Why do people ship Spike with Rarity?

[J.T. 1,843]

 

 

I think it's been well established within the show that Spike isn't ten

I'm going off of the assumption that Twilight was ten at the time of receiving her cutey mark which was the same day as Spikes birthday, if Twi is no older then 20 at the beginning of season one that would make Spike 10.Not to mention everyone calls him a BABY dragon all the time.

[smitty121325 64]

I'm going off of the assumption that Twilight was ten at the time of receiving her cutey mark which was the same day as Spikes birthday, if Twi is no older then 20 at the beginning of season one that would make Spike 10.Not to mention everyone calls him a BABY dragon all the time.

I actually thought she was much younger than that. To me, she seemed to be smaller than the CMC. While it is true that everyone refers to him as a baby dragon, I really don't think that's true, at least not mentally-wise. Spike has been shown to be quite responsible, hard-working, and able to hold down a job. In "Look Before You Sleep," Twilight said that Spike was away on royal business, so he is mature and can clearly handle things on his own. And speaking of Spike and the CMC, here's hoping they have more episodes together in season five.

[Twilysparkle 8]

Idk. I could see how people might like it. But the ship just seems too... lazy. Like they don't know who to ship him with so they just put him with rarity assuming it will work out fine. And we know that spike is somewhere around 9. (Stated by Lauren Faust herself) While rarity is a teenager. So when they get older, age won't really be that bad. Plus dragons and ponies age and mature differently.

 

 

(I also kinda ship Apple Jack and spike. Please don't hurt me!!)

Edited January 6, 2015 by Twilysparkle

[Conred 274]

Idk. I could see how people might like it. But the ship just seems too... lazy. Like they don't know who to ship him with so they just put him with rarity assuming it will work out fine. And we know that spike is somewhere around 9. (Stated by Lauren Faust herself) While rarity is a teenager. So when they get older, age won't really be that bad. Plus dragons and ponies age and mature differently.

 

 

(I also kinda ship Apple Jack and spike. Please don't hurt me!!)

I'm pretty sure Rarity is not a teenager in FiM series. Even voice actors think their characters are in their early 20's.

[Twilysparkle 8]

I'm pretty sure Rarity is not a teenager in FiM series. Even voice actors think their characters are in their early 20's.

Something else Lauren Faust said was she imagined the mane six being somewhere between 12-16. Obviously they have matured more throughout the series But it's actually only been a little over a year according to the season 4 premiere.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Twilysparkle

[Wingnut 7,005]

Ship is short for relationship and not all ships are necessarily romantic in nature.  But sometimes two characters have a depth of feeling for each other that rivals that of a romance.  Spike, especially, will have to figure out where he stands with Rarity.  She does not see him as a potential mate but as a best friend's kid brother.  With that said she does love him.  So they're going to have their share of touching moments together.  The fact that Spike is a young boy who is beginning to exhibit tender feelings for the opposite sex complicates matters somewhat.  He knows Rarity doesn't reciprocate that sort of feeling.  Nonetheless, he knows that she cares for him very much.  For most of his life, Twilight was the big sister/mothe to him.  But now he has five more ponies to admire and learn from with Rarity and Applejack assuming the most important mentor-like roles. 

 

 

 

Something else Lauren Faust said was she imagined the mane six being somewhere between 12-16. Obviously they have matured more throughout the series But it's actually only been a little over a year according to the season 4 premiere.

 

And Apple Bloom was originally cast as a seven year old.  But the CMCs clearly act older than that and are probably in the 10-12 year old range.  So the Mane 6 could be older than the 12-16 range Lauren gave as well.  They're all out of school with jobs so they are adults for all intents and purposes. 

[Eloquence 2,076]

I've seen a bit of Sparity art that I liked, but always when Spike is depicted as being the same age as Rarity. In the show's canon, he simply has a crush on her (the two are NOT canon!!!!), and I like how it's depicted. They are clearly very close friends, but they respect that Rarity is much too old and mature for Spike.

 

That said, it is the golden rule of fandom that any two characters will be shipped some way, somehow, by someone, no exceptions

[Red Cedar 1,408]

People love to cheer for the underdog, especially in romance, and there isn't anyone quite so disadvantaged as Spike in that regard. Not only is he still considered a baby (but with the mind of a teenager) he's not even the same species as anyone he has available to be interested in. Guy's got it tough.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 3,015]

 

You make a good point there, that's a big double standard for a lot of people. A younger boy crushing on an older girl is acceptable but reverse it and people get up in arms about it. Hell you see it a lot in real life, ex: female teacher has an affair with an underage boy and you'll see comments like "what a lucky guy!" but reverse it with a male teacher and an underage girl and oh hell no. It's wrong either way.

I'm curious about whether some of the users in this thread would have their opinion changed if the genders were swapped.

[Will Guide 21,365]

Personally, I find his crush on her a little cute and silly at the same time.

 

 

Something else Lauren Faust said was she imagined the mane six being somewhere between 12-16. Obviously they have matured more throughout the series But it's actually only been a little over a year according to the season 4 premiere.

 

Here's a bullet point list of the Vague Age trope pertaining to the Mane 6 from their character page on TVTropes:

• Vague Age:
  • All of them are old enough to live alone (Applejack's case is justified by the fact she works on a family farm), have jobs, and hold major roles in Ponyville community activities like Winter Wrap-Up, yet emotionally they are officially "young adults with a maturity level of anywhere from 12-18", which explains such things as Twilight's appreciation of slumber parties, Rarity's thinking like a fairy tale, etc. They are sentient ponies, not humans, so it would make sense if age with ponies in the MLP universe is viewed very differently from our own. They mostly seem to range between what modern, real-world humans would consider mental ages 17-21. Except Pinkie Pie, who is the living embodiment of 6-year olds' birthday parties, but even she can act as a responsible adult when the need arises.
  • It's further complicated with Spike, who is younger than the rest of the mane cast but older than the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and is also a different species. He's constantly referred to as a "Baby Dragon", but emotionally acts more like 10 to 12. He has a full-time job, with what are actually pretty extreme hours, is out of whatever mandatory education exists in Equestria (most likely home-schooled), and the residents of Ponyville and beyond treat him like an adult pony. Good luck figuring that out. Keep in mind full-grown dragons are hundreds of times his size and live so long that a century is a particularly long nap.
  • Made less vague in Equestria Girls. The fact that their human counterparts are high-school students indicates that they are around their teens, although the human counterparts might not accurately reflect their ages. It's likely that their human counterparts are aged down from their true age (early 20s) as we have many adult characters also as teenagers such as Big Macintosh, Vinyl Scratch, Photo Finish, Derpy, etc., while some characters are aged up (the CMC). So they could very well be anywhere from 18 to 23.
  • Lauren Faust has mentioned that they're old enough to be on their own, yet young enough that they are still growing. This seems to imply late teens as the range.
  • Their relative ages are also vague, with the only concrete data being Fluttershy older than Pinkie by a year, and likely older than Rainbow Dash (as she was in that lanky teen puberty stage while Dash was still a filly during the flashback in "Cutie Mark Chronicles"); the rest are all relatively the same age from the same episode otherwise. The same episode shows that they all got their Cutie Marks, roughly equivalent to hitting puberty, within minutes of each other.

Also, I left in another post some evidence saying that all season 1-3 does not necessarily have to have taken place in just one single year. 

Speaking of the annual Summer Sun Celebration, we've seen two SSCs onscreen in the show. Some Bronies believe that all of the 1st 3 seasons took place in one year. I don't believe so. Nowhere in the Princess Twilight Sparkle episode did they ever said it's been a year since the last SSC. They just pointed out how it was on the SSC that Twilight first came to Ponyville and met the Mane 5. There could have been more SSCs that have happened.

As TVTropes Headscratchers pointed out: Celestia's exact words are:
"I must admit that it is wonderful to actually be looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration. For my subjects, it has always been a celebration of my defeat of Nightmare Moon. But for me... it was just a terrible reminder that I'd had to banish my own sister. But now it has become a wonderful reminder of her transformation back into Princess Luna, and our happy reunion."
This does not say that it is Celestia's first Summer Sun Celebration with Luna in over 1000 years. The language can be interpreted to mean that is simply a relatively new state of affairs. Consider an ordinary person saying "It's wonderful to actually look forward to going in to work. My job has always been soul-crushing and I dreaded waking up every morning. But now, with my new boss, my job has become a wonderful opportunity to use my talents and creativity." Nothing about that statement implies it's the first happy day, simply that the now-happy days are a recent turn. Likewise for Celestia, especially considering her age, "now" could easily refer to the past five Summer Sun Celebrations.

Head-canon Summary: There were more SSCs than what we saw onscreen and Seasons 1-3 could taken more than a single year.

 

Edited January 7, 2015 by WiiGuy2014

[J.T. 1,843]

I'm curious about whether some of the users in this thread would have their opinion changed if the genders were swapped.

Yes, lets put this to the test. Who here would be OK with this kind of ship if it were say, Sweety Bell big time crushing on Big Mac all the time?

Edited January 7, 2015 by J.T.

[Conred 274]

I'm curious about whether some of the users in this thread would have their opinion changed if the genders were swapped.

I think that would make the ship even more unlikely since males are usually more often depicted as pedophiles than females. I think there woudn't even be a crush at all just like with CMC

[speedyblupi 76]

 

 

well i thought everyone on this forum who identify themselves as bronys would have at least watch season 1 and 2 (sorry if i spoilt it )

 

Oh, never mind, ignore me, I misread your comment.

 

Though I don't remember that episode...

Edited January 10, 2015 by speedyblupi

[Shift 4,274]

I like to think Rarity is only a few years older than Spike, like Twilight + Rarity is 21 and Spike is 16-18. In my headcannon he's a dragon that ages much slower than the others.

 

And also Spike crushes on Rarity, so it works out.

[dekutree64 713]

I ship them because they're a good match. Rarity likes to be clean and fancy, and hates doing chores. Spike seems to actually enjoy doing chores, even going so far as to defend his right to do them for Twilight (who he doesn't have a crush on). He's spent a lot of time with her, proving that it's not just a fleeting crush, or one based purely on appearance. Spike needs gems for food, and Rarity's special talent is finding gems. Spike has had close ties with royalty from birth, is naturally chivalrous, and seems likely that he'll become a knight when he's physically strong enough. Combined with already being famous in the Crystal Empire, that ought to be enough to satisfy Rarity's royalty/fame fetish.

 

And if all that isn't enough, just watch Simple Ways. Spike values Rarity's happiness above his own, and loves her even when she's being stupid and thoughtless. That confirms without a doubt that he's not just in love with an imagined perfect Rarity. And perhaps that his emotional maturity is even higher than hers.

 

I'm curious about whether some of the users in this thread would have their opinion changed if the genders were swapped.

No. Statistically, males are more likely to be abusers than females, but despite popular opinion, it's not always the case. Each situation must be judged individually. What I would expect is that they'd have to put up with a lot more crap from society trying to "protect" the girl... which is a fine and noble intention, but you better be sure you're actually protecting her, and not breaking her heart.

[RainbowTashie 378]

Ooh. With Sweetie Belle. Interesting choice.

he's just gonna wait for her to get older