Cliches in Pokmon Fanfiction | Page 10
Eevee as the main character's starter, and Eeveelutions in general - This has become one of the most annoying trends in 90% of all Pokemon fan-works being the overuse of Eeveelutions, like the story is somehow required to have an Eeveelution present in some way. Umbreon and Espeon are especially overused, and Sylveon is slowly reaching the same status (bonus points if they happen to be shinies). For instance, I found one story where three members of a trainers team were Eeveelutions, and unsurprisingly, two of them just happened to be Umbreon and Espeon. Shiny Umbreon is also a LOT more common than regular Umbreon.
Anything related to Lucario and Riolu - See above with Eeveelutions. Seriously, just because *insert Pokemon here* is very popular does not mean that you are required to use it.
They're cure and cool. Go look up Eevee Party. They're used a lot because they're popular, lots of people like them. If you like the Pokemon, and your story is about your self-insert trainer (whether you want to admit it's a self-insert or not), why wouldn't you use pokemon you like? Since pokemon usually have a lot of overlap in their talents, why use a heliolisk when you can use an eevee? Plus, with eevee, you get to do all that stuff with change, duality, etc.As for Lucario, furries.
What, you didn't realize?
Villain team is Team Rocket, or evil for the sake of being evil - When it comes to cannon villain teams, Team Rocket is overused the most, and even when it's an original villain team, it tends to be a carbon copy of them that does evil things just for the sake of being evil, and not having any point as to why they're evil, they just are.
What's wrong with this? I mean, yeah, sure, the "evil for evil's sake" thing. But what's wrong with using Team Rocket? Or using other canon "Teams"? Someone earlier in the thread criticized fics for using "carbon copies" of villain teams, and I'm sitting here shaking my head, like, "What else are they supposed to use!?" There's a level of skill where one's writing doesn't have to have a "villain" at all, and if there is a clear antagonist, it's usually just a normal person, not a terrorist group or crime ring. But if you're writing a trainer fic, you're probably not there. Teams like Rocket, Magma, and [whatever the new ones are] are native to the setting (being canon), and so you really can't go wrong, so long as you portray them accurately. When your antagonist is the notorious Team Rocket, who sometimes has a plan but usually is just stealing for profit, that's pretty easy to do.Ghost, Poison, and Dark types (or any Pokemon that's "ugly") as antagonists - It doesn't matter if they're Pokemon used by the villain team, or if you're doing a Mystery Dungeon-type story where the focus is mainly on the Pokemon rather than the trainers, but it seems like the antagonists always have to be the same Pokemon, which are Ghost types like Gengar and Chandelure, Dark types like Houndoom and Mightyena (but almost never Umbreon, because Eeveelutions are almost ALWAYS the good guys), or 90% of all Poison types. Pokemon that are considered "ugly" like Garbodor will also be labeled as antagonists.
Again, this is canon. Since Dark is literally "Underhanded," it fits right in with the "dishonourable" tactic of using Poison and the general unpleasantness of Ghosts. Team Rocket uses these pokemon. Other antagonists do, too! It's more a statement about the trainer, in most cases (though maybe not in the realm of poorly-thought out fanfiction), the same way you're likely to see a PokeCenter Nurse with a Blissey, less-savoury folks just get along better with Koffing and Haunter.Complaining about this is like complaining that the villains are vampires or zombies. What did you expect? Sometimes the Evil is Ugly trope is subverted and you get a plot twist where the cutesy, ruffled, lacy, baby-pink, contest coordinator petting the skitty, who was never anything less than polite, and never anything more than harmless, can the bad guy-- but if that happens too often, it stops being effective.
Prophecies and the Chosen One - Having the main character being destined to save the world is such an overused cliche, I mean, does the main character look anything like Link or Luke Skywalker? I don't think so. A large portion of the time, this trope tends to be forced and contrived, with the only reason for existing is to move the plot. This isn't Lord of the Rings or The Legend of Zelda, so the story shouldn't be treated like it is something like that.
Sure, but it's an easy way to motivate the plot. To be fair, the protagonist is the chosen one, the one the author has chosen to write about. For some reason, this story is best told as their story, whether they're more capable or powerful or they have a particular insight or outlook-- even if they aren't fulfilling a prophecy within the confines of the fic, they're literally chosen ones.As far as looking like Link or Luke Skywalker-- you mean completely plain, common, normal? I don't know what the original LoZ games gave Link insofar as character, but I know in Twilight Princess, you're just some guy. Luke Skywalker was the same way-- iirc he was some peasant working on a moisture farm? You know, dressed in rags? Jesus is p much the same way-- looks totally normal, has a totally lame birth and childhood, but then he turns out to be the chosen one.
Robo-Floatzel said:
Legendaries, period - Do I really need to explain more?
I can get behind "Legendaries being thrown into the plot just for upping the power level" and that kind of stuff being cliché, but Legendaries period? I can't see how would "this story has a Legendary in it" be more of a cliché than "this story has a Bug-type in it". Legendaries are a part of the world of Pokémon, and benefit from having (for the most part) very clearly established roles. If your villain team is doing something on a large scale that could intersect those interests and roles, then it'd be weird for the Legendary to not show up in some form or another. If anything, the real cliché that I feel is being complained about is "the goals of the Evil Team intersect with a Legendary". Which, admittedly, is fairly cliché for any villain team that is being written somewhat seriously and being given a feel like they are in the same game as say Galactic or Cipher.Legendaries are a part of the world, and have their place-- their place is basically the same place Cthulhu should have. Talked about. Feared, maybe. But never, never seen.
Unless you're doing a fic that spans the entirety of a region (as in, you're just following the plot of the game and adding in flavour text to what's going on in your Game Boy), or the Legendary is actually important to your plot (y'know, for more than just deus ex machina), then, generally you should leave it out. They're Legendary. The kind of pokemon people write legends about. Because no one has ever seen them and people aren't sure they even really exist.
Just like my example above with the surprise-villain, if you use Legendary pokemon too often, they lose their effect as a literary thingy. They're not awesome if they're commonplace. If a legendary is commonplace, then it's no better than a recklessly-used Eevee or Lucario. The effect is the same. "We've seen it, it's been done." If you need a big, cool pokemon, just use a Wailord.
As for Karpi, who mentioned "Flandarized" pokemon, and referred to them having one personality trait:
A Flandarized pokemon is more like Snorlax, whose one personality trait is taken to the extreme. In short story writing, any non-main character (for example, the trainer's non-pikachu pokemon) really doesn't need to have more than one strong personality trait. Choose a Nature, and you're set. Any more than that, and it starts to get confusing; you'll find you've got your Trainer, your Trainer's Pikachu, and probably 5 other well-developed characters (the other pokemon in the party) that really don't have anything to do with the story, besides supporting the Pikachu in battles. Fleshing out the side characters very heavily will just leave your fic seeming aimless. It'd be like telling your story in 3rd person omniscient, and detailing everybody's every little last thought. In the end, it doesn't matter, and we don't care. Just give us the important stuff!
(o' course, if you're writing a novel, you probably have more room for characterization. But then, are you writing it chapter by chapter, and posting it online? Or are you completing the whole first draft, then going back to rewrite?)
^All this taken with a grain of salt, please, 'cause tbh I've never actually finished writing anything in my life.
ncG1vNJzZmiapaGvorPAq5uepl6jsrV706GpnpmUqHykuMicn56rXZ67brzOpJymp55is6K6xaKaraGfo3tygZNwb21noJa0pnmQaQ%3D%3D