Canonshipping

[sincere]

Fandom shipping ramble ahead! I have never been on board with the "Your pairing must be this canon for your opinion to be of any merit" thing. People get so focused on what's canon and what isn't canon. What I'm concerned about is what makes sense to me, which has nothing to do with what's canon. If I think two people getting together makes sense, and that they'd be good or interesting together, I will ship them regardless of whether or not it's canon. I am able to separate "canon" from "shippy".

But not everyone can. Some people feel that only canon pairings have value, and therefore whether or not a pairing is canon means more to them than anything. And for some people -- people who believe they must ship what's canon and they can't ship things that aren't canon because that's what makes them better than you -- they actually shoot themselves in the foot sometimes.

I saw somebody ranting on Tumblr once about how the Marvel movies are "sinking" Clint/Natasha just like they "sank" Tony/Pepper, and I was like...

1) Sinking Clint/Natasha?! As far as I know, no one's said in an interview that they're not going to happen. They looked a lot like feelings were involved there. What's the crisis?
2) Tony/Pepper has been sunk, past tense?! IM2 ended with them making out and Avengers featured them all but snuggling cozily. How did we get from that to sunk??

And then I realized, oh my god. This person is upset because:

1) As of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, [the Winter Soldier] will exist. [Again.] That means Natasha has to be with [the Winter Soldier], because that's canon to Earth-616. That means Clint/Natasha is sunk. Because [the Winter Soldier] exists. /edits for potential spoilers
2) As of The Avengers, Maria Hill exists. That means Tony will end up with Maria, because that's what is currently canon in the comics. Even though Tony/Pepper is 100% canon in the movies right now and we have no proof that Maria and Tony even talk to each other ever again, the mere fact that Maria exists sinks Tony/Pepper.

And I was like, dude, there are so many reasons your drama is ridiculous. But mostly, those things happened in AUs. The MCU is a completely different canon than Earth-616! Does it break your brain that in Earth-616 Thor ends up with Sif but in Earth-1610 he ends up with Jane? WHAT NOW?? WHAT ARE YOU ALLOWED TO SHIP IN EARTH-199999?!?

People like this are only able to ship things in a vacuum of information. The moment they have enough information about what's "right" it changes their opinions, even if that means they have to abandon something they loved previously.

I wish I could convince them that the world will go on spinning even if Maria's existence means Tony and Pepper's marriage is doomed to fail, which it doesn't. You are allowed to ship Tony and Pepper even if their marriage does fail! It doesn't invalidate anything.

It'll all be okay. Relax and have fun with it. The fandom needs more Clint/Natasha and Tony/Pepper.

It also needs more Thor/Sif.