Who comes first?

[flambeau]

Yay, lame sex joke! I meant to post about this back when I read this thread in the speak-up-anonymously-about-fandom thread in nostalgia_lj's lj, but then I forgot until a comment from hampden today reminded me

Comments

[resonant8]

Outside Trek (where I break them down by rank, just as you do), I really can't identify a pattern in which name I put first.

Harry/Snape is always Harry/Snape to me -- Snape/Harry would look odd to me -- but Snape/Lupin is always Snape/Lupin.

What's more, it's Snape/Lupin, and it's Snape/Black, but it's Remus/Sirius rather than Lupin/Black.

In Due South, I always seem to put Fraser first, regardless of who he's paired with.

Sentinel was always Jim/Blair, wasn't it? Did anybody ever see a listing that said Blair/Jim?

I gather the rule that says "the person who inserts a dick gets listed first" comes out of yaoi, where there seems to be a tradition of indicating who's pitching (so that there are Gundam Wing fans who will read 1x2 but wouldn't touch 2x1). I find this odd and fetishistic.

[flambeau]

Thanks for reminding me - first names and last names!

Putting Fraser first seems to go with what a couple of other people have suggested, that the main character in the source text goes first. Or something like that - I'm sure there are people who would argue the case wrt Sentinel in particular, but no, I've never ever seen Blair/Jim, that I can recall.

I wonder what it is that affects whether a pairing is known as first name/first name rather than last name/last name.

Also, I'd had no idea that the Rule o' Penetration existed for some people in the context of het pairings.

[cmshaw]

Also, I'd had no idea that the Rule o' Penetration existed for some people in the context of het pairings.

now i really want to know how this rule manages "bend over, boyfriend" het pairings with strap-ons. ;)

[pearl_o]

I wonder what it is that affects whether a pairing is known as first name/first name rather than last name/last name.

It seems like it's mostly a matter of what they're known by *most* in the source text. Fraser is a Fraser and Snape is a Snape, and so on, while referring to Clark and Lex as Kent and Luthor would look somewhat bizarre.

And last name seems to trump first name (like blood types! Um) so that the appearance of one of those last name ones turns the other guy into last name, too, rather than the other way around.

Although you *do* sometimes hear first name/last name combinations. I mean, Fraser/RayK or Fraser/RayV sounds bizarre to me, but people do say it.

[_bettina_]

I'm used to the higher rank/lower rank, especially when it comes to Trek. But for any other fandom, I doing what everyone is doing. For example, it will always be Jim/Blair to me, no matter who the dominant one in the story is. Blair/Jim looks so weird. The same with Spike/Xander or Apollo/Starbuck, although with the latter we have the higher rank/lower rank thing again.

The only fandom where I seem to mix it is popslash. It depends on my mood whether it's Chris/Lance or Lance/Chris for example (although, I do favor the first one). It has nothing to do with who the dominant one is or whose POV I use.

I don't mix first names or last names. It's either first name/first name or last name/last name and of course it depends on the fandom whether or not I use the first name or the last name.

[flambeau]

Trek - it really shapes you!

I don't mix first names or last names

Even if the fandom does? Thinking of things like Snape/Harry here (or, you know, Harry/Snape. or Snarry), but maybe you're not in any fandom that has that habit.

[_bettina_]

Even if the fandom does? Thinking of things like Snape/Harry here (or, you know, Harry/Snape. or Snarry), but maybe you're not in any fandom that has that habit.

I've never been into HP, but thinking about it now, whenever I talked about it I used Harry/Snape. Probably because I heard it from other people and it just stuck. In other fandoms I've never seen this, at least I can't remember one now.

I guess, I tend to be a lemming and use what everyone else is using ;-).

[flambeau]

I thought nearly everyone was a lemming - that it was all mostly habit. Apparently not! *g*

[yonmei]

I've always gone with what sounds right - never thought about any special formation rules.

Avon/Vila
Spock/McCoy
Bodie/Cowley
Sam/Al
Eroica/Major
MacGyver/Murdoc
Picard/Bagoas
Duncan/Methos
Richie/Methos
Hawkeye/Mulcahy

No rule becomes apparent, except perhaps that "if your name begins with M, I'll usually put you second"... ;-)

[flambeau]

No rule becomes apparent, except perhaps that "if your name begins with M, I'll usually put you second"... ;-)

That seems just as reasonable a method as anything else, really. :)

Eroica/Major, hmm? I'd call them Dorian/Klaus. Or possibly Klaus/Dorian, although... okay, I have no idea what I'm basing that on. *g*

[yonmei]

Eroica/Major, hmm?

Actually, I think I was just making that up.

I'd probably say Klaus/Dorian, too.

[ellen_fremedon]

Picard/Bagoas?

Link, please?

[akatonbo]

Hm. If it's leaning toward yaoi rather than slash, I may sometimes use seme x uke or seme/uke -- this is particularly an issue when it's Hisoka x Tsuzuki since Tsuzuki x Hisoka is more common. If it's the usual 'no universal rule' slash type discussion or story markings, then aside from 'whatever everyone else always says' or 'whatever sounds best' I think the most likely rule for me is sort of like the Trek rule -- it's the more major character first. i.e. unless you use the POV character rule (which I like and had never heard before), who's going to say [Obscure Minor Character]/[Character Who Appears Every Week]? It's going to be the other way around, probably. That gets sticky sometimes, but even in shows with a central partnership, one character is frequently perceived to be more "the" main character than the other.

[flambeau]

Yeah, and now I'm starting to wonder if looking at pairing conventions might be a way to see how the fandom at large interprets main character/sidekick. Maybe. :)

[callsigns]

I thought about it, and I wrote out the popslash pairings name, and I thought about why I wrote them the way I wrote them, and after a few minutes, I figured it out. I do it alphabetically. I don't know whether that's conscious or not, but kinda neat!

[flambeau]

Hee! I think maybe a lot of people have habits wrt this that they haven't really thought about - at least, that's the way it was for me. :)

I am entranced by your icon.

[callsigns]

explodingdog.com lends itself to all sorts of fun! merky made this, and I enjoy it daily. :)

[flambeau]

You know something else? Having looked at the pairings written out, I realize that I would do them like that, too. Huh. I don't know if the whole fandom is on board with the alphabetical thing, but clearly, I am. :)