Ships with ships

Aw thanks, drizzlydaze.

---------- Post added at 07:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:15 AM ----------

With Spike it was particularly interesting how many people who thought Spike/Harmony was funny and adorable in BtVS S4-5, then turn on the pairing with a vengeance when Spike decided to boff Harmony the minute he became corporeal in AtS S5. People can like many different pairings for the many different Spikes but there are issues when they bleed together.

In the spirit of liking ships in the context of changing characters, I have to wonder how many people ship a pairing but wish a different version of the character was in the ship. Do people ship Cangel but wish the snarky, kinda bitchy Cordelia of AtS S1-2 was in the relationship instead of the blonde, shmoopy, glowy St. Cordelia that got Angel? Are there people who ship Willow/Tara but wish it could have happened with High School Willow? People who love Spuffy but wish that it was their pairing that was the first Buffy/vampire ship and that Angel didn't emotionally destroy and give Buffy certain expectations before Spike came along? I know that these people exist but I wonder whether they make up a big part of the ship. And I mentioned post-high school ships here because I'm pretty sure that it's the post-high school ships that have this kind of "qualified shipping". I doubt that there are Bangel shippers who wish that it was the Buffy of S6-7 in the relationship with Angel or Willow/Oz shippers who wish it was the Willow of S4-6 in the relationship with Oz (minus sexual orientation issues) but I bet you can flip it and say that there was Spuffy shippers who wanted the Buffy of S1-3 with their guy or Willra shippers who wanted the Willow of S2-3 with their girl, Tara. I doubt that even any significant number of Xander/Cordelia shippers wanted the Cordelia of AtS with Xander even though Cordelia was supposed to have grown up in the best possible way.
 
Last edited:
Kean agrees: I can't speak for anyone else, but "first love" has absolutely nothing to do with why I ship the earlier ships. I ship them because I like who the characters are during that period, even more, I like how they are together. "First love" means zilch.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. 🙂 It might not apply to you, it could just be a coincidence, but I've just noticed that it's a common thread with other fans.
 
My biggest ships are Spuffy, Tillow and Xanya. They are all from season's four onwards and I am not the biggest fan of the earlier seasons. I mean, I ADORE the show from minute one and never hate it or even really dislike it but I prefer the darker, more intense road the series takes and the couples that go with that.

That being said, I enjoy Cordelia/Xander, Spike/Drusilla, Willow/Oz etc very much. Some more than others (Sprusilla and Woz) But I feel like the relationships (Cordy/Xander and Willow/Oz) are very high school a lot of the time and I'm in high school now but am the type that doesn't relate to that or get majorly interested by it. I love the dark romances taht shouldn't be right or the ones that are so beautiful that you can't help but love them. I don't know, those are just the ships I ship.

I don't know how the patterns work, I don't think you can define anything in a fandom by a pattern of sorts. This is the Buffyverse, it's all unpredictable and we can press the seasons 1-3 and seasons 4-7 theory as much as we like but we're simply all different people with different aspects of a personality which make us relate or fall in love with a ship. Some are the same but there is always going to be difference of opinion. I ship a lot of the same ships as Zoe (zobothehobo) and yet she dislikes some characters I like so in turn some of the ships I am only semi-attached to.

End of rant, you guys have the floor now.
 
Are there people who ship Willow/Tara but wish it could have happened with High School Willow?
Click to expand...

Me, me, me! I am even writing a fanfic along those lines.

I think that most fans' shipping preferences can be grouped in "Early Seasons" vs. "Later Seasons". However, I do think that genre plays a role. Fans who like comedy and bickering can usually get behind Xander/Cordelia *and* Xander/Anya. Fans who like their ships sugary-sweet can't decide between Willow/Oz and Willow/Tara.
Click to expand...

I think the seasonal division has also a lot to do with plausibility. Say what you wish, but I think it's hard to deny that Spuffy and Xanya are less plausible than the high school relationships, if for no other reasons than Spike and Anya being unrepentant serial killers. For many a fan this is a stumbling block that prevents them from enjoying such ships. Personally, just thinking about it breaks my suspension of disbelief because in my mind Buffy and Xander wouldn't even talk nicely to Anya or would try to stake Spike, chip or no chip, let alone have them as long term significant others. And Anya and Spike wouldn't have been interested in being in the Scooby gang either. So I can't take these relationships seriously at all, they remind me of crack fanfiction.
 
Well, I normally am not into the tortured, brooding solitary guy with a past dating the sweet, innocent girl type ships but for some reason I like both Angel and Spike with Buffy (though I'm not opposed to the idea of Fuffy or Bander).

I thought Anya treated Xander a lot better than Cordelia did (though I love Cordelia). I love Tillow and Woz. I never will like Spike/Harmony (mostly cuz I think Harmony's character is overrated and got way too much screen time.

I loved Wash/Zoe and Mal/Inara and was bored with Kaylee/Simon. I was very bored with Echo/Ballard although I liked Sierra/Victor.

My shipping is just all over the place. I can't really find a pattern. But if something like Bangel or Spuffy had been done on any other show by any other writers I probably would've hated it.
 
I
InsaneMystic
bored with Kaylee/Simon?? something just died in me a little reading that :(
Oh God, I hated Spike/Harmony from the very first moment they came onscreen. I never even thought Harmony was that funny, in high school or as a vampire.
 
drizzlydaze said:
Oh God, I hated Spike/Harmony from the very first moment they came onscreen. I never even thought Harmony was that funny, in high school or as a vampire.
Click to expand...
GASP!

*Covers mouth with hand. And then removes it.*

How dare you! Vamp Harmony was hilarious.

🙂
 
I tend to ship people who have potential...yet their "love" or whatever isn't obvious, but it's hinted at or joked about by the writers. I mean, Bangel is just too easy (I do like Bangel though...sometimes). Spangel, Spuffy...ships like that usually catch my interest. I'm not sure what that says about me though. But that isn't always the case, there are canon ships that I like, Xanya, Tillow, and Calendiles for instance.

Also, I prefer the earlier seasons (2 and 3 are my favorites), and I love Tillow, I sort of like Spuffy...w/e you catch my drift, so that theory (about the seasons you prefer coinciding with who you ship) has just been shot to hell! 😉 To be honest, I'm pretty okay with most of the canon ships in the Buffyverse. There isn't one that I just HATE. The only fandom that I have huge problems with canon ships is...Harry.frickin.Potter. Ugh.

And yes. I realize how many times I said "canon ships" in those two mini paragraphs.
....😱
 
I ship Spuffy way more than any other pairing on the show.

That said, I really love most of the pairings in Buffy. I really really enjoy Willow/Oz and Willow/Tara, Giles/Jenny, Buffy/Angel, Xander/Cordy and Xander/Anya, Angel/Cordy, Wesley/Lilah, Fred/Wesley. . . Also really really dig Spike and Dru.

I am a pretty eclectic person though. And that's the only connection I can make between myself and all these ships. lol
 
I prefer Xander/Cordelia, Spike/Buffy, and Willow/Oz. I find those more enjoyable to watch.

But my real ship is Xander/Spike: fanfic, TV show, comics. Canon or not, I get really excited when Xander and Spike are on screen.
 
As I've stated more than a few times before, my first exposure to Buffy on TV was when I taped "Once More With Feeling" for a friend, so the later relationships, Spuffy, Twillow, and Xanya, were pretty much established and seemed completely right to me. It wasn't very long after that that I discovered "Buffy" in syndication, two episodes a day, back to back, Monday through Friday, so I was able to actually see the early ships at the same time as the later ones, both for the first time, simultaneously, and I had no problems with either set within the time frame that they were depicted, and I still don't. They seemed then, and still do today, perfectly natural within the time frame that they depicted. It also seems perfectly natural to me that time passes and people move on, especially people who are no longer in close contact with each other. Angel, Cordelia, and Oz left Sunnydale. Spike, Anya, and Tara moved in and took their places. Perfectly natural, logical, and the way that relationships form, dissolve, and, sometimes, reform. If Spike, Anya, or Tara had left and their earlier counterpart, even (shudder) Angel, had come back "home," I could have accepted the reunion with little or no problem, just as I have no problem believing that Buffy, Xander, and Willow can love and be in love with both of their respective partners. That, also, is perfectly natural and normal. It hasn't happened, and most likely never will, and I have no problem with that either.
 
I normally don't ship at all, not on first sight, not on second. For example when I still tried to watch Veronica Mars series I could not stand either of her love interests. I kind of ship Sheldon and Penny , but , being a gamer, it is mostly for the sake of their online gaming relationship. 😀 So , Bangel is pretty much my only ever shippers endeavor , because , well, it got me where it should not have. Right where it hurts the most. The rest of the both shows relationship I watched for the story that was told and sometimes I liked , sometimes violently disliked these romances - and I suspect I was a very 'good ' audience because I was properly impressed with all the stories. On Angel, I sometimes slightly shipped Doyle and Cordelia, and Wesley and Lilah, but it was not something I watched the show for. On BtVS I was at first fascinated with Spike and Drusilla's love-hate , but it grew shallow on me when it was played for laughs. Never was much invested in any Willow's romances - she is a solitary by nature character and impressive enough on her own. Besides, I never liked Tara too much, but I thought the way Willow treated her was too much of a codependent abusive dominatrix style. I do support Dander but I also liked Xander and Anya , although not terribly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom