Poll: Shipping: Fan Pairings, Official Couples, or Both?

[Kimarous]

It's well known that among pretty much every fandom, there will be people who like to support romantic relationships between the various characters... "shipping," as it is sometimes called. One thing I've generally noticed, however, is that canon pairings seem to be... ignored, I guess is the term. Probably at least 80% of fanfiction, fanart, and so forth tend to deliberately tear canon couples apart. Is there some kind of instinctive revulsion to canon pairings that I just don't feel, or is the "pro-canon" crowd just content to let canon do the work for them?

Feel free to post your own opinion on fandom "shipping" and your own stance on official couples.

 

[Savo]

I go with canon pairings almost always. That is, unless they suck, which is the case with most of the animes I have seen that involve harems. For some reason, the main girl in harems is always the most bland and unlikable character, at least to me.

 

[Vault101]

the only thing I feel this is remotly applicable is Mass effect

even then Tali is obviously never oging to get with femshep

Ash on the other hand....Im convinced it should have been

 

[xdom125x]

It depends on the ship but I tend to agree with the canon ships because they tend to be the ones that have the most going for them in terms of actually making sense without the characterization from the show/book/whatever getting thrown out the window. The only ships that I have a problem with are the ones with absolutely no basis in canon because of the "evidence" people bring up to support them generally falls into "they have emotions for each other" to describe any emotions like absolute hatred between the 2, "their just hiding their true feelings" to support 2 platonic friends getting together, or something along those lines.

Also, I think the people that liked the canon pairing don't have a reason to make a fic to support their pairing because it already happened. So looking at a place for fanfic is going to be inherently biased against the canon couple.

 

[game-lover]

I am pretty much always canon. I don't see the point in going against it. What good would it do in the end?

Occasionally, I have fan pairings but they're usually ships I think are leaning towards canon anyway.

If there was a ship that I had but ended up being "jossed' by canon, I'd immediately switch my tune.

Harry Potter is a good example. When I started reading, I thought Harry and Hermoine would be good. But once it was apparent that things were leaning towards Hermoine and Ron, I changed my tune. No muss. No fuss.

 

[The Night Angel]

I stick with canon, usually they are the most realistic and believable ones, as the story was designed for that outcome. I suppose fanfics tear them apart because that's what fanfics do. If they were just retelling the story again it would be pointless. Though there are one or two canon couples that I didn't like, and one or two that never happened that I think should have. But all in all, the canon ones work just fine for me.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Canon only however I do accept shipping if in the media they are in had only hint for affections for each over but never really develop futher (e.g. the Zoids anime with Van and Fiona).

Any other else especially "fandom" is something I cannot stand. The worse kind are the ones that had no real hint of love for each other at all aka random pairing (e.g. Hinata and Itachi from Naruto) or the ones that can never work (e.g. I kid you not there is Zant X Midna fanarts out there! WTF yeah Midna really love Zant that much she had crush him to dust in the game!)

 

[Ultress]

I'm usually ok with the canon pairings and even if I'm not I want the fan pairings to make sense. Perfect example:Rita/Estelle as opposed to Estelle/Yuri(Tales of Vesperia), the pairing could work at least to me.As opposed to Mitsuru/Yukari over MC/Yukari(Persona 3) which is a stretch at best. Plus their are better ways to pair MC/Fuuka and get Yukari out of the picture like Yukari/Junpei because they have things in common,like a shit homelife,and they have decent banter in game.

Sorry for that small tangent but the point I'm trying to make is as long as the pairing makes sense I can roll with it.

 

[Zhukov]

Ye gods, they are among us!

 

[Starik20X6]

I've never felt the need to determine a fictional character's love life for them. As far as I'm concerned, if I didn't create/write the character, I've got no business making up stuff about them.

 

[DrgoFx]

Being a member of a Percy Jackson Roleplaying Site, I come across this a lot with Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and most recently Hunger Games. At the same time though, they seem to keep Cannon couples in check and only have fanfiction couples if it makes sense with cannon.

However they seem to be more focused on shipping site members than fiction...I'm unsure if that's common anywhere else.

 

[OneBrokePony]

It really depends. I don't do much of it, I guess. Usually the canon pairings make at least some sense. Now, there are times where I think "Hey, these two would be cute together". It's pretty much just for fun though. I very rarely go battle-ship and refuse to accept the canon pair.

 

[Lionsfan]

I've never really understood shipping to be honest. Just seems like a huge waste of time, especially the Shipping Wars