Shipping Fics, Yay or Nay?

I love good shipping fics, usually indulging myself with those of the shameless fluff variety—though I've seen some good dramatic ones.

But generally I do wish there were more gen fanfiction out there. I think the problem is worst when you dislike/hate the fandom's main pairing and can't really filter through it on archives...

I love shipping.

I understand that people don't want to read romance stuff and just read some cool actiony or regular fanfiction. That's cool. But I really like ships - it's a couple of people hanging out, falling in love and making each other feel good. Most of the time. I like it.

I like shipping... as long as it makes sense.

For example, lets take KH. Sora x Kairi? Canon. Roxas x Xion? My favorite, and it works well. Roxas x Namine? That works too.

Sora x Riku? They are both very clearly shown to love Kairi in the game. Sora x Larxene? Da fuq?

And don't even get me started on Axel x Roxas. It's called friendship.

The other thing that bugs me is when it's done poorly. Shipping comes in four varieties: great, cheesy but fun, just cheesy and OH GOD WHY. Unfortunately, a good chunk of it is the latter two.

In conclusion. Shipping? Not bad in and of itself, and can even be good. Bad shipping? Bleeping terrible.

@AHI-3000: What about the other way around. Turning canonly gay characters straight.

edited 19th Apr '15 11:56:51 AM by randomtroper89

I don't write shipping fics, ever. Closest I got was implied mutual crush between 11 year olds. and even that I won't do anymore. I used to be ok reading them, though, so long as there was nothing beyond kissing, cuz...yeah, no thanks. being Demiromantic Asexual, shipping was never big for me? and then Christmas happened and I got dumped by the only guy I've ever had romantic feelings for—on the 6th month anniversary of our getting engaged.

so now I tend to avoid even reading romance.

I LOVE SHIPPING. Want to hear a long list of my OTPs and why I ship them?

Shipping is okay in moderation. If someone is trying to ship something that obviously won't/hasn't happen(ed), it really gets on my nerves.

I'm generally fine with shipping, as long as it's done well. In the fandoms I read, it usually is done well. What I don't like is writing off an author's entire collection just because they ship.

as I said, I /don't/ write shipping fics, and I try to make that clear in my bio and in the lack of pairings in the summaries. I still manage to get pms and reviews with " you should ship these characters!1!" and "It's great but you should do (pairing name) in it" or " so what are the ships?"

And this for a fandom that literally has no canon ships. sigh.

edited 2nd Jun '15 7:49:10 AM by Ellowen

Nay, as they're very rarely done well. I don't mind having some romance or Ship Tease, but when your fic revolves around the romance or has it shoved in, it gets boring or just stupid.

edited 2nd Jun '15 10:50:18 AM by Karxrida

Romance and sex is disgusting and abhorrent to me, so a big nay. Plus it's poorly written and and overdone. Why can't people stay single?

In most fanfic? Stress lowers inhibitions and causes people to want to mate. It's physiological, a reaction that has been bred into us as a result of millions of years of species that survived by making replacements for themselves when in danger.

Since we've wrapped our biology up in our emotions, people end up deploying dubious emotional investments and justifications for their physical attractions a lot.

This describes most shipping fic perfectly alas.

Yay, and I'm even a slashfic writer. Admittedly none of the pairs make much sense (mostly non-crossovers though). Generally fluffy and probably cheesy.

I'm a bit of a binge reader with pretty open tastes. Though I'm self aware enough to admit a lot of it comes from lack of real life experience. (Like how I read a lot of Harry goes back to the marauders era or someone rescues kid!Harry after my dad died). But hunger for putting romance in everything is ebbing, and it's less the focus of my to-write list.

Yes, I do like fics that are about or solely dedicate themselves to shipping.

Now, when a non-shipping fic has a ship that becomes a Romantic Plot Tumor, that's when I object.

Yay. Very much Yay. I'm a huge shipper. A shipaholic, if you will. I enjoy reading and writing simple fluff fics a lot. Not to say I don't enjoy other types.

I've written a lot of shipping fics, but I do wish that they were less of a focus in fics and I'm not a fan of the really long shipping fics that're plotless.... I don't mind oneshots, though....

Yay for slow burn shipping fics. I find those a lot more satisfying then shipping fics that rush the romance. Nay for Romantic Plot Tumours. I see that occur way to often for comfort and it's not really excusable considering I have people out there write good plots with romance as a simple side plot that is not really singularly focused on nor drawn attention too.

in a general summary: i think shipping should never be the point of a story. it can come about as a result of the plot, but rarely ever works as the purpose.

the main reason (and this is the same reason I find romance/romantic comedy movies boring as hell) is that the romance itself is generally pretty simple: TALK TO THEM. Admit your interest, go on a date or two, find out if you're compatible, done. Every story needs a conflict, and in romance this tends to come from 2 sources:

1. a freak coincidence.

2. the characters' stupidity.

nearly everything that can hinder a romance can be simply talked about - preferences? hobbies? work schedule? commitments? Either you just be dumb and let all these conflicting things boil over, or you just admit the romance isn't working. There. But romance "plots" tend to force stupidity to drive the plot, which is annoying as hell, or freak accidents that interrupt the romance, which is also annoying as Deus ex Machina.

edited 15th Jul '15 7:53:23 PM by willyolio

Thank you. My god do I see that pop up so often in romance fics that nowadays it's just a instant Red Flag for me to exit the fic immediately. The worst part about it is that there is even Bad Girl characters misunderstanding a situation there boyfriend was involved something going all melodramatic in retribution. Those characters end up feeling very OOC due to that.

I really don't get why there is so many writers trying to create romance conflicts that come off as forced and horribly cliche. I enjoy the fics that show the actual dates or the characters talking to eachother about something. Y'know seeing the characters get to know each other.

. . . What he says.

I am okay with Ship Fics as long as the romance of the characters is second to main stories plot. Hell, Romeo & Juliet main plot focus on the rivalry between their families; the romance only serve as a concurrent aspect to the story.

Otherwise, I say thee nay.

What about fics where the development of the relationship is the focal point?

again, the development of the relationship itself provides no conflict and therefore no climax. it's like watching paint dry; you know that eventually it will be dry, and you already know what colour it is. Stories need conflict and climax of some kind, and it's rare to find conflict within the relationship itself without the characters being idiots.

if the relationship is the main focus and the conflict comes from outside the relationship, then often the conflict feels "fake" or artificial. Like oh, we're on a date, and suddenly my girlfriend gets struck by a meteor. this puts a strain on the relationship, but since the problem was never caused by the relationship itself, it's like padding word count. You could have tossed anything their way; a car crash, bird poop, a burglar, etc.

Mr And Mrs Smith is pretty much the only "shipping" story i've really enjoyed. Yes, the relationship is the central point of the story. And yes, communication with each other is the solution to the problem. In fact, once they actually talk to each other about it, boom, problem is solved.

It's one of those rare premises where it makes absolutely perfect sense for both characters to lie or miscommunicate to each other constantly, without it being an Idiot Ball situation. This is, shall we say, extremely rare in most shipping fics.

Hm, I beg to differ. Granted, the usual conflict in a relationship isn't what you'd expect in a story, but if written correctly, it's there. The conflict isn't in seeing people go for each other's throats, the conflict comes from emotion-driven mistakes and resolving and overcoming those mistakes for the betterment of the couple. Though to be strictly honest, I read more for the interactions between characters than anything else.

(There was gonna be more, but I forgot half of it. I'm not good at this debating stuff.)

Each time I see this thread I wonder if some crazy motherfucker is writing sea stories based around designing, launching, and fighting warships a la Rule the Waves.

(No lie, I would love to read about the misadventures of the aptly-named Maximum Elan◊-class light cruiser.)

But, if we absolutely must have fics about relationships and not fighting ladies of steam and steel, I suppose the answer is: theoretically workable if the relationship is incidental/part of a larger well-written story. Squealing over how cute two people would be together gets old very fast.

edited 21st Jul '15 10:27:14 AM by SabresEdge