promethia_tenk | Silly Relationships Meme Time

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Silly Relationships Meme Time

I'm in one of those moods. Let's be silly and fannish, shall we?

MEME THE FIRST:

Comment with any ship (romantic or platonic or maybe even non-existent!) from a fandom that you know I have some knowledge about, and I will rant about aforementioned ship. This may be incoherent gushing or exclamations of disgust, depending on your ship of choice.

I'm not going to promise to insult anybody's ship in an unadvisedly flippant manner, but how will we ever know if nobody tempts fate? *eyebrow waggle* Feel free to prompt more than one. Off-the-top-of-my-head list of shows/fandoms I have an opinion of (may not be comprehensive) for your reference:

SciFi/Fantasy: Star Wars, Star Treks (all but Enterprise), X Files, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, Dollhouse, Doctor Who (New), Torchwood, Heroes, True Blood, Harry Potter, Firefly, Game of Thrones, 10th Kingdom, Pushing Daisies, LotR
Drama: House (4 seasons), Gossip Girl (2 seasons), Dexter, L Word, Gilmore Girls, Grey's Anatomy (2 seasons), West Wing (3 seasons), Sherlock, Ugly Betty (2 seasons), The Tudors (2 seasons)
Comedy: 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Community, Arrested Development, Simpsons

MEME THE SECOND:

It's that fandoms as relationships thing that's going around! Admittedly, I'm using a rather loose definition of "fandom" here . . .

The one who seduced you, screwed you over, broke your heart in a million pieces, and laughed about it.

My first thought here was Battlestar Galactica, but I've become oddly zen about that show of late and have to award the spot to House, MD, which continues to flaunt its degraded status on my television to this day.

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp:

Sorry, HIMYM--this seems to be you. But I love catching up from time to time!

The mysterious dark one whom you used to sit up with talking until 3 AM at weird coffee houses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized s/he really was fucking crazy:

True Blood, you could have gone insane in the most brilliant way, but no . . . What a waste.

The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor and whom you'd still really like to get with again, although you're relieved s/he doesn't actually live in town:

Heroes! I never finished the last season and, yeah, it's probably best it's gone. But season three was TOTALLY WORTH IT, y'all have no idea what you're missing.

The steady:

Hmmm . . . I'm more of a serial monogamist, but if I had to put something in here, it would probably be Star Trek in all its shapes and forms. I thought it was consigned to the realms of nostalgia, but then the reboot came back and, dammit, I love it with every earnest, idealistic, campy fibre of my being.

The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with:

Ugh, so many! Maybe Leverage? It's an ENTIRE SHOW ABOUT HEISTS!

The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with, but ultimately you're just good buddies:

Community. The fandom seems really fun, but the characters and relationships don't have quite the same amount of hook that HIMYM did for me.

The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool person except it's never really gone anywhere:

From the things I hear and the little I've watched, I can tell I'm gonna be mad for Fringe for at least a little while. But I've stalled out about halfway through the first season. I think I just know that when I finally feel like it, it's still gonna be around.

The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at them and thinking, "How the hell did they land all these cool people?"

Sherlock. WTF?

The one who gave you the best damned summer of your life and against whom you measure all other potential partners:

Doctor Whoooooo! Ok, it's been a year and half, but who's counting?

The one you recently met at a party and would like to get to know better:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The old flame that you wouldn't totally object to hooking up with again for a one night romp if only they'd clean up a bit:

There's a Gossip Girl-shaped hole in my life, but it's probably all horrid now, isn't it?

Your hot new flame:

Dollhouse. All the hotter for being a little wrong.

The one who stole your significant other:

I don't know that this has really happened to me. I'm badly susceptible to being stolen myself, though.

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Hmm. Rory/Logan. Or Rory/anyone if you don't have a strong opinion on Rory/Logan (but who doesn't have an opinion on Rory/Logan?!)

I don't know which three seasons of West Wing you saw, but I always like to hear people's thoughts on Donna/Josh and Amy/Josh, if you have them. :) Or whichever TWW ships give you thoughts!

To top it all off, if you want more, Roslin/Adama.

Now that I think of it, TWW probably wasn't a great show to put down as an interest on a shipping meme :-\ I've seen the first three seasons so far, although I did that in marathon form, so a lot of the particulars are fuzzy. The one opinion I'm completely confident in expressing about the show involves CJ and a lot of ecstatic flailing, but I am quite adamant in that one. No idea who Rory is, and also didn't have a lot of luck trying to look him up???

Donna/Josh I remember my sister telling me that that did happen later on, and my instinctive reaction was NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! But then, I spent a lot of time willing Donna to loose the lovesick puppy routine. Maybe, possibly I could get behind it depending on how both characters got developed? I did rather want CJ and that news reporter guy to happen, but I'm a sucker for bicker-y dynamics . . .

Roslin/Adama . . . I think in the end I more shipped their UST and their complicated power wrangling. I mean, obviously how it all resolved itself was atrocious, but even midway through the show I didn't so much want them *together* together as I wanted them to continue as they were. By the end of the show I realized my true OTP was my Roslin/Baltar hate ship. Somehow while I was concentrating on other things, those two developed the most complicated and fascinating relationship on the whole show. Whenever I get over the ending of BSG well enough to want to do a rewatch, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be concentrating on Roslin and Baltar all the way.

Lol River/Doctor obv
Gaius/Six
Meredith/Mcdreamy [I HAD NO IDEA YOU WERE A GREY'S FAN I would never have guessed]

River/Doc: Slowly ruining me for all other ships. May also be the death of me, if Moff keeps this up.

Gaius/Six: Kept me continually intrigued in a beautifully twisted way, but I can't say I ever really shipped it. Well, it was like shipping Gaius with his own crazy--OTP for sure, but they hardly needed my cheerleading, did they?

Meredith/McDreamy: The GOLD STANDARD of tedious ships, against which all other tedious ships are to be measured. Fuck each other or don't fuck each other, just GET OFF MY SCREEN. (Substitute "characters" for "ships" to get my approximate opinion of Meredith Grey.) When Addison showed up, I tended to think of them as background noise for her story--a way to provide occasional tension.

Probably would not have watched much Grey's on my own, but my roommates and I watched it together. It was entertaining enough for two seasons, and I like something a bit soapy from time to time.

>>Slowly ruining me for all other ships.

Oh. Oh yes. I don't think I have ever/will ever be this ship-crazy again.

Haha, I loved GA for about 2 or 3 seasons before the cheesy soap opera became totally overwhelming. I think I switched off as soon as the other crazy blonde one started secretly treating animatronic deer.

GA definitely had some things going for it. Many of those things were Sandra Oh, but that does count for quite a lot. It was a lot more absorbing than I expected.

I think I switched off as soon as the other crazy blonde one started secretly treating animatronic deer.
LOL--whut? Definitely gone before then.

There was a deer... in the back of a truck... with big sad fake puppet deer eyes... and crazy blonde girl who isn't Meredith stole medical equipment to save it so the little kid who found it wouldn't cry...and...yeah. I couldn't bring myself to watch it again after that, even with the temptation of the lesbian couple later on...

Ugly Betty: Amanda and Marc
Arrested Development: Maebe and George Michael (not because I ship them, but because I genuinely want to hear what you'd say.)

Edited 2011-08-22 04:37 (UTC)

Amanda and Marc: It's been awhile, but god they were so much fun! I would have happily watched so much more of them.

Maebe and George Michael: *scratches head* I hardly know what to say here. All the relationships on AD are just so weird, you know? I think they made for some good comedy and I liked the wrongness in that special AD way they managed. I think mostly I found George Michael one of the more boring parts of that show, so mostly I didn't mind them, but I would have rather been watching other things. I think mostly what I enjoyed was watching how Maebe handled him, but then I enjoyed watching how Maebe handled everything.

Maebe rocks.

Okay so almost all the fandoms I was going to ask you about weren't on that list, so it'll have to be True Blood. So ... Sookie/Bill and Hoyt/Jessica just because I'm fascinated to see what your thoughts are before I divulge my own.

I sniggered a bit reading your fandoms as relationships thing. I don't think I've had enough flings with shows/fandoms to be able to have such a comprehensive list.

Well, feel free to ask anyway--I'm sure there's plenty I've left off the list.

Sookie/Bill: *sigh* I veer between tolerant mostly ignoring them to loving to hate them to GET OFF MY DAMN SCREEN WE COULD BE WATCHING PAM RIGHT NOW!!! I think mostly I'm surprised at my level of tolerance because by all rights I should find them totally insufferable most of the time. I must be getting soft in my old age. Sookie/Bill did, however, give us the glory of various characters and actors mocking the way Bill says Soouck-ay! all the time, which is just one of the more beautiful things that's ever happened on television.

Hoyt/Jessica: Beyond sweet (although I stopped watching halfway through season three, so I don't know what's happened since). One of the few couples on that show I really wanted to happen, although I can't say I was strongly invested in them (or in anything else on that show, really, froth that it is). But I liked how they were both so lost and really seemed to help each other.

I'm definitely stretching the definition of "fandom" to mean something more like "took an intense interest in for whatever length of time." No online or creative involvement necessarily implied, although I think looking down the list that I've at least looked at some online fan stuff for most of those shows. I'm definitely prone to brief flings with shows, though . . .

Haha, fairly similar to my feelings. Bill and Sookie just sort of go up and down for me, though in my case I want more Lafayette on screen and not so much Pam.

Hoyt and Jessica are really interesting. I've always found her fascinating ever since she got turned and went from sweet innocent good girl to ... overindulging. Then when she and Hoyt were put in the same room together I was all 'oooh yeah that should happen' and it really was sweet. I don't know what season we're on right now, but I've kind of lost interest a bit so I don't really how things are with any of them right now, but that was one I still liked while I was still interested.

Out of curiosity, what fandoms were you wanting to ask me about?

Oh, I adored Lafayette too!

I did watch the first episode of season four (the one airing in the US now, with witches) and Hoyt and Jessica still seemed more together than not? So, IDK, I poke my head out every once and awhile to check on True Blood, hoping to hear it's magically gotten better again, but I think probably that one's a gonner. Would have liked more Hoyt and Jessica, though.

Lafayette is my favourite ever. Enough so that reading the books after watching the show was a real shock to the system :D

I just noticed that you also said platonic so now I want to know your thoughts on Lafayette and Tara and Lafayette and Sookie (what? He's my favourite).

I think that's the season we're on here now too. At least the minimal attention I paid to it showed witches (one of whom is Aunt Petunia which I keep finding annoyingly ironic).

Well, I decided against asking you about Doctor Who and Harry Potter just because I think we've canvassed it pretty thoroughly before. I mostly was going to ask about Bones and other similar things, none of which appear on your lists up there :D

I confess, I'm going out on a limb here to hope that you're familiar with not just Star Wars but the extended universe...

Anyway,

Luke/Mara?

Harry/Ginny

Danaerys/Jorah

Luke/Mara: Oooo, I did, in fact, read a few books with them waaaay, way back when I was, like, eleven, but I remember precious little. I think I did ship them a bit, but mostly in a "yay, a ship!" kind of way. I was all about Han and Leia, though, and usually found Luke pretty boring. I think Mara made him a bit more interesting, but like I said, so long ago.

Harry/Ginny: Decidedly neutral. I think they're a good couple (and I think Harry/Hermione is a horrible idea), and they seemed well enough set-up, so when they ended up together it was like "ok, that's that, then." I was never much invested in any of the main trio, though, and was all about the adults and some of the secondary student characters, so who Harry might or might not be romantically involved with wasn't really a concern to me. I do like them fine, though.

Danaerys/Jorah: I enjoyed their relationship and their understanding. Not sure I shipped it beyond finding Jorah pretty hot and thus kinda wanting him to have someone. I don't know that I really ship anyone in those books, though--it's just not that kind of story for me, you know?

Well, that's three thoroughly uncommittal and rambling answers for you! Sorry bout that.

I'd have to agree with you on Mara making Luke more interesting. Even when I was five and watched the movie for the first time my mother was all pushing me to have a crush on Luke and I was very, "NO HAN SOLO IS THE BEST EVER."

re: Harry/Ginny, that's interesting. If it's not too personal, would you mind if I asked how old you were when you started reading the books? I really grew up with the characters and was often within a few years of their age, so of course my focus was mainly on the children and not so much on the adults. (Though I've shipped Fred/Me since I was eleven, not going to lie.)

Dany and Joraaah. Honestly, yeah, I ship them because they're insanely sexy. :| I am really a very shallow individual. XD

I've gained a little more sympathy for Luke in my old age, but yeah, he always had an uphill battle to be interesting. Such is the curse of the earnest hero character :-\

Let's see, Harry Potter . . . I probably started reading when I was about 16? (I'm 27) I was always at least a few years older than them and a whole bracket up in mindset, if you know what I mean? And I've always preferred older characters anyway. Often quite a bit older--most of my favorite fictional characters are at least middle aged. So my main sympathies reading HP were with the teachers.

What were your preferences with the younger characters, shipping, etc? (I support your shipping of yourself to Fred--excellent taste.)

I read the first book when I was eight (20 now), and very briefly shipped Harry/Hermione--as an eight-year-old, it seemed "obvious" that they had to get together. I think when I was nine or ten I watched an interview on television where J.K. Rowling outright said she'd always seen Hermione ending up with Ron, and from that point on that was my ship. I got into fanfiction at about that time, and by osmosis sort of started shipping Harry/Ginny, which was only just starting to pick up steam at the time. After OOtP I shipped Harry/Luna for a while (I still sort of do, honestly). I shipped Harry/Ginny right up until the sixth book, which completely and utterly ruined it for me.

I confess that the bulk of my shipping centered around the younger characters, because they were always closer to me in age--I never did catch up. DH came out five days before my sixteenth birthday, in fact. I guess in a way, for me, the main characters were older characters. The main exception to shipping-only-main-characters was one I picked up from an ESL writer I beta-read for when I was twelve, James/Lily. Ever since, that has absolutely been one of my greatest OTPs. I ship it like burning and will not even debate with serious, it-should-have-been-Snape Severus/Lily shippers.

One of the more interesting things for me in having read the books as I grew up and then again now that I'm older is that I did sort of flip to your point of view. I care more about the older and secondary characters now and ship them like mad (in fact, I just converted

tardis_coral into shipping Remus/Severus... don't even ask...) I've also found that I find books 5, 6 and 7 a lot more tolerable now that I'm older than the characters I'm reading about, because I understand.

But yeah, I'm definitely one of the kids that literally grew up with Harry Potter. Serious portions of my life were dedicated to it, from writing fanfiction to moderating for a fanfiction site to beta-reading to... Just.... lots of things. :|

/sorry long-and-rambly-description-of-MY-ENTIRE-CHILDHOOD.

Star Trek: Kirk/Spock

Doctor Who: Master/Doctor

Sherlock: Sherlock/John

Heh. My answer for all three is pretty much the same: I don't get the urge to slash it. Or slash in general, really (you might get me onboard for the right f/f pairing). I'm not repulsed, just really, deeply puzzled, and I have read a fair amount of "why we slash" explanations. Just platonically, then:

Kirk/Spock: I enjoy watching them well enough when they're onscreen, but not a huge draw for me. I appreciate why they're classic, though.

Master/Doctor: Pushes all my "good vs. evil" buttons in really bad ways, so I laugh them off or ignore them or write rant-y meta fic at risk to my own blood pressure. I think Doctor/River is basically Moff trying to rewrite that relationship without the problematic moral dichotomy.

Sherlock/John: Made me miss House and Wilson from back in the early days of that show (more people I don't slash).

Liz and Jack.

PLATONIC OTP OF THE SHOW. I definitely don't ship them ship them, but I adore watching them and their screwed-up yet supportive relationship, and I resent when either of them is dating somebody because it takes time away from the two of them together. They're pretty much the main reason I watch the show, after the jokes.

Leverage! You should definitely watch it and it's worth going from the beginning of season one, though not super necessary. I'm not particularly fannish about it because I only really get fannish about shows that I can really get into fic writing/reading for, but I love watching it every week. TNT bills it as a drama but I think comedy is what it really does best. :)

It's disappeared off Netflix streaming! *woe* Yeah, I've watched a few eps, and I can't see being fannish about it either, but sometimes you just need a fun show! Glad to hear it fits that bill : )

Hee, the relationships one is fun, though I couldn't do an equivalent myself. Misfits would probably be my One I Spent The Whole Weekend In Bed With, and I haven't many others that register as anything.

As for the other meme, I don't think I know how you feel about Doctor/TARDIS.

Isn't Misfits British Heroes (ordinary people discover they have super powers)? In which case our experiences are oddly parallel!

Doctor/TARDIS fills me with light and warmth and fuzzies and other things I don't usually cop to feeling ~~except with this show all the time~~. As far as I'm concerned, the entire point of Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways was the line "I wanted you safe: my Doctor . . ." And then we got a whole episode like that! But then, shipping Doctor/TARDIS is pretty easy, isn't it? All the gooey center of a ship, none of the messiness and fanwank and politics and worry about power dynamics and how A is treating B and so on and so forth. Basically, if you don't like the Doctor, why are you watching the show? And the TARDIS has no real personality (well, maybe until recently), so there's no way to hate her, and they've been a fait accompli forever . . . so there's nothing to argue over except maybe someone's tentacle porn fic.

It's extremely British, simliar to Heroes in that it contains sci-fi and moral dilemmas and problems with relationships and time travel and superpowers being varied, opaque or inconvenient as well as kick-arse, but the whole thing's a fuck of a lot funnier. And I use that term advisedly.

I'd never stopped to think about the TARDIS not having enough personality to dislike. But perhaps because Doctor/TARDIS is such a given, it doesn't get talked about much. Warm and fuzzy goodness, though, yeah.

I'll spare you the many crack pairings I thought of. Will instead randomly ask if Game of Thrones is as good as everyone says it is?

Lol--I do love me some crack . . . although I am generally cannon's bitch when it comes to shipping.

I would recommend giving it a try if you enjoy serious ensemble drama stuff with everybody machinating against everybody else, power struggles, etc. It's definitely very well done, and the characters are great. Also completely gorgeously shot. My difficulty with the show was that I'd already read the first book (they're doing one book per season), so there wasn't any suspense. The plot is very much character-driven, which is great, but the whole story is then very plot driven, so there isn't much rewatch value and it's not terribly absorbing if you know what's coming. When I read the book I couldn't put it down, though, so if you're unfamiliar with it all, I'd imagine watching would be similarly engaging.

They were all weird RTD-era pairings, too, idek.

Ah, thanks so much for the info! Guess the show follows the book pretty closely? I haven't read the book, so I might as well give the show a try -- if it's got machination and great characters, I'll probably like it to some degree. (Also, I'll watch pretty much whatever as long as it's gorgeously shot.) :)

As far as I remember, yes, it hewed pretty close to the books, although they did have to cut a lot to condense things. I think I've heard that the first few episodes can be pretty confusing if you don't know what's going on already but that if you stick it out it all clears itself up. Let me know what you think if you decide to watch : )

I love the shipping meme!

How about:

Picard/Crusher
Simon/Kaylee
Mal/Inara
Helo/Athena
Amy/Rory

You don't have to answer them all if that's too many.

Also, I have similar feelings about Sherlock. Everyone loved it, but I didn't even get through two whole episodes. Maybe I need to give it another try, as I have since read a smattering of Sherlock fanfic and enjoyed that. But I think I like fanfic more than actually watching shows, oddly.

Edited 2011-08-28 03:03 (UTC)

Hello *waves* Sorry--new DW has me massively behind on everything /o\

Picard/Crusher: I shipped this so hard in middle school (and Crusher was by far my favorite TNG character). My sister got bequeathed my ST recordings at one point and had to call me up to point out that the only TNG episodes I had taped had P/C elements--I make no apologies for this. Also the first ship I ever read fic for. I'm actually rather hesitant to go back to TNG and watch them again because I don't want to find out that really I was a moron and that I hate them now or something like that.

Simon/Kaylee: One of my favorite things about Firefly. They were cute with each other and Simon was hot, so I definitely watched for them. Ultimately, though, Firefly doesn't do that much for me, so while I had a good time rooting for them, I probably wouldn't have really thought of them much again after I'd finished watching were it not for how Firefly obsessed fandom is.

Mal/Inara: Never cared. I think I liked them better platonically and got a bit annoyed with how the show teased with them.

Helo/Athena: I enjoyed them well enough while they were still on Caprica together, although I liked most of the other elements of the show more. Once they got back to the fleet, though . . . they managed to continually rankle me. I did feel very bad for them with everything that happened with Hera, but I was also in this perpetual state of low-level annoyance with them: I think they generally came off very condescending and holier-than-thou. Helo was just generally not a favorite, though, except when he was being friends with Starbuck. And I always sympathized a lot more with Boomer than I did Athena :-\

Amy/Rory: I went from being convinced they were a bad idea in season five and hoping for Amy to be free of him to really loving the couple they grew into and being all warm and fuzzy over them. I'll admit they get a lot less of my fannish energy than Doctor/River, but I do like getting pointed to a good fic for them, and if the Pond family doesn't end this season in a happy state there will be vicious fuming. Also, I am SERIOUSLY DISPLEASED with how they're being treated on the show right now (especially Amy) but am biting my tongue til I see how it all plays out.

Hmm, I did get through all the Sherlock episodes (and the third is far better than the second, fyi) and had a good time watching them twice or so. And then I said "well, that was fun" and went on with other things. I'm not quite sure how you get a fandom out of them, tbh--there's not that much there. Only three episodes, not much depth . . . But then also, I'm not a slasher, so . . .

Haha, you're making me feel like a wee baby. TNG ended when I was in preschool, so I didn't end up watching any until college when I saw reruns. I do remember the days of recording shows on VHS, though. Good times. :P

Fandom is Firefly obsessed? How so? I've sort of had the opposite experience--yeah there are a lot of people who remember it fondly and talk about it, but it's around more as sort of a geek culture classic than an active fandom. It's sort of hard to find fic for it, for example.

I share many of your feelings about the Ponds. I wasn't really big on Rory until he died, and even when he came back I wasn't sure if they were really ready to marry. Now I love them to bits. And yeah, if Moffat wrecks their happy ending, I will be really unhappy.

Hmmm, I was pretty young when TNG aired and watched it in reruns myself, so it's probably not so bad as all that (I'm 27). For a long while all I knew about the show was the Reading Rainbow episode where Levar Burton showed us all the behind-the-scenes *g*

Yeah, I guess I just mean that it comes up a whole lot (especially for a show with such a tiny run) and everybody flails all over it. I've never really gone looking for stuff, so I'll definitely believe you if you say the real fandom is a bit thin.

PONDS \o/ I'm really excited for this episode, actually, because I MISS ALL MY CHARACTERS and I feel like we didn't really get to spend any time with them last week.

Ah, so I'm not so much younger, then. I'm 21. Reading Rainbow! :D

Yay for this episode! It looks like a monster-of-the-week sort of episode, which will be nice for a change. The story arc this season is sort of exhausting. I miss all the characters, too, especially Amy.

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Silly Relationships Meme Time

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