[dkellis]

If I remember correctly, the inability for regular users to create threads in subforums like these was due at least partly to the shipping wars in the Shuffle subforum. Ah, irony. (Even more ironic if I'm misremembering and it's something completely different.)

In any case, I think a lot of the Fate/Nanoha thing reminds me of the Tomoyo/Sakura thing from Card Captor Sakura; they're not really a couple, although perhaps they wouldn't mind being one. It's just that they're such close friends, or at least share each others' personal spaces a lot, that it is, from a broad view, indistinguishable from a romantic relationship.

A very broad view, mind.

Shipping speculations affect every fandom I've encountered. I see the female/female fantasizing here as kind of balancing out the male/male fantasizing seen in, say, the Harry Potter fandom.

"You're sick for thinking that Fate and Nanoha should be a couple!"

"Um, I distinctly remember you pairing up Seiran and Ensei from Saiunkoku Monogatari."

"That's different! Look at how they act when they're together!"

"... are you even listening to what you're saying?"

Yeah, I'm more than a little bitter about shipping wars.

Anyway. Being in the CCS fandom has showed me that no matter if there is a canon pairing, the fans will not stop shipping their favourite couples. Heck, I'm guilty of this myself: I still think Tomoyo deserves to be closer to Sakura than she ends up being at the end of CCS.

That said, we're clearly seeing at least the start of a Caro/Elio romantic relationship. Only time will tell if this will continue, although considering the various MSLN series haven't thrown that many curveballs at us, we should be safe in assuming that it'll be canon at the end. (Well, unless something untoward happens to one or the other.)

I think the Yuuno/Nanoha pairing was conceived of at the beginning of the first season, but I'm not sure if the creators were intending to bait-and-switch us with Fate/Nanoha, or if Yuuno/Nanoha is still considered canon. Or at least, as canon as possible with Nanoha's workaholism. Nanoha, thus far in StrikerS, does not appear to have advanced any romantic relationships with anyone, at least not onscreen; it is entirely possible, if unlikely, that she may have experimented in dating with someone, be it Fate, Yuuno, or some other character.

Judging from the pre-StrikerS drama album, though, again, this is unlikely. Nanoha seems rather oblivious to romance.

I don't know how close Teana and Subaru really are. I'm guessing that their status right now is basically Close Friends, although not as close as Nanoha and Fate. In fact, I'd peg them more as akin to Arisa and Suzuka; they get into trouble sometimes, both with each other and with other people, but they stay together through thick and thin.

I really hope we'll be seeing Arisa and Suzuka in StrikerS. With all the talk about Friendship and how Nanoha's and Fate's friendship lasted for so long, it'll be a bit of a pity if Arisa and Suzuka, who were Nanoha's best friends prior her finding Raising Heart, were forgotten entirely.

Random speculation: we know that Arisa and Suzuka were told about the TSAB and such. We know that they've met Yuuno in ferret-form (heck, they found him first), and I think they met Yuuno in human-form (or at least should have) in the third (flower-watching) Sound Stage. Maybe Yuuno's been keeping in contact with them? Miyuki didn't seem that stunned that Yuuno was actually a boy (she mostly sounded disappointed that there wouldn't be much more of "ferret-mode"), so I'm wondering what Arisa and Suzuka's reactions would have been.

Again, however, random speculation. It's possible that we'll not see any of the non-magical Earth-born characters in StrikerS.

A final question: is this thread mostly for the romantic relationships, or are other sorts of relationships (familial and platonic friendship, off the top of my head) included?