#perhaps they’re from Kalos or another region that’s yet to be released/well-known

[tsubasagirl]

My tenth photo featuring two look-alike blonds

(Siebold looks like a grown-up Gladion ‘3’)

[sage-nebula]

If Alan had to assemble a new Alolan team (he'd keep Lizardon of course!)who do you think he'd pick?

Hmm, do you mean like if he did what Ash does at the start of each new saga and only brings Pikachu with him to new regions, thus filling the rest of his team with ‘mon exclusive to that region? Okay, I can do that … but to make it interesting, let’s make him a team from every region, and then I’ll assemble a final team of six out of those. =) Putting this beneath a cut, because it’s going to get long:

I’ll put the species name first, and then the nickname he’d use for them second. And of course, the first ‘mon for every single region is always going to be the same. ♥

Kanto:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Lapras — Lace (Water/Ice)

Raichu — Rai (Electric)

Nidoking — King (Poison/Ground)

Gengar — Gar (Ghost/Poison)

Aerodactyl — Ptera (Rock/Flying)

Lizardon is self-explanatory. He goes with Alan to every single region and they’ll never, ever part.

Lace is a callback to my Immortality AU, where I think I ended up giving Alan a lapras (or maybe reunited Ash with his?) because I imagine that lapras are a species that live a very, very long time—that even they’re not technically dragons, the lifespan of the Loch Ness Monster in our own world lends to the idea that lapras would be long lasting. In any case, I could see a lapras on Alan’s team. Lapras are very strong and very durable, and we know that Alan does like pokémon that can be both tanks and very heavy hitters, which lapras are. In addition, though, lapras are known for having very gentle temperaments, and since Alan is so calm and gentle himself (when he isn’t given reason not to be), I feel that would fit well with a lapras. Lapras are very rare (they’re more easily captured in Johto on Fridays), but there could possibly be a situation where someone working in the Safari Zone gives him one to raise and take care of once they learn that he comes from the Kalosian Pokémon Lab, because they need someone to look after this particular lapras and raise her, and they know he’ll do a good job.

Rai, I figure, could have been inspired by Ash, in the sense that knowing Ash and his Pikachu made Alan take interest in the pikachu line and thus decide to raise one himself. Rai would be captured in Viridian Forest as a pikachu, raised up, and then eventually evolved with a Thunder Stone (not against his will, of course), because although Alan would be inspired by Pikachu, again, he does value reaching for one’s max potential in his team, and as we’ve seen in canon he does tend to evolve his pokémon all the way.

King, I feel, would be a little male nidoran who saw Alan in the Viridian area and decided, for some reason, that Alan was an Opponent and a Rival and an Enemy and that he would take him down. Unfortunately, nidoran are not very big or intimidating ‘mon, so this … did not go as planned for King … but Alan recognized and appreciated that fighting spirit and so offered King a place on his team. King originally accepted with the idea that once he gained enough strength he would defeat Alan once and for all, but ultimately he came to really love him as a trainer and became a very faithful member of the team. So, you know. Maybe he’ll eat someone else instead. (Spoiler: He’s not going to eat anyone, Alan won’t let that happen.)

Gar would be a temporary member of Alan’s team; he’d be released back to the Lavender Tower once Alan was ready to leave Kanto. I don’t really have a story behind this one, but gengar seems like the type of pokémon that Alan would find an interesting challenge to train, and the gengar that we meet in Lavender Tower in the anime is friendly enough so that he probably wouldn’t want to drain Alan of his life. (Probably.) So I think it’d probably be more of Alan offering to show Gar interesting things around Kanto, Gar agreeing, and then the two parting ways at the end of the journey.

Ptera is another callback to the Immortality AU, because I’m almost positive I gave Alan an aerodactyl there, because again, they’re basically immortal themselves, very long lasting. (And for Alan and Ash in the Immortality AU, that’s very important.) This wouldn’t necessarily be the same aerodactyl that tried to eat Ash—rather, maybe this one was revived from Old Amber, flipped out because it was fossilized and now it’s suddenly alive again, Alan helped calm it down, and so the scientists were like, “Please take this before it eats us.” Nonetheless, aerodactyl again seems like the type of pokémon Alan would train, so I could see him with one.

Those who know that Alan is my valiant dragon son are probably surprised that dragonite wasn’t included, but while I considered dragonite, in honesty I … have never been very fond of dragonite. Its design has never appealed to me, and while it is strong, I just kind of … eh. There are better dragons out there, in later gens.

(Also, I know you’re probably thinking, “Well, I’m still surprised you didn’t give him an arcanine!” but listen … the temptation was there … I do think Alan would be very good at training an arcanine and that he’d like it, but when thinking about his Future Permanent Team, I couldn’t bear to have him leave the arcanine behind, and I don’t want his team to be too similar to mine, so … a call had to be made. I had to restrain myself, despite how very real that temptation was.)

Johto:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Noctowl — Yoru (Normal/Flying)

Tyranitar — Bangiras (Rock/Dark)

Houndoom — Soot (Dark/Fire)

Donphan — Don (Ground)

Mantine — Tine (Water/Flying)

Lizardon is self-explanatory, as always.

Yoru comes from my Fix-It of the team we see him with in the League, because it kills me that they gave him unfezant, of all pokémon, when you can’t even catch that in Kalos (but you can catch noctowl), and noctowl is far more fitting thematically. I think that Yoru (short for “Yorunozuku”) would bond with Alan very quickly as a hoothoot, and would evolve into a beautiful noctowl in short order.

Bangiras is that very same tyranitar we see him with in the League. I didn’t have any real issues with him having a tyranitar in canon, so there’s no reason not to stick with that choice now. Bangiras would be captured as a larvitar and would start out feeling a rivalry toward Lizardon (that is not reciprocated) because he would want to be Alan’s strongest and favorite, but that attitude would settle down over time. Whenever he’s in Kalos and/or otherwise around Bonnie, Bonnie likes to sing “Getta Ban Ban” because of his name.

Soot is … okay, listen. For those of you who have read Genesis, you’ll know that technically the first pokémon Alan ever had was a houndour puppy that he, at the tender age of five, named “Soot.” Alan didn’t actually catch this houndour, nor was he able to raise it, but he tried and he gave it a name and it remains a very important part of his past, because if he’d never tried to keep that houndour puppy, he never would have met (and been unofficially adopted by) Sycamore. So I’ve always entertained the idea that one day, Alan and Soot would be reunited. How Soot would get all the way to Johto from Kalos is anyone’s guess, but maybe Soot was actually captured by another trainer at some point, who then traded him away to someone in Johto, who then released him. It’s possible! In any case, Soot and Alan meet by “chance” (read: destiny) at one point in Johto, Soot recognizes Alan instantly, Alan realizes that Soot is Soot, and so he’s captured and raised up (probably captured as a houndour, still, just a fully grown one at this point, close to evolving but not quite there yet). The naming convention is off from the rest, but Alan named him Soot so long ago … he’s not going to change that now. Soot is very playful and, even as a full grown adult, likes to act like a baby and get belly rubs with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Sometimes Alan still calls him “Sootie.” It’s hard not to.

Don doesn’t have a story behind her; I think a donphan just seems like the kind of pokémon that Alan would train, particularly since donphan can be tanks, can be fast (ROLLOUT), and are hard hitters (again, ROLLOUT). Also, I have a real soft spot for phanpy, so I like the idea of Alan raising one up to be a mighty donphan (albeit a mighty donphan that still thinks she’s the size of a phanpy).

Tine is partial bias to sea rays that I gained during my Japan vacation, and partial “I do think this would fit.” Again, no real story to this one; I just think it’d be interesting for Alan to raise a mantine and I think he’d enjoy and be good at it. Everyone was mantine surfing~

Again, the big surprise here might be that I left off kingdra, particularly since he has dragon clan heritage in Blackthron City (though if this is a canon compliant timeline, he might not know about that yet). But I didn’t want to give him two water-types, since water’s not really his thing so much, and I personally prefer mantine over kingdra. But don’t worry, there will be dragons to come in the future regions.

Hoenn:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Flygon — Lye (Ground/Dragon)

Milotic — Milo (Water)

Absol — Sol (Dark)

Salamence — Bohmander (Dragon/Flying)

Metagross — Meta (Steel/Psychic)

Lizardon remains self-explanatory.

Lye would be captured as a trapinch, and perhaps got its name both because of its future final evolution, and also because it was very hot to the touch (due to being out in the desert) when Alan first met it, thus it burned him and made him think of how lye burns when it comes in contact with skin. In any case, even as a trapinch Lye always wanted to be off the ground, which makes Alan wonder sometimes if he should have named it Fly instead.

Milo is another call to the immortality AU, though it’s Ash that has a milotic in that one, rather than Alan. Nonetheless, milotic is a big pokémon that looks like a sea dragon, is very strong, and very much a tank as well, so it’s the type that he’d have on his team. Plus, I like the idea of him catching a feebas, and knowing that no matter how weak it is at the time, he can help it become stronger. And with time, he does. 

Sol would be a healing, reclamation type pokémon for him. For those of who you have read Genesis (linked above), you’ll remember that the mayor of Isolé Village compared Alan to an absol in a derogatory way:

The mayor looked back at [Augustine], and her furious scowl was instantly replaced by an apologetic smile. “Oh, Professor Sycamore! I’m so sorry about all of this. I should have warned you to watch out for this one, but I didn’t think even he would … well.” She chuckled, but Augustine could hear an undercurrent of anger in it as she placed her hand on the boy’s head and shook him a little, her fingers gripping his hair far more roughly than Augustine had ruffled it back in the houndour den. “I should have known better! Alan here is like our own little absol—brings disaster wherever he goes!” She laughed again, the sound loud and aggressive.

That was years and years ago, but Alan has an eidetic memory and so he remembers everything that happened to him in that village: every punishment, every name he was ever called, and so forth. And as a result, given that he was always compared to absol and that it was meant to be a bad thing, seeing absol has always filled him with a very uncomfortable, anxious feeling. It’s not something he ever takes out on them, obviously, but seeing absol (or hearing the word “absol”) reminds him of those days back in Isolé, and he doesn’t like it. (Buneary sort of do as well, come to that, since they were always allowed to run around the village at will, but it doesn’t have the same tie to him as absol does.)

So in that sense, if he came across an absol in Hoenn, he wouldn’t want to capture it at first, but perhaps the absol would keep following him around because she knew that something bad was going to happen to him and wanted to prevent it. And after she helped save him from whatever disaster, it’d help him come to terms with things. Sycamore himself taught Alan that absol never bring disaster, and Alan knew that … and he also knows that he never really brought disaster, that the things he was blamed for weren’t really his fault … but sometimes it takes a while for the heart to catch up. And so he’d capture the absol, and name her Sol (meaning “sun” as well as being a play on her name), as a sort of healing / reclamation thing.

Bohmander would either be captured as a bagon, inspired by Zinnia and her salamence, particularly in my preferred scenario where a version of the Delta Episode is carried out post-XY(&Z), and Alan and Zinnia become quite acquainted with one another as a result. Boh is a bit smaller than the average salamence and is quite gentle, but he’s no less fierce in battle and everyone would do well to remember it.

Meta is the same metagross that Alan has in the League in canon, inspired by Steven and his metagross. If I remember correctly, the personality that I gave to Meta is that they are very young but also very desperate to prove themselves and be strong to make Alan proud. They struggle with self-esteem, but Alan always reminds them that he’s proud of their progress, and that helps a lot.

See? I told you there’d be more dragons.

Sinnoh:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Mismagius — Mumargi (Ghost)

Lucario — Cario (Fighting/Steel)

Weavile — Manyula (Dark/Ice)

Mamoswine — Mammoo (Ice/Ground)

Gallade — Rei (Fighting/Psychic)

Lizardon is self-explanatory, as always.

I don’t really have a story for Mumargi, except that maybe Mumargi kept “accidentally” crossing paths with him as a misdreavous before he finally caught her. After he caught her she tried to wander off at every given opportunity, because she’s contrary like that.

Way back when the Flare Crisis was airing, and Alan did that amazing back handspring to avoid the spikes in the megalith, I came up with a headcanon that perhaps he studied martial arts under Maylene for a time while traveling through Sinnoh. Perhaps that headcanon could still come to light and that’s how he ends up with Cario, who was his sparring partner while studying with Maylene and who decided to travel with him when he left. (And now whenever he and Maylene encounter each other in public they have to spar immediately, as soon as they make eye contact, without explaining anything to anyone in the nearby vicinity. Those are the rules between martial arts sensei and student.) 

Manyula is the same weavile we see him with in the League. Again, he chose a weavile there, I had no real issues with it, so why not keep it up? (Also, the Sinnoh ‘dex is hard enough to choose from without eliminating canon choices orz.) If I remember the characterization I gave her, she’s very mischievous and prideful and somewhat tsun in that she doesn’t like to play well with others … or at least, that’s what she pretends. 

There’s no real story behind Mammoo other than I thought it’s the type of pokémon that would fit Alan’s battling style, and same for Rei. 

Honestly, this one was really hard because I don’t like the majority of the Sinnoh ‘dex, and those I do like are already taken by members of Alan’s family (Sycamore has garchomp, Clemont has luxray), or just wouldn’t really fit his battling style (glaceon, leafeon, floatzel). So I struggled a lot with this one, I won’t lie.

Unova:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Krookodile — Rook (Ground/Dark)

Zebstrika — Strike (Electric)

Beartic — Bear (Ice)

Chandelure — Lure (Ghost/Fire)

Bisharp — Sharp (Dark/Steel)

Lizardon is self-explanatory.

Rook seems like the type of pokémon Alan would train (fast, strong, tanky), and so there’s no real story behind this choice. That said, I like to imagine that if Rook met some of Alan’s more mischievous ‘mon from the past (such as, oh, Manyula or Mumaragi), he’s the type they’d try to scapegoat for their own wrongdoings even though he’s super honest and sincere and would never do anything wrong ever in his life if he could help it. Don’t worry, Alan never falls for the lies.

Strike might seem like kind of an odd choice, but I think that zebstrika can be pretty strong and fast and Alan would appreciate that, especially in an electric type. Strike is proud and hates losing, and is prone to tantrums and sulking fits when things don’t go his way. This is something he and Alan work on together.

Bear would have been captured as a cubchoo and not intentionally named Bear, but when Alan first encountered the curious little cubchoo trying to raid his bag for snacks, he said, “Hey there, little bear,” and from there on out the cubchoo would not respond to anything else. So now he’s a bear(tic) … named Bear. So it goes.

Lure tried to, well, lure Alan off a cliff at some point, back when she was still a litwick. That didn’t work, and when it didn’t, Lure tried again and again until finally Alan got exasperated and captured her. She still likes to try to lead him off places, this time in earnest, but she has a bad sense of direction and so she can’t be trusted as navigator even when she’s doing her best. She is a solid member of the team, though.

Sharp is the same bisharp that we see in canon. I had no problems with this one, so why change it? I can’t remember the personality I gave him, except maybe he was another that hated to lose? God, I wish I could find that post. Anyway, Sharp is bisharp, you know how it is.

I hated that canon gave Alan a random unfezant, as mentioned above, so that one got axed. I was also really strongly tempted to give him a haxorus, but I feel that’s Iris’ territory since she has that iconic axew, so I left that be.

Kalos:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Pangoro — Pandar (Fighting/Dark)

Aegislash — Exagide (Steel/Ghost)

Tyrantrum — Rexillus (Rock/Dragon)

Noivern — Bruyverne (Flying/Dragon)

Meowstic — Mistigrix (Psychic)

Lizardon is self-explanatory.

For some reason I imagine Pandar as a little pancham at Sycamore’s lab that becomes utterly fixated on Alan because he (Pandar) wants to grow up to become very strong and knows that Alan could train him to do so. Thus, Alan ends up taking him along on a journey. Lo and behold, Pandar ends up achieving his dreams, so it’s a happy ending for everyone.

I don’t have much of a story for Exagide, but I think that Alan would be very interested in training an aegislash because of how much strategy goes into battling with one. I think he’d find the challenge exciting, and that Exagide would be happy to have someone who appreciated their talents.

Rexillus just seems like the type of pokémon Alan would like, as with so many others on this list. I’d like to flip the script a little and imagine Rexillus as a very lazy pokémon that Alan really has to work with to get motivated, and that even though Rexillus will at least battle reliably now, his favorite activities are still eating, sleeping, and watching cartoons. (He knows what’s up.)

Bruyverne is, I will admit, a personal bias of mine because I really like noivern, so even though Ash had one, well … it’s not an iconic pokémon of Ash’s, so it’s fine. Hell, maybe Alan was even inspired by Ash’s, I don’t know. Either way, I do think noivern would suit Alan’s battling style, and thus Bruyverne would be a good fit.

Mistigrix might seem weird, but I decided to give one to Alan as a call to the game character Emma, who I feel at least partially inspired Alan’s inclusion in the anime. Emma has an espurr named Mimi, and so I feel that giving Alan an espurr (and then meowstic) works. This works even better if we go with an idea I had once where Emma was Alan’s childhood friend in Lumiose, and she still has Mimi; she has her girl, Mimi, and Alan has his boy, Mistigrix, inspired by Emma and her Mimi. They make a pretty good team.

Alola: 

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Mimikyu — Kyu (Ghost/Fairy)

Mudsdale — Dale (Ground)

(Midday) Lycanroc — Lycan (Rock)

Kommo-o — Kommo (Dragon/Fighting)

Toxapex — Tox (Poison/Water)

Lizardon is self-explanatory.

Kyu is a carry over from my fic To Devour the Sun, although I guess saying that is spoilers a little bit. Regardless, one of the ideas I have for near the end of the fic is for Alan to go off to the abandoned Thrifty Megamart to get some space and time alone (with Lizardon, of course), and while he’s there enjoying the quiet, a very lonely but curious mimikyu ends up coming up to him. The mimikyu means no harm, and she seems to be hurting in some way that he can’t quite identify, but that he empathizes with … so he takes her with him. He names her “Kyu” both because it’s a play on her name, and because she’s curious; “Kyu” sounds like “Q,” like question. (Also, I’ll fully admit that I love mimikyu with all my heart, so. This is a bit of personal bias, too, but I still think it’d be interesting to see Alan with a mimikyu that rides around on his shoulder because she, like Ash’s Pikachu, doesn’t like pokéballs.)

Dale doesn’t have a story behind him, but he seems to fit Alan’s battling style. Also, tbh, Alan is a hero, so we might as well give him a gallant steed to ride on in at least one region.

Lycan is a result of my third eye opening and finally allowing me to see sense. For the longest time I planned on giving Midday Lycanroc to Sycamore in To Devour the Sun, as a play on the whole “papa wolf” theme. As a result I was going to give Alan a drampa here, particularly because I feel that a drampa would gravitate to this boy. However, I have that so backwards. Sycamore should get the drama, as the caretaker of children who can get fiercely protective over them (were it not for the laws of Kalosian land Sycamore may well have burned Isolé Village down for how they treated Alan), and a regal wolf suits Alan far more. Plus, this also works in the sense that Ash has dusk lycanroc, while two of his rivals have the other two forms (Gladion with Midnight, and Alan with Midday). It works out.

Anyway, Lycan still has a very protective personally when it comes to his pack, which is Alan and the rest of the team. So he still acts like a papa wolf, at least.

(Also, don’t tell Sycamore’s drampa about Isolé or it very well might still get burned down after all.)

Kommo is another that I imagine would try to challenge Alan to fights, ultimately see that he can’t win, and then want to come along to train and get stronger. So not a very original story, I guess, but Alan attracts these types because he has that type of warrior spirit.

Tox is kind of a random choice to most, I imagine, but of the remaining pokémon in Alola I figure that toxapex is a good fit. It’s a bit outside of Alan’s normal training style, perhaps, but I think he’d like that challenge.

Final Team:

Charizard — Lizardon (Fire/Flying; Fire/Dragon)

Absol — Sol (Dark)

Mimikyu — Kyu (Ghost/Fairy)

Salamence — Bohmander (Dragon/Flying)  

Tyranitar — Bangiras (Rock/Dark)

Aerodactyl — Ptera (Rock/Flying)

a.k.a. The team one would be likely to face if battling him when he’s the Champion.

I spent about three hours putting this all together, and this final team was probably the hardest one. I honestly have a notepad open that I’ve been using to do a base rundown of weaknesses and type coverage and, honestly, I feel like I should be going even deeper by selecting natures and movesets and all that, but … it’s 3am. I’m tired. So I’m not going to do that right now, even though Alan deserves it.

Anyway, my reasoning:

As an overview, I was torn between two different themes. Part of me wanted to give Alan’s final team the theme of mega evolution, in that every single pokémon on it would be capable of mega evolution. The other part of me felt that it was more important to give him pokémon that had more emotional value to him and his story, particularly since the only ‘mon on his team that would be mega evolving during battle would be Lizardon. In the end I did a bit of both; five out of six pokémon on the team above are capable of mega evolution, but I also did my best to choose at least most of them due to emotional weight with regards to him and his story.

So with that said:

Lizardon, as I’ve said a billion times by now, is self-explanatory. He’s Alan’s partner, his platonic soulmate—these two are never going to be separated. Their partnership is so iconic, so legendary, that anyone who even knows of Alan in a passing fashion (“oh yeah, he’s the Kalos Champion”) knows that Lizardon will show up if one challenges Alan to a battle. They’re like Ash and Pikachu. There’s no separation here. And of course, Lizardon is the one who mega evolves as well, meaning that it’s not even that easy to plan against him since his type could change to Fire/Dragon mid-battle. (So, you brought a water-type to deal with him? Too bad for you, he’s not weak to water anymore, suckaaa.)

Sol is included because of everything said above about Alan’s reclamation / healing with absol. Absol don’t cause disasters, and neither did Alan himself. He and Sol would grow really close throughout this process and I feel that Sol would be a very strong member of the team, even though she only has that one singular typing. Sol is also capable of mega evolution, though she would not mega evolve since, no matter how close they are, she and Alan don’t have that level of bond. That’s reserved for Lizardon.

Kyu is also a healing pokémon in Alan’s story, in the sense that when Alan first finds her, her actual Jolly nature has been pretty worn down and smothered by her isolation and other past traumas, the nature of which Alan is never able to learn (but figures it’s not his business anyway). But as they travel and train together, she’s able to heal and her true nature is able to come through. I think that, when looking at the rest of Alan’s team, a mimikyu seems rather unexpected—but that actually works in their favor, particularly given how wicked strong mimikyu can be (and how strong Alan’s in particular would be, given that he would absolutely utilize that Swords Dance + Play Rough / Shadow Claw combo). Kyu would be a smart choice to trip people up.

Bohmander, more often called Boh and inspired by Zinnia, is an important emotional choice for Alan because of that association. I don’t want to spoil too many of my ideas for this adaptation of the Delta Episode (though whether I’ll ever get it written and posted is another matter altogether), but Alan and Zinnia have a platonic, spiritual kinship of sorts that that they feel on a level they can’t entirely explain. They go through a lot together, and come out better because of it. Boh would, in a way, be a reminder of all that, on top of Alan caring for him as a pokémon. Plus, he’s a dragon and he can mega evolve (though he wouldn’t), so that also earns him a place on the team.

Bangiras doesn’t really have emotional significance, but despite being weak to practically everything, type-wise, tyranitar is still an extremely strong pokémon, and is capable of mega evolution (though again, he wouldn’t) to boot. I feel like Bangiras wouldn’t exactly be comfortable hanging out at the lab, and if Alan raised him up from a larvitar, releasing him into the wild would also be a pretty painful choice since it takes so long for larvitar to reach the tyranitar stage. So I feel like keeping Bangiras on the Champion team is worthwhile, even if Bonnie starts singing “Getta Ban Ban” every time she sees him.

Lastly, Ptera is a choice I’m still waffling about, but ultimately decided upon because, while Ptera is technically not a dragon, aerodactyl is dragon-like enough to the point where Lance had one back in Gens I and II. Additionally, aerodactyl is capable of mega evolution (though she wouldn’t), so thematically she also fits in that sense as well. I think in the real world competitive scene aerodactyl isn’t valued so much (unlike tyranitar), but the anime operates by different rules and aerodactyl are shown to be pretty fierce there, so I think that Ptera would still be a smart choice. (Plus, aerodactyl can learn Aqua Tail via move tutor … that would come in handy for any pesky ground-types.) 

All that said, I’m still waffling about Ptera because part of me feels like Meta would also be a very good choice. Meta tries very hard and wants to be strong to make Alan happy, so it makes me feel bad to leave them off the type, and Steel/Psychic adds a bit more variety to the above type set. However, the reason why I’m waffling is because even though Meta was inspired by Steven’s metagross, metagross just doesn’t feel like a very Alan pokémon in the same way that an aerodactyl does. Aerodactyl are dragon-esque, and metagross are … robot-esque, I guess? I think I read once they were inspired by UFOs? Metagross stands out in a way that doesn’t feel very true to him, and while it could be argued the same for mimikyu, I think the backstory that I created for Kyu (which honest to god did develop naturally as I was outlining To Devour the Sun) feels like it makes up for it, versus “Steven had a metagross and that seemed inspiring so I caught a beldum to raise up myself.” I love Meta, but ultimately this is why they didn’t make the cut. Though that said, this could easily be a situation where Alan’s sixth pokémon is up for debate, and you see either Ptera or Meta and you’re never sure which one it will be before the battle … that could be the case, too. (Although honestly, that could go for any of his pokémon, because in a universe where he honest to god did catch all these, he could call upon any of them at any time. I imagine the same is true for Ash when Ash is Champion, even if Ash has a more “regular” team that he has on him when traveling and such.)

Anyway, a few more notes:

I really debated adding Soot to the team, since Soot has a VERY strong emotional tie to Alan, second only to Lizardon. However, I think that Soot would prefer belly rubs over battles, so while he can battle, he prefers to spend his time at home being a house dog instead. Alan respects that, and thus doesn’t have him on the active roster. (There’s also the fact that Soot is the only pokémon that Lizardon … it’s nothing personal. Soot hasn’t done anything wrong. But on some level that Lizardon doesn’t like to talk about, he’s jealous of the fact that Soot knew Alan before he did and has a kind of special bond with him because of what happened in Isolé. Lizardon knows that what he has with Alan could never be replaced, but … that sort of unreasonable jealousy is still there. So honestly, Lizardon wouldn’t want Soot on the permanent roster, so it’s good that Soot doesn’t like battling much anyway.)

I did briefly consider Rexillus, particularly since that’s another dragon, but then I remembered that Rex is a lazybones that doesn’t like battling either, so it’d make more sense for Alan to use someone like Bangiras who does enjoy battling instead.

I really, really, really wanted Yoru on the team because, thematically, noctowl suits Alan so well—but ultimately there are stronger choices, so as much as I love Yoru, he’s not a regular battler. (Except for in canon when he was totally in the League instead of that ridiculous fanon unfezant, am I right?) 

Anyway, it’s about 3:30am now and I really need to get some sleep, so I’m going to leave this here for now. (I’ll also probably schedule it for a daytime reblog since I’m posting this at an ungodly hour.) Sorry I decided to be so extra about this instead of just answering the question more simply, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! Thanks for asking!