Thanks to everyone who's volunteered to judge so far! I was apprehensive about finding enough people, but although we definitely still have spots left to fill, it's encouraging to see so much early interest!
I'm actually a bit lost on the past/future theme. Does that mean it should be a story that takes place in the past and then future? Or somehow be set in that time period? (presumably relative to the vaguely 'present' setting of pokemon?)
I think anything that plays around with the idea of the past and/or future of the pokéworld would work well! For inspiration, you might look at some of the recent pokémon games, which I think have played around with this in various ways. You could write something about a collision between past and future like the one seen in Legends: Arceus when a contemporary character gets dumped into the past. You could write about characters' visions for the pokéworld's future or what happens when a bunch of prehistoric pokémon are unleashed on the present pokémon world, which are topics touched upon in Scarlet/Violet. Or straying from the mainline series, you might write about what happens when a bunch of humans from all different time periods get thrown into the PMD world together, or what living in the Dark Future might be like.
With that theme I think we'd be looking for an exploration of what the Pokémon world's past and/or future might be like or how they influence the present--you could pick one or the other rather than needing to address both past
and future.
What is the deadline to ask to judge and how long (and when) is the judging period?
I'd like to help judge but I want to make sure I have enough time to commit
I'd like to get the judges locked down by June 17th if at all possible, so I'm not potentially scrambling to find people right before the judging period's set to start. So you have a little time if you're wanting to wait and see which theme wins before deciding to judge, need a bit of time to figure out your schedule, etc.
Judging begins July 1st, and we try to get things wrapped up in about two months, by September. I'll add that info to the first post!
Only caveat is that it's more or less first-come, first-served on judging, so if you know you're interested and are theme-agnostic, it's better to volunteer earlier rather than later. June 17th is my hard target for getting the roster finalized, but I expect it will probably fill out before then.
If Legendary POV wins, will fakemon legendaries be eligible to write about, or does it HAVE to be canon legends?
I think if Legendary POV were to win, we'd be pretty inclusive about what constituted a "legendary" for the purpose of the contest, because there are so many different possible definitions and people draw the line in different places. The key, I think, is going to be really showcasing what it's like to be a legendary pokémon--how that's different than being a "nonlegendary" one. So as long as the POV feels convincingly legendary, then I think someone could enter with a pokémon whose legendary status is tenuous or disputed (such as arcanine, silvally, etc.) or a fakemon legendary if they'd like. With fakemon specifically there's the additional challenge of making sure the audience understands what they are well enough to follow the story, but as long as you're okay making introductions for people who've never heard of the fakemon before, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to enter with a fakemon legend.
I kinda wanna write again this year, if I have time. What's the minimum word count?
No minimum! There's always the caveat that very short stories may be at a disadvantage compared to stories that have more words to develop their ideas, but if you think you can pull off a good take on the theme in a very small number of words, you're welcome to!
