04-06-2015, 07:29 AM
Sometimes it can be sad or discouraging to be (seemingly) the only person left who's interested in this ship. On the other hand, maybe it's a blessing, because I don't have to deal with ship wars and nonsense, and I can just sort of think what I want and do what I want, and not be influenced by others' ideas. I wouldn't want to be a Shenny; it seems so painful. There's some degree of closure, or at least of peace, to be found in a ship that's so decisively over. The show can't take away what it never gave in the first place.
The idea of Howard and Raj as a duo, as constant companions, even in a non-slashy sense, seems to have been left far in the past, except for the occasional token scenes which don't sound interesting to me.
We've recently discussed the fact that *liking* a ship DOESN'T necessarily mean one expects, or even wants, for it to be canon. My fondness for this ship has nothing to do with the idea of being canon or being endgame, especially now. If a ship's not valid unless it's endgame, then nobody would continue to stage Romeo & Juliette, would they?
In general, I'm not much of a shipper, and I especially find slash culture to be pretty silly, at times, but this is the only BBT ship for me. When people talk about Raj/Lucy or Raj/Emily, it's like I'm hearing Charlie Brown's teacher. It's just completely irrelevant to me. Maybe it's cowardly or intellectually dishonest, but I've reached the point where the later seasons just literally don't exist, for me. It's like that one annoying friend who keeps talking about people you don't know and events you weren't present for. Season 8 will never be part of my personal concept of the show and characters. Maybe it's "cheating" to cherrypick like that, and choose which parts are "canon" for me, personally, and which ones aren't. But if I couldn't do that, the whole thing would so bleak that it's not even worth ranting about.
The awfulness of the canon ships still has the power to upset me, though. New!Howard has been made the least-important person in his own life. He's been demeaned and belittled and had everything taken away from him, pretty much. That's a bigger issue to me than a ship. That's the worst part. But while the degradation of the original characters is still painful, the rest of it is just gibberish. Raj and Emily can get married at the top of the Eiffel Tower and have ten kids, for all I care. So can New!Howard and the life-eating virus, although that part's more upsetting. But none of it can deter me from my ship. Nothing can, because shipping is not about petitioning TPTB to make certain things canon, or pouting when they don't. It's their loss, for throwing away these perfectly symbiotic and complementary pairs, they had created. Don't give me Diet Coke and tell me it's real Coke, only better. (actually, I like diet coke, but you see what I mean.)
In a perverse sort of way, I'm proud of having a lost-cause ship, and I think Shennies and others should be, too. If you're constantly changing your ideas based on whatever's happening in the most recent episode, I think that's kind of fickle and flaky and doesn't show much conviction, though it sounds ungenerous to say that.
So yeah, it's very sad. But I should probably be happy to be by myself, rather than in bad company, or to be the target of so much venom and derision, as the Shennies are.
![[Image: k4jfc1.jpg]](http://i57.tinypic.com/k4jfc1.jpg)
The idea of Howard and Raj as a duo, as constant companions, even in a non-slashy sense, seems to have been left far in the past, except for the occasional token scenes which don't sound interesting to me.
We've recently discussed the fact that *liking* a ship DOESN'T necessarily mean one expects, or even wants, for it to be canon. My fondness for this ship has nothing to do with the idea of being canon or being endgame, especially now. If a ship's not valid unless it's endgame, then nobody would continue to stage Romeo & Juliette, would they?
In general, I'm not much of a shipper, and I especially find slash culture to be pretty silly, at times, but this is the only BBT ship for me. When people talk about Raj/Lucy or Raj/Emily, it's like I'm hearing Charlie Brown's teacher. It's just completely irrelevant to me. Maybe it's cowardly or intellectually dishonest, but I've reached the point where the later seasons just literally don't exist, for me. It's like that one annoying friend who keeps talking about people you don't know and events you weren't present for. Season 8 will never be part of my personal concept of the show and characters. Maybe it's "cheating" to cherrypick like that, and choose which parts are "canon" for me, personally, and which ones aren't. But if I couldn't do that, the whole thing would so bleak that it's not even worth ranting about.
The awfulness of the canon ships still has the power to upset me, though. New!Howard has been made the least-important person in his own life. He's been demeaned and belittled and had everything taken away from him, pretty much. That's a bigger issue to me than a ship. That's the worst part. But while the degradation of the original characters is still painful, the rest of it is just gibberish. Raj and Emily can get married at the top of the Eiffel Tower and have ten kids, for all I care. So can New!Howard and the life-eating virus, although that part's more upsetting. But none of it can deter me from my ship. Nothing can, because shipping is not about petitioning TPTB to make certain things canon, or pouting when they don't. It's their loss, for throwing away these perfectly symbiotic and complementary pairs, they had created. Don't give me Diet Coke and tell me it's real Coke, only better. (actually, I like diet coke, but you see what I mean.)
In a perverse sort of way, I'm proud of having a lost-cause ship, and I think Shennies and others should be, too. If you're constantly changing your ideas based on whatever's happening in the most recent episode, I think that's kind of fickle and flaky and doesn't show much conviction, though it sounds ungenerous to say that.
So yeah, it's very sad. But I should probably be happy to be by myself, rather than in bad company, or to be the target of so much venom and derision, as the Shennies are.