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Description
So this is a little something I cooked up a while back. Exactly how I arrived at the 777 formula is a story I'll tell some other time, but in a nutshell: green are seven couples I'd rate as best, yellow are seven I'm more or less on the fence about or only low-key ship, and red are ones I don't ship and probably/defininitely never will. With that, let's get started.

Yes

    Spyro x Cynder (Legend of Spyro): Spyro and Cynder – or SpyCyn, as I like to call them (SpyCy works too) are pretty much my OTP. Though opinions differ about the games’ storyline and some have said their relationship was rushed, I think the fact that they were doing so much of what really makes relationships work before romance was ever hinted at makes them that much stronger of a couple. Risking everything for each other, choosing to believe in each other even at their darkest possible moments, and particularly Spyro’s choice to all but literally fly into Hell and back out to rescue her from herself… well, what more can I say? It’s practically a Gospel story with dragons.

    Hunter x Colleen (Road Rovers): Admittedly the source material never gave these two much substance. They were the Cotton Candy Couple; sweet, fluffy, and light without any complications to speak of. I kind of chafe at how syrupy most fan fiction writers will make these two, but I still enjoy their chemistry from the original show. For my own use as a writer I like them even better, as working on my own stories their unique place in the world as canosapiens gives some great room to look at confidence and identity, which romance suits almost perfectly.

    Jake x Rose (American Dragon Jake Long): As underwhelmed as I am with more recent Disney output, the writers did a fantastic job setting up the tension between these two. From the so-relatable awkward teen chemistry to the literal mortal combat between their alter-egos Huntsgirl and the American Dragon, all the way to the chaotic on-again, off-again romance when both masks finally came off, the story these two write just sings. Even with the two of them making some decidedly questionable decisions on one another’s accounts, their willingness to protect and sacrifice for each other is never even remotely open to question.

    Balto x Jenna (Balto): Balto and Jenna had the potential to be a Cotton Candy Couple like Hunter and Colleen, but their story had some real meat to it, with both of them willingly risking their lives and more to look after one another, even without any expectation of a romantic payoff. It’s true that Jenna was underdeveloped as a character, and never got the attention she deserved in the sequel, but there’s no doubt that mutual love and respect are in play at any point.

    Danny x Sam (Danny Phantom): A somewhat more relatable awkward teen romance than Jake and Rose. These two drag each other into more messes than you can shake a Fenton Rod at, but they sure know how to tough it out. Though the romantic moments are relatively few and minor, and nothing official is declared until the literal end of the series, they do something far better throughout the show: they stick with each other. Both of them are excellent characters, and even at moments when they don’t seem to like each other much you know each of them would take a bullet for the other in a second.

Tobias x Rachel (Animorphs): I've been revisiting the books lately and even reading them back when I was a kid I liked these two from the start. Tobias was surprisingly relatable to me due to a recent divorce, and Rachel (also relatable on that level) was I guess a sort of celebrity crush for me. The relationship between them throughout the books, hampered by Tobias being trapped in hawk form and haunted by the question of whether he'd ever be able to live a normal life with Rachel, is surprisingly dark in its own way while at the same time adding some bittersweet brightness to a series darker than I ever really appreciated as a kid.

    Peter x Mary Jane (Spider-Man): Enough has been written about these two that I won’t say much. Despite how their relationship is handled in the comics I’ve always felt that in other material I saw, Peter made a better Spider-Man for having MJ in his life, and MJ’s willingness to put up with the trouble this raised said volumes about her character. There’s a reason these two are one of Marvel’s most iconic couples, and possibly the absolute top.



Kinda

    Shaggy x Velma (Scooby-Doo): Although I never saw Scooby-Doo as needing romantic relationships, I did feel like there was some potential in these two for a decently executed Odd Couple. Both knew how to have a fair amount of fun, and despite Shaggy’s overt cowardice and childlike mentality, there were some episodes where he showed more guts and ingenuity than he gets credit for (e.g. turning the tables – or the mirrors – on the Ghost Clown). I never saw and don’t really expect to see them decently matched up in any syndicated material, but it’s still a nice diversion to think about what might have been.

    Kodi x Dusty: While there was nothing official in the series suggesting these two were or ever would be a couple (and some claims that Dusty was supposed to be with Ralph), I’ve seen enough well-written fan fiction and enough subtext in the movie to think these two would work well together. Despite some early flaws in her moral compass, Dusty shows more grit and willingness to look at both sides of a matter than her teammates. As for Kodi, between his leadership resolve and the bond he has with his own father, I think he’d be a good mate and father himself if he found the right female. I’m also strongly of the view that Ralph – the only other official character who got much pairing with Dusty – was just a terrible guy in general. He wasn’t nearly as bad as Steele, but he wouldn’t stop whining and was a bad teammate with all the makings of a worse… well, mate.

    Littlefoot x Ali: I disagree with people who think Littlefoot and Ali themselves are actual cousins (I can do a piece on this some other time if anyone wants), and I also disagree with people who say that Ali was just put in there to be Littlefoot’s love interest. Looking at the other side of the coin, I do agree that their age and maturity – Ali’s especially – would hinder an effort to pair them up romantically within the time frame we see them canonically. So I’m mostly glad they never went this direction, albeit that an episode starting to broach things like budding romance would perhaps have made the Cartoon Network series more interesting and dynamic – which, let’s face it, it badly needed. In any case, I’ve seen some good fan fiction with them as adults.

    Kendall x Sir Ivan or Kendall x Koda: This is a purely speculative pairing, but I feel just strongly enough about the possibilities to think someone should put it out there. Granted the long-term potential was hampered by the fact that they ultimately landed in different eras (though the Energems’ power to halt aging could fix that, technically), but I feel like Kendall had decent enough chemistry with both these guys that Dino Charge missed an opportunity by not trying it, at least for laughs. If nothing else, having the Dino Cupid Charger turned on the Rangers to create division in the team would have been brillian, not to mention a more interesting way at presenting the dangers of greed and envy than the magic coin thing with Spelldigger, funny as that also proved to be.

    Ash x Misty: Early on I shipped these two, and wasn’t surprised to learn the writers originally planned to have them end up together – complete with later seasons featuring their kid or kids. It’s not a big enough deal for me to sweat bigtime, and I’ve heard some decent arguments against them ending up together. I still enjoy “Misty Most of All” and “Under the Mistletoe,” though. lol

    Midorya x Ururaka: My Hero Academia is a fantastic work of complex themes and issues, and I’m pleased that they chose to use Midorya and Ururaka as flavor without trying to oversaturate the more serious aspects of the series like some other anime. They’re high schoolers, after all; still trying to chart their own futures in a world which, by the way, tries to kill them with alarming regularity. On the other hand, the romantic factor could have turned to something forced or cringey like much of what I’ve seen of Dragonball, small percentage that that is. So in a way one of the reasons I’m quickest to ship this is because there’s relatively little of it.

    Hewki and Macku: You could call these two another cotton candy couple, but I do feel like the bits of chemistry presented between them were a fun addition to the Bionicle saga. Granted, the biomechanical nature of the series made it a little hard to justify romantic pairings, but it was still some good, old-fashioned, chaste-yet-flirtatious humor if nothing else. I think I even have a fanfic of these two from years ago somewhere in my files, though I wrote it mostly to annoy my younger brother (who was a much bigger fan of Bionicle than of girls at the time). Maybe I’ll dig it up one of these days. In the meantime, it’s good nostalgia to look back at the series and remember that, for a little while at least, there was some of a different kind of warmth in the heat of the Bohrok wars.



Never

    I should preface this by saying that my pickings were a tad more limited than the other two lists. I didn’t want to resort to just pairings opposed to ones I support, since those are usually pretty obvious throwaways (e.g. Blitz’s fixation with Colleen was clearly meant to be dismissed, with Blitz being toxic and misogynistic and Colleen routinely beating him senseless for it). Also, especially with newer shows, if I don’t like the pairings in a series I’ll typically just forget it and find another show. So most of these are non-canonical, thank goodness.

    WildeHopps: Frankly I agree with Ginnifer Goodwyn (the voice of Judy Hopps) on this one; I like them better with the Buddy Cop dynamic. That should be all I need to say, really, but since I’ve gotten some hackles up in the past I feel obliged to make a more thorough case. As said before, I take interspecies relationships on a case-by-case basis. In the case of WildeHopps, the creators of Zootopia established that biology – despite obvious differences – still operates under the same basic laws in their fictional world as the real one. That raises some ethical issues putting it in the same league as some real-world relationships I just couldn’t get behind. Then there’s the whole issue that dating within a precinct would, in any realistic (or Bogo-ruled) context get one or both of them booted, putting it at odds with the buddy cop dynamic that made these two so great in the first place. It won’t surprise me if Disney pairs them up in the sequel, but if they do I’m already planning not to watch.

    Stuart x Margalo: Again, the world of Stuart Little, despite having obvious liberties with lines between species, still maintains more or less the same biology as the real world. So although Stuart and Margalo clearly had a romantic angle going, I can’t say I’d want to see them stay together. Add in their respective ages (how many people marry their first sweetheart?), and if the character dynamic had continued I think it would have been wiser for the writers to have one or both of them find someone of their own kind and work out the resulting storm. Admittedly I had to reach a bit just to pick this one out, but it’s one of the few cases I can think of where I enjoyed a franchise while disliking a significant pairing within it.

    Spyro x Ember: I run into this one a lot looking for Spyro and Cynder material, and I’ve even run into some uncommonly toxic fans who attack SpyCyn simply because it’s not the original series and/or Spyro/Embe. As fun as it is to see fan material inject Ember into more complex plots where she’s actually contending for Spyro (i.e. against Cynder), she’s the obvious flop. Even for the much more lighthearted original Spyro games, she was a Cotton Candy Character; light, fluffy, and fun at first, but if you went for her and nothing else you’d be bored or sick in five minutes.

    Master Eon and Kaossandra: I was honestly prepared to dislike Skylanders for its handling of Spyro – which was annoying enough – but that, in its own way, grew on me. I was NOT prepared for the surprise reveal that Kaos, Kaossandra’s son, was fathered by Master Eon, despite no hint of romance between them prior to that. This was supposed to set the stage for the prospect that Kaos could have some good in him, which makes zero sense and only undermines multiple character arcs, especially Kaossandra’s. Then there’s the fact that Strykor was pitched the whole time as Kaos’ father, and believed he was. Heck, even Glumshanks thought he was Kaos’ father for one episode. All those guys as credible daddy candidates, and the kid was probably conceived in the midst of a climactic good-versus-evil struggle between two of them? Yeah, just gonna leave that right there.

    Ben x Gwen: Just no. Cousins. One of the few reasons I’m glad Ben 10 isn’t such a big thing anymore is because it means fewer morally depraved fans saying these two should pair up.

    Nigel (Numbuh One) x Lizzie Divine: There was a lot I’d like to forget about Codename: Kids Next Door, and this relationship is probably the top of the list. Don’t get me wrong, Lizzie had her moments when she seemed to genuinely care for Nigel. Unfortunately, those moments had basically no brain behind them. She literally put extra mud – yes, you read that right – in some soup she brought him when he was sick, and didn’t even seem to grasp why that was frowned upon by him or his friends. Most of the time, she was downright toxic, her treatment of him ranging from possessive and demeaning micro-management all the way to actual mind control. Basically, she makes the “Overly Attached Girlfriend” Meme look downright wholesome and not at all creepy. It's clear he likes her for some unknown reason, but nearly her whole existence seems to center on undermining his character and likability.
Kirishima x Bakugo: Some people are going to fly into a rage over this, but my first reason for not shipping these guys is that they’re guys. Yeah, said it and done with it. If you’re still reading, I also feel Kirishima has promising chemistry with Ashido; possibly better in some ways that Midoriya and Ururaka. Bakugo… I won’t say it’s impossible to picture him in a decent romance, but even if he showed signs of wanting one it would be rather difficult. Maybe there’s a young Usagiyama type waiting to be revealed (maybe a daughter or a niece we don’t know about?), but for the moment I vote to keep Bakugo single.

Description
So this is a little something I cooked up a while back. Exactly how I arrived at the 777 formula is a story I'll tell some other time, but in a nutshell: green are seven couples I'd rate as best, yellow are seven I'm more or less on the fence about or only low-key ship, and red are ones I don't ship and probably/defininitely never will. With that, let's get started.

Yes

    Spyro x Cynder (Legend of Spyro): Spyro and Cynder – or SpyCyn, as I like to call them (SpyCy works too) are pretty much my OTP. Though opinions differ about the games’ storyline and some have said their relationship was rushed, I think the fact that they were doing so much of what really makes relationships work before romance was ever hinted at makes them that much stronger of a couple. Risking everything for each other, choosing to believe in each other even at their darkest possible moments, and particularly Spyro’s choice to all but literally fly into Hell and back out to rescue her from herself… well, what more can I say? It’s practically a Gospel story with dragons.

    Hunter x Colleen (Road Rovers): Admittedly the source material never gave these two much substance. They were the Cotton Candy Couple; sweet, fluffy, and light without any complications to speak of. I kind of chafe at how syrupy most fan fiction writers will make these two, but I still enjoy their chemistry from the original show. For my own use as a writer I like them even better, as working on my own stories their unique place in the world as canosapiens gives some great room to look at confidence and identity, which romance suits almost perfectly.

    Jake x Rose (American Dragon Jake Long): As underwhelmed as I am with more recent Disney output, the writers did a fantastic job setting up the tension between these two. From the so-relatable awkward teen chemistry to the literal mortal combat between their alter-egos Huntsgirl and the American Dragon, all the way to the chaotic on-again, off-again romance when both masks finally came off, the story these two write just sings. Even with the two of them making some decidedly questionable decisions on one another’s accounts, their willingness to protect and sacrifice for each other is never even remotely open to question.

    Balto x Jenna (Balto): Balto and Jenna had the potential to be a Cotton Candy Couple like Hunter and Colleen, but their story had some real meat to it, with both of them willingly risking their lives and more to look after one another, even without any expectation of a romantic payoff. It’s true that Jenna was underdeveloped as a character, and never got the attention she deserved in the sequel, but there’s no doubt that mutual love and respect are in play at any point.

    Danny x Sam (Danny Phantom): A somewhat more relatable awkward teen romance than Jake and Rose. These two drag each other into more messes than you can shake a Fenton Rod at, but they sure know how to tough it out. Though the romantic moments are relatively few and minor, and nothing official is declared until the literal end of the series, they do something far better throughout the show: they stick with each other. Both of them are excellent characters, and even at moments when they don’t seem to like each other much you know each of them would take a bullet for the other in a second.

Tobias x Rachel (Animorphs): I've been revisiting the books lately and even reading them back when I was a kid I liked these two from the start. Tobias was surprisingly relatable to me due to a recent divorce, and Rachel (also relatable on that level) was I guess a sort of celebrity crush for me. The relationship between them throughout the books, hampered by Tobias being trapped in hawk form and haunted by the question of whether he'd ever be able to live a normal life with Rachel, is surprisingly dark in its own way while at the same time adding some bittersweet brightness to a series darker than I ever really appreciated as a kid.

    Peter x Mary Jane (Spider-Man): Enough has been written about these two that I won’t say much. Despite how their relationship is handled in the comics I’ve always felt that in other material I saw, Peter made a better Spider-Man for having MJ in his life, and MJ’s willingness to put up with the trouble this raised said volumes about her character. There’s a reason these two are one of Marvel’s most iconic couples, and possibly the absolute top.



Kinda

    Shaggy x Velma (Scooby-Doo): Although I never saw Scooby-Doo as needing romantic relationships, I did feel like there was some potential in these two for a decently executed Odd Couple. Both knew how to have a fair amount of fun, and despite Shaggy’s overt cowardice and childlike mentality, there were some episodes where he showed more guts and ingenuity than he gets credit for (e.g. turning the tables – or the mirrors – on the Ghost Clown). I never saw and don’t really expect to see them decently matched up in any syndicated material, but it’s still a nice diversion to think about what might have been.

    Kodi x Dusty: While there was nothing official in the series suggesting these two were or ever would be a couple (and some claims that Dusty was supposed to be with Ralph), I’ve seen enough well-written fan fiction and enough subtext in the movie to think these two would work well together. Despite some early flaws in her moral compass, Dusty shows more grit and willingness to look at both sides of a matter than her teammates. As for Kodi, between his leadership resolve and the bond he has with his own father, I think he’d be a good mate and father himself if he found the right female. I’m also strongly of the view that Ralph – the only other official character who got much pairing with Dusty – was just a terrible guy in general. He wasn’t nearly as bad as Steele, but he wouldn’t stop whining and was a bad teammate with all the makings of a worse… well, mate.

    Littlefoot x Ali: I disagree with people who think Littlefoot and Ali themselves are actual cousins (I can do a piece on this some other time if anyone wants), and I also disagree with people who say that Ali was just put in there to be Littlefoot’s love interest. Looking at the other side of the coin, I do agree that their age and maturity – Ali’s especially – would hinder an effort to pair them up romantically within the time frame we see them canonically. So I’m mostly glad they never went this direction, albeit that an episode starting to broach things like budding romance would perhaps have made the Cartoon Network series more interesting and dynamic – which, let’s face it, it badly needed. In any case, I’ve seen some good fan fiction with them as adults.

    Kendall x Sir Ivan or Kendall x Koda: This is a purely speculative pairing, but I feel just strongly enough about the possibilities to think someone should put it out there. Granted the long-term potential was hampered by the fact that they ultimately landed in different eras (though the Energems’ power to halt aging could fix that, technically), but I feel like Kendall had decent enough chemistry with both these guys that Dino Charge missed an opportunity by not trying it, at least for laughs. If nothing else, having the Dino Cupid Charger turned on the Rangers to create division in the team would have been brillian, not to mention a more interesting way at presenting the dangers of greed and envy than the magic coin thing with Spelldigger, funny as that also proved to be.

    Ash x Misty: Early on I shipped these two, and wasn’t surprised to learn the writers originally planned to have them end up together – complete with later seasons featuring their kid or kids. It’s not a big enough deal for me to sweat bigtime, and I’ve heard some decent arguments against them ending up together. I still enjoy “Misty Most of All” and “Under the Mistletoe,” though. lol

    Midorya x Ururaka: My Hero Academia is a fantastic work of complex themes and issues, and I’m pleased that they chose to use Midorya and Ururaka as flavor without trying to oversaturate the more serious aspects of the series like some other anime. They’re high schoolers, after all; still trying to chart their own futures in a world which, by the way, tries to kill them with alarming regularity. On the other hand, the romantic factor could have turned to something forced or cringey like much of what I’ve seen of Dragonball, small percentage that that is. So in a way one of the reasons I’m quickest to ship this is because there’s relatively little of it.

    Hewki and Macku: You could call these two another cotton candy couple, but I do feel like the bits of chemistry presented between them were a fun addition to the Bionicle saga. Granted, the biomechanical nature of the series made it a little hard to justify romantic pairings, but it was still some good, old-fashioned, chaste-yet-flirtatious humor if nothing else. I think I even have a fanfic of these two from years ago somewhere in my files, though I wrote it mostly to annoy my younger brother (who was a much bigger fan of Bionicle than of girls at the time). Maybe I’ll dig it up one of these days. In the meantime, it’s good nostalgia to look back at the series and remember that, for a little while at least, there was some of a different kind of warmth in the heat of the Bohrok wars.



Never

    I should preface this by saying that my pickings were a tad more limited than the other two lists. I didn’t want to resort to just pairings opposed to ones I support, since those are usually pretty obvious throwaways (e.g. Blitz’s fixation with Colleen was clearly meant to be dismissed, with Blitz being toxic and misogynistic and Colleen routinely beating him senseless for it). Also, especially with newer shows, if I don’t like the pairings in a series I’ll typically just forget it and find another show. So most of these are non-canonical, thank goodness.

    WildeHopps: Frankly I agree with Ginnifer Goodwyn (the voice of Judy Hopps) on this one; I like them better with the Buddy Cop dynamic. That should be all I need to say, really, but since I’ve gotten some hackles up in the past I feel obliged to make a more thorough case. As said before, I take interspecies relationships on a case-by-case basis. In the case of WildeHopps, the creators of Zootopia established that biology – despite obvious differences – still operates under the same basic laws in their fictional world as the real one. That raises some ethical issues putting it in the same league as some real-world relationships I just couldn’t get behind. Then there’s the whole issue that dating within a precinct would, in any realistic (or Bogo-ruled) context get one or both of them booted, putting it at odds with the buddy cop dynamic that made these two so great in the first place. It won’t surprise me if Disney pairs them up in the sequel, but if they do I’m already planning not to watch.

    Stuart x Margalo: Again, the world of Stuart Little, despite having obvious liberties with lines between species, still maintains more or less the same biology as the real world. So although Stuart and Margalo clearly had a romantic angle going, I can’t say I’d want to see them stay together. Add in their respective ages (how many people marry their first sweetheart?), and if the character dynamic had continued I think it would have been wiser for the writers to have one or both of them find someone of their own kind and work out the resulting storm. Admittedly I had to reach a bit just to pick this one out, but it’s one of the few cases I can think of where I enjoyed a franchise while disliking a significant pairing within it.

    Spyro x Ember: I run into this one a lot looking for Spyro and Cynder material, and I’ve even run into some uncommonly toxic fans who attack SpyCyn simply because it’s not the original series and/or Spyro/Embe. As fun as it is to see fan material inject Ember into more complex plots where she’s actually contending for Spyro (i.e. against Cynder), she’s the obvious flop. Even for the much more lighthearted original Spyro games, she was a Cotton Candy Character; light, fluffy, and fun at first, but if you went for her and nothing else you’d be bored or sick in five minutes.

    Master Eon and Kaossandra: I was honestly prepared to dislike Skylanders for its handling of Spyro – which was annoying enough – but that, in its own way, grew on me. I was NOT prepared for the surprise reveal that Kaos, Kaossandra’s son, was fathered by Master Eon, despite no hint of romance between them prior to that. This was supposed to set the stage for the prospect that Kaos could have some good in him, which makes zero sense and only undermines multiple character arcs, especially Kaossandra’s. Then there’s the fact that Strykor was pitched the whole time as Kaos’ father, and believed he was. Heck, even Glumshanks thought he was Kaos’ father for one episode. All those guys as credible daddy candidates, and the kid was probably conceived in the midst of a climactic good-versus-evil struggle between two of them? Yeah, just gonna leave that right there.

    Ben x Gwen: Just no. Cousins. One of the few reasons I’m glad Ben 10 isn’t such a big thing anymore is because it means fewer morally depraved fans saying these two should pair up.

    Nigel (Numbuh One) x Lizzie Divine: There was a lot I’d like to forget about Codename: Kids Next Door, and this relationship is probably the top of the list. Don’t get me wrong, Lizzie had her moments when she seemed to genuinely care for Nigel. Unfortunately, those moments had basically no brain behind them. She literally put extra mud – yes, you read that right – in some soup she brought him when he was sick, and didn’t even seem to grasp why that was frowned upon by him or his friends. Most of the time, she was downright toxic, her treatment of him ranging from possessive and demeaning micro-management all the way to actual mind control. Basically, she makes the “Overly Attached Girlfriend” Meme look downright wholesome and not at all creepy. It's clear he likes her for some unknown reason, but nearly her whole existence seems to center on undermining his character and likability.
Kirishima x Bakugo: Some people are going to fly into a rage over this, but my first reason for not shipping these guys is that they’re guys. Yeah, said it and done with it. If you’re still reading, I also feel Kirishima has promising chemistry with Ashido; possibly better in some ways that Midoriya and Ururaka. Bakugo… I won’t say it’s impossible to picture him in a decent romance, but even if he showed signs of wanting one it would be rather difficult. Maybe there’s a young Usagiyama type waiting to be revealed (maybe a daughter or a niece we don’t know about?), but for the moment I vote to keep Bakugo single.