Your Guide To Fandom Ships and New Characters That Interfere With Them

[obsession_inc]

Some times, when one main character and another main character keep looking at each other intensely, and get scared for each other's safety, and each finds the other's company and opinions more valuable than anyone else's, and both main characters are pretty hot and they have chemistry like WHOA, a ship is born.  And shippers board this ship and

Comments

[se_parsons]

You are a smarty that is smart. This is all SO TRUE.

[sarken]

Here is what happens in fandom if the major ship is slash and a minor female character arrives to make the moves on either of the major male characters:

I've also seen more than a few authors use the new female character as a sort of slash fan in her own right, in that the female character becomes obsessed with the idea of getting the male characters to hook up. I'm not entirely sure why, but it makes me a little uncomfortable sometimes to see her reduced to a plot device -- even though she was often introduced as one in the first place.

[lady_ganesh]

That happened in Sentinel fandom, actually. Though, to be fair, the cast members were hilariously vocal about not wanting the het ship to happen.

[nothingbutgold]

I SAW THIS HAPPEN IN A KIRK/SPOCK FIC WITH UHURA

(DISCLAIMER: I LOVED THE FIC :/)

here via metafandom

[kangeiko]

I love this post liek whoa. (And all of the above are reasons why I mostly only write gen, and only really venture into 'shippy territory with random obscure characters everyone else thinks are gross anyway, so they have no problems with them hooking up.)

On a side note, it's also why, even if I like a show, I might deliberately stay away from the fandom if it is particularly shippy, as the sheer ferocity of the shipping is slightly terrifying. This might even happen if I started off shipping the dominant ship - 'cause no matter how much you love rocky road, if rocky road is the only flavour permitted, I'm guranteed to hate it within seconds.

[lady_ganesh]

This is a fabulous post. If I could, I want to add:

Here is what happens in fandom if the major ship is slash and a minor male character arrives to make the moves on either of the major male characters:

This has, to my knowledge, only happened in Supernatural, and of course no one explicitly makes the moves on anyone. But--

1. The Trickster is a perennial fan favorite
2. IIRC, Castiel actually took Anna's place because he was so popular with fans

So...yeah. Not pretty, fandom.

[esorlehcar]

*nodding* I was just going to comment saying the same thing. At this point, nearly every recurring female character on SPN has been killed or written off, usually as a direct result of massive fannish hatred (and this isn't conjecture--all three of the main actors on the show have directly said so). The introduction of a recurring male character who, at least early on, did more to come between the two characters in the then major ship than all the female characters put together, was met with such wild fannish adoration that he was added on as the heaviest recurring character the show has ever had, getting more episodes in just this season than the next most recurring character had in the first four years of the show.

It's particularly telling because so much of the rampant misogyny in SPN fandom was explained or excused because it had nothing to do with the fact that they were women, it was just because they were coming between Sam and Dean! The addition of Castiel showcased that lie there better than just about anything could

[lady_ganesh]

And Bella was horrible because she made the guys look bad-- while the Trickster is awesome because...oh wait.

And that is how I stopped watching SPN and never really followed the fandom, lolz.

[mfirefly10]

YES x 100!

I finally gave up on SPN when the writers brought back Anna simply to make her evil and kill her off (and had to re-write her entire characterization to do it). Best example of fan-service I've seen in a while and it made me so upset, I simply couldn't continue on with the show.

[lyssie]

This, this, all of it.

ESPECIALLY, this:

# The Fandom Doth Protest Too Much syndrome kicks in, where people post epic explanations of why they personally, in a totally feminist way, don't particularly mind the minor character, and if she wasn't making a move on the main character(s) they would be TOTALLY FINE WITH HER, FOR REALS.
# It is explained, in great solemnity, that feminism does not extend to women on TV that we hate, because they don't DESERVE our support. If this is questioned, the obvious point is made that this is a MAKE-BELIEVE WOMAN so it doesn't count.

I cannot count anymore how often I've seen both sentiments.