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jlhI'm an OTP kinda gal, and I'm not ashamed of that. I'm either in or I'm out; either it's a pairing I vaguely care about and maybe read some fic about one time or if a friend is writing it, in which case I can be a multishipper, or I love it and I write it and I read it and I'm involved, in which case I'm totally OTP for both sides of the pairing.
I know it's popular to snark that one is in fandom "for the porn" but I'm actually, honestly here for the romance. I write them, I read them, I think about their structure. And the real mystery the writer needs to crack when writing a romance is not the HOW, but the WHY. What makes these two people just fantastic for each other? Why do they fit together? How are they the same, and how are they counterparts? What are the rough places? It's akin to what Lord Peter says about murder--once you know HOW you know WHO. In romance, once you know WHY you know HOW.
Anyway that's all to say, I'm OTP about most of my pairings, and I'm not entirely fond of OT3s in general (musesfool wrote an excellent post that I of course can't find right now about how OT3s are usually about one person of the three, really about how B and C love A. In fact often the OT3 as solution-to-ship-war is written in just that way, with Harry/Ron/Hermione a notable exception.
I find myself more and more interested in OT4s all the time. I'm particularly into OT4s that are two men and two women. Now, while I do have a tendency to write characters as some flavor of bisexual, I'm okay with some relationships of the OT4 being nonsexual. For example, I'm increasingly OT4 with White Collar's Peter/Elizabeth/Neal/Diana, and sure, that OT4 starts out being mostly about Peter, but Elizabeth and Diana have both developed relationships with Neal, and while we have to wait out Tiffani Theisen's maternity leave to actually see it on screen it's easy to think that Elizabeth and Diana have some sort of relationship too.* Of course, that relationship between Diana and Neal is very specifically nonsexual, and I'd probably only write it so under special circs (mostly: D/s, with Diana on top and Peter and Elizabeth present).
Same with another head-OT4 of mine, Puck/Kurt/Mercedes/Quinn. Or the way that in the WWII fic I wrote Chris/Blake-Amanda/Carly becomes an OT4 in order to get around marriage, inheritance, and immigration law, but it's never sexual between the two couples. And while I've written about Harry/Hermione/Ginny/Draco mostly in a sexual context, that OT4 works, too. Seamus/Dean/Parvati/Pansy is a kind of OT4, though completely nonsexual between the couples, and I haven't worked out what all the corners of that one would be.
And then there's Kirk/McCoy/Uhura/Spock, whose internal relationships I see sort of in a square like this:
Jim -- Bones
Spock--Nyota
where the horizontals are strong romantic love, the verticals are growing connections of very close friendship, and the diagonals are initial suspicion leads to grudging respect leads to eventual understanding leads to appreciation and affection. K/Mc/S/U is my one three men and a lady OT4, though there are ways in which I see Kirk as sort of female at times. Eh, who wants gender binaries anyway!
I have to admit, I'm kind of nervous about my whole OT4 thing. Some of you, I know, are very firm in not wanting to see any of the few out gay and lesbian characters, or out gay and lesbian people who turn up in rpf, written in any kind of heterosexual context. That isn't what I want to do here; it isn't about changing anyone's sexuality (except for the usual slashing-the-ostensibly-straight). It's more about being interested in how two couples can become entwined, and how sex does--or doesn't--play a role in that.
(I mean, I already wrote Seamus and Dean having a foursome with Remus and Sirius, and I have a little idea in the back of my head of possibly writing Parvati and Pansy having a foursome with Tonks and Luna, so the Seamus/Dean/Parvati/Pansy OT4 really isn't about sex.)
Hopefully I can write these OT4s in a way that won't seem disrespectful! I certainly hope I've succeeded so far, but if there's a reason I'm hesitant to talk about my OT4 shipping, it's definitely the presence of gay and lesbian characters within these OT4s.
Thoughts?
*In fact, I'm considering writing, for my Diana fic, an AU in which Diana was working with Peter at a much earlier point, and Elizabeth is a lesbian, so that it's Diana who gets together with Elizabeth, and then as a couple they watch Peter struggle with the Neal situation. This honest-to-goodness wasn't about clearing Peter for Neal, but rather thinking of a way in which Diana/Elizabeth worked for me.
I know it's popular to snark that one is in fandom "for the porn" but I'm actually, honestly here for the romance. I write them, I read them, I think about their structure. And the real mystery the writer needs to crack when writing a romance is not the HOW, but the WHY. What makes these two people just fantastic for each other? Why do they fit together? How are they the same, and how are they counterparts? What are the rough places? It's akin to what Lord Peter says about murder--once you know HOW you know WHO. In romance, once you know WHY you know HOW.
Anyway that's all to say, I'm OTP about most of my pairings, and I'm not entirely fond of OT3s in general (
musesfool wrote an excellent post that I of course can't find right now about how OT3s are usually about one person of the three, really about how B and C love A. In fact often the OT3 as solution-to-ship-war is written in just that way, with Harry/Ron/Hermione a notable exception.I find myself more and more interested in OT4s all the time. I'm particularly into OT4s that are two men and two women. Now, while I do have a tendency to write characters as some flavor of bisexual, I'm okay with some relationships of the OT4 being nonsexual. For example, I'm increasingly OT4 with White Collar's Peter/Elizabeth/Neal/Diana, and sure, that OT4 starts out being mostly about Peter, but Elizabeth and Diana have both developed relationships with Neal, and while we have to wait out Tiffani Theisen's maternity leave to actually see it on screen it's easy to think that Elizabeth and Diana have some sort of relationship too.* Of course, that relationship between Diana and Neal is very specifically nonsexual, and I'd probably only write it so under special circs (mostly: D/s, with Diana on top and Peter and Elizabeth present).
Same with another head-OT4 of mine, Puck/Kurt/Mercedes/Quinn. Or the way that in the WWII fic I wrote Chris/Blake-Amanda/Carly becomes an OT4 in order to get around marriage, inheritance, and immigration law, but it's never sexual between the two couples. And while I've written about Harry/Hermione/Ginny/Draco mostly in a sexual context, that OT4 works, too. Seamus/Dean/Parvati/Pansy is a kind of OT4, though completely nonsexual between the couples, and I haven't worked out what all the corners of that one would be.
And then there's Kirk/McCoy/Uhura/Spock, whose internal relationships I see sort of in a square like this:
Jim -- Bones
Spock--Nyota
where the horizontals are strong romantic love, the verticals are growing connections of very close friendship, and the diagonals are initial suspicion leads to grudging respect leads to eventual understanding leads to appreciation and affection. K/Mc/S/U is my one three men and a lady OT4, though there are ways in which I see Kirk as sort of female at times. Eh, who wants gender binaries anyway!
I have to admit, I'm kind of nervous about my whole OT4 thing. Some of you, I know, are very firm in not wanting to see any of the few out gay and lesbian characters, or out gay and lesbian people who turn up in rpf, written in any kind of heterosexual context. That isn't what I want to do here; it isn't about changing anyone's sexuality (except for the usual slashing-the-ostensibly-straight). It's more about being interested in how two couples can become entwined, and how sex does--or doesn't--play a role in that.
(I mean, I already wrote Seamus and Dean having a foursome with Remus and Sirius, and I have a little idea in the back of my head of possibly writing Parvati and Pansy having a foursome with Tonks and Luna, so the Seamus/Dean/Parvati/Pansy OT4 really isn't about sex.)
Hopefully I can write these OT4s in a way that won't seem disrespectful! I certainly hope I've succeeded so far, but if there's a reason I'm hesitant to talk about my OT4 shipping, it's definitely the presence of gay and lesbian characters within these OT4s.
Thoughts?
*In fact, I'm considering writing, for my Diana fic, an AU in which Diana was working with Peter at a much earlier point, and Elizabeth is a lesbian, so that it's Diana who gets together with Elizabeth, and then as a couple they watch Peter struggle with the Neal situation. This honest-to-goodness wasn't about clearing Peter for Neal, but rather thinking of a way in which Diana/Elizabeth worked for me.
