10 KiB
Suggestions for Rational Pokemon Fanfic
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Author: u/Thulahn *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/8kkf8t/suggestions_for_rational_pokemon_fanfic/
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Score: 7
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Created: 2018-05-19T10:23:43
Post:
I hope you don't mind me posting this. I've just finished reading Game of Champions and am an avid fan of Pokémon Origin of Species. I was wondering if anyone knew any other Pokémon fanfic with a similar vein of quality: deep, well thought out and believable characters with decent motivations, and a well explained and rationalised world.
I know that Daystar really liked Game of Champions.
I guess my love of Pokémon had continued on with me all into childhood (!)
Edit: thanks for your suggestions everyone. I've decided to check out Sun Soul at the moment, and then will branch out!
Comments:
u/Menolith [+9] Unworthy Opponent (56 minutes later)
Man, Game of Champions being unfinished still stings.
u/VilhalmFeidhlim [+7] (4 hours later)
Personally, I'm a big fan of Pedestal: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4871317/1/Pedestal by Digital Skitty.
I wouldn't call many of the characters themselves particularly rational, but I think the author takes a fairly rationalist view of how the world of Pokemon might operate, and the conflicts that might arise. Still, the characters are, at least in my opinion, extremely well-portrayed with many dimensions and very believable motivations.
u/LazarusRises [+2] (a day later)
Does the writing improve? Got through 12 chapters, story's ok so far but the writing is juvenile.
u/VilhalmFeidhlim [+2] (2 days later)
The writing matures as the narrator does, and it gets more serious as it goes along- although, I may not be the best judge, because I didn't even recognize that it was juvenile when I read it.
u/LazarusRises [+2] (2 days later)
Ok, I'll keep reading! I got kind of annoyed the 15th time she tripped over Des, and some of the conversations read like the author had a joke they wanted to make, then (badly) sculpted a whole dialogue to get there.
u/Thulahn [+1] (2 days later)
I also felt like the writing was juvenile.
u/gfe98 [+5] (2 days later)
I remember enjoying Traveler.
I disliked Pokemon: Origin of Species because I feel that it went about rationalizing the setting in the wrong way. Dumbing down pokemon into simple animals loses the interesting part of the setting in my opinion. I think it also tried to create a scientific explanation for powers using real world physics, rather than trying to rationalize the setting's magic system. It lost the interesting parts of Pokemon, and the new stuff failed to interest me.
u/DaystarEld [+5] Pokémon Professor (4 days later)
So these are pretty fair points of different taste in pokemon rational fiction! One thing I'm interested in, though, is what you believe a rationalist/realistic take on pokemon with human level intelligence would look like, or does look like in some currently existing story.
Because I have yet to find any fiction do it justice: not only do they take the enslavement of sapient beings for granted, but the pokemon inevitably end up acting just like animals who can speak English (or whatever language) anyway, rather than treating them like actual people who have wills and goals and plans of their own beyond "survive and kill" if wild or "serve my master" if caught (or "rebel for a bit then realize I just want to serve my master" if caught but unruly).
Which is basically why I took my cue from the games and made them animal level intelligence. Any story that actually treats them like people would have to be about the liberation and eventual equality of pokemon to be rational and, in my view, have likeable characters. No humans working against those goals would be good people. And that would be an awesome story to tell (kind of like Temeraire), but not one that I have an interest in writing, personally :) If someone else has written a story like that, though, I'd live to read it!
u/gfe98 [+2] (4 days later)
The most frequent justification I've seen for why intelligent pokemon choose to join trainer's team is that all pokemon are driven to reach their maximum potential, and joining a trainer permits them to achieve this faster.and with a higher chance of success. This would mean that pokemon are always free to leave whenever they wish. And of course there is a middle ground of intelligence between human and the animals we are familiar with.
Or the story can just be grimdark, which I would be perfectly happy to read.
I do agree that its disturbing and common to have psychic pokemon holding advanced conversations in english and still being treated like animals.
I would recommend Hyphen.
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (4 days later)
My problem with the "pokemon just really love fighting/getting stronger, so they join trainers to do that" still totally upends the world of pokemon as most people know it. If such a thing were true, humans would not need to struggle to catch pokemon at all: they would instead be in a mutual partnership, where pokemon are actually competing to find the best trainers and join their teams.
This is what I mean by treating pokemon like people, with their own thoughts and feelings and rationally pursued goals. All the added justifications don't make up for the intrinsic dynamic of the pokemon world of the games and anime and manga, where people fight pokemon in the wild who struggle not to get caught, and upon getting caught they suddenly are willing to die for their trainer/to get stronger.
Even if it's a case of "so human, you have caught me fairly and thus proven your worth as a trainer..." What stops pokemon from just joining another trainer that beats theirs? The entire conceit of pokemon (again as most people know/represent it) relies on pokemon being essentially less than people. Whatever might come between humans and animals doesn't really interest me if it doesn't answer those essential questions: if they're ultimately treated like animals anyway, they might as well just be animals, so that people now have to deal with that reality the way we would rather than have convenient "cheats" that don't make consistent sense.
I'll check Hyphen out at some point, thanks!
u/geekunbound [+2] (6 years later)
Completely agree. Very new to this sub and rational writing, but I heard your podcast on this and just read this, and it just feels too contrived that Pokémon need to get stronger... and are intelligent... but are otherwise treated like animals and kept in a ball all day.
u/gbear605 [+4] history’s greatest story (2 days later)
I don't know how far into Origin of Species you got, but in my opinion it did very little real-world-physics explanations for Pokemon. The part about dumbing down Pokemon is definitely accurate though.
u/None [+4] (2 days later)
The sun soul fills a lot of the rational criteria. It might be a bit too gritty for certain tastes though, but a good read still. On mobile, so here's a direct link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5367085/1/The-Sun-Soul
u/Ephemeralen [+1] (4 days later)
The Sun Soul is excellent. It is definitely the most rat!fic-ish Pokemon fic I've ever come across. It very much shares that special quality that Methods of Rationality and Animorphs: The Reckoning both have, which Origin of Species decidedly lacks.
u/Icare0 [+3] (a day later)
Since eroticas has already posted a link to a crapton of stuff, I will a curve ball here. If you want a Pokemon fic that has a very different feel, because it is based on a Nuzlocke run, look for Apocalipse Johto. The premise is basically that Pokemon started going on rampages out of nowhere. The result is a world that is is the most logical result of giving obscene powers to every wild animal.
u/ketura [+1] Organizer (2 days later)
Wow, this was surprisingly good from a "what does the world look like" sort of angle. Loved the visual take on the various Pokémon. I kinda wish it had stayed closer to the premise and just kept following the Nuzlocke run; by the end it has pretty firmly gotten caught up in epic grandiose storytelling and it seems to have lost its focus somewhat. It's ironically a lot like canon in this regard.
For anyone tuning in, the art kinda sucks at first, but the artist gets better as time goes on: http://www.paragonsigma.com/images/nuzlocke/candaceink0163.jpg
u/eroticas [+2] (4 hours later)
check here? https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/1yqcw5/meta_good_pokemon_fanfic/
u/Jon_unclearlastname [+2] (4 days later)
One that I've never seen reccomended here but is one of my favourites is "The Saga of Kings, Book I, Hero" by Vile Slanders.
The protagonist could be described as somewhat of a foul- mouthed but honorable and intelligent hardass which might not be your cup of tea (but he definitely grows on you and there is imo some really well done character development). The ranger corps which he's a part of is like a military unit tasked with fighting back against the threat of humanity's extinction coming from rampaging pokemon and the author seems very knowledgeable of how the military is set up in the real world making the organisation seem very realistic. While the story could probably not be considered explicitly rational it does a very good job of making you buy the premises set up.
It is still unfinished but there's a lot more current content available than Game of Champions has.
u/Thulahn [+1] (4 days later)
This sounds great. Will definitely check it out.
u/Jon_unclearlastname [+2] (5 days later)
Cool! Let me know how you like it when you have. I'd be interested in finding out how the rational community would feel about this story since I believe it deserves a lot more recognition than it currently has.