d_s_t_e's Wattpad Reviews

The Studies of Scarlet: Trivial Disobedience by Scarlet_Regnar [Unavailable]

The Studies of Scarlet: Trivial Disobedience is a Pokémon fan fiction about a boy named Scarlet who is studying to become a Pokémon Ranger when he begins to realize that the authorities on his home island have been hiding the real truth about Pokémon training from his entire generation. Through a combination of censorship, forced seclusion, and outright lies, they've been led to believe that life as a Ranger is the only possible one for them and that any other method of capturing Pokémon is immoral. But what will happen when Scarlet begins to hear the other side of the story?

The first thing that I like about this story is that I haven't read another one like it. I had no real concept of what a Pokémon Ranger was before reading this story, and the way that the plot unfolds is new and original. I really enjoyed the censorship angle and the idea of a kid in a Pokémon story crossing hairs with a corrupt government. It made almost everything seem especially fresh and interesting.

That being said, I would have liked to see more about the Rangers, especially spread throughout the story. There's really only one scene where we see how the Styler works, and I really would have liked to see it described in more detail. I also would like to know more about who Rangers are and what they do, and I think that a lot of this would be really great if it was explained to the reader in the context of how Scarlet feels about becoming a Ranger. I want to know whether he wants to become a Ranger, his reasons why, whether that changes as the story goes on, and for what reasons it might change. All of this would help give the reader a better idea about who the Rangers are and also a better idea of Scarlet as a character and his desires and motivations.

Speaking of Scarlet's character, I noticed that we get a lot of great action from him, and the choices that he makes are really what I think characterize him the most. Especially when he makes the choices that are difficult or unexpected, it tells the reader a lot about him. We also get his thoughts from time to time, but I thought that the one thing we could use more of are depictions of how Scarlet is feeling. Especially during more climactic or dramatic scenes, I would have liked to receive small indications of how he felt in response to what was happening, which could possibly be tied into his actions. A good place for this could be when Scarlet is first learning the truth about pokéballs. He seems to accept the truth rather quickly, and I couldn't help but wonder how he felt about everything. Does he feel surprised? Angry? Betrayed? Does he believe so easily because he suspected something like this all along and thus feel satisfied that he was right? This is a big moment, and setting the tone here could have a really great impact on the rest of the story.

One other thing that I really would have enjoyed seeing more of is Scarlet's friends Aqua and Jade, who are introduced later on in the story. From the first, we can see that these characters have problems of their own that they are struggling with, but we don't see very much of them in the context of the story. In Jade's case, that led for some confusion for me near the end. Since they're friends with Scarlet, perhaps we could get some more conversations between them in which they tell Scarlet some of the details of what's going on with them so that we can check in with them at various points. I know from one of the author's One Shots that he has done some writing exercises from the perspectives of these two characters, so I know that he has a lot of interesting material that could be included. Reading just one short piece from Aqua's perspective was really interesting and helped to round him out as a character. I would love to see things like that included in the actual text of the story somehow.

Going back to the things I liked about this story, I really liked chapter 12 in particular. I won't give away what happens, but we see some rather wacky new characters pop up. This chapter is the reason that the story got my vote for "Most Humorous", which it subsequently won. In this chapter, we also get a short Bible quote, and, while I realize that not all readers on Wattpad are Christian, I, personally, thought that it was really nice. I like characters who have good values, and hopefully others can appreciate it from that angle as well.

The last point I would like to make is that there are a few unresolved mysteries that begin cropping up towards the end of the piece. It's obvious that there is plenty of material in store for the sequel, so anyone who reads this book will probably be eagerly awaiting the next.

On the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and general typos side of things, I did notice a few spread out in almost every chapter, but they were almost always more minor things like missing punctuation and improperly formatted dialogue. Most readers should be able to ignore it, but a big of editing could make a real difference.

If you're looking to read a Pokémon fan fiction that's a little different with a good balance of action and a solid plot, feel free to give this one a try.

** Published in November 2013 **