I know there are people who use OTP in a true-believer sense and who hold a great deal of antagonism toward people who dare to espouse a belief in other pairing possibilities within a given fandom, but when I use OTP, I intend one of the following:
1. As a joke. So...Mrs Norris/Crookshanks are an obvious OTP, except...not. Their personalities aren't a good match (hee...watch as Beth tries to turn this silliness into a rational argument *G*), I don't want to see the pairing, there's no canonical basis for the pairing, etc. But come on...two cats: it's obvious they must be in love.
2. As shorthand for "I like to see XXXXXXX together to the exclusion of all other pairings." Now, with a fandom like HP, I don't even bother with the OTP designation, since I'm much more willing to read (and write) many different combinations of people than I am in other fandoms (e.g., Due South, in which Fraser and RayK are my OTP, despite the fact that I have friends in the fandom who 'ship' many other pairings). When I was heavily invested in Highlander, my reading OTP was Duncan/Methos, but now that I'm no longer really involved in the fandom, I don't think of them as my OTP anymore, which distinguishes them from the following category....
3. A way to signal pairings that are obviously right for each other (no, *not* Mrs. Norris/Crookshanks!), even if I have little or nothing to do with the fandom in question and which seem to be the *only* pairing that makes sense (this is all subjective, of course). Starsky/Hutch, for example. Not my fandom, but the pairing is obvious, despite the fact I have no interest in reading it. Or Holmes/Watson and Aziraphale/Crowley and Jim/Blair (all pairings I like now or at least did once upon a time).
no subject
1. As a joke. So...Mrs Norris/Crookshanks are an obvious OTP, except...not. Their personalities aren't a good match (hee...watch as Beth tries to turn this silliness into a rational argument *G*), I don't want to see the pairing, there's no canonical basis for the pairing, etc. But come on...two cats: it's obvious they must be in love.
2. As shorthand for "I like to see XXXXXXX together to the exclusion of all other pairings." Now, with a fandom like HP, I don't even bother with the OTP designation, since I'm much more willing to read (and write) many different combinations of people than I am in other fandoms (e.g., Due South, in which Fraser and RayK are my OTP, despite the fact that I have friends in the fandom who 'ship' many other pairings). When I was heavily invested in Highlander, my reading OTP was Duncan/Methos, but now that I'm no longer really involved in the fandom, I don't think of them as my OTP anymore, which distinguishes them from the following category....
3. A way to signal pairings that are obviously right for each other (no, *not* Mrs. Norris/Crookshanks!), even if I have little or nothing to do with the fandom in question and which seem to be the *only* pairing that makes sense (this is all subjective, of course). Starsky/Hutch, for example. Not my fandom, but the pairing is obvious, despite the fact I have no interest in reading it. Or Holmes/Watson and Aziraphale/Crowley and Jim/Blair (all pairings I like now or at least did once upon a time).