When you start a story, how do you decide what characters to use in it? What keeps you from or makes you want to use the same characters or types of characters in different stories? For example, in almost every Pokefic I've written or thought about writing I always choose to have a Totodile as part of the team either for utility purposes or simply because I'm so used to it that I know how it should act and how the character would move and/or fight.
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Vragon
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Oh I'm so guilty of this.
I use mons I like for my favorite characters and you can notice a somewhat pattern for it. There are ecxeptions and such, but usually I make the ones I really like in the story based off of mons I like from that actually series.
Examples:
Emmet - Marhstomp
Uther - Axew
Vragon - Fraxure
Zekerane - Zekrom
Swift - Heliolisk
Robin - Noivern
Bexan - Wartortle
I use mons I like for my favorite characters and you can notice a somewhat pattern for it. There are ecxeptions and such, but usually I make the ones I really like in the story based off of mons I like from that actually series.
Examples:
Emmet - Marhstomp
Uther - Axew
Vragon - Fraxure
Zekerane - Zekrom
Swift - Heliolisk
Robin - Noivern
Bexan - Wartortle
I don't really play favorites now, but back in the day almost all my stories had a Zoroark inside. I thought it was cunning and it had a dexterous movepool and certain literary advantages concerning its illusionary powers. Plus I thought it looked really cool, so if I had a story idea I liked, I had a Zoroark as a main.
Jason Wolf
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I absolutely have some go to pokemon, but each also represents something, so I can break them down into how I use them. I write within my own pokemon universe, so all of my stories are the same world, but different times and experiences. Having starters/pokemon that match what that story is about is a key thing.
Going in chronological order I can show you what I mean.
Book 1: Medieval fantasy. themes: Not all heroes are paragons, The knight in rusted armor.
Pokemon choices and reasons: Scyther: a brutal monstrous Pokemon who looks like they exist just to kill. It mirrors the bounty hunter protagonist extremely well.
Book 2: modern fantasy. themes: Doing what you love doesn't pay the bills.
pokemon: charmander: Everyone has a charmander. its so overdone and popular that seeing another character with it is nothing, and thats the point. The character is so astoundingly average in his abilities. he's struggling to be a good trainer. To go pro and be able to be a trainer for a living. Using Charmander shows that he is 1 among millions.
book 3: modern fantasy (modified version of Su/Mo): themes: strength is something we have, but not all choose to use.
Rowlet: definitely the least reasoned of the Pokemon, but the rowlet has developed into an analogy for being two different things on the outside and inside. Rowlet outwardly is this super cute owl Pokemon, but by the time it fully evolves it takes on a whole other existence. It changes into not just something different, but almost something opposite.
book 4: distant future "reclaimed" Apocalypse: themes: A call to duty, is not always a call to arms.
Grovyle: The story actually begins with the MC already well into their life. they are a mid ranking ranger (thus the middle evolution Pokemon). Grovyle itself matches the nature focus of the story, but also is a generally cocky strong willed kind of Pokemon. It helps to explore all the important character's reaction to traumatic events through their life. It also frees the MC to feel a bit weaker (Since the grovyle is the MC's partner he can be the one who stays strong and tough on the outside while the MC is shown falling apart after the trauma. They still have enough power between them to keep the plot moving, but it still shows the wear of such events)
Going in chronological order I can show you what I mean.
Book 1: Medieval fantasy. themes: Not all heroes are paragons, The knight in rusted armor.
Pokemon choices and reasons: Scyther: a brutal monstrous Pokemon who looks like they exist just to kill. It mirrors the bounty hunter protagonist extremely well.
Book 2: modern fantasy. themes: Doing what you love doesn't pay the bills.
pokemon: charmander: Everyone has a charmander. its so overdone and popular that seeing another character with it is nothing, and thats the point. The character is so astoundingly average in his abilities. he's struggling to be a good trainer. To go pro and be able to be a trainer for a living. Using Charmander shows that he is 1 among millions.
book 3: modern fantasy (modified version of Su/Mo): themes: strength is something we have, but not all choose to use.
Rowlet: definitely the least reasoned of the Pokemon, but the rowlet has developed into an analogy for being two different things on the outside and inside. Rowlet outwardly is this super cute owl Pokemon, but by the time it fully evolves it takes on a whole other existence. It changes into not just something different, but almost something opposite.
book 4: distant future "reclaimed" Apocalypse: themes: A call to duty, is not always a call to arms.
Grovyle: The story actually begins with the MC already well into their life. they are a mid ranking ranger (thus the middle evolution Pokemon). Grovyle itself matches the nature focus of the story, but also is a generally cocky strong willed kind of Pokemon. It helps to explore all the important character's reaction to traumatic events through their life. It also frees the MC to feel a bit weaker (Since the grovyle is the MC's partner he can be the one who stays strong and tough on the outside while the MC is shown falling apart after the trauma. They still have enough power between them to keep the plot moving, but it still shows the wear of such events)
I try not to play exact favorites (save for Totodile), but I do lean more towards the first two generations of Pokemon for Pokefics. Outside of the realm of Pokemon though, I tend to use a lot of the same archetypes and end up lazily writing a lot of my characters with the same voice. Such as I can't really distance myself from using characters who either just really don't care about what's going on or would really just rather not do anything at all.