The Quest for the Legends

Not to mention that the sense in which Xeiashi Zakaris is saying Mark is too smart has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with grades in any subject.

But yeah, as I said before, this is just how fiction with child main characters works. Ash saves the world several times over, and he's supposedly ten. Harry Potter confronted Quirrell over the Philosopher's Stone when he was eleven. James of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach? Is seven years old. They act mature and qualified, in an abstract sort of way, because it just wouldn't make their respective stories any better to have them constantly fail at what they're doing out of their own immaturity; it would just make it annoying to read, the way any obvious idiot hero is usually annoying to read about outside of a very particular type of story. Saying they're too mature is kind of like saying they don't go to the bathroom enough; yes, it's arguably unrealistic, but this is just one of those cases where realism does not equal a better story.

Here I'm strictly referring to the stupidity aspect of immaturity, mind you; it's a perfectly valid complaint if you find his rebellious thing near the beginning too teenageish, or if you think he's too philosophical, or too cynical, or too hormonal, to feel like a twelve-year-old. It's just that being at least reasonably sensible and capable has to be considered an acceptable break from reality, even if it's technically unrealistic.

Good grades don't even mean you're smart, what the heck, guys? I'm not saying you're not, but elementary school isn't made for adults. There are kids who get good grades in Kindergarten, but that's specifically geared toward five and six-year-olds, and getting good grades involves cutting on the dotted line and circling the biggest object on the paper.

If kids couldn't get decent grades, they would all stay behind until they were old enough to figure it out, which would be completely pointless. Grades are based on age for a reason, after all.

In any case, yes, of course it would be boring to read about a "normal" ten-year-old, just like it's boring to read about people talking realistically (stuttering, lisps, accents, etc), or, as mentioned, to read about them using the latrine.

Even when you're writing teenagers, it's really frustrating for the reader to watch them do stupid things even if a real teenager would do that. For instance, I found it obnoxious in the traveling pants books for the main characters to go through boyfriends so fast, and fight with their parents over nothing, and obsess over fashion, and all the other things teenagers are supposed to do.

If you want it to be truly realistic, a real person wouldn't be learning about the Pokemon world in school because it doesn't exist, and they wouldn't go out on a journey because in the real world ten simply isn't old enough, and when someone was old enough they would usually get a job instead. A "realistic" story would detail Mark's adventures taking tests and sitting at the computer reading Pokemon comics.

Point taken, and it makes much more sense when you put it that way

New best: April Fools, because it shows how completely derailing one terribly written chapter can end up being. Like when you take out the wrong Jenga block and the whole thing comes down around you. Plus, it was hilarious to read. It's good to know that morbid isn't the only thing Butterfree can write!

Best: The battles hands down.

Worst: The slow start.

But at least my twelve-year-olds aren't falling in TRUE LOVE OMG.

You should see the pre-teens over here :x. Kissing, with tongue in the middle of public and EVERYTHING. It's disgusting. And they always break up a month in >_>;;

Best: Subplots.

Worst: I don't know, really. :o


Grades never accurately show anyone's intelligence. I have several friends (geniuses chess, hacking, debate and such) and they get F's in their classes. Why? Because they're lazy. I get A's, but they're ready to smack my butt whenever I screw up or need help because they can.

Good grades don't even mean you're smart, what the heck, guys? I'm not saying you're not, but elementary school isn't made for adults. There are kids who get good grades in Kindergarten, but that's specifically geared toward five and six-year-olds, and getting good grades involves cutting on the dotted line and circling the biggest object on the paper.

Yes, but you can't deny that grades are pretty good judge of intellegence, or at the very least, acheviment. Sure, there are the exceptions like your friends or those people in the movies, but it's generally not the norm. I'm not quite sure where you are going with the age / = / intellegence; what point are you trying to prove.

(At any rate, I wasn't trying to say that Mark was too smart with grades, I was just trying to tell steele that he could better than a C. Heck, wasn't Mark alledgedly kept from his journey because he got bad grades anyway?)

But yeah, I agree that things in a story shouldn't be entirely realistic. I mean, aren't we reading this to get away from reality anyway? I just point out things to my taste, I'm not saying that whatever I say I don't like is bad.

Sorry, nasty habit of mind, being vague. I'm just saying that just because Mark got bad grades didn't mean he wasn't smart. After all, once he put himself to studying, he managed to pass his finals.

First just to put this out there, grades are meaningless. I got a 4.0 in high school and a 1930 on my SAT and still couldn't afford a fancy college.

Getting back on topic,

Best: I like the world you created. All your theories work very well and are convincing, and battles are actually realistic. Of course something will bleed if it is scratched/hacked to bits. And I love that you make the Pokemon full and complete characters with lives, personalities, and motivations for the things they do instead of lifeless things that only say their name.

Worst: Some things in the beginning seem really lucky, like Mark catching a Gyarados and an Eevee so early, conveniently finding a dratini and larvitar, and having Charmander's origins so nicely match up with the characters in the story. Honestly, what are the chances of a pokemon being released and then finding a trainer who decides to travel with the person who released them?

What I like best is pretty much everything. Oh, and the fact that there's no romance *rolls eyes* Romance would ruin it.

I get bored sometimes when I'm waiting for the next chapter, because I have no life. I tried to write fanfiction once, but I got fed up with having to look up so much stuff.