Are We Watching the Same Shows?

I enjoy engaging with "fandom" when I watch a particularly interesting TV show or movie or when I read an engaging book series as much as anyone. Whenever I finish some kind of fictional media that really inspires me, I usually rush to tumblr or reddit or AO3 to see if there is some fan content to consume. But sometimes, when I get there, I'm shocked to find the things that people ship!

Shipping is when you see two (or more) characters in a piece of media and imagine them in a relationship with each other. It doesn't always mean that you think they would make a "good couple." Sometimes it just means you would find it hot or intriguing. But usually, the most popular ships in any fandom are the ones that people think would actually "work." And much of the time, the most popular ships aren't even "canon," meaning they have no romantic interaction in the original work, or if they do, they don't become "endgame." It may feel like a missed opportunity in the source material, or maybe romance just wasn't the main focus of the story. Whatever the case, shipping fills in those blanks. It can be complex and is always all in good fun!

However... Sometimes I do question the things which people ship. I believe that anything can be fun to theorize about, but when it comes to writing serious fanfiction, I think most people only write it about the ships they think have actual romantic chemistry. To be honest though, some of the most popular ships tend to miss the point of the real canon character dynamics. And a lot of that fanfiction has to be horribly out of character for the pairings to work within the new fan-made story.

One such relationship that is very popular in one of the shows I really like imagines two rivals turned teammates in a romantic context. I think this undermines the narrative tones of their relationship. A lot of their motivation stems from a desire to one day face off again and defeat the other. I think that such a dynamic isn't really conducive to romance. There is tension, but to interpret it as romantic or sexual misses the point.

But I ship things that other people would think are out of character and miss the point of the source material too. And I've been told such (in a roundabout way) before. One of my current favorites features a character that many interpret to be asexual and who presents himself that way in canon. For many people, writing him into a romantic relationship betrays the way he is represented. However, I find him to be an unreliable narrator who has shown increasing (but still only mild) interest in romance. For me, half of the fun of imagining him in a relationship is the difficulty that his aversion to dating presents. How could he continue to develop into a person who might be open to love? He never reached that place in canon, so to write him that way in fanfiction probably does seem pretty out of character. But it is still entertaining and a decent exercise for my imagination.

Anyway, all that to say... Ship what you want... And who cares about canon anyway?