User blog:Corbierr/Non-canon pairings- and why they are worth shipping.

So we all enjoy shipping. I don't think anyone will argue on that. And we all enjoy when our pairing becomes canon. But what about the pairings that don't become canon- the pairings we consider "crack"? Some people will argue, "Why ship them? They aren't actually canon and they probably never will be!" Yet despite that, Crack pairings are still being adored by many, no matter how unlikely they may be. Well, why? Why do we ship them at all even if we know they won't actually be together? Is there a point? And if so, what crack pairings are worth shipping?

Let's take a look.

1- Why do we ship them?
What makes us insane enough to love tiny, unlikely, random pairings, as opposed to larger, more obvious, supposed-to-be-shipped pairings? Well, let me be honest.

Most of the time, we know what pairings will be endgame. I don't think anyone was genuinely shocked that Fabina kissed or Peddie got back together. Because the show liked to bash us over the head with their moments, their drama, their story, their quote-un-quote "development". We enjoy shipping these because we want to see them succeed and get over their problems and be happy and kiss and yadda yadda yadda, but let's admit it, there's not too much surprise and victory when Fabian and Nina obviously still loved each-other and Keddie was basically a figment of Patricia's jealous imagination. Not that it wasn't interesting to see them deal with their drama. But it wasn't shocking to see them get together.

But the crack pairings? Well, I believe that part of it is the idea of wanting to have the surprise factor. Deep down, we want to see them become a real thing against the odds, we want to be the ones being the hipsters who shipped them before shipping them was a thing. Rather than just simply accept that some pairings will be canon and others wont, we kind of want to rebel. We want to ship what we want to ship. To heck with canon, we want to believe that this tiny pairing might have a chance. It's partially the underdog mentality; We like to see when the smaller, lesser parties win despite the odds- and what pairings have less odds than the crack pairings?

Besides, and I have to be honest here, currently the new pairings are pretty much gender-swapped. As in, they are pretty similar to each-other without having enough differences to balance it out. I mean... think about it. And the other canon pairings we have had? Polar opposites. What I mean is, we either get Mabian- who even kind of look alike- or we get Mickra- who had "absolutely nothing in common." The non-canon pairings, on the other hand, have the freedom to be different. There are so many combinations that are possible. Sure, some may be pretty different, but yet we also have the middle ground ones, the ones that make an interesting dynamic without being too different or too similar. We just happen to enjoy their interactions, and think, "Yeah, Peddie is great, but I kind of want to see what could come from Patrome and Neddie instead."

We don't have to know they will be canon to want them to be canon, and we don't have to accept that certain characters are only friends if we think they have so much potential.

So that explains, at least, why we might be drawn to these crack pairings. They are something new, something we can root for, something with an interesting dynamic that we can interpret however we want because the show isn't shoving the fact that they are true love down our throats.

That said, which ones could have been made canon?

2) Which ones could have happened?
I assume you all expect me to go on a long speech about how Patrome could have been made to work, and why. Well, actually, no.

In all honesty, though we all have our ideas of which ones could have worked, that's all an opinion thing. Truth is, any of these could have been done well, for many reasons. Basically, it could have been really easy for the show to make some of these minor pairings work while still keeping the major pairings alive. So why didn't they take advantage of them?
 * 1)  They have good chemistry. We all love the friendships, unless we're the creators of the show, then we hate them. So why not make those wonderful m/f friendships become romantic? It worked well with Fabina, after all.
 * 2) In between having the canon pairings suffer the obligatory drama, they could have fit in some crack pairing scenes. While Patricia was denying her feelings for Eddie in season 3, for example, the date with Jerome could have turned into a tiny romance that would have petered out in the end but stirred up some fun while happening. In between Amfie and Walfie, Joyfie could have happened. It's not about having the pairings become endgame, though it'd be quite the twist- it's about them happening. 
 * 3) Sometimes, the canon pairings just get boring, and we need that surprise that comes from a sudden pairing appearing. The show has made this work before. Pifie, for example, was one of the best examples of this.

I guess, they knew that we loved these pairings, and obviously they couldn't pander to every pairing in existance. They had to pick a few out of many to make canon, and we are left with our fanon of what could have been.

Maybe that's better. Because we get to decide how they would have worked and what would have been done with them. Instead of letting the writers/producers/etc decide how to write them, we can figure out why we like them and ship them for our own reasons, and not for the reasons the creators decide. We have the freedom to imagine them being a certain way, and if they were written into the show as a couple, who's to say they will be written the way we wanted them to be?

In the end, it's certainly fun to ship these crack pairings. Rather than be confined to what the writers think everyone should ship, we just have the freedom to branch out and decide for ourselves. And if the writers never wanted to use them in the story, well, then at least we can still be creative and decide that we'd like to ship them in our own way.

Whether you ship them as a side thing, or make them an OTP, crack pairings are definitely worth loving, if only because you're looking for something new.