[Discussion] Handling Legendaries in Fan Fictions Based on the Games

[Reginald Cosmic]

Before I get to what the title of this thread says: I genuinely couldn't find a rules thread for this forum. The "Fan Fiction & Writing" forum has rules, but I couldn't find the rules for this one. Should I have used the "[Discussion]" tab instead? [/Genuine] Please don't ban me, homie. [/Half-kidding]

A friend of mine once told me he used to read a lot of fanfics where the characters caught legendaries and used them, and he thought that was undesirable for a fanfic cuz the Legendary Pokémon like Lugia and Ho-oh are deities in the anime. I think? I don't know. It's been a long time since I consistently watched the Pokémon anime (and I never watched the 2nd movie). I'm actually not sure why this is different in the Pokémon Origins anime, but I didn't want to push it. (Please do not speak ill of this friend if you disagree with his opinion on the matter. He's a loyal friend. Trust me.)

My planned fan fiction is based on the lore of the games (sticking to the main timeline where Mega Evolution doesn't exist), but I did watch the first five episodes of the anime and the first Hoenn episode where May is introduced to get some ideas on how to conduct a battle that's not just the opposing Pokémon taking turns. It's going to be hard to find a balance between being faithful to the games and telling a fun story.

Further context is that the stories adapt Gens 3 through 5 (FRLG, RSE, HGSS, Platinum, Black, and Black 2) in six different fanfics with original protagonists with original names.

I was thinking the protagonist would battle Zapdos after the sixth gym, Moltres (on Sevii Island) after the seventh gym, and Articuno after the eight gym. (This way spaces out the legendary birds a bit.) As for Mewtwo, I had plans for Mewtwo to be under control of Team Rocket in some way, but I wasn't sure how to do that since Giovanni leaves Team Rocket after his defeat in the gym. I was under the impression I could just have the protagonist catch them and not use them. I didn't have a reason for this other than her sense of pride in not wanting to use legendaries to beat the Elite Four. I even considered making Mewtwo the final opponent for my OC protagonist (a stand-in for Red/Leaf) before my friend told me he didn't like the idea.

I have another idea for who would be the very last opponent for the story: Professor Oak! Yeah, creative liberties, but to be fair, there is evidence that he was going to be the final boss in Gen I.

I was actually thinking about it again. I really like the idea of Mewtwo being shown that trainers are not all wicked like in the first anime movie, perhaps being caught and then released (for PokéDex completion). I did consider Mewtwo using psychic powers to complete the PokéDex with entry 150 before the Professor Oak fight.

I also feel like it'd be a bit unfair if the RSE protagonist had the honor of dealing with legendaries but not the first protagonist.

I didn't mean to type so much. Any advice would be appreciated, but I'd like to hear from at least a couple different people.

 

[Bay]

Hey, so real quick I went and change the tab to Discussion, so no worries there!

As for handling legendaries in fic, I think your plans for your protagonist going against the legendary birds realistically the trainer might need a tad more experience. However I think that's in line with the games where you get the birds a little over halfway. If your protagonist captures but not use the legendaries there's two ways you can do that. The first is you can also chalk it up that the legendaries are disobedient/hard to train because, well, they're legendaries. You can also do like Goh in the later Pokemon anime seasons where he caught a legendary but let it roam when it pleases.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

First off, I'm glad you changed it to the correct "Discussion" tab. Thank you.

I forgot Goh from the anime caught some legendary Pokémon, and I wasn't aware he just let them roam as they please. I really only know about Goh from nerd stuff like YouTube videos and Twitter artists. That concept actually really suits the story I had planned, especially Mewtwo.

Maybe Mr. Fuji gives her a different kind of flute that can summon them when needed (like in ORAS with Latios/Latias). The only time one of the legendary birds gets used for any meaningful battle is against Mewtwo because, I mean, just look at him!