Remember months and months ago, that sort of cross between a fanmix and a meme where you pick a song for ten of your OTPs? Well I have finally, finally gotten around to it.
Mulder/Scully
Travis - CloserKeep waking up without you here
Another day, another year
I seek the truth, we set apart
Thinking of a second chance
I cannot never fully articulate how perfect I feel like Mulder and Scully are for each other, but as far as I'm concerned they are the ultimate everything. They're snarky and they're sweet and they're sad, and more than any other two people in any other situation, they really do revolve around each other (don't worry, I will avoid any and all cheesy celestial metaphors here!). I think it'd be nearly impossible to make a fanmix that was purely Mulder and Scully, because their dynamic in season one is completely and totally different from the one they have in season four or six or eight. They're both completely complex characters, and they have this completely complex relationship, and after a certain point I'm not entirely sure they remember exactly how to function without each other. It is a beautiful thing to watch and absorb.
Jim/Pam
Basia Bulat - Little WaltzYou and I, we make a grand salute
Stare at each other
Like lost little birds
Across the room
I can wax poetic about how awesomely comic every single character on The Office is with the best of them, and I could so very easily launch into an essay entitled "Why Karen Filippelli Should Stay With Us: Detailing the Ways in Which She Is Awesome!", but at the heart of hearts of my Office love, there is Jim and Pam. Jim and Pam, who were the best of best friends, who first kissed at the Dundies and then later at Casino Night, who make each other laugh, who swayed, who combined assume probably 85% of the responsiblity for unhappinesses in Dwight Schrute's life, who went ice skating, who understand each other, who are going on a date! It's almost uncool to love them unconditionally now, but I don't care if Jim is douchey or Pam is (well, was) too unassuming, they are lovely together. They bottom line, to me, is that they make each other happy, and therefore they should be together. QED!
Josh/Donna
The Format - I'm ActualI placed you on a window sill
Cut notches up and down the door
My surprise I woke up one morning
And there in your place lay a note
You know! I don't think there's any couple whose ending I'm happier with than Josh and Donna. They fell perfectly into a relationship in exactly the way I think an OTP should, in an accidental-but-not-really way with lots of pretty sex and then an examination of how they both felt about it afterwards. The way they sort of tiptoe and then stomp around each other, one second totally insecure and the next secure in the other's affection, it's lovely and true and so completely right to Josh and Donna. I wanted to pick a happier song for them, but this one is so perfect for a self-emmolating season six Josh that I cannot separate it from them. Whatever, Josh and Donna! We all know you got your happily-ever-after anyway.
Ron/Hermione
Kate Nash - The Nicest ThingI wish you couldn't figure me out,
But you always wanna know what I was about.
I wish you'd hold my hand when I was upset,
I wish you'd never forget the look on my face when we first met.
I know many of you, flist, are Harry/Hermione 'shippers, and while I totally respect your preference I don't understand it. Every little Ron/Hermione moment in these books has made me curl my fingers around the corners of the pages in glee, they make me grin the way through and they make the darkness of the last few books very light-hearted for me. I love the way they love little things about each other, I love the way they're embarrassed to admit how much they respect each other, I love their offhand bickering, I love the way they make each other blush, I love the way they are. I've heard arguments that they shouldn't be together because they make each other miserable, but honestly I don't think that could be further from the truth. Some people like quiet, easy relationships, but some people feed off of tension. And that is Ron and Hermione.
Tom/B'Elanna
Savage Garden - To The Moon and BackMama never loved her much
And daddy never keeps in touch
That's why she shies away from human affection
But somewhere in a private place
She packs her bags for outer space
And now she's waiting for
The right kind of pilot to come
This is a cliché song to pick, because everyone in this fandom seems to already know about how ridiculously perfect this song is for Tom and B'Elanna. I'm totally convinced that Darren Hayes (or whoever writes the songs for Savage Garden... I'm sure
tashternal knows this!) was a closet Voyager fan, who spent every Wednesday night thinking about how fantastically complicated B'Elanna Torres was, because this song fits her every contour, her parents, the Maquis, and Tom. Oh you guys, this was my first OTP, my first fandom, the first television show I loved, and I honestly, honestly would not have cared a smidge for it if they hadn't dragged me in. They're lovely, lovely people, and it's funny how perfect they are for each other when they're so completely different and so completely wrong for absolutely everyone else.
Sydney/Vaughn
Azure Ray - NovemberSo we're speeding towards that time of year
To the day that marks that you're not here
And I think I'll want to be alone
So please understand that I don't answer the phone
More than anything else about being a Sydney/Vaughn 'shipper, I remember season three. We were so happy for a while there, and then season three came along and it was just so anguishing. So, so much worse than your normal shippy whatever mess of will-they-won't-they or can-they-can't-they, because they would and they had, and then they were back to square one, except they weren't even really because he was married. It's funny how the feelings associated with that come swishing back up when I think about it (I bet you could tell! I'm sort of incoherent about it and I'm italicizing a lot!), but I don't know. Alias still feels sad for me, even though I've heard tell of a happy ending.
Mal/Inara
South - Nine LivesYou say you will come home soon
We'll see you most the weekdays
Miss you at the best of times
You help me walk that fine line
My sister, who has always, always agreed with me on 'ships, never got Mal/Inara. HOW CAN YOU NOT GET MAL/INARA? I feel like they are they kind of 'ship where you can put on almost any episode of Firefly, and at some point Mal will wander into Inara's (technically off-limits) shuttle and mention some dilemma, and they'll disagree and then they'll argue and then you, the audience, kind of get it and go "oh hey! They're kind of in love, aren't they?" And then you go off and watch Heart of Gold or Shindig or Our Mrs. Reynolds or something, and it'll hit you that this isn't a "kind of" sort of thing. Somebody should tell my sister this.
Dawson/Joey
Kite-Flying Society - GroundflowerFor just one moment
You and I collided
And the night breathed my name
It came in disguise
As the groundflower dies.
When I wandered online after watching endless hours of Dawson's Creek, I was shocked and dismayed to find that fandom is mostly Pacey/Joey. WHAT. The first two seasons of clueless best friends first discovering love >>>>> the last four seasons of cynical ruminations on whatever. They Pacey/Joey mess tore everything apart, and I can't, can't love them together. I would much rather listen to Dawson compare his relationship with Joey to a movie than listen to Joey tell Pacey how much more important to her he is than Dawson, since clearly he is her future when Dawson was her past. UNCOOL, FANDOM.
Taylors
Hanalei - John Hughes EndingsHe broke the stare shyly, she brushed her hair from her face.
They were pulled to each other by the center of the room.
And with his heart jumping he tried to try hello,
She blessed his cheek with a kiss before he could speak.
I love love love established adult relationships. I always have. I was the girl who'd spend as much time squealing over Sandy and Kirsten as Seth and Summer, and if I had to pick a television relationship I myself would like to end up in, I'd absolutely go for Jed/Abbey over almost anything. And yet, like almost everything else, Friday Night Lights has taken it up a notch. Eric and Tami have this indescribably lovely relationship, and it's strongest point is it's realism. The argue about things I've seen people argue about, and then they turn around and they are so unbelievably tender with each other. It's an unbelievably beautiful thing to watch.
JD/Elliot
Jump, Little Children - VertigoLeaning from this precipice.
That only love would dare
Spining in a gravity
That only love could bear
were I to tumble to from this cloudy high
How would I fare
It's really funny to me how quickly I fell for a couple I hadn't really ever 'shipped before. Scrubs is one of those shows I watch to watch, and I've never really 'shipped anything (except, okay, Dr. Cox/Jordan) so much as just gone with the flow. The JD/Elliot plotlines in the first few seasons were interesting, sure, but I would have been totally fine with them ending up apart in the end, and then this season happened. I don't know, Scrubs is starting to wear around the edges, and Elliot and JD especially are victims to what I call "sitcom degradation": where the quirks the characters have always had are suddenly too prevalent, and they become caricatures of the characters they once were. But together, they're true to themselves again, and I love that. This season has suddenly convinced me that they are perfect for each other, and I cannot tell you how much I want them to say "to hell with everything!" and run off together.
BY THE WAY, happy birthday yesterday to
spentayearinla!!! This month I swear I'll get better at this.