Do you give your Pokemon genders in your fanfic?

[Wild Female Machoke]

With some exceptions, do you give any of your Pokémon in your fanfic genders?

I totally hate saying "it" for many of them in mine. I kinda think that giving genders to Pokémon is appropriate as well as giving them a little surprise that many readers won't expect.

[Chris 2.1]

Yea, always. I usually find I stick with general genders, but in some cases i twist it and have Female Mimes and whatnot. I find Male Kirlia strange, thats why the one in my fic is a gal :-)

[Wild Female Machoke]

Same here, I also twist the gender thing. I want to break a few stereotypes though. The Machop in my story is a female just to give readers a little shock but I managed to describe a few little details which made her look different from males.

[Mr Mayor]

In my fic so far, all of the main character's Pokemon are male. I don't know why, I just naturally type "him" instead of her. There will be some female Pokemon in my fic, however.

[mr_pikachu]

I think it really depends on what you want to do with your fanfic. If you want to give the Pokemon personalities and/or make any developments with them, you should let them have genders. If you want to be a lazy-*** and not check back to prior chapters to check Pokegenders then you should stick to "it" and leave it at that. (j/k!!! Please don't shoot me!!!) But really, I think that is a good cue for if there's going to be any development as to the Pokemon other than evolution, as well as whether the fic will survive through 10 chapters, which has as of late become my pet peeve. I prefer to have a gender for Pokemon, except for the obvious case of Pokemon like Magnemite, Staryu, etc. (Hey, you COULD do a gender for them, but I've never seen it!) *lightbulb appears above head* Uh... ignore that last little muttering by me.

I do find, however, that as Pokemon's personalities often reflect their trainer's, so do their genders. But not in all cases, as we've seen in LTL, EBTV, etc. Okay, I think I've said everything I wanted to, so see ya!

[PancaKe]

^_^ Pokemon need personality as well. Especially if they're going to develop speech later on. Anyway, if pokemon dont have genders how do they get it on ^_^ jk.

Pokemon should have genders if it fits in with your story and your style of writing. Many pokemon that dont have genders do in my fic and hardly any remain hermafrodites.

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Certainly. Pokemon are living beings in this realm, after all. So they ahve eprsonalities, behaviour traits and so forth. They'd die out very quickly if they were all the same gender. Unless the females found a way to asexually reproduce.

[Kohdok]

Yes, I give them genders, but I've decided to leave it indeterminate until a certain point, that point being where there is a pokemon-only chapter, where it's only the pokemon. The pokemon's genders will eventually come to reflect their personalities, like a Female Tyranitar might have a gentler personality, or a Male Espeon might be far more cynical.

Heck, I even give the normally genderless legendary pokemon (Except the Regis) Genders and each get their own special personality (Since, in my fic, they can take human form)

[Mewfour]

Of course I do.... but only for those with genders.

EDIT: Yes, I'll even give legendary Pokemon genders. The only reason the games didn't give them genderes was to prevent you from breeding them.

[Kohdok]

Originally posted by Mewfour
Of course I do.... but only for those with genders.

EDIT: Yes, I'll even give legendary Pokemon genders. The only reason the games didn't give them genderes was to prevent you from breeding them.

But...Latias and Latios have genders, but they can't breed (Smae with Nidoqueen and Nidorina)

Magneton, Voltorb, and Staryu didn't have genders, but they CAN breed (With a Ditto)

Oh well...shutting up...

[The Rusted One]

I don't know - it can be important, but not necessarily. As of yet, I haven't given the pokémon in any fics I've done genders - mainly because I write a few chapters, don't want to reveal it yet, then my brother comes along and breaks the computer and wipes the hard drive, so I lose all of my files and writing, and have to start again. Woo, I love it when that happens...

[Neo-Xantios]

For my fanfic, I keep persistantly putting "it" as a pronoun for my Torchic. All I can say is that it's pure instincts. Although, giving a gender to the Pokémon is rather nice, I think that letting the reader guess would also be reasonable, just like the show.

[Captain Pringle]

I've developed the weird habit of specifying gender's for the hero's pokemon, but not for the pokemon of the trainers he fights against.

For example, "My Chikorita jumped at the Cloyster with all her strength, but still she could not crack its shell."

It kinda makes sense I guess, since I write my pokemon fics in first person, thus the hero would know the gender of his pokemon, and not really care about the gender of other pokemon.

[Iveechan]

I've been giving genders to Pokemon way back in the RBY days (shudders...I had a female Hitmonlee o.O). I even told how to tell the genders apart, like female Spearow are larger and duller in color than the males, heh. I do call the unimportant Pokemon its, but the main characters ALWAYS have genders.

[Rambunctious Jamirus]

Yes, I have been specifying genders when the Pokemon appears in the story now. Usually, I'd wait until the name was out or something like that before revealing it.

For some reason, I just can't put a male Kangaskhan or male Ralts. It's just too wierd o_0

[Dragonfree]

The pokémon in my story have complex personalities, but I still call them "it"... I don't really know why, I just do. Except if I'm for example talking about Scyther and the other Scyther HE had a crush on. Also, when the pokémon are talking about pokémon they like, they usually call them he or she, but if they're talking about a pokémon they don't like, they say it. I really don't know why I do that...