Re: Current State of the Shipping Wars (Season 8 spoilers)

[Exiled <exiled@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I am on a Buffy-centric cross-over list where  the rule has always been?pair
Buffy with anyone?just as long as Buffy is the  lead no one cares.  But as
soon as the issue was released, WHAM, suddenly  people were hostile to
femslash.  We¹ve had several discussions about our  favorite pairings
through the years and who we think Buffy¹s soul mate is and  I always start
by saying Willow but I can see her with Jack O¹Neill, Daniel  Jackson, Vala,
etc.  For the first time on that list three separate  people jumped into say
the idea of Buffy/Willow made them sick, it could never  happen, Buffy isn¹t
Gay and never could be, blah, blah.  I think that  issue propelled the
B/Willow ship out of the realm of ³that¹s cute² into the  realm of ³it could
happen² and that brought out all the closet homophobes.   Buffy sleeping
with another woman is threatening to rock the  world.



On 3/18/08 5:29 AM, "ebailey140" <ebailey140@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>  
>  
> 
> 
> Well...
> 
> Since that last little bombshell, I've been poking around the various
> forums to see how it's affected the Shipping Wars.  And folks, we have
> a new enemy, who is, well, very enraged, right now.  Yes, Rabid Ducks
> have declared war.  So, if you see ducks that are foaming at the mouth
> paddling around our lovely pirate ship, shoot on sight.  :)
> 
> Now, it's not that all B/A shippers, aka Bangels, aka Ducks, are
> rabid.  The Bangels, of course, have engaged in a years long war with
> the Spuffies and Banders, taking pot shots at the Fuffies and us
> whenever they've seen us.  So, some have gotten...  touchy about rival
> Ships.  They've gotten a very bad reputation, of late, due to a
> tendency to go into forums and scream at everybody that doesn't ship
> as they do, demanding that everyone stop their heresies at once and
> accept that Buffy and Angel are "soulmates" and "destined".  Nothing
> else can be tolerated.  Why, Joss would be betraying all the TRUE fans
> of the series (You're not a TRUE fan if you don't exclusively ship
> B/A) by doing anything else.
> 
> The Spuffies, for their part, have gotten pretty mellow about things.
>  B/S is their favorite Ship, but they accept the possibility that
> other things could happen.  Some of the Banders are as hardcore as the
> Bangels, right down to declaring anything other than a B/X ending a
> betrayal, but mainly have saved their fights for the Ducks.
> 
> So, we have the build-up to issue 12, and it's clear something major
> is going to happen.  But what?  All sorts of speculation, about.
> Leave it to the Fuffies to be very certain Buffy is going to sleep
> with Satsu.  Wrong dark haired Slayer to them, of course, but hey.  :)
> 
> Needless to say, this got them attacked full force by the Bangels and
> Banders.  It's the usual attacks that have always been used against
> both us and the Fuffies, of course.  There's been nothing to suggest
> Buffy is into girls, whatsoever!  Buffy/Willow soulmatey stuff?
> You're imagining things!  cough*The Long Way Home*cough  Buffy/Faith
> subtext?  Never happened!  Never mind the writers saying it did!  What
> would THEY know? 
> 
> Some of the Bander contingent thought it COULD happen, but hoped it
> didn't, as that would, as far as they're concerned, make Wiffy a
> viable Ship, as it has all the arguments in it's favor Bander does,
> only more so.  Willow and Kennedy having relationship problems,
> well...  Some of the Banders are a little suspicious as to where this
> is leading to.  :)
> 
> The reaction in the Fandom has been mostly positive.  Non-shippers
> (who, believe it or not, still make up most of the Fandom)think it's
> an interesting development, and makes perfect sense, at this point.
> Fuffies are happy, and are writing fic where Faith finds out, though
> what they're noticing is Willow's reaction (And, well, they want Tara
> resurrected, but they've wanted that for a while).  Spuffies even like
> it, though I suspect it's because they support anything that makes the
> hardcore Bangels pull their hair out.  Besides, Spike would approve.
> :)  The Spangels, meanwhile, will support anything that keeps Buffy
> away from their couple.
> 
> The hardcore Bangels, well...  Oh boy.  They really, really, hate the
> Femmeslashers, now.  We've replaced the Banders on their most hated
> list.  They'd not minded Spuffy as much as Bander, because at least
> Spike's a vampire.  For some reason, Buffy MUST be with a vampire,
> though now they'll amend that and add a MALE vampire.  :)  After all,
> after years of bashing the Fuffies and Wiffies for saying, for years,
> that Buffy wasn't entirely straight, they can't admit that maybe, just
> maybe, they were wrong.  No, they're insisting Joss just dropped this
> in out of the blue, not recognizing the TRUE fans, and we're STILL
> just imagining all the subtext we'd noticed over the years.  Oh, and
> there's never been anything to suggest that Willow has ever been
> interested in Buffy, so they can't figure out why on Earth Willow is
> so bothered by this development.
> 
> Everybody else is saying the reasons Willow is so bothered are kind of
> obvious.  Major reassessing of things, Willow will have to do.
> 
> But then, the hardcore Bangels have alienated the Fandom, at large.
> They've taken a lot of the fun out of the Fandom with jumping into
> every forum, and whatever thread they can, and ripping into everyone.
>  And, some add, not everybody wants to talk about Ships all the time,
> let alone theirs.  There's, y'know, other things going on besides
> who's sleeping with who.
> 
> The worst part for me is it's done what the Rabid Kittens did to me
> regarding Willow/Tara.  Like with that Ship, while it wasn't my OTP
> (That'd be THIS one), I liked B/A, but I can't enjoy it, any more,
> because of it's Fundamentalists.
>