Pokemon One-Shots and Headcanons

Why Penguinshipping Sucks

I'll just go right ahead and say it: I'm truly not sure how anyone could think that Kenny and Dawn should be together. No matter how you romanticize his feelings for Dawn, the fact remains that they don't excuse the completely disgusting way he treated her. 

Let's first look at Kenny's first appearance in the anime, in the episode Getting the Pre-Contest Titters. Basically right off the bat, we learn that he has no problem with embarrassing Dawn in front of her friends, going so far as to call her a nickname (Dee-Dee) that directly relates to an extremely humiliating and personally painful experience from her childhood. 

Imagine this: you're a five-year-old girl, and one day at lunch, you have a carton of sour milk spilled over your head. From that day on, the entire class calls you Spoiled Milk or something to that extent. Ten years later, a boy who was in that very same class is still calling you Spoiled Milk, effectively humiliates you every chance he gets, then claims to be in love with you. What do you do? 

If your answer is to reject him, walk away, and never look back, then congratulations! That is the correct answer. It's the only answer that anyone with any form of self-respect or dignity would give. If your response is, "Oh, I would say yes to him, he was obviously just trying to hide his true feelings," then we need to have a talk. Whether or not he's hiding his feelings, the fact remains that this person has shown no form of respect, or even consideration, for your feelings. That's a red flag for abuse! If a guy cares more about getting laughs than the fact that he's hurting you, then he's not the right person. 

Now let's fast forward to the episode Four Roads Diverged at a Port, where Kenny challenges Ash to a battle. The stakes are that if he wins, Dawn has to leave Ash and go with him on a journey. And right there, he proves once again that he does not respect Dawn as a person. He sees her as a prize to be won, something that can be fought over. He does not ask her if she wants to travel with him, he simply tells her the stakes and expects her to go along with them, absolutely refusing to acknowledge her right to refuse him as a person in charge of her own life. Again, RED FLAG FOR ABUSE. I'm truly not certain how people can claim that Kenny loves Dawn when he has proven time and time again that he does not respect her well enough to love her. The only reason he comes to accept the fact that she's not interested is because she leaves, not because he actually comes to any sort of realization that maybe you shouldn't be fighting over a girl like she's some sort of trophy.  

"But he cared about her! He was concerned about her after she was depressed about not making it to the battles of the Solaceon Contest!" 

Yeah, I call BS. You know who else was concerned about her? Ash, Brock, and Zoey-and they didn't feel the need to mock and humiliate her about a terrible experience in her childhood. 

I have to raise my eyebrows at Penguinshippers who think that Dawn and Kenny are meant to be. Think about it. Are they really? Take of the Penguinshipping glasses and try to look at Kenny for what he really is. He's a terrible person who puts up a nice guy front-which is why he's such a compelling character. 

Thank you for your time.