Entry tags:
crosspost: love letter to Jyssian fandom [June 2017]
(though it takes a certain amount of grumping to get there)
I’ve been in a lot of fandoms where popular ships seemed to be mostly driven by the popularity of one of the characters. The other character gets attached either because
1) the favourite should have what they want and they want/might potentially want that character, and/or
2) the other character has high fandom currency for whatever reason (the only girl, the protagonist, fandom bicycle, etc), and is therefore a rightful prize for the fave, elevating them in the fandom hierarchy by association.
There are probably other permutations, but those are the ones I see a ton of—particularly, but not exclusively, in the context of love triangles, where you get arguments about whether Character A or Character B is more deserving of Character C, even if they don’t care about, or even dislike C. “Love triangle” is really too narrow, actually: basically any time you have antagonistic rival ships in fandom. A lot of shipwar meta comes down to “no, C should be bestowed on MY fave.”
I mean, not all rival ships are antagonistic. It doesn’t have to be that way. Say, in Borgias fandom, Cesare/Lucrezia and Cesare/Micheletto shippers generally get on fairly well, and C/L and C/M fics usually take care to acknowledge the other relationship’s importance(e.g., S3 C/L fix-fic often goes out of its way to bring Micheletto back from his dubious departure in the show). Overwhelmingly, Lucrezia fans are also Micheletto fans who care about his relationship with Cesare, and vice-versa.
OTOH, wild shipwars like Ron/Hermione vs Harry/Hermione or Katara/Aang and/or Zuko/Mai vs Zuko/Katara often came down to “but x deserves her” if you poked very far. (Yes, all sides very frequently did this.) The current variant of “rival ship is UNHEALTHY” / “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” is … no exception. Did you know that age difference between adults is pedophilia? NOW YOU DO.
For instance, with F/innrey, I’ve seen with my own eyes: 1) Finn is like three years older than Rey so #problematic, and 2) Rey isn’t even likable, but as a white woman she’s a more valuable prize for Finn than a WOC.
Anyway, I wasn’t going anywhere with this other than being really happy that even the most cringeworthy Jyn/Cassian fics seem driven by real affection for both characters.
I have my issues with … certain things in the subfandom, but I’ve never seen one where the author was obviously a fan of Jyn or Cassian but not the other. There are plenty where the author clearly prefers one—say, I love Cassian most and![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladytharen loves Jyn most, and it’s probably apparent in our fics—but everyone seems to write with affection for both of them.
I’ve never seen one bashing Bodhi, either, though Bodhi/Cassian is the closest approximation of a rival ship (and there is a lot of antagonism towards Jyn). Instead, the Jyn/Cassian fandom manufactured a ship for him out of literally nothing, and if anything, that’s the case of bestowing the highest-level prize on a fave. But Luke is Peak Prize because he’s an iconic beloved character, and you’d be hard-pressed to find Bodhi/Luke written by anyone who doesn’t love Luke in the first place. It’s less “Luke is most important so Bodhi should get him” than “I also love Bodhi so he gets OTHER FAVE, CLASSIC EDITION.”
TFA turned SW fandom into a hellscape, and yet … this corner is nice. I’m really glad that the AO3/Tumblr hubs are more into actually creating things than Why My Ship Is More Progressive than Thine, and generally supportive, and like the characters involved, and like all the rest of the team, too.
I’ve been in a lot of fandoms where popular ships seemed to be mostly driven by the popularity of one of the characters. The other character gets attached either because
1) the favourite should have what they want and they want/might potentially want that character, and/or
2) the other character has high fandom currency for whatever reason (the only girl, the protagonist, fandom bicycle, etc), and is therefore a rightful prize for the fave, elevating them in the fandom hierarchy by association.
There are probably other permutations, but those are the ones I see a ton of—particularly, but not exclusively, in the context of love triangles, where you get arguments about whether Character A or Character B is more deserving of Character C, even if they don’t care about, or even dislike C. “Love triangle” is really too narrow, actually: basically any time you have antagonistic rival ships in fandom. A lot of shipwar meta comes down to “no, C should be bestowed on MY fave.”
I mean, not all rival ships are antagonistic. It doesn’t have to be that way. Say, in Borgias fandom, Cesare/Lucrezia and Cesare/Micheletto shippers generally get on fairly well, and C/L and C/M fics usually take care to acknowledge the other relationship’s importance(e.g., S3 C/L fix-fic often goes out of its way to bring Micheletto back from his dubious departure in the show). Overwhelmingly, Lucrezia fans are also Micheletto fans who care about his relationship with Cesare, and vice-versa.
OTOH, wild shipwars like Ron/Hermione vs Harry/Hermione or Katara/Aang and/or Zuko/Mai vs Zuko/Katara often came down to “but x deserves her” if you poked very far. (Yes, all sides very frequently did this.) The current variant of “rival ship is UNHEALTHY” / “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” is … no exception. Did you know that age difference between adults is pedophilia? NOW YOU DO.
For instance, with F/innrey, I’ve seen with my own eyes: 1) Finn is like three years older than Rey so #problematic, and 2) Rey isn’t even likable, but as a white woman she’s a more valuable prize for Finn than a WOC.
Anyway, I wasn’t going anywhere with this other than being really happy that even the most cringeworthy Jyn/Cassian fics seem driven by real affection for both characters.
I have my issues with … certain things in the subfandom, but I’ve never seen one where the author was obviously a fan of Jyn or Cassian but not the other. There are plenty where the author clearly prefers one—say, I love Cassian most and
ladytharen loves Jyn most, and it’s probably apparent in our fics—but everyone seems to write with affection for both of them. I’ve never seen one bashing Bodhi, either, though Bodhi/Cassian is the closest approximation of a rival ship (and there is a lot of antagonism towards Jyn). Instead, the Jyn/Cassian fandom manufactured a ship for him out of literally nothing, and if anything, that’s the case of bestowing the highest-level prize on a fave. But Luke is Peak Prize because he’s an iconic beloved character, and you’d be hard-pressed to find Bodhi/Luke written by anyone who doesn’t love Luke in the first place. It’s less “Luke is most important so Bodhi should get him” than “I also love Bodhi so he gets OTHER FAVE, CLASSIC EDITION.”
TFA turned SW fandom into a hellscape, and yet … this corner is nice. I’m really glad that the AO3/Tumblr hubs are more into actually creating things than Why My Ship Is More Progressive than Thine, and generally supportive, and like the characters involved, and like all the rest of the team, too.
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