[fanfic] burnt bridges

[kuruk22]

Title: burnt bridges
Fandom: Pokémon
Summary: Because there are some bridges you don't know you've crossed until you already have.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Friendship, Angst, Character Study.
Warnings: language, light violence.

Comments

[solarpillar]

I'm pretty sure that Red went to Seveii Islands post-game to chase after Green, not to hunt Team Rocket. In FRLG, after you wake up in Pallet Town after credits and end in Oak's lab, you and your rival, to receive the National Pokedex, if you talk to Prof. Oak after your rival leaves he'll say something along the line of "My grandson? He left for Seveii Islands I think.") Then you get something like 3 events with Green, the first two where he yells at you for following him and want to be left alone, but in the last one he finally opened up to you and told you that he might as well leave home because he can't get things done if he stays, if things stay that way. Anyway, your fic does not have to follow the game script to the letters so this does not matter.

Then GSC and HGSS confirmed that Green was the one who settled down in human civilisation and Red left home without returning (until you beat him). What the heck happened?

I like this fic. It's not because it gives us an attempt at answer by saying that Red has no more dreams. Plenty of fics has done that. I like this fic because it shows that Red is vulnerable. He wants attention and love yet doesn't know how to get it. He blames his loneliness on his accomplished dream. He'd taunt Green just to get him to look at him again. This boy is disconnected from the world. Unlike pixivRed who doesn't need human interaction, this one still needs it and I like him for that. This Red is still human.

And I love how you addressed to the fact that becoming the Champion was Green's dream, not Red's. Red just wanted to get Green's attention by becoming his competition. Yet it was futile, because he was trying to reap a by-product of going after that goal (get his friendship with Green back) rather than the main result (becoming the Champion).

Then the Alice quote about Humpty Dumpty came at the end and I was lost. Did that mean he went mad? I'm not sure I understand what that quote means... If it means that he lost and fell into despair, I think it would be rather counter-intuitive.

In conclusion, it was a nice study, though I don't know if it's just me or the end quote was confusing.

[kuruk22]

Hello again! Thank you for reading!

I wrote this a year ago. In fact, this was actually my first fic for the Pokémon fandom. As you can see, I was pretty rough back then, so I'm glad that there were some areas of it you could still enjoy.

I'm really happy you mentioned that "this Red is still human," because that was the effect I was going for. A lot of people just write him as this godly figure of legend, and while that's pretty accurate, especially when writing from someone like Gold's perspective, I like to think that beneath all that there's still this kid. He's only thirteen during G/S/C - HG/SS, after all. I wrote this piece in an attempt to humanize him a bit, and I'm glad I seem to have gotten that point across.

One of the main reasons I included the Humpty Dumpty quote was to be ironic. I wanted to give the impression that it was his "fall from grace," except not. I know I'm being a bit contradictory here, so bear with me as I try to articulate my headcanon.

Yes - Red harbors a certain amount of resentment about the fact that becoming Champion and "making his dreams come true" crippled his friendship with Green once and for all, but also because he never wanted the fame. I didn't allude to that much in this piece, but I imagine that if anyone takes any position that involves a high amount of visibility and they never really wanted it, they would resent the infringement on their privacy. With the emphasis the Pokémon world places on battling, I'm pretty sure that accomplished trainers would be treated much like some pop singers are today, so as Champion, the best-of-the-best, Red would hardly get any privacy.

His age plays a factor into it, too. He's thirteen at the time of next generation. He's young, but it's also been three years of beating anyone that ever challenged him. Heck, it's even more than that. If you take game canon at face value, then Red has never lost a battle. In my headcanon, Red was more of a 'follower' until Green started bullying him, which is bound to cause some self-esteem issues, especially since it was his best friend who turned on him. Training and battling pokémon was his way out, I guess, a way for him to claim a new identity than what Green and the rest of the small town identified him as. If this is almost entirely based on his status as a trainer, then losing his title would make a profound impact at the same time that it would free him. Yes, he's free to leave the mountain. But it also means he can't blame it for the divide between his friends, and if that isn't bridged, then what else is he supposed to do? I hope I'm making sense here. Feel free to ask me to clarify my points if I'm not.

So the purpose of the quote was to illuminate a certain double-edged quality to the Championship. Red both resents and finds value in it. Losing it, while freeing, would have its toll. The fact that it "breaks" him, in a way, is addressed in two other fics I wrote, mostly because I realized that the end quote was a bit confusing, like you said. The stated sequel, 'melted', qualifies Red's "depression" in the way I described, and deals with the mending of Red's relationships with Green and Leaf. It was shippy though, so I think it wasn't the spiritual successor to this piece. The other, 'armistice day', is more dark, so I think it is the spiritual successor despite the fact that there was some romance. It deals with the ambiguity of G/S/C and HG/SS's ending - what, one minute Red is there and the next he's gone? No explanation, and then the credits roll. That piece was an attempt to explain that, a well as explore codependency...

Anyway... I'm sorry about the long reply. I tend to ramble when given the slightest opportunity... Thanks again for the comment, and thank you for the concrit! I always appreciate a reader who offers advice on how to improve, so I'm grateful that you did so.

[solarpillar]

Wow, long reply. But mine wasn't that much shorter so we are even :p

It's nice that you remember that Red's still only a teenager when you write him. A lot write him as a mere symbol. While mythical and in a way escapist, it made him not so human anymore and when a character is not human it's hard to associate with.

As to in-canon-Red-never-lost-a-battle-thing... Actually, if Yellow was also canon, losing to Green at the first 3 battles or so was possible. I know this because I lost against Green and the game kept going in a way that the last battle counted. I found this weird so I checked on the Internet and some sites (bulbapedia? serebii? anyway, it was a believable source) said that your rival's eevee evolves depending on how many times you've lost to him. It wasn't possible in RBG and no longer possible in FRLG, but in a 'canon' game it was possible that Red had lost to Green. Not to anyone else though (it would still be the blackout and the battle you lost no longer counted). If that was canon, Red's obsession with Green and vice versa would be even more justified.

I just read your armistice day and it did follow the Alice quote somewhat, except that in the end putting him back together was not impossible, just full of hardship. I want to read 'melted' but I can't find it anywhere? I don't mind if it's shippy. I kind of ship the kanto trio too (but not in a sexual way; it feels incestuous) and I ship the johto trio worse than you did in armistice day.

I love how you analyse the world and the characters in your fic. Keep it going, and thank you.