Amassment Message Board

What kind of pairings do you like?

Are you more drawn to the relationship between:

• lovers?
• teacher/mentor & student/apprentice?
• strong friendships?
• parent/guardian & child?
• pet/owner?
• (another type not listed here)?

What about this kind of pairing do you enjoy?

Oh boy... almost all of them? XD I enjoy romantic pairings as well as just friendship pairings (the latter have actually grown more on me as my shipping has decreased over the years). I also really like mentor-apprentice and pet-owner. As for the parent-child, it depends heavily on the characters.

In general I enjoy the mutual support they give each other and when they bring out the best out of each other. For anything else more specific, it depends on the pairing.

COOL! (Also, thank you for the wording for "mentor & apprentice"! My brain was half-asleep when I typed the post, LOL, but it's fixed now)

I can see how strong friendships become more of a draw--it happened that way for me too. What are some examples of strong friendships in fiction that you like?

Robin wrote:I can see how strong friendships become more of a draw--it happened that way for me too. What are some examples of strong friendships in fiction that you like?

Oh boy, I am bound to forget some, so please bear with me. XD

I love all the friendships in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra (I was actually amazed at how little I seemed to care about romantic pairings in both shows! I was all about the friendships between the characters in the Gaang and Team Avatar~), Charlie/Sam/Patrick trio of friends in Perks of Being a Wallflower, all the various friendships in Beyblade, ALL OF THE FRIENDSHIPS IN HONEY & CLOVER (Honey & Clover takes up a special place in my heart), then video game parties too, like Justin/Sue/Feena in Grandia.

These are the major ones I can think of at the moment. :D

Friendships, sometimes rivalries, but not too often, and also some shippings, but I can get picky. XD I like shippings that fit without being so perfect that they're uneventful, but not so unusual that they seem forced. Rivalries are tricky because I would have to like both characters and often when I like a character, their rival is the type of character I don't like or are not interested in. Friendships full of loyalty and understanding are awesome.

Chibi wrote: I love all the friendships in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra (I was actually amazed at how little I seemed to care about romantic pairings in both shows! I was all about the friendships between the characters in the Gaang and Team Avatar~)

OMG me too! I just about had no romantic ships, or if I did, I wasn't super invested in them. (Maybe it's just a function of me being 30+ now instead of in my teens like I was with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Card Captor Sakura, LOL) But I thought the show did a fantastic job of building the friendships up so that viewers could appreciate each bond. :D

Mikari wrote:Friendships, sometimes rivalries, but not too often, and also some shippings, but I can get picky. XD I like shippings that fit without being so perfect that they're uneventful, but not so unusual that they seem forced. Rivalries are tricky because I would have to like both characters and often when I like a character, their rival is the type of character I don't like or are not interested in. Friendships full of loyalty and understanding are awesome.

That's a great point about rivalries! Both characters really have to be likable if the rivalry is going to be enjoyable, otherwise it's just hero vs. villain :)

Where's the All Of The Above option :D

Robin wrote:OMG me too! I just about had no romantic ships, or if I did, I wasn't super invested in them. (Maybe it's just a function of me being 30+ now instead of in my teens like I was with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Card Captor Sakura, LOL) But I thought the show did a fantastic job of building the friendships up so that viewers could appreciate each bond. :D

Yes! They did a great job! :D (And lol, I was 23 when I watched ATLA for the first time - two years ago - and I don't seem to be a fiery shipper anymore, haha! But most of my friends my age still are, so maybe it's just me. XD)

I don't think I'm drawn to one type of pairing over the other, but I think rivalries always have an interesting dynamic to them in that usually each character makes the other "better". (Goku & Vegeta, Phoenix & Edgeworth, Kuroko & Miragen...!) The rival always drives the other character to be a better version of themselves and pushes them to their limits! I think you get to see the best and worst of each character when they are written about in a relationship like that. I don't think that's limited to enemies either... Gon and Killua from HUNTERxHUNTER have a constant friendly rivalry going on throughout the series and they turn any little thing into a competition, but bring out aspects of one another you wouldn't see if they didn't share that kind of relationship!

Other than that, I'm really really attracted to bromances. I think it's a result from feasting on shounen manga for so much of my life, haha. The friendship between men is so romanticized in shounen manga but it's so damn touching and gets me every time LOL.

nyxmidnight wrote:Where's the All Of The Above option :D

LOL well it is there in spirit? XD

Chibi wrote:

Robin wrote:OMG me too! I just about had no romantic ships, or if I did, I wasn't super invested in them. (Maybe it's just a function of me being 30+ now instead of in my teens like I was with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Card Captor Sakura, LOL) But I thought the show did a fantastic job of building the friendships up so that viewers could appreciate each bond. :D

Yes! They did a great job! :D (And lol, I was 23 when I watched ATLA for the first time - two years ago - and I don't seem to be a fiery shipper anymore, haha! But most of my friends my age still are, so maybe it's just me. XD)

LOL I just recently watched A:TLA all the way through (so I was 31 at first viewing); most of my friends saw it when it came out, but I didn't, probably because I was wrapped up in other fandoms. So glad Amazon Prime was running it where I could see it for free via my FireTV box :D

(I liked especially how they built up the family/mentor & student pairing up with Zuko and Iroh. So awesome.)

Aku wrote:I don't think I'm drawn to one type of pairing over the other, but I think rivalries always have an interesting dynamic to them in that usually each character makes the other "better". (Goku & Vegeta, Phoenix & Edgeworth, Kuroko & Miragen...!) The rival always drives the other character to be a better version of themselves and pushes them to their limits! I think you get to see the best and worst of each character when they are written about in a relationship like that. I don't think that's limited to enemies either... Gon and Killua from HUNTERxHUNTER have a constant friendly rivalry going on throughout the series and they turn any little thing into a competition, but bring out aspects of one another you wouldn't see if they didn't share that kind of relationship!

Other than that, I'm really really attracted to bromances. I think it's a result from feasting on shounen manga for so much of my life, haha. The friendship between men is so romanticized in shounen manga but it's so damn touching and gets me every time LOL.

GREAT examples! I think well-done rivalries and bromances are two very overlooked pairings, but they're really super important in all forms of media, because they are so rare! (not to mention that the "bromance" in particular helps show boys and men that they can have strong, support-based male friendships without losing any masculinity)

AdriCULOUS wrote:All of them, actually LOL. For example, with Sakura & Syaoran of CCS, they're pretty much all of the above mentioned. (enemies/rivals, allies, teacher & student (on both sides), best friends, lovers) It's one of the reasons why I love this pairing, because they weren't just a couple, but they had all sorts of relationships before they got to that level.

On the other hand, I do get really picky with pairings too, and it also depends on the characters as well. I like well-rounded pairings, where they have different types of relationships w/ one another and not just stick to one or two. Dunno if that makes any sense. ^^

I feel ya on Sakura x Syaoran. The way they teach each other especially is so endearing :D