Are you a shipper?

Pokémon fans, are there any ships you're interested in? How long've you been into that ship(s)? Or are you not into shipping characters in Pokémon (or in general?) at all?

Shipping has been a massive part of Pokémon for a long time, so I'm interested to see how fans here feel!

The Sevii Islands ship. Travels between islands so fast.

No. Requires fairly conspicuous, repeated romantic thoughts to think that. Must be mutual and/or have similar personalities as well. (Would never pair Brock with Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny, for that reason.) Brushes off it as a one-off blip or joke otherwise.

Sets a pretty high bar in general, though. Forgets people bother with relationships from time to time.

I'm not.
Idc about this sort of stuff tbh.

I like shipping, but not in Pokémon.

I guess I never think of the characters romantically since they're:
1) kids
2) behave like kids

(as opposed to stuff like say, Avatar where theoretically speaking they're all early teens but they behave more like young adults than anything).

I guess shipping might make more sense in different aspects of the franchise like the Manga, but as far the game goes I don't think anybody has a strong enough personality to tickle the shipping bug and as far as the anime goes they're kinda too childish.

nah, shipping was never really my thing

sure, in the anime i still stan ash x dawn i think (ash x serena was So Artificial and not my cup of tea)
he and dawn are like awesome best buds, which could totes translate to a healthy fun relationship if they'd age (which ofc they won't, rip)

in the manga, i avidly supported red x misty because i didnt think red x yellow was as sweet tbh. it's even canon that misty likes him, come on ;; the hoenn couples are ofc cute af too (the gym leaders getting married, and the protags obviously) and sure, dia x berlitz was cute (idr if it was explicitly stated that dia liked her or if it was reciprocated though) but pearl is my fav sinnoh char so i felt like it wasn't very interesting if they paired the other two up lol.

didnt see any reason to ship characters directly from the games.

Yes. I ship Red x Green (from a Sun/Moon standpoint where they're already adults), Maylene x Candice, Flint x Volkner (from every form of media they're in), Wallace x Steven, and am keen on the idea of Ash and Misty marrying when they're adults someday. Also, Dawn and Zoey are future girlfriends.

For the manga, I liked the progression of Ruby x Sapphire being "two kids liking eachother" but thought Viz Media tamed the scene too much. Let kids tell each other they "like them" as in like like, lmfao. It's not that deep.

Not really, though I do enjoy Ruby and Sapphire (Adventures).

Me x Cynthia

Fairy said:

Me x Cynthia

Click to expand...

I approve of this, I also approve of me x Steven ❤️

But yes, I can understand the view that most characters are young and pairing them might not be for everyone. Personally I still enjoy pairings like Drew x May, they're around the same age and the character dynamic is really cute!

Being a hopeless romantic in my youth, I had a phase where I adored shipping fictional characters. That absolutely included Pokemon.

I don't care much nowadays, but I used to ship Red x Yellow and Ruby x Sapphire in the Pokemon Adventures manga, Nate x Yancy in the games (BW2), and Ash x Serena in the anime (yes I'm basic. Sue me).

I recall reading several fanfiction about those ships lmao.

Eh, I don't give shipping that much importance nowadays. Mainly because I tend to shun the most popular ships in the fandom in favor of rarepairs (e.g. Alola MC/Zossie and Alola MC/Ilima over Alola MC/Lillie) and the fans can get a little too extreme about the whole business.

Self-shipping though? That's another story. Not going into detail about that but I've dropped some hints here~ 💜

Shipping is ok I guess. I don't do it. But shipping characters that in no way are meant to be romantic or of that orientation and using kids from anime to do this is absolutely disgusting. In anime's like MHA it already has gone way too far thus it being cringe and smelly. They ship characters which in no way are attracted or oriented to each other and they want to change their orientation to make more ships plus making ships for adults and kids is horrible.

Well, I tend to approach the stories of Pokemon games (at least, the ones I like the most) in a very fandom-y way, thinking about the details of the characters' personalities and roles and "headcanoning" pretty much everything I can, so theoretically I'm exactly the type who would be a shipper, but the whole concept of romance is basically a big ??? to me so it's not an angle that comes up often. My feelings on most ships basically amount to I see value in that idea but hold little attachment to it. But there are definitely a few random ones that I just happen to like more, for some reason.

One pairing idea that I think is really good but haven't seen anyone else talk about (like, I think I might have actually been the first to come up with it, haha): Hau x Zossie!! I know they don't have that much interaction in the game (or, uh, make that no interaction in the version of the game I actually played), but their personalities are so similar. It'd just be the sweetest thing, to me, for these two absolute beams of sunshine to come together across literal different worlds 🥺

I haven't finished the storyline of Legends Arceus yet, so maybe I'll feel differently at some point, but man, I immediately went all in on Akari x Rei (as player character and NPC respectively) from the first time they talked 😅

Probably my first ever Pokemon ship was Dawn x Zoey. It's been so long since I've watched the Sinnoh anime at all, but I've still held on to that one.

Also, I am (lightheartedly) disappointed in the lack of Pokemon x Pokemon ships in this thread! Some pairings that I've explored, from my teams in the games (because I can't play without making up whole personalities and stories for them) or just in general fannish ideas, include
*Roserade x Luxray
*Samurott x Seismitoad
*Gardevoir x Banette (It may be more subtle on Gardevoir's end, but because they are both ~spooky~ 👻 )
*Dracozolt x Aurorus
*Glaceon x Jolteon (My cringy childhood ocs 🥺)
*Trubbish x Yamask (...Too weird? I mean, they're in the same egg group 🤷)
*Manaphy x Diancie
*Uxie x Cresselia (See, more people ship Cresselia x Darkrai if we're talking about Pokemon pairings, but I feel like the embodiment of dreams x a personification of intellect and logic is just as interesting of an opposites-attract dynamic)
*Solgaleo x Lunala, but only when it's Nebby's parents 🥺