On the use of OTP...

[butterfly]

So, I actually have different kinds of OTPness.

1. Ultimate and complete One True Pairing, cannot picture either one of the characters with anyone else as long as the option to be with their OTP exists. Doctor/Rose falls into this category, as well as Zoe/Wash (from Firefly) and Fraser/Kowalski (due South). With the Doctor and Rose, their OTP nature is practically the foundation of the new series of Who for me. I really can't picture either of them truly falling in love with anyone else with the same passion that they feel for each other. Max/Logan on Dark Angel also falls into this category for me.

2. Couple I care about most on the show, but can picture with other people while still considering the first to be my primary OTP. McKay/Sheppard from SGA falls into this category. Buffy/Xander also fits into it.

3. Serial OTP -- on SG-1, my OTP for seasons 1-3 is Daniel/Sha're. For seasons 4-7, it's Daniel/Jack. And for seasons 8 and onward, it's Daniel/Vala. During each person's specific time period, s/he is the only person that I ship with Daniel.

What do y'all mean when you say 'OTP'?

Comments

[settiai]

I'm such a complete multi-shipper, I honestly don't think OTP is part of my vocabulary. Wash/Zoe might possibly fit the description, since I really can't see either of them with someone else if the other's still alive (other than a threesome, that is), but other than that? The only other 'ship that I have coming even close to being an OTP is Doyle/Cordelia from Angel, and in that case it means that I'll read pretty much anything featuring that pairing no matter how good or bad it is. But, at the same time, I have no problem 'shipping them with other people.

So, yeah. There's a reason I have this icon. I'll apparently 'ship anyone or anything. :-/

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Usually the first. With my OTPs, I can imagine them with other people only before they get together, and even then, those previous relationships weren't with people as eminently suited to them as they are to each other. It's like, I can like Four/Romana because that was a long time before he met Rose, but once he did meet Rose, I can't imagine him with anyone else, even after they're separated.

Occasionally I will write fic that contradicts my OTP (like in Harry Potter, my OTP was Remus/Sirius, and I had no serious interest in considering him with anyone else as long as he and Sirius could be together, but I've actually written him with a multitude of other people). That's not very often, though, because I usually tend to latch onto one pairing and ship it pretty exclusively.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It's always so cool to see all the different ways people interact with shows. For me, there are some characters that I could 'ship with practically anyone (hello, Captain Jack Harkness!) and other characters that seem so perfectly suited to each other that I can't imagine them with anyone else.

The only other 'ship that I have coming even close to being an OTP is Doyle/Cordelia from Angel, and in that case it means that I'll read pretty much anything featuring that pairing no matter how good or bad it is.

I tend to do that with pairings that I like if the fic is hard to find. The more rare a ship I like is, the lower my standards get.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Usually the first. With my OTPs, I can imagine them with other people only before they get together, and even then, those previous relationships weren't with people as eminently suited to them as they are to each other. It's like, I can like Four/Romana because that was a long time before he met Rose, but once he did meet Rose, I can't imagine him with anyone else, even after they're separated.

I was totally planning on liking Four/Romana when I got into the show... and then I watched them in action and thought they were more like buddies. Very Ten/Donna, actually, if you ignore the glaring personality differences.

I did find Three/Jo 'shippable, though.

But yeah, now that he's met Rose... he gave so much of himself to her. I can't see him doing that again.

Occasionally I will write fic that contradicts my OTP (like in Harry Potter, my OTP was Remus/Sirius, and I had no serious interest in considering him with anyone else as long as he and Sirius could be together, but I've actually written him with a multitude of other people). That's not very often, though, because I usually tend to latch onto one pairing and ship it pretty exclusively.

I've done that, too. Both in writing and in vidding (oh, all the ways in which I totally do not ship Buffy/Riley... yet I made a very sincerely hopeful vid about them).

[babel.livejournal.com]

For me, OTP is a pairing which I never write as apathetic toward each other. They may never be together (in one story, the two never properly met but one learned about the other posthumously through files and such), but they are always connected emotionally in some way that affects them.

I'm fine with reading fics that "go against" my OTP, though I generally prefer to read my OTP. I only use the term restrictively in terms of my own writing.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ooo! That's a neat definition.

I'm fine with reading fics that "go against" my OTP, though I generally prefer to read my OTP. I only use the term restrictively in terms of my own writing.

Interestingly enough, I feel more free to create something myself that goes against my OTPs than to watch or read something that someone else has made.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Heh. I found Three/Jo way too parental to ship. Four/Romana I could see as friends with benefits, but not anything more. But like you said, he just gave too much of himself to Rose for me to find any other ship believable after he met her.

I have a friend who said she thought OTPing in DW was missing the point a bit, and that just boggled my mind.

[rachelbeann.livejournal.com]

OTP's, Rachel-Style: There are some ships that I can't ship w/other characters, can't read fic that ships them with other characters, and basically I become a big ole' ship-bigot, I admit, though I *do* try not to be annoying about it. ^^ Doctor/Rose and Mulder/Scully would be my most obsessive OTP's.

I guess that's my definition of OTP - because One True Pairing pretty much is as exclusive and obsessed as you get, I figure.

I have to agree with rynne as well, though, because I do do ship the Doctor before he met Rose with other characters. None of them are really addicting to me, but I enjoy Three/Jo, Four/Sarah Jane, and Four/Romana.

[settiai]

I love Jack because he makes it so easy to 'ship him with pretty much anyone, but - to be honest - that's how I see pretty much all characters. For example, using some of the pairings you listed in your post:

Most of the time, I like Nine/Rose and Ten/Rose. That doesn't stop me from 'shipping Two/Jamie, Three/Jo, Four/Sarah Jane, any combination(s) of Five/Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough, Six/Evelyn, Seven/Ace, Eight/Fitz, Eight/Charley, Eight/Leela/Romana II, Nine/Rose/Jack, Ten/Martha, Ten/Donna, or any versions of Doctor/Romana.

I 'ship Fraser/RayV and Fraser/RayK pretty much equally (with RayK/RayV and Fraser/RayK/RayV thrown in for good measure). While I adore Logan/Max, I have no problems seeing Alec/Max or Alec/Logan (though, admittedly, in that case it's more of a OT3). With both Stargate series, I'll 'ship anyone. And I mean anyone.

. . . so, in other words, I pretty much see everyone (in all fandoms) as Jack Harkness.

The more rare a ship I like is, the lower my standards get.

I'll admit, Doyle/Cordelia is the only 'ship that I've found yet where I've been willing to lower my standards just to find fic featuring them. Fanfiction featuring Doyle is rare period, so that's the issue. I've literally read everything that's available, so when I stumble across something new - no matter how badly written it is - I'm going to read it. Even if reading it means that I'm going to have to go bleach my brain afterward. ;-)

[babel.livejournal.com]

There are a few things I don't enjoy reading due to my OTP, such as the trend in my current fandom where my OTP is only together because one of them is woefully in love with someone else but he's stuck with the other half of my OTP, and they never become closer in any way or find out anything about themselves except how in LOOOOVE with the other person he is and how unworthy his current lover is--or worse, the current lover hating himself for being so unworthy. And they angstangstangst for a few thousand words, and it's over.

Though... that is also an issue of bad characterization in this case.

But for the most part, I shut off my own pairing preferences for the length of a fic and try to go along with the writer. That is, if the writing is good enough to entice me to read the entire thing to begin with. Maybe I'm just desperate for any good fic in my tiny fandom...

[babel.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who said she thought OTPing in DW was missing the point a bit

I always read that kind of thing as "I don't enjoy OTPing in DW, therefore no one else ought to." And I don't even particularly OTP anyone in DW myself (though I enjoy Doctor/Rose a lot).

[wanderlustlover]

OTP is such a rare term in my world I actually went to LJArchive to search how many times I've used it in my journal. In nearly six years I haven't used it even a dozen times.

I can ship a lot of people, which I do at a distance and read a lot of shipable fics because of it in most any fandom, but the OTP is special. And thus it's something I usually keep down and quiet.

The One True Pair in my head has to be two people who so completely effect each others world that they become defined by each other, defined by what happens to each other and with each other. It doesn't mean they have to have ended up together but it means that they're connect was so deeply it leaves nothing unchanged for the rest of their life. Frequently they are love stories where love triumphs even where it can't, where it is there even when it can't be had and is impossible to leave behind.


Some example OTP's I would count this in?

Rose/Ten (Doctor Who), Micheal/Sydney (ALIAS), Buffy/Angel, Max/Logan, Mulder/Scully (X-Files), Dawson/Joey[/Pacey] (Dawson's Creek), Eryn/John (Farscape), Achmed/Rapsody (Symphony of Ages), Christine/Erik (The Opera, or Susan Kay book), Francine/Katchoo (Strangers in Paradise), Phedre/Joscelin (Kushiel), Xena/Gabrielle

That's at least off the top of my head.

[settiai]

And I'm going to jump in here for a second...

I'll admit, I'm one of those people who honestly can't see having an OTP when it comes to the Doctor Who fandom. Not that I have anything against people who do have OTPs in this fandom! (Noted so butterfly won't kill me in my sleep or anything come VVC. Not to mention the other hardcore Doctor/Romana, Doctor/Rose, Doctor/Master, Seven/Ace, Five/Tegan, Two/Jamie, etc. fans on my friends list. :-P) It's just that I, personally, have trouble wrapping my brain around having an OTP involving the Doctor.

I'll admit, I think that part of it's because I'm firmly set in a multi-shipping viewpoint. I've never been one for OTPs, and that's definitely carried over some into this fandom. Still... I just have trouble seeing how an alien who, pretty much without exception, is going to outlive anyone he's involved with could have one relationship that would forever outshine any others he might possibly have. Especially since previous canon has shown us that, with every regeneration, there's a definite change in personality. While I think Rose was the perfect companion for the Ninth Doctor, whether in a romantic or platonic sense, I don't think she would be compatible with - say - the Sixth Doctor. Or possibly a hypothetical Eleventh Doctor.

There are definitely some people in fandom who mean it as "I don't enjoy OTPing in DW, therefore no one else ought to." But there are some of us who don't have a problem with other people OTPing - we just have trouble seeing it for ourselves. If that makes any sense. :-/

[babel.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, you make sense. I just mean that saying people are "missing the point" because they OTP something comes off as condescending to me. The point of a show can be different things to different people. I'm a multi-shipper myself (I have a list of pairings to write in my current fandom I'm working through which includes 16 het, 16 slash, and 7 femslash pairings on it), I just don't like people acting like OTPers are wrong.

[settiai]

Oh, no argument from me there. I'm not a fan of people telling anyone that they're wrong because of a pairing they 'ship or a character they like. There's enough room in fandom for everybody, or - at least - there should be.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Noted so [info]butterfly won't kill me in my sleep or anything come VVC.

Hee!

I can understand why many people don't OTP the Doctor with anyone. He'll live for quite a long period of time and keeps changing his appearance and personality. Plus, he's arrogant, insufferably clever, and prone to insults.

[mskatej.livejournal.com]

An OTP for me are a couple who have great onscreen (sexual) chemistry and who I see as deeply loving each other no matter what happens between them. They need to be more important to each other than anyone else too - I like an epic feel to the relationship. Ongoing tension between the characters is essential if I'm to remain interested, and I particularly enjoy pairing characters with opposite personalities.

In Smallville, Clark/Lex is my ultimate OTP - and my favourite OTP ever - but Clark/Lois are an OTP for me as well. I guess because one is fanon and one is (future) canon I don't have issues shipping Clark with both Lex and Lois.

Both Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike were OTPs for me, because I loved both pairings a lot but for different reasons. (Huh. Apparently I am okay with the hero of the story having multiple loves! Because actually now that I think about it Buffy can have both boys, and Clark can have both but I don't want to see Lex, Lois, Spike or Angel with anyone else. Weird.)

DC: Bruce/Dick. So wrong and yet so hot.

30 Rock: Jack/Liz. Again, Liz can have Floyd but I'd rather Jack not be with anyone else but her.

Other OTPs I can think of are ones made explicit in canon; the portrayal of their love is so effective and the actors' chemistry so amazing that I am totally invested in a romance between them, and I really want them to "end up together": Michael/Sara (Prison Break), Lily/Rufus (Gossip Girl), Booth/Brennan (Bones), Sydney/Vaughn (Alias), Lee/Kara (BSG), Max/Logan (Dark Angel), Coach/Tami (FNL), Ross/Rachel (Friends).

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

I use 'otp' quite randomly. It generally means a pairing I like. And I have a short attention span on pairings I like.

However, there are different ways that I ship. In context of the canon, there are some pairings where I can't see the characters with anyone else - Aang/Katara, Doctor/Rose, Zoe/Wash, for example. It basically means, I think it's end game. Canon. The first two by me seeing them integrated, and the last because it would simply make me sad to see them apart on screen (*sobs at Wash's death*).

Similar, but not quite the same, is a paring where I can see the characters, but the ways in which they feel for each other, make it so that, whatever happens, in order for me to buy anything, that relationship really really needs to be acknowledged for one or both characters for me to get behind alt!ship - Sasuke/Sakura, Seishirou/Subaru, Lee/Kara, Buffy/Angel, and Tidus/Yuna, as example. Usually this is as such because of obsessive love that defines the pairing (Seishirou/Subaru, SasuSaku), the fact there is so much baggage between really damaged people that's there (Lee/Kara), or the amount in which the characters utterly changed each others lives (Buffy/Angel, Tidus/Yuna). I don't really argue that any of these pairings are healthy in itself, but the ways in which they relate to each other are too integrated to be looked over, whatever damage they've obtained from one another.

The only pairing I can think of where I don't ship either character with another without these reasons is Mal/Inara. I'm simply not interested in any other potential pairing. It's very very unusual for me.

And there is, of course, relationship types that get me so much. Examples being mentor/mentored (Buffy/Giles, Kakashi/Sauke) or best friends where there's something there/something was there and they've known each other forever (Xander/Willow, Ed/Winry). I could go on, but it would start to get tedious.

And there is the pairing where, while I might enjoy the idea of other pairings happening, it's the pairing I'd like to be canon the most. It doesn't mean I think they're the best characters for each other, or it's the only way the story can ring true to me - it just means I like it the most. House/Cameron, Fred/Wesley, and Ichigo/Orihime are some examples.

But mostly? I'm an OTC. I tend to be focused one character and ship him or ranging between just about everyone who he or she has a significant relationship with or anything that moves (Sasuke, Wesley, Orihime).

THAT WAS TL;DR.

[nic]

I rarely use OTP. I used to run a website called "Soulmates", made up of all my favourite couples, but it got out of control when I opened it up to other suggestions and it was mix-and-match in every direction!

I'll always have my favourite couple(s) in a fandom, but unless they end up happily together in canon (or there's the potential for that in canon), I can't call them an OTP.

Sheridan and Delenn from "Babylon 5" are the best example that springs to mind. I'm still not sure how I feel about Doctor/Rose right now and if I can accept it!

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

Those are pretty good definitions of OTP types for me, too.

Those that land in my first category get such a strong emotional response from me that I find the thought of them not being together long-term to be upsetting. I certainly can't imagine them with anyone else once they've met, and am likely to overreact to them having other relationships in canon or even in well written fanfic. (That's what happened to the remote for the haunted television -- half an OTP kissed someone and I flung the remote at the television hard enough to crack it.)

All of the pairings that I feel belong together forever have a strong basis in canon.

Your middle category -- I guess my best example there is Faith/Wood. It started so late in canon that I can't compare it to most of the relationships that fall into the first for me, but he's just so good for her that I want to imagine them together forever.

Then there are the serial OTPs, which come about through canon, like Willow/Tara and then Willow/Kennedy. Pre-Tara, I can see Willow with almost anyone.

As for Daniel/Vala, by all logic I should think of them the same, but I'm just so head-over-heels in love with them that they've become my #1 OTP. Of course I respect Sha're, and of course he'll always love her, but Vala's better for him. Vala gets under his skin, and makes him live in the world, and Daniel needs that. Plus Daniel has grown and changed tremendously since season three, so there's that. I don't ship him with anyone between Sha're and Vala, maybe that's the difference, I don't know. I should go do some work.

[measi.livejournal.com]

I really, REALLY like this definition of OTP, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Honestly, I think this is the only way that I can definite OTP in my personal shipping preferences - because I do multi-ship, and I am a bit squicked by the idea of people not being allowed to find love again after loss.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

I don't really use OTP unless I'm being tongue-in-cheek. I'm not really invested in "forever love," since situations change and people change and it just seems like a really narrow definition of what love can be.

When I do use it, it just means that it's a pairing I really, really like. Generally "my favorite pairing for that character," rather than "the only pairing I can ever imagine for that character."

I'm more of an OTC person--I adore one character and see everything through that character's eyes. So a favorite pairing to me is usually something that brings out interesting aspects of the character I love. Like, I'd say Remus/Sirius is my Harry Potter OTP, but honestly, I'd read anything with Sirius in it as long as he's written well.

If I had to choose, I'd say Doctor/Master is my Doctor Who OTP. They've been in each others' lives since childhood, they're equals and distorted mirror versions of each other, and they certainly bring out interesting aspects in each other! But that doesn't mean that I don't love and adore Doctor/Rose (which is certainly happier and healthier). Just that, as much as I love Rose (and think the Doctor loves her), the Master was in his life before Rose and after Rose, and has an impact on the core of the Doctor's being in a way Rose just couldn't. Um. And in a fic sense, I just find Doctor/Master more interesting, since it's a lot darker and it delves into the core of their beings, of the Doctor's dark side that Rose doesn't/couldn't/shouldn't have to see. (Which, I must emphasize, doesn't mean I don't love Doctor/Rose. Because I really really love it. I just love both pairings very differently.)

[castalie.livejournal.com]

I think I mean the one pairing I'll always go back to, no matter what, the one I really believe in, even if I'll sometimes feel like reading my favourite guy with Someone Else. To me, OTP would be more like the pairing by default, and all the others I might try are just that, a try, something to spice my reading a little but not the 'real' thing.

In The Sentinel, my OTP is Jim/Blair. I have read them with someone else but I never seek those stories out. A fic with a different pairing will offer itself and if the mood strikes I'll try it but I can't imagine them with someone else.

In SPN, my OTP is Sam/Dean. I've read Dean/Someone else but in my mind, it's always about Sam for Dean and vice versa.

In SPN PRS, Jared/Jensen is my pairing of choice but I think I can say that it's one of my two OTPs, because I'll actively seek JDM/Jensen too... and I've read Jensen/Someone else a lot.

In my mind, though, it's always about either Jared/Jensen or JDM/Jensen. A great combo being, of course, JDM/Jensen/Jared, because in that case I have the best of those two worlds :-)

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

You know, I was in the antiship camp for Doctor Who (not the loud obnoxious portion of said camp, just quietly in my own head) for quite a long time, but Rose broke me. There's really something very special there.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I am a bit squicked by the idea of people not being allowed to find love again after loss.

As a dedicated OTPer, let me just say I agree with you there -- obviously the surviving partner needs to move forward eventually, and that's not what I personally mean when I say OTP. The thought of one of them losing the other is what hurts so bad, not the possibilities later. I'm not one to hate Kennedy because I'm mourning Tara (actually, bad example, I love Kennedy) or hate Vala because I loved Sha're (um, another terrible example, I love Vala a ridiculous amount). Let me try that again.

*suffers nervous breakdown from imagining the hypothetical deaths of fictional characters*

Like, if Mary Jane died, Spider-Man would probably end up with Felicia Hardy, and I'd be fine with the Felicia part of that, but furious and hurt for years over the death of MJ.