La Serie de Ken

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"Are you saying you're Ken of Viridian City? The Demolisher?"

La Serie de Ken was a spanish Pokémon fanfic based on the original games which had a lot of fame and achknowledgement on its day, from a spanish website focused on the Pokemon franchise.

The intention was a fanfic closer to the cynical end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: it featured darker plots (especially the sequel, which shattered the typical "beat the gym leaders and become a master" plot found in all games) and, more importantly, it deconstructed the way Ash always won by means of The Power of Friendship. The battles were also a lot more exciting, which helped to boost the fanfic's popularity greatly. It left behind the tropes and stereotypes of classic Pokemon fandom, to make a more realistic, dynamic, violent and charismatic story. It had two seasons (a regular story and a sequel, if you prefer) and was available in Universo Pokemon and later its own website, Ken's Power.

(From here on, this is a rough translation of the website http://es.fanfiction.wikia.com/wiki/La_Serie_de_Ken where you can read more info if you are fluent in Spanish, which yours truly luckily is. You can also download the fic's material there.)

Ken is a 15 year-old who wants to be the best trainer around, not unlike the famed Ash Ketchum. He is instructed by Profesor Oak and was given his first Pokemon, Dratini, on his 15th birthday. But two bullies called Jack and Walter put their eyes on the little dragon, after Ken used it to defeat them for the first time. Team Rocket offered the troublemakers a place as grunts, and proceeded to make Ken's life a hell.

Soon in his journey Ken finds a rookie girl trainer, Natasha. And as he tries not to entangle her in his own problems, she happily tags along in her own journey to realize her dream: to find and emulate her hero, Ash. Given that half of Ken's motives for being trainer AND champion are related to Ash's humiliating defeat, he lets Natasha accompany him...

Tropes used in La Serie de Ken include:

• Anti-Hero: Ken
• Anticlimax Boss: The last Pokemon that prevents Ken from becoming Champion is M. Power's Starmie. Subverted that, if at first glance does not look like a serious menace, with correct EV placement and careful MT selection you can get the infamous Netbattle's 'Death Star'.
• Author Avatar: M. Power
• Badass: Chuck, trying to hold Jack and Walter's Alakazam with only his weakest Fighting Poke. He doesn't suceed. Also Dragonite, Tyranitar, Typhlosion, Blaziken, Gyarados and Scyther.
• Bag of Spilling: Ken having to resort to his stored Pokemon to travel through Johto.
• Beam-O-War: During the Indigo League.

Ken: I HATE those f**ing Shadow Balls!!

• Big Bad: Giovanni
• Big Damn Heroes: Natasha in the finale.
• Bittersweet Ending: After overthrowing Giovanni and the Team Rocket for good, we later find out that most of Ken's Pokemon died in subsequent years from becoming ill in their time spent with Team Rocket, also that Ken's spasms never seem to wear out.
• Breather Episode: Ken's free day with the Gym leaders (The one that didn't hate him, anyway) just before the final league battle.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Ken: 'Let's see if those game designers ever finish the Pokemon games for the GB Advance'.
• Broken Bridge: Literally, a fight with Jack and Walter destroyed a bridge between Cerulean and Saffron city, causing Ken to follow the games path and continue to Vermillion instead.
• Chekhov's Gun: The fire stone in the Dragon's Den.
• Chew Toy: Natasha's Pikachu. It has nothing to do with the author despising Pikachu since Ash's, no...
• Cool Shades: The 3 of Johto, and later Ken.
• Dragon Rider: Since Dratini evolved.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: starts to but decides not to

Ken: I have... I have control of ALL Pokemon of Indigo Plateau! No one can stop me! ... Nah, this is not my style.

• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Onix evolving into Steelix in the Final Battle at Mt. Silver
  • Heck, many of their Pokemon's evolutions qualify, even the bad guys' ones...
• Evasive Fight Thread Episode: Subverted. The Ken vs Natasha fight ended in a draw, but Natasha recalled that Ken considered a tie like losing, so she was considered the winner of the earlier bet.
• Evil Plan: Giovanni's plot concerning the 5 elemental stones: he needed Ken to awaken the ancient statue to get to the big Fire Stone.
• Face Heel Turn: The premise of the entire 'second season', for Ken's Pokemon, not Ken himself.
• Flash Back: The entire series is a tale told by an older Ken at a Bar, as seen in the prologue.
• Flung Clothing: Used by Ken with his Poncho on Mt. Silver.
• Giant Spider: The "Tarantulas", which were Humongous Mecha in spider form.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: The Blackthorne city battle.
• Hero Ball: Sometimes...
• Heroic Second Wind: Deconstructed by the end of the series. It's revealed that it's a property that a few trainers have, to strengthen their Pokemon when they are losing and getting victory in the harshest conditions. Ken is one of those trainers, as well as Giovanni, and that was the reason he went after him after discovering it.
• Humongous Mecha: Strangely, one was used by Team Rocket just before the Indigo League.
• Kneel Before Zod:

Giovanni: Kneel before me and I may spare your life.

• La Résistance: People at Olivine and Blackthorne.
• Living Statue: The Dragon den's Dragonite statue.
• The Movie: Mewtwo's Revenge.
• The Messiah: What Johto citizens see Ken as.
  • Also the distressed kid at Olivine sewers is... heartbreaking. Not even the Fallen Champ could refuse to get into a almost-sure-death after listening to him.
• The Mole: Jeremy and Harry.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: "My name is Jeremy, calm down I'm not one of the bad guys".
• Mugging the Monster: The muggers in Celadon City, to Ken.
• New Rules as the Plot Demands: In the games, Safeguard is a move that guards the user from Standard Status Effects, in Ken it's a move that grants inmunity against Psychic, Ghost and Dark Moves.
• One-Liner: again too many to list.
  • Again, I will start: Ken's 'But if I can't defeat that... monster, I won't even SEE them!!' about Intro's 'good' Mons.
• Out of Focus: Ken's Bayleef didn't get much attention, and was the last of Ken's Pokemon other than Dragonite and Onix to fully evolve, which it didn't until the league, and even then, it lost the battle it was on.
• Platonic Life Partners
• Power Trio: "The 3 of Johto".
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Jack and Walter.
• Retcon: The Treecko side-story where it's explained how it learned Vine Whip, despite normal ones not having that attack.
• Scars Are Forever: Ken's psychic spasms caused by the battle with Jack and Walter's Kadabra.
• Shout-Out: The Pokemon being brainwashed to obey other trainer was strangely like the (still unreleased) Pokemon Colosseum Plot.
  • Also, in the final chapter (the wild teen party one) many of Ken's friends are see playing Super Smash Bros. and surfing Universo Pokemon.
  • And many of the trainers in the League finals had Shout-Out names: Harry, Ryddle and Cedric were from Harry Potter, and Shigeru (Miyamoto) and Satoshi (Tajiri) from Nintendo.
• Spider Tank: The Tarantulas.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Giovanni.
• Team Rocket Wins
• Take My Hand: Ken to Giovanni at the end of the Mt. Silver battle.
• Terrible Trio: Obviously... subverted. The two grunts that stalk Ken get increasingly powerful instead of less and less menacing.
• To Be a Master: Ken's second goal during the first season. During the second one his goal was to regain that title.
• Tournament Arc
• Villain Exit Stage Left: Lampshaded once:

Ken: Our lives wouldn't be as fun without these guys following us around.

• We Can Rule Together: Giovanni to Ken, several times.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Giovanni.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Most of the time Natasha or Prof. Oak call Ken on his less moral acts, for example Ken's method of evolving Quilava and Nidorino. Although Ken realized for a moment how stupid it was throwing his fire Pokemon into a flame to power him enough to evolve, he forgot about it when it actually worked.
• Wild Teen Party: And how!
• Will They or Won't They?: Ken and Natasha, later him and Sachiko.
• You Are Not Alone: Natasha to Ken in the Final Battle after all of his Pokemon have been defeated.