#honestly i love this show sm and i'm never quite sure if i'm romanticising it in my memory or reading too much into it lmao

[maggiecheungs]

Is the shipper worth watching? I've seen you praise it quite a lot and wanted to know your take on it

hi nonny! many apologies for the late response xx

my general feelings about the shipper can be summarised as: aaaaaaaggghhhh the shipper was such a good show i’m so mad it had so many problematic elements that (understandably) keep people away from it. also, it absolutely fascinates me from a storytelling point of view (my original answer to this turned into a a several-thousand-word essay about why the shipper is actually a piece of metafictional genius, but that took me so far from what you're asking that i started again 😅).

so anyway, here's a list of things I like about the shipper, with a big disclaimer that 1) it's been over a year since i watched it so i might have forgotten some things and b) it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea (and that's okay!). i'll just summarise the stuff i liked, since you can find enough negative reviews of the shipper in other places if you want to, and i'll try to keep this spoiler free in case you decide to watch <3

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THE SHIPPER:

1) Four (4) of the seven main characters are female, which is UNHEARD of for a gmmtv show (particularly one with bl themes lmao). imo, the female characters (particularly the human ones) are all really well developed and I would die for all of them.

2) The cast is incredible. It used mostly newer and less experienced young actors (with the exception of Ohm, Jennie and First) and it really allowed them to showcase their skills. Also it gave some of the younger gmmtv actresses a chance to have roles that weren't just sidepieces or jealous girlfriends

3) The characters: I love all the characters so much. The shipper is essentially a character-driven show, and they're all fleshed out so well. They initially appear to be fairly stereotypical figures (the smart and hardworking one, his popular jock love interest, the bl fangirls, the evil jealous girlfriend) but they are SO MUCH MORE than that. In fact, that's the whole point of the show--picking apart these narrative archetypes and humanising these characters. Plus, all the characters are genuinely so precious and by the end I was ready to die for pretty much all of them <33

4) The plot and pacing is really good. There were plot twists every other episode, I could never predict what was coming next, and that ending threw me completely. it also straddled the line between multiple genres--fantasy, slice-of-life, romance, mystery, comedy--in a way that felt incredibly fun and fresh.

5) It's funny! In a way that is so delightful and refreshing. It's so fantastically self-aware, and it pokes fun at itself wonderfully--but it's always such gentle humour. It's never cruel or at the expense of any of the characters.

6) The ships! All of the character dynamics are fantastic, all the actors and characters had amazing chemistry, and none of us had any idea who was going to be endgame till the end. (Again, the narrative is very self-aware in this respect.)

7) The relationships (non-romantic): the shipper spends just as much time on friendships and familial relationships as it does on ships. i really liked the way friendship was explored as an important but complicated and difficult part of adolescent identity

8) Its handling of heavier topics, like death, grief, and the complete emotional wreckage of adolescence. It does largely maintain a lighthearted tone throughout, but possibly for that reason I found the times when it did to be startlingly touching and profound.

Some extra thoughts:

- Don't go into it thinking it's a bl. It's not a bl; it contains mlm characters and relationships but it is not primarily a boys' love romance. That's not the story it's trying to tell and if you judge it by those standards then the narrative beats come out looking all wrong. It's a series about a group of teenagers struggling to figure out who they are when their identities are overshadowed by the expectations and narratives projected onto them. Queer romance and identity is a big part of that, but it's not the only thing the series focuses on.

- Not going to go into this too much, but to me, the shipper is an absolutely fascinating exercise in storytelling and narrative, and it only really works if you don’t take it at face value. it's a lot deeper than it seems at first--it's super self-aware and uses its premise to really interrogate lots of harmful bl tropes, and the whole POINT of the series is that appearances lie. All the time. And this is a lesson taught not only to the characters, but to the audience as well. I also find it interesting how the show itself almost never explcitly condemns any of the characters or their actions. The characters do! The audience does! But the show itself deliberately maintains a sort of moral neutrality, and a very purposeful compassion towards all its characters, that is absolutely fascinating, and i'm not sure i've ever seen it anyway else in quite the same way. And i think it's brilliant because it means you can't be a passive audience. The show does things that force the viewer to undertake the same journey that Pan (the main character) does: to decide where they place the line between fiction and reality, what they are okay with. There are bits that are supposed to make you uncomfortable, or go 'wtf'. But depiction isn't necessarily glorification, and it's up to the viewer to decide how to interpret what they see

So, would I recommend the shipper? My answer is: yes, but if you start it and really don't vibe with it, or if you come across bits that make you legitimately uncomfortable, then it might just not be for you and that's okay!

#anonymous #ask response #the shipper #hope this answered your question sjdgfdkj #honestly i love this show sm and i'm never quite sure if i'm romanticising it in my memory or reading too much into it lmao #but honestly i stand by what i said #and it might be a somewhat infamous show but the people who love it really do love it <3 #and honestly i'd say it's worth it just to see the fantastic performances by the cast #also i had to check if one of my friends sent this as a joke bc i would Not Be Surprised