The semi-canon Hitch x Zipp and why it doesn't work

Summersong
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aka Summersong
So in the G5 media Hitch and Zipp are heading towards a couple. He even asked her out on a date once, they just didn’t word it that way.
I don’t know why G5 is so intent on setting them up. They would not even remotely work together unless we forgot what little personality either of them has. They ought to despise one another.
Hitch is obsessed with societal duties and Zipp does everything she can to spite her societal duties and quite frankly anything anyone else asks of her. She was even willing to completely ditch the royal portrait renewal, which would cause a massive scandal and break her mother’s and sister’s hearts.
By all means they should be able to put up with or appreciate each other as friends who don’t live together, the way that Rarity’s friends put up with her - but Applejack and Rainbow Dash are completely out of their depth in the Boutique and Rarity isn’t remotely comfortable on the farm (although when she’s angry or entitled enough she can handle an athletic event). Likewise Hitch would be constantly scolding Zipp and holding her back, and she would take him down with her and force him to publicly answer for her every time she acted out and caused a problem, which she would do specifically because he was scolding her and holding her back.
They would be the worst possible partners for one another unless one or both became completely different people (which is not a healthy relationship standard.) They’d be George Costanza’s parents before they were thirty… except written by people who can’t write a joke.
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Pinto Bean
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That would be disappointing, if not altogether surprising. You’re right they’re not very compatible, but I worry more about how a couple would change the dynamic of the larger group. Couples always seem to shift the focus of the original story. For me, The Hitch & Zipp Show would get old real quick.
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Summersong
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aka Summersong
I was so unreasonably angry about a show for six-year-olds back in G4 because making Twilight an AlIcOrN broke the 2 of each race balance, thus undermining the concept of equality vital to harmony. (Starlight later replaced her, of course, making it “even” so long as we take an AlIcOrN as inherently even.)
G5 never HAD that balance, but would be able to replicate G4’s if Sunny is taken as an AlIcOrn and they add Sprout and Misty.
I also jokingly promoted Rarijack because they act like an old married couple but condemned any and all shipping amongst the Six / Seven for maybe sort of the same reason you’re worried about Hitch & Zipp. Just like messing up the racial balance, having some of the connections be romances instead of friendships makes it uneven and thus not Harmony.
Honestly, even having two sisters screws up the G5 group - they should have a much deeper connection with each other than everyone else does. Sunny and Hitch seem to have only known each other casually, and Izzy had no friends at all before the movie, so far as I know.
But let’s be fair, the G4 group should have suffered from this even worse - before the Nightmare Moon incident, AJ and Rarity knew each other basically their whole lives, as did RD and Fluttershy, and they all spent at least a few years together in Ponyville with Pinkie, while Twilight had never met any of them. And of course, Starlight just sorta joined up several seasons down the line.
This never came up. In fact we barely ever saw their lives before meeting Twilight unless there was some pressing reason to. Unless it had to bring it up explicitly as a plot point, the show passively acted like none of them had ever met each other before Nightmare Moon.
So I’m sure G5 is just going to gloss over the discrepancies the same way. I guess the kids won’t notice, but the reason G4 took off in the first place is that they put enough thought into it for adults to find it worthwhile too.
Oh well.
Pinto Bean
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@Tirimsil
Right. One thing I thought FiM did real well was exploring the dynamic of various pairings, without alluding to romance. So over time, we got the Pinkie & AJ episode, the Rarity & RD episode, etc. It helped explain the differences between the characters as well as where they were similar. I see a little of that in NewGen, but we could do with some more of it. I agree with you that the whole Hitch & Zipp thing feels forced because that it still feels like they barely know each other.
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DerpyFast
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It’s a great pairing, though. Opposites attract.
For Zipp growing up in Zephyr Heights, obligation seemed like this rigid, constricting thing built on lies. But with Hitch, obligation is something noble. Meanwhile, Hitch is more concerned with enforcing the law than he is with the truth, but Zipp is all about the pursuit of truth.
The fact that Zipp feels bad about almost making Pipp miss portrait day shows that part of her wants to be more dependable. Hitch listens to jazz, a music genre that’s all about breaking rules, improvising, and expressing. A “trailblazer” is someone who carves their own path. So I think Hitch has some unconscious desire to be more free.
Plus, after being surrounded by guards and servants, Hitch is the first stallion Zipp is able to be herself around.
They complete each other.
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Summersong
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aka Summersong
“Opposites attract” is a meme which justifies toxic relationships where partners can’t stand each other. Western society normalizes unhappy couples and that phrase is part of that culture.
What you’re basically saying is that Hitch and Zipp can’t work in a relationship unless they become different people than they are now, and we just have to hope any such change manifests as character development rather than character assassination (see: Fluttershy)
As noted earlier, the show’s format doesn’t permit properly exploring this relationship. It would only work if we focused on just the two of them for an extended amount of time, snubbing the other three major characters (or muddling the plot with their reactions e.g. Pipp’s likely interference.)
I don’t trust this show (and associated media) to make this relationship convincing, and I don’t count it as a good story if the fandom has to build a better story than the one we got out of conjecture and headcanons.
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DerpyFast
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“Opposites attract” is a meme which justifies toxic relationships where partners can’t stand each other. Western society normalizes unhappy couples and that phrase is part of that culture.
Not necessarily. Two people could be similar, but still unable to stand each other. “Opposites attract” works when two people can cover each others’ weaknesses.
What you’re basically saying is that Hitch and Zipp can’t work in a relationship unless they become different people than they are now, and we just have to hope any such change manifests as character development rather than character assassination (see: Fluttershy)
They seem to get along fine. You would expect characters to grow and change over the course of a series anyways. It just so happens that Hitch and Zipp each embody something the other is lacking.
It’s not like Zipp just rebels for the sake of rebelling. She’s frustrated by the lies of the Royal Family. She craves stimulation, and deep down just wants to feel validated for doing her own thing.
As noted earlier, the show’s format doesn’t permit properly exploring this relationship. It would only work if we focused on just the two of them for an extended amount of time, snubbing the other three major characters (or muddling the plot with their reactions e.g. Pipp’s likely interference.)
Why not? What’s a “proper exploration”? Their relationship could be just another aspect of the show, and the show has had no trouble pairing them up for stories. MYM episodes seem to consist of an A plot and a B plot. A couple of plots with the two of them together would be lots.
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