Fakemon in fanfictions

[Houndoom_Lover]

Hey, whatever happened to that thing where we asked questions about fanfictions, someone went looking for an awnser and then they got a plate? *goes searching for it*

I just wondered what people thought about 'Fakemon' (Made up Pokemon) in fanfictions (Stories by fans)

I personally think they're fun :3 The reason why I bring this up is because I'm thinking of making up a Ledgendary. Now I wouldn't think this was a problem two or three generations ago...there're just so many. I Dunno.

Ham.

[Phoenixsong]

I enjoy creating fakemon, although I haven't really had many reasons/chances to include them in fanfics. I really just do it more for the fun of creating my own regions in and of themselves than for inclusion in any writing. I also like reading about them as long as they're handled well; I'm not one for bludgeoning fakemon creators with "you must follow Game Freak's 'traditions' or you suck at making fakemon and nothing you do is valid", like some people I've seen, but they do have to be believable as Pokémon to an extent and in the context of that particular story. (There are a lot more ways to accomplish this than those stuffy traditionalists would have most people believe, but I digress.) It looks obvious and desperate if someone just sticks Super Uber Megadeath Celemanashayjiramewfiftymon in a story for the hell of it, and that's when it gets annoying.

As for your "dilemma", well... I honestly don't think that the "too many legendaries" complaint applies to anything other than the video games (and even then, I personally do not care). Yes, some people say it devalues them, there are people who don't like using/battling them because they're broken and wish GF would put that effort into creating more normal, "fair" Pokémon. But if legendary Pokémon are the Pokémon world's equivalent to gods/deities then they clearly already have a polytheistic "religion"... and most of the real world's well-known polytheistic religions don't just stop at 35 gods, now do they? The Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Ancient Egyptians, the Norse, the Hindus, the Chinese, the Japanese, the various Native American tribes... dozens, hundreds, thousands of gods each, most of them with their own unique aspects and importance and no one complaining about "too many".

On that note, I've also seen people complaining about how since Arceus is the "supreme god Pokémon", Game Freak has backed itself into a corner and can't possibly create anything else. What else can there be, right? Plenty--if end-all, be-all Arceus was all that was necessary, what's the point of every single other legendary Pokémon that came before it? Why not just introduce the final supreme being at the beginning and be done with all legendaries for the rest of the franchise's life? And didn't most people consider Mew a sort of "supreme" Pokémon until Arceus came along? Ho-Oh, Lugia and Celebi were never intended to "trump" Mew, but they came after it. So why do any further legendaries have to "trump" Arceus? There are clearly plenty of other "jurisdictions" a legendary could have dominion over. A quick look at any other polytheistic religion, or just taking a few minutes to explore your imagination or whatever you feel your story world needs, can easily reveal plenty of other places for legendaries if you are feeling so inclined. (If not, then of course there's no reason to add them at all, but people who say that Arceus has precluded the ability to create any more are being ridiculous and short-sighted.)

(Actually, I have thought of one legendary that can be greater than Arceus, mwahaha, but that's another discussion for another time and I'm not done developing it anyway.)

Depending on the culture you're talking about (and the people/setting in your story), you will want different gods to control different things. These can be major or general things like "creator of the universe" or "god of thunder and lightning", but they can also be more specific or obscure like gods that oversee the seasonal monsoon or that control the growth of specific important crops, things like that. Different regions can have their own specific gods or protectors in addition to more "global" deities. It's possible to create an interesting, non-mundane god without having to resort to something extreme that has probably already been covered by Arceus or Moltres or Azelf anyway.

Not that I'm suggesting that you tack on a whole additional 700 gods to the Pokémon pantheon for your story, of course; I don't know anything about what you're writing, and you said that you're just looking at adding one. But there's no reason that you can't if you feel like you need to!

...and, of course, the argument against more legendaries in non-game applications gets even weaker if you don't want to consider them deities at all, but rather just impressively-powerful Pokémon. In that case, is adding one really any different from adding any other Pokémon?

With all that said, if you still think that creating a new legendary Pokémon for your story might be superfluous, just ask yourself what this legendary is supposed to do and what makes it different/better for the job than the existing ones. If you feel like it's completely redundant, then there may not be a reason to bother with it; if you feel like it brings something new to the table that the existing ones don't and your story won't work with Articuno, Rayquaza or any of the others, then by all means write about it. Don't compromise your story, either by including a fakemon that you don't need or by not including it when what currently exists is insufficient for your fanfic.

...there I go, ranting again. :/ What can I say? I really like mythology, legendaries and fakemon, and when I get started about something I like I suppose there's no shutting me up. Eh.

...I also like "abusing" quotation marks, btw.

[Lady Vulpix]

I don't really care for legendary pokemon (just like I don't care for God-moders in RPGs and fiction in general), so I tend to just ignore them. As for fakemon, if they make sense and they're described well enough for the readers to picture them in their mind, I guess they're OK. After all, authors create their own worlds when they write, whether or not they borrow elements from others.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Phoenixsong: I share the same view with Fakemon, but even then I don't battle with Ledgendary. Ya can't evolve them :3...Oh man....you're right. If I can tastefully add it in there, casually, it won't look too bad. Like another God :3 Amun!...Yeah, Arceus does trump the whole Mew thing. But personally, I think there were some pokemon always, animals died out so scientists tried to recreate them and got Pokemon. The first one they made was Mew and used its genes as a template from there.

Well, the reason I'm adding it is because of the types. There's an unever distrabution of ledgendaires and their types. I consider them God like...Yep. Haha, no, no! Thanks for the rant- it was very nice too read and I'll prolly be reading it ten times over.

Lady Vulpix: I don't care for them either : P They shouldn't beable to be used in the game as often as they are (Nor do I care for anything God-Modery thing :3) Okay...I think I can make sence while doing them. It won't be too hard *clicks my teeth thoughtful* I need to make a chart

[Blademaster]

Yeah, Arceus does trump the whole Mew thing.

The Hell it does!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Well I think I should have used fakemon in May May Come because it happens in Finland, not Japan, but I didn't. Assuming that Pokemon happens in the alternative earth, and given the fact that Pokemon population varies across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, every other country should have some of its own Pokemon, too.

But I didn't use fakemon, I thought my fanfic wouldn't have been readable if I had to describe every new Pokemon I came up with. I did in on purpose, I wanted to concentrate on extreme-short 'chapters' and not make the reader waste time on reading about the surroundings. I know, many people like more details, but I wanted to make the sentences short and easy.

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I like and use them, but you have to balance the whole thing so that it doesn't overwhelm the reader. To many fakemon can leave the reader with an unsure vision of the pokemon and the story. Visualising is the most important thing with fakemon. Personality next.

[Blademaster]

I like and use them, but you have to balance the whole thing so that it doesn't overwhelm the reader. To many fakemon can leave the reader with an unsure vision of the pokemon and the story. Visualising is the most important thing with fakemon. Personality next.

Agreed.

Which is why I beat you all to the punch.

Twice.

(Attention-whoring free publicity FTW.)

[Chris 2.1]

Meh I never saw the appeal. I've got loads to write about with the Pokemon that exist. I always felt enough was never done about Pokemon physiology, or what they eat, if they can swim, where they live etc. I really like exploring that with current Pokemon.

I've made fakemon before though. Starvous, which was a Starmie evolution. It was golden and red, like Staryu but red where it was gold and vice versa, with twelve arms. I quite liked that one.

[Phoenixsong]

Ahaha, I remember Luminail and Fosforail. Didn't you include them in the I Syndicate? Ah, so long ago...

I know there are plenty of fakes I've created and drawn (although I, unlike some people, will not whore out my art in Fanfic >>; ) that I think would be really cool in a story, but aside from a few legends that were originally created specifically for a fanfic I just haven't found a place for them in any of my ficcing plans. None of my current ideas call for any, and as proud as I am of my regions it just feels weird to write about them standalone. Eh.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Blade: Where the WTF were you yesterday!? >wo Anyway, I guess it really doesn't, but then you have people all "Mews not the first, I have a mustache!" I like to think Arceus came before *insert thing above about scientics and whatnot* :3 But Arceus is so cool

Mikachu Yukitatsu: Well, mine's a little alternate reality, so that's not a probelm. And I tend to discribe a great deal of stuff, it'll prolly come across as Victorian and less of a morden story. Hrhmmm

MeLoVeGhOsTs: Noted! *wrires that down so I remember* Because I like to discribe even exsisting Pokemon, it wouldn't look too odd if a new one poked up. I really will use Fakemon, but I'm still hung up on that one...


Blademaster: I know those two!! Hm! Maybe I should draw them out first...

Chris 2.1: I agree they've never focused on that stuff enough! And when they did, there were always contradicting themsefs. What pokemon truly is the best swimmer- Golduck? Poliwarth? We'll never known! Oh, that's sweet ^w^


Phoenixsong:Aw, but you should! Showing off stuff you made to us :3 I like stuff. I have a few Fakemon already, but I'm not sure if I'll use 'em. *nods*...I most likely will XD Its just that one I'm unsure about because they're have a soild background. Gwaa!

[Blademaster]

Ahaha, I remember Luminail and Fosforail. Didn't you include them in the I Syndicate? Ah, so long ago...

Fosforail, yes. Luminail never made it into a story... ;_;

I know there are plenty of fakes I've created and drawn (although I, unlike some people, will not whore out my art in Fanfic >>; )

I didn't say I'd never show them. :p I just said I'm not an attentionwhore like some people.

-_- I'm a chivalrous guy, Phoenix. But that doesn't mean I won't ram my sword through you if you don't SHADDUP!

[Phoenixsong]

I didn't say I'd never show them. :p I just said I'm not an attentionwhore like some people. Fear not, TPM's fanart section shall be duly spammed with my insidious fakemans, just as they have conquered all the other forums I frequent.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Yaaay, fanart :3 Awww, whoring for attention is an American stable. We should have a region map with all the Pokemon.

I need a secret confrence with someone >w< I don't wanna talk about stuff that'll go in my little fic

[mistysakura]

Calm down, guys... just a discussion... *shrug* Part of the fun in writing is in making up new stuff, so Fakemon are fun. But because the reader doesn't have an existing picture of the Pokemon, they need to have a really memorable characteristic that makes them unique.

[Phoenixsong]

Calm down, guys... just a discussion... *shrug*

I was joking, pretty sure Blade knows that. *also shrugs*

Anyway, it's true that fakes might need extra attention in the description department if you don't tend toward heavy description of existing Pokémon, but I'd imagine that that could be overcome with proper economy of words and spacing out of the description. Fitting as much description as possible into as few words as possible and balancing the description with action/dialogue should ease any shock the reader might otherwise have about "o.O whoooaa infodump where did that come from".

And, of course, if you have a picture then tucking that into the notes can help. The readers are there to get stuff out of your story by reading it, not by relying on illustrations, but the occasional piece of supplemental material, where available, can't hurt.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

But how should you exactly describe a Fakemon? I mean without interrupting the story badly. You don't have to describe the already-existing Pokemon, at least not that precisely, so it may be quite hard for some readers to get why some Pokemon are descibed better than others. And how do you realize that? You see, we have a battle between trainer A and B, A calls out Pikachu but B a Fakemon called Kaikku, and then you have to make the reader get a good picture of it, whereas everyone already knows Pikachu. So what tense should we use is one of the problems. You should put 'Kaikku is a loon-like Water/Flying type with sharp beak' or something there, all of a sudden. But perhaps it's just me that has a problem with that.

[Charles Legend]

Right Ada, thats why I been working on a Pokedex entries including Sprites...

~Charles Legend

[Houndoom_Lover]

Well, if you really sure desicrib exsisting Pokemon as it were. You wouldn't just say "He had a pet bird." if the bird was important enough to discrib. So, therefore, the Fakemon wouldn't stick out too much.

Pictures are helpful though. I may include some with the addition of pictures in helpful mysterious links.