Is Kanto the worst Pokemon Region to do fanfics?

[Greninjaman]

I think I understand and agree what some people are saying on other sites when it comes to Kanto and fanfics: Kanto is kind of bland and boring. There is nothing to draw from that would be fun to write/read. Sure, there is the badge quest, but we all know how that goes. Also, none of the legendary Pokémon are involved in the story, unlike the later games. What can be done with Kanto that hasn't been done before, or can be done with other regions instead?

Do you agree with this? Why or Why not?

Edit: Forgot to mention. I am coming up with more ideas for Johto than I am with Kanto. Sure, Johto is just as basic in terms of story as Kanto was.

 

[Audrelite]

I don't think Kanto is the worst region, because there is no worst region. Sure, setting may be one of the basic building blocks of a story, but so is plot, and I think if you can come up with an interesting sequence of events, you can get a lot out of a setting as "bland" as Kanto.

 

[Greninjaman]

I don't think Kanto is the worst region, because there is no worst region. Sure, setting may be one of the basic building blocks of a story, but so is plot, and I think if you can come up with an interesting sequence of events, you can get a lot out of a setting as "bland" as Kanto.

True. I guess I'm just not creative enough to do something with Kanto.

 

[KOT0NE]

Kanto and Johto have liek a ton of stuff 2 work with I feel but u need to take way more creative liberties than u would in more recent ones I'd say. I personally like coming up with stuff myself tho so Kanto's great for me there since I'd say it gives me just about enough to get me running !

 

[Greninjaman]

Kanto and Johto have liek a ton of stuff 2 work with I feel but u need to take way more creative liberties than u would in more recent ones I'd say. I personally like coming up with stuff myself tho so Kanto's great for me there since I'd say it gives me just about enough to get me running !

Johto I agree has stuff. Kanto, not so much. Sure, there is the whole thing with Team Rocket & Mewtwo (as well as the legendary birds). I feel like of the two, Johto has more going on.

 

[KOT0NE]

Kanto i feel has more of liek a mundane day to day vibe rather than liek a grand adventure with tons of culture and mythology which i feel can be executed super well since sometimes an interesting story can just be a look into someones or somewheres everyday life. theres a bunch 2 work with in terms of that id say especially within the 3~ years inbetween kanto and johto. cinnabars destruction how the league deals with their champion essentially going missimg how viridian is affected by their gym leader also being revealed to be a notorious criminal and as to how rockets sudden disbandment even impacted kanto the changes in lavender etc etc.
Kanto def has stuff going on but usually off screen and it feels more liek ""personal"" stories 2 me of i had 2 put a label to it. which im personally a sucker 4 that kind of stuff buut at the end its more up to personal tastes and when compared to later regions kanto can def seem super bland

ANYWAYS sorry 4 the long ass rant >< im very passionate about kanto so i jumped at the chance 2 talk about it

 

[Greninjaman]

Kanto i feel has more of liek a mundane day to day vibe rather than liek a grand adventure with tons of culture and mythology which i feel can be executed super well since sometimes an interesting story can just be a look into someones or somewheres everyday life. theres a bunch 2 work with in terms of that id say especially within the 3~ years inbetween kanto and johto. cinnabars destruction how the league deals with their champion essentially going missimg how viridian is affected by their gym leader also being revealed to be a notorious criminal and as to how rockets sudden disbandment even impacted kanto the changes in lavender etc etc.
Kanto def has stuff going on but usually off screen and it feels more liek ""personal"" stories 2 me of i had 2 put a label to it. which im personally a sucker 4 that kind of stuff buut at the end its more up to personal tastes and when compared to later regions kanto can def seem super bland

ANYWAYS sorry 4 the long ass rant >< im very passionate about kanto so i jumped at the chance 2 talk about it

When you put it that way, that makes sense. I guess I am just so used to having the legendary involved in the story that I view Kanto as boring because it lacks that sort of thing.

 

[KOT0NE]

Ahh that makes sense >< !! i usually dont rlly care about legendaries aside from a few liek the johto and unova ones or if theyr liek heavily involved with a character like hoopa in pokemas so i dont rlly take them into account most the time. yeah i def wish kanto did more with its legends and myths sometimes esp the legendary birds since those feel super underutilised...oh well mayb in the next inevitable kanto remake.

 

[Greninjaman]

Ahh that makes sense >< !! i usually dont rlly care about legendaries aside from a few liek the johto and unova ones or if theyr liek heavily involved with a character like hoopa in pokemas so i dont rlly take them into account most the time. yeah i def wish kanto did more with its legends and myths sometimes esp the legendary birds since those feel super underutilised...oh well mayb in the next inevitable kanto remake.

Personally, I don't really care. I used to use them a lot in the early days (if I recall, anyway), but I don't anymore. I think that's why I want to do Kanto for my fanfic. The story does not involve any of the legendary Pokémon. Sure, Johto is the same, but only in Gold and Silver. Crystal, Heart Gold and Soul Silver, have you encounter one of the johto Legendary Pokémon, though Team Rocket is not involved with them.

 

[Red Knight]

Also, for what it's worth, both Kanto and Johto have Contest circuits in the anime.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I wouldn't call Kanto the "worst" region to write a story for (despite my burning white hatred for Kanto), but it is very much the blandest. This largely ties into the games it's in, namely RBY/FRLG/LGPE, which are very barebones and tend to have very little in the way of plot to begin with. Though this can be attributed to the fact that Kanto has the least amount of lore and the least story presence compared to later regions like Sinnoh and Unova thanks to it being the first region created for the Pokemon franchise. Thus, when you're starting with a very basic premise in a very basic region, then everything about it will be pretty basic. However, that being said, because it's so shallow in lore and plot that does open up some creative liberties. I mean, look at the AG anime, for example. Kanto had the Battle Frontier for Ash and Contests for May, two things that it never had in any of the games it was in (sans HGSS but the Battle Frontier was technically in Johto, not Kanto, and was just a copy/paste of Platinum's, so that doesn't really count).

But the fact is Kanto is the blandest region to set a story in because of how barebones it is. Even when later games expanded it to certain degrees (like adding the Sevii Island in FRLG), the story, diversity, and lore remains largely the same, thus it tends to be rather bland in comparison to the more diverse and lore-heavy regions that came after it like Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. So while I wouldn't call Kanto the "worst" region to start a story in, as it's hard to call any region the "worst" for writing a story in, it's just by far the most bland because of how little it offers on its own without needing to take more creative liberties to expand on what it does offer.

 

[Greninjaman]

I wouldn't call Kanto the "worst" region to write a story for (despite my burning white hatred for Kanto), but it is very much the blandest. This largely ties into the games it's in, namely RBY/FRLG/LGPE, which are very barebones and tend to have very little in the way of plot to begin with. Though this can be attributed to the fact that Kanto has the least amount of lore and the least story presence compared to later regions like Sinnoh and Unova thanks to it being the first region created for the Pokemon franchise. Thus, when you're starting with a very basic premise in a very basic region, then everything about it will be pretty basic. However, that being said, because it's so shallow in lore and plot that does open up some creative liberties. I mean, look at the AG anime, for example. Kanto had the Battle Frontier for Ash and Contests for May, two things that it never had in any of the games it was in (sans HGSS but the Battle Frontier was technically in Johto, not Kanto, and was just a copy/paste of Platinum's, so that doesn't really count).

But the fact is Kanto is the blandest region to set a story in because of how barebones it is. Even when later games expanded it to certain degrees (like adding the Sevii Island in FRLG), the story, diversity, and lore remains largely the same, thus it tends to be rather bland in comparison to the more diverse and lore-heavy regions that came after it like Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. So while I wouldn't call Kanto the "worst" region to start a story in, as it's hard to call any region the "worst" for writing a story in, it's just by far the most bland because of how little it offers on its own without needing to take more creative liberties to expand on what it does offer.

Being so bland is definitely a factor. I feel that Johto has more lore and such than Kanto. Johto has Ho-Oh and the whole thing about the tower and the beasts, as well as lore regarding Lugia and Celebi.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Being so bland is definitely a factor. I feel that JOHTO has more lore and such than Kanto. Johto has Ho-Oh and the whole thing about the tower and the beasts, as well as lore regarding Lugia and Celebi.

Indeed. And as much as I hate Johto as well (mainly because of the games, as the anime did it better justice) I can definitely agree it had a much greater emphasis on lore compared to Kanto. It was very much the first attempt that GF took to expand on the lore of the Pokeworld after how barebones Kanto was and it was a good step in the right direction. With how Johto tapped into some more of the mystical nature of the Pokeworld with things like the Ho-Oh, the Legendary Beasts, Celebi, and so on, helped expand the lore of the series as whole and gave Johto a better identity. Not to mention the region itself had more diverse landscapes and environments. So while Johto's lore was nowhere the same level as places like Sinnoh or Unova, it was an important step in the right direction to expand on the overall lore of the Pokeworld that would eventually evolve into the more story-driven regions that would follow.

 

[Welkamo]

I think the reason they have that reputation is because of Kanto's reputation in general being "that one region they keep making remakes of". And yeah, from that perspective, there's only so many ways you can write the same story.

But like, there's so much potential for angles a Kanto fic could take, such as:

• How did Team Rocket come to be?
• What's the deal with Silph Co.????
• Mew/Mewtwo (how they came to be, do they meet, etc.)
• Cinnabar got fricking destroyed by a volcano
• All of the characters would make great character studies
• Ship fics
• What's the deal with the Legendary Birds

 

[KOT0NE]

The lack of Cinnabar related fics kills me because literally how did everyone move on so quick from that. Why does nobody discuss that. Finding Cinnabar in the Johto games for the first time altered my brain i think
ALSO KANTO CHARACTERS R SO GOOD FOR CHARACTER STUDIES... blue oak you will be forever famous to me. but blue bias aside the other characters r so interesting too i hate people constantly dumbing gio down 2 just haha mafia boss esp with how much characterization pokemas gave him

 

[Welkamo]

Also Surge. Can we talk about Surge. The way he talks about "the war" implies that this is a war that everyone knows about, and one that happened in recent memory (or at least enough for the ten year old protagonist to know about). WHY ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE WAR, GAMEFREAK???

 

[Greninjaman]

Also Surge. Can we talk about Surge. The way he talks about "the war" implies that this is a war that everyone knows about, and one that happened in recent memory (or at least enough for the ten year old protagonist to know about). WHY ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE WAR, GAMEFREAK???

That is something interesting to look into. Who did Kanto go to war with? Why did they go to war? Who won? What happened after it ended?

 

[Nicolas721]

In terms of stories about whatever topic, definitely no, any region can be anything you want it to be.

In terms of stories that follow the games, I can see why it can be a little overdone and boring, but in my opinion the crown goes to Johto. Some routes can be very short, and the plot can feel very simple and generic if there's no context from what happened in Kanto. The champion and the evil admins also have some very basic personalities.

Alola and Paldea can be very difficult to handle too because of the excessive amount of quests and characters. And the latter even has more in the DLC!

 

[Greninjaman]

In terms of stories about whatever topic, definitely no, any region can be anything you want it to be.

In terms of stories that follow the games, I can see why it can be a little overdone and boring, but in my opinion the crown goes to Johto. Some routes can be very short, and the plot can feel very simple and generic if there's no context from what happened in Kanto. The champion and the evil admins also have some very basic personalities.

Alola and Paldea can be very difficult to handle too because of the excessive amount of quests and characters. And the latter even has more in the DLC!

I feel you could apply the part I put in bold to Kanto.

 

[Blanc]

I don't think Kanto is the worst region, because there is no worst region. Sure, setting may be one of the basic building blocks of a story, but so is plot, and I think if you can come up with an interesting sequence of events, you can get a lot out of a setting as "bland" as Kanto.

Basically this. Any setting (in this case region) can be interesting if you know how to flex your quill if you know what I mean. I’d say Kanto is perhaps a difficult region to pull off maybe, if only because it has been done quite a number of times and still has those strange areas of canon attached to it that were also briefly mentioned here (The ‘war’ and the now defunct Indian Elephant dialogue, among a few other things).

TLDR Kanto is just a region in an odd place thematically, but you can breathe life into anywhere in the Pokemon universe if you try. I understand being put off by it because of how many times it’s surely been written about though.