DPP: The Recovery Ships (or shipping, post-pilots)

[winegums.livejournal.com]

In my entire life in fandom, there is no fictional couple that captured my heart as entirely as pilots did, and absolutely none that came even close to the kind of ruin and devastation they inflicted.



Post-Daybreak, I've been reluctant to ship, but earlier this year, after some fellow pilotshippers reported that a certain pair from the Avengers did function as a 'recovery ship' of sorts thanks to some similarities to pilots combined with the lack of epic pilots-scale heartbreak, I got curious.

So what I want to know today is, is recovering from pilots even possible? What has post-pilots shipping been like for you? And are there any fictional couples who make you feel better about it all, for even a little bit (using reasoning along the 'at least someone can be happy' lines) ? 

Or is it all just a load of ship? 

Comments

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is a true 'recovery ship' since it's not canon and doesn't ever look likely to be, but Sif and Loki in AO3 fanfic are spectacular - super-angsty, almost equally gender-convention-bending, EPIC and just plain hot.

(ok, that is my Tom Hiddleston problem talking but look at them!)

[im-ridiculous.livejournal.com]

Duuuude... I feel like you're calling me out. ;P

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

IDK, recovery ship? Hmmm, not really. I mean, I said this before - I tend to like at least one couple more than others in almost any series that I watch. YES, even in procedurals - color me crazy. But really shipping? Not so much.

Well, Trip/T'Pol in ST:Enterprise was ok for a while - they made me smile but in the end their ending was almost as bad as for the pilots - if not worse so.... no recovery there. And at least half of the time my couples end up by making me sad or angry or something because they make such a big deal out of normal stuff and... (yes, Andy and Sam I am looking at you).

And then, idk - I had my hopes for a while with Longmire but no joy there, not at all. But before, getting to the unavoidable Avengers part - I have hopes for Copper. The guy is cute and strange and troubled - all of the good things and Elizabeth is so cool that I can;t even express it.

So, Avengers - I will not mention who is to blame for that because in some manner half of my flist is. But there is one person.... who will remain unnamed for now.... who is majorly responsible for it. The sad part with it is that I don't have time to ship properly so :((((( But, I can read and think and stuff - like IDK, have strange dreams....

I'll stop here because you asked a simple question and I said like 5000 different things.

[(Anonymous)]

Are there any fictional couples who make you feel better about it all?.... Nopes, not really....seeing as my other couples didn't work out either except for John and Aeryn from Farscape. Lorenzo & Rita from Silk Stalkings were the first ones to break my heart (yeah my guilty pleasure)Then came Sonny and Alexis from General Hospital (not even gonna get into that) Mark & Addison from Grey's Anatomy (soooo much potential!) John & Aeryn well that was a roller coaster. And finally there was Pilots....

Is recovering from pilots even possible?....That remains to be seen in my case, but it's looking very bleak!

Serious answer is (somehwat) serious.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

There is no getting over pilots. Yep, I said it.

They were a lot of firsts for me: first to feel that intensely about, first to discover fandom (what internets? and people on them? and fic? and meta? and squee? and cool-ass fangirls---WAT?), first to obsess about, first to make me read all the things, first to break my heart.

And you can't really replicate that. To be honest, I wouldn't want to. But it doesn't mean you can't love other stuff. And I'm not gonna lie, having a new shiny ship still full of possibility and not already dashed on the rocks of Questionable Writing Choices or WTFery or Poofs, Pigeons & How We Need Moar Dancing Robots in Our Lives or Beware that Roomba!...

...it's a nice feeling.

Ships and shows and things like that run in cycles. I think for me I've finally worked through all the stages of grief when it comes to pilots and so I can let go of the emotional connection a little bit (and again, this is good b/c for me that emotional connection was also frought with the urge to smash my head against my keyboard or set my DVD's on fire. So in this instance closure can be good).

But I still love those kids. Always will. I mean, how can you not?

[delle.livejournal.com]

serious answer:

I have been active in fandom for 14 years. Pilots were - and are - another in a string of shipping obsessions for me.

I started with Michael/Nikita in La Femme Nikita.
Then Aragorn/Eowyn in Lord of the Rings
Elizabeth/Will from Pirates of the Caribbean
Then Pilots
Now Clint/Natasha from Avengers

do you see a pattern? I sure as hell do. I get hung on on pairings that never, ever end well* (and yeah, I'd read the books before the movies so I *knew* Aragorn/Eowyn wasn't going to work out, but my god those actors have chemistry so I fell head-over-heels anyway)

Can y'all trust me when I say that if you continue to be fannish, you WILL find another pairing that pings for you? But it may take a few years. I have dry spells. I do love the feeling of being fannishly obsessed.

*and if Clint/Natasha turns out badly in Avengers 2 I will lock myself in my room and cry. I can manage bro-mance rather than romantic. Just don't kill him, Joss!

(eta a pairing I forgot!)

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

Strangely, I didn't need to move on (not that there's ever any real moving on from pilots, hehe) to another pairing that has a happier ending in my shipper woes as much as I needed one that's just...at least written well and handled consistently. I am to this day not quite as pissed off about the series finale as most but I still needed to move on to something where the creator(s) seemed to at least care as much as I did? Of course it's also fun to get into ships that you know right off the bat probably won't ever be canon, so you don't have to go through all the bogus of getting your hopes up :/ I'm not resistant to the central/canon ships by any means, at least not on purpose, I just seem naturally drawn to the doomed ones, dammit.

(And LOL, adding my icon to the sea of Avengers shipping going on here - though I don't think I will ever have a Marvel OTP because it's such a massive orgy of shippability IMO.)

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

First, I really feel I should get a Clint/Natasha icon ASAP… Not that I ship, them but they are soooo pretty together! (btw, the reason I don’t ship them despite being totally my thing is that it’s really difficult for me to get into pairings without enough canon to latch onto. Same goes to most non-canonical pairings, obviously. Yeah, sad but true :/).

As for the question… Of course you can find new things to love and enjoy, but I have to say that pilots kind of ruined shipping for me. I feel drawn to fictional relationships (particularly romantic relationships) all the time, but I don’t think I have ever felt so strongly about any other couple. And I am not sure if I ever will (or if I really want to). That being said, it’s taken a while but I think I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve kind of moved on from Lee and Kara, in the sense that I’ve made my peace with RDM, the pigeon and the poof and I’ve found closure. But pilots will always be it for me.

As for my post-pilots “ships”… It has been a tradegy of sorts, lol. Thanks god that they were mostly a distraction, because I am still trying to deal with what the Fringe writers did to Red!Lincoln and Red!Olivia. UGH. IT WAS SO LAZY AND SO TERRIBLE! I CAN’T EVEN. I was so angry I think I am done with the show and possibly won’t watch the last season. Sigh. And the same goes for Kalinda and Cary from The Good Wife. I loved what they did with them in S2, and then they promised things for S3 and yes, they had an awesome scene and then… nothing! It was so weird and I feel cheated, honestly. I just hope they don’t drop the ship completely because they have so much potential. We'll see. Anyway, to be completely honest, the only ship I’ve really shipped after pilots is Cassie/Rob from Tana French’s novels. It’s kind of weird, but I probably love them as much as I love Lee and Kara, though I am less obsessed with them, which is actually a relief (And no, these two definitely don’t work as a “recovery ship” because, um, well, that ending is depressing as hell. What can I say? I guess I am a masochist).