User blog comment:ObiWanCokeNosey/Someone want to explain something to me?/@comment-24993958-20150425143918

What makes a good ship?

I have no clue…seriously.

Looking back, I got into fanfics through Naruto at a point where the only character I liked enough to search fics of was Shikamaru Nara. At the time there was something known as a ship war surrounding him since he had pretty good chances with 2 characters.

At the time the general argument was mostly centered around which of the two ships is cuter…yeah, not which was more likely, which made sense, which one was the most reciprocated just…which was cuter. As the years gone by (that’s not a metaphor btw, it really did take years), the fandom surprisingly matured on the matter and where able to start looking at the pairings in a more objective matter, and the most likely, reciprocated, and logical one ended up winning this so called war, which basically translates into even people that hated that pairing acknowledged it; as it turned out, it ultimately became canon, but even then not everyone would have called it a good ship.

Ideally speaking, a good ship should be about the chemistry two characters share (If there is a lot of it it’s good, if there isn’t it’s bad, which could mean that there may come times where crack ships are better that canon ships…and it’s probably the reason I am still rooting for a Jaune and Weiss friendship to happen at some point…) but practically speaking, everyone has their own tastes in ships so there can never be a common consent on what constitutes good chemistry.

So ultimately…a good ship is a ship you like, no matter how silly the reason. But just because you find a ship good, does not mean it will be good to everyone, nor will it make it popular.