Rose's Musings

Just a list of ships for future reference and commission stuff. (Please feel free to ignore.)

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roxanneritchi:

wilysubversionist:

But also this is a serious call for enlightenment, because I don’t get it:

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(Sorry, got linked to this via a friend’s post and felt rather than making a post of my own on the subject of ‘shipping, I ought to reblog with a proper reply.)

1: I, personally, ‘ship because I find relationships of all sorts—friendships, rivalries, families (both blood and made), and, yes, romance—deeply fascinating. Characters and their relationships are the #1 route by which I engage emotionally with a narrative, and if I do not care for either the characters or their relationships, then I will likely have no real interest in the narrative. Creatively, I mostly write ‘shipfic (though I was surprised earlier this year to realize how much arguable genfic I have written) because I find romantic entanglements, whether canonical (as is most likely for me) or fan-born in nature, most interesting of all, perhaps because in my real life I have little interest in romance. ‘Shipfic is a means of exploring characters in emotional extremes and close or potentially close relationships, of exploring their relationships not only with each other but with others, and of exploring, addressing, subverting, or criticizing common (and uncommon) narrative tropes in relation to romance as well as, say, gender roles.

My experiences are not necessarily demonstrative of the experiences of anyone else who ‘ships, any more so than the experiences of any other ‘shipper is illustrative of my experiences. Each person who ‘ships does so for their own reasons. Perhaps it’s because they only care for the romance (and that isn’t a bad thing). Perhaps it’s one aspect of the material that they love. Perhaps a particular character or a particular relationships speaks to them, has meaning for them. Perhaps any one of a lot of things! But yes, generally, people who ‘ship do so, ultimately, because for whatever reason they enjoy it. I imagine that’s what people mean when they say they ‘ship for “fun”!

2: Speaking for myself as someone whose really only fannish contributions are my writing, challenges are fun for me! While, yes, I have written “mindless” fic just for kicks, I have also deliberately pursued challenging material in my fic ultimately because I find the challenge enjoyable. And really, every fic is a challenge for me, even if the common challenge is one well known. I strive to maintain characterization in line with my understand of the canon and to accurately represent voices in my writing, but to do so without stagnant characterization or simply echoing or retreading canon material. Earlier this year I wrote a 76k ‘shipfic specifically for the challenge of writing a novel. It was difficult and it required a great deal of thought and work and several anxious, sleepless nights as I worried over plot points, characterization, themes, and whether or not I could even finish it, but it was also one of the most exciting and pleasurable writing experiences I have had. Fun isn’t always or simply about silly or mindless pursuits. Sometimes it is about stretching yourself in new ways!

3: While it is true that ‘shipwars are exhausting, fraught affairs, and I hate them devoutly and want never to be embroiled in one again, it is also true that fandom is often torn about in many directions over many issues, of which only a few pertain to relationships. Many of the worst fannish imbroglios I have witnessed in fact had very little to do with ‘ships! Interpretations of characters and whether they’re worthy or justified, divisions over plot points and mytharcs, which series or arc is superior: all of these are common grounds of dissent. If there were no ‘shippers and no ‘shipwars, fandom as a whole would still be often plagued with debates which quickly escalate into loud and vicious arguments.

(*For the purposes of my reply I’m interpreting “‘shipping” as “any active interest in a pairing,” whether it’s expressed through creative works (such as fanfiction, fanart, graphics, fanmixes, etc), discourse (meta, debate, conversation, etc), etc.)