Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A Shipping News Special: Sterek vs. Destiel Day One




Ok so I know I’m only supposed to this once a week but AfterElton’s Shipping Madness Tournament just got uber exciting and seeing as I can’t decide on who to vote for (whoever wins, I win) I figured I would just offer pithy commentary to keep those outside the fandom in the loop.



Let’s face it, we all knew that this was how it was going to go. From the first round it was always going to be Sterek and Destiel in the final. And I have to admit that I was pretty sure Sterek would take the crown this time around. Sure Destiel’s been around for longer but Sterek is the flavour of the month and they have the specter of possible canon looming over them. I knew Destiel would put up a fight though because well Supernatural fans are fierce.

When the final round began things were happening pretty much as I anticipated, Destiel was going strong but Sterek was maintaining a small but steady lead. There were small-scale ship wars happening in the comments – all in all everything was going rather smoothly…. Too smoothly some might say. Then I made the silly mistake of going to sleep and by the time I woke up shit had well and truly hit the fan.

Our beloved overlord, Misha Collins, had tweeted this little gem –



… which served as a catalyst to wake the sleeping beast that is the Supernatural fandom – before you yell at me yes I do realize not everyone in the Supernatural fandom is a Destiel shipper but those who are, are still Supernatural fans, and no other fandom mobilizes like the Supernatural fandom.

True to form the Supernatural fans worked quickly, soon Destiel had overtaken poor Stiles and Derek (although there still wasn’t much in it). This caused a riot in the Sterek ranks, as the young fandom began to realize that maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as they thought… some even began to loose faith.

That is until the Captain of the S.S. Sterek aka Stephen Lunsford (you remember Psycho Matt that causes some of the most awesome Sterek moments ever because he thought they made a cute pair) tweeted this –



And Sterek was back in the game… and it only got better from there with more of the cast Tweeting their support for the fan favourite couple.



Support they may have but what Sterek really needed was votes because they made have the most slash happy cast on TV but Supernatural fans have a proven track record of winning polls – It’s one of the reason’s I love them so much. When they commit to something, they go all out.

Of course not everything is voting fun and celebrity tweets because as the competition heated up things started to get dirty. The Sterek fans seemed to think that they deserved to win because they were the ones that inspired the poll in the first place – besides they could become ‘canon’. Destiel fans were having none of this because Destiel has had a whole lot more time to cement their profound love; anyway Dean and Castiel already have an established relationship whereas Stiles and Derek are only just starting out.

Things started to get a little bit cranky – with ship wars flaring up in all corners of Tumblr. Regrettable things have been said all round… all those people that had their OTP knocked out in the early rounds are starting to think they dodged a bullet. Sometimes I’m just really glad that people on the Internet are so far apart because if these two fanbases were packed into the same room, actual violence would have erupted.

Heck even the Teen Wolf and Supernatural Twitters are having their own ship war. This is getting out of hand.

The bazaar thing is that these fandoms overlap so often – many many Sterek shippers also ship Destiel and it’s the same the other way around. I think that people are getting so angry because they are actually angry with themselves for not supporting both ships equally. But then again maybe people are just angry.  

We get it, you love your ship but let’s try not to get blood on the carpet – and both ships have a serious amount of awesome two them, which is why I choose not to choose. I choose death.

Whatever happens this is surely one of the most exciting (and dangerous) polls on the Internet and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

Happy voting – and may the odds be ever in your favour.