I’m starting to think we should come up with a different term for fictional shipping, because I realize now that “shipping” can mean one of two things:

- Type A: You honestly believe they’ll get together in canon (the canon matters) - Type B: You just enjoy them together and don’t care about canon (the fanon matters)

Reading some comments on “shipping” recently, it’s made me wonder if I’ve lost people in conversations because I’ve used that term and they interpreted it differently than intended.

To make a point, let’s look at two of my ships that I ship differently:

Queliot (Type A): The show built up that relationship and gave us hope over several years. I did not feel a need to go to fandom content for that, because it was in front of me. Fans (myself included) were understandably upset when it didn’t come to fruition. I definitely shipped them together throughout the run of the first few years of the Magicians, but I never reached out into fan content for a fix. Other examples I see are Supercorp (not canon), Catradora (canon), and McDanno (not? canon, we’re still not sure), or Stormpilot (sigh). We desperately want these ships to be real in canon.

Steelatom (Type B): I saw potential in the ship, but I knew it wouldn’t be canonized. Some people were actually upset that it didn’t happen, making them Type A shippers, and I just don’t understand why - the show made absolutely no move towards making it romantic, and in fact did what they could to enforce positive, healthy, emotional male-male friendships. (This isn’t to mean I wouldn’t have been over the moon if they’d become official.) This was important work, and applauded by many, myself included. I shipped their relationship as I wanted it to be, not how it was. Because of all this, I was happy to look to the fandom for my fix. This is joined by most of your typical ships that don’t have much basis in canon.

The point: It seems so obvious now, but I’m just realizing that you (”you” being a singular person) can “ship” two pairings in totally opposite ways, and using that term could confuse people who aren’t associating it the same way you are.

Addendum: Neither Type A nor Type B are “wrong” ways to ship. You’re free to ship however you want, as long as you’re not an asshole about it.

Breaking: L Corp President Seen Smooching Reporter at Gala, Says This Headline is “Outdated”

Just Some Icons, Part II

Here’s the second batch: Supergirl! All icons are 200 x 200, located under the break.

Team Supergirl Reacts to Supercorp

ARROWVERSE PSA

The character you stan has flaws. I promise. Please stop treating them like they don’t. If they didn’t have flaws, they wouldn’t be interesting or worth rooting for.

On a similar note, if your character is a second version of an original character (I’m looking at you, Black Siren), learn to fucking separate iterations of your character. There will be differences and that’s okay. And wanting your new version of the character to wind up just like the original is not truly rooting for that character. If Black Siren’s end goal is to “be like old Laurel,” that is a boring, predetermined outcome. Redemption is one thing, but turning her into someone she isn’t is something entirely different. Stop projecting your love for E-1 Laurel onto E-2 Laurel. They’re not. The same. Person.

And while we’re at it, can we PLEASE STOP blaming characters we don’t stan for the “downfall of the show?” I don’t care if you hate Felicity, René, Laurel, Dinah, Lyla, Diggle, Curtis, Oliver, William, Diaz - it doesn’t matter. One character is incapable of destroying a show as successful as one in the Arrowverse by themselves. This has been a plague in the Arrow fandom (and later on, the Flash fandom) since the beginning, and I’m fucking tired of it. Felicity didn’t ruin the show. Damien Dahrk didn’t ruin the show. The show hasn’t been ruined. If those characters had ruined the show, it would have been canceled long ago.

Get the fuck over your biases. Your bias’s shit smells just as bad as everyone else’s, and has just as much of an opportunity to gunk up the pipes as the next character’s. It’s okay if you like the smell of your bias’s shit more, but at least remember it does smell.