Shipper Theory 101, veering back into Spuffyland

[mollyringwraith]

Some people have studied, written, and taught, in quite scholarly fashion, upon the subject of fanfiction. I'm not one of them. I only dabble, as I do in so many things. But concerning the "shipper" variety of fanfic--that is, the overwhelming majority of fanfic; the ones featuring romantic relationships between characters--I have always assumed

Comments

[sopdetly]

I don't think the likelihood of characters getting together in canon or not contributes that much to fanfic. I think it tends to focus on couples that are not and then either may or may not. A really good example is the Ron/Hermione 'ship. It's a big ship with lots of fic, and I'd wager that most people who have written it over the years assumed that they would eventually get together, because that's what the text was going towards. However, there's not quite as much James/Lily, because when we're "introduced" to them, they're married with a kid.

Myself, I don't really get into 'ships that have no canon support (like Harry/Draco, or really any Gryffindor/Draco), and I know a great deal of people who also think like that. On the other side are the people who hate writing/reading about the canon-supported ships (even the more vague ones like Remus/Sirius) because they find that boring, so they go the Draco/Hermione route and 'ship the really improbable stuff, knowing full well it's never gonna happen. And in the end, there's a nice balance of fic :D

[mollyringwraith]

*nods*

As you indicate, fanfic can do anything at all, and that's the fun of it. But I think the majority falls into those two camps: either the totally-not-going-to-happen, or the laden-with-tension-but-unconsummated-as-of-this-writing.