I should not have been tempted back to the meme. Not even for spoilers.

[stunt_muppet]

1. It really does irritate me when people start the whole "ew, cosplayers are freaks/cosplay is creepy" meme. I know a lot of cosplayers; I've cosplayed myself, once, though it wasn't very good; I'd still like to do it someday (I'd be girl!Five). Dressing up as a character doesn't mean you think you are them or whatever; dressing up as a character

Comments

[failegaidin]

Do you dislike all epithets used in stories? Because it's an effective way to get around using "he" or their name too often.

[brewsternorth]

*nods* This. Epithets can be overused, but they also save on overuse of other things.

[biichan]

Personally, I notice epithets a heck of a lot more than he or she or even the character's name.

[kindkit]

I second this. I've never thought "This story's constant use of character names is driving me crazy!" but I've frequently been annoyed/pulled out of the story by epithets.

[stunt_muppet]

Not all epithets - I get that sometimes they're necessary - but I do think they should be used sparingly, and this fic used them almost every time it referred to the characters, which led to increasingly convoluted titles that were more distracting than name repetition would have been. (Like "the Earther", which I mentioned above; it pulled me right out of the story, and it seemed like the author was going to rather ridiculous lengths to avoid using their names when she really hadn't used those names enough to justify that.)

I tend not to notice name repetition unless the author never uses a pronoun, and when an epithet's used I'd rather it be something simple like "the older man" or "the girl". Otherwise it gets distracting, and sometimes feels like the author is giving me irrelevant information.

But this is all just my personal taste. Normally I won't get this annoyed at a fic unless it really, *really* overdoes the epithets, which this one did.