Fanfic / Pokémon Retold: Black

Pokémon Retold: Black is a Pokémon fanfiction written by Undead Prowess, and is part of the larger Pokémon Retold series. This story is a Darker and Edgier take on the story of Pokémon Black, and along with taking a deeper look at the original games' themes of truth and ideals, also takes a look at the psychology of the troubled young Hilbert, who is simply named Hil here.

Hil is a young trainer whose life at home is outright miserable: thanks to his father's suicide a few months back and his mother becoming cold and distant, he wants nothing more than to escape. So when he and his best friends Bianca and Cheren are given three starter Pokémon from the kind-hearted Professor Juniper, he wastes no time in leaving home so he can take on the Unovan Pokémon League. But there's just one problem: he isn't exactly a good trainer. He's kind to Noodle, his Snivy, sure. He's also loving to his other Pokémon too, but he doesn't like seeing them get hurt. And his crippling social anxiety doesn't help. But he'll have to learn to get over it, not just because of his desire to challenge the league, but because the fate of the Unova region, if not the world, is in peril thanks to the mysterious N and the mysterious organization known as Team Plasma. And if they have their way, Pokémon and humans will never be able to live together again...

It can be read on Archive of Our Own here as well as Fanfiction.net here.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Intelligence: Bianca lacks her canon counterpart's scatterbrained tendencies and is a lot better put together as a result.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • The player's mom in the original Black and White was a kind-hearted, if by-the-numbers supportive mom that are a dime a dozen in the Pokémon games. Here, Hil's mom is hardly abusive, but she's a lot more stern and cold thanks to the grief stemming from her husband's death, which she herself was partially responsible for thanks to her going out of her way to antagonize him in the worst possible ways.
  • Alder is also far more holier-than-thou and condescending than he was in the games, which jarringly comes into play after he's established as a Cool Old Guy.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Marlon is still a nice, kind-hearted guy, but he's also a Pokémon-stealing Team Plasma member instead of the purely good Gym Leader he was in canon.
  • Ghetsis is far crueler than he was in the games, and takes sickening pleasure out of beating people for failing him, annoying him, or sometimes for no real reason at all. He's also N's biological father, and abandoned him to the Giant Chasm's deadly forest as a part of grooming him into his puppet. Also, he conceived him with Anthea. Who was 16 at the time.
• Adaptational Wimp: Unlike the powerful player from the games, Hil starts off as a weak Pokémon trainer and constantly loses battles until several chapters into the story.
• Adapted Out:
  • Fennel is completely absent, and when Hil stumbles upon a few Plasma Grunts hurting a Munna for its Dream Mist, he does so on accident while training in the Dream Yard.
  • Clay's Palpitoad doesn't appear at all, and while his Krokorok destroys the webbing blocking Chargestone Cave its battle against Hil isn't shown.
• Adaptation Expansion: The ethics of Pokémon training that Team Plasma are in an uproar about are given a lot more focus. For example, Grunts having a surplus of Patrats comes from them liberating weak Pokémon who are easy punching bags for abusive trainers. They also organize a huge rally outside of the Nacrene Museum to protest the resurrection of fossil Pokémon, which they view as unethically playing god and throwing a Pokémon that has been long-since dead into a scary new world that they aren't used to.
• Adaptation Name Change: A minor example in Clyde the Guide, who is now a series of different men who serve as Gym Leader guides, while Clyde is just a title.
• Affectionate Nickname: Hil names his Snivy Noodle, stemming from his pet name of "little noodle" which really drives Cheren up the wall.
• The Artful Dodger: Taven, an original character who has freely lived the life of a sewer-dwelling thief ever since he was a little boy.
• Ascended Extra: Instead of just being a throwaway Plasma Grunt, one of the Grunts that steals a Pokémon from a little girl on Route 3 is Marlon from Black and White 2, who has a decently prominent role in this fic.
• Ate His Gun: Hil's dad Vincent committed suicide by shooting himself, and news of his death shook Nuvema Town and Striaton City to their cores thanks to the rarity and highly illegal nature of guns in this setting.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: N's coronation in the beginning of the fic is an appropriately awe-inspiring, emotional event.
• Bad Boss: Ghetsis, who takes a lot of pleasure in smacking around and humiliating members of Team Plasma who fail him. He even threatens to feed Marlon, Gorn, and the rest of their squad to his Hydreigon for being humiliated by Burgh, Lenora, and Hil without the slightest hint of it being hyperbole.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: The two Plasma Grunts that Hil finds kicking a Munna around in the Dreamyard, named Lancaster and Virgil respectively. However, they come to regret it later and aren't proud of what they did.
• Benevolent Boss: N is far kinder to the Team Plasma Grunts than Ghetsis is. The one time he loses his temper and yells at two grunts who have long since repented for kicking the Munna, he feels horrible about it and has a bit of a mental breakdown because of it.
• Berserk Button: A good way to piss off Hil is to refer to him by his real name, Hilbert, which he finds embarrassing. On a more serious note, abusing Pokémon brings out his darker side.
• Big Good: Champion Alder. Once he starts appearing in the story, he beomes the central figure in helping organize the good guys in their battle against Team Plasma.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ghetsis is defeated and N has learned that humans and Pokémon are meant to be together... but unfortunately, Hil can't settle down after his adventure. Due to missing N and feeling like his friends don't need him anymore, he flies off on Reshiram so he can search for N. And in the meantime, the remnants of Team Plasma have risen from the ashes and are preparing to mobilize once again...
• Break the Cutie: Marlon goes from a chipper and friendly Plasma recruit to Ghetsis' pack mule, with years worth of abuse wearing him down until he's become a shell of his former self. It gets to the point that he's willing to escape Team Plasma and doesn't even care if he's killed for his transgressions, because in his eyes being dead means that he doesn't have to suffer under Ghetsis again.
• Calling the Old Man Out: After finally reading his father's final letter to him, Hil absolutely rips into his mother not just for her failure to give Hil the letter, but for wallowing in self-pity after essentially driving Vince to suicide with her callous behavior.
• Clingy Jealous Guy: Not in a romantic way, but Hil becomes violently jealous and hostile towards Cheren once he and Bianca hook up out of fear of being abandoned by his best friend.
• Cool Horse: Prada the Zebstrika, who is not only a badass electric zebra, but also Hil's mount when he rides off to Opelucid City.
• Cool Old Guy: Champion Alder is a skilled trainer and a fun old man who Hil encounters singing a bawdy country song with a bunch of musicians. Subverted later however when his more unscrupulous characteristics come into play, such as his antagonistic behavior to anyone who disrespects him.
• Cringe Comedy: Hil's social awkwardness when he realizes that his battle against Chili is going to be photographed and recorded lends itself to a lot of uncomfortably hilarious gaffes on his part... that is, until he loses, making it a lot less funny.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Skyla's Flying types just can't contend with Prada the Zebstrika, so Hil utterly annihilates her during their Gym battle.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Hil is prone to a lot of internal gushing about when Pokémon do anything he finds adorable.
  • In Chargestone Cave, he and Bianca encounter a trio of friendly Plasma Grunts marveling over the cuteness of a wild Joltik, and later a Tynamo.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The enormous black dragon Zekrom is intimidating and ferocious once awakened, but isn't cruel or sadistic: it just wants nothing to do with humans thanks to being manipulated by his original master. When N begs for his help in ushering in what he believes to be a new world where humans and Pokémon can live together in harmony and without exploitation or abuse, he's more willing to help out.
• Deadpan Snarker: Cheren's very snarky and catty, often making flippant remarks at anyone who earns his ire, mainly Hil.
• Dragons Are Divine: Reshiram and Zekrom, both of which are powerful Dragon type Pokémon who are worshipped as gods by the citizens of Opelucid City thanks to their near-mythical power.
• Driven to Suicide: Hil's dad Vincent, who killed himself months before Hil's journey when his attempts at reinvigorating his career as a Pokémon trainer failed, and the shame of failing his family became too much to bear. And of course, Amber's callous attitude about the whole thing didn't help.
• Embarrassing First Name: Hilbert, which Hil hates being called thanks to all the teasing he got for it as a kid. He also calls it an old man's name. Similarly, Chili hates being called by his real name, which is Chester.
• Establishing Character Moment: When Hil, Cheren, and Bianca get their starters, their first scenes do an excellent job at showing the viewer their personality: Snivy is very inquisitive and curiously inspects the room before calmly approaching Hil, Tepig is rambunctious and headbutts Cheren when he tries to play with him, and Oshawott is openly affectionate and perky to the point that he melts Bianca's heart by hugging her legs.
• Evil Cripple: Ghetsis, who is missing an eye and has a heavily damaged arm from a Hydreigon attack in the past. He seems to actively milk his injuries for public sympathy, but is an otherwise devious, power-hungry bastard.
• Evil Old Folks: Ghetsis is 54 and is far from the kindly old soul he presents himself as.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Hil, Cheren, and Bianca weren't able to become world-traveling Pokémon trainers until they were older teens, with their parents forbidding it thanks to the dangers of letting ten year olds explore a world filled with dangerous criminals and monsters without any proper schooling.
• Fragile Speedster: Hil's Liepard Lucky is very fast, but she isn't good at taking hits. In fact, just using Assist, a move without any drawbacks in canon, is enough to put her out of comission due to the strain it puts on her body.
• Freudian Excuse: Awful as he is, Ghetsis' backstory is quite sad. As a boy, his ability to hear the voice of Pokémon and communicate with them led to him being an outcast and labeled a freak. Since he already didn't like humans to begin with, this led to outright sociopathic hatred of not only them, but also himself. And as for his hatred for Pokémon, that seems to stem from being mauled by his own Hydreigon, which left half his body paralyzed.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: However, Cheren rightfully points out that it doesn't even come close to justifying his atrocities in the present day, which Anthea, Concordia, and Hil all agree with.
• Gilded Cage: Being the boss of Team Plasma isn't a happy job for N. Not only is Ghetsis the true authority and passive aggressively domineering towards him, but he spends a lot of time forcibly locked in his room and trotted out when Ghetsis needs him to do something.
• Green-Eyed Monster: When N decides that Hil can't be the Hero of Truths and instead names Cheren as his rival, he becomes resentful over being relegated as "Cheren's bumbling sidekick".
  • Humorously, Cheren himself becomes this when Hil finally accepts himself as the Hero of Truths and gets hugged harder by Bianca than Cheren ever has, despite her being his girlfriend and Hil being gay. But then the humor quickly vanishes when it becomes clear that he's obscenely jealous over people suddenly not believing in him anymore. But thankfully, they're able to hash things out and grow closer than ever.
• Hate Sink:
  • Ghetsis is even nastier than he is in canon, and as well as being manipulative and emotionally abusive towards N, he's disgustingly sadistic and revels in beating people down and making them terrified of him. He's also an ephebephile as revealed by him fathering N with the then-16-year-old Anthea, which doesn't score him any likability points either.
  • Hil's mother Amber is nowhere near Ghetsis' level and has good qualities, but the joy she took out of bullying, demeaning, and insulting Vincent during his final days instead of helping him work through the downward spiral he was going through make it easy to sympathize with Hil's hatred of living with her.
• Helicopter Parents: Bianca's dad tries to bring her back home at Nimbasa City out of fear that she could get hurt like in canon, and also gets really cagey around Cheren due to (rightfully) suspecting that he could be her boyfriend.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Burgh's a nice guy through and through, but his reputation has taken a hit thanks to journalists spinning the suicide of one of his Gym trainers as his failing for being "too self-centered" to notice when he had no realistic way of knowing that things were going so badly for him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Cheren is very aloof and blunt, but cares deeply for his friends and the welfare of all Pokémon.
  • Grimsley is a lot harsher and ruder than the rest of the Elite Four and is initially merciless when fighting Hil. But when Hil wows him with his gumption and determination, he decides to throw the match and let him progress so he can defeat N.
• Kick the Dog: One of the Plasma Grunts in Wellspring Cave tries to throw Hil off his game by mocking the death of his father, right to his face. Gorm of the Seven Sages also brings it up to hurt not Hil, but Burgh, who was Vince's superior at the time of his death.
• Lame Pun Reaction:
  • Bianca has this reaction to Hil cracking a joke about Cheren "testing the waters" against Cress.
  • Burgh loves to throw out all sorts of hilariously lame dad jokes, much to Hil's chagrin.
• Light Is Good: Reshiram, the vast white Dragon that Hil commands as the Hero of Truths.
• Manipulative Bastard: Despite being Obviously Evil, Ghetsis' silver tongue allows him to be an expert manipulator who keeps otherwise terrified henchmen under his thumb with the added bonus of being good at getting under the good guys' skin.
• Ms. Fanservice: Elesa is a gorgeous part-time supermodel, and a good paragraph is dedicated to how flattering her revealing clothes look on her.
• Named by the Adaptation: Hil/Hilbert's mom, who's named Amber in this fic. Elesa's Emolgas are also nicknamed Heart and Soul.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Deep down at his core, Ghetsis wants complete power over people and Pokémon so he'll never feel weak or vulnerable again. 
• Obviously Evil: Ghetsis, whose intense body language, growly voice, and facial expressions that don't quite match up with the emotions he tries to convey make it clear to people like Marlon and Hil that he's not the kind-hearted man he presents himself as.
• Power Incontinence: Thanks to being stressed out by N's plans, Caitlin accidentally hurts Hil with her psychic powers during their battle.
• Precision F-Strike: There's harsh swearing that would be very out of place in the games, but it's thankfully reserved for moments where it's appropriate, such as Amber and Vince dropping F-bombs during their angry discussions that would lead to Vince's death, as well as Hil's "What the fuck" response to N's insane plans to reawaken the Legendary Dragons of Unova.
• Related in the Adaptation: Ghetsis IS N's father, instead of merely a man who looks like him but is unrelated. Anthea, one of his handmaidens is also N's mother.
• Reluctant Hero: Hil doesn't take it well when the Light Stone chooses him as Reshiram's master. Thanks to all his failures as a trainer and tendency to emotionally lock up, he believes that by being named the Hero of Truths that he's essentially damned Unova and the world at large to be crushed under Team Plasma's heel.
• The Resenter: Hil really begins to detest Alder after he explains that he deliberately had the Elite Four go all out against challengers so they couldn't threaten his spot as the champion during his personal quest to help people and their Pokémon bond. Not only does he view it as manipulative and deceitful, but he also holds Alder partially responsible for his father's suicide since this policy helped kickstart the downward spiral that emotionally and mentally destroyed Vincent.
• Sad Clown: Hil may often joke around and mess with his friends, but deep down he's a sad and anxious young man who has been deeply affected by the death of his father, and doesn't like seeing his Pokémon getting hurt in battles.
• Sadist: As in canon, Ghetsis. Though his love of basking in the despair of the people he hurts goes to far more depraved depths than in the games: Marlon finds out just how sick he is when he takes near-sexual pleasure out of beating him bloody.
• Sailor Earth: Taven is a Harmonia like N, and when he touches Reshiram's stone it lights up for him the way it does for Hil. Despite being more qualified as the Hero of Truths than Hil, he rejects it and wants nothing to do with the fight against N.
• Sassy Black Woman: Lenora, who acts a bit more like a stereotypical black woman than she ever did in the games complete with sassiness, slang, and hot temper.
• Shrinking Violet: Cilan, who is far meeker than the hotheaded Chili and cool-as-a-cucumber Cress.
• Stage Fright: Hil becomes a nervous wreck when he challenges the Striaton Gym, due to it doubling as a very public restaurant full of guests who know about him and the uncomfortable circumstances around his dad's death.
• Straight Gay: Hil is exclusively attracted to guys, but aside from the times he playfully calls Cheren daddy, he has no real flamboyance to him and just so happens to be crushing on N and Church while being an otherwise average kid.
• Surfer Dude: Marlon, whose habit of slipping slang from his beach home of Humilau Town into his sentences annoys his Team Plasma buddies.
• Troll: Hil loves to piss off Cheren by twisting completely innocent phrases into something a lot dirtier and naughtier, or calling his Snivy by his "noodle" nickname that he hates.
• The Unfought: Lenora, who decides to just give Hil a badge without battling him thanks to his willingness to stand up to Team Plasma when they stole the dragon skull from her museum. Drayden also chooses to give Hil the Legend Badge instead of fighting, but it's more understandable since time is of the essence before Team Plasma executes its master plan.
• Weak, but Skilled: Roadie the Watchog and Lucky the Liepard are both weak Com Mons, but prove to be reliable battlers for Hil thanks to their Confuse Ray/Super Fang and Fake Out/Sand Attack strategies to make up for their shortcomings.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: N and a good chunk of Team Plasma do believe that they're doing what's best for Pokémon by kidnapping and stealing them from their trainers, among their other crimes. Gorm of the Seven Sages also finds the practice of fossil resurrections to be disgusting and is genuine when he holds a rally to protest it.
• Would Hurt a Child: Or strangle one, as shown by Ghetsis when he loses to Cheren.