muchymozzarella:

Stony, Superbat, Spirk, and the concept of partnerships of Equals in shipping

I’m gonna keep this essay as short as possible, but I wanted to kind of address why these ships are seen as almost intrinsic to older, genre fiction fandoms.

The reason these ships are so ingrained and so lasting is that they’ve basically taken the two main characters of their given franchises and shipped them. As partners, as equals, as people who, despite being at odds with each other or being extremely different to one another, have a deep love and respect for each other.

The other interesting thing to note is that these ships often have a third who, while also an equal who is a well loved character, doesn’t quite have the same dynamic as the two, and while ships of this third character and either one of the first two exist and are popular, they aren’t as intrinsic as the ones above.

Steve and Tony are often listed with Thor as a triumvirate of the most popular Avengers. Bruce and Clark obviously have Diana as their important and equal third. Jim and Spock often come together with Bones as an important third.

But the thing that makes the above ships so popular is the fact that these are the two that are most at odds with each other, most different in terms of general beliefs, motifs, and personalities.

Clark and Bruce are as different as night and day, but still have a strong and long lasting friendship (and an amusingly similar physical appearance despite looking entirely different in costume).

Steve and Tony often butt heads and also often have opposing views, but before Civil War it was always a way for them to work as a team, to have different perspectives in order to reach a good and balanced middle ground that was still in line with their heroism.

Kirk and Spock were incredibly different personalities that worked well together in a solid, odd couple friendship that played beautifully off each other.

And all of the above ships are partners. Equals not just in the story itself, but in terms of narrative significance.

They are equal in the eyes of general pop culture. You could prefer Superman or Batman, prefer Captain America or Iron Man, prefer Kirk or Spock, but in the end they are all counted among the MOST IMPORTANT in most of their medium.

And that equality, that idea of differing personalities and perfect foils coming together as partners to form a balanced middle ground, the idea that people who disagree on most views can still respect and love each other and work together as equals, is incredibly appealing to fans who ship them.