Discussion Main / AnchoredShip

Not sure about this:

• In Doctor Who, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane are Revisioned as this in the revival series. In the original series, they had a lot of UST and tended to be read as Implied Love Interests but in "School Reunion" the Tenth Doctor explains to her that he'd been well aware they'd fallen in love, but broke off the companionship due to his desire not to get involved with her. Their older selves both still love each other, but neither is the person the other had fallen in love with any more (literally, in the case of the Doctor), making it extremely bittersweet.

The Doctor's explanation to Sarah is, in full, "I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed." His explanation to Rose is a bit different, but still more implied than stated ("I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you...") The episode uses being a companion as a metaphor for a romantic relationship (Mickey's "the missus and the ex"), but it's still mostly just a metaphor.

I'm also not entirely convinced by the Twelfth/Clara entry, although on that point I'm prepared to concede that maybe I'm just an old-school fan who's happier when the Doctor and companion relationship isn't romantic and therefore doesn't see it when it is. (I never saw Fourth and Sarah's relationship as romantic either; it was so much bigger than that.)

• In the Ace Attorney series: none of the possible (or believed) romantic relations involving main character Phoenix Wright come to a viable end, due to several reasons: Iris went jailed (not to mention she is actually a religious vowed maiden in disguise, and apparently returns to her duties at monastery after imprisonment time), Maya left to her village, Edgeworth apparently left the country again and Mia and Dahlia are both dead.
  • The most remarkable, however, is that after the gap of seven years passed between the timelines of Trials and Tribulations and the sequel Apollo Justice, none of these characters return to the story: Phoenix in Apollo Justice is portrayed as a single and decadent man, in charge of taking care of an adoptive daughter. No romantic relation or Ship Tease related to him and any of these characters (or any others) is even mentioned.
  • As said before: is arguable. Not just because some of these characters are often considered as cases of The Not-Love Interest (Maya, Edgeworth), but also there is still a chance that any of them reappear in a next sequel of Ace Attorney. Anyway, until then (and if occurs), these existing ships about Phoenix Wright are nominally anchored.
    • As of Dual Destinies, Edgeworth's back and the Ho Yay continues apace. Iris is absent, and, oddly enough, so is Maya.

Crappy spoiler handling aside, as far as my understanding of the trope goes this isn't just when realtionship isn't going anywhere. This is when there is some actual obstacle for realtionship to go anywhere, which none of these really has. Mia and Dahlia aren't even worth mentioning, as neither was any form of love interest to begin with(although Dahlia may qualify as unusual subversion od Love-Interest Traitor), since Mia was always for Diego, and Phoenix didn't show any romantic interest in her anyway while Poisonous Dahlia was quite open about hating his guts. As for others...

• Maya's relationship with phoenix hasn't really changed one bit through the games, there was never any obstacle for them being couple, they just never had any intention of being one. The ship pretty much sank in T&T when Maya stated that they're Like Brother and Sister (twice) plus she was Shipper on Deck for Phoenix/Iris. Yes, she didn't appear onscreen in next two games, but it was rather clear that they stay in touch. So no, nothing stands in their way, they just don't want to go that way.
• a ship with Edge was 100% fanon to begin with, and they never showed any kind of interest in being in romantic relationship, but if they did again nothing really stands in their way. They kept in touch and remained friends for all games.
• Iris example was probably the closest one to being this, but it still fails. Her position as temple girl(why the heck did anyone spoiler that anyway? that's the FIRST thing we learn about her) would be Ship Sinking if it was an actual problem, but it's not. Hazakura is shinto temple, and shinto temple girls as far as i know don't have permament vows of chastity, what's more Iris was at temple long before she met Phoenix for the first time and that didn't stop her from dating him. As for her being in prison T&T already solved the problem in a bit roundabout way. Iris went to prison for evidence tampering, the same thing Andrews landed in prison for one game earlier and second case of T&T brought Andrews back after 7 months of in-game time, indirectly suggesting that Iris's sentence won't be long. So no, still no problems in any foreseeable future.