Two kinds of cravings for fanworks involving two guys

[g_uava]

I crave fanworks of my OTP kissing and doing more. That seems typical, right? But not the case for two of my favourite ships.

The lack of outright romantic fanworks for these ships can be explained by the nature of the canon they're from, since one is K-Pop RPF and the other is an anime for kids released in the early 2000s. Outstripping straightforwardly romantic shipfics about them are more than one angsty fics involving the death of one half of the ship. So it seems that those intrigued by the relationship prefer to see one of them die and leave the other to grieve, rather than have them make out.

I had a new thought recently, that death allows the author to really have one guy wallow in his intense feelings about another guy. We get to feel closer to the character who lives at the expense of depriving a pair from achieving a greater degree of emotional and physical intimacy. The peak of the relationship is set at striving for intimacy with no hope for fulfillment.

I'll just leave these off-the-cuff thoughts here before going off to cook lunch.

Comments

[g_uava]

That's an interesting take to have shipping basically substitute the experience of unrequited love, when usually shipping is seen as a replacement for the lack of romantic passion.