30 Days of Actually Posting

[extrapenguin]

As usual, please ignore the gap between #2 and this one.

03. You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?

I am an avid multishipper, but I generally don't do OT3s because that's a whole new ship I might not enjoy the dynamics of. I think to OT3, I'd have to enjoy A/B, B/C, and A/C all before I could ship A/B/C. (After all, sometimes the third person is away and it's just two of them interacting.) The only fandom where I remember shipping to OTP/OT3 degree both A/B and A/B/C is Guardian, where I shipped Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan and also Shen Wei/Ye Zun/Zhao Yunlan, because with Ye Zun's Issues(TM) this felt like a reasonable outcome of Shen Wei loving his boyfriend and his little brother and wanting happiness for both.

(I swear I'm not usually an incest shipper, I just ... well. Ye Zun.)

There are some things where I do ship the A/B and the A/B/C without shipping B/C or A/C, now that I think about it, but not quite to OTP or OT3 levels of shipping. In this case, it's Fives/Echo from TCW, and they can have some Anakin Skywalker as a treat. (So... I only like OT3s if I ship two siblings/quasi-siblings and give them a third person to play with? Um. I am not sure whether this is a legit description of my tastes or just coincidence due to not being that much of an OT3 person. IDK.)

(list of questions)

Comments

[china_shop]

There are some things where I do ship the A/B and the A/B/C without shipping B/C or A/C, now that I think about it, but not quite to OTP or OT3 levels of shipping.

Ohh, this made me realise that for one of my OT3s, I really don't care that much about the canon (m/f) pairing in the absence of the third. Which might just be that the third is my favourite, or that the show does everything with the canon m/f pairing that needs doing, or it might be the hetness, or some combination of all those things. Huh. (I'd been assuming, like you, that "I'd have to enjoy A/B, B/C, and A/C all before I could ship A/B/C.")

I also have a v-shaped threesome ship, where I love A/B + B/C, but DNW A/C.

[extrapenguin]

Do you enjoy the non-canon legs of the OT3 by themselves, or just the OT3? Since I think just-the-OT3 is also a common form of shipping OT3s. ("They need the whole triangle to find balance!")

I used to have a V-shaped threesome ship as well, but then I got over my twincest issue and Shen Wei/Ye Zun/Zhao Yunlan happened.

[china_shop]

Idk if that was a rhetorical question, so sorry if this is more than you care to know, but I think my feelings about the threesomes in... both these cases, actually, is deeply affected by not wanting to exclude the female character for fear of being One of Those Fans. I do really like the female characters in both those pairings, but I don't know who or how I'd ship outside of the context of "refusing to sideline her." If that makes sense. (The v-shaped threesome is f/m + m/m.)

ETA: Er, that answered your question better when it was in my head than it does now I've finished writing it... What I meant was: it's probably the queerness of the OT3 that draws me in, so I'm less interested in the m/f pairings outside of the OT3 context, and I don't ship the m/m pairings on their own because of the above.

[extrapenguin]

not wanting to exclude the female character for fear of being One of Those Fans
I mean, irrespectively of your feelings on any particular OT3, I think it's perfectly understandable that a LGBT fan would not be interested in M/F and/or deeply prefer M/M or F/F over that. I am deeply side-eyeing anyone who suggested you were bad for not liking M/F, or that the only way to not sideline a woman was to ship her with a man.

[tinny]

Yes, for ot3s, a lot of things have to come together to make it work. irl, probably *waaaay* too much work, but in fic, you can handwave all the rest and then it can work for a while. :)

[extrapenguin]

Yeah, I mean, IRL nothing lasts forever anyway, but that is a lot of moving parts to juggle! Fic can make things much easier.