Rotten Luck (fanfic)

"Jonathan is a sixteen year old boy who doesn't have the best of luck. One day, he obtains a relic and after an unfortunate accident, he finds himself reborn as a Ralts."
—The summary to Rotten Luck

Rotten Luck is a Pokémon fanfic that is a comedic take on Pokémon transformation stories. It was written by Cevaztyen from August 2007 up until September 2008, still incomplete with 35 chapters, the last one ending in an odd Cliff Hanger.

Written in a sort of episodic format, the protagonist is a very unfortunate person named Jonathan. The poor guy is late for a date with his female best friend and has no gift to give her, so he goes into a strange antique shop, and buys a blue statuette for cheap. When he gets close to where he and his date were going to meet, he notices a kid and his Zigzagoon playing in the street in the path of a speeding car with its driver talking on his cell phone, and runs and pushes the kid away from danger...

...only to get hit by the speeding car.

Almost immediately thereafter, Jonathan then hatches from an egg in the middle of a nearby forest and finds himself reborn as a Ralts, despite that there is absolutely no Gardevoir or Gallade in sight and he still has the strange statuette he bought at the antique store. After a mishap with a Mightyena, he quickly returns to his City with No Name (which impossibly borders Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and possibly Unova if the story was first written in 2010) to find his best friend/girlfriend sobbing as she watches Jonathan's dead human body being removed. When Ralts!Jonathan gets her attention, she quickly gets over the loss of her best friend/boyfriend and takes the "newborn" Ralts in to live with her, not realizing that the Ralts she is taking in is actually her reincarnated best friend of course.

Later on, Jonathan goes into many misadventures with a lot of different Pokémon that he meets, mainly with a Charmander named Ember, the aforementioned Zigzagoon named Ziggy, and a wild Pichu named Rocky who is born some time after Jonathan's rebirth.

The fanfic became somewhat popular among TF-loving Pokémon fans due to its unique take on Pokémon transformation stories, which includes a Switching POV between Jonathan and an off-screen narrator that does the narration on each other chapter (Jonathan narrates the odd-numbered chapters while the other narrator does the even-numbered ones), some oddball characters and situations that Jonathan has to put up with, and of course, the very unfortunate and mostly rather nonchalant protagonist himself. In fact, to this day there are still people writing reviews for this tale on FanFiction.Net hoping for the author to come back with a new chapter.

Tropes used in Rotten Luck (fanfic) include:

Jonathan (narrating): So… am I supposed to lift weights or something?

I turned around and tried to think what I was going to Jenny today now that I nightgown into a [P]ok[é]mon who can't chest the doorknob why can't I look away. I managed to break out of her little 'trance' when she started to move. "Good morning little guy!"
"I WAS NOT STARING AT YOUR CHEST!"

"Oh, how I would love to understand what you say sometimes!"

  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Jennifer initially sees Ralts!Jonathan as a girl, causing him to freak out and (sort of) tell her that he is not a girl.
  • Gender Bender: Thanks to Taffy, we find that Ditto can change their gender as well.
  • Foreshadowing: Played with on Ember's introduction; he was first mentioned in Chapter 6 as a mysterious creature from the house next door who decided that he would introduce himself the next day. The slightly dramatic shift in narration somewhat implies that his introduction would be a bit rough. Come Chapter 8, it happens; he does get physical with Jonathan, but he merely just pounces on the new neighbor Ralts and turns out to be a very friendly Charmander.
  • Improvised Weapon: Jonathan uses sticks to fight back against some tough, mean Pokémon early in the story, since he doesn't know how to use psychic attacks yet.
  • Jerkass: Brick, who is obsessed with fighting other Pokémon just so he can be the strongest Tyrogue around and hopefully evolve into a particular Hitmon. (So far, it doesn't look to be Hitmonchan.) In his debut chapter, he was pummeling Murkrow away like crazy as he rampaged through their kingdom. (It was also implied by many of the Murkrow that he's done this to them before.)
  • Leet Lingo: Even in verbal speech, Gamma can only communicate in this.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Jonathan sure gets over dying and being reborn pretty damn quick.
    • Also, getting flung from a ceiling fan and into an empty bathtub.

Jennifer: "Oh my god! Are you alright?"
Jonathan (translated Pokémon-Speak): "All except for the headache."
(A moment later after she starts washing him.)
Jennifer: "I see you've gotten over that accident of yours. You really are nonchalant."
Jonathan (translated): "Yes, considering I'm not freaking out as much as I was a few minutes ago."

  • No Indoor Voice: Alpha.
  • Only One Name: Played straight with many of the Pokémon, even wild ones.
    • Some of the humans were only known by their given names until their surnames were revealed; Jennifer, Sam (the boy with the Zigzagoon), and Claire (Sam's sister) had their last names revealed in Chapter 34. Their names are Jennifer Hickory and Sam & Claire Blueland.
    • Jonathan remains without a last name revealed. Heck, his entry on Cevaztyen's long-standing favorite character poll for the fanfic even ends in a "(Last name pending)".
  • Only Sane Mon: Jonathan.
  • Pokémon-Speak: Of course, although this mainly applies to third-person chapters that focus on the humans.
  • Roadside Wave: This happens to Jonathan twice in Chapter 12.
  • Spot the Imposter: In Chapter 12, Taffy makes Ember and Ziggy do a quiz to determine which Ralts is their real friend. After three correctly answered questions between both Jonathans, Ember throws in a trick question by asking what color is Jonathan's eyes. This made the fake Jonathan cringe since Taffy didn't replicate Jonathan's hidden eyes, so Taffy gave up quickly and fled by transforming into a paper airplane to fly away. Even better, Ember never knew what Jonathan's eyes looked like beforehand. (They're red just like those of a typical Ralts.)
  • Tempting Fate: If something good happens to Jonathan and he acknowledges it, except something bad to happen to him almost immediately afterwards.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Jennifer gives Ralts!Jonathan a blue bowtie to help signify that he is male.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Happens once in a while for Jonathan.

Jonathan (naratting): I love it when my bad luck decides to take a break.

Jonathan: "What movie did you take that line out of, Howler?"

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