If you’re involved in any fandom then you know about the highs and lows of wanting two characters together, aka shipping. But when it comes to the actual material of the show in question, and the end result, I’ve come to the realization that ships should not be the deciding factor on the success of a show.
Shipping can be found in fandoms of every type — television shows, books, and yes sometimes movies — and while this article points out the pitfalls of shipping something too much mostly in television, the theory definitely holds against book and movies ships as well.
Let me first start by stating that I absolutely love shipping characters. As the guy who runs Hypable’s shipping tournament, BattleShips, I think it’s a great way to get into fandom. I just think there’s more to fandom than just ships.
For many fans their favorite ship is an accent — the cherry on top of a magnificent fictional sundae — but for others that ship is the entire thing — the ice cream, the whipped cream and the cherry. Lately it seems that shipping has gone so far that many shippers decide to boycott a show or series if it doesn’t sail their way, and I’m of the opinion that it isn’t fair to do that — not to the writers, the creators or the actors.
The recent outrage over Rumbelle on Once Upon a Time is what brought this to my attention, but shipping this way extends far beyond just one show on one network. It happens everywhere!
For those of you who don’t know what/who Rumbelle is, it’s the pairing of Rumpelstiltskin and Belle on Once Upon a Time. Non-viewers should know that since Once Upon a Time likes to twist classic tales around, Rumpelstiltskin has become, essentially, Belle’s Beast. This ship is particularly complicated, but all you non-viewers need to know is that the show has recently split them apart and introduced a new love interest for Belle this past season, and shippers are definitely unhappy about it.
On one hand, upset shippers are just the price to pay when you pair two characters together for a long time and then end up breaking them apart, regardless of how sound their breakup reasoning is or how evil one of the characters might be. But since Belle has shown affection towards another man, many Rumbelle shippers have vowed to not watch the show, insulting the creators and stating that their decision on this ship’s direction has completely ruined all of Once Upon a Time for them. Now that, in my humble opinion, is not fair to the writers or creators of the show.
Like I said, this extends to more than just one show, and Once Upon a Time is just an example. Putting it aside, this exact shipping phenomena happens all the time in fandom. I’m not standing on a soap box trying to convince Rumbelle shippers they’re being unfair, because it’s okay to be mad about your ship being torn apart. But is it fair to judge the success of the entire fandom based on the outcome of one ship?
If you really want to simplify fandom, it’s essentially made of two types of people: The people who enter a fandom purely for the romantic aspects and have grown to love two characters so much they’ve only kept watching because of them, and the people who are there because they love the story and are just mildly interested in seeing who ends up with who. It seems like there aren’t nearly as many people on the latter side as there are in the former, but maybe that’s just because shippers tend to be more vocal about their happiness and disappointment.
I’m a believer that when you watch something it should be for the show itself, and the same goes for when you’re reading a book. You should be participating in and enjoying the fictional story that is being brought to you because you find the whole thing interesting, not just because you ship two characters. Obviously as a show or series continues you’re going to develop emotional connections to these characters, and some fans will come to know them just as deeply or often times better than the writers themselves. But eventually it seems that some shippers/fans get so caught up in the love story that they forget about the other part of the story someone is trying to tell, and that’s not right.
Fandom is all inclusive, when you’re in it you should be supporting the characters and the show as a whole. Obviously you’re allowed to dislike a character or a ship as much as you want, but if you’re part of a fandom that means you love the show, you love the story and you want to connect with other fans who love the story just as much as you. But when you start to heavily insult the show, the creators, or the actors when they disagree with your ship, you give a bad name to a fandom that just wants to enjoy their creation.
Going back to my Once Upon a Time example, it’s filled with so many more awesome things than just the ships. If you ignore Rumbelle or Captain Swan (Captain Hook + Emma Swan) you have the story of a woman who’s supposed to be the hero of a town filled with fictional characters. Everyone is struggling this season to understand what being good really means, and that alone makes for great television (at least for me). So why stop supporting it just because the show creators decide they don’t agree with a majorly popular ship? Yeah, it’s disheartening, upsetting and incredibly disappointing, but there’s still so much left on the show for you to enjoy!
It’s instances like these that make me believe fandoms are slowly becoming victims to their ships. Once a show or book series has a good ship then it stops being about the content of the fandom and more about the ship and whether or not they get together, or even arguing with the fact that they haven’t gotten together. There are select fandoms in this world that don’t follow that rule: Harry Potter, Orphan Black, Firefly are the ones I’m a part of and can think of that fit the example.
Fans were obviously rooting for their favorite ship to get together in Harry Potter, but when J.K. Rowling finally revealed her endgame no one said “Ugh, I can’t believe they’re together. Now this whole story is pointless, JKR!” Yes, obviously there was a vast, vast group of shippers that were left unhappy with how the relationships ended up at the end of the series. But even if you were unhappy that Harry and Hermione didn’t get together hopefully you were happy that Harry lived and defeated Voldemort, regardless of who he ended up snogging after the fact.
Ultimately what I’m trying to say is ships definitely have an effect on a story and can influence how people feel about the ending, but there’s so much more than shipping in fandoms. I want to find out how Emma overcomes her potential for darkness on Once Upon a Time, I want to to see if Ichabod and Abbie could win the war against evil on Sleepy Hollow, I want to know who gets to sit on the Iron Throne once and for all on Game of Thrones. Yes, I definitely ship characters on each of those shows but those only come second to the most important thing about them: The story.
So what do you think? Are you a believer that ships are a deciding factor on a show’s success, or is shipping less important to you? Let me know! And if you disagree with the entire article feel free to tweet or email me, and I’ll be happy to discuss further!
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