...to the now-entirely-obnoxious shipper babble of the past few days:
If it wasn't clear, I'm not trying to make a case for my ship being canon. Just kind of flipping out that it's not yet been unequivocally declared not canon (by general fic standards) because that's almost unheard of for slash, OTx and rare pair ships.
Also, as an aside, some of this stuff came to mind due to a recent conversation in Warehouse 13 fandom. There's appparently been a bit of ongoing shipping/het-v-slash bickering there regarding a damned-near-canon f/f pair. One half of that pair is hardcore shipped with the male lead for that show, despite it being made clear they only see each other in a sibling way. The other half of the pair turned out to be canon bi, and her actress has done a bunch of f/f scenes in other work, which only fueled the f/f ship. And there's now a new male character... who's canon gay.
So aside from a few guests who come in to love up folks here and there, there are actually no traditional het canon ships on this show at all. Which is, of course, weird, and what I think is actually causing the flailing.
See, I don't think most het-exclusive shippers are used to having to do the kind of logic contortions and handwaving us slashers and other sorts have been doing as a matter of habit for decades. Probably 80% of the time, the m/f pair that most fans ship ends up going canon at some point (see: Mulder/Scully), and the only source of flailing comes in when there are two equally plausible partners for our hero/ine (see: Jack/Kate/Sawyer.) Het shippers are used to being listened to and catered to by TPTB, rather than used to trying to justify their non-canon ship. When they demand that Pretty Girl X and Handsome Guy Y hook up, that's what happens on the show. When slashers demand that Handsome Guy Y instead hooks up with Handsome Guy Z? Not so much. We often do get a lot of deliberate slashbait thrown at us, but we never get the payoff. We get a few canon s/s pairs, but we don't get the fun UST dance with them. A progressive, will-they-won't-they love story with a s/s pair basically never happens. The queer characters are either theoretically celibate or in an established relationship that gets no storyline.
So in this fandom, the fact that the big tease WRT shipping was that f/f pair, and that was the ONLY big tease kind of brewed up quite a little storm. I think the het shippers felt indignant that they were having to make a case for their pair because they've never had to do that outside of traditional shipper wars. Like anyone used to privilege, they're upset at having to do the work that the non-privileged folks do by rote.
I only just started looking at that fandom (been a fan of the show, but not gone paddling in fandom waters) but I may actually do more of that now that it's back again, because I'm very interested to see how they handle the new dynamics. Could be that the show may have some audience issues this go without a traditional het ship around to attract those viewers who need that. We'll have to see.
So anyway, WRT my own ship, it's just kind of the reverse of the W13 situation. Just surprised that I really don't have to work very hard to make it canon plausible. Obviously, it's still an unusual enough scenario that it won't ever have a huge cadre of fellow shippers like traditional het or slash ships, but I do feel kinda tickled that it's so damned easy at this point.
If it wasn't clear, I'm not trying to make a case for my ship being canon. Just kind of flipping out that it's not yet been unequivocally declared not canon (by general fic standards) because that's almost unheard of for slash, OTx and rare pair ships.
Also, as an aside, some of this stuff came to mind due to a recent conversation in Warehouse 13 fandom. There's appparently been a bit of ongoing shipping/het-v-slash bickering there regarding a damned-near-canon f/f pair. One half of that pair is hardcore shipped with the male lead for that show, despite it being made clear they only see each other in a sibling way. The other half of the pair turned out to be canon bi, and her actress has done a bunch of f/f scenes in other work, which only fueled the f/f ship. And there's now a new male character... who's canon gay.
So aside from a few guests who come in to love up folks here and there, there are actually no traditional het canon ships on this show at all. Which is, of course, weird, and what I think is actually causing the flailing.
See, I don't think most het-exclusive shippers are used to having to do the kind of logic contortions and handwaving us slashers and other sorts have been doing as a matter of habit for decades. Probably 80% of the time, the m/f pair that most fans ship ends up going canon at some point (see: Mulder/Scully), and the only source of flailing comes in when there are two equally plausible partners for our hero/ine (see: Jack/Kate/Sawyer.) Het shippers are used to being listened to and catered to by TPTB, rather than used to trying to justify their non-canon ship. When they demand that Pretty Girl X and Handsome Guy Y hook up, that's what happens on the show. When slashers demand that Handsome Guy Y instead hooks up with Handsome Guy Z? Not so much. We often do get a lot of deliberate slashbait thrown at us, but we never get the payoff. We get a few canon s/s pairs, but we don't get the fun UST dance with them. A progressive, will-they-won't-they love story with a s/s pair basically never happens. The queer characters are either theoretically celibate or in an established relationship that gets no storyline.
So in this fandom, the fact that the big tease WRT shipping was that f/f pair, and that was the ONLY big tease kind of brewed up quite a little storm. I think the het shippers felt indignant that they were having to make a case for their pair because they've never had to do that outside of traditional shipper wars. Like anyone used to privilege, they're upset at having to do the work that the non-privileged folks do by rote.
I only just started looking at that fandom (been a fan of the show, but not gone paddling in fandom waters) but I may actually do more of that now that it's back again, because I'm very interested to see how they handle the new dynamics. Could be that the show may have some audience issues this go without a traditional het ship around to attract those viewers who need that. We'll have to see.
So anyway, WRT my own ship, it's just kind of the reverse of the W13 situation. Just surprised that I really don't have to work very hard to make it canon plausible. Obviously, it's still an unusual enough scenario that it won't ever have a huge cadre of fellow shippers like traditional het or slash ships, but I do feel kinda tickled that it's so damned easy at this point.