#tldr we should all be like treebark. slay

[riacte]

Um hii so I may have something to add to the "duo name" discussion going on.

Fanmade duo names are generally established to separate them from shipping. Which is a good idea and we should continue to make an effort to tag shipping. But you know what else is a fanon concept? Not the idea of two CCs being good friends irl, but the fannish idea of shipping their characters. (Excluding CCs who are married / together). So instead of coming up with fanon names for platonic duos who are friends irl, I think we should come up with fanon names for the fannish concept of shipping (who are not together irl / whose characters are not together).

I'm not into QSMP so I cannot speak for that side and I know y'all have a different shipping culture, so this is more for hermitshipping / trafficshipping.

I can't verify this statement but in this post, OP mentions Joe and Cleo didn't want a duo name because they felt like a word + duo couldn't represent their years of friendship. And I can imagine this to be true for many duos especially in HC, which has been going on for so long. Instead of trying to “define” friendship with a word, we can shift the focus to making up a fan name for the fannish concept of shipping them.

Case study 1: Renchanting / Treebark

The ideal scenario: CCs make their own canon platonic name, shippers make their own fannish name for shipping. Treebark is a pun, it's vague, it doesn't overtly mention Ren or Martyn or their brands, and like the more niche duo names, you need to put in effort to understand what this means. Which makes it perfect for shipping in the sense we try to "hide" it. I know people have said it can be frustrating when you see a new duo and don’t know what it means, but I think it’s okay for ship names because they are by design meant to be obscure. You have to make an effort to look for it and understand what it means.

Case study 2: Convex / Cubscar (Ranchers / Solidaritek (?) also goes here)

I think it's called Cubscar based on Cubscar Week? Anyways, a slightly less ideal scenario than Treebark but still very very good. Canon name for platonic stuff, name mashup for romantic stuff. Less elegant that Treebark but it works so who cares. If it works, it works.

Case study 3: Flower Husbands

FH is different in the sense it’s a canon romantic ship and the CCs made the name themselves. I guess FH is still used for platonic but romantic FH would probably be best tagged with shipping to differentiate it.

Case study 4: Rendoc (aka. is this platonic or romantic or what) (Renskall also goes here)

Rendoc is like FH but?? It’s both a ship name and a duo name?? SHIPrendoc? They made it themselves hello?? Rendoc has been around long enough that we just use it for whatever. Like FH, romantic Rendoc should probably be tagged with shipping.

Case study 5: Fress / Stresskall

Long established ship names that sometimes gets used for platonic because it’s faster and we don’t have canon names (at least I think we don’t?). At least I use it for platonic too. It’s different from Rendoc / Renskall in the sense we don’t get a “haha yes ship us” from the CCs. And I think we have enough common sense to tell whether a post is meant to be shippy or not. Eg. “YESS FRESS CRUMBS IN NEW EPISODE!” (about canon platonic interaction), “omg fress in your au is so cute” (depends on context? What’s the AU?), “I think Fress should kiss” (overtly romantic).

These dynamics in particular have been around long enough that it feels weird trying to make a duo name for them (like Jleo). Like, I would rather call platonic Stress+Iskall with Stresskall than, fuckass allium duo or whatever. If it’s tagged with shipping, it’s meant to be seen as shipping. In the absence of canon names, sometimes using name mashups is faster and more efficient.

There are of course exceptions for everything: eg. Desert Duo is well established enough and it’s a good contrast to Scarian. But I think for more niche duos / ships, we can kind of get away with using name mashups? In the absence of canon names?

But I think name mashups are still seen as inherently shippy because that’s how other fandoms make their ship names. (Ironically one of my ships have the name “sniper duo” which is unrelated to mcyt duoification I promise, and is more used descriptively instead of as a tag) So we have to be careful with how we present name mashups especially in public spaces…?

I still think it’s better than making up duo names that few understand. And I think we should reserve our obscure names for the more obscure act of shipping instead. If it’s difficult to find out what it means, why not make it difficult by design? The name mashup tells you who they are, but the obscure ship name tells you explicitly it’s romantic. I know it’s hard trying to twist your thought process the other way because we’re so used to name mashups being for shipping (in other fandoms), but idk I just think it makes sense for fan names to be made for entirely fanmade concepts. And non fanmade concepts (friendships) can stay the way they are. Idk just some thoughts.

#hermitshipping #trafficshipping #hermitblr #trafficblr #things i write when i have coffee #ria.txt #meta #idk #it’s me rambling #also sorry to op of the post i mentioned i didn’t mention you by name bc idk if you would like that #ofc there are exceptions to everything etc etc #tldr we should all be like treebark. slay