| About Ash, Gary, and Palletshipping |
If you're here, there's probably a good chance you already know most of this stuff, but in case you don't, here it is ^_^. This has been culled from memory, so some stuff might be wrong (but as I directly and indirectly got the information from other sites I've visited, technically it wouldn't be my fault...^^;).
About Palletshipping
As Gary has been around since the first episode of Pokémon, Palletshipping is a pretty old ship. It is (apparently) extremely popular in Japan to this day, and still is quite a bit in the West, but fans seem to be scattered all over the Internet, resulting in small pockets of fans that sporadically post and share work. Its decline in the West, at least, seems to stem from two things: 1) Gary's lack of appearances in the show from Johto onward, 2) waning interest in Pokémon itself, and 3) a major falling-out between major Pokéshipping and Palletshipping groups back in the early 2000s, which I wish I could find out more about. However, it's difficult to find out what exactly happened during that time just by talking to Palletshippers, as it seems that most of the current ones weren't around for the whole dumb fiasco, and many of the older fans have moved on and/or are really bitter over the whole thing...
Romance between Ash and Gary goes by a few names other than Palletshipping, which is the most common one and, obviously, stresses Ash and Gary's hometown. The most common names I've seen are:
- ShigeSato, which combines Ash and Gary's Japanese names and indicates Gary's supposed dominance in the relationship (and, according to Bulbapedia, is the original name for the pair)
- ShiShi, or ShiShishipping, which, according to Bulbapedia again, is used to label Palletshippers who don't have a firm hold of the ship knowledge-wise, as well as by Palletshippers themselves "to indicate that they merely like the pairing without caring about evidence"
- Rivalshipping, which obviously stresses Ash and Gary's (former?) rivalry, and a term that seems to be obsolete with regards to Gary x Ash
- and AAGL, which stands for Ash and Gary Love, and which used to be used a lot "back in the old days" to contrast with AAML (Ash and Misty Love) ^_^
About Ash Ketchum/Satoshi
Age: going by stated, canon information, either 10 or 12. An official, Japanese Pokemon site apparently listed Ash's age a while ago to be the same as May's, who was 10, and no indication has been made that he has gotten older. On the other hand, in Battle of the Badge, Ash & co. mention that a year has gone by since Ash became a trainer (making him 11), and I've read that in the third Pokémon movie, a mention is made of Ash's birthday (making him 12).
Eye and hair color: dark brown and black, respectively
Known family: mother, Delia Ketchum (Hanako in the Japanese version); and an unnamed, as-of-yet unseen father, who was a trainer as well (and who apparently took longer to get to Viridian City than Ash did ^^)
The hero of the show. Ash is adorable - cheerful, kind, determined, helpful, and probably a few other positive adjectives that I've failed to mention ^^. He doesn't capture many Pokémon, but trains the ones that he has well and forms very close bonds with them (most of the time). He has matured greatly over the course of the series - he's much less stubborn, rude, and dumb these days ^^
About Gary Oak/Shigeru Ookido
Age: 10 or 12 (see the info on Ash - drawing from the games, it's assumed that the two of them are the same age)
Eye and hair color: bit of a mystery on both, actually...I've seen Gary with different eye colors in different episodes, from brown to green to gray to even blue, I think; hair-wise, the color has gone from one shade browner than burgundy, to auburn (so basically, brown)
Known family: grandfather, Professor Oak
Ash's childhood friend and oldest rival. Gary has gone through a huge personality change for how few episodes he's been in. He originally started out being really showoff-ish and belittling towards Ash, but after some time and losing several key battles, was greatly humbled, and is now very calm, studious, and rational. After losing to Ash at the Silver Conference, he ended his attempt to become a Pokémon master and focused on becoming a researcher like his grandfather. He currently works at/with the Sayda Island Lab, in Sinnoh (which is pretty trippy when you think about it...a young guy working in a lab all day...XD).
Gary has appeared in or has been mentioned in the following episodes: