Out of the DCTV shows at least, by examining the visible fandom presence on social media, we can see that for Arrow and Supergirl, among the fans there is an intensified, we could say, unhealthy focus on ships whenever it comes to discussion of the shows or its actors. Like if Odette Annable takes a photo with Katie and Melissa in it you're gonna see a lot of "supercorp" in the comments, or on Amell's posts a lot of "Olicity" or anti Olicity material. And then of course there's the next evolution/devolution, real life shipping, ( "Melwood" ).
On the other hand there's almost none of that for Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash.
Now for almost every media there's bound to be some unofficial ships, like Finn/Poe Dameron, Jon/Daenerys (which came true xD). But why does Supergirl and Arrow cop such a huge intense focus?
That, kinda baffles me. I've a few theories but I'm an engineering not psychology student lol, so I made this post for us all to speculate. Shippers themselves are also of course welcome to tell us why.
Here's my suspicion. A noobs guess.
Arrow one can kinda tell why. Leads are full of buff, attractive men. Even the promo posters consists of Stephen and David going shirtless. And of course I cannot speak for straight women and homosexual men, but, going by a lot of comments, they find that really hot. So, the show kinda has sexual appeal inherently built into it.
Then again, relationships go beyond seeing an attractive guy/girl. So let's look at our show here.
Supergirl. The show has quite deliberately avoided sexualisation of characters, which I reckon is great, because the way female characters look in comics borders on exploitation. But Supergirl shippers are even crazier than arrow. So I think Melissa Benoist looks very pretty (a sentiment frequently echoed here by male and female users), but surely that can't be why. Karamel. Kara and Mon-El have 1000% lit chemistry. God I was behind it when Karamel was in the rage. Whenever those two were together it was golden. Sanvers. That relationship inspired the LGBT community so much it even saved a life. Supercorp I'm very skeptical about, but Kara and Lena do also have great chemistry.
I suspect partially in the case of Supergirl it's because of the show's focus on character relationships, and in the second season's failure to provide an engaging main plot, character relations overrode that as the show's focus for many fans.
But then Barry has great chemistry with many people on The Flash. Caitlin and Cisco, Ray and Nate, hell entire LoT is built on character interactions, and The Flash actually has its official endgame ship. One could argue much of The Flash's relationships are built on family, but isn't that one of Supergirl's main themes also?
So why? Maybe those two shows have a better structured main story so people focus on that instead of trying pair characters? No clue.
-
Fedguy
- Supergirl General Discussion
- Monday, 08 January 2018
Flash certainly played up the shippers for 2 and a half seasons some still ship Barry/Caitly apparently.
I honestly barely noticed romance in s1 it was there but barely,i mean Kara went on max 2 dates that lasted less than 5 minutes total
A lot of people ship Caitlin and Barry, nearly as many as Iris and Barry. I think the whole relationship between Savitar and Killer Frost revitalized that.
As for Supergirl S1, the low amount of viewers didn't help with the shipping, but there never was the kind of chemistry between Kara and James as there is/was with Kara and Mon-El.
- more than a month ago
- Supergirl General Discussion
- # 1
The problem with shipping is it infiltrates EVERYTHING....smh, even here.
As far as the actors personal lives.....that's personal.
As far as the actors personal lives.....that's personal.
Profile Pic by https://twitter.com/samayerswrites
- more than a month ago
- Supergirl General Discussion
- # 2
There be Flash ships now? Never seen them haha
Check Instagram. People are still hung up on Patty there
- more than a month ago
- Supergirl General Discussion
- # 3
There be Flash ships now? Never seen them haha
- more than a month ago
- Supergirl General Discussion
- # 4
An obvious point nobody's touched on --- Melissa and Chris Wood are dating! Those who love their characters together (like myself) and that chemistry between them also are seeing in real life with the actors, which is fueling shippers even more.
I feel that the DC shipping community is being misrepresented here. I follow multiple DCCW fan edit accounts (video and photo) as well as fanpages, and what I see a lot more is ships within the Flash (mostly Barry, Iris, and Caitlin) and ships from Supergirl (Karamel, Sanvers, and of course Supercorp...). Arrow doesn't really have many ships. Either you like Olicity, or you don't (Most of the second category likes Oliver and Laurel). So from what I'm seeing, the shipping mostly occurs within Supergirl and the Flash.
This would align onto OP's point about character relationships in those shows that aren't developed as much on others. Arrow tends to break a lot of relationships up (think Thea and Roy, Oliver and Laurel, Lance and Felicity's mom; with friendships, Oliver and Tommy, Oliver and Diggle [at times], etc.) and while Legends has its relationships, few of them are romantic, and even fewer are developed. Legends also suffers from a smaller fanbase. In my mind the relative amount of shipping for each show makes sense based on their fanbase and their appreciation of relationships.
I feel that the DC shipping community is being misrepresented here. I follow multiple DCCW fan edit accounts (video and photo) as well as fanpages, and what I see a lot more is ships within the Flash (mostly Barry, Iris, and Caitlin) and ships from Supergirl (Karamel, Sanvers, and of course Supercorp...). Arrow doesn't really have many ships. Either you like Olicity, or you don't (Most of the second category likes Oliver and Laurel). So from what I'm seeing, the shipping mostly occurs within Supergirl and the Flash.
This would align onto OP's point about character relationships in those shows that aren't developed as much on others. Arrow tends to break a lot of relationships up (think Thea and Roy, Oliver and Laurel, Lance and Felicity's mom; with friendships, Oliver and Tommy, Oliver and Diggle [at times], etc.) and while Legends has its relationships, few of them are romantic, and even fewer are developed. Legends also suffers from a smaller fanbase. In my mind the relative amount of shipping for each show makes sense based on their fanbase and their appreciation of relationships.
- more than a month ago
- Supergirl General Discussion
- # 5
As far as Sanvers is concerned, I think it was the second season's focus on romance for not just Kara but Alex as well (and Winn and J'onn too). It just was a too romance centred season. Also, in my opinion, they kind of played up the Alex-Maggie romance as OTP (and Kara and Mon El) and in S2 back half, almost all of Alex's character was relegated to the romance-- a reason why I had issues with the storyline, among others.
As for Karamel--I find the focus on actors dangerous (for the actors), demeaning and insulting (that is there for the f/f ships too--there are some who ship the actors)--and Supercorp:
I think the ships get so much screentime in social media because of the ship wars between Karamel and Supercorp (and people who aren't supercorp but dislike Mon EL). Many people disliked them and Mon El, which means, there was a lot of defense going on, which means more talk.
And, probably to counter act, SC also had more discussions, and hence, more visibility. The aggressive and kind of pointless comments on Instagram and so on are a result of that I think. A kind of marking their territories.
Add to that fights between Chris Wood fans and Katie fans, and you have what we have.
What I mean is: we have always had ships including f/f and m/m ones. They were there in Supergirl Season one too: Supercat, SuperLane, Alex/Astra and so on. The increased visibility since S2 I think is because of the fights.
I have no idea about Arrow or Flash.
Also: Jon and Daenerys are a couple now?
As for why folks in general ship certain romantic relationships: Varies from person to person; may be because of the actor chemistry; but may be because of the character dynamics (villain-hero ships; the chance of redemption); may be because the shipper identifies with one of the characters and loves the other.
And may be because the recent culture has kind of made romance out to be the greatest most important thing in one's life (or most important relationship at least); the single thing that you need to make you happy; and if you like a certain character/actor dynamic and you want to see it more or want it to be important, you kind of subconsciously think it should be romance because that is the most important one, right?
As in.. I think the general pop culture emphasis more on romance and sexual love in stories and shows than on platonic love. So, naturally, you see it reflected in the way people react to relationships and come up with relationships.
As for Karamel--I find the focus on actors dangerous (for the actors), demeaning and insulting (that is there for the f/f ships too--there are some who ship the actors)--and Supercorp:
I think the ships get so much screentime in social media because of the ship wars between Karamel and Supercorp (and people who aren't supercorp but dislike Mon EL). Many people disliked them and Mon El, which means, there was a lot of defense going on, which means more talk.
And, probably to counter act, SC also had more discussions, and hence, more visibility. The aggressive and kind of pointless comments on Instagram and so on are a result of that I think. A kind of marking their territories.
Add to that fights between Chris Wood fans and Katie fans, and you have what we have.
What I mean is: we have always had ships including f/f and m/m ones. They were there in Supergirl Season one too: Supercat, SuperLane, Alex/Astra and so on. The increased visibility since S2 I think is because of the fights.
I have no idea about Arrow or Flash.
Also: Jon and Daenerys are a couple now?
As for why folks in general ship certain romantic relationships: Varies from person to person; may be because of the actor chemistry; but may be because of the character dynamics (villain-hero ships; the chance of redemption); may be because the shipper identifies with one of the characters and loves the other.
And may be because the recent culture has kind of made romance out to be the greatest most important thing in one's life (or most important relationship at least); the single thing that you need to make you happy; and if you like a certain character/actor dynamic and you want to see it more or want it to be important, you kind of subconsciously think it should be romance because that is the most important one, right?
As in.. I think the general pop culture emphasis more on romance and sexual love in stories and shows than on platonic love. So, naturally, you see it reflected in the way people react to relationships and come up with relationships.
- more than a month ago
- Supergirl General Discussion
- # 6
- Page :
- 1
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