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Shipping and fanfiction
I am having all kinds of thoughts about shipping and writing fanfiction. Since I do both currently and very unexpectedly – for myself.
I tried to think about my shipping choices – and it’s mostly canon. There must be something beside subtext or wishful thinking for me to feel strongly about two characters together. The most uncanonical ship I love is Buffy/Faith, and honestly, subtext is so think, it’s text. I mean, I read and enjoyed all kinds of ships back in the day, even wrote some silly stuff, but I never cared about them as passionately as I did about Buffy and Spike.
Later on, I liked some ships and disliked some without any strong passion. I never felt the need to “improve the canon” or change it. If I hated the direction the show turned, I dropped it (hello, Sleepy Hollow). If I grew bored, I slowly drifted away (hello Once Upon a Time – I loved most of main relationships, but was tired of them running in circles).
But yeah, as much as I love smart AU, digging up in canon is the most fun for me.
Now, having found myself in Avatar (the last airbender and the Legend of Korra) fandom I ship all the canon ships, and realize that that is highly unpopular fannish opinion.
I didn’t care very strongly at first – I was happy with how everything turned out, the characters were kids, I am not very much into kids’ romances.
But after getting it and realizing that shipping wars to end all wars are still raging, I felt like dusting off my old “defence of spuffy” medals and going in to defend my beloved characters from abuse. I didn’t, of course. But it was one of the reasons I started to write. And yes, I have all kinds of feels about Zuko and Mai, but I also have a ton on gen fanfics in my head.
I used to write a lot of meta instead of fanfiction. Now, it seems I write fanfiction as a kind of meta. Trying to get into a character’s head and see the world from their point of view. It’s amazing. Right now, writing POV of Ty Lee (secondary character, mostly chipper and full of cheer on screen), as fully canon compliant as I can, I discovered an abyss of anger and bitterness and trauma she hides from most of the world. The series and the comics do touch a bit on that, but they never give her enough to do and say.
And there are so many things to write about that follow the canon – pre-stories, and post-stories, and in-between stories, and character studies… I am very grateful for the return of the feeling joy at the writing process (there is a lot of frustration, too, but joy! It’s so welcomed)
I tried to think about my shipping choices – and it’s mostly canon. There must be something beside subtext or wishful thinking for me to feel strongly about two characters together. The most uncanonical ship I love is Buffy/Faith, and honestly, subtext is so think, it’s text. I mean, I read and enjoyed all kinds of ships back in the day, even wrote some silly stuff, but I never cared about them as passionately as I did about Buffy and Spike.
Later on, I liked some ships and disliked some without any strong passion. I never felt the need to “improve the canon” or change it. If I hated the direction the show turned, I dropped it (hello, Sleepy Hollow). If I grew bored, I slowly drifted away (hello Once Upon a Time – I loved most of main relationships, but was tired of them running in circles).
But yeah, as much as I love smart AU, digging up in canon is the most fun for me.
Now, having found myself in Avatar (the last airbender and the Legend of Korra) fandom I ship all the canon ships, and realize that that is highly unpopular fannish opinion.
I didn’t care very strongly at first – I was happy with how everything turned out, the characters were kids, I am not very much into kids’ romances.
But after getting it and realizing that shipping wars to end all wars are still raging, I felt like dusting off my old “defence of spuffy” medals and going in to defend my beloved characters from abuse. I didn’t, of course. But it was one of the reasons I started to write. And yes, I have all kinds of feels about Zuko and Mai, but I also have a ton on gen fanfics in my head.
I used to write a lot of meta instead of fanfiction. Now, it seems I write fanfiction as a kind of meta. Trying to get into a character’s head and see the world from their point of view. It’s amazing. Right now, writing POV of Ty Lee (secondary character, mostly chipper and full of cheer on screen), as fully canon compliant as I can, I discovered an abyss of anger and bitterness and trauma she hides from most of the world. The series and the comics do touch a bit on that, but they never give her enough to do and say.
And there are so many things to write about that follow the canon – pre-stories, and post-stories, and in-between stories, and character studies… I am very grateful for the return of the feeling joy at the writing process (there is a lot of frustration, too, but joy! It’s so welcomed)