Unoriginality 1: An Original Trainer Story

Trainers and Injured Pokemon

Today, dear readers, we will get three trainer clichés for the price of one. Why? Because they're short and easy, and all along the same theme. Namely, that the writers have obviously never been within three hundred feet of an animal, injured or not.

Maria was walking down the forest path when she heard a soft noise. Following it, she saw an injured treecko lying on the ground. It was badly bruised, even bleeding slightly. "Oh no!" she said, rushing over. She quickly scooped it up, not noticing as it cried out in pain from her rough handling, and raced down the path, every step painfully jarring the treecko's battered body. Its broken tail was tossed back and forth, unsupported. Its head also flopped around, neck twisting from side to side.

I hope it'll be okay until I can get to the pokemon center, Maria thought, ignoring the obvious fact that if she'd used a pokeball to catch it, it would've been safely held inside. In fact, if she'd used a pokeball, she could have teleported it directly to a pokemon center. But if she'd done that, then there'd be no drama, and she wouldn't have looked like a good trainer concerned with the welfare of the pokemon.

She finally reached the center after several hours. "Nurse Joy, Nurse Joy!" she yelled. "I found an injured pokemon!"

Joy rushed over, taking it. "Oh dear," she said. "It's very badly dehydrated. If you'd gotten here even just a half hour later, it'd probably have died."

Maria would have beamed with pride, but she was too concerned about the treecko. "Will it be okay?" she asked earnestly. She couldn't believe her luck! Now she'd have a treecko on her journey.

"Not for a while," said the nurse, laying it on a stretcher, straightening out its tail gently and looking at its sprained neck. "If you hadn't run with it and worsened all the breaks, it would only be a day or so, but now it might take a few weeks. May I have your trainer license?"

d – b

Another trainer, Martha, also traveled down an unspecified forest path. Unspecified forest paths were where most of the events happened for a trainer, so they tended to spend as much time there as possible.

Suicune (or at least a suicune, anyway) crashed through the thin undergrowth and stumbled onto the path.

It had red scrapes all over its beautiful blue body, and was panting as if exhausted. It readied itself to take another leap.

Where another, lesser trainer might have paused, Martha did not. "Ultraball, go!" she shrieked excitedly. The ball barely twitched before it locked shut.

In the pokemon center she healed it at, she proudly recounted the tale to the wide-eyed listeners, talking about how she couldn't believe she'd been so lucky as to be there at the time, to have the opportunity to defeat a legendary. When the pokemon was returned, the growing crowd asked to see it. Martha grinned, opening the ball. Now that she had Suicune, she'd be unbeatable.

"Suicune," she ordered, deciding to show off its power, "use bubblebeam on-"

Suicune, now fully healed, leapt gracefully over the heads of the trainers and was gone an instant later.

d – b

Maggie had also been traveling along a path, and had also found a pokemon. It was a torchic, who was covered in bruises. She'd brought it quickly to the pokemon center. The Nurse Joy returned.

"Is Torchic okay?" she asked, leaping up.

Nurse Joy smiled cheerily. "The torchic is fine," she said. "It's healed and resting now."

"Do you know what happened to it? How it got that way?"

The Joy's face darkened. "It must have been abandoned," she said sadly.

"What? That's horrible!" yelled Maggie indignantly. "How could anyone do that?"

"Yes it is," said Nurse Joy. "I'll keep talking about it so you can rant angrily and show what a good trainer you are to the readers." She cleared her throat. "A lot of trainers abandon their pokemon like this."

"I can't believe anyone would do that," said Maggie, acting oblivious to the fact her dialogue was just a repeat of what she'd just said. "That's so mean."

The Joy nodded. "Let's keep talking so that we can be sure we've hammered the fact you're a good trainer into the heads of the readers. Ahem, what's really sad is now that poor torchic will be afraid of other trainers."

"Oh no, that's so sad," said Maggie dutifully. Then she grinned. "Wow, this is awesome. Now I know how politicians feel when they say stuff like 'we want to reduce murder'. Oh, um, I hope this doesn't happen to pokemon very much."

"It's actually very common. Many trainers abandon their pokemon. To add to your moral righteousness, they tend to beat their pokemon badly. I know there's no actual reason for this so let's move on quickly before the readers notice."

"Okay. Um, what will happen to the torchic now?

"Well, I don't know. Despite the fact torchic aren't exactly common, I suppose I don't know who will take it. And despite the fact the pokemon center is completely outfitted to handle pokemon, it wouldn't need to battle and I'd be able to take good care of it, I think it can't be kept here."

"Oh no, who will take it?"

"Could you? Sure, I don't know you, and yes, you've only just started your journey, and yes, you have no experience with traumatized pokemon, and yes, you'll just make it battle more, and yes, for all I know you could be lying and have beaten up the torchic yourself, but why not?"

"Yay!"

Now, my dear readers, why do all of the previous clichés fail?

Quite simply because the author makes it abundantly clear that they are only putting this in the story as an add-on to their character. One and two are just there to excuse the getting of a new pokemon, one and three are just there because the author believes that they need a sledgehammer or two to properly convince you of the godliness of their character.

What's wrong with a story about a trainer who finds an injured pokemon? That no one in their right mind would ever try to transport an injured animal by grabbing it and running. Ever. When the animal mauls you for hurting it, I'll laugh, because I like animals better than people and you really, really deserved it. If the trainer has pokeballs, the only reason to manually carry it is that you're sadistic and want to cause it as much pain as possible during transport.

Could a story where an injured legendary is caught work? Yes, and in fact, I'm going to hit my head on the keyboard now before the plotbunnies get me.

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Okay, that's better. Now, like I was saying. If the story actually involved the repercussions for catching a legendary, (What does the legendary think? Is it furious? Does it think you cheated? Is it suicidal? What do other people think? What do other pokemon think? Do your own pokemon refuse to battle because they think it's sacrilege?) or otherwise thought about the situation, it'd actually be a pretty interesting idea, which is why my forehead hurts right now. But if you don't have this, or, for that matter, even if you do but it's just to excuse getting the legendary to your readers, it's stupid. I won't ask for a detailed explanation of why a trainer's rattata is completely pivotal to the plot and can't be replaced by any other pokemon. I will if it's a groudon.

Oh, and please stop writing stories where characters rant about abused pokemon. Aside from striking me as blatantly hypocritical, it's always really obvious that you're only having them say it because everyone agrees. It's the equivalent of a politician saying they're 'for the children' or 'against releasing mass murderers and giving them assault weapons and full immunity'. Sure, no one disagrees, but it's not exactly the most daring thing and you can't help but think they're only saying that because it's an issue they can't get backlash on. And I'm standing by this until you can find someone who reads pokemon stories but thinks it's a good thing to abuse the pokemon.

(I've actually got the first chapter written to a story about an abusive trainer, which I find so much more interesting. No, that won't be posted anytime soon. Or ever, probably. But it's an idea I'd like to see.)

C'mon, people, show some originality!