Line #37 Fanfic/TheEditWarForAshsFreedomToNotBeBetrayed


1	''The (Edit) War for Ash’s Freedom to not be Betrayed'' is a ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' one-shot fic co-written by Creator/{{Crossoverpairinglover}} (the writer of ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'') and [=AceAmir=]. It can be found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12128915/1/The-Edit-War-for-Ash-s-Freedom-to-not-be-Betrayed here.]]
2
3	One day in the Hall of Origins, [[{{God}} Arceus]] discovers an intruder trying to tamper with the Book of Fate. The intruder, [[MeaningfulName Darkern Edgier]], wants to turn Ash into a "true" Pokemon Trainer by -- [[TakeThat like many an "edgy" fanfic writer]] -- having all his loved ones betray him and putting him through all sorts of gruesome torment. Arceus, however, is having none of it. Thus, the titular edit war begins, with Darkern trying to make his fantasy a reality and Arceus trying to keep things the way they are. Who will come out on top?
4	----
5	!!This fanfic contains examples of:
6
7	* AesopAmnesia: Having learned nothing from his tussle with Arceus, Darkern tries to apply his philosophy to [[spoiler:the world of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]]]]. This ends poorly for him.
8	* AgeLift: Everyone gets this when Arceus unfreezes the FloatingTimeline, though the impact differs between people affected.
9	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Darkern was never editing the canon universe, so even if he'd gone through with everything he'd wanted, the anime would've remained unchanged.]]
10	* AllLovingHero: Ash displaying kindness to everyone he meets causes more than one of Darkern's plans to go sideways, and he desperately tries to erase this trait.
11	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: The hipsters mocking Ash for never winning a League are stopped in their tracks when Ash asks if they've ever actually competed in a League before.
12	* AuthorAppeal: [[spoiler:[[HaremGenre Ash ends up with a harem at the end]]. This being written by the author of ''Pokemon Reset Bloodlines'', this is hardly a surprise.]]
13	* BetrayalFic: The story parodies this SubGenre of fanfics.
14	* BeyondTheImpossible: Entry into the Hall of Origins is nigh-impossible, but Darkern managed to do it anyways.
15	* BigBad: Darkern Edgier is a mysterious masked man who tries to use the Book of Fate to reshape the anime-verse the way he wants, transforming Ash into a hyper-masculine, super-skilled trainer by having him undergo torment to harden him.
16	* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Defied; Darkern tries to give Ash a larger penis during his edits, but Arceus thwarts all his attempts.
17	* BigLittleSister: Misty grows to be taller than her older sisters after Arceus fixes one of the clocks in the Hall of Origins.
18	* BigNo: Darkern lets one out after learning [[spoiler:his plan was AllForNothing.]]
19	* BlowingARaspberry: Arceus blows a raspberry at Darkern after thwarting his attempt to prevent Ash from communicating with his friends while he's on the island from ''Pokemon Snap''.
20	* CanonForeigner: The [[Manga/OnePiece Zoro]]-Farfetch'd who wields three leeks ([[DualWielding one in each wing]], [[CutlassBetweenTheTeeth and one with his beak]]) would also later be caught by Ash in ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines''.
21	* CaughtMonologuing: Darkern frequently gets caught up in ranting about what he plans to do when he starts his latest edit of the Book, giving Arceus the chance to make a more suitable edit.
22	* CharacterCheck: Darkern's plotting is often foiled by characters acting, well, in-character. For example, an attempt to get Ash to go to [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum Orre]] is ruined when [[MamaBear his mother Delia]] declares she's not letting Ash go anywhere ''near'' that crime-ridden cesspool of a region.
23	* ClicheStorm: InUniverse, this is what Darkern wants to turn the anime into.
24	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Darkern's entries in the Book of Fate are red, while Arceus' are blue.
25	* CoughSnarkCough: When Darkern implies that all of Ash's adventures have ended in failure, Arceus does something to this effect, mentioning the Orange Islands and the Battle Frontier.
26	* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Arceus cuts Darken's attempt to [[spoiler:give Ash a harem]] short by ending the sentence before Darken can write down [[spoiler:the names of the people he wants in said harem]]. Arceus proceeds to [[{{Facepalm}} slap Himself with most of his arms]] over the realization that He could have prevented most of the edit war-caused shenanigans if He'd just used periods to curtail Darken's additions instead of trying to spin his sentences into sensical edits.
27	* CrazyPrepared: [[spoiler:Even if the Hall of Origins is nigh-impossible to enter, Arceus isn't going to just leave an artifact of great importance out in the open. The ''real'' Book of Fate is in His nightstand.]]
28	* CrossoverPunchline: [[spoiler:The fic ends with Darkern getting turned into a decorative statue by [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle and her friends]].]]
29	* CurbStompBattle:
30	** Ash delivers a few over the course of the fic.
31	** [[spoiler:Darkern becomes a lawn ornament within an hour of arriving on Equestria.]]
32	* DarkerAndEdgier: Darkern Edgier is the living embodiment of this, as his [[PunnyName name demonstrates.]]
33	* DeadpanSnarker: Arceus ends up directing a lot of snark towards Darkern's antics.
34	* DeconstructionFic: Of the oh-so-prevalent [[DarkFic self-proclaimed "dark and edgy" fanfic]] in the ''Pokémon'' fandom, and possibly the genre as a whole.
35	* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Darkern repeatedly tries to defy Arceus over the course of the fic; at the end, he ends up [[spoiler:punted into Equestria]] for his troubles.
36	* DyeHard: InUniverse; when Darkern tries to kill off Delia by writing "[Ash's] mother had inexplicably died...", Arceus adds "...her hair bubblegum pink" to the end and prays that the book isn’t a GrammarNazi. Fortunately, it worked.
37	* EpicFail: Darkern tries to kill Pikachu with a herd of Gyarados. [[FailedASpotCheck He doesn't take]] [[WeaksauceWeakness Gyarados' species-wide 4x weakness to]] [[ElementalRockPaperScissors electricity]] [[CurbStompBattle into account.]] And when he tries to kill Pikachu with a herd of Rock- and Ground-types, Ash (who has all his Pokemon with him at the time) merely commands his Water- and Grass-types to counter them.
38	* EveryoneIsBi: [[spoiler:Darken's final edit to the Book of Fate makes ''everyone'' in the world bi. His intent was to invoke GirlOnGirlIsHot concerning the members of Ash's harem, but he didn't specify who he wanted to be bisexual.]]
39	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Darkern doesn't see the point in Ash doing ''anything'' that doesn't relate to him getting molded into the edgelord's idea of a powerful trainer, such as helping Professor Oak around the lab.
40	-->'''Darkern:''' What was the point of that!?\
41	'''Arceus:''' Does kindness need a point? Ash is helping a friend, and an elderly one at that. He even gets to see his Pokemon more, which is always good. Sure, he sees them between adventures, which take longer to prepare for than most people realize, but more time is always nice.\
42	'''Darkern:''' But where's the catalyst to prove everyone wrong? The anger? The drama!?
43	* ExactWords: [[spoiler:While trying to give Ash a harem full of hot girls, Darkern writes in the book, "They will all be bisexual!" Since he didn't specify who "they" was referring to, "they" ends up being ''literally everyone in that universe.'']]
44	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
45	** Darkern takes an interest in Ash's oversized bed, though Arceus doesn't know why. [[spoiler:It actually inspired his climactic scheme, to give Ash a harem of nubile women.]]
46	** When Darkern calls Arceus a damned horse god, Arceus corrects him (He's apparently a llama) and says that he's in the wrong world for a horse god. [[spoiler:At the end, Arceus sends Darkern to one such world; specifically, the world of the god-princesses [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Celestia and Luna]].]]
47	* FloatingTimeline: The reason the anime has this is because Arceus accidentally froze time at some point. He fixes it during the story, causing a sudden change in age for everyone to various degrees.
48	* TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson: Arceus' references to other works, which is justified by His ability to enter other dimensions.
49	* GirlOnGirlIsHot: [[spoiler:After Arceus subverts Darkern's plans to make Ash's harem one full of girls he (Darkern) considers hot and powerful -- rather than ones who can reasonably be expected to be compatible with him -- Darkern tries to turn Ash's harem bisexual to invoke this trope as "compensation". However, Arceus points out that making them all bi isn't the same thing as making them all attracted to one another.]]
50	* HaremGenre: [[spoiler:What Darkern tries to turn the story into at the climax. He succeeds, [[PyrrhicVictory but not in a way he likes.]]]]
51	* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Subverted. Ash, a trainer who's traveled to many different regions and placed high in a number of leagues, battles a trio of jerks who have never challenged a league before. The hipsters send out powerful OU tier Pokemon, while Ash sends out Unfezant. [[CurbStompBattle Ash still wipes the floor with them, because tier lists aren't a good substitute for actual battle experience]], especially since the Pokémon here are flesh and blood, not data.
52	* {{Hipster}}: A trio of these end up confronting Ash as a result of the Edit War. Arceus decides to check later if hipsters are supposed to exist in the anime universe.
53	* {{Hypocrite}}: The hipsters who berate Ash for always losing every league have never actually challenged a league themselves.
54	* {{Irony}}: Darkern, for all his attempts to get Ash to "grow up", acts incredibly immature.
55	* IWantGrandkids: [[spoiler:The reason why Delia suggests to Serena that she go visit Ash at his training grounds at the end.]]
56	* LastSecondWordSwap: Arceus does this several times in the Book of Fate to prevent Darkern from making his preferred edits. When Darkern writes "Ash's first evolved Pokemon will be his Bu..." (referring to Bulbasaur), Arceus quickly finishes it with "...bumbling Oshawott!"
57	* MiseryBuildsCharacter: Darkern believes the only way to mold Ash into the ultimate trainer is by putting him through horrible torment, like trying to kill his Pokemon or getting his loved ones to betray him. Arceus disagrees and stops him whenever he can.
58	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Invoked and subverted. Darkern writes his last edit with exaggerated movements that are meant to look grandiose, but look more silly than anything else coming from him.
59	* MythologyGag:
60	** In the beginning, it's mentioned that Arceus has to deal with two concurrent yet separate incidents happening in the Kingdom of Vale (referencing how [[Anime/PokemonTheMovieBlackWhite the 14th movie]] was split into two movies with the same plot and slightly different characters) and a Meteonite incident that happened yet didn't happen (referencing a pair of unaired episodes that were eventually [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] from the show).
61	** To train for the upcoming tournament, Professor Oak suggests that Ash go to an island [[VideoGame/PokemonSnap that he once sent Ash's friend Todd Snap to to get photos of the native Pokemon]].
62	* NarrativeProfanityFilter: When Arceus writes into the book that all Pokemon can only have 4 moves at a time, no exceptions, Darkern is not happy.
63	-->What followed was the nastiest, most vile curse word that Arceus had ever heard spoken. It was a sound beyond description, a cacophony of syllables and inflections so horrid, so utterly wretched that it could make the damned weep [[YourSoulIsMine and rend souls from their mortal bodies,]] leaving nothing but cold, chilled husks in its wake. Were Arceus a lesser deity, the curse might have even been able to damage Him, but as it was it simply made him slightly nauseous.
64	* NoodleIncident: Apparently, the last time Ash trained at Professor Oak's lab, evil spirits got loose and Team Rocket tripled his insurance policies.
65	* NotSoAboveItAll: Arceus, the Creator of Everything and the more mature one between him and Darkern...blows a raspberry.
66	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Darkern does this in his speech; like pretty much everything else he does, it's done to make him look more threatening.
67	* RealityWritingBook: The Book of Fate is meant to chronicle everything that happens in its native reality, and writing in it ends up applying the changes written to that universe.
68	* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Darkern Edgier's preferred color palette.
69	* RuleOfSymbolism: When Ash arrives at the Tournament, he is wearing five gold rings with fragments from five elemental stones: Water Stone, Moon Stone, Dawn Stone, Leaf Stone and Fire Stone. Each one represents one of his five lovers (Misty due to her favoured type, May due to Skitty, Dawn due to her name, Iris's preference for living wild, and Serena's Starter type).
70	* ShipperOnDeck: In a sense; [[spoiler:where Darkern tried to give Ash a harem consisting of powerful women such as Cynthia, Sabrina, Clair, and Hilda, Arceus is able to take advantage of Darkern's rants to write Misty, May, Dawn, Iris and Serena's names in the book instead, arguing that Ash has formed a genuine emotional connection to them before any of this happened where he hasn't even met Hilda and only briefly interacted with many of the other women, who are also notably older than Ash anyway]].
71	* ShoutOut:
72	** When Arceus hears that Darkern wants to turn Ash into a great warrior who is undefeatable in battle, He responds that, in order to do that, [[Webcomic/OnePunchMan he'd have to go bald and lose all sense of joy.]]
73	** At one point, Arceus asks Darkern if he’s related to [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Crazy Steve a]][[ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder nd Bonkers Betty]].
74	** When pointing out how being hugged by a [[PoisonousPerson Muk]] could be considered suffering, Arceus muses that it could still be deadly to [[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers Captain Planet]].
75	** Ash encounters [[Film/SnakesOnAPlane a crashed plane with an Ekans in it.]]
76	** Darkern is described as making the final stroke of his last edit "as if he [were writing] in a Franchise/DeathNote".
77	** [[spoiler:The last exchange Darkern and Arceus have before the former is kicked out of the Pokemon dimension is a reference to the LukeIAmYourFather reveal from ''Franchise/StarWars''.]]
78	* StatusQuoIsGod: [[spoiler:Darkern tries to take solace in the fact he subverted this...until Arceus reveals that he never really altered canon at all.]]
79	* StopHavingFunGuys: InUniverse; Darkern comes off as a stereotypical competitive ''Pokémon'' player at times, complaining whenever Ash catches or uses a Pokémon that isn't considered top tier on Website/{{Smogon}}.
80	* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Darkern's ultimate fate.]]
81	* TakeOurWordForIt: The vile curse word uttered by Darkern, which would have damaged Arceus had He been a lesser deity.
82	* TakeThat:
83	** The entire fic is one against those who use DarkerAndEdgier in their fanworks to an unrealistic and childish degree.
84	** Darkern also continually mentions high-ranked and "fierce OU" Pokemon and "downgrades" Ash makes from high-powered moves, taking a jab at overly competitive players.
85	** One occurs against ''Fanfic/AshesOfThePast'', when Arceus briefly mentions a terrible timeline where the entire Squirtle line became anime fanatics.
86	** Arceus tells Darkern that, if he likes pain so much, He could always send him to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiken_(manga) Zashono Academy.]]
87	** Darkern disparages [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Alola's]] worth simply because it doesn't follow the traditional "8 gyms" format, taking a jab at players who did the same. Arceus immediately points out that he hasn't even ''been'' to Alola, and asks why he's judging it despite that.
88	** A jab is made at [[GoddamnedBoss Whitney's Miltank]], which Darkern claims is a demon cow. Though as it was ''[[StrawFan Darkern]]'' saying it, the take may not be particularly serious.
89	** When Ash fights and catches a Farfetch'd modeled after [[Anime/OnePiece Zoro]], Darkern whines about how it should be imitating a "real" swordsman like [[Manga/{{Berserk}} Guts]] or [[Manga/AttackOnTitan Levi]]. Arceus promptly quips that out of the three, Zoro probably requires the least amount of therapy.
90	* TomesOfProphecyAndFate: The Book of Fate contains everything that has happened, is currently happening, and will update itself when new things happen in the ''Pokemon'' anime universe. [[spoiler:Versions of the book also exist for [=AUs=].]]
91	* {{Troll}}: Some of Arceus' actions against Darkern give Him this portrayal; for example, replacing the Riolu Darkern keeps trying to give Ash with Rufflet, and then ''Relicanth.''
92	* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: The huge tournament Darkern uses to give Ash a goal is billed as this.
93	* UnwittingPawn: Everyone and everything in the anime universe is this to Darkern and Arceus in their war. This is easily demonstrated when they're both trying to get Ash to say something at once; he ends up spouting a stream of gibberish, much to his surprise, before deciding that he must have too many ideas to use and tried to say them all at once.
94	* VillainBall: Arceus notes that Darkern's plot would probably be a bit more successful if he didn't keep reading out loud.
95	* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"Remember what you said, about this not being canon? Well, without realizing it you were more on the nose than you might have realized."]]
96	* WideEyedIdealist: Another thing getting in the way of Darkern's re-shaping of the Pokemon anime: Ash's near-lack of pessimism.
97	* WillfullyWeak: It's noted that Arceus could just destroy Darkern where he stands, but holds back because He doesn't want to risk damaging the Book of Fate.

Context Fanfic / TheEditWarForAshsFreedomToNotBeBetrayed