Shipping meme

[jedi_of_urth]

Name your 10 absolutely favorite couples* (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms:
*Or at least 10 of my favorite couples

1. Doctor/Rose (Doctor Who)
2. Guy/Marian (Robin Hood)
3. Mulder/Scully (X-Files)
4. Sheridan/Delenn (Babylon 5)
5. Jim/Pam (The Office)
6. Harry/Hermione (Harry Potter)
7. Buffy/Giles (BtVS)
8. John/Aeryn )Farscape)
9. Ned/Chuck (Pushing Daisies)
10. Rose/Daniel (Doctor Who/Stargate)

Comments

[gamerchick.livejournal.com]

Well, the obvious is that these are all het ships. (c:
The majority are canon or canon-ish.
A lot of these (from the fandoms I know anyway) have this thing where it's two people who spend a lot of time around each other, and start as close friends, and then it develops into something more, but they don't act on it right away and you're like "ARGH WILL YOU OR WON'T YOU."

[jedi_of_urth]

The fact that they're varying degrees on canonical (except for my crossover OTP obviously) and het have a lot to do with each other.

I need there to be a good canon reason for my shipping. Canon may never actually go there (and in the case of Harry Potter JKR decided to more or less shit on my ship in the last couple books), but canon friendships with an undercurrents of could become more more are often my favorites.

In that sense why I'm not more drawn to slash is a bit odd. And it's not that I don't get several slash ships, and sometimes even ship them just very seldom as my primary ship on a show.

But I guess I tend to to want to agree with canon on shipping, so unless there's a reason I'll follow as close to it as possible (even in my grand crossover love story, it more or less follows SG1 canon storywise, I just this Rose would be awesome with them and she and Daniel would fall in love). Canon through my eyes may read a little differently sometimes, but there is usually an in-canon reason why I ship it.

it's two people who spend a lot of time around each other, and start as close friends, and then it develops into something more, but they don't act on it right away and you're like "ARGH WILL YOU OR WON'T YOU."

I can be a total angst ho sometimes. When there are so clearly feelings involved that could be more than friends (and I'm a sucker for friendship ships, although there's one example listed that's at most on the fringes of that taste) but for some reason they *don't* (sometimes canon sometimes making me yell "WHY WON'T YOU JUST LET THEM BE HAPPY?!?!" towards the writers) doesn't mean I'll walk away from thinking they'd be amazing together and wanting that.

[gamerchick.livejournal.com]

In that sense why I'm not more drawn to slash is a bit odd. And it's not that I don't get several slash ships, and sometimes even ship them just very seldom as my primary ship on a show.

I actually don't have any m/m slash ships (lots of femslash though) because I think I have a genetic inability to see the hoyay (except in Farscape, John/Scorpius holy shit, I don't exactly ship that though and I think a lot of it is that Ben Browder can't not have chemistry with anyone he happens to be on screen with - so I guess I technically ship Crichton/everybody *grin*). Sure, the boys are pretty and would be pretty together, but I just don't usually see the emotional/sexual connection between them that's so important for me in a ship.

Most of my ships are also canon or at least partially so (as in, I ship a lot of couples who had a relationship at one point which then ended). I don't like ships where you need to make a huge amount of stuff up just for it to be viable.

I'm sort of over angst as a thing, which is why John/Aeryn didn't make my list - by the end I was just so fed up with the writers' arbitrary means of keeping them apart that it lost a lot of its power for me. By the end of s3 I didn't really care anymore, and the end of s4 was just "oh come on, that's just MEAN." And like I said above I probably ship John/Aeryn equally with John/D'Argo, John/Scorpius, John/Chiana, and John/Zhaan, so...

I don't think I'm going to do this meme on my own journal, but if you're curious about similarities in my own favorite couples:

Roslin/Adama (BSG)
Marcus/Ivanova (Babylon 5)
Zoe/Wash (Firefly)
Kaylee/Inara (Firefly)
Wesley/Lilah (Angel)
Sofie/Libby (Carnivale)
Scorpius/Sikozu (Farscape)
V/Evey (V For Vendetta)
Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth (A Song of Ice and Fire)
Ten/River Song (Doctor Who)

(This was actually really hard to do with characters not from RPGs I've played in, but if I said Brie/Leah or Ally/Jack or Maggie/Skipper it would be meaningless to you, so...)

[jedi_of_urth]

Hmm, I actually don't see a lot of hoyay on Farscape, at least there are several other shows I see it on more. I guess I see John as so Aeryn-centric that pairing him with other people doesn't come to mind (although I so think the show could have gone John/Chiana if they had wanted to, but again, Aeryn-centric-ness).

The emotional connection is the biggest thing for me, has to come before I consider sexual connection beyond just wanted pretty people to shag each other already. I can enjoy ships like, where I first enjoy their sexual chemistry, but I can't think of a case where I really believed in those ships (you mentioning Wes/Lilah brings it to mind).

There are a lot of slash ships out there that I get in the sense that I see why people would ship them but they just never clicked with me. It's not even that I don't seen the chemistry that could be seen as sexual it just never struck me that way I guess.

I don't like ships where you need to make a huge amount of stuff up just for it to be viable.

Again ignoring the fact that these days I count my crossover shipping as a big deal, I agree. I need canon to give me a reason to go there. Different people focus on different aspects of canon so they can read things different ways, but it needs to strike me the right way with what's on screen (or text for the occasional book shipping) for me to consider it a "ship" as opposed to a pairing.

Hmm. I can definitely see where sexual chemistry is a factor to you (Wes/Lilah, Scorpy/Sikozu, Kaylee/Inara), that plus a couple others would lead me to say you like more adult ships (Jaime/Briennae Zoe/Wash, Roslin/Adama). But you do seem to deal with at least some will they/won't they pull (again Bill/Laura, Jaime/Brienne, Susan/Marcus)

(A couple of them I can't comment on and one I won't because I don't think you'd like what I had to say.)

Hey, if you ever want to talk RPG shipping I'm all there, we'd just have to spend a lot of time explaining this to each other no doubt.

[gamerchick.livejournal.com]

(A couple of them I can't comment on and one I won't because I don't think you'd like what I had to say.)

Heh, that would be Ten/River Song, wouldn't it? (c;

You know the things that everyone else hates about Doctor Who? Those are my favorite things about it. For example, my favorite episode of all time? Love And Monsters. I'm not even kidding. So I am pretty much incapable of being offended by anything Who-related because in my fandom for it, it's always opposite day.

[jedi_of_urth]

Yeah, those episodes are DEAD TO ME (and Moffat with it). Oh, paper is made from trees? Ya don't say.

I actually do like L&M, I didn't at first but it really grew on me; and my least favorite ep in s3 isn't the Dalek eps unlike most people, 42 takes the spot for me. I'm not a whole side opposite day person, but a little off center in places.

But still I don't need to go off on anti-your-ship rants over this meme.

[goldy-dollar.livejournal.com]

I think you like couples that have a strong foundation in friendship where the "shipping" is really blurred between strong bonds of friendship and something more overtly romantic. I think you also like ships that are a little bit unusual - not necessarily star-crossed exactly, but unconventional. John/Aeryn and Doctor/Rose are both alien/human pairings, Guy/Marian were basically on opposite sides of a war, and Ned/Chuck can't touch. I think you also like couples that make each other happy and encourage each other to be better people.

[jedi_of_urth]

I think you like couples that have a strong foundation in friendship where the "shipping" is really blurred between strong bonds of friendship and something more overtly romantic

That's very true, friendship ships are pretty much my default shipping taste. It's pretty rare situation where I don't, and even when I do I need to believe they *could* be friends...leading to other points

I think you also like ships that are a little bit unusual - not necessarily star-crossed exactly, but unconventional. John/Aeryn and Doctor/Rose are both alien/human pairings, Guy/Marian were basically on opposite sides of a war, and Ned/Chuck can't touch.

Sheridan/Delenn is also alien/human just fyi (and their races had been recently at war). But I guess that's true. I guess it's part of my angst loving tendencies that a difference like that can give lots of dramatic possibilities. That sort of drama I can take,and in fact will eat up with a spoon; needless dancing around each other like say Mulder/Scully gets annoying. Let's see, character growth, growing together as a ship, growing compatibility for the ship; yep that sounds like me.

I think you also like couples that make each other happy and encourage each other to be better people.

I think on a fundamental level that's the big one. There are several ships that I oppose, or at least won't back, because there's no way it'll make them happy in the short or long term. AT least not without damaging the part of who they are I'm most drawn to or I think is most important to them keeping their sense of self in a relationship. I want the characters I love to be happy and good people, so I want their relationships to bring that out in them.