Well you're not wrong but what of an in universe ship nothing wrong with applying shipgirls of in universe ships to that universe. True any modern shipgirl is broken but what of say orgrims hammer from wow actually becomeing an in universe shipgirl. Or that ship that carried all those ghosts in lord of the rings charging alongside them. Are their stories somehow less valid as ideas, both in comedy and as serious stories.
They aren't less valid, but this might not the place for them. If neither the characters nor the setting is kancolle, and you're just reusing the idea of ship-spirits, then it's worth remembering that the idea is older then christianity. Observe:
Article: The fleet's destruction seems inevitable, but an old blessing prevents the ships' incineration. At the fleet's construction, Cybele—mother of the gods and sister of Saturn—requested her son Jupiter to render the vessels immortal because they were built of wood from trees in her sacred forest. As Turnus and his troops watch the ships burn, the vessels suddenly pull loose of their anchors, submerge, and reappear as sea nymphs. This sign vexes the Latins, but Turnus remains confident and determined to complete his annihilation of the Trojans, portents from the gods notwithstanding. Night falls, and the Latins make camp around the Trojan fortress.
Well... the major issue with pairings is that people often decide that the two will be paired and then have it happen. Usually they'll fall in love at first sight for example. This... causes issues. Personally, I do it differently. For example, in the case of Hood and Bismarck? I usually have it where when, after they both return, Bismarck is often protective of Hood to some extent. Usually it exasperates Hood ("I'm not going to blow up from stubbing my bloody toe, Bissy!"), but she'll also use it as a way to tease Bismarck and might make comments to cause said Battleship to blush. Whether they go further or not? *Shrugs* Nothing more then that might be shown. Stuff like that.I've honestly never much been a fan of making pairings based entirely on one moment in their ship histories. Hood and Bisko is common, but the one time I've written both in a story (Indy) they're just friends. Close friends, but friends. Because one blowing the other up does not a relationship make. I can easily see them bonding over being symbols and their shared history but I just...don't see a love blossoming from it.
Similarly, pairing Enterprise and Yamato makes no sense outside GG and even then...the unevenness of that relationship makes me go eeeeeehhhh.
Or Sara with any Japanese ship really. RJ and Sara never even saw each other. Nagato and her may find something in common, but I don't see it going anywhere remotely romantic. There's just not enough common ground there.
It's reasons like that why I prefer Enterprise and Zuikaku for an example. There's a lot of shared history and experiences between the two 'lucky' carriers.
Or- if you're not someone who ships her with me
Exactly. A lot of people who write shipping (or any sort of romantic story, fanfic or otherwise) have this unfortunate habit of skipping several steps in the process, and/or mistaking infatuation for actual love. Heck, that's where the whole BS "love at first sight" concept came from in the first place.
Yup.
Article: "Zui... kaku, is that how you pronounce your name?" The amber-red eyes of the Grey Ghost closed as she called out the slim, bow-wielding ship girl.
Zuikaku shot a quick glare at the offender, a blond haired, curvier young woman, uniformed in a cream-white Navy-collared blouse and matching skirt. Her hair was held in place with a black hairband, a black bow as its sole decoration. In her left hand was her peaked hat, and in her right was her packaged bow.
Enterprise did not need to say her name. Zuikaku's glare gave her all the things the Japanese carrier needs to know. With the memories of her past life swelling up inside her, Zuikaku closed her eyes too.
---
Zuikaku remembered her first mission, the strike that sparked the war that sealed the fates of everyone she knows and eventually herself. She remembered Kaga and Hiryuu quietly swearing, unable to find any carriers within the harbor. She remembered Coral Sea, when Shouhou was sunk, when Lexington was sunk. When she, depleted of her air wing, carried her battered sister, Shoukaku, back home. When she could, in the corner of her eyes, see the lone remaining American carrier, Yorktown, hobbled away alone.
She remembered hearing about Midway, where a 'rookie carrier' managed to sink Akagi, Kaga, and Hiryuu, almost single-handedly. She was called Enterprise.
She remembered seeing her first-hand in Guadalcanal, when the two Shoukakus dueled with the two remaining Yorktowns while the Japanese and American surface fleets battered each other with gunfire. Ryuujou was gone after a strike from Saratoga. Zuikaku herself mortally wounded Enterprise's younger sister, Hornet. She remembered seeing Enterprise, sobbing and clutching her last of kin, while Hornet, her voice fading, tried to comfort her. She remembered if she would experience the same thing with her sister. Or was it Shoukaku clutching her?
She remembered seeing Enterprise swearing revenge.
She remembered Shoukaku, dying to a devastating submarine strike. What were her last words before she went into the deep abyss? Did Enterprise saw her?
And she remembered Leyte. She remembered the America planes blanketing the air, and, stood in the distance, was Enterprise, along with her Essex pupils. Her eyes were like a hawk's, but Zuikaku swore that a bead of tears was swelling at the corner of her eyes.
The last thing she remembered was her, sinking into the abyss. Zuikaku thought that she had a smug face on her. Enterprise, you dummy, I was the decoy. Yamato will avenge me-
Zuikaku opened her eyes again. There is nothing more to remember. Enterprise is still there, but her right hand, relaxed and open, was reaching towards the surprised. The former occupant, the bow, was slung on her shoulder.
"Zuikaku, I know that we have a lot of history between us." Enterprise began. "But, I've always wondered if we would get along when that war was over. You know, as both the second ship of the class and having a lot of fortune behind us. I still wondered about that when I was heading to the scrap yard."
"I was transferred to Sasebo not just to assist you in the goal of eliminating the Abyssals, but also to make amends. Especially with you."
Enterprise, finishing her little speech, gave out a slight smile. "I wish you would give me that chance... Zuikaku."
Zuikaku's mind was racing. Dammit, if she wants to make amends that badly, I'll make sure she'll have to work extra hard for it!...
...but...
...everyone in the naval base either looked down on me or placed me on a pedestal. This girl talked to me like I was her equal. Zuikaku, isn't that what you want? Someone that doesn't treat you as either a scum on the floor or a demigod?
Well...
Zuikaku turned to face her former rival. Her nervousness of her red face was found to be unwarranted as she found that Enterprise was blushing a little, too.
Zuikaku took Enterprise's hand. "Sure," she responded, with a wider smile of her own. "I'll take up your offer."
Used November's Enterprise, since that's the standard for judging all other fan depictions of Enterprise from other artists.
I was thinking about Belated Battleships (which I am admittedly not that far into) as well, but that's good to hear.
Agreed! I imagine different shipgirls would have a variety of reactions to the one responsible for sinking them, and becoming infatuated isn't exactly the most likely or sensible reaction. In most cases, it might provoke some discussion that could wind up a variety of different ways, but even then.
Certainly. As the one who inadvertently kicked off this whole discussion, I felt the need to explain my position a little better. ^_^;
I've always imagined Hornet to be very cold to Zuikaku, refusing to forgive her for Guadalcanal, and very disapproving of Enterprise's blossoming friendship with her. Even when she finally accepted that, Hornet would still be clingy to Enterprise, in a "if you do something weird to my onee-san, I'll Doolittle Raid your ass! You got that?!"-kinda way.
True enough. Though to build on it for example, maybe Hood takes Bismarck to go and get one of Unsinkable Sam's descendants seeing as he was originally her cat, which would mean a lot to the German Battleship. But yeah, it can be written along how one thinks personally, though it needs to make sense.
Agreed, using history as a starting point and then building on it would be the best idea as going too far along either road wouldn't work.
Funny thing about Royal Oak and U-47 is that the way I see it is that when the two are on the same base, U-47 ends up being used as Royal Oak's teddy bear. Not because of romance or anything like that, but rather due to the fact that Royal Oak will sleep better when she knows exactly where U-47 is. And U-47 doesn't really mind it as she both understands and, being a U-Boat who is used to be docked with sisters, it's not exactly uncomfortable to her.
Yeah, Kaga and Arizona work best as probably good friends at most. You could have an incident where one saves the other from Abyssals to solidify that friendship. Or perhaps do something where Kaga is pushing for, say, the route to Hawaii to be opened in order to "Cleanse" herself by saving Arizona/the other Pearl Harbor ships.
Agreed fully actually, then again I'm more a guy who is interested in character interactions and heavily dislikes the idea of taking two people, and pairing them up by them just looking at each other. Strangely enough, I think that I got the oddest pairing in the fandom on either SB or SV with Haruna slowly building a relationship with a tea set tsukumogami. It just sort of happened out of nowhere, but it works because the two have had a lot of interaction with each other in the fic and by this point, two years on, they are still only very good friends and have only just crossed the line of kissing each other on the cheek once in a while (they both have realized that they got romantic feelings for the other, but aren't going to push either).
I got far too much respect for you to troll you in a discussion like this.
Well, the issue with such things is, as you said, there's no real connection there which makes it harder. Mainly because one actually needs to work at it to have it make sense in-universe. And pairings are an issue that people often have problems writing and is, in my mind anyways, one of the harder things to get right. Part of it is the unfortunate tendency for some writers to want the pairing in place right now so that they can use it, usually by saying "These two characters have met, feel a connection and now love each other".
IIRC U-Boats were docked in solitary docks, no cuddle piles there.
So more like being in the same room, but not sharing the same beds then I suppose?
