The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Neo Emolga]

Neo, I'm so happy that you're posting a director's cut, if you will. It may have been around seven years since I first read it, but your prose still has a way of putting a fire in my belly. Not to mention the story you've crafted. For the most part, I loved the changes made. It was wonderful to get to see a deeper look at Jake's life outside of bullying Randy and you gave Alex and David more defined personalities. At the same time, you kept the important elements the same, especially those two's Pokemon teams (and especially especially Alex's Mightyena and Houndoom!), while also expanding the fact that these Pokemon are being transformed by Randy and what that process looks like. Ah. The music rings true to the scenes as well, adding those auras of emotion and mystery to your already excellent wordsmithing.

Hey there!

It's funny, people in the PXR community like the music insertions, while people on PokéCommunity dislike them and I actually found myself taking them out for the later. Go figure. :P

But yeah, everything has gotten a massive overhaul and cleanup, especially Chapters 1 and 2. People on other sites have been coming up with some pretty awesome suggestions, so I've been trying them out and I definitely like the outcomes.

My only complaints are small, selfish ones really. First, the updating of Pokemon species to incorporate newer ones like Pidove and Lilligant makes me a little wary, since I'd like to relive the bygone days of my youth without Pokemon who weren't in existence then. I guess I consider the story a product of its period more than a living document, but, seeing as how updating species has been going on for a while and that you're editing and expanding it with this reposting that theories gone the way of Yoda being a puppet.

Yeah, I can see what you mean, but the original was written even before Gen IV was around, which means a lot of missing Pokémon. And true, Lilligant did end up replacing the Roselia that Jake was stuck using before. Same with Pidove replacing Randy's Pidgey. I felt they were just minor changes that won't have a major impact on the story, but does give it a more up-to-date sense of feeling.

The other is that I remember the battle between Jake and Frank ending differently, with Jake managing to pull off an amazing win despite the blatant cheating of Frank. It makes more sense for the story if Frank's created Pokemon, like Randy's, prove immune to harm by ordinary Pokemon so that Coldblood can power up Jake's own Pokemon, but there was something satisfying about seeing two Grass-types (my personal favorites) triumph over legendaries.

Ah, yep, you caught one of the minor plot changes. I was wondering if people would pick up on that.

The MAJOR reason why I did this, after sitting down and thinking it over, is that it wouldn't make sense for Randy not to have Frank's back and share some of his power with his new friend. In fact, in the very original version, Randy even exiles Frank after he loses! After giving it another look, I felt that didn't make too much sense and made Randy look like a total villain. With this new version, Randy's mainly over his head with beating his bullies and got too carried away with his own dreamland, but he's not a wicked person.

That, and if Jake really did win that battle, he would seem Mary Sue-ish. I figured in order to make him a more realistic and believable character, he's got to take a loss every now and then. Considering that losing to Frank wouldn't change all too much, I decided to let that one go.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm kind of a bastard and root for Jake, Alex, and David every time I read about their antics. I swear I'm not a bully in real-life, but there's an element of fun to them, especially with the extended description of their laxative prank that was in earlier editions, that isn't as much a component to Randy and his crew's petty revenges. I sympathize with them too much I guess, but to be fair, they did get most of the cool Pokemon.
Anyways, looking forward to keep on rereading this saga and seeing what other new and exciting changes are around the corner!

Ha, ha, nah, it's fine, everyone has different opinions about the three of them and it's interesting to see the varying feedback I get from it. With all of the other modifications I made, I decided to condense the pranks down a bit to give some room for other stuff like development toward Jake's life at home, the divorce his parents have, and the confrontations he has with his sister Vicky.

One of the other big changes I'm putting in is changing the personality of Blazewing the Latias. Before, she was mainly emotional, a bit on the somber side, and just seemed a little too anxious about everything. Now... complete 180º spin. I decided she'd be way better off more cheerful, plucky, comical, and be a nice source of comedy relief for an otherwise dark and macabre story. That, and Juno travels with her in places where before she was locked up in a Poké Ball, which actually does have major impacts on the story.

But hey, thanks for the feedback and I hope you enjoy the new and improved Trial of Juno!