#shipping culture is.... very boring but there are patterns that repeat and people just. don't notice?

[eorzeashan]

i do think the hostility towards certain characters in the same fandom/media is just another form of poorly disguised ship wars bc this tends to come out of characters that are featured in romances and not platonic relationships, as compared to media with characters that are unromanceable/generally appreciated without shipping where people do not divide themselves into x likers vs y likers, but rather are able to think of them all in the same group. interesting phenomenon.

[heylo-reylo]

wait wait wait....Mulder and Scully were controversial??? people didn't see them in the 90s and go "ah yes that's the new blueprint!" im honestly shocked

Oh, this takes me back!

As crazy as it seems now since it's very much canon, the Mulder/Scully relationship was definitely controversial. Retrospectively it did take 6 to 8+ years/seasons with over 100 episodes and a movie (damn that bee!) for anything to happen that could be considered an irrefutable victory for the shippers, so there was a lot of time for fans to debate. The show also had a great knack for giving a little crumb like an especially flirty quip, and then pulling it back by introducing a slight romantic interest for one of them, or just cooling it off for say, another half a season. It was both frustrating and a TON of fun to experience at the time.

At first, my Mulder x Scully shipping was just me and my bff obsessing together over every little MSR interaction, and to us it felt absolutely inevitable (love that you called it the blueprint because so much yes to that!) Then I ventured into the online fandom (message boards, mailing lists, and Geocities sites: oh my!) and was surprised by the amount of passionate "noromos," and yes, they actually called themselves that (short for "no romance"). There were even some who used the term "anti" way back then, haha.

In my memory, people had a wide variety of reasons for not shipping, ranging from the fact that the XF creator Chris Carter was vocally opposed to the relationship turning romantic for much of the show's run, to those who felt that it diminished Scully from being the badass trailblazer she that was (personally, I thought one of the best aspects of the pairing was the way Mulder always gave Scully the professional respect and space she deserved, while also supporting her unconditionally when she needed it: Scully can kick butt and still get her man) Others straight-up admitted that they didn't want any relationship aspects dominating a sci-fi/police procedural show and fair enough-- I'm just one of those who can't help but ship!

Hopefully that answers your question somewhat, I could write so much more because The X Files has been such a big part of my life, but I don't want to bore you-- plus there are a lot of essays/sites/etc. archived from back in the day via places like Fanlore.org for further reading. Overall, it's been really interesting to see how patterns in shipping culture have repeated themselves over and over in various fandoms I've participated in since. (I would love to write an essay on the crossover between character ships and actor/rpf ships and the particular division it creates between the fans, haha!)

Thanks for the ask anon 💚