After far too long tweaking, editing and re-editing this, it’s finally done!

It’s karaoke night with the Guardians, and Peter and Kitty volunteered to duet “My heart will go on.” Needless to say, he got really into it XD

These two are just so cute together!

I don’t have any numbers on this, soI’m definitely just guessing, but StarKat to me has all of the usualfeatures of a standard creator-designated ship. The stories writtenby Brian Bendis and Sam Humphries desperately want readers to shipPeter Quill with Kitty Pryde, and Quill and Kitty are two characterswho lend themselves naturally towards that treatment anyway (Kittyhad already spent twenty years suffering in silence as the designatedgirlfriend of the X-Men; and following the increase of popularityhe’s received from appearing in a movie, Quill’s comic book counterpart has been turned into a modernHollywood leading man).

And you can see with the language thatMarvel has used to promote the cosmic books of late (for example,“the engagement of the galaxy […]!”, “#Starkat livesforever!”, “Peter Quill battles the Badoon, fights to savean orphanage, and still finds time for some flirting with KittyPryde—but it’s all in a day’s work for the STAR-LORD!”)—coupledwith all of the covers  emphasizing the two of them as together(for both the Star-Lord ongoing magazines, Guardians of theGalaxy itself, and in a number of the spin off and sidetitles)—that editorial is invested in making sure that readersunderstand that this is a designated ship. Add to that the creatorsfrequently emphasizing Quill and Kitty’s status as a package romanticdeal rather than as individuals who can function without each other,and the soap opera tactics of the alleged romance itself (aborteddates; adrenaline fueled attraction; perpetual fear of cheating;breaking up over misunderstandings and a lack of trust; situationallyinappropriate crying, lots of crying, being strong in the face oflots of crying; the engagement, breakup, and subsequent secondengagement, with a looming third breakup inside of less than a yearof in-story time, etc.) and you have a forced atmosphere of ‘thisrelationship is a big deal’ and ‘we want you to know that thisrelationship is very dynamic and interesting, a fertile playgroundfor creative fans.’ The sophomoricway they’re written together (rebellious attention seeking frat-boypickup artist with cool toys, and compassionate poorly-coordinatedingenue that’s shy around men) further helps with establishingMarvel’s intended tone of ‘this is a standard easily relatableromance, we invited you to please become invested with it.’

So I don’t mean to make light of thefans who seriously enjoy Peter Quill with Kitty Pryde on its ownstorytelling merits, and I do absolutely believe that they exist, andjust want to throw that out there so it doesn’t look like I’m makingfun of them. I am gladthey’re having fun, I mean. But regardless—and to your question—mypast experience in online fandom, and with comic book fandom inparticular, strongly suggests to me that the atmosphere that Marvelcreated just lent itself to shippers’ preference.

Thereare people who go with rare ships, people who go with alternateships, and people who go with the designated ships, and a lot oftimes what fans end up shipping has a lot more to do with theatmosphere of the fan spaces they end up in than what the sourcematerial basis for the relationship is.  That there’s so littlesubstance to the relationship, to the point that we don’t even know(as readers) why they like each other, is it’s own strength in fandomcontexts where fans are going to have more fun making up their ownanswers anyway.

mew said it like thr33 days ago!

(not that i’m complaining)