Shipping: How far is too far?

[DragonMaster2010]

So I was recently on Tumblr (No big surprise) and I happen to stumble upon this large ship argument about the TV show "Supernatural" in which people are arguing about the ship known as "Destiel" which is the shipping between Dean Winchester and Castiel.
These two

The argument going on was that the actor for Dean (the one in the suit) Jensen Ackles, was against Destiel.
Now Jensen doesn't like it because he didn't see romance in the ship, and he didn't want to see naked fanart of him and Misha Collin's (the one in the coat) character in his mailbox and online where his toddler could see them.
Now here's where things get messy.
Jensen was receiving a lot of hate mail for it, including people calling him homophobic, others sending threats to him and his wife. People started sending hate mail, obsessive messages, nothing but Destiel questions kept coming up, and there were even some who didn't want the second main character, Sam Winchester (played by Jared Padalecki) to be on the show anymore so that Destiel could be more focused on instead of what the show was always about; Sam and Dean.
The writers had no choice but to cut short the scenes of Dean and Cas and the Destiel fans got angry with that by saying they were homophobic to not allow homosexual couples (a lie considering there were many homosexual couples on Supernatural and that Dean was confirmed straight while Cas was nonbinary/asesexual.
And then when they do get scenes together, those same Destiel fans call queerbaiting when there was no queerness at all. Just to friends.

And then there's the ship known as "Cockles" which is the shipping of the two actors instead of the characters.
Again; here's where things get messy.
Some of the people who ship cockles actually WANTS them to be in a relationship. Despite both actors already being married with children. Some suggest polygamy as if everyone would be down with that without question. Others have threatened their wives to divorce them so that Cockles can be real.

It's frightening to know that people like this exist for the sole purpose of making a fictional fanon ship real.

So the mean of this is to ask has shipping tipped the iceburg?

 

[Chancey289]

I once saw this fanfic that shipped Hogwarts castle and a squid. They made sweet squid on castle love having more levels to tentacle rape. I'm not making this up.

But whatever, Squid and castle Gray Skull is my OTP.

WTF am I talking about now?

 

[DragonMaster2010]

 

[AgentRedgrave]

You think that's bad? You know that guy on youtube, Pewdiepie? People shipped him with his friend Cry, so much so, they started sending death threats to his real life girlfriend. Sending a young girl death threats....and these weren't characters, they were real people. I mean he!!, I shipped Harry and Hermione, but I didn't s@#t a brick over it.

 

[TWOxACROSS]

The problem with obsessive fanbases, and equally with LGBT gone off the deep end. Particularly dealing with the latter, some really want representation of their identified sexuality in their favorite shows, and...I dunno..."want desperately" for their favorite characters to fill that representation. The worst is the (hopefully) unintentional implication that two people (of any gender, really) can't have a close relationship without it being about some sort of sexual tension. I remember getting bugged by people saying that Fang and Vanille in Final Fantasy XIII were lovers because of how they acted towards each other, but...nothing ever showed that kind of relationship, just two sister-like friends from a very closely knit tribe who end up being the last of their kind.

Much like headcanon, shipping is fine for personal entertainment, but when it gets forced on others, expect resistance.

Jenson ain't wrong to feel the way he wants to feel - especially to keep his children from seeing such adult content. I find Dean and Castiel's relationship very adorable, it's great chemistry between two very dynamic characters, but I'm not about to tell the guy he's wrong to feel the way he does. I'd also say that, yeeeeeeeah...shipping the actors is so far in the deep end they can chill with some of the ugliest creatures of the ocean.

A good rule of thumb is: when you actively harass a person or their loved ones, for any reason, you've gone too far.

 

[Director Bison]

well when ever i see shipping its usually in the title or description of a fanfic
if i'm not that interested in the ship i simply don't read it

i say if you a good enough writer you can get a way with any ship whether it's serious or comedic

but to think that your head canon relationship has or even should have any bearing on the source material let alone peoples actual lives is just foolish
and you end up being one of those fans many point at as the reason there not a fan or don't want to be associated with said fans

 

[AgentRedgrave]

I gotta say, as much as I LOVED this show (It WAS my favorite show, now it's Game of Thrones) the amount of SamXDean that was going on disturbed me. Not because they're both guys, but because they're brothers.
I personally just saw two close brother's who had eachother's back, now I can't look at anyone just being friends (male or female) without thinking "Search deviantart, fanfiction.net, people be shipping". Do people ship Sam Tarly and Jon Snow?...Probably.
Anyway, what do they want? The show acknowledges the ships, and makes jokes on them. Jensen has every right to be upset over this, he has a wife and child. It's okay to dream, but now they're bothering real people

 

[Shadow]

How far is too far? I'd say this is about 10x the legal limit of too far. >_< Ugh, people...it bothers me to no end when people do stuff like this or go on a stupid rage about their ship being the only ship out there. We get it! You love your ship! It's not real! Move on with your life!

Okay, on a more diplomatic note: I totally understand being loyal to a ship. Once I settle on one (it's rare, but it happens), then I don't care to read fanfics with other, contradicting ships about 60% of the time. Still, I can accept other people's ships and even learn to like them. The thing is: I realize these characters are not real (sadly) and that my thoughts on them, in the long run, don't mean jack. If the creators came and said "hey, your idea is bad and you should feel bad", I would accept it as canon and, in turn, make everything else I wrote AUs.

These people who are this obsessed, clearly never learned the fantasy vs reality lesson. And, imo, they make normal people with ships look like crazy people. :/

 

[NessPSI]

LOL. This made me think of that anime/manga Naruto that ended like 6 or 7 months. The manga ran for 15 years, where the main character Naruto was in love with the main heroine Sakura. The whole 15 years of character developtment was apparently thrown away and suddenly out of nowhere the last chapter was like 30 years into the future and Naruto married some side character and had 2 kids. XD

 

[DragonMaster2010]

LOL. This made me think of that anime/manga Naruto that ended like 6 or 7 months. The manga ran for 15 years, where the main character Naruto was in love with the main heroine Sakura. The whole 15 years of character developtment was apparently thrown away and suddenly out of nowhere the last chapter was like 30 years into the future and Naruto married some side character and had 2 kids. XD

Actually Kishimoto had planned for Naruto and Hinata to be together since Hinata's creation.

 

[AgentRedgrave]

And Sakura liked Sasuke

 

[DragonMaster2010]

And Sakura liked Sasuke

For whatever masochistic reason that was

 

[Director Bison]

Actually Kishimoto had planned for Naruto and Hinata to be together since Hinata's creation.

yeah i read the manga up till a little after the time skip when they go off to train for a few years

i never really got that Naruto was supposed to be with Sakura
he called her a babe in like chapter 1 or 2 and then nothing really came from it

where as with Hinata it was obvious were thing were eventually going to go with her and Naruto even tho i didn't get that far

 

[NessPSI]

Actually Kishimoto had planned for Naruto and Hinata to be together since Hinata's creation.

He did. Although he confirmed in an interview that he purposely gave Naruto and Sakura romantic-like moments to mislead the fans so the ending could be a big surprise. Even Naruto's japanese and american voice actors didnt want Naruto to end up with Hinata. Junko Takeuchi always said she wanted Naruto to end up with Sakura and that she wanted to voice their child. Unhappy with the ending, she turned down the voice role of playing Naruto and Hinatas child. Whilst Naruto's american voice actor wanted a NarutoXSasuke ending because it would have made for a great political statement on homosexuality. Also at a panel about the ending, Kishimoto said he always liked Sakura more than Hinata. Junko knew he was just spouting BS, outright told Kishimoto to stop talking because she didnt want to hear it. So even those who worked on the show didnt want the ending that was given.

 

[EA9Sol]

I like a good sturdy ship! One that I can sail on the fickle mistress called the Sea of Fandom!

But on a serous note. As long as the shipping is good I don't care. Most of the time people are going to write up fanfiction for every shipping pare under the sun. Some...more questionable then others.....like they ate a ton of coc. Cocaine is a hell of a drug!

 

[Lani]

It has already been said but shipping goes to far when you force it onto others and try to interfere in their lives.It doesnt just apply to the actors either.My sis is into supernatural fanfics and she said she knew a girl who got fired from her job because someone she had a disagreement with on a pairing found her info and phoned her boss about it. I love fanfics as much as the next fangirl,I even like some that would be considered controversial(like DantexVergil and now DantexNero:tongue but I would never try to ruin someones life over fictional characters and their relationships.:facepalm:These are the people who give fanfic writers/readers a bad name.

 

[Angel]

So I came into this thread thinking it was a discussion about postal distances. Genuinely.

Boy, was I ever wrong about that.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

So I came into this thread thinking it was a discussion about postal distances. Genuinely.

Boy, was I ever wrong about that.

I was half expecting that, but I had a feeling. :laugh:

@DragonMaster2010 I know the pain of what you discovered. Some time ago, I got into an argument with people in youtube comments (because man, there are idiots everywhere) who assumed that, just because I didn't go for the whole "Destiel" ship, I must be homophobic.

Bahahahahahaha! If only they knew half of anything about me, they'd realize just how ****ing far off-base they were.

I agree with you; it's scary how far these people will go, and it genuinely ****es me off that they think they are the authority on the fan-base. The queerbaiting accusations mainly stem from some of the blooper content from the show--in which Ackles and Collins would make some...er...teasing references. Whether these came before or after the Destiel fan-base exploded, I couldn't tell you; but it's ridiculous that these people think, just because of some funny **** in the blooper reel, that they were being "queerbaited".

It's called a joke, you simpletons. -_- The show has never been about hooking up Dean with Cas; it's funny how many of them forget it started with the brothers (and continues on) with them trying to save one another while taking out the big "bads" of demon kind.

I mean, seriously; did these people even watch the show before season 4? Don't get me wrong--I adore Cas, one of my favourite characters--but the show explores the brother relationship as well as other forms of relationships...without it heading down romance lane.

It's pretty much as @TWOxACROSS said: for some reason, these people fail to realize relationships outside of romance exist. :/

The fact that they jump all over the "homophobic" card just ****es me right off; they're making it bad for fan-bases everywhere, as well as the legitimate, non-crazies of the LGBT community.

 

[Viper]

Eyes see what heart wants, and like with all cults, if you're not with us, you're against us. Simplest way to explain how mad shippers function.

Though gay shipping has reached levels that I even saw gay men on tumblr begging girls to stop fetishizing homosexuality, once it reached their minds that they are not for diversity as much as getting their kicks. A battle lost before it even began.

 

[V]

Someone I'm related to already convinced me that Sherlock show has Sherlock and Watson as a gay couple. I never saw the show and I don't know any better so, are they actually gay or implied gay in this show? Because if not, the tumblr presence for Gay Sherlock is apparently much bigger than not and I can't tell what's real or not, who am I, etc.

As for shipping, who cares. As long as people keep it to themselves or maintain reasonable levels of sanity with it, whatever. Death threats don't fall into that ofc. As for my relative if they want to believe wholeheartedly that Sherlock is definitely banging Watson, I'll just back away slowly and leave them to it.