Hey all, thanks again for joining me, Hannah, for December’s first Shipping News! This week we’ll cover impossible pairings, big announcements, classic puppy love, and more.
Slash Dictionary: Crack Ships
We’ve gone over OTPs and OT3s, AUs, mpreg and more. I think everyone can agree there’s some pretty imaginative stuff out there in the world of fandom and slash. But at some point fans must realize that a pairing is just too weird, too improbable, too crazy to ever be real or even make sense, right?
Of course we realize that. But that doesn’t stop us from shipping it.
A “crack ship” is a pairing that is so wildly impossible that it seems like you had to be on crack (or perhaps another reality-bending illegal substance) to support it or even think of it. Typically (but not always) this particular term is used to describe shipping two (or more) characters from entirely different fandom universes. That means they’re on different TV shows, different channels, different centuries, etc. Maybe one is from a book and the other an unrelated movie. The characters are never going to meet, but damn would they be good together.
Think about it: what if Once Upon a Time’s Captain Hook had a fling with Iron Man’s Tony Stark? Imagine the sparks if James Bond and Sherlock Holmes solved a case together. Or if Harry Potter’s Ron Weasley and Teen Wolf’s Stiles Stilinksi bonded over always feeling like the sidekick? The possibilities are endless!
And because fandom is such an amazing place, sometimes crackships do come true – in the form of fanfic, fanart, manips, gifsets, cosplay, and a plethora of other mediums. There are tons of crossover fics and AUs out there, so chances are you’ll find one (or write one!) that does have Sam & Dean in Beacon Hills, or young Sherlock attending Hogwarts.
It’s not just something that happens with characters, either; similar to RPS/RPF, there are plenty of crackships involving actors and actresses. Teen Wolf's Tyler Posey might never meet Wizards of Waverly Place's David Henrie, but Photoshop, the internet and fandom makes it possible.
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Fandom News Roundup
Filming for Sherlock series 3 has been postponed from January 2013 to March 2013, meaning fans will have an even longer time to wait for their next Johnlock fix. It’s disappointing, but understandable: not only are actors Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch in high demand, but Steven Moffat is undoubtedly busy hatching some elaborate (and confusing?) schemes for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary year. If all goes as planned, we’ll probably be looking at a Sherlock airdate in late autumn or the holiday season 2013.
Filming for Teen Wolf season 3 begins TODAY, and producers over at MTV have recently announced the casting decisions for SIX new characters debuting this season 3, including the much-anticipated alpha werewolf twins. Charlie Carver and Max Carver will play the twins, Ethan and Aiden, while Felisha Terrell take on the role of the show’s first female alpha, Kali. Australian actress Adelaide Kane joins the cast as a mysterious human named Cora, and Gideon Emery will portray the fearsome, conniving new alpha pack leader Deucalion.
Clockwise from top left: Felisha Terrell, Charles Carver, Max Carver,
Gideon Emery and Adelaide Kane (bottom left)
Sterek fans are in a tizzy over the news that Haley Webb is rumored to play Derek’s new love interest in season 3. Does this spell the end for any hope of Stiles and Derek as a couple? Hardly! Jeff Davis just isn’t gonna make it easy for us.
Haley Webb
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Further proof that Jeff Davis is an evil genius comes in the form of tiny tidbits of other info that have surfaced about what the alpha pack is doing in Beacon Hills. It seems that Deucalion is determined to drive a wedge between Scott and Derek, and we’ve heard that the alpha twins will each have a different target from among Scott’s friends – and that their objective might not be to fight, but to seduce.
- On a not-so-great Teen Wolf note, this past weekend Jeff Davis deleted his Twitter account. We can only speculate as to the reasons behind his decision to leave, but some fans believe it was due to accusations of racism when it came to his casting choices. Then again, with filming beginning now and his workload skyrocketing, he might just be taking a break.
- Last week brought sad news for many Merlin fans, myself included. It was announced that series 5 with be Merlin’s last, though there are rumors of a plan for a film trilogy based on the series.
All good things must come to an end, but Merlin will always have a special place in my heart. For me, Merlin will always be that silly show that I loved looking forward to in the fall, and then flailed around talking about to my friends in real life even when they had no idea what I was saying. The characters and cast have both grown on me immensely and never fail to make me laugh. Sometimes cheesy but always fun, entertaining, and heartfelt to its loyal following, I think Merlin deserves a spot in the fandom hall of fame. Here’s to hoping the legends gets the epic ending it deserves.
M/M Pairing of the Week: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
When it comes to sheer amount of fanworks, I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find a fandom that could beat out Harry Potter. The first big slash pairing is Drarry (Harry/Draco), but this fandom really has two epic slash ships, the second being Sirius/Remus.
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There’s a whole subset of Harry Potter fanworks that concerns the “Marauder’s Era” – that is, the time at Hogwarts before Harry, Ron, and Hermione, when it was Harry’s parents walking the corridors. That means these Marauder’s Era fics tell stories featuring young James Potter wooing Lily Evans, Sirius Black teasing Severus Snape, a teenage Remus Lupin struggling with his lycanthropy, and much more.
There are many, many fans that have taken the few scenes of Sirius and Remus in the novels and movies and expanded it into an elaborate romance and eventual tragedy. It’s a perfect story of opposites attracting: the handsome, rakish, and fiercely loyal prankster developing feelings for his kind, bookish, and introverted best friend. The only thing that makes it sweeter to ship is the knowledge that it ends in heartbreak. Slash fans really can be quite masochistic in that way. (Though luckily there will always be happy AUs and fix-it fics.)
There have been whole fanfiction archives dedicated solely to this pairing, so this it by no means an exhaustive list of resources. Unfortunately, due to this pairing being several years old now, many fan sites are not updated regularly or have been shut down. Here are a few to get you started, and please feel free to make your own recommendations!
Featured Fanfic: "Endless Midnights" by kagedtiger
I’m not usually one for crossover fics, but I was intrigued by the premise of this short story. Many fans were excited to see Merlin’s Colin Morgan in an episode ofDoctor Who several series ago back when David Tennant was still the Doctor.
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In this short but poignant fic, the idea is that Colin Morgan’s petulant teen character was Merlin, enduring through the centuries with the help of his magic. And he’s waiting for someone.
[…] “It's amazing, isn't it,” says the boy after a moment. “You live for so long, and yet the universe still manages to surprise you. I remember when we didn't even know there were other planets out there.”
The Doctor smiles, and although he doesn't bother to look over at his companion, he can hear the matching sardonic grin in the boy's voice. It is times like this that a certain world-weariness – a certain universe-weariness, creation-weariness, even – settles over The Doctor, a strange combination of nostalgia and surprise and a faint, unexplainable sadness. He doesn't feel it often, but then, it is rare that he meets someone old enough to truly understand, and to evoke this feeling in him.
“You're looking good for your age,” The Doctor jokes. […]
-- excerpt from "Endless Midnights"
Artist to Watch: y0do @ DeviantArt
Okay, so admittedly I don’t read a lot of crossovers, but I do enjoy seeing characters from other fandoms “sorted” into the Hogwarts houses for fun. Therefore it isn’t a surprise that I was drawn to this fanart by y0do featuring some Hogwarts JohnLock:
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This artist has some other cool fanart over at DeviantArt, including other crossover pieces.
Question of the Week:
Because I’d really love to hear more from readers and fellow fans, I’ve decided to add a question for all of you out there. As I was writing the section on Sirius/Remus this week, I found myself reminiscing about my early days in fandom and realized that Sirius/Remus was, for me, kind of a gateway pairing into the world of slash pairings and fanfiction. Since then I’ve had a number of favorite slash, het, and femmeslash pairings, but I’m wondering:
What was YOUR first slash pairing? Is there a particular couple that got you into fandom?
I’m looking forward to hearing your responses! Also don’t forget to head over to our tumblr to submit any questions or subjects you’d be interested in hearing us write about in upcoming weeks.
Parting Gif:
I’ll never let go, Jack…
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