shipping meme!
Jan. 14th, 2025 10:04 amI haven't done anything like this in a long time! Stolen from
lebateleur
1. Three shipping tropes you love?
+ Slow burn. Honestly, I don't just love this dyanmic--it's basically required. If it's not a slow burn, I'm not into it.* I am ace, hear me roar.
+ Mutual pining. This goes hand-in-hand with slow burn for me. I just need a stretch of time where they're both in love and yearning for one another and aren't together yet. It makes the getting together so very delicious.
+ Hurt/comfort. I love it. Angst with a happy ending is my favorite genre, so obviously this fits right into it. Hurt/comfort is all about the tenderness!
2. Three shipping tropes you don't love?
+ Insta!love. Just. No. Ace me simply does not care if your characters are instantly attracted to each other. I only care if they put in the work for their relationship.
+ Love triangles. I can think of one single love triangle that really worked for me (Tony/Michelle/Sid from Skins gen 1) and the reason it worked was because it was equally about all three of them and their relationships to each other. Each line of that triangle was equilateral, which is rare. If I like all three characters, I end up OT3-ing it. If I don't like one (or more) of the characters, I just get annoyed with the narrative.
+ Makeovers. Where Character A never realized how attractive Character B was (mostly because she's got glasses and curly omg) until Character B gets a makeover and then Character A is gobsmacked. Wow, I really hate that. Note that this is not the same thing as a character finding another character super attractive in formal dress. I like a man in a well-cut suit or a woman in a gorgeous dress as much as the next girl.
3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you?
All the ways people can show that they love each other besides the obvious (saying it, kissing, sex). Character-specific or weird demonstrations of devotion are literally my favorite thing. Things that wouldn't be romantic to any other pairing but super are in the context of this one specific relationship and their history.
4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you?
I like snuggling. I also have to say that I love casual physical intimacy. There's this one scene in the Buffy episode "Tabula Rasa" where Buffy and Spike briefly fight and it ends with her straddling him, and then they have this whole conversation where she's straddling him and neither one are paying attention to the fact that she's straddling him. They're just so comfortable in each other's space and I find that appealing.
5. Multiship or monoship?
In my old age (lol), I have become a multiship-but-with-favorites person. So for instance with CQL, obviously Wangxian is one of the great ships of all time, but I also love Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, and I also love Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing, etc. I don't want to write or read about them nearly as much as I do Wangxian, but they make me happy and I love fanfiction because it lets me explore those worlds where my secondary pairings are together while still having a "main" world that is Wangxian. Or, like, Mulder/Scully is another one of the great ships of all time, but that doesn't mean I don't every once in a while really want to dig into the screwed-up-ness of Mulder/Krycek or whatever.
6. Rare pairs or mainstream?
Totally depends on the fandom/ship.
7. Polyamory or monogamy?
I'm into polyamory where all three (or four) characters love each other equally or are at least all in a relationship together (like, I'm okay with Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng where LWJ and JC both love WWX more than they love each other, but they're all together). I am not much into Character A dates both Character B and Character C but Characters B and C aren't together. I'd rather have monogamy in that situation.
Though I also enjoy messy polycule situations where everyone has been together with everyone else. I haven't watched Interview with the Vampire yet, but the polycule that is Lestat/Louis/Armand/Daniel is hilarious and I love it. Or the Fanged Four from the Buffyverse. No matter who's together at a given moment, it's all fun. But in these situations, it's all about the codependency and, well, messiness.
8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not?
Does this just mean in reference to "topping/bottoming"? Because if so, reversible all the way.
9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?
No. I do most of the time, but it's definitely not a requirement. I will say that I'm most often drawn to acting fannishly (aka reading/writing fic) for fandoms where I also ship, but there are so many things I love madly that do not involve any romanticalness at all.
10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?
It can be important to the characters and their characterization, but it's not important to me. I would happily read a million G-rated fics about my ship. I mean, I'd happily read a million E-rated ones, too, but I honestly don't care which it is.
11. Opinion on platonic ships?
Does this mean queerplatonic? Or does this mean relationships that aren't romantic but that make me feral? I mean, I like both of those things. I haven't read a ton of queerplatonic fics, but I love queerplatonic dynamics. And, for instance, I care just as much about Wei Wuxian&Jiang Cheng in a platonic way as I do about Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji. I'll lose my mind over both of them.
12. Three ships you currently love?
I don't stop loving ships even when I move onto a different fandom, but here are three that I am currently very invested in:
+ Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji [The Untamed]
+ Art/Tashi/Patrick [Challengers]
+ Eugenides/Irene [The Queen's Thief]
13. Five OTPs from past fandoms?
Again, still love these madly, I'm just not as fannishly engaged with them anymore:
+ Buffy/Spike [Buffy the Vampire Slayer]
+ Mulder/Scully [The X-Files]
+ Parker/Hardison(/Eliot) [Leverage]
+ Kang Yi-na/Jung Ye-eun [Age of Youth]
+ Nick Charles/Nora Charles [The Thin Man movies]
But I could name twenty others!
14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?
Depends on the ship and how important it is to the couple. For Wangxian, for instance, they really need to be seen as each other's person in the eyes of the world. Or the whole joy of Nick/Nora is how much fun they make marriage look. But, like, Buffy and Spike are never going to get married and who cares. For someone like Mulder/Scully...well, if they got married, I'd be happy, but if they didn't and were just together, I'd still be happy.
15. Opinion on OC kids?
Not my thing to read/write 99% of the time, but a really, really skilled writer could pull it off.
* There are a couple of exceptions, actually, like Orpheus and Eurydice form Hadestown, but that works because it's a sung-through musical. Also Peaceable and Barbara from The Sherwood Ring and I have no idea why. I'd have to reread it to analyze why that kind of instant attraction works for me. But I can't think of any other exceptions!
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1. Three shipping tropes you love?
+ Slow burn. Honestly, I don't just love this dyanmic--it's basically required. If it's not a slow burn, I'm not into it.* I am ace, hear me roar.
+ Mutual pining. This goes hand-in-hand with slow burn for me. I just need a stretch of time where they're both in love and yearning for one another and aren't together yet. It makes the getting together so very delicious.
+ Hurt/comfort. I love it. Angst with a happy ending is my favorite genre, so obviously this fits right into it. Hurt/comfort is all about the tenderness!
2. Three shipping tropes you don't love?
+ Insta!love. Just. No. Ace me simply does not care if your characters are instantly attracted to each other. I only care if they put in the work for their relationship.
+ Love triangles. I can think of one single love triangle that really worked for me (Tony/Michelle/Sid from Skins gen 1) and the reason it worked was because it was equally about all three of them and their relationships to each other. Each line of that triangle was equilateral, which is rare. If I like all three characters, I end up OT3-ing it. If I don't like one (or more) of the characters, I just get annoyed with the narrative.
+ Makeovers. Where Character A never realized how attractive Character B was (mostly because she's got glasses and curly omg) until Character B gets a makeover and then Character A is gobsmacked. Wow, I really hate that. Note that this is not the same thing as a character finding another character super attractive in formal dress. I like a man in a well-cut suit or a woman in a gorgeous dress as much as the next girl.
3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you?
All the ways people can show that they love each other besides the obvious (saying it, kissing, sex). Character-specific or weird demonstrations of devotion are literally my favorite thing. Things that wouldn't be romantic to any other pairing but super are in the context of this one specific relationship and their history.
4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you?
I like snuggling. I also have to say that I love casual physical intimacy. There's this one scene in the Buffy episode "Tabula Rasa" where Buffy and Spike briefly fight and it ends with her straddling him, and then they have this whole conversation where she's straddling him and neither one are paying attention to the fact that she's straddling him. They're just so comfortable in each other's space and I find that appealing.
5. Multiship or monoship?
In my old age (lol), I have become a multiship-but-with-favorites person. So for instance with CQL, obviously Wangxian is one of the great ships of all time, but I also love Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, and I also love Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing, etc. I don't want to write or read about them nearly as much as I do Wangxian, but they make me happy and I love fanfiction because it lets me explore those worlds where my secondary pairings are together while still having a "main" world that is Wangxian. Or, like, Mulder/Scully is another one of the great ships of all time, but that doesn't mean I don't every once in a while really want to dig into the screwed-up-ness of Mulder/Krycek or whatever.
6. Rare pairs or mainstream?
Totally depends on the fandom/ship.
7. Polyamory or monogamy?
I'm into polyamory where all three (or four) characters love each other equally or are at least all in a relationship together (like, I'm okay with Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng where LWJ and JC both love WWX more than they love each other, but they're all together). I am not much into Character A dates both Character B and Character C but Characters B and C aren't together. I'd rather have monogamy in that situation.
Though I also enjoy messy polycule situations where everyone has been together with everyone else. I haven't watched Interview with the Vampire yet, but the polycule that is Lestat/Louis/Armand/Daniel is hilarious and I love it. Or the Fanged Four from the Buffyverse. No matter who's together at a given moment, it's all fun. But in these situations, it's all about the codependency and, well, messiness.
8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not?
Does this just mean in reference to "topping/bottoming"? Because if so, reversible all the way.
9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?
No. I do most of the time, but it's definitely not a requirement. I will say that I'm most often drawn to acting fannishly (aka reading/writing fic) for fandoms where I also ship, but there are so many things I love madly that do not involve any romanticalness at all.
10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?
It can be important to the characters and their characterization, but it's not important to me. I would happily read a million G-rated fics about my ship. I mean, I'd happily read a million E-rated ones, too, but I honestly don't care which it is.
11. Opinion on platonic ships?
Does this mean queerplatonic? Or does this mean relationships that aren't romantic but that make me feral? I mean, I like both of those things. I haven't read a ton of queerplatonic fics, but I love queerplatonic dynamics. And, for instance, I care just as much about Wei Wuxian&Jiang Cheng in a platonic way as I do about Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji. I'll lose my mind over both of them.
12. Three ships you currently love?
I don't stop loving ships even when I move onto a different fandom, but here are three that I am currently very invested in:
+ Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji [The Untamed]
+ Art/Tashi/Patrick [Challengers]
+ Eugenides/Irene [The Queen's Thief]
13. Five OTPs from past fandoms?
Again, still love these madly, I'm just not as fannishly engaged with them anymore:
+ Buffy/Spike [Buffy the Vampire Slayer]
+ Mulder/Scully [The X-Files]
+ Parker/Hardison(/Eliot) [Leverage]
+ Kang Yi-na/Jung Ye-eun [Age of Youth]
+ Nick Charles/Nora Charles [The Thin Man movies]
But I could name twenty others!
14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?
Depends on the ship and how important it is to the couple. For Wangxian, for instance, they really need to be seen as each other's person in the eyes of the world. Or the whole joy of Nick/Nora is how much fun they make marriage look. But, like, Buffy and Spike are never going to get married and who cares. For someone like Mulder/Scully...well, if they got married, I'd be happy, but if they didn't and were just together, I'd still be happy.
15. Opinion on OC kids?
Not my thing to read/write 99% of the time, but a really, really skilled writer could pull it off.
* There are a couple of exceptions, actually, like Orpheus and Eurydice form Hadestown, but that works because it's a sung-through musical. Also Peaceable and Barbara from The Sherwood Ring and I have no idea why. I'd have to reread it to analyze why that kind of instant attraction works for me. But I can't think of any other exceptions!