OTP

[prillalar]

I'm making with the questions today. Because I think that's the best feature of LJ: getting other people to come write smart things in my journal. It saves wear and tear on my brain, since then I don't have to be smart myself.

What is an OTP? I know what it stands for: One True Pairing. But recently I've begun to wonder if I've been using it wrong.

To me, it means "the pairing I especially like to ship". Hermione/George is one of my OTPs. Remus/Kingsley. Merry/Pippin. Daniel/Jonas. But I write other pairings and I read other pairings and if you don't ship my OTPs, I'll still be your friend.

Is an OTP more exclusive than that, the only pairing that you'll entertain for that fandom? Or can it mean a pairing that's accepted by most of the fandom, like Jack/Daniel, Harry/Draco, Gimli/Galadriel? (OK, maybe I'm the only one who ships Gimli/Galadriel.)

When you use "OTP" what do you mean? And who are your OTPs?

Be smart for me now. :)

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

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).

[prillalar]

This seems very close to the way I've been using it my self. People -- or at least people in my fannish circle -- seem to be very flexible.

Oh, and: Mrs Norris/Crookshanks are an obvious OTP? U R SICK!!!1!!!!1