OC relatives of canon characters.

[Baby Seals]

How do you feel about OC relatives of canon Pokemon characters? Do you have any of your own?

I do it constantly. I've created parents, grandparents, siblings, and even spouses and children for the various Pokemon characters. I give most of the player characters two parents instead of just a mother. For example, my fanfics with Calem and Serena give both of them fathers as well as mothers. (I hope no one finds me weird for giving Calem and Serena two parents.) I even gave Calem a full set of grandparents. (I've even given at least one character a living great-grandmother - great-grandparents are rare in fiction.) However, OC relatives are often accused of being Mary Sues.

I feel like a lot of Pokemon fanfic writers are hesitant to create OC relatives and instead make the important characters related or make many of them orphans. I think that OCs involved make it more believable.

What do you think?

 

[Hex Maniac]

I don't write fanfic where the canon characters play a huge role. I have a story-like record I wrote for myself where I attempted to keep track of what I'm doing in the game. I had a section where I talked about my character is who is the playable character and I made up that she had a father, siblings, even grandparents we don't see in the game. I made up that they were working when she went away. I know the playable character isn't 100% the same thing as Serena or Calem but I wondered if I was weird for making that up. I also have a whole set of headcanons about Calem, Serena, and their friends, about what their families are like. It's pretty varied because frankly, how plausible is it that an entire group of friends had no other family except their mothers?

 

[LightningTopaz]

I have given Ash a father (as I have always believed he had one, just wasn't shown due to unimportance)--he is usually named Taran

I have thought up names for the Brocklings.

In "The Kalos Connection" The Fab Five (Serena, Callum, Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno) do have families.

 

[Kelleo]

Oh yeah, I've done this a few times. It's mostly been children for canon characters though, because many of the ones I use are from Fire Emblem and pairings play a big role in the series. But I'm also giving Link a cousin in my Zelda stories, as well as a daughter with Zelda. Navi got an older sister as well. And I've created Frederick's parents for my FE: Awakening stories, and I made up a daughter for him too. I love Frederick to bits, so I just had to do more with his family. He only mentions them a few times, and only briefly, in the game, so yeah.

Frederick's parents are both named for European rulers. His daughter is as well. Frederick himself actually shares his name with a German king too, and it means "peaceful ruler" so I made this a pattern.

 

[Lopunny]

I don't mind OC relatives, or OCs in general, so long as they aren't overpowered or perfect Mary Sues without a flaw, that every other character is head over heels for.

You, you're good. Those sound perfectly fine and like they'd be interesting characters! An important thing in writing them is not to just keep the focus on the OC, but the other characters as well, which I think a lot of fanfic authors DON'T do. They make it all about the OC, how they're so original and how tragic their backstory is, or about their love life (which is fine, so long as it's not the entire cast chasing after them).

It's all about how it's done. Hope I made sense there...

 

[Lugion]

I've given Steven Stone a mother, but she never got to be important while I was still writing that. She would've been, though!

 

[Baby Seals]

I don't write fanfic where the canon characters play a huge role. I have a story-like record I wrote for myself where I attempted to keep track of what I'm doing in the game. I had a section where I talked about my character is who is the playable character and I made up that she had a father, siblings, even grandparents we don't see in the game. I made up that they were working when she went away. I know the playable character isn't 100% the same thing as Serena or Calem but I wondered if I was weird for making that up. I also have a whole set of headcanons about Calem, Serena, and their friends, about what their families are like. It's pretty varied because frankly, how plausible is it that an entire group of friends had no other family except their mothers?

You're right.

In my journey fic "Pokemon X and Y: Dawn of a New Era", Calem's parents pop up from time to time. I also gave him an older sister who lives on her own, and she appears in a few chapters. I also created an older brother for Tierno and a younger sister for Shauna - though they haven't appeared yet. In my fanfic, Grace is Serena's mother. I named Calem's mother Cecilia and his father Pierre - they're supposed to be street performers. (I guess giving Calem a father doesn't seem nearly as weird as me randomly deciding to make Calem autistic. Actually, that might not be weird considering I was putting my own traits into him.)

I've also created fathers for Hilbert, Nate, and Rosa, and mothers for Falkner and Steven. I've also given Morty parents. I've created siblings for many of the characters. I also gave spouses (and even kids) to several Gym Leaders and Elite Four members - it's not likely that Gym Leaders would only marry other Gym Leaders.

I got carried away with one OC I have who is Palmer's half-sister and Barry's aunt. Her third husband is Siebold's older brother. And for some reason I made Clemont and Bonnie relatives of Siebold (my fanfic gives Siebold four siblings - all older than him). That might be a bit Mary Sue-ish. (I felt that I made Clemont, Bonnie, and Siebold related just because they all have the same hair color.)

 

[Glitchipedia]

In an IRC RP, following a brief discussion over whether or not game!Misty has any siblings, my friend decided to give her an older brother who specializes in Fire-types. I just so happened to have a male, redheaded villain character who specialized in Fire-types, so I hijacked that declaration by making him said brother. He ended up getting shot and killed.

Prior to that, the closest thing I can think of is giving game!Misty an opposite-sex clone of whose existence she was unaware. His experimental—and unstable—nature was his primary source of angst, partly because he had to keep it a secret.

Other than that, I don't really tend to use canon characters that much. The ones I use most often are Cal, Carrie and Dude, and I haven't seen fit to develop their respective families yet.

 

[Warrior of Fire]

In my Yu-Gi-Oh fic, Gates of Time, there's Aerith Muto, a descendent of Yugi, and her immediate family (although they're only referenced a few times in my planned arcs, but as we all know, plans can change).

 

[Baby Seals]

I'll explain more about my OC who is Siebold's older brother. His name is Ludovic, and he's a Pokestar Studios director. He makes so-bad-it's-good movies, often casting his Large Ham of a wife Ginger as the lead. (Siebold was in a few of them. In one movie he played the ghetto best friend.)

 

[Peaceful Giraffe]

I gave Calem a bratty little sister as an explanation as to why he's OOC in my story, and I made Lysandre and Malva brother and sister.

 

[Baby Seals]

I gave Calem a bratty little sister as an explanation as to why he's OOC in my story, and I made Lysandre and Malva brother and sister.

Funny thing is, I'm planning on giving Shauna a bratty little sister. I named her Rachel.

I created a younger sister and a younger brother for Malva. I also gave Malva a father, a mother, and a stepmother. (In my fic, Malva's stepmother is Celosia's mother - the two Team Flare members are meant to be stepsisters. The same fic says that Malva's parents divorced when she was 14.)

One of my unpublished fics gives Ariana parents, as well as a full set of grandparents and a great-grandmother. The grandparents and great-grandmother live to see Silver's birth. (I follow the headcanon that Ariana is Silver's mom.) By the time of HeartGold and SoulSilver, Ariana's parents and great-grandmother are dead, and her only living grandparent is her maternal grandmother. (As for their names...Ariana's parents are called Robert and Louise, her dad's parents are Raymond and Pauline, her mom's parents are James and Bernice, and her great-grandma is Susanna.)

I also created a paternal grandma for Morty. She's the first cousin of Ariana's grandma Pauline. (Just so you know...I have an interest in genealogy, so I create complicated family trees.) I also briefly mentioned Morty having maternal grandparents.