Holdouttrout

1. Submitting documents to be uploaded by the webmaster and not knowing exactly when they’ll post.

2. Checking the archive every day to see if that fic I’m following has been updated.

3. Copying and pasting fics as fast as possible into a Word doc so I could get off the dial-up so my parents wouldn’t get mad at me.

4. Printing off fics using the tiniest font possible to read in my room, since I had limited time.

5. Hearing about this new website called FanFiction.Net and being pretty sure that would never catch on.

6. Sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to get more fic.

I ship characters because I think they’re cute, or funny, or have a meaningful connection, or because I think they have chemistry, or because those two people are HOT, or because I feel the characters balance each other in wonderful ways or because IDEK I just like the idea of them together.

Whether or not a pairing is good representation is a bonus. It’s an important thing to talk about and something that interests me but it’s not what drives my shipping.

1. When I went to my first “real” con, to the first one that was specifically something I wanted to go to, I remember standing on the second floor of the hotel, looking out into a crowd of people who were all there for the con, and thinking “MY PEOPLE.” There’s a sense of belonging that I’ve rarely felt other places. I was with hundreds of other people who were fannish about things like I was, though not necessarily the same things, or in exactly the same ways.

2. A few minutes after thinking “MY PEOPLE,” I was standing in the middle of the hotel floor and Brent Spiner walked by and asked me a question out of FREAKING NOWHERE and I swear to God I don’t think he knew just how amazing that random question was to me, who had grown up watching him on Star Trek and still watched him on other shows. I CAN GUESS how amazingly hilarious my face was when I realized who had just spoken to me, though. I’m sure I lit up like a Christmas tree. That moment right there was worth the expense of the con, the cost of the hotel, the flight to get there, the anxiety of rooming with people I had never met before. Totally intangible, but totally awesome. And that was a 5-second interaction.

3. Panels, despite the repetitive questions that dominate, despite almost always feeling like you are so far away you might as well be watching a video, sometimes bring you the totally unexpected moments. Like Chris Judge learning about furries. And there’s something totally awesome about sharing that moment with several hundred other people who are also peeing their pants with laughter.

4. Autographs can feel extremely weird, and I don’t personally value the autograph itself that much… but again, sometimes the celebrities are awesome. Sometimes it’s a moment. Sometimes you might say something that makes them laugh. Sometimes you can only keep yourself from saying something irredeemably stupid. Sometimes? YOU HONESTLY DON’T CARE THAT MUCH. (Like it’s a package deal, and you might as well get your autograph.) But sometimes that person you were “meh” about is funny or kind or you get to see someone who loves them meet them and be SO HAPPY.

5. You get to spend time with people you don’t normally get to spend time with, friends you might only have spoken to via blogs or text messages or maybe the phone. And sure, you can do that without a con, but since there’s lots to see and do at cons it can reduce the pressure of meeting someone for the first time–and provide you with LOTS of material to discuss ad nauseam. 

I mean, it’s definitely a “to each their own” thing. Cons are not always cheap, and Creation cons especially exist to make lots and lots of money. But so are lots of other kinds of entertainment: sporting events, theatre, amusement parks, travel to foreign places, etc. 

And it’s beautiful. You might argue with the show’s interpretation of the characters both in and out of the pairing, but you still get kisses and declarations and longing looks and interaction.

Shipping a non-canon pairing isn’t nearly as fun. Depending on the show, you might get an occasional off-hand line or a look or even a deep, meaningful friendship between your characters–but you have to make your own frisson. You have to do a lot more work for anything you get. Some of that is fun, but the high of the payoff from the show isn’t there. Also, you usually have to deal with smug canon-shippers (I know, I’ve been a smug canon shipper) who DO get those moments of euphoria.

I’ve seen excellent fic, meta, and art based on non-canon pairings and excellent fic, meta, and art based on canon pairings and excellent genfic that explores the characters in deep and meaningful ways. I hate that we box ourselves in to being righteous canon-followers or righteous devotees of non-canon shipping. I hate that fandoms divide into camps and we entrench ourselves as “us vs them” instead of engaging with each other’s viewpoints and allowing that we all have our own biases and ways of selecting the things from canon we do and do not hold as sacred.

I’ve made many friends in fandom who share different viewpoints about characters. I think some of their interpretations or theories are downright WRONG. I might even be inspired by how wrong they are to write a post explaining my own interpretation. Or I might tilt my head a little, think “I never saw it that way,” and file it away to mull over on rainy days.