Can you ever read something without the OTP as a kind of AU
No, when I have an OTP it extends across all versions of canon (if I OTP it in 616 then I also OTP it in movieverse, for example) and that includes AUs. If there's a version of character A, they have to be in love with their version of character B. In fandoms where there's a lot of gen and long slash fic is hard to find, I'll read gen fic about them by non-shippers as long as it lets me maintain the interpretation that the characters still feel romantic love for one another but haven't yet acknowledged it, but often the narration or the characters will make some comment at some point about the platonic nature of their relationship and that will ruin things, or the author will make a point of deliberately shutting down slashy interpretations with a comment in their author's notes or header and ruin things. (Most of my het OTPs are canon pairings, so gen isn't really an issue - gen writers usually keep canon het pairings in place). I don't know if I'd react negatively to gen where they're not in love so strongly if I hadn't spent a dozen years listening to non-slashers insist that non-LGB people's platonic friendships >>>> my relationships, but I have, and it's made me intensely dislike seeing any relationship that's important to me and that I read as romantic reduced to platonicness. Ex: There's someone on my flist who really likes the idea of aromantic-ace!Enjolras, and I seethe in visceral loathing of the concept every time I see her post about it (Grantaire pining after an unattainable Enjolras who's capable of romantic love but just doesn't feel it for him is okay, because it leaves that slim, wistful, if-only-their lives-had-gone-differently-it-could-have-happened chance, but an Enjolras who is categorically unable to ever feel that way kills what made their death scene so meaningful to me - that when he agrees that he will permit it, he's acknowledging what Grantaire feels for him and realizing too late and only when he's about to die what they could have potentially been to one another - and is DO NOT WANT).
If it's just a pairing I like instead of an OTP, though, I can read fic that pairs them with other people or that doesn't ship them just fine. Whether or not I can stand the idea of reading about them being in love with other people/about a version of one of them who can never and will never love the other is the acid test for whether I really OTP something; if I can, then I just ship it rather than OTPing it.
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Date: 2013-08-24 06:30 am (UTC)No, when I have an OTP it extends across all versions of canon (if I OTP it in 616 then I also OTP it in movieverse, for example) and that includes AUs. If there's a version of character A, they have to be in love with their version of character B. In fandoms where there's a lot of gen and long slash fic is hard to find, I'll read gen fic about them by non-shippers as long as it lets me maintain the interpretation that the characters still feel romantic love for one another but haven't yet acknowledged it, but often the narration or the characters will make some comment at some point about the platonic nature of their relationship and that will ruin things, or the author will make a point of deliberately shutting down slashy interpretations with a comment in their author's notes or header and ruin things. (Most of my het OTPs are canon pairings, so gen isn't really an issue - gen writers usually keep canon het pairings in place). I don't know if I'd react negatively to gen where they're not in love so strongly if I hadn't spent a dozen years listening to non-slashers insist that non-LGB people's platonic friendships >>>> my relationships, but I have, and it's made me intensely dislike seeing any relationship that's important to me and that I read as romantic reduced to platonicness. Ex: There's someone on my flist who really likes the idea of aromantic-ace!Enjolras, and I seethe in visceral loathing of the concept every time I see her post about it (Grantaire pining after an unattainable Enjolras who's capable of romantic love but just doesn't feel it for him is okay, because it leaves that slim, wistful, if-only-their lives-had-gone-differently-it-could-have-happened chance, but an Enjolras who is categorically unable to ever feel that way kills what made their death scene so meaningful to me - that when he agrees that he will permit it, he's acknowledging what Grantaire feels for him and realizing too late and only when he's about to die what they could have potentially been to one another - and is DO NOT WANT).
If it's just a pairing I like instead of an OTP, though, I can read fic that pairs them with other people or that doesn't ship them just fine. Whether or not I can stand the idea of reading about them being in love with other people/about a version of one of them who can never and will never love the other is the acid test for whether I really OTP something; if I can, then I just ship it rather than OTPing it.