To OTP or not, that is the question

[lunabee34]

As part of the fascinating discussion over in sga_talk, one of the things we've been talking about is OTP and it got me to thinking (which, yes, is dangerous).

I am not an OTPer. In the beginnings of my fannish days, I was very devoted to Spike/Xander but after some time I began to suffer from Spander fatigue and had to search out other pairings. While I always enjoy the popular pairing of a fandom (Sam/Dean, Jack/Daniel, John/Rodney), my propensity for pairing fatigue still remains. At this point in my fannishness, what I am mostly coming to the table for is to be convinced that these wonderful things (whatever they may be--plot, backstory, pairing, secret, possible future) that never occurred to me are indeed plausible and OMG WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THEM? For that reason, I am very interested in rare pairings and in tangential characters; I think that predilection is neatly summed up in my Bates/Kavanagh fascination. :) So while I love to read and write McShep, I also really wish Sheppard was doing it with Caldwell. (I will not again subject you guys to that detailed fantasy.)

I do not approach fandom through an OTP lens. I'm okay if John and Rodney aren't together; I'm okay if they are angry with each other or mean to each other or if they break up with each other or if *gasp* they never even meet each other. I like for my characters (both written and read) to behave in ways that can be extrapolated from their canon characterization, but that's really about it for me in terms of requirement.

I like to be *surprised* by fanfic. The way I define fanfic for myself is taking the bare bones of canon and building up layers of new flesh so that the animal I create is subtly (or sometimes drastically) different than the animal canon gives us. And after awhile, if all I am reading is one pairing, I stop being surprised. Does this keep me from writing or reading said pairing? Hell no. :) But it does make me long for a wildfire of Lorne/EVERYFREAKINGBODYOMG to sweep through fandom and it does make those main pairing fics that manage to do something completely unexpected that much sweeter.

The only pairing that perhaps approaches the OTP for me is Sam/Dean, mostly because at this point in SPN canon I have a very difficult time believing that either of them could have successful relationships with anyone but each other. But, boy, do I like to read about them trying! LOL

So my question for y'all is this: Are you an OTPer? If you OTP, do you have only one (METHOS!) or do you have an OTP for each fandom? How do you think being an OTPer affects your fannish experience? If you're not an OTPer, why not? How do you think not reading/writing through that lens affects your fannish experience?

Comments

Part One (Sorry I rambled too much)

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom.

So my question for y'all is this: Are you an OTPer? If you OTP, do you have only one, or do you have an OTP for each fandom? How do you think being an OTPer affects your fannish experience?

I've been talking about this (for the zillionth time *g* with friends over the last few days.

These days the term 'OTP' means different things to different people. Several meanings I've come across are:

I will only read/write about the pair together. There are no circumstances under which I'd read about them with someone else.

I will only read/write about my pair together. The only exceptions are if the story is before they meet, or they are with another person when the story begins, and the story ends with them being together.

I will only read/write about my pair together. However I will sometimes read/write a threesome story about my pairing together with another character.

A pairing about whom I am passionate and I don't really see either of them with anyone else. However, I can read/write about one of them with someone else, if one of my favourite authors has written the story, or there aren't new stories about them together.

They are the pairing within the fandom that I prefer. However, I'm happy to read/write about one or both of them with other partners.

And I've found that people also differ depending on whether they are talking about a OTP for reading or a OTP for writing. More people have a OTP for the first or second meaning when it comes to writing. Whereas for reading it's more likely that the forth or fifth meaning is more common.

On top of that people have a OTC (one true character) so will read about anything that involves that person.

The term has also, in some fandoms, taken on a nasty meaning, as I understand it has become 'this is the only pairing in the fandom that is viable and all other pairings are wrong'. Which is very sad.

It's far more complex than it used to be.

However, personally I am very simple (when it comes to what I mean by OTP. I use the term to apply in the same way for reading and writing.

I am a hard and fast OTPer in the now old-fashioned sense of the term: i.e. it means that the pairing are together and that one doesn't read/write about half of the pairing with another character. The only exceptions are if the story is before they meet, or they are with another person when the story begins, and the story ends with them being together. They are the pairing and are not put with other characters. (This does not mean that, in my eyes, they are the only viable pairing in the fandom and that anyone who doesn't like this pairing is wrong, simply that they are my slash (or in the odd case het) pairing within the fandom.)

I have an OTP for each fandom in which I write. In fact for NCIS I have a slash (Gibbs/Ducky) and a het (Abby/McGee) OTP.

Re: Part One (Sorry I rambled too much)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! Thank you for breaking this term down for us all into several very clear definitions. I totally did not anticipate metafandom picking up on this post and wasn't very clear about the term, so I appreciate you doing the work for me. LOL

I think your distinction between OTPs for writing and reading is very interesting. I've never really thought about it before but that makes complete sense to me. After all, the characters that a person most enjoys reading may or may not be within hir writing comfort zone.

Part Two (on fannish experience)

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

How does it affect my fannish experience?

Well in two of my fandoms (The Professionals & The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) my pairings are predominate pairing. There are some het stories (more in MFU than Pros) and some stories with one or both of the pairing with other people, but in the grand scheme of things, the amount is not significant.

In both Due South and NCIS (my current main and dominant fandom) my slash pairings aren't the main pairing. This means fewer stories to read (although with DS being older than NCIS and my pairing were the original pairing) there is still quite a lot.

It also means that you get far fewer comments on stories. In NCIS I am the most prolific writer of my pairing, but there's a lovely core group of writers who regularly write stories. Another affect is, when you join in ficathons for the fandom as a whole, you have to ensure someone else who writes your pairing is going to sign up as well, otherwise you're rather stuck.

You notice the fewer comments more when posting to the fandom as a whole comms, where you'll see the pairing getting lots and lots and lots of comments and you get a few from your core readers. It can be demoralising at times to see stories where the header if full of errors and people are saying it's utterly wonderful, etc. and there are dozens of comments, whereas your story gets a handful. But the important thing, as I see it, is that I'm enjoying writing the stories and I'm keeping the core group of readers happy. So that's what matters.

So fewer stories to read and fewer people to read your stories, but that's my choice. I know a lot of people are able to read outside of their OTP, sometimes because one half of their OTP is more like a OTC, however I can't. I've seen here more than one person saying 'a good writer can make any pairing work'. Well not for me they can't. If I can't see the pairing, then no matter how brilliant the writer is they are not going to work for me.

Re: Part Two (on fannish experience)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Hahahahhahaha yes. This is the point in the completely public forum at which Lorraine cops to writing McShep sometimes because she just wants people to read what she wrote. LOL That's a motivation that no one else has mentioned yet so leave it to me to be crass enough. I still write my Vala gen epic backstory and the Bates/Kavanagh and the Regan Tam gen fic but sometimes a gal wants comments. And then she writes McShep or Wincest. Which, dude, I love. But of all the stuff I could potentially write that interests me, those are the two pairings in which I'm guaranteed a certain amount of interest.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I think of myself as a 'preferred pairing' person, rather than an OTP-er, but withing that preferred pairing construct, I can get pretty intense about how the characters in my preferred pairing are treated in a non-preferred pairing story.

Example: The Rodney and Ronon friendship story that Smittywing wrote, Hero for a new age. I originally avoided it as it was labeled as a slash story, and in my experience, Rodney/Ronon slash stories tend to really suck at writing John well, and often poke at him with sharp pointy sticks; this behavior means that I avoid the whole genre, unless I get good recs from people I know, and the story is by a writer I trust not to get out the sticks.

And as a friendship story, it is *awesome*. it tells a lot about the characters involved, and we get great Ronon backstory. John gets to be a presence in the way I expect from canon--occasionally showing up in a scene to just kinda hang around, so you can see the friendship there as well. I won't read character bashing of my preferred pairing guys, so I avoid a lot of NoTP stories, but I can be pulled back in if I get enough gossip about a NoTP story treating my guys well.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

That makes absolute sense to me. I hate when a shippy story feels like it has to axe canonical friendships or past relationships just to make the OTP seem more Special or fated or what have you. If Rodney and Ronon are banging each other then I totally expect Sheppard to still be Rodney's best friend and the main reason Ronon is sticking around Atlantis. Cause that shit's canonical. LOL

Character bashing gets on my nerves. I mean, you can dislike Katie Brown. Cause while I found her awkardly endearing, I also realize that she's quite passive and weenified and her eyes are freaking huge and bulbous. But Rodney *did* like her. And that doesn't mean he didn't like Sheppard too or that he didn't have Issues with his Katie Brown love. So vilifying her just makes the writer look meh to me.

[nymphaea1.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to read about your pairing fatigue. This doesn't happen to me with all fandoms, but often I will find myself avoiding the most popular ship in fandom for a while, or at least fic that's about fandom's favorite character, which generally amounts to the same thing.

I'm not an OTPer, and at times I vastly prefer rare-pairs, simply because I find there's often less fanon associated with them. But I do have to have seen some basis for a pairing in canon--or at the very least not find the pairing actively OOC based on canon interaction. I suppose it's theoretically possible that an amazing author who saw the characters in a way that I'd recognize might be able to overcome the obstacles of clashing personality types and lack of chemistry. But that's the thing, most people when writing a pair already see subtext and possibility in their canon interaction, so they'll be starting too far away from how I see the characters for me to connect to their story. On occasion I've really enjoyed pairings in fic that never occurred to me, but never pairings I found near impossible from the source.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I have lost the link! *despairs* But ages ago, glossing linked me to an essay by Kat Allison (?) about shipping that talks about shipping bereft of subtext and that post really informed my fannish experience. The post advocates that rather than scouring the source text for subtext for a pairing that any pairing is viable if the characters are mined for commonalities and intersections. (I wanna say the post was centered around shipping two characters in a fandom who never had any screen time together, but I could be wrong.)

[dreamflower]

Not an OTPer, not a 'shipper at all. I do have a weakness for canon couples in my fandom, which is very *rarely* satisfied. Canon couples in my fandom are married and fidelity is expected in canon. This does not suit some OTPers, who gladly kill off or villify the wives in order to slash the husbands.

Not being a 'shipper makes it difficult. While I can enjoy fics that feature pairings, I don't get all squeeful over them, the way some people do at the mere mention of their favorite couple in a sentence. I'm a gen girl at heart, and I don't get hot and bothered at the idea of any two particular characters having sex.

I do like friendship fic; but I like it to explore the spectrum of friendships among all the major characters. There are four really major characters in my fandom, and the tendency even in gen, is to split them up two and two, disregarding the webs of relationship between the others. Same goes for the other five major characters, who are also frequently disregarded. Searching for stories that do justice to the complexity of friendships among *many* characters, even minor ones and OCs, can be futile.

In RL, people don't have only one other person in the world with them. Why does it have to be that way in fic?

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh man, yes. So many of the shows I enjoy feature strong ensemble casts--Buffy, Ats, Firefly, the Stargate verse. And so many fics split these groups of friends into pairs and elide the rest. And that sucks. On the one hand I get it. My Buffy fics were not ensemble fics because I had trouble with a lot of the voices. I just wrote the characters I felt comfortable with. So from the writing standpoint, it makes sense, but as a reader it is annoying.

[secondalto.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom

I'm kinda of varied on the whole OTP thing. When I first got into fandom, yes, I did have one OTP (in one fandom!). But through my various re-watching of shows I've kind of grown into a multi-shipper, mostly for Buffy and Angel. I see varied possibilities for all the characters I love.

But when it comes to other shows, I have definite OTPs that aren't going to budge for anything. SG-1 it's Jack/Daniel (the only canon ships I could read would be Jack/Sara or Daniel/Shar'e leading into J/D). SGA, I have two, John/Rodney and Carson/Teyla (though I occasionally delve into Carson/Radek, but only with authors I trust). X-Files and Firefly have the distinction of having canonical pairings I'm OTPish over (I usually am all about non-canonical or practically canonical pairings), Mulder/Scully and Zoe/Wash.

I think having multi-pairings is more fun because you can explore the smae canon (show wise) from many different angles.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about multi-pairings. It's like looking at the same footage through different filters.

Carson/Teyla seems like it might be a kind of rare pairing to me. Are lots of people writing that?

[velvet-mace.livejournal.com]

*here from metafandom*

I'm the exact same way. I have no OTP -- I will never have an OTP. I can like pairings, but they get worn out. There's a limited number of times I can read the same basic story involving the same basic people, with only cosmetic differences between them.

I've found myself gravitating towards crack and unpopular pairings -- and unfortunately a lot of those fics are crap "random is funny zomg!!!eleventy!" fics, but sometimes you get someone who is writing it for the challenge, rather than because they think pairing is funny, and they put all their heart into making the fic work. And then I'm rewarded with a story I haven't read before.

I love it when there is no subtext for the pairing in canon, perhaps the characters never even met before, because that forces the writer to come up with their own backstory for the pairing to be there. I love multipart fics, because eventually they've got to break the mold of canon and go off in a new direction.

Upshot, I've read/watched canon. I don't want what canon already has given me. I want what it can't, or won't. And I want what other people can't or won't write, too.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes yes yes a million times yes to your last paragraph. And also yes.

Upthread a ways I mention an essay on shipping by Kat Allison (?) that I have lost the link to but which specifically discusses shipping characters who have no onscreen time together. The essay's main point is that subtext is over-rated and that we're smart enough cookies to connect those people ourselves.

[sorchasilver.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom.

I consider myself an OTPer, mainly because there is always one pairing that appeals to me far more than any other and that I read almost exclusively. However, I can and do read outside that pairing from time to time.

In SGA, I prefer John/Rodney. It's what I find appealing, it's what I like, it's what satisfies me emotionally, and it's what I believe. On occasion, I can be tempted to read other pairings. For example, I will read Rodney with other male characters, but I cannot read John with anyone but Rodney (caveat: I love team OT4, and enjoy certain authors takes on OT3s also). However, I tend not to read outside the OTP unless it is an author I really love, or there is a significant lack of new John/Rodney fic.

And when I do read Rodney/other guy, I never really feel it. It's like fast food - I need something to read, and it's fine while I'm reading, but I forget all about it thereafter.

Same thing goes in Firefly, where I prefer Mal/Simon, can read Simon/other if pushed, but can't read Mal/other.

In SPN, I am a true OTPer. Dean/Sam is the only thing I will read in that fandom. Even threesomes don't hold any appeal. And I am even more OTPish, if that's possible, about my SPN RPS.

So I'm fairly OTPish, but more so in certain fandoms and about certain characters or pairings.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I am certainly in favor of my darling Simon getting some outside action to sustain him in his grim exile. I'd be interested to hear why the Mal/Simon only, Simon/somebodyelseMAYBE fans roll that way?

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Hhhaahahah. So my recent Sam/Ruby/Dean kick holds no appeal for you? :)

You are the second (third?) person to mention that Rodney/Other is okay but that John better not be hopping up on anybody but Rodney. Why do you think that is? What do you think it is about John's character that makes people think he ought to only be with Rodney?

[china-white.livejournal.com]

I've always had special favourite pairings, and when I'm obsessed with one pairing in particular, I get very obsessed, but it doesn't mean I won't ship character A with anyone other than character B. I love shipping and exploring all the possibilities. I'd get incredibly bored if I only stuck to one pairing. For me the fun of shipping is the "what if" aspect, so I love rare ships, crack ships, threesomes...it's all good.

Never have understood shipwars.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I have never really beeen exposed to a ship war because I have mostly stayed in my one little corner with my sane friends LOL, but I imagine if I had, it would have left me scratching my head because crazy.

[proleptic-fancy.livejournal.com]

Here from metafandom.

I used to be a hardcore OTP-er when I first got into fandom, but that didn't really last more than a year*, because I discovered that I was missing out on a whole lot of awesome fic by limiting myself to just one (admittedly popular) pairing. Now just I read anything that looks appealing and/or satisfies whatever I'm craving at the moment.

I'm more of a One True Character girl. I'll latch on to one or two characters from a fandom (ex. Kyle from Kyle XY or Archer from Enterprise) and ship them with everybody they make eye contact with. I'm just fickle that way.

*Okay, there's maybe two exceptions where I absolutely cannot see the two characters with anyone but each other, but that's very against the norm for me.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Dude! You know this begs the question. :) Who are the two exceptions?

[neshel.livejournal.com]

Interesting topic... I can't say that I'm either one or the other.

I'm deep into the Heroes fandom right now, and I will tell you without a moment's hesitation that Mohinder/Sylar is my OTP. Now, while I feel that those two are most cannon with each other (and have convinced many a person of its cannonocity with tidbits of cannon events I've brought up in my fics) that doesn't mean I'll bite the head off of anyone who differs in opinion.

Sticking to pairings involving those two, I have been known to enjoy Mohinder/Peter on occasion as well as Sylar/Peter, and well, almost anything involving Sylar. *cough* but that's another story.

I do, however, loathe Matt/Mohinder with a passion. I won't attack those shippers, but their ship bother me to no end. Mostly, I think, because Matt/Mo shippers are very rabid about how "their ship is cannon" when, in fact, its not. They might share an apartment and both care for the same kid, but when on screen together all the do is bicker pettily. 0 chemistry, practically not even friendship. Now, I wouldn't mind, really, since I have some pretty unrealistic ships, but their fierce defense of Matt/Mo being cannon and a tendency to bash the Sy/Mo ship (usually without any coherency) makes me hate them all the more.

They're probably all (the rabid ones) teeny-boppers, so I really shouldn't let it get to me; but oh god, it does.

Sorry for the rant.

Basically, I feel I'm in an in between ground. If its written well, odds are I'll enjoy it, but my OTP is my true love.

EDIT: Here from Metafandom, btw.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I will never understand the bashing that goes on in fandom. LOL I'm just thankful that the crazy shipper wars have stayed out of my corner of fandom.

:)

[zulu]

I totally hear you on pairing fatigue. Often it's what makes me change fandoms. When I got bored of House/Wilson but was still into the show and the fandom, I switched over to House/Foreman (much to the detriment of my comment-count, alas) and I'm happy with it as my new OTP. I use the term loosely, though, like a heathen who thinks a drabble's something other than a hundred words exactly. To me it's just a pairing I enjoy; I'm a multishipper, though usually with my OTC at the center of things.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. That's what makes me a serial fanogamist. I stick with one until it bores me then move on to something else. And after a hiatus I can go back to the original fandom with much love.