Thoughts on “shipping culture” in fandoms?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Oldmanofthemountain, Jul 19, 2020.

  1. KiraAnn

    KiraAnn Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2019
    Messages:
    482
    Likes Received:
    336
    Location:
    Texas
    I guess I’m older than I thought because I haven’t a clue what you are talking about!
     
    Oldmanofthemountain and jannert like this.
  2. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2013
    Messages:
    17,674
    Likes Received:
    19,889
    Location:
    Scotland
    Neither do I. But I AM older than I thought. I'm old. No way around it. It appears folks are enjoying themselves with fandom/shipping, etc. And why not? Probably more fun than politics or declining health....
     
    Xoic and Oldmanofthemountain like this.
  3. Oldmanofthemountain

    Oldmanofthemountain Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2020
    Messages:
    167
    Likes Received:
    83
    Yeah, “Shipping” is a relatively recently coined fad, and it seems to be only prevalent among certain niche communities.
     
  4. KiraAnn

    KiraAnn Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2019
    Messages:
    482
    Likes Received:
    336
    Location:
    Texas
    So what is shipping?
     
  5. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    May 1, 2008
    Messages:
    23,826
    Likes Received:
    20,815
    Location:
    El Tembloroso Caribe
    The act or phenomenon of fans actively creating narrative scenarios wherein characters from a franchise are put into relationships with one another, often contrary to what the source material (the canon) indicates.

    Ship
    and its derivative forms come from relationship.
     
  6. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2019
    Messages:
    12,458
    Likes Received:
    13,502
    Location:
    Way, way out there
    .. "I like totally Ship Brad and Angelina!"
     
  7. KiraAnn

    KiraAnn Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2019
    Messages:
    482
    Likes Received:
    336
    Location:
    Texas
    Ok. I have a life, so not into that.
     
    Partridge likes this.
  8. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2020
    Messages:
    571
    Likes Received:
    582
    Location:
    not a pro, yet very curious
    All in all I am not surprised people indulge in shipping: most movies, TV series and books present romantic relationships and the teasing with the potential for romantic relationships as a major turn in someone's life. At times, MCs who are not in a relationship are even presented as they are empty or must be bored. Especially movies and TV series use romantic relationships to slip some intimate scenes, most often for its visual appeal than for the progress of the storyline. Being in love has become an entertainment in itself. We simply learn to focus on that. I do think romantic relationships are important, but they tend to be often stereotyped rather than explored, and often leave other kinds of relationships to the side that in my opinion are equally important. Of course, there are tons of exceptions with great works exploring love, friendship and all there is in between and to the sides, phewwww!

    Note that I am not speaking about the romantic genre for obvious reasons.
     
    jim onion and Wreybies like this.
  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    May 1, 2008
    Messages:
    23,826
    Likes Received:
    20,815
    Location:
    El Tembloroso Caribe
    Well, fanfiction does also address this, but it's not typically engaged through the "this is problematic" lens with which romantic ships are often scrutinized, so it's rarely part of the "shipping culture" conversation. There is an understood logographic symbology with respect to tags and other metadata presented in fic archives that are very specific and give the prospective reader a heads-up as to what they can expect to find in the story..

    John/David = The forward slash means a romantic ship where John is perceived as the more dominant of the two characters, or, when engaged solely from a sexual standpoint, John will be the "top" because his name comes first. Use of the forward slash in this way is what gives rise to the terms slash, slashfic, femslash, etc.

    John&David = A platonic ship. This is a friendship, not a romantic relationship. The idea of dominance is less pronounced in this deployment, though some readers may still assume that because John's name comes first, he will be the more outgoing, more aggressive, more more of the two.

    And there are other symbols too:

    Happy!Jon Snow = The Exclamation Mark or 'Bang' Symbol -- expresses the presence of a particular trait or defining quality of a character in a story, one which is usually not part of the original canon characterization, or is at least an extreme interpretation of the canon characterization. This is a way to announce purposeful OOC (out of character).

    Gandalf | Mithrandir = I don't know what this symbol is called, but it's the one over the backslash on US keyboards. It simply gives the different names of the character that will be found in the story, in case someone isn't as familiar with the canon and doesn't know that the character has more than one name.
     
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2020
  10. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2020
    Messages:
    571
    Likes Received:
    582
    Location:
    not a pro, yet very curious
    Does this thread include shipping of manga characters? I am not particularly into fandoms (of any kind) and what they do, although sometimes I peak to see what people are doing out of curiosity. I look at manga in a different way than novels, as manga are graphic and so their telling stories opens possibilities in different ways than written novels. If you ask me, a lot of manga is made purposefully for fanservice, thus it is full of potential shipping. And to a certain degree I do enjoy spending time cheering for a couple to happen (including TV shows). But I found a whole new world there!

    I read Attack On Titan along the way when it got published and made available in English. Then also watched the anime, patiently waiting to see season 2 . . . I really enjoy the core idea of the story and how the story is developed, and have my favorite characters. After this thread started, out of curiosity I went to look at some shipping among its characters. And I was like...wow...WOW! Not only everybody is paired with everybody else, even between characters who basically appear together barely on a single page, but there are fan videos celebrating a couple by cutting and splashing together scenes that "no, no, that is not a longing-for-your-love look...it is a someone-just-got-crushed-by-a-titan look" and "no, no, that is another character's hand on his, not his love interest's!" (" " = my thoughts while watching). It is easy to deduce that in AoT not much happens at the romantic level. And yet fans indulge. So I am not sure how people come up with those relationships besides basing them on the characters' personalities and wishful thinking.
    But then I searched more, and there are parodies (me like those), and then music/dancing videos created with those 3D character dancing programs where you can design character looks and dancing moves (that is just random!), and someone wrote a musical performed at an anime convention, and then really awkward doujinshi which I better not delve into, and then I found these two women who cosplay two of the main male characters (Levi and Eren) in a relationship (one of the favorite ships among fans I gather) live streaming an in-character live chat doing lots of fan-service... I am not sure if they are also dating in real life, but I was buffled in a positive way by the type of gender/love explorations fandoms do. I guess shipping goes in lots of directions!

    listening to Blur's Boys & Girls I just had to write all of this down!
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2020
  11. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2019
    Messages:
    5,345
    Likes Received:
    6,168
    Location:
    The White Rose county, UK
    I shipped two orders out today. Does that count?
     
    Oldmanofthemountain likes this.
  12. Oldmanofthemountain

    Oldmanofthemountain Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2020
    Messages:
    167
    Likes Received:
    83
    Yep, that totally counts. LOL
     
  13. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2020
    Messages:
    571
    Likes Received:
    582
    Location:
    not a pro, yet very curious
    nevermind, shipping culture has just taken a turn for the worst! There is some bat-s*it crazy stuff out there! why is there no horrified face emoticon??? sorry just having a stroke . . . .
     
    alw86 likes this.
  14. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2019
    Messages:
    5,345
    Likes Received:
    6,168
    Location:
    The White Rose county, UK
    I totally ship R2-D2 and a fire hydrant.

    Is that the correct usage of the word?
     
  15. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2020
    Messages:
    571
    Likes Received:
    582
    Location:
    not a pro, yet very curious
    @Naomasa298, I am not sure. But after what I saw yesterday, that kind of ship sounds wrong...*cough*.
     
    Naomasa298 likes this.
  16. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2013
    Messages:
    17,674
    Likes Received:
    19,889
    Location:
    Scotland
    Do you mean :eek: ?
     
  17. marshipan

    marshipan Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2013
    Messages:
    1,665
    Likes Received:
    4,300
    Location:
    Wonderland
    I can only recall one I've ever looked at, which was the BBC Sherlock and Watson. Pretty sure that was a hugely popular shipping and I'm not all that surprised because the show plays around with the idea in a subtle way. There's some real quality pictures and full comics. Plus I mean, it's Sherlock and people have manipulated that story and characters relentlessly for ages.

    Oh, and if a fan threatened me because they wanted their own ideas about the story in my story then I'd likely threaten them right back. I really don't take kindly to that type of thing.
     
  18. Platina

    Platina Member

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2019
    Messages:
    86
    Likes Received:
    117
    Location:
    Somewhere in the US
    What do you mean? Or do I even want to know...?

    For me, it depends. If the stories that have some ships are well written, especially if it's in the same universe, I can accept them. Otherwise, ships using different characters from different fandoms tend to be the most cringe worthy for obvious reasons.
     
  19. GraceLikePain

    GraceLikePain Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2020
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    506
    redacted.
     
  20. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2020
    Messages:
    571
    Likes Received:
    582
    Location:
    not a pro, yet very curious
    when I say bats*it crazy, I totally mean bats*it what-the-hell-is-your-problem that-is-so-f*up horrifying crazy. I seriously rather not write it down...it will take me enough time to unsee what I saw ... me having another stroke...

    [​IMG]

    As for the rest, I knew there were fans pairing characters from novels, but for instance I never thought of the possible romantic relationship between Sherlock and Watson, which is pretty much for entertainment I think, because I simply don't read novels that way. That is why it is relatively new for me. Instead, I do occasionally cheer certain couples from manga, TV shows and movies while reading/watching them because there is a setup for relationships to happen and a focus on that, it is for entertaining the audience. But it depends on what they are trying to do, I wouldn't really think about pairing characters from say Bladerunner.
    Anyway, I occasionally looked at works produced by fans on ships, I just didn't know it was a thing and it was called that way. I find that many use shipping as an outlet to explore love and sexuality, where it starts and where it ends, which I think it is a good thing. Like anything, most end up being a repetition of tropes to elicit certain kinds of emotions like longing, but among those there are a few interesting stories.
    Overall, I hadn't realized until now how prolific, creative and invested fans can be especially when organized into fandoms. I particularly like the fact that people cosplay regardless of body shape and quality of costumes: it is about inhabiting your favorite character, not how well it looks. Kudos to that!
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2020

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice