April 2014
Hello, and welcome to this month’s newsletter. No, it’s not an April fools’ joke. You’re joining me, IceArceus, this month.
So, what’s happening now? Here’s our monthly report on the Pearlshipping situation in various public arenas.
Fanfiction.net: Excellent. Good quality Pearlshipping stories have been churning out lately, specifically various oneshots.
Serebii.net: Better. The Pearlshipping thread is gaining more and more new members, which is good, considering that the Amourshippers are practically going mental on their thread for absolutely ridiculous reasons that we have covered on Pearlshipping DataCore. New members on the serebii thread on Pearl are always welcome!
Deviantart: Infuriating. Recently, we have received a report that a certain artist is copying Endless Summer’s lineart for Pearlshipping and changing Dawn to Serena to make it Amourshippy. I do not even need to say any more for us all to grasp that Amourshippers are unoriginal and plagiaristic.
Pearlshipping Vault: Special
I’m glad to be able to report on Pearlshipping Vault with a smile. It’s been great. The extent of the forum’s growth over this month (We set it up only recently) has been absolutely incredible. The good material we’ve seen in the various boards and threads are a credit to Pearlshipping. The debate threads have been flowing nicely; remember that this is the first time this has happened in the fandom. No other site has a platform for debate, both for Pearlshippers and non Pearlshippers, like Vault does. So any shipper can join Pearlshipping Vault, to defend their ship, etc, because the members there are up for reasonably backed up debate and discussion.
Vault is also a good “first forum”. It’s relatively lenient with double posting and such, because we feel that to bombard you with stringent rules during your -possibly -first forum experience is unfair. It’s a good stepping stone if you wish to join serebii but feel daunted by the rules there.
The closeness of the members in the Vault community is something I’ve never seen on any other site, which I’m sure members on Vault can attest to. New members to Vault are always, always welcome. Don’t feel that the community has already been established and there’s no more room for you to join.
Hint of the Month with IceArceus
Following on from the hints in the Lyra Arc that were mediated by Lyra that we looked at last time I joined you, we’ll be looking at the hints that were NOT mediated by her today. Bulbapedia has only covered the hints that were mediated by Lyra, since those are the most obvious. But you’ll see that there are a few hidden gems.
The first one, that requires some analysis and thought, is in the episode “A Rivalry to Gible on”. Remember the part where they’re walking towards the cave in their “wrong” pairs? After Khoury checks that the cave is safe, he and Dawn start walking towards the entrance, some way in front of Lyra and Ash. Literally right after Dawn and Khoury start towards the cave entrance, Ash instantly frowns and shouts “Hey, looks like they’re onto something!” The way that the scene is shot leads me to think that Ash is, in fact, jealous that Dawn is with Khoury. He runs forward afterwards, shouting “See you there!” in a slightly malicious way that is not normally associated with Ash. This leads straight on to the scene I analysed in February- the “You’re so reckless!” scene.
Additionally, there’s another hidden hint within the same episode. At the end of the episode, when everyone is seen standing around the table, Ash and Dawn are stood close together, as are Lyra and Khoury. This is something that links in with the Ash-Dawn Lyra-Khoury “Parallel Pair” theory. Lyra offers Khoury a bowl of food affectionately, which shows their newfound closeness after Lyra discovered Khoury was more of a man than she thought. This supports Pearlshipping since it has been heavily implied throughout the arc that Pearlshipping was the inspiration of the virtually canon pair of Lyra and Khoury.
Another hint is during the contest episode, “Dressed for Jess Success!” During the time where Lyra notices Jesselina/James’ dress, you can see Ash and Dawn facing each other smiling, after their high five. They’re very close together in the shot, and that’s not the only thing. After they’re interrupted by Lyra, who then continues talking to James, Ash and Dawn instantly turn back to each other and resume staring at each other and smiling. It’s hidden hints like this that make a Pearlshipper’s heart warm and fuzzy.
Pearlshipping TV
So far on Pearlshipping TV, all we have are some piano videos (made by yours truly). That’s all going to change. There have been a lot of queries as to when we’re adding new stuff and what we’re adding. The next thing we’re thinking of adding are counter theory videos to DevotedLamb’s Pokeshipping theory videos, which apparently “haven’t been topped”. This shouldn’t be too hard, as the videos use Penguinshipping as a concept to denounce Pearlshipping. Obviously, this shows that the arguments presented are based on emotive concepts and not factual and analytical ones. We’ll start work on those in summer, after I finish my exams.
Fanfiction Of The Month: Study Date
This is a oneshot I chose on Fanfiction net. Here’s the author himself to tell you more on this perfect oneshot that beautifully captures Pearlshipping.
Hey everyone, it's Mister Inconsistent here, or otherwise known as 'ZealousZoroark'. I first came into the realm of fanfiction writing in late 2012 (because 'the world was going to end' and I figured, why not?) and started writing a few multi-chapter stories. However, I took a brief (well, maybe a few months) break in my writing and have recently come back and taken an interest in OneShots.
I try to publish one Oneshot every week, but I may not be able to keep it up as I'm actually planning one or two multi-chapter stories that may be making their way onto fanfiction in the foreseeable future.
Upon my return to the Pearlshipping community, I found it had decreased significantly in number, mainly due to the emergence of 'Amourshipping' in the XY anime. So, I decided to do what I can to restore the glory of Pearlshipping (namely just writing stories and hoping they somehow blow up)! If you want to see my opinions on Amourshipping, Serena or want to check out my other stories, please feel free to check out my profile on fanfiction.net. Thanks everyone!
Plenary
So here’s a list of Pearlshippy things to do this month:
- Listen to High Touch
- Join Pearlshipping Vault
- Read “Study Date”
These are just a few Pearlshippy suggestions of things you can do. The list is endless. The answers are there to be discovered.
Stay Pearlshippy!
