What Do You Mean When You Say "Ship?"

[white avenger]

When you hear or think of the word "ship" in terms of literary, TV, or movie characters, what, not especially who, do you think of? In other words, how do you define "ship?"

You may use examples either in or out of the Whedonverse, if you wish, but this is NOT a battle to determine the validity or invalidity of anyone else's favorites.

 

[OFAWB]

Thanks for the thread, white avenger.

To me, a relationship is just that: a relationship. It doesn't have to be romantic or sexual for it to exist. It's why I think Spuffy existed long before Season 5, for example. To me, the sum of two people's interactions and feelings - positive, negative, and everything in between - is their relationship. Buffy and Xander? That's a 'ship. Giles and Buffy? That's a 'ship, too. Faith and the Mayor, Harmony and Cordelia, Joyce and Spike...They're all 'ships in my eyes.

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

I agree. A relationship is a relationship 🙂

 

[Kean]

For me, the use of the word "ship" is reserved solely for Buffy/Angel. Buffy and Angel are my favourite characters of all time so I'm invested in their potential happiness individually and collectively. In that way, shipping becomes an action for me. Which involves engaging in discussions, reading/writing fic, watching fan vids, creating fan art pieces and gifs. It's a conviction of belief in their bond and the importance (I believe) it has on their characters.

I like other characters from other forms of fictions, I like other couples in other fictions, but I don't ship anything but B/A. I actively participate in their fandom, I don't do that for any other characters/couple.

 

[white avenger]

What brought this topic about was a conversation that I had with another Board member recently. If the term "ship" is derived from "relationship," why would it only be applicable to a specific (romantic) type of relationship? Friends, siblings, parents and children, classmates, even enemies, all share a type of relationship.

To me, what really makes a ship is the way that two characters are written and portrayed by the actors. That's why I said in another thread that Spuffy began with Season 2, "School Hard." Sarah and James, to me, just had a special dynamic together from their first scene. The characters played off of each other perfectly. I felt the same way when Eliza came on the show. I never thought about Faith and Buffy ever being lovers, but it was obvious, to me, at least, that they would end up being either close friends or enemies.

Both of those two particular ships, coincidentally, always seemed to me to be like like steam and ice, too similar and too opposite, if that makes sense to anyone but me, to ever just exist together without some creating kind of dynamic reaction.

 

[thetopher]

I think of 'ship as denoting something special between two people. Not just friendship, closeness or even chemistry, it should be an attraction/clicking together.

I also think of 'ships as having a sexual aspect, even if its an unrealised/unforfilled one.

If you call something between two people a 'ship, it should mean something. 🙂

 

[Kean]

I've thought about this a bit more and I realised that not only do I reserve "ship" for romantic relationships but I use it as a term to indicate reciprocity and canon. I know a lot of people have non-canon ships but I didn't realise until I started using Tumblr again that I don't consider a ship real (or worthy of that word) unless a relationship actually happened between those characters.

I know other people enjoy their fandoms in other ways, but this is how I mentally filter mine.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I made this comment under "Romancing Cordy" and it seems to have a place in this thread:

Hello 'shipmates!

Here's an idea:

Draw a table like a spreadsheet table with all the actor / actress names on successive rows. Repeat the same names in the same order in the column direction left to right. Each cell in the spreadsheet represents a relationship. There will be a diagonal line where the names are both the same. That's all right, a lot of the characters are in love with themselves, so it's a valid 'ship. 😉 The table is symmetrical around the diagonal, so one triangular half can be discarded. Each remaining cell is the possible ship, even for unlikely ones like Faith and Clem (although Dawn and Clem is an intriguing possibility and Dawn and Sweet - well that was going to happen until Sweet was stopped in OMWF).

Then start a thread about each cell, even if the people involved never met or died before the other came on the scene (a Fred and Illyria cell would be interesting). Then start a thread about the rapturous nature of the ship, how they swept each other of their feet and so on. Or how they got along like sodium and water, exploding on contact.

Sexual orientation would not matter, but if you want a break from trendy same-sex hookups, you could put male names on the rows and female on the columns or vice versa for a smaller table. Conversely, if you are only interested in same sex hookups, you can have separate male and female tables. Think we ought to do this?

It would give us all the permutations and combinations of relationships that could exist including speculative ones like Dawn and Connor where the age bracket is the same but there is nothing indicating that they ever met (although I am not familiar with the comics, so it may have happened or it may happen yet). This could be good thread material for years.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

For me, I use the term 'ship as simply an abbreviation of relationship. In the context of fandom, that would be a relationship between two characters that I follow and/or am invested in.