Fanon to Canon; Oh yes?; Oh noes!?

[krickets]

I was talking to barefoot_chick about shipping and what happens when your favorite fanon pairing suddenly becomes canon. There they are, the special two, just going about their platonic existences, when before you know it, right before your eyes, there's full-on mackage and/or declarations of love, true lustlove!

After all of that writing, reading, discussing, watching, and waiting, having to endure storylines that pull the characters away from each other, or worse, make them completely oblivious to each other, and after all that time spent hoping against all odds, it's finally happened.

You squee, you convulse, you cry, you slap your TV/computer moniter, you jump for joy, you do whatever it is shippers do when your people become... one. (Wow that would be kind of poetic if it weren't so goofy-sounding.)

The question then, becomes: What do you do then? What happens next?

Do you immerse yourself in fandom, write, read, vid, watch, consume, digest anything you can get your hands on? Or do you discover that fun really was all in the chase and lose interest entirely?

If the latter is the case, maybe it's not about losing interest entirely, maybe it's about not wanting fanon or future canon, or anything, to ruin that perfect moment? Or maybe the moment wasn't so perfect after all and you're just darn angry that when it finally happened, it didn't happen right.

Canon? Ewww! I'm not really an OTP-er, although I do have favored pairings in canon. Often, however, that does not cross over into my fandom activities.

In BSG, I like Lee/Kara, but I don't, and can't see myself ever wanting to write them. But then again, I also really like Leoben/Kara, Sam/Kara, Helo/Kara... and well, you get the point. I'm kind of a chronic multi-shipper that way. They are in no way my OTP, just an example of a pairing I ship for which I have no interest in being a fandom participant.

(The same goes for Kate and Jack of LOST, although I don't ship them exclusively with one another, on the show or off - it's that multi-shipper bug I can't get rid of.)

As a matter of fact, looking over my fic, there are very few pairings I have written that are canon at all: Kara/Leoben; Kara/Sam; and you could stretch and say Dean/Jo, though it was canonically unrequited. Of those, only Kara/Leoben is a ship that I adored that only became canon after the fact, albeit in its own twisted sort of way. (I loved them ever since first watching Flesh & Bone.)

I have this running joke that canon squicks me. And though it is true that I stick mainly to non-canon pairings, I don't think it changes my level of involvement when that thin line between what is real, and what I imagine could be real, is erased.

And yet, canon still in some way shapes my fandom habits, seeing as I usually shy away from those pairings. Just not after the fact, apparently.

Does it change?I'm sure it's different for everybody. I know that there are people who only ever write or read canon pairings, so they're kind of the opposite of me in that way. I couldn't see myself writing only, or even mostly, canon pairings. I think it's a combination of feeling bored by those ideas, and being drawn to all these unexplored possibilities that lie beyond what we see on screen.

So could the same kind of idea effect someone who previously loved the idea of a pairing and that pairing suddenly becomes canon? (Or in the case of Adama/Roslin, finally does?)

ETA: I know this is an entirely different game for those who are pretty much exclusively slash shippers. Though, perhaps shipping only slash is partially a means to avoid the possibility that your pairing will ever become canon -- in most instances.

Comments

[barefoot-chick.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's all in the chase. I'm not sure. I watched "The Hub" and it was all over for me. I don't even know why. I've never had one of my ships become canon before and it just blew me away.

I think I viewed Adama/Roslin as one of those unatainable/unconventional ships. I ship people that will never get together in canon. Buffy/Giles, being one of them.

I'm sure I'll get back into BSG at some point, but it just holds no interest for me right now. Maybe you're right about the fact that I don't want to burst the happiness bubble I got from watching "The Hub". How much better could it get from there?

I'm going retro in my fandoms now. Busy going through MacGyver episodes. Have Magnum, P.I. on my Netflix list. Someone convinced me that Starsky and Hutch is gayer than gay and I'm investigating that by borrowing the first season from the library.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

You can borrow my due South DVDs if you want! LOL. A lot of people ship Ray Kowalski and Fraser (and Ray Vecchio and Fraser too) but I haven't gone the slash route yet. I just think the show is an awesome good time. I still need to watch season four though (blasphemy!) but luckily that is in the mail to me right now!

You know what you should watch? PUSHING DAISIES. Holy crap it is the cutest show that ever evered! And there's not a ton of ship angst (unless you count the fact that the two main characters can't touch each other, ever). It's just soooo cute. But it doesn't come out on DVD until SEPTEMBER. Damn. Makes no sense!

I just realized I watch way more TV than I ever have and it's all because of livejournal. (And I probably download 90% of it, BSG and LOST are the only two I watch on the big TV downstairs.)

This is what I'm definitely going to catch up with this summer:
Veronica Mars
Stargate Atlantis
Dr. Who
Torchwood
dueSouth (season 4)

Here's what I hope to catch up with this summer:
Life on Mars
Ashes to Ashes
Mad Men

Also, Stargate premieres in the summer (in a few weeks!)

Then in the fall:
Pushing Daisies
Big Love
(Possibly Entourage)

But what about new shows? So far, only Dollhouse for sure. (By the way, when I said Summer Glau, I think I meant to say Amy Acker.)

And the BSG CAST?
I definitely want to watch Katee's eps of Nip/Tuck, and Callum's eps of Californication, and Tricia's eps of Burn Notice.

Trucco has a new show and so does Grace, but who knows if I'll follow them there. I love Trucco, but his is a sitcom and I just... don't watch sitcoms, with few exceptions. Maybe, I'll wait to see if it makes it past sweeps? Though Grace's show sounds kind of good, IMO, and it's on a network where I think if it even does remotely well, it'll stay on.

Then it's LOST and BSG in the winter. (And whenever Madmen comes back, if I find I like it.)

ALSO? Eureka looks reallygood!

Damn I need to watch less TV.