not) sailing a fleet of ships and quite possibly heading into battle against someone else's fleet. Because your fleet is the one true pairing and by gawd everyone else better get on board or be crushed!
If you're confused, then I'm sorry. True Otaku are already in the know.
Haha, I'm just kidding. There's so much stuff floating around the internet these days, it's entirely possible for someone to have been gleefully piloting their own ship, all alone in the great vastness of space that is the Anime universe and have absolutely no idea that bloody battle is being waged over something as innocent as love.
Yes, that's what this is all about. Love. More specifically it's about the ships created by fans, and how different shippers may find themselves at odds.
So, a little vocabulary before we continue. Follow these links to TVTropes for some pretty accurate (and somewhat funny) descriptions of Shipping and OTP, then come back here to finish reading.Anyway, all that is to say, if you've got two characters that you truly believe should be together (canon or not) then you're a shipper.
More often than not, you'll find yourself sailing many ships and maybe even ships that cross entire fandoms. Usually this isn't even a conscious process. It just happens. Our brains pick out two characters that we really like and then decides that they would be awesome together. The rest is history.
Over time, however, I've noticed that all of my ships have something in common. For me to actually get behind a pairing I have to have some sort of inkling as to whether or not the characters might actually like one another. Nothing imagined either, it's got to be something outright. And it has to be mutual. They have to like each other.
Like I said in an earlier post, I'm still catching up on Fairy Tail. I'm currently on the 4th day of the Grand Magic Games. I've never read the manga (something I plan on doing).
Based on what I've watched so far though, I just can't ship Gray and Juvia. While Juvia is very open about her feelings, Gray (at least so far) has never really said anything one way or the other. He supports Juvia the way he would any other member of the guild, and jumps to her defense without question, but I believe he'd do the same for Natsu or Wendy or any of his guild members.
I'm not saying the Gruvia shippers are wrong. I'm just saying that I personally can't get behind it.
However, during the Oracion Seis arc there's the scene where Gemini impersonates Gray and reveals that he "has a thing for Lucy." I'm not sure if this is canon, and it hasn't been touched on again so I'm assuming it was no big deal. It doesn't matter anyway, because Lucy herself repeatedly tells Juvia she's not interested in Gray and has never shown anything other than friendship towards him.
So GraLu is out for me as well.
Natsu and Lucy have several moments that might be defined as showing "interest" in one another. Lots of blushing. I think there's attraction there, but it's subtle. I haven't nailed them together as OTP. Things can shift really easily, especially with Lisanna obviously still harboring feelings for Natsu.
There are, however, two ships that I'm pretty much on board with 100%.
The first should be pretty obvious and I expect that most fans of Fairy Tail will agree with me on this one.
Gajeel and Levy. There's lots of mutual attraction there. They work really well together and I think ultimately would make an amazing couple.
The second one doesn't get a lot of attention by the fans. I'm not sure if that's because it's one of those things that goes without saying and doesn't need repeating, but I've fallen in love with this pairing.
Elfman and Evergreen. I hated Evergreen when she was first introduced. I seriously disliked her character and her personality, but that was probably because the Fighting Festival arc had left a general bad impression of all the members of the Raijinshuu.
The Tenrou island arc really helped to show a different side of all of the Raijinshuu and highlighted positive qualities that each of them had. Most notably, however, it showed that Evergreen wasn't just a cold hearted bitch and actually worked really well alongside Elfman.
The Grand Magic Games arc brought Elfman to the forefront and gave us one of the best examples of mutual attraction we've seen so far in the series.
My still ultimate favorite pairing is Bisca and Alzack. Before the time skip I got all butterflies-in-the-stomach giddy every time their awkward romance got screen time.
You have no idea how loud I squealed when I learned they'd gotten married and had the most adorable kid ever.
With them officially hitched though, I think the Elfman/Evergreen pairing is meant to replace their sappy romantic tension and give us another pairing to look forward to. I don't mind it one bit to be honest.
I sail, far more ships than this, and in many different fandoms. I think naming them all would be a novel sized undertaking, haha.
But anyway, the point to this post is that we all have ships we love. We have ships we dislike. We have ships that we abhor. There are pairings we simply cannot fathom(I still don't quite get the Eren/Levi shippers from Attack on Titan), but that's okay.
You don't have to agree with everyone. You don't even have to like what they're saying. But you don't have to entry into life-or-death combat over which ship is the TRUE ship.
I had a friend when I was in College. We both shipped different things. She preferred yaoi pairings and I was a more traditional shipper. We got along just fine. Sharing our ships with one another, talking about the pros and cons of the relationships and why or why not so-and-so would make a great couple.
Even though we didn't agree on the characters all the time, we took time to understand and recognize why each or us valued a certain pairing. In the end our friendship was stronger for it.
If more people in the fandoms took the time to do something like this (instead of blasting each other to pieces) then each fandom would become infinitely stronger.
If you want the blank version of the shipping chart I posted, you can find it here.
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