チッ、また…もう一つの問題を気づけたな。
[cough] Say, I've got a bit of a dilemma. In a bit of a save-the-world scenario, I plan to portray the protagonist as a rather unskilled and unmotivated "Trainer" who happens to have a powerful Pokemon through certain circumstances. The Trainer and Pokemon have bonded, of course, but there are much more skilled Trainers who require the Pokemon's assistance. The Trainer, meanwhile, feels he has a huge responsibility, and even tries chickening out of saving the world at some points, leaving the other Trainers to use his Pokemon (which doesn't seem like a particularly "wrong" thing to do, considering his apparent worth towards the situation at first glance). I'm really wondering how to keep the protagonist involved throughout the story's run. The aforementioned bond seems worth working with, but aside from being a bit cliched and cheesy (though, maybe not with proper execution), does it seem extremely realistic? I mean, I won't deny that Pokemon would perform best when in a healthy mental state, but for it to be so significant? And even if the more experienced Trainer has also bonded with the Pokemon in the past (albeit a lot less than its initial partner), not to mention the pressure of what's at stake? Maybe it could work out, but I'm wondering if there're alternate ways to go about this. For the record, I want the Trainer to stay with his Pokemon, but I don't want him to suddenly become overly confident and then become some pro overnight.
My God, that exists?! *is shot repeatedly*
well.... actually, I might have a rape scenario, but only if you get a bad ending. Being a game and all, multiple endings are possible. Speaking of which, this brings up another fine question.
What's the most objectionable thing you plan to add to your story (if you haven't done so already)?
For me, it depends on the story (since I have many in the works) and what the target audience is. With an erogee.... yeah, there's really not much to hide with pornography. Though, I guess the aforementioned rape ending would be pushing it. In one of my serials, the majority of the content seen throughout the story gets to be no worse than something you'd see on Adult Swim (hell, it even enters a peaceful, slice-of-life mode at several points). However, later into the story, I'm intending for some deaths and violent acts to be pretty gruesome (one man's stabbed in the eye with an unbent paper clip, for instance), and one of the main antagonists even performs acts of cannibalism and rape (albeit undetailed rape with most of it off-panel).
Anyway, I've been neglecting some questions lately. Better get to them.
Why do you use Pokemon nicknames?
I guess to personify the Pokemon a bit better.
How important is the title of a fic?
Kinda important. It could help you get noticed, but I guess a lot of your viewers will be through word of mouth and other things. And since I'm doing doujinshi, the title friggin' pales in comparison to how the artwork would look and what what the art would portray (though, a catchy title is still good).
Who/What inspired you to write your fic?
I started off with a concept from my little brother. For the record, though, my brother himself didn't drive me (I barely even want to associate him with my work now after all the times he acted like such a prick).... he just put some basic idea in my head and I wanted to expand on it. I guess I was drawn to it because I liked the idea of a dark Pokemon story (though, this was before I realized that several people already wrote fics like that). Plus, the Pokemon anime was at a severe low-point at the time, being in mid-Jouto.... you can imagine it was extremely disappointing in terms of giving any kind of decent Pokemon-related stories (or hell, any story that wasn't just a plot recycled from the previous week -_-).
In the meantime, I'm watching shows like Digimon (especially Digimon Tamers), Outlaw Star, Inuyasha (what can I say? The show sucked later on, but its beginning was decent enough), Silent Mobius, Sailor Moon S, and some others. I was still relatively new to anime at the time, and I was just beginning to see what this eastern media was really capable of. I couldn't help but think how mature a lot of anime is, using effective drama (a lot of it not overly cheesy like some bad soap opera) and not afraid to delve into complicated issues, namely matters of life and death. It kinda made me wish the Pokemon anime could go in a similar direction: a darker, more dramatic storyline with continuing plot arcs, something we don't usually see with its light-hearted atmosphere and extremely episodic formula. Part of it's kinda shallow, and of course my mindset's much more different today, but yes, most of my stories did originally evolve from this idea (ironically, I was never one of those idiots who thinks that Pokemon's all gory and sexual in the Japanese version.... probably because so many sites mentioned the banned episodes and, aside from Kojirou's bodysuit, nothing in the screenshots seemed that different from what's usually seen in the English version. I saw screenshots of episodes that were still not in America, as well).
Is it okay to cut down on the description when you're trying to add a mysterious atmosphere to your chapter?
manga, don't do description.... however, I wouldn't mind keeping certain characters in shadow or with some features off-panel to keep them ominous until they're fully revealed.
How do you feel about "n00b" comments about your fic?
n00bs are the scum of the internet. In other words, their posts are largely ignorable and a huge waste of time.
Do you welcome the use of legendary Pokemon in your fic(s) or try to stay away from them?
legendary Pokemon are practically gods, and a lot of my storylines do seem to play around with religion and man's perception of God, so they're only too welcome in such cases. I even have them captured by certain characters at times (partly to remind the audience that, seemingly gods or not, these ARE Pokemon, and as much as fanfic authors I keep seeing on threads like this want to deny it, they can be controlled by humans.... though, it kinda helps that the ones doing the capturing are usually antagonists). Mind you, they don't play a role in ALL of my stories, but even then, a small cameo might not be entirely impossible (especially Giratina, whom I could associate with death as something of a Grim Reaper).
EDIT: Bleh.... damn forum being unable to post foreign characters properly. -_- Ah well, not like many people could read what I put there anyway.
