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Shipping: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.Shipping 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.Shipping, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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Rooting for fictional romance to happen.
The term "Shipping" -- which ostensibly derives from "Relationship" -- was originally coined by fans of ''[[The X Files]]'', who were divided between "relationshippers" pushing for romance and "noromos" who would rather have [[No Hugging, No Kissing|No Hugging and No Kissing]]. The phenomenon itself, however, was ubiquitous in practically every fandom long before. The source of the term's popularity is shrouded in myth, but Geek Mythology has it that you can blame people in the ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime's fandom who root for Jessie and James (of Team Rocket) to get together and decided to call themselves "[[A Worldwide Punomenon|Rocketshippers]]". This got the term to catch on in that fandom, then people brought it with them to other fandoms and this is why as of today [[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]] needs a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping tiny disambiguation note] at the top of its article on maritime delivery of goods.
Of all the obsessions that universally afflict fandom, [[Shipping]] is by far the most persistent, widespread and prone to be [[Serious Business]]. It knows no boundaries of age, demographic and gender<ref>contrary to expectations one might reasonably have involving [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi-worshipping]], [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls|fan fiction writing]], [[Chick Flick]]-addicted, squealing teeny boppers</ref>. This might raise an eyebrow or two on first inspection, but honestly, shipping is just a consequence of plain old human nature: we are wired to seek a romantic partner in such a powerful, fundamental way that we even get a considerable kick out of doing it by proxy -- and fictional characters are plenty, easy to relate to, often [[Everybody Is Single|in want of someone to make out with]], usually [[Happily Ever After|get their happy ending]] and nearly never fall out of love. We wish we were them. We are drawn to reimagining ourselves in their place like moths to the flame.
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That's probably because anticipation is something that's easy to feel you're a part of, even if the anticipation is for something fictional. Real life romance, for all its shortcomings, actually ''happens'' for us [[Real Life]] people: We move on from looking forward to something great to experiencing something great (or at least we can hope). Fictional romance not so. Actually being in a romantic relationship and getting to watch a fictional romantic relationship are ''very'' different things, much more different than looking forward to each of those respectively. The contrast is jarring -- you were a part of this great love story, and now suddenly you're not. Cue [[Shipping Bed Death|disillusionment]]. Of course, the near-universal reaction is to move on to the next fandom, making shipping suspiciously similar to an addiction.
[[Canon]] and authorial intent do not dictate people's shipping preference. You'd be hard-pressed to find ''anything'' that honestly puts any sort of restraint on shipping preference. Characters may be shipped despite being [[Toy Ship|still in grade school]], [[Het Is Ew|of the wrong sexuality]], [[Brother
Shippers have a reputation of insane devotion to their [[OTP|One True Pairing]] and of [[Shipping Goggles|interpreting the tiniest, most ambiguous details as evidence]]. That much is clear by the prevalence of [[Shipping Wars]] in any fandom discussion. In some extreme cases they will freely admit to [[Die for Our Ship|actively rooting for sympathetic characters to die just to get them out of the way]], or worse, they'll [[Insane Troll Logic|come to the conclusion]] that [[Ron the Death Eater|since a character is in the way, they are by definition not sympathetic]]. On the bright side, you can expect them to be friendly at least towards their [[Ship Mates|natural allies]] and have some limit of how severely they can be starved for validation before they [[Abandon Shipping]]. That is, if they ever expected to be validated in the first place.
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