Spillow?

[rivkat]

So when did pairings start having mushed names instead of slashes like good, decent, God-fearing pairings used to? Is it spillover from boyband slash, where I first recall it (e.g., Timbertrick)? Then Buffy got Spuffy, and there was nothing more there for a while, just basic S/X etc. And it's endemic to Smallville, despite the archivists' insistence on spelling names out, though I admit there I like the idea because there are so many characters with the same beginning letters that one has to be pretty careful. (Chlark, Chlex, Clana, Chlana, etc. ad nauseum -- though Pete never gets laid and thus needs no special pairing names. And a good thing too. Pex? Plark? Phloe? The last isn't bad.) I've also seen Obidala, from Attack of the Clones.

In isolation they're kind of cute, but as they multiply I find myself less enamored of these portmanteau pairings. Clever, yeah. Too clever by halving, if you know what I mean.

If I accept Spillow, is Sander far behind? Wander? Wara? Blecch.

The slash character is your friend! (Okay, double meaning there, but I'm willing to endorse both.)

The even deeper mystery is how fandom decides who goes first in the pairing name. Sometimes the power dynamics on the show dictate the result, like the original K/S. But sometimes I just have to wonder. Legolas/Gimli? (LoTR doesn't do it for me, but I'm just saying that the stories I have seen all list them in that order.) Perhaps there are simply things that woman is not meant to know.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes I think characters are listed from most to least important...for example, I used to read a lot of XF fic. Mulder/Krycek was almost always that way, since Mulder was the main character. With MSR, think it was just tradition once it got started, but then the pattern held for Mulder/Scully/Krycek if you already accept that M comes before S. Other times it doesn't always follow this pattern...but just a thought! Willow/Tara would be anther example, as would Angel/Wesley.