This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Coco: Added to the One Piece example. This Troper has absolutely no opinion when it comes to who ends up with who and will probably happily accept anything Oda does with the manga. However, the often-cited Word of God is weak evidence (whereas Kubo's Word of God on the Ichigo/Rukia relationship is a good example of something definite) considering the phrasing and how the author seems to be a real life Cloudcuckoolander. Okay, and how a lot of anti-shippers have bashed poor Hancock for having a clearly unrequited, comical crush on Luffy and screamed Ruined FOREVER hurt their credibility. A lot. It makes me think a lot of them just hate the idea of Luffy not being a physical and emotional virgin for the rest of his life.
Kakoyoshi: Not to mention even the One Piece wiki claiming Hancock's crush on Luffy was the FIRST TIME we've seen this kind of affection on the story. Errr...wut? What about Caimie having a super huge crush/love for Hatchi? What about the engaged couple in Shabody? This wouldn't be so bad if those two obvious instances weren't from THE PREVIOUS ARC. The more dogmatic anti-shippers come off as being seriously in denial and having short-term memory loss. (Sort of like...really rabid shippers...) Seriously, people can believe what they want because it doesn't hurt anybody, but stuff like that just makes you look stupid.
He's said there wouldn't be any romance within the main crew. There's also Usopp and Kaya, Igaram and Terracotta, Banchina and Yasopp, Vivi and Kohza... Seriously! Though if anyone's looking for intra-crew romance, they're fooling themselves.
You mean when he said "No romance will blossom on the Going Merry"? Yeah, that would be definitive and straight forward if it weren't for how he already planned on the crew losing Merry and start riding with Sunny instead before he said that. It's not like he hasn't done crap like that before; when he said a crew mate would die, did anyone expect for it to be the non-human/organic Going Merry? (true, an honorary crew member, but the point still stands.) Really, if (I repeat, IF) romance came more into the forefront, Oda could pair whoever the Hell he wanted; the only truly important question is whether or not it would have the same certain Narm Charm as the rest of the manga.
Yeah, a recent interview, he states this trope more clearly than before. Case closed, boys and girls. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Red Shoe: The authors of the "Completely Useless Encyclopedia" suggest that the distaste many fans have for the notion of smooching in Doctor Who is based in a fear that if the Doctor ever has sex, they won't be able to relate to him any more, since it's something none of them will ever do. Though it's obviously meant as a joke, a perusal of rec.arts.drwho will reveal that there is a real tendency for homosexual fans to insist that the Doctor "must" be homosexual, for vegetarian fans to insist that the Doctor "must" be a vegetarian, and politically conservative fans to insist that he must be a Republican.
Seven Seals: For the same reason, Superman no longer overtly stands for "the American way", and the question of whether Superman is religious (never mind who he votes for) can never be addressed without alienating a lot of fans, no matter how you answer it. Fans need to be able to identify with a certain kind of hero; Superman and the Doctor are of that kind. It's probably a sign of immaturity if fans need to identify so closely that the character must or must not have certain traits they themselves have or lack, but writers do well to cater to it anyway.
Heart Burn Kid: I thought the question of Superman's religion has already been answered; doesn't he follow some weird Kryptonian religion? Or was that just before Crisis?
Ununnilium: Pre Crisis, yeah. Back then he was a few years old before being shot to Earth; now, he was barely even born, so didn't have time to pick up the culture. A fictional religion is probably the only one you could give him, for the reasons above.
Seven Seals: Pre Crisis Superman would shout "Great Rao!" every so often. Some background on Rao has been established over the years, but not much, and you'd be hard-pressed to find even one fan who can tell you anything about it. Even so, this doesn't really touch the issue of whether Superman's religious, no more than Marvel's Thor being a god has much to do with religion.
But I digress... Let's just leave it at the observation that the writers wouldn't come out and mention that Clark Kent votes Republican; it would destroy the ability of a lot of fans to identify with him, and being an icon, the character needs that. The Doctor's very much an iconic hero too.
Seven Seals (much later): Still off-topic, but apparently, Superman's a Methodist. But all the other angles are explored too, in this exhaustive page: http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Superman.html
Worth reading if you're into this sort of navelgazing.
Ununnilium: I think the most interesting part of that is that Elliot S! Maggin thinks that Lex Luthor is Jewish.
I'm not sure what the One Piece example seems to be suggesting. I thought the series was notable for its complete lack of Ho Yay.
I want to know which episodes had mulder / scully kiss skinner.
Seanette: I remember Scully kissing a very surprised Skinner in "Triangle" (elevator scene). Don't remember the Mulder/Skinner one.
Doyle: The original poster might be confusing Skinner and Krycek, who did kiss Mulder in The Red and the Black. Then again, I haven't seen the last four seasons of The X-Files and there could well be exciting Mulder/Skinner developments I missed.
