And the winner is... Regina Mills!
Not surprising for a show with a practically endless number of ships overall, but a solid third of the vote is impressive!
Acquired Stardust
taylor price
cherry valley forever

Kiana Khansmith
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
I'd rather be in outer space đž

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Not today Justin

Kaledo Art
Claire Keane
AnasAbdin

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shark vs the universe
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izzy's playlists!
styofa doing anything

@theartofmadeline
YOU ARE THE REASON
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me

Love Begins

seen from TĂŒrkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Canada
seen from United States
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seen from United States

seen from Slovenia

seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
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@classicsapphicships
And the winner is... Regina Mills!
Not surprising for a show with a practically endless number of ships overall, but a solid third of the vote is impressive!
Which leading lady do you ship with the most other characters?
Joan Watson (Elementary)
Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn 99)
Cat Grant (Supgergirl)
River Song (Doctor Who)
Ling Woo (Ally McBeal)
Olivia Benson (Law & Order: SVU)
Thirteenth Doctor (Doctor Who)
Ally McBeal (Ally McBeal)
Laura Hollis (Carmilla)
Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time)
Inspired by the characters or actresses that have or will show up multiple times! This round is for the character you ship with the most people, to bring back an age old feature of fandom: multi-shipping.
Today's fandom world has so much focus on the 'right' pairing, but in classic times it was much more common to have two things be true. One: Ship and Let Ship, where everyone had their own pairing and no one was more 'right' than anyone else. And two: Ship Everyone with Everyone Else, where every possible pairing was fair game.
As I finish up the Season 2 bracket, I want to preemptively say that every ship picked (and not picked) has a reason. While there are fandoms I'm leaving out completely, I'm not picking ships based on how much I like them or not.
I can already guess a couple of asks/comments that'll come in once the Season 2 bracket is revealed, just based on the things sent in for Season 1's bracket. And while it's a long shot, I'm hoping that this post will at least somewhat help with that. Please just remember, there is a reason, and that reason isn't malicious.
There may be fandoms or ships that get left out because I've forgotten them, or just don't know they exist. It's a hazard of finding ships from fanfic sites and the collective memories of a few friends. It's not deliberate towards any specific ships, and even the list of fandoms not included isn't long at all.
So please, please don't accuse me of leaving your ship out maliciously, or giving in to 'ship erasure' somehow.
If your ship isn't in the bracket but the show is, either it was in Season 1's bracket, it's too recent to qualify even under the slightly fudged definition of classic used to make sure there's enough ships to fill the bracket, or a different ship from that show was chosen. If your show isn't in the bracket, it's either too recent to qualify, it's one of a very few fandoms not being included, or I just didn't remember/find it when looking for ship pairings.
And the winner is... Cat/Kara (Supergirl)!
Congratulations to everyone who voted for them! I think you guys also hold the honor of 'Most Consistent Reblogs' out of all the ships featured across the brackets, so it's a victory definitely fought for.
For everyone who voted for a ship that didn't win, well fought to you as well!
Intermission Poll: Favorite 'near miss' ships from Season 1
Eleanor/Tahani (The Good Place)
Cat/Kara (Supergirl)
Beca/Chloe (Pitch Perfect)
Carol/Maria (Captain Marvel)
Peggy/Angie (Agent Carter)
Nico/Karolina (Runaways)
Willow/Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Ann/Anne (Gentleman Jack)
Jane/Maura (Rizzoli & Isles)
Time for another Intermission poll while the images for Season 2's bracket are being finalized! This one is for every ship (after round 1) that got over 43% of their individual polls. Some made it to later rounds than others, but every ship on the list came so close to winning.
Why 43% you ask? Well, that's what filled the poll without going over. 45% was half full and 40% was too many for the 10 slot limit. So 43% it is.
And as always,
FAQ, Please read before asking how these are classic
And the winner is... Thirteen/River Song!
Congrats to everyone who voted for them, and well fought to every ship that didn't quite make it! There were some absolutely wild matchups and upsets in this bracket, and watching how things turned out was always exciting.
Final preparations are happening for the next 'Full Season' bracket, so stay tuned for that! There might be a few short one off polls in the meantime while everything is finalized, but for sure there'll be something by next weekend.
Intermission Finals- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff (Marvel)
Thirteenth Doctor/River Song (Doctor Who)
Happy Monday everyone! Still time to get some votes in, things are fairly close!
One day left! Things are staying steady, but the difference is still pretty close!
Intermission Finals- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff (Marvel)
Thirteenth Doctor/River Song (Doctor Who)
Happy Monday everyone! Still time to get some votes in, things are fairly close!
The final round of the Intermission Bracket is here! Since it's the final round (and I need a little more time for the next bracket) this one will run for 1 week! So good luck, and I'm excited to see how this turns out!
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff vs Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Intermission Finals- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff (Marvel)
Thirteenth Doctor/River Song (Doctor Who)
We're almost to the end, the semifinal round is here! Polls will be up for 1 day, so get those reblogs ready because every vote counts!
Good luck!
Right side:
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff vs Missy/River Song
Left side:
Thirteenth Doctor/River Song vs Thirteenth Doctor/Missy
Intermission Semifinals- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff (Marvel)
Missy/River Song (Doctor Who)
Intermission Semifinals- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Thirteenth Doctor/River Song (Doctor Who)
Thirteenth Doctor/Missy (Doctor Who)
The next round of intermission polls will be up later this afternoon, but I want to talk about something I'm seeing a lot of in the tags as these polls go on. And that is the question 'how can you vote for a ship that's not canon?'
First and to get it out of the way, I want to say that canon representation is so, so important. From including non-white actors to including non-straight relationships, the changes in media and fandom over the past decade have been huge. The fact that we can have canon interracial queer relationships is amazing, and I in no way want to take steps back from that. I want media and fandom to keep pushing forward, to the point that it's not a big thing. To the point it's just the way things are.
But with all of that, I also want fandom to realize that not everything has to be canon to be 'worthy'.
Fandom is built on creation and community. From sharing fanfiction through mailed newsletters and stapled together zines, making fanvids with VCRs, all the way up to today where you can hit 'post' and thousands of people can see it instantly. It's still about community, from those early days where fandom was secret and contained to today when it's known and expected to drive a show's success. And community does not rely on what ships are and are not canon.
For example. Xena/Gabrielle just swept the first bracket, and I saw so many people commenting about how they were canon as they made their way through the rounds. But they're not.
Now, they might be ABC- All But Canon. Not even going to try and deny that one even to make a point. But they aren't canon. Arguably the largest femslash couple in fandom today, and they aren't canon. Why? Because the studio/network/whoever was making the final call wouldn't let them be. Does that make them less worth or important than the canon representation we get in more recent shows?
Even today, networks and studios and such still have final say on where the writers are allowed to take their shows and relationships. And while things are changing and moving forward, these brackets look back at where femslash fandom came from. The ships that got us here long before canon queer representation was common.
There was a time where a show would have a dozen different ships as every combination of characters was paired together by someone, because we all gravitate towards different aspects of a character. And yeah, sometimes that made for some serious ship wars and dark times. But for the most part, 'ship and let ship' was a common refrain. One person could ship characters A and B, and another person ship characters A and C, and that was fine. Or they could see A and B as purely platonic and ship C and D. And there was room in the fandom for all of that. Some fandoms were better about it than others, but overall.
I think fandom has truly lost something when so much today is about what is and isn't canon. Because rarely is it about the representation and more about being 'Right' in your ship. Of course it's the Only Correct Option, they're Canon. I can Prove I'm right. Your ship is only fanon, it can't compare to my Canon Ship.
And the fandom old part of me will never not be saddened by that, and how much space for creativity we lose when we only explore the areas some network executive says we can.
Not to start an argument but Xena and Gabrielle literally were canon I'm sorry. They had an episode where someone said they wanted to be with Gabrielle romantically and she explicitly said she could not because "Xena and I have a connection that's stronger than either one of us. We're soulmates. [...] Xena and I are meant to be together, we didn't make it that way, it just is." That same episode ends by Xena waking Gabrielle up a la Sleeping Beauty by kissing her on the mouth.
They were not explicit maybe. But subtext can be canon. And the writers and cast have all come out and said over the years that they were trying to portray them as together.
https://youtu.be/q0FBGsZL0MU
I can tell you support them, so I know we are overall on the same side, but I just wanted to add fuel to the fire of how great XenaGabs is.
Agreeing with @xenaskywalker here. They had multiple mouth kisses. Lucifer called Gabrielle Xenaâs girlfriend, Callisto referred to gabby as Xenaâs partner, Xena introduced Akimi to Gabrielle as her soulmate, Xena referred to her own tits as âspoken forâ while no other love interest save for Gabrielle was around at the time, not to mention their future reincarnations getting canon married. Sorry. I get super carried away with my love and passion for the show and everything it gave us đ„ș
Also not trying to start an argument here, but this kinda proves my point.
Because even with all that, even with the very clear queer subtext that is in so much of the show to the point that you canât believe it isnât text, it isnât canon. Why? Because the network wouldnât let it be. For every thing you list there, a 90âs studio executive in a suit has a counter argument for how theyâre just friends. And whether you agree with them or not, they had the final say in what was allowed to be clearly, directly, and unambiguously shown on screen as canon. Not subtext, not âit can be interpreted asâ but actual canon. And Xena/Gabrielle were never allowed to be explicitly canon.
Which is not in any way a slight against Xena/Gabrielle, who are not actually the point of this post. Nor is it an attempt to argue that Xena and Gabrielle are somehow not very obviously queer coded to the point that rainbows spring up every time someone turns on an episode of Xena. They very much are, but that doesnât mean theyâre canon.
But Xena/Gabrielle does not have to be canon to be an amazing ship. Neither does any other ship out there. Canon is not an end goal, itâs a category.
The writers and actors gave the LGBTQ community as much as they could at the time, based off their interviews. But they also say in many places that they deliberately left it open because there were other storylines they wanted to explore or have available.
"We did not want to give up the hold that character had over Xena and the enjoyment we had with telling stories of Xena and Ares," Tapert said. "So as much as we liked that Xena and Gabrielle were two people who were the best of friends, and perhaps intimate friends, we never wanted to give up Ares."
Even here, thereâs a âperhapsâ caveat. And I am firmly of the opinion that Word of God is not canon both because itâs not equally accessible to all fans, whether due to time, interest, access, and also because it lets authors add in representation without actually including it. The second isnât applicable here, but the first is, and relying on interviews to prove canon means that in the source text things arenât clear enough to claim itâs canon.
A dozen arguments can be made on both sides about whether Xena/Gabrielle is or isnât canon, but that isnât really the point of my post. The point is that it doesnât matter. Canon or not canon, I donât need network executives to tell me what I can and canât ship. Canon isnât a feature or a selling point, or at least it shouldnât be. That just lets shows get away with lazy and unfulfilling plotlines, because hey itâs canon! What more do you want?
If Xena were airing today, and nothing about the Xena/Gabrielle relationship changed but Xena was canonically and openly romantically involved with Callisto or another woman from episode one, I honestly believe Xena/Gabrielle would not be the ship it is today. The canon ship would attract all the attention, and all that extremely queer subtext from the original interactions would go back to being just subtext.
And why do I think that? Because it happens on shows now. The canon relationship gets the attention and the support, and the non-canon ships get told theyâre âreachingâ or âtaking awayâ from the canon couple. And thatâs not what fandom should be.
I donât need studio executives to allow me to ship Xena/Gabrielle, or Jane/Maura, or even Willow/Tara. And nobody else should need that either. All that a ship needs is for someone to see some characters and think âthere is a story here that speaks to meâ.
We're on to Intermission Round 3! Once again polls will be up for a single day, so make those reblogs count.
Good luck!
Right side:
Nia Nal/Lucy Lane vs Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff
Missy/River Song vs Chessy/Miss Honey
Left side:
Emily Prentiss/Diana Berrigan vs Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Thirteenth Doctor/Missy vs Jadzia Dax/Xena
Intermission Round 3- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Nia Nal/Lucy Lane (Supergirl)
Maria Hill/Natasha Romanoff (Marvel)
Intermission Round 3- Favorite crackship/rarepair?
Missy/River Song (Doctor Who)
Chessy (The Parent Trap)/Miss Honey (Matilda)