I am both annoyed at and feel pity toward those who honestly think their OTP is real....
I’m not talking about everyone, naturally. I’m not talking about every single hardcore shipper out there either, because there are people who are head-over-heels in love with two members being cute together, but still understand that, even as close friends, they‘re still only doing it because they know it drives the girls crazy.
I'm not even talking about the fans who make a game out of dissecting all of the possible "evidence" and “signs” and like to build a case for why their OTP of choice is real, because in reality, they understand that they do not and probably will never know, their biases on a personal level. I'm not talking about these level-headed people who enjoy shipping just because it's fun and part of the fandom.
I’m talking about the fans who become absolutely enraged when other people say their OTP isn’t real. The people who turn an entirely blind eye to the fact that they have never and probably will never meet the two people in their OTP, and still believe that they know something everyone else doesn’t: that their OTP, in real life, are secretly flaming homos for each other; that no other OTP is allowed to exist, and that by either half of their sacred OTP saying they liked a girl/dated a girl, it’s all in their valiant attempts at hiding the truth of their OTP’s true love.
They will swear up and down that their OTP is absolutely real, attack anyone that “comes between them,” and attack those that ship other OTPs -- even if that OTP has nothing to do with THEIR OTP, simply because it’s a “crack ship” or not “real” enough.
Honey, I have some news for you: until your One True Pairing comes out of the closet, and states that they are in a romantic relationship with each other, your OTP is no more “real” than the crackiest of crack ships.
A close friendship is NOT evidence of a real-life romantic couple.
Sharing a room is NOT evidence of a real-life romantic couple.
Sharing clothes/jewelry is NOT evidence of a real-life romantic couple.
Doing copious skinship is NOT evidence of a real-life romantic couple.
Playing along with the idea of being an OTP because they know the fans like it is STILL NOT evidence of a real-life romantic couple.
And yet there are people out there who think they know their idols like the back of their hand and will attack anyone under the sun who says otherwise.
For a long time, I didn’t think people like this existed, because I believed no one could possibly be so deluded as to truly think they knew ass from elbow about two people they’ve never met. We can be the hardest of hardcore fans, but ultimately, we will always be, on many levels, an outsider to the personal lives of the people we idolize -- and this is only as it should be.
Being entirely convinced that their OTP is gay/lesbian for each other is one thing, and it is truly sad. But then there exists another level of this deluded group that will actively attack ANYONE even remotely romantically linked to one half of their OTP. They will stalk the alleged romantic link, throw things at them, crash their fan pages, their official fan sites, and their Twitters, saying in all caps to stay the fuck away from (insert one half of OTP here) because they belong to (insert other half of OTP here). It would be fine if they kept their delusions to themselves and on their own Tumblrs/LiveJournals/Whatevers, but they can’t.
The majority of these kinds of fans are really young and immature, but what difference should that make, really, when they are even capable of believing such things based on zero romantic evidence? What’s going to happen to them when their One True Paring proves that they never have and never will have the hots for each other and get girlfeiends/boyfriends, who they will eventually marry? What are they going to do with themselves and all of those days, months, and years of convincing themselves of something entirely false? What is wrong with people like this?
I guess we’ll only find out when it happens.
And the crazy thing about this long, rambling post is that it will do absolutely nothing to enlighten the people it’s actually addressing. Should they bother to read it at all, they will look at it, shrug, and state, “She’s not talking about me -- because my OTP really is real. And here’s why….”
