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Breaking Stereotypes

MachopGirl

<== Wanna Hug Him?
After starting the "Giving Pokémon to Genders" thread, I thought I would like to talk about breaking stereotypes in fanfics. How do you break any negative stereotypes for any Pokémon or character?

Of course, one good example is the negative portrayals of Fighting-types as bad guys or big muscled and dumb. Besides yours truly, I am quite pleased to see people make them more smart and adding more character to those Fighting Pokémon.

IMO stereotyping doesn't give characters any "character" at all. All it does is giving labels to them and gave out a negative impact to a certain group. It makes them seem more boring.
 

Meep

ok.
MachopGirl said:
Of course, one good example is the negative portrayals of Fighting-types as bad guys or big muscled and dumb. Besides yours truly, I am quite pleased to see people make them more smart and adding more character to those Fighting Pokémon.
I'm planning on making a story were two of the main charactars are smart fighting types. Not smart as in brainy, nerd-like or know-it-all, but smart as in intellegent, like all pokemon are (except for ones with brain damage or other disorders). But the 'fighting types are dumb' sterotype is being broken a lot nowadays, but the 'bug types are dumb' isn't. All because they are bugs does not mean they are not smart!

But you can't just make a charactar break a sterotype for no reason. For example, you know how Castforms are pretty cute little guys? You can't just break a steerotype and make the cute Castform bloodthirsty without a reason. Maybe you could make a backstory on how your Castform was raised by bloodthirsty Mightyenas, but you can't just make a 'stero-breaking' character without a good backstory, or else they just come out flat. I would prefer a sterotyped, but well written, pokemon than a flat, but stero-breaking, pokemon any day.
 

Iveechan

<--- CHANTASTIC
I don't really "break" stereotypes purposely... I have a natural love for Hitmonchan and Machoke, so I treat them with respect in my fics without a second thought.
 

Ash_Junior

Irredeemable Nerd
Meep said:
But you can't just make a charactar break a sterotype for no reason. For example, you know how Castforms are pretty cute little guys? You can't just break a steerotype and make the cute Castform bloodthirsty without a reason. Maybe you could make a backstory on how your Castform was raised by bloodthirsty Mightyenas, but you can't just make a 'stero-breaking' character without a good backstory, or else they just come out flat. I would prefer a sterotyped, but well written, pokemon than a flat, but stero-breaking, pokemon any day.

why not?

I'm being serious here. why can't you break a stereotype for no reason, if you do it well?

I've done it a couple times, I think, and I don't think that the characters were flat. well, they were in the original version of the story, but now....

lol
 

Meep

ok.
Ash_Junior said:
why not?

I'm being serious here. why can't you break a stereotype for no reason, if you do it well?

I've done it a couple times, I think, and I don't think that the characters were flat. well, they were in the original version of the story, but now....

lol
Then you did it with the pokemon having a reason to be stero-breaking. But if there was a blood-thirsty Castform, who just randomly popped up and started attacking the cast randomly, it is a flat character. You should do what you do with every charater - give them a reason for what they do. Is there a super-smart Machop? A reason could be because they felt that fighting was a bad way to settle things. A kind and caring Tentacruel? A reason could be that they think that every Pokemon and human is her/his children. A destructive Spoink? Because she can't keep in feelings of extreme anger. With a character that is a sterotype, they already have a reason that everyone knows. But if you want to break the box, you don't want to do so with 2d characters.
 

billy5772

SENIOR
I don't like how everyone thinks legendaries need to be all stuffy (in language and such) and haughty. I tried, once, to make a couple of them seem down to earth with normal attitudes about themselves. That failed, but still.
 

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
I dislike some stereotypes, of course, but I just write my characters how I want them to be, stereotypical or not. I don't see the point of purposefully going out of my way to make my character anti-stereotype... because, really, that's just ridiculous. Like the anti-trend trend.
 

Iveechan

<--- CHANTASTIC
About the Machop being smart thing... what's so dumb about fighting? Martial arts takes a good amount of intelligence to master, I assume. It's almost like, in a way, in breaking a stereotype you're offending the Pokemon your focus is on.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
billy5772 said:
I don't like how everyone thinks legendaries need to be all stuffy (in language and such) and haughty. I tried, once, to make a couple of them seem down to earth with normal attitudes about themselves. That failed, but still.
Heh, for my legendaries, I make for example Mew speak very much like that, but Chaletwo and Molzapart are more like normal characters who happen to be powerful. I use that to emphasize their imperfection, though...

Anyway, I say the same as Negrek, basically. I write the characters and don't pay any special attention to whether they're stereotypical or not. :/
 

Haunter

Johto Champion
My characters write themselves. They don't do it very well, you know, but they still do it. If they end up somewhat stereotyped then ... take it up with them. I won't consciously change aspects of their personality because they usually feel right, no mater how stereotyped they are.
 
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ImJessieTR

I WON'T kiss Ash...
In my fics, I hate portraying Giovanni like he is in most fics I've read where he's in it: a cruel monster with no redeeming characteristics. So I write him as a person who, like James, was brought up among shallow and materialistic people and his goal for Team Rocket is to "fix" what his mother screwed up. However, because he wants to make Team Rocket more practical than it was under Madame Boss's leadership, he's misguidedly done terrible things to people and pokemon in an effort to do what he thinks is right. In the last fic I did, Professor Oak and the Rainbow Wing (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2579540/1/ ), Giovanni spends millions on educational programs and scientific studies and takes in the outcasts of society. True, he uses them as jumping boards to TR in many cases, but he's still worked hard to increase the standard of living for all the people of Kanto and Johto. He has a very dual personality, caused by resentment of his mother, who derided him constantly and simultaneously inflated his ego by teaching him that he was better than anyone else. In my fic, Gio takes over TR after his mother died leaving him penniless because she had wasted money on frivolous pursuits.

Revealed in Jesse's Surprise (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2479321/1/ ), the reason Giovanni keeps Jesse and James around at all is that it's a favor to Miyamoto because Jesse's father is cruel scum.

I kind of write him like a character in The Godfather, which I guess is another stereotype but one I like better. It's better to me to have him encourage loyalty and practicality than just be some inhuman beast with a sado-masochistic complex.
 
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