it's nothing like a question that can be answered in one word

Environments are in read-only for mass updates. I wish I could explain what that actually is, because it's deceivingly nothing like what those words mean according to the dictionary, but I really can't. I know it's a mass, and it's an update, and while yes, it is, no, it's really not. And it sucks.

However, this rare morning, it gives me a short, brilliant moment to surf friendsfriends.

Sarah T on the lower numbers of John/Ronon in SGA.

Actually, I've kind of vaguely wondered about that, but--the thing is, my first fandom was Star Trek and I came out of that physically incapable of not having a header (though sometimes I break conditioning and remove it) and a taste for random internet drama. I also came out of it unable to believe Kirk was heterosexual and it would still be a year before I stared blankly at my first slash OTP (Pyro/Iceman, in case you were curious).

(Sidenote: I was on there watching or posting actively 1999 -2001--wow. Just. Yeah. This is why flamewars rarely scare me and why I don't often participate; I know some fandoms have been far wankier for far longer and with greater populations and drama, but I'm not sure any fandom post-usenet can hit that same deeply terrifying intensity where there were no prisoners taken and occasionally you realized the ground was being sown with salt. Deeply awesome. Even when you had no idea what Treksmut university was and kept freaking out every time your inbox pinged.)

Right. Moving on. The OTP even in Voyager was Kirk/Spock. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not much of one. ASCEM(L) was like, KS Central. And I know this because I didnt' read slash and contextually knew at the time the plotlines to three of the winning GO stories.

Now, my question--are there any fandoms who have had more than one major pairing of the same type at the same time? As in, more than one major slash and more than one major het?

Since Trek, I've never been involved in a fandom that did, so I'm curious. And I'm not sure my memories of Trek are accurate, as this was 1999/2000 and I spent about half that time going, oh my God this is the best thing in the world! And um, writing Paris/Seven post-Paris/Torres breakup porn. Because I didn't like Seven and that's how I deal with dislike. It felt like Janeway/Chakotay and Paris/Torres had similiarly strong followings, though J/C was a bit older and larger, and Chakotay/Paris and Paris/Kim seemed relatively even (in retrospect, the locked archives actually skew it even more; I never even *knew* about some of them before Smallville).

I'd ask what everyone thinks influences a pairing to be written, but the answers will be, invariably:
a.) Lots of feedback! OR Feedback doesn't matter! Etc. Etc. Etc.
b.) BNFs! OR BNFs turn me off pairings! Etc. Etc. Etc.
c.) Big Pairings are sheep! OR Rare pairing are boring! Etc. Etc. Wait, didn't we do this recently?
d.) Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. (insert here)

I always wondered if it was just a moment of fannish--unity, if you will, like when a mob forms. Like, remember when you went to cheer at a football game and suddenly in the third quarter and while you've never been the perkiest cheerleader and kinda quiet, you're suddenly filled with bloodlust and helping to lead the crowd in screaming BEAT THE WATERPIGS and lost your voice for a day? (They were hippos. Yes, we got in some much trouble for that one. So very much worth it.) (My algebra teacher was louder than all of us together, though.)(I don't miss being a cheerleader. I do, however, miss controlling crowds with five inches of thigh and some belled shoes. Seriously. I still marvel at that.)

Yes, I'm going to be this incoherent all day; I had no sleep. Also trying to get my John/Ronon recs together, since I kind of think I should feedback the authors and then give the fic their own page.

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this is interesting.

John/Rodney feel to me like a kind of Ur-pairing -- which is to say, they're almost archetypal. Geek (who's braver than he lets on) plus action hero (who's smarter than he lets on!) They hit my OMG HAPPY slash buttons even before I started watching the show. There's something about the way the two of them work that just fills me with JOY.

That said -- I can get behind Rodney/Teyla and John/Ronon (and Ronon/Teyla) too (and oh, those rare OT4 stories totally make my WEEK.) I've fallen so firmly in love with all four of them that I just want them to be happy. I want them to make each other happy, in all sorts of sappy and dorky and X-rated ways. *g* They're family! They're team! So really, as long as the author of the story isn't bashing one character or pairing in order to make the case for another one (which, honestly, I can't imagine anyone I read doing; it's just...poor form, and also lame *g*) I can run with all sorts of pairings in this fandom. Ronon/Keller, sure. Ronon/Elizabeth. (Really I just want Ronon to get some; he's had such a rough decade, right? He deserves some action!)

I'm rambling. What I meant to say is, I think of Rodney/John as my OTP in this fandom, but I will also happily read other pairings as long as the characters I love get to have a moment of happiness somewhere in there.

Re: other fandoms -- I was never all that active in Firefly, at least not when everybody else seems to have been, but I always got the sense it was a polymorphously perverse fandom. Lots of Mal/Simon, sure, but also Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Kaylee, Simon/Inara, Mal/Jayne, Mal/River. There, too, as long as Mal gets some action I'm a happy girl. (We did a panel a few years ago at Escapade about how Mal is the Little Black Dress of the fandom -- he goes with everything!)

[omglawdork.livejournal.com]

What I meant to say is, I think of Rodney/John as my OTP in this fandom, but I will also happily read other pairings as long as the characters I love get to have a moment of happiness somewhere in there.

That's exactly how I feel. Like you said, I'm just so totally buttcrazy in love with all of them, I just want them to be happy - all of them, in whatever permutations that happens to take.