Thread: Portraying Pokemon teams

I tend to see Pokemon being raised by a Trainer having a good sense of camaraderie amongst themselves and in a story where one of them has an problem to deal with, the others will offer their help. The Trainer is the Mama Bear (or Papa Bear if you must) who keeps things in check and even has fun with them outside Training (I mean, why would you entrust powerful creatures to someone who's clearly not mature enough? *eyes a Mr. Ketchum*).

Still I'd like to know what others think of portraying a team of six Pokemon and their Trainer.

My trainers respect and care for their Pokemon--each Pokemon within the team has their own unique quirks, but at the same time, they have a sense of camaraderie with each other and their master. The trainer is not afraid to push them and lay down the law at times, but at the same time, s/he is sensitive to the Pokemon's needs and strengths

I try to make it depend trainer by trainer.

For example, in my fic, Brotherhood, (which I haven't updated in an unforgivably long time due to irl difficulties) Will, who is a very experienced trainer, is quite a hard task master with his Pokemon whereas his younger brothers, Max and Frankie, are much less able to command the respect and authority over their Pokemon that Will is able to.

Additionally, I often have Pokemon reflect the personalities of their trainers, in the same way that pets often do in real life. A timid trainer often has timid Pokemon and an arrogant trainer often ends up with arrogant Pokemon. I also find it easier to give each trainer fewer than 6 Pokemon - 3 or 4 is a good number so that the relationships between the trainer and their Pokemon, as well as between each Pokemon can be easier to stay on top of.

On the occasion that I treat Pokémon like characters in their own right, I have them share an almost human friendship or rivalry with each other and their trainers. It makes them more interesting and easier to relate to, in my opinion.

I generally treat them much like the Human characters.

Though writing them like a squad of soldiers with the Trainer as their CO makes good sense too.

Depends on the point of view, if I do this right. You can usually discern a person's mindset to 'mon by how they refer to them and the attention to detail. For example, if a Pokémon of, say, Red is hurt, it'll go into detail about the visible damage done to him/her. If it's a trainer who's ego blinds him, it'll simply note that "it was hit".