SHIPPERS

I’m not talking the postal service. UPS, or FedEx. I’m talking about shippers as it relates to fandom.

Shipping from Wikipedia  

Shipping, initially derived from the word relationship, is the desire by fans for two people, either real-life celebrities or fictional characters, to be in a relationship, romantic or otherwise. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with the ongoing development of a relationship in a work of fiction. Shipping can involve virtually any kind of relationship: from the well-known and established, to the ambiguous or those undergoing development, and even to the highly improbable or blatantly impossible.

I always thought shipping was a fun thing to do. You know, see who can come up with the most unlikely couple. Like the Terminator and Margaret Thatcher. Would she become Margaret Terminator or would the names be combined. Termathatcher maybe?

Mad Max dating Ann of Green Gables.

A buddy movie with Dan Quayle (US R-VP 89-93) and Joe Biden (US D-VP 09-16) Oh! My! What adventures.

What couple would you pick for a remake of Mr. &Mrs. Smith?   

Making people you know as book protagonists. Anne Marie could be Olivia the helicopter pilot in my first book Under Fire. She’s tall but would have to cut her hair. Sorry Toni you and I are just too short to be pilots. We’d have to duct tape blocks on the pedals.

Sandy could slip nicely into Maureen’s Shadow heroine, Sophie.

Of course Maureen has always been cast as a Pip.

Can’t see myself as heroine in any book. The only movie character I see myself playing is Mama in Throw Mama From the Train.

I would love to see Outlander characters Rupert and Angus, kilts and all, in a remake of Strange Brew. Or, as a modern day Abbot and Costello.  Hmmm. Now that I think of it maybe our former Vice Presidents could do the Strange Brew remake.  

But alas, Shipping to some has become dark and mean. Some Shippers believe it is okay to invade celebrity’s private lives. Shippers lurk outside homes, gate crash family gatherings, grope, say they are friends of the celebrities. They demand to know personal details of the celebrity’s lives and want a say in who they date. When they don’t get that, (like they ever would) they get nasty. They invent stories of the most intimate kind and post them to social media. They set up fake social media pages pretending to be the celebrity. Photoshop pics and gifs. Talk about sexual orientation. When called out they say there is nothing wrong with what they’re doing. They say once you’re in the public eye you’re fair game and besides, it’s just harmless fun.

I’ve only leaned about this level of bat sh*t crazy shippers the last couple of months. It’s no secret I love Outlander. I’ve followed the cast and production members on social media and joined a few closed Fan Facebook groups. It was a kick to learn what readers have to say about the books and discuss the story. See costume designs and set locations for the Starz series. Get insider tid bits. Then…. the shippers started. They hate everything. The shippers demand the series producers do things how ‘they’ want them done. After all no one knows what is good but a shipper. Not even the author, Diana Gabaldon. When Diana commented she’d be writing a script for season 2 she received scalding comments basically saying she better not deviate from the book.  

Apparently the last couple weeks it’s gone to whale sh*t on the bottom of the ocean level. A woman got down on the floor and looked up one of the Scottish actor’s kilt. For real. That just creeps me out.

The major actors now have body guards, people have been banned/blocked from Outlander actor and official social media pages, and Starz/Outlander events. Geeze. And we thought authors have it bad dealing with review trolls and piracy.

And you know what? There are many more fandom shippers out there.

Beware.

They  are  out  there  and  they  walk  among  us.

How are we to tell who they are and protect ourselves? It’s not like the Walking Dead. You can’t identify brain dead people by looking at them. I guess if you see someone hanging in a tree holding a camera with a long lens you could be looking at a shipper. But dang.

If anyone wants to play the Candy Land level of shipping with me, go for it. Share your parings and make us laugh.