#hope this vid doesnt get deleted after i share with yall like the high touch cover i shared not long ago LOL

[love-is-a-pearl]

Oh, lmao yeah my bad I forgot to mention there were a lot of ships in there. I sincerely think everybody is paired is someone, but I opt to ignore the romance in favor of storytelling and character dynamics. I'm sitting there going "alright. make things worse. make relationships complicated, write ten different kinds of them and then write how they're mended." It's a study on writing to me but I forgot not everybody sees fics that way lol. Some of the things that stuck with me were the conversations adult characters have with each other, but if that content and (definitely more than one pregnancy) is a squick, that's so fair to avoid it. When I was a kid, I used to read those "spy AU" fics a lot LOL, I think my first Pokemon fic was one and it was a Pearlshipping one too. I'm not much of a shipper to begin with, so I'm very easily convinced by others. Ikari tho...Paul is too mean for that, I don't even know where the "troublesome" nickname came from and why it turned into a term of endearment XD It sure is hard to find fics without the main 4 pairing tho huh? Back to relationships tho, since you're on that anime rewatch, if there's any instance of say...oooh, like that episode with Lance and the Gyarados? Ash tried to use the friendship speech to talk Gyarados down, and Lance had to teach him that doesn't work all the time. I think a list of stuff Ash learns from others could be fun. You already got one with the Snowbelle City badge. I've seen a lot of good Ash fics that respect his personality for what it is, and good adults (like Kukui) coming to understand him. Brock and Misty too, I think this thing fics do when they touch upon their family situations and their personal growth is always fun. Hard to write, but really good. I've got one anime only thing you might like, and its this tribute video, type "Pokemon Bonjour Au Revoir" into youtube :3

No worries! And you're absolutely right about seeing ships as character explorations! I am trying to get out of my comfort zone and try other fics since there are some VERY GOOD ones out there that I don't know about because I insist on staying on the ash/dawn; ash&dawn; dawn/zoey or aro ash tags :v

Is not that I hate Ikari, is more that.. If I'm going to read Ikari then it should be from someone whose OTP is Ikari if that makes sense? Not the "this is a pokeshipping fanfic and I need Dawn to be with someone because of compulsory heteronormativeness" yknow? I think I've said it before but.. if you have no strong attachment for a ship, dont include it in your fics... It feels like following a checklist and it's irritating when characters personalities are twisted to make a ship work instead of idk just using those characters by themselves.

Main ikarishippers actually have very cool ideas from what I've seen in the wild (aka fanart). It just bothers me a LOT when every single living being is paired with someone in fanfics... BEING 👏 SINGLE 👏 IS 👏 NOT 👏 A 👏 SIN!

And yeahhhh QAQ there's always a 90% chance Dawn will end up with Paul in Pokeshipping fics, Kenny in Amourshipping and Chloe in Journeyshipping. And I just... ughhhh please please stop, she can be single i beg you Dawn is not going to steal Ash if you leave her unsupervised I prommy orz

Ohh that's a cool idea! There's indeed lots of instances he learns something that he takes with him for the rest of the anime but is easy to miss. Not to mention the other way around (people learning from him) that some absolutely deserve to be remembered and talked about more (Gary's Electivire using his tail just like Bayleef uses her vines my beloved)

And yeah! Fanfics that explore platonic relationships really need more attention. Is one thing the anime rarely focused on but when it did it was really good (Mallow's relationship with both her father and mother is something small but so special to me. I would love more explorations of that family and how she feels having to take the role of mother so young and how she wanted to just have people around her appreciate how much she sacrificed when doing that)

Ohh, thanks for the rec! That was such a GORGEOUS animatic! Is a very cute homage to the OG series indeed!

Leaving it here for anyone who wanna see it btw