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The other day I was thinking about how completely the Dullena relationship has ruined The Vampire Diaries for me. I was never ophy-level invested (who could be?) but TVD, along with Gossip Girl, had piqued my interest in teen TV and its fandoms for the first time in years. Blair going back to Chuck killed GG for me, even though I have discovered that I can still rewatch and enjoy everything up to about ep 5.21. Shipping ruins shows when things don't go the way you want and triangles ensure that you are going to hate what you're watching at least half of the time. (That said, I don't think I've ever truly been invested in a show where I haven't had a ship.)
After I spent an hour or two on bitter thoughts about Dullena and Chair, I started to think about the whys? of shipping.There's a fair amount of overlap between Chair and Dullena shippers (evidence: FanForum sigs lists) and between Dair and P/Jo, both of which make complete sense to me. But there is also a fair amount of P/Jo and Dullena overlap (including most of the TVD thread contributers here) and some D/Jo-Stelena, which I find horrifying.
I started reviewing my shipping history looking for patterns:
Anne/Gilbert (Anne of Green Gables)
Ages ago I had typed up a post for the TV nostalgia thread about my love for the Anne mini series made in the mid 80s - the board ate it but it was as gushy and sentimental as I can be. AoGG is my favourite book. My gran gave it to me because she had loved it so much when she was a girl and neither of her daughters had any interest in it when they were growing up and she took great pleasure in the fact that I loved it as much as she had. Obviously my love for the mini series is tied up with my memories of watching it with my gran and my childhood growing up on my grandparents farm (when my gran was in the grips of dementia, I watched it with her one afternoon and she started crying when the theme music started and said "I remember" - *sob*) but OMB I loooooove Gilbert Blythe. Anne is an absolute bitch to him when they are growing up and he covets her from afar. When she finally allows him to be her friend at the end of the first book/movie, I want to cheer. I wore out the first VHS I had of the film because I love the scene when he strokes her cheek at the end so much. Anne continues to be a horror in the subsequent films/books, telling Gilbert she only loves him as a friend when he proposes after years of dangling him on a string (because she knew he was in love with her). I love Anne but she's stupid. Everyone knew Gilbert was the guy for her. Anyway, Gilbert ticks several of the perfect TV boyfriend boxes - he has dark hair, he pines for YEARS (10 years from meeting till their first kiss, that is devotion) he makes huge sacrifices for her and he never thinks he's good enough for her. I am doing a rewatch as soon as I find the DVDs.
Agent Cooper/Audrey (Twin Peaks)
My first taste of being a bitter shipper. Not even a kiss. Still so angry with Kyle McLachlan. TV boyfriend checklist: dark hair, the good guy of the story. He doesn't pine though and she is the chaser.
Doug/Carol (ER)
Now, obviously, it's probably impossible for me to not ship Dr Doug Ross with whomever he wants. I spent the first season of ER waiting for them to get together and squeeing whenever they had a scene. The 2nd season reminds me a lot of The Creek S2 because the Doug/Carol interaction is dropped almost completely and she gets a love interest that I hatehatehated. Thankfully, again like the Creek, in Season 3 they start building towards a Doug/Carol reunion. Unusually, I enjoyed them as a couple equally as much as I enjoyed the build up. Dr Doug Ross ticks many of the perfect TV boyfriend boxes (he's Clooney d'uh) - dark haired, pined for years, changed for her. He is also a good guy, flawed, not perfect like Gilbert but Doug/Carol wasn't a dark relationship. By the time they got back together he was the right choice.
Pacey/Joey (Dawson's Creek)
The mother-ship. They made sense together. Pacey Witter is the perfect TV boyfriend and we all know it. The build-up to P/Jo was infinitely superior to the relationship we got in season 4 but even though I stopped loving Joey after season 3, she was a much better girlfriend to Pacey than she ever was to Dawson. I love that we won the shipping war, even if the ending was a little forced (Joey spent years running from her feelings for Pacey? - um, okay) They could have written the story a lot better, but KW did the best he could and the food fight scene really said everything about why they were the only choice for endgame. As I already said, Pacey is the standard by which all TV boyfriends past, present and future should be judged. And he is the pining G.O.A.T.
Pam/Jim (The Office)
Everyone shipped Jam, right?
Jacob/Bella (Twilight - books only)
I loved book Jacob. If I were Bella, I'd nevah have chosen Edward. Jacob pined, Jacob protected, Jacob put himself and his pack in danger time and time again for a girl he knew loved someone else. The conclusion of the Twi series annoys me nearly as much as the last season of Gossip Girl. I will NEVER watch the movies.
Dan/Blair (Gossip Girl)
OMB. The pain is still there. Honestly the very worst choice in the history of show running. A year and a half of showing how Dan is the right match for Blair, only to toss it aside for the wrongness of Chair. :flamingnono: Dan pined, Dan was a million times less annoying when he was with Blair, Dan put her happiness first which CHUCK NEVER DID. Dan was interested in her ambitions while Chuck was only interested in his own. And Blair loved going to the movies, Chuck! OMB I fucking hate him.
Gale/Katniss (The Hunger Games - books and movies)
Shut up, Is. He took care of her family. They understood each other. And I don't care what you say, he got the shaft in Mockingjay because Collins had written herself into a corner with regards to the love triangle, IMO. I don't know why I preferred Gale's pining to Peeta's. Maybe I am just shallow and book Gale's description appealed to me more than book Peeta's (we don't even have to discuss the movie casting) Another disappointment.
Stefan/Elena - (The Vampire Diaries)
Do I ship it? Or do I just hatehatehate the alternative? The first shippery feelings I felt for TVD were for Steroline but they should have exploited that bond earlier. Now I prefer them as friends. I enjoyed Stelena as a couple in Season 2 and I wanted them to get back together all through season 3. The dark haired, pining for something he thinks is out of reach guy in TVD doesn't appeal at all. Why? Because Delena make no sense to me. Even making Elena a vampire to explain her switching Salvatores didn't work for me.
Barney/Robin - (HIMYM)
I'm in the midst of a mini obsession with Barney Stinson. Robin is a bit of a Joey Potter for me. She annoys me most of the time but I still want Barney to have her. Barney doesn't tick that many of the perfect TV boyfriend boxes - he's blond for a start - but he does a good line in pining. The scene in the bar when he's waiting for Robin and she shows up with that therapist she dated? OMB. I also like that they pine for each other at different times. For sure I feel that she loved Barney in a way she never loved Ted. Again, they make sense to me.
Is there a pattern? A lot depends on how attractive I find actors in question. I'm a canon shipper, I don't have crack ships. I do not enjoy "dark, wrong" pairings. It has to make sense for me. All my favourites are good matches on paper (maybe not Dale/Audrey), so I don't think I go for opposites attract. Stelena have a lot of the soulmate destiny jibber jabber that D/Jo did, and so do Barney /Robin to an extent, so maybe it was Beek's giant noggin and flaring nostrils that put me off. Maybe, at my core, I am a D/Joer. *sad* Do you pattern ship?
The other day I was thinking about how completely the Dullena relationship has ruined The Vampire Diaries for me. I was never ophy-level invested (who could be?) but TVD, along with Gossip Girl, had piqued my interest in teen TV and its fandoms for the first time in years. Blair going back to Chuck killed GG for me, even though I have discovered that I can still rewatch and enjoy everything up to about ep 5.21. Shipping ruins shows when things don't go the way you want and triangles ensure that you are going to hate what you're watching at least half of the time. (That said, I don't think I've ever truly been invested in a show where I haven't had a ship.)
After I spent an hour or two on bitter thoughts about Dullena and Chair, I started to think about the whys? of shipping.There's a fair amount of overlap between Chair and Dullena shippers (evidence: FanForum sigs lists) and between Dair and P/Jo, both of which make complete sense to me. But there is also a fair amount of P/Jo and Dullena overlap (including most of the TVD thread contributers here) and some D/Jo-Stelena, which I find horrifying.
I started reviewing my shipping history looking for patterns:
Anne/Gilbert (Anne of Green Gables)
Ages ago I had typed up a post for the TV nostalgia thread about my love for the Anne mini series made in the mid 80s - the board ate it but it was as gushy and sentimental as I can be. AoGG is my favourite book. My gran gave it to me because she had loved it so much when she was a girl and neither of her daughters had any interest in it when they were growing up and she took great pleasure in the fact that I loved it as much as she had. Obviously my love for the mini series is tied up with my memories of watching it with my gran and my childhood growing up on my grandparents farm (when my gran was in the grips of dementia, I watched it with her one afternoon and she started crying when the theme music started and said "I remember" - *sob*) but OMB I loooooove Gilbert Blythe. Anne is an absolute bitch to him when they are growing up and he covets her from afar. When she finally allows him to be her friend at the end of the first book/movie, I want to cheer. I wore out the first VHS I had of the film because I love the scene when he strokes her cheek at the end so much. Anne continues to be a horror in the subsequent films/books, telling Gilbert she only loves him as a friend when he proposes after years of dangling him on a string (because she knew he was in love with her). I love Anne but she's stupid. Everyone knew Gilbert was the guy for her. Anyway, Gilbert ticks several of the perfect TV boyfriend boxes - he has dark hair, he pines for YEARS (10 years from meeting till their first kiss, that is devotion) he makes huge sacrifices for her and he never thinks he's good enough for her. I am doing a rewatch as soon as I find the DVDs.
Agent Cooper/Audrey (Twin Peaks)
My first taste of being a bitter shipper. Not even a kiss. Still so angry with Kyle McLachlan. TV boyfriend checklist: dark hair, the good guy of the story. He doesn't pine though and she is the chaser.
Doug/Carol (ER)
Now, obviously, it's probably impossible for me to not ship Dr Doug Ross with whomever he wants. I spent the first season of ER waiting for them to get together and squeeing whenever they had a scene. The 2nd season reminds me a lot of The Creek S2 because the Doug/Carol interaction is dropped almost completely and she gets a love interest that I hatehatehated. Thankfully, again like the Creek, in Season 3 they start building towards a Doug/Carol reunion. Unusually, I enjoyed them as a couple equally as much as I enjoyed the build up. Dr Doug Ross ticks many of the perfect TV boyfriend boxes (he's Clooney d'uh) - dark haired, pined for years, changed for her. He is also a good guy, flawed, not perfect like Gilbert but Doug/Carol wasn't a dark relationship. By the time they got back together he was the right choice.
Pacey/Joey (Dawson's Creek)
The mother-ship. They made sense together. Pacey Witter is the perfect TV boyfriend and we all know it. The build-up to P/Jo was infinitely superior to the relationship we got in season 4 but even though I stopped loving Joey after season 3, she was a much better girlfriend to Pacey than she ever was to Dawson. I love that we won the shipping war, even if the ending was a little forced (Joey spent years running from her feelings for Pacey? - um, okay) They could have written the story a lot better, but KW did the best he could and the food fight scene really said everything about why they were the only choice for endgame. As I already said, Pacey is the standard by which all TV boyfriends past, present and future should be judged. And he is the pining G.O.A.T.
Pam/Jim (The Office)
Everyone shipped Jam, right?
Jacob/Bella (Twilight - books only)
I loved book Jacob. If I were Bella, I'd nevah have chosen Edward. Jacob pined, Jacob protected, Jacob put himself and his pack in danger time and time again for a girl he knew loved someone else. The conclusion of the Twi series annoys me nearly as much as the last season of Gossip Girl. I will NEVER watch the movies.
Dan/Blair (Gossip Girl)
OMB. The pain is still there. Honestly the very worst choice in the history of show running. A year and a half of showing how Dan is the right match for Blair, only to toss it aside for the wrongness of Chair. :flamingnono: Dan pined, Dan was a million times less annoying when he was with Blair, Dan put her happiness first which CHUCK NEVER DID. Dan was interested in her ambitions while Chuck was only interested in his own. And Blair loved going to the movies, Chuck! OMB I fucking hate him.
Gale/Katniss (The Hunger Games - books and movies)
Shut up, Is. He took care of her family. They understood each other. And I don't care what you say, he got the shaft in Mockingjay because Collins had written herself into a corner with regards to the love triangle, IMO. I don't know why I preferred Gale's pining to Peeta's. Maybe I am just shallow and book Gale's description appealed to me more than book Peeta's (we don't even have to discuss the movie casting) Another disappointment.
Stefan/Elena - (The Vampire Diaries)
Do I ship it? Or do I just hatehatehate the alternative? The first shippery feelings I felt for TVD were for Steroline but they should have exploited that bond earlier. Now I prefer them as friends. I enjoyed Stelena as a couple in Season 2 and I wanted them to get back together all through season 3. The dark haired, pining for something he thinks is out of reach guy in TVD doesn't appeal at all. Why? Because Delena make no sense to me. Even making Elena a vampire to explain her switching Salvatores didn't work for me.
Barney/Robin - (HIMYM)
I'm in the midst of a mini obsession with Barney Stinson. Robin is a bit of a Joey Potter for me. She annoys me most of the time but I still want Barney to have her. Barney doesn't tick that many of the perfect TV boyfriend boxes - he's blond for a start - but he does a good line in pining. The scene in the bar when he's waiting for Robin and she shows up with that therapist she dated? OMB. I also like that they pine for each other at different times. For sure I feel that she loved Barney in a way she never loved Ted. Again, they make sense to me.
Is there a pattern? A lot depends on how attractive I find actors in question. I'm a canon shipper, I don't have crack ships. I do not enjoy "dark, wrong" pairings. It has to make sense for me. All my favourites are good matches on paper (maybe not Dale/Audrey), so I don't think I go for opposites attract. Stelena have a lot of the soulmate destiny jibber jabber that D/Jo did, and so do Barney /Robin to an extent, so maybe it was Beek's giant noggin and flaring nostrils that put me off. Maybe, at my core, I am a D/Joer. *sad* Do you pattern ship?
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