Thoughts on Shipping

[Kelheor]

I have a few ships myself (some are canon, some are not) and on average I am fine with people shipping, especially when the couple is obvious.
But because I also know that shipping can get really obsessive, we make as few remarks on the couples/their relationships in the actual story as possible when the romance is nowhere to be found near the main story's plot. I just don't want people to get crazy over possible love story, because there won't be one.
(Sometimes I actually find myself suffering over it, because I can't share my ship thoughts/artworks with the readers xD)

If the story has a more pronounced romance subplot, I won't have a problem with it and I will still hope people will stick with the series not only for that one ship idea.
I guess in the end there's not much we can do anyways, just hope it all won't come down to craziness

[Katzalcoatl]

I ignore it and let my fans do what they want. If the ship is popular I may create a side story with said ship just as a fan service. But it will not be canon (unless planned).

P.S. People ship @Kelheor's horses. I mean have you seen those horses? I don't blame them.

[harlan]

I'm super cool with it. It means the readers are engaged and invested enough in the story and the characters to ship. Some pairings just come across with chemistry even if the story doesn't lead to a relationship between them. I love this kind of reader feedback.

I'm not a usually a serious shipper myself, but I have one exception: FinnPoe 4eva! 🤣

[XiuLyn_12]

I like it! Canon or non-Canon!
Sometimes people nitpick from random interactions and make their own ship which I think they're a genius, lmao!
If someone made a non-canon ship from my story, to me that means they're actually reading.
They have to make a legal ship, though. No pedophile or incest stuff.....

[Lilmonstart]

well tbh I don´t mind them actually I would be curious about what ships would come up in my story unless its a weird ship or wrong ship
In the end I can´t control what people likes and ships even I had shipped characters from shows that aren´t canon
the only thing I don´t like about this is when people fight over pairings people make up
I mean they´re not even canon, like just be glad that person´s weird ship isn´t official

In terms of my own webcomic I also like predicting which characters will get shipped
Even I have ended up shipping some of my characters but I can tell if they´re gonna be canon or not or if their relationship gonna be relevant or not

In the end it´s kinda fun to say: "these two look cute together"
or "these two have alot of chemistry" but it´s just that

[Bulalakaw]

Since the story I'm currently writing kind of encourages it, I don't really mind It's kind of fun to see what big ships might arise out of my series, of course, assuming it gets big enough to even have a lot of people shipping my characters. In the fan communities I've been in, shippers tend to be very interactive with the series and pay close attention to character details so they can portray the ship dynamics well. If someone paid attention to my series like that, I'd be honored!
I'd probably draw the line at people demanding me to change main ships or starting fights over it. Shipping can get pretty nasty pretty fast, so I hope I don't draw in people like that...

[TheLemmaLlama]

I will make absolutely no attempts to control shipping; even supremely messed up ships, as long as they're tagged properly as stuff that is never okay IRL and they're not casually discussed in general conversations so that people who don't wanna see that shit/would be hurt by it don't stumble across it.

Even if it makes my character OOC or terrible people, or if it's something I'd never want to read about myself, I want the world to have full freedom to do whatever they want with my work as long as they're not using it to hurt others.

[darthmongoose]

I'm actually AT the point where the shipping has started ...Honestly, I'm fine with it. I knew my story would have romance subplots, and I've engaged in shipping myself on occasion (mostly the Rosemary Homestuck ship). Shipping is fun!

The only ship I outright object to would be stuff like biological siblings like Rekki x Rocket (bleh) or Urien x Jules (THE WORST SHIP IMAGINABLE. EW EW EW abort!!! Please do not ship the siblings with a 12 year age gap where one of them is clearly abusive to the other!). Or shipping adults with minors (it's not meant to be romantic when 22 year old Urien in the prologue acts seductive with 14 year old Rekki to manipulate her. It's meant to be creepy, and thankfully the audience seem to all read that correctly).
Though I'm not a massive fan of people shipping characters with a sibling-like dynamic like Rekki and Jules. I can kind of get it... I guess, they're very comfortable around each other, they banter a lot and stuff, but it is funny to me when people see Urien leering over his former squire and go "ew ew creepy, red flag!", but then will ship Rekki with her old squire... though at least the age gap is a lot smaller between those two, and Rekki has never been abusive towards Jules in the way Urien clearly has been to Rekki.

Anything else though? Yeah, go for it. I can't promise it'll make it canon though! I've already decided who ends up with who! My partner loves coming up with weird ships to troll me, like Rekki x Lacey, or Sarin x Sylvia. Like if somebody wants to explore the different scenario from the one I go with, or just possibilities, I'm just happy they're so invested in my characters to want to do that.

[candiedcotton]

My comic only exists because my partner ships so many of my characters, lol. He pushed me to making a romance story and I figured it'd be a really interesting and new experience that I could also learn from.

My thoughts on shipping. Hm.

First off, I trust my community of readers. I trust them to sort of manage themselves and keep each other in line, and I've seen this in action already. I'm not worried about weird bad ships happening because, well, if they do happen those people just have issues anyway and that's beyond my comic.

I think shipping is a big deal. It means those people are invested enough in your characters that they want to see them in all sorts of situations, and imagine how they'd be in certain relationship dynamics. I believe it is a totally normal, healthy, and positive thing. It's a genuine sign of interest in the characters.

I think it's also a bit weird to have any problems with it. I mean, if you don't want people to ship your characters, then don't put them out in the public for people to do that with. It's not like it's harmful or degrading or somehow an insult to the characters. If anything, it's a kind of appreciation toward them.

[WildMoonCrow]

I don’t mind shipping. It just means people are reading my story and are getting invested in it. So I’m totally fine with people creating their own ships, and it’s interesting to see what the readers think of the characters and who they pair up

[darthmongoose]

It's not like it's harmful or degrading or somehow an insult to the characters. If anything, it's a kind of appreciation toward them.

Yeah, I agree with this. People ship characters because they really like those characters and want to explore that dynamic, or because they relate to them strongly and want to explore their own feelings through those characters.

Once your characters are out there in the world, they're not just your precious OCs any more, they're fictional characters that can exist in other people's minds, and if somebody thinks your character is so well fleshed-out that they want to imagine them in other scenarios, that's a huge compliment to you as a writer!

[KennethLopezJr921]

Dont forget My Hero Academia fans. Like those guys cant seem to separate their fan ships from reality (BakuDeku will never become a thing no matter how many times they send death threats to the series' Mangaka)

Off topic but even to this day, I still find it strange that the Voltron fandom came to that point. Like I remember watching the 80s Voltron on Netflix and Voltron Force on Nicktoons when I was 10 and not once did I ever think that a reboot would come along when I was 14 and would goner a lot of toxic shippers. Its crazy

[Avonguardian]

I'll be fine with it, as long as people are respecful about it lol.

I have a few that to me seems like potentials, I don't write a romance and there wont be too much romantic things in the comic, tho a friend of mine already ships two of the main characters together haha, but that is partially on me xD

My general thoughts about shipping is that its a sign that readers are invested in your characters! Unless of course its crack ships but even then, just the notion that people would wanna play with my "dolls" too is fun to me.

[KennethLopezJr921]

Ngl, I do have that fear that people will go crazy with who they ship and start flame warms over with, when in all honesty its not much of a big deal.

Something I dont think I brought up yet nor, surprisingly, everyone here is the whole anti vs pro ship, which my generation (gen z) seems to be obsessed with. I honeslty think the whole thing is stupid and lacking nuance with the whole 'You're either for it or against it" thing. For real, its so stupid XD

[candiedcotton]

Nah man, shipping has been a thing since pretty much forever. It was also huge in the early 2000s.

[clarissapattern]

Hope you are cool with all the characters in 'Life and Death' being shipped?? Just asking for a friend like

[candiedcotton]

lol, yes. I'm fine with it. They're all adults after all.

[MaxFF]

I'm all in favor of shipping, I think its a great way to transport goods a long distance.

When it comes to shipping characters, I'd probably be okay with it. I just ask that shippers have the humility to accept that their ships are not canon and I'm still gonna do the story my way. Some shippers act like they own the characters and can tell everyone else, including the author, how to pair up the characters. I can do without that sort of behavior.

[KennethLopezJr921]

Wait....pro shipping vs anti shipping has always been a thing?!

[darthmongoose]

Shipping has been around, but "proship vs antiship" is pretty new.... but it's less about whether you're in favour of shipping or not, and more about policing what kinds of ships are allowed, and the extremes on both sides can get ridiculous. I definitely lean more "pro" BUT some of the pro side are literally like "shipping minors in sexual situations is fine, shipping siblings is fine, I shouldn't be responsible for keeping my explicit fics and fanart out of reach of children." but then the anti side are awful too and are like "You can't ship characters who are adults but who were depicted as children at any point on the story, any story in which there's any conflict between characters means it's an abusive relationship, you're not allowed to have ships with age gaps even if both characters are consenting adults" etc. etc.

...Meaning I can't call myself "proship" because I'm not sure the extreme of "you can publish anything anywhere and should never face consequences," is something I agree with... But I also don't really like antis, because they're so outrageously puritan and often just power-tripping or projecting their weird insecurities because they're very inexperienced or have a lot of trauma they ought to talk through with a professional, not take out on fic writers.