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shadowkatYes, two posts in one night...but other was too long to include this stuff in it.
1. Being Erica - continues to interest me. The series focus on choices and taking responsibility and owning those choices. Handling them, moving on, and not letting oneself get bogged down with regret. The format is rather innovative - Erica's in therapy with a time-traveling therapist who can send her back in time to relive a regret. In the 3rd season, they've upped the ante a bit and are revealing bits and pieces of who and what the time-traveling therapists are. I'm starting to wonder if everyone's dead and the therapy is a sort of pseudo-purgatory, a la Lost, where the characters finish what was left undone, before moving on. I'm not sure that's a spoiler or just speculation. Because the show doesn't really tell you either way.
This week's episode much like two week's previously, resonated for me. Erica is at a cross-roads.
She's trying to figure out what to do next and is afraid. Does she forage ahead with her own business or take a lucrative job offer? And watching it - I wonder if I'm risk adverse? Have I run or hidden or taken the easy path? I don't believe so. I also think so many of our choices are predetermined by our own personality, DNA, and nature. Much like a character in a book. The author to a degree knows what that character will do, isn't positive, but gut level, you know, even if you sort of wish they would go another direction.
2. Shipping. I've been pondering this week if shipping a character or even a relationship really hard can be detrimental to your appreciation and understanding of the story and theme. It's, how to explain this, a bit like listening to someone give a speech - you are hearing it fine, understanding it fine, but all of sudden they say something that either resonates strongly with you or you really hate and you just focus on that. You don't hear anything but that. It's as if everything else blurs.
And that's your focal point.
Speaking purely for myself, because I can't really speak for anyone else on this topic, can I? That would be highly presumptious of me, wouldn't it? Not that I haven't in the past, but...in this instance I will attempt to just discuss my own rather limited experience on the topic.
When I ship hard, really hard, this does change how I perceive the story that unfolds and the characters involved. It also affects my enjoyment, in some cases it may heighten it, in others make the story impossible to watch, even cringe-inducing. Example: When I was 12 - I shipped the character of Apollo in BattleStar Galatica really hard, actually Apollo and Starbuck (was a huge Apollo/Starbuck fan) and this was when Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict played the roles. I remember being bored when they veered away from those characters. Being obsessed with stories that focused on them. And hating Boxy, this kid, who seemed to have no purpose whatsoever. Years later, I'm somewhat perplexed by my reactions and well, find the show in general unwatchable. So this may not be the best example.
A better one is Buffy. Buffy - I was doing fine with, loved the show. More or less shipped everyone equally. Sure I got a bit obsessive with the whole Buffy/Angel/Angelus arc - but it was short lived.
Then Spike joined the show. Now, I did not get obsessed with Spike or Spike/Buffy right off the bat.
This did not happen until S5-S6, when out of nowhere, the writer chose to suddenly have Spike fall madly in love with Buffy. I was intrigued by this. Then he chose to redeem Spike, instead of let him be the Cordelia character or the informant or the wacky nemesis who can't do anything. At the end of S4, I half-wondered why the Scooby gang let him live, but was admittedly relieved they had - since the character was a lot of fun. This is when I was watching it live and long before I got involved in fandom. Then in S6, the writer shocked me, by letting the heroine begin to return Spike's feelings.
Add to this - the writers showed signs that they were going to have Willow turn very dark, and kill off Tara to do it. (Something I'd seen hints of since S4, but had given up on happening). And I became obsessed. What they chose to do with Spike surprised and thrilled me. I hadn't seen anyone else do that. It was risky. And different. And cool. And low and behold, I became a shipper. I shipped Spike hard. I also shipped Buffy and Spike as a couple hard, and Willow hard. There was something about those three characters that fascinated me - all of sudden. So...the story began over time to take a back seat to the ships. As long as it went in a direction that explored those ships,
took them in new directions (not necessarily happy ones, just interesting and not standard trope), I was happy. But I also sought out spoilers like nobody's business - because I craved more! I wanted more! I sought out fanfic. I wrote meta. I got obsessed with the entire show. I rewatched all the previous seasons to see if the Spike/Buffy thing tracked, if Buffy's arc tracked, if Spike's arc tracked, if Willow's arc tracked - when I discovered they did - that not only did they track but it appeared that their arcs were planned with the small details, and actually fit a discernible pattern, even though I knew for a fact that the writers had not intentionally done that at all, and often forgot what had come before - I got even more obsessed. So I went online to find equally obsessed people who would talk about my obsession with me and analyze it to death as well.
Now this is great to a degree. But, there are pitfalls. One of which is when the writer stopped taking the story in a direction that synced with my ships, I grew annoyed and found it difficult to appreciate the rest of the story. (Please note this is ONLY about the tv series, it is NOT about the comics.) For example - Seeing Red and the attempted rape sequence, while I knew about it, and predicted it as early as well Gone, it annoyed me. Because it felt cliche to me (I'd watched too many daytime soaps, prime time soaps, serials and comics - which had done the same thing.) Personally, I thought the writer was a bit too anal about letting go of the metaphor and the whole let's grow up and show lame-ass humanity at its worst - and should have gone with Spike trying to bite Buffy instead. But in retrospect, from a distance, I think the writer was correct to do the story he did and it does work in the larger scheme of things. But from a ship stand-point, particularly an online fandom ship standpoint - it annoyed the hell out of me at the time. Similarily - my ship of Spike and Spike/buffy, made it difficult for me to appreciate a good portion of S7 - any episode that Spike wasn't in or featured, bored me.
Granted, I wrote a lot of meta that had nothing to do with Spike, so I obviously did love the show and all the characters. But my ship of Spike and Spuffy may have to a degree narrowed my enjoyment or hampered it in some ways, while expanding upon it in others.
I realized this recently with other fandoms - when I ship characters in a book hard, such as in Kim Harrison's novles or Butcher's - it does change how I read the books, my view of the story. While I pride myself on my ability to separate the ship from the story, and to put the story largely first, I'd be lying if I did not admit that to a degree the ship and it's future or direction does affect how I view the story as a whole. If I see something that the writer does not follow up on or does not do anything with, that is what I love most in the tale - I may stop reading, full stop. I may even want to throw the book against the wall. This happens with serials more than anything else. For example in George RR Martin's books - I found myself shipping Jamie Lannister hard, and then Jaime/Brenne, to the point that I would get annoyed when the writer shifted to someone else such as Catelynn. When I finished the first two books, I remember literally thumbing and scanning Storm, only reading bits and pieces on Jaime. Made little sense just focusing on Jaime. Because the way the book is written each pov hinges on the next one, they inform one another. I waited two to three years and picked up the book again. This time I was able to read it straight through without my ship getting in the way. In the Harrison books - the first time I read them, it was okay, wasn't really shipping anyone. Found Trent interesting, and Trent / Rachel's game of besting each other intriguing. But that was it. But Pale Demon - changed that. Now Trent/Rachel is the ship. I went back to see if it tracked, it does, and it makes it even more interesting. This puts a damper on my enjoyment of the series - because if the writer goes in another direction as she is threatening to do, I most likely won't be able to follow or she will have to do a really really good job to convince me.
Shipping can also affect how we react to other fans. I admittedly get annoyed with shippers. Soap opera fans have annoyed me for years - which is why I avoid that fandom like the plague. And Buffy shippers can drive me nuts. I couldn't stand the hard-core Bangle shippers - who sniped at the Spike fans. I remember wanting to kick people who said they preferred Spike evil and hated his redemption storyline or that he fell for Buffy. My own brother annoyed the heck out of me when he said he liked Buffy fine, but couldn't watch after she started having sex with Spike. (*cough*Angelshipper*cough*)
And did not understand why I didn't prefer Angel, which was more adult (*cough*sexist*cough*).
Yes, there were shipper wars in my family. Albeit slight. There was one fan online that made me crazy, she was Bangle, hated anyone or anything that go in its way, and was incredibly patronizing about it. Also given free reign on a posting board that I loved. She brought out the bitch in me.
I remember having battles with her. At one point, I snarkily pointed out how her favorite ship was basically Lolita, and little more and did it with another fan in detail. Not a proud moment, but she pissed me off royally with her holier than thou spiels about Spikefans. That's an example from personal experience of how shipping can be brutal and detrimental to one's online health.
Speaking again for myself, I'm not sure one is completely sane when one ships really hard. It's almost an insane passion, core. And it's not unlike being passionate about the Yankees, or some alma matter. People do crazy things for cultural items they love or identify strongly with. I will state at least I've never hurt anyone. The closest I came was the above example - and that's pretty minor in the scheme of things.
Shipping isn't reserved to characters in tv shows. It's also actors and writers. Which I've never totally understood. To a degree I ship actors and writers - in that I get obsessed with their work and want more from them. I also tend to have really bad taste and go for D list writers and actors who produce almost nothing and therefore I live in frustration. Spent years, in vain, from the age of 12- age of 14 trying to find things with Richard Hatch in them. I even watched reruns of the Streets of San Franscico or something like that. Also spent years in vain trying to find things with James Marsters - sigh, the man has only played one role worth watching and that's Spike in Buffy, sad but true. Same deal with Anthony Stewart Head - who won my heart on stage in Chess, ten years before he did Buffy. And don't get me started on Whedon, Butcher, Katherine Neville, Donna Tartt, etc.
I've learned not to do this any more. Life is too short for all the needless aggravation.
Other fans who do not ship, although I think all fans do - I don't know anyone online who doesn't to one degree or another - even the one's who deny it. They just, like most of us, think their ship is sane and wonderful, and everyone else is bonkers. Personally? To the outside world? We're all bonkers.
Much like those insane sports fans who have to go to every Mets or Yankees game, or the Deadheads who travel around the country following their band, or the Beatles fans who have collected every single piece of memorabilia. It's human - I think to be a little bonkers in this manner. We all have insane passions. Things that distract us from the drudgery of the daily routine and customary boredom.
Shipping can often make a show brighter.
Loving Connor in Angel the Series for example - would have made the fourth and third seasons more enjoyable than if you were ambivalent or didn't like the character. But it may have had a derogatory effect on say season 5 of the series. He was only in one episode.
Anti-shipping often results from shipping I've discovered. People who hate Spike - hated Spike either because they felt he took screentime away from their favorite ship, or his fans rubbed them the wrong way much like say a METs fan might annoy a Yankees fan. OR maybe it was moral reasons. I know, speaking for myself again here, that I've disliked characters and found their fans bewildering because of moral grounds. Something about the character bugged me. Xander for example felt racist to me in the latter seasons and prejudiced. I know many fans online felt that way about Spike and probably looking at me and thinking in regards to Xander, huh? Whatcha talking about? Come again?
Being liberally minded, I have the odd ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time - so I was able to see why some fans saw Spike as racist and disagree with them and not see that at all. Which lead to me echoing arguments with them that I often had inside my own head. Actually most of the fan arguements I've had in regards to my own ships, I've had in my head first - I remember for example being heavily spoiled for the episode Lies My Parents Told Me - not one, but two friends had spoiled me on that episode. I also knew that I'd end up having to deal with a lot of negativity on the fanboard I frequented and that a couple of my friends, one in particular, would really really hate that episode and probably shouldn't watch it because it would be highly offensive and hit too close to home. Since I knew she'd see it later than I did, being in another country, I tried to gently warn her off of it. Because I could see at least three different and contradictory interpretations of that episode in my head. It was nifty that all three were written by other people on the board, including several others. And the fact I could see that many interpretations is why I got obsessed with the episode. But the shipping and online fandom reaction to the shipping did taint it and make it less enjoyable. It also made it impossible in latter years for me to remain friends with some people. They continued harping on the character and that episode from one pov and their refusal to see any other - drove me nuts. If I didn't ship that character, Spike, as hard as I did, I doubt I'd have cared or even noticed. Any more than I would have cared or noticed when they reamed Whedon - constantly. It's also, why I'm trying really hard not to talk about shows and things I hate that I know others online who are friends of mine ship really hard. I do not always succeed in this obviously. Ironically, now that I no longer ship or care about Whedon, that online friendship is long gone. It's ironic - because I now agree with what they said in their journal, or rather I see where they were coming from, when at the time I did not and reacted with fury. Shipping can do that.
I'm of two minds about shipping. As much as I rail against shippers, I know I'm a hypocrite for doing so, because I ship. I've always shipped. As a child and as an adult. While it is reassuring to realize almost everyone else does to - to one degree or another, it also explains some of the contentious behavior. Because like all things I get passionate about, there's someone out there who hates what I love with a passion and has no problem telling me why I'm an idiot for not feeling the same way. While, being an opinionated gal, I have no qualms throwing it back at them. For every character I love with insane passion, someone hates them. Worse still - if I'm not writing those characters my self - and have to depend on someone else's vision, chances are I will be disappointed. At least eventually. It is highly unlikely that the writer or writers are going to take the characters in the direction I want them too. One of the reasons I got so obsessed about Buffy, more so than most series outside of maybe Farscape, is it is amongst the few that the writer took the characters in a direction that fit my desires, and what I wanted - well up to a point. I was happy more or less, with a few minor caveats, with the direction the characters went in the television series. OR I wouldn't have bought the series on DVD and rewatched it a billion times, until it has for the most part been committed to memory. My difficulty, and this may be due to shipping more than anything else, was I wanted more after the story was done. I wanted to know how Buffy would react when she saw Spike was still alive. OR if she still loved him or loved him at all. If the other characters appreciated his sacrifice. How would he fit back in. Would she want him back. I shipped them so hard - I felt a need to see their relationship resolved. They didn't need to be together or ride off into the sunset. I just wanted to know if she loved him, if she knew he was alive, and where it went from there. I never will get that story. I had the same problem with the Angel series - I wanted more. I wanted an acknowledgement of Spike from Angel, that I couldn't quite get. Something more than they gave or could give. I wanted to know more about their history together. More about their history now. I wanted to know how Spike and Willow related, both being similar in some respects. Spike in my head was to Willow, what Cordelia was to Angel. I also wanted more of Faith and Spike, and how they related. And Xander and Spike, and Dawn and Spike, and most importantly Giles and Spike - who were so much alike and yet not. My shipping of Spike...made it difficult for me to appreciate the ending of the series. OR to enjoy stories that did not contain him in it. Or stories that examined aspects of his character I felt self-explanatory or done to death - such as the whole soul bit and the guilt. I wanted a Spike/Dru/Angel tale. Not a Spike/Dru or an Angel/Dru, but all three. My ship for the character influenced how I perceived the verse for good or ill.
I don't know if shipping is a good thing. I find myself embarrassed that I do it. And I'm often defensive and will deny it. I remember someone throwing it in my face when I wrote a lengthy meta, which had nothing to do with my ship although I'm sure they were correct in pointing out that the ship affected my meta and view of the series - but I pointed out, somewhat cruelly, so did theirs. Wasn't this little more than the pot calling the kettle black? My reaction was hardly mature.
But there's nothing worse than having someone point that out and humiliate you in your own online journal. Too sensitive? Maybe. Shipping is afterall an emotional thing, not a rational or intellectual one. Fan or fandom is emotional as well, rational thought while present isn't driving the ship here.
What do you think about all this? Assuming you've read this far? Agree? Disagree? Possibly both?
Neither? It's hard to know how other's feel about such things. Being stuck as I am inside my own skull.
Off to bed. It's late and I've rambled on this topic longer than I intended.
1. Being Erica - continues to interest me. The series focus on choices and taking responsibility and owning those choices. Handling them, moving on, and not letting oneself get bogged down with regret. The format is rather innovative - Erica's in therapy with a time-traveling therapist who can send her back in time to relive a regret. In the 3rd season, they've upped the ante a bit and are revealing bits and pieces of who and what the time-traveling therapists are. I'm starting to wonder if everyone's dead and the therapy is a sort of pseudo-purgatory, a la Lost, where the characters finish what was left undone, before moving on. I'm not sure that's a spoiler or just speculation. Because the show doesn't really tell you either way.
This week's episode much like two week's previously, resonated for me. Erica is at a cross-roads.
She's trying to figure out what to do next and is afraid. Does she forage ahead with her own business or take a lucrative job offer? And watching it - I wonder if I'm risk adverse? Have I run or hidden or taken the easy path? I don't believe so. I also think so many of our choices are predetermined by our own personality, DNA, and nature. Much like a character in a book. The author to a degree knows what that character will do, isn't positive, but gut level, you know, even if you sort of wish they would go another direction.
2. Shipping. I've been pondering this week if shipping a character or even a relationship really hard can be detrimental to your appreciation and understanding of the story and theme. It's, how to explain this, a bit like listening to someone give a speech - you are hearing it fine, understanding it fine, but all of sudden they say something that either resonates strongly with you or you really hate and you just focus on that. You don't hear anything but that. It's as if everything else blurs.
And that's your focal point.
Speaking purely for myself, because I can't really speak for anyone else on this topic, can I? That would be highly presumptious of me, wouldn't it? Not that I haven't in the past, but...in this instance I will attempt to just discuss my own rather limited experience on the topic.
When I ship hard, really hard, this does change how I perceive the story that unfolds and the characters involved. It also affects my enjoyment, in some cases it may heighten it, in others make the story impossible to watch, even cringe-inducing. Example: When I was 12 - I shipped the character of Apollo in BattleStar Galatica really hard, actually Apollo and Starbuck (was a huge Apollo/Starbuck fan) and this was when Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict played the roles. I remember being bored when they veered away from those characters. Being obsessed with stories that focused on them. And hating Boxy, this kid, who seemed to have no purpose whatsoever. Years later, I'm somewhat perplexed by my reactions and well, find the show in general unwatchable. So this may not be the best example.
A better one is Buffy. Buffy - I was doing fine with, loved the show. More or less shipped everyone equally. Sure I got a bit obsessive with the whole Buffy/Angel/Angelus arc - but it was short lived.
Then Spike joined the show. Now, I did not get obsessed with Spike or Spike/Buffy right off the bat.
This did not happen until S5-S6, when out of nowhere, the writer chose to suddenly have Spike fall madly in love with Buffy. I was intrigued by this. Then he chose to redeem Spike, instead of let him be the Cordelia character or the informant or the wacky nemesis who can't do anything. At the end of S4, I half-wondered why the Scooby gang let him live, but was admittedly relieved they had - since the character was a lot of fun. This is when I was watching it live and long before I got involved in fandom. Then in S6, the writer shocked me, by letting the heroine begin to return Spike's feelings.
Add to this - the writers showed signs that they were going to have Willow turn very dark, and kill off Tara to do it. (Something I'd seen hints of since S4, but had given up on happening). And I became obsessed. What they chose to do with Spike surprised and thrilled me. I hadn't seen anyone else do that. It was risky. And different. And cool. And low and behold, I became a shipper. I shipped Spike hard. I also shipped Buffy and Spike as a couple hard, and Willow hard. There was something about those three characters that fascinated me - all of sudden. So...the story began over time to take a back seat to the ships. As long as it went in a direction that explored those ships,
took them in new directions (not necessarily happy ones, just interesting and not standard trope), I was happy. But I also sought out spoilers like nobody's business - because I craved more! I wanted more! I sought out fanfic. I wrote meta. I got obsessed with the entire show. I rewatched all the previous seasons to see if the Spike/Buffy thing tracked, if Buffy's arc tracked, if Spike's arc tracked, if Willow's arc tracked - when I discovered they did - that not only did they track but it appeared that their arcs were planned with the small details, and actually fit a discernible pattern, even though I knew for a fact that the writers had not intentionally done that at all, and often forgot what had come before - I got even more obsessed. So I went online to find equally obsessed people who would talk about my obsession with me and analyze it to death as well.
Now this is great to a degree. But, there are pitfalls. One of which is when the writer stopped taking the story in a direction that synced with my ships, I grew annoyed and found it difficult to appreciate the rest of the story. (Please note this is ONLY about the tv series, it is NOT about the comics.) For example - Seeing Red and the attempted rape sequence, while I knew about it, and predicted it as early as well Gone, it annoyed me. Because it felt cliche to me (I'd watched too many daytime soaps, prime time soaps, serials and comics - which had done the same thing.) Personally, I thought the writer was a bit too anal about letting go of the metaphor and the whole let's grow up and show lame-ass humanity at its worst - and should have gone with Spike trying to bite Buffy instead. But in retrospect, from a distance, I think the writer was correct to do the story he did and it does work in the larger scheme of things. But from a ship stand-point, particularly an online fandom ship standpoint - it annoyed the hell out of me at the time. Similarily - my ship of Spike and Spike/buffy, made it difficult for me to appreciate a good portion of S7 - any episode that Spike wasn't in or featured, bored me.
Granted, I wrote a lot of meta that had nothing to do with Spike, so I obviously did love the show and all the characters. But my ship of Spike and Spuffy may have to a degree narrowed my enjoyment or hampered it in some ways, while expanding upon it in others.
I realized this recently with other fandoms - when I ship characters in a book hard, such as in Kim Harrison's novles or Butcher's - it does change how I read the books, my view of the story. While I pride myself on my ability to separate the ship from the story, and to put the story largely first, I'd be lying if I did not admit that to a degree the ship and it's future or direction does affect how I view the story as a whole. If I see something that the writer does not follow up on or does not do anything with, that is what I love most in the tale - I may stop reading, full stop. I may even want to throw the book against the wall. This happens with serials more than anything else. For example in George RR Martin's books - I found myself shipping Jamie Lannister hard, and then Jaime/Brenne, to the point that I would get annoyed when the writer shifted to someone else such as Catelynn. When I finished the first two books, I remember literally thumbing and scanning Storm, only reading bits and pieces on Jaime. Made little sense just focusing on Jaime. Because the way the book is written each pov hinges on the next one, they inform one another. I waited two to three years and picked up the book again. This time I was able to read it straight through without my ship getting in the way. In the Harrison books - the first time I read them, it was okay, wasn't really shipping anyone. Found Trent interesting, and Trent / Rachel's game of besting each other intriguing. But that was it. But Pale Demon - changed that. Now Trent/Rachel is the ship. I went back to see if it tracked, it does, and it makes it even more interesting. This puts a damper on my enjoyment of the series - because if the writer goes in another direction as she is threatening to do, I most likely won't be able to follow or she will have to do a really really good job to convince me.
Shipping can also affect how we react to other fans. I admittedly get annoyed with shippers. Soap opera fans have annoyed me for years - which is why I avoid that fandom like the plague. And Buffy shippers can drive me nuts. I couldn't stand the hard-core Bangle shippers - who sniped at the Spike fans. I remember wanting to kick people who said they preferred Spike evil and hated his redemption storyline or that he fell for Buffy. My own brother annoyed the heck out of me when he said he liked Buffy fine, but couldn't watch after she started having sex with Spike. (*cough*Angelshipper*cough*)
And did not understand why I didn't prefer Angel, which was more adult (*cough*sexist*cough*).
Yes, there were shipper wars in my family. Albeit slight. There was one fan online that made me crazy, she was Bangle, hated anyone or anything that go in its way, and was incredibly patronizing about it. Also given free reign on a posting board that I loved. She brought out the bitch in me.
I remember having battles with her. At one point, I snarkily pointed out how her favorite ship was basically Lolita, and little more and did it with another fan in detail. Not a proud moment, but she pissed me off royally with her holier than thou spiels about Spikefans. That's an example from personal experience of how shipping can be brutal and detrimental to one's online health.
Speaking again for myself, I'm not sure one is completely sane when one ships really hard. It's almost an insane passion, core. And it's not unlike being passionate about the Yankees, or some alma matter. People do crazy things for cultural items they love or identify strongly with. I will state at least I've never hurt anyone. The closest I came was the above example - and that's pretty minor in the scheme of things.
Shipping isn't reserved to characters in tv shows. It's also actors and writers. Which I've never totally understood. To a degree I ship actors and writers - in that I get obsessed with their work and want more from them. I also tend to have really bad taste and go for D list writers and actors who produce almost nothing and therefore I live in frustration. Spent years, in vain, from the age of 12- age of 14 trying to find things with Richard Hatch in them. I even watched reruns of the Streets of San Franscico or something like that. Also spent years in vain trying to find things with James Marsters - sigh, the man has only played one role worth watching and that's Spike in Buffy, sad but true. Same deal with Anthony Stewart Head - who won my heart on stage in Chess, ten years before he did Buffy. And don't get me started on Whedon, Butcher, Katherine Neville, Donna Tartt, etc.
I've learned not to do this any more. Life is too short for all the needless aggravation.
Other fans who do not ship, although I think all fans do - I don't know anyone online who doesn't to one degree or another - even the one's who deny it. They just, like most of us, think their ship is sane and wonderful, and everyone else is bonkers. Personally? To the outside world? We're all bonkers.
Much like those insane sports fans who have to go to every Mets or Yankees game, or the Deadheads who travel around the country following their band, or the Beatles fans who have collected every single piece of memorabilia. It's human - I think to be a little bonkers in this manner. We all have insane passions. Things that distract us from the drudgery of the daily routine and customary boredom.
Shipping can often make a show brighter.
Loving Connor in Angel the Series for example - would have made the fourth and third seasons more enjoyable than if you were ambivalent or didn't like the character. But it may have had a derogatory effect on say season 5 of the series. He was only in one episode.
Anti-shipping often results from shipping I've discovered. People who hate Spike - hated Spike either because they felt he took screentime away from their favorite ship, or his fans rubbed them the wrong way much like say a METs fan might annoy a Yankees fan. OR maybe it was moral reasons. I know, speaking for myself again here, that I've disliked characters and found their fans bewildering because of moral grounds. Something about the character bugged me. Xander for example felt racist to me in the latter seasons and prejudiced. I know many fans online felt that way about Spike and probably looking at me and thinking in regards to Xander, huh? Whatcha talking about? Come again?
Being liberally minded, I have the odd ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time - so I was able to see why some fans saw Spike as racist and disagree with them and not see that at all. Which lead to me echoing arguments with them that I often had inside my own head. Actually most of the fan arguements I've had in regards to my own ships, I've had in my head first - I remember for example being heavily spoiled for the episode Lies My Parents Told Me - not one, but two friends had spoiled me on that episode. I also knew that I'd end up having to deal with a lot of negativity on the fanboard I frequented and that a couple of my friends, one in particular, would really really hate that episode and probably shouldn't watch it because it would be highly offensive and hit too close to home. Since I knew she'd see it later than I did, being in another country, I tried to gently warn her off of it. Because I could see at least three different and contradictory interpretations of that episode in my head. It was nifty that all three were written by other people on the board, including several others. And the fact I could see that many interpretations is why I got obsessed with the episode. But the shipping and online fandom reaction to the shipping did taint it and make it less enjoyable. It also made it impossible in latter years for me to remain friends with some people. They continued harping on the character and that episode from one pov and their refusal to see any other - drove me nuts. If I didn't ship that character, Spike, as hard as I did, I doubt I'd have cared or even noticed. Any more than I would have cared or noticed when they reamed Whedon - constantly. It's also, why I'm trying really hard not to talk about shows and things I hate that I know others online who are friends of mine ship really hard. I do not always succeed in this obviously. Ironically, now that I no longer ship or care about Whedon, that online friendship is long gone. It's ironic - because I now agree with what they said in their journal, or rather I see where they were coming from, when at the time I did not and reacted with fury. Shipping can do that.
I'm of two minds about shipping. As much as I rail against shippers, I know I'm a hypocrite for doing so, because I ship. I've always shipped. As a child and as an adult. While it is reassuring to realize almost everyone else does to - to one degree or another, it also explains some of the contentious behavior. Because like all things I get passionate about, there's someone out there who hates what I love with a passion and has no problem telling me why I'm an idiot for not feeling the same way. While, being an opinionated gal, I have no qualms throwing it back at them. For every character I love with insane passion, someone hates them. Worse still - if I'm not writing those characters my self - and have to depend on someone else's vision, chances are I will be disappointed. At least eventually. It is highly unlikely that the writer or writers are going to take the characters in the direction I want them too. One of the reasons I got so obsessed about Buffy, more so than most series outside of maybe Farscape, is it is amongst the few that the writer took the characters in a direction that fit my desires, and what I wanted - well up to a point. I was happy more or less, with a few minor caveats, with the direction the characters went in the television series. OR I wouldn't have bought the series on DVD and rewatched it a billion times, until it has for the most part been committed to memory. My difficulty, and this may be due to shipping more than anything else, was I wanted more after the story was done. I wanted to know how Buffy would react when she saw Spike was still alive. OR if she still loved him or loved him at all. If the other characters appreciated his sacrifice. How would he fit back in. Would she want him back. I shipped them so hard - I felt a need to see their relationship resolved. They didn't need to be together or ride off into the sunset. I just wanted to know if she loved him, if she knew he was alive, and where it went from there. I never will get that story. I had the same problem with the Angel series - I wanted more. I wanted an acknowledgement of Spike from Angel, that I couldn't quite get. Something more than they gave or could give. I wanted to know more about their history together. More about their history now. I wanted to know how Spike and Willow related, both being similar in some respects. Spike in my head was to Willow, what Cordelia was to Angel. I also wanted more of Faith and Spike, and how they related. And Xander and Spike, and Dawn and Spike, and most importantly Giles and Spike - who were so much alike and yet not. My shipping of Spike...made it difficult for me to appreciate the ending of the series. OR to enjoy stories that did not contain him in it. Or stories that examined aspects of his character I felt self-explanatory or done to death - such as the whole soul bit and the guilt. I wanted a Spike/Dru/Angel tale. Not a Spike/Dru or an Angel/Dru, but all three. My ship for the character influenced how I perceived the verse for good or ill.
I don't know if shipping is a good thing. I find myself embarrassed that I do it. And I'm often defensive and will deny it. I remember someone throwing it in my face when I wrote a lengthy meta, which had nothing to do with my ship although I'm sure they were correct in pointing out that the ship affected my meta and view of the series - but I pointed out, somewhat cruelly, so did theirs. Wasn't this little more than the pot calling the kettle black? My reaction was hardly mature.
But there's nothing worse than having someone point that out and humiliate you in your own online journal. Too sensitive? Maybe. Shipping is afterall an emotional thing, not a rational or intellectual one. Fan or fandom is emotional as well, rational thought while present isn't driving the ship here.
What do you think about all this? Assuming you've read this far? Agree? Disagree? Possibly both?
Neither? It's hard to know how other's feel about such things. Being stuck as I am inside my own skull.
Off to bed. It's late and I've rambled on this topic longer than I intended.
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Date: 2011-04-02 05:22 am (UTC)Generally I don't ship, but I agree that when one does so, it intensifies one's experience of the story, for good or ill. OTOH I don't recall resenting episodes focusing on other characters. With a few exceptions, I tend to get more annoyed with other fans than with characters. (The exceptions are usually when I feel that my interpretation of a character's actions are at severe odds with the writer's interpretation.)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 07:49 am (UTC)I find the obsessive nature of shippers/shipping slightly fascinating; partly due to the fact that, though I was almost entirely focussed on WillTara for the first couple of year I was involved, even if only in a very minor way, in Buffy fandom, I don't seem to have been as skewed *really hoping that choice of word isn't upsetting* in the way you describe.
I believe I can point to three things to possibly explain why this might be.
1: Having been involved in Blake's 7 fandom; I had seen everything I apparently knew about a show go to a proverbial hell before; when all the main characters of the show were killed off in the final episode, and the title character was possibly revealed as a traitor.
2: I had started watching Buffy because I had heard rumours that a character was going to 'turn' gay - and yeah I know the absurdity of such a statement, but then most of the people spreading such rumours came from a generation that believed in a gay choice-of-lifestyle; still far too prevalent a stereotype.
So I started watching, with my first ep, in total coincidence, being Wild At Heart; Oz' first 'farewell' episode. Now that episode was such a powerful piece of storytelling that, together with the following episodes, it had made me a fan of the series before the 'gay' episodes began to surface; I should say that I did not see Doppelgangland until early 2002.
and 3: I had experienced a character I loved, far more than I ever liked Willow Rosenberg; Kerry Weaver, first become involved with another woman, but then lose her because of her own insecuries, but then find another woman, who seemed far better suited to her personality than the first; not a popular opinion in Kerry-fandom.
Thus, I think, though I was shocked enough by Tara's death to start writing fanfic again, after many, many years; over time I came to realise that I was far more shocked by the abusive storylines in S6; more so by Spike/Buffy than Willow/Tara. At the time I was also far more focussed on the break-up and, after some very bizarre reasoning, if there was any at all on her part, Tara returning to Willow AFTER having been raped by her.
It was only after her death that I really became involved in Buffy fandom; all of which, it seems to me, led to me not becoming an obsessive shipper, even though the bulk of my fic ideas are still focussed, even in abstentia, around the character.
I don't see any need to be embarrassed about being a shipper, as long as you realise, and can accept, that there are a host of other shipping poosibilities, even the bizarre concept :-) of a character not being in a 'ship at all.
Thanks for a really fascinating post, it really got me thinking.
Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 02:01 pm (UTC)I think that shipping might be like religious fundamentalism: you can't see any other POV, your passion HAS to be right... It is like human beings are some how hard wired for these over the top attachments, which seems weird to me. How would this help us evolve as a species?
Maybe it helps us love and attach to off spring, or forming tribes for mutual defense (my country right or wrong! lol)?
It is annoying, but maybe the shipping wars are better than real wars (certainly sports helps a lot of people over come their violent tendencies in a safer manner)?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 02:05 pm (UTC)I think it's the other way around: competitive sports re-enforce violent behaviour.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 06:10 pm (UTC)Take baseball for example or cricket or even tennis. Football, yes, it tends to be.
But I'm not sure you can blame the sport - its the humans who create the sport. We are like it or not aggressively competitive creatures and that to a degree is why we have survived.
If you look at nature - it's incredibly violent in some respects.
And very aggressive. Insects scout out territory, bacteria wages war within an organism, tearing down cell walls.
So if we consider that our base nature tends towards aggression, that we have violent tendencies evolved over a span of time,
then perhaps sports is an outlet for that aggression?
Competitive sports if you think about it provides us with a way to express that side of ourselves in a safe manner, where no one dies or gets hurt. We can fight, but when the bell rings, it is over. It provides a means of release - of getting rid of that
aggressive energy.
I think the same can be said for internet kerfuffles or flame wars - often the people engaged are rather well behaved offline, polite, never curse, and rarely fight - but they need an outlet for the suppressed anger and frustration that builds up. It often comes out in a fan flame war. It's safe. You don't know the other person - they have a pseudonyme as do you. You can
make a fool out of yourself...but in the end, it's just your online persona. I think hockey, rugby, soccer, football, boxing are similar - a means of releasing that fury in a safe non-violent manner.
While it can be argued that it reinforces violent behavior...when I look at people who don't play sports or engage in some activity that releases their pent-up aggression, seeing it come out in other, and sometimes far more destructive ways - I'm of the inclination that sports and similar activities is less of a reinforcement as a release, a way of letting off steam.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 06:21 pm (UTC)It is like human beings are some how hard wired for these over the top attachments, which seems weird to me. How would this help us evolve as a species?
Maybe it helps us love and attach to off spring, or forming tribes for mutual defense (my country right or wrong! lol)?
I think from an evolutionary standpoint...it does make sense.
We live in a violent world and an aggressively competitive one, not just on the human level. Nature herself is quite aggressive and violent.
In order to survive, we've learned to form attachments to other creatures and things. The mother becomes violently protective of her offspring so that her offspring will outlive her. The husband violently protective of his wife. And so on.
Same with communities. If you think of your country as a large tribe or "Community", which provides you with protection from harm, sanitation, shelter, and other things...it is in your best interest to protect that country, to feel violently protective of it. We don't want someone coming in and say, putting us in camps, enslaving us, torturing us, killing us, etc. Our country protects us.
And life is competitive. There's not enough for everyone. It's always been like that. I think forming strong attachments to things helps us stay sane. I know that my attachments are in a way what keeps me grounded, what I look forward to, and what keep me motivated. Why I get up in the morning and go to work.
Without them...
And the threat of someone taking them away from me? I'll fight against - which is I think where shipping wars come into play, the natural human need to protect what we cherish.