The Rec Center #101
This week we have multifandom friends-to-lovers fic, Overwatch coverage, Star Trek cosplay anecdotes, and more! — Gav
new stuff
“The Overwatch Videogame League Aims to be Become the Next NFL” by Nathan Hill at Wired
On the Overwatch League and the ambitious future of esports.
“The Multiplicity and Diversity of Fandom: An Interview with Fansplaining’s Flourish Klink and Elizabeth Minkel” by Henry Jenkins
Elizabeth and her podcast partner, Flourish, answered some fantastic questions about all sorts of fandom topics, from fan/creator interaction to “toxic fandom” to fic in the classroom. Part one is linked above, and part two is here. (Part three next week...there were a lot of questions!)
“2017 on Tumblr”
Tumblr’s fandometrics blog has uploaded all the year-end rankings for 2017’s most popular ships, movies, celebrities, and so on.
older stuff
“The Harry Potter Fandom Is At A Crossroads” by Alanna Bennett at Buzzfeed
We both feel that JRK’s statement yesterday about Johnny Depp was Not Good, to put it mildly. This piece, on the state of the HP fandom as it tries to grapple with problematic elements past and present, was written a year ago, but it feels just as relevant today.
tumblr & beyond
Loki and his kids by Litzebit.
An incredible anecdote about a Data cosplayer sighting.
Congratulations to everyone who made it through the week without seeing the Zootopia abortion fan comic.
How this Dragon Age cosplayer wound up in a made-for-TV christmas romcom.
How is this video about fan meet-and-greets SO BIZARRE yet so realistic.
fanfiction
When Fansplaining ran its fic tropes survey, “friends to lovers” emerged as everyone’s favorite—by a hefty margin, in fact. So we’re here to please the crowd: stories from our submissions tagged as such (a reminder that, as always, the tags are at the discretion of the reccer). Thank you so much to our guest reccers! — Elizabeth
“As Good as a Boy” by KannaOphelia. 9K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Famous Five; Ship: George/Jo
Recced by: Orangistae
Backstory: George, the tomboy of the Famous Five, is all grown up and about to start university. She’s out on a date when she runs into her old friend Jo the ragamuffin girl.
Rec: A lovely fic exploring George’s gender identity and sexuality, with a keen awareness of the class differences affecting George and Jo’s relationship.
Content warnings: N/A
“Hiding Place” by Alivingfire. 365K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: One Direction; Ship: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Recced by: Ro
Backstory: Soulmate AU. A canon-compliant Harry and Louis love story from the very beginning, where the only difference is that the love between them is literally written on their skin, and there’s only so much they can hide. Follow the boys on an in-depth journey from their first audition in July 2010 to December 2012.
Rec: This story is a little long even for me, and I’m a bit iffy about real-person fic, but it’s worth checking out for the sheer attention to detail and the masterful incorporation of “canon” (real tweets and behind-the scenes videos) into the story.
Content warnings: N/A
“Everingham” katharhino. 46K words, not rated (estimated Teen).
Fandom: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park; Ship: Henry Crawford/Fanny Price
Recced by: anon
Backstory: A thoughtful reworking of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, remixing the central pairings while maintaining Austen’s shrewd and compassionate character portraits. Fanny Price’s moral rectitude and Henry Crawford’s inconstancy are transformed as the two slowly come to truly understand and love one another.
Rec: I love the slow intimacy (when they finally use Christian names!) of this clever Austen pastiche, which shows how people’s flaws (pride, frivolity) can become gifts to each other (moral principle and social ease). It follows and resolves the disparity in their stations, balances the moral scale, and carefully folds in the major unresolved conflicts from the novel—and it honestly works even if you haven’t read Mansfield Park.
Content warnings: Period-typical classism and misogyny
“Feel It Kicking In” by rix. 68K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: BTS / Bangtan Boys; Ship: Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V
Recced by: Beth
Backstory: Jeongguk and Taehyung are just two platonic bros living the surfer lifestyle and totally not in love with each other.
Rec: The story has some of the best pining and just pure raw affection I’ve ever read.
Content warnings: Recreational drug use, homophobic language
“letting me in or letting me go” by gsparkle. 31K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: MCU (with 616 references); Ship: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff
Recced by: anon
Backstory: A Natasha-centric private investigator AU in which she is forced to team up with Clint and his protegee Kate Bishop. The assignment ends up tying into Natasha’s past with the Red Room.
Rec: The AU is really well-crafted and the dynamics of all characters involved are fun, emotional, and in-character. This author really gets Natasha.
Content warnings: N/A
“Heartstone” by BeautifulThief. 7K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke; Ship: F/F Aomine/Kise
Recced by: graybles
Backstory: Tomboy Aomine, who’s contented with life as long as she plays basketball, deals with her crush on the prettiest girl in school.
Rec: A heartwarming story that does an amazing job of exploring Aomine and Kise as teenage girls.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
Guillermo del Toro’s monster romance movie The Shape of Water expands to more theaters across the U.S. this weekend, and you should definitely see it. It’s amazing! — Gav
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, etc—are strongly encouraged as well.
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