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General outburst of annoyance, nothing new, I just was reminded of it again: there ought to be a law against the overuse of nicknames (especially not canonical ones) and cutesy name forms in general, especially in shipper fanfiction. I mean, okay, there are characters for whom (creative!) nickname use is a core character trait - say, Lorne on Angel, or Q on TNG, or Sawyer on Lost. But there are any number of characters in any number of fandoms who just never go for "-y" or "-ie" forms of their names - Kirk is "Jim", he's not Jimmie, McCoy is "Bones", and I could also see people not Kirk calling him Len or Leonard, but would draw the line at "Lenny". (Disclaimer: I actually haven't seen any use of "Lenny", I'm just using Star Trek names because they're so well known.)
I guess the idea is to convey intimacy, but to me, it is just the opposite, it makes the story feel fake and breaks my suspension of disbelief. Also, moderation and contrast with the nickname use are key, imo. River Song's Hello, Sweetie on Doctor Who is great because a) nobody else we've seen in the last 40 years calls the Doctor that, and b) River herself otherwise is very much the unsentimental type. Which makes the use of "sweetie" both funny and a statement about the relationship, in a teasing way. (As always, personal opinion, I know some people grind their teeth every thime the phrase comes up.) If everyone else constantly used endearments as a form of adress towards the Doctor, or if he ran around calling people "Sweetie" himself all the time, it wouldn't work the same way. So, to get back to fanfiction - a story in which two people who in their canon usually address each other by the regular form of their first names, have done so for years, with one of them in a particularly close moment (and/or a moment where said character is making fun of the other character) - using an -ie form or something similar once - that works. But if we're suddenly hearing Bobsie and Adamcakes all over the place in every single sentence, and the speakers are decidedly not Lorne, I just throw my hands up in frustration.
In less frustrating news, Maria Hill will be in the Avengers movie, likely played by Cobie Smulders, whom I don't know but who certainly looks like a mature woman and not a girl on the photo, which pleases me. As does the fact Maria Hill is a character, not just because previously the only female character in the line up was Black Widow (nothing against Natasha, she's great) but because Maria Hill had terrific development in the comics these last three years, AND because I suspect that Joss, who can't very well use his self-created tough morally ambiguous female Marvelverse agent (because in the movieverse there are no aliens, and Abigail Brand's job is dealing with same, plus she's half of one), will write her in a similar way to Brand. (BTW, the article writer could do with some update on Maria Hill, he's still ending her summary with Civil War.)
Also, because I'm a sap and always need to remind myself of the good parts after having dwelled on the bad regarding what or whomever I'm fannish about, I've come to the conclusion that 1975 is the golden year for solo John Lennon interviews. He doesn't have a score to settle as in 1970 and thereabouts. He doesn't have to prove he's still cool as in 1980. He doesn't even have a record to sell. Behold, 1975 John, immediately post-Long Weekend, still with the good feelings generated by same re: old bandmates and also reunited with his wife who now is pregnant not only sounds happy but manages to talk about the dreaded "reunion" word with affection and some audience teasing instead of biting anyone's head of. The interview also has him questioned about the gazillion American compilations of Beatles albums, which for some reasons were sometimes quite different from the original British releases, the infamous "Butcher" album cover shot, mono versus stereo releases, hanging out with Paul and Ringo, and George's new record label. (Oh, and he says that Magical Mystery Tour was one of his favourite albums. If I had heard this interview before compiling my grand collection of contradictory John quotes last year, I could have paired that statement with a 1970 anti MMT-outburst, but never mind. Stay contradictory, John, it's fun.) Check out the interview here.
Lastly, going back even further, found on tumblr and based on 1964 interviews promoting A Hard Day's Night:
I guess the idea is to convey intimacy, but to me, it is just the opposite, it makes the story feel fake and breaks my suspension of disbelief. Also, moderation and contrast with the nickname use are key, imo. River Song's Hello, Sweetie on Doctor Who is great because a) nobody else we've seen in the last 40 years calls the Doctor that, and b) River herself otherwise is very much the unsentimental type. Which makes the use of "sweetie" both funny and a statement about the relationship, in a teasing way. (As always, personal opinion, I know some people grind their teeth every thime the phrase comes up.) If everyone else constantly used endearments as a form of adress towards the Doctor, or if he ran around calling people "Sweetie" himself all the time, it wouldn't work the same way. So, to get back to fanfiction - a story in which two people who in their canon usually address each other by the regular form of their first names, have done so for years, with one of them in a particularly close moment (and/or a moment where said character is making fun of the other character) - using an -ie form or something similar once - that works. But if we're suddenly hearing Bobsie and Adamcakes all over the place in every single sentence, and the speakers are decidedly not Lorne, I just throw my hands up in frustration.
In less frustrating news, Maria Hill will be in the Avengers movie, likely played by Cobie Smulders, whom I don't know but who certainly looks like a mature woman and not a girl on the photo, which pleases me. As does the fact Maria Hill is a character, not just because previously the only female character in the line up was Black Widow (nothing against Natasha, she's great) but because Maria Hill had terrific development in the comics these last three years, AND because I suspect that Joss, who can't very well use his self-created tough morally ambiguous female Marvelverse agent (because in the movieverse there are no aliens, and Abigail Brand's job is dealing with same, plus she's half of one), will write her in a similar way to Brand. (BTW, the article writer could do with some update on Maria Hill, he's still ending her summary with Civil War.)
Also, because I'm a sap and always need to remind myself of the good parts after having dwelled on the bad regarding what or whomever I'm fannish about, I've come to the conclusion that 1975 is the golden year for solo John Lennon interviews. He doesn't have a score to settle as in 1970 and thereabouts. He doesn't have to prove he's still cool as in 1980. He doesn't even have a record to sell. Behold, 1975 John, immediately post-Long Weekend, still with the good feelings generated by same re: old bandmates and also reunited with his wife who now is pregnant not only sounds happy but manages to talk about the dreaded "reunion" word with affection and some audience teasing instead of biting anyone's head of. The interview also has him questioned about the gazillion American compilations of Beatles albums, which for some reasons were sometimes quite different from the original British releases, the infamous "Butcher" album cover shot, mono versus stereo releases, hanging out with Paul and Ringo, and George's new record label. (Oh, and he says that Magical Mystery Tour was one of his favourite albums. If I had heard this interview before compiling my grand collection of contradictory John quotes last year, I could have paired that statement with a 1970 anti MMT-outburst, but never mind. Stay contradictory, John, it's fun.) Check out the interview here.
Lastly, going back even further, found on tumblr and based on 1964 interviews promoting A Hard Day's Night:
