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*gets can opener, opens can of worms*
And now that I've got the crossposter set up ... how about some meta?
So. Shipping. What is it to you? I suppose I mean, what do you mean when you say that you ship characters A & B?
That you find them cute and they make you mooshy? That you think they should be together in canon? That you can't stand the thought of A with anyone other than B? That you feel they are obviously destined for each other and anyone who thinks differently is wrong?
I've been thinking about this lately, because since I stopped reading John/Rodney (long story, please don't take this as a slam against the pairing; I just don't think it's for me anymore, for a variety of reasons), I've been reading a considerably more diverse array of pairings. Gen has always been where my heart is, but I also like to read a pairing fic here and there ... sometimes to have more to read, sometimes just because I want variety, sometimes because the story looked good and there's a pairing (or twelve) in it. And it's interesting to see what a variety of interpretations of canon you get in different shippy areas of fandom, as well as the various ways that writers choose to explain or establish the pairing. (I'm using "shipping" here to cover romances involving characters of any gender or, for that matter, any number of participants -- OT3s and OT4s included. If you don't use the word that way, I'd be interested to hear about that, too!)
I don't consider myself a shipper of any of the couples I write in SGA. I mean, I've written Rodney/Teyla for a couple of years now, but I definitely wouldn't say that I ship them (not only because they're both with other people in canon, though that's part of it, but I can't in a million years imagine them actually going for each other -- even though I find them cute as a button and like to write it). Perhaps the closest I come to shipping anyone is Rodney/Jennifer, mostly because a) they're canon, so I feel like I have to at least acknowledge the pairing in anything I write past early season five, and b) so many writers break them up that I feel rather protective of them. But I don't think I would have paired off the characters if the relationship didn't exist in canon, and I don't really feel the need to give them a relationship in AUs unless it fits with the plot.
But it's not that I never ship a couple, because I ship Roy/Riza in FMA like a crazy thing. I certainly won't be heartbroken if they don't become an official couple in the manga, but I would be very sad if one of them dies or -- and this, I guess, is where I think I tip over into active shipping -- if one of them pairs off with someone else. For most shows, I can read almost any pairing (breaking up canon couples is about the only thing that I have trouble with) but with Roy/Riza, I can't really enjoy pairing fic that pairs them with someone else. (Which is a problem, since so much of what's out there is Roy/Ed.)
In SGA, I'm finding myself increasingly fascinated by how different the different segments of fandom are -- in their tropes and characterization markers and just generally how they write the characters and view the source canon. Obviously there's individual variation within each shipping faction as well (and gen, too) but there's also a certain sameness to the way the characters are usually written, and the kinds of stories that seem to be popular. I suspect this probably happens in any fandom -- it's certainly been true of all the ones I've been in, at least the ones where I've been active enough and multi-shippish enough to see more than one side of it.
Anyway! Because I don't usually think in terms of couples, I'm really curious to hear from people who do gravitate towards couples (ships, pairings, OT3s/OT4s, whatever) to know how you relate to the couples you read and write about, especially when they aren't an established couple in canon (which nearly all of "my" couples in the past have been).
Is there a difference for you between "shipping" a pairing vs. merely reading and writing about them, or is it pretty much the same thing?
Do you need to consider a pairing canonically plausible in order to write (or read) them, or do you just need to be able to sell yourself on the pairing for one specific story or one specific set of circumstances?
If you start out writing a non-canon pairing (or just hoping that two appealing characters get together in canon), do you find yourself seeing it as more and more canonically plausible as time goes along, and getting frustrated with people who don't see it? Or does it work the other way: you have the couple safe in your shippy heart, so it doesn't matter if other people and even canon don't agree?
Do you usually consider that you're writing the characters as close to canon as you know how, or do you consciously make little tweaks to their canon personalities to make them fit better as a couple -- or play up certain aspects of their characters, play down other aspects, things like that?
If you write more than one pairing (or shippy + gen versions of the same characters), do you find that your characterization of the same individuals changes when you switch pairings?
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/257078.html with
comments.
So. Shipping. What is it to you? I suppose I mean, what do you mean when you say that you ship characters A & B?
That you find them cute and they make you mooshy? That you think they should be together in canon? That you can't stand the thought of A with anyone other than B? That you feel they are obviously destined for each other and anyone who thinks differently is wrong?
I've been thinking about this lately, because since I stopped reading John/Rodney (long story, please don't take this as a slam against the pairing; I just don't think it's for me anymore, for a variety of reasons), I've been reading a considerably more diverse array of pairings. Gen has always been where my heart is, but I also like to read a pairing fic here and there ... sometimes to have more to read, sometimes just because I want variety, sometimes because the story looked good and there's a pairing (or twelve) in it. And it's interesting to see what a variety of interpretations of canon you get in different shippy areas of fandom, as well as the various ways that writers choose to explain or establish the pairing. (I'm using "shipping" here to cover romances involving characters of any gender or, for that matter, any number of participants -- OT3s and OT4s included. If you don't use the word that way, I'd be interested to hear about that, too!)
I don't consider myself a shipper of any of the couples I write in SGA. I mean, I've written Rodney/Teyla for a couple of years now, but I definitely wouldn't say that I ship them (not only because they're both with other people in canon, though that's part of it, but I can't in a million years imagine them actually going for each other -- even though I find them cute as a button and like to write it). Perhaps the closest I come to shipping anyone is Rodney/Jennifer, mostly because a) they're canon, so I feel like I have to at least acknowledge the pairing in anything I write past early season five, and b) so many writers break them up that I feel rather protective of them. But I don't think I would have paired off the characters if the relationship didn't exist in canon, and I don't really feel the need to give them a relationship in AUs unless it fits with the plot.
But it's not that I never ship a couple, because I ship Roy/Riza in FMA like a crazy thing. I certainly won't be heartbroken if they don't become an official couple in the manga, but I would be very sad if one of them dies or -- and this, I guess, is where I think I tip over into active shipping -- if one of them pairs off with someone else. For most shows, I can read almost any pairing (breaking up canon couples is about the only thing that I have trouble with) but with Roy/Riza, I can't really enjoy pairing fic that pairs them with someone else. (Which is a problem, since so much of what's out there is Roy/Ed.)
In SGA, I'm finding myself increasingly fascinated by how different the different segments of fandom are -- in their tropes and characterization markers and just generally how they write the characters and view the source canon. Obviously there's individual variation within each shipping faction as well (and gen, too) but there's also a certain sameness to the way the characters are usually written, and the kinds of stories that seem to be popular. I suspect this probably happens in any fandom -- it's certainly been true of all the ones I've been in, at least the ones where I've been active enough and multi-shippish enough to see more than one side of it.
Anyway! Because I don't usually think in terms of couples, I'm really curious to hear from people who do gravitate towards couples (ships, pairings, OT3s/OT4s, whatever) to know how you relate to the couples you read and write about, especially when they aren't an established couple in canon (which nearly all of "my" couples in the past have been).
Is there a difference for you between "shipping" a pairing vs. merely reading and writing about them, or is it pretty much the same thing?
Do you need to consider a pairing canonically plausible in order to write (or read) them, or do you just need to be able to sell yourself on the pairing for one specific story or one specific set of circumstances?
If you start out writing a non-canon pairing (or just hoping that two appealing characters get together in canon), do you find yourself seeing it as more and more canonically plausible as time goes along, and getting frustrated with people who don't see it? Or does it work the other way: you have the couple safe in your shippy heart, so it doesn't matter if other people and even canon don't agree?
Do you usually consider that you're writing the characters as close to canon as you know how, or do you consciously make little tweaks to their canon personalities to make them fit better as a couple -- or play up certain aspects of their characters, play down other aspects, things like that?
If you write more than one pairing (or shippy + gen versions of the same characters), do you find that your characterization of the same individuals changes when you switch pairings?
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/257078.html with