This was something I’m twt but cuz I’m a pussy i didn’t want to post it on there so I’m doing it here. The tweet was asking the misfits fandom (the gamers not the show) how they felt on irl shipping and that got me thinking since in the past I used to irl ship (Shane and Ryan from buzzfeed unsolved, I no longer really ship them)
I think that if you understand you aren’t shipping real people rather their yt personalities/personas and the youtubers are fine with it I think it’s fine. If you take it too far like putting their personal lives into your fanfic, threaten them, telling them how you think they should fuck, make ONLY smut fanfic, etc, etc then yeah you shouldn’t ship irl but if you keep it cute and nice then everything’s gonna be fine.
An example that I can think of is Dream and George, they are okay with you guys shipping them and from what I’ve seen of fanart you guys aren’t making fanart of the irl dream or the irl George rather their personas. As soon as they say they are uncomfortable with the shipping you stop but if your being respectful and not sexualizing them I think it’s fine. Also I suggest keeping the shipping to yourself and what I mean is don’t tag them in your fanart or fanfic of the irl ship even if they don’t care if you ship them rather just do @/ then tag them so people still know that it’s those two people.
So just a TL:DR if you are irl shipping please just be respectful and don’t sexualize them and when the two people your shipping say they are uncomfortable stop shipping them (I.e. swagger and fitz said that shipping makes them uncomfortable especially ‘x reader’ shipping so respect that and leave them out of your ships) and always ALWAYS ship their personas not the actual *real* people (I.e. Dream and George or possibly CaptainSparklez and Syndicate from what I believe). That’s my opinion and if you disagree with it then uhh.... I guess tell me? Idk bro just like tell me what you think I gues akdnakmddk