BerryzGiraffe3705 wrote:^^^I mean like, i guess... but idk.
Didn't you guys say shipping is like a romantic relationship type thing?
A ship can be romantic, friendship, skinship, or sexual imagined relationship between two people/characters. Shipping is the appreciation/promotion of a ship. Shipping can take many forms. One can include in your signature "I
TakaGaki" or "IshiYoshi 4ever". One could write a fan fic where the members of your ship are characters who overcome difficulties because of their love (or one could request that someone else write one). One could create a youtube video with your favorite scenes/pictures of your ship mixed with some sappy music. One could get into flame wars with other people online over competing ships ("PonPon is only business, HoneyPon is the real thing!" "No! Haruna x Ayaka is love!"). One could go wild with photoshop and create collages celebrating your favorite ship. One could draw fan art staring the members of your ship.
Is such activity pointless? No. People who ship in the general sense are a minority inside of a fandom that might not even be mainstream. By creating and consuming the results of these activities one is drawn into a sense of community and the happiness one derives from the ship is magnified.
My point is that compared to three years ago there is less point in doing a lot of work to promote your favorite ship in H!P fandom because often times members of your favorite ship will promote the ship themselves.
As for ships themselves being pointless, you may be right but there are a huge number of people who do it over nearly every fandom you can think of. It would be very odd to think that so many people engage in an activity that is completely pointless, but tons of people participate in activities every day that are pointless or worse self-destructive.
And, as for ships between characters/people that contradict their stated or perceived sexual orientations being pointless, I don't see what the problem is. If two characters are not together then your shipping them will not bring them together regardless what their underlining orientation is. A lesbian ship between (presumed) heterosexual girls is in no way better or worse than a heterosexual ship between (presumed) heterosexual characters.
In other words I don't consider Maro/Riro to be any more or less pointless than Kirk/Spock or Harry/Hermione. If you like it, then it is important to you. If not, then they are pointless.
And, if you do like a ship, then you will certainly want to see "rubu rubu" pictures of this ship on this particular thread.