Of your list, the one that resonates with me the most, and the one that can be applied to all of my ships, is "I like their shippy dynamic." Friendship, UST, unrequited love ~ its all good to me, if the characters have chemistry =)
For my OTP (my icon), it definitely goes a little deeper - I've scoured the canon and examined the subtext/context of their interactions (it's a kid's show from the 80s, when romance was verboten for the under-12 set). I love sitting back and imagining them together. I love reading shippy fic about them, no matter how horrible it is :P I've built this very rich, detailed head!canon around them, and to me, that's the *only* way the course of their relationship makes sense. It's interesting to see others' interpretations of them, but it doesn't really ring true.
Only now, two years into exclusively shipping them together, am I beginning to open up to see the potential of other relationships for them. I've never written those stories (or read them, not that there's many to read), but I've also never bashed anybody else for liking ships other than my own. What's the point? I consider it a celebration of the characters, their chemistry, and the investment I've made in them as a couple.
I have other, casual ships from other fandoms, and mostly I enjoy exploring the characters' interactions. The one reason I've never understood for shipping is simply "they look pretty together". That one boggles my mind, I guess because I care more about their personalities and backgrounds than how attractive they are :P
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For my OTP (my icon), it definitely goes a little deeper - I've scoured the canon and examined the subtext/context of their interactions (it's a kid's show from the 80s, when romance was verboten for the under-12 set). I love sitting back and imagining them together. I love reading shippy fic about them, no matter how horrible it is :P I've built this very rich, detailed head!canon around them, and to me, that's the *only* way the course of their relationship makes sense. It's interesting to see others' interpretations of them, but it doesn't really ring true.
Only now, two years into exclusively shipping them together, am I beginning to open up to see the potential of other relationships for them. I've never written those stories (or read them, not that there's many to read), but I've also never bashed anybody else for liking ships other than my own. What's the point? I consider it a celebration of the characters, their chemistry, and the investment I've made in them as a couple.
I have other, casual ships from other fandoms, and mostly I enjoy exploring the characters' interactions. The one reason I've never understood for shipping is simply "they look pretty together". That one boggles my mind, I guess because I care more about their personalities and backgrounds than how attractive they are :P