Not getting excited over shipping of people

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I was kind of meh over the recent hullabaloo about J K Rowling supposedly saying that Hermione would have been better with Harry, since I just go with the canon pairings in Harry Potter.

In other stories with a love triangle, I might support one pairing over another. For example in Lord of the Rings I think it would be nice if Aragorn and Eowyn married like what might have happened if Arwen wasn't written into the published story, but I don't bash Aragorn x Arwen, and I think Eowyn x Faramir is a rather sweet couple.

In a show I am currently following, there were lots of comments about the recent episode where the male and female leads (who are good friends and not currently dating each other) didn't kiss after a heartwarming moment together... and I am just meh again. Maybe because I can't read their body language as well as an NT viewer.

When it comes to real celebrities dating each other, the most I will go is "they look good together" or, when I was talking an actress supposedly dating a younger actor, "since she looks younger than her actual age, if his thinking is mature, it's a visually workable pairing."

Am I the only person (on the spectrum or NT) who doesn't get very excited over pairings of fictitious or real people? (I think it's also possible that the other meh people are just not posting about it online, so the discussion of any celebrity or fictitious work is skewed towards the shippers.)

I've never understood it, either. It's not my relationship... I'm not receiving or giving any intimacy, touch, or love... so what's so fascinating?

shipping?

I think there's a story behind the term, but I don't know what it is. A "shipping" is usually a relationship between fictional characters or celebrities, even if it's one that fans made up which isn't part of the official series, books, etc.

Wow you guys replied pretty soon after I started this. Thanks!

It's the belief that 2 real or fictitious people should be dating each other. More details on Wikipedia

To be honest I'm glad she didn't. All the clues that were dropped in the film about Ron and Hermione's future relationship were pretty funny. All their arguing just set it up nicely too. Didn't Ron pretty much insult her in their first year?
I didn't like the happy ending anyway. I think Harry Potter should have remained alone.

And what about poor little Ginny?

I don't much care about relationships of characters unless it's hinted at.

It really doesn't matter to me. I just prefer to see where the actual story is going. There were just way too many relationships going on in Harry Potter.

Well said!

I feel people should be [u]outraged[/i] at people being shipped; those containers have no lights, windows, insulation, or sanitary facilities, the floor is bare wood and the doors lock from the outside. If someone is arriving at the airport though, I am usually excited to see them

You gave me a good laugh! You might want to fix your coding for the word "outraged" by the way.

There's a few characters that I ship but I don't go on and on about it. I'm happy with a new fanfic with them as they are published.

I believe the term 'shipping is an extraction of the word "relationship" -- I guess in a slang way if you could say people are "relationshipping" two people, ie, imagining they'd be a good couple, and that got shortened down to 'shipping.

thanks for the explanations

I do like shipping characters, only fictional ones though bar one famous person.

I never ship the people as how they are in the books, programme etc. I tend to exclusively ship male characters with other males, not sure what that says about me. I always find it more interesting the more unlikely the characters would fit together, for example I like shipping professor Snape and Sirius black, erm, there is quite a big load of fan fiction out there with those two, I don't write them myself though.

I'm a shipper. I'm the other way round -- shipping is my 'little detail', the thing I get stuck on and can't get past (and it's hard to discuss shows with people who don't do this -- probably true the other way round, too).

I'd say that's true for me, too, but then I often seem to see hints that others don't see -- particularly when it comes to two characters of the same gender. On the other hand, there are some 'ships' that I honestly don't understand -- I know that they work in fanon ( = fandom's version of canon, which doesn't necessarily have much overlap with the actual canon), but when I watch the series, I'm stuck there going "okay, they shared screen time ... five times. In the past fifteen episodes. How does that make romantic tension?".

I don't understand shipping wars, though. You like one pairing, someone else likes another pairing, whatever. The only thing that annoys me is when people insist something is canon despite the fact that I cannot for the life of me find any evidence for in the source material.

I thought this was going to be about people trafficking.

Me too. Never heard the term previously.

Personally I don't care at all which "celebrity" is dating whoever. As for making up fictional romances, I would only do that for amusement, such as Captain Ahab meeting a lusty lass and chasing after her instead of Moby Dick.