Nevermet shippings

This article is about shipping. As hints and evidence for ships are mostly speculation, this page may contain personal points of view.

A Nevermet Ship—while the specific term might be a lesser-used alternative for Template:S—in the general sense is a denotation of a couple who have not canonically met each other (interaction-wise, or even simply being on-scene together) in a specific medium, be it game, anime, or manga.

History and Recent Connotations

The very Ship it was originally named for was one of the best examples of a true nevermet Ship back in the day, when there had not been any main characters who had not met prior to the Orange Islands. However, by the end of the third season, the application of the term was nullified (Brock and Tracey did then meet), but never stopped being about how people could 'ship two people together if they had not been acquainted (in relation to people 'shipping Brock and Tracey, when there was little to go by). It is notable that this was early in the series by today's standards, when the likes of Template:S, Template:S, and Template:S were the three biggest Ships of the time, and even the lesser Ships that ultimately mattered (such as Template:S, Template:S, and Template:S) were still based on something in the minds of its fans, and romantically pairing two people who had not had that chance likely seemed strange.

People 'ship nevermets for various reasons, and it mostly comes down to one excuse: "Because they would be cute together." Little else is seldom expanded upon past answering why, basing their decisions on looks or how personality might affect the other character they wish to involve. It is this mindset that does divide the fandom sometimes, with people who do not like nevermet Ships because of what they are and people who do not think of them as a problem.

There are isolated cases where nevermets are created solely to appease one or a small group of people's love for one character wishing to pair them with everyone (or simply as many people as possible). This can actually result in a major influx of pairings with names that only a few people enjoy, which others occasionally see as a waste toward a coined name that could be "better used" for an actual met pairing.

Nevertheless, there are also cases similar to ThirdWheelShipping, of Ships that eventually stop being nevermets in the long run, but these are predictably few. Template:S had a moderate fan-following before May's three-episode excursion in Sinnoh, where she finally meets Dawn and creates evidence of believed mutual attraction in one go.

In general

Nevermet Ships that are crafted around related-version game characters with inevitable anime counterparts are not considered true nevermets, such as Template:S and Template:S. This is because the characters interact on occasion through-out their game storyline and serve as undistinguished terms for both the game and anime counterparts.

Ships involving members of the Pokémon League (Gym Leaders, Elites, and Frontier Brains) are also not majorly considered nevermets by the fandom as a whole, but if they are not shown to have met in the games, anime, or even the multitude of manga series (examples of Ships that are not are Template:S, Template:S, and Template:S), they are technically so. Regardless, Ships involving League members are generally not called out on being nevermets, so they are not usually included within the bounds of what "purists" consider to be fangirl whim.

In the anime

Main article: Shipping:List of anime shippings/Nevermet shippings

This article is part of Project Shipping, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each couple in Pokémon.