Fannish Friday: Do I even have OTPs??????????

[lirazel]

I was reading ruuger's thoughts about OTPs over on Mastodon, and I had a sudden, shocking thought: I don't know that I have any OTPs in the truest sense of the word?

For every single ship that I absolutely adore (faves: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji, Gen/Irene, Kamet/Costis, Youngshin/Junghoo, Buffy/Spike, Winter/Alex, Lord Peter/Harriet, Julie/Maddie, Evie/Rick, etc.), I don't think I really have OTP feelings? Because even with the ones I would have been DEVASTATED if they weren't together in canon (see: all of the listed above except Spuffy), I'll still happily ship at least one of them with other people in fanfiction.

Now, I won't always ship both halves of the pairing with others even in fanfiction. I love Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng and I can even get into Wei Wuxian/Wen Qing under the right circumstances. But I just cannot accept Lan Wangji/anyone else. I just don't believe he'd ever love anyone else. My brain totally rejects it. In modern AUs, I'm fine with him having dated other people, but even there, I don't believe he's really loved any of them. Like, sorry! But that's entirely about who LWJ is as a person, not about the ship itself.

I have wracked my brain and literally the only pairing I can think of where I'm like, "No. Not even in fanfic. If I even think of them with anyone else, I will start frothing at the mouth with anger" is...

Nick and Nora Charles.

Make of that what you will.



How about y'all? Do you have any pairings you will only accept together?

Comments

[rekishi]

Oh, I'm not opposed to other people shipping my OTP with other people, either together or separately. I have a live and let live stance towards shipping, there is no way to do fandom "wrong" (except when you're doing it wrong, but then you're an anti or whatever the newest word for that is), shipping isn't pie where there is less for me just because someone else gets a slice.

I'm simply not interested in it that much, but that doesn't make someone else's stance any less valid. I don't believe in ship wars (I've lived through the original shipper vs noromo war of the X-Files generation, I'm done with that).

But I think for me, I have a certain headcanon and it's very hard to shift that headcanon away from a specific pair. But that's definitely a me thing! More fanfic is always preferable!

ETA: And I mean. Especially wangxian, no way there's to see that differently, very fixed there.

[lirazel]

But I think for me, I have a certain headcanon and it's very hard to shift that headcanon away from a specific pair

That makes sense. Do you think your intense headcanon it makes you more picky about fic in general than other people? (I ask as a person who is extremely picky about fic execution, even if I'll read many different pairings/characters/whatever.)

[rekishi]

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooo picky about fic, but not because of that, I think(?). There's just too much fic and I won't ever be able to read even a fraction of it anyway and I'm not willing to put up with some things anymore (wildly OOC-ness or grammar mistakes in every other sentence or sth). I'm also that picky about gen fic, for instance.

[pauraque]

I've lived through the original shipper vs noromo war of the X-Files generation, I'm done with that

Same here. That was a hard lesson in how destructive shipwars can be.

[rekishi]

Yes, yes indeed. And I was even only on the foreign languages fringes on it and it was bad. On the other hand, I'm mostly glad it came early on in my fandom experience. Ship and let ship.

[lirazel]

For me it was Angel vs. Spike on Buffy and it was so off-putting!