Month of Negatives: Week 3 - Pairings!

I find it rather amusing that one of the main arguments anti-shippers have against shippers is that you wouldn't go about shipping people in real life. I find this so amusing because back in school I actually had a shipping chart of my classmates, and would actually spend my time observing their interactions with one another. Enough of my old past time of real life shipping, it's time I began discussing the MLP: FiM ships that I do not like.

After I talk about my fanfiction progress of course. This week was another slow one in which not a great deal of progress was made, I'm hoping that the following week I will be able to focus myself enough to get the second chapter of 'Magnetism' finished, and I'm also thinking of getting round to editing and improving 'Thank You Cider'. I have also pondered the possibility, that once I have polished 'Thank You Cider', of trying to submit it to Equestria Daily, for if I'm successful that will surely boost its popularity (then again I'm still amazed at my first fanfic managing to get 54 comments, 57 likes, and only 2 dislikes). Of course my priority is on 'Magnetism' and in fact, there is something I wish to ask of this blog's readers/followers. In order to entice a reader into reading a fanfic, one needs a good summary for their fanfic. My short summary for 'Magnetism', currently "Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash must be in constant physical contact because a pair of magic bracelets", I feel is satisfactory, though I have doubts over the longer summary for the fanfic. So next week, within the fanfiction progress section, I shall be posting the current idea I have for the long summary of 'Magnetism' in order to ask you, my blogs readers, opinions on it and to see if I can improve it in anyway. With that said it is time we get onto the topic of the week, my least favourite pairings/shipping’s/whatever you want to call them.

10) FancyFleur (Fancy Pants and Fleur-de-lis) – My reason for disliking this pairing comes down mostly to Fleur-de-lis, in the fact that she seemed no different to the other upper class ponies hanging around Fancy Pants because he is well respected. For instance, when we first see the two characters Fleur-de-lis takes note of each action Fancy Pants does and imitates it, similar to how the other class ponies try and follow Fancy Pants example in order to get his approval. A lot of fans also seem to suggest that Fleur-de-lis is Fancy Pants trophy wife but I’m not buying that, the guy doesn’t seem like the type to have a wife simply for the purpose of showing off his status and class.

9) SpitDash (Spitfire and Rainbow Dash) – I can understand where this paring comes from, Rainbow Dash wants to be a Wonderbolt and admires them and Spitfire happens to be a Wonderbolt, which in turn I dislike. When it is for that reason alone I dislike SpitDash, I personally think that Rainbow Dash isn’t the sort to think of things on a romantic level and so her admiration is simply admiration. I also do not think she is shallow enough to be in love with a pony simply because they are a Wonderbolt, other cases of possible love for a role model such as TwiLestia (Twilight Sparkle and Celestia) and ScootaDash (Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash) are okay because they are admiring an individual, not a group, the ‘because Spitfire’s a Wonderbolt’ can be applied just as easily to other Wonderbolt members such as Soarin. Also, as far as I’ve seen her depicted, Spitefire usually comes across simply as a mature, more sensible version of Rainbow Dash and that makes the pairing kind of boring.

8) SpiLight (Spike and Twilight Sparkle) – I am probably one of the most tolerable people when it comes to what many would term as incest pairings and I figure this is because I see the case of incest to be more with how the characters interact with one another and less to do with their blood. If they happen to be brother and sister simply because of genetics, oh well, love is love, but if their interactions and pre-existing relationship make them feel like they are brother and sister, regardless on whether or not they are related, then it becomes awkward. Such is the case I find with SpiLight, because I see how Spike and Twilight interact to be like that of a younger brother and an older sister, so despite not being related, or even the same species, I see them as brother and sister.

7) GildaShy (Gilda and Fluttershy) – I shouldn’t really need to explain myself here. I can understand GildaDash (Gilda and Rainbow Dash) on the basis of either a former relationship or one-sided feelings on Gilda’s part for Rainbow Dash, and I can sort of understand GildaPie (Gilda and Pinkie Pie) as Pinkie Pie did go through a lot of trouble to try and make Gilda less of a grump…also I find Pinkie Pie works in pretty much all pairings but GildaShy just puzzles me. I know Fluttershy is kind and all, but Gilda made her burst into tears, and that was the entirety of their interaction.

6) DumbShy (Dumbbell and Fluttershy), DumbDash (Dumbbell and Rainbow Dash), HoopShy (Hoops and Fluttershy), and HoopDash (Hoops and Rainbow Dash) – I try to list each rank with only one of said thing I’m ranking, in this case, only one pairing/ship per rank, but this will be the exception for my reasons for disliking these pairings are the same and they are thankfully not large enough to credit a position individually. Unfortunately Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash being paired up with their bullies has occurred, at least in the realms of fan-art, and it baffles me as to why. Hoops and Dumbbell can’t even make up for being bullies by being interesting characters, they are simply bland character types made to serve the purpose of story events in ‘Sonic Rainboom’ and ‘The Cutie Mark Chronicles’ as well as forming possible parts of both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s personalities by seemingly being consistent bullies of the two (they hadn’t changed much in the time between ‘The Cutie Mark Chronicles’ and ‘Sonic Rainboom’).

5) RainBurn (Rainbow Dash and Braeburn) – Rainbow Dash was on the side of the buffaloes and I don’t think she has a single interaction with Braeburn. Now RainHeart (Rainbow Dash and Little Strong Heart) makes sense, and TwiBurn (Twilight Sparkle and Braeburn), RariBurn (Rarity and Braeburn), and FlutterBurn (Fluttershy and Braeburn) all make more sense than RainBurn. The pairing just feels like an attempt to ship Rainbow Dash with a male character simply for the sake of shipping Rainbow Dash with a male character (and considering how often Braeburn is considered gay and shipped with male characters, the opposite probably applies as well).

4) SpikeBloom (Spike and Apple Bloom) – There are many reasons I dislike this pairing, and each of these reasons for disliking this pairing quickly add up to my distaste for it. First, I do not like the reasoning for this pairing, rather than being based on their personalities or interactions it is simply based on the fact that Spike was the first young boy character of importance and Apple Bloom was the first young girl character of importance. Second, I feel that the other two crusaders work better in a pairing with Spike, Scootaloo’s personality works better alongside Spike’s than Apple Bloom’s while the fact that Sweetie Belle is Rarity’s sister generates an interesting situation/relationship without much effort needed. Finally, I dislike the pairing because of how popular it is despite these two previous factors, and in being so popular it detracted from SpArity (Spike and Rarity), a pairing which should not have had to wait until ‘Secret of my Excess’ for it to gain an above average following (furthermore, outside of SpikeBloom, SpArity, and SpiLight, the other Spike pairings aren’t all that popular because of the overwhelming popularity of SpikeBloom).

3) RariTwi (Rarity and Twilight Sparkle) – Rarity knows that Spike has feelings for her, and Twilight Sparkle is practically Spike’s older sister, so this pairing probably feels like a dagger in the back of a certain baby dragon. If it weren’t for this factor (and how I consider Rarity to be straight) I wouldn’t find this pairing all that bad, but being a fan of SpArity, I have to say no this pairing, and if it does appear in any story it needs to address Spike.

2) TwiXie (Twilight Sparkle and Trixie) – If you watch the episode 'Boast Busters' Trixie and Twilight actually had very little interaction and barely even a proper conversation with one another. Trixie’s interactions were focused much more on Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. The only thing really going for this pairing is how none of the two characters interactions were particularly negative, and if it were to spur from Trixie’s side, Twilight letting Trixie off and with no ill will towards her could be used to explain Trixie having romantic feelings for Twilight. Unfortunately it is usually done the other way around and both the characters usually have to stop acting like themselves in order to get the pairing to work.

1) FlutterMac (Fluttershy and Big Macintosh) – One of the quickest ways to stop me from reading a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfic is to have this pairing featured. Sure, there are exceptions, both ‘Gravity’ by Tealove and ‘Piano Mare’ by Aegis Shield feature this pairing though if you were to read said fanfics you would understand why I’m okay with them being featured. My dislike comes down mostly to personal taste but also includes; a befuddlement with how two shy characters could possibly make a romantic relationship work, a head-canon that dictates Fluttershy being lesbian, a dislike of several of the ships fans due to the small FlutterMac vs. CheeriMac argument that sprung up from ‘Hearts and Hooves Day’, and an irritation with its absurd popularity (it is the most popular heterosexual pairing in the fandom) which is to the point that some fans believe the pairing to be canon despite how they have only appeared in the same scene about four times and have never once spoken to each other.

Like with my last pairing discussion I do not plan on finishing here, as there are other pairings that I dislike that I wish to discuss. You may have noticed within my list that my head-canon dictates Fluttershy as being lesbian (something I considered since the first episode and had pretty much set in stone with ‘The Cutie Mark Chronicles’) and as such, with exception to a rule 63 Rainbow Dash or ponified Angel Bunny, regard all FluttershyXMale Character ships with either a neutral opinion or a dislike opinion. I don’t get ChrysalCandence (Chrysalis and Candence) or ChrysalLestia (Chrysalis and Celestia) and for reasons I’m not too sure of myself I am not fond of TwiShy (Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy) or ThunderDash (Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash). I’ve seen all three of the PipsqueakXCutie Mark Crusader pairings, PipBloom (Pipsqueak and Apple Bloom), PipBelle (Pipsqueak and Sweetie Belle), and PipLoo (Pipsqueak and Scootaloo), in fanart, and found myself not liking all three pairings, and I also dislike VinylTavia (Vinyl Scratch and Octavia) for its flimsy basis of the two character being paired together simply because they are musicians, even though there style of music have little to nothing in common. All this talk of shipping today kind of makes me want to talk about it more, maybe one of my future posts should be about my primary ships and secondary ships, or simply stating my opinions on some of the popular and/or weirder shipping’s, for instance, did you know that DiamondBunny (Diamond Tiara and Angel Bunny) is an actual shipping. Alas, I still have one more week of my Month of Negatives to go, and next week shall concern the characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that I dislike...now I just need to think of ten characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that I actually dislike.