At the risk of turning this into a 'You damn kids get off my lawn!' post, let me tell you about the strange way we treated couples when I first got into writing fanfic.

Now as anyone who knows their fanfic history is aware, slash originally got its name from the great-granddaddy of all slashfic ever-Star Trek. The main pairing was Kirk/Spock (hence the 'slash'), and while it was occasionally referred to as 'Spirk,' for the most part, the writers had no trouble writing out the two characters names, nor did the readers feel it necessary to have the names handily smushed together into one word so they didn't have to go to all the trouble of reading that extra name.

And thus it went for a long time. Badger wrote Jim/Blair, and Crocket/Castillo, and Fraser/RayK, and Bodie/Doyle, and Vash/Wolfwood, Wolfwood/Midvalley, Pretty Much Anyone/Legato, and at no point was it suggested that writing two names with a / between them was too hard. and what we really needed to do was smush the names into one word Something that would've been doubly hard to do in Due South, where both of Fraser's partners were named Ray. It was just easier to write Faser/RayV or Fraser/RayK, or both (if you swang both Rays.)

The first time I encountered a smushed pairing one was in Final Fantasy VII, where for some reason, certain authors insisted on smashing Rude/Reno into Rudo (I later found out this came from the Japanese themselves). I never did, because I thought it sounded extremely silly. Besides which, they only had four letters in their name. It can't be THAT taxing to type out Rude/Reno. Or Tseng/Rufus. And while the Cid and Vincent pairing was often referred to as Valenwind, the author still generally typed the pairing as Cid/Vincent.

And then, slowly but surely, the smushed names began to creep out of the woodwork. I first encountered them, oddly enough, in Marvel comic fandom, where Jogan, Rogan and (most puzzling) Kurrtty all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere. I then became aware they'd existed for some time on 'Buffy' (which I never watched).

Then, Harry Potter came into being, and you couldn't turn around without tripping over Dramione (which I still think sounds like a British version of Dramamine), Harmonions, or Snarry and Snack shippers.

From there, the downward spiral continues. Oddly enough, it seems to have been averted in Dr. Who fandom (except for a brief flirtation with calling Doctor/Rose 'Drose). I like to think Doctor Who fans realized that, in dealing with 30+ years of continuity, writing Doctor/Whichever Companion was much easier on their readers.

Torchwood wasn't so lucky. It gave us Janto, Gowen (Gwen/Owen), Twen (Tosh/Owen), and, of course, the ever snortworthy Gwack.

I could go on, but I can't remember all the smushed names for Twilight pairings, nor do I want to. Though my youngest son informs me that Glee has turned the Kurt/Blaine pairing into Klaine, which he thinks is pretty lame. Not nearly as interesting as Nuke (Luke/Noah) on 'As the World Turns.

So. What sort of smushed horrors have you seen inflicted on your fandom(s)? And I expect at least one person to list the Twilight portmanteaus. The youngest son's read the series, but he doesn't read online fanfic (even he has more brains than that).

Let's seeee...

FF8: Squiefer--Squall/Siefer

Squell--Squall/Zell

Squistis--Squall/Quistis

Squinoa--Squall/Rinoa

I'd be interested to see what an Irvine/Quistis pairing would turn out as. Irstis? Quivine?



Friday Night Lights: Tyla--Tim/Lyla

I've also seen it insisted that Jason Street and Lyla paired up should be called Leet.

Tim Riggins and Lyla Garrity is sometimes called Riggity.

OH! And Waverlash, how did I forget that one? It's Brian 'Smash' paired with a crazy chick called Waverly.

Tim/Julie is the gagworthy Tulie.

A lot of the fandoms I'm into nowadays don't utilize the smushed formula, though I know that Slerra was sometimes used for Slade/Terra for the Teen Titans cartoon, which sounds like some demented smoothie.

Not necessarily smushing names together, but when I was briefly involved in the Invader Zim fandom, they had their own system for various pairings which was __A__R (_____ and _____ Romance).

For example, if it was Zim/Dib, it would be ZADR. If it was Zim/Gaz, it would be ZAGR. Weirdest thing for pairings I've ever seen.

The Harry Potter fandom uses every pairing name convention ever invented (Accept for the __shipping that Pokemon and Yugioh use as far as I know) and a few I think it may have invented itself so no point going over the name smushes for that one. There are too many to list.


Name smushes are pretty prevalent in Anime fandom, especially the Japanese side of it, but it kinda makes more sense there due to the way Japanese names are structured. It didn't actually begin to become retarded until American anime fans began to try and morph it for western fandoms with English names that mostly don't work as well.

A good example of this would be the Sonic fandom where it's really prevalent, with the complication that it is both a Japanese and an English fandom depending on what continuity you're most into.

SonAmy, Sonuckles, Sonadow, Sonails, Knuxouge and who knows what else. I don't really remember any of the other Knuckles or Tails pairing smushes, but I'm sure they're out there somewhere.

Spirk... why not Kock.

The smushed names thing was also popularized by the tabloids using it for celebrity couples (remember Bennifer?)

And then there are those who'll start listing their smushed-name pairings without first identifying the fandom. "I mostly write Borb, Herpy, and Kevin, though I do some Tatershipping and Gasshipping on the side."* Sorry, some of us are going to need just a bit of a hint there.




*Bob/Barb, Wild Ferns
Herb/Poppy, CopShop: Omaha
Kelly/Mervin, Lovers and Lovers
Ari/Ariel, Nooners, from that scene where they shared a baked potato. You know you saw the sexual tension there!
Donny/Shelly, Weehauken, because they both work at the gas station.

I'm pretty sure caffeine addict was right. The Harmonians had to come up with some very... inventive ways to 'prove' that there was any sort of basis for Harry/Hermione in the books.

I've only seen them a couple of times each, but there as Rufo or Runo (Rufus/Reno). Apparently Rufus/Rude was never popular enough to merit a name.

Oh yes, those mashed ships. Nowadays they are a reason for me to turn away from a story if the author proudly writes 'ZUTARA', 'KAANG' or 'KATOPH' in the summary. Well, if I'd hung on to that fandom, anyway.

If people are so eager to save key strokes when describing the characters they care most about, I sincerely doubt they have much to say at all.

I think it might be more that they think it's cute or... something... rather than they actually think they're saving keystrokes or that they're too lazy to type both names. Or they think it's some kind of secret little code that means they're speshul and they belong to something, in the same way some people call themselves 'Whovians' (Doctor Who fandom) or... I can't actually think of any more. But I'm sure a lot of fandoms themselves have little nicknames, no? Is it maybe similar to that? "It makes me feel more speshul to ship Gwack than Gwen/Jack because if I put their names together as one name it's symbolic of their true, undying love and--"

God, I think I just made myself a bit sick.

The version I've always heard was that "Whovian" was something American fans came up with when the show got over here in the late '70s. Most of the dislike I saw was from UK fans who complained that they didn't need cutesy labels. "Why can't we just be called fans?"

I think smush-names are pretty amusing, and I don't see the harm. The funnier the word (or non-word) they create, the better. Plus some of them, like Zutara, are so omnipresent that it's probably not a conscious "whee I love smush-names!" decision on the part of most people using it.

The use of Spirk rather than Spork and/or Kock is criminal, though.

If you're going to write characters wildly out-of-character anyway, who cares about the stupid nickname people give the pairing?

Unless, it gets to the point where it's talking to a TVTropes fan and the end result is that you want to punch anyone who uses the word "lampshade," no matter how innocent.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned "Whovian", as I Did Not Do the Research. I just hear people throw it around and I sort of assumed it was a general little nickname they had given the fandom.

Cactus Wren wrote:

ObOP: I've been given to understand that smushed pairing names started in the Buffy fandom, when it was generally realized that "Spuffy", repugnant as it is, was preferable to "B/S".

Is it bad that it took me about three read-throughs of that sentence, going, "How could that possibly be preferable", before I finally realized what the problem with "B/S" was? Know how else they could solve that problem? Buffy/Spike. Problem solved!

I wasn't aware 'Whovian' referred to a specific fan grouping. But then, I've never been a great one for joining groups. I was fairly sure it had originated in the US, though.

And yeah, if you check TV Tropes, Buffy appears to have started the smushed pairings thing several years before it became common in fanfic. I have a vague memory of a friend who was heavily into writing Spander, and I had to ask her who the hell Spander was, because, as I said, I never watched the show (it's Spike/Xander).

Possibly because of David Tenant's overacting in the Fifth Series of Dr. Who (or maybe the writers finally noticed the subtext that had been literally dripping off the screen since the Troughton era) Doctor/Master shipping has become big in Who fandom. The problem is that there have been 11 different Doctors, and at least five (possibly six, if you count the one in the movie) Masters over the years.

So instead of smushing names, it's necessary to make sure your readers know which Master you're shipping your Doctor with. Ten/Master (Simm's) is probably the biggest right now, though Five/Master (Ainley) is a close second. Thus we have a case where, instead of shortening the pairing name, you've actually managed to lengthen it.

I just stick to shipping Two/Jamie and Five/Turlough. And occasionally Six/Frobisher, because what's the use of having a shapeshifting companion (even if he DOES look like a penguin most of the time) if you can't have some fun with it?

From the Pirates of the Caribbean fandom:

Davypso