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.)
