Non-GB Fictional Couples

[EGBFan]

So then. Here we have a board bursting at the seams with Egon and Janine shippers, and at least one devoted Eduardo and Kylie shipper. And I wonder, how far does this strange fascination with fictional love go beyond the world of Ghostbusters?

(I would prefer to wait for a few... well, at least one response before I go off on a tangent about mine.)

Now, as we know, these kinds of discussions really can turn into minefields. People have the capacity to get very upset about strangers' opinions on the love affairs of fictional characters. But please, do not upset yourselves; be respectful of each other's opinions. Disagree by all means, but do so... y'know... respectfully.

[Fritz]

Some people find such discussions "distasteful" or "a waste of time". I've heard versions of that comment made on numerous boards--"These stories are supposed to be about busting ghosts/fighting evil Digimon//war with aliens/blowing up giant robots/ect., not romance!!!"

To which my response is "Bite me". Humans have sexuality hard-wired into them, and it's completely natural to look for signs of that behavior in the characters they follow. Can it be taken too far? Yeah. There are some real obsessive fruit loops out there, like the obsessive fangirls who, if you said "When I watched Gundam Wing I think Heero Yuy and Relena Darlian like each other in a heterosexual way", would respond "HE DOES NOT MY HEERO LOVES DUO MAXWELL IT IS GAY LUV 4 EVER!!!" and threaten your life. But they're still, on the whole, in the minority.

Anyway, enough about that...

Tai Kamiya and Sora Takenouchi from Digimon. Discussed at more length in the link, so we'll go on.

Probably the first one I really found myself starting to care about was RicK Hunter and Lisa Hayes in the 1985 anime dub Robotech (And before some purists jumped in, yes, they were called Hikaru Ichijo and Misa Hayase in the original Macross, but they're Rick and Lisa to me). Rick Hunter was a typical headstrong, boneheaded anime lead who became a pilot of a Veritech Valkyrie, one of the coolest transforming mecha of all time, as Earth fought the giant aliens known as the Zentraedi. He developed the major hots for a vacuous, shallow airhead named Lynn Minmay and spent thirty five episodes trying to get her to notice that--but Minmay was more interested in her singing career, fame, and her creepy, obsessive cousin Lynn Kyle. Meanwhile, Lisa was the stern first officer of the SDF-1, and at first thought Rick was a loudmouth jerk and a half. Over the course of the series, though, she falls for him and the only one who didn't realize it was him--until the last episode.

I spent many an afternoon wishing one of the Zentraedi would just step on Minmay and get it over with. In the sequel that was never finished, Robotech II: The Sentinels, Rick and Lisa would've gotten married and had a daughter. Rick's voice actor, Tony Oliver, is still working today, and has been a producer on Power Rangers (indeed, I suspect that Tommy Oliver was named after him), and has done voices for shows like Lupin III and Eureka 7. Minmay's voice, Reba West, ironically enough, was a script writer for Digimon. Melanie McQueen (alias "Aline Leslie") pretty much retired from voice acting after doing Lisa Hayes and another Robotech character, Marlene/Ariel.

After Now's RGB comic the next series I got a fan letter printed in was Disney Comics' Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers. Fandom was pretty split on whether Chip (the serious, level headed leader of the team) or Dale (the goofball) should win the attentions of scatterbrained inventor Gadget; I ended up in the former camp.

And I guess I can count Garth Ranzz and Imra Ardeen, Lightning Lad/Livewire and Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super Heroes, since they've been TV characters since last year. They remind me a little bit of Egon and Janine with the genders reversed: an introverted, emotionally guarded blonde and a more extroverted, emotional redhead.

I'm sure there's some I'm forgetting. Maybe after a night's sleep.

[EGBFan]

admin said:

After Now's RGB comic the next series I got a fan letter printed in was Disney Comics' Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers. Fandom was pretty split on whether Chip (the serious, level headed leader of the team) or Dale (the goofball) should win the attentions of scatterbrained inventor Gadget; I ended up in the former camp.

Oh my Goodness. How funny you should mention that. I had some... interesting experiences with the RR fan community. "HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST CHIPMUNKS WOULD HAVE PRE-MARITAL SEX!" They were all very clean-cut - I think perhaps I was a bit too much for them. Anyway, I don't remember anyone backing Dale and Gadget; my memory is of a huge camp of alarmingly devoted Chip and Gadget shippers. I watched the show when I was so little I can barely remember it, and I don't remember spotting any romance. But I found a few episodes on VHS in Blockbuster in my early teens, rented them and watched them. There were one or two moments when you might think that maybe Gadget returned Chip's affections. But to be perfectly honest, it didn't interest me. Dale had a one-episode love interest in the form of a bat by the name of Foxglove, who was cute and loveable but had no brain. Fans seemed to think she was more suited to Dale than Gadget was.

Anyway, since I'm posting, let's move onto the ones I do care about. The first two are very contemporaneous with each other, and I don't remember which came first, so I'll start with the less famous one, which is:

Flicker and Flame of Blazing Dragons. (There was an incident here involving them and an avatar, and I am only bringing it up in order to ask everybody else not to.) The cartoon was a parody of Arthurian legend, with dragons in the main roles; they lived in Castle Camelhot and had names like Sir Galahot, Sir Burnevere etc. Flicker and Flame have no counterparts in the original legends, him being Sir Loungelot's (lazy overweight counterpart to Sir Lancelot) overworked squire who saved the day in every episode, and her being the royal princess. It's a totally cheesy formula, I do realise, but the show didn't take itself seriously and it was handled brilliantly. (Incidentally, some of that doesn't apply to season 2; though good for what it was, the second series consisted of shorter, dumbed-down episodes that paled in comparison to the original, and decided to include only a one-episode hint of the burning love between Flicker and Flame that was obvious in season 1.) This one is interesting, I think, because neither of them was slightly keener than the other, as usually seems to be the case; they couldn't be together because she was the princess and he was a squire, so there was no need to create reasons to keep them slightly apart.

That was about 1996, as was Hey Arnold, which continued long after Blazing Dragons and has been - more or less - consistently good. Arnold (surname unknown - it was a running gag) and Helga Pataki had a typical "playground romance" taken to the extreme. There were times when Helga would absolutely torture him, she could hardly ever address him without yelling and insulting him (although that kind of thing rather depended on who wrote the episode), and he just let it go. Then when she was alone, she'd pull out a picture of him she kept in her dress and gush about how desperately in love with him she was. At first, for most of season 1, Arnold didn't seem to reciprocate her feelings at all - but then, as time went on, we saw that he was beginning to realise there was more to this girl than met the eye. At first glance, Hey Arnold looks like one of those kids-kidding-around-in-the-city cartoons. When it started out, that's what it was trying to be, but it quickly becomes so much more than that. The character development is brilliant, especially for Helga; you just have to get behind her when you see how unhappy she is at home. (Arnold and Helga had their very own JMS; Michelle Lamoreaux wrote all the best episodes.)

Incidentally, both of those relationships had plans to be finished, but it didn't come through. In the case of Blazing Dragons, apparently they were going to resolve everything in season 2, but then they made the baffling decision to dumb it down and got a whole new set of writers. In the case of Hey Arnold, Craig Bartlett made this whole plan involving a three-part episode and then a movie. But then he changed his mind, wanted two movies, fell out with Nickelodeon and wasn't allowed to finish.

But here's one that did get resolved: Danny Fenton and Sam Manson of Danny Phantom. Just basically, they're best friends and she has a huge crush on him. But, of course, there's more to it than that. I don't think I go into much detail about them in the Danny Phantom thread, but there's no harm in linking it anyway. So, for a while there, Sam was keener but Danny seemed keen too. But then they decided to make it into a love triangle: Sam's panting for him, Danny doesn't have a clue and he seems to be developing a relationship with the beautiful Amazonian ghost hunter Valerie Gray. Oh no! Danny and Sam start to get closer throughout season 3, before they finally kiss (yessss!) - twice - in the feature length finale. It really is immensely satisfying, after what happened to the others (Flicker and Flame, Arnold and Helga, Eduardo and Kylie never even got to try... )

There's one other minor one. It interests my older brother immensely, and he's got me slightly into it too. That is Beast Boy and Raven of Teen Titans. He's a cute loveable goofball and she's a Goth in need of some TLC. Go figure. They're also by far the best characters on the show. Robin and Starfire? They're welcome to each other - I so don't care about them.

[ghostdiva]

I think all of my other shippies are from books... I feel like such a nerd now.
ghostdiva

[EGBFan]

Actually, I have one from books too. It's one of those diary series, written by Louise Rennison and chronicling the hilarious exploits of hapless teen Georgia Nicholson. I recently purchased book number eight to read on holiday; I'm not going to go through all the titles. They're total trash, but brilliantly funny, and in them Georgia has an ambiguous/on-off romantic relationship with a wonderful character called Dave the Laugh. They are clearly soul mates, bu Georgia keeps getting crushes on lead singers and Italian stallions and such... Unfortunately Dave isn't in the first book of the series, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging (gives you some idea what they're like, I think), which is a shame, because it is otherwise the best in the series.

[Fritz]

Should be consider opening it to broader discussion, retitling it "Your famorite (Non-GB) Fictional Couples"?

[Ghostbuster Don]

Thanks for posting a link to one of my threads Fritz.

Anyway, if you notice my signature, I've other non-GB couples I support.

Naruto Uzamaki & Hinata Hyuuga (Naruto)
Possibly my favorite Anime couple ever is between this the title character of this Shonen and a shy female minor character. Hinata has a long established big crush on Naruto since the beginning of the series. She is weak and looks at Naruto as her inspiration to be strong even though she gets nervous if he notices her. Despite her role, she's more likeable then main female protagonist Sakura., who was a jerk to Naruto but grown to like him. Personally I feel Naruto & Sakura have become more like brother & sister if anything. And the scenes between Naruto & Hinata has more feeling then Naruto & Sakura.


Taichi "Tai" & Sora Takenouchi(Digimon: Digital Monsters)
I've already posted what thought about in the link Fritz posted. Still wish for that "Sora, You've Changed".

Jounouchi Katsuya/Joey Wheeler & Mai Kajuku/Mai Valentine(Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Usually I don't support couples with an age difference but I in this case I make an exception. It's clearly obvious that they're in love.

While I'm at it, I thinking that two characters from Bleach, Orihime Inoue(the girl in my avatar) and Ichigo Kurosaki may be a good couple. In the Anime, Orihime has crush on Ichigo and coincidentally Orihime & Hinata are voiced by the same VA.

[EGBFan]

admin said:

Should be consider opening it to broader discussion, retitling it "Your famorite (Non-GB) Fictional Couples"?

I should have done that from the start. Honestly, when I was making the thread, I was thinking, what can I call this to avoid giving the impression that I want people to talk about their parents or something? TV was all I could think of, even when I used the word "fictional" in the subsequent message. D'oh! Anyway, all fixed now. Thanks for that suggestion, Fritz.

But I'm not including the word "favourite", because I am about to embark on some dangerous territory here, and that's being anti. There are very specific circumstances under which I am anti-ship in a cartoon. This is when the male and female lead have no romantic interest in each other whatsoever, are presented as being very close friends who will happily go to each other for relationship advice... and then suddenly, bam!, they're in love.

This has happened twice on cartoons I occasionally watch, if I happen to find them whilst channel-hopping or something - although I did watch one, As Told By Ginger, regularly for its first run on CITV. As Told By Ginger is a bit crap, really. Ginger Foutley, who has never really been popular and has a very close friendship with two total nerds, suddenly finds upon starting seventh grade that the mega-popular Courtney Gripling wants her for a friend. So now she's torn. Yeah, I know, it's lame - but it can be amusing, they do occasionally get into life issues such as death and divorce, which I approve of in a cartoon, and the girls have younger brothers whose subplots are always entertaining.

Anyway, that's enough justifying myself. Suffice it to say, for two seasons, it was good. As well as her two friends, Ginger had a close friendship with her next-door-neighbour Darren Patterson. For a long time he had to wear some seriously awful headgear. I was a little apprehensive when the headgear came off some time in season 2, but it was ok... until their relationship started to change. The end of season 2 was a three-part episode in which Ginger goes to some art college and Darren follows her in order to declare his extremely sudden love. At the very end, they kiss. Then season 3 happens... and it's truly terrible. The plots were never brilliant to begin with, but now they're all about Ginger's friends being jealous and trying to split Darren and Ginger up. Then they do split up, they start seeing other people, Darren joins the football team and his character design is drastically altered, along with his character generally - and their friendship, needless to say, it completely ruined.

And the other time? Kim Possible - for which one's gut reaction might reasonably be: she's a high school cheerleader and a secret agent? No thanks. But I think it's very very good. It's considerably better than ATBG, in fact, which is why this time I don't feel the need to sit here defending my reasons for liking it.

For... I don't know, a long time, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable worked together to fight evil. They talked all the time about Kim's various crushes and just hung out and did friend stuff, when they weren't busy saving the world. Then comes the TV movie, So the Drama. And suddenly, guess what, they're in love. How did that happen?? As with Darren and Ginger, there's no reason for this sudden change in dynamic, except that they're the male and female lead. Ok, so cartoons do that - Danny Phantom, for example - but if you're not building it up from at least, I dunno, episode 3, you ruin it. I've seen some subsequent KP episodes, and they're just not great, because Kim and Ron don't do anything together anymore! It's terrible. Their dynamic was the whole joy of the show. But now that's changed, so Kim has to do her thing alone while Ron gets caught up in some supposedly hilarious subplot with his large and abrasive teacher Mr. Barking. Not good.

Of course, I would never say any of this to those particular fan communities. Not that I know what they think - I've never gone looking.

[Jason Knetge]

I like Kim Possible but your right Kim and Ron no not good idea . I always thought Ron was better had a thing thing that ninja girl.