Last Post : End of an Era
The Advanceshipping Thread History
Like all good things, this discussion about one of the most popular relations in the Pokemon anime had to come to an end. After more than 4 years full of upsides and downsides, that time has come today. Though it’s not the beginning of the end for our beloved ship, it’s just the end of the beginning.
When Ditzy_Blonde made this thread on 12 March 2004 the Advanced Generation as well as the relationship between Ash and May was still pretty new and exciting. Old regulars like CyberCubed and Chatsy had high hopes for the pairing between the Pallet Pokemon trainer and the young coordinater as they where still following the the episodes of the Advanced Generation and Battle Frontier, which were brand new at those days. Many scenes, hints and screenshots have been discussed, which also lead to some heavy debates between Advanceshippers and Contestshippers. To keep this thread clean from all sorts of bashing a special debate thread was created for that. It was opened by one of the main CSers Jo-Jo, while CyberCubed used to be the anchorman for AS. For those who are interested, the debate thread is quite a nice read and can be found
here.
Some of the early regulars like STJ, Gaiash, Revolutionary Destiny and Sushi are still active today and have contributed hundreds of posts to this thread. Many topics about the way Ash and May interacted have been created and answered by them. Another popular question was ‘What makes Advanceshipping so special?’. Of course there are a lot of different answers to this question, but most members agreed with a couple of things; Ash and May’s relationship is built on a very strong friendship on which both of them can trust whenever they need to. Unlike other popular ships the Satoshi and Haruka always tend to support each other in their decisions instead of arguing with each other. Overmore the two Pokemon travelers are very similar to each other. They are both are really determined, love their pokemon (which are also really similar) as much as anything and even share the same passion for food. The characters of this ship are two of the most popular characters in the anime and even many non-advanceshippers find the mentor/student relationship between Satoshi and Haruka really adorable.
Another thing that helped this thread gain popularity are all the amazing fanarts, fanfics and ADV’s that are contributed to the ship. Aamayl is blessed with some of the best fanartists. Arts from Suzuko, PD+, Hirogarusora, Jinx, Raven, Busterwolf, Judgement and many others gave this thread color. Advanceshipping Videos from some of our own regulars brought the thread even more alive.
Last but certainly not least are the fanfics. They have been a quite important aspect in getting and keeping us all into advanceshipping. Uzamaki Hinata has listed some of the best fanfics our shipping has to offer. I would like to encourge all new shippers, aswell as everyone else who is interested, into reading one of these famous fics.
Now I would like to conclude this last post with a few words from my fellow future owners:
Uzamaki Hinata said:
Out of all the shipping threads I post at, the AS thread is the only one I keep coming back to. I'm really happy with the way we represent ourselves. For the most part when people think of Advanceshippers, they don't think "Bashers" or "n00bs", instead the advanceshippers are seen as fairly intelligent shippers (I hope xD; ) And I hope we continue on represting ourselves in such a way as we go on to the new thread ^_^
Gazmof said:
Advanceshipping... What can I say that Hunter hasn't touched on already? For me this has always been the 'ship with the most to offer; it was my first choice of 'ship and also my first entry into the shipping community a long time ago. Ever since I first laid eyes on May I just knew that she and Ash had a dynamic that had never been seen before in the Pokemon anime - Ash was the hothead, May was the calm one; Ash was clueless about love, May was a self-proclaimed expert; Ash was Pokemon-crazy, May was indifferent. It all just fit so perfectly that it was obvious that Advanceshipping would become, and continue to be, my favourite Pokemon 'ship.
I've witnessed much of the ups and downs that this 'ship has had to endure and it's been quite a wild ride, and with May's appearance in the DP series it seems like Advanceshipping is still more than capable of making waves. Even now, with May no longer a part of the show's active cast we still see strong support, and this is a testament to the unique and heartwarming relationship that Ash and May share. It is this wonderful relationship that I will always support - and encourage to grow - for many years to come.
I'd like to thank everyone who made this thread special and who welcomed me so warmly to the Advanceshipping community, and I hope the new thread continues this trend in an even better way.
I hope to see you all back in the new advanceshipping thread, so we can make new advanceshipping history together!
Hunter
.