Rocketshipping....
Dec. 6th, 2017 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
insaneladybugI got a review today from someone who wrote an interesting story, trying to turn the Musashi and Kojiro of Feudal Japan into Jessie and James and somehow get a romance going with them. (Yes, Musashi was a girl in the story.) The duel happened, but to try to get around that problem, Musashi said she challenged Kojiro just as a test of skills and never intended to seriously wound him. Then she tried to doctor him. I was just curious as to how the duel would be explained, so I stopped skimming around that point.
Anyway, it reminded me that years ago, I used to use their Japanese namesakes as an argument against Rocketshipping, LOL. I'm like "... Okay, they were named after two skilled swordsmen who had a duel and Musashi killed Kojiro. Why, exactly, would anyone want to pair up the Pokemon characters Musashi and Kojiro, given that their namesakes were enemies, or at least, rivals and one killed the other?!"
Of course, the explanation is likely that the idea of naming them after those swordsmen was a joke. What happened to them has no bearing on the Pokemon characters Musashi and Kojiro. They behave just the opposite of the real-life people in that they actually work together and care about each other.
Another argument I have heard is that they must be a couple because of how they're always glomping each other in terror and in Japanese culture, they just wouldn't be that touchy-feely if they're not super close. I was thinking they could be close in a familial way too, though, and that it wasn't absolutely only romantic couples who acted like that. In any case, though, I think the glomping is also supposed to be a joke, that they're not romantically involved but they do things that are generally only done by couples. The show itself certainly seems to indicate that they are not romantically involved; it's hard to get around that scene in Sweet Baby James where James absolutely freaks at the thought of marrying Jessie because he thinks she'd leave him with all the housework and he shrieks, "I'd rather diiiiie!" ROTFLOL. That was apparently in the Japanese version too, so ...
Of course, I imagine Rocketshippers counter that by saying that they're lovers with no intention of marrying or some such. But for someone who really thinks that it's more interesting and meaningful if there are no romantic feelings involved, I just found the scene in Sweet Baby James rather delightful and hilarious and nice to point to as an anti-shipper.
I also suddenly realize the irony of my Control Freak redo, that the mask possesses Jessie to the point that she impales and kills James. I did that without even thinking about their Japanese counterparts' names or namesakes.
Anyway, it reminded me that years ago, I used to use their Japanese namesakes as an argument against Rocketshipping, LOL. I'm like "... Okay, they were named after two skilled swordsmen who had a duel and Musashi killed Kojiro. Why, exactly, would anyone want to pair up the Pokemon characters Musashi and Kojiro, given that their namesakes were enemies, or at least, rivals and one killed the other?!"
Of course, the explanation is likely that the idea of naming them after those swordsmen was a joke. What happened to them has no bearing on the Pokemon characters Musashi and Kojiro. They behave just the opposite of the real-life people in that they actually work together and care about each other.
Another argument I have heard is that they must be a couple because of how they're always glomping each other in terror and in Japanese culture, they just wouldn't be that touchy-feely if they're not super close. I was thinking they could be close in a familial way too, though, and that it wasn't absolutely only romantic couples who acted like that. In any case, though, I think the glomping is also supposed to be a joke, that they're not romantically involved but they do things that are generally only done by couples. The show itself certainly seems to indicate that they are not romantically involved; it's hard to get around that scene in Sweet Baby James where James absolutely freaks at the thought of marrying Jessie because he thinks she'd leave him with all the housework and he shrieks, "I'd rather diiiiie!" ROTFLOL. That was apparently in the Japanese version too, so ...
Of course, I imagine Rocketshippers counter that by saying that they're lovers with no intention of marrying or some such. But for someone who really thinks that it's more interesting and meaningful if there are no romantic feelings involved, I just found the scene in Sweet Baby James rather delightful and hilarious and nice to point to as an anti-shipper.
I also suddenly realize the irony of my Control Freak redo, that the mask possesses Jessie to the point that she impales and kills James. I did that without even thinking about their Japanese counterparts' names or namesakes.
