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what is you opinion on pokemorphs

kyuurilugia

Pokemorph
so I've been interested in pokemorphs for as long as I can remember but I would love to know what other people think of them. The Idea of the hybrid with powers of a pokemon and the skills of one with a bit of the looks was always a thought of mine.
so this thread is just on your opinion there will be no bad ideas and will be a open word to express them
**** I'm rambling
ok lets start this thread
*cuts ribbon*
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
To be fair, this thread is just over a month old, but my opinion in it still pretty much stands. Soooo if we're going to keep this one going, lemme copypasta it.

Haha, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT TRANSFORMATION FICS. Because I certainly don't have an example of one in my sig or anything.

To answer the questions in order...

What makes human-to-Pokémon transformation fanfics unique?
Is "everything" a possible answer?

Okay, but seriously, to answer this question, let's start off with a short recipe for a TF. Take one human -- preferably ordinary but it's not like I've ever taken a special canon character and transformed the **** out of him or anything. Add one science experiment gone wrong/spell/hidden genetics because your mom had her way with Mew/what-have-you. Combine species-related angst and suspense. Beat until soft peaks are formed and then bake at 350 degrees for-- oh wait.

Point is, while TFs do have a certain formula (when they're not plot-what-plot porn), it's really unique among Pokémon fics because the formula is extremely broad. So long as that human turns into something that isn't human and shenanigans ensue, you can literally do whatever you want. It doesn't even matter how that happens. You can have a reborn fic (human dies and is reincarnated with all their memories intact as a Pokémon), and that's TF. You can have a plot where Team Rocket kidnaps your main character and turns him into a Pokémon, and that's TF. (No, really, I swear to God I'm not describing just AEM there.) You can even have a character willingly do it to themselves for whatever reason. The sky is literally the limit.

But on top of that, with most TF, you have the option of making a story that's extremely deep. Sure, you run at a risk of making something exceedingly and hilariously pretentious, but if you do it right, you've got things like "What is a human?" and "Racism: not just for people anymore." The problem is that not a lot of people see it that way for some reason, so they just get stuck on the "LOLOLOLOL MY CHARACTER TURNED INTO A POKEYMAN" bit. Not that stories like that aren't good, but it's always fascinating to see when people remember -- even vaguely -- that transforming from species to species is not something that happens all the time and include that in their fic.

And I could really go on and on, but lemme try to keep this from becoming a novel, amirite?


What are [your] responses to these kinds of fanfics?
I definitely prefer writing them to reading them for a reason I actually mentioned earlier. (Not a lot of people write a story that's more than just "human turns into a Pokémon, and absolutely no implications of this are ever explored.") But even then, it's not like my cynicism to trainer fics. I won't sigh and go, "Oh God, it's another one" to a TF; I will read the crap out of every single TF you give me. The crap out of it.

...Unless it's a reborn fic. Reborn fics are like the trainer fics of the TF world. You have a handful of supposedly good ones (I say "supposedly" because we won't get into my opinions on the original.) and tons of knock-offs that are basically cookie-cutter because the authors are attempting to cash in on an idea that's popular. They... generally don't turn out that well-written. [So you have to look particularly interesting, new, and different for me to get into your fic.]


Does it remind many fanfic readers that they're too furry as to why a human would give up his humanity just to become a Pokémon?
Lemme rephrase this question to something I think you were asking: "Do people think it's just furry fic?"

The answer is: It depends on how well-written it is and what the plot is. In my experience, not that many people would turn away from a TF just because they think it's a furry fic; in fact, the furry part doesn't even cross their minds. It's really the people who have no comprehension of what the genre is who assume that it's all furry porn or whatnot, if I may be blunt for a second.

Of course, that opinion varies. There's some TF out there that's pretty obviously furry fic, with the character being excited that they're Pokémon. Those tend to be less-than-well-written (or outright PWP porn). The fics that are decent to well-written, meanwhile, are generally ones where the character isn't willingly giving up their humanity, so it's more of an exploration of deep philosophies/hilarious shenanigans than just something to satisfy the writer's furry itch. (If they even have one. Some of us aren't even furries to begin with, not that I have any problems with furries.) That isn't to say that you can't write a well-written fic in which the character actually wants to turn into a Pokémon; it's just that it doesn't really happen that frequently. If you did, sure, you'd get people saying it's furry fic, but so long as it's well-written, I don't think many people would care. Especially on Serebii, where you don't actually have to mention that it's a TF of that nature right away (because there's no summary field and because you don't have to write that so that it appears when you hover over the story's link).


What are the challenges [of] writing a human turning to a Pokémon fanfic?
First and foremost, like I said, you have to remember that this is weird. This is weird to the victim character, this is weird to the people around them, and this is weird to their entire universe. Once you have that in mind, go right ahead and do whatever you want.

But seriously, keeping in mind that this is going to strike the characters as weird eliminates a huge number of issues the average TF faces, the least of which being the implications of being transformed. (As in, do they face prejudice? Will they be hunted down? Will they have crises wherein they start becoming more Pokémon than human? How do they feel about that? Are they terrified of losing themselves? Are they terrified of being captured? And so on.) This goes especially if the character turns into a legendary or part-legendary.

The other issue, of course, is making the transformation to -- and possibly from -- believable and not-so-cookie-cutter. Like I said earlier, TF follows a broad formula that can be taken any number of directions, but a lot of TF authors tend to fall into a trap where they just write the same fic over and over again. On the sci-fi side, it's "teen gets captured by Team Evil (usually Rocket), who experiments on them for no discernible reason until the teen transforms into a half-Pokémon/full Pokémon and escapes." On the fantasy side, it's "teen gets cursed by item/legendary Pokémon, turns into a Pokémon themselves, and goes on an epic adventure involving a prophecy and saving the world in order to change back." The sci-fi end of things tends to be particularly cringe-worthy because the author sometimes fails at offering an explanation to anything. There's no science, there's no reason for Team Evil's actions, and there's no point to why that particular teen got captured. So the beginning just feels like it's a rushed jumble of loose plot to get to the part that satisfies the author's kink interests, especially if the rest of the story can include the words "is running from Team [Evil]" in its summary.

...And, of course, if you're going to make a sci-fi TF, you'd better actually involve science, y'know?

And I could go in-depth about the philosophy that you could cover with a TF, but the truth is that you can do that subtly as a secondary idea. The other trap a TF falls into is it focuses too much on the philosophy aspect of the concept and becomes insanely pretentious. Extra points if one or more characters exercise sesquipedalian loquaciousness. To avoid that, just remember that the more you force yourself to seem intelligent, the more you look like a tool. So the real challenge in exploring any philosophical theme in your fic is working out the concept of subtlety. I encourage you to explore all the philosophical bits, the social commentary, and what-have-you. In fact, that's the entire reason why I said, "Remember that this is going to be weird to the characters." It's just that you shouldn't beat the reader over the head with the idea that this work is going to be ~deep~ at the same time. It's all about finding a balance between remembering the weirdness/its implications and making the story not be something a teenager who thinks they're a genius would write.

But I'd be totally up for actually discussing the philosophical bits too.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Please read the rules of the Fan Fiction forum. This main forum is to post actual stories; for discussions, we have the Authors' Café subforum (presuming that this thread is indeed regarding Pokémorphs in fanfiction and not just about Pokémorphs in general; the latter wouldn't really belong in this forum at all). I'll move it there, but please remember to read forum-specific rules threads before you make threads in the future.

(JX, I think he's referring to the hybrid kind of Pokémorph, judging from how he describes the idea in the first post, not the transforming kind.)

Might edit/post again with my own take later when I have time.
 
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JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
(JX, I think he's referring to the hybrid kind of Pokémorph, judging from how he describes the idea in the first post, not the transforming kind.)

These days, one is a subset of the other, I'd say. I mean, sure, the first post was pretty vague, but there's not really that much hybrid fic that isn't also in some way addressing the same ideas that transformation fic brings up.

Granted, at the time of my post, I also forgot about fics like Morphic (which is a rarity in the fandom these days), but even then, you've got a lot of the same questions. What does it mean to be human? Where do unnaturally created beings fit into the grand scheme of society? How would normal people react to alien beings? And so on and so forth. You just don't have the actual transformation, which I'll admit.

But on the other hand, as a concept, hybrids (i.e., half-human/Pokémon beings who were born that way with no memory of a past life as either of their half species, usually into a society of like beings) don't really have a strong presence in fanfiction these days for whatever reason; you see it more often in fanart and roleplaying, probably because it's a lot easier to convey the concept if you can just show it through images. Buuuut even then, I'd argue that some of the backstories for these worlds still have some basis in the transformation fic genre, if only because a lot of the time, you do have the "weird science ****" backstory that involves evil scientists/godlike spirits screwing with DNA to turn perfectly innocent Pokémon into lab bunnies.

It's actually sort of weird, now that you mention it; I can't really think of any fic besides Morphic which didn't have some kind of connection to the transformation genre. Every time I come close to coming up with one, I remember it had a lab scene, and... well. Feel free to link me to any other hybrid fics that I might have missed, however.
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
But I'd be totally up for actually discussing the philosophical bits too.

I know this is a copy/paste of an older post, and you kind of touched on it in the post right above this one, but I'd actually really like to hear your thoughts on this. I think it would be quite fascinating.
 

Diddy

Renegade
I know this is a copy/paste of an older post, and you kind of touched on it in the post right above this one, but I'd actually really like to hear your thoughts on this. I think it would be quite fascinating.

When is a "Jax post in the Author's Café" post not interesting. Forward Slash shameless flattery.

I can't think of a time in the fandom where Pokémorphs haven't been interesting to be completely fair. Yes, it tends to veer towards the furrier edge of the fandom, but I've spent enough time around My Little Pony that it doesn't even bother me any more.

Think about it this way, one of the big draws about pokémon are the pokémon themselves. They're little bundles of immense power that are essentially like carrying super powers in your pocket. Wanna fly somewhere? Jump on your pokémon. Wanna swim somewhere quickly? Jump on your pokémon. Wanna move a massive boulder out of your way? Use your pokémon. Wanna burn down a pokémon centre because the voices in your head convinced you it was a good idea? Use your pokémon. If the last 15 years has told us anything, it's that people love super hero films. Whether they're good, like Spiderman 2 or whether they're bad, like Spiderman 3. The idea that you can have the power to do these things is escapist fantasy bread and butter.

Apply this to the pokémon universe and it can only lead one place. GLIGARMAN! No... sadly not, nobody loves Gligarman. Picture this if you will though, a human (it could even be you) gaining the powers of a pokémon to do with as they pleased. Enough to make one vomit rainbows. On it's own it's a winning mixture, but as Jax pointed out, it can lead to all sorts of awesome cultural and philosophical discussions.

It also means that you stick a pair of fox ears and nine tails on a cute chick.

Either way, these types of fics aren't likely to die out any time soon.
 

jireh the provider

Video Game Designer
Which of course, they are still alive, yet most of these pokemorph fanfics are referred most in (from what I found most of the time) ...

Sex related themes and porn scenes. Though I gotta admit it is fairly written at times. Though I remember 3 years ago making a sex story with a female Jirachi to a human male. My popkemon has planned as a pokemorph at at first. Bit in the end, I'm like, "You know what, Jirachi herself will make this sexy story much kinkier than turning her to a human genetical mix since she ca be a fairy like and human like egg group"
 
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kyuurilugia

Pokemorph
XD you can't find anything on Pokemorphs that's not pokewereism or has explcied content you say well may I intrest you in the fanfiction called "secret of the hybrid"
Ok I get what JX is saying and the Idea of the hybrid pokemorph does bring alot of the same questions back up.
No I did not copy and past this thread I have always wanted to do a thread like this and I would love to just talk about the subject in a new thread. Again I had no clue there was another thread like this. and if you really want to hear my opinion (because I really am dense sometimes) please refer to me if you want me to reply (I'm dense)
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
No I did not copy and past this thread I have always wanted to do a thread like this and I would love to just talk about the subject in a new thread. Again I had no clue there was another thread like this. and if you really want to hear my opinion (because I really am dense sometimes) please refer to me if you want me to reply (I'm dense)

I wasn't referring to your post, I was referring to Jax's comment, which had been pasted from the previous thread on this subject.

I apologize for the confusion.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
the one's I know are definatly "secret of the hybrid" *sob* and a "a step back"
neither are finish and probobly won't be.

Hmm. Hope you don't mind me pointing this out, but isn't only one of those a born hybrid story? Looking both of them over, I'll give it to you that Secret of the Hybrid uses the same kind of morph as Morphic (i.e., morphs that were born as such, not those that were transformed into one), but A Step Back is actually a transformation fic. So at this point, I think it would be best to ask for clarification on this topic. Are you only talking about morphs that were born as morphs (either because of genetic experimentation, gods just saying "why not," or the universe actually had morphs all along), or are you talking about morphs in general (including the ones that were created -- i.e., were originally different species but underwent a transformation).

After all, I'm not sure what can be said about characters themselves that are hybrids. That's like asking us what our opinion on trainers is. The obstacle with doing that is that the question covers a lot of territory, and the answer largely depends on the character's context. So it would help in figuring out exactly what it is you want us to talk about -- because, let's face it. When talking about fanfiction, you never just say "oh, this character concept is really awesome." You really talk about the dirty details of what that means in its context. So when talking about hybrids, we can't really do the discussion justice by stopping at talking about ears, tails, and powers; we have to also address what those mean. And while morph fics in which a morph is born that way brings up a lot of the same questions as transformation fics, there's also a difference between, for example, a fic set in a world where morphs are a minority/unique circumstance and a fic set in a world where all of the Pokémon are actually just humans with 'mon ears and tails.

And I'll get to the philosophy bit later, sorry to say. I just wanted to get this out there first.
 
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kyuurilugia

Pokemorph
pokemorphs in general anything tha be considered a pokemorph sorry for not making that so clear that includes anthro born or transformed by genetic mutation or biten by radioatic **** or wereism.
xd I know what you mean
 
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