Other Worlds Spotlight - My Top Ten Scifi/Fantasy Pairings of All Time

Many people become immersed in the world of science fiction and fantasy for many different reasons, I am all about the love. I have always been attracted to the relationships that characters have with each other in my favorite stories/movies and I thought it would be fun to list my top ten favorite sci-fi/fantasy ships of all times.

Deanna Troi and William Riker

Star Trek the Next Generation

"And somewhere, somewhere deep within Riker's mind, merged with his spirit, a word echoed. A word that he had never heard before. A word filled with mystery and promise and a future . . .
And the word was Imzadi"---- Imzadi, Peter David 

This was the couple who made me fall in love with science fiction, really, they were my gate way into other planets, parallel universes and got my

eleven-year-old self dreaming about what happily ever after looks like in a place where no one has gone before. I watched for the romance and ended up falling in love with the genre.

Their onscreen chemistry was amazing, but it was actually Peter David's novel Imzadi that cemented them as one of my favorite romances of all time.

I think I love them so much because Will and Deanna are true soul mates in the literary sense of the word.  They call each other Imzadi, a  ridiculously romantic word for ultimate soul mate, they can communicate telepathically, and they seem to feel each others emotions. It was also obvious that no matter who they got involved with they were the love of each others lives. As Next Gen began to wind down its run it looked like they would never get it together and the finale, and first two subsequent movies, did little to reignite the flame. They FINALLY reunited in Insurrection and married in Nemeses,  much to my utter delight. The best part is that I can follow their continued adventures in the wonderful Star Trek: Titans books in which they are not only happily married, but raising a daughter.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent

The Superman Universe

 "You were the one that I've always needed." -- Clark Kent to Lois Lane, Smallville: Salvation.

Lois and Clark are my favorite comic book pairing of all time. There is something really romantic about the most powerful man on Earth finding peace and happiness not with a superpowered equal but a snoopy reporter with a penchant for getting into trouble.

Their dynamic has always been fascinating --- a triangle built for two in which Lois often times doesn't realize that the mild manner Clark is really the Superman of her dreams. Their banter is fun and funny and whether they are competing for a story or sharing a romantic flight in the sky it is clear that they both challenge and anchor each other.

One of the reasons this pairing works is that Lois is a great character in her own right --- spunky, independent and no nonsense. You see why Clark likes her and its been so amazing to see them sparkling in every incarnation, especially in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Smallville. This is a timeless couple who always works (even in Superman Returns, no small feat) and they will always be relevant to readers. Lois and Clark forever!

Dana Scully and Fox Mulder

The X-files

Mulder: I think what we feared were the possibilities. The truth we both know.
Scully: Which is what?
(Still holding the BABY between them, Mulder leans down and kisses Scully on the lips. And keeps kissing her. Scully reaches out to hold Mulder's arms and returns the lover's kiss) --- X-files: Existence

Many people believe that shipping began with Mulder and Scully, I don't know about that, but I don't know another couple who could send their fan base into an overwhelming tizzy at the mere notion that after five years in a not exactly platonic partnership they were finally going to kiss. Damn that bee! Damn him!

Beautiful, independent, and SMART, Mulder and Scully were a new type of pairing whose bond was sexy, but not necessarily sexual. They respected and loved each other as friends and colleagues long before they realized they wanted something more. They could convey more passion by touching hands then most couples locked in steamy embraces. What also separates them from other couples who try unsuccessfully to emulate their dynamic is that their relationship was just icing on a very delicious cake. The X-files was one amazingly written show that didn't need their sexual tension to keep it alive, but the dynamic, rather you were a noromo or a shipper, just made it even more special.

Yes, their relationship was co-dependent and unhealthy at times, but their need for each other was palatable and they made each other better. They were also complete opposites --- logic and emotion, faith and facts drawn together by the need to find their truths.  Finally they realized that after everything they were trying to uncover and expose, the truth was that their love was the only thing that mattered.The truth is that there will never be another pair like them.

Han Solo and Leia Organa

Star Wars

Leia Organa : "I love you." 

Han Solo: "I know."

The Tracy and Hepburn of a galaxy far, far away, Princess Leia and Han Solo took the standard love/hate relationship and made it their own icon dance. Brother or no brother, hero and farm boy Luke never had a chance.Few movie screen pairings have ever worked as well as the princess and the pirate and they continue to fascinate and delight after three decades. They cemented their relationship in Return of the Jedi and I'd like to think that after helping to topple an evil empire that they took on marriage and a family--- the biggest adventure of them all.

Note on The Expanded Universe

I know that Leia and Han marry in the EU ,and while I am Anakin/Tahiri shipper, I reject a future where Han and Leia lose so much, therefore the EU does not exists in my fannon. But I think they do marry and Leia takes over the government while Luke rebuilds the Jedi Order.

Guinvere and Arthur Pendragon

The Arthurian Legend

As his Queen, Guinevere gave Arthur every happiness he could wished for.
Camelot flourished as never before. Knights flocked to offer their services to the King for they were determined to rid the land of evil. They were happy times,  "The Once and Future King."

While there are those who consider Lancelot and Guinevere to be the true love story of the Authurian Legend, I have always shipped Guinevere and Arthur and wished that their pairing got more love, so I have been very happy with recent interpretions such as Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur and Helen Hollick's Kingmaker that put the romance front and center. With Merlin I feel like I hit the Holy Grail of Guinevere/ Arthur Shipdom, as they are painted as star crossed lovers who have to beat all odds to be together.

Merlin portrays Gwen and Arthur's romance as epic and legendary and most importantly essential to the king he will become. It is Gwen who brings out his soft side, keeps him steady, and helps gives him purpose. While Lancelot is around, he is portrayed as the second choice, the attainable love, not the preferred one. While many interpretations have Guinevere only marrying Arthur out of duty,  this Gwen clearly loves Arthur, even as she fears he will break her heart. But when she does allow herself to believe in Arthur's love she gives herself to him completely, promising to wait for him and showing her loyalty to him by fleeing Camelot to join him on the run when Morgana takes over Camelot. How this pairing will play out on Merlin in not yet known, but I a enjoying it immensely. I haven't been this excited about a couple in a while and they  have become my favorite interpretation of the pair.

Richard Grayson and and Barbara Gordon

The Batverse

Dick Grayson: You're right I need to find out who I really am and when I do you are the first person that I am going to look for.
Barbara Gordon:  I'm going to hold you to that.

There are a lot of reasons that I love this pairing.  Firstly, I love the two separately, Dick Grayson is my favorite comic book hero and Barbara Gordon is my favorite comic book heroine so I was going to love them together. I love the fact that they fought together as Robin and Batgirl. I love that as Nightwing and Batgirl 1.0 they became the template of the Batfamily dynamic. I love the idea that they fell in love as kids but couldn't come together due to age gaps and bad timing. I love their playful banter. I love the way they look together. I love the fact that the smart, nerdy  girl gets the hunkiest guy in the DCU. I love the fact that even after a great romance with Starfire that he still sees Babs as the one. I just love them. Babs and Dick are so imperfect that they are perfect for each other. Truth is, Babs and Dick are two people who just can't get out of each others way. Fear and uncertainty keep them apart. Dick is more emotional than Babs, but they both live in a dark world and neither one of them really believes in happily ever afters. With Dick now firmly entrenched as Batman and Barbara doing her Birds of Prey thing there seems to be no reconciliation on the horizon but these are two characters that I am always going to root for to find their way back to each other.

Ronald Weasley  and Hermione Granger

The Potterverse

All's fair in love and war - Ronald Weasley

Everybody knew from the very first novel that Ron and Hermione were destined to fall in love, everybody except them that is. They've been battling it out since the first moment they saw each other, but it's obvious they'd rather make love, not war. I'm a sucker for side kicks in love and their budding romance is one of the best things in The Potterverse. What I like about Ron and Hermione is that they actually act like kids in love who don't know how to act on it. Also, kudos to Ms. Rowlins for NOT going the dreaded triangle route. I love a triangle as much as anybody, but not among close, young friends. Harry/Hermione have one of the best friendships EVER and part of the reason it works is that the romantic element was never involved. Also, Ron can be a prat and I like that about him, it's easy to love the hero, but loving Ron Weasley was enough to drive even the greatest of witches batty!

They were especially hilarious in The Goblet of Fire and The Half-Blooded Prince, where they didn't take too kindly to other people looking at their boo, but while Ron was happy to sulk and be a jerk about it, Hermione let him have it and boy was it glorious. The movies have not done the romance the justice it deserves, but it has done an admirable job and thankfully Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have chemistry, invoke their novel counterparts perfectly, and look great together. While I was surprised that JK. Rowlins dragged their will their/won't they dance out for all seven books, the moment they finally kissed was one of the most satisfying literary moments ever. Plus, they get married and have Rose who seems destined  for some bad boy Malfoy loving. Now if J.K. Rowlins would only write that series...

Julian Bashir and Miles O'Brien

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Chief O'Brien: [of Keiko] She always said I... I liked you more than I liked her.

Doctor Bashir: That's ridiculous!

Chief O'Brien: Right.

Doctor Bashir: Well, maybe, maybe you do, a bit more.

Chief O'Brien: What? Are you crazy? She's my wife, I love her!

Doctor Bashir: Of course you love her - she's your wife.

Chief O'Brien: Yeah.

Doctor Bashir: I'm just saying, maybe you like me a bit more, that's all.

Chief O'Brien: I do not.

Doctor Bashir: You spend more time with me.

Chief O'Brien: We work together!

Doctor Bashir: We have more in common.

Chief O'Brien: Julian, you are beginning to annoy me.

Doctor Bashir: Darts, racquetball, Vic's lounge, the Alamo... Need I go on?

Chief O'Brien: I *love* my wife.

Doctor Bashir: And I love Ezri - passionately.

Chief O'Brien: You do?

Doctor Bashir: Yes.

Chief O'Brien: Have you told her?

Doctor Bashir: Not yet. But I will.

Chief O'Brien: Oh, yeah? Huh... When?

Doctor Bashir: When I'm ready. It's just that I... like you... a bit more. See? There, I've admitted it.

Chief O'Brien: Yeah, well - I *love* my wife, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Extreme Measures

Anybody who wants to know what a real bromance looks like needs look no further then Julian Bashir and Miles O'Brien. Total opposites ---  a hardened military guy and an optimistic doctor, they exacerbated and exhilarated each other and made each other better. While they both had fairly popular romantic pairings,  it was their brotherly love that defined the these guys. Their characters really came alive when they were together and whether they were battling in the holedeck or in space they were a joy to watch. Bashir and O'Brien were THE RELATIONSHIP of DS9 and it was their goodbye in the final episode that hurt the most and the one thing that every DS9 fan was going to miss most.

Dr. Julie Parrish and Michael Donovan

V

I'd like to build a future with my son and I'd like you to be a part of it.  --- Michael Donovon to Julie Parrish. V: The Final Battle

V and V: The Final Battle may be considered cheeseball classics today, but there is no denying that they were two of the best and most popular miniseries of all time. Mike Donovan and Julie Parrish managed to find love in a time of resistance and their relationship was a large part of why I enjoyed the story so much. Who can forget their big, long almost slow mo kiss at the end when the Resistance wins? "This war isn't about your love life," my man Ham (played by the amazing Michael Ironside) said when Mike wanted to rescue a captured Julie, but in a very real way it was. Everybody was fighting for their lives and the lives of the ones they loved. Mike and Julie were fighting for a future, one they wanted to spend together.

Aeryn Sun  and John Crichton

Farscape

You see that one, that's that star right there. It's my point of reference, my guide, and it always becomes the center of my chart. I always name it Aeryn. --- John Crichton

John and Aeryn's romance was the heart and soul of Farscape. These were two people who were literally from two different worlds who had to overcome their own beliefs, prejudices and expectations to find the love they always needed. This was an imperfect romance. There was no violins or flower petals in sight, but it was also very raw and very real. They couldn't always trust each other, hell they didn't even always like each other. There were times when I honestly wanted John to walk away from Aeryn and her lies, but the pull between them was so strong that you just knew they'd figure out a way to come together and they actually got to live happily ever after, a nice surprise in a universe where the likelihood of that happening was the same as Darth Vader suddenly deciding he was a pacifist and wearing all white. But it was a nice gift to the fans and an even nicer way to say goodbye to a show that was all about love and family from the beginning.

And Five Pairings that Make Me Go Ugh!

Clark Kent and Lana Lang

Smallville

I am a die hard Lois and Clark shipper from back in the day so I was never going to be fully on the Clana train, but I do like Comic Lana and the Clark/Lana dynamic in the comic book and when Smallville aired I was  looking forward to a sweet romance built on friendship and roads not taken, not the never ending abyss that was Clana.

Part of the problem was their individual piss poor characterizations. Clark seemed angry way too often and he seemed wishy washy and insecure, running away from his destiny instead of trying to accept and live with it.  Lana fared even worse as we watched her morph into a different girl every season --- from damsel in distress, to kung fu expert, to scheming vixen, to super heroine --- faster than you can say, "up, up and away." When your two parts need so much tinkling it's hard to enjoy the whole.

Also frustrating was that despite the fact that everybody knows that Lois and Clark have been destined to be together since 1939, The Smallville Gods decides that Clana were soul mates and they were going to be
treated as such. Had they been given the Chloe/Clark treatment these guys really could have been interesting. They would have been two best friends who brought out the best in each other who, through a series of events, slowly realized that they weren't meant to be together in that way, but NOOO.  Lana had to be the unattainable perfect princess and they spent the first three seasons dancing around each other and when they finally did get together even the writers had to admit they were BORING.

The Powers that Be had the right idea by bringing in Lois and Jason in beginning of  Season Four, Clark never sparkled more than he did with Lois, and Lana actually seemed to be in a relationship that could work, but by the end  of the season Jason was a villain, Clark wanted Lana back, and the dreaded Lexana was on the horizon. Now, I thought Lex and Lana had chemistry, but it made no logical sense that they would be together. Why would Lex want Lana?She's beautiful but so are a million other women. She lacked the fire and mystery that would attract a guy like Lex. Conversely, by turning to Lex, a man she showed no prior interest in, when Clark was pushing her away, Lana looked like a little girl who would just leaned on any man who was interested, not a good look for the show's heroine.

An even bigger problem was that I couldn't figure out what Clark liked about Lana besides how she looked. Again, although I love Chloe to bits, the writers really messed up by giving Chloe Lana's comicbook history with Clark. Had they been friends who could trust and lean on each other their relationship wouldn't have seemed so shallow and hard to swallow.  Also, one of the running themes of the show was that they never really knew each other, so why would I root for them, and the Romeo and Juliet antics? They also spent a great deal of time making each other miserable. Kristin Kreuk's exit gave them the prefect opportunity to have these two part as friends and to let us see that Lana will be ok without Clark. But like a dog with a bone the writers wouldn't drop their STAR CROSSED LOVERS refrain and their last episodes together involved a disastrous plot in which the two were forced apart by a Kryptonite  Power Suit. Yeah, you read that right. It wasn't until a few episodes later when Clark realized that he had already moved on and smiled as he put his picture of Lana in a high school scrapbook that Lana  and Clark finally got a dignified end that invoked a sense of sweet nostalgia that this romance was supposed to always be about. And I couldn't have been happier to see that book literally closed.

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen

The Twilightverse

I have heard of people who have death wishes but geesh no girl has rarely been as eager to die and throw her family away as Bella Swan and I think that's why I detest this pairing. Twilight is little more than a young adult romance novel so I don't expect much from Bella's characterization, but come on can she at least be a bit relatable or likable?  Bella is a girl with serious issues. She has no hopes, no dreams, no goals. Edward arrives just in time to give her life meaning and she becomes all about being with him, even though that means she'll literally have to die to do it.

Bella is also a wuss. I mean seriously, becoming catatonic because your boyfriend dumps you and doing dangeous stunts to invoke his spirit self? Honestly, I had a really hard time caring about whether her attempts at "suicide" failed because they made her look almost too stupid to live. Also, Edward isn't very interesting. Really, he's a Dud Muffin. Sullen and self-pitying and stalkerish to the extreme he just doesn't float my boat. I understand that Bella is an immature seventeen- year -old girl, but what's Edward's excuse for all this foolishness?

Truth is if there was any attempt to make this pairing look like anything other than the Ultimate Teen Romance I'd be able to give it a pass, but if this is a "great love story" I'll make due with some mediocre ones, thanks. 

Worf and Deanna Troi

Star Trek the Next Generation

I hate this pairing with the passion of ten thousand Vulcan suns. No seriously, it came out of nowhere and was the most unwelcome of surprises. These two were mismatched from the go and it wasn't believable that Worf would be interested in Deanna and vice versa. Worf likes rough and tough women --- see wives Keylar and Jadzia Dax. Deanna likes tall, dark and handsome men with a sensitive side and a heavy dose of rogue --- Will, Devononi Ral, Connor, etc. So their attraction to each other made sense because? Yes, I could buy that they would become FRIENDS because of Deanna's interest in Worf's son Alexander, but that  friendship blossoming into romance? No way.

On another note, I will never understand why the writers thought that after eight years of watching Will and Deanna's will they/won't they dance that we wanted to see her walking down the corridor with, and kissing Worf in the first scene of the last episode, instead of Will and Deanna reconciling. Yeah, I'm still bitter about that. But thankfully Will and Deanna reunited and everyone acts like this debacle never happened so all is right in the Trekverse.

Movieverse Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter

This actually pains me to write because I have been shipping Harry/Ginny since The Chamber of Secrets but as much as I LOVE this pairing in the BOOK, their celluloid counterparts are an absolute snooze. Daniel Radcliffe and  Bonnie Wright have no chemistry--- zilch, zero, nada. Sorry, but Bonnie is miscast as Ginny, who is a lively, popular, funny girl, in the book, not this sullen one expression wisp of a girl we see onscreen. Also, the movie didn't do this romance any favors by skipping their book hook-up so we could see how their sweet romance unfolded and how happy it made Harry. Zipping up the object of your affections dress does not a great romance make.

Chakotay and Seven

Star Trek: Voyager

This pairing existed for one reason only --- to quiet the Janeway/Chakotey shippers. With Kate Mulgrew adamantly against the idea of a captain sleeping with her first officer the Voyager couple that everybody was rooting for was over before they began. Seeing the desire for more loving on the ship the writers decided to pair Chakotey with the Ex-Borg Formerly Known as Seven of Nine, but the romance, you know, made no sense and no matter how much we were TOLD they were true love it just seemed forced. Janeway/Chakotey forever!