Mater and Sally does seem a bit weird to me (no offense intended, I’m sure most of you think Synlet is totally weird and wrong too). I’m not entirely sure I grasp the concept behind it. But hey, I’ve only seen Cars a handful of times, too… and most of those times I’ve been paying attention to Doc Hudson. 
Would you both like to elaborate?
Here’s my opinion on it: I understand that some people may feel such a couple is
or
, and may find it hard to imagine a romantic relationship between the tow truck and the sports car- be it for class divide reasons (rich, successful female unlikely to fall in love with a ‘pariah’ male of lower socio-economic background) or in the belief that Lightning x Sally is a OTP (One-True Pairing).
But consider this, there have been ‘signs’ that Mater and Sally may have had a prior relationship before (or at least, a very flirty friendship). Again, I highly recommend reading Fooled Around and Fell in Love by DodgeSuperBee with an open and objective mind, but here are some of them:
- Mater’s cordial greeting of “Miss Sally”. Notice this is a fairly unique greeting, he doesn’t address others in the same way.
- The “She likes me for my body” remark to Lightning. Again, this can imply a number of things, but it’s not conclusive.
- Sally being defending and showing concern for Mater’s feelings when Lightning casually promised him a helicopter ride. This shows that she cares for the tow-truck.
- Mater asking Sally to dance during the ‘Sh-Boom’ sequence when Lightning was ‘stolen’ by Lizzie. It could simply be because he doesn’t have a dance partner.
There are probably many more cryptic clues, and as I’ve said, they can be interpreted either as them being just close friends, or former lovers. Whichever is the case, it’s up to the fans to decide, and unlike ‘alternate-reality’ pairings such as Syndrome x Violet, or yaoi pairings such as Mater and Lightning (where it is obvious from their actions and behaviour that they are hetero), such a possibility of either falling for the other (especially in a closed community such as Radiator Springs) is not out of the question.
Sorry if I offended anyone, but I feel I have that there is a very real basis for this relationship. Anyone is free to prove me otherwise. 
Oh, heh. Okay. I don’t really notice stuff because I don’t watch Cars a lot and haven’t seen it for a long time. I guess it makes more sense after your elaboration, thanks. 
Key-word:Prior And yeah,I’m a OTP,a Big one,heh… 
But Mater’s too annoying,and weak-minded…I wish I had link to another poster talking about the same thing,but yeah that’s just my take on it…
Sorry to stick my nose in here, but I feel the need to.
I always thought of Sally’s concern for Mater’s feelings being like Monique’s feelings for Ed in Goodburger(don’t kill me for mentioning this movie). She just realizes that he is a sensitive, possibly mentally set back individual who shouldn’t see him treated that way. Besides, I’m sorry, but I like Lightning with Sally. Not because Sally is too good for Mater, but to me, tht’s like WoodyXJesie. Just too weird. Emma, Doreen, fine. Any girl car but Sally.
Thanks, Arkie. I’m glad you can see this reasonably, and if I offended you with regards to the Synlet pairing remark, I apologize. It’s not impossible in an alternate-reality, but canonically, I think it’s pretty certain Syndrome didn’t survive the jet engine. But I liked your explanation in your ‘Birds of Feather’ fanfic, is there any chance you’d be continuing it soon?
Does that mean Sally won’t have had an affection for him? I’m pretty certain she’s a judge of good character and doesn’t fall easily for ‘good looks’ alone. She didn’t like Lightning at first even though he was more ‘attractive’ than Mater, but when he had a change of heart, she eventually grew to like him. So I’m pretty sure Sally will be able to look beyond the ‘face value’ and appreciate someone’s inner values and good intentions, regardless of their intelligence level or ‘annoyance’.
And anyway, the fact it’s a prior relationship doesn’t make it any less a possibility. But I can see how you like Lightning and Sally as an OTP, and at least it’s canon. I’m just suggesting not to be closed to the idea of Mater and Sally being a pair before the movie’s event.
I suppose that they can be seen as platonic friends, and that’s cool as well. Not every girl and guy relationship has to become romantic. Part of the fun of fanshipping is in the ‘are they/aren’t they’ speculation, but I can understand if you see them as just being ‘friends’ looking out for each other.
And why would anyone want to kill you for mentioning Good Burger? I remember liking that show as a kid, though my brother watched it recently and said he found it less entertaining as an adult. But really, there’s nothing wrong with saying a film title or liking it, regardless of its quality.
oh my gosh, Virginia!
It is exactly like Monique and Ed’s relationship in Good Burger.
Good comparision! 
I really want to watch Good Burger now. This scene really reminds me of Mater trying to hook up Lightning with Sally.
“Chicken! Chicken! MOOO!” 
No offense taken. I knew it wasn’t very realistic when I got myself into the pairing.
On the topic of Birds of a Feather, I’m working on the next chapter, but I don’t know if it’ll be up today- I’ve been completely swamped by school and homework lately, and next month is NaNoWriMo which I plan to participate in. So I don’t know how active I’m going to be in the next few weeks. I might be able to get something up while I’m in a “sick and tired of writing this novel and I want to write something else for a while” stage. And I feel like I owe it to you guys, since I just updated my major fanfic Ultraviolet on Friday.
Soon! It is coming soon, I promise!
Edit about four hours later: IT IS DONE. The link in my signature will take you there. :3
Thanks!! I caught it on TV the other day, and I was like, “Hmm…” 
Welp, I thought I’d bring this topic up again, because I just find it delightful to ramble about fan fic/art annoyances! xD
Say, you may all know I’ve been busy fangirling over Donkey Kong Country, especially the TV show…
I found a fan fiction about that a while ago, so I went to read it… but lost interest half way through. Something irked me. So. Many. Fancharacters! I don’t mind fan characters, but when they take over the story… you see, I read fan fiction to read about characters I know and love! If I wanted to read about characters I don’t know, I’d take a look in a library! No offense meant to the author, it was a decent fic that kept nearly everyone in character, but really.
Out of character-ness and not knowing what one writes about irks me. Say, one thing I like about writing fan fiction - I study characters. Everything that makes a dude THAT dude, from his way of speech to mannerisms, I try to translate in my stories. I want you to be able to hear that character’s voice in your head when you read my stories!
And yeah… I still dislike that inflation art/fic fad, and there’s simply too much of it… Me on DeviantART: “Tra-la-la, I am minding my own business at this site searching for fan art of Donkey Kong Country! Hey, what’s this!.. OH MY LOG WHAT HAVE THEY DONE DO NOT WANT”
based on a true story. D8
Say what you like, but especially in Disney and Pixar movies, I hate when people pair up characters who are with other characters inn the movie. Why??
One word IV. Fandom…
Interesting you might say that, because I’m actually planning a couple of fanfics that are ‘set within the universe’ of recent movies I like.
What if one likes the world or its rules more than the characters? I personally like to read OCs and how they operate and live within the framework of the world created by the movie. So reading Cars fanfics with totally original OCs is something which I find interesting. Of course, it helps if canon characters made a cameo appearance or even a mention every now and then, but it’s not the ‘be all-end all’ factor for me liking a fanfiction.
What is most important for me is that the OCs are believable, interesting, and have weaknesses. I absolutely despise Mary Sues, simply because they are a way of the author projecting him/herself into the arms of their favourite canon character, or running down the canon character’s love interest in favour of their fan-creation.
If the canon character has no love interest, then I won’t mind. It actually is quite interesting to see how some OCs try to woo the canon character.
There is even a charming Wall-E fan comic called 'Wall-G’ where the OC constantly tries to win Wall-E’s affections, but is either thwarted by Eve or Wall-E himself. But occasionally, Wall-G ‘wins’, but they never actually become a pairing, so it works out for me.
I do the same thing, too! Sometimes I get so connected with my OC or canon characters that I start imagining scenarios I would throw them into and think of how they would react! It’s like they ‘live in your brain’ or something!
…
One fanart trend that disturbs me is anthropomoprhic art. Bear in mind this is distinct from humanisations.
Now, I know there are varying degrees of anthro. A character can simply be an animal (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron). A character can be an animal yet act intelligent (Rio, Finding Nemo). A character can be an animal yet walk on its hind legs and act intelligent (Over the Hedge, Madagascar). And a character can be an animal yet wear clothes, walk on their hind legs, and act intelligent (Rango, Kung Fu Panda).
But there’s the kind of anthro where it’s sort of a mash between the animal and human form… and that kinda creeps me.
Sometimes it’s done well, like this and this.
Other times, it’s just plain f#$%ing weird.
It helps if they have clothes on and they don’t come nekkid.
I guess this is supposed to be some sort of anime trend for fanart, but people on DeviantART seem to really like drawing human/animal hybrids of themselves or some anime character they come up with (like anime girls with cat ears and tails). I just see a lot of those type of drawings there. Don’t know if it means I’m tired of it or if I just find it kinda strange.
But the thread is fanfiction and art we are tired of, right? Well, the one thing that sets me off worse than anything else out there is out of context pairings. 
The nekomimi or catgirl archetype is an old and classical Japanese trope. It even has Western counterparts (Wiki), so it is not a new or contemporary trend on dA by any means.
Personally, this trope doesn’t bother me so much, again as long as they’re not naked humanoid characters with fur or feathers on them. If done well, nekomimi’s look like humans with an amusing abnormality.
Another fandom trend that gets on my nerves is script-fanfics. These are the kind where the author, usually too young to use descriptive language or having a poor command of English, will write like so:
…
Woody and Buzz are hanging out on the windowsill over a campfire, roasting hot s’mores.
Buzz: These schmoes are delicious!
Woody looks annoyed. He corrects Buzz.
Woody: They’re called “s’mores”, Buzz. As in, “Some-mores?”
Buzz ignores Woody.
Woody: And besides how would you know how they taste? You don’t have a tongue.
Buzz: Yes I do!
Buzz sticks out his tongue.
And so on.
JSWeC: Eyup. In this case, they’re wearing clothes and it’s done tastefully and artistically.
There are some strange folks who draw terrible-looking anthro-art simply because they get some kind of sexual kick out of it. Not saying that they don’t have a right to, and of course, quality is subjective, but I don’t really dig poorly done anthro-art if it’s simply to make a character look sexy or closer to a human being for naughty purposes.
Oh, AMEN TO THAT! Honestly, script fics bother me to no end… Sure, I RP in this form with some friends sometimes, but I never release such things to the internet. Like, it’s much more fun to type “Dude was walking down the street minding his business” than “Dude: walks down the street”. Spamming of names annoy me too, like you can’t call a character something else than his name! Well… I write mostly about non-human characters, so I can get away with using “The pirate” “The skunk” etc., when describing Cap’n Fluffclaw.
Sorry for the bumping again but I like this topic hehehehe
As for humanizations… I can really enjoy them, you know! As long as they resemble the original character in some way. Humanizations that are highly reminiscent of the original character often get my approval. If I can actually see them doing the stuff they do usually. Most of it, however… I’ve seen people depicting Klump as a skinny dude with long hair. No offense, and it was really well-drawn, but Klump just doesn’t work as a skinny prettyboy. I mean, just look at that fatso!
