On Shipping in Fandoms

[dr_fumbles_mcstupid]

waldorph asked an interesting question that got my brain churning she asked “Why do you ship who you ship? No, for real. Why Dean/Castiel? Or Kirk/Spock? Or...you know, you people who are mentally impaired who ship Kirk/McCoy...I want to know why. In more than a sentence.”

This got me thinking
In Stargae Atlantis my OTP is McShep. I love it to bits and actively seek it out. But occasionally I would come across A Dex/Sheppard, Beckett/McKay, Dex/McKay or even Teyla/Sheppard fic and I would enjoy it if it was well written. If the writer could convince me of the relationship and there was at least a tiny bit of support in the show, I would believe it.

In thinking about why I was so easy about my pairings I came to this conclusion. My reading different pairings depends on two things (1. That if the writer is good enough they can make me believe anything and (2. that I view each fanfic as its own universe.

Take for example astolat ’s two stories/Series Beltane Cycle and The Crown of the summer court. Each of these is written by the same author and they are in the same fandom, but they are clearly in different universes. They could not be in the same universe because they contradict each other. (this is also an example of awesome writers making me read anything. I am willing to read anything astolat writes.)

So I can enjoy a fic that doesn’t have my favorite pairing because I see it as a different universe. I am stopping by to say hi and then returning to my main universe.

In the case Of SGA I saw McShep throughout all of the show. It is Canon for me. So if I read a fic featuring McShep that does not contradict anything in the show, I can take it as canon. It is an adventure that happened off screen. I see McShep as the main universe and occasionally I step out of it to enjoy other fics.

There are also fandoms where I am generally a pairing whore. Take Chuck for example. I can read Chuck/Casey, Sarah/Chuck, Sarah/Casey, Chuck/Bryce or pretty much anything. But some of the fics I could see as happening in canon and others not so much. Some I viewed as possibly cannon and others as AU’s. Untill season 3 I couldn’t see Chuck/Casey happening (I loved the idea of it I just think it would happen), but with the introduction of Sarah’s new love interest and Chuck growing into a cold hardened spy, I can see it happening. That pairing has become a canon pairing possibility for me. But still as far as Chuck goes I have no OTP.

In other fandoms I don’t pair anyone. Like in The Big Bang theory. I like my fics to stay gen. I am not even a fan of Leonard/Penny, I like everyone’s interaction better when there is no romantic interest involved at all. Maybe there is a writer somewhere that could make me like a certain pairing, but I haven’t come across them yet

I also view each fandom with a different eye because of what is happening in the show. When the writers throw something different at us I take it into stride and change my head cannon Take Merlin for example. In season one I was a squealing fangirl and I was “Arthut/Merlin all the way it is canon!” In season two I saw that the show was headed towards Arthur/Gwen and my head canon changed to either (a. Arthur was in a relationship with Merlin but thought it was only Fuckbuddies and stopped to be with Gwen and now we have pining Merlin, or (B. We have Merlin who is desperately in love with Arthur but has never acted on it. (I still have not decided which is my head canon yet) Half of me was all “But Cat! They are meant to be together forever plus Gwen needs Lancelot!” while the other half was like “But now you get pining angsty Merlin and oblivious Arthur!” The Pining angsty Merlin won out.

Arthur/Merlin is still my OTP but when I read fics that have established relationships with season 2 content in them I immediately think of them as AU. If they are set farther in the future than season 2 I think they could be cannon though (because Arthur/Merlin is my OTP also I still totally love Gwen/Lancelot). But at this point in time I find it more believable to read fics that aren’t Arthur/Merlin. (Unless they are long and drawn out and deal with Arthur and Gwen not loving each other anymore.) I still enjoy them, I just can’t consider them canon right now. (they shall be in the end though! My heart demands it!)

In some cases there are pairing that I could never see them with anyone else. But Once again If the writer is good enough they could persuade me. The pairing I shipped the most out of anything else was Ron/Hermione from the HP fandom. I loved their awkward romance in the books with Oblivious!Ron and Angry!Hermione, with Ron always saying the wrong things. I loved their interactions so much. I seriously had no idea how anyone could see Harry/Hermione or Ron/Harry ever (I could see why people saw Ron/Hermione/Harry as a possibly but not Harry with just one of the others)

But then I came across Maya’s Drop dead gorgous fic. The main pairing is Harry/Draco but on the sidelines we see a Ron and Hermone who are fighting all the time. Ron hates the fact that Hermione is so pushy and Hermione hates the fact that Ron has dropped out of Auror training camp to become a flying cars salesman. I thought at first that this might turn me away from the fic, but I could see where Maya was coming from. I Loved Ron/Hermione so much, but in her universe this was a plausible parting. And in fact I loved the pairing that ended up happening with them (Ron/Pansy and Hermione/Some muggle guy whose name I can’t remember). Her amazing writing and the way she portrayed their relationship made me believe in her pairing choices for her universe. (In fact her writing was so awesome that I am still stalking her now You all should go read her book The Demon’s Lexicon RIGHT NOW!)

Sometimes there will be a pairing that I don’t feel anything about but a writer can make me love them to bits. Take for example waldorph’s A Beautifully Illogical mind series. I came across it in the ST_XI Kink meme and saw that it was A Kirk/Spock AU that was only a step away from reboot cannon and said “Yes Please!” I loved the first fic and continued reading all the others in the series. A few fics later we are introduced to Winona Kirk who is a BAMF And I loved her. Then later we are introduced to George Kirk and he was also awesome and I loved him. And then she wrote her sweetheart fic and I loved them together so much they became one of my OTP’s.  

But outside of her fic’s universe they are just another pairing. I don’t actively seek them out. But Waldorph wrote so beautifully and I loved their characterization and interaction so much in her universe (In fact I love Everything by hwaldorph that I have read so far) that they were a pleasure to read about.

Finally we come to the subject of Missing scene and episode tag fics. I find that this is where I will only read my favorite pairing. Most of the time I see these fics as canon, therefore I will only read about My OTP because they are my head canon.

So in summary I will read almost anything if the writer can make me believe it, and this is because I view fics that are not my head Canon as AU.

So long post is long and this is how my crazy fandom mind works. Also I totally did not use this post to pimp some of my favorite Authors. If there are crazy amounts of typo's and this makes no sense I blame it on the fact that this would NOT GET OUT OF MY MIND until it was written down and I stayed up way late to post it.