!important! : thoughts which might save the world

[extemporally]

Yesterday I was talking to nova33 about why she loves Johnny/Evan, and there was this exchange:

unlurkster: yessss. I approve of this.
OH OH
you know what?? I would like for this to be, like, an actually fake war
where they're just-kidding-no-really, and when they meet to hook up they have teasing hatesex that isn't really hatesex, only sometimes the boundaries between what they meant and didn't mean are
nova33: Yes!
OR
unlurkster: kind of blurred to even themselves
nova33: It really is just a weird sort of sexual tension. Like...they don't really like each other - so they're not terribly fond when they actually do get together - but all the shit they say to the press is just an extended form of pigtail-pulling.
So when they see each other it's genuine anger - "You implied I was gay!" "You said I was untalented!" - but it's all sort of a game.
Yes????
unlurkster: oh mannnn yes! it's just a lot of weirdness crackling between them, sexually, and they don't know what they mean and what they don't mean
YES YES YES. let's have a BRAIN TWIN HI-FIVE, c'mon

And right there I guess is the kind of Johnny/Evan dynamic that's my favourite, the codependency and the frustration and the need. I mean, I can buy a whole bunch of different readings of their relationship (and so can Johnny & Evan! look at how spectacularly retconned their rivalry is!), but this I think is the definitive one that punches me in the gut and makes me believe, before I remember that Johnny/Stéphane is my OTP (tin-fucking-hat, you guys). I don't know, I find this the most exciting part of entering a fandom, getting to know who the hell these people are and who you ship and why you ship them ("they're pretty" is still a reason, fyi), and also basically thinking about it a whole bunch and also having really intense conversations about it, um.

So, anyway! Why do you ship what you ship, dudes? COME TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS.

Comments

[melonsplash.livejournal.com]

With Johnny/Evan, I don't even like RPF. But with these two I can't help it - they're just begging to be shipped. I justify it by saying that figure skating is more like performance than any other sport, that, like Johnny says during Vancouver, that they're portraying characters when they're on the ice. So much of what we know about them is really a persona, so it's okay to ship their personas - characters - together. So enough about my completely in vain internal justification - why them? Uhm... I guess because they're so much more interesting than the other common ships in the fandom, because of their rivalry dynamic. Because Johnny plays up his persona with his shove-massive-things-in-me-smirks and because it's so easy to be swept away by what everyone else is shipping with their analyses and their fics. Guh, I don't know. I'm new to this fandom and still learning.

I have a question for you - why is Johnny/Stéphane your OTP? I thought I loved J/S more than J/E, but I seem to have forgotten J/S in the recent drama...

[extemporally.livejournal.com]

Hee! Well, I do agree that the Johnny/Evan dynamic can be incredibly compelling. Also, I think you've hit it right on the head with what makes RPF so interesting -- So much of what we know about them is really a persona -- because real people are tangled up and messy and contradictory. I could easily buy a whole bunch of different characterisations of Johnny Weir et al.

As for why I ship Johnny/Stéphane: well, I commented here! It is a ridiculous and earnest list and I think they are totally meant for each other. :D