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OMGtheirloveissopure
Jun. 18th, 2005 12:21 pmOther people keep tagging me to do that six One True Pairing and the moment you first knew it was OTP meme, but the truth is, I'm not sure if I can. Two of the fandoms I've written the most fanfic in and done the most vids to are polyamorous to me -- X-Files, for instance. Should it be M/S, and ship or just UST? No, it should probably be Mulder/Skinner, since that's what got me writing in it in the first place. But then, there's Skinner/Scully... so, can't do XF even though it's a hugely important fandom for me. Then there's Buffy (and by extension, Angel). I have so many pairings and interests in that show, and just single character interests, that it's ridiculous. Yeah, Spuffy was what got me writing in it, but I started vidding in it back in second season, because the Buffy and Angel trauma made me so damn happy. And then there's Wes, and Lilah, and Faith, and Willow, and Oz, and Xander, and Tara and Giles and Angel and Doyle and Gunn and Fred, poor Fred ... gah. So, can't do that other ginormous fandom for me. And Firefly! I can't even go there. And who picked six? Because, dude, that doesn't even get half of my favorite OTPs.
Plus, I'm an OTP girl except for the two fandoms mentioned above and so I tend to have too many. I see someone having chemistry all over the place, and that's it. I only have eyes for them. Sometimes, like in Band of Brothers, I can't even remember the names of many other characters because I only see my guys... I am sad that way.
And then there's the mutability of the list. My lists always change from day to day. So this isn't even true tomorrow!
1. Bodie and Doyle, The Professionals. Because this one's the one that started it all. I didn't even know about slash when I fell in love with them. There were no other US fans, either, since the show was coming to us from Canadian television and I think we were the only idiots who would stay up till 2 in the morning on a Friday just to see Brit cops. But I think, even with 16 years of wandering in the wilderness, wondering if there were any other fans elsewhere in the world, not even having a clue about slash, I knew that they were It. They were one true pairing. They belonged together, from the first moment I saw them, at the end of Female Factor, when Doyle puts the flowers on Ann Seaford's grave, and then Bodie tries to convince him that the crutches will be useful for getting birds. That was my first glimpse of them -- I was reluctant to watch it, and only did so out of duress -- and zing went the strings of my heart as they walked away from the camera together. Little nascent slash fan that I was.
2. Dom/Brian, The Fast and the Furious. My other B&D pairing. When I saw this in the theatre, every five minutes I would turn to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
movies_michelle or she would turn to me and we would comment on how soon before Dom bent Brian over the hood of a car and did him right there. But I knew they were OTP when Brian brings the old beater Supra to Dom, and Dom's all flirty and showing off his stunning muscles, and the two of them are freaking *twinkling* at each other, and Brian says, "No faith!" And Dom responds, "Oh, I have faith in you." They've known each other probably for the equivalent of maybe half a day, barely had any real conversations, and Dom tells him, all flirty and grinning like a little kid, that he has faith in this guy he barely knows. Yeah, baby, ya gotta have faith.
3. Chris/Vin, The Magnificent Seven. I've been a Michael Biehn fan most of my life, and discovered Eric Close in the shortlived, incredible series Now and Again. Whenklia mentioned to me that they were the primary pairing in Mag 7, talk about zinging heartstrings. We went back and watched the pilot movie to see this for ourselves, and while it was the head-nod across the street and the unspoken communication that made me take notice, what really convinced me this was the OTP for me was when they are sitting on top of the bluff, and Vin makes the decision to tell Chris about being a wanted man. When he barely knows him. And then tells him that if anything happens, he should claim the reward with Vin's body, because it would be nice to have a friend help him get the last laugh on the guy who framed him. Whoa, doggies. He just told this guy a major secret, and one that could be hugely dangerous to him, and what does Chris do? He grins like an idiot, ducks his head shyly, and then they sit there and spark at each other as the sun goes down.
4. Nikita/Michael, La Femme Nikita. I've already written a lot about them in my Ship Manifesto and in my review of the season one dvds, so I won't add that here, except to say that for me, no one else existed in this series except for side characters as amusement or emotional attachment (Birkoff, Walter) or the one guest starring bit with girl on girl action with Gina Torres. For me, the whole universe was Nik and Mikey. And I knew it in the first episode, partly because they retooled the movie (one of my favorites), and so the Bob character, which morphed into Michael, was already a known quantity in terms of loving Nikita. But in the pilot ep, they go one step further in the scene where Nikita is shown her apartment and told she is now living on the outside, having completed her test. Michael takes the coat from her shoulders and for a moment she, and we, think he might kiss her, and then she steps away when she realizes he's only taking his coat, and thus begins their almost but not quite dance of sex and melancholy for the next three years. They were soooo aready gone by that scene.
5. Crockett/Castillo, Miami Vice. Here again was a show I was hugely fannish about before ever finding out there were other fans like me. But I knew nothing of slash. When I finally found media fandom, I dug out my old Vice tapes in a fit of nostalgia, and discovered that bothsherrold and feochadn had also been huge fans. Feochadn and I would rapturously recount how much we loved the show, after having not seen it for years. And black_bird_777 asked us, "Is there really a canon basis for the C/C thing?" We both shook our heads and said no. Then we watched a few of the eps. The ones where Crockett is the only one who can get Castillo back from being tipped over the edge, or the ones where he calls Castillo "Marty" when no one else does, and the ones where they are in each other's space so much that they're nearly having body contact, and staring so intently at each other they might burn holes in the screen. But that OTP moment comes in my favorite episode, The Golden Triangle (I hate how they renamed the first part of that two-parter Golden Triangle part 1, instead of the original title, Score), when Castillo, who is so cool and powerful that he can choke a huge guy nearly to death with one hand and keep the other hand in his pocket, can only be pulled off of the guy by Sonny. It's like Sonny is the only one who can reach him in that altered state of rage, and he calls him Martin and Marty for the first time, really, and it's just so obvious that they need each other. And how.
6. Nixon/Winters, Band of Brothers. I still feel a little skeevy about this, and thought maybe I should do Due South, Fraser and Vecchio, but movies michelle already did that one up fine, so I will out my skeevy self here. See, it's really real person slash, which I find somewhat disturbing (not that I find my friends who are into it disturbing, it's just the thing itself that gives me the heebie-jeebies. I still love you all no matter what), and one of those men is still alive. I find it especially disturbing because these guys were not actors -- they were real men, real heroes, who never intended to put themselves in the limelight. But it also feels a little different, and I don't know if it's me rationalizing, or it really is different, becaause it's not the real Lewis Nixon and Dick Winters I'm all OTP about, but the characters the actors are bringing to life, who are slightly fictionalized and dramatized in a film. It feels more like regular characters to me, in that it's not, say, Michael Biehn and Eric Close I'm interested in slashing, it's the characters as inhabited by those two actors. I don't know if that makes sense. But when I let myself stop feeling guilty about it, Nix and Winters are just... they have one of the most intense and warm and wonderful friendships I've ever seen. Ron Livingston and Damien Lewis connect so strongly right off the bat, and the real friendship of the two men (they stayed incredibly close after the war) just seems to radiate off of them. It's at its OTP best when after D-Day, after all this horrible, dangerous stuff, Nixon comes rolling up on a tank, sitting on the front near the gun, and the two of them just grin and talk to each other as if they were only speaking a few minutes ago. Then Nixon asks Winters if he wants a ride, and helps him hop right up next to him on the tank, and they roll away. Or maybe it's the scene at night after the market garden disaster, and Winters can't seem to open the tin of food, and so Nixon just takes it out of his hands as if it's the natural thing, and then makes an offhand remark about "don't ever get a cat." He knows his friend is shaken up, and he knows he can do or say whatever he wants to him, and they just seem to understand each other -- it doesn't make it any better, but at least they can try to help each other out.
(ETA: I have one OTP that predates everything -- Pros, Star Trek, anything I've ever felt fannish about. In fact, it was my first "fandom" in some ways, before I understood what that concept was, and before I understood why I was so obsessed by a TV show. And waaaay before any concepts like slash could have entered my childish brain. But I would bet that no one reading this would know who Joe and Chad are. In fact, if you can identify the show (without cheating and googling), I will stand you a round if we go out or meet.)
I'm not good at the tagging people to do memes thing, but I am always, always interested to read others on my flist who would expound on their pairings. So if you want to, do it! i will read it.
Plus, I'm an OTP girl except for the two fandoms mentioned above and so I tend to have too many. I see someone having chemistry all over the place, and that's it. I only have eyes for them. Sometimes, like in Band of Brothers, I can't even remember the names of many other characters because I only see my guys... I am sad that way.
And then there's the mutability of the list. My lists always change from day to day. So this isn't even true tomorrow!
1. Bodie and Doyle, The Professionals. Because this one's the one that started it all. I didn't even know about slash when I fell in love with them. There were no other US fans, either, since the show was coming to us from Canadian television and I think we were the only idiots who would stay up till 2 in the morning on a Friday just to see Brit cops. But I think, even with 16 years of wandering in the wilderness, wondering if there were any other fans elsewhere in the world, not even having a clue about slash, I knew that they were It. They were one true pairing. They belonged together, from the first moment I saw them, at the end of Female Factor, when Doyle puts the flowers on Ann Seaford's grave, and then Bodie tries to convince him that the crutches will be useful for getting birds. That was my first glimpse of them -- I was reluctant to watch it, and only did so out of duress -- and zing went the strings of my heart as they walked away from the camera together. Little nascent slash fan that I was.
2. Dom/Brian, The Fast and the Furious. My other B&D pairing. When I saw this in the theatre, every five minutes I would turn to
movies_michelle or she would turn to me and we would comment on how soon before Dom bent Brian over the hood of a car and did him right there. But I knew they were OTP when Brian brings the old beater Supra to Dom, and Dom's all flirty and showing off his stunning muscles, and the two of them are freaking *twinkling* at each other, and Brian says, "No faith!" And Dom responds, "Oh, I have faith in you." They've known each other probably for the equivalent of maybe half a day, barely had any real conversations, and Dom tells him, all flirty and grinning like a little kid, that he has faith in this guy he barely knows. Yeah, baby, ya gotta have faith.3. Chris/Vin, The Magnificent Seven. I've been a Michael Biehn fan most of my life, and discovered Eric Close in the shortlived, incredible series Now and Again. When
klia mentioned to me that they were the primary pairing in Mag 7, talk about zinging heartstrings. We went back and watched the pilot movie to see this for ourselves, and while it was the head-nod across the street and the unspoken communication that made me take notice, what really convinced me this was the OTP for me was when they are sitting on top of the bluff, and Vin makes the decision to tell Chris about being a wanted man. When he barely knows him. And then tells him that if anything happens, he should claim the reward with Vin's body, because it would be nice to have a friend help him get the last laugh on the guy who framed him. Whoa, doggies. He just told this guy a major secret, and one that could be hugely dangerous to him, and what does Chris do? He grins like an idiot, ducks his head shyly, and then they sit there and spark at each other as the sun goes down.4. Nikita/Michael, La Femme Nikita. I've already written a lot about them in my Ship Manifesto and in my review of the season one dvds, so I won't add that here, except to say that for me, no one else existed in this series except for side characters as amusement or emotional attachment (Birkoff, Walter) or the one guest starring bit with girl on girl action with Gina Torres. For me, the whole universe was Nik and Mikey. And I knew it in the first episode, partly because they retooled the movie (one of my favorites), and so the Bob character, which morphed into Michael, was already a known quantity in terms of loving Nikita. But in the pilot ep, they go one step further in the scene where Nikita is shown her apartment and told she is now living on the outside, having completed her test. Michael takes the coat from her shoulders and for a moment she, and we, think he might kiss her, and then she steps away when she realizes he's only taking his coat, and thus begins their almost but not quite dance of sex and melancholy for the next three years. They were soooo aready gone by that scene.
5. Crockett/Castillo, Miami Vice. Here again was a show I was hugely fannish about before ever finding out there were other fans like me. But I knew nothing of slash. When I finally found media fandom, I dug out my old Vice tapes in a fit of nostalgia, and discovered that both
sherrold and feochadn had also been huge fans. Feochadn and I would rapturously recount how much we loved the show, after having not seen it for years. And black_bird_777 asked us, "Is there really a canon basis for the C/C thing?" We both shook our heads and said no. Then we watched a few of the eps. The ones where Crockett is the only one who can get Castillo back from being tipped over the edge, or the ones where he calls Castillo "Marty" when no one else does, and the ones where they are in each other's space so much that they're nearly having body contact, and staring so intently at each other they might burn holes in the screen. But that OTP moment comes in my favorite episode, The Golden Triangle (I hate how they renamed the first part of that two-parter Golden Triangle part 1, instead of the original title, Score), when Castillo, who is so cool and powerful that he can choke a huge guy nearly to death with one hand and keep the other hand in his pocket, can only be pulled off of the guy by Sonny. It's like Sonny is the only one who can reach him in that altered state of rage, and he calls him Martin and Marty for the first time, really, and it's just so obvious that they need each other. And how.6. Nixon/Winters, Band of Brothers. I still feel a little skeevy about this, and thought maybe I should do Due South, Fraser and Vecchio, but movies michelle already did that one up fine, so I will out my skeevy self here. See, it's really real person slash, which I find somewhat disturbing (not that I find my friends who are into it disturbing, it's just the thing itself that gives me the heebie-jeebies. I still love you all no matter what), and one of those men is still alive. I find it especially disturbing because these guys were not actors -- they were real men, real heroes, who never intended to put themselves in the limelight. But it also feels a little different, and I don't know if it's me rationalizing, or it really is different, becaause it's not the real Lewis Nixon and Dick Winters I'm all OTP about, but the characters the actors are bringing to life, who are slightly fictionalized and dramatized in a film. It feels more like regular characters to me, in that it's not, say, Michael Biehn and Eric Close I'm interested in slashing, it's the characters as inhabited by those two actors. I don't know if that makes sense. But when I let myself stop feeling guilty about it, Nix and Winters are just... they have one of the most intense and warm and wonderful friendships I've ever seen. Ron Livingston and Damien Lewis connect so strongly right off the bat, and the real friendship of the two men (they stayed incredibly close after the war) just seems to radiate off of them. It's at its OTP best when after D-Day, after all this horrible, dangerous stuff, Nixon comes rolling up on a tank, sitting on the front near the gun, and the two of them just grin and talk to each other as if they were only speaking a few minutes ago. Then Nixon asks Winters if he wants a ride, and helps him hop right up next to him on the tank, and they roll away. Or maybe it's the scene at night after the market garden disaster, and Winters can't seem to open the tin of food, and so Nixon just takes it out of his hands as if it's the natural thing, and then makes an offhand remark about "don't ever get a cat." He knows his friend is shaken up, and he knows he can do or say whatever he wants to him, and they just seem to understand each other -- it doesn't make it any better, but at least they can try to help each other out.
(ETA: I have one OTP that predates everything -- Pros, Star Trek, anything I've ever felt fannish about. In fact, it was my first "fandom" in some ways, before I understood what that concept was, and before I understood why I was so obsessed by a TV show. And waaaay before any concepts like slash could have entered my childish brain. But I would bet that no one reading this would know who Joe and Chad are. In fact, if you can identify the show (without cheating and googling), I will stand you a round if we go out or meet.)
I'm not good at the tagging people to do memes thing, but I am always, always interested to read others on my flist who would expound on their pairings. So if you want to, do it! i will read it.
