ATLA Shipping Rant
Feb. 16th, 2019 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roselightfairyI haven't been creating a ton of content for the ship lately, but I feel the need to warn anyone who might see my stuff about this, up-front: I ship Aang and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I ship them hard and unapologetically, and I have read meta from others that's much better-articulated than I can about why, but it is so frustrating and irritating to me that it's something I feel I have to defend.
The shipping wars in ATLA fandom infuriate me. Perhaps it's because my ships tend to be less popular, so I'm stuck in the position of feeling I need to defend them-- but it's also somehow because the shipping wars turn into "this should be canon" or "this ship is immoral and evil" or "this ship is wrong," rather than "my ship is fun and I love having Feelings about it."
I once got into a conversation on Tumblr about a specific scene in the show that turned into accidental Shipping Discourse(tm) and ended with that person saying "well, I guess it's just about having a different morality." I can't even DESCRIBE how furious it makes me that there's an implication that shipping what I do-- which is literally the tale of two very close friends who quickly become each other's most important person in the world and slowly fall in love-- makes me somehow immoral. Or that because that ship resonates with the way that I feel love and understand feelings, somehow I'm less worthy or less valid than these other people. And I just-- ugh.
It really doesn't help that so often this shipping is accompanied by utter vitriol towards a character that I adore and really identify with. It's so common to see that that even when it's not there, the tiniest nudge at it brings along with it an avalanche of hurt and anger.
I can see the aesthetic potential of these other ships; I understand why people ship them. But because of the consistent inability of other shippers to understand why I ship what I do, and because of the insistence that my shipping is wrong and invalid-- in short, because of the anger, the discussions, and the discourse, this ship has been turned into the kind of NOTP for me that literally makes my stomach churn. In all the content, there are references to existing hatred or disdain for characters I love, and a constant invalidation of the way that I experience love and feelings, and a ship whose potential I understand, even if I don't feel it, has been turned into poison for me, to which only the slightest reference can ruin my whole day.
In short, shipping wars are the worst.
I don't know why I'm rambling about all this here; I just needed to say it somewhere. Needed to draw the poison, if you will. That is all.
The shipping wars in ATLA fandom infuriate me. Perhaps it's because my ships tend to be less popular, so I'm stuck in the position of feeling I need to defend them-- but it's also somehow because the shipping wars turn into "this should be canon" or "this ship is immoral and evil" or "this ship is wrong," rather than "my ship is fun and I love having Feelings about it."
I once got into a conversation on Tumblr about a specific scene in the show that turned into accidental Shipping Discourse(tm) and ended with that person saying "well, I guess it's just about having a different morality." I can't even DESCRIBE how furious it makes me that there's an implication that shipping what I do-- which is literally the tale of two very close friends who quickly become each other's most important person in the world and slowly fall in love-- makes me somehow immoral. Or that because that ship resonates with the way that I feel love and understand feelings, somehow I'm less worthy or less valid than these other people. And I just-- ugh.
It really doesn't help that so often this shipping is accompanied by utter vitriol towards a character that I adore and really identify with. It's so common to see that that even when it's not there, the tiniest nudge at it brings along with it an avalanche of hurt and anger.
I can see the aesthetic potential of these other ships; I understand why people ship them. But because of the consistent inability of other shippers to understand why I ship what I do, and because of the insistence that my shipping is wrong and invalid-- in short, because of the anger, the discussions, and the discourse, this ship has been turned into the kind of NOTP for me that literally makes my stomach churn. In all the content, there are references to existing hatred or disdain for characters I love, and a constant invalidation of the way that I experience love and feelings, and a ship whose potential I understand, even if I don't feel it, has been turned into poison for me, to which only the slightest reference can ruin my whole day.
In short, shipping wars are the worst.
I don't know why I'm rambling about all this here; I just needed to say it somewhere. Needed to draw the poison, if you will. That is all.
