User blog:IEmbargo/On Shippers and Shipping - Part One

Thank you for reading this.

As you might have guessed, I do not ship any romantic couples of any sort. However, I have a lot of experience with shippers going back to 1976. My primary reason for coming to this site was my curiosity about the iCarly fandom, its ship warring, its passionate fan base, and its well-above-average fan fiction; my reason for initially posting and then writing this blog is to try and give everyone a point of reference so that people like SeddieIceCream don't get blasted by people who don't ship what they ship to the point that they are considering suicide. I will not claim that my belief against the "meant to be" aspect of shipping is a good one; I only claim that it works for me.

The first point about shipping is that although you probably have rational reasons for saying that your ship is "meant to be," odds are that your belief in it is 100% emotional. You almost certainly have what to you are very good reasons for believing in the ship; odds are the more passionate you affection for it, the more likely it is that it touches some very personal chords with you.

If there is a competing ship, you probably dislike it; odds are that the more passionately you support your ship, the more viscerally you will dislike the competing ship(s). Thus, if someone insults your ship or the character of the people who like that ship, you are likely to take it very personally because it has that strong emotional bond to you. Remember, though, that people who follow the competing ship(s) are in the same place as you are. Their belief in that ship is just as honest are yours. So if you diss their ship, expect them to take umbrage at your commentary. This is how ship wars are begun and are sustained.

Odds are if your ship has been around for a while and has a large following, you probably see "hints" being dropped within the show. Some of these are legitimate; some of these are your reaction to something other than romance that is occurring; some of these are from sloppy writing; and some of these are unconscious action by the actors involved. Remember that the same caveats apply to any competing ships. Thus, what you see as a legitimate hint in your OTP's direction will be viewed completely differently by those with a different OTP and vice-versa.

Next: Most Shippers I Know Chose a Ship Because...