• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Ships you dislike

There are quite a few that I don’t like.

Ikarishipping. I have never been able to understand how some Ikarishippers can claim that Paul loves Dawn when he never even gave her the time of the day. No, just no.

Amourshipping. Serena’s crush on Ash was forced into our faces for so many episode and that just completely turned me off this ship.

Geekchicshipping. Yeah, I’m no Amourshipper but I also don’t like GeekChicshipping as well. I have never saw the appeal in this ship, to be honest. Plus, Clemont and Serena did not interact enough for me to see this as a plausible ship.
 
ComaShipping; I really do not like Paul nor do I see Ash ever being with him romantically plus his attitude reminds me WAY too much of one of my exs. So this ship is an automatic no to me.
Caroline x Norman. I'm sorry but after watching 'Petalburg, Love Style" just... her general treatment of Norman, turning her kids and Kenny against him, acting like a child and not bothering to talk with him like an actual adult just left a horrible taste in my mouth. He deserves better.
 
Pokeshipping: Misty having a crush on Ash is only stated in the dub. Besides I think Misty likes to tase Ash and that is it.
All the aloloan girls x Ash shippings: I just feel like Ash and the Aloloan girl dont do much together.
Advancedshipping: May and Drew fit more.
Ash x Miette: Miette is way to bossy.
 
I don't find Ash very shippable and support a theory that he's aromantic. Like, has he ever shown interest in anyone romantically? (Not that I think about that a lot. He's annoying.)
 
I'm going to bring a non-Pokémon ship into this, partially because I don't have any strong opinions on most Pokémon ships and partially because there was nothing in the OP stating I can't.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not usually one to ship canon relationships. There are a few reasons for this -- most of which aren't worth expanding upon here -- but the most important one, I think, is a matter of character dynamic. All too often, a canon romantic relationship ends up being between one person who is complex and well developed, and one that doesn't have much of an identity beyond "love interest." (There are exceptions to this dynamic, of course, and I've got a small handful of canon couples that even I will stan.) The comic book industry in particular is bad about this, in my opinion, and it's made all the more egregious by the fact that the same underdeveloped romance will remain, unchanging, in canon for decades.

Here's the meat of the issue: I am a Stucky (Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes) shipper. Steve Roger's canon love interest is Peggy Carter, and I hate it.

I'm going to come at this from an MCU standpoint, because that's the continuity with which I am most familiar. From Captain America, through Captain America: Winter Soldier, and right through Captain America: Civil War, Bucky has been the single most important figure of Steve's life. It was the fact that Bucky's squadron got captured that drove him to take action as Captain America for the first time. Bucky's death was a motivating factor in Steve's resolve to vanquish Hydra the first time, and his resurrection and enslavement was a factor in him taking them down a second time. When Steve ultimately failed to break through his programming, he was willing to die at Bucky's hands rather than fight him. When Zemo orchestrates the events of Civil War -- framing Bucky for the death of T'challa's father --Steve defies the UN to protect Bucky. Steve puts his faith in Bucky and stands by him, even when it means Tony walks away from him. Bucky defines Steve's character arc.

And then Endgame happened.

(So, I'm going to put the next bit into spoilers, just in case someone hasn't seen the movie yet.)

At the very end of Endgame, Steve goes back in time, and chooses to stay there, and live his life with Peggy. He ages into the modern day, returning to his friends as an old man. He made the decision to abandon all of his other loved ones, including Bucky, making the cost-benefit analysis that 60-ish years with her, was worth 60-ish years without everyone else. Without Bucky.

Why? Bucky drove his entire character arc, but Peggy means more to him? Without meaning to disparage her -- she's a snazzy lady and I actually like her a lot -- what did she actually contribute to his story, other than a love interest? What bearing did she actually have on his emotional and personal growth, other than some really creepy projection upon her great niece? There was a lot of lip service to her importance, lots of shots of her photo in his compass, but no substance to their relationship. But she gets to win his heart, because... it's canon? And somehow, for some reason, we can't ever change the canon.

The way it got handled disheartened me so much that I really don't consider myself an MCU fan anymore.

 
Amourshipping since it was one-sided in the anime and it's hard for me to take it seriously after the way that it was shilled for so long with no actual payoff other than an off-screen kiss. Also, I can't stand Ikarishipping because Paul and Dawn had zero chemistry.
 
Also, I can't stand Ikarishipping because Paul and Dawn had zero chemistry.

Ikarishipping was never really much a thing, people just ran to it because in Roark's Gym, Dawn got angry when Paul forgot her name. And this was in early DP before we knew Dawn and Paul would barely interact and Paul would ignore her existence for the rest of DP. For some reason back in 2007 people thought Dawn and Paul were going to have this "bickering friendship/rivalry" I guess similar to Ash/Misty or May/Drew...I have no idea why given Paul wasn't even Dawn's rival. It also didn't help they were the first two DP characters revealed, so people just shipped them for that reason. I remember a lot of Pokeshippers shipping it because they thought it'd be the next Contestshipping or something.

I don't care for Penguinshipping either for the same token. Even though Kenny is boring in general, his whole forced crush on Dawn and trying to get her to like him was pathetic, especially in his last episode at the end of DP, the one Jasmine came back in.

Dawn ships were kinda crazy in general in the DP era, because Dawn didn't seem to have a canon ship like a lot of other girls had, so people shipped Dawn with virtually everyone under the sun.
 
Forgive me, Arceus, for I have sinned ...

Rocketshipping. I'm sorry, I know its dead popular, but James is gay y'all.

And I'm hardly an anime expert, but I just don't see the support for it (and this is coming from someone who ships Morty/Falker).
 
Pokeshipping : it existed only because misty was the only female companion, this happens in every show ,like in Ben 10 , everyone was shipping ben and gwen because she was the fans' possible target,seriously.... I see no reason for this ship to exist
The only ash x girl shippings that looks acceptable are: pearlshipping ,aureliashipping(just acceptable) and amourshipping : I don't understand why people cared about serena's clear hints and ignore ash's hints, and as proved by writers , it's a canon
 
Pokeshipping : it existed only because misty was the only female companion, this happens in every show ,like in Ben 10 , everyone was shipping ben and gwen because she was the fans' possible target,seriously.... I see no reason for this ship to exist

Well the anime was originally intended to end after Kanto, as you said, most kids shows do have a romance between the main male and female characters. Hence why Misty's crush was a thing before the writers realized the show would go on for decades and never end. So Misty's crush died down in Johto, got one last hurrah in her goodbye ep, and then they moved on. Her AG cameos had no shipping, the SM ones could have had some depending on how you see the SM blushes, etc.

Overall though with it being obvious Misty would never make a return to the cast, the writers had to cast it aside. I think a lot of people made the mistake in assuming Misty would return to the show permanently, especially a decade ago back when AG/DP were airing, so that's where a lot of the speculation of Misty/Pokeshipping happening came from. Instead people should have realized the writers were moving on, most people even knew from the start by the time we were about a year into Hoenn that Misty wasn't going to return.
 
Ikarishipping was never really much a thing, people just ran to it because in Roark's Gym, Dawn got angry when Paul forgot her name. And this was in early DP before we knew Dawn and Paul would barely interact and Paul would ignore her existence for the rest of DP. For some reason back in 2007 people thought Dawn and Paul were going to have this "bickering friendship/rivalry" I guess similar to Ash/Misty or May/Drew...I have no idea why given Paul wasn't even Dawn's rival. It also didn't help they were the first two DP characters revealed, so people just shipped them for that reason. I remember a lot of Pokeshippers shipping it because they thought it'd be the next Contestshipping or something.

I don't care for Penguinshipping either for the same token. Even though Kenny is boring in general, his whole forced crush on Dawn and trying to get her to like him was pathetic, especially in his last episode at the end of DP, the one Jasmine came back in.

Dawn ships were kinda crazy in general in the DP era, because Dawn didn't seem to have a canon ship like a lot of other girls had, so people shipped Dawn with virtually everyone under the sun.
God, Ikarishipping's popularity long outlived its natural life. I think 2 things contributed:

1. Shipping in Pokeani was taken a lot more seriously then than it is now. Everything and everyone had to be shipped to the point of insanity. I guess the fandom has collectively learned in 20 years what it hadn't in just 10 - shipping in Pokemon is meaningless. Also, the mean fan age is now higher... Anyway, I don't see the same levels of needing to pair off every damn character anymore as in DP era.

2. In retrospect, Appealshipping is the Hikari ship to beat, but I don't remember it getting its fair slice of shipping at the time. Society is much more accepting of LGBTQ+ relationships today than it was then. Compare with the shipping of the SM girls together, it's almost farcical that these are more palatable today than Appealshipping was in its time. Lots of people preferred to ship Hikari with a boy. Ikarishipping filled the void for the Pokeshippers and Advanceshippers, because, poor old Kengo, no-one ever bought Penguinshipping.
Forgive me, Arceus, for I have sinned ...

Rocketshipping. I'm sorry, I know its dead popular, but James is gay y'all.

And I'm hardly an anime expert, but I just don't see the support for it (and this is coming from someone who ships Morty/Falker).
Sacré bleu, even Arceus cannot forgive this!

No but seriously. Let's break this down.

'James is gay' - sure, each to their own. Yes, as per anime canon Kojiro likes girls and there is no evidence, ever, of him liking guys, but you gotta see characters how you see 'em!
BUT
Even if your James is gay, is it really possible to not see Jessie as his life partner (in whatever capacity)?!

What kind of support do you see for Morty/Falkner, or any other ship in Pokeani, that Rocketshipping is missing? I know I'm biased, but (thanks to their extremely long tenure) I'm sure their ship has amassed a wider variety of 'hints' than most ships, both in terms of depth/longevity of relationship and the more superficial, physical touching type stuff.
I don't understand why people cared about serena's clear hints and ignore ash's hints, and as proved by writers , it's a canon
Genuinely, please do tell. I didn't catch any in my original watch, but appreciate I might have missed some.
 
God, Ikarishipping's popularity long outlived its natural life. I think 2 things contributed:

1. Shipping in Pokeani was taken a lot more seriously then than it is now. Everything and everyone had to be shipped to the point of insanity. I guess the fandom has collectively learned in 20 years what it hadn't in just 10 - shipping in Pokemon is meaningless. Also, the mean fan age is now higher... Anyway, I don't see the same levels of needing to pair off every damn character anymore as in DP era.

It was also taken seriously because Pokeshippers were looking to pair off every new girl who came in with the anime after Misty. After they saw Contestshipping it sort of "set the standard" going forward, so people assumed Dawn would have something like that too. I do agree Appealshipping was intended to be her "main" pairing, but the writers had to be subtle with it because it was a same-sex ship. The writers also played around with Conway crushing on Dawn, Kenny having a crush on her, then of course people shipped Dawn with Ash because they thought they were close, etc. As you said Kenny was unpopular in general so that killed Penguinshipping from ever being taken off in popularity.

The other thing is, Dawn was similar to Ash in a way in that she showed no obvious crush toward someone and put her goal/pokemon ahead of anything else. You have blatant blushing scenes with Misty, May and Serena in their retrospective series...the only time I remember Dawn blushing toward someone in DP is when Zoey complimented her at times. But other than that, Dawn seemed to have the least interest in romance of most of the main girls, which is kinda ironic looking back on it now.

Besides that as I said above, prior to Serena's crush, Pearlshipping was very popular for years for a new Ash ship at the time. By then people were dying for a new Ash/main girl ship but didn't know we'd get something as blatant as Serena's crush years later, so I can see why people shipped or still do Ash/Dawn. I see them as siblings myself, but it's fine.
 
Sacré bleu, even Arceus cannot forgive this!

No but seriously. Let's break this down.

'James is gay' - sure, each to their own. Yes, as per anime canon Kojiro likes girls and there is no evidence, ever, of him liking guys, but you gotta see characters how you see 'em!

That's fake news.

What kind of support do you see for Morty/Falkner, or any other ship in Pokeani, that Rocketshipping is missing? I know I'm biased, but (thanks to their extremely long tenure) I'm sure their ship has amassed a wider variety of 'hints' than most ships, both in terms of depth/longevity of relationship and the more superficial, physical touching type stuff.

I don't. There's no evidence whatsoever. I've just seen a lot of fan art and even a fanfic where they look cute together, and there's nothing to say it wouldn't work, so I totally ship it.

But James, on the other hand, is totally gay IMO, so I just don't see rocketshipping.

BUT
Even if your James is gay, is it really possible to not see Jessie as his life partner (in whatever capacity)?!

When you put it like that its actually quite cute. And I would be admittedly upset if either of them ever left each other.
 
Last edited:
I don't understand why people cared about serena's clear hints and ignore ash's hints, and as proved by writers , it's a canon

There were literally no Ash hints, or at least none that actually seemed deliberately made to build the ship up on Ash's side of things. Serena was the one who spent all of her free time fawning over Ash because of her limerence and Ash was nice to her sure, but he's nice to everyone who treats him with respect. Y'all think that because Serena kissed Ash (off-screen) that it means he had some hidden affection for Serena too, which is just a reach. If he liked her the same way she liked him, the ship would've gone a whole lot differently than it did by the end.
 
Last edited:
When you put it like that its actually quite cute. And I would be admittedly upset if either of them ever left each other.
:cool:(y) Arceus should be granting your official pardon any second now.

Now that we're on the same page about the main issue, I don't wanna have an argument but...
That's fake news.
HOW?!

I know we're not going to agree, and I don't want to persuade you to change your mind, but facts are facts!

Facts:
  1. Kojiro told us explicitly that his first love was Rumika. He indisputably liked that ghost woman from Ep 20, had a very squicky reaction to Seiyo (Giselle) in episode 9 and definitely maybe something between him and Rose (Kate) from the first TRio hoso episode.
  2. He has never expressed romantic interest in a guy.
Possible interpretations:
  1. He's straight.
  2. He's bi/pan and we just haven't seen him liking guys because Pokeani is too backwards.
  3. He's gay but hasn't come to terms with it yet and his 'liking' girls is a cover up that we'll never find out because Pokeani is Pokeani.
I get that you probably feel strongly that he is gay and I agree that it's no one's place to tell you otherwise. But even in the woolly world of shipping, we have to separate fact from interpretation, with the acknowledgement that no one interpretation is 'better' than another. Do you know anything about Harry Potter? I have an unshakeable headcanon that Remus Lupin is gay and the fact that he went on to marry a woman doesn't mean jack to me. I can't deny that it happened, but I do have an explanation for how 'Remus is gay' and 'Remus married Tonks' are not mutually exclusive.

Obviously if you have a strong belief that he's gay you'll never believe there's a potential for a romantic relationship between him and Musashi, even though I think it's generally acceptable that the two are eternal partners regardless of sexuality.

But there are a few moments in the anime which are set up such that the romantic interpretation is arguably more obvious than a platonic one:
tumblr_nj86q9snsD1tkiv14o3_400.gif

limerence
Wow that is a great word! I wonder if it can be applied to shippers RE their ships also :p
 
HOW?!

I know we're not going to agree, and I don't want to persuade you to change your mind, but facts are facts!

Facts:
  1. Kojiro told us explicitly that his first love was Rumika. He indisputably liked that ghost woman from Ep 20, had a very squicky reaction to Seiyo (Giselle) in episode 9 and definitely maybe something between him and Rose (Kate) from the first TRio hoso episode.
  2. He has never expressed romantic interest in a guy.
Possible interpretations:
  1. He's straight.

In my experience as a gay man, most straight men are a bit gay, so this idea doesn't really mean much to me.

He's bi/pan and we just haven't seen him liking guys because Pokeani is too backwards.
He's gay but hasn't come to terms with it yet and his 'liking' girls is a cover up that we'll never find out because Pokeani is Pokeani.

Either works.

I get that you probably feel strongly that he is gay and I agree that it's no one's place to tell you otherwise. But even in the woolly world of shipping, we have to separate fact from interpretation, with the acknowledgement that no one interpretation is 'better' than another. Do you know anything about Harry Potter? I have an unshakeable headcanon that Remus Lupin is gay and the fact that he went on to marry a woman doesn't mean jack to me. I can't deny that it happened, but I do have an explanation for how 'Remus is gay' and 'Remus married Tonks' are not mutually exclusive.

Remus is gay; that's not an opinion to me.

Obviously if you have a strong belief that he's gay you'll never believe there's a potential for a romantic relationship between him and Musashi, even though I think it's generally acceptable that the two are eternal partners regardless of sexuality.

Well, yes, I think that's something we can all agree on.

But there are a few moments in the anime which are set up such that the romantic interpretation is arguably more obvious than a platonic one:
tumblr_nj86q9snsD1tkiv14o3_400.gif

Both of those videos I was watching and waiting for something shippy ... and there just wasn't. Like you can read it that way if you want, but its not like he said "I love Jessie (the japanese isn't canon for me) or they kissed or owt. The shippiest thing that happened is that gif, and even that's pretty handwaveable imo.
 
Remus is gay; that's not an opinion to me.
Lol, glad I am not alone on this. JK Rowling is the worst kind of coward...
Both of those videos I was watching and waiting for something shippy ... and there just wasn't. Like you can read it that way if you want, but its not like he said "I love Jessie (the japanese isn't canon for me) or they kissed or owt. The shippiest thing that happened is that gif, and even that's pretty handwaveable imo.
If you don't take the Japanese version as canon then the two of us are talking at cross purposes. Especially as I forgot to mention the main thing I wanted to say about XY 63, which is that in the original there's a scene where Serena is implied to be about to ask him if he likes her and he says yes before she can get the verb out: something like 'You mean you ____ her?'

le sigh...

Anyway, I'm just rambling now. Horses for courses when it comes to romance!
 
Back
Top Bottom