Sinking Ships: Or, How Shipping Is Ruining Fandom

Ok, Internet, we need to talk.

Now, look, before you overreact, that headline is really just there to grab you. I don’t think shipping, as a general concept, is the worst. I ship, everyone at AllTheTV ships, everyone ships, from your five year old cousin who is really into Dora The Explorer (that simmering sexual tension between Swiper and Boots, amirite?) to your 87 year old grandma who only watches Matlock reruns (Andy Griffith, phroawr). Shipping, in and of itself, is a natural occurrence. It means that you like a show, like the characters, like their interactions. It means that those talented people who make the show, the writers, the directors, the actors, everyone who contributes to a scene, are doing their job right. But, here’s the thing, there are two types of shipping, and only one of them is problematic. There is watching a show and shipping the characters. It’s normal, we all do it, etc. And then there is shipping the characters THEN watching the show, and this is where we all need to collectively neck ourselves before we wreck ourselves, Internet.

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