a fandom history / non-kpop shipping timeline

[soobun]

 

haiii. this is in vague order and i’m definitely going to forget a lot of things because Well that shouldn’t be a surprise when it comes to me. inspired by permutative  and girlrock  who are always delivering dw bangers compared to my self-indulgent bimonthly posts of questionable quality ^__^

 

upon reflection this became way more of a fandom history than just a shipping timeline so i changed the title. LOL. don’t flame me

⤳ pre-2011 - hetshipping

i’ll be honest i don’t remember much from this time considering i wasn’t even 12 but a couple things:

• the first video game i ever played was pokemon (black and white) but before that i had watched the anime, and for some reason the ship that imprinted on me was DAWN and PAUL… i mean none of these het pokemon ships really delivered much but i just opened up their bulbapedia page and it started with “Dawn is optimistic and upbeat, whereas Paul is cold-hearted and apathetic.” which is… well… let’s just say this was probably the beginning of a pattern for me<3 but basically i read terrible fic for them on ff.net at a formative age blah blah we all know this one. and then a couple years later i partook in some ferriswheelshipping as was typical

• ????? i also remember liking SAM AND FREDDIE from icarly and harry and hermoine when i read hp in lower school. don’t ask me why because i couldn’t tell you

• i’m sure there’s more from lower/middle school but i will refrain because this and what comes next is humiliating enough

⤳ 2011-2012 - any directioner here?

• and this is when my life changed for the worse! yes i was an insane directioner ever since they dropped wmyb and yes i was one of those insane larry shippers they tell you about. i think i get somewhat of a pass considering i was 12/13 years old but yes i thought they were together for real and now i know the consequences of my hubris. this is also when i got a tumblr and that was my primary “online” “presence” until i switched over to twitter in 2016. anyway i think anyone on tumblr from 2011-2015 could tell you that it changes your brain chemistry permanently but i think being on LARRY TRUTHER tumblr did something worse. in terms of actually being a ship i honestly don’t think they were anything special or important in terms of The Dynamix I Enjoy like they were basically just guys being dudes. i read most of their fic on tumblr and lj and then when i got an ao3 acc in 2013 i started bookmarking things on there and i still have them all saved for when i want to look back and feel shame<3 (i mean honestly i think a lot of the fic was pretty good and the sheer volume is probably what allowed me to become a bit of a fic snob in the first place but it’s not like i’m going to go back and reread any in 2021.)

• when i went back to page 38 in ao3 bookmarks to check when my first one was (august 6 2013!) i realized that the first fandom i exclusively read ao3 fics for was… homestuck. :weary: but before we open THAT can of worms i had another tumblr exclusive fandom which was:

⤳ 2012-2013 - yes, even more rpf

• ah the PHANDOM… i had quite a few other interests during this time but i was primarily a fan of dan and phil. yes the youtubers. i deleted my 1d blog (i almost wish i kept it so i could go back and witness my middle school self but i think its for the best) and made a new blog for YOUTUBERS. i feel more rectified in this one considering dan and phil WERE actually together for at least the early years but i also hate thinking about how bad the fourth wall was during this time… actually there literally wasn’t a fourth wall. they saw basically everything and they said they were fine with shipping (eventually) (but how much of that was them not wanting to alienate their paying fanbase) but honestly thinking back it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. like nowadays they definitely dont give a shit / are super rich and just bought a house together / etc etc but it was rough back then! like dan was just ~20 and was posting rants on tumblr about how people needed to leave his personal life alone and people (me included) were like damn. but then didn’t? #reflecting right now and i feel like part of the reason i’m so lax about rpf nowadays is like. at least people (& fandom in general) has evolved enough for the artist/fan dynamic to not get THAT bad. because it was bad

• i feel like i can’t really get into dynamix here because dan and phil were literally just two british youtubers who were confirmed secretly dating and then probably broke up and then probably got back together. like once again they were just dudes. i’m honestly still fond of them though and i listened to some of their recent podcasts and i’m glad that they’re thriving after all the insanity

• also big fan of LETS PLAYS at this time and i was especially fond of rooster teeth / achievement hunter which is rough looking back but yeah i liked MAVIN… this was my favorite fic and this author is the reason i started reading hockey fic later in life too. some bad choices but some great writing!

• i also really liked teen wolf at this time and read a lot of bad sterek fic but lets not get into that. i also rewatched all of teen wolf last year too but lets not get into that either

⤳ 2013-2014 - maybe shipping fictional characters IS more fun actually

• alright let me talk about homestuck now. i read the entire comic (well it wasn’t complete at the time but there were about 6000 pages) freshman year of high school and i have the most cringe memories of trying to get my girlfriend at the time to read it and her being like ? this is lame and makes no sense. and well she wasn’t wrong. but i was obsessed. in terms of ships i was of course DAVEKAT fan because if there’s animosity inherent in the pairing i’ll probably like it. but as we all know it can’t just be about the hostility it’s about the NARRATIVE FOILS and hating how you can see YOURSELF IN THE OTHER and GROWING TOGETHER AGAINST YOUR WILL. dave as the little gay boy from texas who overcompensates with some teenage homophobia and never says what he means who ends up trapped on a meteor and falling in love with a hotheaded alien who always says what he means and what he means is that he hates your GUTS. but for some reason you can’t stop looking at him and picking fights with him and yeah you know this one. my perfect 2013 somewhatrarepair that somehow became canon in 2019 :D i also loved rose and kanaya (rosemary) because obviously. i actually have way more thoughts but i’ll stop

• i was also a welcome to night vale fan at this time and fsr it’s intrinsically linked with homestuck in my mind. cecil and carlos WERE perfect actually

• i remembered this later and i don’t know where to put it but i was obsessed with ian and mickey from shameless around here too. hilariously my family (me NOT included) has been watching all 11 seasons of shameless this year and i’ll never forget my mom saying that LIP is cute

• ALSO this is when i became just a little bit of a weeb and i watched all the anime that was popular on tumblr around this time… i think my first was free! and you would think with my track record i’d have liked rinharu (which i did, kind of, and even more on the great free! rewatch of 2020) but my main ship was actually MAKOHARU <3 is this because i just liked makoto more and felt bad for him because he was clearly pining over haru? maybe. but my main shit was when kisumi comes in s2 and shakes up the dynamic--the wiki says Haruka doesn't particularly like Kisumi for the reason being that during junior high school, Makoto started hanging out with him too, making him jealous. like ok haru who never shows emotion being genuinely distressed that makoto would hang out with someone else? we see you.

• i of course watched haikyuu (and read a decent amount of the manga, which was the first and last time i’d do that, other than a short persona thing last year) and liked kagehina and iwaoi as we all did. there really was some perfect fic for this fandom… but back then & also now i’m not necessarily a supremacist and will happily harem my faves (oikawa / kageyama) with anyone. especially each other despite there being a severe lack of fic that properly explores that dynamic IMO!!

• so i just tried to open myanimelist andKJHCFEHFCJ i forgot my password and it locked me out when i tried to log in but i opened up my profile and the icon is EREN/ARMIN FROM SNK FANART…. i didn’t even remember that i liked that ship that much but OKAY. other seminal ships from this era include madoka/homura and shinji/kaworu which are both classic & important 2 me… also i watched diaya no ace and i like any ship with repressed little b^tch miyuki in it but that’s mostly ao3 user kittebasu’s impact (best fic ever)

• i’ll also put YURI ON ICE here retroactively because weirdly i watched it when it aired and was like alright that was nice<3 but didn’t feel that much and then i watched it again SUMMER 2020 after reading this fic and lost my mind? and then read a bunch of other fic. victuuri is great but honestly i’m yurio fan (unsurprising to all) so i liked him and otabek the best on my rewatch!!! this fic is quintessential to me.

⤳ 2015⭛ - the kpopification of dw user soobun

• so yes i got into kpop in 2015 but This Isn’t About That but it’s important to know that thats primarily where my brainspace was for a while. maybe i’ll do a kpop fandom timeline eventually because i’ve experienced many things in these 6 years LOL but a couple random phases:

• voltron during whenever voltron was popular (2016???) i stanned keith and shipped klance obviously. and then that ended up being the worst show of all time so thats good

• now… CATRADORA. honestly this show was so perfect its like oh so voltron sucks ass now? here’s basically the same thing but ACTUALLY good. it was very special 2 me when i thought we were going to get queerbaited (which is fine i love to be queerbaited etc etc) but instead got canon wlws!?!? and with a perfect dynamic too--i still remember twitter searching “akechi catra” and waiting to see if other people had seen the vision like i had (there were like 3 other tweets and i still consider them my brethren) SO YEAH. we love to see it

• and then late 2019 whenever IT chap 2 came out i had my insane reddie moment (which is having a weird renaissance rn thanks to me randomly finding this fic) and i’m going to plagiarize kaia for a moment and just quote that “reddie is like... it's on levels. it's just on different levels and either you accept the levels or you don't.” and that’s really all there is to say on the matter

• i kind of went in and out of hockey fandom for a while and well i blame ficdom entirely. there’s seriously no reason for HOCKEY RPF of all things to be so compelling when the dudes themselves are like… [gestures] you know. but skimming through my bookmarks gives us (in order of how much i actually cared about them): brock/elias (elias being the only hockey guy i still actually kind of like), nolan/tk (nolan’s alright too but i think the fandom perception was very kind to him… elias actually delivers a semblance of personality), nicke/alex (fsr fic!nicke is genuinely a perfect character to me, this was my introduction. don't judge me for the tags it's very wholesome actually), mitch/auston, sidney/geno… i’ll stop. the only one i’d say i genuinely “”shipped”” though & wasn’t just in it for the fic is brock/elias tbh

⤳ 2019⭛ - any gaymer girls here?

• something shifted when i watched a random youtube video and decided to try out “persona” “5” in late 2019 after not having played a video game other than your usual nintendo fare for many years. and yes i know this game is basic and cringe to some and it’s nowhere near perfect story-wise but well it’s the most fun i’ve ever had playing a video game and it has what i consider one of the most perfect ships of all time. you can call her toxic you can call her unhealthy but she is special. to ME. yassss we’re talking akeshu <3 (p5 protag/goro akechi) i made this insane narrated playlist a while ago which i should probably transfer over here but i feel like a lot of my thoughts are in there… honestly i can’t express how perfect for me this ship is but let me try briefly. akechi little bitch boy gay stuckup obsessed with akira perfect exterior hiding his true self deep hidden trauma tragic ending. akira perfect foil well-adjusted perfect friend to everyone but drawn to akechi also hiding his true self in a different way. you’re_the_only_one_who_understands_me. it_doesn’t_feel_real_if_it’s_not_with_you. YOU KNOW THIS ONE!!! ok let me relax. but also this is the best fic of all time. other ships i enjoy more casually are ann/shiho, yusuke/akira (or yusuke/ryuji which i think is a hilarious concept but haven’t read anything good for) and makoto/haru. also makoto/me. kidding but not really

• after this i also played fe3h which i also enjoyed a lot despite not thinking id like the tactics system but who cares about gaming mechanics here lets talk DYNAMIX. there are so many damn pairings in this game and i like many but my favorite characters are felix & edelgard and i like to see them explored in many different settings. but not together lol could you imagine. my favorite edelgard ship is edelgard/dorothea (this was life-changing) but i did the black eagles route with f!byleth and while byleth is literally just a self-insert i can get behind edeleth too<3 and yes the BE route was my favorite i love 5’2 extremely harrowing backstory edelgard starting a revolution and pushing forward for a better future no matter the consequences. you can call her evil i do not care she was right for it! but of course i did the blue lions route too and unfortunately i am not immune to dimitri either. but shipping wise i only care about him and felix. felix is small and a bitch and doesn’t know how to handle his emotions and basically i will harem him like nobody’s business. i enjoy seeing him with: dimitri, sylvain, annette, ingrid. heck let’s throw ashe in there too. i have read A Lot of felixfic but i have to say that this is probably my favorite. other characters that i liked to pair together for my endings include: linhardt/caspar, dorothea/petra, ferdinand/hubert. also can i just say that realizing akechi’s va also voiced HUBERT was a traumatizing moment for me. and well speaking of robbie daymond:

• i played ff15 and liked prompto/noctis, prompto also having akechi’s gay little voice. i don’t know if i cared about them THAT much but their rooftop scene was iconic. i also played ff7r and became an insane AERITH FAN!!!! i like her with TIFA of course and i’m pretty sure it’s just because i’m projecting onto the mc but her cute moments with cloud kind of Got Me… ummm i also like sephiroth but i’m not going to get into those implications. the big bad evil villain with long hair is sexy sometimes? i still listen to his boss battle music where he whispers sensually over the operatic chanting. did i mention he’s voiced by tyler hoechlin of TEEN WOLF DEREK fame? and cloud was teen wolf THEO? okay this post is clearly getting away from me i think that’s enough

(reflecting again) wow this is really FIVE pages on google docs. sorry if anyone actually reads this

Comments

[girlrock]

TORI LUVITYMOA SOOBUN I'M LITERALLY SO FUCKING OBSESSED WITH YOU. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!!!!!! except i tell you this every single day so you definitely know. ok let's get into it

pokemon hetshipping was literally so personal like i SHOULD not have been that obsessed with contestshipping in middle school but i quite literally watched 300 episodes of pokemon in a week once and anyway i was insane. and i'm so glad u were a ferriswheelshipping enthusiast <33

ok u already know my story about being a "directioner" briefly during x-factor and no longer caring about them once they "debuted" but LMFAOOO your barbie ferreira larry slay ❤️ i did read some larry and ziam fic here and there because i didn't have standards back in the day... AND honestly white youtuber rpf is so fucking insane when people complain about k-pop rpf i'm just like ? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!! YOU JUST DON'T.

i don't think i ever really "shipped" phan but i watched some of their videos here and there briefly in 9th grade... but it's just like. yes "tronnor" and "phan" literally dated lmfao and dan was way too codependent on phil which is just fax. and troye sivan cheated on connor franta which is also just fax. i wasn't even really a fan but i just know these things. but of course the constant 4th wall breakage was so bad and as you said it's only possible to kind of look back casually now because dan is in a better place / was able to come out in a way that felt right for him etc. etc.

AND I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE YOU JUST DROPPED MAVIN LIKE THAT WITH YOUR WHOLE CHEST WHEN I HID IT BEHIND A CUT 😭😭😭 roosterteeth literally walked so "dreamnotfound" could run. that author's hockey works are all after my time but i'm obsessed with them writing nolan/tk that's for sure.

davekat....... :smiling_face_with_tear: i support u. WAIT IT'S CANON???? also did you ever like dirkjake because i think that's the one whose fanart i was obsessed with but i can't keep any of these names straight in my head so maybe i'm wrong. also i know kanaya because i'm a virgo ❤️❤️❤️❤️ btw remember when andrew hussie became an army

ALSO I HAD A WHOLE GALLAVICH SECTION IN MY POST BUT I FUCKING DELETED IT BECAUSE I WAS TOO EMBARRASSED. BUT TO BE COMPLETELY CLEAR THIS WAS BASICALLY MY MOST FORMATIVE SLASH SHIP FROM AMERICAN TV AT THE TIME... which i've already told you before. but yes i only watched 4 seasons of this show but somehow... they are jail husbands now or something.

AND MAKOHARU DEFINITELY > RINHARU. just fax. love is real. et cetera

moving past your snk era <3

also what are your thoughts on """SHATT""" (matt/shiro) which is what should have been endgame T__T btw i only watched 1 season of voltron because i thought it was boring. klance were good though

AND YASSS CATRADORA.... with she-ra i think i watched 1-2 seasons and then forgot about the show and had to retroactively finish it after the finale? BUT I DONOT REMEMBER. but i also remember being vaguely like "i don't think they'll actually queerbait us but maybe they will but maybe they won't. i'm noelle stevenson supporter" because i was a big comics fan and read nimona/lumberjanes and i MOSTLY trusted her even though of course these decisions aren't only made by the showrunner.

and honestly i didn't really get into WHY hockey rpf is compelling or detail all my ships even though now i kind of want to go back and input them but... yeah. but the thing is that it's compelling when guys are dudes and violence is romance and you have complexes about people who are more talented and stable and skilled and dedicated than you. and sometimes you burn out. and sometimes you have career-ending injuries and have to face who you really are and work through years of repression and girls on the internet force hidden depths onto you when you're actually just a brutish loser straight man who does not give a fawk about introspection. ANYWAY sidgeno are actually good like after all this time + i never read a lot of mitch/auston because i was a mcstromarner but 2 "leaves" can be so personal + omg yasss we love a bit of ovific [the hockey guy not the eggs]. did i ever ask you if you read a month of sundays btw??? also i was kind of into eric staal/jeff skinner fic which is SOOO embarrassing but it's fine let's move on.

REALIZING I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT VIDEO GAMES!!! like i vaguely understand from my exposure to the Gaymer Girls on my tl but also i don't. but i love all of this for you <3333 ANYWAY THANK U FOR THIS AMAZING POST BECAUSE I ACTUALLY GOT TO RELIVE SO MUCH THIS MADE ME SO HAPPY 😭😭😭😭

[soobun]

MISS KAIA GIRLROCK ^___^ thanks for your in depth reading of this silly thing your comment made me losee ittt. glad i could provide ENTERTAINMENT!!!

yeah i don't know why this made me reflect on rpf so much but exactly i just cant relate when people are like Wow you shippers are evil how could you say [something pretty innocuous] [in a relatively private space] like. you clearly don't understand what lack of a fourth wall actually looks like 😭 and KEFCJKS yeah i could probably write an entire essay on dan and phil but trust me i wont. but i could

AND ABOUT DAVEKAT YEAH ITS CANON!!! the "official" "epilogues" dropped a couple years ago and there were two routes one where they had a tragic ending where dave gets unhappily heterosexually married bc hes too scared to say anything to karkat and one where they actually do get together. so either way the feelings are CANON<3 and i think dirkjake can be interesting but only when society realizes that they're horrible for each other and the dynamic represents that!! dirk is so horrible and annoying but i liked him. also your virgo slay i still cant believe i got the annoying furry character as my troll. AND YEAH I DO VAGUELY REMEMBER THAT. and now ill force myself to forget again

YA ILL SAY ANYTHING I DONT CARE. i hate you comparing dream to them but if i was 13 years old right now i probably would be one of their insane fans so i guess thats just the circle of life

glad that makoharu > rinharu seems to be the consensus tho. they WERE in love. ALSO GIRL NOT SHATT. i had seen all the horrible rep discourse before watching that season so i wasnt expecting much but it was still tragic... #shirodeservesbetter and all that. she-ra was honestly a blessing after that travesty

OK YEAH THAT HOCKEY PARAGRAPH IS EXACTLY IT. there's something satisfying about forcing hidden depths on "brutish loser straight men who do not give a fawk about introspection" there really is. also im still dying at ovific. ALSO I DID READ THAT ONE!!!! it was good but i have a lot of hockey fics that id put higher up. gabe landeskog is a king though

and its alright ill know about (a very niche subset of) video games for the both of us <3333 THX FOR READING AGAIN!!

[permutative]

oh my god u know the first fics on my ao3 history are all like tronnor fics and one direction ZIAM shit so like…. i get it. kind of. we all have embarrassing moments and yeah agreed WHITE YOUTUBER SHIPPING LACK OF FOURTH WALL IS SO HARROWING i think it’s only paralleled by “dream” fans or whatever. moving on

wait a second i just realized i don’t understand like 80% of this… i’m so sorry i like don’t watch animes or other media and i don’t play games and im just a kpop fan. UMMM. anyways MAKOHARU IS BETTER!!! and so glad ur also TOBIO fan <3333

also why does everyone and their mom like this HOMESTUCK thing

wait im still shook by tronner dating LOL okay i need to calm down. anyways i thoroughly enjoyed reading this EVEN IF I LITERALLY DIDNT UNDERSTAND 50% OF THIS SHIT… you’ve experienced so much <3 i love ur bimonthly content miss tori luvitymoa soobun <3

[soobun]

ZIAM over larry?? did you hate louis or something??? because that would be understandable. JSDHFSJHCFS theres really something so harrowing about white youtuber shipping specifically its horrible

AND YEAH ITS OK... my brain goes in 1000 different directions as u can probably tell from the 672843 groups i like in kpop alone. clearly im using up my limited brain space for good? also so glad we're all makoharu supremacists and tobio fans. taste!!

also oh my god DO other people like homestuck. i mean it was ridiculously popular online during 2012-2014 ish but i dont have any friends who actually read it :'|

but THX FOR READING THIS MESS SHAKTI... congrats on ur driving test too btw <3

[landofnights]

HELLO just like to start off by saying I’m obsessed with you <3333

- first of all I also loved SAM AND FREDDIE FKDSJKLF like I used to watch the clip of their kiss on the rooftop all the time fjkdlsafd
- onto ONE DIRECTION – also when my life changed for the worse <3 I too was larry truther like WHYYYYYYYY….. (I also have all my 1D fics saved on ao3 fjdkfal like we were too spoiled with our first ficdom being so Big and Good and now we’re just suffering in nugu 4th gen bg land. Maybe this is the price we have to pay for our crimes)
- the phandom T______T I mean even at the time I definitely realized what we as a fandom were doing was Wrong but I don’t think I realized how bad it was until after the fact. Like these poor men. I’m glad theyre doing well now but my god. That must have been terrible at the time… I truly don’t know if rpf can get worse than that. [although is the Minecraft youtuber Scene similar to this maybe? Maybe not bc I doubt those kids are actually dating but U just know if we were born in 2006 we would be in this fandom rn fjsdklfjkls]
- I ALSO HAD A MINI SHAMELESS/MICKEY/IAN PHASE (when ur just susceptible to anything u see on tumblr?) and I also think I only watched like 4 seasons and when I recently learned that it was still going I was like ?????????? people are still watching this?????? Maybe ur familys kinda iconic for that tho.
- I was never into hockey fandom/ficdom BUT I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD BE FJKDS LIKE WHY does every good ao3 writer have at least one hockey rpf fic.
- I somehow NEVER had a weeb/video game phase (except i did watch the first season of FREE! fjkdsfls) so I cant relate to any of that BUT ITS STILL ICONIC FOR YOU <3333

seriously obsessed with our parallel stanning tho (1D -> phandom -> fictional characters -> kpop) FDSLKFLDSK like was this just the guided course for a white gay girl born in 98/99? Maybe HAHA. THIS WAS SO FUN TO READ TORI!!!!!!! ily <33333

[soobun]

ITS MUTUAL <3 omg literally same i don't know why sam and freddie were so personal to me when i was like 10. but im screaminggg at us having the exact same early fandom trajectory like maybe it really IS "the guided course for a white gay girl born in 98/99" 😭

and i agree that we'll never be fed again like we were in larry truther fandom like i swear every day you could open the tag and find 10+ new longfics like !??! god i wish that was me opening the cravity tag. and yesss about the phandom like i dont blame us/anyone else cuz it was so normalized but it really is insane looking back!!! and yeahKJSDCJFD i feel like the minecraft youtuber fandom is similarly insane but it cant be as damaging since theyre not legitimately secretdating. at least i assume. i know nothing about those men

YEAH CAN U BELIEVE SHAMELESS HAS 11 SEASONS NOW. i cant. but seriously any gay show that got giffed on tumblr i was probably into at some point but i didnt want to get into all of that. did u ever watch queer as folk KJRFJHSHF i was obsessed with justin. :tear:

and my gaymer phase came out of nowhere so yours could too!! i have unlimited propaganda!!!! anyways ily emily thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!