Shipping Wars Category Nominations + Outline

\o/\o/\o/ IT BEGINS \o/\o/\o/

• This post is simple but it is also detailed - I need patron participation in the comments so please read if you have an interest in doing so.

• You can skip the back half of this update if you dont care.

SOOOOOO im beginning the early planning stages of Shipping Wars, an 18 week video series exclusive to Patreon and Youtube Channel Members. The details of what this exactly is can be read in my July Update (Discord Maintenance + July Update - you can scroll down to the "Shipping Wars" section). This post will include a Call To Action in the comments for nominations as well as a general planned outline for the Shipping Wars Release and how it will all go down.

Ship Category Nominations

As i mentioned in that announcement, i need categories for the 16 weeks of shipping brackets that will occur.

Below this post please recommend SHIP CATEGORIES (not ships) you'd like to see for these 16 Shipping Wars Preliminary Round Videos.

By "category" i mean a general category for which ships will be nominated and then utilized. If the category was "Fruit" the nominees could be Strawberry x Banana, Cherry x Lime, etc - what i need right now is not the ships but the CATEGORIES for which we will all nominate ships. In about a week I will be putting up a poll for the 16 categories nominated (in addition to my own) where you all will vote for the Top 16 categories which I will at a later time ask for ships related to for the actual videos. DO NOT RECOMMEND ME SPECIFIC SHIPS RIGHT NOW.

Here is the shortlist of potential categories I brainstormed myself so as to give examples, show what im considering and thusly see what else you all can come up with. Feel free to voice your support for the categories I've listed as depending on nominations from yall I may tweak the full list i contribute to the eventual poll. Keep in mind that when the time comes for ships to be nominated, they will not be limited to gender dynamic or canonity - ALL types of ships will be allowed to be nominated from any category.

My List:

Shojo

Weekly Shonen Jump 

Non-WSJ “battle shonen”

Seinen/Josei 

Sports Anime/Manga

Anime Original (no source media like manga/light novel)

DC Comics (live action, comics, animation, etc)

Marvel Comics (live action, comics, animation, etc)

BL (anime, manga, manhwa, manhua, novel, drama, etc)

Disney Animation (TV & Film)

Disney Channel Live Action

Male Idol Anime

Isekai (anime, manga, novel)

Chinese IP (novels [danmei or not], games, donghua, manhua, etc)

Video Games

Cartoon Network

Nickelodeon

Non-American/Non-Japanese Animation

Webcomics/Webtoons

Manhwa

CW / UPN (LMAO)

I would like these to be as broad but as specific as possible so as to allow unlimited possibilities but to also not be just anything and everything ever. They can be anime/manga related as i imagine thats why most of yall follow me but clearly i am not at all limiting it to that, as long as theres enough interest i am open to almost anything so leave your category nominations below.

i dont expect there to be many category noms that I will cull before the category poll (maybe even none) but i will try to respond to category noms I find to be not what Im looking for so it doesnt come off like a sneak diss with no explanation when the poll comes out and your nomination is missing with no explanation LMAOOO.

**Deadline to nominate categories on this post is July 22nd**

Shipping Wars Timeline/Outline

The following is essentially the timeline of events that will lead up to Shipping Wars' first video installment as well as what to expect post-wise here on patreon during the duration of its "airing". I recommend reading just to better understand what will be coming here on patreon because there is a LOT of patron participation involved in the process as I wanted to try something more "interactive" with this video series. Dates and days are largely set in stone but may change and ultimately do not matter too much as I will of course include reminders on every post that is made - YOU DO NOT NEED TO MEMORIZE ANY OF THIS and can skip it if you so choose.

For clarity: when I say "deadline" at any point, the date mentioned is the first date the polls will no longer be able to be voted in and noms no longer taken, it is not the end of those days. If a deadline is "August 1st" that means you CANT vote/nominate after 11:59PM EST on July 31st.

--Pre-Debut--

July 18th - Literally right now I am requesting Category nominations with the deadline being Monday July 22nd

• 3 Episode Ruling for Summer 2024 is also dropping on Monday.

July 24th - On Tuesday I will compile the list of nominees, filter out any I find to be too superfluous or specific and we will VOTE for the Categories to be included in the poll on Wednesday.

• The Poll will be "ranked voting" (LMAO) in the sense that you all will be able to vote for as many options as you want but only the top 16 with the most votes will be chosen as Categories for this "Season" of Shipping Wars.

• The POLLS WILL CLOSE (LMAOLMAO im sorry its an election year in The US) on August 1st

August 1st-27th - There will then be nothing for about a month as I get back to focusing on my public youtube videos and other content.

--Road to Episode 1-- 

August 27th - I will make a post on patreon announcing the 1st Category and request Ship nominations.

• Deadline: August 29th

August 29th - Poll for Category 1 goes up on Patreon, you all vote.

• Deadline: September 1st

September 3rd - Episode 1 for Shipping Wars released on Patreon

• nominations for Category 2 begin with a deadline for thursday (more on this in the next section).

--Video Format, Explanation & Other Details-- 

Format:

• Shipping Wars will be a Bracket style video series where I take 16 Ships and determine "The Best Ship" of each video, it will be a new category with 16 new* ships EVERY video. (If a ship applies to more than one category they are of course allowed to be nominated multiple times).

• "The Best" in this case is going to, of course, be subjective (it always is) but my approach to deciding is going to be more broad than my usual brackets. I will not be choosing just based on which ship is my favorite, I am going to take into account what I know of the ship (whether ive seen its source or not), fandom aspects of it (how many fans, what fans are like, how its talked about and perceived) and additionally, ironically, how much I like it LMAO. The point of this is not just "my faves" but to approach from a broad fandom perspective along with my interest.

• I am not ONLY allowing ships I know, I am allowing ships from IP i have not consumed as well. For example: i have never seen Jujutsu Kaisen, but i know about Fushiguro x Sukuna, so just because i havent seen JJK doesnt mean its "disqualified" or has less of a chance - it could be up against Soukoku and I could be like "WELL FUSHIGURO IS MORE THRILLING" so it could win even tho i know Bungou Stray Dogs and somewhat ship Dazai and Chuuya YA GET ME?

• However, if a ship i have exceptional love for is nominated, it could have an advantage, but I'm also not going to assure that. Haru x Asahi from Free! could be up against some crazy scandalous intense ship I've never read and my reaction could be "WELLLLL....." LMAOOOO itll depend on the exact matchups and my mood.

Patreon Poll Results:

• As I've mentioned, you all will also VOTE in Polls for each category, meaning that there will potentially be TWO winners for every category - mine and yalls.

• In every video starting with Episode 2, I will reveal the patreon decided winner after revealing mine and discuss if there's anything to say at the end.

• Additionally, while the bulk of this Season of Shipping Wars is going to be 16 videos with 16 different categories, the final 2 videos will be two more 16-ship brackets: one with all the ships I chose to win each category, and the patreon poll results version of the same thing. Itll be fun to see how different or similar our last "Finals" brackets differ. In total this is an 18 Video Series.

• The goal is to add an entertainment value from two angles by having an ongoing poll every week determining what The Community is into that can be checked until the polls close and a hub for discussion, as well as seeing how different or similar my tastes and reasoning are to you all in a video format that is different in the approach to deciding a winner.

Category Reveals & Ship Selection:

• While we will be voting for the 16 Ship Categories in July, I will not reveal what Categories were chosen until I ask for Ship Nominations for each category week by week.

• At the end of every video I will reveal the newest category and ask for ship nominations for it in the comment section on Patreon NOT ON YOUTUBE. You do not need to use your personal youtube account to nominate there, Im keeping it on patreon

• Ship selection will be down to me to decide the most interesting 16 ships to include for each category. I will choose ships i know, ships i dont that have a following, rarepairs ive never thought of but could be of merit, whatever i think will make an interesting roster - completely subjective decisions. Additionally, if there are not 16 nominees for a category I will fill out the rest by way of personal interest along with surface level googling to make sure the selection has broad appeal and is relevant and interesting.

• That being said, I WILL prioritize ships Im familiar with at least in passing. Again I havent seen JJK but if im familiar with a ship it will get chosen over characters I have never heard of because I cant meaningfully comment on something I know absolutely nothing about.

• Of course that doesnt mean only nominate things I know, theres no way you can know EVERYTHING im familiar with. Nominate what you wanna nominate regardless, theres no cap on nominations per patron for ANY of this (categories OR ships). You never know, I might be familiar with your niche ship from some niche YA novel (if it has an applicable category LMAO).

• Inversely, if for example only 10 nominees for a category are nominated, those 10 are locked in for the voting/bracket regardless and the last 6 would be on me to figure out. Im not going to cull a list that is less than 16 at all unless for example the category is BL and you nominate Reki x Langa - stay on the relevant topic and nominate what applies. 

Weekly Schedule:

The schedule for "Road to Episode 1" is going to be the week by week schedule for SW content here on patreon and is as follows:

• Tuesday - New Shipping Wars video goes live, new category announced, nominees requested

• Thursday - Nomination deadline, Poll for next week's Category goes up

• Sunday - polls for Category of the week close

Additional Things of Note:

• I am potentially workshopping the name. The goal is to do this on a broader scale by going public on YouTube with incentive to become a patron being voting and nominating so I kinda want to think of a subtitle for this, something along the lines of The Shipping Cold War but that sounds a whole lot fuckin better LMAO. TBD, not yalls problem.

• If this works out i may do a public season 2 (it would be season 1 as this is really a pilot season so moreso a "season 0") but depends on the end result. May keep it on patreon as a perk but a follow up season would likely go biweekly, this pilot i kinda wanna get done by the end of the year cause its an anniversary year (but dont be surprised if i fall behind).

IN CONCLUSION

ITS GUNNA MOVE FAST, yalls email will likely have a lot of notifications but timing for the polls and such is so brief it will be necessary. If you have notifs off or dont check your email, just know tuesdays and thursdays starting at the end of August will be "important" days. Hope yall end up enjoying this, im lowkey excited but also somewhat overwhelmed LMAOOO