96

So, I sorta got tagged, forever ago, to do that Top 7 OTPs meme. I figured, now that I'm finally doing it, that this would be a good post in which to address a question that many a fandom member must ask themselves from time to time:

Just what, exactly, does it mean when I say I "ship"?

Some dictionary of fandom terminology, or as Wikipedia says, would explain, "People involved in shipping (or shippers) assert that the relationship does exist, will exist, or simply that they would like it to exist." This doesn't encompass, though, the popularity of unrequited ships, or ships that we not only accept as absurdly unlikely but sort of prefer that way. My boyfriend, on one of the rare occasions that I went into fangirl-talk around him, described two BSG characters as already having, without acting on, the kind of relationship we would like them to have, and that they were therefore "unshippable."

And I said, "NO," because my little shipping heart hardly prioritizes the actual sexual together-ness of the ship. So maybe I'm not a very good shipper in the conventional sense, because most of the time I enjoy the angst and the agony more than I could ever enjoy A and B being married-with-children without the loose ends. When I say that I ship somebody, I don't think it means I want A and B to be in a relationship as much as it means that I want to be convinced and reminded of A and B's love for one another in continuously interesting, captivating and touching ways.

Considering this, it's not surprising that if I look at my top seven OTPs I find a trend of difficulty, taboo, or impossibility. Only a couple of these are arguably a successful pairing. (WaRnInG: spoilers ahead for lots of stuff.)

( one two three four five six love )