2006, Karen Hellekson & Kristina Busse, "Introduction", in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays (Karen Hellekson & Kristina Busse), page 11:
Many authors write their fandom's OTP, or “one true pairing,” exclusively—that is, they have such an investment in the romantic relationship of that particular pairing that they will write and read to the exclusion of all other pairings.
2007, Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, page 179:
Other common OTPs are Frodo/Sam and Aragorn/Legolas.
2013, Jennifer K. Stuller, Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 43:
The 'shippers in the study asserted that they may enjoy reading stories about other 'ships, or stories without a 'ship (called 'genfic' for 'general story', no 'ship), but the stories they most enjoy are those about their OTP.
2016, Rachel Leishman, critical blurb featured in Kathleen Smith, The Fangirl Life A Guide to All the Feels and Learning How to Deal, unnumbered page:
As a fangirl, having the knowledge that we all exist in this crazy obsessive world together helps coping with the feels our OTPs leave us with.
2018, Ashley Poston, Geekerella: A Fangirl Fairy Tale, page 320:
That was my community, where I grew up—in the midst of flaming reviews and shipping wars and OTPs and AU!fics and headcanons and songfics and half-baked homages to My Immortal.
OTPs can be canon (Ron/Hermione) or a fan's favorite ship (Harry/Hermione).
2018, Renata Iwicka, "Every Breath You Take: Sasaeng Fans", in Disassembling the Celebrity Figure: Credibility and the Incredible (eds. Celia Lam, Jackie Raphael, & Millicent Weber), page 136:
This might be explained with the assumption that fans are of the attitude 'if I cannot have him, no other girl will have him', but could also be due to their determined appropriation of their idols for their OTPs.
Over Rico's shoulder, I see Claire biting her lip, wearing the look of a shipper watching her OTP interact.
2018, Youjeong Oh, Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place, page 130:
Fans also talk about the endless possibilities of OTPs, fascinated by the tensions and chemistry between the paired-up stars.
2018, Aja Romano, quoted in The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom (Melissa A. Click & Suzanne Scott), unnumbered page:
I do think that often shippers tend to conflate their desire for representative equality with their desire for their OTP to become canon, which is an issue, and a problem, but also not the biggest problem.
2019, Holly Luetkenhaus & Zoe Weinstein, Austentatious: The Evolving World of Jane Austen Fans, page 102:
One post on Tumblr by user penfairy begins with an ask-box submitted question reading "I didn't know there were Austen gay otps (I'm very sheltered). Could you tell me what they are, please?" to which the Tumblr user penfairy replies (italics theirs), "My time has come," before detailing two of the most common femslash pairings: Lizzie Bennett/Charlotte Lucas and Emma Woodhouse/Harriet Smith.
2019, Csenge Virág Zalka, Forum-Based Role Playing Games as Digital Storytelling, page 40:
Even sites that are not based on any specific fandom draw on their terminology and ideas in creating their original settings and narratives–they engage in "shipping," they have “OTPs,” they model their original characters on archetypes and tropes that exist in certain fandoms, etc.
2021, Keith W. Beard, April Fugett, Britani Black, Psychology and Pop Culture: An Empirical Adventure, page 52:
Since one of the members of this writing trio had no idea what “ships” and “One True Parings” (OTPs) even were before we started this project, we were afraid that we would not be able to get a large enough sample of individuals familiar with ships to get a usable dataset.
2021, Margaret France, The Genius of Bob's Burgers: Comedy, Culture and Onion-Tended Consequences, page 59:
In over fifty replies, only four people bring up Logan and Louise, making it seem as if the Louigan crowd is either not that dominant on Reddit or simply choses to ignore a pairing that goes against their OTP.
Millie was right; HEAs and OTPs absolutely belong in real life.
2021, Paula Willey & Andria L. Amaral, The Passive Programming Playbook: 101 Ways to Get Library Customers Off the Sidelines, page 111 (image caption):
OTPs and BFFs at Book Expo.
2022, Julia Elena Goldman, Fan Fiction Genres Gender, Sexuality, Relationships and Family in the Fandoms "Star Trek" and "Supernatural", page 15:
Sometimes, writers have an intense emotional investment in their OTP and therefore write the same exclusively.
2022, Gita Pramudita Prameswari, "Dissonant Passions: Indonesian Boys Love Fans' Envisioning an Alternative Model of Intimacy", in Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia (ed. James Walker), page 141:
[…] and OTPcon, focused on “one true pairings” (OTPs), that is, fans' favorite relationships.
2023, Lucy Irene Baker, Media and Gender Adaptation: Regendering, Critical Creation and the Fans, page 61:
I started a multi-chapter story that was male lead/OFC. In a slashy fandom, bound to be unpopular. So as an experiment I started a[sic] posting a swapped version of the story, identical to the first, except that the m/m OTP was crammed into it for no logical reason at all. Result: 3x the hits and kudos on the swapped story. People do love their OTPs, and to hell if they actually make sense.
