First of all, I want to thank the author for writing such a phenomenal story, this is truly the best piece of fiction i have ever read, the story gave me a completely new perspective on the Pokemon franchise which I've never thought of before. The world that you've created is unique, the characters and their developments are well fleshed-out and detailed. The constant conflicts and fast pacing drove me to read more and more, the tragedies tore holes in my heart and then the ending filled the emptiness left by those holes. Honestly, I can see the huge amount of effort put into this story as each word written was chosen so carefully. The only regrets I have after finishing this story is not having enough knowledge and experience to properly write a constructive criticism and not being able to wipe my memories to read this story over and over again. All in all, I honestly believe this story is a masterpiece and deserves a lot more recognition.

I prctically read this whole story together. I simply could not stop myself from wanting to finish it.
This story has to be the best pokemon fanfic I have ever read. This story is a big eye-opener for me. I had never actually thought of it this way for pokemon. It's amazing that you did. Also the gang wars were amazing and I loved almost all the characters, especially Ember and her character development. The ending was also pretty ironic considering Ember's Mirror ended up in the same situation as her. Overall, this was an awesome story, as good as published books, and showed us a darker side to the pokemon world that many of us never knew existed.

Amazing story thank you for writing! Kept me hooked for days.

-long time Pokemon fan

This is honestly the best fanfiction I've ever read. I'm recommending it to everyone I meet. You're incredible, dude.

Aw, yeah! Houndoom finally bites the dust. God, I was waiting for that. And that SOB Gunny too.

Yeah, that was a feels trip, alright. A really, REALLY rough one. Congrats, dude.

I'm not crying! You're crying!

Jesus...Ember just can't get a break. I hope Houndoom and Luxray get what's coming to them soon.

Also, I want to give Otachi a hug so bad...

Damn. Now THAT was a brutal chapter. You can't do this to me, man! You can't get me invested in these characters and then do this to them!

rip Ember 2.0

It pains me to see such a low amount of reviews for a fic that throws such uniqueness of the table. A soup of game mechanics, and raw realism, blended together with very good results.
I always wanted something like this, because most pokemon PoV stories are either PMD ones, or ones where the pokemon protagonist has a caring trainer who can usually understand them, or doesn't put them in pokeballs.
It was an emotional rollercoaster and i dig these a lot, especially when the ending is bittersweet.
I liked the character development, although Ember's denial to an obvious truth till the end was the only thing that saved her from having too few flaws.
How were some pokemon able to write, is still a mystery to me, since footprints runes are a PMD thing and i doubt they learned human language so easily... but its a p minor thing to nitpick.

I just finished binge-reading this for the last five hours or so, and this is HANDS DOWN, without a doubt, THE best Pokemon fanfic I HAVE EVER READ. The characters are so well-developed and dynamic, and the ending totally threw me for a second because I thought for a wild, utterly terrifying moment that everything was just a dream (nightmare?) before I read it more carefully and realized that it was Mirror Ember talking. I think this fanfic was just so amazing, it's almost like a published book or something! I mean, it sorta kinda reminded me of Harry Potter and the Battle of Hogwarts, where everything was chaotic and from anyone's standpoint inside the book, it would've looked like utter madness, but you authors always know what you're doing with these crazy scenes dontcha!

I'm really glad about Ember and Absol. I thought they were so cute right from the start, and I wasn't sure if they'd be romantic or platonic, and either would've been fine with me, to be honest. But I'm glad you didn't make them fall in love two paragraphs after they met or anything. And their relationship was a driving force for a lot of the story, I think, but to me, it didn't completely overtake the whole story, but at the same time it did underneath everything, and I think that's just totally awesome.

Little things: The last bit with Charizard there was so sad and so fulfilling too because Charizard will never get to know the kind of freedom that Ember does now. And even then, the rest of their team ended up perishing one way or another, leaving Ember and Charizard, who was like a mentor and father to her. I'm so glad that she got to see him again and that both of them got their closure and all, and even though it was so sad that Charizard couldn't go with her, it was just so fulfilling somehow. The constant subtle nickname thing made me snicker a bit too. And Ember's just changed so much throughout this entire story and been put through so many things, and she's such an amazing character now. Absol's story was completely heart-wrenching too, especially the way he told it. In a way, the constant storytelling with no flashbacks or interruptions made it all the better. I could picture everything crystal clear (and it totally broke my heart. Oh well. What kind of crazy, avid fanfiction reader needs a heart anyway?) Also, Arcanine and Otachi tugged at my soul SO HARD AHHHH I LIVE for angsty pairings that never end up with the happy ending they may not deserve but should end up with anyway in my weird fanfiction-obsessed mind *sob sob*.

About the actual storyline and stuff, I really liked this take on the Pokemon world, with the trainers being nothing more than slave drivers and the Pokemon all but machines to be used and then discarded at will. By "like", I mean it was utterly heartbreaking, but it was extremely bitter and very unique, I will say. Pokemon was kind of a kiddy game I guess (idk), but this is a whole nother twist on it.

You know what, never mind what I said before. This is one of THE best fanfics I've ever read (and I've read a lot trust me lol). This story was just so engaging to read, and even though I should've been studying, I could not make myself stop reading and clicking the "Next" button over and over until I realized oh. It's over. There is no "next". *slams head down on keyboard and cries*.

I can't find the words to properly express how much I loved and enjoyed reading this wonderful, wonderful story, but...bravo. Bravo, and thank you so so much for sharing this with the internet and lowly mortals like me.

I can't describe how well writen this story was, i just loved the characters (umbra ftw), how well you translated the elements of the games in general, and gave a deeper meaning to them, the situations where interesting and every single chapter was intriguing and made me want to see the other one as fast as possible, i dont't know if you're going to read this, but thank you for all your effort while making this story, and delivering such an amazing job

Ah, Ember is so close to learning the truth: that she was released by her trainer.

Why didn't they kill her when she was defenseless? I don't understand...

"Ember scowled thoughtfully. "Wait a moment…how could she be able to use the sun if I'm not there?""

Ouch. Poor Ember still doesn't realize that she's replacable.

I like this story, I truly do because it depicts the life that wild Pokémon would face in the Pokémon world, albeit, a Pokémon world taken over by the craze of competitive training and a disturbing desire to hoard creatures that goes beyond even what is seem in the Pokémon world. It is, however, still on point with many of the implications that the story telling and mechanics of Pokémon create. It's just your author's note that seems to tell me that you may have overlooked some details or neglected to properly depict what you saw as a problem, if that was your intention here.

When it comes to naming Pokémon, I think you could have gotten the reader to sympathize more with the Pokémon having their name changed if you actually showed this happening. Instead, by chapter 14, every wild Pokémon that wasn't given a name by a trainer goes by their species name, which might as well make them nameless. Instead, humans are shown to breed their Pokémon and show little interest in the ones they catch beyond using them to breed or trade. It's not getting across that nicknaming them could be a problem, especially when they choose to go by the name after their release or ignore that they were even given one.

And when it comes to badges, I find the way you depict them here as a nice touch in and of itself, but trying to connect that depiction to what happens in the games doesn't work out. If you capture a Pokémon and feed it as many Rare Candies as you can until it reaches level 100, it will listen to you in battle even if you don't have a single badge. It's Pokémon that you receive in trades that refuse to listen to you if you don't have the proper badges for their levels. It may be a bit nitpicky on my part, though.

I could also object to your depiction of Minerva and Velour if they are meant to be regular player trainers. The regular player trainer doesn't even play competitively for a start, and Velour has the characteristics of a sociopath. If she was not, she would not call her Pokémon her servants, talk of how she would break the ones she catches (which I find a bit silly when showing them her shiny badges works just as well), allow one to destroy buildings that people could have been in (which is the big one. How was she not arrested for that?), leave one to die, and completely disregard the fact that one could speak. It's impossible for a person to do all of this and believe that it is okay. If Velour was a regular player trainer, she would pursue the Pokémon she wanted, but she would not use such destructive methods or justify it with human supremacy. She's just a cut and dry villain with the way you wrote her, though in a world where Pokémon so often die in battle and humans make a sport out of it regardless I can see why trainers would be desensitized. Ember had also become desensitized to killing to the point where she's chase down injured prey and there was no objection to it. I believe that there may have been a missed opportunity here by not depicting both sides evenly, though I think the humans have had their callousness over-exaggerated. Still, I suppose this was not meant to be totally realistic.

I actually found it a bit hypocritical that they would slaughter a hunting party and soon after go on a hunt themselves.

I will still say that I liked what this story shows in the trainers though, especially when this obsession with competitive training can actually be seen in the games with Wally. He started out as a frail kid but ended up as a serious competitive trainer who seems to think of nothing but stats, movesets, and abilities. If you battle him, you can see that the Gallade he sends out isn't even the one he caught at the beginning of his journey. His starter wasn't good enough, so he replaced it. Even now, I find it sad.

I actually have a story that I'm putting together that might as well be the exact opposite of this one. One where Pokémon have rights, a PokéBall has a "consent feature" that prevents a Pokémon from being caught if it doesn't want to be, and Pokémon have full autonomy and can leave their trainer whenever they wish. You could call it a world where N managed to find a very high position of authority. I still want to read about a world where the Pokémon competitive scene is a nightmare for Pokémon though, and I'm delighted that a good writer could give it to me.

Btw - As I was writing this review I realized that you nailed a pre-depiction of the craze around Pokémon Go. Where people try to catch every Pokémon they see, stampede towards and hunt down rare ones, and throw away the ones that aren't good enough. I wonder what the Pokémon in that app might think of us. It's still funny in hindsight though.

-hopscot