The perception of shipping

[sgmajorshipper]

*For the purpose of this discussion, someone who enjoys any kind of relationship, het, slash, OT3, OT4, whatever, is a shipper, since shipping comes from (relation)shipping, a non-gender-defined term
Also, for this discussion, we'll ignore my reasons/motivation for slashing vs het shippingSo, I was thinking earlier about how people define shipping

Comments

[morganlucas41]

I just saw your other post, so you might not get this comment for a while, but I really love talking about ships so I couldn't resist

[sgmajorshipper]

And it's so much more complicated than "I like them, and I don't like them". It's not just why do you ship, it's why do you ship to this degree, and at what point do you define yourself as someone who ships? It really gets interesting when I look at SPN, which has fundamentally altered how/who/why/what I ship like nothing before or after it.

I do know that I tend more towards canon pairings or those with heavy subtextThis is traditionally me. I've always gone for the canon pairings, regardless of fandom. And yet, SPN. I still ship anything with canon-ish-ness, but I ship ALL THE THINGS, too

[morganlucas41]

Dean/Cas taking over fandom - I've noticed that, too. I feel like it's partly because D/C is new and shiny, and it seems like it would be hard to sustain a ship (S/D) over 7 seasons...without it waning some

[sgmajorshipper]

I guess so. Still, I'm not entirely comfortable with it, and it does make me sad. I always get that way with any kind of possibly controlling element.

I find myself platonically shipping a lot these days; enjoying the relationship, but not the explicitness or the romantic designs. It might have to do with the background I have in fangirling ensemble shows, but the gen I'm used to is defined by being an ensemble endeavor, where it tries to tell a story with equal character dev or contributions. I don't mind that kind of story: I enjoy it, on occasion. But I watch shows for characters and their interactions, not fancy plots. I don't read much gen in SPN, but what I have seen often tries to focus just on the plot, which is of no interest to me, or is pre-series, another thing I'm primarily uninterested in. There isn't too much that focuses JUST on the relationships between characters without getting romantic. The kind of gen that does, like the awesome shangrilada's fic, is what I tend to classify as platonic shipping. It's supporting, exploring,

[morganlucas41]

Yeah...diversity in pairings in fandom is always a good thing, and for how big SPN is, it certainly seems to be disproportionately focused on one or two pairings. (Well, three, I guess, if you count J2.) But then again, it's not an ensemble show, and there's only so many main characters. So I sort of understand it.

Okay, I see the distinction you're making - between ensemble, plot-driven pieces and those focused on the platonic relationship between the characters. I'm much more interested in the latter, too, and I think if there were more of those written, I'd probably read more gen fic. Particularly when the characters do have a strong platonic relationship

[sgmajorshipper]

I get it, but, yeah, it's always gonna make me a bit uncomfortable. But I'm not gonna change it or anything, which is fine with me, so, yeah. *shrugs*

I played catch-up at lot too when I first got into fandom. I read a ton of stuff from sawedoff recs and crack_impala(whom I now rec for \o/). But now, even with fandom slowing down, there's just enough good D/C to not make it worth the effort to read old stuff unless they're recced at you directly.