Avoiding Cliché in Pokemon fics
Like many of you, I'm a sucker for a good pokemon fic. Unfortunately there are so many of them out there that pretty much everything you think of has been done already.
So what can you do to stand out?
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Starting locations
Notice how many people start their journey in the same starter town, despite the fact that the majority of the people live in the larger cities of that region?
Switch it up a little!
Have your MC start on one of the Orange Isles, Cerulean City, Lavender Town or whatever. Those trainers that hand around a gym in the games and city?
Why not make the gym leaders distributor's of starting pokemon of their specialty in their municipality?
Want a specific pokemon? Make it an option to simply buy pokemon online just like you can buy cats n dogs off Craigslist, but make it a licenced trade!
You don't need to start in Pallet Town, or the equivalent there of in any of the regions, but if you do consider basing your story on a different character or SI into a different family.
Aren't you sick and tired of always reading about a variant of Ash Ketchum? Why not SI as Gary for a change?
He's rich, and whilst he doesn't have a 'milf' that we know off, there's nothing stopping you from going after Ms. Ketchum anyway.
If an 18+ fic is your game, then consider genderbending Ash and applying whatever your stash consists of early to explain why she's tagging along.
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Superpowers
You want super powers? Of all the Aura using fics I've read, not once did its trainer truly justify the need for it. In the end it was just useless greeble to fill up the word count with self gratification.
If you want a useful superpower that's available in the pokemon world, just make your character psychic. The versatility of that in the pokemon verse is about the same as that of Jean, aka. Phoenix from the X-men.
Psychic in Pokemon means everything from telekinesis, to complete mind fuckery. Something that is even seen in the anime with the psychic who trapped her own parents inside her dolls.
You could, even talk with your pokemon if that's your thing, and if it's not, you can just make it a one way connection or something like a mental language barrier.
I sure as hell wouldn't want my Pickachu to share its thoughts if I were Ash, telling me my mum was right and that I should have packed more clean underwhere because I smell. ;)
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Financing
Something most people wonder is how the hack a Pokemon trainer could possibly sustain themselves financially, if they're not draining their parents dry.
A fantastic way to add dept to your character, and make them seem more competent is by tackling this issue with how you would do this.
Here are some ideas I would do:
- Vlogging
- Mini Series
- Stock footage (film, sound and photography)
- Poketube channel with Trainer Hacks (tips, tricks & tutorials for all you do from pokemon to outdoor survival, to how to shoot that stock footage)
- Collect Sponsors
- Merchandise
- Automated Webshop /w Commissions
Hell, if your fic is an 18+ type you could even include the oldest profession or make outdoor videos of that nature.
There is literally tons of stuff you could do in the pokemon world to earn an extra buck doing what you do anyway, that you can do IRL too.
If you're writing a darker fic with an evil MC, you could even go for blackmail, theft, extortion and other mobster like activities to fund their travels.
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Travel Efficiency
One of the most stupid things in Pokemon is how there are so many cheap long range travel options that people seem to forget.
Its like wizards in Harry Potter. They have magic, and instantly lose their minds for any and all logic.
If you have played the games, then you will know all of the fast travel options and if you know the anime, you'll be able to point out even more.
- Flight
- Teleport (Butterfree is psychic and should by logic be able to learn it, and if thats your super power then so could you.
- Riding your pokemon ( Arcanine and Ponita for example in kanto)
- Riding a bicycle / mountain bike, motorcycle, car etc.
The thing is, if you wanted to, every rooky and noob could catch a catterpie, train it up and once it evolved into a Butterfree, teach it teleport and you could spend your sweet ass in your own bed without lodging costs each night.
You could have breakfast at the kitchen table with your S. O. Or family. Something that really puts in perspective the absence of logic in the pokemon world.
Your character could make an awesome fic just by showing off logic in how to tackle these common issues that apparently the pokemon fanbase seems to be unable to sole as well!
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Set an unique handicap or goal for your character.
Instead of following Ash his example, why not become a water pokemon trainer like misty originally intended to be?
Set out to prove your preferred type's superiority over others, become a gym master or elite four yourself.
Why not go out and charge down the realism route?
Make pokemon dangerous, like some of the darker pokemon fics, where people are often found dead in the wild as the result of a bandit or pokemon attack.
Sensationalise the Dangers of veridian forest, Mount moon and places like it, add mysteries like a serial killing samurai kid slaying people with his bug pokemon in the forest out of some self induced eco terrorist like agenda.
If you ever turned on the news and saw a piece about an animal attack, then you know what sorts of things you can enter pokemon wise.
Hell you can make traveling by sea dangerous because Gyarados have a taste for human blood and other such things.
There is so much you can do to add to your story in the pokemon world, and there are so few people who think to take advantage of it.
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Last but not least, Trainer Ages.
Why bother mentioning an age at all? Does it add to your story? Is it vital for you to know the age of a Pokemon trainer? It's a handicap when you insert it and a good way to get the FBI kicking down your door type of jokes or outright complaints of people saying something is not even possible at that age.
Another thing I never understand is the need to start a fic from birth or even before that and cover the entire childhood of your character, when it usually can be summed up with: this is x, x is a reincarnated person with super powers and he found Z pokemon as a kid and befriended it.
People easily take 10 or so chapters to describe their characters childhood only to run out of steam and drop the fic before they even reach the first gym.
10 chapters to describe they're Reincarnated, Can use aura and have a riolu or some other pokemon that doesn't belong in the region the story is placed in.
All the while the entire story to that point can simply be put in a single first chapter that starts the day their pokemon journey at an unspecified age starts.
How hard is it to summerise it to:
"My name is Randy Ketchum, the randy, reincarnated twin brother of Ash Ketchum that's been training to use Aura with the Riolu I encountered in my childhood.
I'm excited to start my pokemon journey, tough I will miss the 18+ moments I had in secret with my mom."
That is like the majority of all published, aura using reincarnation SI pokemon fica with more than 10 chapters summerised in 2 mini paragraphs.
If you're writing a fic. Don't waste your energy on childhood. Invest it on the actual time and space the show covers. Because as you can see, your long conversations with your pokemon about aura and you tapping your mom are all dust in the grand scheme of things.
Dust that no one misses when you sumerise the childhood to a funny, quirky introduction that gives people the lay of the land and allows you to move on to the real story.
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I hope you've enjoyed my Opinion piece, with tips and trick to avoid clichés when writing a Pokemon story.
Leave your thoughts and opinions down below, try not to kill each other over them and if you write a fic inspired by some of these suggestions, link it. ;)