Fandom Shipper Questions

[shadowkat]

Have some questions for shippers? (I'm trying not to answer or judge here - because I want to understand perspectives that are different from my own. I'm not sure I'm really a shipper, because while I care about relationships, I care about story more. Happily Ever After is not an ending I want or crave really...although it would be nice on occasion, since tragic endings get rather old.)

Which comes first and foremost or is the most important to you: Ship or Story? Characters Emotional Arc or Ship?

*Do you read a book series or watch a tv show/series solely for the romantic relationship ignoring the rest?
* Or is the "ship" just icing, making the show that much more tasty?
* Or is the characters arcs and their story/overall plot what is important? (ie. even if your favorite "ship" never comes to pass or doesn't work out - that's fine as long as it makes sense to the character's arc and is interesting and crunchy? The story comes before the ship?)

This question is the result of latest flirtation with a fan spoiler board for a urban fantasy novel - where I noticed the vast majority of posters were saying - while the book is good, I'm frustrated because I'm not sure about my ship? Or I'm so happy - my ship may happen! Or I threw the book across the room because it killed my ship? Or my dream is for the character to have her moonlight wedding...with T or I or A? The book in question is NOT a romance novel. So this begs the question - is a happily ever after romance necessary?

Is the ship the reason you are watching or reading? OR is it secondary? Or does it depend on the story? ie. For House and Sherlock - you only watch for House/Wilson or Sherlock/Watson - ignoring everything else. Or for Buffy, you only watched for Buffy/Angel or Buffy/Spike? Yet for another show, say BSG, you didn't ship at all and watched for the entire story?

And to what degree has shipping influenced your fanfic/meta writing? Or for that matter, your abhorrence of shipping influenced your writing, involvement in fandom, and reactions to it?
If Whedon, for example, had killed Spike off in the comics and had Buffy and Angel become a full-time heroic couple - would that have influenced how you viewed the comics? Or what if it was the opposite, if Angel died or was exiled, and Buffy and Spike rode off into the proverbial moonlight (sunlight is a bit hard on vampires)? How would you view say Doctor Who - if Ten had fallen in love with Martha Jones instead of Rose Tyler? And how does this influence your reactions to other's in fandom - do you find shipping a positive or negative or a bit of both kind of thing?

Comments

[blueteainfusion.livejournal.com]

I don't want to say that I'm not a shipper, but the list of my OTPs is pretty short. When I read/watch the story, I'm rather okay with most relationships, and by "okay" I mean that I don't have any strong feelings towards them. That's why if somebody asked me about the most hated ship, it would be very hard for me to answer - and I'm talking about canon ships, because I almost never divert from the canon. Non-canon ship seldom occur to me and that's way I have no way to hate them until someone points them out to me. As long as the story is gripping, characters possible to sympathize with, it's fine. Without that, the chances are I've already stopped following the story.

What happens if along the way I started caring for certain ship particularly hard? Well, then I will keep watching, preferably till the end, and continue to be delighted. Even if the story becomes ridiculous (as unfortunately sometimes such things happen) and the ship still holds my interest, I will still watch, but now with added bonus of fast-forwarding the boring parts and paying attention almost exclusively to it. Something like that happened initially with BtVS S7, when the last third felt very forced to me and I came to the sudden and horrible realization that the only thing that keeps me with the series is Spuffy. It took me quite a while to actually watch all the episodes thoroughly (and I grew to actually like the season, I still think its one of the weakest though). Till this day I'm not sure if Buffy would still be my overall favourite series if it didn't have Spuffy to help me endure some parts.

A different thing happened with my other favourite series from my youth, The Slayers (oh, the titles, haha - coincidence?). I adored Lina/Gourry ship, it was one of my earliest obsessions. However, even if L/G is still alive and well, I just couldn't watch the last to seasons - the story was awful and nonsensical, characters trashed and the whole thing just fell apart. Even them couldn't save the series for me - from now on I stick to fics.

So yeah, that's my story - still don't know which category of yours I fall into :) It depends of the series, I guess.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Actually your perspective on shipping is fairly similar to mine. Which is, with few exceptions, that you tend to be more about story and less about the ship. In short - the ship is icing on the cake.

As long as the story is gripping, characters possible to sympathize with, it's fine. Without that, the chances are I've already stopped following the story.

Agreed. I'm the same way.

The Slayers??

That's a series I've never heard of. Was it on tv? If so where?