>>52769667>is it all solely just for being cute and fun?For the most part, yes. Its a nice little thing, a bone tossed to the fans, to keep their audience interested. And part of it is to create better engagement for those that consume that media. Like all that fanart and fanfics and amvs. Shipping is not required for fans to create such content, but its like a score multiplier for such things. As the most important thing for any given intellectual property is for people to be talking about it.
>>52769708And I think you might be mildly misunderstanding, as while yes there are older people who ship two kids like Ash and Dawn for example, you have to keep in mind who is doing that. Sure its not here on this basketweaving website, but on other media platforms, its kids and young teens that do that. Part of the unhealthy nature of it is created by TPC themselves, as by choosing not to have Ash age, but still have ship tease moments and wanting older customers to still participate, it creates this very weird effect that you are noticing.
