rivers_bend

eta in case you don't know this about me, I am the most phobic spoilerphobe on earth. So nothing below is based on anything other than where I can see things going based on aired episodes. Also, please no spoilers for future eps in comments.

I don't do much meta, mostly because I feel like the people on my flist say what I'm thinking much more coherently than I do. But I was musing at the bus stop today, and wanted to put it down on pixels (as it were).

I wonder if I would like Supernatural better if I didn't ship Sam/Dean. The idea popped into my head, and I felt shock and horror, but then thought about it a little.

The show for me is pretty much entirely the epic love story of Sam and Dean (thank you Sera). So anything that is threatening to separate them, to make it about anything else, feels like a threat to the show. Not another direction, not a different arc, but a mortal threat.

Which got me thinking about Buffy. What if I had shipped Buffy/Angel? Would Season 2 have felt like the start of a slippery slope and Season 3 felt like betrayal? What if I'd shipped Willow/Oz? Would the introduction of Tara have made my blood boil? In fact, I'd never heard of fandom or ships when I was watching Buffy, and I didn't ship anyone (except Willow/Tara, because OMG LESBIANS ON MY TV!!!). And while there were some aspects of the show I didn't always love, I never felt betrayed or like my show was in danger (from the writers. the networks OTOH...). Well, until S7, but that was another issue.

Then I wondered if the reason I had so much hatred for S3 of House was because I was a H/W shipper. S3 brought us a pretty much unrecognizable Wilson, and his relationship with House was broken. Would I have liked the season better had I not felt like they 'broke' my show?

Now. When I say would I like SPN better? I'm not saying that I no longer like it. It does cause me anxiety that I don't feel about other shows as far as direction. I do feel that there are directions it could go in that would make me feel angry, upset and betrayed. Even directions that it is quite likely to go in.

so.

comments? criticisms? witticisms?