u/Pansycacke

For starters, I think it would be useful to establish a general picture of the story. And for that matter, I think pillars, inspirations, and comparison are a great tool for that so I don't drop a huge lore bomb.

Outside Pokémon:

• Avatar: TLA / TLoK: A society built around extraordinary abilities that has gradually lost touch with their roots.
• Brand New Day (MCU): A society that idolizes superpowered individuals while secretly fearing them, preparing to eliminate what makes them different.
• Arcane / Transformers One: Devastating secrets capable of shattering not only society, but even the strongest bonds.
• K-Pop Demon Hunters: Beloved superstars secretly fighting a magical war that could consume them, while struggling with what it means to possess that magic.

Within Pokémon:

• Sword & Shield: The wonder of competitive battling, stadiums, champions, and the dreams and ambitions they inspire, for better or worse.
• XY (anime): A society obsessed with spectacle, science, and progress, with Mega Evolution at the center of a conflict where extraordinary power can transform or destroy.
• Lucario and the Mystery of Mew: An ancient war, a forgotten connection to Pokémon's mystical power, and a place overflowing with life and energy that may hold long lost answers.
• Black & White: Questioning the trainer-Pokémon bond: was it truly a choice, or a relationship imposed by a society that couldn't imagine another way?

Now, to the question in the title: which legendary, or legendaries, should I include in this story?

I know that legendaries aren't a must in a Pokémon story, but I can't deny how useful they can be for creating some sort of McGuffin or goal that brings the conflict out of the realm of conceptual questions and into a physical experience.

That's exactly what I've struggled with the most in my fic: giving the villains (something like a Team Galactic, Team Rocket hybrid) a tangible goal that doesn't just raise questions about the story's themes, but also gives these superpowered animals a reason to fight. That's how I came to the conclusion that my story needs at least one legendary. The thing is, which one?

I want to avoid the obvious answers. For many reasons, and not necessarily because I want to be unique. It would be as easy as saying, "your story is inspired by X, so pick X legendary". But I want something that fits the story I'm writing, its themes, and its particular ideas. My candidates are:

• The Lake Trio. Even though the S&S legendaries would fit perfectly into a story about ancient and forgotten history (I'm already planning to use Zacian for some world-building), I'm saving them for sequels with a larger scope (Zacian could appear in the second part, which involves some space-time/memory shenanigans, while Eternatus is already firmly established as the main threat in the fourth part, the beginning of a new trilogy).

>And precisely because those sequels are larger in scope, the first part is, logically, "smaller". So maybe those little guys who could be considered a single entity, who make every living being yearn for knowledge, emotion, and will (this is also a story about those things), would be a good choice. Also, the first trilogy will eventually build up to Dialga, Palkia, Arceus, and probably Giratina. The Lake Trio could be a great way to foreshadow "the forces beyond our understanding".

• Xerneas. If my story is already about characters learning what to do with their lives after believing those lives were either over or nothing more than an endless climb toward an unachievable goal (spoilers), the Pokémon that represents life itself, or serves as its guardian, would be a great choice

>Now, I know what you might be thinking: Mew fits this role quite well. So well, in fact, that it might be worth breaking my rule about avoiding obvious answers. But even if it fits this role, I'm saving that guy for the fourth part, where I'll finally reveal a secret that not even the first trilogy, in which Mewtwo will play an important role in the second part, will uncover: the origin of all Pokémon life on Earth.

• Zekrom and Reshiram. If it wasn't obvious for the comparisons with other stories, it will all revolve around a revelation about the world, a truth, that the characters will assimilate in different ways. Ideal and truth. Both fighting to not become indifferent.

>They're a perfect thematic fit, but I fear they might overshadow the Pokémon I want to embody this conflict in the first place, rather than letting any legendary entity take center stage. Not to mention that I'm not quite sure they fit into the "race to uncover the secret of life" that I've already established by comparing my fic to The Mystery of Mew and TLA / TLoK.

With all that said, what legendary Pokémon you think would fit into my story? Are any of these ones good? Is there another one that I could be missing that could be as good or even better?

Before anything else: I’ve made quite a few posts lately, so if you’ve seen my username pop up more than once, yes, I’m aware. I’ve basically been trying to figure out what exactly I wanted from the franchise as I was discovering it. I think I’ve finally managed to put all those scattered questions into one clearer request.

Don't worry, there's a TL;DR in the comments.

...

I’m relatively new to actually experiencing Pokémon, but I’ve spent the last few months learning a weird amount about it from clips, wikis, conversations. And planning a Pokémon fanfic. Now I want to actually play/watch/read the franchise, and I have no idea how to navigate thirty years of it.

I didn’t grow up playing the games or following the anime. Pokémon was always around me through random appereances, fanart, memes, etc. After all, it's the biggest franchise ever. Of course I knew something about it. But I never was a fan.

A few months ago, someone at work asked me my favorite Pokémon and I answered Lucario mostly (or only) because he’s been my Smash main since Brawl. Then I finally looked up what Lucario’s actual deal was. One rabbit hole later, I was learning about Aura, evolution, Mega Evolution, trainers, battles, regions, legendaries, all of it.

This happened while I was also trying to make a story I’d wanted to write for years finally work. I already had the characters, images, relationships and themes, but Pokémon gave me the setting and, more importantly, the verbs: fight, train, evolve, transform, compete, bond.

Apparently the story I always wanted to write turned out to be a Pokémon fanfic. One that, even though I’m already pretty sure it’s somehow becoming a double trilogy with a couple of spin-offs, I’m still planning/worldbuilding/structuring.

So yes, I’m absolutely interested in Pokémon as creative fuel. I want to see what the franchise itself has done with mechanics, situations and ideas I’m playing with. But at some point I stopped researching Pokémon only for the fic. I just wanted more Pokémon.

So here’s the stuff I already know catches my attention.

Some of what I’m about to describe may sound incredibly obvious or broad to longtime Pokémon fans. That’s kind of the point: it’s still new to me. I know these things catch my attention, but I don’t yet know where the franchise explores them especially well, which is why I’m looking for something more specific than a general “best of Pokémon” list.

Lucario and the Charizard lines are my big ones right now. They’re literally the protagonists of my fic.

With Lucario, I want Aura, Riolu, Mega Lucario, different Lucario with different personalities and trainers, and fights where something that size suddenly produces a completely stupid amount of power.

With Charizard, I want basically every scale of the species: major battles, flying, Mega Evolution, the sports-star stuff, but also Charizard being proud, competitive and kind of an asshole.

One clip permanently stuck in my head is Pikachu and Raichu stepping on Charizard’s tail during a race, Charizard waking up pissed, chasing them, overtaking them and then rubbing it in. Likewise, Cinderace getting food all over Lucario’s face and Lucario looking like he just witnessed a war crime.

So Pokémon themselves having strong personalities and relationships with each other is a huge plus.

I’m also really interested in spectacle. Battling as a massive sport is one of the things that fascinates me most about the setting: stadiums, crowds, Champions, rivalries, celebrity trainers, different fighting styles, people building entire careers around it.

But not just battling.

Finding out XY has Pokémon Showcases immediately got my attention. Even early episodes about things like Furfrou grooming interest me because they suggest an entire culture around Pokémon beyond fighting: performance, beauty, professions, entertainment, different things people and Pokémon actually do together.

Basically: show me where Pokémon have visibly shaped everyday culture. And then take me to the complete opposite end of the scale: legendary Pokémon actually getting to feel legendary.

I’ve seen Dialga and Palkia mess with time badly enough that Pokémon start forgetting moves and devolving. Giratina emerging from a vortex around them. Hoopa throwing a ridiculous number of legendaries together. Rayquaza flying around a city fighting.

That stuff is catnip to me. If something controls time, space, weather, light, life, whatever, I want to see the story actually let that affect the world. Distortion World, Ultra Space, Area Zero, alternate realities, altered timelines, places where the usual rules stop working. Yes please.

I especially love the escalation Pokémon seems capable of. Start with people just living with these creatures: what they eat, how they behave, what jobs and competitions exist around them. Then the League, stadiums, celebrities and institutions. Then history and mythology. And eventually Giratina is coming out of another dimension, Dialga has broken time, and Arceus has to step in and scold his almighty children.

That progression really works for me.

I’m also very interested when Pokémon takes one of its own mechanics and actually does something with it. Mega Evolution is the obvious one (it's THE mechanic that catched my attention since the beginning, even turning it into one of the main conflicts of my fic), but also normal evolution, de-evolution, alternate forms, Aura, Dynamax, Paradox Pokémon, artificial Pokémon, strange abilities, bonds affecting what characters can do...

If something that normally looks like a game rule becomes a plot device or produces some striking image, I probably want it.

Same with characters who have actual opinions about how the Pokémon world should work: questioning trainers and Pokémon, obsessing over “potential,” creating Pokémon, idealizing the past or future, deciding the world itself needs fixing. I don’t need a philosophy lecture. I just like it when characters have something to say about the world they live in.

And this is where things have gotten especially weird for me: I keep discovering that my fic (at least the first part) has apparently been accidentally adapting Pokémon material I hadn’t actually experienced yet. I’ll build something around a certain idea, then later read about an older game/movie/anime arc and go, “wait, Pokémon already went somewhere really similar with this?”

XY seems to play with bonds producing extraordinary power, and with people trying to understand, define or control that power. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew has Aura as something ancient and almost magical still surviving in the modern world. Black/White asks whether trainer-Pokémon relationships are truly chosen or just so normalized nobody questions them, while “liberation” can become something imposed too. Sword/Shield turns battling into sport, celebrity, culture and a massive industry. And Charizard’s early anime arc seems to deal with trust, obedience, affection and the fact that caring for a Pokémon doesn’t automatically mean it owes you submission.

Some things are already firmly on my radar:

I want to explore Mewtwo pretty thoroughly, not just one movie, but the important versions and stories across media. Same with Mew. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is obviously already calling my name. And I absolutely want the big Dialga/Palkia/Giratina material. Those three are a direct hit for both “this looks incredible” and “I need this for the fic.” Arceus naturally comes with them.

On the game side, I already have X/Y, ORAS, Sword/Shield, Black/White, Platinum, Legends: Arceus, Scarlet/Violet, USUM and Mystery Dungeon: Explorers floating around my head for different reasons.

But that’s the problem. I mostly know about these things. I don’t know how I should actually experience them.

There’s also one practical complication: I genuinely struggle to start long series even when I really, really want to watch them. I’ve started XY and I’m only around 15 episodes in. What I’ve noticed so far, though, is that my normal idea of “filler” doesn’t map very neatly onto Pokémon. An episode might barely move the big plot forward, or not move it at all, but it still gives me a Pokémon interaction, some worldbuilding, a profession, a location, a character beat; a lot of that is exactly what I’m here for.

I don’t want a brutal “skip everything that doesn’t advance the plot” guide. But telling myself I need to watch 100+ episodes before I’m “allowed” to see something is also a great way to make sure I never start.

That’s one reason I’m particularly curious about the movies. A lot of what interests me most seems to get some of its biggest stories there: Mewtwo, Mew, Lucario, Dialga/Palkia/Giratina, Arceus... I just have no sense of how much context I need.

Can I watch a movie now and basically get the intended experience? Would a handful of relevant episodes beforehand make it noticeably better? Does it stand alone, but hit much harder if I already know that version of Ash and his group? Is it part of a movie sequence I should watch together?

Same with jumping between anime series. If I’m watching XY but suddenly want a Sinnoh arc, an old Charizard episode or something from Journeys, how much am I actually hurting the experience by jumping around?

I’m not asking for a perfect spoiler-free master chronology. I want a roadmap. Tell me what you think fits, why you think I’d like it, which medium/version you’d choose if the same idea appears in several, and how much context you think I need before going in.

“Watch this movie whenever; it works standalone.”

“Save this battle until you’ve watched this arc.”

“If you care about Mega Evolution, the games give you X but the anime gives you Y.”

“This episode is completely standalone and is just Pokémon being idiots. Watch it tonight.”

“This has nothing to do with anything you mentioned, but trust me, you’ll love it.”

Those are exactly the answers I’m looking for. Some of this is me mining Pokémon for my story. Some of it is me finally wanting my own Pokémon experience instead of knowing everything secondhand.

Both are welcome. So if you had to build a roadmap through games, anime, movies, manga, shorts and spin-offs for someone with this very weird starting point:

Where would you send me, and how would you recommend I get there?

I'm outlining a second trilogy for a long-form Pokemon fic, and I'm running into a lore-versus-story problem with its legendaries.

The first trilogy starts relatively grounded, centered on its characters and their relationships, but gradually expands into a space-time crisis involving the big three divine Pokemon.

The second trilogy is meant to keep escalating from there: the first story brings legendary Pokemon back into greater prominence, the second explores stranger parts of reality and other worlds, and the third is basically my Crisis on Infinite Earths installment, bringing together characters, variants, Pokemon from different realities, and eventually legendaries.

My original plan was: Giratina, antagonist of the middle story, then Necrozma, final threat of the trilogy

Thematically, it works.

After a trilogy ending in a space-time crisis, Giratina feels like a natural follow-up. It also fits the protagonist's conflicts around family, punishment, guilt, forgiveness, and whether understanding someone means excusing them.

Necrozma, meanwhile, feels perfect for the final escalation. Something moving through and devastating different worlds gives me a natural reason for separate realities to collide, without Necrozma needing to be conventionally evil.

The problem is that the middle story is heavily tied to Ultra Space.

I don't want to omit Solgaleo and Lunala from an Ultra Space story, but once they're involved, making Giratina the central legendary antagonist while saving Necrozma for another story starts to feel strange. Necrozma, Solgaleo, Lunala, and Ultra Space belong to the same part of Pokemon mythology, so separating them just because my outline placed Necrozma later feels less like reinterpretation and more like fighting the source material.

I'm a relatively recent Pokemon fan, which is part of why I'm second-guessing this. A lot of the story and its themes existed before I knew enough about Pokemon to connect them to specific parts of the franchise. But the more I learned, the more often I found Pokemon ideas fitting what I had already written almost suspiciously well.

That process is also how I became a fan. Pokemon stopped being something I was borrowing elements from and became part of how I understood the story itself. So while I'm perfectly fine to reinterpret the lore, I don't want the franchise to feel interchangeable with some other setting. I want the fic, for all its divergences, to still feel distinctly like Pokemon.

So I'm stuck between two kinds of coherence.

Thematically and narratively, Giratina fits the middle story and Necrozma fits the final one.

Lore-wise, Necrozma is much more naturally tied to the Ultra Space story.

If I move Necrozma there, I may need another legendary or mythical Pokemon for the final Crisis on Infinite Earths-scale conflict, since Giratina doesn't immediately feel right for that role.

So, for people who know Pokemon lore better than I do: would Giratina as the main antagonist of an Ultra Space-heavy story feel interesting, or misplaced once Solgaleo and Lunala are involved? And if Necrozma belongs there, what Pokemon would you consider for the final multiversal threat?

Just a little something I wanted to share and see what kind of vibe each title gives off:

• Part One: Brilliant Stars
• Part Two: Paradox Rift
• Part Three: Next Destinies

I've read about this, I've looked for other advice. All I get is pretty much, "Just sit down and let it happen." I don't want to come off as a moron or something, but that's not... helpful? I know sometimes it can be like that. I like to write essays. Sometimes the idea simply appears in my mind and I know exactly where to go; sometimes the right sequence of words appears out of thin air. But with fiction, it simply doesn't happen.

I'm constantly stuck on two things. First, planning: I keep feeling like the key points and the structure of the plot aren't clear enough yet, so even if I just sat down and started writing, I would eventually hit a wall, and the only solution would be to take several steps back, figure out what didn't work, and fall into the planning spiral again.

Second, plain fear of not being able to live up to my story. I know a first draft is usually never the thing you want to let others read, but I fear that no draft might ever be the one I want; not the "perfect" one, just the one I want. If I haven't even reached the point where the planning, even if it doesn't solve everything, feels like enough, how will the actual story turn out?

Maybe I need to discuss my story with someone else, maybe I reached a point where my own perspective isn't enough anymore; maybe it just isn't the right time yet. Whatever it is, it is frustrating. And I want to solve it.

Maybe I need to discuss my story with someone else; maybe I've reached a point where my own perspective isn't enough anymore; maybe it just isn't the right time yet. Whatever it is, it's frustrating. And I want to solve it.

First, I think it’s necessary to say that this story is, with no intention of being ashamed of it, Pokémon fanfiction. The thing is, I wasn’t a Pokémon fan when the concept was born. So why Pokémon fanfiction? Well, Pokémon is the biggest entertainment franchise in the world; everyone knows the basics. Also, I’m a furry (oh, yeah, the fanfic is furry).

Pokémon has always been in my orbit. And of course, even though I had never played a game, never owned a single card, never watched the anime, I still had my favorites. So, as a writing experiment a few years ago, I created two OCs with them: a Charizard who had always refused to have a trainer being forced to get one, and a Lucario he had once been in a relationship with, before circumstances separated them and turned them into rivals.

I wrote a little story about them. Even though I never finished it, I knew it was a story about moving on. The Charizard did. The Lucario didn’t. But there’s something important there: I never finished it. They were just characters I thought about for a while and then didn’t think about again for years. Until a few months ago.

For various reasons, Pokémon started seeping into my life like never before, at the same time that my desire to finally write fiction returned (I’m an essayist; I’ve written entire theses on different subjects, but never fiction). I started researching the franchise more. And many ideas I’d had throughout my life but never did anything with suddenly began taking shape when I filtered them through Pokémon. So I didn’t just become a Pokémon fan. I realized the story I had always wanted to tell was already there, in that Charizard and that Lucario I had abandoned years ago.

In very little time, that simple story about a sports rivalry grew into a story about a major tournament where the mystical nature of Pokémon is put to the test; about an ancient war threatening to return; about questioning institutions and society’s expectations; about how love can bring out both the worst and the best in us. About fighting for the life you want to have.

And the story kept growing. Soon I realized the Lucario had the potential for sequels. One of them launches into a spacetime conflict caused by the events of the first story, where the Lucario meets a multiversal variant of the Charizard. Someone he falls in love with again, someone he wants to stay with forever, but eventually has to let go (if you’ve seen Loki and Life is Strange, you more or less know where this is going).

So, in very little time, I had the complete structure of a trilogy. One where all those ideas I’d had throughout my life finally meant something. All I had to do was fill in everything between those key points and turn it into a chain of consequences rather than a series of checkpoints to reach.

And this is where everything started falling apart.

Apparently I moved so quickly through the story that I rarely stopped to consider how far this relationship could go. How endearing, mundane even within this magical/multiversal conflict, painful, tragic, inspiring it could be. And now I don’t know if I have the strength to tell a story where they are already ex-boyfriends from the beginning. Where their relationship ended because of a secret beyond what their reality allowed them to conceive at the time, where that relationship could exist again but eventually has to end again, even if this time it isn’t a breakup, but a mutual goodbye.

Or maybe it didn’t really move fast. Maybe it moved at exactly the pace it needed to. And precisely because it happened so gradually, I never noticed when these characters went from simple OCs I wrote as an experiment one night when I was bored to symbols of everything I believe in. All I ever wanted. All I ever needed

Yeah, this is an Enjoy the Silence reference; the Lucario is canonically a Depeche Mode fan, and Depeche Mode is quite present in the soundtracks I made for the stories. Anyways...

We often write about what we know. I’m aware I wrote this story as a product of a life where I’ve faced these situations more often than I’d like. Not a magical multiversal war, for God’s sake. Situations where I’ve had to accept that things won’t always be the way I wish they were, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be something else out there. Maybe I wrote this story as catharsis.

Yet, it also became a refuge where things CAN turn out the way I want because it’s MY story. But writing a version where these characters are allowed to stay together would mean abandoning almost everything I already have.

So I do nothing. Neither the story where they stay together nor the story where they don’t. And honestly, I don’t know what to do.

I know wanting to write this trilogy is more than “commitment.” It’s writing something I know has potential, something I need to say, because ultimately that’s what stories are too: a need to say something.

But they’re also desires. The desire for something that doesn’t exist to exist; to imagine a world where, just once, everything works out.

And I don’t think my dilemma can really be solved by asking which of those two things I should listen to. Whether I should listen to what I need to say or to what I want.

I think the question that actually scares me is:

How do I know if I’m resisting this ending because it stopped being true for these characters, or because it’s still true and that’s exactly why it hurts so much to write?

Some context: I only really got into Pokémon a few months ago.

I knew the basics. It’s the biggest entertainment franchise in the world, and I’m part of the furry fandom, so Pokémon was always somewhere in my orbit. I had favorites, even OCs, but never went much deeper.

Then Pokémon started filtering into my life more and more, and I decided to actually explore the franchise.

That’s when something clicked.

I’ve wanted to write a story for most of my life. I had countless characters, concepts, scenes, and ideas, but they never quite became anything. Once I started filtering those ideas through Pokémon, they finally began fitting together.

The story I’d always wanted to write turned out to be a Pokémon fanfic.

Since then, I’ve been trying to immerse myself in the franchise to feed that story. Pokémon battles as a spectator sport are a huge part of it: stadiums, fans, sponsors, teams, events. There’s even a major scene built around a fan event, where a lot of the story is set in motion.

I’ve imagined that event over and over, but I’ve always felt like I couldn’t quite make it feel real.

Then I found out there was an official Pokémon anniversary event in my city.

Yesterday, and today.

I had no idea it was happening, and by the time I learned about it, tickets were long gone. I’m still so new to the franchise I didn’t even know.

And from everything I’ve seen, it was almost exactly the kind of event I’d been imagining for my fic.

I missed it.

I know this probably sounds dramatic, but I feel like I lost an experience that could have given so much life to my story. More than that, I wanted to experience it as a new Pokémon fan, especially because this franchise has become incredibly important to me in such a short time.

I’ve already been dealing with other stuff I won’t bore anyone with, and this ended up being the thing that broke me.

I’m honestly devastated.

I guess I just needed somewhere to vent.

Fights are an extremely important part of my fic. And not some confrontations or battles out in the open, but fights staged as massive sporting spectacles. Right now, Champions is probably one of my main references, but I'd like to know your favorite pieces of media that match this vibe and aesthetic. I'm in need of some serious inspiration.

I have this story that I've been planning for months. Years, really, if we consider that it is the result of numerous stories I've carried with me throughout my life, finally taking shape.

I have this setting that I know can be fun, exciting, adventurous, terrifying, mundane, cosmic and existential, all at the same time without contradicting itself. I have all these thematic connections and implications; not because I consciously set them up, but because they simply emerged as answers to questions I've asked myself over and over again.

I have these characters that I know are complex, charismatic, charming, tragic, vulnerable, strong, brave.

I have this story, and I know it can become something great. I'm not talking about writing "the greatest story ever told," but about the greatness I can see within the story itself; the potential that is always there, right in front of me.

But I'm afraid I won't be able to do justice to that setting, to weave in all these implications without laboring the point or merely glossing over them. I'm afraid I won't be able to bring these characters to life, characters who have become more than fiction to me. They may not "exist," but they have become symbols of everything I believe in.

I'm afraid that, no matter how much I write, how much I study the craft of storytelling, or how many drafts I go through, I'll never be able to live up to that potential.

Important note: this is planned as a trilogy, and nearly every character takes on a different role in each story. The order of the references matters, it determines which traits are most prominent in each character.

This is just a small experiment I wanted to try. You’re goated if you recognize all of my influences.

Main cast:

• MC1 (protagonist → deuteragonist → coprotagonist):
  • Rumi, K-Pop Demon Hunters
  • Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, Transformers One
  • Jayce Talis, Arcane
• MC2 (deuteragonist → major supporting character → major supporting character):
  • Kwan Ha, Halo TV Series
  • Kamala Khan, Marvel Comics/Studios
  • Max Caulfield, Life is Strange
• MC3 (tritagonist/antagonist → protagonist → coprotagonist):
  • Jinu, K-Pop Demon Hunters
  • Viktor, Arcane
  • D-16, Transformers One

Recurring cast:

• RC1 (main antagonist → supporting character → dead lol):
  • Eobard Thawne, The Flash CW
  • Albrecht Entrati, Warframe
  • Catherine Halsey, Halo
• RC2 (background character → main antagonist → antagonist):
  • Ballas, Warframe
  • Sentinel Prime, Transformers One
  • CLU, Tron Legacy
• RC3 (looming presence → major background character → main antagonist):
  • Machine Herald Viktor, Arcane
  • Doctor Strange Supreme, Marvel Studios What If
  • The Indifference, Warframe
• RC4 (non-existent → antagonist → major supporting character):
  • Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Movie 3
  • Mewtwo, Pokémon
  • Tenno/Main Character, Warframe

You can have a structure, you can have worldbuilding, you can have characters and their backgrounds, thematic connections and implications, and a long etcetera. But this isn't an actual story. This isn't the narration someone else is going to read: the small moments that make the characters and the world they inhabit an entity rather than just a series of words that'll get the plot somewhere.

I've been writing essays my whole life. I know how to describe an idea and expose it. But I don't really know how to make a text a breathing depiction of a moment in time. I have the overarching events and situations I want to reach, but right now, they're just checkpoints and not portions of a story.

I don't know how to make my ideas into an actual story, and I'd really appreciate getting some advice.

I'm outlining a long story. There is a point near the beginning (beginning-ish?) where the world completely changes. Some House of M-type stuff. However, there is still an important introductory sequence before the main conflicts truly begin. Because of that, I'm not sure whether this sequence belongs at the end of Act One or the beginning of Act Two.

I've also noticed that the middle section of the story carries much more weight than the beginning and the ending. That is where the relationships, community, internal conflicts, and everything that can later be lost are developed. The final act contains the major revelations and definitive choices, pretty much untying all the threads the story has knotted, but it is simultaneously much shorter than the second act.

I'm concerned about two things: pacing and narrative weight (the first and third acts are much shorter, not because I'm actively trying to compress them, but simply because the story doesn't seem to require further development there, yet cannot help feeling the second act absorbs almost the entire experience of the story) and the story clearly having trouble fitting within a three-act structure (I'm not sure whether that is a bad thing; I've written essays pretty much my whole life, but I'm quite unfamiliar with novels and stories).

One detail that might be important: this is a sequel in which the antagonist of the first part becomes the protagonist, and an altered-reality version of the first part's protagonist becomes the co-protagonist. You technically already know the characters, meaning the shorter Act One might be negligible, but I'm still worried about potential pacing issues.

Quick context: I’m a casual fan. I have barely watched the anime, I haven’t played many games besides Pokke-Tournament and the Minecraft Cobblemon mod (if that even counts lol), haven’t read the manga. The reasons why I found myself wanting to write a Pokémon fanfic are quite extent (I have already detailed them in this post). Still, I hope we can overlook that detail for now.

I wanted to ask for recommendations for episodes or movies from the Pokémon anime and maybe some stuff from the manga that could work as references to feed and enrich the themes and elements from my fic; a ”brief” but comprehensive look into the franchise (not looking into playing games right now; hope that doesn’t sound as bad as I know it may sound, but I don’t know how large these games could be, and I don’t want to continue putting the writing process off).

It‘s a story that comes from the ethical questions around beings who are clearly as intelligent as humans being used for a sports and scientific industry. I’m interested in exploring how both the people using them and the beings themselves have simply accepted that system.

The story intends to talk about the messed-up implications that would definitely come with something like that. It would all revolve a massive conspiracy that traces back to the roots of society as it is known (whose discovery comes with attempted murders), complicated romances, existential crises, and everything that can emerge from a world built around a fighting sport.

But I it does not intend to minimize or reject the core of Pokémon. On the contrary: I want to preserve the impact of battles as something that can give someone purpose, the idea that the dynamic between trainer and Pokémon can be deeply meaningful, and the importance of bonds

Even within the ugly things the story will have, I also want its foundation to be an intimate story about two people learning to love each other, with slice-of-life moments, tenderness, humor, simplicity, and silly little things.

What I’m looking for above all are references for tone and aesthetics: what it feels like to live in the Pokémon world, what that world looks like, how battles are presented as a sport or spectacle, and which episodes or movies handle more serious themes without losing the heart of the franchise.

One final important detail: two of the main cast of characters are a Charizard and a Lucario. I need Charizard and Lucario content.

Book 1

1. E-Pro - CapeLion V2 Remix — Beck
2. ROCKSTAR (TAK Remix) — PearlAbyssMusic, TAK, LUENA
3. Levels — Avicii
4. Kill For Love — Lady Gaga
5. When We Touch — Benny Smiles
6. Rock And Roll Rave — The Preatures
7. let them know they’re on your mind - acoustic — Cavetown
8. City Walls — Twenty One Pilots
9. Only One King — Jung Youth, Tommee Profitt
10. Escapism — The Warning
11. After - 2022 — Atomic Guava
12. Enemy - From the series Arcane League of Legends — Imagine Dragons, Arcane, League of Legends
13. Love Divine — MONA
14. Strong — Tesla Boy

Act 1, track 1 to 4.
Act 2, track 5 to 9.
Act 3, track 10 to 13.
End Credits, track 14.

Book 2

1. Up From The Bottom — Linkin Park
2. Never Take It — Twenty One Pilots
3. Into The Void — Nine Inch Nails
4. I Know You Can Feel It — Nine Inch Nails
5. Brand New — Battle Tapes
6. Save Yourself (with Big Data) — MNDR, Big Data
7. Friday Night Fire Fight — Aligns, Rubicones
8. Valkyrie - Rework — Battle Tapes
9. Digital Power — Le Cassette
10. 1977 — Adam Young
11. Monster — Imagine Dragons
12. The Call — Warframe, Matthew Chalmers, Francesca Hauser
13. A Message — Gareth Coker, Halo
14. The Trip - 2023 Remaster — Still Corners
15. Falling Back (feat. MNDR) — Oliver, MNDR

Act 1, track 1 to 3.
Act 2, track 4 to 11.
Act 3, track 12 to 14.
End Credits, track 15.

These two are a closed story. There's no missing third part. Book 1 works as a self contained story, but leaves a single, small yet big question that makes Book 2 possible. The order is important, since the songs tell the story (some of the most important moments of both books have become a thing only after listening to many of these songs).

And yes, it is "end credits." It's the feeling of "the story is over, and it was a hell of a journey."

“I told you we should’ve left! We lost the device, and you nearly got us killed just because you wanted to stop at some stupid bar! Ugh, I hate how reckless you are and how everyone else always has to deal with the consequences. You haven’t changed one bit in almost twenty years!”

This isn’t the first time Ryder has hinted that he knows Tallis somehow, but this time is different. Almost twenty years? There’s something Ryder isn’t telling him.

“In your world... we weren’t just rivals, were we?”

Ryder’s expression changes instantly. He freezes, every muscle in his body going rigid. For a moment, it looks like he’s about to explode in anger. Instead, a tear slips from one eye. Then another from the other. And another. And another. Until he finally breaks down sobbing.

Tallis hurries over and catches him before his legs give out, staying beside him until the worst of it passes.

“In my world, we were both on the same preliminary roster. We were the ones who qualified to join our trainer’s team.” He pauses, taking a shaky breath and wiping at his nose. “All that time we spent together, you looked after me during every training session. You taught me how to fight in ways I never could’ve imagined.” He stops again to steady himself. “When I met you, I was a Riolu. Then you made me believe there was something waiting for me in my future. That my past didn’t define me. That I didn’t have to exist just to make other people happy. You gave me a home. You gave me something that made life feel worth living. You helped me evolve. You made me who I am...” His voice cracks. “And then you left. You became obsessed with fighting and forgot we had a dream together.”

He pulls away from Tallis’s arms—not roughly, but not gently either.

“I loved you, Tallis. I loved you with everything I had.”

Tallis is on the verge of tears himself, but he holds them back. He doesn’t want to look weak. Not for his own sake, but for Ryder’s. He doesn’t know how to feel about any of this. He isn’t the Tallis Ryder knew. He has no idea what that Tallis was like. But he knows they’re similar enough to awaken these feelings in the Lucario, similar enough for Ryder to look at him the way he had onstage just hours ago.

For the first time in his life, Tallis had found someone he never had to justify himself to. Someone who hadn’t judged him when he tore his shorts apart and slipped into a pair of heels, but instead looked at him as though he were the most beautiful being in the world. For the first time, he had felt truly free. All because of Ryder. And maybe—just maybe—that was the same thing the other Tallis had felt for him.

Eventually, Ryder’s tears stop. But he remains on the ground, curled in on himself, tail tucked between his legs without caring that Tallis is watching.

“Heh. Curled up like that, you look like a blueberry,” Tallis says, trying to lighten the mood.

At once, Ryder’s ears perk up.

Blueberry.

That’s what Tallis—his Tallis—used to call him. But there’s no way this Tallis could know that. Why did he say it? Why here? Why now?

Then Tallis tries something else.

“Hey, I noticed you had a hard time using those wings earlier.”

Ryder lets out a low growl. It doesn’t sound like a well-intentioned comment.

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No,” Tallis replies calmly. “I’m saying it because I think you can do better. I know you can do better.”

Those words.

I know you can do better.

Ryder knows perfectly well that Tallis is talking about the wings. But they strike a much deeper nerve than that—a place Ryder thought had died long ago, a place he never expected anyone to reach again.

Slowly, he pushes himself upright and looks at Tallis.

“Are you saying you want to teach me how to fly?”

Tallis simply gives his wings a little shake, smiles, and offers him a hand.

“Come on, grumpy dog. Get up. We’re not going to waste those wings you stole so shamelessly.”

I was never really a fan of this franchise. Not saying that it is bad, just saying I've never really gotten into it. I never watched the anime, save for some episodes. I have never played any of the games by myself (save from Pokken-Tournament and the Minecraft Cobblemon mod, if you can even call it a Pokémon game). I never even joined the Pokémon GO mania.

Why am I writing a Pokémon fanfic then? Well, I'm a furry; Pokémon are part of that fandom because they're animals. Whether you're a lifelong fan or just a casual observer, you've inevitably come across all kinds of artwork featuring these characters.

I developed a particular affinity for two of them: Lucario and Charizard. What they clearly represented, even if you knew nothing about the franchise, and what people saw in them on multiple levels.

Years ago, I pictured two original characters based on those Pokémon. Longtime rivals who shared a past together. Cliché, not going to lie. I wasn't looking into something deep and complex. I eventually stopped thinking about them. But recent circumstances turned those characters and their story into something larger than I could've imagined myself back then.

And as that story took shape, it also became increasingly clear why this story could not be told with characters who weren't Pokémon. Not because the Pokémon had become essential; I've run multiple experiments and the story still works pretty much the same even without Pokémon if I just pull off a Watchmen (hoping the reference comes across). But because the incarnations of the characters as Pokémon have become emotionally important to me. I can replace them. But I don't want to, and I won't.

But, if I'm to use Pokémon, then I must understand it. I have a fair knowledge of the basics and some deeper elements. However, it still faces limitations. And even though I'm taking numerous liberties (for example, my setting is purely built upon an anthropomorphic animal society where both normal animals and Pokémon coexist, the Pokémon themselves anthropomorphic as well), I don't want to write a story that only happens to have Pokémon characters. I want to write something that, as much as it is mine, shows utter respect to the source.

I'd greatly appreciate some suggestions, guidance, and explanations on all that its world implies: history, aesthetics, tone, technology, biology, anthropology, culture, the fights and the sport itself, all the mythological stuff around Arceus and the Pokemon he created. Feedback on the actual story as well, as much as the hermetism I'm maintaining with this story allows.