pairing name conventions and pairings
So I was thinking about pairing name conventions and being annoyed at the younger fans because I am allowed after five years, as long as I don't actually hurt them. The thing is that a lot of W-fen come into JP fandoms and -- I know what I am talking about, because I did the same damn thing -- don't understand the logic of the pairing name conventions and totally confuse the older fen while they're learning them.
For instance.
The first name is always the, well, pitcher. Or the male in a het pairing, although this isn't always true; it mostly implies who's got the more active part in the relationship.
/ is generally held to be from Wfandom so it kind of implies a ... well, I won't say a more equal feel but if someone uses the / marker to denote a pairing I'm not surprised if they switch. I'm more likely to use / for a yuri pairing, as well.
x is the yaoi marker, so if someone says AxB I expect A to be pitching. Period. Flat stop.
- is um ... kind of the friendship or het marker. I don't expect more than sparklies if I see a fic marked Tomoyo-Sakura, put it that way.
NameName or NameNickname kind of avoids the suggestions of the pairing markers but the name order still applies. If I see DaiSat my first reaction is HOLY SHIT DAISUKE'S PITCHING?!
> and < express one-sided relationships or UST toward someone -- I forget who started this but it's still a very useful tool in expressing triangles and well, the polygons that shoujo specializes in. For instance Izumi > Meroko > Takuto ?-> Mitsuki < - > Eichi. Which looks like a complicated equation but that's the breaks when one will insist on reading series where they actually put relationship diagrams in front of the chapters every month.
Then there's the numbers game, like in Saiyuki and GW -- I have never, ever figured out the GW pairing names and I never expect to figure them out, although the Saiyuki ones, at least, are based on the names. (Fandom is always a little elitist anyway because we're not part of the mainstream and we know it, but honestly people, how do you keep track of the numbers? or is it one of those 'if only Meg had a brain' things?)
There's also the thing where you say SatDaiSat to indicate a swtich but then I tend to go 'o_oa two Satoshis?'
And then there's the twee pairing names. OH, is there the twee pairing names. I think J and W-fen have equal blame for this one; the j-fen because their language encourages mashups like this in both character and series nicknames, but honestly I really think it takes W-fen to come up with the names like Seiftis. Or Yuffentine. Although some of them are quite clever, like Yin and Pepsi's name for Leon/Cloud -- Loud. I ship Loud and I'm PROUD! Catchy. And I still say if HP fen can be all twee and call Harry/Hermione Pumkin Pie, I can be all twee and call Doumeki/Watanuki Donuts, which is, at least, nominally based on their actual names.
....why is RoyLiza called RoyAi? ;____; 訳分からねえよ
You know what's weird, is that Eriol and Tomoyo have one of the few yaoi convention pairing names of a het pair that I ship? I mean, there's DxG and stuff but in the CCS fandom ExT is the only het pairing that isn't generally abbreviated by their names -- like SakuSyao (and that's another thing, Sakura-Syaoran is one of the only pairings I ship where the girl's name is generally first. In fact, in all pairings Sakura's in but Yukito-Sakura, her name is first. Weird) or FujiSono. I supposed it's because SxS makes people in CLAMP fandom think 'SeiSub' and FxS sounds like Fuuma x Subaru (augh scrub brain now plz) but it's weird that they're about the only pairing that takes the yaoi convention. Possibly this is because ExT really DOES work like a slash pairing because it relies so heavily on subtext, but I don't remember making a concious decision about it when we started battting the pairing around. o_oa
Also, it occurs to me that I don't think I've ever been involved in pairing war, not even over ExT vs EriolKaho -- mostly because the ExT and EriolKaho people kept politely to themselves, as far as I remember, one faction muttering darkly about pedophilia and one faction secure in being canon -- and I believe some of us wrote fic for both pairings. (We had a pretty good truce, actually; if an ExT shipper got snotty about Kaho's pedophilia an EriolKaho shipper could get equally snotty about our lack of canon. Both arguments are about equally weighted so it was sort of agreed to politely never mention them.) I mean, the closest I think I've gotten is being cranky at the TomoSaku shippers and I yelled once, cooled down, apologized, and the person I was yelling about ended up helping me with Icebreakers AND myDec. Victory of reason over wankery?! I don't think I've ever been involved in a DNAngel pairing war, which is even more surprising when you think about it; but then again I think DaiRiku's cute and I wouldn't mind SatRisa because the alternate in canon, as far as I can see, is Satoshi dying. I keep meaning to write a SatRisa fic because they could be really cute and snarky together if not written by thirteen year old fanbabies.
It's probably because I have made a habit of consorting with likeminded fen so I avoid a lot of arguments simply by ignoring them. I don't subscribe to a lot of comms and when I do it's mostly for the tragically slim chance of finding decent fic or else I need the information. But still, it's odd when you think about it because I ship / have shipped some of the most flame-prone pairings outside the HP fandom.
(Now someone's going to bring up some long forgotten battle over, I dunno, FujiSono or something and prove me wrong.)
Eh, whatever. I'll play in my section of the sandbox and you'll play in yours and maybe sometimes we'll meet in the middle and build a big castle together.
Discuss!
For instance.
The first name is always the, well, pitcher. Or the male in a het pairing, although this isn't always true; it mostly implies who's got the more active part in the relationship.
/ is generally held to be from Wfandom so it kind of implies a ... well, I won't say a more equal feel but if someone uses the / marker to denote a pairing I'm not surprised if they switch. I'm more likely to use / for a yuri pairing, as well.
x is the yaoi marker, so if someone says AxB I expect A to be pitching. Period. Flat stop.
- is um ... kind of the friendship or het marker. I don't expect more than sparklies if I see a fic marked Tomoyo-Sakura, put it that way.
NameName or NameNickname kind of avoids the suggestions of the pairing markers but the name order still applies. If I see DaiSat my first reaction is HOLY SHIT DAISUKE'S PITCHING?!
> and < express one-sided relationships or UST toward someone -- I forget who started this but it's still a very useful tool in expressing triangles and well, the polygons that shoujo specializes in. For instance Izumi > Meroko > Takuto ?-> Mitsuki < - > Eichi. Which looks like a complicated equation but that's the breaks when one will insist on reading series where they actually put relationship diagrams in front of the chapters every month.
Then there's the numbers game, like in Saiyuki and GW -- I have never, ever figured out the GW pairing names and I never expect to figure them out, although the Saiyuki ones, at least, are based on the names. (Fandom is always a little elitist anyway because we're not part of the mainstream and we know it, but honestly people, how do you keep track of the numbers? or is it one of those 'if only Meg had a brain' things?)
There's also the thing where you say SatDaiSat to indicate a swtich but then I tend to go 'o_oa two Satoshis?'
And then there's the twee pairing names. OH, is there the twee pairing names. I think J and W-fen have equal blame for this one; the j-fen because their language encourages mashups like this in both character and series nicknames, but honestly I really think it takes W-fen to come up with the names like Seiftis. Or Yuffentine. Although some of them are quite clever, like Yin and Pepsi's name for Leon/Cloud -- Loud. I ship Loud and I'm PROUD! Catchy. And I still say if HP fen can be all twee and call Harry/Hermione Pumkin Pie, I can be all twee and call Doumeki/Watanuki Donuts, which is, at least, nominally based on their actual names.
....why is RoyLiza called RoyAi? ;____; 訳分からねえよ
You know what's weird, is that Eriol and Tomoyo have one of the few yaoi convention pairing names of a het pair that I ship? I mean, there's DxG and stuff but in the CCS fandom ExT is the only het pairing that isn't generally abbreviated by their names -- like SakuSyao (and that's another thing, Sakura-Syaoran is one of the only pairings I ship where the girl's name is generally first. In fact, in all pairings Sakura's in but Yukito-Sakura, her name is first. Weird) or FujiSono. I supposed it's because SxS makes people in CLAMP fandom think 'SeiSub' and FxS sounds like Fuuma x Subaru (augh scrub brain now plz) but it's weird that they're about the only pairing that takes the yaoi convention. Possibly this is because ExT really DOES work like a slash pairing because it relies so heavily on subtext, but I don't remember making a concious decision about it when we started battting the pairing around. o_oa
Also, it occurs to me that I don't think I've ever been involved in pairing war, not even over ExT vs EriolKaho -- mostly because the ExT and EriolKaho people kept politely to themselves, as far as I remember, one faction muttering darkly about pedophilia and one faction secure in being canon -- and I believe some of us wrote fic for both pairings. (We had a pretty good truce, actually; if an ExT shipper got snotty about Kaho's pedophilia an EriolKaho shipper could get equally snotty about our lack of canon. Both arguments are about equally weighted so it was sort of agreed to politely never mention them.) I mean, the closest I think I've gotten is being cranky at the TomoSaku shippers and I yelled once, cooled down, apologized, and the person I was yelling about ended up helping me with Icebreakers AND myDec. Victory of reason over wankery?! I don't think I've ever been involved in a DNAngel pairing war, which is even more surprising when you think about it; but then again I think DaiRiku's cute and I wouldn't mind SatRisa because the alternate in canon, as far as I can see, is Satoshi dying. I keep meaning to write a SatRisa fic because they could be really cute and snarky together if not written by thirteen year old fanbabies.
It's probably because I have made a habit of consorting with likeminded fen so I avoid a lot of arguments simply by ignoring them. I don't subscribe to a lot of comms and when I do it's mostly for the tragically slim chance of finding decent fic or else I need the information. But still, it's odd when you think about it because I ship / have shipped some of the most flame-prone pairings outside the HP fandom.
(Now someone's going to bring up some long forgotten battle over, I dunno, FujiSono or something and prove me wrong.)
Eh, whatever. I'll play in my section of the sandbox and you'll play in yours and maybe sometimes we'll meet in the middle and build a big castle together.
Discuss!