Portmanteau 'Ship Names: a good thing, or evil incarnate?

[aely]

Holmescest  *shudders* I try not to think about that.

 

What drove me away from Supernatural fandom in the days before Castiel arrived was the preponderance of 'Wincest' - incest in any shape or form is a hard-wired, major squick for me and I won't touch it with a bargepole.

I suppose I should be glad that people have codes for it so I'm warned in advance!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

I wonder if there's one for Victor/Sherlock. Haven't come across one yet,

 

  Yup, it's out there or at least one that I know of on ff.net.

[wildwoodflower]

I think Sherlolly is the cutest smushed name ever. 

[Zain]

 

 

I wonder if there's one for Victor/Sherlock. Haven't come across one yet,

 

  Yup, it's out there or at least one that I know of on ff.net.

 

 

 

I will have to look that up. Can't believe I've missed that. A bit embarassing but since I came across a very good story, I've been a total fan of Victor.

 

Oh, got another two I missed:

Anderlock - ship has seen some good oneshots since Many Happy Returns.

Shally - Sherlock/Sally. I've seen Sherlovan but it's used even less.

[Redbeard]

I have been totally avoiding fan fiction but I am getting curious.  There seems to be lots of Lestrade pairings!  Wow.  Go Gavin!  (lol)

But the Mycroft / Sherlock one...I think that is the first time I ever did a triple take at a computer screen.  I'd read it though, just for the sake of research. 

[Redbeard]

 

 

 

I wonder if there's one for Victor/Sherlock. Haven't come across one yet,

 

  Yup, it's out there or at least one that I know of on ff.net.

 

 

 

I will have to look that up. Can't believe I've missed that. A bit embarassing but since I came across a very good story, I've been a total fan of Victor.

 

Oh, got another two I missed:

Anderlock - ship has seen some good oneshots since Many Happy Returns.

Shally - Sherlock/Sally. I've seen Sherlovan but it's used even less.

 

 

Hi there, do you have a link to the Victor story you are talking about?

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I'll go looking and yes, I was able to find a whole list of them. I posted the link in the Forum's Adult Fan Fiction thread because of their mature content.

[Redbeard]

I have now received Adult Access and I will check those out.  I guess I will have to get over my fear of that part of the board. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I think I finally figured out why the "ship" names tend to leave me cold -- it's because many of them conjure up totally irrelevant images in my mind.  For example:

 

Johnlock is a wrestling hold, something like this one:

 

 

Sherlolly is a type of British popsicle, half sherbet (in the American sense of "sorbet") and half lollypop (photo source).  (I believe that sort of thing is actually called an ice lolly over there, so this isn't all that farfetched.)

 

 

And Mystrade is a sophisticated cologne for men, similar to My Sin.

 

[sittything]

I can't stand ship names.  Even when I ship characters, I just... can't.  I'm trying to think if there is even 1 ship name out there... anywhere.. that doesn't make my skin crawl.  I'm down with Mofftiss though, but dunno why that mashed up name is OK?  I guess b/c it doesn't involve shipping?  lol

 

Mulder & Scully - they had no name but were THE original ship.. but think of it... Mully?  Sculder?   NO.

 

I will fess up to tagging Sherlolly crap on Tumblr but it's only b/c it's an easy way to tag.  But a little piece of me dies inside every time. 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I don't mind ship names. I just haven't figured out some of the Sherlock ship names even though I have figured out most of them. I just don't ship most of them the way shipping is done.

[sittything]

So, while we're on the topic of shipping...

 

 

(since this is how like 99% of them end up, to be honest)  lol

[Carol the Dabbler]

I can't stand ship names.  Even when I ship characters, I just... can't.  I'm trying to think if there is even 1 ship name out there... anywhere.. that doesn't make my skin crawl.  I'm down with Mofftiss though, but dunno why that mashed up name is OK?  I guess b/c it doesn't involve shipping?  lol

 

"Moftiss" seems like a reasonable term to me as well.  As you say, there's no shipping involved.  And we're not imagining them doing much of anything that they're not really doing -- well, other than sticking pins into voodoo fan dolls, maybe.

 

But my main reason for using the name is that I find it hard to remember who said/did what, because a] they tend to agree with each other, at least publicly, b] they often quote each other, c] they finish each other's sentences, and d] despite their clearly different accents, they somehow manage to sound alike on audio commentaries.  So I find it easier to think of them as a two-headed monster.

[T.o.b.y]

I detest those smushed names, but the subject of shipping in general fascinates me. Why is it that we (can) become so terribly emotionally invested in the idea that two fictional characters might / should / would / will be / perhaps are together? I have no answer, but it's certainly one of my earliest reactions to fiction. Luckily, I tend to cheer for the pairing it later turns out the author wants to happen anyway. My closest experience to "shipping" in the more wistful / wishful way I think the term is usually used is Tim and Dawn from "The Office" (UK). I really, really wanted them to have a happy ending together and I did not believe that was going to happen because the show was just so bleak. But lo and behold, they made that lovely Christmas Special in the end where not only did they make it happen, but they made it work, and for that, I will be eternally grateful. Thank god you can't really create one single word out of the names Tim and Dawn...

 

Anyway, I dislike those portmanteau names for the dumb reason that they sound silly, and silliness offends my dignity. :P

[Boton]

I think I finally figured out why the "ship" names tend to leave me cold -- it's because many of them conjure up totally irrelevant images in my mind.  For example:

 

Johnlock is a wrestling hold, something like this one:

 

 

 

 

Now *that's* a kind of Johnlock I could become a serious fan of!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Our discussion of Martin Freeman's very relatable characters (sparked by T.o.b.y's mention of Tim and Dawn) has now become its own thread.

[Pseudonym]

I don't mind the mashed names, it's a convenient shorthand. I hate it when it's used for celebrities and real people though, that makes me cringe.

I'm not counting Moftiss, because that isn't a relationship/shipping thing so much as it's easier than writing 'either Moffat or Gatiss' since it's hard to remember who said what when. 

[Redbeard]

Yeah, I think the moniker "Moftiss" is genius lol.  Hats off to whoever came up with that!  Who did, anyway?

[Hikari]

Some shippers want JohnLock to be reality so hard that they have taken their shipping into Real Life and created FreeBatch.

 

Ie., that our actors are hot for each other instead of just, you know, really good mates that work together intensely, share a flat and have a laugh together while on the job  (which describes Holmes and Watson, too).  The supremely inconvenient fact that both actors have long-standing relationships with female persons (in one case, even a legal union) and have both sired two children (which they acknowledge, anyhow) doesn't stop this ship from rolling.  Because, let's face it, whether they are in character as John and Sherlock, or just Martin & Ben trying to one-up each other for frat-boy style high jinks, FreeBatch is completely adorable.

[Carol the Dabbler]

One wonders just how adorable they think it is, though.  ;)

[Arcadia]

I get the impression they're a bit weirded out by it.

[Pseudonym]

It's not a new thing, in the Supernatural fandom J2 is a massive thing (being the ship of the two main actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki), J3 if they threw in Jeffrey Dean Morgan too. And I'm pretty sure, if I remember correctly, that Jared at least has made statements about how much he hates it.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Why there have to be romance and sex in everything?

 

If that is the concept, there are a lot of people I need to screw. Yikes.

[Pseudonym]

They are usually so out of character I just see it as fiction with the real folks names rather than the characters. There was a great J2 one where Jensen was Jared's dog walker for example...

 

I think RPF (real person fic) can be a bit dodgy when it does seem pretty realistic and affects your view of the actors. I think part of the reason I'm not keen on Amanda is due to a fic I read, which I know is stupid. 

[Hikari]

One wonders just how adorable they think it is, though.  ;)

 

The price of fame . . . At least the FreeBatch vids I've seen on YouTube are just mash-ups of actual hugs/matiness shared by the two on-set or at various events.  Everybody is fully dressed.  Unlike so many of the pornographic JohnLock fan arts.  It's quite priceless to see Bendi's face when a talk show host rolls out one of those steamy, half-nekkid (because of the American censors . . .there are many many full-on nekkid ones) testaments to the imagined hot lurve nest at 221B.

 

Ben said that Martin was the one who actually found and made him (Ben) look at some of these.  Of course he was.  Ben is a good, impeccably brought-up, well-mannered public school boy.  Martin . . is not.  Martin is a foul-mouthed little imp with itchy bird fingers.  In the JohnLock universe, there seems to be the idea that Watson is the Bottom, due to his smaller stature and Sherlock's innate bossiness.  But really, who of the two has the experience with sex?  I think, were JohnLock actual, at home in Baker Street, the bantam rooster would be Boss.  Certainly of our real-life pair, I don't think Martin Freeman is overshadowed by anybody, 6 foot or no.  I think what Sherlock is to John, Martin was to Ben, by which I mean, he looked up to him as sort of a mentor figure.  Not the other stuff.  That's all in fans' (overheated) minds.