Romance!
My "engagement" ring came yesterday (I've been married for years, but never got around to getting a ring before.) It's lovely! We settled on a ruby surrounded by black diamond chips and I love it loads!
So, feeling romantic and insomnia-ic, I've put together a little OTP post with links to all my favourite canon love affairs!
I'd also love to hear about other people's favourite romances, so feel free to rhapsodize in the comments if you have a couple you love and also cannot sleep at all!
1) Barnabas and Julia (Dark Shadows)
"Not without you, Julia. Never without you!"
Fuck, but these two are awesome! It's a shame that not more people know about this show these days, since it was great fun and a surprisingly sophisticated love story. He's a vampire; she's a doctor trying to cure him. Coming from an era when all good girls were blushing virgins, he just plain fails to recognise true love in the form of a career woman who rolls her eyes at his rejection of modern conveniences like electricity and uses his emo candelabra to light her cigarettes. But they become allies, friends and then more than friends, in a way that feels remarkably real despite the fantasy setting. The one-show-a-day format gave lots of time for that to develop organically. And what makes it even more great is that the actors were behind it all; they petitioned the writers to make the relationship romantic and when that took too long they figured they'd just act it like a romance and let the audience fill in the blanks until the writers caught up. It's so fun when the actors ship it too!
And I love that this is what vampire/human couples looked like before Twilight!
2) Wesley and Lilah (Angel: the Series)
"It's not always about holding hands."
God, this was such a good bit of fucked-up romance! I still find it incredible that the hottest affair in the Jossverse happened between these two, but WOW. There was such an adult feel to it, on a show where the romance had felt very teenagery before, even if the characters involved were a lot older than that. It was surprisingly racy as well; I still can't believe the censors let that scene where he goes down on her get by. And while all the scar-licking and board-room phone sex ("take them off - pretend you've dropped your pencil" - lol) was kinky as fuck, there was a real heart to them as well. That scene with the dollar still breaks my heart. Jossed way too soon, but I like to believe they found each other in the afterlife!
I really think these two are where my good-boy/ambiguously-bad-girl kink comes from!
3) Rictor and Shatterstar (X-family comics)
"MADRE DE DIOS! I did not come back to this team to see mi amigo die! I will find a way to get to Mojo and free Star--Even if I have to split this planet in half to do it!"
God bless Peter David for finally making this one canon. And extra blessings on top of that for sticking to it while Shatterstar's creator wailed and whined because the character was "turned gay". Fans started shipping these two in the 90s, but then they vanished from the scene for a while and were finally reunited and made offiical in X-factor comics vol. 3. The dynamic is gorgeous. Rictor is the scion of a Mexican gun cartel and Shatterstar is a genetically engineered biological weapon. But, like Barnabas and Julia, the writers have taken a fantastical premise and shaped a very human love story out of it. They're a fascinating study in the way sexualities can vary within a relationship; Rictor would like a monogamous gay relationship while Star is bisexual and interested in polyamory. But despite that they're very much in love and determined to make it work in a way that fulfills them both.
They're also one of the snarkiest couples in the world, which makes them even more awesome.
4) Denny and Shaz (Bad Girls)
"I ain't leaving you, babe."
How the hell did a relationship where the NAIVE one is a triple murderer end up being so sweet? No idea, but did it ever! When these two meet, they're both still teenagers but they're already incredibly damaged. Shaz used to agitate her stepfather so that he would beat her instead of hurting her dog and Denny's doing time for setting fire to the children's home she lived in. They're convicts and they're guilty, but they're also just two young girls falling in love for the first time in their lives. The innocence of that - Denny getting flustered when she watches Shaz washing herself, Shaz sending her illiterate lover a construction paper broken-heart after they're separated - really drives home how universal love is and how it can help to redeem people.
Bonus points to the casting people for choosing actresses who aren't "pretty", but still manage to be absolutely gorgeous.
5) Castiel and Meg (SPN)
"That's my boy."
I don't know if I should include this one, since I guess they're only semi-canon at best at this point. But I'm kind of obsessed with them and it's my LJ, so they're going in. Winners of the SPN 6th season hottest-kiss award, these two totally take me back to that kink that Wes and Lilah kicked off all those years ago. This is a case of two people (or semi-people) who have both nothing and everything in common. They've had very limited screen time together, and yet I've already got loads of favourite moments between them. I adore that Meg was the one to tell Castiel who he really was when he had amnesia, and that the newly non-violent Castiel was still getting up in Crowley's face when he threatened Meg. There's tons and tons of potential here, and I can't wait to see how they'll develop it.
That hand in her hair is what really sells it for me - UMFF!
No idea if anyone is going to get all the way through that, but if you do you can have a shiny gold star from me and, of course, loads of love!
So, feeling romantic and insomnia-ic, I've put together a little OTP post with links to all my favourite canon love affairs!
I'd also love to hear about other people's favourite romances, so feel free to rhapsodize in the comments if you have a couple you love and also cannot sleep at all!
1) Barnabas and Julia (Dark Shadows)
"Not without you, Julia. Never without you!"
Fuck, but these two are awesome! It's a shame that not more people know about this show these days, since it was great fun and a surprisingly sophisticated love story. He's a vampire; she's a doctor trying to cure him. Coming from an era when all good girls were blushing virgins, he just plain fails to recognise true love in the form of a career woman who rolls her eyes at his rejection of modern conveniences like electricity and uses his emo candelabra to light her cigarettes. But they become allies, friends and then more than friends, in a way that feels remarkably real despite the fantasy setting. The one-show-a-day format gave lots of time for that to develop organically. And what makes it even more great is that the actors were behind it all; they petitioned the writers to make the relationship romantic and when that took too long they figured they'd just act it like a romance and let the audience fill in the blanks until the writers caught up. It's so fun when the actors ship it too!
And I love that this is what vampire/human couples looked like before Twilight!
2) Wesley and Lilah (Angel: the Series)
"It's not always about holding hands."
God, this was such a good bit of fucked-up romance! I still find it incredible that the hottest affair in the Jossverse happened between these two, but WOW. There was such an adult feel to it, on a show where the romance had felt very teenagery before, even if the characters involved were a lot older than that. It was surprisingly racy as well; I still can't believe the censors let that scene where he goes down on her get by. And while all the scar-licking and board-room phone sex ("take them off - pretend you've dropped your pencil" - lol) was kinky as fuck, there was a real heart to them as well. That scene with the dollar still breaks my heart. Jossed way too soon, but I like to believe they found each other in the afterlife!
I really think these two are where my good-boy/ambiguously-bad-girl kink comes from!
3) Rictor and Shatterstar (X-family comics)
"MADRE DE DIOS! I did not come back to this team to see mi amigo die! I will find a way to get to Mojo and free Star--Even if I have to split this planet in half to do it!"
God bless Peter David for finally making this one canon. And extra blessings on top of that for sticking to it while Shatterstar's creator wailed and whined because the character was "turned gay". Fans started shipping these two in the 90s, but then they vanished from the scene for a while and were finally reunited and made offiical in X-factor comics vol. 3. The dynamic is gorgeous. Rictor is the scion of a Mexican gun cartel and Shatterstar is a genetically engineered biological weapon. But, like Barnabas and Julia, the writers have taken a fantastical premise and shaped a very human love story out of it. They're a fascinating study in the way sexualities can vary within a relationship; Rictor would like a monogamous gay relationship while Star is bisexual and interested in polyamory. But despite that they're very much in love and determined to make it work in a way that fulfills them both.
They're also one of the snarkiest couples in the world, which makes them even more awesome.
4) Denny and Shaz (Bad Girls)
"I ain't leaving you, babe."
How the hell did a relationship where the NAIVE one is a triple murderer end up being so sweet? No idea, but did it ever! When these two meet, they're both still teenagers but they're already incredibly damaged. Shaz used to agitate her stepfather so that he would beat her instead of hurting her dog and Denny's doing time for setting fire to the children's home she lived in. They're convicts and they're guilty, but they're also just two young girls falling in love for the first time in their lives. The innocence of that - Denny getting flustered when she watches Shaz washing herself, Shaz sending her illiterate lover a construction paper broken-heart after they're separated - really drives home how universal love is and how it can help to redeem people.
Bonus points to the casting people for choosing actresses who aren't "pretty", but still manage to be absolutely gorgeous.
5) Castiel and Meg (SPN)
"That's my boy."
I don't know if I should include this one, since I guess they're only semi-canon at best at this point. But I'm kind of obsessed with them and it's my LJ, so they're going in. Winners of the SPN 6th season hottest-kiss award, these two totally take me back to that kink that Wes and Lilah kicked off all those years ago. This is a case of two people (or semi-people) who have both nothing and everything in common. They've had very limited screen time together, and yet I've already got loads of favourite moments between them. I adore that Meg was the one to tell Castiel who he really was when he had amnesia, and that the newly non-violent Castiel was still getting up in Crowley's face when he threatened Meg. There's tons and tons of potential here, and I can't wait to see how they'll develop it.
That hand in her hair is what really sells it for me - UMFF!
No idea if anyone is going to get all the way through that, but if you do you can have a shiny gold star from me and, of course, loads of love!
