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Master’s Eight - Your Top 8 Pokefics of All Time

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
It’s a new era in Pokémon with the close of Generation 8. The anime recently had a tournament of the top eight trainers in the world.

I thought it would be fun to let people make their own Master’s Eight - for fan fiction. This is obviously very subjective, but if you want a chance to gush about eight fics, go for it here. This can also give people suggestions for Blitz.

Optional Rules: Only one fic per region, only one fic per author, only fics on TR
 
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Pronouns
he/him
Partners
  1. luxio
oh hell yes

ok so, in no particular order:

Of Sand And Shadows (by HelloYellow17): it's a great pokemon colosseum novelization, one of the only ones I've seen. very well written, can't wait to read more of it :veelove:

The Dark We Carry (by DeeFortyFive): another colosseum adaptation! Except this one's a nuzlocke and it's so dark and depressing I love it so much. :copyka:

Prey of Shadows (by sk8terboy): a very interesting spin on a PMD world! Has some amazing characters and writing (found family vibes are always a plus), and the worldbuilding is just phenomenal. unfortunately it hasn't updated in over a year and the creator's social media hardly mentions it anymore, so it might be dead :sadwott:

Pokérus (by DoobleBugs): it's a PLA fic that has everyone morphing into feral pokemon, complete with some great body horror! (So no, it's not just "pmd with extra steps"). Also just generally great writing :letsgorb:

Donut Hole (by DoobleBugs): another PLA fic, but this time it's about Barry getting sent to Hisui in search of Dawn, who he no longer remembers (a great side-effect of time travel!) Very fun (in a dark way) :copyka:

Land of All (by DinoDraws): an apocalypse Sinnoh AU!!! :letsgorb: The writing in the first chapter alone is spectacular, some really great and outstanding imagery with word choice, really gets the scenes across in such a vivid way.

Nerve Dead (by Aether_Apostle): violent pokefic, what more do I need to say :copyka:Jokes aside, this one's great, though I do need to catch up on it before I can say more...

Utter Ruin (by BandTrees): I'm actually not sure if this one would be counted as a "true" pokéfic, since it's actually a poképasta! Complete with excellent custom spritework, it's quite gory (though, of course, no humans are harmed... not by the game, anyways :copyka: )



Aaand I couldnt decide whether to put this one or not, so it's an honorable mention!

Nihilistic Ideals Devouring The Truth (by EmeraldSkiesSetAnew): it's just a really well-written and gory fic about N. :letsgorb:
 

Spiteful Murkrow

Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Partners
  1. nidoran-f
  2. druddigon
  3. swellow
  4. quilava-fobbie
  5. sneasel-kate
Heya, decided to throw my hat into the ring here with a Master's Eight of my own, though admittedly I'm a wee bit terrible at picking favorites, so I tried to keep things focused more on stories that I liked and struggled to think of ones I liked more than them from TR proper, handy if you're looking to pad out your hitlists for the upcoming Review Blitz in a month-ish.

If some of these descriptions look familiar to you, it means I was lazy and copied moments where I was shilling them from elsewhere and still think those summaries hold up. I also included Honorable Mentions for each slot that I either felt were solid but not quite favorites, or else stories that made a good impression on me based off what I read of them but I haven't gotten far enough into them to fairly judge them as favorites or not.



A Perfect World by @BestLizard - A harrowing, gritty one-shot of Mewtwo seeking to build a perfect world, one in which he and Mew will know lasting peace, and getting a hard lesson in being careful what one wishes for in the process. I admittedly read this story in its beta version, so the final published version that I have not reviewed yet may be a bit different here and there in details, but it's a bleak, haunting short story that vibes a lot with The Road by Cormac McCarthy that will leave an impression after reading it.
Honorable Mention - Salvage by @Negrek

Legendaries of the Present World by @Bluwiikoon - A charming collection of four one-shots each roughly a thousand words long of exactly what it says on the tin, showing Legendaries just taking a moment and being Pokémon themselves. If you ever wanted to see what an Arceus getting belly rubs looks like, or one of the most bittersweet Jirachi tales you'll ever come across, this is the story for you. Highly, highly recommended if you're looking for a short palette cleanser since there's something magical going on with this story, and you'll be all but guaranteed to be wanting more by the end of it.
Honorable Mention - The Legendarian Chronicles by @Chibi Pika

Hoenn Short Stories Collection: The Elite by @Panoramic_Vacuum - Basically, imagine LotPW, but for the Hoenn Elite 4 and the various members of the Hoenn League. It's a surprisingly well-rounded collection of little hijinks that Steven Stone and company get up to that will make you laugh, smile, and get some feels every now and there, all the more impressive since the Hoenn E4 honestly are a bit flat in their canonical portrayals at times. It's 42 chapters long with 8 still pending uploading to TR, each averaging about a thousand words in length and great for dropping in a quick read and review as a palette-cleanser and character study for some characters that are a bit out of the spotlight for the franchise.
Honorable Mention - Of Sand and Shadows by @HelloYellow17

Overlord by @Venia Silente - A little one-shot of life in Team Rocket as seen from the top cat in the organization. No, not Giovanni. Quite literally the top cat in the organization. Venia Silente has always had a thing for Xenofiction, and cats, and Overlord melds the two quite well to show glimpses of a past in Team Rocket that is normally only shown in fleeting glimpses through a fresh set of eyes as the master of the universe and Team Rocket as a whole catches glimpses of a future yet to come where humans and Pokémon alike bow to their feline masters... if leaving it open as to who will have the honor of claiming that throne.
Honorable Mention - Stronger by @Phoenixsong

Finding Mahoun by @Cresselia92 - It's Watership Down with Rattata, what's there not to love? More seriously, it's a very imaginative xenofiction one-shot showing life through the eyes of a Rattata runt named Tiny Fang that is trying to find his place in the world in which death is always a step away, and excels at taking things that we'd find familiar or disarming and filtering them through a lens that's at once alien and relatable. Never thought that a Furret could be terrifying? Well they certainly are when you're a foot-tall rat that's on their menu, and the story excels at selling the point of view of its characters, while ultimately taking things back to recognizable and familiar territory.

This was the winner of the 2020 Myths and Legends One-Shot Contest, and honestly, it's not particularly hard to see how it won after reading through it.
Honorable Mention - Making It Big by @Pen

Places We Call Home by @windskull - An original setting PMD that sets itself up as a character and morality study that poses the questions of "how do you do what's right when you have to harm others to live?" and "can someone who's done heinous things still become a good person?" with a lovable cast of characters, and a world that feels cozy and well-thought out. I'll admit that I'm more than a little biased with this recommendation since it Word of God carries influences from some of my writings and there's a certain fun factor in seeing others take ideas you've threw around and reinterpret them and take them in directions that you never thought of, but even aside from that it's well-written and stands very well under it's own merits. It's also been entering the part of plot where things are about to get really, really lit if the last couple of chapters, which is a good portent of things to come from the story.
Honorable Mention - Do Psychic Cats Dream of Electric Sheep? by @SparklingEspeon

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor by @Ambyssin - A more nonstandard PMD story in which Yuna, the Dreepy Princess of the Aeon Kingdom gets shuffled off to a prestigious academy in the Kingdom of Radiance as a gesture of goodwill as her home and host lands attempt to negotiate a treaty in the face of a growing existential crisis that threatens to envelop the whole of their world of Etherium. In the process, Yuna stumbles into political intrigue both in the present day and from ages long past, portals to strange realms, and discovers that she and her small band of... companions(?) represent the last line, the last bastion in the face of a lurking threat that threatens to quite literally swallow their world whole... if they can just survive life at school first.

Has a zany atmosphere that is at times humorous, at times sober, but never boring. A cast full of memorable characters, some lovable, some a bit less so. It's also the best example I've seen in some time of a story getting a lot done with a compressed wordcount. Oh, and Final Fantasy references. Lots and lots of Final Fantasy references and FF7/8-styled science fantasy settings if you're into that sort of thing.
Honorable Mention - Legends Legacy: A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Adventure by @BlackHairedPsycho

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rebirth by @Shadow of Antioch - A dark fantasy flavor original setting PMD, in which a bookwyrm, an alcoholic, and a Charmeleon with paws crippling amnesia try to make their way through a world quite literally coming apart at the seams as they get sucked into a struggle with malign presences beyond their wildest imaginings. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a rabid fanboy of this one, but I very, very strongly recommended it if you used to be a fan of Knightfall's writings in the ancient eras when he was an active writer, or else if you are a fan of Roman history and want to dork out over little flourishes here or there that someone with a keen eye and knowledge of the topic will pick out.
Honorable Mention - Those Who Will Inherit the Earth by @love
 

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Only doing one fic per author. Not limited to TR.



Number Eight - Dragon’s Dance by @Pen

It’s very rare to see actual culture in a fanfic’s world. It’s rarer still to see it so close to a fic’s core. Dragon’s Dance is about a young boy being kicked out of a traditional, sheltered world and being forced to confront with modernity. Which one will bend or break? There’s a certain loneliness and superficiality to Kanto is complimented by the loneliness of the protagonist and their struggles. The gym leaders don’t care. Money rules where perhaps honor or justice should. And the protagonist, a child, has to figure out what to do about that. It’s made all the better by a superb mismatch the goals and needs of the protagonist. He only wants to go home, but cannot make the same journey twice. Team Rocket is also fleshed out better than most takes I’ve seen on it. This story will probably rise higher up if Pen ever gets around to finishing it.


Number Seven - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Guiding Light by @Ambyssin

I have to start this entry with a confession: I have not finished this fic. I blitzed through 50+ chapters in a number of days, told myself I would come back to finish it when more of a buildup happened, and then never got around to it. Maybe I will before the blitz.

What makes this truly remarkable is that it was Ambyssin’s first fic. There are some stumbles out the gate with tone, characterization, and the like. The writing was always pretty solid for the more comedic vibes it has, while also being able to support darker tones on occasion.

Guiding Light turns its early flaws around by commenting on them and using them as fuel for story beats down the line. This also supports the story’s steady shift in tone.

By the midpoint of the story there was a cast of genuinely well established characters, two interesting villains, and the basis for a romance that even I, a very aromantic person, could appreciate it. Even if I gave Amby a lot of crap about a crack pairing at the time. It’s a genuinely solid story that does a lot with a very cliché premise and a somewhat rough start.


Number Six - Striking Back, Memoirs of a Clone by Dai

This fic blew me away when I first read it. The story is a retelling of the first movie through the eyes of Mewtwo, a deeply philosophical being trying to understand the world and it’s place in it. The writing is great, if a bit heavy, and it’s one of the two most philosophically charged work on this list. Well worth a read.

I’ve soured on it a little over time. The prose goes from comfortably dense to way too heavy towards the end and I’ve since seen fics tackle equally heavy questions in more readable ways. Still, I will always look back on this fic fondly. It deserved much more attention than it got.


Number Five - Pokedex One Shots by Ysavvryl

Pokedex One Shots makes the best use of canon of any story on this list. For that reason it almost ranked considerably higher.

One of the story’s greatest strengths is its role as an anthology, letting it hop between characters, settings, and genres at will. The story builds on pokedex entries in ways that are poignant, hilarious, and everything in between. Not every entry lands but with over 300 individual stories the good ones can prevail by sheer volume. It’s been a while since I read it but the story still affects how I think about certain lines. Well worth a read, even if you just jump to pokémon that stand out.


Number Four - The Human Species by ShadedSkies

Back when the MCU was still coming together, ShadedSkies wove a series of shorter fics into a much longer masterpiece. Each of the prequels is also worth a read and partially contributes to the ranking.

What happens when humans get tired of legendaries destroying their cities? What is the proper balance of power between humans and pokémon? And is it possible to live in that world without being forced to answer these questions?

An amnesiac lucario ends up being pursued by the champions of the world as he just wants to stay alone. Over 100+ chapters the mysteries start to unravel, memorable supporting characters come and go, and the greatest 1v1 pokémon battle I’ve ever read occurs. The fic’s biggest drawback is that for a long time it was unfinished in a spot that cast a grim shadow on the whole project. In recent years it’s been picked back up. I highly recommend giving this one a read.


Number Three - Borne of Caution by Fuggman

It’s rare that I really enjoy one of the fics the broader public adores. This is one of the rare exceptions.

Borne of Caution is an isekai story into the early anime, and I really should hate it by that description alone. I don’t. The story focuses on a former zookeeper trying to understand pokémon physiology and psychology while doing his best to ignore his trauma. In the meantime the rest of Hoenn slowly realizes that maybe he’s going to change their world.
This sounds like power fantasy but it avoids many of its worst pitfalls. Lee gets called out for trying to be a stoic loner, he’s not actually that good outside of his (very useful in universe) specialty, and that strength has a clear reason to exist. The writing style does what it needs to and I get very excited for every update. Does this play directly to what I love re: pokemon husbandry, ninetales, etc? Yes. But this is MY list and I will be as subjective as I want. I genuinely cannot wait to see where this goes.


Number Two - Ghost Town by girl-like-substance

Ghost Town is one of the best stories I’ve ever read, pokémon or otherwise. It forms a masterful character study of two college students coming home to a small town, with the slight twist that one of them is dead. What follows is a murder mystery that dives into depression, transphobia, and the inherent weirdness of the pokémon world. Its smaller scale than most on this list, but still endearing and compelling to the very end.

There are a few short sequels on Canalave Library that are quite good. There was also a now-deleted sequel that delved deeper into the worldbuilding and commented on queer community and the AIDS crisis. If finished there’s a good chance it would be at the top of this list by the end due to the themes of it. But, alas, it is now lost media.

This is also sort of a catchall nomination for girl-like-substance. Many of xyr fics could have ended up on this list and they’re all worth checking out. Xe is one of the most talented writers in the community and when xe finally manages to retire for real the fandom will be poorer for it.

Seriously. Read Ghost Town. Especially if you’re queer. It’s a masterpiece of a fic.



Number One - Envy of Eden by @kintsugi

Millennials and Generation Z have come of age at a strange time in the world. The two generations possess an almost historically unique zeal to tear down and rebuild the unjust systems of the past before those systems can kill them and the planet. This has been seen worldwide: European climate protests, lying flat in China, the Arab Spring, and the current protests in Iran.

They are met by a rising tide of fascism around the world as the powerful refuse to yield. Often the older, liberal political parties praise the youth as heroes while refusing to actually do anything to help lest they anger conservatives.

In 2020, George Floyd was slowly, methodically killed by an agent of the United States government. The largest sustained protest movement in U.S. history began. And now, two years later, precious few real reforms have been made. Some of the most progressive DAs elected in this era have either been recalled or impeached. Most of Biden’s term has been defined by two “liberal” senators blocking any real change while the conservative Supreme Court tries to roll back the last six decades of social progress.

Envy of Eden was written before 2020. It still has one of the best commentaries on both the franchise and this moment in history that I’ve read.

The story begins with N resorting to the violent destruction of the world to separate pokémon and humans. The rest of the story tracks why he believed this to be necessary. The injustices of the system are shown clearly while, at the same time, peaceful attempts to fix the world are either crushed or ignored. In the end (or in the beginning) N feels like there is no other option. And perhaps the reader can empathize.

The story also beautifully weaves in mythology about communication, coexistence and sacrifice to build towards its ultimate question: what is just to change an unjust and unchanging system? Can a system with good elements still need to be purged? What do individuals owe to the cause? What makes someone a hero?

Envy of Eden unflinchingly tackles the question that Black and White shied away from: are pokémon better off for being with humans?

There are no good answers in the end. Or, perhaps, there were, but the world refused to accept them.

Every chapter is from a different species’ point of view and it does an excellent job of covering the full range of their experiences with humans.

Kintsugi manages to score a convincing win by analyzing both the fictional and real and worlds in such a way that I’ve had to reevaluate my thoughts on both.

(Also I didn’t get a chance to mention all of her stories about grief but at least one of those would have also made the list if I allowed multiple placements per author.)
 
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zion of arcadia

too much of my own quietness is with me
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. marowak-alola
I'll stick to one fic per author, and try to keep it mostly on TR. I also wanted to only select completed fics, but my list grew very short very quick with that limitation.

Envy of Eden by @kintsugi - One day I'll finish the essay I've been working on for this story. It's at its best when detailing picaresque shorts about humans and pokémon and the suffering experienced under the status quo. There's a biblical inevitability to the writing that's at times enthralling. It very much captures the Nietzche idea of competing fictions in how it utilizes perspective. It's a call to action that takes the fantasy America of Unova and blends it with the political anxieties of Americans to provide a desperately needed form of catharsis, while showcasing an empathetic, human touch in how it assesses the more reactionary characters from the game.

Dragon's Dance by @Pen - If I was given the chance to show Satoshi Tajiri one fic, it would be this one. No other story comes close to capturing the melancholy of the first two generations, the melancholy of a child watching their world around them be devoured by industrialization. A lovely coming-of-age story with memorable, idiosyncratic characters and a take on childhood that avoids didacticism while maintaining an air of wonder, and a determination to battle corruption at all costs. It'll leave you both mournfully wistful for your misspent youth and reinvigorate your hope for the future despite well-founded reservations.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Instruments of Creation by @The Desert Cat - Desert has mentioned Conan the Barbarian as an inspiration before, and in many ways, this has all the strengths of a Sword and Sorcery tale with none of the unsavory elements (sexism, racism, uninspired escapism; I could go on). It's fantastical yet still grounds itself in realistic interpersonal dynamics. It's also just a solid adventure, full of mystery and intrigue and strangers in a strange land working together to overcome hardship.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rebirth by @Shadow of Antioch - Shadow is Italian, and his knowledge of Roman history can be felt throughout this dark fantasy epic. The exploration of his country's past through a fantasy lens provides us a window into the current state of Italy. This is one of the first fics I ever read that made a genuine attempt to tackle poverty within the framework of pokémon, and while I've read plenty since, this one stands out, particularly in how it handles Gaius. He isn't some sterilized martyr of the working class, but instead a deeply flawed, often self-destructive individual who you love and hate in equal measure.

Pokémon - Wandersword (Redux) by @kyeugh - This one is probably cheating because it's only two chapters, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for Arthurian pastiche. Prim almost feels like a character out of a romantic western, with a chivalric code specific to her and her alone, while Ferry provides a post-colonial deconstruction of the English motifs and iconography utilized within the story and in reiterations of the Vulgate/Post-Vulgate Cycle.

The Chatot and the Honey Tree by @WildBoots - I would be remiss not to include Wildboots somehow. Although I love Spring, it doesn't have quite the same level of control as her later works, and I still haven't had the chance to read Continental Divides (which is being turned into original fiction anyway, pretty sure). So I went with one of her oneshots, although they're all high quality. The Chatot and the Honey Tree is in equal turns funny, endearing, and emotional, with social commentary about the tourism industry layered into it.

Resting Place by @love - A darker take on the partner relationship than often portrayed within PMD fiction. The souring of the relationship mirrors the environment around them falling apart. It has its own cosmology that fits within all of love's oneshots, a piece of a tapestry that both stands alone and enriches a holistic body of work.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Silver Resistance by ScytheRider - This both breaks my TR-only rule and is driven primarily by nostalgia. But this is the story that caused me to fall in love with fanfiction and set the standard for many common patterns and interpretations seen in PMD. It's earnest and joyful despite taking many cues from Eragon and, by proxy, every well-known fantasy/science fantasy convention under the sun. It'll always hold a special place in my heart.

Honorable mentions: Hey, Space Cadet! by @slamdunkrai (dreamy yet mundane), Do Psychic Cats Dream of Electric Sheep? by @SparklingEspeon (balances adventure and humor with some Stephen King-style horror), Places We Call Home by @windskull (mythopoetic form blended with modern realism), and pretty much anything by @Negrek (it's all good, although I'm behind on most of her work, unfortunately).
 
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