Hello and a Happy New Year to all! This is Adri with a special edition ofThe Shipping News to start 2013 off full of slash ship dreams... that will inevitably and deliciously be crushed. Oh well. On to the goods!
Eleventh Hour Ship:
While 2012 was busy ending and not taking humanity with it, this shipper was busy getting her last minute slash goggle ogling. I don’t know about you, but I spent the last two weeks of the year watching Les Misérables. Repeatedly. Sobbing through the entire thing. And though the main romance of the story is lovely and all, there was a slash ship in there that I was not expecting. I’m not talking about the inevitable cat and mouse tension between Valjean and Javert. I’m talking about characters whose names I didn’t even know until I got home and googled them (because I am uncultured swine and have never read Victor Hugo’s masterpiece). Enjolras and Grantaire (and I can’t pronounce either of those) were what I call "the 10 second ship". I am a believer that you can’t spoil material that has been around for AGES, but here’s your spoiler warning. Okay? Okay. Everyone dies, but these two, well the moment Grantaire chose to die by Enjolras’s side I sobbed all the harder and demanded fic.
Check out Enjolras and Grantaire on the right
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See they’re all singing about Marius being in love but I see some love right there on that whole right side of the table just saying.
I also did some MAJOR shipping during The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but more of that in a minute. Now let’s get on to what we have to look forward to during 2013!
Thirteen Fandoms Setting Sail in 2013
1. Shameless (January 13)
Remember that time I made Destiel my ship of the week and THEN watched Supernatural for the first time? Yeah, meet Ian and Mickey, the checkers of every angst box on my angsty things list. I won’t spoil (even though I obviously have been), but things ended pretty heart-wrenchingly between those two. Never ever give up on your ships is the theme of this New Year, thus we have a Season 3 tease to make your poor trampled heart beat again.
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2. Supernatural (January 16)
CASTIEL RETURNS… should basically be the name of the show, I mean, honestly. But we love it! I love it. I love Cas leaving (or staying behind) and Dean being all kicked puppy about it and then Cas coming back and Dean being all as-happy-as-a-Winchester-gets about it and it’s glorious, isn’t it? Well the trailer for the mid-season premier looks, let’s say Castiel heavy, and that means Destiel heavy, doesn’t it my fellow shippers?
3. Glee (January 24)
The last thing to die is hope, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Kurt and Blaine are destined to be the Ross and Rachel of this generation, painful break up, drunken Vegas wedding, baby and all. Yes. In that order. Like Ross and Rachel, though, it’s likely to take at least a little while longer for them to find their way back into happily ever after because Blaine (the Ross in our ongoing analogy) couldn’t keep it in his incredibly tight pants. But never despair, I predict they’ll be back on their way to a New York wedding by the time Nationals comes around.
4. Jack the Giant Slayer (March 1)
Now I know this is random… but Ewan McGregor. I mean that tends to be enough to sell me on most movies (though I fell asleep during The Ghost Writer, not gonna lie). But this fairy tale action film with a giant beanstalk also has the blue eyed glory of Nicholas Hoult. Some call me dirty minded, others call me a fangirl, all I see are two beautiful people and a huge phallic symbol.
5. The Host (March 29)
What do you do when the love of your life is possessed by a small wormy parasitic alien being? What do you do when the love of your life IS a small wormy parasitic alien being? Canon tells us both the men in this predicament fight for their right to love. Fanon…tells us they fight until they start loving each other. Ian O’shea and Jared Howe have enough hate between them to fuel a fire, and you know how well that goes with slash shipping. The Host’s fandom is relatively small and inconspicuous-- like the tiny invaders that drive the plot, and like those extraterrestrial beings they will most likely take over the world (or at least Tumblr). Probably with the help of their now destitute sister-cousins, the Twilight fandom. We welcome our hopefully merciful overlords and their slash ships.
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6. Star Trek: Into Darkness (May17)
Now I know what you’re all thinking. This chronological listing is BS, Kirk and Spock deserve a place of honor as the ones who started it all as far as slash shipping goes - and you’d be right. But I got sort of attached to the chronological thing and ALSO there are other reasons for Star Trek: Into Darkness to have our shipper hearts all a flutter. Well many reasons which are mostly Benedict Cumberbatch. I for one expected him to be covered by about 4 hours worth of prosthetics and make-up, but no. Not at all. He seems to be just being his inexplicably attractive self ready to be shipped with Kirk and Spock and any vaguely humanoid shaped being and/or object that he happens to stand in the vicinity of during what I hope is a very, very long movie. I don’t know how I’m going to handle the amount of attractive men, women, and Vulcans in this installment but I cannot wait to come home to the new ships and the gifs and the fanfic and oh, I’m getting all flaily just thinking about it.
Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch and Chris Pine in Star Trek: Into Darkness
The fanfic practically writes itself.
7. The Mortal Instruments City of Bones (August 23)
As a Malec fan I’m a bit miffed right now. No footage of the magnificent Magnus Bane? Not even a screencap? Not even a set picture? I am most displeased. We do have some shots of Alec, but I want to be able to see Tumblr graphic artists working on gif sets of this pairing and we can’t because WE HAVEN’T SEEN MAGNUS YET. But I digress from the positivity of today’s article. As the date approaches, we’ll have more and more material to guide us through the darkness until a new installment of the Mortal Instruments series gives us our Malec fix. (And let’s be real, that’s what why we read them. I don’t even know what happened in the last book except these two broke my heart).
However, as Aja recently told you guys, there is much to be joyous about as a Malec fan! The Bane Chronicles are set to be released starting this February and I’m sure we’re going to get quite a bit of Magnus’s perspective on Alexander Lightwood. I’m excited, guys!
8. Thor: The Dark World (November 8)
Now I, like the rest of My People, am a rabid fan of Loki. However, Thorki is not one of my ships of choice. A ship I don’t ship, shocking, I know. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean I’m not excited on behalf of the shippers, since all rumors seem to point to at least SOME redemption (or intent thereof) for Loki and as we know a Loki in good terms (or anywhere near) his brother Thor is great cause for celebration in the realm.
9. Doctor Who 50th Anniversary (November 23)
We know nothing. David Tennant knows nothing. I’m quite certain Her Majesty the Queen knows nothing. Who will be part of the 50th Anniversary celebration? I know there are whispers of Rose Tyler going around, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Captain Jack Harkness, eh?
10. True Blood (Summer)
We watch it for the plot, right? I personally cling to every bread crumb of Lafayette and his taken-way-too-soon lover, Jesus. One of the few canon slash couples we had that WEREN’T two white dudes and whatdoyaknow, right? But death can’t tear them apart, not with Lafayette so entangled in the magic that was a part of Jesus’s life. I’d say I hope they’re together again soon, but if they kill off Lafayette only Eric Northman could compel me to watch (and he usually does).
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11. Teen Wolf (Summer)
You guys. YOU GUYS. I held my tongue long enough. You all know how excited all of us at The Shipping News are about the very promising 3rd season of MTV’s Teen Wolf. Can you believe we’ve gone this far into one of my posts without saying STEREK? Oh well, it was interesting while it lasted. But you’ve heard enough about those two to last you a while, so let’s talk about some other slashy hopes for this season. Twins Ethan and Aiden are two of the members of the ominous sounding Alpha pack come to “seduce and conquer” or so the spoiler mills say.
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Now, if it were any other show that wouldn’t necessarily mean much to us slash shippers, but given the up-until-now male-dominated werewolf world (which is soon to change as well, I’m excited!), there aren’t many girl werewolves for those two identical hunks to set their sights on. I’ve seen it said Isaac Lahey is their first (and only?) target, and I’m looking forward to that as you can probably tell. My hopes are also not crushed quite yet for more Danny screen time. It’s a 24-episode season, lots of great things could happen!
12. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (December 13)
Now I, as stated earlier, am a heathen when it comes to reading classics. So these are exciting times in which each movie that The Hobbit has been divided into is an actual absolute shocker for me. It was also shocker that there are like ZERO WOMEN in the first film (baring the astonishing Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and a few harp players). I had a whole rant about that at my watching party, but took the male dominated film as prime real-estate for shipping. Kili and Bilbo? I shipped it; I did, until my eyes were opened to the absolute awesomeness that is Thorin & Bilbo.
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The next holiday season (doesn’t it seem ages away?) will bring us part two of this trilogy. I certainly won’t be surprised when the shippers manage to fold Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice work for Smaug into a proper and proud pairing with someone (anyone, really).
13. Sherlock (THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW – but hopefully sometime this year…)
I’m honestly adding this to the list in the way that one wishes upon a star. I miss Johnlock, you miss Johnlock, we all miss Johnlock! All we have as far as information is that filming starts in March, but you know what? That fandom is one of the most perceiving around. The tiniest bit of canon to work with and they never stop showing up on my dash, one wipes away tears of pride. Here’s to you Sherlockians, and too all the readers of The Shipping News, may all your ship have canon moments in 2013!
Question of the week: What has you all excited about this year? Let us know in the comments, or find us over on The Shipping News Tumblr.
