HARDCORE EVIL VIOLENT DEMENTED APOCALYPTIC POKEMON

Vorpy

It was fine when people invented their own pokemon and retooled them to look evil as fuck and murder things, because it wasn't real and perfectly okay.

One thing I don't get is when people insert grimdark evilfuckery into their stories, and portray the world of pokemon as evil, savage and filled with violence and acrimony.

Hell, for the HxC pokemon fans who couldn't get comfortable showing their level 50 jigglypuff to their friends without being called gay, or were twisted out of shape by how neutral and not violent the game was, Darkrai was their fapcrush for the longest time.

Perhaps it similar to Brony syndrome, where the male audience will try to create a tough male shell niche inside of the fandom or enjoyment of a work to help let themselves be comfortable with something that is light-hearted at nature.

Chagen

Or maybe it's because portraying the pokemon world as a realistic and interesting varied world is more interesting than the Sugar Bowl canon shows it as.

DarkDecapodian

Even though it's a world that revolves around glorified cockfights, I don't really think Pokemon lends itself to straight-up grimdark, so much as an Earthboundian sense of Fridge Horror lurking beneath a cheerful facade. I guess it's another reason why Shin Megami Tensei deserves more exposure.

Anyone else read the Ash in a coma theory? That was pretty good.

glennmagusharvey

inb4 Creepy Black

DarkDecapodian

^ There's actually a playable version of Lost Silver floating around the interwebs. Not very creepy, but otherwise it's faithful to the story.

Vorpy

Or maybe it's because portraying the pokemon world as a realistic and
interesting varied world is more interesting than the Sugar Bowl canon
shows it as.

Well I slightly agree with that, but I think Darkrai being an incubus that rapes teenage girls in their sleep and makes them go insane, or having people use Electrodes for political terrorist agendas, or even trying to explain how pokemon breed without laying eggs (in other words, dick and vagina sex) could be left out.

Plus it would give room for Cubone's origins to be expanded upon.

Weird how many Cubones there are out in the wild...are female Marowak destined to die so their children can decorate and arm themselves with their bones?

Alkthash

They bones could be fossilized skulls of past marowaks. Sort of like a family heirloom or such that gets discarded when the cubone evolves.

As for the grimdark vs. sugar bowl concern, I think the pokemon adventures manga hits the right tone. It's not as cheery as the games(which have plenty of dark stuff if you look for it) but not IN THE GRIMDARKNESS OF THE POKEMON LEAGUE, THERE IS ONLY SUPER EFFECTIVE DAMAGE!

Myrmidon

I always assumed the female pokemon laid an egg, and then the male fertilized it externally. Like fish do.

Bee

It's a setting that can easily lend itself well to a lot of narrative tones -- I mean let's face it, there's some pretty fucking disturbing shit right behind the sugar bowl curtain (hell, look at my avatar).  I tend to prefer the more optimistic ones, but mostly just because the dark ones tend to be written by idiots hopped up on the novelty of it rather than people who know how to write a tastefully dark story.

What bugs me more than generic grimdark fics is the generic shipping fics that barely include or mention Pokémon in any capacity whatsoever >_>

The high school AUs... *shudder*

Alkthash

Would you prefer a high school AU based off the Explorers of _____ games? That way it would be an all pokemon cast.

Hatter

Vorpy, if you haven't realized how dark and grim the Pokemon world is, then you obviously don't know much about Pokemon.

You're having supernatural dog fights with enslaved, sapient monsters. Every conflict in the world is solved by forcing two thinking beings to fight and inflict pain on one another. Ten-year-old children are sent out into a world filled with monsters, and are expected to tame said monsters without any help. There doesn't seem to be any education system (beyond what children need to know to start their own dog fights), kids get bullied by adults, one or two criminals can take over an entire city with little or no resistance, and the same psychopathic children who stage animal fights for fun and money are given powerful slave-monsters that can destroy the world.

Pokemon is fucking brutal as shit, man.

Bee

See, that could be potentially interesting, but it'd probably have to go the Gurren Lagann Audio Drama route and start getting epically weird.

Alkthash

You have a dinosaur with a flower on it's back teaching a variety of mobile plants how to draw in sunlight and focus it into a laser beam. Epically weird is like two small steps away from the premise.

DYRE

^^^ Except that it's a video game so it's not really like that at all.

Bee

Hatter:

Compare that to the wild, where you're either prey getting hunted by motherfucking lightning-shooting lions, or a predator who could potentially get mauled to death by any of your next meals being a bit stronger than they look.

Joining a trainer, learning to defend yourself more effectively because your mistakes can be learned from and no longer make you dead, meeting former predators on equal terms, rapidly eclipsing all wild predators in both strength and skill, reaching evolutions that don't occur often in the wild because nothing survives long enough, and of course learning to shoot mouth lasers and shit, meeting species (and sometimes enjoying their company a bit too much if you get my drift) and seeing places you'd otherwise have no way of even imagining, and the primary risk is a conk on the head every once in a while and waking up to a hot Chansey while you coast on free healthcare...I mean all of that suddenly looks pretty appetizing.  Why do you think all those Caterpie are throwing themselves at kids?

The ubiquitous trainers-as-evil-slavedrivers thing is one of the other annoying darkfic cliches that grates on me, if you can't tell :P

Crake:

I was thinking more along the lines of Don Wigglytuff leading a mildly illegal and academically dishonest thing in the school staff that may or may not include an apple-smuggling cartel, sexy Gabite picking up all the ladies, and the most needlessly epic PE classes ever.

glennmagusharvey

@DarkDecapodian: Found it.  Seems it isn't a hack but rather someone actually making their own game program that does that but simulates the interface of Silver.