By sora-ko on deviantART. Check out the full comic.
Here I’ll explore the philosophical paradigm that overlays our understanding of how synergistic behaviors are maintained in an ethical society.
Just kidding.
This is about fans, known as shippers, that really want non-existent people to get it on. They want it enough that they engage in shipping on the couple’s behalf – writing romance and/or porn, drawing pictures, compiling clips into music videos, or just arguing that they belong together. Then when they encounter others who disagree, they can engage in ship-to-ship combat. Many epic battles of this type have been waged since communication became rampant, and here are seven of the biggest.
Spoilers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
1. Spirk vs Spuhura
While the term “shipping” didn’t show up until the X-Files came along, Kirk and Spock were some of the first characters to be shipped to ridiculous excess. Kirk and Spock shipping was abbreviated to Kirk/Spock, and then just “/” or “slash.” Then “slash” became the term for any gay ship, particularly those with men.
Fast forward to the 21st Century, when acceptance for gay lifestyles has made huge gains, and the original Star Trek movies are being rebooted. All those slashers were hoping Kirk and Spock could finally be together. Instead, Spock was paired with Uhura. Angry disappointment followed.
There isn’t much basis in the original TV show for a Uhura/Spock romance. They share perhaps one scene of friendly affection, and Uhura had the first interracial kiss on air with Kirk. But they had to raise Uhura’s social importance somehow, and pairing her with Spock is better than further inflating Kirk’s ego.
2. Bangel vs Spuffy
While both Angel and Spike are vampires with souls (at times, anyway), they are very different characters, and their relationships with Buffy are very different. Angel and Buffy are romantic, star-crossed lovers – but they’re also cheesy and melodramatic. Buffy and Spike’s relationship is gritty, realistic and passionate – but at times unhealthy and mutually abusive. Anyone who ships for one side can find plenty to dislike in the other.
If only Joss Whedon could leave a character in the Buffyverse dead, this wouldn’t be such a debate. Instead, each undead love interest got his time with Buffy, was utterly annihilated, and then somehow made it back to the world of the living. Naturally, their new lives didn’t include Buffy, but left open the possibility that their relationship could be resumed someday.
3. Team Edward vs Team Jacob
Choosing between two hunks must be a common female fantasy, because it pops up in a lot of stories with female protagonists. And every time, there is a shipping war over which one the heroine should pick. In this case, Team Jacob was fighting uphill. Bella was always on Team Edward, and let’s face it, the writer’s white, Bella’s white, Edward’s white, Jacob is not… you can predict what the outcome is going to be.
I don’t have much more to say on this, because I haven’t read any of the Twilight books. If you have, fill me in with a comment.
4. Zutara vs Kataang
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a cartoon run by Nickelodeon. Like most Nickelodeon shows it was made for kids, and in particular, boys. That’s why they chose a twelve-year-old boy, Aang, as the main protagonist. Katara, a more mature girl, was chosen as his love interest. Since they thought their audience would identify with Aang, he pined for Katara, instead of Katara pining for him.
But as it turned out, their show was popular with adult women. And skinny, twelve-year-old Aang wasn’t much of a heart-throb. Instead, many fans fixated on dark and brooding Zuko as a love interest for Katara. But Aang is still the hero, and he’s got canon.
5. Gabrielle & Xena vs Xena & Ares
Popular stories were still completely neglecting gay romance back when Xena was producing new episodes. So even though Xena and Gabrielle were supposedly straight, the chemistry between them felt so right that a lot of gay fans began shipping them.
The writers noticed this, and though they wouldn’t make the pair gay outright, they started adding innuendos and bits of sexual tension. The straight Xena/Ares shippers were outraged by this, insisting the writers should stop pandering. Then the Gabrielle/Xena shippers called the Xena/Ares shippers homophobic. No doubt some of them were, but straight shippers fight pretty dirty even without gay romance as their adversary.
6. Willabeth vs Sparrabeth
Putting Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp in the same movie was just asking for trouble. It didn’t help that Depp stole the first movie with his performance, but the Bloom’s character got the girl.
When Pirates of the Caribbean was in its heyday, the ship-to-ship combat was so intense that it hijacked entire forums, forcing some threads to be shutdown and the sides forcefully separated.
Though Will ultimately won canon, the writers pandered to multiple groups. In the beginning Elizabeth was reserved and completely devoted to Will, but by the end she had kissed almost everyone.
7. Harry & Hermione vs Hermione & Ron
I think Rowling intended Hermione as a quirky sidekick – endearing, but too much of a stuffy know-it-all to be the love interest for her hero. However, taking an objective look at what happens in the series, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Hermione is superior to Harry in almost every way, and leagues ahead of Ron. So naturally, a lot of fans felt that for once, the brainiac should get the guy. They even had their own fanatical fringe, the Harmonians (you don’t really want to follow that link).
But Rowling created Ginny to be Harry’s dream girl, and was intent on pairing up the contrasting sidekicks. Naturally many fans thought this was great. Ron and Hermione shippers allied with the Harry and Ginny shippers, and fought on behalf of what would become canon. The battle reached its climax during the era of the Half-Blood Prince, when Rowling made the mistake of chuckling after an interviewer called Harry & Hermione shippers delusional – creating outrage that flooded the entire interwebs.
I have to confess – everything I’ve just told you is an over-simplification. Ship-to-ship combat most often involves not just two, but many factions. In every battle between two heterosexual couples there will be slashers who pair up the ends. And some who think they should all be a trio, or a quartet. Then there’s the party-poopers who don’t want any romance at all, or insist it’s getting in the way of the main plot.
Is Shipping Weird?
It certainly can be. Rule #34 works for shipping too; every possible combination of characters, even those from different stories, of vastly different ages, or just downright physically incompatible with each other, will be shipped. However, most shipping caters to tastes that are common, and therefore, not weird. I’m sorry to rob you of your naiveté by informing you that Snape is a common subject of lust. Well… no, I’m not.
If you’ve ever been interested in any romance, in any story you’ve encountered, you know what it is to be a shipper. There might be others that are more passionate or just more vocal about it than you, but the same goes for fans of your favorite baseball team. Ship-to-ship combat is really just romance sports. Unfortunately, like sports competition, it can be taken too far. Playful debate is fun and healthy, but mean-spirited cyber mobs are not.
I Leave You With This Important Message
Soulful Spike and Buffy for the win!!!
P.S. Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in?
Always thought Angel was better with Cordelia anyway. They were a quirky and fun couple to watch.
While I was converted to the cause of Buffy/Oz.
J.K. Rowling actually admitted that she made a mistake with her pairings. She’d gotten too caught up with her idea of who should be with who early on and didn’t change it when she should have.
When did she say this? I thought she’d always said that for most of the series she intended on killing Ron and having Hermione end up with Harry. I’d love to see the quote where she said either one. Personally I put Hermione with Draco ;) .
His father would have a heart attack, so two thumbs up for that. :D
I always wondered how true that was, because it seemed like for at least books 4 and 5 she intended Ginny and Neville to be together.
Oz/Willow/Tara V-shaped of course, without Tara-Oz love, would have been one of those silver-bullet solutions. Pun intended.
Xena belongs with Ares, end of story!!
Well, this is the first I’ve heard of this term though I knew the phenomena. Apparently I’m in the Romitri ship from Vampire Academy. I was never really affected by literary romances but I got into that one. Oh well, at least I didn’t go overboard with it! Lol
the true ship war in the harry potter fandom is drarry vs dramione though……!!!
anyways, staying in the realms of realistic options, i never understood people shipping harry and hermione. theyve got absolutely no romantic chemistry (jkr made sure of that) and it was pretty obvious pretty early on that hermione and ron would end up together. im not saying ron is ideal for her, but way better than harry. also, i always understood why hermione would choose ron in the end. im not saying i think they would stay together for the rest of their days, but during that time it made sense they would start a relationship imo.
I suspect the reason so many people expected Hermione and Harry to get together is that they are the female and male characters with the most screen time. That’s it really. It’s how a lot of stories go, and it’s ingrained in us.
I think Ron IS ideal for Hermione. You can’t have two alphas in a relationship, there’s no room for compromise. Though relationships are equal partnerships, two people who want to be in charge don’t’ work. One needs to be able to make the hard decisions. (same reason two Betas won’t work.)
Harry grew into an Alpha, and Hermione was already one.
I can’t picture Hermione being willing to live in Harry’s shadow. ‘oh, you’re the wife of that famous wizard’. Eventually, her resentment would lead to divorce.
Ron was always a beta. There’s nothing wrong with being a Beta, except Betas can’t end up with other Betas. No one would make the hard choices. Besides, looking at Ron’s home life, his mother was clearly more “Alpha” than his father. So Ron’s already used to the wife being the ‘alpha’. He’s not only fine with that, he expects that.
Harry and Hermione both needed betas. And they found them.That makes for a happy ending.
Amazing way of putting it! I wholeheartedly agreed with the way Rowling ended the series, everyone seemed perfect together. And yeah, with Ron and Hermione, it’s pretty clear who would wear the pants in that marriage.
Except Ron has spent his entire life in someone or other’s shadow, and has gotten jealous of his friends’ success more than once. I do think that when they left Hogwarts, the two of them made sense, but I don’t think that Ron would have been able to handle Hermione’s career. He doesn’t have the temperament to be a stay-at-home Dad, and with he and Harry both being Aurors, he’s going to spend the rest of his life in their shadow. I really don’t think he could be happy with her, and I think he understood Hermione well enough to make her happy. After nineteen years, I think they would’ve moved on.
Spuffy for the win. Like I don’t need more excuses to love this amazing blog! Keep up the great work.
Spirk is my OTP don’t hate on it.
To the Spirk shippers and Spirk-curious: I found this amazing site, K/S Archive (Kirk/Spock Archive) filled with (mostly VERY high-quality) Spirk fanfics, short and long. And if you want to read a specific story that’s no yet out there, you can post a challenge request! Cool, right?
*not yet out there
I shipped Harry and Luna. For me Luna would be a better partner than Hermione or Gina to him.
High five! We totes ship Luna & Harry here at Mythcreants.
I’ve shipped Neville and Luna for a bit, because they’d make a nice, balanced couple for me – Luna would provide the unusual and less conservative view for Neville and he’d be her steady rock to rely on.
I don’t actively ship any Potter couples, but I agree nonetheless.
Nowadays it’s very rare to come across an article like this. And it’s even rarer that I read a full article without getting bored. I read this one beginning to end. Brilliant!
“I think Rowling intended Hermione as a quirky sidekick – endearing, but too much of a stuffy know-it-all to be the love interest for her hero.”
I am pretty sure Rowling has admitted to Hermione being her self-insert. (It really shows you the difference between Rowling and a lot of male authors that her self-insert can be mistaken for a quirky sidekick.)
The reason Hermione ended up with Ron even though they’ll probably need marriage counseling is fuzzy, but from what Rowling hinted at, I think she had a crush on a guy like Ron when she was young, and it was a bit of wish-fulfillment.
That said, I am not hugely invested in her getting with Harry. I would have been fine with the three of them just being friends and her getting with the guy she took to the Yule ball.
Yes, the famous Quidditch star asking out the quirky know-it-all who was considered so unattractive by her own friends that they were certain she didn’t have a date … it would have been cheesy. But I like cheesy.
I love that Harry and Hermione didn’t end up together. I think it’s great that there is a plutonic male/female friendship at the heart of the best selling book series of all time, especially as this is so rare in fiction. If Hermione had ended up with Harry it would have reduced her character to the generic love interest and encouraged the idea that the only role a woman can have in a badass team is a romantic one. It would also have reduced Ron to a third wheeling sidekick and propagated the idea that Harry is superior to Ron in every way (which he really isn’t). Ron and Hermione have way more romantic chemistry in the books but the problem is that the film director actually shipped Harry and Hermione so really upped the cute moments between them while downplaying Ron’s character a lot, so it’s not surprising so manny people ended up shipping Harmione.
My favorite Harry Potter ship is Draco and the apple he carries around during Prisoner of Azkaban: Drapple. (Google it! It’s insane!)
Also, Chris, you’ll be pleased to know that Stacy Abrams, the Georgia congresswoman, also writes Spuffy fanfic.
Of course, myself I’m a big fan of NaruSasu, the predominant but sadly non-canon Naruto ship. Hinata, Naruto’s canon love interest, has a similar problem to Ginny. Hinata’s a ninja but not nearly as competent as Naruto and friends, and she just doesn’t get as much development. Naruto/Sakura isn’t really supported much because Sakura is widely hated by the fanbase. So that just leaves Naruto/Sasuke. Naruto apparently has an unusually high proportion of female fans for a shonen mainly because its main ship is yaoi. I didn’t know about the pairing when I started watching, but now I do and I’m better off for it.
I can add some detail on the Twilight situation. First off, Jacob is kinda-sorta the “childhood friend” option in that Jacob’s dad is Bella’s dad’s best friend, and they used to sometimes hang out as kids before the first book started. I think when they’re reintroduced in Twilight Jacob recognizes her but not vice-versa, which sets the tone. He only becomes a potential love interest in the second book and only then to the extent that Bella considers settling for him after Edward dumps her in a particularly meanspirited fashion. But Edward comes back, and after that Jacob has basically no chance. Aside from werewolf vs vampire preferences, Team Jacob shippers can be motivated by the fact that Jacob is much less controlling and dismissive of Bella than Edward is… at least in Book 2. When Book 3 was published, I think Meyer realized that Jacob was making Edward look like too much of a jerk, so: she made Jacob even more of a jerk, including nonconsensual kissing, hooray!
Did people really think that Zuko is this hot-mature type that is brooding and awesome like Sasuke? Because I always found Zuko, despite being the oldest of the gang, the most immature and bratty child in the story. He gets very easily angry, never acts with reason, and constantly chases the affection of a guy who clearly never loved him. He is more immature than Aang, who by this time grew to become more manly and mature, and he was already the most mature and adult person in the group. No one is as empathic as he is, and he is the most open to everything and more well-behaved than even Katara, who despite being viewed as a mommy, is actually very childish and pretends to be mature, but she is pretty impulsive and not very diplomatic, unlike Aang. She has more in common with her personality quirks with Zuko, but she needs someone as rational and level-headed as Aang.
Aang is the perfect partner for Katara, no one fits the bill. He also worked hard to earn her love, so it wasn’t “granted”, it was the reward for just being someone Katara wanted and needed, and it’s made clear that this is the path they would take long before the ending.
Ok but how are you going to omit Steve/Bucky vs Steve/Peggy?