My Issues with Pokémon Fanfiction.

Issue #2, Eeveelution Squad

Hoho, boy. Time to ruffle some feathers...

I, as a writer and Wattpad denizen, despise Eeveelution Squad. Controversial opinion, I know, but let me elaborate.

Eeveelution Squad, for those blissfully uninitiated, is a comic written by PKM-150 or EV-Zero, I've lost track of their name by now. It centres around a group of Eeveelutions all living together under one roof, and the general misdemeanours that they consistently find themselves in. Let me clarify by saying that this is a great idea for a slice-of-life story, and rather unseen in Pokemon Fanfiction, to my knowledge. Hell, I myself have imitated this concept to a degree.

However, this charming, happy-go-lucky mood only resides for about the first five or so chapters. Following this, the whole story seems to go topsy-turvy as the travelling troupe of Eeveelutions, accompanied by some of their relatives, all collectively go on a holiday together. This holiday section seems like a good idea on paper, as it puts the characters in a new place to react to their environment, but here's my issue.

We haven't really seen enough of the characters by the time that they move to really perceive this as a new, outlandish place for them, and it just seems more like a place that they frequently travel to (which may be the case, in fairness, but most likely isn't). The characters by this point are really only attributed stereotypical personalities based on their species. Sure, PKM-150 couldn't have known that these were stereotypes, since ES became virtually the catalyst for said stereotypes, but they are an issue nevertheless.

To start off, there's what me and my online friends call the Protagonist Jolteon. This, of course, isn't referring to any Jolteon that happens to be the protagonist, but it goes as follows. Semi-confident, if slightly awkward at times Jolteon, that is either granted or blessed with a significant power, despite his peers and even family members not receiving such powers. This often leads to the Jolteon having a specific mood change, turning from quite bubbly and awkward to cold and emotionless, which could've been done better in ES, but I personally believe was done quite subparly.

Then, of course, we have the (for lack of a better term) Tsundere Glaceon. This is, as you can probably imagine, a stuck-up, short-tempered Glaceon who frequently seems to lose their temper towards the protagonist. This is done via Lazuli in ES, who, while not being a bad character to a fault, felt somewhat barebones as to her reasoning of being so harsh to Speed. It felt like all of the vitriol between those two was kick-started by their collision in the first chapter, which obviously is absolutely no reason for such a bitter rivalry.

And finally, and arguably worst of all, the Edgy/Emo Umbreon. This concept is admittedly nothing new, but Eeveelution Squad really did seem to further emulate this idea of a character, to the point in which there's nothing entertaining about a seemingly cool or badass Umbreon, as you've probably seen the concept done in MANY other books. I'd also like to nominate both Black and Speed for the reason why so many Eeveelution stories seem to have the protagonist's parents being portrayed as dead.

I too am guilty of this to a degree, but I have a reason as to why the parents of my protagonist are absent in TRR that isn't just them dying tragically in an attack by a group of wild Pokemon when the protagonist was but a toddler, and was thus raised by their older siblings. This notion can absolutely be done justice, however, but the water has been muddied by too many stories trying to blatantly copy this idea and executing it poorly.

I also have a lot to say about the plot, too.

The plot, while as aforementioned, starting out as a slice-of-life story about the slightly stereotypical Eeveelutions living together, immediately turns upon its head post chapter 5. This is when the story delves deep into a more sci-fi and cyberpunk aesthetic, as I'm sure you're aware. This immediately raises some problems. If Eeveelution Squad was initially stated to eventually delve into sci-fi, then I wouldn't have an issue, but it feels so misleading with it always being presented as a slice-of-life story, and nothing else. Not to mention, the sci-fi felt incredibly convoluted and shoehorned in, as if it wasn't initially planned, which is entirely likely.

The story also seems to meddle with something to do with Legendaries. Admittedly, I haven't read it for a while, nor do I plan to, but I remember there being a substance called Deomorph, I believe, which was connected with Flare's sudden anger issues? If this is the case, then it is obviously linked with the Pokemon Deoxys. There was absolutely no implication of there being anything to do with Legendary Pokemon in any capacity at the start of the story. This makes it feel unsatisfying to read.

This isn't even all of my gripes with Eeveelution Squad. I don't want to make this chapter too long, so I'll split it up into as many parts as I need.