rionaleonhart | Bring You Right Back Home.

I recently watched Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!, the new Pokémon film. An enjoyable experience, but an odd one. It's a lot like the dream you might have if you fell asleep halfway through marathoning early Pokémon episodes and End of Evangelion came on. There was one bit where Ash slipped briefly into our Pokémonless world, and I was rather expecting this to be an important plot point, but there was just... no follow-up, beyond someone going 'you forgot that Pokémon existed? That must have been the worst dream ever!' (DON'T RUB IT IN.)

Of course, there's now a part of me that sort of wants to explore this possibly-a-dream-sequence in fanfiction. Characters existing in multiple realities simultaneously and being unable to tell what's real is my favourite thing. (Of the twenty fics I've posted this year, there's an element of 'I don't know what's real' in eight of them. It's a theme that shows up in about a third of the fics on my AO3 account. I knew there were patterns in my writing, but I hadn't realised they were quite this bad!)

I cried a few times, but not as much as the small boy next to me, who was absolutely bawling into his mother's side during the 'Bye Bye Butterfree' bit. I'm glad that story has been retold to traumatise a new generation.

My main complaint: Team Rocket were wasted on this film! You could have stripped them out entirely and it would have made no difference whatsoever. They never even met Ash. What poor use of great characters.

I'm also a little put out that this film retold Ash's early journey without Misty and Brock. You can't do that!

On the plus side, the relationship between Ash and Pikachu is very, very cute.

I somehow found myself reading the Wikipedia article on Patrick Jane recently, and the line 'When threatened or attacked, his first response is always to run away or hide behind his colleagues' made me smile so fondly. I'm deeply sad that I lost interest in The Mentalist towards the end, because I loved so much of it! It just slightly overstayed its welcome.

It also went 'hey, time to shake things up a bit: romance!' when I wanted it to go 'hey, time to shake things up a bit: consequences! Actual exploration of how the main character has murdered multiple people and essentially made his colleagues accomplices!'

The problem with The Mentalist is that the show it thought it was and the show I thought it was weren't the same show. I was going, 'Wow, what a great horrifying psychological drama,' but it was secretly a light-hearted police procedural all along.

I still adore Jane as a character, even if the show he's from never entirely explored him to my satisfaction. He's just so interesting!

He also seems to be the root of my habit of taking one character and pairing them up with everyone simultaneously. Current tally of characters I've given this treatment in fanfiction: Patrick Jane, Jeff Winger, Nagito Komaeda, Mike Munroe, Prompto Argentum, Alex from Oxenfree, Shuichi Saihara.

In... in writing that list, I caught myself thinking 'hey, I should pair all of these characters up with each other!' No. No, Riona, you shouldn't.

Possibly my new favourite Crazy Ex-Girlfriend song, although 'Unfortunately, I want to have sex with you' still stands as my favourite lyric: 'The End of the Movie'. This is great. (Possibly not to be watched if you're having an existential crisis.)

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Of the twenty fics I've posted this year, there's an element of 'I don't know what's real' in eight of them. It's a theme that shows up in about a third of the fics on my AO3 account. I knew there were patterns in my writing, but I hadn't realised they were quite this bad!

I think you meant "quite this good!", because it is awesome!

I was going, 'Wow, what a great horrifying psychological drama,' but it was secretly a light-hearted police procedural all along.

Yep! Exactly how I feel. And "horrifying psychological drama" is the genre I like! I'm not a big enthusiast of "Will they ever get together?" (Even on shows where I actively like the main pairing, I tend to resent "Will they?/Won't they?" drama.)

But yeah, Patrick Jane was fascinating and I would love more digging into the psychology there.

In... in writing that list, I caught myself thinking 'hey, I should pair all of these characters up with each other!' No. No, Riona, you shouldn't.

Yes, yes, Riona, you should!

Jane/Lisbon could have worked as a really messed-up, guilt-ridden thing where they just enable each other into a terrible morality pit, but it was never going to work for me as something cute. (Jane/the entire CBI team, on the other hand...)

There's no way pairing them up will go well! Komaeda's in that list! Although I would love to watch Prompto react to Komaeda, I'll admit.

Yeah, it doesn't work as "Here's the problem-free happily-ever after!" He used her as an accessory to murder, and she became the kind of person who would voluntarily cooperate with psychologically torturing people, and you could have interesting relationship dynamics there, but not a sweet little happy ending. (Also, I wasn't against them, but also wasn't actively shipping them? Like basically the idea of them being together was just..."Okay, but what else is also happening?" for me.)

It sounds like it might not go well, but it would go really interestingly!

[It also went 'hey, time to shake things up a bit: romance!' when I wanted it to go 'hey, time to shake things up a bit: consequences! Actual exploration of how the main character has murdered multiple people and essentially made his colleagues accomplices!'

The problem with The Mentalist is that the show it thought it was and the show I thought it was weren't the same show.]

My god, are you me, and is this show White Collar? >:E

I feel your pain. So hard.

[
He also seems to be the root of my habit of taking one character and pairing them up with everyone simultaneously. Current tally of characters I've given this treatment in fanfiction: Patrick Jane, Jeff Winger, Nagito Komaeda, Mike Munroe, Prompto Argentum, Alex from Oxenfree, Shuichi Saihara.]

I have never watched the mentalist, but hearing you describe the psychological drama aspect and him making all his colleagues accomplices to murder, I really want Jane, Alex, Mike, and Komaeda to hang out at the very least. I, er, don't know enough about the other three.

.........Mike/Alex: nuclear train wreck or best nuclear train wreck? (They meet on a mountain which is not that mountain, trying-not-trying to get away from the past...)

I love that you don't know enough about Shuichi despite having played Danganronpa V3 (assuming that you're timydamonkey). He's just so bad at making an impression, the poor kid.

Oh, wow. Jane, Alex, Mike and Komaeda would be the most incredible collection of traumatised, broken people. Maybe this does need to happen.

It was actually me! I didn't realize I wasn't logged in until... just now. XD

But, er, anyway, DO IT DO THE THING.

Characters existing in multiple realities simultaneously and being unable to tell what's real is my favourite thing.

I know I've said this before, but you would really like The Crow on the Cradle (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3303894/1/The-Crow-on-the-Cradle). It's basically an outsider POV of this and it's fantastic.

-

The best bit of early early early Pokemon is Pikachu going from basically being feral to being best buddies ever. I hope this was encapsulated if it was telling early Pokemon!

-timydamonkey

That looks like a well-written fic! But... also extremely long.

There was definitely a bit of basically feral Pikachu! It didn't last long, though.

(Someone else commented anonymously and I assumed it was you! It was bound to happen eventually.)

The problem with The Mentalist is that the show it thought it was and the show I thought it was weren't the same show.

This was the same problem I had with Hannibal. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really loved parts of it, but it just didn't quite do what I wanted most of the time.

Also, let's be honest, Prompto really does deserve to be shipped with everyone. It's pretty much canon that he develops a crush on anyone he spends more than five minutes with.

I'm curious now about what you wanted Hannibal to be! I've seen a fair bit of it, and I'm still not sure how I'd describe it. The beautiful story of how one guy taught another to love murder?

It's pretty much canon that he develops a crush on anyone he spends more than five minutes with.

It is and I love it. It's just so endearing!

Team Rocket were wasted on this film!

I will not see this film. They are the only reason I was slightly tempted. Why would you make a pokemon film if it wasn't secretly just a team rocket film in disguise?

time to shake things up a bit: romance!' when I wanted it to go 'hey, time to shake things up a bit: consequences!

OH MY GOD, like I didn't watch enough of the mentalist to feel that, but yes! Consequences is ALWAYS a better move than romance when you are not sure what to do with your show. More people should think of it.

Why would you make a pokemon film if it wasn't secretly just a team rocket film in disguise?

EXACTLY. They didn't get to do anything! They had maybe three minutes of screentime! It was inexcusable!

"They never even met Ash."

That is a TRAVESTY. What.

It was outrageous! They just showed up in the general vicinity of Ash and immediately got blasted off, three times! Why have them in the film at all?

That is impressively ridiculous!

Bring You Right Back Home.

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