Shipping and AO3

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I wrote up something here in response to The Niche which was based on this on tumblr.

Feel free to respond here or there. Thought we could use a conversation starter.

Comments

[schneefink]

I started reading the Niche article and the first response to a pairing was not to comment on the character/relationship dynamics but to note that it would be so much better if they had a boyfriend the same age, and that's where I realized that this article is really not for me. I get way too annoyed at people judging others for their shipping preferences.

[chelseagirl]

Reading this and still feeling very much the fandom outsider for my interest in female characters, whether in f/f f/m or gen relationships . . .

[feurioo]

That Tumblr also posted the shipping stats for 2019.

Glad to see that the usual F/F suspects, but I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be any Captain Marvel/She-Ra content, to be honest. I don't follow either fandom, but judging from my Tumblr dash, I'd somehow assumed that they were these big fandom juggernauts.


Feeling sentimental over:

- Mulder/Scully: My first REAL OTP! Also my first real fandom. Still remember reading that super clichéd "Mulder and Scully go camping" fic and how it made 11-year-old me swoon.

- Harry Potter/Snape: Not gonna lie, my 12-year-old edgelord self shipped this for a second. However, afterwards, I never really "got" it despite reading some really good fic featuring the two together.


Other thoughts:

- Bond/Q: Knowing nothing about James Bond, little ol' me was super happy to find out that Bond/Q produced so much fic because I somehow assumed that Judi Dench was Q. Was disappointed to learn that she wasn't. There's, fortunately, still some very steamy A+ Bond/M content out there.

- Jack Harkness/Ianto: I only ever heard other people talking about this pairing that sounded really epic until I finally succumbed and watched Torchwood about two years ago. And can I just say... that it was not what I expected? Considering the Jack/Gwen stuff going on, I somehow just felt let down.

[moetushie]

Not sure what to say about the list from the Niche, which I’ve never heard of before now, except it super doesn’t seem worth reading.

[megpie71]

Okay, the article on "The Niche" reads like the author was deliberately looking for something to piss them off in pretty much every single one of the ships presented. Which, to be honest, I bounce off good and hard. I'm Australian - if I want manufactured outrage for the sake of outrage, I can read the Murdoch media (or I can read about the manufactured outrage in the Murdoch media in the other 30% of our media environment). This is what we have Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones for, after all.

That said, given it didn't even mention any of the fandoms I write in (which says a lot about the relative obscurity of video games fandom - all of the mentioned fandoms were mainstream media productions which ran over a number of years) I found it all somewhat dull.

(I can go on for hours about various ships in Final Fantasy VII; I'm reasonably good with Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2; and I'm starting to bounce off the fandom's favourite ship in Persona 5).

[kalloway]

Oh, I saw that Niche link earlier, clicked through and skimmed a bit til it was blindingly obvious that it was just terrible clickbait. I suppose it's good that it's getting people talking, at least, even if it's mostly about how bad the piece is.

(I'd be tempted to write a response, too, but it's a waste of energy when I only know most of the canons/characters thru osmosis.)