!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

[extemporally.livejournal.com]

THAT IS TRUE. MAYBE I SHOULD COME UP WITH A CODE NAME FOR YOU.

You can talk about banom also! Or Sherlock Holmes! I like knowing why people ship things.

Also that is lies. I am an equal opportunity shipper! I could probably answer that question, only it would start edging more into a "cos I ship my OTP more" direction and, you know.

[nova33.livejournal.com]

I'M SURE NO ONE WOULD CATCH ON.

I could...if my brain wasn't totally consumed by figure skating.

Well, I am also an equal opportunity shipper. But hey, you know what? I'll indulge you. Tell me why you ship your OTP more than you ship mine. (It'll break my heart, but I love you that much.)

[extemporally.livejournal.com]

Why my OTP is my OTP:

1. Because Stéphane Lambiel. No seriously, this guy!! I love that he loves cheesy things unabashedly, and that he loves things period. HE LOVES ICE SHOWS AND THE ENERGY OF THE AUDIENCE. WHAT MORE COULD ANY SKATER ASK FOR. Also, he is a total hottie. (Johnny totally refers to Stéphane in that way, shut up.)

2. I enjoy the fact that they've known each other a long, long time. In my head they've always hooked up at least once before, and just decided to be friends instead. And yeah, I guess it's a dynamic that can be pretty sexless (unlike Johnny/Evan, which just sets itself up for hatesex, I think harriet_vane described it pretty well when she called it a "punch-kiss" impulse in her fic), but I like thinking about how they're obviously really comfortable around each other! It's a less fraught relationship, and I would like Johnny to have a less fraught relationship overall.

2a. This is why I find the most RIDICULOUS joy in imagining the schmoopiest relationships. It's like, the tropes that didn't work for me in bandom find a completely new lease of life in figure skating fandom. Future fic? Sure! Kidfic? OH MAN YES PLEASE. I love thinking about future Johnny -- calmer and healthier and hopefully in a happier place, and Stéphane just fits into that.

3. This isn't to say that I don't think they don't push each others' buttons? I think it's easy to stereotype ships, and Johnny/Stéphane very easily gets characterised as a sort of "and then they cuddled, the end" kind of pairing. That is fine! I always support more cuddles for Johnny Weir! But I also find interesting to think about the way they push each others' buttons, perhaps not as explicitly as Johnny and Evan do, but there nonetheless.

4. There are Gaga/Britney fanwars. THIS IS CANON OH GOD.

5. They're both really similar! While I can believe in a Johnny/Stéphane dynamic where Stéphane tones down Johnny's... Johnny-ness, I also like it when people recognise that Stéphane is also a huge drama queen with tendencies towards fits of poutiness. I'd like to imagine that together they are both capable of recognising it in each other and toning each other down, and also I like imagining several hilarious moments in which they call each other out on their drama queen tendencies.

6. They do pairs skating and they both want to be the girl. (But seriously -- it's a relationship in which top/bottom and dom/sub isn't very obvious, so it's pretty reciprocal in that sense.)

7. Because they cuddle. Look at my icon. JUST LOOK AT IT.

It is shockingly easy to get me to tl;dr over this, oh my god. /o\

[nova33.livejournal.com]

1. Okay, I appreciate Stephane. I really, really do, don't get me wrong. But just - Evan! (This is where that stupid fuck, marry, kill game becomes a problem for me.)

2. I understant the appeal of this, too! I mean, that punch-kiss idea (good way of putting it, I agree) is something I find really attractive and fascinating in its own right, but the way two people can sort of quietly fall into a relationship together is also lovely, and Stephane/Johnny definitely lends itself to that.

Kidfic does not normally appeal to me at all, but oh my goodness, watching Stephane teach little kids to skate melts my heart. (Um, that being said? I'm way more into the idea of Evan as a parent than Stephane as a parent, because I think he'd be an interesting father, whereas Stephane is just guaranteed to be wonderful, you know?)

3. Tell me more about the ways they push each other's buttons! Because that's what's interesting; the stuff that goes beyond the tropes. They can be adorable and live happily ever after, but I'd like to see bitchy fights about Britney vs Gaga that somehow turn into bigger arguments until they're yelling at each other and then spending a week being passive aggressively bitchy.

5. Why haven't you written me this five things fic? Seriously, you just set yourself up for that: Five times Johnny and Stephane called each other out on their drama queen tendencies (and one time they just revelled in it)

6. Do you think the top/bottom is really evident in Evan/Johnny? I'm not trying to start an OTP war, here, I'm actually just wondering. Because I don't think it is. (Discuss this with me, please? For both pairings?) I do think that the dom/sub is more obvious in an Evan/Johnny pairing, but that one fic on the kink meme makes me want dom!Stephane and sub!Johnny always.

7. EVAN AND JOHNNY COULD CUDDLE. SOMETIMES. MAYBE.

...IF I WISH REALLY, REALLY HARD.

Clearly I am equally as adept at the tl;dr thing, so don't even worry.

(This is my new favourite icon at the moment, but that could change.)