I love Wilson's big puppy dog brown eyes, even though I know perfectly well RSL tends to squint a bit. I've just decided this is because he is either trying to remember his lines or locate Hugh Laurie without his glasses.

Haha, I noticed the squinty thing too. And it's only when he's looking at someone, so I get the feeling the rest of the time he's just staring blindly into space and the execs let it slide as long as he's not looking into the camera.

House calling Wilson, Cuddy and the fellows by their last name always seems to be a form of familiarity for him. Wilson has picked up that habit but Cuddy hasn't. She refers to the others by their last names but when she talks to them, they're Dr. Chase, Dr. Foreman, etc. She sometimes calls Wilson Dr. Wilson and sometimes not. My impression is that she calls him Dr. Wilson when she's being the Dean of Medicine/his boss and just Wilson when it's more friendship or the two of them banding together to cope with (or manipulate) House. But that's just an impression -- I've never really confirmed it.

On the Chase as Rob/Robbie thing ... I have no idea where that came from. Didn't his own father refer to him as "Robert?" (And I just checked the transcript -- not only does Rowan call him Robert, so does House when speaking to Rowan about Chase.) And Cameron also refers to him as "Robert" in "Control," so I'd say that canon is fairly consistent that he's "Robert" when he's not "Chase."

True, namaste, but one might also say -- if one were pedantic like I'm about to be -- that Rowan calling his son Robert rather than a more familiar diminiutive is a sign of the distance between the two. Although, really, I think you're right, that Chase probably goes by Robert. It's interesting that none of the fics have Chase as "Bob," which is the most common diminutive of Robert.

I suspect that's also a side effect of people's life experience. I literally do not know a single Robert who didn't end up Rob or Bob eventually, and they are usually Robbie or Bobby when they're younger. (ISTR that some people thought Rowan called him "Robin," actually, although it was definitely Robert. Maybe an accent thing.) I don't think he looks like a Robert at all (don't ask me what on earth that means), but he really doesn't look like a Bob. :lol:

This is going to sound weird, given that it's the actress's *real* name, but I don't think the name Lisa suits Cuddy. I've always loved the name and when I was a girl used to wish it were mine (I have a unisex name but it's rarely given to boys these days), but the reason I loved it was because it's very light and girly. Really? I think Lisa a "power" name but maybe that's just coming from my experiences with Lisas. I thought it fit her very well, I think she looks like a Lisa. I think Cameron looks like an Allison too, that's a name I consider very light and girly (and prissy, no offense to Allisons, I do like the name), so I guess I should say that S1 Cameron definately felt like an Allison, but after she got..."empowered" then she felt more like a Cameron. I agree with you on that! He doesn't look like a "Robert" at all. The name just doesn't fit. Agreed, he looks like someone who would have a less traditional name than Robert. A younger name, if that makes any sense. Of course, when I hear the name Robert I think of dark hair for some reason, so the fact that JS is blond makes it even weirder for me. Eric doesn't work for me on Foreman either. I think House, Wilson, and Cuddy have perfect first names, Cameron's used to work a lot better for me before she got so aggressive, and Chase and Foreman's names don't work for me at all. Having said that, I immediately can't get into any fic that has them calling each other by their first names, even if they're together it sounds weird, especially when they get into nicknames, Robbie, Alli, Jimmy, etc.

It's weird for me to think of any of them having first names, much less ones that don't suit them, especially since Chase, Cameron, and to a less extent Foreman could all work as first names anyway.

It is very strange to see first names used liberally in fan fic. I understand the inclination that when you write about two people in a relationship that you expect them to call each other by their first names instead of their last, but even if Chase and Cameron were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, I couldn't imagine them calling each other anything but Chase and Cameron. When I first started watching the show, I thought that Chase and Cameron were their first names. Wilson can be a first name. I'd never heard the name Cuddy ever before so I didn't have any reason to suspect that it was a surname and I don't think I really caught Foreman's name at first, so it took me at least two episodes to figure out that they were using last names.

I always thought part of the reason people use first names in slash is because of the pronoun confusion. You don't want to use the same thing every time you refer to a character. When you are writing het, you can alternate between the characters' names and he/she. Alison and Chase walked up the hill. He turned to her. She said blah. He said erg. She did something. But with slash you end up with the confusing "he/he." House and Wilson walked up the hill. He turned to him. He said blah. He said erg. He did something. And the alternative, for a writer who isn't very experienced, is a laundry list of actions. House and Wilson walked up the hill. House turned to Wilson. Wilson said blah. House said erg. Wilson did something.

And I'd much rather read "House did this/Wilson said that" than "the diagnostician did this/the oncologist said that." Or "the younger doctor this/the older doctor that" or the many other ways inexperienced writers try to avoid "overuse" of one form. One of the writers I edit in my real-life job has an aversion to the overuse of the S word ("say"). He'll use "he declaims," "he maintains," "he utters," "he chuckles." Dude, NO. People do not chuckle words. "He said, chuckling," fine, but he did not chuckle that last sentence.