when it comes to subtext-only couples (romantic couples in TV/film that are not explicitly canon), there many reasons that these ships can very appealing to watch and can be compelling & fulfillingly romantic for the viewer, despite no overt sexual contact and no out-loud declaration of a relationship....

but one of the biggest draws for me is all of the effort put into communicating what cannot be said. all of the work put into saying without words or an on screen kiss, we are in love! You as the viewer need to be made to FEEL that love. There are no shortcuts or easy way out. They can't just tell without showing.

When a writer, an actor believes in that unspoken love and build it into their performance, when people work together to create a subtext ship, when they put thought into it and pay attention to all the details.... 👌👌👌👌

This can apply to many ships that aren't permitted explicit canon expression (including het ships that aren't Approved™ but the actors and script writer believe in)... but of course what comes most to my mind lately are the censored chinese gay dramas and how the creative team is putting their whole pussy into it like SIR. WOW. THE DEDICATION TO ROMANCEEEE

The Spirealm is the latest example where I keep thinking holy shit, the devil works hard but these actors are working harder. They are so fucking good at portraying a love story without saying it's a love story. It's like The Untamed for me all over again.

It's how everyone is working together: the writer included those beats & that allusion, the actor used that microexpression & body language, the director used that blocking and created the space for it, the editor included all the right shots and pauses on the actor's attraction/affection/love so it isn't lost in the shuffle of the plot. It's a symphony of a ship that's performed in concert.

This is something every quality romantic drama needs to include, but when you're working with subtext it's 50x harder and takes so much more care & consideration.

Non canon ships fighting other non canon ships is the dumbest fucking thing ever.

"Your ship isn't canon!!"

And? That's the point. You think I don't look at their non-canon status and don't see a goldmine for angst potential thanks to this? You think I'm weeping, but I'm rubbing my hands like a greedy little man, thinking up scenarios to make others cry.

"They don't get together." Maybe that's the point, Jerry. The tragedy of the "what if" - not knowing what road their love story could have taken, but knowing the chance of it blooming in the first place is forever lost. Or maybe it isn't and it takes many years to see the chance once again and this time not losing it. Or maybe losing again-

Creating a story where they do get together is understandable and isn't this awful thing that should be forbiden, but sometimes embracing the non-canon status isn't that bad. Sometimes I want to create a story where instead of getting together, I explore the love and how it affects the characters.

Unrequited love, one sided love, falling in love after it's too late, denial of feelings etc. You name it and I want to explore it.

Canon ships can't provide me that. Them being non-canon isn't well...canon. It can exist in one fanfic but they're still canon.

Not all love stories between characters, who were or weren't canonically in love, not ending up are automatically bad. Non canon ships can also tell a story. And I'm not just talking about well known, popular non-canon ships btw. This includes lesser know ships and crackships as well.

Sometimes I like a ship and them not being canon is the point.

You know when you’re just sitting there and wishing the damn authors and movie directors had more gay ships, right? Or is this just me… probably just me.

Anyway, if ya have any gay ships you think should have been canon but weren't cause the characters were straight, reblog with the ship names in the tags 😁.

Best friends, boyfriends, same thing😁

Also, Zane looks SO done.💀

It’s wild how shipping culture has changed so drastically over time on the internet.

In the old days people shipped characters who either had only one line of dialogue with each other, never even met, or not even from the same piece of media. It was the wild west and sure some ships were uncomfortable but people had the mindset to just block the tag and stay away from ships they didn’t enjoy.

Nowadays? It’s more like people have to clarify that their ship isn’t canon compliant, character adjacent, and story irrelevant otherwise they get a flood of comments saying “but this character isn’t like this in canon” and some people legitimately get angry if you’re not following the canon.

Like- shipping and fandom culture from what I understand it is about engaging with media in a way that caters to you. And if you don’t like a ship or show just… block the relevant tags and don’t engage in the ships? The internet isn’t supposed to cater to us- we have to cater ourselves to our internet environment. And no matter how many times people may harass others over a fandom or ship they don’t like, those ships are not gonna disappear.

The internet has just been getting worse when people have decided to place morality in their opinions by saying things like “if you enjoy the ship then you support (insert horrible thing here that’s usually completely unrelated to the ship itself)” when it used to be “eh, not my thing” and people just moved on.

And for the record this isn’t about a specific ship or anything- just an observation of how fandom has evolved (and regressed) over the years and I find it fascinating from a sociological perspective cause we still don’t know how having the internet from birth affects the development of kids and how that affects how they interact with others- isn’t that scary?

I know that’s slightly unrelated but the way people engage in media has been changing over they years and that also involves fandom and the maturity level thereof in the internet space and someone smarter than me could probably write a whole thesis paper about fandom culture and how the internet has hindered the social development of people and how that affects community specifically from a fandom lens.

Just- for your sanity younger internet children: it’s not worth harassing others over something as trivial as ‘it’s not canon that this character kisses another character.’ Just find ships you like. Block ships you don’t. And just enjoy your time doing what you like!

You can’t control the internet but you can nurture your little corner of it.

Poll Winner of Favorite Non-Canon Ship: Niffin!Alice x Monster!Julia

Posting some AppleRadio sketch before going to sleep

Silly sketches of these two 😈

One difference between nygmobblepot and foxma is that Oswald can do a bit better than Ed and Lucius can do a lot better than Ed

Seeing people get pressed at ships is so funny to me. "It'll never be canon!" Yea that's why they're called ships lol they were never supposed to be canon.

This goes with headcanons too

"___ is not (sexuality)" Ok ig? They're HEADCANONS.

This especially with Gwen. A lot of people hc her as trans or lesbian and that's totally fine!! People don't have to follow all your hcs.

It's totally alright to have your own hcs, people are having fun and shipping the people they like!

These obviously don't count for Proshippers!!

I am not one for sharing controversial opinions on anything that's important or trying to stir up a problem so if y'all get nasty I will delete and block and all that stuff.

That out of the way

People are absolutely allowed to ship whatever they want to ship. That is not the problem here. You wanna ship Bagginshield like they bang eight times a day... Knock yourself out. Or Gigolas like all they did was make out in Lorien or heck if you ship Sauron and Luthien go forth write your fanfics, make your fanart, let your ship flag fly!

It's the people who insist canon characters are together that aren't that bother me. I'm specifically thinking of ships like MerryxPippin or FrodoxSam or GimlixLegolas because here's the thing.

If you say guys can't say they love each other without it being sexual. You're promoting Toxic Masculinity

If you say guys can't cry in general or over each other specifically. You're promoting Toxic Masculinity

If you say guys can't be physically affectionate with each other, guess what? You're promoting Toxic Masculinity big time with this one actually

If you say people can't have a deep abiding lifelong commitment to each other without it being a romantic thing. Not only are you discrediting the asexual/aromantic experience you're also at risk of promoting Toxic Masculinity

So ship your funky ships but be very careful what you start insisting is canon based on that kind of toxic masculinity mindset that men can't be physically affectionate with each other, cry, and be willing to die for each other or spend their whole life in companionship with another dude without it being "gay". We're not middle school boys and it's about time we stopped propagating these post-wwii ideals of what is "appropriate" behavior for men because it's very clear from his writing that Tolkien's views were shaped in a world before the gung-ho emotionally absent John Wayne type became the paragon of what masculinity was supposed to be. Also he traveled and if you look outside Anglo cultures you will find A LOT of cultures with nonsexual affection shown between men. And that's GOOD as humans physical touch is an important part of our health and when it's sexualized you end up with a lot of weird views on touch and this whole mess *gestures to America and its distortions of appropriate physical affection*

So please think about what viewpoints you're promoting when you insist things are canon because X or Y. Again absolutely ship whatever you want just maybe don't act like it's a fact if the evidence you're using is from the skewed post-war views of masculinity that permeate our society

*climbs down off of soap box*

how did I let tiktok become my primary social media How did I let TIKTOK become my primary social media

This is the second time now someone has said this to me in response to me saying I like a non canon ship

you see me now, a veteran of a thousand shipping wars

So I just saw the Variety interview with Rebecca Sugar about the 10th anniversary of the first episode of Steven Universe, and I have Big Damned Feelings about something in it. Things that I should know better than to say in public. Old battles that never ended in anything but the shakiest of armistices. Things we all coalesced into an unspoken agreement to never speak of again, but, being me, I can't help myself, I gotta vent. About the second time that Steven Universe fandom made ourselves look monstrous, one of the biggest reasons why other fandoms believe that Steven Universe fans are the worst fans in fandom.

Not only was I right about the Amedot/Lapidot shipwar, I was one of the ONLY people who was right about it. And that doesn't happen often, but I was in a unique place to see it. Because, you see, I am a member of the most hated group in fandom, especially here on Tumblr.

I fucking hate non-canon 'ships. Hate, hate, hate them.

Go ahead, call me a monster.

There are people in this world who, if you hand them a random pile of fashion dolls and/or action figures, are going to make them all kiss and then make them all fuck. It's like that's the only story they know: "now make them kiss!"

And time after time, I'm over here in the outcasts corner muttering to myself, "There is nothing in the canonical source material, nothing in these characters' culture, no authorial conscious or unconscious intent nor in the actors' performances, that suggests that these characters would ever in a million years find each other romantically or sexually attractive, let alone kiss, let alone fuck. There ARE other kinds of relationships, y'know."

In my old age I've long-since learned to let it just roll off of my back like water off a duck, to let them have their disgusting fun, to not let it get to me no matter how much it looks like defacing some artist's beloved work. Not my circus, not my monkeys; let people like what they like.

But.

When we were introduced to Lapis, the very first thing we were told about her was that she had just been released from 5,000 years of solitary confinement in that mirror (for a crime that Pink Diamond framed her for, not that she knew that) and spent some long part of that time in straight-up sensory deprivation with the mirror trapped in Pearl's pearl.

There was no way in hell she was ever going to process enough of that trauma to form any kind of romantic or sexual feelings in just a couple of seasons of a TV show. I found the whole idea that she was going to kiss anyone, fuse with anyone, emotionally repugnant.

Not long after we met Peridot, we found out that she felt deep shame and horror when the Crystal Gems took away her limb-enhancers. We even found out why: she was deep in the Gem Hegemony's propaganda that "off-color," form-non-compliant gems are disgusting abominations. And our Peridot only barely cleared the threshold. Only barely normal enough to have not been straight-up recycled at birth, but still ugly as fuck to a form-compliant peridot. She has known since however many tens of thousands of years ago she was made that nobody was ever going to fuse with her.

There was no way in hell she was ever going to process enough of that trauma to form any kind of romantic or sexual feelings in just a couple of seasons of a TV show. I found the whole idea that she was going to kiss anyone, fuse with anyone, emotionally repugnant.

So I appreciated the scene where she, in a moment of vulnerability, tried to fuse with Amethyst, the first gem she ever physically touched. And I appreciated even more the instilled shame and self-loathing that wouldn't let her go through with it.

So when Amedot shippers and Lapidot shippers went full on nuclear on every social media platform, like scorched-earth mutually assured destruction nuclear, determined to use coordinated action and maximal nastiness against anyone who advocated for a non-canon ship that contradicted their non-canon ship? I spent that whole time losing my damned mind, and the more people got driven off of social media over this (including, for fucks' sake, one of the show's own writing team, Lauren Zuke!) the more I went from trying to gently change the subject to just full-on fucking hating them both.

Rebecca Sugar has just straight-up said that both the Amedot shippers and the Lapidot shippers were wrong, and her explanation for why they were both wrong is pretty close to my interpretation of the writing and the performances (which, and I know this is part of why I have to vent about this, doesn't happen all that often). So if you fought in the Amedot/Lapidot War? I hope you're suitably ashamed of what you did, and I hope you finally learned better.

Okay, I got that out of my system. How you respond to that is on you. Replies and reblogs are open, but if you hate me for saying this, understand that I don't fucking care what you think.