OTP mutterings

[lizardbeth]

So I come back on-line after bronchitis (yes, so much fun), and reading various meta including discussions on OTP in various fandoms. And I have concluded that I must be a fandom freak. Because I have none. If anything, I have anti-OTPs, where I get annoyed by TPTB shoving a pairing at me that I don't personally buy. (*cough* Sam/Jack *cough*) But I don't have that OMG!TheirLoveIsSoCanon! squee that seems so prevalent these days.



Mind you, I enjoy reading a lot of pairings, both slash and het (though honestly my fanfic reading has cut back immmensely in recent years for RL reasons). But when I look at a show like, say, Atlantis, I feel I can definitely say that I don't care who, if anyone, ends up with whom. In fact, the producers seem to me to be deliberately laying fuel under all the possible 'ships, thus pretty much making no particular 'ship more canon (possible canon) than any other. This is of course, for the purpose of being able to bring in an "attraction of the week", as we've seen with Shep, McKay, and Beckett at least. So, I guess for me the producers have done such a good job that I can buy pretty much any ship if the author convinces me that it could work. (Weir/Zalenka? So adorable) But by the same token, since I'm not a die-hard shipper, I find fics written only for fans of those pairings difficult to buy, because they're working off a fanon base that doesn't exist in my own head.

This is true in 'Harry Potter' as well, where pretty much any named character has been paired with any other named character, and you can find a comm or an archive devoted to it. I just sit back and blink bemusedly at the Harry/Hermione 'shipping war just passed, and figure I've just moved on, grown up, or just not invested in the fandom as much as other people. But y'know, I can read Lily/James, or Lupin/Snape, or Draco/Harry, just fine, whatever. And really, if a story doesn't have a pairing, that's perfectly fine too, but those are pretty thin on the ground these days.

Yet even when I was a diehard, hard-core fangirl with hours to burn reading fic, it was usually individual characters, not a pairing, that was my attraction. I was most fervent in B5, but even then, when people were John/Delenn or Susan/Marcus and the pairings were quite firmly canon, it wasn't like I couldn't read some Sheridan/Garibaldi. As for writing, I only ever wrote Sinclair, and I had so much to say about him, I barely bothered pairing him with anyone.

In Farscape, I was from the beginning a John/Aeryn 'shipper, but yet again, I read an entire John/Crais story in some thirty parts and enjoyed it immensely. It didn't offend me, it didn't bother me that it wasn't canon or my fave 'ship, so I don't know -- is John/Aeryn really an OTP then? Seems like from the prevalent definition I should've avoided reading stories pairing John with anyone else. Or maybe the definition is too stringent, and it just means the romantic pairing that you favor.

Now my personal anti-OTP as I mentioned above is Jack/Sam. And I do, I admit, go out of my way to avoid reading that pairing. Even though I acknowledge that it is/was canon up to a point, I just can't stand it. At most, I think their relationship would run to: go to bed, wake up the next morning and realize they have *nothing* to talk about. Really I don't mind fics that go no further than what we see on screen (UST fics, IOW), but I've been led astray into so many "Jack and Sam fluffy bunny, keeping house, True Wuv" stories that I avoid the whole pairing as a general rule. But the odd thing is, in the reverse, I don't have any pairings that I actively seek out.

The closest I come to an OTP I think, is in Battlestar Galactica, where I read Helo/Boomer pretty much exclusively. But I sort of fell into by default, because Lee/Kara is my Anti-OTP (nope, don't like that one either, at least not in fanfic, since I really like the balance in the show, and very few writers can resist tipping them into a couple), and Helo/Boomer has all kinds of interesting issues to play with. But if Helo gets killed, I will be sad for the waste of a good character, but I won't be writing denial/fixit fic either.

So, hm. I guess my viewing and therefore my fanfic experience is just plain different from most people (or LJ ficcers/commentators, which may be an entirely different breed than "most people", I grant you).

Comments

[panthology.livejournal.com]

Not so different, hon. I don't have fandom OTPs either, and I really hate having anyone else's shoved at me.

If a particular pairing floats their boat, good for them, but I hate the ranting and screaming that sometimes goes on against anyone who diagrees (*cough*Some S/J and D/J shippers*cough*).

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

exactly, there is such an incredible amount of fanwank on pairings in *every single fandom*. I think that's what shocks me most: it's everywhere. All the fandoms are cut up into these pairing sub-fandoms. I don't know if it's caused by the internet and people trying to find their own little precious bit of territory that they defend with Pitbull Terrier intensity, or what, but it's amazing and annoying all at the same time. I just don't get it.

but thanks. I didn't really think I was the only one, but it's nice to know for sure.

[rosiethehobbit.livejournal.com]

You’re not the only one. I generally prefer fics that don't have a pairing. The only pairing I’ve ever sought out is Sam/Martouf, partially because of the fixit aspect. Never been a Sam/Jack fan.

Some people do get bent out of shape over their OTP. Like the Frodo/Sam slasher I met who ran out of the theatre a the end of ROTK when they showed Sam and Rosie's wedding. Apparently she runs an anti-Rosie website. Whatever.

OTP

[selmak.livejournal.com]

You know, I wouldn't mind Jack/Sam so much if Sam's mind didn't get sucked out of her head with a major vaccuum cleaner. Replicarter? Hello?

Swack.

Plus Jack is too much like Jake for her to have a healthy relationship unless she went for therapy.

Now... Sam and GEORGE... that could be an interesting couple. He's familiar with the Jake idiosyncrancies and how they could screw up Sam.

I really do like Sam, it's just when she starts ooozing tru wuv that i get ill.

Sel

Re: OTP

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Totally agree, especially this part: Jack is too much like Jake for her to have a healthy relationship unless she went for therapy. So true.

Though my other main problem with the 'ship, is that it's been dragging on for too long. These are military officers, and I'm supposed to believe that if they *really* wanted each other they wouldn't have figured out how to do it properly by now? So clearly the regs and working at the SGC as officers have been of higher priority, and that doesn't sound like irresistible passion or love to me.

Plus, the two have all the chemistry of a wet noodle together to me. Amanda's feelings, in interviews, are exactly the same as mine, and I think it comes into her performance, especially when she has to do the 'shippy parts she doesn't think fit Sam. it comes across to me as forced, especially in the last few seasons.

Sam and George... ooh, you're evil. What a great plot bunny!

Re: OTP

[selmak.livejournal.com]

>>Sam and George... ooh, you're evil. What a great plot bunny!

Actually, that's the real hot OTP that no one mentions. Sammy's looking for a Daddy figure and well... George is well trained from all those years of being married.

I have written/ thought out a few pairings with them together, but I get zilch feedback, so I've decided just to post the chapters in my mind. :)

Helena

Re: OTP

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Sam and George could be wonderfully pervy. But yeah, I can see that the general audience appeal would be, um, shall we say, somewhat limited? Not to mention the horde of ravening Sam/Jackers would likely squeal loudly...

[bluediamond421.livejournal.com]

upon randomly looking at your LJ memories, and, I'm only up to the end of s3 and am already getting kind of annoyed with the pushing of Sam/Jack.......also, every time I see people have typed Helo/Boomer my brain reads it as a challenge to write evil AU fic.....even though I know that's what people called her during seasons 1-2.....hehehehe (and no, I don't even actually ship them at all)

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

You are not kidding with the random! Damn, I'd forgotten I even WROTE that. Hee.

And yeah, for a little while it was kind of hard to distinguish the Sharons. For a while Caprica!Sharon and Galactica!Sharon worked -- until they switched places. At least once the Agathons got married we could say Sharon Agathon vs Sharon Valerii, but man, I was never so glad as the day Athena got her callsign1

and just fyi, I switched to tagging for my own stuff, and stopped using the Memories. So there's not much there.

[bluediamond421.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, I was looking to see what SG-1-related things were in your interests (they killed Martouf! nooo! it's too soon! I've only known him for four days!) and ended up going to your memories too. I noticed the tagging thing, also, don't worry.

Haha, yeah, I can't even remember what I did, really, since I started watching during 4.5 and all. I think I didn't really register that Boomer would still be out there until we actually saw her again, and I remember when I made my first BSG DVD-ripped (Lee/Kara) clips I just called Athena "Sharon" in the clips from Home parts 1-2 when she was there in their scenes. And when my friend who was behind me in watching (was still on s2, I was on s3) tried to call her Boomer, I remember saying "No, she doesn't want you to do that!" Heh. (This was before my brain became all Boomer-centric.)

Also, question: If a person were theoretically planning a fanfic where Kara and Sam during early pre-mutiny 4.5 did the reverse of all the SG-1 AU episodes and went to an AU were things were comparatively shiny (and they were still together anyway), how would you have them get there considering how very far away in space they are, as opposed to how the SG-1 mirror thing works?

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

hm. "theoretical fanfic"? I love those!

Do you want them to get to Earth or back to an alternate Caprica? Though I guess it doesn't matter really -- I'd use a wormhole to get them either place and cross into the alternate universe. So long as your story's more about what happens in the alt, then getting across, it's usually just fine to use some scifi device and get through it, IMO. Getting them BACK might require some supernatural intervention (or vigorous handwave) *g* but at least getting them there that way would be do-able.

[bluediamond421.livejournal.com]

Haha, well, it is only theoretical right now (until I start writing) ;-).

It is an alternate Caprica/colonies I want them to go to....except by 4.5 they'd obviously be really far away.....yeah, how do I get them to go through the wormhole? (For getting them back to their real reality I was thinking about using some kind of rubber band effect thing...meaning they just snap back after an unspecified amount of time)

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

I'd do it by just having them both in their Vipers and fall in. They could be racing or on CAP or something like that, and a wormhole just opens. Whoever's closer would fall in first and then the second one could pursue to try to save them. Given the timing, post Revelations,I'd probably have Sam fall in first, since Kara's already fallen into something similar, but I could see him pursuing her, too, since he wouldn't want to lose her again, even if they're a bit distant right then.

[bluediamond421.livejournal.com]

Okay, but then what would happen to the Vipers? Would the Vipers come with them and then they'd have to land them? That might be a problem...

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Vipers can land on the ground, I think. They have some sort of skids/landing gear. So it might not be elegant but it shouldn't really be much different from landing on the Galactica. And then they abandon the ships to do whatever you want them to do -- and then Presto! magically return to Galactica when you're done. Or they could get new ships to go up to space and magic new wormhole takes them back. Up to you! We'll buy most anything in fic!

[bluediamond421.livejournal.com]

hehe, that sounds good. :-D Thanks for your help!! (Now I just hope the actual fic turns out okay...)

(I now ship Sam/Daniel. It has been less than two weeks. He is already temporarily 'dead.' I am already planning post-return/de-ascension/whatever shippy fic about them. Is this wrong? hahaha I cannot believe I managed to watch 5 whole seasons in ten days....well, eleven if you count the night I watched the movie and 2-hour pilot...)