Why are canonical shipping so poorly developed these days?

[Nukara]

I find myself thinking that I have absolutely nothing to ship recently, the relationship between the characters is either poorly disclosed, or they are, but it would be better if they weren’t. In particular, the "get" genre suffers from this, but the current canonical "slash" and "yuri" peyrings are rather boring. ((
All drama is smooth and stylish. And if there is, then it comes down to love triangles.
From "get", they only advise me of only Starko, Tomstar from only one animated series. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I would like to ask why are most canonical shipping so bad? Could you advise some good canonical shippings (preferably get, otherwise I haven’t seen anything good lately) that would be interesting to ship?

 

[Zettaflare]

It could be because the canon pairing happened out of nowhere or was rushed at the very end. The writer may have had trouble building a believable relationship. Another reason is it could be considered an abusive relationship. A big example of one such pairing is Sasusaku from Naruto.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

I find myself thinking that I have absolutely nothing to ship recently, the relationship between the characters is either poorly disclosed, or they are, but it would be better if they weren’t. In particular, the "get" genre suffers from this, but the current canonical "slash" and "yuri" peyrings are rather boring. ((
All drama is smooth and stylish. And if there is, then it comes down to love triangles.
From "get", they only advise me of only Starko, Tomstar from only one animated series. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I would like to ask why are most canonical shipping so bad? Could you advise some good canonical shippings (preferably get, otherwise I haven’t seen anything good lately) that would be interesting to ship?

Are we talking about canonical ships in their respective series or in fanfiction?

Are we talking about Kingdom Hearts? Your post is unclear.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I personally do not care for shipping in Kingdom Hearts and I love romance.

The problem is that the Kingdom Hearts team have no idea on how to make a compelling romantic dynamic.

 

[plasmos]

The problem is that the Kingdom Hearts team have no idea on how to make a compelling romantic dynamic.

And as they shouldnt , kh shouldn’t have any romance in it let PG rated games stay PG. y’all always wanna ship shit . We don’t care about love we trying to figure out who killing who and moving on .

 

[Deleted member 32967]

Money grabbing, mostly.

 

[Perkilator]

I personally do not care for shipping in Kingdom Hearts and I love romance.

The problem is that the Kingdom Hearts team have no idea on how to make a compelling romantic dynamic.

Well, to be fair, I don’t think romance was in mind when it came to writing dynamics between the OC’s.

 

[disney233]

And as they shouldnt , kh shouldn’t have any romance in it let PG rated games stay PG. y’all always wanna ship shit . We don’t care about love we trying to figure out who killing who and moving on .

What's the point of moving on when the main characters are treated poorly nonetheless? You're not wrong, but.....there's barely any middle ground between rushed...........and rushed.

 

[Nukara]

I'm probably a minority, but I liked SS in my own way.
For good, Sasuke should have been left alone, considering what a jerk he was, so it’s surprising that someone else loves him. (Sakura)

 

[Nukara]

In any case, according to this logic, some Marinette x Adrien is also not better.
I'm not for not believing that Marinett fell in love with the last one in love.
Seriously, the son of a rich daddy, a fashion model. She only needs money from him. And this shipping on top of the top among the "get".
And such people support.
This is so unfair.
In this regard, the attachment of Naruto and Sakura to Sasuke deserves my respect, because not everyone can endure a person like Sasuke.

 

[Deleted member 32967]

I think with a lot of stuff, they pad it out and run out of ideas. But they know it makes the big dollars. They keep it going just the same. People know it begins to suck, but they cannot let go of it. Like when The Walking Dead started, I was hooked. Now? It's still good. Just very dramatic. And Resident Evil lost its touch as well. Maybe even Final Fantasy too, but I don't play those games.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

If you are a One Piece fan this LuffyxNami fic is pretty good.

Strawhat Theater 2: Our Mrs Monkey Chapter 1, an one piece fanfic | FanFiction

www.fanfiction.net

With most shonen stories, they tend to either rush through and/or don't spend a lot of time developing a real bond. Kingdom hearts is no exception.

Stories in the West suffer from similar problems but not as bad.

 

[Veevee]

From what I see, a lot of authors seem to think there only needs to be some sort of "tension" or to have the characters themselves proclaim some sort of romantic interest and it's "justified" immediately. I've always seen a lot of ships where the two shipped characters hardly have anything in common but people push them together because "opposites attract" (they do, they make good friends, but horrible couples) and the writers don't care to let them have some quality time together that goes beyond normal stuff like eating together, sitting together in groups or something like that. When thinking of shippings, I always try to think in terms of "what would these two talk about when spending a day together?" - if I can name a few things (watching movies together, engaging in the same sports, going swimming, whatever) that I could picture them spending their time with together, it's fine, but in a lot of cases I think "welp, you'd have nothing to say to each other besides the usual bickering / bantering". Don't get me wrong, bicker and banter is great, but you can't do that all day and there should be some kind of connection between the involved parties that goes beyond teasing.

TV shows are particularly horrible about this; basically every couple in Big Bang Theory is horrible. Sheldon / Amy: Amy constantly complains about the lack of touching of any kind which is a severe problem if you want it, but can't expect it; Sheldon is just constantly obnoxius and makes everything about him, at every moment, which is horrible in a relationship.
Penny and Lennard don't have anything in common and Penny even admits she only dated him because he was "persistent until she gave in" and not because she had much interest in him. Lennard basically always feels unsure about the relationship up to a point where it's unhealthy; I understand this is supposed to be a comedy, but it depicts actual deep-seated problems, drowned in a laugh track while being cringeworthy as hell.

For anime, I often get the feeling it's kind of a fanservice. Romance scores you popularity points, so why not throw the fans a bone, get them speculating, never get too clear, stay vague enough and never confirm anything until it's over. And don't forget the misunderstandings, so it stays juicy. It's a little tiresome.

 

[Nukara]

If you are a One Piece fan this LuffyxNami fic is pretty good.

Strawhat Theater 2: Our Mrs Monkey Chapter 1, an one piece fanfic | FanFiction

www.fanfiction.net

With most shonen stories, they tend to either rush through and/or don't spend a lot of time developing a real bond. Kingdom hearts is no exception.

Stories in the West suffer from similar problems but not as bad.

In my opinion, in the West, shipping is still worse.
On the one hand, relations there may be better developed, but on the other hand, their relations are often too boring and bland. (

 

[Deleted member 246005]

In my opinion, in the West, shipping is still worse.
On the one hand, relations there may be better developed, but on the other hand, their relations are often too boring and bland. (

I can forgive a dull choice if the execution is interesting.

All in all, it just depends on your preferences/experiences. I lost interest in shonen manga in my late teens so I just don't have the patience for its flaws.

To me, @Veevee 's statement on how anime temds to handle romance is spot on.

 

[Elysium]

From what I see, a lot of authors seem to think there only needs to be some sort of "tension" or to have the characters themselves proclaim some sort of romantic interest and it's "justified" immediately. I've always seen a lot of ships where the two shipped characters hardly have anything in common but people push them together because "opposites attract" (they do, they make good friends, but horrible couples) and the writers don't care to let them have some quality time together that goes beyond normal stuff like eating together, sitting together in groups or something like that. When thinking of shippings, I always try to think in terms of "what would these two talk about when spending a day together?" - if I can name a few things (watching movies together, engaging in the same sports, going swimming, whatever) that I could picture them spending their time with together, it's fine, but in a lot of cases I think "welp, you'd have nothing to say to each other besides the usual bickering / bantering". Don't get me wrong, bicker and banter is great, but you can't do that all day and there should be some kind of connection between the involved parties that goes beyond teasing.

I think that's too simplistic. Opposites can attract in a way that works long-term just as often as not. Sometimes a push and pull of opposites improves both people. Of course, there are cases opposites can be toxic for each other, but the same is true for relationships between two people who are very similar. Two similar people can encourage one another's worst habits. I remember taking a sociology of the family class once before and we had to read various studies that were done on relationships. In general, arguing in a relationship isn't really a bad sign at all--as long as both people like to argue. When you have one person who likes to argue and the other never wants to, that's when there's going to be issues in a relationship. Personally, I think occasional arguing in a relationship is healthier than never discussing anything. People are opposite in their interests or their overall personality, but you can have two people who are opposites in temperament that both like to argue or vice versa. I mean, for example, I've heard so many people complain about Hermione / Ron before. For myself, I always thought Ron was a little undeserving of Hermione, but I don't think they're a bad couple. They're a good case of opposites attracting--but the arguing isn't one-sided. Part of the attraction comes from the arguing.

I guess I've always liked relationships where the two are always taking potshots at one another's idiosyncrasies. Sort of like Emma and Knightley in Emma or Howl and Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle (the book, not the movie).

 

[Deleted member 246005]

It's easy to dunk on Sora/Kairi but other games suffered similarly. FF13, FF15, and DMC4 also suffer because the writers rely too much on the characters having a relationship in the past without building it in the present.

I prefer the approach in FF13-2, Enslaved: Odyssey to the west, Prince of Persia (2008) and RE6 because they do a better job of developing their core relationships. Granted those are all games were characters are meeting each other for the first time so there's more leeway.

So the issue becomes developing characters in the present without relying on the past.

 

[TruestSyn]

I think part of the problem comes from people investing way too much into their headcanons instead of taking the series for what it is as a product of someone who isn't them and doesn't think the same thing they think. The other part of the problem is offending sensibilities, like how they would never have dared to show a homosexual couple together on TV back in the 90s and now they have to worry that showing a heterosexual couple might be offensive to some (depending on the context of the show, like if it was a primarily LGBT show and suddenly one character was straight). The fact that dating has changed significantly over the years also probably has something to do with it. We live in an age of hook-up culture as opposed to dating (there's lots of demographics you can find on the subject) and more people are finding the concept of staying with someone difficult.

That being said, the old adage is coming true: Romance is dead.

 

[Noivern]

This is such a confusing thread as everyone seems to be talking about a different thing. lol

Regarding SoKai: I don't think it's poorly developed at all? They were never shy to show that Sora and Kairi care a lot about each other multiple times. While we didn't get to see them interactly directly much as they spent most of the franchise apart, I like what we did get from them (like Sora drawning the Paopu exchange in the secret cave back in KH1 only to come back to it in the KH2 ending and see that Kairi had completed it. Or how Kairi literally screams about how she wanted to see Sora so bad when they reunite in TWTNW).

I think SoRiku is just as developed too. While it's obviously never going to happen canonically for obvious reasons, it's pretty clear how much they care about each other with Sora literally breaking down when he finally sees Riku again in 2.

And I don't think either ship clashes with each other either, the trio just loves each other so damn much and it's pretty accurate for a teenage love in my opinion.

Those two aside, Kingdom Hearts is a franchise about love but is not necessarily about romance. That said, the way the games treat love as the key to not loosing your heart (may your heart be your guiding key/my friends are my power/the literal power of waking) ends up with multiple fandom ships with interesting relationships, even if some of them are borderline incestuous (all the versions of Sora have been shipped with each other, at some point. lol)

 

[Deleted member 246005]

@Noivern
@Nukara was pretty vague about what he wanted to talk about. They never clarified so we just took a stab and guessed.