On OTP-ism.

[mrv3000]

This is prompted by seeing something on a way-off community involving no one on my flist. (Just to be clear that I'm not doing some kind of passive-aggressive thing with any of you.) But it is something that I've seen many, many times before, and it always grates on me. In essence, that multi-shipping will solve the world's ills.

Now let me be clear: I seriously could care less what anyone gets up to in the way of shipping. I might privately raise an eyebrow at a pairing, but if someone wants to write Eleven/Amy, Ten/River, Mickey/Rose, or River/Amy/Mickey/Eleven/Ten/Jack, whatever man. If I'm interested, I'll read. If I'm not, I won't. I won't consider it a holy mission to dissuade people from writing their pairing because it's "wrong." (However, it's a completely different matter if I dissect a relationship in a meta-type manner on my journal. Picking apart canon and coming to my own conclusion that, say, Amy and Eleven don't have a romantic relationship whatsoever doesn't equate to me saying "THOU SHALT NOT WRITE ELEVEN/AMY." Fic is there to give us what we don't get in canon.)

On to my sin:

I'm a serial OTP-er. I rather doubt this will ever change. Pretty much all of my fannish experience (even before the 10 years I've been hanging out in fandom) has been me latching on to one pairing and squeeing the hell out of it. I don't find it particularly juvenile that I generally only ship one pairing, but yet I see so many comments that indicate as much. That somehow a person is enlightened if they can multi-ship (or really enlightened if they like threesomes or more) and some sort of idiot fangirl if they OTP. Or that if a person has an OTP, then by that very definition they must be on a crusade to wreck every other pairing. Um, say what? Just because I don't find some other ship plausable doesn't mean that someone else can't. (Unless they believe that my thinking trumps their thinking; in which case, dude, get me a latte! I've always wanted a minion!)

So I've gotta wonder: just how enlightened can one be if they don't respect someone else's OTP ways?

Comments

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[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. I have gotten myself into some seriously bizarre fandom hot water over my behaving as if it is totally okay that I really just ship one pairing. What I failed to understand was that, according to Who fandom (idk how it is anywhere else), I am narrow-minded, shallow, juvenile and probably mentally unsound and I should definitely be ashamed of myself and hide my hideous OTP shipping ways when in polite company. Even though I don't care who/how anyone else ships and would never ever presume to bag on someone's ship in any other way than a private, locked eyebrow-raise.

It's why I don't play in general reccing comms any more. All my recs tend to have that whiff of OTP and that is definitely Not Allowed.

Though, at least in Who fandom, D/R OTP gets way more shit than say Three/Master OTP or Four/Romana OTP. But certainly the way to be accepted as a cool kid is to very loudly multiship, anyone and everyone (or be a sniffy anti-shipper all around).

And I've seen so many people argue that you can't possibly be a good writer if you just write one pairing. Which is such bullshit because it assumes that the only factor in story-telling is two characters. Which is the same fallacy that leads to "all fanfic writers lack creativity and are just copying." NO. Actually. You can tell a gazillion very different, very intricate, very... varied stories even if the one constant in all of them is two characters. And I've seen people who write lots and lots of different ships but the fic always sounds the same because they don't change anything else. But that's somehow okay because multishipping is automatically awesome and enlightened.

A nerve: you have touched it. Apparently.

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[shinyopals.livejournal.com]

Ship wars are like religious debates. Everyone is convinced they are right--except for those who favour tentacles and know they're being silly--and yet nobody gets converted.

HAVE YOU DECIDED ON A HARRY POTTER SHIP YET?

XD Anyway, silliness aside, I agree. OF COURSE.

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[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear here, I'm assuming that when you say "multi-shippers," you mean people who want to ship anyone/everyone except canon pairings, versus people who like multiple canon ships from a show, or even a mix of canon pairings and alternative pairings from a show.

I'm not sure where the aggressively anti-canon attitude comes from, honestly. Do anti-canon-shippers think that refusing to acknowledge the validity of canon relationships is somehow Sticking It to The Man?

Not everyone is Captain Jack. Insisting that every character thinks and acts in exactly the same way he does is just a different box to shove everyone into.

*shakes head, wanders back off to the fic-finishing bunker*

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I've encountered the attitude in other fandoms, but it's definitely much more pronounced in DW fandom. There's a side of "Doctor Who is about change" that helps it along, I think.

And I've seen that about writing as well. Fortunately I haven't seen it nearly as much, but it's there. Right along with the notion that if you don't write sex, you must be immature.

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[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

if you don't write sex, you must be immature.

As someone who does write sex... that also makes you immature, believe me. Unless it's really really ~edgy~ sex and you use really oblique prose to describe it. Then you're okay.

Damned if you do....

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

*nods* :D

And why won't anyone take my Snape/whumping tree ship seriously???

(But really, I imagine I won't have a ship at all, probably because they're wee children. :D)

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[ginamak.livejournal.com]

It's so absurd. I mean, seriously? Why can't people just like what they like? It's the INTERNET. It contains multitudes.

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[ginamak.livejournal.com]

Unless it's really really ~edgy~ sex and you use really oblique prose to describe it. Then you're okay.

Oh, good lord, the people who think this make me insane. They also tend to write the most wildly OOC stories I have ever had the misfortune to come across, but I'm not saying the two are definitely related.

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[elismor.livejournal.com]

I don't find it particularly juvenile that I generally only ship one pairing, but yet I see so many comments that indicate as much. That somehow a person is enlightened if they can...

This isn't new to fandom. Years ago, you were enlightened if you liked slash and juvenile if you liked het. After that, you were enlightened if you liked porn/kink and juvenile if you liked gen. Then it was that the people who liked under-age sex were enlightened and those who didn't were juvenile. Then, you were enlightened if you liked RPS/F and juvenile if you didn't.


It extends well beyond fandom and into human nature. Yankees fans are enlightened, Sox fans are juvenile. Those who read literature are enlightened, those who read Romance are juvenile...

It's just Us and Them in different pants.

PS. Everyone knows that the only 'ship in Who is Doctor/Tardis.

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[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

*pet pet* It's okay, I don't have a HP ship either. It's one of the many canons where I just roll with the canon ships as they happen and don't really think about them that much. THEY'RE KIDS! Eep!

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, yeah.

I remember years and years ago (before DW) running across someone who honestly believed you couldn't be a good writer if you wrote a canon pairing. So there is some of that kind of thinking out there.

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why people get threatened by other people's ships. I really don't.

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[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

I'm still waiting to hear about some Rassilon/Master post-TEoT H/C fic. XP

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[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

There's still plenty of that, if you read fandomsecrets (*clutches head* yeah, I know). So many people just don't understand the "point" of shipping canon ships and claim that the entire purpose of fandom and fanfic is the non-canon ships. Otherwise, you're doing it wrong.

IDK, for me, shipping is like falling in love. I don't control when it happens or with who. It just... happens.

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I remember the whole slash vs. het thing. Thank god that's over. (Or at least I've not seen it around in a very long time.) I guess there always has to be something us Sneetches can point to and feel superior about.

PS. Everyone knows that the only 'ship in Who is Doctor/Tardis.

XD XD XD Sending you a text in 3..2..1..

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

*nods*

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

For me too. I actually don't ship that often, but when I do it really is a bit like falling in love. :)

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[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

Even when I was in HP fandom for like... years... I was always surprised by the people who shipped something really hardcore. It was just one of those instances where we were definitely... well, reading a different book, in this case. I would stumble into ship wars and just be left going "BUT WHO CARES WHAT DO YOU THINK THE LAST HORCRUX IS?????????"

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[catyuy.livejournal.com]

And the real world version of the fandom, tentacles subgroup would be religous, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster subgroup.

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[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

It's funny, because I think as the types of shows that tend to develop participatory fandoms have become more emotionally complex and dealt with relationships in a much more open and (usually) mature way, many old school fans have become progressively less and less able to cope with the reality of what their show of choice is. They're so used to having to write this entire extra layer of complexity and nuance for a show in their head that they don't know how to exist in the fandom for a show that has that built in already.

Back in the day, if you wanted to write a pairing fic in Star Trek, it *had* to be alt, because they simply didn't portray any serious ongoing romantic relationships. I don't just mean K/S either - I'm talking about stuff like Kirk/Rand or what have you.

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[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

And it's also not at all related to putting every fic title in all lower case like you're goddamn e.e. cummings or something. ;D

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[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

I won't consider it a holy mission to dissuade people from writing their pairing because it's "wrong." (However, it's a completely different matter if I dissect a relationship in a meta-type manner on my journal. Picking apart canon and coming to my own conclusion that, say, Amy and Eleven don't have a romantic relationship whatsoever doesn't equate to me saying "THOU SHALT NOT WRITE ELEVEN/AMY." Fic is there to give us what we don't get in canon.)

ugh I agree with all of this. There are plenty of pairings that freak me out for one reason or another but I don't care if someone else writes it.

Shipping in general is hilarious because people get so self-righteous over it. ONLY CANON SHIPS! ONLY FANON SHIPS! ONLY MULTI-SHIPPING! ONLY OTPING! ONLY OT3-4-5-6-ETCING! Goddamn people we are discussing the love lives of fictional characters, whatever your opinion is, you are not ~enlightened~.

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[maypanic.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably certain he has never in canon explicitly called ANYONE else "sexy", as he did the TARDIS.


QED, OTP.

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[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I had to admit I had to switch gears when I started watching New Who. I just wasn't used to TPTB liking/writing/developing an actual relationship! And...they kept out-shipping me! :D

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[catyuy.livejournal.com]

In my mind you can ship whatever you want.
As long as you don't try and convert/yell at me over what I ship or start some useless war over it.

Same thing with religious beliefs.