RayShipping

Rayshipping is the het ship between Ash Ketchum and Cynthia from the Pokémon fandom.

Canon
Ash met Cynthia during his journey in the Sinnoh Region. They directly met each other in Top-Down Training! when Cynthia personally arrived at Amity Square with Ash's group eager to meet her in person, Paul also went to meet her and decided to challenge her to a Pokemon battle only to lose as Ash and his friends watched. Later, Cynthia would state that a meaningful phrase for her was one in the ruins saying: "When every life meets another life, something will be born", a quote that impacts Ash and sticks with him for a long time. Ash would from that episode forth vow to fight and defeat Cynthia one day.

In Losing Its Lustrous! Ash and his friends meet Cynthia again and begin to join forces to combat the threat of Team Galactic, here she tends to the injured Chimchar of Ash after its battle with Saturn's Toxicroak, where she notes that it was formerly Paul's. She then discusses Team Galatic's true goals with Ash and his friends before leaving to have a title defense match with Aaron of the Elite Four.

In Double Team Turnover she and Ash's group meet again and fights Team Galactic to attempt to stop them from taking the Lustrous Orb but winds up interrupted and losing the Orb to Team Rocket. Later during the episode Ash and co. watch the battle Cynthia has with Aaron and praise her skill after she wins.

In The Battle Finale of Legend! Cynthia helps save Ash and his friends from the clutches of Team Galactic and then assists them in protecting the Lake Guardians from Team Galactic's plans. After Ash, Brock and Dawn help save the Sinnoh Region, Cynthia gives them her sincere gratitude for saving everyone.

During the Sinnoh League, Cynthia's interest in Ash increased as she watched the battles and reached its peak when she witnessed his final bout with Paul where Ash emerged victorious after a long, arduous struggle. After Paul leaves once he is beaten, Cynthia greets them both and after some final words says that she's looking forward to fighting both Paul and Ash when they become Champions themselves. In Memories are Made of Bliss!, the season finale of the Diamond and Pearl anime, Ash watches Cynthia's title defense battle against Flint on TV and imagines himself in Flint's place, battling Cynthia and vows to one day defeat her.

In the Best Wishes season Cynthia met Ash again, this time the latter being accompanied by Cilan and Iris from the Unova Region, first during All for the Love of Meloetta while the trainers were in Virbank City while at an ice cream stand, Cynthia told Ash and his friends about the World Tournament Junior Cup where she was going to participate in an exhibition match, prompting Ash and his friends to accompany her.

In Pokémon Journeys Ash meets Cynthia again, this time now truly aiming to reach and defeat her as he had wanted since his travels in the Sinnoh Region. Cynthia was first seen watching Ash's match with Volkner in Ultra Exciting from the Shocking Start.

Ash and Cynthia would meet back up in person during Star Night, Star Flight! where Pikachu excitedly greeted her by nuzzling up to the Champion and later on Cynthia would join Ash, Goh's and Chloe's efforts to free a town in the Johto Region that was afflicted with an invasion of Unown.

In A Battle of Mega versus Max! Cynthia appears in an imagination sequence among the opponents Ash expects to face in the last brackets of the Pokémon World Coronation Series.

In the Sinnoh two-parter (The Gates of Warp and Showdown at the Gates of Warp!) Cynthia joins Ash and co. in stopping the alternate Team Rocket from having Dialga and Palkia cause disaster with their fight, though stayed behind when Ash, Goh, Chloe and Dawn went over to the Alternate World. Once they were done thwarting the Alternate Team Rocket, Cynthia greeted the group back into their own reality.

Near the end of the series Ash enters the Master Class of the Pokémon World Coronation Series and after defeating Steven Stone in the first round, moves on to the semifinals where he fights Cynthia. The two bond more beforehand, with Cynthia telling Ash, Goh and other children about her past and sharing her feelings on battling; as unknown to everyone but Diantha she plans to retire from battling after her match with Ash, presumably losing her passion for battling ever since becoming the Champion and not losing a single battle.

Ash and Cynthia's match finally begins in The Semifinals I: Overwhelming Victory and The Semifinals II: Dazzle where the battle opens with Cynthia's Spiritomb taking down Ash's Gengar and Dragonite, then switching out for Gastrodon which is taken out and bringing Spiritomb back out before Pikachu takes the troublesome ghost type down but is subsequently taken out himself by Spiritomb's Destiny Tomb. The battle is followed up in The Semifinals III: Battle where Ash's Dracovish and Sirfetch'd help take down Cynthia's Roserade and Milotic as well as weakening her Garchomp so Lucario can come in and finish the job. In The Semifinals IV: Valor, Ash's Lucario takes on Cynthia's Togekiss and its Dynamaxed form, being able to stall it out and then defeat the fairy type Pokemon with a powerful Aura Sphere; the climax of the battle comes when Mega Lucario and Cynthia's Garchomp fight each other with Lucario barely pulling through with a fully-powered Reversal and being able to stand up first after both are knocked down, winning Ash the match and advancing him to the finals of the Master Class. Having been defeated and inspired by their fierce match, Cynthia takes back her decision to retire and vows to get stronger and continue battling, to one day fight Ash again and defeat him as well as Leon.

In The Finals I: Torrent, The Finals II: Toying and The Finals III: Strongest; Cynthia witnesses Ash's and Leon's match with interest, rooting for Ash through the whole fight. In The Finals IV: Partner, Cynthia is amazed when Ash finally defeats Leon after his Pikachu wins a clash against Leon's Charizard and calmly celebrates his victory alongside Diantha, the sheer intensity of the battle also makes her crave a quick battle and challenges Diantha to one.

Fanon
Rayshipping had its start around the time of the first airing of the Diamond & Pearl, where unlike past Champions Ash met; defeating Cynthia became one of his goals to reach throughout the series and Cynthia herself developed a special interest on Ash's journey and his quest to become stronger. Their repeated interactions through the series and mentor-like role Cynthia had with Ash gave the shippers a dynamic to work with, based off Ash's admiration of the Sinnoh Champion's battling prowess and turning it into a crush situation where Ash loves both her battle cred and beauty.

Opposition to the shipping in larger circles comes from the concerns of pedophilia and power imbalance, as Cynthia is an adult woman (albeit her true age is unknown) while Ash has permanently been referred to as a 10 year old. Most shippers prefer to ignore this aspect and tend to age up Ash based on his journeys throughout the region while making Cynthia around 18-20 years old to mitigate this aspect. That said, the ship is not as popular as other Ash pairings but received some slight surges in popularity when Cynthia's 10-year old design was shown in Pokémon Journeys in anticipation of her match with Ash.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Ash/Cynthia on FanFiction.Net
 * Ash/Cynthia on FanFiction.Net

ART

TWITTER

Trivia

 * While defeating Leon is his major goal throughout Journeys, Ash overall has had the most history with Cynthia than any other Champion, having met her since his travels in Sinnoh and seeing her again in Unova while she took a bit of a mentor-like role with him.
 * Ash is the first trainer to defeat Cynthia in the anime in a fair 6-on-6 battle.