[SPOILERS] Something Strange About Shipfic: spoilery for S6E13 · 8:34am Aug 4th, 2016
Editorial comments, y'all.
I've got bad news, Quibble. You're being shipped with the Princess of Friendzone as we speak.
I'm not big on shipping every single character as soon as they appear. In fact, when people are too quick to ship all the ponies, I suspect them of trying to anti-ship. For example, if I were paranoid about Pinkie Pie being paired off with Party Favor, I might defensively ship Party Favor with Sugar Belle in order to stave that off. (I keep thinking of her as Sugar Glider, alas).
Silly Scoots. THIS is a sugar glider:
And that's too bad, because some Cheese Pie shippers legitimately DO ship Party Belle. Exhibit A:
Sketcha-Holic really likes Party Belle, to the extent of writing a lot of fic about the Our Town ponies.
I covered some of this in an earlier blog post called "How To Break My OTP." Summarizing quickly, the ways of dealing with a perceived "threat" to any OTP is to kill them off, have the "real" ship partner beat them up, pair them off with somepony else, "friendzone" them, or make them an incompatible sexual orientation. If you don't like a new ship, here's my advice. Ignore it. (Unless you like it, that is).
Quibble, up there, has a problem with shipping characters who haven't met, or Ships That Pass In The Night. Personally, I think they're funny:
And some people just plain enjoy shipping all the ponies, or like the challenge of seeing how they can make an unlikely couple seem plausible, in which case, carry on.
All of that said, I could theoretically see Quibble Pants having some very enjoyable arguments with Twilight which might lead to something. And personally, I smelled enough Ship Fuel in this episode that I'd advise being careful about striking a match.
It's not because of this:
Beatrice and Benedick or Ron and Hermione aside, arguing isn't always a sign of romantic interest. Arguing is usually just arguing.
It's because of this:
Mutual admiration society, ahoy. Especially Dash's response at .49 on. How often does she wave off "you're awesome" with "you're awesome too?"
I'm not sure why I'm not seeing more QuibbleDash shipfic. Maybe it's because he seems so definitely a one-off character and not likely to re-appear in RD's life or on the show again, and maybe because nearly everyone already has a Dash ship.
Still, sometimes people exchange contact info at a con and email and Skype and text and meet offline and Stuff Happens, and sometimes they have wild one-time things that turn into big things. Just tossing that out there.
Heresy.
Rainbow Dash is clearly in love with the Kitchen Sink. I thought that was well-known.
Yeah, those two definitely do have a fair amount of mutual chemistry. Heck, Twidash got a small boost off of the fumes; brainy eggheadedness can now canonically impress Rainbow Dash.
And shipping characters who've never met can be great fun, especially characters who have never even inhabited the same universe at the same time. Of course, that's only partially for the challenge; I also like finding excuses to twist space and time.
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Now I want Ponyville's resident plumber to be named Kitchen Sink. And for Dash to have a crush on him. And possibly get kidnapped by a turtle dragon.
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As evidenced by Vinyl Scratch and Octavia pre-SoL.
I dunno, Dashie definitely liked Quibble The problem is that Quibble's own personality is a Constant Argument Generator, and about things which most other characters would find trivial. On the other hoof, they had an epic argument in-episode -- and made up by the end. I could argue it either way.
I am so with you on QuibbleDash. The whole episode worked as a ship fic for me, more than any episode so far (including Pinkie Pride-- sorry!
) They like being together, share passionate interests, we've seen how they deal with disagreements... I'd put it as one of the strongest non-Mane Six ships, and stronger than even some of those!
Popping in this morning before I go on vacation...
D'aw! I was mentioned! I like being mentioned.
I started shipping SugarFavor when I thought, "Well, I can see why people could ship PartyPie... but, I think he'd be more interested in one of the mares he actually knows, like Sugar Belle or Night Glider. I think he'd work better with Sugar Belle." Turns out I can write them with some good chemistry if they're the focus. 
(And in a tangent on the sugar glider thing... I have an OC named Sugar Glider--the pregnant pegasus who co-owned the candy shop from The Rock Farmer's Daughters. Also, I've had a substitute teacher in elementary school who brought his pet sugar glider. Her name was Marshmallow, and she jumped on me because she liked my soft and fuzzy jacket.
)
I personally don't see the point in shipping a new character right off the bat most of the time. Usually I just let ideas marinate a bit before I start off with any picture or fic or whatever for whatever ship I start liking (it took me about a week or two after Pinkie Pride to post my first CheesePie pic). I do have a weird idea for a Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants fic, though it's not necessarily romance (I might tease it just a teensy bit). I just sadly don't have time to write it right now.
Though, when I saw a badly-designed QuibbleDash offspring, I was sorely tempted to make one and show people how it's done.
I've actually put together the Crackship Challenge, where I will spend a day taking any pairing of canon characters thrown at me and pairing them up without contradicting in-show canon, breaking up existing pairings, or going wildly OOC. Not full fics, but laying out the groundwork for one.
I think one of the more unusual ones that I had was Pound Cake/Windigo.
Frankly, crackships are just generally fun.
I kinda don't think the arguing was when the two of 'em started being shipped. I think it was at about this point...
derpicdn.net/img/2016/7/30/1212439/medium.png
--Sweetie Belle
Also, about the arguing...
Two ponies arguing every time they meet doesn't really mean shipping, it just means arguing. But in this case, Quibble seemed to like the arguing. He kept following Rainbow around everywhere, trying to argue some more. I think part of it was that he didn't get a chance to argue with somepony that knew the canon as well as him often.
But when a boy keeps following a girl around, that can easily be the beginnings of a crush, too...
--Sweetie Belle
I agree with sketcha-holic.
The way I see it is this: yes, Crack Ships or Ships That Pass in the Night (love that trope name, by the way) are basically completely new stories about these two unrelated characters meeting and falling in love. But on the other hand, with three or four exceptions, literally any shipfic is a completely new story about two characters falling in love. Frankly, in that new story, them meeting is not the most difficult part.
The fact is, there are precisely three shippings of named characters that are, in any way, based in canon: Cadance and Shining Armour, Cranky and Matilda and the Cakes.* Even Spike and Rarity - the most commonly brought up romantic prospect on the show and, other than the previous three, the only one that does not involve revulsion on one side or the other (as far as I'm aware) - is not a canonical romance and is still a completely new story about Rarity starting to return Spike's affections.
*If you count the comics, then Celestia and Mirror Sombra count too, but that's far from universal.
No matter how much screen time two characters have shared or how well they get on, it's not romance. Not that I'm saying shipping is wrong or incorrect or anything, merely that it's inherently a story you made, interpreted or inserted. And a romance between, say, Rarity and Coco or Twilight and Celestia is no more or less an imposition that one between Iron Will and Gilda or Seabreeze and Sombra. The only real difference is the details of the story of their romance.
As for Quibble and Dash... I will admit that I get more satisfaction than I probably should seeing these sorts of new ships ruffle the feathers of the more... overly self-assured and/or insecure shippers. I distinctly remember that I saw an anti-Party Favour fic (as in one where he was explicitly and unapologetically the bad guy and the definite "wrong" choice to Cheese's "right" choice for Pinkie) before I actually saw any fics shipping him with Pinkie. Now that is some overcompensation. I'm not saying that that reaction is right or justified and I try not to indulge in it too much, but I'd be lying I said I didn't smile at it.
Shipping wars?
That's why I stay away from the water.
4131445 I could definitely see Quibble as an acquired taste. On the other hand, Dash likes to spend all her time competing in one way or another, and an argument is just another form of competition, which is why she couldn't walk away from Quibble at the convention even though she knew his arguments were invalid because he didn't know AK Yearling's secret.
Most of the time when when I see RD shipped with say, Soarin, it makes sense, another athlete she could race with frequently. I could see RD enjoying her time with Quibble trying to win arguments instead of races, but whether she could have a long-term relationship with an nonathletic non-Pegasi is another matter.
4131342 It is indeed. In fact, I don't find Dash to be all that shippable. Heresy, I know, but she can be a pain, and she's not terribly romantic or mushy. I think she loves Tank best. That's what I think.
4131373 True. I can see where TwiDash could be boosted by this. Is it? Haven't kept up on that.
4131445 I'm with howard035. I think they like arguing. And so far, Dash doesn't find that stuff trivial. It would be different if he were like that about everything . . .maybe.
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I don't find Dashie mushy at all. I do, however, think that when she does love (any kind of love) her love is extremely deep and powerful. Enough to overwhelm her reason.
4131458 I had this conversation with a friend immediately afterwards. Which looks like it has more Ship Fuel in the episode: CheesePie or QuibbleDash? CheesePie won, but only by a hair, and for all the reasons you mention. They're certainly enjoying themselves, and the little story arc is really about them. It could easily have been about RD scoring him off all down the line, but it wasn't. Not to mention the physical comfort, plus didn't they get each other a gift partway through? I'm probably really cheap, but I do not buy gifts for everyone I meet at a con.
4131483 D'oh! I ought to have remembered Sugar Glider! I remember the character, of course. Her husband's name is Lemon Something, right?
Even if you don't write the fic, draw the fan foal. Please.
4131569 I checked that out. I find crack ships amusing, but I rarely want to put in the effort of a full-out fic on something I don't find persuasive. On the other hand, I like TrenderMaud, and I think I'm one of maybe five people who do. Crack, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.
4131668 I personally do like Celestia/Good King Sombra, but I try not to be too loud about it. The Fluttercord/Dislestia Wars were pretty tough, and the last thing I wanted to do was to get in the way. Plus the comics are a bit different. Comics Rarity is much more flamboyantly hetero, or at least so it seems.
I don't know. If something feels too random, I can't get that interested. There has to be some common element, whether they've met before or not. I can draw a connection between Cheese, Braeburn, and Cherry Jubilee fairly easily, even though they've never met onscreen.
I think I saw that fic, and while I can't comment on it specifically, in general, I don't like those fics much. I especially don't care for the ones with violence involved.
Why do you think of Sugar Belle as Sugar Glider?
4137279 I explained. Sugar Belle + Night Glider = Sugar Glider.
4137293 Ok, I guess I missed that, sorry.
That seems weird to me lol, I see Sugar and Party Favor as siblings....