Why do you think k2 isn't popular anymore?

hi anon! I love to talk so I'll answer this but I'll preface it by saying that although I'm not new to South Park, I'm newer to its fandom. I joined in like 2021 and by that point k2 had already fallen out of favor! before that I just observed it peripherally.

I think it's probably for a few reasons.

of the three main 4 ships for Kyle, it's obvious why k2 is the least popular of the lot. the other two have popular shipping tropes built in (best friends and rivals). there's also not a lot of canon moments to point to, you know, k2 doesn't have a "Guitar Queer-O" or a "Crack Baby Athletic Association" or whatever, really, whereas style and kyman have several such episodes. like I guess you have "Jewbilee" but a lot of people write off those early seasons. (and you have the Mysterion trilogy... to ME. pivotal k2 moments)

and I could end it there because that explains it for the most part but you're right. I think there was a time k2 was more popular than kyman at least (style was always reigning champ until creek took the crown!!!).

I personally believe that fandom (in general, not specifically SP) in recent* years has developed this sort of obsession with Ships Becoming Canon and that some ships are More Canon and therefore More Correct than others which has throttled both crackshipping and multishipping.

like idk there were obviously ship wars (nasty ones!) and OTPs in the 00s and 2010s, but it felt like people were more open to imagining the possibilities and potential between characters who may not have had much (or any) interaction, based solely on their personalities. there's a lot to say about the evolution of fandom as a whole but that's not your question.

so people have kind of settled on their one ship per character and that's it. most Kenny ships have been snuffed out by something or other (fitting) except for one. and that's bunny. and because it's got that one episode, it's now the Most Correct choice for him.

sorry you asked about k2 and I turned this into another complaint about the loss of Kenny biking :''( anyway, I think the appeal of k2 is the potential. you also can't approach it the same way you do style or kyman which I do think has stifled its popularity. this post, despite the broken links, is one of my favorite explanations of their fandom potential that also keeps in mind that we're working within the confines of what we're given. that is to say, South Park doesn't exactly lend itself to this sort of overwrought thinking but we all do it anyway.

it's not dead tho. plenty of people do still ship it and love it!! and I hope you support the @k2-fanzine when it comes out. but yeah you're right, it's lost steam and there's more reasons than what I've listed but I talk too fucking much.

*and by recent, I mean recent! I reblogged this list of character and ship weeks from the far off year of 2019 that @6ftkyle found while deep diving his old SP blog. look at all that!

anyway you should ask my bestie @6ftkyle these questions. he's the k2 guy. I'm actually a kyman truther but I think Kenny's gonna catch his mans Kyle in his fall from grace from their inevitable divorce.

and shout out to @deny-the-bird who asked for a shout out.

#2, 4, 10, 21, 28, 31 and 39 please.

All new ones. Cool. :)

(Most of these are under the cut b/c it got reeeeally lengthy.

2) Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life. 

Oh, wow. *takes deep breath and puts on thinking cap* I think with this I’m just going to go with the three biggest ships I’ve had. That would be Chuck & Blair from Gossip Girl. Barry & Iris from The Flash. Aaaaand….*hmms* Anakin & Padme from Star Wars.

Chuck & Blair was the first really big obsessive ship I got into. All through high school (and before), I had so many extra-curricular activities (and a social life), as well as people telling me how very NOT healthy it was to be watching TV all the time. So, it was completely unrealistic to actually watch every episode of any show on a weekly basis. I had shows I got into, but because of this fact, I just really wasn’t able to dedicate myself to any of them until I hit college. Suddenly I had no adult telling me what I could and couldn’t do, and I had a lot more time on my hands. Season 1 of Gossip Girl aired during my last year of high school, so I was bit behind, but I was able to catch up beyond just the significant scenes/eps of that season in due time and I promptly emerged myself into the online world of fandom. I wrote fic, I made vids, I chatted with countless other fangirls on multiple sites. I found my best friend.

Barry & Iris I talked about on the previous post, but they’re the first really big TV ship I got invested in since Gossip Girl ended. I watched several other shows since then and got heavily invested in my OTPs on just about all of them. But the level of obsession and involvement online and with them in general just wasn’t at its height. Well, big congrats to the writers and casting director of the Flash. Not only did you get me sucked into a superhero TV show (I hadn’t really been into any superhero franchise since the original Spiderman movie trilogy back in the early 2000s), but you got me hung up on probably the most gorgeous ship on television rn. Bless.

And…Anakin & Padme. *le sigh* I watch the prequels now and I cringe so bad, b/c the writing and acting is AWFUL (despite the actors being pretty decent, if not amazing - I’m looking at you, Natalie Portman). But when it first came out I was but a preteen and naive to such things as good acting and the like. I fell head over heels for this forbidden romance and heavily crushed on Hayden Christensen as well. In fact, I loved them so much that I had to buy a second VHS (b/c we still used those pretty frequently back in 2002ish lmao) b/c I watched their scenes so many times and constantly did a rewind, so that the film actually came out of the encasing of the VHS. Smh. Also, they were the first ship I ever vidded. And let me tell you, I went to EXTREME lengths to vid them. I had a crap video editing program and had to multitask in the most frustrating way. But I wanted to vid them more than anything, so I took the extra time and the extra effort it took to do it. Also, that first vid I made…I accidentally deleted, and I cried for HOURS. It was my masterpiece, as miserable as it must have looked. And I was just DEVASTATED when it was gone. I remade it as best as I could, but it was still a disaster. I did write some fic for them as well, but mostly I made vids - a TON of them. They look awful to me now, but it’s nice to see the progress I made. Lol. Aaaanyways, that was my first really obsessive ship and def a defining point in my shipping life.

4) What’s your current NOTP? 

Current NOTP… Let’s see. This one’s actually really hard. Because if I don’t like a ship, even if it’s in direct opposition to my OTP, I don’t necessarily hate them. I just don’t ship them. I have reasons I don’t like them that are outside of being an obstacle to my ship, and I just…don’t know if I have one at the moment? Hook & Emma from Once Upon a Time I despised for the LONGEST time. I’m a hardcore Neal & Emma shipper, but I just felt the whole transition into Hook & Emma was AWFUL. Not to mention starting from their first kiss, I was just kinda…grossed out? But they’ve been a ship for a while now, and I’d be lying if I said I don’t root for them. I still don’t ship them, but they’re no longer on my hate list. Barry & Caitlin aren’t a NOTP for the simple fact that they’re not even happening. Imo, you can only hate a ship if it’s actually happening (or happened previously), neither of which is the case with them. I guess…oh, I KNOW! Lol. Blaine & Peyton on iZombie. My OTP on that show is Liv & Major, so they’re not a NOTP related to them. BUT I also hardcore ship Ravi & Peyton. They have chem and he is honestly the best boyfriend. While Blaine & Peyton aren’t together yet, they did have a one-night stand, and despite Blaine being the devil incarnate, it looks like Peyton is going to give him another chance, since he doesn’t remember being the devil incarnate, and so no longer acts like his old self, or has that mindset. Ravi & Peyton haven’t been together for a while, and they weren’t when she slept with Blaine, but they were basically on the verge of getting back together when feelings/this news emerged, and….*whines & cries* Blaine is the absolute WORST. Peyton needs to run in the other direction, not straight into his arms.

10) Do you ship any characters that have never met? 

Yes. Lol. Barry & Lydia is my #1 crossover/AU couple. I’d obviously be horrified if they became an actual thing on either The Flash or Teen Wolf, since I hardcore ship both westallen and stydia. But take Iris & Stiles out of the equation? Heck yes. I’m addicted to watching their AU vids.

21) Is there a ship you just don’t get, but have nothing against? 

This is a pretty hard question actually, since every time a couple shows up onscreen - particularly if I end up not shipping them - I always try to figure out why other people would ship them. And much to my chagrin, I’m usually able to be open-minded enough to come up with at least one reason, if not more. I guess the only one that comes to me right now is Emily & Ben on Revenge. I get he was just supposed to be some in-between romance until the endgame couple finally got their due, but I just…don’t get it. I don’t necessarily have anything against it either, it just felt…pointless. And really the poor guy didn’t have a chance. Emily was always going to choose either Jack or her revenge, and inevitably, both.

28) Does shipping come easily to you? 

LMAO. SO easy. You have no idea. XD Occasionally there is a show where I just enjoy the couples but don’t really get invested in them away from having them be a nice decoration for the plot/theme of the show, but yeah. EXTREMELY easy.

31) Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love. 

Hmmm. This one is hard as well. *thinks about this forever* Generally speaking, I don’t come up with headcanons super often. I see others, and I go, “oh yes, I agree!” And when I do come up with headcanons, I don’t usually say ‘here’s a headcanon!,’ I go ‘oh look, a fic that I wrote that’s almost 10 pages long!’ lmao XD But I guess - and this one is super generic and I have no doubt I’m not the first to come up with it - is that in iZombie, when Major & Liv get married (which they WILL at some point *glares at writers*), Ravi will be the best man, Peyton will be the maid of honor, and Clive will walk Liv down the aisle. *heart eyes*

39) Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself? 

I’d say Barry & Iris b/c #1 - they’re epic & #2 - I want a Barry Allen. But I don’t think I’d want quite the kind of conflicts they’ve had dished out to them, so I’m gonna say… H.G. & Jane from the recently deceased Time After Time. There was ofc the time travel conflict (which I really would’ve loved to see resolved!!), but they were just so sweet and pure and that’s the kind of relationship you want, honestly.

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