Lot of standalone author’s notes today.
Author Archives: St. Elmo's Fire
The Other Pokeauthors, Part 34
“Game Freak is doing their best to translate [the games] to a language we can understand.” AHAHAHAHAHA
[25] The Other Pokereviews, Part 34
Nicely varied crop today. There’s a grimdark war story that’s currently nothing but a hilariously overdetailed summary, as well as some idiot who thought crowdsourcing whether or not pokemon could talk was a wise idea. Also a good-ish story about the Alola PC freaking out at the nihilego’s similarity to Lillie, though it seems to have mixed up cause and effect. Also also a Team Plasma story, but no idea where that’s going.
Charapost 3: Chara Strikes Back
A few of the earlier stories updated again, including that bizarre Power Rangers crossover. Otherwise, mostly Havan. I’m starting to feel that he doesn’t fit this very well; a lot of the more plotty stories want trainers around the same level as the protagonists, which is usually starter level, and that too easily makes him look like a pompous idiot with nothing to back him up. Pokemon’s also geared towards younger characters, and it’s just not believable that an 11-year-old has his level of guile and cynicism. I might have to retool him. For now my default has switched to Kidra, but unfortunately she still hasn’t shown up much.
Pokeauthors Special Spotlight: On Not-Fanfiction
You remember that weird “human AU” fic about the guy who was just like a gardevoir because he was bullied for wearing dresses? The author flipped out at me for calling it original fiction, but shockingly, we actually made it to a peaceful resolution.
The Other Pokeauthors, Part 33
“As for it not being Pokémon. That was the first chapter, and it says in the description this is about a high school that these Pokémon are attending. It obviously isn’t going to follow the game or the show. It is not following characters from the game or show. It will be different. This is however considered a Pokémon fan fiction. Just because the Pokémon act sort of humanlike is not the sole deciding factor in what the fanfic is or isn’t. Again I thank you on grammatical corrections but I do not appreciate you putting it down saying “This has nothing to do with Pokemon”.”
[25] The Other Pokereviews, Part 33
Today we have a high school AU that felt the need to specify characters’ EV values but not how a quadruped can use a toothbrush, an edgy grimdark story about all of America (literally, the landmass) being teleported into the the pokeworld, and a humanized pokemon story that thought a humanized gardevoir was a better vehicle for addressing toxic masculinity than a just plain human character. Is it just me or is this batch weirder than normal?
The Other Pokeauthors, Part 32
“Still don’t care. Bug odd.”
[25] The Other Pokereviews, Part 32
Lots of people who don’t understand how to tag their story as anime-related.
Adventure Time, Continuity, and Tonal Consistency
I got into Adventure Time about a year ago. It was billed as a spiritual predecessor to Steven Universe, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The quality is pretty haphazard – individual episodes can be very good, but for most of its run it seems to throw consistent storytelling to the wind. There’s basically no telling what will happen in a given episode, or how much we’re supposed to care; maybe a given plot point be revisited and turn out to be vitally important a few episodes later, maybe a few seasons later, maybe never. It currently has a number of interesting ongoing mysteries and plotlines, but it jumps between them seemingly at random, which can be frustrating. It overall feels like a show that’s constantly trying and failing to figure out what it wants to be.
There’s one plot point that I found particularly baffling, however, and I think it ties into a recurring problem in shows like these that toe the line between episodic and plotty: they can’t decide whether they want to play a potentially serious topic for drama or comedy.
(Spoilers for episode 6×22, for those of you who care.)
The Other Pokeauthors, Part 31
“Thank you for the help. I really do appreciate it but, this is fanfiction. A place where I can write about anything.”
(more…)
[25] The Other Pokereviews, Part 31
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12250511/1/Red-The-Liberator
[Red is tired of people treating Pokemon with such disrespect.]
Yet he still believes pokemon aren’t people, apparently.
Pokeauthors Special Spotlight: Reducto ad Absurdum Edition
We jump ahead to the recent past. In February I reviewed this non-fic and the results were simply amazing. The author blocked me so I lost my own responses, but they’re impressive anyway.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12360950/1/My-Favorite-Ships
Non-stories are banned on this site. This belongs elsewhere.
The Other Pokeauthors, Part 30
“(For your information. I study English language and culture. I know the capitalisation and other punctuation rules. No need to explain to me as if I’m a child) […] I treat Pokemon names as proper nouns.”
[25] The Other Pokereviews, Part 30
Biblepunk fantasy where Giratina is literally Satan. Also, some hilarious misunderstanding of gamma rays and DNA.