promote my friend's fanfics. He's done 2, both part of the same series of a boy named Antoshi who wants to beat the Kanto gym leaders with his one pokemon, a Typhlosion. It's meant to take place 100 years after the events of Red and Blue, so everyone save for Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy and Red immortalized as a statue in Pallet Town is an original character. Along the way, Antoshi discovers he has supernatural powers, such as the ability to talk to Pokemon, among other more interesting stuff.

Trust me, this stuff's actually good, my friend's been working on this story for 15 years,and this is what he wants to be. I just really wanted to give it more exposure, because I feel he deserves it.

Mind if I vent a bit? I need to vent.

I posted a Pokemon one-shot on Fanfiction.net - first time I've put anything in that section. I got an extremely long and nitpicky comment that I'm really not sure what to say to, and I don't think I even want to say anything in response.

I mean, they started out by complaining about my use of capitalization and then linked me to this thread with a "check this before you try to argue otherwise" disclaimer. Holy shit. I've been involved with the Pokemon fandom in some form or another for over fifteen years, and I guess I missed the memo about what a critically important issue this was.

They were also really condescending about how my interpretation of the series' setting isn't cynical enough, so there's that.

edited 4th Mar '18 9:04:34 PM by SapphireBlue

Is the name of this reviewer St Elmo's Fire, by any chance? I got a review much like that when I first posted my story a couple of years ago. Just ignore it, report it if you want, and move on.

That was their name, yeah.

I don't think it's worth reporting, since the tone was more nitpicky and condescending than mean-spirited. I'm not going to reply, either - that's definitely not worth it.

...I'm still astonished about how that thread I was linked to is from an entire subforum that some author created for people to complain about her. Talk about living for drama.

edited 5th Mar '18 2:38:39 PM by SapphireBlue

I didn't even bother to open the thread. They also linked to one about why all Pokemon Trainers have to start at 10 years old (even though they don't in the game canon) and implied that my story was bad because my protag was 14.

What the heck? The “must be 10 to start” thing is pretty clearly not a thing in the games, given that you can battle preschool kids. Even in the anime, I don’t recall anything saying that it’s the only age you can start at. That’d be ridiculous.

Just ignore those kind of people. If they try to shove their dumbass headcanon down your throat then fuck those people.

I want to subvert some aspects of the standard formula of the games in my fic, but I'm afraid readers might expect exactly that. It doesn't help that there have been "plot twists" in the canon that failed to surprise anyone. How do I avoid the same pitfalls?

I think it depends on the plot twists and how foreshadowed they are, as well as how natural they feel.

Some of the biggest plot twists in this story are of the meta variety, and/or specifically involve the antagonists. There are a few clues hinting at them, so the twists won't be coming completely out of nowhere, but I'm more worried about foreshadowing too much than too little.

Edited by AgentKirin on Sep 17th 2018 at 7:37:15 AM

Title: The Curious and the Shiny

Fandom: Pokemon

Rating: T

Description: After being separated for five years during their escape from the experimental facility Ge L, Shine (Luxray) receives a clue hinting to Curio's (Lucario) whereabouts and sets off to Dendemille Town to find her. In the process, they reclaim their lost pasts, getting involved in various exploits with dragon ranchers, lost Alolans and other mysterious figures on the way.

Links: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12888078/1/The-Curious-and-the-Shiny https://starlightcrux.deviantart.com/art/The-Curious-and-The-Shiny-Chapter-1-737973630 (includes cover art!)

edited 1st Apr '18 10:34:23 PM by PunkyBarista

Hy given the talk of St Elmo's Fire. If you posted a pm at them its on their blog and violating the FF.net rules. Its best you report them.

I didn’t PM them.

Good they tend to be completely detached from the world around them on their blog.

On another note. People really should report them in groups at least once a week or so. The FFN mods won't do anything unless pressured to do so.

I don't indulge in the anime side of Pokemon fanfics because I've yet to enjoy one of them. One of my biggest gripes about anime fanfics as a whole is the deification of Ash Ketchum into some kind of messiah. Seriously, they've made the plot and characters so complex that a character as flat and vanilla as Ash comes off as a Marty Stu in comparison or the author is in desperate love with Ash and makes a story where he is smart/aura/sexy. It's not good storytelling. I also find it ironic that these writers hate Red, yet treat Ash in the exact same manner.

St Elmo's Fire is constantly reviewing stories. I don't know if they're a bot or not, but they always complain about capitalizing Pokemon names "correctly". They're the one who is wrong. They're mixing up canons and mixing up fan interpretations with canon.

I found some old fics of mine I don't even remember writing. Unsurprisingly, they're Pokemon (and aren't as bad as I thought). I don't know how five years ago I could write drabbles but now I can't write anything under 1000 words.

Could I make a shout out to a person I like? I mean their story.

Of course. That’s what these kinds of threads are for. Share away!

I don’t think St Elmo’s Fire is a bot. Just someone who thinks correcting the source material’s grammar is a moral imperative and that anyone writing anything besides soul-crushing darkfics is a delusional idiot.

Given what Twenty4Seven said, it sounds like it might be at least partly an attempt to bait people into arguments so they can make fun of them on the blog. The comment I got was a mixed bag, but some parts definitely seemed like bait, and even some of the positive bits felt like backhanded compliments. (“You’re worried whether you wrote N OOC? You did, but canon is garbage and I like yours better.”)

I actually got another comment later on the same fic where someone else told me not to listen to them and that they and a few other like-minded people are bullying new authors out of the section, although it’s hard to say how accurate that is.

I’d report them, but then I’d have to check the blog in question to make sure I know what I’m talking about, and I do NOT have the emotional energy for that kind of bullshit right now.

edited 24th Apr '18 3:41:33 PM by SapphireBlue

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12784090/1/United-Destiny-The-Hero-and-the-Hybrid

This is a story written by an author called Dragon's Blaze. She (Their Wattpad account seems to list them as female) seems rather aware of the tropes of the story she is writing. Which is to sum up means she playing and altering how they are usually done.

If I had to sum it up it would be this. Take come cringey overused concepts mix them in, and partly pick around with how they are done. To give an examples Ash does have aura... but the writer makes it clear that he has to much of it. At best all can do is understand Pokémon and outside extremely life threating situations it seems (as of the more recent chapters) that control over them is well outside his very limited training if not impossible. Furthermore while he does seem more "mature" its downplayed a bit as the author seemed to acknowledge that its usually forced tries to have it as more of a reaction to certain things whole keeping him still (mostly) in character.

The real kicker. They aren't the true protagonist. That honor seems to go to Serena who is connected heavily to the stories plot. Yes this is an Amourshipping story but instead of the having her either meet with Ash after starting or starting her journey thanks to him the author opted to having her start it independent of him. The story even time skips five years too the Sinnoh league as when they meet up. From the Amourshipping stories I've seen this is possibly the first of its kind with this idea.

Yes she is the hybrid but instead of the whole instant master and knowing what she is, she only has basic control of it, no real training, and doesn't even find it out until around twenty five chapters in and according to the current chapters is terrible at using them to the point she straight up can't even form a proper attack. Dues Ex Michiana she is not. Though I admit the first arc does give us a taste of power feel but that quickly gets stripped away as her impressive team are divided up with several reasons as too why.

I know I seem overly praising it but don't get me wrong it does have problems. Grammarly speaking while it is very good it still has minor problems the author isn't constant on chapter size, and the romance bit is a bit rushed, I say a bit as they tried to justify it but depending on how you look at it you can still call it rushed, and at times its feels like the chapters could be a bit longer.

However at the end of it they started it on new years day and nearly 40 chapters later (they update bi weekly or more at times) they have something like 127 favs and over 152 follows so it is very good for a relatively new story.

Wait... we can't remove our posts? Who cares, anyone spread the word about St.

edited 27th Apr '18 8:56:45 AM by Twenty4Seven

Soi how does one get a tv tropes page?

You just click on your username, and when it takes you to the "This page doesn't exist yet" page, just click "Edit Page" and start typing.

Wait? That's my story. United Destiny. Wait I was thinking of promoting it but someone beat me to it!