It’s in Swedish and I’m much too lazy to translate. But I figured the older generation might benefit from knowing these terms like shipping, AO3, slash, and whatnot.
He does not like the concept of shipping at all. But he thought it was educational and he liked the pictures I used. It was Star Trek themed since ST essentially coined the slash term, and we both watch it so I made that the main theme.
Well. That was fun. I love explaining nonsensical shit to older peeps.
AO3 is a website for sharing fanfiction. Archive of Our Own.
Slash fiction is a subgenre of fanfiction focused on romance, because for example you might describe your fanfiction as “Kirk/Spock” (pronounced “Kirk slash Spock”).
“Shipping” is the act of supporting a “ship”, short for “relationship”. It can be in fanfiction or just in fan discussions. It may or may not be supporting the “canon” ships, which are relationships actually shown in the original story. (Kirk/Spock is absolutely non-canon, but Picard/Crusher is a canon ship.)
Sometimes ships get given names, which might be a portmanteau of the characters’ names (Castle and Beckett from the show Castle being “Casket”), or associated with a characteristic of the characters (“rocketship” is Team Rocket characters Jessie and James from Pokémon), or reference something that happened to the characters in universe (Young Justice’s “Spitfire” referencing romantic advice given to Wally West that in part lead to him getting romantically involved with Artemis).
Even if you’re not particularly interested in shipping, if you get involved in online communities discussing long-running series, you’re bound to become familiar with it.
Thanks for the rundown.
I definitely must be old, because reading that makes my skin crawl.
Why’s it make your skin crawl??
This has been a thing since at least Star Trek: TOS. It’s just more prominent today as online culture becomes more ubiquitous and makes it easier for more people who aren’t quite as dedicated to get involved.
It’s been a thing since at least 2012 because I remember hearing a group of students talk about shipping irl back then.
It’s been a thing online since at least 1997-2000, because that’s when I first was coming across it when I was younger, so I’m willing to bet it’s been around since the dawn of the internet.
“Shipping” has been used in so much mainstream media as well, I’m surprised it wasn’t a more recognized term.
I mean, shipping was ubiquitous online even when I first hopped on the web as a wee lad in the late 1990s.
Same here.