i shipped so hard
and got so far
but in the end
it wasn’t even canon
remember when we shipped things because we loved them and we didn’t necessarily want them to become part of a canon that was flawed and problematic anyway, even if we were lucky enough to be shipping a series that was still ongoing and not a standalone book or ten-year-old story or two-hour film?
remember when shipping something was not about getting to an end goal inside of a restrictive narrative that would probably only sacrifice the relationship to ratings anyway, but about taking characters and exploring the possibilities of what they could be?
remember when whether or not you let yourself love a ship didn’t seem to hinge upon the probability that the ship would “become canon,” as if that would be the only way you could ever receive validation from it, or make it worth shipping?
does ANYONE REMEMBER THIS? because i swear it’s like Tumblr has evolved a memory-wiping machine that has erased all knowledge of pre-Tumblr fandom, and the perpetual deafening thrum underlying the clamor of fans on the Internet these days is canon, canon, canon, like spectators cheering on their favorite teams towards an end-goal that keeps moving farther and farther away.
Hey, remember when LGBT people started getting an uplifting, broad array of representations in television, movies and books without having to raise a stink and call out creators who wrote overwhelmingly cishet romance subplots that they inserted into every single story while they laughed all the way to the bank over the queerbaiting?
No? Neither do I.