How do you think shipping has affected the pokemon fanbase?

[Skittymew]

Okay, so maybe I fooled you into entering this thread. Good. I have to do a report using expository writing, and I'm choosing to do it on pokemon-shipping to be specific. Can you help me?
So, my topic is "How do you think shipping has affected the pokemon fanbase?"
Please reply soon, and I will greatly appreciate it!

Please reply!

 

[Insanish Danish]

Just a heads up, multiple posts in a row are not allowed.

Anyway, carry on.

 

[みさあき]

copy and paste time from spp-shipping lol

Well, shipping in most fanbases is often looked down upon because others don't see why paring two characters who are fictional is so important. I see it more so in the Pokemon world but it's kinda sad actually. If you pair X with Y, the fans who are hardcore fans of Z and Y are going to attack. At the same time though, I have been in three different fandoms and I found that this fandom as pretty lenient when it comes to paring.

Spoiler

Example would be that I can say that I don't support popular shippings like poke, contest, whatever and people are cool with it. I can ship one of my favorite characters (which is Jupiter, she's awesome) with a team rocket grunt and there would be no backlash from the people who ship her with say... Cyrus or Saturn. However, take the Sonic fandom. My favorite character is Silver and I often ship him with Blaze. However the people who ship her with Sonic would say that I want her to be a damsel character and start raging like hell. Which is why I stopped shipping actively.

 

[The Master]

i guess that it change it a lot because it was once a normal pacific fanbase for one game, until pokeshipping vs palletshipping became, then the fanbase went into a chaotic war that only got worse with tracey and brock involve, then gen 3 kick in and the war became worst because of may and thus advances vs contest shipping began (btw im an advanceshipper myself), but gen 4 came and pearlshipper come to life and with more enemies, now that we are currently at gen 5 there's a hell lot of shippings in it to even count and until the shippings become canon the war is not gonna end, it may not be as violent as poke vs palet but it's still there

 

[Araragi-hakase]

I changed the thread's topic to the actual topic to try and generate more discussion

 

[Likeitornot.]

This is one intriguing topic and I know I won't be able to answer it fully, not having been there at the start of the acknowledgement of fans shipping in Pokemon. When this sort of question is presented, I can safely bet that some people will instantly recall bashing, baiting, shipping wars, flaming, and all sorts of prejudice from one shipper to another. I'm not going to even attempt to pretend that doesn't exist, it does, but I'm going to observe some positives, which people tend to overlook at times. In fairness to the fandom, the shipping wars have been cut down immensely, and debates are held a bit more formally now.

Firstly, though, a huge positive in shipping is... the friends you make! To find someone who understands the whole concept of shipping, to find an ally in your support of a certain couple is something treasured. As a thread states, Pokemon shippers don't tend to be fond of their ship standing alone, and I concur with that. Having someone to bounce off ideas about shipping is really fun, as just because you ship the same ship, doesn't necessarily mean you ship it for the same reasons. Also, about making friends in shipping; don't think I mean you only make mates in the shippings you support! That's a bit insular. No, even I have a friend who despises my OTP and would crush it with an Iron fist if they could, and enemies who adore the same ship as I do. I don't mind that; there's much more to the person than the ship, after all, and shipping makes me see that. Unfortunately, with others, this is very much in reverse. Oh well.

Another one is- open minds! Shipping has lead me to see all the possibilites in all the couples, so that I comprehend why people ship the ships do. Every shipping is unique, and it's caused me to see that love itself is different in different couples. And different combinations in love- have very different, but pleasant results! I always think that if everyone shipped the same shipping with a mutual consensus on it, shipping would just be cumbersome. Rival shippings are very interesting, and they offer different points of view on their ship and yours. And that's what makes shipping your ship all the more special. Especially that Pokemon isn't a media that'll easily allow for your ship to become canon, and that's really great- all the main cast Anime shippings, in their own way, have an equal (well, equal enough) chance, 'cause... none are going to be canon anytime soon, hate to shock you.

Now, to the fandom as a whole; shipping has allowed such creativity! I know there's some people in our Fandom, who wouldn't bother with a single fanfiction if there wasn't some to ship, and I'm glad there is for them! Even with poor authors, I'm still happy they attempt due to shipping. And such fanart, aaah! People's skills have improved immensely, because they keep drawing their shippings, and seeing how others draw them. Ship names, believe it or not, take some skills sometimes.

And, really, the thrills of shipping! Whenever I'm sad and lonely, I rewatch one shippy episode, and it does cheer me up, seeing the interactions of my favourite couples and making theories based on them.

There are a few more cons than just shipping wars (sometimes getting our facts wrong, oops) but I think generally, Pokemon's a pretty great fandom to be in if you're a shipper.

 

[Archaic]

Shipping has had an incredible impact on the Pokémon fanbase over the years. Back in the day, shipping was one of the 4 pillars of the fandom alongside anime, video games and TCG. It was really that massive.
(For a time, ASB/PASBL was arguably a 5th pillar alongside it, featuring many of the same faces amongst its upper echelons. Though it lasted in that position for maybe only 18-24 months before diminishing, it did spawn a greater interest in forum RPG's which continues to this day.)

Due in part to their high levels of constant activity (shippers always had something to talk about, even when others were bored between game generations with nothing but filler anime episodes and Wizard's crap handling of the TCG), and in part because shippers tended to skew towards the older age brackets of the online fandom of the time, shippers disproportionately ended up in positions of power in the fandom at about the same time that shipping was falling off its pillar. Many of the people who joined me in bringing back Bulbagarden, as well as substantial numbers of mods and admins at other popular fansites of the area, were either shippers or ex-shippers.

 

[Ashfangirl22]

Well, gives people some thing to talk about when its not the league or gym battles or Evil team arcs I guess. Some fandom hate the idea of shipping cuz whenever an episode about two characters get an episode people think of shipping, than they talk and talk and talk about that pairing for hours in threads. Others hate it cuz shipping Wars can get bad, Pokeshipping V.S Advancedshipping V.S Pearlshipping comes to mind. For me, I enjoy shipping Ash pairings the best so I don't mind it.

 

[Antiyonder]

Yeah I can appreciate that some people handle it wrong and telling them off, but don't think the entire thing needs to die off.

1. Some of us ship characters regardless of character ages and while I will talk a bit more of it in the second point, yes some people do questionable art/fics with pairs that are young.

But beyond that sometimes shipping is sometimes based on more emotional reasons or just the cuteness factor.

2. Controversial opinions

Long story short you'd arguably have to avoid the Pokémon anime if you like to distance yourself from certain fandoms/franchises for reasons of stigmatism. At least some shipping material can be innocent, whereas Beauty and the Beach can't.

Especially a certain moment even made worse in the English Dub.

3. Can't speak for anyone but myself, but even in the appropriate genre with older characters yeah the usual ship teases (will they/won't they) are still the go to approach. I'd argue the heavy shipping is just as much a reaction to lack of supply and demand. Cause if you want material with little to no romance you have arguably more options.

 

[Revolutionary Girl]

For my part, as one of those shippers from way back when, I’m surprised to see that it’s gone so quiet lately. I suspect the wide variety of ships available now has diluted the fandom a bit, and people now have their spaces where they go and just ship rather than arguing about it. (I have always thought that that’s the healthiest way, btw, and the Eldershippers were always like that: y’all do you and we’ll do us. YMMV.)

of course, if everyone had a COVID reawakening as I did, things may pick up?

 

[LusterPurge]

For my part, as one of those shippers from way back when, I’m surprised to see that it’s gone so quiet lately. I suspect the wide variety of ships available now has diluted the fandom a bit, and people now have their spaces where they go and just ship rather than arguing about it. (I have always thought that that’s the healthiest way, btw, and the Eldershippers were always like that: y’all do you and we’ll do us. YMMV.)

of course, if everyone had a COVID reawakening as I did, things may pick up?

Well, in my case it didn't have much to do with COVID, but other personal circumstances that brought me back to watching anime, pick up fanfiction writing, and then re-visiting Pokemon shipping, and this website, as my first fanfics were about Morpheusshipping.

I guess old 'shippers' don't die, they just fade away... But as you and I seem to prove, can also fade back into this dimension. ;-)

 

[Daenerys]

Honestly even since its inception shipping has been a double edged sword. Right now we're in a period where shipping doesn't seem that big compared to how it was years ago but I still remember the shipping debates that raged on several Pokemon forums.

Unfortunately some other people who still remember those flame wars continue to fan the flames even to this day on social media. It sucks that people can't just like their ship without having to bash another ship, but alas.

 

[Antiyonder]

As an aside if I'm not misinformed, shipping has been done since Star Trek fanzines from the 70s and the term starting in the 90s with X-Files fans.

 

[ii kanji]

I always thought closing the original shipping threads (because they were too active LOL) effectively killed off this subforum. Maybe they should all get remerged? *runs*

It is interesting though how shipping (and fandom in general I suppose) has evolved with the development of social media. Most people are now sharing 280 characters or less, or at best a printscreen of a long musing. But where is the dialogue? I know a few of my Rocketshipping friends (a ragtag bunch: some from this forum, some from Twitter/Tumblr) are now on a Whatsapp group and much is discussed like that, maybe it's the same within other ships?

However that form of communication is very exclusive. You can choose to ignore voices you don't like so much including the shipping naysayers. I guess that level of curation of fandom experience might make life easier in the short term, but in the longer term I feel like it prevents you from opening your mind to other viewpoints and talking to the kind of people you never otherwise would. (I also frequently see low-level Advanceshippers vs Pearlshippers type crap on Twitter so that bullshit clearly never went away...)

 

[LusterPurge]

Forums are becoming less and less popular. Which imho opinion is a shame, since it offers a nice way to discuss things. Discord might be more dynamic but also more chaotic if multiple people try to vent their opinions at once, it can easily bocome like a discussion without any direction

 

[Cybersai]

For my part, as one of those shippers from way back when, I’m surprised to see that it’s gone so quiet lately. I suspect the wide variety of ships available now has diluted the fandom a bit, and people now have their spaces where they go and just ship rather than arguing about it. (I have always thought that that’s the healthiest way, btw, and the Eldershippers were always like that: y’all do you and we’ll do us. YMMV.)

of course, if everyone had a COVID reawakening as I did, things may pick up?

Because most people don't post on forums anymore and they're on twitter and tumblr instead.

Forums started dying somewhere around 2013-2014ish and they never really recovered. Pretty much every major forum I've been to that has existed since the early 2000's is pretty much on life support these days since all the old users are now gone and younger people don't come here but go to social media instead. And it's not that Pokemon or the anime isn't popular, it still is, there's tons of discussion on twitter, tumblr or even reddit....but you have to go to those places to see it.

 

[LusterPurge]

Because most people don't post on forums anymore and they're on twitter and tumblr instead.

Forums started dying somewhere around 2013-2014ish and they never really recovered. Pretty much every major forum I've been to that has existed since the early 2000's is pretty much on life support these days since all the old users are now gone and younger people don't come here but go to social media instead. And it's not that Pokemon or the anime isn't popular, it still is, there's tons of discussion on twitter, tumblr or even reddit....but you have to go to those places to see it.

True. But retrieving something on these more popular media is often a pain. I still like a forum better, just like I prefer email over short whatsapp messages. Guess I'm getting old, lol.

 

[Cybersai]

It is interesting though how shipping (and fandom in general I suppose) has evolved with the development of social media. Most people are now sharing 280 characters or less, or at best a printscreen of a long musing. But where is the dialogue? I know a few of my Rocketshipping friends (a ragtag bunch: some from this forum, some from Twitter/Tumblr) are now on a Whatsapp group and much is discussed like that, maybe it's the same within other ships?

Seems shippers just like posting pics from old episodes or fanart now with a quote. Probably because on social media you can't type as much as on a forum. So yeah I agree conversation is more limited.

However that form of communication is very exclusive. You can choose to ignore voices you don't like so much including the shipping naysayers. I guess that level of curation of fandom experience might make life easier in the short term, but in the longer term I feel like it prevents you from opening your mind to other viewpoints and talking to the kind of people you never otherwise would. (I also frequently see low-level Advanceshippers vs Pearlshippers type crap on Twitter so that bullshit clearly never went away...)

I'm surprised you see the latter, I mostly just come across some Pokeshipping vs. Amour arguments for obvious reasons, (probably doesn't help a lot of these Amour shippers are young teens who are in the fandom for the first time, so to them this is their first experience with this as opposed to us older fans around from the early 2000's) but I don't really see anything about the other girls anymore. Weirdly enough I see some sort of joined unity now between Misty and May/Dawn fans, I even see a lot of pokeshippers say they like pearlshipping now, and that's definitely not how I remember things were back when DP was originally airing. Likewise besides 1 certain person there who commisions people to draw her Misty/Dawn art, I see most Misty fans also really like May (besides people outside the fandom like that random person on twitter I posted in the blog section who went on a rant against May for no reason, lol).

Besides some people who still can't get over Misty being "replaced" (and we're in the year 2021 now, so anyone who spent the last 20 years angry about this probably needs bigger priorities in their life since I know most of these people are like 30 year old adults now) , I think for the most part female ship wars are over. Again besides the new younger gen of teen fans who grew up with XY, but they'll probably improve as the years go on like older fans did.

 

[LusterPurge]

I stick to my favorite shipping, even though I think all other ships have some good points, and I will respect these.

Btw, totally unrelated, but the banner in my signature started showing up again. When I first returned here, it would not show, no matter how much I refreshed the page.