It’s short for “relationship”, but it’s also used as a verb, which means to portray or want two (or more) characters to be romantically and/or sexually involved.
Examples:
“I ship the Whomping Willow and the Devil’s Snare.” = “I am amused by imagining those two plants in a relationship” or “in at least one derivative creative work, I have represented those two plants as being in a relationship.”
“This fic contains only canon ships.” = “This work of fanfiction romantically pairs characters in the same arrangements they have in the source work.”
I would have assumed that non-canon relationships were slash, which goes to show how fringy I am.
I think slash refers especially to non-canon gay relationships, and fiction centered around or involving such relationships. (It may actually refer to gay male relationships in particular, I’m not quite sure. I only know the basics of fanfic terminology.)
“Femslash” seems to have some currency as the lesbian equivalent of “slash”. I’ve also seen “slash” used to refer to both types of gay relationships. I’ve also seen it used to refer to sexual content (straight or gay), and sometimes specifically to gay sexual content (to the point where some people say PG-rated fic with gay couples is not slash—in particular there’s a tripartite division with “gen”, “het”, and “slash”, where the first has no sex, the second has straight sex, and the third has gay sex). I don’t think non-canonicity is part of any definition I’ve seen.
It may be just me, but I get the impression that it’s not really slash if the characters in question are gay in canon, even if not for each other. I might argue that, say, Ben Bruckner / Melanie Marcus (both canon!gay, opposite sexes) would count as slash, but I expect that’s a minority position.
It’s short for “relationship”, but it’s also used as a verb, which means to portray or want two (or more) characters to be romantically and/or sexually involved.
Ahh, thanks for the explanation. It took me a few posts to become confident that A/B was referring to romance and I didn’t notice the abbreviation and verbating of ‘relationship’ at all.
My sketchy knowledge of fanfic subculture is showing. What does ’ship mean?
I thought it meant making a character more wonderful than it is in canon, but apparently not.
It’s short for “relationship”, but it’s also used as a verb, which means to portray or want two (or more) characters to be romantically and/or sexually involved.
Examples:
“I ship the Whomping Willow and the Devil’s Snare.” = “I am amused by imagining those two plants in a relationship” or “in at least one derivative creative work, I have represented those two plants as being in a relationship.”
“This fic contains only canon ships.” = “This work of fanfiction romantically pairs characters in the same arrangements they have in the source work.”
Thank you. I would have assumed that non-canon relationships were slash, which goes to show how fringy I am.
Is there a word for making a character more wonderful than they are in canon?
Some sorta Sue.
Warning: TV Tropes.
Mary Sue being the generic version. Warning: TV Tropes
Wikipedia for the TV Tropes-phobic
I think slash refers especially to non-canon gay relationships, and fiction centered around or involving such relationships. (It may actually refer to gay male relationships in particular, I’m not quite sure. I only know the basics of fanfic terminology.)
“Femslash” seems to have some currency as the lesbian equivalent of “slash”. I’ve also seen “slash” used to refer to both types of gay relationships. I’ve also seen it used to refer to sexual content (straight or gay), and sometimes specifically to gay sexual content (to the point where some people say PG-rated fic with gay couples is not slash—in particular there’s a tripartite division with “gen”, “het”, and “slash”, where the first has no sex, the second has straight sex, and the third has gay sex). I don’t think non-canonicity is part of any definition I’ve seen.
It may be just me, but I get the impression that it’s not really slash if the characters in question are gay in canon, even if not for each other. I might argue that, say, Ben Bruckner / Melanie Marcus (both canon!gay, opposite sexes) would count as slash, but I expect that’s a minority position.
Ahh, thanks for the explanation. It took me a few posts to become confident that A/B was referring to romance and I didn’t notice the abbreviation and verbating of ‘relationship’ at all.