How much Ship Tease is too much?

Part question, part discussion

At what point does a little Ship Tease between two characters turn from that into the implication that these characters really are in a cannon relationship of some sort?

For example, two of my characters are pretty much each other's only friend at this point. The guy is having some serious issues in his life, and I'm thinking that even one scene that involves them falling asleep next to each other after an angushed late-night conversation, a'la Katniss and Peeta would permanently cement the idea that these two are a couple in reader's minds.

Or for another example, Alice and Bob are friends. One of them says "I love you" meaning a platonic, True Companions type of love. Is that too much, or does it depend on the context?

So, basically, at what point does it cross the line from a Ship Tease to a full-on, cannon UST, in your opinion?

ANY OF IT.

Seriously, I'm not sure it's a good idea to ever consciously write Ship Tease between characters you don't intend to actually have any attraction to each other. Fans will do whatever the hell they want, but I don't see how it benefits your story to put in subtext that couldn't conceivably be text.

Those specific examples, however, actually do sound like they would be dependent on context.

I think Ship Tease is only ever worthwhile in episodic series, where creators seem to use it to stop their audience from getting bored with the OTP.

I tend to see them as synonymous, UST and ship-teasing most of what you need will be in how the characters react to each other. Most hints can be done just through standard interaction there really isn't any reason to add in any conscious ship-teasing, it's predictable and heavy-handed.

If you're consciously teasing, then at some point it'll have to get a relationship upgrade. Especially if they become a fan-preferred couple. (Please note that you can ship the fan-preferred couple without hating the official couple.)

It depends a great deal on form. The more blatant and obvious it is, the less wise it is to have it meant as something serious or something expected to be seriously replied to.

Isn't that kind of backwards? The more blatant it is, the less likely you should be to have anything serious come of it?

I...didn't say that? Pretty sure I did; "more blatant and obvious" therefore "less serious and less meant to have a serious response". Reread?

edited 29th Sep '14 3:21:53 PM by Night

Whether the teased couple "should" be a couple depends heavily on the kind of teasing and the skill of the writer. If your teasing is the slapstick and comic-relief kind, of course nobody's going to expect anything serious—unless you're really, really good at either a Cerebus Retcon, Deconstruction, or Reconstruction. (Alternately, you should be really good at writing comedic beta-couples.)

But if your teasing has a similar style as the official couple's relationship development, and more importantly if you treat it as a meaningful relationship development, then people will start wanting something serious to happen.

edited 29th Sep '14 5:10:41 PM by Sharysa

Thanks for all the responses, everyone. I guess on a second consideration, I agree with most of the posters here.

Like I said, the pair in question are RPG protagonists who travel together and have a front-row seat to each others triumphs, struggles, and inner demons. They eventually become close friends. I know people are going to ship them no matter what I do, but I suppose that that means I should cut down on the Ship Tease even more, since it would just encourage that. Not that I mind people shipping stuff, but I don't want to create a situation where everyone hates the cannon pairings.

I think I might possibly have titled my thread wrong for what I was trying to ask (it was late and I was tired, lol), but this discussion is actually probably interesting than what I meant and I don't mind it at all.

@Night: I'm not sure how to take this

as meaning anything other than "the more blatant you make Ship Tease, the less you should intend to have anything serious come of it". Which, again, seems kind of backwards.

No, it's forwards. Being direct can work if you can low-key it; being blatant and direct is far more likely to be annoying than successful. This is true in both a character-to-character sense (everyone go listen to Enrique Iglesias' "Tonight I'm Fucking You" and then come back and tell me that line works) and the author's approach to the reader. Transparent attempts to pander to the shipping fans or to manipulate fans into shipping a certain couple are more likely to backfire than succeed.

If someone's going to be really obvious in their approach, either author or character should play it off somehow, either as weird, humorous, a deliberate ploy to confuse/shock, or an acknowledgement that in some other situation they'd be making a serious attempt but the current one means you get this not-serious and not-intended-to-succeed attempt instead. The less direct the approach is, the more serious an attempt it can afford to be.

edited 29th Sep '14 11:16:37 PM by Night

Ah, that makes much more sense. I wasn't thinking in terms of the character being obvious about it.