A Face that Launched a Thousand "Ships"

The tradition of an audience shipping characters goes back a long way. We can see it in the saga of Sam and Diane on Cheers. The back and forth of “will they, won’t they” has been a fundamental dynamic of male and female relationships on television. We saw it in the relationship between Mulder and Scully on The X-Files. Sometimes this dynamic expands into a triangle where one party must make a choice with two or more other individuals involved. This is when ‘shipping becomes particularly interesting as it segments the audience into different camps. I’ve always heard the Betty or Veronica argument from the Archie comics. In my youth, it was the drama of whether Kelly Kapowski should be with Zack Morris or A.C. Slater on Saved by the Bell. As I grew up, it was first the Brenda, Dylan, Kelly triangle followed by the Dylan, Kelly, Brandon triangle of Beverly Hills 90210. Viewers were clear about which team they resided on. We’ve seen it time and time again: Team Edward v. Team Jacob (Twilight), Team Bill v. Team Eric v. Team Alcide (True Blood), Team Dean v. Team Jess v. Team Logan (Gilmore Girls), etc. Over the years, we’ve moved on from teams to cute couple names such as Richonne (Walking Dead) even when there is not the conflict for the audience of who the character should be with. Honestly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is also the world of slash ‘ships i.e. Rick and Daryl from The Walking Dead, Sherlock and Watson (both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman and RDJ and Jude Law), Sansa Stark and Margaery Tyrell from Game of Thrones, etc.

Sometimes these ships are plot-driven; sometimes they are fan wishes. These fan wishes are on occasion fulfilled by a show’s creator for a variety of reasons. For example, we now have a romance on Walking Dead between Rick and Michonne. Much of the choice to put those characters together stems from Michonne taking pieces of the story arc of a character still alive in the comics but dead in the world of the show. This has led to a character that is dead in the comics being poised to take on a relationship storyline on the show that once belonged to Michonne because she is still alive in the show. While it was wish fulfillment for fans of the show, it is ultimately something that has been driven by plot and the choices that the producers and writers made in telling their story. It all makes sense in the structure of the world.

The thing that always makes me curious about the concept of shipping characters is the level of passion that some fans exhibit. I don’t condemn their enthusiasm for character relationships. I don’t think I could call myself a proper nerd if I did. I do, however, wonder at the animosity between the different camps on occasion. Looking back at the height of the Twilight phenomenon, the level of ferocity of those on Team Edward and those on Team Jacob could rival the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. These girls, and some guys, were so convinced about who Bella should end up with that some readers were ultimately disappointed with the way Meyers’ resolved this love triangle. There was similar disappointment with fans of the Sookie Stackhouse novels which would become the HBO show, True Blood. Although, I agree with the disappointment in how the romantic relationships ended up for Sookie because it made all of the previous romantic entanglements of the series essentially unimportant.

Some of the appeal of shipping characters for the audience is that it allows the reader or viewer to try and figure out where the story is going to go. For example, those people who ‘ship Jon Snow and Daenerys (Dany) Targaryen are trying to figure out how George R.R. Martin might resolve some questions about who will assume the Iron Throne and reign over Westeros. This ship involves looking at clues in the text as well as the history of the world to figure out where the author is going. Even though Jon and Dany may be related, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for them to end up together given the history of the Targaryens marrying within their family.

Shipping characters, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It demonstrates the audience’s passion for the characters and world created. However, when it begins to create animosity and petty arguments within a fandom, it can become more problematic.