For those who aren't familiar with the lingo—OTP stands for "one true pairing." The phrase means your favorite couple—be them an actual couple or people you just wish would be together—from a TV show, movie, book, etc.
What's great about the abbreviation, however, is that even while it implies there can be only one, you can actually have as many OTPs as you'd like. And trust me when I say that I certainly do. (So many that I've included some honorable mentions at the end of the post.)
Five Favorite OTPs
5 | Alice and Hatter, Alice
If you've never seen the SyFy miniseries
Alice—I highly recommend it. It's a spin on the traditional
Alice in Wonderland tale, and features a fantastic cast of strange and wonderful characters and a story that makes you want to watch all 8 hours of the series in one sitting. But what really makes it special is the relationship between Alice and Hatter. It's one that starts out full of enemistry*, but soon evolves into something much more.
4 | Celaena and Chaol, Throne of Glass
I'm a book behind in reading Sarah J. Maas'
Throne of Glass series, and I know some shakeups happen in the fourth book, but I'm totally dead-set on Celaena Sardothian** and Chaol Westfall ending up together. Their relationship starts out as a soldier/prisoner relationship, but quickly evolves into a mutual admiration, then friendship—then more.
(Then more more, I hope.)
3 | Max and Liz, Roswell
Max Evans was pretty much my first pop culture crush
(that counted) and the belief I had in his relationship with Liz Parker on
Roswell was a full-blown OTP situation before I knew what OTPs were. I was so invested in the two of them being together that I actually still can't stand Emilie de Ravin—thanks completely to the fact that she played Tess, a character who attempted to drive Max and Liz apart.
2 | Clarke and Bellamy, The 100
I am totally head-over-heels in love with the idea of Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake, Princess and Rebel King of
The 100, being together, regardless of the fact that it'll supposedly never happen
(according to the show's creator). The two share far too many charged moments for their relationship to be purely platonic/one that co-leaders who had shared romantic feelings would have.
(Thankfully, many people on the Internet agree with me, and create fanvids and fanfic to tide us all over.)
1 | Han and Leia, Star Wars
When I was younger, after watching the original
Star Wars trilogy and quickly coming to adore the relationship between Han Solo and Leia Organa, I devoured the extended universe books, in which the two eventually get married and have kids. I knew, going into
The Force Awakens, that things were going to be different, but I still held out hope that two would have had at least some sort of relationship between the movies. And although it wasn't exactly the happily ever after I'd wanted, it felt honest and real. Han <3 Leia, forever.
Honorable mentions: Ned and Chuck from
Pushing Daisies, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from basically any
Pride & Prejudice adaptation, Rachel Watts and James Mycroft from Ellie Marney's
Every series, Aeryn Sun and John Crichton from
Farscape, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark from
The Avengers (mostly kidding on this one) ...
Learn more about 5 Fandom Friday and check out the prompts for February.
*Enemistry = "chemistry between enemies." A.k.a. the kind of relationship that starts out completely antagonistic, but eventually the two people realize they're totally head over heels for each other. Also, pretty much my favorite kind of relationship, as proven by the choices on this list.
**I'm using this name on purpose here because spoilers.