Infinity Train: Blossomverse Cleanup

I've heard from multiple users that this fanfic series is controversial. From my own experience, nine out of ten references to the series on this site are filled with complaining, and I've personally removed several misused trope entries related to this series. Let's see if we can bring the site's description of these works and their tropes back to the expected neutral tone.

Well, when your fanfic is based around bashing and even villainizing different characters for their "treatment" of Chloe (Ash, Delia, Goh and Parker, amongst others) and is based around assumptions that were proven false in the anime (claiming that Professor Cerise barely cares about what Chloe wants), staying neutral can be hard to do.

I do wonder if the Outdated by Canon thing should stay considering that the author still uses the things shown as false by the anime (which is one big criticism of Blossomverse: Fans are telling the author "If you had just waited to see if Chloe was going to stay a minor character, none of this would have happened"). After all, in a similar manner, Tikoriko continued using their version of Raven as a Chaotic Good woman who's willing to fight and loves her family even after RWBY showed her to be a selfish coward.

Being neutral doesn't mean we don't criticize it at all, it just means we don't use quite the level of vitriol that this series often gets (you might know that already, but I just wanted to clarify).

The Outdated by Canon part I think can stay since Green and the co-writers still using those aspects doesn't change the fact they were assumptions later contradicted by canon.

Got it.

NLID cleanup is questioning the validity of this example.

• Never Live It Down: Mallow is an interesting character as a former Passenger, but good luck bringing her up without mentioning how she kept the Train a secret from her friends, despite facing off literal aliens from other dimensions in the Sun and Moon season. Part of the reason is because many incarnations of her character keep this trait intact, but the most common reason is how arbitrarily it is to add tension to an already tension-heavy story.

NLID is fan exaggeration that makes its way into fanon portrayals of the characters. Besides too much on the complaints and not stating how its an unfair exaggeration, I'm not sure about the fanon portrayal part. Is this saying the other authors/recursive fanworks keep this aspect? (If this aspect is so disliked many reject it from there fanon of the character that's Fanon Discontinuity the opposite of NLID.)

Edited by Ferot_Dreadnaught on Aug 28th 2022 at 8:29:19 AM

I'd say cut it.

I think both of these are salvageable examples, but they seem overly complainy in their current state, especially the first one. Any thoughts?

I think the second one should be cut, because Goh snapping at Lexi is portrayed as a good thing.

I agree they both have issues with complaining. While I'm unsure if the second should be kept or not, I feel the first is salvageable.

From what I can tell, the criticism about Blossomverse is that in Blossoming Trail, the author doesn't have Chloe own up to the fact that the whole story is her fault until well into Act 2. There's also the fact that the story was written based off a series of assumptions by the author (e.g. Chloe remaining a minor character, Professor Cerise supposedly not caring about his daughter) and the fact that many of the stuff in story is contradicted by the anime (Chloe becoming a main character, she's not bullied or harassed at school and Professor Cerise encourages her to try new things).

To fans, a combination of blaming Ash and the others for stuff that Chloe never actually told them about, the Adaptational Villainy treatment for poor Parker and several other characters and the author continuing to run with her ideas and interpretations even though the anime has made it increasingly clear that none of her stuff can happen in the anime has resulted in an incredibly controversial and hated fanfic on websites like Bulbagarden and Spacebattles.

• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: After running away from home and boarding the Train, Chloe Cerise is initially ignorant of the panic her family back home is suffering because of her absence. When she finds out, she refuses to let anybody know she's okay and pushes Goh away whenever he tries to reach out to her. Even once she returns home, she is willing to run off again if Vermillion City doesn't change to her liking. Throughout the story, she fails to see her own role in anything, and only does something about this once her mother calls her out for it after "The Dead Carnival Car", the fallout of which can be traced back to poor communication on her part.

Tried my hand at rewriting the first one. This should be a bit less negative.

Edit: Fixed continuity error

Edited by badtothebaritone on Aug 30th 2022 at 9:29:17 AM

I think that it's more okay and less negative, but she is called out by her mother during the events of "The Dead Carnival Car", not after Act 2.

I haven't read the series and don't plan to, so I didn't know that. It said Act 2 originally.

Edited by badtothebaritone on Aug 30th 2022 at 9:23:45 AM

(x3) In my opinion, it seems fine.

Someone who's actually read it should be the one to write the final draft.

Hey, Braz? Have you read this story? If you have, could you help with writing the final draft?

Its passed so much time since I finished reading the story, only occasionaly reading for more information, but I can help with that.

I made a new draft for the Designated Hero example. I'm more familiar with the story.

• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: After running away from home and boarding the Train, Chloe Cerise is initially ignorant of the panic her family and Goh back home is suffering because of her absence. When she finds out, she refuses to let anybody know she's okay and pushes Goh away whenever he tries to reach out to her, even disowning their friendship when she finally talk with him. Chloe even say in an e-mail to her father that once she returns home, she is willing to run off again if Vermillion City isn't on her liking, being one of the reasons that her brother Parker decided to make everyone suffer with the Unown. Throughout the story, she fails to see her own role in anything, and only does something about this once her mother calls her out during the events of "The Dead Carnival Car" after the Unown fiasco, a fiasco which can be traced back to her poor-worded message for her family.

Looks great. Should I replace the original entry with this?

Edit: Done

Edited by badtothebaritone on Aug 30th 2022 at 9:11:37 AM

Yes.

The YMMV page of Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus really need a cleanup, because it's filled to the brim with complaining and negativity. I don't read the fanfic so someone else have to do it, but I founded a bad example there.

• Hype Backlash: Even the fans who like the story think it's getting a bit too overexposed in the Blossomverse, from Professor Sycamore making a cameo during The Darkest Day arc, to having an epilogue chapter in Orange Lily, to having not one but three side stories dedicated to it. This got even worse when the series was then attempted to be used to create a Happy Ending Override for Wisteria that emphasized every bad trope Green Phantom Queen and Spinnerite are capable of in a sheer display of spite. <- (Creator Bashing, more complaining and missing the point that Tropes Are Tools).

Rewritten version:

• Hype Backlash: Even the fans who like the story think it's getting a bit too overexposed in the Blossomverse, from Professor Sycamore making a cameo during The Darkest Day arc, to having an epilogue chapter in Orange Lily, to having not one but three side stories dedicated to it. This got even worse when the series was then attempted to be used to create a Happy Ending Override for Wisteria where Goh and Ash get their sanity destroyed beyond repair while Parker isn't called out for his actions with the Unown.

I'm going to keep pointing stuff like this if I have to, I just would need some assistance with re-wording this to be more neutral if anything.

I feel that this is a misuse since Informed Wrongness is when a character allegedly is wrong, but the audience beg to differ. I think that this should be removed.

Then at least address the elephant in the room that the context of the actual anime this is allegedly canon to has it so that Faba's the real issue behind why a lot of this communication failure happened in the first place, and it's also being incredibly unfair by implying everyone was capable of thinking rationally during such a moment for that matter, especially with how canonically hot-headed Gladion is when ticked off as it is.

In other words, I'm not going to pretend this fanfic is in any way correct about Gladion's behavior because I see this fanfic for what it actually is and it's just yet another example of why this author is such a pariah in the Pokémon fandom as a whole.

Edited by MightyFan217 on Aug 31st 2022 at 1:42:32 AM

I'm not so familiar with the anime, so I removed that example just to be safe.

Yeah, in the anime, when it was found out, Ash got really upset, enough to straight up tackle Faba and when Faba tried to ask Team Rocket for their help in erasing Lillie's memories, they went "We'd never do something like that" (probably after the events of A Scare to Remember!). I think the easier thing would be to say a combination of Faba using his Psychic-types to keep up the roadblock and Gladion's really hot-headed when he gets ticked.

Edited by FirstAidRules on Aug 31st 2022 at 4:42:14 AM