This Year's Model of Humanity

Most of my answers are somewhat obvious given the way I gave options, but now I shall give some elaborations (more to follow tomorrow). Fair's fair, after all, and many of you have given me 'more complicated answers in comments' so far (to which I say -- Yay!).

Doctor Who -- Rose and the Doctor

I found the dance of Nine and Rose to be enchanting. I found the love of Ten and Rose to be pure bliss. And the Rose mentions in the current series gives my heart joy.

Frankly, I do ship Rose with the Doctor and not any particular incarnation (I've read Rose/Other Doctor fic and been pleased). I think that she would have gotten on with any of them, though Nine probably was her best chance at getting past all his walls. For my own personal feelings, I would love a Rose return, but failing that, welcome the idea of Rose Tyler becoming part of the fabric of the Doctor's tragedy -- both the macro loss of a world entire and his people and the micro loss of his own personal love. It gives his grief balance.

This doesn't mean that I don't want him to move on, but considering that it took him nine hundred years of phone box travel to find Rose, getting over her in a matter of months or years would feel shallow to me. For me, this really was a damn epic love (and more than that, a fun one). Someone once said that he gave her wonder and she gave him joy. That feels... so right to me. They feel so right. From the very beginning (Rose), Rose feels as though she belongs in the Doctor's world -- laughing at the darkness with him and giving him a hand to hold. She and he are so alike -- kindred spirits, two of a kind, partners in crime. And... he's been looking for that, for so long. Everyone else has gotten tired of his life (even though Sarah Jane was kidding about wanting to leave in The Hand of Fear, her frustration seemed clear and quite real). Rose thrived on it. The danger, the adventure, and laughter -- all of it fit her, like it'd just been waiting for her to show up.

Stop here if you don't want to read spoilers for Canadian-aired episodes of Stargate: SG-1 (Season Ten).

Stargate: SG-1 -- Daniel Jackson

Stargate is definitely the place where I'm mostly about the OTC and not so much about the OTP. For SG-1, I love Daniel and want him to be happy. Whoever is best for that end is who I ship him with (and always with the heartbreaking backstory of his love for Sha're -- I can never quite get into fics that suggest his love for her was not complete).

For the majority of the show, I saw Jack as the person most likely to do that -- Daniel shared personal information with him, they bonded and argued and were best friends. I tend to ship pairings like that. But Jack left. Jack gave up. If I were more invested in Jack's happiness (I love Jack as a character -- he delights me thoroughly, but I don't adore him the way I do Daniel), then I probably would have been more disappointed by that.

But Vala showed up and tossed Daniel's world on its ear.

From the moment she took off her helmet in Prometheus Unbound to when she walked through the gate as part of SG-1 in Unending, I have loved Vala similiar to how I loved Jack. I like her, she delights me, but if she left, I would be more concerned with the impact on Daniel's character than on her loss. For me, loving Stargate is really about loving Daniel. I suspected (as I did with Jack) that Vala was capable of making Daniel happy -- Unending proved it for me. Because of that, I definitely ship them and want them to get together (again).











Stargate: Atlantis -- Rodney McKay

Though I don't love McKay with the same passion that I do Daniel, he is the character that I enjoy the most on Atlantis. It's his growth and happiness that I'm most invested in (and he's grown so much since his first appearance on SG-1!). Thus, as with Daniel, I'm happy to ship him either with his 'best friend' banter partner John Sheppard or with brilliant, brave Sam Carter.

Smallville -- Clark Kent

Smallville is actually a fandom where I used to have an OTC (Clark Kent) and now have an OTP (Lois/Clark). Up until Lois showed up in Crusade, I was happy to ship Clark with whoever made him most happy/passionate. Once Lois showed up, all bets were off. Lois and Clark are a long-standing favorite ship of mine and once I'd determined that SV's writers were treating Lois with respect and affection, I shipped this version of Lois and Clark with much glee.