Tag: sent on 20200611

Oof, that’s a question! Umm, in general or with me? Personally, I’m usually pretty mild about that kind of thing and don’t really ascribe…bad faith intentions in that way, I guess? I feel like it’s part of their job to sell a nice picture and if they make fans happy on the way, as m/f costar romances did, I don’t really see the issue. And that’s if it seems played up at all and not just a genuine good friendship from the start. And the same can be said for a lot of other fans, I’ve never seen a fandom where everyone thinks the same about everything BUT, okay, there can be a majority consensus at a certain point, and I guess that does come down to the big influential fans and as you said, the culture and bias within that fandom. 

I guess if you really want to get into it, it depends what stage the ship and actor friendship is at. If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about, that’s still very much on its upward trajectory, the same place other ships/friendships were at some previous point in time. People being happy with something for now doesn’t mean they always will be. 

Even the actors you think who didn’t “get away with it” probably were, at some point. As long as things are all right with the ship/fandom, people will generally be happy and tolerant of whatever kind of “baiting” or “pandering” or whatever you want to call it, but I think one of two things happens and the mood turns. Either the ship has a bad end or the actors’ friendship dissolves (publicly, at least) and suddenly fans feel used and manipulated, and embarrassed for it. The more personal and emotional investment there was and the more abrupt the turn, the worse they feel, and that frustration’s gotta go somewhere.

A bunch of factors go into it, smaller fandoms will never really reach the point where they become their own self-contained content and engagement engines, so it’s harder to be as all in for them, which decreases the final disappointment. The further we get, the less inevitable the ship/friendship destruction I mentioned above seems, we’re getting some happy endings now and actors don’t seem to feel the same awkwardness and pressure about being shipped (although it still VERY much depends on the individual). Big name fans encouraging good behavior and moderation around the actors can help from things running away. More ships going on at once stops people from pinning all their hopes on the one. A lot of things. I suppose, at the end of it, fans judge how sincere the actors were, and bad ends tend to color everything that came before, but as long as everything’s all right, the fans are happy with it.