Hello, bookish friends, and welcome back to the blog! I’ve been reading so many books lately that have some of the most shippable characters I have ever seen, and it got me thinking: Is it permissible for us readers to have more than one OTP? After doing a quick Dictionary.com search to define the parameters of an OTP, I was left feeling a little dead inside. One True Pairing (OTP), according to their definition is “a term that signifies a person’s favorite fictional romantic relationship.” Yes, you read that correctly – SINGULAR, both in definition and the meaning of the acronym itself. As in you can only have ONE.
I got a little amped up after pondering this for a lot longer than I probably should have, so I’ve decided to write an entire post explaining exactly why I completely DISAGREE with the singular OTP thought process. This post could get a little controversial (but in a respectful/kind way!), so feel free to hit me up in the comments with your thoughts on whether or not One True Pairing should only be limited to one per reader or naw. Cool? Dope! Let’s get it, let’s go!
OTPs kind of remind me of when you ask someone what their favorite color is – some people have more than one and therefore, have a tough time only answering this question with the name of a single color. Similarly, if someone were to ask me what my favorite couple from the young adult fantasy genre would be, I’d probably list out at least five couples from five different book series. I mean, HELLO! Virtually an impossible decision to make when there are so many fabulous pairings to choose from.
Speaking of genres: I find that because there are so many books out there in all kinds of genres, it would be super hard to limit OTP to just one couple out of all the books in the world. This is because the fictional romances you see popping up in different genres can be very different from one another. For example, a romantic connection may blossom between old friends in a contemporary novel, but in a fantasy novel, there may be some enemies-to-lovers action going on. If a reader were to love both equally as much, then it is absolutely preposterous to ask them to choose only one oh-so-deserving couple as their OTP.
As you can clearly see from this very ramble-y yet therapeutic post, I am all for us readers being able to have an unlimited number of OTPs stashed away in our brains to enjoy for all of eternity. Writers want us to fall for their fictional romantic pairings (even when some make us hate them at first!), and therefore, asking us to only choose one out of a sea of irresistible choices would just be cruel!
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Enough about my thoughts on OTPs – what do you guys think? Do you have one couple that you believe will remain your only ultimate ship, or are you like me and have LOTS of fictional couples that you couldn’t possibly choose between? Let’s chat about it in the comments!
Until next week, bookish peeps! I hope the rest of your week is filled with beautiful visions of all your favorite fictional couples 😊
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