THIS...! IS...! POKESHIPPING! (?)

OK, since nobody's really posting anything I thought I migh be lucky enough to spark a debate with this one. The idea is that in the future ( oh boy, and I looove to talk about the future ) the pokeshipping fandom will shrink to a mere few hundred followers.

Of course right now the idea sounds extremely sci-fi like, with Pokeshippers making up 40% of the entire Pokemon fandom, but, given that Pokeshipping's actually losing its followers at a rate faster than it can aquire new ones AND should the current trends continue, then, we will come to a day when only a handful of followers remain.
And that would lead us to a debate over what to do next. Make a last, honourable stand? Or disintegrate into the darkness accepting the surrender which would bitterly leave a mark on our AaML souls forever. There have been many debates over the future of Pokeshipping, and what would happen to it if Misty won't return. And in many of those debates, no matter how they came to an end, there is only one gloomy conclusion. In short, the total extinction of AaML.
Pokeshipping can be easily compared to climate change. The climate issue isn't extremely alarming yet, with leaders chucking those weather reports into the trash bin. Same goes for us, safe for now, just like the Roman Empire was at its highest peak. But I'm afraid nothing lasts forever and the day will come when all Pokeshipping forums will either get deleted or forgotten due to lack of activity or attacks by far more powerful rival shippings.
The day will come, when all of pokeshipping will be lost, the day when our hopes will vanish into the void... the day when the final hour arrives, the day when the word AaML is considered taboo... the day when the world spits at our fanfic... the day when our monuments crumble under the weight of time... the daaaay, when the hopes of a favourable outcome are all but lost...

This will be the day... when the very last pokeshipper says:

THIS! IS! POKESHIPPPING!!!!

*Crying* o-o-oh m-my ggod... n-noo...

lol yeah but that's nooot exacly what I meant xD

don't think it'll be quite as described above.

the whole point of a shipping is that it's more a belief-system than something that is likely to happen. like Christianity (and this is controversial) or in fact any other religion. we cant know what will happen, or even know for sure whether what is talked about is fact (in which case the majority cannot see it) or simply opinion. we must assume it is opinion if we do not believe it, fact if we do, but keep an open mind about the possibilities of it being the oposite to what we believe.

there's a line in the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy that i quite like, where Douglas Adams posits the situation where man is having a conversation with God.

God: I refuse to prove that i exist, for proof denies faith, and without faith i am nothing.
Man: But, the babel fish* is a complete give away isn't it. it could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, therefore, by your own argument, you don't. Q.E.D
God: Oh dear...i hadn't thought of that
<God then disappears in a puff of logic>

*Babel fish, for those who don't know, is basically a Goldfish that, upon being inserted in your ear, grants the ability to understand what is spoken to you in any language, no matter what country (or planet) the language is from.

it's a lil bit wacky as is most of Douglas Adams' writing, however it does have a point. If we ever proved a religion, say we proved that God existed, would people still follow as blindly and devotedly as they do now, when we do not know that he exists? arguably when something is only potential rather than actual, it inspires a far greater devotion for those who believe in it.

So, if Pokeshipping were ever to be proved, or any other shipping for that matter, then would it really be a great strength to that 'religion'? if anything it may strengthen the devotion people have to more obscure shippings, like Advanceshipping. Pokeshippers would feel complete, the sense of "oh i knew it would happen" as their beliefs become reality...but what then? having it proved limits the possibilities of belief, and in the end Pokeshipping as a 'religion' or cult following or w/e may eventually die out as a result of there being nothing left to believe in, because the belief in the potential has now become actual.

so, for all i'd like to see it proved, i believe that we must spare a thought for all those who rely on it for various reasons - rely on drawing the pictures, writing the fanfics either to give them something to do, or for a more important reason, who may find that the reasons for doing so are rapidly disappearing.
of course it's a bit different, people will always carry on doing it because the idea is still great, there's still so many situations we can imagine them in that will never happen in the anime...but i think that the status as a shipping may eventually disappear as people take it for a given and move on to something else that is a potential, something that can be fought for.

inevitably all things must come to an end though, and i think we'd all prefer it if Pokeshipping came to an end when it became actuality, when it was proved.
otherwise it may well be that the situation described by Oldpokeshipper is our ultimate undoing, but then, how many years/seasons can the anime have left? i think we'll have our answer soon enough, or i hope anyways, but i don't think Pokeshipping will ever be entirely defeated, when you see the devotion and committment many people put into it today. there is no real reason for it to come to an end, or at least, no reason that can come into effect as rapidly as may have been eluded to above.
*Ba

Well, I'd like to see the Pokeshipping proved for a reason: brag that in the faces of the Bimbominkias (a little Italian slang for 'stupid children') who brag about the Pearlshipping all the time.

That's all very interesting, and the long opinion you posted must have been writen with a considerable amount of thinking. But, the whole situation can be described as being between a rock and a hard place. If Pokeshipping does happen- assume people will lose interest, eventualy making AaML all but dead. Assume, Pokeshipping never happens- weeeell, it's a race againts the time then, more like a contest to see who will be still hanging on to it by 2040 A.D Nothing lasts, and I think that either way, Pokeshipping will die off at some point in the history.
I was just trying to picture the last moments of the last Pokeshipper alive ( It may well be myslef ), you know, trying to be a little creative by portraying those last, very last moments of a pokeshipper before he/she drifts off to the other side. Of coruse some anime maniac might digg up some old AaML fanfic 200 years from now, but that won't be called pokeshipping anymore, nor is he going to be called a pokeshipper- more of an archeologist lol.

Dunno about the anime and its finale- hope it's AaML all the way. If not, then hell, I'll stay with it till' my darkest hour ( NOW THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL A REAL FOLLOWER, SISSIES! )

As to Pearlshipping, Lord Martiya, I have to say I'm impresed by their sheer numbers and their devotion, they're growing fast and Pearlshipping itself ( Not to sound like pearlshipper lol but ) is not that bad.