A new wave of SYOC fic appears, and the cycle begins anew. This also marks a point where I changed my strategy a little: I focused more on surface traits rather than giving the full explanation for everything, like Farla does with her own submissions. I always thought that was unfair since of course the authors will get things wrong, but it’s become clear they’ll get things wrong no matter what, so they might as well fail in varied ways.

We also get our first negative Kidra portrayal here, though I did give her full personality and backstory for that one, so it’s just a continuation of authors ignoring information.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12407269/4/Pokemon-EmeraldLines

This author started off by saying they just wanted names for various character roles, then quickly clarified that to include additional information when people started interpreting that as a full submission request; so, right from the start, we can tell this is not going to end well. They also forgot to ask for personality even once they expanded the request. I assumed submissions would just be background characters so this wouldn’t be an issue, but…

Kidra POV:

Oh dear.

What a dump. Oh, is this thing on? Right, my name is Kidra, and I am one of the fearsome three. Yeah, so although you have heard of our adventures, considering that we are world famous, I believe that we will tell you another story.

What was that Risker? To snobbish? Ah well, it is what it is.

So, where to begin? How about the day that we first met Risker. So, me and the others were in Viridian City, looking for some competition… Well, I was at least. The others aren’t as in to battling as I am. Also, talk about a fashion disaster!

what

I suppose this isn’t totally their fault because they only had appearance and team to work off of, but on the other hand they chose to use her as a main character without noticing that lack of personality was a problem so it really is their fault. (I’m also not sure why they think someone who only uses half her team is really into battling.)

I let out my partner, Heiress. She cried out, landing on my shoulder. “Can you go find us a battle, Heiress?” Not even taking the time to respond, she took off without delay. Absoluty devoted to me, but I am not sure that she should be. I get why she is though – not that you need to know why, of course.

They do try to work in some of the pokemon details I gave, probably because that’s all they had. Points for effort, I guess.

She does immediately jump to the protagonist’s aid when he’s in danger, so they actually got the important parts of her real personality anyway. That’s interesting, and I’m thinking I should stick to surface traits in future submissions to see how that changes things.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12391350/3/Pok%C3%A9mon-Rising-Supernova-SYOC

Kidra appears as a random battler in a tournament, because that is totally something she would care about.

The girl – her opponent, Sarah thought – carried herself with an exquisite regal confidence that made her the center of attention from the start. Her honey blonde waves cascaded down the back of her neck and draped over a golden dress with sunset pink highlights near the hem of the skirt and the sleeves, and she wore matching platform heels that did a good-enough job of hiding her short stature.

Ahh, here we go. That backhanded compliment in the last bit is already raising some flags. Let’s see how this goes…

Opening her eyes, revealing an emerald green hue, the challenger eyed Sarah with a snobbish attitude and snickered lowly. “Good luck!” the girl – Kidra, was it? – wished her adversary with a warm, defenseless smile. “Please don’t go too harsh on me… I’m a beginner.”

And she has a “snobbish attitude” even though I said she was laid-back.

“Heiress, it’s your turn!” Kidra announced as she twirled playfully sending out her pokémon of choice. In the split second it took for First’s adversary to present itself, Sarah’s mind ran wild. Heiress? What kind of pokémon could that be? Maybe a beautiful siren like a Milotic, or a majestic Meowstic?

It is nice that they picked up on her nicknames, though this makes me doubt that they got the point.

The familiar trail of light behind him, Growlithe ran at his opponent at a great speed, knocking him off the air and tumbling to the ground with a great deal of damage. “H-Heiress!” the girl on the right side called, eyes twitching in fear. “U-Uh…”

She breaks character in the middle of the fight to flip out here, which I’m a bit puzzled by — it could be to show that she cares about her pokemon, but it may also be a token fear of losing, as the other characters have similar reactions in their fights.

Kidra snickered and grew a soft smirk, before yelling out a final order. “Okay, Heiress, time to take out the trash!” she taunted Sarah and First, but Golbat wasted no time.

Also yes, the author randomly switches between nicknames and species names when referring to pokemon. This is why the menace of pokemon capitalization must be stamped out.

After the battle:

“Return.” Kidra had her arm outstretched, a small, porcelain hand around the ball and a smirk on her face. “Isn’t she amazing!?” she bragged, rubbing salt on Sarah’s open wound, although the hoodie-wearing girl hadn’t fully grasped whether or not she was mocking her loss.

“Begginer’s luck, maybe.” Sarah pondered, but didn’t let that thought escape her lips. She didn’t want to sound like a poor loser, after all. “Right you are! Good match, that Golbat packs a mean punch.”

Kidra giggled and nodded, bowing down as she grabbed the hems of her dress. “Why, thank you! You weren’t so bad yourself.” she scoffed before leaving the stage, showing to have nowhere near the modesty of the twelfth winner.

For reference, this was the twelfth winner:

Upon hearing her official win, the lilac-haired girl jumped for joy, hugging her battle partner tightly, a smile on each of their faces before waving and bowing towards the camera and leaving stage through the left exit, taking the chance to thank her opponent for the battle, a fiery ambition in her step.

It is possible this is a fakeout and we’ll see laid-back Kidra after the tournament is over, but these Hunger Games-style snipes are highly suspicious.

“It was obvious.” he insisted, nodding ever so slightly, before producing a small clipboard with notes written on it. A short bulletpoint list was scribbled on it in blue paint, neat and tidy cursive handwriting decorating the sheet. “Before the match, ‘K’, the winner, told ‘S’, the loser, she was a begginner. This was obviously an attempt to make ‘S’ drop her guard… which she succeeded in doing. Secondly, ‘S’ brought her pokémon out first – giving ‘K’ ample time to review her choices and plan accordingly, giving her another advantage. The Golbat’s wings gave him mobility and a vantage point, which turned this battle into quite a short, one-sided one. The outcome was visible from a mile away, logically speaking.”

Another character also shows up afterwards to analyze the battle, which makes this the first time someone has had her use the wounded gazelle gambit. Once again, highly suspicious that it’s paired with our only negative portrayal so far.

I feel it’s also worth noting that this author is a man and told me he couldn’t accept Havan’s female gallade.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12420176/3/A-Soldier-s-Duty

This appears to be a standard fantasy war story with a Pokemon skin. I submitted Castor, a character from Last Scenario. His central conflict in that game is a desire for human connection warring with a desire for self-sufficiency, so I thought it would be fitting to make him a gardevoir with a damaged, nonfunctional horn. His scene here is decent, with only one notable feature:

He blinked against the bright sunlight as he dusted the sand from the front of his body, taking special care to remove every grain from the cracked red horn that protruded from his chest. After careful inspection, the Gardevoir determined the horn had not been further damaged and began to wipe the sand off his coat.

They thought he’d just leave a gaping wound open like that??? In future submissions I’m going to say doctors surgically removed it.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11997751/8/Pok%C3%A9-Rangers-Elemental-Fury

This again.

Each of them had on a white shirt with a different flower on the chest. Adam’s was a blue iris, Kara’s a daffodil

They are definitely not familiar with Undertale.

In the opening Chara takes the role of the Watson:

“What even is this competition?” asked Kara. “I’ve gotten so disinterested that I forgot.”

Moses pulled out a small pamphlet from his back pocket and began reading it.

“It’s a traveling Flower Festival. They showcase various flowers and Pokémon from across the globe,” he informed the young girl. “There’s an art contest in which the contestants are partnered with a Pokémon to create through any sort of artistic medium.”

“I see. In that case, it should be pretty interesting then,” said Kara with intrigue.

It’s actually a reasonable role for them, minus the part where they care. Even ignoring OOCness, this doesn’t make sense — if she thinks it’s interesting, why did she forget in the first place?

“Flowers never really interested me. Their bright colors are only used to attract bug Pokémon, so I never really saw the appeal,” said Kara.

“Then we’ll have to work on that,” replied Jared with laugh.

The author is also not very familiar with flowers. C’mon, poisons! Doesn’t everyone know about poppies at least? Male Lead also continues to be a possessive dick.

I don’t detect anything just yet. I don’t understand what Yveltal’s force would want with flower seeds, Xerneas said confused.

“Neither do we, and it’s extremely disconcerting,” replied Kara.

Chara continues to care way too much.

“As long as you’re not dead or comatose, you can keep fighting,” Kara told Moses.

“Kara, your concern truly knows no bounds,” Moses replied sarcastically.

This is great, though.

Chara proceeds to get incapacitated by the monster of the week, though they inexplicably recover in time to save Male Lead, which is acceptable.

“After today, flowers and I will never have any good rapport,” declared Kara.

“Then you’re probably not gonna like… these!” Jared said as he pulled out a big bouquet of roses.

Kara shot Jared a cold glare while everybody else laughed. Kara gave a sly smirk as she pulled out a small can of hairspray and a lighter.

“Kara uses Flamethrower,” she said.

She lit the lighter, held the can behind it, and pressed down on the top of the can. A quick burst of fire came out, and set the flowers ablaze. Jared and the rest of the team stopped laughing and started screaming at the sight of the flaming flowers in Jared’s hands.

“It’s super effective,” concluded Kara.

The smoke alarm started beeping as Jared rushed over to Adam’s sink to put out flames. Kara was too busy laughing her ass off while Adam and Jared frantically put out the flames.

The chapter ends with a nice in-character moment, though as always it raises the question of why the others put up with them.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12472562/5/PMD-A-New-World

Feudal fantasy that has nothing to do with PMD but is using a PMD aesthetic to make it more attractive to readers. And thus the chain of ripoffs continues.

I submitted Kidra as a salazzle (how did I not think of that before) and a freedom fighter who murdered a noble and wants to join the rebels to take down the emperors. The heroes initially find her captured by slavers.

A wadded up towel was inside it’s mouth, preventing it from speaking. When Nick walked inside, a horrified look was plastered on it’s face.

“Hey, calm down. We’re here to rescue you. We aren’t the bad guys I promise.” Nick stated, as he pulled the gag out of it’s mouth. The Salazzle breathed heavily before finally speaking.

“T-thank… y-y-you…” it said in a soft feminine voice. Nick nodded and untied the ropes that kept her strapped onto the chair. I’m finally saved! The Salazzle thought, and Nick jolted upright.

“Did you say something?” Nick said, and the Salazzle responded by shaking her head. “Huh, that’s so weird, I thought I heard your voice saying you were saved or something.” This comment made the Salazzle go wide-eyed and looked at him with a shocked look on her face.

Can you hear me? She said, and Nick nodded in response.

“Does it hurt to speak?” Nick asked, and the Salazzle responded with a nod. “Okay, just speak to me through your mind I guess then. Let me undo the rest of these ropes and I’ll get you out of here. My name is Nick by the way.”

Thank you… Nick. My name is Kidra. Kidra said, as Nick finally undid the ropes. When Kidra tried to stand up straight she fell straight into Nick’s arms. Ughhh I’m sorry Nick. I can’t feel a muscle in my body. It hurts too much to move. Kidra stated.

Not exactly promising for someone who’s supposed to be an inspiring hero, but we’ll have to see how this progresses.

The love interest lets slip that the main character is a human, and Kidra reacts really stupidly:

Kidra however, was not taking the news as easy. WHAT?!? You’re a human? They don’t exist. They aren’t real. You can’t be a human. She said to Nick, who replied with, “It’s true, I’m human, but don’t think of me as such; I’m still a Pokémon but I have some supernatural powers it seems. Don’t be alarmed Kidra, I wouldn’t have saved you if I was a malicious Pokémon.” Nick replied, with Kidra still wrapping her head around the fact.

Nick… he’s human? That can’t be… but his partner seems to think so, and Riolus don’t lie. I can’t believe this, I feel like I’m living in a fairy tale. Kidra thought as Nick and Luca continued to carry her through the Fire Empire. Well he did save me, so I can’t complain. I might as well take advantage of these guys as much as possible.

The main character has no reaction to the last bit despite the story previously establishing he can hear thoughts.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12488972/2/Zyon-of-The-South

This is written by someone I submitted to before who really liked Havan, so he shows up here.

“Hey you!” someone shouted in the distance. Zyon quickly turned to see a 24 year old man, roughly 6 feet tall, with platinum blonde hair, light skin and light blue eyes wearing a white T shirt, sky blue zip up sweater, navy blue jeans and black sneakers.

I feel like I shouldn’t still be surprised that no one knows how to smoothly integrate description into the story, but I am. (Also WTH why is he wearing both a T-shirt and a sweater.)

“The name’s Havan,” he answered,” I’m just a regular trainer, y’know.”

The author told me he loves how flamboyant Havan is, yet he does this. ???

“Adi, Light Screen!” The Delphox waved her stick around, using a spell to form a barrier.

“Don’t give them a chance, Vienna,” Zyon told the Goodra,” Use Muddy Water!” Goodra produced a wave of filthy brown water and sent it crashing onto the Delphox, washing her up and sending her stick flying, only landing a couple feet away.

“Great job Adi,” Havan said, clearly proud of his Delphox. “Now use Mystical Fire!”

…So is the idea that he’s just completely delusional, or…? (Incidentally I did give him a way to deal with this; his delphox knows the Sunny Day + Solar Beam combo.)

He proceeds to switch her out for his audino, who starts charging up a Thunderbolt.

“Alright Santes, letta rip!” Havan said.

o_O

Diablo flew straight at the Gallade, did a loop and became covered in white streaks of light as it smacked the Gallade, knocking him down.

argh

“Congrats kiddo,” Havan said, clapping for Zyon. “That was a great battle there. Could I have your name and number so I can challenge you some time soon?” Zyon reluctantly handed him his PokéNav and registered him in the Match Call. “Alright then Zyon,” Havan said, reading his name from his PokéNav. “I hope to see you soon. For now, I gotta get to the Pokémon Center.” Havan and Zyon both split ways, each walking to a Pokémon Center in the cities they went to.

Well that was amazingly boring. I’m really not sure what the author likes about him so much when he’s just having him act like a bog-standard trainer.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12494805/2/Guardians-OC-Form-on-Profile

Chosen one plot, submitted Kidra as a poison elemental with the power to use drugs to mess with peoples’ minds. The pokemon are apparently what’s special, so I had her steal one to see if that affects anything.

A girl noticed him suddenly and skipped over, jutting out her hand to greet him.

The protagonist is 15 and I said she was 17, so I will grudgingly allow this.

“Hi, there! You’re the newest member, am I right? I’m Kidra. What’s your name?” she asked cheerily. Yuki flinched at her sudden movements, but slowly reached out his own. They shook hands a bit awkwardly, mostly thanks to the younger trainer’s stiff movements.

Yuki had to crane his neck quite high to even see the trainer’s face, who was extremely tall when compared to him. Her hair, a beautiful blonde color, fell over her shoulders and didn’t go much farther. She had stunningly emerald eyes that flashed in the strong sunlight, and when she smiled her teeth were flawless. He blinked pathetically, realizing how scrubby he must look in his rumpled and dirty clothing.

“I-I… I’m Yuki,” he finally managed, feeling his cheeks heat up. What the heck was wrong with him? Kidra giggled and spun him in a circle.

“You are so adorable! I bet you’re totally freaked out right now. Trust me, all the Guardians are when they first arrive. Even me! They’re afraid of screwing up or something,” she shrugged casually, letting go of his hands with a flair of elegance. Yuki sputtered and tried to say something, but it seemed like his social skills had dwindled down to almost nothing.

“W-what’s a Guardian?” he continued his awful conversation with a lousy attempt to get her talking again. Kidra widened her eyes and gasped dramatically.

“Hagane didn’t tell you? Well, then that means I get to! Come along, my friend!”

This is pretty good though; she’s energetic and outgoing without appearing stupid or vapid. She gets the lion’s share of this chapter as she functions as the exposition fairy, and it actually makes sense that the socialite would know about the group dynamics. Unfortunately, the chapter cuts off before she can do anything else.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12494805/3/Guardians

Kidra continues to be Ms. Exposition, though she has the odd trait of hating interruptions:

“Okay… so, I get the backstory. Sort of, at least. But it’s the powers I don’t understand. Why did he make us Guardians or whatever you call yourself?” the boy urged on. Kidra glared at him with her stunning emerald eyes.

“You ask too many questions.

At the end of her speech she gets into a fight with someone for no reason:

“You actually took the time to calculate the percentage? Loser,” a voice from outside the structure chortled. Kidra whirled around and pulled open the tent flap.

“Kaen, I swear on Queen that you’ll eat your own words if you call me that again,” she growled dangerously.

Nobody spoke for a few moments before the voice repeated smugly, “Whatever you say, bud.”

The sound of footsteps began to fade, so the girl was about to let it be, but then they both heard a faint mutter of, “Loser.”

“Eat my fists, you bloody fire-type kiss-up!” Kidra flung herself outside, the entrance to the tent closing behind her, and Yuki clung to the bed below him fearfully as he heard a fight begin outside. For a bit there was just the sound of wheezes, grunts, and blows being struck at the opposer, but then he realized that the girl was definitely beating Kaen to a pulp. There was a masculine yelp, then another, and then a third, which sounded more like a screech. The raven-haired boy winced as he heard a sound like a slammed door.

“Ow! Okay, owww! Look what you… I just… OW!” the Fire Guardian was trying to reason with Kidra, but she was having none of it. Yuki shoved his way out of the tent just in time to see Kaen drop to the ground. The other Guardian was glaring daggers at the fallen warrior.

I’m really curious to know what inspired this. Kidra is supposed to focus on survival and subterfuge, and picking unnecessary fights isn’t very conducive to that. (Queen is also her insane pokemon who was abused into being a killing machine, so that’s a pretty strong thing to swear by.)

“What was that for?” the boy immediately hollered. Kidra didn’t even flinch or show the slightest sign of compunction. She just leaned against a tree and closed her eyes sleepily. Yuki suddenly felt rage bubble up inside of him. Sure, Kaen had punched him in the face, but it was for a good cause. Why did she attack him for a tiny insult? Before he could stop himself, he’d lunged at the girl and rather clumsily swung his fist.

Kidra snapped one eye open and held up her right arm to block. His punch was deflected easily, and with her other arm she grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him backwards. Next thing he knew, he was sprawled out on his back in the dirt. This all happened in a span of about five seconds.

“What was that? Sorry, but that attack was about as powerful as a drunk Shuckle. I could have mashed your face in twice over if I wanted to,” she snorted. Gritting his teeth, Yuki once more got to his feet and tried again to strike her. But again and again, Kidra blocked his attacks with utmost nonchalance.

At least she’s established as a strong fighter.

And for the record, that was my intent, kid. People who mess with me are going to see that I’m not all about candy and Butterfrees. Granted, I never am,” the trainer shrugged.

There’s an attempt to justify it here, but it doesn’t make any sense; the chosen ones are all vital to the cause, so she doesn’t need to prove anything. This behavior is also just as likely to provoke more fights, and indeed seems to be egging the hothead on given he hasn’t stopped picking fights with her. I think what might be going on here is that the author doesn’t know how to write a social-focused hero, and so defaults to the standard “beating people up is the only way to establish dominance” situation.

But Arceus is weakening. His beautiful planet that he had created is turning cruel and hard. Pokemon, who were once respected and adored, are now forced to battle viciously for the petty glory of their masters.

We do have a convert to Team Plasma, though!

Yuki’s eyes widened suddenly as he saw a Nidoqueen leap into the air above the heads of the small crowd that had gathered around the battlefield. Cheers rose up as a blast of fire knocked it backwards. The boy couldn’t help himself from shoving past the other trainers to see what was going on.

Dust swirled up around the field like a tornado, and the Nidoqueen, who he presumed was the Queen that Kidra and Kaen had talked about, was glaring viciously at a Zweilous on the other side. Standing behind the dragon-type was a lanky girl with glittering green eyes, brown hair, and seemed to show mixed feelings about the battle. At one moment she would grin when her starter landed an attack, then frown moments later.

“Alright, Zweilous, now use Crunch!” she called out abruptly. The dual-headed Pokemon lunged forward, opening both mouths to reveal double sets of glowing white teeth. Queen narrowed her eyes, and without any command from Kidra (who was nowhere to be seen), fired a star-shaped blast of fire at the Pokemon. It tried to dodge, but its clumsy body was no match for the oncoming wave of flames. The heat smashed into it, and the Pokemon collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Queen tipped her head to sky and roared in victory, which received a mixture of cheers and disappointed groans. The girl held out a Pokeball that sucked the unconscious dragon-type inside.

“You battled really hard, girl. Take a good rest. And by the way, nice job, Queen!” the trainer smiled and nodded at the Nidoqueen, who just growled back at her and stomped off.

…Though it is rather undermined by showing she still battles with her abused wreck of a pokemon. The characters say this is to help the pokemon exercise, but Queen is already so high-strung that this should not be helping. Queen is supposed to be unusable for normal battling. It seems like the author has decided to incorporate the abuse as minor quirks that impact nothing rather than crippling issues.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11997751/8/Pok%C3%A9-Rangers-Elemental-Fury

This again.

“So, allow me to recollect, but for what reason did you drag me out here again?” she whined. “I’ve been sitting here doing nothing for the last 30 minutes!”

“Shh!” Jared hissed harshly. “We have to be quiet or the Beedrill are not going to be happy.”

Jared kept snapping photos while Kara carried another conversation with her invisible friend. Jared was kind of used to it at this point, everyone has their weird quirks, right?

She is “whiny”. Of course.

I’m also not sure what it’s referencing in the last bit. I must have missed her talking to the player in an earlier chapter.

The villain of the week incapacitates Chara by stuffing her soul in a box, which is hilarious. She is somehow still conscious and manages to stun the villain into dropping it and releasing her, so it doesn’t seem like a very effective holding mechanism.