Yup I agree. I am showing my internet age here but I did a double take here when I read in your post "in most fic I've read, UST is a bad, angsty thing. " because I joined the internet through XFiles fandom, when UST (which was probably the very first net acronym I learned, thanks to Mulder and Scully!) was a sublimely AWESOME thing! It was almost always preceded by an adjective like "their delicious UST" or "The crackling UST" or "the unbelievably HAWT UST" ... you get the point...it was rarely angsty. Or if it was, it was a good angst!
Yeah so I LOVE some good UST. The more UST, the better the RST! (IRL as well as in fiction!) But then I can't think of an instance of "UST" being used to describe unrequited feelings--even if one or both characters don't REALIZE their feelings are returned, it's all the sweeter when they are revealed to be reciprocated. If you had one character pining after another who really DIDN'T like them that way, then I wouldn't personally call that UST, because for it to be sexual tension, it has to be two parties involved. If it's just one person pining/hoping, well then it's just tragic :_(
I'm glancing at your fandom list to find (canon) examples of my own understanding of UST:
Kira/Odo Rumbelle in Skin Deep STTNG: Riker/Troi, Captain/Doctor TW: Jack/everyone :) but esp Jack/Gwen, Jack/Ianto, but I would argue NOT Toshiko/Owen, because that's the sad kind of unrequited
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-10-11 01:57 am (UTC)because I joined the internet through XFiles fandom, when UST (which was probably the very first net acronym I learned, thanks to Mulder and Scully!) was a sublimely AWESOME thing! It was almost always preceded by an adjective like "their delicious UST" or "The crackling UST" or "the unbelievably HAWT UST" ... you get the point...it was rarely angsty. Or if it was, it was a good angst!
Yeah so I LOVE some good UST. The more UST, the better the RST! (IRL as well as in fiction!) But then I can't think of an instance of "UST" being used to describe unrequited feelings--even if one or both characters don't REALIZE their feelings are returned, it's all the sweeter when they are revealed to be reciprocated. If you had one character pining after another who really DIDN'T like them that way, then I wouldn't personally call that UST, because for it to be sexual tension, it has to be two parties involved. If it's just one person pining/hoping, well then it's just tragic :_(
I'm glancing at your fandom list to find (canon) examples of my own understanding of UST:
Kira/Odo
Rumbelle in Skin Deep
STTNG: Riker/Troi, Captain/Doctor
TW: Jack/everyone :) but esp Jack/Gwen, Jack/Ianto, but I would argue NOT Toshiko/Owen, because that's the sad kind of unrequited