My thoughts on Btvs,shipping,Spuffy and the Spuffy shippers i came across..
This is a small essay about shipping and opinions through my experience from the Btvs fandom,the relationship of Spuffy and their shippers. Inspired by an argument i and several other fans had in youtube about the couple.
I haven't been in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom for more than 9 months and many things have changed for me since then. First of all,i discovered a show that now i call my favourite of all time and believe me i've watched many tv shows in my days. But Buffy became something almost sacred to me,because i learned so much from it regarding life,myself and what it is to be flawed and still fight every day. Because even if you don't know it,you have that power inside of you and you can use it to make it through every obstacle.
[okay i'm almost out of topic. sorry,not so sorry,but my love for Btvs makes me talk a lot about it and how it helped me through a really difficult phase i had]
Secondly,my first ever Otp,that just the previous year i thought would last forever,got replaced by what i now call two blonde idiots that give me more feels than i ever thought was possible to get from a pairing and that i can't often[everyday] handle. Spuffy.
Naturally when you start shipping a couple,fictional or not,you spend hours trying to learn every single detail about them. Watch every fanvid there is out there about them. Read fanfiction[another life ruiner there] about them. Find everything about the actors behind the magic that blew your mind and see if they ship the couple too.But most importantly you search for your fellow shippers. People you can call family[alright not exactly],people who will support you about your favourite pairing,provide you with valid information and guide you through the mess that is a fandom you just barely know at the beginning. Generally,people whom their lives are just as ruined by the same ship as yours. Cause they will get you.
Now,when i realised that Btvs had its finale like a decade ago,i was so sad for being late into the party of an active fandom. Especially since i had just came from a fandom that after some months of it being finished,well..it was pretty much dead. Still i was determined to find out everything i could and even though i didn't have a tumblr back then,i knew that was a nice place to start. And that's when i saw that people not only are still showing their love for the show,but that there are recent comics,fanvids and fanart from this year,blogs dedicated entirely to the show or my Otp and things that made it clear this tv show is sacred for many more people than i thought and it lasted for this long and it will last for years to come. Needless to say i was excited,something that lead me to the third change of this last year: i made my own tumblr! Everything seemed perfect till i came near the shipping wars,hating characters part of the fandom.
Of course i had come around shipping wars before,so i wasn't so shocked,but with this show things were kinda different. You always expect arguments about your favourite and not so favourite characters,about which season or episode was the best,even between "rival" pairings. Those can go a civilized way or a full smackdown depended on the fans evolved,their maturity etc. But to find shipping wars regarding the same pairing? I'm sorry,but huh?
Up until now i've read so many different opinions and arguments about Spuffy that i've lost count! There are the Buffy lovers who hate on Spike shippers,the Spike lovers who hate on Buffy shippers,the ones who shipped them only the first seasons,cause after that it got too dark,the ones who ship them only after Spike got his soul,the ones who don't care and ship them more in season 6 due to the hotness and not later just cause Spike wasn't as fun in season 7,the i-shipped-them-from-the beginning-shippers,the ones who also love Bangel,the ones who hate on Bangel,the ones who ship Buffy and Spike with the whole cast,so why not them as well and probably there are other kinds of shippers that don't come to my mind right now. Even i am a different kind of shipper than in every other category[and there are many more] i mentioned above: i loved their chemistry from the begining,but only started shipping them after Spike realised he was in love with Buffy in season 5 and continued shipping them through all the seasons and now the comics and personally i still like Bangel and Angel,love Spangel and Spuffel doesn't sound bad and i love both Buffy and Spike in an almost unhealthy level [seems fitting,doesn't it?].
So,what is happening with this show? Personally,i hate shipping wars,because i find them stupid. I mean people that go "No this character sucks" only because their ship is threatened by him/her..i just don't get you! And i can't deny that i'd have loved if i could at least find some peace in my own territory,with my fellow shipping pals. But there are even people who don't know canon or accept it for that matter and i'd feel bad to exclude them from the Spuffy shipping team,cause we are all fans of the same fandom after all,still they are so stubborn and at times rude and blind. And tell me what can you do about that?
By all that i don't wanna say we should all have the same opinions. To be honest for me,different opinions are what make shipping so interesting and i love how many points of view i've come across and how they put me to thought about several issues. Please,though,don't let what makes shipping so enjoyable go to hell just cause you can't deal with another's opinions or simple facts. I guess i just wish there was no hate in my pairing's tag or other's tags or about several characters including those i love[so mainly all of them. in Btvs at least]. You can express your feelings and thoughts in a non offensive way anyway. Still i'm grateful the show is so active till now,because that means it has characters and storylines for all kinds of people and perspectives and that's one of the things i adore the most about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just you guys..try to get along,it's not that hard.
P.S.: Did i say small essay? Haha..sorry i meant one that'll make you dizzy if you put up with me and read it all.