I noticed that in my last entry I was missing a #4

[petronia]

4) Wfandom does not - to the best of my knowledge - ever use Cfandom/Jfandom's "all-[chara]" in notating personal pairing preference. Fangirls being fangirls this doesn't mean the phenomenon doesn't exist, just that (Sapir-Whorf being Sapir-Whorf) it's not codified and thus never talked about as such. I can't think of any specific instance where wank would have been avoided if the terminology were clearer, but discussions can be muddled and... okay, I just like dissecting fandom terminology. XD

Shipping all-X means one is likely to read any or most pairings as long as character X is part of it, character X being a special favorite. For instance, one_if_by_land likes Fuji. She ships TezuFuji, but will read FujiRyo, Fujicest, Dream Pair or however it is you call FujiKiku again, and possibly other Fuji-centric pairings like FujiKiri (Bing to thread for further details). ninjatrauma also flies the TezuFuji shipper flag, but her focus is on Tezuka: as well as TezuFuji, she likes TezuAto and TezuOishi. I don't remember how she feels about TezuRyo offhand (Becky to thread for further details) but I know she is willing to read Tezuka x Sakuno. XD Rather than say Bing and Becky are both TezuFuji OTPers, then, a more encompassing notation is that Bing ships all-Fuji, Becky ships Tezuka-all (more on this later), and both give preference to TezuFuji.

This only moves beyond hair-splitting if one considers the original strong definition of 'OTP' (as opposed to the weak definition, that has general currency, of "a pairing I really really like"). By the strong definition, if TezuFuji were my OTP one would not predict me to be more likely than average to read Fujicest or TezuAto; in fact I would be less inclined to read those pairings than a story that did not include Tezuka or Fuji at all, because I would find it annoying to see Fuji with someone who was not Tezuka and vice-versa. There are, of course, people who exhibit this preference in PoT fandom - with regard to Tezuka and Fuji - because someone who ships TezuFuji only with each other could just as well be all-Atobe when it comes to Hyoutei (IOW there are enough characters in the darned series not to step on each other's toes >_>). Some people strong-OTP every pairing that they like, but I suspect they're actually in the minority. A vocal minority.

People who always strong-OTP can be said to privilege the pairing over the character. People who always all-chara can be said to privilege the character over the pairing. (Readers may want to argue this, especially if you replace with 'couple' and 'individual'.)

Other examples: fabulous_papaya vocally ships Urahara x Yoruichi but would not be averse to seeing Yoruichi tryst with most everyone of note in Soul Society (in fact she's writing it). I personally ship Brad x Schu but would read the phonebook from end to end if you convinced me Schuldig appeared therein, and if there's a pairing all the more piquancy. Since it's not a strong-OTP I don't mind seeing Crawford slashed with someone else (and I reckon Nat would say the same re: Urahara) but I'm not impelled to seek it out in my dull moments either; it's not what brightens my day.

From these redundant cases (and others, but I'm not going to sit here and reproduce the Inui!notebook page I keep on each and every one of you XD) one models other rules of thumb. Primo that one tends to ship one of the characters in one's favorite pairing as all-[chara], but not both; secundo that seme/uke assignment tends to remain consistent. I think this is built into the terminology in Cfandom (all-[chara] vs [chara]-all) but it's actually difficult to tell, because Cfandom has a stifling way of assigning seme x uke as a fanon collective, and most of the time in Cfandom it's the uke that's shipped all-[chara] to begin with. (80-90%? Aizen is an exception.) Which is sort of interesting in its own right. As for Jfandom it actually eschews the all-[chara] notation most of the time in favour of "[chara]-seme" or "[chara]-uke", i.e. "X is my favorite character and I will read anything with him in it as long as he is uke" - the position is seen as the deal maker/breaker along which battle lines are drawn, if a battle must be fought. XD This is disconcerting if - say - you are like me and strong-OTP Ban x Ginji/Ginji x Ban, but in Jfandom must perforce pick and chuse from all-Ginji-uke versus all-Ban-uke sites. Cfandom also uses these but to lesser extent. Of course I prefer the all-[chara] notation to the [chara]-[position] notation because it's much more descriptive of what does happen in Wfandom.

Um, please do not take the intent of the above as anything approaching prescriptive. I am just massively dorky not to mention procrastinating, and writing this sort of thing cheers me up. XD;;

One more for the road:

6) Chrissie: when you were talking about hairties falling off
Chrissie: for some reason i was thinking
Chrissie: that you were asking for examples to place beside byakuya XD;;;;
Sabina: Ohhh
Sabina: Well, actually I meant to discuss Byakuya too
Chrissie: TIRED
Sabina: but I forgot! :/
Sabina: I'll add that in my second entry.
Sabina: But Byakuya's macaronis getting chopped off his head carries a different semiotic value from Renji's hairtie falling off.
Sabina: Is my instinct, anyway.
Chrissie: XDXD
Chrissie: what?
Chrissie: chopped off?
Chrissie: see, i don't even remember that
Chrissie: just remember first panel of umm bed scene
Sabina: Well, Ichigo basically hits him over the head with his sword!
Chrissie: his hair down!
Sabina: And
Sabina: breaks them.
Chrissie: softens him so much
Chrissie: ooohhhh XD
Sabina: Otherwise HE WOULD STILL BE WEARING THEM
Sabina: EVEN IN BED
Chrissie: XDDDDDDDD
Chrissie: GO ICHIGO <3333333333
Sabina: I don't know if he has a spare set
Sabina: or if they were family heirlooms or something
Sabina: (in which case Ichigo has also done future generations of Kuchiki a massive favour)
Chrissie: ...i thought they were family heirlooms?
Sabina: doesn't say.
Chrissie: they even have a name!
Sabina: They're signs of nobility,
Chrissie: 牽星箍
Chrissie: ooohhh
Chrissie: *nodsnods*
Sabina: but it's not said whether it's one specific object or "nobles are allowed to wear ermine shoes on alternate Tuesdays"
Sabina: Byakuya hasn't reappeared in the series since we left Soul Society, and as others have pointed out he doesn't have them anymore in the ensuing colour spreads
Chrissie: *__________*
Sabina: So maybe they are gone for good!
Chrissie: oh, fantastic
Chrissie: *CROSSES FINGERS*
Sabina: For twenty-eight or however many generations no one has ever whacked the head of the Kuchiki household over the head with a blunt object
Sabina: but finally the day of liberation has come
Chrissie: <333333
Chrissie: i bet lots of them wanted to do it themselves :/
Chrissie: those things don't look easy on the scalp

Comments

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

Procrastination is a worthy cause! And I found your rant thought-provoking, because I vary wildly between types depending on fandom. For ex, I'm Gyousou-all in 12K, but I'd be quite offended if anyone tried to break up (for example) Aral/Cordelia from the Vorkosigan universe. (Not that I've ever dared to go looking for Vorkosigan fic.)

[supacat.livejournal.com]

And I found your rant thought-provoking, because I vary wildly between types depending on fandom

Ditto, ditto, extremely though provoking. Though I lean more towards [chara]-all, I was pretty stunned to realise that I am [chara]-uke for several characters across fandoms. I adore reading them, but will run miles if they are the seme. What's up with that? @_@

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

...now I'm going to be spending days trying to figure out if I'm [chara]-all (or all-[chara], or whatever) for anybody in any of my fanfoms. Well, any of my fandoms besides PoT, in which I will read nearly anything if there are indicators it's worth reading, and will specifically seek out anything that appears even VAGUELY passable if it prominently features Shinji, Jirou, Kabaji, or Arai, and to a lesser extent Inui (in that I'll still read any pairing but I'm pickier about the fic because Inui is more popular).

I suppose I lean toward Nuriko-all. Except that I won't read much Tasuki/Nuriko because there's too much and it doesn't do a thing for me. (Tasuki/Kouji plz. And not Tasuki/Chichiri, good grief. ...I like total crack Chichiri het, though! And crossover crack Chichiri het. Actually, I just like good crack het in general.)

...Iketani. But mostly because there is no Iketani fic.

[nekokoban]

I actually have seen people do the all-chara notations, though they don't really denote it as such; one person on my flist called it her "little black dress" pairing -- i.e., so-and-so looks good on everyone, so she's freegoing about whatever pairings have him, as long as he's in it.

(I found the terminology amusing, though I personally am not suited to little black dresses. XD)

... as for myself, I usually tend to pick one pairing that I strong-OTP (to use your terminology), and then I'm pretty easygoing about the rest. Unless there are married couples/established canon, because then I go D: whenever I see those broken up for favor of other pairings and don't read fic pertaining to them.

[is also procrastinating at work but is about ready to leave, yay! |D]

[i-smile.livejournal.com]

I've seen it, too--I think--but called OTC. Where some people have OTPs and will read pretty much anything with that pairing, others have a One True Character thing where they'll read just about anything with that character.

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

You've totally caught me; I am willing to read Fuji with almost anyone. XD Though, I do judgment tests on characters; for instance, I never warmed up to Fuji/Taka because I just don't think Taka could give Fuji want he wants. For the most part, though, if Fuji likes someone, I love him too much to not automatically like the character in question, and if it's another character liking Fuji, well. How can I discount good taste? *rimshot* (So, in other words, not only am I all-Fuji, I am all-Fuji with the attached attitude of BUT ONLY IF YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM, NATCH.)

I read your explanation of different seme/uke templates on Charmian's journal the other day, and I realized that although I say I'm an advocate of non-fixed pairings, I have preferred perspectives for certain pairings, e.g. for Akira/Hikaru, I almost always see Akira as the one to realize his feelings first, so he's the stimulator aka seme, but that doesn't necessarily affect their relationship after that point; it's just Akira is the first to initiate for the first time in my head, and then it's back to fair play.

[tokkitsu.livejournal.com]

...Huh, damn. *trying to figure out how she categorizes exactly* Since I personally never really cared much about seme/uke whatever and pair most characters with half a dozen other characters anyway? Or that's the case in PoT, where everything is ridiculously switchable to me. WK, I guess I actually have OTPs, but not strong-OTPs in that I'll read other pairings (with the exception of OmiNagi), but I prefer certain pairings? No character preference there, really. Hm. *ponders*

Also, if Byakuya's curlers are really truly gone, then JOY TO THE WORLD, ahaha...

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not meant to be all-inclusive in the sense that you have to be either OTPing or loving one character and all the pairings with said character or some combination thereof. XD You could actually just prefer some pairings to others without falling into either pattern.

I suppose if Byakuya ever reappears in the series we'll know. I'm not in a big hurry to be honest. XD

Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

$.02 from the vocal minority, RE: privileging pairing over character--you were talking with worldserpent about how seme vs. uke is really a characterization issue--that the reason one finds it impossible to read fic featuring X as seme when once is convinced of X's ukehood is that there's an impassable characterization gap. Does this attitude privilege the role over the character? I don't know that it does; I think pairing vs. pairing (and OTPing) is often a similar issue. A Gingetsu who's sleeping with Ran is markedly different from a Gingetsu who has no interest whatsoever in sleeping with Ran. Similarly a Souji who bends over for the entire Shinsengumi is not the same Souji who is all-Hijikata-san-all-the-time. I don't think of it as "privileging" pairing XY so much as viewing Y's mode of relation to X (in the context of Y's mode of relation to the rest of the alphabet) as an essential characterization issue itself.

On a vaguely related note, looking at GyouRi J-fanart the other night I noticed that artists who ship Gyousou x Risai inevitably draw Taiki (even older!Taiki) with 0% 色気。 They do this out of brute necessity--the need to establish a sort of nise-kazoku dynamic in which Taiki is the offspring figure and not an object of anyone's eros, but needless to say my perception of Taiki is that he does have (unwitting) 色気 in spades, and to deprive him of that is, well, plain wrong. XD; Although this is not my primary reason for finding GyouRi absurd.

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

Hm, I'd buy that to a certain extent, particularly in that my grouse about fic about many pairings that I don't care for is that I feel that one or both characters must be, or at least almost always ARE, written OOC in order for the pairing to be accomplished. On the other hand, many of the pairings that I love also fail the "are they in character in most of the fics?" test, not because the pairing requires bending the characters in ways they don't want to go, but because so many people write BAD fic and their characterization sucks because their writing sucks because they're writing by the numbers and haven't realized that the characters they're supposedly writing about are not those numbers. (Witness, for example, most Tsuzuki/Hisoka fic. AUGHMYEYES.)

Whereas a good author can write a story that has a good, in character dynamic between A and B even while pairing A with C.

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it I don't think I was really considering fanfic portrayals at all. ._. Was thinking instead of the perception re: characters a writer must first form in order to write fic. Depending on canon I think it's often possible to have a plurality of perceptions--to view different versions of chara Y as equally valid--I imagine this is how people multiship, or do the all-[chara] thing in Sabina's terminology. But quality or quantity of fic written for a given pairing bears no relation to my subjective sense of that pairing's, uh, "trueness."

I hear you on the Tsuzuki/Hisoka.

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

But quality or quantity of fic written for a given pairing bears no relation to my subjective sense of that pairing's, uh, "trueness."

That's true. I was thinking more of the 'willingness to read' aspect, which in my case is always influenced by the likely quality of the story to some degree.

(One of the things I've been pondering lately is my overall pickiness in fandoms, since the latest fandom I've been sucked into is one where I'm VERY, VERY picky about both pairing and story quality, whereas the one before that was one where I had the most anything-goes attitude I've had in about a decade about both pairings and story quality.)

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[petronia.livejournal.com]

"Privileging pairing over character" wasn't descriptive of a strategy of canonical exegesis (so to speak) as of the fan herself. For once. XD That is to say, do you ever have a favorite character in a series you count as an honest-to-goodness fandom who isn't 1/2 of an OTP? This is an honest question on my part. I can't think of any instances where you seem to (who are your faves in Bleach again?), but I always like me some good data defer to the source.

Or to slightly change the scope - now that I'm considering the implications - would you agree there are characters out there whose core characterisation would not be affected by whether they are sleeping/in love/in a relationship/having a fling with X versus with Y or the entire alphabet? Or is it always an essential characterisation issue in the sense that it goes to the core of what you find attractive/interesting/worthy of exploration about a character (for instance liking character X because he is devoted, if character X ceases to be devoted to significant other in canon you would like him/her much less, and character Y who comes off as constitutionally not the devoted sort is just that much less interesting)?

Er, it goes without saying that there is no value judgment involved one way or the other. But I did expect to expand on this point, something told me people would disagree. XD

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

do you ever have a favorite character in a series you count as an honest-to-goodness fandom who isn't 1/2 of an OTP?

... :0 In fandoms that predate my adolescence, yes. For instance Doctor Who: I get hives when the Doctor is paired with anybody, sort of the inverse of an OTP. Otherwise, rarely.

(Bleach faves: YoruSoi of course. Rukia, and it's IchiRuki in some hazy future-presumptive sense--I'm reminded a bit of how all through Rurouni Kenshin it's evident that Kenshin is probably going to hook up with Kaoru, presuming they don't die, but they're not hooking up right this minute.)

I think yes, there are characters whose core characterization would not be affected by relationship status. And yes, I tend to be less interested in them. Your example re: devotion is apt. ^^; More below.

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[petronia.livejournal.com]

...I think I'm being very confusing. ^^; I mean to posit something like the following: if as you say you view X's mode of relating to Y and vice-versa - that is to say, X being in love with or in a relationship with Y - as an essential part of X's characterization, and you really like X (presumably this has a good deal to do with X's character), can you not conclude that you like X to some extent because s/he is in a relationship with Y?

To what extent? (Of course this would vary, but.)

Like - to me a Gingetsu who never so much as met Ran in the first place would still be recognizable as Gingetsu. Personality etc. I wouldn't have any trouble calling him the same guy, and I sort of figure you'd say the same. But if CLAMP had written a series in which there was Gingetsu who worked with Kazuhiko and there was Ran who... lived alone and played a role in the story, how interesting would you find Gingetsu? (Let alone the question, how interesting would you find Clover itself. XD)

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

You are right of course; I like X in the context of Y, or X because s/he is in a relationship with Y. The extent question may be impossible to answer. How much of X is because of Y? I like it when X and Y help each other self-actualize (there's that again), or maybe I'm drawn to reciprocal self-actualization sono mono, which can't occur in any context other than a relationship. Now I begin to grok what you're saying about "privileging the pairing." It is late and I am slow.

A Gingetsu who had never met Ran would still be Gingetsu, but I don't know how interesting he would be--his qualities that appeal to me show up in the context of Ran. I can't separate the character from the relationship because the character is, in significant part, established through the relationship? In the text, I mean. (Using Gingetsu as an example is unfair because to the casual viewer Gingetsu is about as interesting as a brick wall--but moving onward.) In theory CLAMP could've used some vehicle other than the story of Clover 4 to display Gingetsu's tasty marshmallow center? But however it gets delivered, I need the insight from that story--to know he's the kind of seme person who will rescue a stray beyond the call of duty, install bomb in head etc.--in order to really like him.

Once I'm fully convinced of pair XY it becomes very difficult for me to reconstruct X in absence of Y. It's on the level of trying to imagine my parents (Dad/Mom OTP ahaha no joke) as individuals who had never met.

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

That is to say, do you ever have a favorite character in a series you count as an honest-to-goodness fandom who isn't 1/2 of an OTP?

Wait, were you positing that those who do X-all (this feels like a command in a Final Fantasy...) usually have X as part of their (weak) OTP?  Or were you just asking that of canis_m?

Personally, I'm Fuji-all, and have no OTP.  I prefer fujikiri, because I think it's cute and crackly, but am almost always happy to see Fuji with anyone—except Tezuka. XD

I also prefer to see him as seme, 'cause as much as I don't believe in such distinctions, others sometimes do, which leads to characterization issues.  That is, I am so desperate to read Fuji-anyone I will read all sorts of dreck, and Fuji-as-weepy-uke is a more easy and horrifying pitfall (to me) than Fuji-as-[blank]-seme.  Likewise, I rarely liked Fuji's characterization in fujitezu stories, so avoid them, though I'll make exceptions and read certain authors.  However, my dislike of fujitezu is compounded by the fact that I honestly don't like Tezuka.  Or not so much, since one could say my fundamental understanding of Fuji does not work alongside my understanding of Tezuka.

I also like gen stories and find Fuji-nobody perfectly agreeable, but those are hard to come by in tenipuri.

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, canis_m doesn't do X-all, so I wasn't positing anything in that respect. *g* I think people who do X-all either do have X as part of their weak-OTP, or (like you) they don't OTP with X at all.

I write Fuji gen stories! ...But yeah, I'm definitely in the minority. XD

Re: Strong-OTP, like Strong Bad

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

I read your Fuji gen stories! (and your... that. grrr.)  ... but they are not very many. :<

[subaru-san.livejournal.com]

I have to say as far as pairings go, I don't too much care who's seme and who's uke, but I can say that I tend to prefer the ukes. Ie, I sympathize with them more, and generally prefer the position of the uke. Then again, I don't like weak, pathetic ukes either. Like I really like the AsamiXTakaba pairing because I don't see Takaba as a weak uke.

Cynthia

[kuroraka.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I've never thought about this before but i guess i'm very much an OTC person. There's usually one(or two, or three...) villain character i love and i don't mind seeing them paired up with pretty much everybody and their mother. But it's also very possible that one of those pairings might get quasi-OTP status over time. This usually results in me disliking any pairing involving the other half of my OTP, not the OTC. Example: my OTC in Bleach is Gin. I like Gin x Rangiku, Gin x Kira, Aizen x Gin and Gin molesting random other Bleach characters. My quasi-OTP is Gin x Rangiku which means that i categorically refuse to read any fic involving Rangiku paired up with another character. Does that make sense? No? Thought so...XD

I've never cared much about the seme/uke stuff, though because switching is fun!*nods*

And yay to Ichigo for hitting Byakuya over the head! His hair will be eternally grateful...

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

This happens to me too! The quasi-OTP thing, I mean. It's like... in the case of PMK HijiOki for example, I can concieve of Hijikata pairing up with someone else (though nobody else would be as good, clearly) but I can't imagine Souji with another partner.

Maybe it's because of the characters themselves. I don't see Souji as the sort of person to go around having random crushes or affairs - he's devoted to/obsessed with Hijikata, period. Whereas I think Hijikata is the sort of person who, if tragic love hadn't happened, would eventually have paired up with a merely OK partner and/or gone on screwing everything in sight.

[kuroraka.livejournal.com]

Yes, many of my OTCs tend to be considered slightly...err...promiscuous in canon and/or fanon for what reason ever...

It might also be possible that one's subconsciously(?) taking the perspective of the OTC in a it's okay for me to screw around but my OTP partner only belongs to me! sorta way, but that would be a pretty macho attitude...XD

Another one of those pairing people

[tintenfic.livejournal.com]

I tell you, these guys X and Y, they're pretty conflicted over who and what they're liking and/or doing.

Seems that strong OTPers are a minority everywhere?

Could it be possible that you fall for a character X that is only possible (in one's head, that is) with another, specific character Y? I'm thinking this is personal, in the case of the squituna way of doing things, but we could be a statistical outlier for all I know.

I'm thinking about the example you and canis_m brought up and I figure I'd go nuts if Ran were out of the picture because that's a license to ship Gingetsu/Kazuhiko in less platonic way than I do now. However, as the situation goes, I like Kazuhiko more precisely because he's not with Gingetsu. Hm. This is confusing even myself.

Me and tuna discussed this quite extensively off-net while she was here in Singapore and I think, extrapolating from what I think we both feel and play in the fandom-box, that it is impossible for us to not strong-OTP because the vibes? plot threads of our fic? hours we spend thrashing out characters? have a way of feeding off each other until we have this ginormous universe where we are now incapable of figuring out how it is possible that X, he doesn't like Y.

Tuna expressed it very well when she said that pairing manifestos were redundant for her because everything you want to know about how and why she loves character X can be found by reading her fic. I have to say the same.

I suppose we could ship alt-pairings (Emishi, for example. Tuna says enough is enough and wants to punt him at Amon, I stand fast by Shido) but generally it's difficult to work things out alone (I daresay we're spoilt) and more often than not we just lose interest.

Re: Another one of those pairing people

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

until we have this ginormous universe where we are now incapable of figuring out how it is possible that X, he doesn't like Y.

Exactly, this is what I mean by "it becomes very difficult to reconstruct X in absence of Y." If I'm OTPing XY, when told to imagine an X who is not with Y I get stumped, or else X starts to look like a woefully bereft figure.

Clover may be a extreme and unwieldy example for discussing this topic, since one can't revise relationships in Clover without affecting all the other characters and the plot. Not so with Bleach or TeniPuri or any of these cast-of-thousands shounen series.

...Whether type of source work affects shipping practices hasn't really been brought up, but I think it signifies. How many people are seriously going to ship all-Hitomi in Escaflowne? Or *koff* all-Jack in Brokeback Mountain? If the canon itself contains or is a love story, explicitly, doesn't that affect shipping practices? I should think it does.

Re: Another one of those pairing people

[tintenfic.livejournal.com]

I think you're right on the source material thing. Co-dependent characters are really more my kind of thing. Or hopelessly pining, but that's usually my interpretation of their messed-upness. :)

Not so with Bleach or TeniPuri or any of these cast-of-thousands shounen series.

You brought up a good point. After HnG and PoT? Never again will I do this to myself. No Bleach, no PMK.

If the canon itself contains or is a love story, explicitly, doesn't that affect shipping practices? I should think it does.

I was trying to imagine a Vash that was written without Wolfwood being any part of the picture. Hm, just barely possible but too scary to contemplate.

Re: Another one of those pairing people

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't have an answer, really. XD The original post was meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive, but also not an exploration of causality - that is to say, with regard to the question of why people OTP or OTC your guess is as good as mine. When I said I thought strong-OTPers were in the minority I meant people who only ever strong-OTP; people who never strong-OTP are also in the minority for sure, and in both cases my instinct is to say it relates back to the fan's personal strategy for interfacing with any fandom, up to and including selecting what canon to be fannish about in the first place. But beyond that it probably varies. I mean, you've described one scenario, but not everyone has a Tuna (their loss undoubtedly XD).

Personally, I think cases where I really can't imagine X not liking Y (or not liking Y "in that way") are rare. I don't want to say nonexistent, but rare. Often it makes for a quite depressing scenario I have no desire to dwell on, though.

Re: Another one of those pairing people

[tintenfic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I figured if you're describing you might as well go for describing the state of 99% of fandom. ^_^

I did mean to include myself (and Tuna?) under the category of people who only ever OTP. I can't work if I don't have an OTP. Hell, I use my fannish impulses as a means to channel my OTPage!

Yes, not everyone has a Tuna. Tragic state of affairs, that.

What you and canis_m said makes a lot of sense. The shipping really depends on the kind of fandom. If you have characters that come as duet combo (Hikaru/Akira, Vash/Wolfwood, Ban/Ginji) it is pretty frigging impossible to pair these characters up with other people without spending most of the fic going into detail why not their other 1/2 instead.

In fact, it's a little perverse.

I never could understand writing and reading pairings because "I just want to". To wake up and do something so completely different, I'd have to get a new brain.

Personally, I think cases where I really can't imagine X not liking Y (or not liking Y "in that way") are rare.

I agree that this is true, but this goes back to the argument of why yaoi and etc. Why is it depressing though? Liking someone evidently doesn't in itself depress me (except the situations that ensue are inevitably tragic and /that/ depresses me).

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

oh, d'you think the kenseikan are really gone forever? But they're so funny. D:

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think KT never particularly intended them to be gone for good, but he may be under fan pressure now. XD We'll know once Byakuya reappears in the serialisation, I expect (sometime after Ishida and Gin...).

P.S. That icon always makes me laugh out of sheer pathos.

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

I shall have to angst if the kenseikan are gone for good. 'Cos! What is Byakuya without his hair noodles? I might actually have to start taking him seriously! :O

p. s. hey, no laughing at the B. He is a beautiful and unique snowflake flower bee hee hee hee.