How is the Pokemon in your Fan Fic?

[Crystal]

I'm a new writer of Pokemon Fan Fic, and I would prefer some opinions on other Pokemon Fan Fic writers.

How is the Pokemon in your Pokemon Fan Fic? How do they interact with humans and/or other Pokemons? And oppositely how humans interact with wild Pokemon and their own Pokemon?

The reason I'm posting this question is because even the officially registered Pokemon fictions (especially manga) sold in bookshops of Japan had more than 20 different titles, where there are more than 10 different story writers whom each have their own views on how Pokemon interacts.

If possible, I would like a general idea from each Poke FanFic writers in this forum, such that I might get an idea for my own Pokemon writing.

Thank you very much.

 

[Griff4815]

To me it really depends on the pokemon or person. If the pokemon is wild and never seen a human before, they might be wary or curious. If the pokemon had a bad experience with humans in the past, then maybe they'll run from humans or outright attack them. Or if they're comfortable around humans, then, well, they're comfortable around them. It really comes down to the individual's history, personality, and the circumstances.

 

[GastlyMan]

My Pokemon generally act a lot like humans - I really enjoy making them talk, laugh, and argue with people as an everyday occurence. Humans generally try to treat Pokemon as equals, but of course there are exceptions.

Really, though, it's what you think is best.

 

[Diddy]

In one universe the pokémon act exactly like humans. They even run bakeries. This might be because in this universe, humans don't exist and pokémon take their place.

In the other they're much more animalistic. Contact between humans and pokémon is akin to the anime, people can understand their pokémon if they work at it hard enough but in the end they're just spouting unintelligible noises. Although I make an exception for telepathy, which I limit to certain species/psychics/ghosts. Although telepathy isn't exactly full conversations, more like thoughts and feelings expressed in words.

In conclusion. Griff nailed it.

 

[Crystal]

Although telepathy isn't exactly full conversations, more like thoughts and feelings expressed in words.

This statement somehow seems contradicting.

Because, expresses something in WORDS is the same as conversation, isn't it? Even though it is telepathy, but the Pokemon is still communicate with human in terms of human language, so how is it that telepathy is not like conversation?

 

[Crystal]

As I see some make your Pokemon human-like, and some make your Pokemon animal-like. But there is one big question I would really wanted to ask:

If the Pokemon is animal-like, but where some can "talk" in human language through telepathy (let's exclude all the Legendaries), then isn't that Pokemon should behave more like human? or more specifically their thinking behaviour is like human.
Because, if a Pokemon can communicate in human language, that Pokemon will possess (even by a little) the way of thinking and/or thinking pattern similar to human.
In such cases, it will then be very difficult to differentiate is Pokemon animal-like or human-like. This is because animals act according to their intincts, where human act according to thoughts, emotions, motives, etc. Where act according to intincts is always(or often) the last thing.

 

[Diddy]

This statement somehow seems contradicting.

Because, expresses something in WORDS is the same as conversation, isn't it? Even though it is telepathy, but the Pokemon is still communicate with human in terms of human language, so how is it that telepathy is not like conversation?

not really. It's hard to explain, the pokémon send the thoughts and the human brain turns it into words. So they'd get the general idea that the pokémon was hungry or has a sore leg or is angry. It's not what the pokémon would say if it COULD talk human (like meowth)

 

[Dragonfree]

It's up to you as the writer - as you say, canon wildly varies in this, so you can pretty much just grab whichever version you like best. Personally, in my main fic I write them as sapient beings with humanlike intelligence (and let all the human characters understand Pokémon speech thanks to linguistic breakthroughs in the future), but very different cultures and outlooks on life (though those that have been with humans a long time behave in far more humanlike ways than freshly-caught wild ones). Meanwhile, in Morphic I chose to make them more like smart dogs that directly understand human speech. There isn't really a "correct" way to do it unless you're definitively writing in one particular canon.

 

[Crystal]

It's up to you as the writer - as you say, canon wildly varies in this, so you can pretty much just grab whichever version you like best.

There isn't really a "correct" way to do it unless you're definitively writing in one particular canon.

I also know about that. Everyone decide which Pokemon canon they use for their own writing.

The reason I was asking such question and opinion is because as my story develops, the plot become more into philosophical arguments of the identity of Pokemon, whether human should treat Pokemon as in Owner-Pet relation, Trainer-Partner relation, or Human equivalent? I was stuck on such argument to had my story develop further.
By the way, the Pokemon setting in my story has almost the same canon as posted by Dragonfree.

 

[Giratina!]

Most of my characters' Pokémon act pretty much like humans who speak a language almost nobody else understands. This means that they interact with other Pokémon as humans would, and since Pokémon understand the Unown dialect (i.e., the basic equivalent of English) they can understand human speech. There are some characters capable of understanding Pokémon speech, and at that point the human and Pokémon interact like they're the same species.

Caro (a character who can speak to Pokémon due to an... interesting occurrence a few years back) has taken a distaste towards about a third of the main character's team because he can understand what they're saying - one of them curses almost constantly (censored out, of course) and the other is just such a big, cocky jerk that they've developed a sort of rivalry. On the other hand, one Pokémon who is able to speak English for unknown reasons acts like a hyperactive little kid. A Pokémon who used to be his Trainer's best friend is now deathly afraid of him alongside the rest of his team (who are all newer members and never knew him as anything different).

I find that, if you want to take this path, it helps immensely writing a short paragraph on their basic personality - I even have a document on my computer named "Casey Calculus", which started as an exploration of the main character's (Casey's) team members' personalities but has since overflowed into almost every important Pokémon in the story.

As everyone else has said before, there are plenty of different ways to portray the intelligence of Pokémon, but I have rooted myself in one continuity and decreed that this is how they act in that continuity.

 

[Mallymkun]

I've always thought of pokemon as sentient creatures, and people can communicate with them if a certain trust between them is achieved. So therefore, people can't communicate with wild pokemon. Wild pokemon are, well, wild and will be more intoned with nature than the pokemon who have lived with humans their whole life. Sometimes I like to think that different species have little sub-cultures of their own as well, at least in my fic that I'm working on.

Oh, and then there's that other universe where they run banks and guilds and study geography, but that's a different story. So yeah, to sum it up, like everyone has said before me, pokemon can be portrayed in a myriad of ways. It's really up to you to decide how you want them to be.

 

[daveshan]

You have to remember that, according to the anime, the games, the comics, and everything else, pokemon are like people. They are capable of having all the emotions and feelings we have. They can be kind, mean, good, evil, jokesters, bullies, gentlemen, ladies, players, s1uts, completely indifferent to things, smart, dumb, ignorant, curious...

Try to give them their own combination of personality traits and go with what feels right.

 

[Aladar]

The Pokemon in my fic can communicate with humans on a very very very basic level. Kinda like in the anime- the trainers can understand the gist of what the Pokemon want to say and they get better at it the more time they spend with a given Pokemon. The level of intelligence of Pokemon varies- th more wild ones ar emore animalistic but many of them are like very very very smart primates and dolphins and stuff. Chatot, as a Pokemon who can talk 'human', is shown to be able to have normal coversations with people freely. But he chooses to mostly snark and mock his trainer's every action.

 

[Da Games Elite]

My one fan-fiction, Reunion...well, the Pokemon there simply behave like Pokemon do in the series: as either loyal comrades or antagonistic creatures. However, like humans in real life, some are benevolent and some are malevolent. You need to express their emotions more subtly, because, unless the fan-fic is shown from the Pokemon's perspective, expressing their emotions through actions or what have you is really the only way to depict them. They have their own wants and longings, their own distastes and phobias. It's your job as the writer to depict them to the best of your ability without outright stating them...if the fic is from the perspective of a human.

If not, treat them as humans...in the bodies of animals.

Hope that helped.