Pokemon: An Unexpected Journey

Author Note

Okay, so big announcement for Pokemon: An Unexpected Journey.

Ahem.

Drumroll, please.

I am dropping the story.

Now, many of you might ask, why?

Is it because I ran out of ideas?

Absolutely not, the amount of stuff I have left to cover is insane:

- Austin meeting Red.

- Austin vs. Mewtwo.

- The Masked Man.

- Why is Austin here?

- What happened to Ash Ketchum?

- What is Giratina doing in the background?

- What is Fate and Arceus's plan for Austin?

- Meeting Ho-oh, Lugia, Rayquaza etc.

- The Kanto league.

- Mega Evolution.

- Charmeleon evolving into Charizard Z, which is essentially that if Charmeleon gets a hold of a mega stone, he can instantly evolve into it and switch between Mega Charizard X and Y.

- The story of the Kings.

- The Darkest Night.

- Austin navigating through Orange islands, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh.

- Austin aging and dealing with puberty, especially with how many girls are infatuated with him.

- I even planned to have Kanto end with Austin vs. Karen Ainsworth.

- The mystery of the GS ball.

And much more.

So, why?

Answer: My Ego and Perfectionist Nature.

Context: Pokemon: An Unexpected Journey was my first-ever proper story, which I started when I was 16, and you can see a lot of cringe teenage angst, like Austin getting aura tattoos and his smoking, which now, older, I kind of cringe at. But I have a special place in my heart for the story.

Answer: Now that I am older and a much more experienced writer, I frankly can't ignore the numerous shortcomings of the story:

- Too many side quests. Frankly, the story needed to cut out things like Austin scamming the Eevee brothers, everything about the Erika Amano stuff, the monster projects, etc.

- Too many Pokemon. I gave Austin too many Pokemon and did not develop them as their own characters. Charmeleon had too much focus and not everyone else.

- The tone of the story after Raticate's death was... too dark in my opinion. I was going for the realistic and mature look but now that I am older, I realize that dark doesn't mean mature, and now I cringe.

- The combat got a little stale for my liking.

I could go on and on about my own shortcomings that I see now but on the bright side, I guess that's maturity, realizing your past mistakes, and knowing how to be better.

So, what now?

I am going to do a reattempt.

Start from the beginning.

I am going to rewrite Pokemon: An Unexpected Journey as Pokemon: An Unexpected Odyssey, and this time as a more experienced writer, I will do this story justice.

To everyone who hasn't checked the story out, just click this link, I will also put up the link in the comments.

Anyways, 24 chapters are out so go check that out.

Pokemon: An Unexpected Odyssey

See you there and let's enjoy this remake of Austin's journey through the world of Pokemon.