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Trying to upload one page a week, but my wrist is starting to hurt again. Oh well.

17 Comments

Just walk up to her, tell her you’re sorry, and kiss her. That will get your point across Mina.

Well, she might nit have the courage to kiss her, but she could at least try looking like she wants to be kissed.

The big question is, does it count as shipping if the characters are doing it for you?

Where did this fad of ‘shipping’ come from? Call me old fashioned but why is it important to tell the world of your mental shacking ups of fictional characters? [As far as I’m concerned the only shipping that should matter to ANYONE is wondering if that package is going to get to you on time.]
And this is a valid ask, I really would like to know how/why this fad got started.

It’s every bit as important as complaining about the things other people are doing online.

You didn’t answer my question. I asked how this thing got so popular and/or why.

I think it’s probably been around in some form since the beginning of storytelling, but like so many other things it’s just been concentrated and exaggerated by the instant communication that the internet provides.

This ^. It’s a contraction of the word relationship, and the arguments over who is or is not the right person for someone to sleep with/court/marry, let alone talk to, is probably only about 30 seconds older than the first relationship. The more visible the people involved, and the wider the forum, the greater the resulting debate. It might be particularly popular when fictional characters are involved as it also becomes intertwined with escapism at that point – speculation on my part.

For a historical example take a look many of the Greek tragedies – the siege of Troy being a famous one.

I was actually referring to the modern “ship craze” that seems to be all over tumblr and various message boards. I mean some of it gets just plain ridiculous. [I’ve seen comments going back and forth on message boards to the point that the people are basically shooting death threats to each other because they disagree with these made up relationships between fictional characters.] I mean I’ve been online since 2002 and I’ve only seen this whole “ship movement” going back no more than the last 2-3 years max.

That’s my point, although perhaps I didn’t explain it clearly – if so, I beg your forbearance (3:00 AM Insomnia posting :). Although the term shipping may be new, the craze itself is not modern at all and predates the Internet (predates electronics completely, come to that :). Like many things it has waxed and waned in popularity over time, but has always been around somewhere or other.

Definitely agree that the vehemence displayed by some advocates for their preferred one true pairing can be a little excessive 🙂

I’m not sure what part of the internet you’ve been hanging around on that whole time, but shipping has been a thing on the internet for a long, long time. People have been arguing about inconsequential nonsense and silliness for almost as long as the internet has been up (You can still find old console wars and arguments on ancient message boards).
I remember signing up for Neopets when I was a bit smaller, back around 2002, and shipping was alive and well there. When I showed up at GaiaOnline a few years later, there were ships sailing back and forth like nobody’s business. Since then, no matter where I go, if there’s a discussion about characters of a show, game, movie, book, etc., (it’s been really prevalent in things like anime discussion however) there have been ships leaving port.

Have this link to TVTropes to clear up your mind. Apparently it all started with the X-Files, if you believe that!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping

Peace!

It may be due to a lack of LGBT representation in mainstream media which leads people who are so starved for that kind of content to make up their own pairings.
Also, I think a lot of shows kinda hint at a possibility of there being a gay relationship, only for the characters to end up in hetero relationships by the end.

Your health comes nine billion places ahead of our perception of any regular schedule. We love the characters, and are intrigued by the story and world you’ve built around them. We’re still here because we can wait.

couldn’t agree more. there’s no story without you, so don’t overdo it, okay?

Agreed, definitely.

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Been having some trouble logging in lately. Glad it seems to be working again.

Alien Hand Syndrome

This comic may not contain any actual aliens.

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