Shipping meme
Jan. 17th, 2025 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flo_neljaTaken from delphi.
First the usual disclaimers, what I love in fiction is not what I'm looking for in a real life romance. ^^
1. List three shipping tropes you love
I was here to betray you but oh no! I got feelings! : Classic conflict setting, I'm eating this with a spoon.
Death is not the end: Ghost love stories! Stories about accomplishing a big quest in the land of the dead to get back your love interest! Necromancy! Just stories about not letting go of a dead loved one!
Memory themes: I have forgotten you but the memories are screaming in my head and I almost hear them. I have forgotten everything but you.
2. List three shipping tropes you don't love
Love at first sight: Specifically the "love at first sight because they're so pretty" type. Love at first sight because the first sight is them kicking a cop at a barricade is okay. :D
Soulmates: Not my thing in any way of putting it. I can do with soulbonds, but they're not meant to be cosmically good, they're just something that happens and you have to deal with it and you're allowed to hate it. Soulmates as "you will love each other and it's a good thing" squicks me at worst and annoys me at best.
Cheating: Most of the time, depending of what I like, I'm rolling my eyes at cheating plots, and I'm like "don't do it!" "kill your husband!" get a divorce!" or "why aren't you even trying to talk to your datefriend about open relationships?" Also, it's so common in French media, I feel like I get them all the time.
3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you
Understanding each other well is my jam. Can be though lots of communication and habit, can be just nemesises who are planning each other moves in a highly complicated metaphorical chess game. I love characters who know and understand each other well.
4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you
It's usually not only physical, but: I can't resist a good interspecies ship.
And if it's not for physical bodies, but for physical acts (I agree with Delphi there's ambiguity here) I really love hand kissing.
5. Multiship or monoship?
I'm very pro-multishipping in theory but sometimes it happens there's only one option I like.
I remember in The Magnus Archives where I multishipped basically everyone except that I was weirdly OTP-ish about Daisy/Basira. They were not even my fave ship! But they were the only ship where I wasn't interested in seeing each of them with other people!
6. Rare pairs or mainstream?
I'm most often falling in love with some "obvious" ships, so they're usually big. There can be some exceptions, usually when the fandom is so small that even the most obvious ship has four fanfics, or when even if it's obvious it's also between two secondary female characters.
7. Polyamory or monogamy?
It really depends on ships. And I have no objective determination. Sometimes a character is whispering in my head "I'm poly", and sometimes "I'm monogamous" (though of course the last one doesn't happen with
canon poly characters).
(and sometimes even when a character is poly, sometimes two potential love interests dislike each other so much they don't want to be in the same polycule. But I guess you can build from here)
8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not?
You mean, who tops? Once again, it depends and I can't say in advance if my character headcanons will include "top" or "bottom". Though it's rare. It's far more common for my character voices to whisper "dom" or "sub", as this has nothing physical and can be totally unrelated to topping or bottoming.
9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?
I don't always have some romantic ships in shows I love, will squee about, will rec, will read meta about.
But let's be honest, it's very rare I end up writing tons of fics of only character study or gen relationships. I love these! But canon usually gives me all that I want.
It happened once, though, it was for Flander's Company! I passed 10 fics, with only genfic, and sometimes a gift for someone else of a ship I didn't ship but didn't mind.
No yeah! Not always! Just almost always!
10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?
I love to write smut. Smut as character study is one of my favorite things.
But I'm also an hypocrite who doesn't like that much when a ship is all about sexual attraction and not about compatibility and shared activities in other domains.
And I already told about my unpredictable character voices? Sometimes the character is asexual and not interested in sex. And I can still ship them with no problem (and no sex)!
11. Opinion on platonic ships?
Hmm, if it's romantic asexual ships: Yeah I can get behind it, even if I'm not very interested about issuefic about asexuality. Even when it's my headcanon too (or when it's canon), I'm still mostly here for escapism.
If it's about writing/reading/headcanoning a relationship that's friendship or otherwise non-romantic or non-sexual: it happens to me, but it's rarer than with ships. Because even when I end up obsessed with them, and they're my favorite relationship in the show, canon usually gives me everything I want as gen intimacy goes.
There are exceptions and I can read so many Nimona+Ballister post-canon friendship fic... ^^
12. List 3 ships you currently love
Jayce/Viktor (Arcane): Season 2 was not even a few months ago, and it rekindled my love for this ship. I love stories about mad scientists doing science together very much (it's too specific to have been mentioned before, I guess :D ). The tragedy is a very nice bonus.
Edwin/Charles (Dead Boy Detectives): It was one of my simple pleasure shows this spring, and the friendship-with-maybe-something-else and the team spirit and the fleeing from Death got to me. (I was already kind of shipping them when they were characters of the week in Doom Patrol and they got a whole season!)
Bill/Ford (Gravity Falls): Another old ship that is back! Because the writer published a bonus book that basically makes this ship canon, and I mean, it was always obvious to me, but it means more content! And more fannish content! I'm basking in it!
13. List 5 OTPs from past fandoms
Yess, it's so hard to choose only 5!
Shinji/Kaworu (Evangelion): The pairing that got me into m/m - yaoi, I was saying at the time - when I was a teen. It was just an episode and I was marked for life. My first betrayal ship. :D They betrayed each other and it betrayed me.
Gin/Kira (Bleach): I wrote so much BDSM smut for this. ^^ It's not the first time I was in "shipping underling with their boss" situation, but it's the first time I was shameless about it.
Doctor/Master (Doctor Who): I always loved a good enemy ship but this one is the one that made me react with "oh, the old series is only 26 seasons, how hard can it be?" when I'm most often hesitating on long shows :D The shared history and the ridiculousness and the mad science got to me.
John/Scorpius (Farscape): I love mind control and mind intimacy and the psychic fighting it's hard to weave in a way that makes the plot interesting (even if a bit ridiculous). Also, science.
Jon/Martin (The Magnus Archives): You don't understand, it started as the "ha ha the underling has a crush on their boss" ship that always gets me, even when it's just subtext, for no reason I can say, and then... the plot took it seriously? They have some of the best and most romantic scenes of the show? It was perfectfor me.
14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?
I'm not very interested in marriage tropes, but sometimes it makes sense that it's very important to the characters, for practical or emotional reasons.
I do love the "happily married" trope, but it's exactly as good to me with or without an actual wedding. So no, I guess it's not important for me :D
15. Opinion on OC kids?
I'm not very interested again. It's hard to sell me a story about OCs in general, and kids are hard to write. Parenting style aren't among the elements where I get or want headcanons.
delphi.First the usual disclaimers, what I love in fiction is not what I'm looking for in a real life romance. ^^
1. List three shipping tropes you love
I was here to betray you but oh no! I got feelings! : Classic conflict setting, I'm eating this with a spoon.
Death is not the end: Ghost love stories! Stories about accomplishing a big quest in the land of the dead to get back your love interest! Necromancy! Just stories about not letting go of a dead loved one!
Memory themes: I have forgotten you but the memories are screaming in my head and I almost hear them. I have forgotten everything but you.
2. List three shipping tropes you don't love
Love at first sight: Specifically the "love at first sight because they're so pretty" type. Love at first sight because the first sight is them kicking a cop at a barricade is okay. :D
Soulmates: Not my thing in any way of putting it. I can do with soulbonds, but they're not meant to be cosmically good, they're just something that happens and you have to deal with it and you're allowed to hate it. Soulmates as "you will love each other and it's a good thing" squicks me at worst and annoys me at best.
Cheating: Most of the time, depending of what I like, I'm rolling my eyes at cheating plots, and I'm like "don't do it!" "kill your husband!" get a divorce!" or "why aren't you even trying to talk to your datefriend about open relationships?" Also, it's so common in French media, I feel like I get them all the time.
3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you
Understanding each other well is my jam. Can be though lots of communication and habit, can be just nemesises who are planning each other moves in a highly complicated metaphorical chess game. I love characters who know and understand each other well.
4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you
It's usually not only physical, but: I can't resist a good interspecies ship.
And if it's not for physical bodies, but for physical acts (I agree with Delphi there's ambiguity here) I really love hand kissing.
5. Multiship or monoship?
I'm very pro-multishipping in theory but sometimes it happens there's only one option I like.
I remember in The Magnus Archives where I multishipped basically everyone except that I was weirdly OTP-ish about Daisy/Basira. They were not even my fave ship! But they were the only ship where I wasn't interested in seeing each of them with other people!
6. Rare pairs or mainstream?
I'm most often falling in love with some "obvious" ships, so they're usually big. There can be some exceptions, usually when the fandom is so small that even the most obvious ship has four fanfics, or when even if it's obvious it's also between two secondary female characters.
7. Polyamory or monogamy?
It really depends on ships. And I have no objective determination. Sometimes a character is whispering in my head "I'm poly", and sometimes "I'm monogamous" (though of course the last one doesn't happen with
canon poly characters).
(and sometimes even when a character is poly, sometimes two potential love interests dislike each other so much they don't want to be in the same polycule. But I guess you can build from here)
8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not?
You mean, who tops? Once again, it depends and I can't say in advance if my character headcanons will include "top" or "bottom". Though it's rare. It's far more common for my character voices to whisper "dom" or "sub", as this has nothing physical and can be totally unrelated to topping or bottoming.
9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?
I don't always have some romantic ships in shows I love, will squee about, will rec, will read meta about.
But let's be honest, it's very rare I end up writing tons of fics of only character study or gen relationships. I love these! But canon usually gives me all that I want.
It happened once, though, it was for Flander's Company! I passed 10 fics, with only genfic, and sometimes a gift for someone else of a ship I didn't ship but didn't mind.
No yeah! Not always! Just almost always!
10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?
I love to write smut. Smut as character study is one of my favorite things.
But I'm also an hypocrite who doesn't like that much when a ship is all about sexual attraction and not about compatibility and shared activities in other domains.
And I already told about my unpredictable character voices? Sometimes the character is asexual and not interested in sex. And I can still ship them with no problem (and no sex)!
11. Opinion on platonic ships?
Hmm, if it's romantic asexual ships: Yeah I can get behind it, even if I'm not very interested about issuefic about asexuality. Even when it's my headcanon too (or when it's canon), I'm still mostly here for escapism.
If it's about writing/reading/headcanoning a relationship that's friendship or otherwise non-romantic or non-sexual: it happens to me, but it's rarer than with ships. Because even when I end up obsessed with them, and they're my favorite relationship in the show, canon usually gives me everything I want as gen intimacy goes.
There are exceptions and I can read so many Nimona+Ballister post-canon friendship fic... ^^
12. List 3 ships you currently love
Jayce/Viktor (Arcane): Season 2 was not even a few months ago, and it rekindled my love for this ship. I love stories about mad scientists doing science together very much (it's too specific to have been mentioned before, I guess :D ). The tragedy is a very nice bonus.
Edwin/Charles (Dead Boy Detectives): It was one of my simple pleasure shows this spring, and the friendship-with-maybe-something-else and the team spirit and the fleeing from Death got to me. (I was already kind of shipping them when they were characters of the week in Doom Patrol and they got a whole season!)
Bill/Ford (Gravity Falls): Another old ship that is back! Because the writer published a bonus book that basically makes this ship canon, and I mean, it was always obvious to me, but it means more content! And more fannish content! I'm basking in it!
13. List 5 OTPs from past fandoms
Yess, it's so hard to choose only 5!
Shinji/Kaworu (Evangelion): The pairing that got me into m/m - yaoi, I was saying at the time - when I was a teen. It was just an episode and I was marked for life. My first betrayal ship. :D They betrayed each other and it betrayed me.
Gin/Kira (Bleach): I wrote so much BDSM smut for this. ^^ It's not the first time I was in "shipping underling with their boss" situation, but it's the first time I was shameless about it.
Doctor/Master (Doctor Who): I always loved a good enemy ship but this one is the one that made me react with "oh, the old series is only 26 seasons, how hard can it be?" when I'm most often hesitating on long shows :D The shared history and the ridiculousness and the mad science got to me.
John/Scorpius (Farscape): I love mind control and mind intimacy and the psychic fighting it's hard to weave in a way that makes the plot interesting (even if a bit ridiculous). Also, science.
Jon/Martin (The Magnus Archives): You don't understand, it started as the "ha ha the underling has a crush on their boss" ship that always gets me, even when it's just subtext, for no reason I can say, and then... the plot took it seriously? They have some of the best and most romantic scenes of the show? It was perfectfor me.
14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?
I'm not very interested in marriage tropes, but sometimes it makes sense that it's very important to the characters, for practical or emotional reasons.
I do love the "happily married" trope, but it's exactly as good to me with or without an actual wedding. So no, I guess it's not important for me :D
15. Opinion on OC kids?
I'm not very interested again. It's hard to sell me a story about OCs in general, and kids are hard to write. Parenting style aren't among the elements where I get or want headcanons.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-18 12:14 am (UTC)Oh, I hadn't even thought about the second possibility here when it comes to characters understanding each other, but that's such a good one!
And your description of where canon ended up taking Jon/Martin has me really interested to revisit the canon. Funnily enough, I wrote the first Jon/Martin fic on AO3 and then promptly fell off from listening to the show long before it blew up and then went canon. It was such a surprise to click through to the ship tag one day and find so much fic for this little known podcast I'd picked up to write something for a fic exchange. I've always been curious to follow up and see how that relationship actually developed in canon.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-18 06:31 am (UTC)Til where did you listen?
no subject
Date: 2025-01-18 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-18 07:24 am (UTC)