It doesn't make any sense to love a show and then to turn their characters, the relationships and plots upside down, does it? It's like people are not able to appreciate things in (fandom?) life or on TV apart from sexual relationships.
Actually, you'll find many who appreciate the show as is. Fandom interpretation is just a bonus, a way to explore the show in ways that can't be done on tv, even if it means taking the characters and plopping them into a different scenario.
Fandom interpretations don't always revolve around relationships and/or sex either. Even if it does involve those things, it can often be a "what if" scenario exploring the characters in ways that can't be done on screen (and no, not because of the ratings *g*).
Some of my favorite fanfic are about "tag scenes" which are basically just about what a fan felt was a missing scene from an episode, often dealing with emotional fallout. And who knows? With the way shows are edited, it's possible something along those lines was intended, but either never filmed or cut if it were. Emotional scenes are often cut in favor of keeping the more expensive action sequences.
If you think about it, fanfic (i.e. fan reinterpretation) has been around for a lot longer than most would expect. The various bardic stories about Robin Hood and King Arthur are part of that tradition. Many versions of the stories contradict each other, but it's because the story was told and retold with changes as it spread over the years, often picking up local flavor. Not much different than fanfic really, except fanfic can happen a lot faster.
You might want to read "Textual Poachers" by Jenkins to get a better idea about why fans "appropriate" text for their own purposes. It's very dated now (early 90s, before the Internet was as established), but is still used in a lot of media courses. The author is a media professor at MIT.
The only problem I ever have with perennial shippers is those who have their One True Ship, whether it's portrayed on the show in canon, hints or not really at all, and insist everyone else must see it that way. I'm more into the "whatever stirs your coffee" camp myself.
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Actually, you'll find many who appreciate the show as is. Fandom interpretation is just a bonus, a way to explore the show in ways that can't be done on tv, even if it means taking the characters and plopping them into a different scenario.
Fandom interpretations don't always revolve around relationships and/or sex either. Even if it does involve those things, it can often be a "what if" scenario exploring the characters in ways that can't be done on screen (and no, not because of the ratings *g*).
Some of my favorite fanfic are about "tag scenes" which are basically just about what a fan felt was a missing scene from an episode, often dealing with emotional fallout. And who knows? With the way shows are edited, it's possible something along those lines was intended, but either never filmed or cut if it were. Emotional scenes are often cut in favor of keeping the more expensive action sequences.
If you think about it, fanfic (i.e. fan reinterpretation) has been around for a lot longer than most would expect. The various bardic stories about Robin Hood and King Arthur are part of that tradition. Many versions of the stories contradict each other, but it's because the story was told and retold with changes as it spread over the years, often picking up local flavor. Not much different than fanfic really, except fanfic can happen a lot faster.
You might want to read "Textual Poachers" by Jenkins to get a better idea about why fans "appropriate" text for their own purposes. It's very dated now (early 90s, before the Internet was as established), but is still used in a lot of media courses. The author is a media professor at MIT.
The only problem I ever have with perennial shippers is those who have their One True Ship, whether it's portrayed on the show in canon, hints or not really at all, and insist everyone else must see it that way. I'm more into the "whatever stirs your coffee" camp myself.