Something I've always found kinda interesting about Red and Green in gameverse is how they turn some of the Stock Shōnen Protagonist/Rival tropes on their heads.
This is really long character analysis of these two and various media counterparts of theirs, so I'm gonna stick it under a cut.
In some ways they fit their roles quite well - aside from the obvious colour associations, you have Red as the hero whose sense of justice is stronger than his sense of self-preservation, and you have Green as the privileged rival who cares about beating Red above all else.
But, if you look at it another way - Green's got the light spiky hair, the hot-headed and boisterous personality, the drive to Get Better And Win. He's designed to read as really open and chipper, yet snarky. Sure, he isn't dumb, but he's arrogant, and he's got something of a one-track mind; the guy finds himself in the middle of a hostage situation because he's just that hellbent on fighting his rival, and does not seem to be thinking about anything else. He's also got a motivation - given how the Professor talks to him in the championship room and supplementary material like his Generations appearance, it's not a stretch to think the reason he's so driven to Get Better And Win is to prove himself to his grandfather. It's shown in later games and supplementary works that he's become somewhat of a mentor as he got older and wiser.
Red, on the other hand, is a quiet loner whose only motivation seems to be to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger. He's level-headed and dark haired, his cap rounding off his edges and obscuring his face. He's heroic, but not really sociable, as evidenced by the fact he spends the Johto games alone on a mountain without having told anyone where he went. He seems isolated in a way that later games' protagonists really don't. He may have always been a step behind Green, but he's always better.
Equally fascinating to me is how other adaptations have changed the base designs around and rewritten personalities to suit different purposes, while still being visually recognisable as counterparts to their game-selves.
For example: Red and Green's counterparts in Special slot WAY more neatly into their stock shōnen roles, with Red as the boisterous hero and Green as the broody rival, and it's reflected in their new designs.
Red's hair becomes spiky to reflect his more excitable nature. His hat, in turn, never obscures his face; it's always either tilted back to accommodate his fringe or turned backwards. Green's hair, on the other hand, is not quite as spiked upwards and instead falls into his face, frequently obscuring his far eye in the same way game!Red's hat does.
And then, of course, the anime balanced them in a totally different direction.
Instead of scrapping Green's personality wholecloth, it's become exaggerated in Gary. He's not the broody antihero rival, he's the arrogant, privileged, better-than-you rival. He's always ten steps ahead of Ash, always pisses him off, and is ALWAYS better until the end of his run. The anime also emphasises his intelligence far more, with him doing things like rattling off dex info and the speed of light in mph off the top of his head, to further contrast him with Ash.
Ash, who is of course THE shōnen protagonist. He's dumb, but determined, and always ready to help people in need. Unlike game!Red, the power of friendship (with more than just pokémon) is central to him; any given season of the show is defined as much if not moreso by his travelling companions and interpersonal relationships as it is by whatever he's actually doing.
It's funny to me, though, how most adaptations seem to find the fact that gameverse Red and Green have swapped some stock roles as something to fix. Even Origins, which is probably the closest a high-profile adaption has come to game-accurate, made its version of Red louder and more standard-hero-esque.
I'm not knocking any of these things, of course, just observing. I adore both Special and anipoke. I just think that the way the game characters are written could lead to some interesting dynamics were it to be explored more.
153 notes
·
View notes
Originalshipping fanfic reccomendations
I’ve compiled a list of originalshipping fic recommendations that are actually originalshipping (pokespe) and not nameless (gameverse) since those are kind of hard to come by and get mixed up pretty often with nameless
You work too hard (let me help you) by spikyearr on ao3 (this one's really sweet and nice)
Melt your headaches, call it home by adorathea on ao3 (this one is also kind of colorfulshipping if you squint)
Nervosity by softoriginals on ao3
We’re fire waiting for a spark by Menoeides on ao3 (this one hurts).
Through Rose-Tinted Lenses by Menoides on ao3 (read this one after we're fire waiting for a spark to heal your soul lol (by the same author)).
Sleepless by trainerred on ao3
You got a look in your eyes by windingwoods on ao3 (a originalshipping college au)
Transparent by Nikasha on FFN
Hats by Little Nemo on FFN
Warmth by OmgPandi on ao3
Every turn of the earth with you by summer_nevercomes on ao3 (features aroace green and lithro red) (only the third chapter is originalshipping)
Entropy by Raspberry_reef on ao3
Things said in your sleep by gurirehell on Tumblr
An unnamed originalshipping drabble by adultswin on Tumblr
I've scoured pretty much everywhere for these so if anybody else has any recommendations for me I'd love to hear them
Kinda funny that sleep is such a recurring theme in originalshipping fics
37 notes
·
View notes
Because I need to work on my WIPs and not add another I'm putting this out into the stratosphere, please as always (and literally any concept you see me throw around even if i wrote a fic about it i want more stories) feel free to steal it, draw it, write it, or use it to distract yourself from the pain radiating from the massive cut in your foot that has decided to just bleed all night (oddly specific bunny is not okay) anywhosers
-royalty au
-red is like the sole prince of a small nation, Pallet, his mom is the queen, despite the nation being small , they are increadibly strong thanks to pokemon trainer prince who beats everyone
-rocket nation with king gio had been attacking and waging a full out war but Red's pushed them back, now rocket nation is trying to form alliances, so Red's mom has to the do same thing
-a neighboring nation, Oakland (ha) had always fought with Red's nation over resources or something, but rocket is attacking them so they form an alliance
-and to form an alliance King Samuel sends his grandson Green to be married off
-cause daisy's the oldest so she'll be queen, and honestly the king thinks green is shit at everything so getting rid of him is a weight off his shoulders
-and green is pissed cause he's a strong trainer and had been doing a lot to protect his nation but his grandfather doesn't care
-red and green immediately hate each other but like they're married so they have to be around each other
-and green like snuck his pokemon with him and keeps sneaking away to train and eventually red catches him training and is like hey wait you like pokemon battling
-all the while rocket is forming alliances and planning a sinister take over of pallet then Oakland
-red and green bond over training
-and like all of the nobels and military leaders treat green like he's just arm candy but now Red's like hey wait you actually know stuff and are almost as strong as me
-green starts coming to planning sessions and the elite 4 generals dont take him serious or whatever then red is like okay go battle him
-green kicks their asses and earns their respect
-they do planning and training and all the while red and green are falling for each other but neither will admit it, cause they think the other just sees this as duty or whatever
-finally the battle comes rocket vs. everyone else
-it's going well until green gets hurt, like maybe he and red are joking around on the battlefield some cause it's easy and they're kinda having fun and flirting a bit, but then someone sneaks and stabs green or whatever
-one of the elite 4 take green away to medics and red goes feral (think achilles) he beats giovanni for good
-all of the allies meet up to divvy up rocket's territories, and green is like hanging on by a thread or whatever and his grandfather is like who cares he only exists to further Oakland's control
-red is pissed threatening to wage ware against oakland
-daisy ends up finding out green is hurt and immediately comes to pallet to see him (cause she actually loves her brother) and that calms red down
-red's mom ends up somehow getting oak to step down as king and daisy becomes queen
-green gets better and red's like hey i know you don't love me and were just forced into this by your grandfather so here is this country called Viridian it's yours youre the king now
-and before green can be like wait im in love with you too, red fucks off to mt. silver (cause of course right)
-green is devastated, red is devastated
-the story is over... or is it???
-it isn't obviously, cause bunny has to have her happy ending cause real life sucks ass so fantasy has to be great in the end
-prince gold from johto makes friends with green, hears the story, and how technically green and red are 100% still married
-so he and his merry band of mischief makers (silver, lyra, kris) go on a journey to bring red down
-they make up some story about green being in trouble
-red obviously rushes down the mountain to save green, but like green's just hanging out in his castle bored as hell playing spoons with alakazam or something
-he see's red and rushes to him and they embrace and kiss
-and green's like i can't stand it i'm in love with you and red's like oh shit me too
-then they merge viridian and pallet and have a second more fun wedding where it's happy instead of an arranged thing
-and they live happily ever after
50 notes
·
View notes