I'm not as ship-crazy as I once was. I shipped less and less these days with the exception of the ships I'm drawn to.
On a side note, I don't read or see anything regardings ships I don't like; I made it a mission to avoid fics about ships I don't like. Shizuorona is one example.
Then there are ships I can read but not as much as I would read my preferred ships. I can find them interesting enough but not enough to pursue them frequently. For example, I can read Stony and Stucky then and there but I'm not that huge of a shipper in the MCU or Marvel in general. And I'm not that huge on those two previously mentioned ships.
I can like certain pairings but never overall shipped strongly. Hell in the Persona series, I shipped Jun X Tatsuya, Maya X Katsuya, and Yu X Naoto. But even then, I am pretty blase with the rest of the ships. I honestly don't care much about ships these days.
I'm drawn to certain dynamics: knight x lord/master/whatever it's called nowadays; enemies to lovers, sometimes rivalries - notably on this one, I don't have a clue why I'm not as drawn to RinHaru yet I am towards Contestshipping. Friends to Enemies to Lovers. The recent one was when I notice my love for Suzalulu coincide with others I like which fit the type. Does Asbel x Richard count? I could count on Double Black/Soukoku as one I definitely ship. If there is a certain dynamic I like, you will guess it I will ship it indefinitely.
I have a strange notion for shipping a Kaworu expy with a Shinji expy. But not the original ship. I have no problem with the Kaworu x Shinji ship, even seeing whatever fanworks pop up for such a pairing. But I have no clue why I'm drawn to expies but not the original. For example in YowaPeda, I happily shipped Onoda with Manami.
I want to make this clear: Shipping is not activism nor is it meant to be. It's not a pissing contest of maturity or purity or healthy couples. There's something called crackshipping. I literally saw far weird and worse stuff than incest. I have seen people literally shipping people with items. You know, Cargo Ship. Even abstracts like honor. Zuko was literally shipped with honor. I found a fanfic about Izaya's jacket with Shizuo's bowties or was it sunglasses? Whatever it is, people can ship from the minuscule to the largest. Honestly, I love Zuko X Honor just from how funny it is. And that's a legit reason to ship too.
I know people who shipped because of chemistry. Because they like the tension/conflict/similarities/differences/foils. Because of anything. Ship whatever you want, regardless of what people say about it. As long as you know the canon, fanon is all the way you need. You don't need canon for your shipping. Shipping is again different from rep.
Despite popular opinion, shipping is a niche. You can tell this as far back as Holmes X Watson and fucking Batman X Robin. Even Spirk, one of the oldest slash ships out there, was treated like it's a strange thing when it popped up after Amok Time. Despite the ship wars, ships are pretty small by fandom. Look no further than fandoms like Pokemon and One Piece for example. Pokeshipping is pretty popular but people still watch Pokeani for its characters and story. LawLu is pretty damn popular but I never have seen or heard the ship taking over the entire fandom. Despite issues within VLD and SU fandoms, most people would care less about it to the point that sane shippers don't expect their ship to become canon. How about Supernatural for example? Destiel and Wincest are the most popular ships yet the ships did not take over the fandom. Instead, it's insanely wild kinks that admittedly I would prefer over whiny pretentious people who demanded healthy ships and fluffiness and refusal to explore sex. As I recall nobody held up ships like Holmes X Watson and Spirk as one of the leading LGBT movements as a pinnacle, Harvey Milk sure but not Spirk. I recall real-life people who were held up, not fictional pairings that general people either don't care/know about. Sure people can get inspired by seeing rep onscreen but when most people don't have time to catch up with media - my cousin didn't even watch One Piece until her boyfriend got her into it - then it seemed rep is simply a ripple and a reflection of what humanity thinks and imagines while the real-life people's responsibility is what generally people would know. The internet is a crucial part of society today yet from what I know most people don't generally seek out fanfiction of slash...but will seek out porn as in the porn industry. Look at me: Do I catch up with all known sitcoms in America? Not really. If there were anything wrong, I'll hear on the news and reviews or none of all since I don't seek such info. Look at China: They aren't huge fans of Star Wars - they didn't even know about the original trilogy - despite America trying so hard to make them invested in them when China prefer MCU. Do you really expect people to catch up and know every piece of media and info?
While fanworks of ships will and always pop up (I know, in the Cars fandom, Mater X Lightning is a pretty popular ship), the general fans are far more focused on the general stuff like story and characters. Even in the VLD fandom is this because people have different ideas what they want - more mecha fights, the failure to understand the mecha genre at any point, etc. As a Sentai/PR and mecha fan, VLD is disappointing. Trying to be a better Power Rangers when I have seen great entries in Sentai and Power Rangers. Trying is the operative word when they clearly don't understand the basics of Sentai/PR and mecha in general. It's insulting that Monsantos is trying to be better than Judd Lynn and Toei. I never saw Judd Lynn whined about having upgrades or even having little time in his story - it's his story from scratch and he knows it. Like any great writer, he makes damn sure that the toys were marketed well within the story as well as making them damn important. The upgrades in VLD is pointless - they don't even show them reappearance value like Lance's sword because I was expecting to see it more for Godoka's sake - and doesn't even have the decency to sell - looking at you, invisible Green Lion, an impossibility to even do as a toy. Even Saban and Disney's treatment of Power Rangers are better and still felt like the campy yet full of heart than VLD turned out to be in the end. Listen, I don't hate VLD but I get really frustrated with the writing. Sometimes, VLD would fill out an average season of Power Rangers or even worse one of the bad seasons like Megaforce.
Just as the small minority of truly toxic fans in a fandom, whose voice is the loudest, unfortunately.
But no, I honestly prefer someone who had the 'sins' of the current fandom trends and still respects other people's opinions rather than someone who had all the wholesome healthy ships and won't respect others' opinions.
I'd watch the SPN fandom destroy whatever purity bs bubbling around with their ships and kinks. Mpreg and incest would look pretty small in comparison to the wild, wild kinks I saw. Not kinkshaming at all. Whatever kinks you like, you do you. The problem was the purity bs. Look, I can read smut with an absolutely straight face. However, the purity thing was so stupid when I have been in fandom for the last decade. And that's one of the things the mindset blocked in fandom. I rolled my eyes whenever I see people screaming that you can't ship this because it's unhealthy. When that's a legit reason why people ship it in the first place.
I'm going off topic again. When it comes to modern-day fandom, it's frustrating. It's like these people have no idea what the hell was a fandom. Maybe I'll complain about one of the trends that I find really disheartening for a long time. Just as much I hate the purity bs/healthiness of shipping when shipping is supposed to be fun.
...For the record, I am waiting for the day to see academia studying the internet and fandom in the future and terms they made up for fandom activity like omega-verse. I am just looking forward to how the higher academia would explain these phenomena. Experiencing them is one thing but explaining in a scholarly manner is a different thing entirely. For the latter, I would happily watch how they would come to study and give names to such fandom topics and how it came about. Seriously, Star Trek set seeds for the omega-verse with pon farr.
I will say this to everyone participating in fandom: know your fandom history. You aren't a new thing. You certainly created trends that are good but at the same time, you had trends that are undoubtedly harmful and abusive. Knowing your fandom history makes the atmosphere of abuse and misunderstandings and pride hurt less.
Listen, I got into fandom prior to the bad trends started going on. I know that it's my personal responsibility to consume. And my fellow Millenials make me so embarrassed to even be a part of them in terms of fandom. You guys worry more about safety than freedom? Get off the internet if you are this policing about people's freedom. This American-centric worldview of an anti-movement is so stupid I laugh whenever these anti-movement people try to present themselves as the 'better' human beings. I hate American-centric movements a lot, especially when it affects other countries. It really doesn't make the stereotype that Americans only think of their own country and thus themselves over others any better.
As for me, let me enjoy my annual watch of Over The Garden Wall - a series I would watch annually in the fall - and rewatching Star Trek.
I'm especially drawn to the trust-factored relationship. No matter the time they spent apart, the current situation, the trust would still be there. It doesn't have to be healthy by any means. I just like that.
Remember shipping is not meant to be activism.
Look, my favorite Zosan fic practically began with a not-so-healthy relationship with Zoro and Sanji.
Do you see me hating on that fic or any other fics that depict unhealthy relationships?
I do want to watch dozens of musicals - not movie musicals like La La Land and Singin' in the Rain - but stage musicals. I actually don't want to watch the Hamilton musical, to be honest; the soundtrack is good enough for me because the soundtrack tells the story extremely well and my love for history would actually ruin my enjoyment of Hamilton since I would recall info that the musical dramatizes and doesn't show. Seriously, great musicals who can tell their story through soundtracks are the best ones.
But then there are musicals that I have to see just for its beauty alone like the Lion King for example. To witness the puppets and masks up close would be a magical experience. As long as I don't get to hear a Frozen reference in the play. Out of all the Disney Broadway adaptations, I want to see Lion King the most and Frozen the least. My sour feelings for Frozen would not make me unbiased even if the play is somehow better than the movie. I'll wanna watch a Galavant continuation in Broadway and Hamilton and any other musical over Frozen any day of the week. I don't want to be this sour after many years since Frozen relatively died down. I can force myself to listen to Frozen music because my baby niece loves Moana and Frozen. But the movie is a big no-no. To be honest, I'd rather watch Frozen over any bad movies. Frozen was just an average Disney Princess movie just like Pocahontas. And I complain about genuinely bad movies a lot than the enjoyably bad movies.
And speaking of movies, I wonder how the Lion King live-action will turn out. While Beauty and the Beast handled by Disney following their original adaptation tends to garner mixed to positive reviews, Lion King tended to do much better with the public at large. Given the Broadway is essentially the same story but expanded upon when some of the things in the movie hinted at, I expect Lion King to do well at least since it's helmed by the same person who did the beautiful Jungle Book live action.
