Apparently, doing semi-fatal damage is okay if you can instantly regenerate...

[SlowCrow]

Logically speaking, shouldn't an environment that would take down a Pokemon simply tend to hurt humans as well?

As anybody who has ever written a Pokemon fic with human characters knows very well, it's not very convenient to have a trainer hospitalized due to injury. Doing so takes that character out of the action for a long while, potentially delaying important events or even stopping the story's progress altogether, especially when it's the main character who gets injured. The "recovery" process could take several chapters to complete, and could bore the reader as well as the writer (assuming that the fic's plot wasn't centered on the hospitalization of said character). The whole ordeal is usually pointless, and is skipped just as much. So, in order to avoid getting into this problem in the first place, most fic writers simply place trainers out of harm's way and put the Pokemon into the thick of the action.

This is perfectly fine when you assume that the trainer is only participating in a Pokemon battle. However, I've also noticed that most of the time that trainers are in immediate danger (Pokemon induced environmental hazards, large scale attacks, unusually dangerous terrain), they rarely get injured when they clearly should be. Whether they narrowly miss an incoming threat, execute a "risky" plan, or even do something completely ludicrous that would simply not work, they more or less always walk away in one piece. However, when that trainer's Pokemon get caught in the same situation, expect much battering, bruising, and bleeding to ensue; the lucky ones only getting out unconscious while the less lucky ones get sent straight to the ER in less than stellar shape. Either way, those Pokemon are eventually patched up in the nearest Pokemon Center, good as new and ready to take another beating and shed a year off their life expectancy battle once more. What astounds me about this is that even though Pokemon are a lot more sturdy than their human counterparts, they still get caught up in situations where they'll need urgent medical care.

Not that the Pokemon's injuries really matter anyway, since inflicting semi-fatal damage is okay if you can instantly regenerate. :/

Now, fic writers, ask yourself: have you done this unintentionally in your fic? Why is that? Was it something that was important to the plot? Or was it the option that made the most sense? Maybe you didn't even think about it when you did so, seeing how it's the norm anyway.

Discuss.


EDIT: I changed the example I gave due to people getting the wrong idea from it.



-____________- Kaw.

 

[Dragonfree]

Pokémon and trainers are rarely in exactly the same situation in this respect; when was the last time you saw a trainer attempting to actually take on a Pokémon in hand-to-hand combat? Generally the trainers, knowing they can't take any serious physical damage, just run or have their Pokémon fend the other Pokémon off, ensuring they don't actually become a part of the action and thus simply aren't in danger. In those cases where the trainer ends up not having Pokémon to protect him (usually when they've been beaten), it's usually a story where the ones with the Pokémon usually want the trainer alive and thus purposefully don't harm them - sensibly enough, since if you had antagonists with Pokémon wanting to kill a trainer and then all of the trainer's Pokémon were defeated, it would be very difficult to justify the Pokémon not succeeding in killing the trainer, unless they happen to have a jump start and hide somewhere safe in which case they again are not really subjected to Pokémon attacks.

Thus, there are perfectly sensible in-story reasons for the fact Pokémon get hurt a lot more than trainers in fics. Their situations are almost never comparable. If you were trying to make some different point, please make that clearer.

 

[Yami Ryu]

And you know ignore the fact for the most part pokemon are in ug I can't think of the word, it starts with an s, anyways they're basically in limbo in a pokeball. They could be near death and you can get them to a pokemon center. It's also been shown Pokemon have a higher endurance level/higher level of tolerance for pain, damage and the such.

There's also the fact that there are medicines that can instantly restore a pokemon's health.


But anyways you're complaining that people are;

they rarely get injured when they clearly should be. Whether they narrowly miss an incoming attack, execute a "risky" escape plan, or even fight back hand-to-hand, they more or less always walk away in one piece.

Yet you evidently complain about;

Doing so takes that character out of the action for a long while, potentially delaying important events or even stopping the story's progress altogether, especially when it's the main character who gets injured. The "recovery" process could take several chapters to complete, and could bore the reader as well as the writer (assuming that the fic's plot wasn't centered on the hospitalization of said character).

I'm sorry but unfortunately you can't have it both ways. And there is a difference between pokemon battling and human/pokemon- it could be a different pokemon is chasing the party. I mean with how 'slow' some of the pokemon attacks are it is possible you could dodge the pokemon attacks, atleast long enough to get to safety. I'm not saying you wouldn't get bashed up, but most writers, most good writers, don't sue out their characters like that.

The reason pokemon get so bashed up? Because they're fighting, and usually not trying to dodge blows. I mean if you were the only thing that stood between a person you love, and a monster wanting to rip their face off, would you allow it an opening willingly?

It seems like you're mostly complaining about newbie writers for the most part anyways.

 

[Griff4815]

Trying to go for as much realism as possible, I've had a main trainer in my fic hospitalized three times (though not necessarily bed-ridden due to things like a knee dislocation and poison tail to the quadrocep or a sprained ankle. However, for minor flesh wounds and bruises, those can be lightly brushed off, considering that the character probably wouldn't let himself be taken to a hospital for that.

I admit, early on after a bad encounter with a Fearow, all it took was a potion to cure, or at least disinfect, the cuts, but I guess the severity of the wounds were kinda ambiguous.

 

[Venia Silente]

The point stated here, about humans taking damage, is very, very interesting. I mean, true, I haven't seen too much of "trainer sent to surgery", most of the time either the Trainer doesn't take part of the action, or damage is intentionally reduced/controlled by the attacker. But in more realistic sitiations there are many outcomes possible.

However, I would like to think things should not be that bad, I mean, from a meta perspective of the Pokémon world, I would expect that creatures such as humans, who have been living among and along with all kinds of pseudo-biological warmachines, embodiments of spacetime, avatars of philosophical concepts and immunity-overriding Pikachus, should have, after several milennia at least, evolved a further bit than "us" and developed slightly stronger bodies, a quickier and quirker mind, something before technology that would have helped them survive so long.

So I don't like to think that humans are actually that weak. Even with Pokémon intentionally toning down their power, humans should be a bit more resilient than just a bunch of bones and muscle tissue put together. Otherwise they wouldn't have survived this long. It's even part of game canon if one wants to push it a bit further: where after pushing a rock down a hole, you can literally leap down yourself, more than one floor sometimes, and instantly walk away unscratched. Turning to the anime, Hunter J's Salamence comes to mind.


Of course, it all goes to nowhere when one remembers that, after all, it's Pokémon who are supossed to do the fighting anyways, and they are somehow enacted to only target each other. That helps the action and the plot much, much more...

 

[DANdotW]

Meh, in Totally Sinnoh, one of the main characters fell from the ledges in the games and injured her head. She was treated in her home by a nurse who came over from a call, and had to spend at least the next ten chapters with bandages on her head.

In Embarking On An Adventure, the main character was put to sleep by a Butterfree and then woken up with a Mankey scratching her arm to shreads. She had to get that treated in the next town and wore bandages for at least the next six chapters.

In all, I think trainers would get injured in the same way adventurers get injured on their travels. Think about it; these children are climbing mountains, travelling through forests, crossing oceans on the backs of small fish, and rising to the skies on the backs of small birds. They're bound to hurt themselves.

I've never seen anyone hospitalised though, and I don't think it's something I'd enjoy reading. A quick cleansing and bandaging process is fine, with the odd mention to their injuries scattered throughout future chapters.

Iota

 

[niedude]

I can safely say I thought about that, and in the last chapter of my now discontinued fic, one of the main characters got nearly all of his bones broken (legs, arms and a few ribs). The only reason he survived and would be able to reach the nearest hospital (being carried in a makeshift bed) is because he had the Body symbol. (basically, super body and what comes with it, strength, endurance, speed, all of that increased, so naturally he also heals faster.)

His pokemon also caught up in the action, but being a Heracross, he was able to fly out of some things the trainer couldn't escape, which eventually led his wing to be broken, and also his arm.

But a lot of writters, especially beggining ones, fail to see that, in a real world everything goes pokemon battle, the trainers get in the way, and are often made targets.
In a battle with one of the evil teams (which was my cause, and which often happens in other fics), if they really are evil, they will target the trainer in order to end the battle.

 

[Yonowaru in Chaos]

And you know ignore the fact for the most part pokemon are in ug I can't think of the word, it starts with an s, anyways they're basically in limbo in a pokeball.

Did you mean 'suspension' (as in 'cryonic suspension')?



Well in most situations, it is the Pokemon that are protecting their trainers, so unless they were doing a bad job of it (and even then, the trainer probably has multiple Pokemon) or the threat was very determined to harm the trainer, the trainer would be able to escape harm, even if it meant abandoning his/her Pokemon (though given the purity some writers give to their main characters, it's somewhat not likely to happen).

Accidents are usually not a problem for writers novice and experienced alike, but I haven't really seen serious damage inflicted upon a trainer by a Pokemon that s/he was battling/fending off (barring a special Pokemon vs. human case). Usually, characters are statused rather than being hurt, which I suppose is more natural for a normal Pokemon's reaction.

 

[Netbug009]

That's why you add a lot of sweet Pokemon trainer friendship to the recovery process! xD Yeah... I'm such a sap.

I haven't written anything with the trainer in danger YET, but I've has some idea where the trainer DOES get hurt pretty badly and it's done to advance the plot.

If you ask me, a good idea is to, if the trainer is in dangerous situations a lot, find a strategic way to let them get hurt at some point. It tends to make readers stop questioning "Hey, they sure hop over lava/fall of flying pokemon/whatever a lot and never get hurt."

Of course, there is no one way to write anything.