Forgive me, Mesprit, for I have sinned....in Pokemon, I ship mainstream canon, and I can't seem to break out of the habit.
Seriously. I used to entertain multiple ships in all my previous fandoms, because I was all about character interaction and new combinations meant new interactions to explore. Anything could work if you set it up right, and "what if" scenarios were always entertaining.
My good friend and roommate used to tell me that only the "One True Pairing" ships in her fandoms were "legit," and I thought that was a bit limiting, and didn't quite get it. Then I began to watch Pokemon, and discovered that I felt the same way about
these characters. I just felt
uncomfortable when I ran across a ship that conflicted with the major canon ships.
I've been working fiercely on myself, trying to force the tunnel of my vision to a wider perspective. But man, learning to be comfortable with Advanceshipping, Pearlshipping, or not-Rocketshipping-TR-ships has been HARD. (Gymshipping, Egoshipping, and Palletshipping were not as difficult...I saw Egoshipping as a big "what if," Gymshipping as a "bored-with-the-canon-now" experiment, and Palletshipping was never a problem to begin with...it was Ash's
other "OTP," because, as my friend maintains, a character always has TWO "One True Pairings," a straight OTP and a slash OTP, which do not conflict with each other, only with other straight and other slash pairings. To this I have added a third and fourth OTP, the human/Pokemon pairings...platonic = Ash&Pikachu, romantic = Ash&Latias.
)
I have no idea why my "ship exclusivity" gene was activated by Pokemon and not anything else I've watched before, but it really annoyed me, so I've been compulsive about trying to open up my mind. But I'm glad to report success: I read and enjoy all kinds of ships now. Though I'm still fondest of the canon ships.
But people who dismiss Pokeshipping as worthless just because it's "too old to matter" still REALLY annoy me.
(The original canon ship deserves more respect than that, even if it doesn't appeal to someone personally; you can explore a new ship
without insulting the old one, and without demonizing any of the older characters, too.)
Now, if Handymanshipping is a sin, I've sinned greatly, and unrepentantly. What's wrong with it, anyway? It's the closest thing Tracey has to a canonical ship, and Daisy is pretty hilarious (especially in the Lovedisc episode, that one totally sold me on her character). Plus, babe + geek is always full of win in my book. I say, as long as you like a ship because you like the characters IN it (and not because you want to use it to "free up" someone for some other ship), there's nothing wrong with it. And if anyone wants to say that Handymanshipping lacks such a fan, well, I'm here to prove them wrong. I just think it's cute as heck.
(And it's not because I'm "against" Orangeshipping, either – I was never AGAINST that one, it just doesn't do much for me personally. I like Misty and Tracey both a lot, but they "feel" more like friends than lovers to me, at least at their present ages. Now, once they're both a bit older, I could easily see them getting together.)
One final note...
Misty (or Kasumi, even) may have had a crush on Ash/Satoshi, but I'm pretty sure it was completely platonic on his side.
I can understand that, though personally I can see signs of Ash returning the interest (if not actually to the point of crush)...he blushes, too, after all, and he got as mad at Tracey in the Nidoran episode as Misty did, seemed jealous of Rudy, etc.
As for his being all about Pikachu most of the time...well, it may be reading more into the text than is there, but I think Ash deflects a lot of his emotions for his human friends (not just Misty) onto Pikachu (and other Pokemon). I've seen a lot of guys in RL do this, you see...deflect their softer feelings onto their pets or their children (if the kids are young enough), because it's more acceptable for a guy to get mushy about (say) a dog or a little kid than about an adult woman or (horrors!) another adult male. Of course, mileage will vary, but it just seems like something someone with Ash's personality would do (or something the male writers would unconsciously have him do).
