Why must they be in LOVE?

[Donphampharos]

I've always been apathetic about shipping, but one thing I don't understand is why must person A be in love with person B? Since most of the characters that are paired together are like 10 or 11, I'd think they don't know much about love. It's more believable that person A and B aren't actually in love, but just have a crush on each other.

[garfield15]

Because it's boring otherwise?

[Donphampharos]

Yes, but it's more believable then Misty wanting to father Ash's children at age 10.

[garfield15]

Oh, that? No, that's kinda silly. I think people want them to grow up before wishing for that. That's why people make fanfic.

[Skiyomi]

It's more believable that person A and B aren't actually in love, but just have a crush on each other.

Do you think ten-year-olds themselves appreciate the difference between Love (not the uppercase) and a garden-variety crush? Uh-uh. Every infatuation could be "the ONE" ...come to think of it, grown-ups aren't that different.

There's nothing wrong with shipping for crushes even if you don't think the character is mature enough for supposed 'true love' yet. After all, crushes can lead to something more, can they not? And who gets to draw the distinction between a crush and love? It's all very subjective.

Anyway, the bottom line is if this is gonna be another "Why Shipping is Stupid" thread then that's not cool and it's gonna get closed. But if we're gonna have a respectful discussion about love + the maturity level of our characters as it relates to shipping, then that should be okay.

[Donphampharos]

...Anyway, the bottom line is if this is gonna be another "Why Shipping is Stupid" thread then that's not cool and it's gonna get closed.

Quit overreacting. I'm not bashing shipping, nor did my post even remotely imply that I am against shipping, which I am not, as i said in my post, I am apathetic about it. I just had a simple question.

[Darkmaster Rannon]

Because there's more passion to love than just a little crush.

[RedMage23]

Yes, but it's more believable then Misty wanting to father Ash's children at age 10.

Yes, anything's more believable than that. Unless Misty has a secret she's keeping from everyone... O_o

[Donphampharos]

Because there's more passion to love than just a little crush.

Well that's the thing. Some of the implications people give sound more like they just have a crush on each other, like Misty/May/Dawn/Iris being so eager to join Ash on his journey, I don't think that means they all have a burning passion for him, I think it meant that they just wanted to join him on an adventure, they may have eventually grown to like Ash, but I think that's as far as they'd go.

[Darkmaster Rannon]

(Okay... Let's try this again...)

It may be "Love at first sight" And just an inner drive to be close to him. I mean, if a trainer like Ash could go on an adventure by himself in the beginning, and planned (Or had a lack of planning) to go on to become the champion alone. Why couldn't Misty/May/Dawn/Eyeball?
Surely there would be more than a small crush...

[omniouswind]

Eh, who said anything about love?
I ship, but I don't ever imagine the characters to be in "true love forever", mostly because I don't think many characters in Pokemon are in a position for that.
(Although I mainly ship Gym Leaders/Elite Four members, who are older and could probably more understand the concepts of love, but still...)

I pair characters together because of the potential of them having a relationship, or due to their compatibility...or because I just feel like it and crack shippings are fun.
I've never once ventured into the realm of true love when it comes to shipping...probably because I'm really cynical like that. :/

All shippers are different though. *shrugs*

[Hakajin]

Well, I think one of the main reasons children don't really fall in love is that they don't go through much together. I mean, when you're that age, you mostly rely on your parents. But with Pokemon, it's different. The characters are around each other all the time, and they help each other through a lot of stuff. They get to know each other better than most real kids do, and their relationships are put to the test and deepened. With Pokeshipping, I always felt that Misty was very devoted to Ash, willing to take risks for him and to put up with feelings of unrequited love. I think the lines between friendship and romantic love are kind of fluid. Actually, no two loves are exactly the same, so... I tend to focus much more on friendship than mushy stuff. I never went for mushiness. Still don't. I think true attraction comes from knowing a person and loving her personality.

[BrownBear]

I personally think that a lot of people overuse the word "love". It's certainly a shorter way to say "have feelings for" which I think is more accurate for the purposes of shipping because its scope of meaning allows for any strength of feeling. Also, strength of meaning of the word "love" has definitely decreased over time. Its almost become like the word "hate". Hate in and of itself is a powerful concept that describes, or at least should describe only the strongest feelings of animosity. Nowadays, people throw around the word like it simply means "dislike". A lot of words that once held a lot of power have lost their gravitas to overuse and the desensitization that results from it. Then again, what power or meaning does a word have other than its perceived power or meaning. So to someone who has been desensitized, there really is no difference, as their perception could be such that "love" could mean any level of feeling.

Herein lies our problem: there are different perceptions of the meaning of the word "love". In my opinion, this is one of the fundamental problems with communication, that is, the subjectivity of meaning. So in effect, perhaps those people that Donphampharos is questioning, could very well mean when they say "A is in love with B" that "A has a crush on B". There's really no way to be sure what exactly they mean in this day and age.

Hakajin also brings up a good point in that the nature of the situation that the characters are in is something of which we have little or no experience, so indeed some of the outcomes of such a situation could seem odd to us (like two 11 year olds falling in love). And I definitely agree that the divide between love and friendship is in flux, for what its worth.

What I can say to answer the question is that at least I don't think of the characters as they are in the show as being in love and that Donphampharos's problem with shippers is probably due to ill defined terms.