The Rec Center #128
Hello! This week we have a deep dive into the BTS fandom, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey fanart, and Gav takes over the fanfic section with a perennial favorite: Marvel movie fic. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“A Deeper Look at Why BTS Has Thrived in America” by Jakob Dorof at Vulture
As the title promises, a deep dive into BTS’s American fandom, contextualized in kpop more broadly. H/t to blindmouse, who wrote in to endorse this piece, and who was one of our very first guest reccers back in 2016, with a BTS fic list.
“How The Legend of Zelda Made Me Gay” by Claire McBride at SyFy Wire
“We were a girl gang of geeks and our burgeoning affections were initially at the fictional.”
“Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession” by Chloe Dykstra
This is the biggest story in geek culture today: Actress and cosplayer Chloe Dykstra sharing some truly shocking domestic abuse allegations regarding her ex-boyfriend Chris Hardwick. Please heed the trigger warnings in the post.
Hardwick is very well-connected in the mainstream, San Diego Comic-Con side of professional fandom, launching the Nerdist media company and hosting various talk shows and podcasts. He’s already been removed from the Nerdist.com masthead, and we’re going to see many more reactions/aftershocks over the weekend.
older stuff
“Shipping Without an End Game” by Magen Cubed at Ms En Scene
On subtext versus text, endgame shipping, queer representation, and transformative works.
tumblr & beyond
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey fanart by Luu.
“Cruel choices #137: you must consume one—and only one—of the following pieces of media.” (BUT BOTH OPTIONS ARE... SO TEMPTING...)
European fanfic fans! OTW Legal needs your help.
fanfiction
For no reason other than that I’ve read some good Marvel movie fic recently, here’s some recs! — Gav
“All’s Fair in Larb and War” by phonecallfromgod. 24K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Spider-Man: Homecoming; Ship: Ned Leeds/Peter Parker
Backstory: Established relationship futurefic where Ned and Peter are just starting college. Very slight AU where Flash didn’t go to their high school, and becomes Ned’s college roommate instead.
Rec: SO FUNNY AND CUTE. Ned’s POV is hilarious and very in-character for the tone of Spider-Man: Homecoming, with lots of witty dialogue and college antics without it being a college AU.
Content warnings: N/A
“The Way to a Man’s Heart,” written by watthefoucault with art by Niitza. 44K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: MCU/Captain America movies; Ship: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, gen.
Backstory: A Steve-centric story covering the entire period after he wakes up in the 21st century.
Rec: Steve explores the 21st century by learning to cook and trying food from around the world! This is a relatively common background trope in Captain America fanfic, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entire story dedicated to the idea, and this one is WONDERFUL. It has a really thoughtful attitude to Steve’s relationship with food, and shows how his cooking skills actually alter his relationship with the other Avengers, changing the course of the canon MCU narrative.
Content warnings: N/A
“Just As Thick As My Skin” by neveralarch. 6K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Deadpool 2; Ship: Cable/Deadpool/Vanessa Carlysle
Backstory: Vanessa is Deadpool’s girlfriend; Cable is his new time-traveling cyborg assassin partner.
Rec: A fun threesome getting-together story, replicating the humor of the Deadpool movies while somehow being much less obnoxious.
Content warnings: N/A
“tezeta (nostalgia)” by vowelinthug. 20K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: MCU/Captain America movies; Ship: Steve/Bucky
Backstory: Takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, after Bucky has woken up and is recovering in Wakanda.
Rec: A Wakanda-centric story about Bucky trying to find his place in the world. Not much more to say beyond “this is very good!” Also, I hope we start seeing more stories about this period in the timeline!
Content warnings: N/A
“A New Day” by feedingonwind. 3-minute fanvid. (Includes adult-rated violence.)
Fandom: Luke Cage; Ship: Shades/Mariah Dillard
Backstory: Includes spoilers for season 1 of Netflix’s Luke Cage. Mariah Dillard is a politician from an infamous crime family in Harlem. Shades a fixer, employed by that family.
Rec: MARIAH!!!! This vid is such a moving tribute to her role in season 1—and her relationship with Shades, which is one of the most compelling canon ships in the MCU. Setting a vid to such a well-known song is often a risky move, IMO, but feedingonwind did a fantastic job here with Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.” Exactly what I was looking for this week, after reviewing season 2, which focuses heavily on Mariah and her relationship with Shades. (Just a heads up for all the other ShadyMariah shippers out there!)
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
Have a great weekend, everyone, and have fun at Ocean’s 8—or, if you’re like Elizabeth, have fun weeping uncontrollably during the Mr. Rogers documentary. :-))
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. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list, explainer, or ship manifesto, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)