Thread: Would this work? Advice needed.

In my upcoming fanfic, Pokemon Adventures: Black & White, I plan on having the main heroine travel with her two friends/rivals and have the three of them aim for the Pokemon League. This is so that I can develop these characters by having them interact with each other and support each other like good friends.

Now I know that I should make sure that these three characters have good chemistry so the readers are entertained and I'm confident that I will do so but I'd like to know if it's possible to have three Trainers who battle against Gym Leaders and are each planning to be Champion travel together. If so, then how can I execute this idea in the best possible ways?

So what advice can you guys offer me? If you're not sure because you haven't seen my fic, you just need to know that my fic is a journey fic based on the Black and White games. Simple as that.

I had two characters with the same goal travelling together as well. And I pulled off a few excuses to make sure we don't see the same Gym Leader twice. Character B battled the first Gym before he met Character A, and then when they were travelling together, B battled the second Gym while A was training. A & B split ways after that due to conflicts.

i also toyed around with the idea of making two characters battle the same Gym with a Double Battle.

Basically, you can think of many excuses to have many characters battle the same Gym, so it is possible to make it interesting, and have it play into the character development.

I've had this problem too. It's okay to show the same gym being challenged multiple times once or twice but it would get boring if you showed it every time. Usually I just have the other character be training or on some other episodic adventure. Having three trainers would be tough though. What if the gym leader changed Pokemon? That'd spice things up a bit. You'd also have to be careful on the outcomes of a battle. It's no fun to have the trainer(s) beat every gym on the first try (ironic, because I'm guilty of this) but it would get very boring if you had to add rematches to the mix. Maybe this would be harder to do than I thought... The big thing is to keep things different and avoid showing the same battle three (or more) times.

What about this: the second Gym Leader battles one of the heroes while the others watch and she's aware that future challengers are watching so she doesn't use all of her Pokemon's moves so she can surprise the future challengers later on.

My suggestion would be to have them split up occasionally.

Aether's idea is good. For example:

Gym 1 - They leave their starting town apart from each other having had some sort of argument. The story follows the MC, he defeats the first Gym by himself. Afterwards it turns out the other two, who had already defeated the Gym were watching and come to talk to him. [Like Kyuu's idea]

Gym 2 - The first challenger is quickly defeated by Gym 2 but the other 2 defeat first try. The 2 victorious go on but the other stays behind to train and isn't seen again until after the 3rd Gym and things like that...

Even with new Pokemon, having the same Gym Leader twice in a row might get a bit dull unless the battles are very quick.

Originally Posted by Gastly's Mama

My suggestion would be to have them split up occasionally.

Aether's idea is good. For example:

Gym 1 - They leave their starting town apart from each other having had some sort of argument. The story follows the MC, he defeats the first Gym by himself. Afterwards it turns out the other two, who had already defeated the Gym were watching and come to talk to him. [Like Kyuu's idea]

Gym 2 - The first challenger is quickly defeated by Gym 2 but the other 2 defeat first try. The 2 victorious go on but the other stays behind to train and isn't seen again until after the 3rd Gym and things like that...

Even with new Pokemon, having the same Gym Leader twice in a row might get a bit dull unless the battles are very quick.

Well, I might have one of the characters lose a battle and try again. Though the trio are good friends so they wouldn't really split up as they support each other on their journey. They do train their Pokemon individually between towns and cities and meet with each other when they're good and done.

As for Gym battles, battles in my fanfics are pretty quick and I never intend to make them drag, though that depends on how many Pokemon are being used. Gym battles are no exception and I try to make those battles the most exciting since... well, you know. Not to mention that I always try to make battles part of the story and character growth and not just there for pure action.

Plus with Gym Battles, I might mix things up with the Pokemon line-up for the leaders. Like Lenora's first battle would be Herdier and then Watchog and the next battle would be the other way around, playing on the challenger's expectations that stem from the last battle.

Originally Posted by matt0044

Well, I might have one of the characters lose a battle and try again. Though the trio are good friends so they wouldn't really split up as they support each other on their journey. They do train their Pokemon individually between towns and cities and meet with each other when they're good and done.

As for Gym battles, battles in my fanfics are pretty quick and I never intend to make them drag, though that depends on how many Pokemon are being used. Gym battles are no exception and I try to make those battles the most exciting since... well, you know. Not to mention that I always try to make battles part of the story and character growth and not just there for pure action.

Plus with Gym Battles, I might mix things up with the Pokemon line-up for the leaders. Like Lenora's first battle would be Herdier and then Watchog and the next battle would be the other way around, playing on the challenger's expectations that stem from the last battle.

Perhaps you will be able to make it work but, personally, I can't imagine the same Gym Leader three times in a row being interesting.

If it's BW though, they could each battle a different Gym Leader at the first Gym?

Also, what happens at the end of the journey? Do they all battle the Elite Four?

Originally Posted by Gastly's Mama

Also, what happens at the end of the journey? Do they all battle the Elite Four?

The League in my fic starts with a tournament that determines who can face the Elite Four and the Champion like in the Anime which I feel makes more sense.

As for three Gym battles in a row, it can be interesting if you mix things up everytime. As I've said before, the Gym Leaders are aware that future challengers are watching so they make sure that their Pokemon use different moves every battle with different strategies. They aren't Gym Leaders for nothing, you know.