These are Virgil134's nominations and comments for the 2016 awards. See all nominations here.
Spiteful Murkrow skillfully manages to avoid all the PMD cliches, and puts out a fun and interesting story as a result. With a good plot, loveable characters, and a unique and immersive setting, I can’t help but nominate Fledglings for this award.
Fledglings offers a setting more unique than any other PMD story. While most stories are set on land, Fledglings is set on small islands and the sea. It effectively combines PMD with ocean punk. Even the islands themselves are each unique and different. They all have their own culture, often inspired by various cultures from real life. On one island for example, the Pokémon speak Spanish (More accurately, English with occasional Spanish words) and live in a small town with a very tropical life style. Yet on another island, the Pokémon speak Japanese and live in a larger town filled with buildings in traditional Japanese architecture. Overall it’s a very rich and diverse setting.
Hess is an Aggron, and one of Fledglings' most notable antagonists. He is a pirate captain who isn't the most competent villain, and has his crew stitched together mostly by rejects from other crews. Despite being played as a comedic villain at times, Hess can also be a serious threat to the protagonists. Every time they fight him, he proves to be quite capable in battle and they only barely win. The combination of being funny and serious at the same time is what makes him such a great and enjoyable villain.
The place was eerily silent, with the only companions being the mist, the jagged rock formations that formed the spires in between the dungeon… and of course the unconscious forms of a Nidoran, a Growlithe, and a Cubone up ahead."A-Aah! Nida! Elty! Guardia!"The young Lugia tried to beat his wings and fly over, only to wince and gasp as he felt pain shoot through his left wing. The bird uneasily pulled his wounded wing back to his side, and darted along to the prone bodies ahead."G-Guys? W-Wake up," he pleaded, nosing at the unconscious Pokémon. "We're out of the dungeon now, we can go back…"No matter how he pushed or pecked at them, there didn't seem to be any reaction from any of his friends. The Lugia began to grow uneasy as he started to realize that his friends were surely badly hurt- Wait a minute! He had something that could help them!"H-Hang on!" he chirped. "I'll- I'll heal you, and then you'll be all better!"The Lugia searched through Nida's bag, and came across an Oran Berry. After some clumsy attempts at peeling away the rind, the little Protector remembered that Crom had just eaten them in the past.The Lugia quickly stuffed the berry into Nida's mouth, waiting for her to bite down on the berry… except she never did. The berry just flopped out, with a faint coating of spittle attached. The bird tried moving the berry over to Elty's mouth, and then to Guardia's, but none of them seemed to get any better.Wh-Why hadn't it done anything?! Wh-Why hadn't the berry made any of them better like in the past times when the team was hurt?! The little Guardian then remembered that Guardia had said that Pokémon became 'dead' when they were hurt very badly… What had Elty said about being 'dead' again? Your body couldn't move, couldn't talk back… D-Did this mean that…? Nida… Elty… Guardia… They were all…"N-No! You can't be 'dead'! You can't!" Pleo cried. The little bird futilely tried rouse his teammates, as his fears began to mount and tears started to well in his eyes. "W-We were gonna go home together! We- We were-"The Lugia's voice hitched as he began to sob. He tried to save them! Why weren't they fine now? He was supposed to be a Protector… but he failed at protecting them… If he wasn't a Protector… what was he then? And what would he do without his friends?
Although every story has its sad moments, this scene right here has to be one of Fledglings’ most heartbreaking moments. After the protagonists got tricked into entering the nest of a large group of ferocious Beautifly, the team barely manages to escape. What makes this scene so sad is how Pleo, the story’s main protagonist, deals with what he thinks are his friends’ deaths. Being only a few weeks old, readers will know Pleo as a very innocent and cheery character. Seeing him deal with something dark like death is truly heartbreaking.