Ship Manifesto
Ah the ship manifesto, my beloved! This is what got me into manifesto writing because my brain is full of worms when it comes to my ships and I need to get them out at every opportunity.
The ship manifesto is typically more analysis based than a fandom manifesto. You’re not really trying to sell someone something (though you might want to) but giving an analysis for what you’re seeing in the work and why you care about it.
This is also a great way to handle having the OTP worms eating away at your brain and having no way to get those thoughts out because you can just go into a full ramble about everything that’s ever interested you about them.
When writing a ship manifesto, I still give it a perspective of talking to someone who isn’t a fan of the series. I feel this allows me to advertise a series at the same time but also address fans in such a way that they’re looking at the character for the first time. By doing this, they’re then able to look at them in a different light and understand how you’re interpreting them and how that may differ from how they initially understood the text.
This might not be the right writing style for you! You can experiment and see what works.
Characters
For this, you only need to introduce characters relevant to your ship.
Give their name, share a picture of them if you like, and explain who they are, what they do, maybe give a slight insight on their backstory. You can talk about what their role is in the story, so you can talk about how prominent they are so that any complete newbies understand how much content they’re likely to get. You can also give a taster on your own feelings on each character or personal headcanons or parts of canon you think are dumb so you ignore (I am coming for my favourite characters and Shortening them! If there is no height difference, I will create one!)
Example:
Halcyon (Hal for short) is one of the main characters that follows End throughout the series. He ran away from Hell after having lived there for the past eight-hundred years, claiming that he felt suffocated under Lucifer. He doesn’t seem to really know what he wants out of the journey, besides getting away from Lucifer, who is determined to get him back. He takes somewhat of a backseat, hearing out others problems and only really referencing his own past with Lucifer when talking about the pain of such a restrictive environment.
Hal is mute and has a magic tattoo that allows him to communicate. While he doesn’t know his own origin, he was adopted by Death and became immortal; he can die, but he just gets sent back to Death’s place to sulk.
Canon
You can decide how much detail you want to go into when it comes to covering canon. If you have a ship with a lot of content, you might want to go with a scene by scene breakdown. You can talk about all the relevant interactions as they happen chronologically and go into as much detail about them as you like.
You don’t have to take this entirely seriously. You can just post a screencap and be like “omg prommy?” if you feel it speaks for itself. You can make whatever silly quips you want; just have fun with it. There may be some things you talk about and you have a full analysis of what the interaction means and how it works into the overall theme of the ship and how it works into something that is revealed later. Then the next one is “omg their shoulders are touching (/ꞷ*)” and it’s your manifesto so it’s fine. Your brain worms, your rules.
If you have a ship with less canon evidence though (or is a complete crack ship) you might want to just give an overview of everything. You can be explain how they know each other (if they do) and what their relationship is. You can talk about how that relationship might have changed and give the same general idea of just what the situation in canon is and how it matters to the ship.
Example:
Yeah, he’s just so important to Lucifer, no idea why that would be. Not like they have any kind of relationship in particular, nope! He’s just so important to him under mysterious circumstances!
Hal actually has this pretty high appreciation for Lucifer. He genuinely will defend him and be like he’s not a bad guy despite his issues. He’s willing to defend him despite the fact that no one else would ever want to defend Lucifer. Even the other demons don’t seem to have this high of a reputation of him. But in the end, he still ran away. He cites issues of Lucifer being clingy, but here he isn’t saying that directly.
He just says “that”.
And while it’s easy to assume that he just means the issues that have been mentioned between them before, it opens up a possibility that there’s more Hal isn’t sharing about the situation. Things he doesn’t want the others to know and what happened between them.
In the end, all he can say is that he likes having his freedom like this.
In the end, he’s running from the responsibilities that existed with their previous relationship.
We don’t know how bad things truly were. We only ever hear this vague side of things that Hal is willing to share. So, it opens up the possibility that there is more that he’s not telling us.
Justifying Yourself
This is one of my favourite parts of any ship manifesto because it’s the point where you’re like, “I have been pointing to a load of things on a corkboard and all of you doubt me but trust me I see it my brain is so big I understand everything perfectly.”
Like, you might not feel you need this section. You might go, “nah, I articulated perfectly. If they don’t get it that’s a them problem.” But you might walk away feeling this is necessary.
Take this as complete stream of consciousness if you want. Let out all those feelings about why you’re right and these points definitely connect together you just… you just gotta see the vision.
This might be where you start going deeper into the textual analysis of the text as a whole (if you haven’t already) and explain how it works beyond individual scenes that justify it. Also, if you want to sound a bit less like you have the corkboard out, you can call this analysis.
Example:
While I get wanting to take Hal’s side on things and write off the relationship as a whole, I think it’s worth looking at the possibility that things can be improved. Their relationship doesn’t have to be so cut and dry that it ends here. They have an opportunity to look at what went wrong and what aspects of themselves caused issues, and see if it’s something they can fix. The relationship clearly meant a lot to Lucifer. He doesn’t want to hurt Hal. That’s never his intention with anything he does.
He’s not a willing aggressor. He can improve and change and, I believe, would for Hal.
Why Ship This
The “Why Ship This” section is very similar to the justification/analysis section, but I find there’s a slight tone difference. This is more like presenting a sales pitch in my mind. This is the “they’re the college-aged enemies-to-lovers the crowds have been begging for” as opposed to the “I know more than you.”
You might approach this as a list of tropes or other things you feel show the mass appeal that the ship has.
Example:
- Angst and Pining – They both care so deeply for each other and the current canon simply presents a point where they think it won’t work despite wanting it to work and there’s so much angst to be had.
- Healing – There is catharsis in the ability to mend a relationship.
- Cat Boy – Everyone loves these things, what’s better than one that can lean into being a bastard?
- Yandere – Listen, Lucifer ain’t above getting rid of people if they’re going to mess with his pussy cat.
Personal Interpretation
You might be having a lot of brain rot and you kind of look at the canon stuff there and it doesn’t really represent what you love about the ship. Queue the personal interpretation section. This is when you can explain the source of your enjoyment, how you read the dynamic that isn’t strictly true to the canon interpretation. You can also talk about what your preferred type of fic to read about them is or that long winded AU you’ve never actually written anything for but you need everyone to hear about as a concept.
Anything that’s purely your belief and divorced from canon, this is where you’re putting it. It’s not here to sell anyone on the ship itself, but existing shippers on what’s going on in your brain so you can talk about it more without having to go into it every time.
Example: Honestly, I think Hal is purposefully controlling the narrative to make himself look better and make Lucifer seem worse. Who are people going to believe; the literal devil or a cute little cat boy? I think if he was just a bastard it explains a lot about their relationship as a whole.
Fandom
Ah, fandom. Our cruel mistress that feeds and starves us.
Yes, if we’re going to potentially be sparking interest in a fandom, it’s only polite to pre-warn what they’re getting into.
Like hey, glad I convinced you of this ship you knew nothing about! Bad news, the fandom WILL doxx you for shipping this.
Well, hopefully not, but you can decide what you feel is appropriate to warn for.
But, fandom isn’t all bad. This is also your space to give your recommendations on fics, fanart, zines, comics, etc. Hype up your favourite fans and send love their way with your website and manifestos!
You can also use this space to detail what tropes are popular in the fandom so people know what to expect when they open Ao3.
Getting into the Series
Now that you’ve spent all this time explaining why you ship something, it’s fun to consider that your reader might have legitimately never seen this show before and you might have convinced them with this that it’s a good idea to get into it. After all, you’ve just poured your heart and soul into a ship so it has to be worth something!
I would recommend doing a condensed version from the fandom manifesto, just give the basics of how to get into the ship, maybe suggest whichever version you feel represents your ship best.
I would also use this space to link to the relevant tags on multiple sites. The Ao3 tag, the Pixiv tag, etc.
Picspam and All the Rest
And, finally, if you have any images left over that didn’t make it in elsewhere; this is your point to spam them! Share that official art that never appeared in the actual release! Or the silly behind-the-scenes images from the actors who also shipped them! Maybe you’ll show the official wedding rings! Or the time they stood on opposite sides of the photoshoot!
Just throw in the final lot of images that cling to your brain, and be proud of your hard work.