>>58827664>>58827664So as far as specific fics, there was a Johto Isekai fic (something with “Crystal” in the name) that was so egregiously insufferable with the choices it made from the get go I really got inspired to give the finger to low effort, unearned Isekai fics with PoPT. The starter was a Totodile that had Sheer Force, Crunch and Dragon Dance as egg moves. The Isekai’d MC then started humming “Sinnoh Sound” (the radio channel that enabled Sinnoh Pokémon to appear in HGSS) and a Riolu popped up on the first route and began teaching the MC aura. I skipped ahead to the gym fight and of course Riolu swept Falkner.
I specifically read this fic because I was starting to really get into setting foundation for PoPT. I’d read BoC, PTV (which I hate even though it’s not trying to be more than shameless power fantasy/ wish fulfillment) and When is a Spoon a Sword (couldn’t do TNN or Hard Enough), but I wanted to see what not-good writers did too. There were elements of BoC and Spoon that bothered me, but the writing was good enough to cover those gripes up. I made certain decisions in PoPT that basically “fixed” the gripes, but the inspiration for making
Suzy-Marie truly egregious was that Isekai fic I mentioned. That turned my want of just wanting do my nitpicks of popular Isekai fic tropes to really flipping the bird to the low effort ones.
It’s kinda funny to me that a number of commenters wanted certain things to happen early on (aura, Ian gets Zygarde, nutrition) and PoPT basically looked at the audience and said “not today.” Is it still an Isekaislop power fantasy at its core? Yes. But that shitty johto Isekai fic really lit a fire under my ass to really do something a bit different.
