Twisted Garden (Pokemon AU)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Erika may have been born lowly, but she knows she is destined for glory and greatness. Street rat, trash, orphan, these labels are mere fetters to be shattered. One step at a time, Erika will claim everything that is rightfully hers. And what the world cannot give her- she will take by force.

A darker, grittier, and more realistic take on Pokémon with xianxia elements and a unique power system. Grass specialist Erika.Inspirations include but are not limited to: Hard Enough, Code Geass, Sacrifice and Subjugation, various xianxia novels.

Updates on Wednesday each week.

Crossposted toSpacebattlesandFanfiction.net

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Aleister Adair

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 1,566
Views: 191,952

Chapters(23 total)

What readers say about Twisted Garden (Pokemon AU)

“I really like the premise of this story. Pokémon with a lot of Xianxia worldbuilding elements. It's a combination of two of my favorite progression fantasy subgenres. The characters and conflicts are well written too. Style: The story maintains an aura of c…”
zapking5Royal Road5.0 / 5
“Some may balk at the darkness in Chapter 1, and the incredible arrogance Erika can display, but its worth carrying on to see the deeper story and world. For me, the main pull is the character combo of the cynical, rather horrible Erika, stuck in a partnersh…”
DubiousWisdomRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

zapking5Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really like the premise of this story. Pokémon with a lot of Xianxia worldbuilding elements. It's a combination of two of my favorite progression fantasy subgenres. The characters and conflicts are well written too.
Style: The story maintains an aura of coolness and excitement, while also managing to include lots of complexity to think about.
Story: I like the pacing, the chapters are meaty and always feel like they are moving the story forward. The challenges and opportunities that appear are generally intriguing.
Grammar: I've never been taken out of the story by any noticeable errors, everything seems good.
Characters: This story does an excellent job with its cast of characters. Erika is an interesting and active protagonist, with plenty of room for development. Gwen the Oddish is awesome, I would be fine with her being the main POV of the story. I hope that the author can continue to do well with developing Erika's team as characters, the size of the cast can be a difficult challenge in Pokémon fics.
The battles in this story are well thought out and strategic, even considering that Erika and her team are beginners. I am looking forward to higher level battles later in the story.
DubiousWisdomRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Some may balk at the darkness in Chapter 1, and the incredible arrogance Erika can display, but its worth carrying on to see the deeper story and world.
For me, the main pull is the character combo of the cynical, rather horrible Erika, stuck in a partnership with the idealistic, honourable Snivy. Either alone would be insufferable, but together they balance out. Seeing how they continue to influence each others personalities is something I look forward to seeing.
Bringing it along is a ton of worldbuilding, with a xianxia inspired power system, resulting in powerful individuals, clans, and pokemon that affect the world in more ways than just gym leaders and elite 4.
Previous knowledge of Xianxia is not necessary, I've never read any, and I'm following the story just fine.
Twisted Garden cannot be called conventional, it is not simply someone going on a personal journey to collect 8 badges, but also features political conflicts, and potentially military ones in the future as well. I'd compare it to the Pokemon Adventures manga on how it plays with the world.
Twisted Garden is an excellent fic taking an unusual look at an oft-forgotten character. In canon Erika is the perfect lady, while here she is anything but. This is about her journey there, what takes her from rags to kimonos? I look forward to seeing.
Mystical CornstalkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story follows the Grass Type Gym Leader Erika, in an AU where Cultivation is blended with the world of Pokemon, the author does a brilliant job of bringing out the best of both aspects of each Genre, and the world itself truly feels lived in due to the masterful worldbuilding. This new, unique take on the genre as we know it is truly a breath of fresh air.
Though on the surface a wealthy, bright, normal girl in the public eye, make no mistake, Erika is an ambitious, calculating, narcissistic, yet extremely talented sociopath. Coming up from the underbelly of Celadon City, a fateful encounter thrusts our protagonist from a life of grasping everyday merely to survive, into the cutthroat political machinations of the Kanto region. Though endlessly kind and supportive of those who assist her, she is more often than not completely and totally merciless to those that oppose her.
Objectively, she is not a good person, but you eventually find yourself rooting for her. Aleister has put an incredible twist on the Gym Leader usually known to be serene and docile.
Every chapter expands on this wonderfully crafted world and has left me personally eagerly anticipating every new release.
MystifyingRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Twisted Garden is the perfect example of what a grittier, more realistic version of Pokémon can become. Erika is an inherently flawed and misunderstood character with a drive to become the best in this world, and she’s not afraid to do what it takes to emerge victorious.
Aura in this fiction takes form of a xianxia-inspired cultivation process that relies on both trainer and Pokémon to progress to the highest stages. Erika is not an exception to this rule, and she’ll need to learn how to play fair with her team if she wants to make it far.
Overall, Aleister is an author that is not afraid of showing the darker aspects of what humanity has to offer. Death and other macabre elements may frequent this work, so those with an aversion to such depictions of literature might have a hard time digesting this story.
ratman71111Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a great break from most Pokemon fanfics.
The world-building is a bit off-putting at first, as aura, pokemon training, and many other things have been expanded upon in new ways. It's interesting to learn about and feels like Pokemon but with so much more.
Erika is such a fun character to read about. She views the world more harshly and is very calculating in her actions to get to the top. It's a refreshing break to see someone who faces the world as if people are simply stepping stones, instead of someone who sees good in everyone.
The pacing is slow, but it offers time to get to know the characters and setting. It's nice being able to know how a city works and what the people are like. Through the pacing, you can understand each of the new things introduced before being expected to understand even more. All the little details pull the story together neatly.
It's clear that there has been a lot of time and effort put into this. The characters and world are well-developed.
This is a great read, and even if the first chapter doesn't seem enjoyable, try reading just a little more. Sometimes all it takes is getting used to the main character and writing style.
Dom NoctRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have enjoyed what I've seen so far, which has prompted me to write the following review for the four categories.
First, the easiest detail to dissect: this story has definitely incorporated a fair degree of both planning and proofreading. This is very much evident in the grammar, the completeness, and the flow. I appreciate the professionalism in this regard, and have nothing but good things to say about it as a piece of writing. It's an excellent story for both style and grammar.
Second, the story itself is definitely looking to be good. There's not too much content to judge it off of quite yet, but I'm incredibly excited for what comes next. As a long time fan of the franchise, I am eager to see how the author brings the minor character of Erika to the pages. She's definitely a flawed character, yet the foils that Aleister Adair provides to match Erika are incredibly enjoyable to watch alongside her. This goes to character and story, the other elements of a solid fic.
Overall, I am proud to have been around this story since its inception. I'm looking forward to reading it in the future, however long this incredible ride may last. Till victory and beyond for our dear Celadon Celery.
Snipe_HuntRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like the concept of showing the journey a trainer goes through to become a gymleader, and the way that Erika is portrayed in this story mirrors enough traits with her cannon counterpart, such as her ambition and her public demeanor, to maintain the spirit of all the positive aspects of pokemon stories while simultaneously highlighting a novel source for her ambitious nature.
The story also does a nice job detailing just how much, both, luck & skill is needed to establish a presence among the leading political figures of a well established city.
ZikarioaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Twisted Garden is a pretty great Pokémon fanfiction, but with a Xianxia twist I personally haven't seen done before, and it's honestly working out better than I first thought it would have.
The story balances that sweet spot for me, of explaining the world of Pokémon using sci-fi science, but still keeps the mystical and magical feel of Pokémon, unlike other stories where they might dumb down the Pokémon into slightly smarter animals. But in Twisted Garden, the Pokémon themselves are conscious, intelligent characters who have full-on conversations with each other, and all have their own thoughts, feelings, desires, and personalities.
Grammatically, I didn't notice anything out of place, but that's not generally something I look for anyway. I only notice if it's REALLY obvious, which for me isn't here.
The pacing was fine. It wasn't fast, but it wasn't slow. It was average, and to be perfectly honest, I really don't like the interludes, I skip past them all, until later when I have nothing else left in the story to read.
The characters, in my opinion, are the best thing about this story. Erika herself is a character riddled with both negative and positive traits, just like a real person would be. Having grown up on the streets of Celadon city, at first the negative ones are a little more visible. But in the later chapters, you can definitely see the positive ones emerge.
But out of all the characters so far, Gwen the Oddish has got to be my favorite. There is a particular scene in Chapter 10 between Erika and Gwen, a scene where Erika experiences character growth, that is my favorite, and really cemented Gwen as my number one so far.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story, and I am crossing both my fingers, and my toes that the author continues this story, and does not give up on it, because I think it could be one of the greats in the Pokémon fandom.
darthjo1902Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I have to say this is a truly refreshing new take on how the pokemon world might work, if you sprinkle some extra magic to it. I especially like the characterisation of the different kids. Furthermore is the aura system quite inspired. Im still very interested what new team members for Erika we will see soon.
Raph772Royal Road
★★★ 2.5
Was excited to read this story when I read the premise but honestly Erika has to be one of the most unbearably unpleasant protagonist i've read in a while. If you don't care about reading someone take pleasure in being a stuck up brat who lords power over others and believes that they are owed everything just because they are talented and are willing to harm innocents to stroke their own ego go ahead and read this story.