moonshayde | What It All Boils Down To...

I'm talking about ships.

I've noticed that in multiple fandoms (Smallville, Stargate, X-Files, and Harry Potter for example) there may be discussions about plot, character, themes, and story, but in the end it all seems to boil down to ship. (Defining ship here in the broad sense - het or slash.) Sure, there are people in fandom that are there just for characters and plot. But those that are mainly focused on shipping is by far the majority. Once you weed through the hearty discussion of character arcs and plot, you'll see that people are arguing for "who ends up with who." Out of everything, this becomes the main focus and the most passionate for fans.

Take a look at any forum or discussion area. Doesn't matter which fandom. Most of them mirror each other.

So, I ask why? Why do we (in general) abandon everything else about the story, making it secondary to the ship? Why is it so vital to have the end goal be "so and so ends up with Clark" or "so and so ends up with Mulder" or "so and so ends up with Jack?" Why does that becoming the most defining attribute of the story or the characters? Why are we defining them by their romantic entanglements? Why are we defining them by their prize at the end of the day?

And is it the woman who is the prize in the end? Or the man? I've seen this go back and forth and it may depend on the fandom.

It happens across fandoms. I've noticed it a lot lately. As

stargazercmc mentioned, is this something inate or does fandom perpetuate it? I wonder does this feed some basic human need or is something else going on here?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's really interesting. You may be right, but my first real experiences with fandom were with a resolutely gen group of people. I'm very into gen, except where there's canon ship (John and Aeryn, Max and Logan)--and even there, my interest is not primarily shippy, I think. (Major exception: Pushing Daisies is all about Piemaker and Dead Girl! I love Olive and Emerson, but I can't imagine the show without the romance!)

I've noticed, though, that I seem to be in the minority. I go through piles and piles of archived stories and recs to find gen SG-1 and SGA (I occasionally read stuff from other fandoms, but not too often). It seems to my unsystematic eye that slash really dominates Stargate fandom (both shows). I have very little interest in relationships that don't come overtly out of the shows--and I can make slash jokes too, but I don't really see it. (Here's the possibly weirdest thing: if you pushed me to name one character on the two shows who I thought most likely to be gay or bi, I'd say John Sheppard. He "never sees this coming" and doesn't seek out relationships with women, and he seems flirty with anybody. Yet John/Rodney is not a pairing I can really see, and John/anybody else just strikes me as wildly improbable.)

I've wondered myself why that is. I think some part of it is that we love the characters and want them to be happy, and of course since we love more than one of them, wouldn't it be great if they were happy with each other? That works for me, because occasionally I do read slash, and when I do, it's generally my two favorites on a show: Daniel and Jack for SG-1, Rodney and Carson for SGA. Yet I really like Sam, Janet, and Teyla, but I don't want to read any het (I've tried some, and I just haven't found any I've enjoyed) or femslash (tried very little, really didn't like it).

I liked Carson and Cadman (but couldn't see that lasting!), and I like Rodney and Katie together. I'm even tempted to write a Katie story. But those pairings aren't very important to me (although when I thought in one ep they were going to kill Katie, I was making dire threats against the writers!).

Most shows have romantic or sexual relationships; most published fiction does too. I'm inclined to think that it's something innate, but the particular forms it takes are not: why is Stargate fandom so slashy when on tv, in literature, and in real life there are just more straights than gays? I think SF does tend to attract people already out of the mainstream in multiple ways, and one of those ways is sexually, but I think a lot of straights write and enjoy slash.

I'm mostly thinking out loud here (and at some length, apparently). I'm curious to see what other responses you get.

I've wondered myself why that is. I think some part of it is that we love the characters and want them to be happy, and of course since we love more than one of them, wouldn't it be great if they were happy with each other? That works for me, because occasionally I do read slash, and when I do, it's generally my two favorites on a show: Daniel and Jack for SG-1, Rodney and Carson for SGA. Yet I really like Sam, Janet, and Teyla, but I don't want to read any het (I've tried some, and I just haven't found any I've enjoyed) or femslash (tried very little, really didn't like it).

I think maybe you've really come close to the heart of it, at least for some. Perhaps the desire to see a happy ending (which often equates into romance) is so strong, that some of us funnel everything through shippy glasses and have that as our end result? Or maybe for some it's a way of living vicariously through the characters? Maybe you have a thing for John, for example, and if you identify most with Teyla or Rodney you become them and attach to the pairing? I don't know. I'm sure there are a lot of different answers.

I'm very curious wonder the psychology behind it.

I think some part of it is that we love the characters and want them to be happy

Thing is, sometimes, there are characters/people who *are never* going to be happy, from the way their faults lie, or "fate" knocks them...and their stories are *deeper* for it.

Aragorn, for example, had a happy ending with the former Elf of his dreams...but her ending was bittersweet.

Frodo's ending was beyond bitter-sweet. He saved his people, had no romance, had no relationships of the romantic type and basically saved the Shire for others. (that's how I see Daniel, I guess). To have a character like Frodo end up in a cliche Romance and end happily just demeans his character - and yet, I'm sure there are plenty of ficcers in that fandom who do just that for him.

That's not me, you know ;) I quoted someone and forgot to use italics.

But now I am wondering if I see things this way because I look at everything from a storyteller's pov. If the end goal of the story is supposed to be about a romantic pairing, whether happy or tragic, then that is the goal of the story. However, if the main theme of the story is about a character battling the good and darkness in himself (Luke Skywalker, for exmaple) then for him to suddenly end up in a romance at the end of the story doesn't make much sense. The end result should reflect what has been laid out before it.

Which is why I think Tolkien had so many Heroes in his story, to fulfill expectations of one kind or another.

Aragorn: the King, Healer and Romantic (Arthurian Hero to the hilt)
Frodo: the Everyman saddled with Great Responsibility, for whom life doesn't end up completely well because he worked for the Greater Good
Gandalf: the Magickster, who moves around the plot-line institgating and helping to solve problems, and gets his just reward (going home) at the end of the Quest
Faramir: a Princeling who echoes the King's plotline in order to give the reader another version of the King's plotline of Romance - AND he gets to tame a warrior woman, to boot!
Samwise Gamgee: who goes on to marry the woman of his dreams, live with his bestest friend eveh (Frodo), in direct contrast with Frodo, who ends up giving his home to Sam, who was surely as heroic as Frodo himself was.

I could go on.

And I could go on. (and note how male oriented all of these Romances are)

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