I've said it before, but I do think if I stayed in SGA as long as you have, that I probably would switch, would be able to view it as either type of fandom. Though I don't know - I think it's more likely I just won't keep it that long, or at least not this invested. I'm already cheating a bit with NCIS, and though SGA still satisfies me as that and most other fandoms don't, and I see myself coming back to it, I don't know how much longer I'm going to stay...(I'm not OTP myself with any fandom! XP)
(Actually, in their specific case, that's one of the reasons why slashing them does change the relationship to something that's less special to me, because suddenly all the indefinable weirdness collapses into a relationship that *can* be described and easily qualified -- "boyfriends" -- and that makes it less interesting to me than when it's this extremely odd something that even they don't seem to know how to define.)
Hmmmm - I hadn't really considered this, but it's true for me, too. "Uniqueness" is one of the defining features of an OTP for me, and that explains why I particularly like McShep in which their relationship is something unique even if they are having sex - I don't exactly go for "they're not gay they just love each other," but I do tend to like stories in which it's their first gay relationship, or their first real relationship (John was married but it went so badly, and while I don't see Rodney as a virgin I tend to see him as mostly inexperienced with sex)...that "boyfriend" for them is still is a weird and inexplicable relationship. Same as you can define them as "teammates" or "best friends" and it describes what they have for the most part, but not quite. John & Rodney are both so weird about relationships - all relationships, friendships or romantic - that adding sex would either not change much or would complicate things; I don't see it as simplifying anything, at least not right away. Sleeping together would not make them any better at communicating, at least not right away (though yeah, I have read slash fics that it does, but those always seem OOC to me...put it this way, I've got my one slash fic that's about 50K words now, with long-term established McShep, and neither of them have actually said "I love you" to the other in the course of the story yet. But then, gen h/c fics are often about the characters coming together and expressing that they love each other platonically, so much gen, too, has the characters moving towards defining their relationships.)
And that's why I wouldn't want to see McShep go canon, because these writers are not good at subtle, and the only reason they write John & Rodney as well & interestingly as they do is because they don't really know what they're doing; they don't have it figured out. And sometimes it does seem to be played almost sexually/romantically...I sort of feel that saying their relationship is strictly platonic, that there is no subtext, is as limiting and qualifying as making them boyfriends; it's denying some of the mystery! (Which is why some of my favorite fics are those gen-ish stories which don't make a point of it one way or another, that don't try to define their friendship as romantic or platonic but leave it open to anything.)
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winterfish
Re: Part 2 (edited)
Date: 2008-11-28 11:40 am (UTC)(Actually, in their specific case, that's one of the reasons why slashing them does change the relationship to something that's less special to me, because suddenly all the indefinable weirdness collapses into a relationship that *can* be described and easily qualified -- "boyfriends" -- and that makes it less interesting to me than when it's this extremely odd something that even they don't seem to know how to define.)
Hmmmm - I hadn't really considered this, but it's true for me, too. "Uniqueness" is one of the defining features of an OTP for me, and that explains why I particularly like McShep in which their relationship is something unique even if they are having sex - I don't exactly go for "they're not gay they just love each other," but I do tend to like stories in which it's their first gay relationship, or their first real relationship (John was married but it went so badly, and while I don't see Rodney as a virgin I tend to see him as mostly inexperienced with sex)...that "boyfriend" for them is still is a weird and inexplicable relationship. Same as you can define them as "teammates" or "best friends" and it describes what they have for the most part, but not quite. John & Rodney are both so weird about relationships - all relationships, friendships or romantic - that adding sex would either not change much or would complicate things; I don't see it as simplifying anything, at least not right away. Sleeping together would not make them any better at communicating, at least not right away (though yeah, I have read slash fics that it does, but those always seem OOC to me...put it this way, I've got my one slash fic that's about 50K words now, with long-term established McShep, and neither of them have actually said "I love you" to the other in the course of the story yet. But then, gen h/c fics are often about the characters coming together and expressing that they love each other platonically, so much gen, too, has the characters moving towards defining their relationships.)
And that's why I wouldn't want to see McShep go canon, because these writers are not good at subtle, and the only reason they write John & Rodney as well & interestingly as they do is because they don't really know what they're doing; they don't have it figured out. And sometimes it does seem to be played almost sexually/romantically...I sort of feel that saying their relationship is strictly platonic, that there is no subtext, is as limiting and qualifying as making them boyfriends; it's denying some of the mystery! (Which is why some of my favorite fics are those gen-ish stories which don't make a point of it one way or another, that don't try to define their friendship as romantic or platonic but leave it open to anything.)