Story Title: Swanna Girl and Braviary Man 2: Fight Against Oblivion

Author: JunieWeathers

Fandom: Pokémon

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama and Romance

Status: Complete

Range of Word Count: 2000 - 6500 words per chapter

Reviewed Chapters: 21 out of 30 chapters

Summary: Sylvia Gray thought her life as a superhero was over. She was happy with her life as the Castelia City Pokémon Nurse; however, when a new team of villains come and attack her home, it's up to her and her partner in crime, Rudi, to get back in the game and save Unova. Will they be enough?

{Spoiler-contain Review}

First of all, Swanna Girl and Braviary Man 2: Fight Against Oblivion is an award-winning story that placed second in the Miscellaneous Category of PWA 2019 (PokémonWattyAwards) and earned a handful of special awards namely "Best in Characterization", "Best Trainer Book" and lastly "Best Antagonist". Having this Pokéfic as my very first review was indeed an honor and I would like to use this opportunity to further share my thoughts by conducting a critical review on it as it was requested by the author herself.

I have read this book in the past, last year to be exact and I admit this became one of my favorite books among the many spectacular Pokéfics out there because this book has so many features that are aligned to my likings. Despite that fact, I encountered some areas that needed to be improved or polished and I'm pretty sure with proper editing can make this amazingly epic book an astounding perfection. 

Without further ado, we'll begin the review.

After the Unovan superheroes defeated the uprisen villain team of Miasma three years ago, Sylvia Gray aka Swanna Girl is now living a content life as a Pokémon Nurse at Castelia City Pokémon Center in fulfillment of her dream ever since she was a kid. However, as she expected that she will be living a life with a normal state, the nightmares of her past as a superhero resurfaces and she can't escape them.

Now, the first chapter of the book was really a good opener. Transition of events and faces of people and Pokémon that belonged to the past is still hunting her in her nightmares every now and often after becoming part of the group of people who ended Team Miasma three years ago. This depicts that Sylvia is still horrified by those events as it consumes her sanity. This refresher element was a good start as it refreshes the old readers of some of the major plots that happened in the prequel and I, as one of the readers really appreciated this neat idea.

Another element the author pulled out into this story is the switching of POV every 5 chapters. I love this creative idea wherein it changes into a third person's POV (instead of the usual Sylvia's POV) that focuses on characters such as Joy, Officer Jenny, Rena and Lethe. As one may notice, the focus spotlights the other characters from the cast and I find it very neat for it gives the readers a clearer view of a bigger picture of what happened/ is happening out of Sylvia's periphery.

As for the things that need to be improved, in all honesty, there's isn't much. But, that doesn't mean there aren't any. Here, I'll point out some of the things I discovered myself. 

Throughout the story, I encountered a few errors with regards to use of words and spelling names of Pokémon. In Chapter 1, when Sylvia remembers what she should do when her nightmare strikes according to Rudi's Dad or Landon, the word "breath" was used instead of "breathe" which will make more sense if we're talking about the action of taking breaths. With regards to Pokémon spelling, in Chapter 3, one may notice the unintentional mistake of Golurk's name into "Gorlurk". While that doesn't happen every time the particular Pokémon was mentioned, it is still necessary to correct these small little mistakes. Take note, that's not everything I have encountered when it comes to errors as there are still few (that I won't list further) scattered in the story.

Let's talk about a few things in the Pokémon lore. There are instances that a word is capitalized in which (based on my observation) the Pokémon franchise uses them as proper nouns. These involve names of Pokémon, attacks, items, places and many other significant subjects to enumerate such as Pokémon type, ability, classification and etc. As a critical reader, I have noticed there are cases in which these proper nouns are not capitalized according to how the franchise uses them. Take Chapter 16 as an example. There is a constant changing of proper capitalization and improper lowercasing of the words "peck" and "ice beam". Again, these words are Pokémon moves and are considered as proper nouns in the franchise. Always remember to use the words how exactly the franchise uses them whether it has something to do with capitalization, spacing, punctuation marks and most importantly, spelling. Just like in errors with regards to use of words and spellings, some are scattered throughout the book. You may find either one or two on several chapters so my best advice here is to be extremely cautious in order to avoid errors in the future. Proofreading is the key to solve this problem. While I know how the author knows how vital this is and how much time she spends on doing it; and I know how hard it is to edit, small mistakes can't be avoided and it can be unnoticed sometimes by your sharp eye when on your editing spree. Nobody is rationally perfect when it comes to writing and everyone understands that. Another thing, these nouns from the Pokémon franchise are really tricky wherein one can mistake Feraligatr's name into "Feraligator" and the attack Bubblebeam into "Bubble Beam". My goal is not to backlash regarding your mistakes but to have a reference of the things that should be looked out for and pay attention closely.

Now, let's jump to an entirely different topic in which the use of imagery will be talked about. The description of characters; whether they're Trainers or Pokémon, and the surrounding world around them are very picturesque. I can totally imagine inside my head how the characters and places look like and how the events are happening from the pacing of the actions being performed and events being transpired from the simple act of getting Lava Cookies from the box to the intense fight scenes. Speaking of it, the pacing is very well-done. There is no such thing as a "wasteful" chapter. What I mean by that was there are no parts in the story that implies no significance or contribution to the plot because every chapter contains so much important details and information you don't want to miss out. 

Cliffhangers are used effectively to the point it keeps their readers at the edge of their seat, yearning to know what will happen next because they know more information is going to be launched at them in the next part. In my own observation, cliffhangers are really neat. If your readers crave for more because you leave them with a cliffhanger, it only means that they are really attached to your book and they love everything that is happening as of the moment. Luckily, I didn't suffer (in a good sense) in those because SGBM2 was completed for a long time when I first started reading it.

The author knows how to balance emotions too. We're not receiving the same emotion over and over again as it changes from one chapter to another. Now, this book has a lot of action scenes. Readers will get bored reading if the only thing they can see is the intensity of the heated fighting scenes between people and Pokémon but, that's not our case here. The author will always pull what I will call an "emotion break" wherein readers can take a breather as the intensity of the plot arises and take it easy by enjoying the humor and rich moments of the story. Having this in a book is very neat and interesting to see. A good example from the book would be the sequence of Chapter 3 and 4. In Chapter 3, the Pokémon Center was attacked, young joy was kidnapped and a new threat to Unova called Team Oblivion uprises. Meanwhile in the next chapter which is Chapter 4, the heated situation of the previous chapter has been cooled off because of the humor from Rudi showing his funny arrogance, how he was starstruck by former Champion Hilbert's presence, Sylvia drinking five cups of coffee (that's a real shocker) while N keeps on pestering her and many more in that particular chapter.

If the review is leaning more to the book's good forces, one of its strength points is having a great cast of lovable characters. My personal favorite among them all would be Rudi Rhea aka Braviary Man because I liked how cocky and arrogant he is. It doesn't end there though for he is also extremely caring and protective to those who are important to him such as his family, regular Unovan citizens (because he is a superhero) and especially to Sylvia Gray. Meanwhile, Sylvia being one of my favorites as well (but won't top Rudi in the tier), I love her natural character. While she is kind-hearted, compassionate and caring; she has her own flaws too. She always refuses to initiate a conversation about some serious issues such as her discovering Rudi and Gila's past, keeping a secret to her own alliance and distrusting N and making a deal with Gila. This slew of character traits brings out the naturality of a person where it reflects each individual has their own good and bad traits within them and having an oh-so-perfect-character seems too impossible.

Now that we have our two protagonists in the topic, let's discuss their pairing. While I am a fan of RudiXSylvia shipping (or was it Sudi though I want to call them LavaCookieShipping or UnovanFeatherShipping), I must say that their fixed relationship appears to be forced in a way that it has been massively thrown at us right at the very first chapter. For those who have read the epilogue of this book's prequel SGBM1, readers are left with a cliffhanger (again, cliffhangers are nice) with a question "will Rudi and Sylvia be getting back together again after a long time of being separated from each other?" I kinda expected that it would take a while to restore their relationship but, no. Right off the bat, their pairing became a thing again and is going strong for three months already. As a fan, I am extremely happy but I also realize that there's something off about it. According to Sylvia, it is by fate that she and Rudi crossed paths again after a long time then they started dating again a few months later that instant. I was like "Oh, that's good to hear and I'm so happy for them" but there are more details missing here. Those three months of courting and dating have been missed in action to be witnessed by readers, especially the fans of their shipping. This doesn't mean that those missing three months should be narrated but to answer the question "which among Rudi and Sylvia who talked about working on their broken relationship and how they did that?" In my own opinion, it would be more effective for their relationship to work out again when they are in the midst of fighting Team Oblivion. With that, Rudi and Sylvia's story shall begin as platonic friends while the crisis is happening from all sides then they will suddenly realize that they have each other's back again and might slowly fall in love while fighting side-by-side most of the time. Rudi and Sylvia's relationship will be much more romantic if the story tells how they develop feelings for each other again.

It's not easy to keep your character different from each other and give them a unique trait when you have a large amazing cast of them but our author here managed to do an excellent job on creating differences among them especially with Rudi, Rena and the villains. However, that's not the case for young Joy and Nurse Joy. These two are a completely different character. Young Joy is Sylvia's trainee, aspiring to be like her someday who came all the way from the Sinnoh region while Nurse Joy is Sylvia's foster parent who's working at Nacrene City Pokémon Center. With this explanation, you can differentiate one to the other right? But take a look at this statement from Chapter 8,

"Out of everything that was going on, I wasn't expecting that. After all, we were dealing with this secretive group, had Nurse Joy kidnapped, the last thing I was expecting was for these suits to be done."

If you look closely, it is said that Nurse Joy was kidnapped instead of Joy, the young trainee of Sylvia who was supposed to be abducted by Team Oblivion. How can we tell the difference about them now? This can be confusing to others but not in my case for I know it was young Joy who was taken and not Nurse Joy. I highly suggest fixing that part to avoid confusion.

Aside from the great balance of emotions that makes this book not boring to read, it is not centered around the main protagonists Sylvia and Rudi alone. There was a time I became interested in learning the backstory of the other characters and one of them is the blue-haired monster herself, Rena Rhea. Fortunately, Chapter 15 filled me in that sheds light why Rena hated Isaac Nox so much. Sure, he is a fierce rival of her being an inventor as herself but it was all because of the kiss she had from him while John or Jonathan Knox (Rena's romantic interest) was watching. She hated Nox for making John think that there was something going on between them even though it wasn't close to the real story because it was him whom she liked and not the one who stole a kiss from her. With that, she can't bring herself to say her true feelings to John forever. Having that kind of backstory is very interesting to see and I feel bad for Rena.

I love the way how the author used canon characters from the game such as Hilbert, Hilda and N to become part of this amazing story. I will not consider Joy as a canon but rather a semi-OC of the author because Nurse Joys are typically in their late twenties to early thirties while the Joy we have as Sylvia's apprentice is a teenager. Going back to the BW trio, I actually liked how they play their role very well. The author incorporated canon ideas for these characters that makes Hilda along with Zekrom and the rest of her team defeated Team Plasma on their first assault for the original BW timeline, Hilbert replacing the role of Nate or Rosa as the one who stopped the same team for the second time around with Reshiram and the rest of his team for BW2 original timeline and lastly, N as the ultimate ruler of Team Plasma for BW timeline. Since this book transpired years after the events of BW2, it is very necessary to have these details and it's good to see it in the SGBM trilogy. 

It also makes sense when Sylvia appears to be clueless about N because of how strayed she was in the news way back when the BW and BW2 events happened; given that he is a mysterious one, had a weird nickname (not to mention, even his real name of Natural Harmonia Gropius too), odd behavior of able to talk to Pokémon and show she didn't know he's once affiliated with Team Plasma in the past. Hilbert surprisingly has a cold and serious personality which is a big difference to how I picture him. Out of all the Pokéboys in the games, I think it was Red who really fits the description but then he isn't part of this story. Hilbert and Hilda were given to have skills in fighting which they find very essential when against Team Oblivion's grunts and leaders. 

My thoughts on the aforementioned villain Team was simply "What the what?!" They don't play fair and take things very seriously and physically. Swanna Girl's first battle against them was pretty epic. They have her outnumbered and did not hold back, proving that they're not just someone to be slacked off. Poor Hilda was pretty banged up during the fight while the rest only had minor injuries. But you know what, I find it a bit unusual for Sylvia to be skilled in fighting after learning it from Hilbert for a short period of time.

I absolutely love it when Pokémon aren't sideline here. Yes, this is a Pokéfic we're talking about but there is an irony that the roles of Pokémon are undervalued sometimes and they only serve as tools in battle. Now the legendary Trainer Red wouldn't like to hear that. However, that's not we have in SGBM because Pokémon are integral in every fight scenes (because Team Oblivion doesn't only engage in Pokémon battles but they also attack Trainers) plus, I admire how the author enhances Pokémon moments from the small quality time between Trainers and Pokémon just like how Sylvia treats her Pokémon with extreme care and kindness; and how they understand each other's feelings. Lastly, I find it funny how Rudi's Braviary always antagonizes Sylvia.

Among everything else prior to the characters, their relationship (of any form) towards each other is what I liked the most. Well, other than being Sylvia's boyfriend, Rudi is ultimately so sweet and caring to her while I can also see how much she loves him back. I also adore Lethe and Joy the way how they are willing to protect each other thus could be the reason why OblivionShipping has sailed (yep, this is not SGBM3 yet). Don't forget Hilbert and Hilda's closeness that I'm sure ChessShipping fans (or AgencyShipping if we're talking about the manga) will enjoy their rich moments in the story and this detail can actually be picked up by any readers.

Since we are just talking about rich moments or scenes to be relished or parts of the story I enjoyed, this book has a lot of it and here's a few lists. First was the events at mid-Chapter 8 where Sylvia and Rudi paid a visit to Rena's Widgets. As expected, the classic Rena we all know is present and it's always fun watching the Rhea siblings' moment in which I chuckled at the whole part of it especially when she warned Sylvia and her brother "No PDA in my building!" Speaking of funny moments, I can't forget the Krait Twins' silly argument about Braviary Man's real name if it is Rudi or Ruby and debating which of them was correct. Really, this book has many great scenes whether it is packed with action, romance, moral and humor. If I am going to be asked what's my most favorite then it would be the White Forest scene which can be found at Chapter 12. It-was-so-precious! It was so sweet of Rudi to take Sylvia out for a walk due to how stressed she is with the chaos happening. He surely knows her more than herself which she needs a beautiful distraction to relieve her stress. Now this can be pretty realistic because there are times people know us more than how we look ourselves in the mirror.

Here is something out of the chapters I reviewed but I want to emphasize it in this review based on how much I remember it from reading this book last year. One of the most applaudable qualities of the author wherein I give my salutations on her for that, was her planning of big sacrifices that had to be made for plot-wise. Most stories have this/these certain character/s who are well-loved by readers because of how they amazingly performed their role and their likable character trait must be one factor of how the character earned the reader's heart. Naturally, the author would not give up on this and will keep the character until the story ends however, that wasn't the case here. The author of this story showed no fear of incorporating death to some of the characters especially the ones that played a vital role to the story or characters and are well-loved by the readers for the sole purpose of plot development. I can see this as a strength, proving the author has an amazing talent when it comes to formulating unique and unforeseeable story plots that served as a shocker to the readers. What I am trying to say here was, the author didn't hold back on taking down a major character in the sense of turning the story into a more interesting read by adding unexpected plot twists. Most authors can't kill off a character from their story because they're worried they might lose a reader or two or even more than that number. However, our author here showed bravery while indirectly telling her readers that all those unfortunate events must happen for the betterment of the trilogy and even the (remaining) characters as well.

Before I end the review, here are the few things I want to point out further:

°At Chapter 9, I wish we can know which part in the Unova region "Clogs and Nox" was located even though it is said that it was built where no one could easily find it.

•There's a plot error in Chapter 14 where Gila's Pokémon Mandibuzz, Serperior and Arbok was present but as the chapter ends, Seviper was mentioned instead of Arbok. We don't know if both Pokémon are there or it could be a small slipup of which Pokémon are really in there.

°I like the idea of how Sylvia views Joy as her younger-self and how she acts as her big sister who will stand for her sake. 

•I also like how mysterious Lethe was when he was first introduced.

°Despite taking place in Unova, Mega Evolution is embodied to this story. Sylvia's Audino is capable of doing Mega Evolution while I like the unique idea where she keeps her Key Stone which can be found in her pen. Trainers from the anime, games and manga have their own personal items or accessories where they keep it such as in their pendants, earrings and etc. so seeing it placed not on the typical Mega Ring and Mega Bracelet is a pretty cool idea.

It was truly a great experience to reread the second book of the SGBM trilogy. It surely brings back the memories of the times I have finished reading this last year on the very last day of my summer break. I am more than honored and privileged to review such a great story like this.

Since I am very generous when it comes to giving high scores and I can see that the author deserves it,

Review Score: 9/10 = Excellent!

Never stop writing, Junie! Keep up the good, no, EXCELLENT work! UwU