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

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not an OTPer...I know people think I am (at least in BTVS) because I only write Willow/Spike fic but that's more about the characters I'm most comfortable writing than OMG They totally belong together thinking. I'll read most pairings...as long as Xander isn't involved. :) I tried to just be a loyal Spillow shipper once, but fact remains I also like Willow/Angel, Willow/Giles, Willow/Ethan, Spike/Dawn, Spike/Tara...even the occasional Spike/Giles or Giles/Ethan. So I gave up. I don't write the other pairings because I'm not necessarily comfortable writing certain characters but I'll read them.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

You bring up a very good point here. A lot of what I write is dictated by my comfort level with the voices which is why I wrote hardly any Firefly and writing Spike in general always gave me hives. So you're right that we can't always look to a writer's output to determine OTP because they may really like characters they don't feel comfortable writing.

[quillori.livejournal.com]

Very true. I think it can go the other way as well. I know I would be interested in writing a much broader range of stories than I tend to read, which does sound weird, but I don't think I approach reading fanfic in the same way as writing. I like the more limited scope of shipper fic, where you can appreciate very subtle differences in approach and small variances on common tropes and the whole thing is a close-knit conversation with people who have all read many of the same stories. When it comes to writing, I'm much more with you - bits of back story, peripheral characters, different motivations, possible futures. And it's not that I don't like reading those too, exactly, but I read them as I would read anything else, a book say, whereas OTP stories are in a separate category. For fic in general, it's competing with my whole To Be Read pile, and there's the difficulty of wading through piles of stories to find good authors,* whereas for shipper fic, not only is it a smaller pool of writers, so I quickly get a better idea of who I particularly like or dislike, but I tend to like more of it, because there is more to be interested in than just the quality of the writing. I don't mean that I'm happy to put up with bad writing if I like the pairing so much as that even an average fic is taking part in the communal conversation, so I can appreciate it on that level separately from appreciating its quality.

* I do tend to read everything by writers I know I like, except for stories that are clearly best appreciated as part of a shipper community discourse I don't take part in.

Very nicely articulated

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I completely get what you're saying here and I agree that part of the fun of fanfic is the conversation between our stories in addition to the conversation between what we write and what we see/read in canon.