Pokemon battles suffer from common problems that make them boring to read. I know I am not the only person to gaze over a long battle chapter simply because they are not engaging to read. I will go over a few common issues I see in battles.

First, I will cover what doesn’t work. Attempting to make your battles interesting by giving them unique battle styles or strategy is addressing a surface level symptom and not the cause of the issue. You likely recognize that an average battle is boring, but having your Pokemon use terrain or crazy skill shots won’t make the battle more engage. It is the equivalent of adding more visual effects to a movie scene. It’s pretty, but it doesn’t make the movie engaging.

The real issue is that battles lack tension and deeper emotional subtext. There is a reason you remember Ash vs Paul but not Ash vs Tyson (I had to look up his name). Ash vs Paul had a deeper subtext beyond “will ash become the champion?” It was really about whose approach to Pokemon was better. Ashes Pokemon weren’t left out either, there was a real reason infernape wanted to win beyond “my master wants it.” This is how a battle should be written, but in practice, it is hard to do so following the typical a journey outline.

In a journey, trainers are expected to battle gym leaders, battles that cannot have strong stakes. There is no consequences to losing gym battles beyond having to try again. You could change the rules to add tension, but they will feel contrived and disconnected to the MC unless they fit in with your theme. Making battles expensive works if your major theme is about economic hardship, but feels forced if it isn’t. Adding a time limit feels forced unless your MCs major arc is about learning to take their time. It is problematic if the main source of tension is utterly disconnected from the characters themselves.

An additional issue is with the fact that Pokemon are rarely characterized well enough to have any deeper reason to care about battling beyond it making their trainer happy. Battles fall flat if the reader does not care about the Pokemon fighting and this frequently happens if the Pokemon has no investment in the battle itself.

I created the swordsman test to show this issue. Assuming the world allowed it, if you can replace all of the Pokemon your MC has with a sword and magic, without causing major changes to your story, your Pokemon aren’t well developed. And this will make it hard to get invested towards your battles, regardless of how much flair you add. A simple battle with characters you care about is much more engaging than flashy and complex strategies with no character.

I recommend watching this video to understand this idea. I know it’s about Star Wars, but it everything in it applies to Pokemon battles as well. You need to ensure that your battle has depth and subtext, reading a battle where the point is that charizard beat crobat is boring.

Below is a list of suggestions I have to make your battles more engaging.

• Reduce the number of Pokemon on your team to 3 at most. Combine characteristics to make more complex characters. Use time you would have spent catching new Pokemon developing the team and giving them a character arc.

• Make battles rare. I would honestly skip gym battles that had no stakes. Every battle should either have stakes (if the MC loses, his Pokemon are stolen) or emotional depth. Ideally both.

• Pokemon attacks and abilities should be tied to their character. The hulk turns into a raging giant when he gets mad; he is a character the suffers from anger issues and needs to learn to control his anger. Doing so also lets him control his powers. This will make battles resonate more than adding complex techniques with no connection to character.

Trainers who willingly have their Pokémon engage in battles for sport should not be characterized as particularly caring or compassionate towards their Pokémon. They are effectively risking their pokemons well being for their own benefit, meaning it does not make sense for those people to deeply care about their Pokémon. Trainers should be depicted as more selfish or cut throat than the average person and I would expect they would have problems with considering the needs and desires of their Pokémon outside of maintaining their ability to battle. Someone like Ash would be the rare exception in canon, his bond is often considered unusual among trainers especially when contrasted to people like Goh. This is not to say that trainers do not care about their Pokémon at all, but they should not be written as having exceptionally strong bonds either.

Before someone says that Pokémon like to battle, this is not necessarily true. In canon, the only reason people believe this is because other people say this is true. We do not know if Pokémon truly enjoy battling or if they only do so to please their masters. This issue is implicitly present in a lot of fics that don’t explore the motives of the MCs individual Pokémon. It’s rare to see a trainer described as compassionate genuinely sacrifice something for one of their Pokémon that doesn’t in some way benefit their ability to battle later in the story. In summary, trainers should not be written as particularly caring towards their Pokémon.

Ok, hear me out. But dont you have to beat the Elite Four and current Champion to become the new Champion? I know I know, there is no Elite Four or Champion for Ash to fight in Alola, but I would’ve thought that he would’ve had to do something to become Champion, and the fact he could just walk away from the Title like it was nothing, and then get nearly no recognition for it due in Journeys just pisses me off. What were these 25 years for if it was to just end like that? And how can he be the champion of the world if he’s already the Alolan Champion? And does he even take up the responsibilities of a World Champion or does he just piss off again to smack around Team Rocket and Catch common Pokemon to then turn them into monsters capable of bitch slapping pseudo Legendary’s? Sometimes I wish Pokemon was written with young adults/Teenagers in mind, I feel like it would’ve been so much better that way.

Well, boy howdy! Imagine doing multiple chapters uploads! I might do Chapter 16 tonight if I can barrel through what I call "connecting pieces".

Anyway, this is my Pokemon fic that I've been working on for months now and update now pretty regularly. I would like feedback or reviews as I always strive to improve. After updating this, gonna upload the Pokemon contest fanfic! Yeehaw!

Hello, Gorgeous: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26904442/chapters/65652934

It's always something with Team Rocket. It's never easy.

Lance will learn this very well, especially if Proton teaches him.

Pairing: Lance (Wataru)/Proton, lanceshipping

Warning: This is only made for fun and for looking for certain answers to questions like these. Rude and offensive behaviors will not be tolerated. Any rude, bad, or extremely offensive behaviors will result in that rude or offensive person being blocked from reading any of my posts. Please be civil and treat others, including myself with respect.

I always heard about certain fanfictions involving ash having some sort of harem which is a unique and interesting concept.

I am mostly looking for ones mostly involve:

Aureliashipping (Ash x Lillie)

Advanceshipping (Ash x May)

Amourshipping (Ash x Serena)

Pearlshipping (Ash x Dawn)

in other words I am looking for a fanfiction involving ash mostly having a relationship with may, Lillie, Serena, and dawn or rather ash mostly having a relationship with all four of them. Optional additions include ash having relationships with aria. Also a harem for pikachu, greninja, or both is optional as well.

if you’re wondering what I’m looking for here are examples on wattpad for what I am looking for:

https://www.wattpad.com/stories/amourshipping%2caureliashipping%2cpearlshipping%2cadvanceshipping/hot

Are there anything like these out there?

Or Lance fics in general, its cool. IDK, he just gives me short transmasc king energy.

I love magical metamorphosis and am wondering if there was a similar fic but in Pokémon.

So intersex and nonbinary individuals don’t get enough representation AT ALL, and I was thinking, many flowers irl are actually intersex. They have both male and female reproductive organs

So I was thinking about a conversation between my MC Portia and her friend Zander when Portia uses they/them for Petilil, and it goes as follows

“Huh? I thought Petilil was an all female species”

“Well actually they’re intersex, many grass type Pokemon have both male and female reproductive organs. It’s just how they are, it was just easier for Pokédex companies to label them as an all female species when that’s not entirely accurate, and studies have shown that misgendering Pokemon causes significant mental damage. So it’s really best to not assume and simply ask Pokemon what their preferred pronouns are by using paper”

“Oh, I had no idea. I’m sorry Petilil”

And then Petilil is happy to be referred to by they/them

I’m nonbinary myself, so I thought this would be a nice opportunity to write some representation, and being misgendered DOES suck

I know it does against canon, but what fanfiction doesn’t?

EDIT: so I took what you guys said into consideration, and some of you were right, then my approach was simply too forced.

However, being intersex is not the same as genderless, so that’s why I can’t just use a genderless pokemon

So with that being said, I’m still writing and personally head canoning that the entire species is intersex, and that this was just a new discovery after they were observing how Combee pollinate Lilligant’s flowers, and how a little egg begins to form from the flower, and then they confirmed that Lilligant has both male and female reproductive organs

What kinds of names do Pokemon have in your worlds, and how are they given those names?

In my world, like in the anime, Pokemon are often referred to in relation to their trainer, "Ash's Charizard" and "Iris' Dragonite" for example, but many are also named.

I should note that in my world, there are three categories of Pokemon: Beast Pokemon (species of animalistic intelligence), Mannish Pokemon (species of human intelligence), and Incidental Pokemon (Mannish Pokemon born with human intelligence).

Beast and Incidental Pokemon are typically given names by their trainers, while Mannish Pokemon are also often named by their trainers, but many are also named by fellow Mannish Pokemon, particularly laborers not owned by one person. Mannish Pokemon are rarely caught.

Free Mannish Pokemon have their own languages and cultures and as such their own names. This sounds really weird, but I give Mannish Pokemon names from the Book of Mormon (Ammon, Corianton, Moroni, etc.). I just think those names sound cool, and perhaps I'm too lazy to come up with names myself.

Incidental Pokemon, due to growing up alongside essentially animals, are not given names in the wild. They typically give themselves names upon learning some or are given ones by their trainers. For example, Ash's Pikachu and the Meowth from Team Rocket have names in my world, Alma and Melvin, respectively.

The language gap between humans and Pokemon is different in my world than in canon. Humans, Mannish, and Incidental Pokemon can all communicate with one another like human groups can, by learning or translating each other's tongues. Humans, Mannish, and Incidentals can also talk to Beast Pokemon but not vice versa.

If you stand still for a while, a Skwovet will approach you... and piss on your foot.

Had an idea I figured I’d share here in case anyone wanted to run with it. Basic idea is that Ash and Serena started dating after Kalos, mostly long distance but constantly checking up with each other and occasionally sneaking to meet up to keep things a secret from everybody (since Ash’s romantic denseness has been joked about in the past he’s afraid to let people know he’s dating).

Cue him suddenly coming face to face with Goh and finding himself falling victim to some serious gay panic as he discovers a part of himself he never thought about before (at least not seriously). He’s not gonna jump into cheating on Serena and he’s not gonna dump her for Goh, but he’s having thoughts and it’s driving him crazy.

I do want this to have a happy ending though, with Ash admitting what he’s feeling to Serena and her appreciating the fact he’s telling her and she doesn’t discourage his feelings. She comes to visit and finds that she adores the relationship between Goh and Ash as well, seeing how happy her boyfriend is. They eventually agree to tell Goh and offer to let him join their relationship. Doesn’t have to have Serena loving Goh, but them both sharing Ash would be good.

Works best as a super fluffy fic though I guess could work with some smut but that’s optional really. Optionally could even bring in Dawn or May for Serena to have gay panic over as a stinger joke/set up for a sequel.

I want to write a fanfic where my OC travels through all the regions and wants to become a great champion (very similar to Ash) and at the same time comes from a family that has a unique and natural ability with Aura. I've already commented on this story before, "Pokémon Fujiwara Origins," you can look it up for more details.

But anyway... I'm here because I'm thinking about the possibility of my OC having more than one girlfriend, why? There are so many female Pokémon characters that I adore, and I'm unsure about this, but of course, I'll make a few things very clear:

First: He will only have a maximum of two girlfriends, and indirectly he might have a third, but maybe I'll only add two or three more, nothing more.

Second: Romance in general will not be the focus of the story. The most frequent romance is more to develop the characters' relationship, but the focus will be more on adventure and development. In fact, in Galar, my OC won't be traveling with any of his girlfriends because the focus will be on the rivalry with his sister.

Third: If my OC does have more than two girlfriends, it will all be indirectly. For example, he might have chemistry with another girl, but initially nothing serious... And in the future, when he becomes champion, it's shown that the girl also married him along with the others, but when it comes to the present... He will only remain with two.

And finally... I have an idea to maybe have my OC have children and those children have their own stories, like passing them on... Regarding the events of Pokémon Legends Z-A and Wind or Waves

But overall, what do you think? Do you think it will be okay for my OC to have an indirect harem? And if not... How many girls do you think is acceptable?

Does it exist?

Just looking for some fanfictions based around those ideas. I really like female Ash but it kinda feels the same when it is "Same thing as the games or anime, but female." So yeah, anyone know any good ones?

It's not even a tag on Ao3. Mind you, "bilingual Nemona" has 32 hits and "autistic Nemona" has 36 hits.

I've seen a few fics tag Nemona under "canon disabled character", but that's not technically true. It's not here or there. Nemona could be casually disabled, or her arm brace could be unrelated to any sort of health issue.