1, 2, 6!
Questions Designed to Make You Hate Me
1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?
So. Hear me out. I’m not a huge shipper to begin with, buuut it’s hard for me to believe in a ship just because fandom thinks it’s cute to mash people up together ’just cause.’ So that said, when speaking in terms of FFVIII, I think relationships and romance were the very last things on anyone's mind at the time (even involving Squall and Rinoa), so any ship that occurs before the end of the game is just... lost on me.
Specific OTPs that I don’t get? Seifer x Zell. It just doesn’t compute in my head because a majority of the fanfic that has made this ship so popular has more or less fanaticized the dynamics of Seme/Uke tropes that are more unnerving to me than being ‘cute.’ Never mind that the material that I have found has always made Zell this bumbling soft boy submissive bottom and Seifer is put in this semi-rapey dom/top role that just feels like a bastardization of both their characters. Long story short, I have never seen a ‘healthy’ relationship stem from these two that wasn’t horrendously out of character. (Apologies, SeiZell shippers. Show me an example where it works, and I’ll be happy to change my mind.)
2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?
Squall x Seifer, honestly. I broship them more than I could ever ship-ship them. I think @hartofbalamb is the only person I could feasibly see myself being able to ship with because we’re so on point with how we view their rivalry and their relationship on that same level. I get uncomfortable with the notion that Seifer or Squall were ever in love with one another/one or the other since the orphanage because that’s just simply not possible. They were children.
6. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?
I was almost ruined by Seifer x Rinoa, honestly. I had too many bad experiences with Rinoa’s to the point where I just denounced the ship entirely for a good, long while. And I hated that because it was a ship that I really did enjoy. What I didn’t enjoy was seeing a mun launch down my muse’s throat with hostility, flinging accusations and were very OOCly aggressive toward him, ie. demanding apologies, expecting him to beg forgiveness, expect him to be soft.
Like, I’m sorry, but you can’t be angry that he doesn’t open up on demand and then complain that he doesn’t seem interested in your Rinoa. Not after a tantrum like that. And I can’t just force him to obey, that’s canon.
Same with Squall’s as well. I’ve had a few Squall’s who more or less bulled Seifer. One even tried to throat punch Seifer because according to them, Squall vehemently ‘hates’ Seifer.
That was before I learned how to better communicate ‘hey this isn’t cool, this needs to stop.’ Since I’ve learned how to actually speak up, my love for the pairing has improved significantly. I think that beyond personal experience, I have yet to be ruined by a pairing (I never subscribed to Seifer x Zell so it can’t be ruined for me, tbh).
