So, about W13
There was a bit of bait in last night's premiere for both the traditional (hook up the leads) het ship and the quite non-traditional slash one (a f/f ship with canon elements.)
But then there was an interview that came out today with the person playing the pivotal character in this scenario in which she basically sank the het ship and fueled the fire for the f/f one.
Oh. My.
Add in the canon gay character and a few instances of slash-writes-itself between him and the male lead? Yeah.
I'm one of those weirdos who, while I consider myself a slasher at heart, I don't get why anyone would have a problem with het in and of itself. And vice versa. Different strokes, all that. The squee from the high-school-handholding crowd can get a bit deafening at times, especially when it starts getting into RL shipping, but beyond that, hey, if someone either wants or doesn't want female sexuality in their romance, it's really only a matter of personal taste.
That said, traditional het shipping is far and away the most dominant form of character fanthinging, so when a show deliberately sets that trope on its ear, I find it utterly fascinating. I only truly gloat about sinking ships in the case of people who have been shitty or obnoxious about it to others (especially if that comes with a side of homophobia, as it often does) but from a broader sociological perspective, I also do find the reactions to that sort of thing fascinating. As I mentioned a while back, it's interesting to see het shippers having to struggle to justify their ship, when that's something that slashers and rare-pair-ers do as a matter of course (usually by just ignoring canon entirely.)
I admit that I really would love to see more of this happen on other shows. I'm seeing a lot more of the not-pairing-the-leads thing going on, which is great, but throwing a deliberate slash ship in on the side of that is really quite remarkable, and I think we're at the point now where we can get away with doing that more, even in non-adult-aimed shows.
I would love seeing Primeval, for instance, playing with this idea if it goes to s6. Say, introducing a potential male love interest for Becker while also doing more deliberate establishment of the fag-hag/little sister vibe with Jess. Not because I necessarily have anything against Becker/Jess (though some of the young shippers into that do rub me the wrong way.) And actually not even because I'm dying to see Mansfield paired up with some other hot guy. But because of how subversive doing such a thing would be. Macho action man with a boycrush? When do you see that? The fact that his orientation was left canonically ambiguous was actually pretty astonishing in itself, and seeing them go further down that path would be awesome.
Alas, Primeval, while unconventional in many ways (the gender-role reversal with Connor and Abby, for instance), probably wouldn't go there. But I still wouldn't mind seeing that on other shows. Imagine if Leverage made Eliot canon bi. Whoa. ;)
There was a bit of bait in last night's premiere for both the traditional (hook up the leads) het ship and the quite non-traditional slash one (a f/f ship with canon elements.)
But then there was an interview that came out today with the person playing the pivotal character in this scenario in which she basically sank the het ship and fueled the fire for the f/f one.
Oh. My.
Add in the canon gay character and a few instances of slash-writes-itself between him and the male lead? Yeah.
I'm one of those weirdos who, while I consider myself a slasher at heart, I don't get why anyone would have a problem with het in and of itself. And vice versa. Different strokes, all that. The squee from the high-school-handholding crowd can get a bit deafening at times, especially when it starts getting into RL shipping, but beyond that, hey, if someone either wants or doesn't want female sexuality in their romance, it's really only a matter of personal taste.
That said, traditional het shipping is far and away the most dominant form of character fanthinging, so when a show deliberately sets that trope on its ear, I find it utterly fascinating. I only truly gloat about sinking ships in the case of people who have been shitty or obnoxious about it to others (especially if that comes with a side of homophobia, as it often does) but from a broader sociological perspective, I also do find the reactions to that sort of thing fascinating. As I mentioned a while back, it's interesting to see het shippers having to struggle to justify their ship, when that's something that slashers and rare-pair-ers do as a matter of course (usually by just ignoring canon entirely.)
I admit that I really would love to see more of this happen on other shows. I'm seeing a lot more of the not-pairing-the-leads thing going on, which is great, but throwing a deliberate slash ship in on the side of that is really quite remarkable, and I think we're at the point now where we can get away with doing that more, even in non-adult-aimed shows.
I would love seeing Primeval, for instance, playing with this idea if it goes to s6. Say, introducing a potential male love interest for Becker while also doing more deliberate establishment of the fag-hag/little sister vibe with Jess. Not because I necessarily have anything against Becker/Jess (though some of the young shippers into that do rub me the wrong way.) And actually not even because I'm dying to see Mansfield paired up with some other hot guy. But because of how subversive doing such a thing would be. Macho action man with a boycrush? When do you see that? The fact that his orientation was left canonically ambiguous was actually pretty astonishing in itself, and seeing them go further down that path would be awesome.
Alas, Primeval, while unconventional in many ways (the gender-role reversal with Connor and Abby, for instance), probably wouldn't go there. But I still wouldn't mind seeing that on other shows. Imagine if Leverage made Eliot canon bi. Whoa. ;)