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[Leona Lewis]

Orphan Black would've been 10x better if the creators had completely ignored the fandom's more vocal (read: insane) cohort.

Muddled their own vision to cater to the tumblr babies.

 

[Platy]

Slash fanfiction is probably the most popular shipping community in these fandoms. You can read the Zine's that first introduced "shipping" in the 70's above me which started out with homoerotic ships.

Awesome, cool person that poster !

But while homosexual shipping is more common because most media features usualy WAY MORE males and a token girl, there are LOTS of hetero shippings beyong Harry/Hermione and Buffy/Spike to use as an example ... Doctor Who is a good example that it's fandom has shipped the Doctor with EVERY SINGLE WOMEN COMPANION.

edit : for a recent example of fans complaining that the character MUST be hetero because headcanon, I use the new star trek movie controversy as an example

 

[SomeRandomWeirdGuy]

As a male, I've always been heavy into shipping. But more in the "These two characters would be cute together" sort of way, and not in the militant way. I read and write fanfiction, and I love the creativity a weird pairing can foster, especially if it's committed to a serious plot and not just a simple romantic one.

Crack shipping is my jam. AangxMai for life.

 

[Raging Spaniard]

I spend hours on tumblr every day -- I love tumblr, mostly -- but I hate how fandoms act. I hate shipping. And I really, really hate it when people feel entitled to someone else's works because they are a fan of it like this article discusses. Like that new Metroid game that got taken down real fast. Newsflash, if you don't own an IP you have no right to do anything with it. Sorry. Don't waste your time. Same with shipping. The Overwatch fan art thread is close to being ruined because people keep taking about their fucking ships. It's embarassing.

The Metroid thing didnt get taken down. One site hosting the file was asked to stop, that was it. Nintendo is wel aware of the remake and would have shit jt down years ago if they werent cool with it

 

[Media]

I'm a writer myself (by trade), and I enjoy writing using someone else's world. The relationship part is the least interesting part, and often takes away from plot, which is far more interesting. I have no interest in making databases either.

Shipping just completely ignores the best parts of a story in favor of "who wants to bang who", quite literally the most banal question one could want to answer.

Now, fan plot theories are great stuff. Trying to guess where the story is going is far more interesting.

Oh yeah, I'm a writer myself, and I enjoy it too. I love the plotty fanfiction, PWP isn't really my style and straight epic romance isn't my thing either. But a satisfying romance as a backdrop to an intricate, well plotted fanfic? That's my silver bullet weakness right there.

Majorly femmeslash, or shoujo ai/yuri as the fandom calls it. The majority of it though naturally is because "it's hot" though a lot is for the same reasons for shipping to begin with. It wasn't until 2006-2007 that I really noticed it rising as like I mentioned it had existed prior but not in any great numbers.

There's also that some series lean heavily towards one gender, such as sports anime or idol anime (idol is more or less singing individuals or a group, heavily leaning female with series such as The iDOLDM@STER or Love Live) which is another reason for slashshipping. Original Character stories, particularly for romance, are generally frowned upon due to a number of cases being seen as a self insertion (though good ones do exist). And if a writer wants to do romance story but not involve someone they made up they can and simply turn to one of the other characters (unless its a crossover as they likely will have more to work with).

That makes sense. I've always been surprised that men get a bit weirded out when they find out straight women write the majority of m/m slash. I think its not much different from men enjoying lesbian porn, ya know? So femslash being on the rise in male dominated fandom makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Shipping is interesting when talking about fandom because it's probably the clearest and earliest example of women being involved in fandom at a time when it was very much a man's world (and at least the stereotype is still the male nerd.)

But yeah, it's creepy as all hell when it turns into entitlement and obsession. Unless a work is public domain, you have to respect that you don't get to drive a mass market entertainment franchise yourself, and the creators are under no obligation to give "the fans what they want".

 

[FeenixRising]

We talking bad about shipping in here?

I'll throw hands with all y'all. Pull up.

 

[kewlmyc]

Good article. I'd say that I like shipping characters myself (not to the point of writing fanfiction, but just cheering for two characters to get together), but yeah, harassing the creators and treating it essentially like a religion is pathetic, especially if it's a crack paring that had no chance in hell to begin with. A ship that I enjoyed and had a somewhat chance of actually happening got completely shut down recently in the manga Magi, but I didn't freak out about it and I still read and enjoy the series. Not like a decent portion of the fandom saying that they would either drop the series, or even more extreme, commit suicide.

One of the biggest shipping disasters I've seen that isn't in the article was the whole Naruto X Sakura debacle and the complete meltdown of http://www.narusaku.com/ when it didn't happen was something to remember.

Just out of curiosity, do you know what Oreimo's about? And how it ended?

Because...yeah, you should go look it up.

Yeah, who would have though the series called "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute" that was filled with incestuous undertones would end with the MC hooking up with his sister.

Also, still doesn't excuse death threats.

 

[Platy]

Movies, Games, Comics, Books, TV Shows.

They are all PRODUCTS. They are made to sell to an audience. They are already tailored to what they think the audience wants. They make Market Research to know what they want. This is not about when fans want something so much, it is when the creators draw the line of the "i don't need the audience this fanservice will bring me". Which is why shows marked for cancelation are when they go crazier because they don't care about an audience to see if they will survive a next season or no, be it Angel last season or Korra's ending.

 

[Wheeljack539]

One of the biggest shipping disasters I've seen that isn't in the article was the whole Naruto X Sakura debacle and the complete meltdown of http://www.narusaku.com/ when it didn't happen was something to remember.

I have more than a gut feeling we're going to see a repeat when Bleach ends next week. /a will likely meltdown as they've been weirdly heavily invested in IchiRuki.

 

[nullset2]

wtf fandoms and trying to pick on creators to do their bidding

who the fuck has time for that hahaha. why not become a creator of your own thing instead of wanking it forever over other person's creations hahahahaha.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

It seems to me that there is a huge disconnect in fandom, mostly divided on the line of male fans and female fans.

Male fans tend to be curative: They make databases, lists, collect things, memorize triva and stats..etc
Female fans tend to be creative: They write fanfiction, make music videos, fantart, etc.

A lot men just don't get shipping, and I believe it's because of that divide. Romance is more important to a story for a lot of women, and with women being more creative fans, of course shipping is going to happen. I for instance would much rather write fanfiction than create a wiki for a fandom. Gathering details and stats seems more pointless to me, while shipping seems pointless to a lot of men.

The emergence of waifu culture invalidates this post.

 

[MHWilliams]

Ships are great and a fun thing to do, so long as you don't send death threats to a creator because their fictional work doesn't fit how you want it to be.ideology.

Indeed. Discussing the specific direction you want something you enjoy to carry on in is okay. Drawing fan art or writing fan fiction is fine. Asking a creator if it's a possibility is cool too.

But there is a line and many fans are willing to cross it.

 

[farisr]

I wouldn't say ruined, but it was pretty obvious it wasn't even going to be a thing until the end.

If it's going to be that shallow, just don't even do it.

Yup, and then the writers tried to say the hints were there throughout the series. If they were there, you didn't do a good enough job. I've seen the show multiple times. Before the end, there were as many hints about a korra/asami romantic couple forming as there were of an aang/zuko romantic couple forming in airbender, aka not very much. Felt shoehorned in and executed poorly, and it came off as a "we support the LGBTQ community, see? Look!" type deal due to that poor execution even if they didn't mean it like that.

They retroactively made the ending worse (still not ruined) by saying what they said because they didn't develop the relationship well enough through the show to make it believable for many regular non-shipping watchers. The fact that they even had to comment on it to confirm is telling enough.

 

[Satch]

Avatar: The Legend of Korra kind of ruined the ending with its complete fan service.

no it didnt

youre talking about the equivalent of taking a shit in a dumpster here

 

[oni_saru]

Fandom has changed with social media.

Shipping has been been around for ages. When I was young and in fandom, the thought of even hinting to creators that fandom existed was tantamount to a crime. I remember a huge kerfuffle that happened because someone at a con handed a creator a print out of their favorite fan fic. Fandom was PISSED.

Now, for some fucking reason, fans have decided that shipping isn't just for fun, it's for results: getting the couple to actually become canon. It's insane. I'm a shipper, I enjoy writing and reading fanfic of couples I think have great chemistry that aren't canon couples (though the story matters more to me than the ship), but this new, bizarre entitled behavior from some shippers is very upsetting to me.

I mean, there are people that constantly harass actors over this crap, as if they have any control over it. In the Supernatural fandom, there's a contingent of fans who actually believe the two male leads are secretly in love, that their wives are beards, and that the studio is preventing them from being open about their relationship. These J2 fans, as they call themselves, have gone so far as to send death threats to Misha Collins, another star on the show, because a lot of people ship his character with one of the male leads' character.

Yep, they sent death threats to an actor because other people thought Destiel was cool. What the entire fuck is wrong with people like that?

But, this type of behavior is still, thankfully, a small but vocal minority of fandom. Hopefully reality will set in and these people will stop giving fandom and fan creators a bad name.

/resident fanthroplogist

This post= <3

I too remember when shipping stayed within the community and wasn't mentioned to the creators, etc. Hell, fans wouldn't get so salty that a ship didn't become canon. They would just continue shipping away.

I miss the old days of fandom. The communities were more fun to participate and no unnecessary drama.

 

[KidGalactus]

But the Metoird game didn't get taken down real fast and fan works can be/are protected by fair use.

Wrong.

Being a fan of something gives you no rights to use someone else's property.

 

[SomeRandomWeirdGuy]

One of the biggest shipping disasters I've seen that isn't in the article was the whole Naruto X Sakura debacle and the complete meltdown of http://www.narusaku.com/ when it didn't happen was something to remember.

Honestly was one of the greatest things I've seen in my life. As a NaruHina shipper since like 2006, it was especially delicious a sight to behold. I should try to dig up the wall of quotes /a/ compiled

 

[Platy]

I miss the old days of fandom. The communities were more fun to participate and no unnecessary drama.

Because being PISSED at someone handing a creator a print out of their favorite fan fic is tottaly necessary drama

 

[Kelsdesu]

So Supernatural the article?

Aye, Pal. You leave supernatural out of this, or else things and stuff.!

 

[oni_saru]

Because being PISSED at someone handing a creator a print out of their favorite fan fic is tottaly necessary drama

Oops forgot about that. Obviously shit wasn't 100% sugar and rainbows back then.

 

[Mumei]

Orphan Black would've been 10x better if the creators had completely ignored the fandom's more vocal (read: insane) cohort.

Muddled their own vision to cater to the tumblr babies.

That's disappointing. I fell off in the early going of Season 3 and haven't caught up yet.

 

[Funky Papa]

That's disappointing. I fell off in the early going of Season 3 and haven't caught up yet.

The show came back in a big way during the latest season. It's smaller, more concise and less prone to rambling, not unlike S1.

I love the fandom. They are creative as heck and enthusiastic, but the writers should not be catering them. That's how silly stuff happens.

 

[Media]

The emergence of waifu culture invalidates this post.

Yes, I realize this now. Since I don't run in anime fandom circles, I failed to take that into account. Live action fandom still tends to lean more toward these gender roles though.

This post= <3

I too remember when shipping stayed within the community and wasn't mentioned to the creators, etc. Hell, fans wouldn't get so salty that a ship didn't become canon. They would just continue shipping away.

I miss the old days of fandom. The communities were more fun to participate and no unnecessary drama.

Oh there was still drama, but it was between fans, not between fans and creators. I survived the Spuffy ship wars lol

Because being PISSED at someone handing a creator a print out of their favorite fan fic is tottaly necessary drama

A different kind of drama, though. Back in the day, fans were sure that of creators learned of fandom they'd shut the whole thing down, after all.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

 

[Mumei]

The show came back in a big way during the latest season. It's smaller, more concise and less prone to rambling, not unlike S1.

I love the fandom. They are creative as heck and enthusiastic, but the writers should not be catering them. That's how silly stuff happens.

Oh, that is good to hear.

I also enjoy the Orphan Black fandom; Orphan Black and Hannibal (RIP please come back) are probably my favorite television fandoms.

 

[Bold One]

I'm perfectly fine with them, as long as they keep to themselves.

they arent though...

they are affecting creative output more and more

 

[Funky Papa]

Oh, that is good to hear.

I also enjoy the Orphan Black fandom; Orphan Black and Hannibal (RIP please come back) are probably my favorite television fandoms.

Hannibal's fandom is something else. And the beautiful thing about the show is that Fuller managed to sate them BIG TIME without losing the thread.

Spoiler

#murderhusbands

 

[OdysseusVA]

Guggenheim loves this shit tho

 

[oni_saru]

Oh there was still drama, but it was between fans, not between fans and creators. I survived the Spuffy ship wars lol



A different kind of drama, though. Back in the day, fans were sure that of creators learned of fandom they'd shut the whole thing down, after all.

True. I almost forgot the ship wars xD

I remember a pairing battle that started in one forum then got ugly in the seperate communities. Started as a fun battle, then became all out war xD but eventually the two fandoms got over it!

 

[Leona Lewis]

Hannibal's fandom is something else. And the beautiful thing about the show is that Fuller managed to sate them BIG TIME without losing the thread.

Spoiler

#murderhusbands

I'm still watering at the mouth for Fuller's interpretation of Silence of the Lambs. He did such a great job adapting Red Dragon and now the fate of the show is in this limbo

 

[ReiGun]

At some point, fandoms really became convinced they were the primary owners of the things they were fans of and everyone involved in the making of games/movies/shows/whatever had to bend to their whims. And that was the point they became truly insufferable.

 

[Stormhammer]

i'm shippin up to boston to find my wooden leg

 

[Media]

At some point, fandoms really became convinced they were the primary owners of the things they were fans of and everyone involved in the making of games/movies/shows/whatever had to bend to their whims. And that was the point they became truly insufferable.

#notallfans

It's true there's a lot of shitty fans in fandom, and they tend to feed on each others erm...crazy? Enthusiasm? But thankfully they are an incredibly vocal minority. No one writes articles about the fans quietly doing their thing and enjoying it, because that's boring

 

[timetokill]

I might run in different circles when it comes to fanfiction, so I might not see as much male participation. Do video game fandoms and anime fandoms have more male fanfiction writers? I only get really into live action fandom, and in my 20 years in fandom, I've only met two male fanfiction writers.

Slash fandom I know is 99% middle aged straight women, though that might be changing as the average age for fanfiction writers is getting lower.



Oh yeah, I'm not saying male fandom doesn't have creativity, sorry >.< It's just easier to use those terms. A scale model of Minas Tirith is creative, but it's still very curative as well. I find it facinating really, how different men and women engage in fandom.

IT's cool, I think I know what you were getting at, but I just want to make sure people don't fall into the trap of thinking "Women = creative, men = rules-oriented" etc because it, I think, reinforces some negative stereotypes of both sides. I think both genders are creative but their creativity tends to manifest in different ways. I know it wasn't your intention to say otherwise, it just rang out at me.

Aaanyway, for me personally, I'm often a huge fan of various fictions, but I'm not interested in altering the canon, so to speak. So for instance, I have no desire to read something about Aragorn and Sam being secretly gay. I get that people want to fantasize (and cool, good for you!) but I don't take it any more seriously than, say, hentai. It's ultimately masturbatory and so disassociated from the work that I can't get "invested" regardless of how much I like the characters or the fiction they're from.

That said, I'd be much more likely to read "speculative" fan fiction where the stories are about events before or after the fiction, and take the characters to new places or have new conflicts. These stories, if they're good, don't conflict with the canon, and instead feel like extensions of them.

 

[Squire]

Yeah, who would have though the series called "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute" that was filled with incestuous undertones would end with the MC hooking up with his sister.

Also, still doesn't excuse death threats.

That's a real thing that happened, huh? WOW.

 

[Kthulhu]

Jesus Christ.

 

[Media]

IT's cool, I think I know what you were getting at, but I just want to make sure people don't fall into the trap of thinking "Women = creative, men = rules-oriented" etc because it, I think, reinforces some negative stereotypes of both sides. I think both genders are creative but their creativity tends to manifest in different ways. I know it wasn't your intention to say otherwise, it just rang out at me.

Aaanyway, for me personally, I'm often a huge fan of various fictions, but I'm not interested in altering the canon, so to speak. So for instance, I have no desire to read something about Aragorn and Sam being secretly gay. I get that people want to fantasize (and cool, good for you!) but I don't take it any more seriously than, say, hentai. It's ultimately masturbatory and so disassociated from the work that I can't get "invested" regardless of how much I like the characters or the fiction they're from.

That said, I'd be much more likely to read "speculative" fan fiction where the stories are about events before or after the fiction, and take the characters to new places or have new conflicts. These stories, if they're good, don't conflict with the canon, and instead feel like extensions of them.

All of this is spot on, thank you for understanding

The creativity does manifest in different ways. Another thing I find super interesting: AMV vs vids (live action fan vids). A lot of the same principles apply: AMV is mostly men creating it, while vidding is mostly women. And AMV tend to focus on cool scenes/fight scenes and character profiles, while vidding focuses on shipping/romance, and creating a narrative. Both practices are INTENSELY creative, but the way they are creative is facinatingly varied.

And while I like my romance (I'm such a girl ) I too love speculative fanfic. Stuff that creates new and interesting drama for the characters is awesome.

Though I really, really dislike AU fic. Ugh.

 

[Mumei]

Hannibal's fandom is something else. And the beautiful thing about the show is that Fuller managed to sate them BIG TIME without losing the thread.

Spoiler

#murderhusbands

This is because Bryan Fuller is a Tumblr fangirl.

He knew what he was doing from the start.

I'm still watering at the mouth for Fuller's interpretation of Silence of the Lambs. He did such a great job adapting Red Dragon and now the fate of the show is in this limbo

August 2017 for the earliest news.

Spoiler

We'd better get Reitzell back, too

 

[AlphaDragoon]

Shipping did pretty much screw up the ending of Korra. Korra and Asami ending up together was obnoxious because you knew it was done last minute and only to please the Tumblr lovers out there. If it had actually been set up from the beginning (like they tried to claim it was) then it would have been fine.

 

[thetrin]

wtf fandoms and trying to pick on creators to do their bidding

who the fuck has time for that hahaha. why not become a creator of your own thing instead of wanking it forever over other person's creations hahahahaha.

This last point is how I feel too, tbh.

 

[Geist-]

Shit, now I'm shipping KorraxRevy (Korrevy?). Someone make it happen.

 

[SapphiCine]

My partner is a diehard Bucky x Steve shipper. I keep my opinions on shipping to myself. :x

Shippers man. What weirdos, am I right? Hahahahaha.

*loud sweating*

They probably buy pervy Vita games too.

 

[Nesotenso]

no it didnt

youre talking about the equivalent of taking a shit in a dumpster here

no it made just crap, crappier.

 

[SDBurton]

White Rose (Ruby and Weiss), Monochrome (Weiss and Blake), etc. Neat naming conventions, at least. (I'm sure there's more too but this was in an easy to use image I found just now)

OTP of all time. I really need to get caught up on this show.

 

[Trojita]

Steven Universe developed a pretty nasty underbelly of fandom when the series became more popular.

 

[RocBase]

Honestly was one of the greatest things I've seen in my life. As a NaruHina shipper since like 2006, it was especially delicious a sight to behold. I should try to dig up the wall of quotes /a/ compiled

Can you share this please? Never really been involved with Naruto but I appreciate a good meltdown.

 

[tiggerkiddo]

Shipping can be fun, writing fanfics with your crack couple can be pretty fun but I disagree with the fans who take things way too seriously and harass the creator for not catering to their wants. I think a lot of the fandoms would do well to just chill out and not take things so seriously but often that seems like asking for the moon nowadays

 

[Geist-]

Steven Universe developed a pretty nasty underbelly of fandom when the series became more popular.

Oh god, don't remind me. It's one of the reasons I don't wander out of the SU OT here.

 

[timetokill]

All of this is spot on, thank you for understanding

The creativity does manifest in different ways. Another thing I find super interesting: AMV vs vids (live action fan vids). A lot of the same principles apply: AMV is mostly men creating it, while vidding is mostly women. And AMV tend to focus on cool scenes/fight scenes and character profiles, while vidding focuses on shipping/romance, and creating a narrative. Both practices are INTENSELY creative, but the way they are creative is facinatingly varied.

And while I like my romance (I'm such a girl ) I too love speculative fanfic. Stuff that creates new and interesting drama for the characters is awesome.

Though I really, really dislike AU fic. Ugh.

Cool

What's AU fic? Alternate Universe I assume... are we talking like, Biopunk Harry Potter or something?