Thoughts on OTP-ness

[jedi_of_urth]

After everything blew up on mrv3000’s post yesterday, I’m going to temp fate with my own talk about OTP shipping. But I’m pretty sure a lot fewer people in fandom know who I am so we’ll if the wankers find me.


Okay, I use the terms OTP fairly loosely, but it still first it has to mean two things:
-That I feel invested in the relationship.
-That I decidedly prefer the two characters together over any other pairing involving them.

There are plenty of ships I enjoy but don’t feel invested in. They work out or they don’t but I don’t really spend much time away from the show caring about that relationship.

The second qualification does not mean I don’t respect, and sometimes even like, other options for shipping the characters, but it does mean that I can clearly tell that one of them is a favorite.

Neither of these mean that I don’t respect that other people have different opinions. Neither of these mean that I don’t sometimes dabble in other ships from the show, sometimes even involving my OTP. It just means that *to me* there is a pairing that I enjoy a lot and prefer over other options.

I’m not even going into any specific fandom examples. Ask away about them, but for the main post I’m keeping it fandom-neutral.

But to get back to mrv3000’s original point, why does fandom see to think it’s “wrong” to have a favorite? And to have a strong opinion about why they are your favorite? And to have opinions about others ships (though not the shippers mind you) that may or may not be influenced by they ship you like best? Or just to not ship anyone/everyone?

Go ahead and approach fandom and shipping however *you* want. But seriously, be respectful to people with other opinions and approaches, especially when you enter their space.

Comments

Re: Addendum about Moffat that I meant to address:

[jedi_of_urth]

a) I'm spoiled like crazy for s5 if I ever get around to watching it, and I wanted to be so I would know what I was getting into if I did. So don't worry about spoiling me.

b) That's good to know, that it still comes through that the issues are still there. Because I'll grant that regeneration can mellow Ten's overt issues, they're still a part of the Doctor's character over all. And RTD did nothing to resolve them before he left, I just assumed Moffat would sweep them under the rug and act like they weren't there.

Re: Addendum about Moffat that I meant to address:

[clockwork-sky.livejournal.com]

Listen to Amy's backstory for five minutes and you immediately know that Moffat is, strangely enough, actually sort of cosmically trying to have Eleven have to continue to deal with both his Rose-issues and his Donna-issues, even though he can't reach either of them anymore. It's... actually one of the more well-done subtext things in the series, I think.