I feel I have to post this first. The current trends in fandom are not good, to say the least. I just have to let these words out before I explode.
I know fandom is not a good place to be in. For all the words that say community and love with genuine criticism, then there is a minority that can gain popular circulation (like the Shakespeare authorship 'question') who is all out attacking everyone or well...just look down below.
I know not all fans are like this but this needed to be said.
I have seen the current shipping fandom...rather trapped in a bubble. I've been observing fandoms for over a decade now (I'm 22 turning 23 in several months from now). Shipping has always been a part of fandom since its conception. Seriously, the Holmes/Watson and Spirk are one of the oldest slash pairings out there.
However, the current trend is that "as presented in canon, this couple is the epitome of a healthy relationship".
...While there are people who certainly ships in that direction, people ship in many different ways like possibly seeing the change in the character, just wanting to have sex, domestic, alternate universe, and all sorts of reasons.
Shipping is subjective and should never be used as some kind of weapon. I hate shipping wars and ship hate with a passion. Stay in your lane and don't care about what others think about. I'm pretty sure the Shaladin pairings are in no way interacting with the fandom to a substantial degree, given the hostility. Shipping wars and ship hate is bloody stupid. There is no shipping in peace in the current day of fandom. Instead, these guys seemed to think that other people shipping problematic and/or nonexistent shipping should never ship it to the point of ship-shaming. I...just...don't...get...this... I understand that you want people to be more aware of the problems in the said ship like abuse or any another fuck-up but to the point of refusing other people to ship is utterly ridiculous. I don't hate on Bella X Edward shippers just because they love it. If they love it, cool. Just be respectful.
And it doesn't hate that even simple age difference with measly two, three, four is now considered pedophile. Do you see how broad people seem to take it despite in previous years this is nothing? Do you know what a pedophile entailed? The Otayuri shippers seemed to live in shame along with most SU ships while the May X Steven shippers are out and free. Even Wishfulshipping, where people seemed to argue about the ages of Iris and Cilan, are free. It seemed that in most fandoms outside of Pokemon, everyone seemed to prioritize age over chemistry. Instead, ya know...letting other people ship freely and peacefully without stupid discourse about this and that. Shipping is different from the actual canon material; you don't need canon to ship. In the present day shipping fandom though, it seemed like canon is basically the need to be. *Snorts* When people can ship something like Lance and Matt who so far never met in the show yet, I can't see why canon is basically the stickler when shipping is basically subjective and you guys can do anything in shipping because shipping is supposed to be fun.
Not this toxic waste.
There is something different between canon (something that is shown almost all over the world in different forms of media) and fanon (something that is through the internet, whether or not people can find through piles and piles of posts, articles, meta, etc that includes many sub-fandoms and trash. Even now, I still can't find a post I wanted to reblog on my post since I first saw it in high school). Otayuri is fanon and people are allowed to ship it just as much as people are allowed to not ship Solangelo, a canon ship. I still shipped Tokka even though the ATLA regarded that as a fanon couple. People are allowed to like Zutara. People are allowed to ship Shallura regardless of what other people have to say. Age is utterly meaningless in the shipping domain.
Nobody can police what people can and cannot ship. I honestly don't care about Wincest or Hidashi or Elsanna because I see why people would ship them. I don't even read fanfiction about these ships and I think that people are going overboard just trying to destroy the ships. Look if it was something like showing incest in canon is one thing (hell, Code Geass has subtext and ship teasing between siblings like Lelouch and Euphemia for example) but in fanon, where fans create and interpret what they want (either taken too far because of shipping wars/ship hate/pressuring other people to ship it too/harassment/lots of other bad stuff or simply wanting to have fun like creating ships for people in canon who met briefly or never met before in canon), it's suddenly a blight on the fandom... Even Code Geass is pretty laid-back on shipping the siblings and I don't see them trying to destroy the shippers or anyone who dared to ship them.
There is something called crack ships, ya know. Or crossover ships. It's like people seem to think that they have the power over a fandom when most people won't be swayed. It's a waste of time, trying to dissuade people from not shipping something. Despite efforts from anti-shippers against the ships I mentioned before, the ships are still strong, just not vocal and it's not because the antis are winning because it seemed like the antis are fighting to get their word out when people just don't care about shipping or because they interpret it differently. Shipping is by and large subjective and meant to be fun. Not serious business to the point of being policed.
If you hate the ship, avoid it. You have an all-out vent on something that remained in your lane. You are allowed to criticize it. You, however, are not allowed to harm other people who shipped a pairing you don't enjoy.
Shipping is not activism. Shipping is a niche in fandom, a subsection. It doesn't hurt nobody because people interpret differently and doesn't have the power to make it so. Yes, TV/movies/etc have the power to create representation that the world desperately needed and does have the power to hurt when writing does not do it justice. Shipping is entirely fandom-based. And I won't start getting into diverse media where people with different experiences consumed diverse media differently. Shipping does not mean that the person supported pedophilia or any of those -isms that starting to lose meaning by the way the internet kept throwing them around. I even threw away the Mary Sue/Gary Stu trope because the internet have been throwing them so much those words lost meaning.
The current fandom of shipping is stupid and the trends are not positive. Instead, it would likely push people away from pairing the couple or associating with the fandom in any positive way.
If fandom is supposed an all-around community of similar interests, then some people take too far.
Don't get me started on those who hate on characters who get character development when the show had shown character development and development in general from other characters. The current trends in fandom are bloody stupid because most people can't seem to think unless their fave is in the spotlight. It's like the current generation is full of entitled assholes who think their opinion is the best and cannot look at something critically because their favorite or it became a series that focused on one character is not given the spotlight despite evidence to the contrary. It is utterly disingenuous to the other characters who have been given development and just as much screen-time devoted to them alone.
I have problems with fandoms for a long time; I could rant about it for hours or make another post altogether. If you wish to enter a fandom, please tread carefully. Not all fandoms will have niceties though because even Pokemon have their toxic fandom, however small.
The clip displays one of my favorite ships, Suzaku X Lelouch. I have a special fondness for best friends turned enemies trope as well as the royalty and knight dynamic, the latter of which I love extensively. Like really bad.
One of my top tropes for a favorite couple of mine is the surprise. Not the surprise that you think of like a couple that is total opposites in different ways. The surprise I'm talking about is that they surprise each other.
I always love that detail so much that if a couple shows this at some point, they are either immediately higher on my radar or would make me board a ship with provisions to last an eternity. The pairings below are self-explanatory.
- Viktor Nikiforov X Katsuki Yuuri
- Sherlock Holmes X John Watson - of any reiterations, especially that of Canon. I utterly refuse to have the Mary Russell for one (If there is one thing Sherlock is now good for, is that the show is better than that series, aside from the incredible acting and chemistry from Ben and Freeman...seriously I think that's why the show is so popular is because of their leads' acting chops in awful storytelling) and I corrected in my head at least the many problems of Sherlock and the many other adaptations.
- Suzaku Kururugi X Lelouch Lamperouge/vi Britannia
- Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun
- Richard X Asbel
- Barney X Robin
- Kotetsu X Barnaby
- Marinette X Adrien
- Ash/Satoshi X Misty/Kasumi
- May/Haruka X Drew/Shuu
- Sakura X Syaoran
- Stiles Stilinski X Derek Hale
- Mogami Kyoko X Ren Tsuruga/Kuon Hizuri
- Heiwajima Shizuo X Orihara Izaya
- Yuuri Shibuya X Wolfram von Bielefeld - The surprising part would come from Wolfram, to be honest. I always liked how Wolfram, despite the odds against his favor of having a good marriage,
- Yuzuru Shino X Seryou Youji of BL manga Seven Days
Admittedly, when I used to ship, I think it would be cute for them to get together. I still do but it's more domestic now.
Notably, the ships I love have chemistry. Cheribel has so little chemistry and doesn't help that the F arc forced them together in ways that make me uncomfortable. On the other hand, Wolfram X Yuuri has chemistry due to the screentime they have including Wolfie's tsundere-ness.
While chemistry is certainly a factor, what I do want is a perfectly good couple I can go on board with. Yes, even with the most problematic unhealthiest of couples.
Now that would go against how I would go about with Cheribel. People can ship what they like; they don't need canon for it. All they need is their interpretation and that would go along merrily. I saw ship-shaming for problematic pairings like Emma X Hook from Once Upon a Time or Wincest. I rarely ever ship now. Seriously, the only couple I shipped strongly in VLD is Klance while everything else like Shallura (though I do love it) is pretty much okay or just don't care. When I was in the Tales of Zestiria domain, I'm pretty sure I only shipped Mikleo X Sorey just as strong while everything else is okay. When I got back to the ATLA fandom, pretty sure that I shipped Tokka strongly while having a liking towards Zuki while okay in everything else, even Zutara which I deemed just okay. In the BNHA fandom, I'm pretty sure I shipped TodoDeku while having a liking for JiroMomo and everything else is just okay like BakuShima. I'm actually crossing into the Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale one day ago so who knows what I ship there.
I do ship Barney X Robin after all. The pair individually is a fuck-up but they understand each other. The two of them can be unhealthy together. Unlike Ted X Jeannette which is unhealthy for a whole different reason altogether, this pairing has so much potential rather than Ted X Robin which is an all-out Nice Guy syndrome.
This is just an observation but Tales have been changing up the dynamics of the stories. Vesperia has an older man as a protagonist (not the first, though; Veigue) and the main girl and boy didn't have a romance despite them meeting first. Graces would be the first unrequited love between the main protagonist and supposedly main girl but that failed spectacularly since they forced the two together anyway. Even then, the main heroine is Sophie rather than Cheria. Xillia has two POV to pick, one of which is a woman but there are no childhood romances between Leia and Jude. Milla fits more of the Hero of Tales series type rather than Jude. Jude uses his fists in battle rather than swords although SeneSene had already done that. Xillia 2 has a silent protagonist for the first time ever in a mothership title and the main girl would be the love interest...except that love interest died and the real main girl was the little girl. In fact, it might be the first time the hero of a Tales title died. Zestiria would have Alisha be the main girl but the main girl turned out to be Rose or Lailah. In fact, there is no set heroine in Zestiria at all but there is a childhood friend that hit the same notes or the first girl meets boy meeting through Mikleo and Sorey. Berseria has a female protagonist and no romances at all with a team full of antiheroes (usually Tales has a few antiheroes per game and per party...and yes that includes traitors ).
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