Going Back

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Pokémon fanfiction created by Jackman B, who happens to also be a part of the TV Tropes scene. It was originally meant to be a short writing exercise (as in, only a few pages), but it grew a life of its own and ballooned into a one-hundred-and-fifteen page behemoth. The idea was, if the author could write this story, then he should have the discipline to write his own totally original story as well. From beginning to end, the story took ten months on-and-off to complete.

The plot follows the adventures of Joshua, a run-of-the-mill Pokémon trainer from Sinnoh who recently got the Beacon Badge and was on his way to challenge the Elite Four. As per tradition, he had to cross Victory Road before earning the right to fight. Things were going smoothly, until a Golbat, known for going after humans, attacks Joshua and begins to bleed him dry. This culminates to Victory Road caving in, putting Joshua into a coma and into critical condition, just barely able to walk, if he were awake at all. It's up to his loyal crew of six -- Torterra, Luxray, Golduck, Lucario, Flareon and Honchkrow - to get Joshua back to safety alive.

Once the author gets some other things accomplished on his to-do list, he promises a sequel and a prequel to Going Back. The story can be found here.

Tropes used in Going Back include:
  • Badass Crew: Everybody gets at least one moment, except Luxray. The author still regrets that.
  • Big Damn Heroes
  • Blood Knight: Honchkrow.
  • Catch Phrase: "I never miss."
  • BFG: Leaf Storm, Torterra's strongest attack.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Quite a few examples:
    • The Escape Rope that Golduck tries to use at the beginning, but discards.
    • The Poké Balls, also at the beginning.
    • Honchkrow's Technical Machine in her neck is brought up, but never mentioned until the very end, post-final battle pre-prologue.
  • Companion Cube: Joshua is basically dead weight for the whole story, but this attribute is one of the many reasons his team help him out.
  • Cute Bruiser: Flareon is equipped with the HM "Strength", technically making her the physically strongest Pokémon of the group.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Brutally subverted. The Machoke and the Graveler have a very deadly reason for joining the fight at the end.
  • Determinator: The whole team, but special mentions to Joshua and Lucario.
  • Epic Fail: Lucario tries to open a bottle the wrong way. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Escort Mission: The theme of the story.
  • Expospeak: Quite a few things are explained in the story, for numerous reasons.
    • The resetting boulders puzzles from the game's Victory Roads get a logical explanation.
    • The TMs and HMs are given detailed instructions on how they are applied on the Pokémon, as well as why HM moves can't be easily forgotten.
    • Joshua cannot simply "re-capture" his Pokémon. This was done to keep conflict in the story.
    • While some things are just too out there to come up with a reasonable explanation, chances are they're still alluded to somehow. The Escape Rope, for instance. There is no real way to explain how a string of weaved thread can teleport a Trainer to the entrance of a dungeon, but if you just "tied a knot in it", it'd do its job.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Hollywood Healing: Averted somewhat: a Hyper Potion will work wonders on cuts and wounds, but bones stay broken and will only mend with expert attention.
  • High Altitude Battle: How Lucario fights the Golbat.
  • I Can Still Fight: Luxray and Lucario, but Honchkrow in particular.
  • I Do Not Own: Averted. The author knew exactly how much legal weight the statement carries thanks to this site and doesn't bother to mention it at all.
  • It Got Worse: Boy howdy, chapter 8.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Honchkrow is generally depicted as pessimistic and condescending with an out-and-out bitter sense of humor, but she genuinely cares for the well-being of the others, particularly Joshua's.
  • No Biochemical Barriers: Averted in Chapter 6.
  • No Name Given: The Pokémon team is intentionally referred to as their species instead of personalized names. Also, Joshua has no last name.
  • Papa Wolf: Torterra will get cranky if you try to hurt Joshua directly.
  • Shown Their Work: Aside from a few necessary creative licenses, such as there being Golems and Crobats in Victory Road, the story stays as close to the game's mechanics as possible.
    • Originally, the Onix at the beginning was meant to be Steelix, but Steelix cannot naturally learn Sand Tomb.
    • While each of his Pokémon can understand some human language, none of them understand all of it, except for Lucario. The author played the Diamond version of the DS games, and Lucario's entry specifically says that Lucario "can understand human speech". He thought that was a peculiar thing to mention, so he tossed in that little tidbit.
    • It's mentioned numerous times throughout each game that Zubat and Golbat are known to attack humans. Sure enough...
    • It could be argued that the author did this too rigidly: each of the Pokémon can only use four attacks, which, while loyal to the game's formula, makes for stilted reading.
  • Standard Status Effects: They're all mentioned, but only Poison is used.
  • Wasn't That Fun?: Torterra gives this reaction after his frantic ride down a waterfall. Later, Joshua says the same thing about the whole adventure.

Scared? Are you kidding? I wanna go again!

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