Pokémon Fanfic Pet-Peeves

Poke-Fics: OverUSED Eeveelutions

Disclaimer: In the making of this time's analysis, I want to be clear in the fact that this is not targeting anyone, it is a general consensus on what I have seen with my own eyes. Nobody is a target. With that, let's go. 

Okay, I haven't added one for a while, and after some long and hard voice chats in my discord server about Pokémon fanfics, I began to realize something.

What the hell is with all of these "Eeveelution Ask or Dare" stories?

Me, and a bunch of my online friends are some suckers for Eeveelution fanfiction. Ever since the ascension of "Eeveelution Squad", the medium of stories for Eeveelutions in general have expanded tenfold. 

ESAUs, stories that clearly are a one-to-one comparison to Eeveelution Squad, and Ask or Dares. Today, I will be going over each of them, one by one. We'll start with ESAU.

ESAUs

Now, there are a few categories that an ESAU could fit in within themselves.

[1] First, You have the SUPER fanfictions such as "Eeveelution Squad meets [Insert other fandom here]", where the characters interact with the writer's favorite fandoms. Basically, the writer might have had a dream about this and just HAD to write it and put it into the world. 

Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that this type of AU is wrong, because it's not wrong. It just kinda... Hits with a cringe for me.

[2] Next, you have the ESAUs where there is an additional character or two involved. This usually adds an Eeveelution that is shipped with one of the Eeveelutions in the main squad. This, to my estimation, is an oc self insert with mental health issues. 

Other times, you have a whole group of Eeveelutions shoved into the story, most of the time, to add more girls to the Speed harem. The Speed harem is a whole other can of worms.

[3] After that, you have the most realistic AUs, also the category that I favor the most, where a particular detail in the story is changed. For example, Speed meeting Lazuli instead of Trace at what is supposed to be the beginning of ES, or stories that give more attention to characters that... Aren't Speed.

Or, another example being what would happen if one or more of the og trio didn't survive that Feraligator attack. Either way, this category is considered my favorite, as this diverts from the main story and gives the most creative liberty.

Eeveelution Squad Knock-Offs

Next, you have the Eeveelution Fanfictions that are blatant off-brand versions of Eeveelution Squad. This is a very simple thing to spot. Nine Eeveelutions living together. That's all you have to do to be in consideration to be a bootleg ES.

Now, while some stories manage to take this barebones idea and make it into something different, others really don't know or care about the fact that ES is their "inspiration" and by "inspiration", I mean their canvas.

It's kind of like having a picture of ES, and putting a piece of paper over it in order to trace it over. While they trace over ES, they accidentally shake, moving the pencil slightly and creating a few ridges on what was originally a straight line.

Yeah it LOOKS like ES, but they didn't trace it to the letter, giving a similar, yet slightly less good product. 

Ask or Dare

Now out of the three main sections of Eeveelution fanfiction, this is the most abundant. 

Now before you hit me with the; "Well you have an ask or dare type thing with Eeveelutions!", I'll address the differences between mine and the others.

The EV-Extras book is my way to give additional content for the "EV5" series. It's not completely standalone, as it's connected to EV5 season one and two. It also gives readers fun facts and even additional content to the EV5 series.

Meanwhile, the MANY many Eeveelution ask or dares are only centered in that book, focusing on the Eeveelutions only and how they interact with the ask or dares. Nothing more, nothing less. Let me give you an example:

Eevee: Vee

Gender: Male
Likes: Having friends
Dislikes: Making enemies
Crush: Blaze

Vaporeon: Hydro

Gender: Male
Likes: Swimming
Dislikes: Running out of water
Crush: None

Jolteon: Shock

Gender: Male
Likes: Exploring
Dislikes: Rainy days 
Crush: Gem

Flareon: Blaze

Gender: Female
Likes: Spicy foods
Dislikes: Water
Crush: Vee

Espeon: Gem

Gender: Female
Likes: Staying clean
Dislikes: Messy rooms 
Crush: Shock

Umbreon: Dark

Gender: Male
Likes: Privacy 
Dislikes: Stereotypes 
Crush: Leaf

Leafeon: Leaf

Gender: Female
Likes: Gardening
Dislikes: Winter (The season)
Crush: Dark

Glaceon: Blizzard

Gender: Male
Likes: Cold areas
Dislikes: Anything hot
Crush: None

Sylveon: Ribbon

Gender: Female
Likes: Rainbows
Dislikes: Bad fur days
Crush: Dark

Now, I want you to look me in the eyes and say you HAVEN'T seen one of these names in the sea of ask or dares out there. And this format is just the norm. 

But LOOK! Dark and Leaf like each other but Ribbon likes Dark too! See? I have an interesting book! Plz read and see how much d r a m a we have! 

In all seriousness, this is the basic format for all of the Eeveelution Ask or Dares out there. Oftentimes there is a shiny Eevee involved, but I was not about making a whole different "cHaRaCtEr" for him.

Why did I Spongebob-meme the word 'character', you ask? It's because a lot of the personalities in these ask or dares are very barebones and one-note. Their character isn't much of a character at all, being more one or two personality traits. Shock is adventurous, Gem is a neat-freak, Ribbon is the happy one, Vee is the innocent one, and on and on. They only have one personality trait most of the time, and it gets annoying.

Sometimes the author inserts themselves into the story and has them interact with the characters, something like;

Ribbon: "I hope the readers like this dare..."

Author: You can't break the fourth wall!

Ribbon: "Yes I can!"

Author: No you can't! *Uses author powers to put her in time out*

Eughhhh! Look, I hate shitting on people's works like this because--believe it or not--I commend anyone who posts their works here on Wattpad because it takes a whole bunch of confidence, but this is just cringy, I'm sorry, but someone had to say it.

That's all for this time's work. Hopefully I won't take too long on the next one... I actually like doing these. If anyone has a pet-peeve that you want me to discuss, I'll be happy to give it a little look-see and analyze it thoroughly.  

With that, I'll be taking my leave. Goodnight.