On Pairing Names

[thelana]

I was just talking to random people about pairing names. told me about how she always gets a twitch when she sees M/L or Michael/Lincoln because she's used to the anime fandom where you always put the character who is topping first. So Michael/Lincoln gives her a fundamentally different mental image than Lincoln/Michael.

Comments

[thelana]

Hah, I was about to ask you, since you picked "Whoever tops", but Michael/Lincoln. I sooo need to do a poll on whether people think that Michael tops in Michael/Lincoln (1) always (2) sometimes (3) never.

I think my thing is that I have a habit of favoring pairings where the characters tend to switch/I can see it either way.

Another aspects that really interests me is whether people tend to make the character they favor the top or the bottom. Like halfhshellvenus favor Lincoln and her Lincoln tops exclusively, to the extent where I swear she gets a rash when she sees him being topped in a fic. Mmm, gotta ask her one day how she sees it with Dean (who is her favored character in Supernatural). jules1013 favor Michael and says she sees Michael as topping. On the other hand, I see *a lot* of trends for people to favor the bottom character/make the character they favor the bottom.

Re: In the Matter of Tops and Bottoms

[thelana]

Although when its all said and done its really all a matter of good writing. With that any combination is possible in my eyes.

Wordy McWord.

If Lincoln/Michael were not brothers in the story then I would expect different things. I could see a more equal relationship between them, no real established roles. Even in that situation I would expect Lincoln to top more often though.

Again word. Their relationship dynamic would be rather different in a lot of way. Both because they wouldn't have grown up as much with the older brother=protector role and because it wouldn't have the "forbidden" aspect.

However the more powerful play is when the character in this case Michael is bottom to lets say Abruzzi/T-bag/Sucre/and on and on. In these cases Michael usually needs something from each of these persons. Being bottom to these characters is more of an exchange of goods. Michael is also a master at playing the odds, he knows what people want and how to manipulate that situation to gain his own needs.I can totally see Michael being very