Teen Titan Anti-shippers Unite!

This sort of came up at another board, and had a big carryover last night, so I thought it beared repeating.

It's getting nearly impossible to watch a TV show without some shipper crawling out of the woodworks. It's not just Teen Titans, and more on that later. When I was younger, I wasn't a shipper. I didn't pair up characters for romantic involvement - when I watched Superfriends, I didn't pair Wonder Woman with Batman or Superman. When I watched Scooby Doo, I didn't pair up the girls and the boys. The only "romance" was on soap operas, which I avoided like the plague.

Nowadays, if I watch CSI, I hear about shipping. I don't watch Alias, but I hear about shipping. I watched Mew Mew Power last night and I kept thinking about each scene that a shipper would have a field day with. It's as if shipping has become a contagious disease infecting all fandoms. I saw the preview of the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie last night and, at one point, I instantly thought "shipperfest." Heck, I've even seen American Idol shipping (usually Simon and Paula).

Then, everything hit home. I was talking with my friend, who is a source on all things Titan. He was telling me some of the guest Titans to appear next season. As soon as I saw one of the names, I thought "OMFG! SHIPPER LOVE TRIANGLE WAR!"

It's getting to where you can't enjoy a TV show without the shipping potential invading your consciousness.

GIVE ME BACK SHIP-FREE TV!!!!!!

Hey, my name's Lauren (nickname Lan.. ^^;). Just joined a couple of minutes ago. I totally agree with hating the "immediate-couple" spur. >>; Some people need to think.

Anyway, I'm glad to be here. On a side note, I love to draw my own characters for whichever show/comic I'm fantasizing over. :o You can see some of my artwork here, but I haven't posted in a while due to the difficulties I've been having with my scanner.

That's about it, I guess.

Glad ot be here. ^^;; I guess I'll post again later on.

~Lan

Hi just like to say im new here and love the titans! My favorite is Robin and i still say that Dick Grayson should become robin again!

It has come to my attention that a few weeks ago, the Titans lost a major creative force - one of the Titans creators from the 1960's, Bob Haney.

Quote from Newsarama.com:

It has been learned that comics legend Bob Haney died on Thanksgiving Day, November 25th. He was 78 years old.

Haney died at a nursing/hospice facility in El Cajon, CA where he was hospitalized following a stroke that had robbed him of his ability to speak or recognize people. Complications from the stroke were the cause of his death.

Haney was one of the great Silver Age comics writers, landing at DC in the mid-50s, where he soon came to write virtually every comic DC published at one time or another. Haney was the co-creator of the original Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Doom Patrol, and an array of other characters, including Sgt. Rock. Together with other writers of the era, Haney tried unsuccessfully to unionize talent at DC in the late '60s.

Haney worked at DC through the mid-80s, and in animation as well, eventually retiring to San Felipe in Baja, Mexico. Most recently, Haney wrote Teen Titans Swingin' Elseworlds, which was illustrated by Jay Stephens, and inked and colored by Mike and Laura Allred. The book was canceled by DC in August of 2003, and has not yet seen print from, or been rescheduled by DC Comics.

The article link is at http://newsarama.com/forums/showth…

(crossposted)

I'm getting so tired of trying to discuss episodes with the shippers popping up every other post.

I had to warn people at the Beast Boy Shrine to take their shipping discussion to the official shipping thread.

Why is it so hard to have a normal discussion on an episode's merits?

This is inspired by a post at another board asking what couples you support and why.

Why do I hate shipping?

Had you asked me this prior to the first Teen Titans episodes, I would have said that I don't hate shipping. I just don't like when that's all there is to a story.

Since the Teen Titans cartoon has come along, I've developed an extreme hatred for shipping.

Why?

First of all, so much of the shipping is based on so little. Yes, there is evidence for Starfire/Robin. In fact, Starfire/Robin was established back in the comic book. However, even in the current comic book, it's not happening. DC Comics decided this, and Dick Grayson has gone on to have other girlfriends, while Starfire has been married and widowed twice. Beyond that, there is nothing that can be considered evidence for romance any more than it can be for the family dynamic. One character helps another to stand. It must be love. Don't you help your brother/sister stand when they've fallen? One character touches another's shoulder. Don't you touch your relatives on the shoulder? One character hugs another - they are the OTP. But then, don't you hug your relatives? I have never seen so many lists that go out of their way to list exact scenes and tidbits that "support" their couple.

Second, I have never had so many discussions interrupted by shipping. It may start as a simple discussion of an episode. Five posts into the thread, people are spouting their evidence and boom, the thread is turned into a shipper's paradise and those of us trying to have a discussion have to start a new thread, worried that it will also be hijacked.

Third, a character doesn't even need to appear for people to instantly begin shipping. Word came out that Bumblebee would be appearing in the toon. Within a week of the announcement, people were shipping Bumblebee and Cyborg simply because they are the same race.

Fourth, the way shippers react when someone comes up to them with an alternate pairing is ludicrous. The way most shippers pick their proof, ANY characters can be turned into a couple with proof. Slade/Robin makes just as much sense as any other couple being presented. So does Gizmo/Cyborg. Cinderblock, Overload, and Plasmus were merged into one being - they must really share some deep love. For that matter, in one comic book Starfire kissed Colossus from the Xmen. Not just a peck on the cheek, but a full blown deep kiss (she decided to use her language absorbtion ability to absorb Russian). Later in the same comic, he held her really close (to anchor her while she used her starbolts at full blast to move something). Those two tidbits, using the methods presented before, are supreme proof that Colossus and Starfire can be a OTP. It's just as much proof as many other couples are given.

These are probably the biggest reasons why I hate shipping. There are other reasons, but those aren't as important as these four.

EDIT: I tried to post this to the board where the person posted, but the person has the board set on "friends only." IOW, you can't post if you're not on her list. Not going to get too many people if that's the way you're going to handle your board.

I came up with this thought as I was making my two hour drive down back from Seattle, and I figured I'd pose the question to you guys in hopes of getting an answer:

How far can a character be bent, like in pairing them off with another character, before they're distorted totally OOC? Or, to put it another way, when people desperately seeking romance shove two characters together, how far would they have to drag, say, Robin before it's arguably NOT the Robin we all know and more-or-less like? And what's the worst job of character dragging that you've encountered?

(Obviously, this'll be a case-by-case basis, so examples are good.)

And for that matter, whaddya think's the stupidest/most amusing argument you've heard in favor of Character A x Character B (insert in whatever character you'd like)?

And offhand, I can't really think of an answer for the first paragraph right now, but the stupidest. argument. ever. I can think of would have to be for RobinxRaven. Someone, I forget who, said the following was a sign of Robin and Raven's true love: they both have 'bird' names, and since they both have bird names they belong together because people with bird names flock together.

The last three messages from the guestbook at It's Not Easy Being Green:

"I love beastboy and terra is cool to and i think they should be together forever"

"DUDE!UR SITE R0X!!!! tou have practicley everything about BeastBoy!!!!! I think Ravin and BB make a good couple! u?"

"I would just like to say that Beast Boy was the, is the, and forever will be the greatest superhero ever. EVER! Also, may Terra and Beast Boy be one day reunited!"


*bangs head against wall*

I must confess, normally I wouldn’t join a community like this (I avoid communities requiring interaction, as a general rule) except for the fact that I was already working on a short essay for my blog about why I generally loathe romance in fanfiction. Works well enough here, huh?

(Especially since half of the inspration came from a Teen Titans community, I won't name names. XD)

So hi. I don’t know what I can say about myself. I’m called Red, none of you should know me except perhaps only vaguely, under another name when I indulged in FF.net, perhaps. (That was such a long time ago.) Pleased to meet you all. I don’t know how long I’d remain here since I’m not a community person and, more importantly, the group name's straightfoward but kinda lame. XD (Kidding...kinda.)

Okay! The essay. Snipped so the uninterested can just read my introduction and ignore it totally.

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Why must people ship characters?

I've asked this at other boards, but really don't get much of an answer beyond "why not? It's cute"

I know that the Starfire/Robin stuff is incredibly obvious. But what about the other characters?

Is shipping necessary?

If the writers didn't deliberately include it, why must people force it in?