Shipping is weird

[Eggman Fan]

Shipping is completely ridiculous. It can be the most deflating thing in the world, or the most enjoyable watch ever. The shippers are either more toxic then Muk, the most utterly insane person ever, or completely dead inside. Shows that use it are either terrible and unenjoyable, or it's the main reason you watch it.

Take Miraculous Ladybug. The only reason people with basic understanding of secret identities watch it is because of how much of a train wreck it is. The main shipping conflict goes like this. Lady x Noir, Lady x Adrien, Mari x Noir, Mari x Adrien. While convoluted an outsider wouldn't know the main issue. The problem is Lady and Mari are the same person, and the same for Noir and Adrien. Despite looking like the most stupid mutation of a love triangle ever, there is only one ship Mari x Adrien. I personally only watch it for the terrible outfits and stupid villain concepts, but this is perhaps the most amusing ship I've ever seen. The fanbase is also in a constant state of pain and suffer, and I am here for it. This show is terrible trash, but it's amazing to drive into why it's terrible trash.

However, not all shows failed in this way. Take what was once my favorite show produced by the mouse. Star vs The Force of Evil. The first season of this show has incredible vibes. It's just two people hanging out, smacking some monster dudes, and being friends. Some of the plot points had potential like monsters not being evil, Toffee, Eclipsa in general. However, shipping painfully reminded me of why it's so painful, and completely ruined this show. To take you threw the basic plot. Friendship happens, Marco has his soul bound to Star's in some stupid plot device, Jackie exists, She no longer matters, Tom exists, He does some character development, a gnome traps two kids in a photo booth until they kiss, Tom is no longer relevant, Marco and Star get together, and Star stops a genocide by committing a bigger one. There was also a bush girl who got with Marco, but they broke off next episode offscreen. This show's has the worst conclusion I've ever seen, and I will not defend it. It's bad, and I didn't even enjoy it being bad. Unlike Miraculous which always had the qualities I enjoy to stand on, Star vs ended with a terrible conclusion to the main plot, and a painful watch for the "side" plot.

I'VE YET TO MENTION IT DONE WELL. THIS IS BECAUSE I'VE NEVER SEEN IT DONE WELL.

Feel free to share your opinions. Thanks for Readings, or just skipping the entire thing to post. I don't mind.

[Fieryfurnace]

I don't touch shipping with a ten-foot pole. Just doesn't interest me. But cool for the people who like it and are civil.

Shipping drama in the Sonic fanbase annoys me because it disproportionately affects discussion of the female cast. The franchise itself doesn't help this with how poorly the girls have been handled over the years. Even when Sonic Team make a cool, driven and independent female character like Blaze, they can't help but throw in a potential crush on Sonic (because that's what we need more of) and have her be insecure about the size of her breasts (????) - that's how weirdly the girls are written. But, yeah, sometimes I just wanna see discussions about Amy or Sally that don't devolve into shipping wars led by a fringe group of strange internet dwelling adults. 

The only other franchise I engage with that has fans weirdly obsessed with shipping is Avatar: The Last Airbender - where you had the creators deliberately making videos poking fun at the shipping community as the show was airing because they didn't understand why, of everything you could talk about in ATLA, the fanbase chose to most passionately discuss the romance. There were death threats sent to the creators over the whole Kataang vs Zutara situation. I just legitimately can't fathom the level of toxicity generated in media with even the smallest amount of material courting a shipping community - it's wild.

 

[Solister]

I disagree. It's like saying video games cause violence just because we have a few isolated cases of people who killed someone because they played more mature titles.

I believe the same applies here. There's the innocent shipping of just wanting the happy ending for both characters, and some really weird ships. Possibly there are more "wrong" ships than rights, but likely, I feel people who don't take this so seriously, are less vocal, plus the fact that the weird ones have higher chance of being spread.

I'm very open for a few ships like Sonic + Amy. It's nothing which deviates the point of both in the media, but at the same time, I just enjoy and know, they will never get "engaged" canonically, but still fun to think some one-off situations.

And I also think it's worth mentioning how the engagement of the fanbase, can possibly even help the writers to take a decision. I can't tell for sure, but Han and Leia were always shipped in the Star Wars canon. Despite always implied, in the Legends continuity, this would only happen in 1994 (over 10 years since the release of Return of the Jedi) and onscreen (and canonically) implied in 2015 during The Force Awakens.

Of course, there are some trashy ships which are simply not time-worth, so that's why I don't dive further in these things (and I think the most scary one was Mabel and Dipper from Gravity Falls (they are twins)).

[Eggman Fan]

4 hours ago, Solister said:

I disagree. It's like saying video games cause violence just because we have a few isolated cases of people who killed someone because they played more mature titles.

I believe the same applies here. There's the innocent shipping of just wanting the happy ending for both characters, and some really weird ships. Possibly there are more "wrong" ships than rights, but likely, I feel people who don't take this so seriously, are less vocal, plus the fact that the weird ones have higher chance of being spread.

I'm very open for a few ships like Sonic + Amy. It's nothing which deviates the point of both in the media, but at the same time, I just enjoy and know, they will never get "engaged" canonically, but still fun to think some one-off situations.

And I also think it's worth mentioning how the engagement of the fanbase, can possibly even help the writers to take a decision. I can't tell for sure, but Han and Leia were always shipped in the Star Wars canon. Despite always implied, in the Legends continuity, this would only happen in 1994 (over 10 years since the release of Return of the Jedi) and onscreen (and canonically) implied in 2015 during The Force Awakens.

Of course, there are some trashy ships which are simply not time-worth, so that's why I don't dive further in these things (and I think the most scary one was Mabel and Dipper from Gravity Falls (they are twins)).

I said it's weird, not bad. That example is most definitely bad though.

[Mega]

Shipping is fine. Sometimes it's fun to explore those kinds of character dynamics in fanworks and use shipping as a means of character development in stuff like fics.

The issue is how seriously people take it at times, getting super aggressive, competitive, and combative with each other.

Shipping should be fun. It shouldn't matter if your ship is canon as long as you love it.

[TheEyclopediaHBookReader]

Romantic relationships in CERO A rated franchises, aren't supposed to be that deep.