kungfuwaynewho (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kungfuwaynewho) wrote2011-01-15 09:51 am
kungfuwaynewho) wrote2011-01-15 09:51 am
Entry tags:
Question about ships. (Not the sailing kind.)
I wrote this big long entry about how I haven't been able to write any fic in awhile, beyond a few crappy paragraphs here and there, but it was boring and whiny even to me. I was rereading for typos before posting and I was like, shit, this is the epitome of no1curr.
So instead I am going to ask a fandom-nonspecific question, in the hope that the answers will help me figure something else out. And, you know, be interesting to read besides.
What is your all-time favorite ship? Why? And what was the moment/scene/episode that made you feel really invested in that relationship? And if you can't narrow it down to one, just write about two or three. (But not, like, ten. Commit, you wishy-washy girl.) (Unless you're a boy.) (Do any boys even read this?)
It occurs to me that I should get the ball rolling. As much as I've greatly loved other ships since, and as much as it's hard to really be objective about the whole thing, I'd have to say that ship that meant the most to me in general - though certainly not right at this moment - would be Mulder and Scully from The X-Files. It wasn't my first ship (that would be Link and Zelda, tyvm), but XF in general was a show that aired at a critical time in my life. I was 11 when it started, and 20 when it ended. So many of my dramatic sensibilities were formed by that show - what kind of stories I enjoy, how I like them being told, my expectations as far as quality goes, my love of shows that can experiment and defy their own premise, and so on. But most of all, the relationship between Mulder and Scully was an important one for me. I prefer ships that start off with a foundation of respect, and trust, and actual friendship. I'll never be that interested in two people meeting who seem to immediately fall in love without even knowing each other, for instance. Or relationships that start with lust and proceed from there.
Most importantly, I think, Mulder/Scully for me is all about the absolute equality in the relationship. For every time he saves her from danger, she saves him right back. Where one is strong, the other is weak, and they hold each other up. They might have disagreements but they don't belittle each other, or treat each other cruelly. That's what I want to see in a ship, even if it means foregoing manufactured ship drama. (Actually, especially if it means forgoing any of that.) And the first time I really knew that I needed them to be together would have been the Duane Berry arc - Scully is abducted and Mulder cannot save her, and has to hope against ever increasing odds that she'll return to him alive. It was the first time that there was the sense that they didn't just respect each other and depend on each other, and maybe be attracted to each other - Mulder was lost without her. He could not function. And to need someone else like that is pretty heady stuff.
So instead I am going to ask a fandom-nonspecific question, in the hope that the answers will help me figure something else out. And, you know, be interesting to read besides.
What is your all-time favorite ship? Why? And what was the moment/scene/episode that made you feel really invested in that relationship? And if you can't narrow it down to one, just write about two or three. (But not, like, ten. Commit, you wishy-washy girl.) (Unless you're a boy.) (Do any boys even read this?)
It occurs to me that I should get the ball rolling. As much as I've greatly loved other ships since, and as much as it's hard to really be objective about the whole thing, I'd have to say that ship that meant the most to me in general - though certainly not right at this moment - would be Mulder and Scully from The X-Files. It wasn't my first ship (that would be Link and Zelda, tyvm), but XF in general was a show that aired at a critical time in my life. I was 11 when it started, and 20 when it ended. So many of my dramatic sensibilities were formed by that show - what kind of stories I enjoy, how I like them being told, my expectations as far as quality goes, my love of shows that can experiment and defy their own premise, and so on. But most of all, the relationship between Mulder and Scully was an important one for me. I prefer ships that start off with a foundation of respect, and trust, and actual friendship. I'll never be that interested in two people meeting who seem to immediately fall in love without even knowing each other, for instance. Or relationships that start with lust and proceed from there.
Most importantly, I think, Mulder/Scully for me is all about the absolute equality in the relationship. For every time he saves her from danger, she saves him right back. Where one is strong, the other is weak, and they hold each other up. They might have disagreements but they don't belittle each other, or treat each other cruelly. That's what I want to see in a ship, even if it means foregoing manufactured ship drama. (Actually, especially if it means forgoing any of that.) And the first time I really knew that I needed them to be together would have been the Duane Berry arc - Scully is abducted and Mulder cannot save her, and has to hope against ever increasing odds that she'll return to him alive. It was the first time that there was the sense that they didn't just respect each other and depend on each other, and maybe be attracted to each other - Mulder was lost without her. He could not function. And to need someone else like that is pretty heady stuff.
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It's a tie, I think, between John/Delenn and Roslin/Adama. John/Delenn is not the oldest (I think the oldest would be Picard/Crusher, oddly enough) but it's the strongest of the older ones. When did I feel really invested. Well, although it was there all the time, I must confess I didn't *realize* how much I loved them both together more or less until John realizes for his part, that is, until "And the rock cried out". Yes, of course he *knew* before, they both did, but that's when they look it in the eye, as it were, and *decide* (I'm overusing the ** emphasis, I think). Anyway, I remember I was watching that episode on spanish tv and taping it, but I had to leave for work right after John's conversation with the preacher guy. I can tell you, my mind was NOT on the class I was giving that day, and when I came back home I had a moment of outright panic because I thought I'd forgotten to tape it and arrrggghhh... Thankfully, I hadn't, and the rest is history.
The other one would be Adama/Roslin. I guess relationships that are given time to evolve naturally and where the couple is slightly more mature appeal to me. I started watching BSG not so long ago and these two just blew me away. I watched the whole show three times in a row just for them. I can't remember any specific scene that made me realize I was especially invested in that couple, I really do think it was right from the start. The first moment I saw them together in the same scene, I thought "ok, there *has* to be something there. And that was that. I was hooked.
And, at number two (or three and four) depends how you are counting, would be Buffy/Spike and Janway/Chakotay, which last one is a guilty pleasure and not even really canon, but there you go.
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My first Battlestar Galactica episode was Resurrection Ship I, and the second was Part II, where Adama kisses her at the end? Yeah, I was done for. I don't normally start off shipping people from the get-go, but I did for those two.
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If you want to fall right into the Janeway/Chakotay ship, all you have to do is watch the pilot, and then go straight to "Resolutions". Oh man, such a pity the writers were too chicken shit to go anywhere with that. Of course, as soon as Seven of Nine and her sprayed on suit come on board, all bets are off. Ah, don't make me talk.
Also, the boyfriend just reminds me that I should have Torchwood's Jack/Ianto as an honorary mention. True, because they have it all: angst, extreme prettiness, suits, tragedy. Plus points for being one of the very few fictional homosexual couples that are not token and whose sexuality is not the main issue of the relationship and the show and the characters. Other than that, I can only think of Tara and Willow. It's always sci-fi in the end...
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I haven't even watched any Doctor Who, let alone Torchwood, LOL. Maybe some day! Although I feel like I'm just hopelessly spoiled for both shows.
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But...they did end up living happily ever after! They had a fight, sure, because they needed some conflict between them during the movie, but they kiss and make up by the end. I was actually really happy with that part of it.
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Come to think of it, it may all be due to the fact that I was forced to see this dubbed in Spanish. I never do that. Dubbing is dreadful, they actually change the meaning of words and whole sentences just to make them fit the movements of the actors' mouths...