The face that launched a thousand 'ships
I was lying awake this morning pondering my love/hate relationship with 'shipping. The antics of 'shippers (and that can include me) sometimes drive me mad but there is no doubt that having a 'ship to follow does add a certain zing to watching a series. Without it it can be a little like watching a football tournament when your team has failed to qualify, you can appreciate and enjoy it but the passion isn't always there. This applies to having a favourite character too, but I think following a 'ship adds an intensity that really nothing else does.
This being the early morning my thoughts started to drift in very strange directions - is 'shipping inherent to TV shows or can you 'ship any work of fiction and how far back does the instinct go anyway? Did the Ancient Greeks listening to Homer recite the Iliad have shippy preferences, if so what could they have been and what might have been their 'shippy reactions to events as Homer declaimed?
Here are some of my guesses, starting with Achilles who is probably supposed to be the main character though I've always been an Odysseus fangirl myself.
Achilles/Patroclus ("OMG! He's killed Patroclus. Homer Sux! He's a hack and I will never listen to him again")
Achilles/Briseis ("Their love is so canon, even if it is heteronormative")
Patroclus/Briseis ("I hate Achilles. Patroclus and Briseis are definitely shagging behind his back and there's subtext to prove it.")
Achilles/Patroclus/Briseis ("Let's face it a threesome is the only way")
Achilles/Hector ("Mortal Enemy Sex! OMG! They're so hot! Who cares if there's no room for it in canon")
Achilles/Agamemnon ("Their sub/dom games are a real turn on")
Achilles/Priam ("OK, it's cross-generational and therefore "eww" but they had the opportunity in Achilles's tent")
Achilles/Paris ("Hm, really tricky Mortal Enemy Sex, but a good writer could make it work and Paris is a heel after all" (sorry))
And branching out from Achilles who I really can't stand to Agamemnon who also has few redeeming features.
Agamemnon/Briseis ("I don't care what Achilleis shippers say, Agamemnon was Briseis's One True Love, so there")
Agamemnon/Menelaus ("They're brothers! Ewww! But...why else would Agamemnon go to war to win back his brother's wife if he didn't love his brother? OMG, the angst. If they win back Helen they must part for ever")
Agamemnon/Klytaimnestra ("Nothing brings a couple together like the ritual sacrifice of their daughter")
Agamemnon/Cassandra ("They're doomed I tell you, doomed, but fated love is so hot")
And a few more
Helen/Paris ("Epic. 'nuff said")
Helen/Menelaus ("Still hanging in there in the hope they'll come together again in the end")
Hector/Andromache ("So very doomed. Sniff...")
I'm leaving out my own favourite character Odysseus because really he's the little black dress of Ancient Greek Epic fandom (I can't remember who 'shipped him with Helen, but somebody did) but I do offer one last pairing that must have occurred to people.
Odysseus/Aeneas ("OK, so it isn't canon, but they spent so long wandering around the Mediterranean lost that they must have had a few hot encounters in port")
Anyone got any more? I'd do the Arthurian Legends but as the entire thing was hijacked by 'shippers at an early stage it's almost too easy. Just think of all those Arthur/Guinevere, Lancelot/Guinevere and Arthur/Lancelot 'Ship Wars in the Middle Ages. Henry II probably locked up Eleanor of Aquitaine because she dissed his pairing and I don't think we need to look too much further for the Causes of the Hundred Years War either *eg*.
And that attack of idiocy was brought to you by the very large bird cawing outside my bedroom window early this morning and the fact that my next door neighbour's builders are back drilling...again.
This being the early morning my thoughts started to drift in very strange directions - is 'shipping inherent to TV shows or can you 'ship any work of fiction and how far back does the instinct go anyway? Did the Ancient Greeks listening to Homer recite the Iliad have shippy preferences, if so what could they have been and what might have been their 'shippy reactions to events as Homer declaimed?
Here are some of my guesses, starting with Achilles who is probably supposed to be the main character though I've always been an Odysseus fangirl myself.
Achilles/Patroclus ("OMG! He's killed Patroclus. Homer Sux! He's a hack and I will never listen to him again")
Achilles/Briseis ("Their love is so canon, even if it is heteronormative")
Patroclus/Briseis ("I hate Achilles. Patroclus and Briseis are definitely shagging behind his back and there's subtext to prove it.")
Achilles/Patroclus/Briseis ("Let's face it a threesome is the only way")
Achilles/Hector ("Mortal Enemy Sex! OMG! They're so hot! Who cares if there's no room for it in canon")
Achilles/Agamemnon ("Their sub/dom games are a real turn on")
Achilles/Priam ("OK, it's cross-generational and therefore "eww" but they had the opportunity in Achilles's tent")
Achilles/Paris ("Hm, really tricky Mortal Enemy Sex, but a good writer could make it work and Paris is a heel after all" (sorry))
And branching out from Achilles who I really can't stand to Agamemnon who also has few redeeming features.
Agamemnon/Briseis ("I don't care what Achilleis shippers say, Agamemnon was Briseis's One True Love, so there")
Agamemnon/Menelaus ("They're brothers! Ewww! But...why else would Agamemnon go to war to win back his brother's wife if he didn't love his brother? OMG, the angst. If they win back Helen they must part for ever")
Agamemnon/Klytaimnestra ("Nothing brings a couple together like the ritual sacrifice of their daughter")
Agamemnon/Cassandra ("They're doomed I tell you, doomed, but fated love is so hot")
And a few more
Helen/Paris ("Epic. 'nuff said")
Helen/Menelaus ("Still hanging in there in the hope they'll come together again in the end")
Hector/Andromache ("So very doomed. Sniff...")
I'm leaving out my own favourite character Odysseus because really he's the little black dress of Ancient Greek Epic fandom (I can't remember who 'shipped him with Helen, but somebody did) but I do offer one last pairing that must have occurred to people.
Odysseus/Aeneas ("OK, so it isn't canon, but they spent so long wandering around the Mediterranean lost that they must have had a few hot encounters in port")
Anyone got any more? I'd do the Arthurian Legends but as the entire thing was hijacked by 'shippers at an early stage it's almost too easy. Just think of all those Arthur/Guinevere, Lancelot/Guinevere and Arthur/Lancelot 'Ship Wars in the Middle Ages. Henry II probably locked up Eleanor of Aquitaine because she dissed his pairing and I don't think we need to look too much further for the Causes of the Hundred Years War either *eg*.
And that attack of idiocy was brought to you by the very large bird cawing outside my bedroom window early this morning and the fact that my next door neighbour's builders are back drilling...again.