Why Zack Donovan?

[ravenclaw_devi]

I've noticed that "Donovan" is a popular fanon surname for Zack (or 'was', before we found out he's Zack Fair), but where does it stem from? Was there a well-known fic where he was named that? (I feel fandom-ignorant now.)

Comments

[sharkcowsheep]

That's not one I've ever heard of. Where did you see it?

[the_flowergirl]

I remember being in a comm sometime last year, when the subject of Reno's last name came up and someone decided that it was Nevada, as in Reno Nevada. I personally like that better. ^_~

[sharkcowsheep]

Nah, basic fanon creep. I have no idea who used it first but it -does- sound good, so it stuck. I admit to liking Donovan much better; it has a robust cheer to it and Fair sounds pretty anemic in comparison.

[aoi_shoujo]

i heard somewhere that Fair relates to Cloud's name as in "fair weather"
and fair weather is when it's partly cloudy and sunny.
i think that's kinda cool how it relates.
so i like Fair more.

[the_angelic_sin]

On the same note, however, "fair weather" also has a negative connotation when placed in front of "friend." Just playing devil's advocate :p

[xiaa]

An amazing fanfic author by the name of soranokumo *___* She doesn't write fanfiction for FFVII anymore (or hasn't for a long time :( ) but she's the origin of the Donovan surname for Zack :) Uhmmm, from the top of my head, some titles of her fanfics were "A taste of Cinnamon," "SOLDIERs," "Shards of Glass," and "Swimming Lessons." At least from the FF7 fandom. I don't rmeember the titles for her other fandom fanfics.

She took off all her fanfiction a while back because I think she was going to focus on getting her original writing published. You should be able to find them in an archive site or something :/

I hope I'm not overrating her, but I really love her fanfics. :(

[ardwynna_m]

Ooh, hey, I remember her! But I found her stuff a little after the name had already seeped through some of fandom so I didn't put it together. She was the one who mentioned the name meaning on her archive though, so that should have been a clue.

[ardwynna_m]

'Donovan' was just one of those things that caught on. There's no specific fic I could point you to, but I can tell you it's been there for ages (means 'dark warrior' so somebody did a little baby name browsing, I'm guessing). 'Zack Donovan' has a nice ring to it and it's way better IMHO than some of the alternative fanon names, like 'Buster' (wow, that's imaginative @_@), 'Darklighter', 'Knightblade' (come on people, don't be Stu-ifying the poor boy) and 'Gaylord' (WTF?!!O_o).

That said, I utterly embrace 'Fair', because I'm so happy a great guy like Zack finally gets his canon due, and it's so bloody corny only a guy like Zack could pull it off. ;p Compared to 'Cloud', 'Squall', 'Tidus' and 'Lightning', I'd say Zack got off light.

[paperclipchains]

it's so bloody corny only a guy like Zack could pull it off. ;p Compared to 'Cloud', 'Squall', 'Tidus' and 'Lightning', I'd say Zack got off light.

I know!

Complaints about the corniness of "Fair" are one thing I've never understood. I do kind of wish it was "Fairweather," for some reason.

[ardwynna_m]

Have you seen this post? I swear, it's made of awesome! (There's some yaoi flavoring in there, in case you're averse to that, but it's mostly humor.)

[pyreflysden]

I feel the same way! Only I never cringed at Darklighter because it was a Star Wars reference and kinda went along with Wedge and Biggs.