[Worldbuilding] Working on a fan fiction, need cruicial information.

[desertloner]

I have the story board completed, and the Pokemon chosen. All that is needed is to bring the puzzle together. The information i seek I hope is not too amateur. To become a Trainer, is the only way one can get the license through a professor? Are there any instances on the manga or show where there are alternative ways to become trainers? My memory of pokemon past is a bit off.

Also, is there Pokemon law where you "have to" start out with one of the regular three starters on a specific region?

Trying not to botch canon as much as possible. Thanks

 

[icomeanon6]

The easiest answer is about the three starters, and the answer is no. There's no precedent in canon for everyone starting with a charmander/squirtle/bulbasaur etc.

As for licenses, sometimes I forget they even exist. I don't get the impression that everyone meets the professor though. I think they might have gone for that idea in like the first episode of the anime but they dropped it pretty quick (again, I think. I'm not too big on the anime).

The thing to remember about canon is that it's not 100% consistent across or even within the games, anime, and manga. The important thing is that it makes sense within your particular story. Readers are generally used to mixed and matched canon elements in fics, or even changes that aren't in any canon but work for the fic. You can be faithful to the canons as a whole without being slavish to every last detail. My stance is looser than others', though.

Good luck with your story, and welcome to the forum! :)

 

[Venia Silente]

A quick rundown of what the different canons imply vs what they say:

The games:
* You can start your adventure at any given age and with any given Pokémon (6 year old tubers with lv 50 Starmies!)
* You start your adventure by catching your first Pokémon via an assistant (Pokémon RSE) or by being given one as part of an assignment (Pokémon GSC).
* If you start your adventure via an assignment from the local Pokémon Prof., you should get one of the Type Triangle Starters.
* You can get Type Triangle Starters by specific means, they're just not part of the Professor-sanctioned set (Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Emerald) and usually not seen in the wild.

The anime:
* You start your adventure at the approximate age of 10; barring exceptions, likely not before (Hoenn season).
* If you start your adventure as a "Trainer's Journey", then you might get one of the official Type Triangle Starters (the very first episode of the anime!).
* You can fight and catch members of the Type Triangle Starters pretty much anywhere.

As you can see, there are very little conceptual constants past the point that "a person can start an adventure with a Pokémon". That's part of the charm of it~ As long as your chosen model makes sense within the story, as icomeanon6 says, then you should be golden. Be discrete (have specific rules that start a journey, even if you keep them to yourself), be consistent (promote that everyone starts by the same rules), and you will be correct.