Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation back again with a different kind of discussion topic. Today, I'm going to talk about something that I've wanted to talk about for a good while now: Shipping. To those who aren't down with their Internet Lingo, Shipping is taking two characters from a created series and putting them in a romantic relationship, this is usually done in Fan Fictions (Fan Made stories written using already existing Series) and Fan Arts. But what I'm here to address is when Shipping, which when you break it down is really more of a fan thing, bleeds over into the actual stories that the ships are based off of and how it can hurt not just those series, but fans of said series.
One really big thing that needs to be addressed in regards to shipping are of course Shipping Wars. Now when shipping begins in a certain series, there are usually two ships that become more popular than all the rest and are the ones that are most likely to happen due to actual scenes from the series that give that couple more weight to it. With these two pairings there comes arguments and countless debates between fans of these two pairings over which ship is better than the other. This has stemmed over multiple series, both animated and Live Action. One of the most famous examples of this in Live Action that I can think of (And this is a little dated) but Twilight, and how it made bank off of 'Team Edward vs Team Jacob'. Another infamous example, as you can see in the picture up above, is the Naruto shipping war and who would get with Naruto: Hinata, Sakura, or Sasuke (Yeah a lot of people wanted those two guys to get together...and sadly, that ship has more weight to it than the former two).
Shipping itself isn't a bad thing and it would be hypocritical of me to say that it is considering I am guilty of shipping myself. But my problem doesn't stem from the simple act of shipping, it's when the shipping wars break out and when shippers act like that's all that matters in series where Romance isn't the main focus. When it comes to a shipping war the most rabid of shippers will take something as little as two characters looking at each other as material for why a pairing should exist. A character could die, a huge plot twist will happen and all these fans will talk about is their one true pairing (Or OTP for short) holding hands under the starry sky.
These kinds of fans will at times take civil (and sometimes not so civil) discussions and debates on theories in series and completely derail it into: "ZOMG WESTALLEN KISS! FUCK YOU SNOWBARRY FANS SJBXDLBVKJBVK" and in by leaving statements like those, it's the spark that starts complete arguments that include spewing insults and and at times death threats at each other and then they even try holding creators and their stories hostage when the pairing that they wanted doesn't happen.
The most recent example I can give for this is to go back to Naruto and the ending to the series back in November of last year. In its final chapter, it was shown that Naruto had married and had kids with Hinata. This news outright ANGERED the fans of Naruto and Sakura (NaruSaku) so much that some fans even petitioned for Naruto to be banned here in the United States until writer and creator Masashi Kishimoto rewrote the ending so that Naruto and Sakura got together.
I look at a story like that that honestly makes me shake my head. Stories like that are the reasons people who enjoy anime are seen as strange people who have issues and are treated as pariahs. It really makes me think of what will happen for other long running series. Are people gonna start a petition when Bleach ends and it's decided who Ichigo ends up with? Are people gonna do the same for Fairy Tail when Natsu and Lucy don't get together? Is it also going to happen to One Piece...that's if we all aren't either super old and don't care anymore or dead when One Piece finally ends. This kind of behavior is just toxic.
Now I'm sure that most of, if not, all of you that have made it this far are probably saying that I'm overreacting and that shipping can't do all of this to shows and their fanbases. But of course I can't talk about one half of this problem without addressing the other half, and that is the show and their writers. Folks what you see above are screenshots from the series 'The Legend of Korra' the sequel series to 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. This show is one of the prime examples I'm using for this argument, and that is that the reason for all of these problems that come from Shipping Wars are the fault of the series writers.
One of the main issues that I had with The Legend of Korra's first season was the excessive amount of time spent on the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. Because their was so much focus on it, the actual plot of the season suffered for it and the main focus was starting to become are Mako and Korra going to get together?
Now your Shaman is no fool people, I know that these writers want to cash in on shipping, shipping wars, the popularity of certain pairings so they pander to particular pairs and their fanbases, but when the quality of writing in a series starts to drop in favor of said pandering, then there is a problem. Not only that, but when you pander to ships, while it brings more attention to the series, that attention may also start to become negative and as I stated earlier sparks more pointless shipping wars that makes peaceful communication within fandoms more and more difficult.
Now Granted The Legend of Korra may not be the best example of what I'm talking about, so here's a show that may better reflect this: Arrow
At this point I'm considering changing my moniker to The Shaman of bashing Arrow...
One of the biggest complaints I heard in regards of Arrow (more specifically for its third season) was just how much the show shoehorned and then pandered to the pairing of Olicity (Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak), and that the show at some point just became 'Olicity and Friends' and how the pairing just screwed up Arrow completely (I'd argue that the show was screwed up LONG before then, but what do I know, I don't even watch the show like that...). But it reinstates the argument I long made, because of the emphasis on Oliver and Felicity and then the introduction of Ray Palmer and that whole Love Triangle Fiasco, the main plot with Ra's Al Ghul was left fans underwhelmed and disappointed.
Folks I'm going to end this long ramble with this: Again, I'm not saying that the act of shipping is wrong, but it's when it's taken to measures that people are willing to send threats to people and even creators that it becomes a serious and even toxic problem. You can love whatever Pairing you want folks, but you also have to keep in mind that not everyone will like the same one. So keep that in mind when you want to start a war and respect your fellow fans.
Til next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation saying: This sh*t is why Harem anime are so popular...
Why worry about staying with one girl when you can marry six?
Take Care...
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