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What do you think of the concept of Aquapolians?

chosen_one386

Angel of Chaos
Okay, first of all this is NOT to promote my fic series. Second of all, I came up with this idea myself and do a check every month to make sure that no one has stolen this idea.

Anyway, in my fic series, all of the characters are Aquapolian. Aquapolians are half human and half Pokemon. They take human form, but have one type of power, giving the Aquapolian all of the powers of the type they posess. For example, a fire type can withstand large amounts to heat and can use fire attacks.

Now, there is a back story to this race. They formed 16,000 years ago and were nearly destroyed by a Great War between Kyogre and Groudon 3,000 years ago. True, there are humans in the world (which is our world), but they are being threatened by a force that is trying to kill them. The Aquapolian nation is peaceful, but only two people know their language which was lost during the Great War: The main character and her mentor.

Anyway, tell me what you think of the concept of Aquapolians and do I need to fix something in it?
 

Yami Ryu

Well-Known Member
Second of all, I came up with this idea myself and do a check every month to make sure that no one has stolen this idea.

Someone that's never heard of you could also have come up with the concept, cause newsflash, all you did was pokemorph them.

Anyways you really didn't elaborate on them, you skimmed over their powers, a skimpy ammount of their history and stance in the world. There's not much there to comment on outside of it sounds like a pokemon/pokemorph version of switzerland or something like that.

And I think you should have had what do you think of my concept of aquapolians otherwise people will mistake it for a discussion thread or something.
 

Seth_X_of_Fortree

Torterra Firma
Unlikely. Nice idea, unlikely.
 

Umbreevee

...Call me Loffyglu.
Interesting, and sounds like a cool concept, but I've tried writing something like this a few months ago, and I gave up because I just couldn't pull it off. Trust me, it can be pretty hard. So if you can manage to pull if off, yeah sure whatever go ahead, but if not, try thinking of something else. Your choice, really, just be prepared to have some people saying "OMFG U USED TEH MARY-SUE!!11!!1!!!!POTATO!!!1!!!" to you nonstop.
 

Astinus

Well-Known Member
I'm with Yami Ryu on this a bit, in the fact that all that it seemed like you did was Pokemorph your characters.

Way back when I was a fanfiction.net lurker in the summer of 2004 - or possibly 2003 - I would see a few stories about humans with the powers of a Pokemon. It's a shared idea in this fandom explored by people in fanfiction and in various pieces of fanart. Heck, I myself had the idea back when Pokemon first came out in 1998, only a few days after the show premiered in USA.

So you really can't claim pure ownership of an idea, especially when it is such a popular one. You can twist it to have your own thoughts added to it, giving it your own taste. But it's not completely original and owned by you. It would be like me saying that I had the original idea to create real characters out of the children of the DigiDestined from the second season epilogue. Other people have come up with that idea, but I have my own thoughts to make my ideas my own. It doesn't mean that I can beat up another fanfic writer for writing about the kids.

The reason why I stopped exploring my idea of Pokemorphs was because it really didn't interest me. Besides, right then and there I could see the problems with having them be Mary-Sues, but only because I couldn't figure out a good way for them to get their powers.

As I have said, you should take your idea and twist it up a bit to make it different from the standard Pokemorph. (I would also suggest changing the name possibly, only because "aqua" makes me think water. If you want to have all seventeen elements, have a name that encompasses them. Or it could be just me.)

You should explore why these people have the powers of Pokemon, as I for one am not going to accept it so readily. Especially if you just say "half-human/half-Pokemon". Mutations can only go so far in nature, and doesn't really cause a mix of completely different species. And that is a lot of offspring for a human/Pokemon couple. Or science experiements. There are a lot of things for you to explore to tell us about this different race of Pokepeople.

And yes, there is also the dreaded Mary-Sue label that people might pin on your characters, so you have to watch out for that. I'm not sure on the qualities of what makes a character a Sue, so I can't help you there.

But really, you should also change the thread title, because Aquapolians isn't really a concept everyone has heard about.
 

Ledian_X

Don Ledianni
Hmm...

Okay, first of all this is NOT to promote my fic series. Second of all, I came up with this idea myself and do a check every month to make sure that no one has stolen this idea.

Sorry. You don't have a patent on the idea of Pokemorphs. That concept has been around since the beginning of Pokemon fandom. One of the first writers of characters who were part human and part Pokemon created a character that was part articuno due to a lab accident. Thus making her a mutate.

Even so, the idea of a hidden civilization isn't new. You have Marvel's Inhumans, Eternals, Atlanteans and others in that universe. Not to mention Atlanteans in the DC universe. So, so far this concept isn't really all that new.

Anyway, in my fic series, all of the characters are Aquapolian. Aquapolians are half human and half Pokemon. They take human form, but have one type of power, giving the Aquapolian all of the powers of the type they posess. For example, a fire type can withstand large amounts to heat and can use fire attacks.

Aquapolians huh? Aside from the name sounding suspiciously similar to an alien race I created, it sounds too much like an aquatic race. The name seems to hint that it should be a race of aquatic pokemorphs that evolved over the eons. But, even then, you'd be ripping off every concept of Atlanteans out there if you were to stick with one type of pokwmon. A civilzation of Mantine-like people wouldn't fly.

True powers don't make a Mary Sue but the race is too similar in concept to several things in fiction and in several stories here on the board.

Now, there is a back story to this race. They formed 16,000 years ago and were nearly destroyed by a Great War between Kyogre and Groudon 3,000 years ago. True, there are humans in the world (which is our world), but they are being threatened by a force that is trying to kill them. The Aquapolian nation is peaceful, but only two people know their language which was lost during the Great War: The main character and her mentor.

Interesting concept but I'm afraid it's been done. Even if it's been done, all that matters is the execution. Still, it seems to be the tried and true plight of mutants in the Marvel Universe and pokemorphs in general are mutants/mutates revolving around the same theme. You just made a race of them.

The race's backstory seems too similar to other things I've seen

Anyway, tell me what you think of the concept of Aquapolians and do I need to fix something in it?

Several things need to be fixed. The name for one is misleading and is too similar to the name of the alien race in my stoies called Aquans. That and while a hidden civilzation of Pokemon-like humans may be a good idea, it just falls flat because the abilities do not make sense.

LX
 

Yami Ryu

Well-Known Member
Aquapolians huh? Aside from the name sounding suspiciously similar to an alien race I created, it sounds too much like an aquatic race.

Haven't you watched the Anime, LX? There was an ancient city in one episode called what was it, Aquapolis or something. Think that's where Chosen took them, not ripping them off from you, lol. But probably wouldn't have hurt if everything had been elaborated on.

And Chosen, I think you really should listen to Hanako, cause I know I would, the advice given is something that shouldn't be ignored.
 

Ledian_X

Don Ledianni
Haven't watched the anime in ages, Yami. Thanks for the tip. Though, I have to agree with you. Our friend here could have elaborated more. Hmm...I suppose I'll check out this lost race you speak of. Last lost Civilization in the anime I heard of was the Pokemopolians.

LX

Edit: Oh yeah. Listen to Hanako. The views expressed appear to be genuinely helpful. I would have said the same but Hanako here covered the bases.

Edit 2: I looked it up on Bulbapedia. The name was Pokélantis.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AG177
 
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Arcanine Royale

Well-Known Member
Aquapolian is very similar to Atlantis which equals PokeLantis

So, unless you really plan on making it different, like having a rivalry very early on in history and having the Aquapolians finding a new place in the Atlantic Ocean and PokeLantis being in the Pacific, its gonna look really wierd.

Besides, what you say are Aquapolians are just pokemorphs. So basically, unless you do it different, you minus well just call them pokemorphs/pokehybrids.
 

Pink Parka Girl

I wish I could change my username
Okay, first of all this is NOT to promote my fic series. Second of all, I came up with this idea myself and do a check every month to make sure that no one has stolen this idea.

Anyway, in my fic series, all of the characters are Aquapolian. Aquapolians are half human and half Pokemon.

Calling a Pokémorph a fancy name doesn't change the fact that dozens of people have come up with the idea before you ;) I'm one of the old dames of Pokemorph fanfiction, and in fact, on Fanfiction.net, I seem to be known as "the" person to ask for advice on the subject, judging by the amount of mail I get concerning it. The fact I get so much mail in the first place should be a clue to the fact it is a popular genre, and hardly a new idea :) But no worries - you probably didn't know :)

They take human form, but have one type of power, giving the Aquapolian all of the powers of the type they posess. For example, a fire type can withstand large amounts to heat and can use fire attacks.

I'm not quite getting what you're saying here. Do they have external indication of being hybrids (for example, any fur, feathers, etc) that they can hide by either literally turning into humans or through clever disguise? Or do you mean that they look totally human but just get a pokemon's superpowers and no drawbacks? The latter is dangerous, thorny Sue-territory. While it's possible for a character with multifarious unnatural powers to be well rounded and unique, it's usually just begging for trouble, especially in the pokemorph genre, which is a giant minefield of cliches. Basically, hybridizaton should almost never be "perfect" - getting only positive benefits and nothing of the negative. Instead, there should be a balence - they might look perfectly human and have pokemon superpowers, but suffer a somewhat animalized mindset due to their pokemon genes, for example.

Now, there is a back story to this race. They formed 16,000 years ago

How? Hybridization can occur in nature, but what on earth would have possessed a large enough group of people (especially since you said you're using the Poke-earth is our earth theory of canon, and bestiality is a very ancient taboo among virtually all human cultures) that having sex with pokemon was not only okay, but that the fact they were producing freakish offspring (since obviously genetic engineering would not have been around in BCE) was fine and dandy, too?

and were nearly destroyed by a Great War between Kyogre and Groudon 3,000 years ago.

How and why? Why did Kyogre and Groudon not like the pokemorphs?

True, there are humans in the world (which is our world), but they are being threatened by a force that is trying to kill them. The Aquapolian nation is peaceful, but only two people know their language which was lost during the Great War: The main character and her mentor.

This doesn't make any sense. Obviously, these hybrids must have been breeding with a heck of a lot of humans to get all trace of an outwards pokemonlike appearence from their genes (if that's in fact what you meant). What happened in the war that made them isolated, no longer seeking humans but only, apparently, breeding with their own race? And the language would not have been "lost" if there are active speakers. A language is officially classed as dead when there are no living persons who can speak it. Obviously, some humans must have known the language to be able to pass it along to the main character and the mentor. That would, of course, render it as not being lost at all (and if Aquapolians [and I agree with others that this really does need a different, less watersounding name] are supposedly dwelling in our modern world in a collective nation, shouldn't their culture be well known and documented? We do have helicopters, TV satellites, etc. Also, if they're such pacifists, why would they not willingly speak out to humans in wartime? Where are they living, besides a weird mix of Switzerland and Tibet?

Anyway, tell me what you think of the concept of Aquapolians and do I need to fix something in it?

A lot of things still need to be thought through - however, I do like to say no idea is hopeless, so don't give up :)
 

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
This is nothing new I agree :). Your idea could be done but the whole thinking behind 'great powers with no drawbacks' is about as new and fun to read as a very old Superman comic. Readers like to read about people they can relate to, and even if the characters are gods they need some weakness. My own idea of Lineage in Fable is thinking outside the box of normal Pokémorph stories I think, but I never try to hide the fact that it is a normal Pokémorph idea as much as a vampire like one :).
The sooner you learn that an idea in fandom is never truly copyrighted the happier you will be in the long run, trust me. The only thing we authors can truly calm ownership to is the way we write those ideas in our own style...
 
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