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Review: Code White (And Beyond)

Important Note: the one shots that I had reviewed in Code White (and Beyond) have been moved to a book called Pokémon One-Shots. They are still found under the same titles: Code White and Burning Greed.

Code White (And Beyond) by fluff_writer_

Genre: Environmental Science, Pokéfic, Science Fiction

Chapters Reviewed: 2 Chapters (3 Chapters Posted)

Update Schedule: Random

Quote: #SaveTheCorsola

Code White (And Beyond) is a collection of one-shots about different environmental crisis that happen in the Pokémon world. From coral bleaching to forest fires, these stories tell a seriousness of these issues in a story-like format.

Warning: since these are all one-shots, and since the author has given me permission, I will be discussing spoilers.

Since there are two different stories in here, I'm going to talk about the two one-shots separately rather than as a whole because they each have their own strength and weaknesses (as all stories do).

The first is titled Code White, and is about Tracy learning about how the Corsola are adapting the the coral bleaching by turning into the Galarian forms. I thought this was a really neat idea because when you look at Galarian Corsola, it is a Ghost-type, and the writer used that as an advantage. It's a very sad moral of the story too because they are essentially dead, but it shows the effects that coral bleaching has on the Pokémon in the story.

Despite the good storyline this storyline had, I wanted more. It somewhat ends on a cliffhanger. After Professor Oak explains this to Tracy, Tracy decides he's going to act on this, but it's never shown as to what happens next. Honestly, I could see this one-shot being expanded into a short story of some sort where Tracy takes off and tries his absolute hardest in saving the Corsola, but it just ends right there.

In addition to that, there's a lot of detail missing. Yes, I've seen the episodes that Tracy was in, so I know that Tracy is Professor Oak's assistant; however, not everyone does. There are details missing as it's written in the bare minimum of what can be needed to somewhat understand what's going on.

What somewhat somewhat upsets me as a reader reading this is that there's this first story with barely any detail, and then there's the next one-shot where we can feel the frustration and struggles Bulbasaur is going through. It's loaded with detail in the begining! It's because of this I know the writer has the capability to show off detail.

This leads me to the next one-shot: Burning Greed. As said before, this one starts with a great amount of detail as it paints the story of a young Bulbasaur running as fast as it can out of it's home since someone set it on fire. Since it starts off strong with detail, I can feel the emotions piling inside of Bulbasaur that I just hope by the end of the story that it makes it out alive.

I say it because I don't know the gender of the Bulbasaur. I could assume that it's a boy because there's only a 11.86% chance of it being a girl, but you just can't assume. On top of that, once the Bulbasuar appears that it stops and can't run any further, there's a flashback as to how the fire started. Now, the following is how I personally feel about stories that follow that format. It is not wrong to have a story flow like that, but I'm just not a fan of it. Not when the scene of the people burning the forest happens and the it cuts back to Bulbasaur being rescued. It seemed disconnected, and I'd rather it start form that point and have it to where Bulbasaur was running away.

In addition to this, I was disappointed that it went from the great amount of detail to this dialogue between the humans talking to each other as to why they were going to burn down the forest. It barely had any detail, and after that, where it cut to the scene of Tracy saving Bulbasaur, well, there could've been much more.

That scene with Tracy saving Bulbasaur seemed a bit off to me. If I didn't read summary, I would've assumed that it was a continuation of the first story, which was disappointing as Tracy was going to save the Corsola, not the burning forest. Reading that these were all short stories/one shots, it seemed off that Tracy would've been in there as he just showed up out of the blue. It would've made more sense if it was a Pokémon Ranger or if the story would've ended with Bulbasaur blacking out (which, would've made for a sad ending, but effective with how these are serious environmental problems).

Now, keep in mind, this is all nitpick stuff. These stories are very enjoyable to read. I love the morals they are teaching as we need to take care of our environment. Forest fires can cause a lot of death (in this case, to poor forest Pokémon) while coral bleaching is harming the Corsola (or in real life, the coral reefs).

If that isn't cool enough, each chapter ends with pictures of what the environmental problem looks like or facts about them. It's really powerful to see these being reflected through the two one-shots.

Overall, I really did enjoy these one shots. There were some powerful messages in them, and that's something I really enjoyed. I loved seeing environmental problems enter the world of Pokémon as that was very unique and is something you don't see everyday. There are just a few things I personally think could've been stronger, but overall, the storylines were pretty great.

After reading Code White (And Beyond) , I am so happy that the writer of the book agreed to do an interview to talk more about it.

JunieWeathers: There are so many different stories that are told in Code White (And Beyond) that are all very unique in the fact that they incorporate environmental problems into the Pokémon World. What inspired you to do this?

fluff_writer_: When sword and shield came out, I was spooked by the fact that Galarian Corsola was a ghost type. This is especially after I read an article and realized that it looked similar to coral bleaching, a real world phenomenon that's being caused by global warming. Due to this, I felt the urgency to spread the message on global warming and other things we do as humans to destroy the earth slowly. Thus, this book was born.

JW: That is really cool. Sword and Shield does have a lot of new Pokémon that can spark ideas, and I'm glad that you could do something with Corsola to show that environmental problem. You've written a few short stories in this about different environmental problems. Which story in Code White (And Beyond) has been your favorite to write and why?

Fluff: So far, it's the one on Corsola due to it being the most original and the one with the most ideas. That being said, I'm still writing and may find a new favorite in the near future.

JW: The Corsola story was very entertaining. Are there any challenges you have faced when writing any of these short stories?

Fluff: Well, as I want to make my story situations as real as possible, the research that goes behind certain stories is pretty tough. That being said, I don't mind doing the research. The problem arises when I miss out a certain part of the research after I publish the part. This causes me to make slight edits along the way to ensure that the story will stay as realistic as possible.

JW: It shows in your writings that you do a lot of research, so good job in taking the extra step in doing that to make it more believable and everything. What has been your favorite thing about writing these stories?

Fluff:I guess that my favorite part about writing these stories is to share my ideas to the world. The world doesn't need to like your ideas, but it's still nice to get it out there!

JW: That's a really good way to look at things, that you just want to get your work out there. I can say that your work is off to a promising start, so I wish you the best of luck as you continue. If you think this would be an interesting read, then I highly encourage you to read it as it brings the seriousness of these environmental problems together into the Pokemon World, which is something I think is very unique.