a Grand Unified Theory of Shipping

[deird1]

My sister and I spent a few years discussing this. Thought I'd write it down for anyone who's interested.


You see, we noticed that people tend to end up shipping the same types of relationships. People who ship Joey/Pacey also tend to ship Han/Leia, and House/Cuddy, and Ron/Hermione (or so was our theory).

And, because my sister and I are both nerdy people with too much time on our hands, we decided to figure out how different ships could be classified, so that we could figure out, definitively, which types of ships were "the same type".



A Grand Unified Theory of Shipping

Imagine that you have a graph with two axes. The first axis is Emotional Intensity – going from "Completely Laid Back" to "Totally Emotional". (Note: this is the outward emotions. How emotionally they interact with each other.) The second is Directness – going from "Upfront and Confrontational" to "Could Not Possibly Talk About This Even At Gunpoint".

Any single relationship can have high intensity emotions or a fairly laid back vibe. And any relationship can be direct and upfront about the emotions that exist, or try to completely avoid talking about the emotions at all.

This naturally leads to four different kinds of relationship.


Soul Mates: High Emotions, Direct and Upfront

Buffy/Angel, for instance. Lots of passionate declarations, sobbing when apart, clutching each other dramatically when together... the whole thing. Not always quite as epic as I'm describing - but always with both parties very clear that they care about each other and they're wanting to let each other know.

(see also: Willow/Tara, Joey/Dawson, House/Cameron)


Best Friends: Low Intensity, Direct and Upfront

Friendships that blossom naturally into romance. These people tend to be quite into each other, but in a quieter, more comfortable way.

Harry/Hermione would fall into this category. So would Willow/Oz, Buffy/Xander, Parker/Hardison, and Simon/Kaylee.


Snarkers: High Emotions, Indirect and Avoidant

Snarky relationships tend to be very emotional - but they couldn't possibly talk about the emotions. That would be crazy! Instead, they talk around the emotions, usually by snarking at each other.

These relationships are often fun for writers, so they tend to come up a lot in tv shows. For instance: Buffy/Spike, Joey/Pacey, Xander/Cordelia, Mal/Inara, House/Cuddy, Ron/Hermione, Wes/Lilah, and Han/Leia.


Pragmatists: Low Intensity, Indirect and Avoidant

This is, for me, the most interesting type. Pragmatists usually care about each other, but talk about the relationship (if they talk at all) in a very matter-of-fact fashion, as if it's not actually all that important to them. And it is important to them, no question, but you don't say that! Definitely not. Much better to come across as completely chill and okay, just so you don't have to actually discuss those pesky emotions.

Willow/Kennedy (at least the way I ship them) are like this. So are Harry/Ginny, Chiana/D'Argo, and Nate/Sophie.



There are, of course, those ships that don't neatly slot into a category. Take Crichton/Aeryn: he's very direct and she's very avoidant, so their relationship tends to oscillate between Soul Mates and Snarkers depending on the day.


So, who ships what type of ship? I think it depends on what you find most important (unsurprisingly). I'm sometimes into high emotional intensity and sometimes the reverse, depending on the day – but I'm always more interested in people who avoid talking about their relationship at all costs. So pretty much every ship I've ever been into is Snarkers or Pragmatists.



Questions? Comments?

Comments

[frogfarm]

The way I wrote Willow/Faith in my series, thanks to their mind meld that started things off, is Best Friends, but if it had developed more slowly without that initial impetus, it probably would have started Snarkers and progressed to Pragmatism.

[deird1]

Interesting! My sister and I were very much of the opinion that Willow has no Snarker ships*, but I'd love to see one...

* Giles doesn't have Best Friends; Buffy doesn't have pragmatists; Xander doesn't have Soul Mates.

[tielan]

Oh I like this a lot!

I think, looking at most of my fannish OTPs over the years and what I gravitate to, I tend to prefer Pragmatists.

So SG1: Sam/Jack are Pragmatists, as are MCU: Maria/Steve, and JL: Bruce/Diana, and probably SGA: John/Teyla are this oscillating with Best Friends because John may be willing to talk around things until the sun swallows Atlantis, but Teyla is more direct.

I'm trying to work out where Merlin's Arthur/Gwen fits in, as well as BSG's Kara/Lee. Arthur/Gwen would be Snarkers because their emotions are fairly intense, but the things dividing them for the first few seasons mean they can't address it directly, only their natural instincts would be to go upfront and direct. I think Kara/Lee has the same issue: high emotions/intensity, but because of All Their Issues they swing between the confrontation and the avoidance.

Pacific Rim: Mako/Raleigh are firmly Soul Mates, while I think Faith/Wes are Snarkers.

Hm. Who else do I have? HP: Harry/Luna are probably Best Friends, while HP: Scorpius/Rose are Soul Mates. Sanctuary: Kate/Will are probably Pragmatists or Snarkers.

So on consideration I think I'm a bit all over the spectrum, really.

[deird1]

Cool! (Not sure how to fit you into my theory of people shipping by type, though - damn.)

Sam/Jack are such wonderful Pragmatists! ...and I'd totally forgotten that I shipped them. :)

[jesuswasbatman]

The first thing I can think of is adding a third axis of "allies vs. enemies" which refers to their roles in the show outside the ship. Where "allies" would be them explicitly being part of the same group, which might be positive for the relationship, or negative if the group's leadership disapproved of mixing romance with comradeship, "neutral" would be them having separate working lives outside the relationship (as in many mundane romance stories), and "enemies" would be them being on opposite sides.

[deird1]

Interesting...

I actually really love the thing where people are on opposite sides (Lilah/Wes, for instance, which is a *glorious* ship).

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Hmm. Hmmmmmmm, interesting! :) I think the Spike side of Spuffy flips to Direct and Upfront for... about half of season 5 and half of season 6. And they might be Pragmatists for much of season 7. And I started shipping them in season 5, when Spike *stopped* snarking.

I think I tend to ship Best Friends and Snarkers.

Thanks for sharing! :)

[deird1]

See, I think of season 5/6 Spuffy as Snarkers - because, even though they're both aware that the relationship is going on, Buffy especially is absolutely not wanting to talk about it. They tend to communicate more through snark and beating each other up. :)

[stultiloquentia]

I kinda love this. I think I've OTPed every type EXCEPT the soulmate drama llamas.

But! My favourite part of any romance is where characters performing one type of relationship have to switch into the opposite mode, which does not come naturally, at the crucial moment. The avoiders coming clean, the romantics being forced into pragmatism, the chill buds suddenly unsure how to handle changing feelings.... That's where the juicy stuff is.

[deird1]

I kinda love this. I think I've OTPed every type EXCEPT the soulmate drama llamas.

Heh. Me too.

The avoiders coming clean, the romantics being forced into pragmatism, the chill buds suddenly unsure how to handle changing feelings

OOOH. YES.

[mesotablar]

This was super interesting to read (and I am just happy to find someone talking about ships with frameworks of character I know! yeah I'm still figuring out how to navigate this site)

I think overall I go towards the Snarkers (love the name). I leave the Soul Mates on the screen because there you see them to their full advantage in the pretty clothes and pretty poses and delicate music, because I think something is lost when it is taken to text.
Though for Best Friends I find I miss the romance cues or I read the romance out of their relationship. And so the ship sinks, the romantic one at least!

[deird1]

Welcome to Dreamwidth!

I definitely enjoy Snarkers. They're so interesting!

Though for Best Friends I find I miss the romance cues or I read the romance out of their relationship.

Absolutely. I don't tend to notice these romances until they're blatantly obvious.

[mesotablar]

I'm not sure where The Vampire Diaries sits in regards to your interests but the snarking between Elena and Damon is pretty much the main (or only) reason I watched it. They got hilarious lines. Snark adds zest!

[deird1]

Never seen Vampire Diaries, actually. I don't have Netflix, so I only see shows if they sound interesting enough to buy on dvd sight-unseen.

[mesotablar]

I watched a bit when it was on channel 9 a few years ago, then I just picked up the DVDs whenever JB HI-FI is having a sale, when they are around $15 or less. Though the first season is a bit flat it gets more complex and less Twilight-y as it goes on, and I am sort of overawed at the technical and acting complexities of one actress playing two parts (they didn't have any cheats like they got away with when Xander was doubled!).

As for sight unseen....think of this as an advert for their snark (youtube clip with about as many spoilers as an action movie advert has)