Pairings

Why do we ship what we ship? I'm probably not the only person who ships the same prototype(s) over and over again, pairing that although gender/species/fandom/age whatever may differ, have the same basic dynamic. Just like I have sex kinks and story kinks (like hurt/comfort), I've also got pairing kinks.

Let's look at Pairing I Have Shipped (By "shipped" I mean: written or read a lot or adored in the source or felt OTPish about...). Hm... I can't remember what the first thing I ever felt shippy about was. Maybe the male and the female fox from Animals of Farthing Wood? *g* The first romantic movie I liked was Pretty Woman (so that's where the prostitution kink comes from ;P) I'll try to be a bit chronological about this:

Duncan/Methos (Highlander), Sailor Uranus/Sailor Neptune (Sailor Moon, duh), Jarod/Miss Parker (Pretender), Odo/Kira (DS9), lots of anime pairings, Sirius/Remus (HP), Spike/Buffy (duh), Jack/Ralph (Lord of the Flies), Snape/Remus (post OotP-HP), Garak/Bashir (DS9), Giles/Ethan (Buffy) Picard/Q (TNG), Xavier/Magneto (X-Men), Sheppard/McKay (SGA), Mulder/Krycek (X-Files), Clark/Lex (Smallville), Superman/Batman, Tim/Kon (DC comics), Batman/Catwoman, Doctor/Master (Doctor Who), Six/Baltar (BSG)

[that can't be all...probably forgetting a billion.]

Roughly, these fit into 3 categories:

1) Best Friends: Duncan/Methos, Sailor Uranus/Sailor Neptune, Sirius/Remus, Garak/Bashir, Sheppard/McKay, Superman/Batman, Tim/Kon

2) Strong (often violent) woman/pining (often submissive) man: Odo/Kira, Spike/Buffy, Six/Baltar (the same female prototype probably also applies to Uranus, Catwoman and Miss Parker)

3) Enemies: Jarod/Miss Parker, Jack/Ralph, Giles/Ethan, Picard/Q, Xavier/Magneto, Mulder/Krycek, Snape/Remus, Clark/Lex, Batman/Catwoman, Doctor/Master [of course there's an overlap between 1 and 3. A lot of the enemy pairings used to be friends, and some of the friends pairings have antagonistic vibes, or one parter who is an antihero/reformed villain, like Methos, Q or Catwoman.]

Something that they all have in common, however, is that the two partners are *different*, often polar opposites with a few striking common traits. Almost every one of these pairings has the "rogue" component. I guess what it boils down to is that I like pairings who, although they complement each other well, have a lot of friction and conflict going on. Violence is likely to happen at some point. Some of these also have a notable skewed power dynamic but in the end balance each other well (even the weird het pairings have all ended up with equal power/the male leaving). I like pairings who have an intense history, who have to fight to get/stay together and pairings for whom it might even be impossible to have a happy ending.

So, what are your pairing kinks?

Pairings

Why do we ship what we ship? I'm probably not the only person who ships the same prototype(s) over and over again, pairing that although gender/species/fandom/age whatever may differ, have the same basic dynamic. Just like I have sex kinks and story kinks (like hurt/comfort), I've also got pairing kinks.

Let's look at Pairing I Have Shipped (By "shipped" I mean: written or read a lot or adored in the source or felt OTPish about...). Hm... I can't remember what the first thing I ever felt shippy about was. Maybe the male and the female fox from Animals of Farthing Wood? *g* The first romantic movie I liked was Pretty Woman (so that's where the prostitution kink comes from ;P) I'll try to be a bit chronological about this:

Duncan/Methos (Highlander), Sailor Uranus/Sailor Neptune (Sailor Moon, duh), Jarod/Miss Parker (Pretender), Odo/Kira (DS9), lots of anime pairings, Sirius/Remus (HP), Spike/Buffy (duh), Jack/Ralph (Lord of the Flies), Snape/Remus (post OotP-HP), Garak/Bashir (DS9), Giles/Ethan (Buffy) Picard/Q (TNG), Xavier/Magneto (X-Men), Sheppard/McKay (SGA), Mulder/Krycek (X-Files), Clark/Lex (Smallville), Superman/Batman, Tim/Kon (DC comics), Batman/Catwoman, Doctor/Master (Doctor Who), Six/Baltar (BSG)

[that can't be all...probably forgetting a billion.]

Roughly, these fit into 3 categories:

1) Best Friends: Duncan/Methos, Sailor Uranus/Sailor Neptune, Sirius/Remus, Garak/Bashir, Sheppard/McKay, Superman/Batman, Tim/Kon

2) Strong (often violent) woman/pining (often submissive) man: Odo/Kira, Spike/Buffy, Six/Baltar (the same female prototype probably also applies to Uranus, Catwoman and Miss Parker)

3) Enemies: Jarod/Miss Parker, Jack/Ralph, Giles/Ethan, Picard/Q, Xavier/Magneto, Mulder/Krycek, Snape/Remus, Clark/Lex, Batman/Catwoman, Doctor/Master [of course there's an overlap between 1 and 3. A lot of the enemy pairings used to be friends, and some of the friends pairings have antagonistic vibes, or one parter who is an antihero/reformed villain, like Methos, Q or Catwoman.]

Something that they all have in common, however, is that the two partners are *different*, often polar opposites with a few striking common traits. Almost every one of these pairings has the "rogue" component. I guess what it boils down to is that I like pairings who, although they complement each other well, have a lot of friction and conflict going on. Violence is likely to happen at some point. Some of these also have a notable skewed power dynamic but in the end balance each other well (even the weird het pairings have all ended up with equal power/the male leaving). I like pairings who have an intense history, who have to fight to get/stay together and pairings for whom it might even be impossible to have a happy ending.

So, what are your pairing kinks?