fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #481 ]

⌈ Secret Post #481 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Uhhh, lots of people are submitting secrets to the actual secret posts/the suggestions post and not the submissions post -- the submission post is → here ←, make sure you're posting them in the right place!

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 127 secrets from Secret Submission Post #069.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - yes, it was totally personal ], [ 1 2 3 - too big ], [ 1 - uh, fairly sure you worded this one wrong ], [ 1 - personal attack ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I recently wrote a paper on this for my seminar. While I explored how it manifests itself (shippers might attempt to bribe the canon creator with cookies or other financial investments, which I linked medieval patronage), I couldn't explain in a manner satisfying to myself why this occurs. I mean, I read fan fiction, and there are pairings which I prefer, but I really don't care if then end up in canon or not.

I did suggest that perhaps the reason why OTPers get upset when their canon does not represent their ship is because the area where fans do have control over their favorite works, fandom, is so entrenched in romance as it is. This is actually a historical happenstance, where unofficial sequels are written providing romantic endings to unromantic stories. So whether their preferred pairing is canon validates their identities as shippers. Or something.

It's odd.

*nods*

where unofficial sequels are written providing romantic endings to unromantic stories.

Ye olde fanfic!

It almost seems competitive sometimes. Like if canon gives them their ship, then they've won somehow. Won what I'm not sure. Bragging rights for having predicted correctly? Back pats for understanding the mind of the creator? I can see that too. But that really doesn't seem to be it. It is almost as if they think these characters exist for real somewhere outside of our collective consciousness, and once they've been canonically paired, they will become independently upset at the writers who put them with someone else.

I agree with that; there was certainly a lot of bragging, and anxiety over expectations of it, in, for instance, the Harry Potter fandom between books. I also agree that fans frequently treat characters like they're real people, with actual emotions. I would have thought that writing for these characters themselves would have made them more aware of a canon's, um, "textiness", but it seems to have an opposite effect. I remember recently I was mocking Mohinder in fandom_secrets, and someone responded as if I was being judgmental to a real person.

This certainly was in the case in the fandom I studied (I had to focus on one fandom, or else I would have gone coocoo for cocoa puffs), where fans would talk about how Buffy would be miserable without Angel or Spike or What-Have-You. And there's also the opposite effect of the treatment of fictional as actual. The amount of passionate hatred aimed at the characters who would act as obstacles to a fan's favorite ship can be mind-boggling. Not to mention, and this is the most unfortunate part, the hatred fans can foster for each other when shipping rivalries get too intense.

Despite this, I really, really love fandom. Just... shippers. Man. I could write about some of the more avid ones forever.

Oh I love fandom too. But yeah I get really tired of the wars. And people get so self-righteous about the strangest of things -- not just pairing but things like which one tops. And I'm not even talking anime fandoms, which are notorious for seme/uke pidgeon holes.

On the Torchwood fandom there was a whole near wank over if two characters engaged in BDSM who would be the dom. One person went so far as to prove her theory that one character would dom by providing screen caps of that character doing such very dommish things as putting his hand on the other person's shoulder. She had a bunch of people on her post basically agreeing that it was impossible for this character to be anything but dom, and it would be totally ooc to show him that way. There is no evidence whatsoever that the two engage in bdsm at all, though they hint that they are adventuresome, and engage in costumeplay. What's more, the supposed "sub" is the "dom"s boss who spends all day ordering him around as daily business.

Needless to say, I didn't touch that post with a 10 foot pole.

Andreas Capellanus argued that jealousy is so entwined with love that true love doesn't exist without jealousy, a possessiveness. If so, I certainly see this in some aspects of fannish behavior. They are not jealous over their ship, they are jealous over the interpretations of the canon they love. So they react with hostility for alternative views which challenge their sense of ownership.

Well, my 18 years of comfortably secure marriage would argue that Andreas Capellanus is full of crap, but certainly a lot of people who are insecure about themselves turn to jealousy as a way of defending their relationship. This makes me think that perhaps these people are worried that they will fall out of love with their ship.

Come to think of it, a lot of people do seem to fall out of love with their ship when canon negates it. That was something else that blew my mind. I mean how is Harry/Luna less wonderful now than it was a book ago?

Yeah, Andreas was kinda insane. And Harry/Luna is in no way, shape, or form less wonderful. It is adorable. But I love Luna so I can handle her with just about anybody, so I'm biased. I guess Harry/Luna is where I can sorta see where the shippers are coming from, since I expected that ship to be the endgame when Luna was introduced, but I find I'm not all that disappointed that it's not.

Honestly, part of the problem with shipping is that it puts too much emphasis on relationships, when a character's worth or happiness usually is so much beyond that.

Oh I knew Ginny would be the endgame the moment she was introduced in book 1, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with personalities or romance. Ginny is a vehicle for Harry to marry the Weasley family because Harry can't marry Ron. LOL. I saw Harry's family envy on the platform and thought: Somehow, someway, he's going to end up part of that family so he'll be happy. And lo, there's a Weasley girl who's one year younger than Harry... how convenient. I wasn't as certain of Hermoine hooking up with Ron, but, hey, friendships not good enough, it's gotta be marriage vows. As my friend put it, Rowling is awesome at writing friendships and terrible at writing romances. Luna's purpose seemed to be to show that "you don't have to fit in to be a hero." But she was a far more interesting character than Ginny, and Rowling obviously put a lot of love into describing her, whereas Ginny is famous for doing cool things off camera where we can only hear of them in the dullest possible way.

Honestly, part of the problem with shipping is that it puts too much emphasis on relationships, when a character's worth or happiness usually is so much beyond that. Yeah, I was complaining to someone the other day about actual plotfics being flipping rare.

I am in awe of your powers of observation.

[ SECRET POST #481 ]

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