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

[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.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking more about this, and realized that this was a problem I had with the Teyla/Rodney story mentioned on sga_talk. It was so focused on a specific agenda that the friendship between all of the team members got lost. We never got to see the scene where Rodney and John argue about staying apart, and decide on it being the best path. Knowing John's character and the way he feels about his team from what we have seen in canon, my own interp is that he *never* would have bought into the idea of not seeing Rodney and Teyla; the discussion/decison scene needed to be there for me to buy into what happened.

So for me, the friendships that we see in canon outweigh the idea of a story. I need to see the step-by-step process if an author is going to take the friendship apart, or I'm not going to read the story; I think that's a core characteristic for me, and it's really what I read for, whether it's slash, gen (friendship and team prefered), OT3 or OT4. It's not just one relationship, one single OTP, but it is about how I see the characters and their relationships in canon, and where I can see it going from there.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes. The Team relationship is always really the most important one for me. My husband and I just watched "Ark of Truth" and I kept commenting almost non-stop, "Awwww, they all love each other so much." That's important to me. It's what I adore about both flagship teams in Stargate and what I love about the Scoobies and the AI team and the crew of Serenity.