Which is why it made the anticipation of who Naruto would end up with more interesting. I liked that. But this is a fair point you made here. In fact a good one.
Thanks.
Kishi himself admitted that he failed in the romance aspect cause of shyness. So me disagreeing with this would be against what he has said. However I am ok with how things have ended as long as the couple is happy. I would also wait for the movie before making any further claims of how shitty the romance has been. Although in the manga it did not really light anyone's fire.
This is a shonen and romance has never been a main thing. I just replied to your post explaining why ShikaTema is the least hated out of all the canon pairings from ch 700. I'm neutral to all the pairings myself, it's childish to be upset over it. It's canon and it is what it is. And it has very little relevance to the main plot anyhow.
This most ideal pairing you speak of. Had all symptoms of being a trashy pairing. The only reason it did it not get it was cause of less screen time. I am not trying to hate on this pairing or anything. I am just saying that its just as bad as many of them. People just like it cause as you stated its plain, simple, nice pairing.
It had no symptoms of a trashy pairing. The only thing anyone can criticize it for is lack of screen time... which is a given since they're both support characters.
What negatives does this pairing have? None other than that. With every other pairing, people can type up a list of flaws. With ShikaTema, you can't. However boring this may be.
I can understand that they had great chemistry. But once again it comes down to lack of screen time. I mean lets say if Shikamaru was given more screen time than he got. And he spent all those times with Ino instead of Tamari. Would people not pair him up with Ino?
Maybe yes, maybe no. The ShikaIno shippers completely ditched their ship the moment Ino dreamed of only Sai and Sasuke and Shikmaru dreamed only of his parents and Temari. Shikamaru was never known to have a crush on Ino. Ino never was interested in him as far as romance goes. No, people wouldn't ship them if they had more screen time together, since they were confirmed to have a sibling-like, comrade relationship.
My point is just because its a simple pairing does not make it the best pairing. If people wanted a pairing like that with Naruto. Than they would have not gotten a surprise factor.
@bold: How much screen time did Temari even have?
People consider it to be the best not because it's exciting. It was predictable and somewhat boring. They think it's the most healthy one since there was no negative or awkward interaction between them. People like that.
She had less than Hinata and Naruto, that's for sure.
So is that the kind of pairing people would be happy with in Naruto? A pairing with no competition?
No. They're looking for one that has no bad interaction, anything cheesy, and is respectable. ShikaTema fits this well.
You repeatedly mention Naruto pairings. People are only complaining about NH if they are a) Not concerned with romance in general, so the fact that the main character is going to be shown with a love life bothers them for whatever odd reason or b) Another pairing shipper (Naru x Whoever, Hinata x Whoever, etc). Just because NH is susceptible to criticism doesn't make it a bad pairing. Since there were different fandoms, some angry fans obsessed with minor things like who gets with who is a given.
It doesn't mean that NH is a bad pairing. People just like to nitpick, and NH is slightly possible to complain about, unlike ST.