[Spoilers] Shipping Discussions

[danjuno]

PokeShipper here.

With that out of the way, I agree with Anna and Lizardo that an Ash-containing ship will never be canon. The only recurring characters that have a chance are irrelevant to the story arch or have been obsoleted. And in even that unlikely case, it'll probably be a case of them quickly reappearing, hooking up, and vanishing back into the abyss.

 

[Famon]

A scene from Date episode---

Spoiler:

 

[Spinor]

Can't wait till that frame comes out in HD so that the artist can realize how big he drew Serena's left boob.

"Sorry Serena, but that's the real reason I don't want to go on a date. That looks really creepy."

 

[Aquacorde]

A scene from Date episode---

Spoiler:

how many times do i have to tell you to source your ****ing fanart it is not difficult
[source]

i'm warily anticipating this episode like. i enjoy the fact that amourshipping is canonically one-sided and i love that people are shipping again bc of it (or out of spite who knows). but i don't want a canon ash ship just noooooo we all know the reason pokeani shipping is fun is bc of the wars over ash's true significant other

 

[Lizardo]

The worst-case scenario is that Satoshi shows some small, subtle sign that he might possibly like Serena back, but I wouldn't count on it. If there's one element the writers have been very consistent on regarding Satoshi's characterization, it's that he's really oblivious when it comes to this kind of thing and I don't see that changing. Amourshipping only really works on a one-sided basis, anyway. While Satoshi values Serena as a friend, the writers have given no believable reason as to why he would suddenly start liking her and nothing about their dynamic convinces me that they're interested in doing so.

And are shipping wars still a thing? Because AG was really fun for those.

 

[precita]

And are shipping wars still a thing? Because AG was really fun for those.

That was only because of a few reasons:

1) During AG we weren't exactly sure if Misty was gone for good yet. Also Misty still made cameos in AG (unlike every following series) so Pokeshippers still had some things to cling to

2) Advanceshipping was the first big alternate ship to Pokeshipping, and a lot of male fans latched onto it. At the time we also didn't know May was going to leave after one generation, so it seemed like a bigger deal back than compared to now.

3) Contestshipping started to get really blatant toward late Hoenn and Battle Frontier, so we had a huge ship that essentially rivaled Advanceshipping. No other female companion had two huge popular ships like May did again.


By the time DP started and we realized the formula of the show, a lot of the shipping wars died down. People paired Dawn with virtually everyone, Ash, Zoey, Kenny, Paul, Conway, Gary...etc. and nobody really cared. Misty never appeared in DP so Pokeshipping had nothing really new or anything to talk about. We saw May's rivals in the Wallace Cup but that was also it.


Its actually kind of funny in retrospect that when DP began people thought Misty was going to appear and meet Dawn, or that Pearlshipping was becoming a big thing. Very silly looking back on all of it now.

 

[Famon]

I don't care Amourshipping not becoming canon if Pearlshipping become a Canon instate ! Ash & Dawn are like true partner helping each other in reaching their dream.
Its a shame that Pearlshipping didn't canon from ether side because of a whining Childhood friend named Kenny.

Can't wait till that frame comes out in HD so that the artist can realize how big he drew Serena's left boob.

"Sorry Serena, but that's the real reason I don't want to go on a date. That looks really creepy."

Isn't Serena already confirmed to be a ''C'' !

 

[Aquacorde]

PearlShipping is huge tho like it may not be a huge war starter but it's super popular.

famon what the hell i would love to know where the canon has provided us serena's measurements

 

[precita]

Pearlshipping feels like something the writers could have done but chose not to. I think the writers made it clear they just wanted Ash and Dawn to be close friends, and Dawn was almost as platonic to love as Ash was.

The writers make it blatantly obvious when a character has a crush on another (Misty in Kanto, or Serena now), and there was never really any strong indication Dawn liked Ash. It was really just want shippers wanted to see.

I can understand why people would really like Pearlshipping though, but its rather obvious the writers didn't write Dawn with a canon crush on Ash.

 

[Aquacorde]

That's very very true, and I actually really love close, platonic guy-girl relationships. But that's like, straight up asking for people to ship them. Which I don't mind either; shipping is completely a fan thing. Like, whether the intent is there on the part of the writers doesn't matter a ton to shippers- people can read anything however they want (even if they are completely wrong and disproven by canon a hundred times over). So people were really on board with Pearl if they chose to read it romantically or as an amazing friendship that could turn romantic.

tbh I really enjoy the fact that one-sided crushes have been featured? like, it's just a thing that girls are into the whole romance thing way earlier than guys are. and the girls have all been about the right age for that ~budding love~ thing and it's just very true to reality that they have a lil crush and the guy of the same age has no damn clue.

I'm still gonna put in the disclaimer that I'm an equal-opportunity shipper and also do things like simultaneously headcanon Ash as aro-ace and use him as a shipping bicycle~~

 

[Lizardo]

Meh, canon is overrated. The big draws of shipping to me are the fanart, fanfiction, etc. and two characters don't need to actually be in love for stuff like that.

The thing that attracts me to Pearlshipping is how well Satoshi and Hikari work together just as strictly platonic friends as they would if they were love interests. They clearly don't see each other as anything more than friends in canon, but they were also close enough that it's not hard to create something romantic out of them (ex. the episode where they trained Glion). Of all the "Satoshi/main girl" pairings, I find Pearlshipping to easily be the most believable, even if Satoshi and Hikari don't actually feel anything romantic for each other. Amourshipping works only as a one-sided pairing (IMHO; granted, it can work really well like that - it's the only other "Satoshi/main girl" pairing I like), I could never see anything that would bring Satoshi to like Haruka or Iris or vice vera, so I can't really buy into Advanceshipping or Negaishipping, and I just don't care for Pokéshipping.

That was only because of a few reasons:

1) During AG we weren't exactly sure if Misty was gone for good yet. Also Misty still made cameos in AG (unlike every following series) so Pokeshippers still had some things to cling to

2) Advanceshipping was the first big alternate ship to Pokeshipping, and a lot of male fans latched onto it. At the time we also didn't know May was going to leave after one generation, so it seemed like a bigger deal back than compared to now.

3) Contestshipping started to get really blatant toward late Hoenn and Battle Frontier, so we had a huge ship that essentially rivaled Advanceshipping. No other female companion had two huge popular ships like May did again.

I dunno. I feel like Pearlshipping and Ikarishipping could be right up there with both of those, but that's just me.

In any case, you pretty much nailed why I got into Advanceshipping during that time. For someone who didn't care for Kasumi or Pokéshipping (and still doesn't) and wanted a potential Satoshi pairing that didn't involve either her or Shigeru, Advanceshipping was a much-appreciated alternative. Plus, the relationship between Satoshi and Haruka was new and fresh and I preferred it to Satoshi and Kasumi's. But I started losing interest near the end of the Battle Frontier.

By the time DP started and we realized the formula of the show, a lot of the shipping wars died down. People paired Dawn with virtually everyone, Ash, Zoey, Kenny, Paul, Conway, Gary...etc. and nobody really cared. Misty never appeared in DP so Pokeshipping had nothing really new or anything to talk about. We saw May's rivals in the Wallace Cup but that was also it.

This is true. But even without the shipping wars or a major pairing like Pokéshipping or Contestshipping that had hints to back it up, I feel like DP was a high point for the anime's shipping fandom in general for the reason you just mentioned. The greater amount of recurring characters meant a greater variety of pairings. Pearlshipping, Ikarishipping, Penguinshipping, Appealshipping, Comashipping, HeatTagShipping, Cavaliershipping (this is the Hikari-Shigeru one, right?), Morpheusshipping, SapphirePearlshipping, FireRedShipping, Againstshipping... in addition to the older stuff like Pokéshipping, Contestshipping, Advanceshipping, and Palletshipping. There were a lot of pairings coming out of there, and I remember a few of them actually having a decent amount of support.

Its actually kind of funny in retrospect that when DP began people thought Misty was going to appear and meet Dawn, or that Pearlshipping was becoming a big thing. Very silly looking back on all of it now.

In Kasumi's case, I can understand why. She did make a few AG appearances, briefly showed up in one of the DP openings, and the writers did bring Shigeru back so it wasn't impossible. People still thinking she's going to make some kind of grand anime appearance now (as opposed to maybe getting an episode or two for nostalgia's sake and then disappearing again) are really kidding themselves, though.

 

[precita]

This is true. But even without the shipping wars or a major pairing like Pokéshipping or Contestshipping that had hints to back it up, I feel like DP was a high point for the anime's shipping fandom in general for the reason you just mentioned. The greater amount of recurring characters meant a greater variety of pairings. Pearlshipping, Ikarishipping, Penguinshipping, Appealshipping, Comashipping, HeatTagShipping, Cavaliershipping (this is the Hikari-Shigeru one, right?), Morpheusshipping, SapphirePearlshipping, FireRedShipping, Againstshipping... in addition to the older stuff like Pokéshipping, Contestshipping, Advanceshipping, and Palletshipping. There were a lot of pairings coming out of there, and I remember a few of them actually having a decent amount of support.

Yeah, but most of those Dawn shippings were never as popular as the other shippings. You can't say Dawn/Gary, Dawn/Kenny, or Dawn/Conway were ever "really popular" on the level of Poke, Contest, etc. And Ikarishipping was just a total crack ship since Dawn and Paul barely ever interacted in DP.

The only two Dawn shippings I felt that got popular was Pearlshipping and Appealshipping. A lot of people shipped Dawn with Zoey back when DP first started, even though I think most dropped it as DP progressed. And I feel the only reason Pearl got as big as it did was because DP didn't have a Contestshipping equivilant, I mean I suppose Kenny was supposed to be that but he was rather unpopular so Penguinshipping barely took off.

Nowadays due to Amour, I feel like Pearlshipping has really fallen under the radar. I feel like Pearlshipping now is the same way Advanceshipping was when DP was airing. It still has its fans, but its nowhere near as big as it used to be. Amourshipping overshadowed everything else completely. In fact it feels like people have completely moved on from Ash/Dawn's interactions because now they see Serena's heavy crush on Ash to be more interesting.

As for Pokeshipping, most of those people haven't watched the anime in years and still don't. They'll continue to support Pokeshipping simply because Misty was the only girl they paid attention to. I don't think most Pokeshippers even watched DP either, they just kept up with news in case Misty appeared but didn't bother. I think most of them stopped following the anime when AG ended.

 

[Famon]

Serena's Mom is a Shipper --

 

[Alfieri]

how many times do i have to tell you to source your ****ing fanart it is not difficult

r00d

Can't wait till that frame comes out in HD so that the artist can realize how big he drew Serena's left boob.

"Sorry Serena, but that's the real reason I don't want to go on a date. That looks really creepy."

It could be that her boobs are just shifting since he's leaning towards the left.
I am very interested to watch that episode though. I haven't touched the XY anime in a few months but I doubt that will confuse me from whatever causes them to go on their date in the first place.

 

[Aquacorde]

r00d

What's rude is not crediting artists for their work. Do not even start.

 

[Alfieri]

What's rude is not crediting artists for their work. Do not even start.

Not like he's saying that he created the fanart. He never claimed it as his own. Not to mention the artists name is on the fanart itself.

 

[Aquacorde]

Not like he's saying that he created the fanart. He never claimed it as his own. Not to mention the artists name is on the fanart itself.

That does not matter; the polite and really very necessary thing to do is put the source on what you are using. Please do not join a conversation you are not a part of; this is not the first time I have asked him to source his art and I have been hella polite the last twenty or so times. If you continue to discuss this we will be even more off topic than we already are and our posts will be deleted. Good day.

 

[Wobbu]

A person who uploads their art on the Internet is aware of content theft and should expect it to happen. That is why they will sign their art if they are that worried about it. Sourcing something that isn't yours is the right thing to do, but arguing over what a person should be doing is not.

Regardless of whether or not a person is citing their sources, we're talking about shipping in this thread. :V

Going by what Famon said, I do not think Serena's mom is a shipper. That just seems so out of place. But given how the season has been treating Ash and Serena, I wouldn't be surprised if Serena's mom did eventually set them up on a date later on lmao

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I don't ship much, but I do love seeing it in shows. Apparently there is a possible 'Lost' arc coming where Serena loses her memory. If this is true, this could have a very very huge impact on Ash x Serena. However, this could also make her not remember she liked Ash and the shipping could completely die. This was form someone who apparently reveals stuff right before it is announce in the anime. However, it is just a rumor, remember that.

 

[kartöflur]

Psh what are you all talking about Ash totally digs Clemont.

Though it's very unlikely that Pokémon would put Ash in a gay ship, or a ship of any sorts, Ash and Clemont are pretty much bros. I think it's been said somewhere that Ash isn't a fan of the huggy-wuggy stuff (not sure?) but either the writers forgot this or he is 100% fine with huggy-wuggin' Clemont. It's probably a bromance that the fangirls (me) interpret as more than it is, but I'm fine with that haha.

Don't get me started on HeatTagShipping though. Conway totally has a thing for Dawn and Dawn has shown some signs of liking him back, though it could've just been out of embarrassment...

wow I feel like a teenage girl gossiping about all of the latest teenage romance drama in her school