The Rec Center #133
Greetings from the Goofiest Place on Earth, San Diego Comic-Con. I have been here for 48 hours and have cried multiple times during the Doctor Who panel, somehow wound up running through the streets with the SyFy marching band, had many cocktails at literally all hours of the day, and said the words, “I’m going to bring everyone down now” during my own panel. OH WELL.
If you’re here, Godspeed. If you’re not, enjoy actually seeing and hearing all this stuff properly from the comfort of your own home. And if you don’t care about any of it and just want to read fanfiction, you’re in luck! In addition to our mix of articles and Tumblr posts, we’ve got a multi-fandom “friends with benefits” list. :-)) — Elizabeth
new stuff
“What the Gospels Share with Fanfiction” by Jade Sylvan in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin
Elizabeth isn’t only sharing this because her podcast was cited in an article from the Harvard Divinity School, but! A really interesting piece on authorship, Biblical scholarship, and fanfiction.
“The Incredibles’ Syndrome is the Ultimate Cautionary Tale for Toxic Fandom” by Alyssa Fikse at SyFyWire
“If he can’t enjoy superheroes in the way that he wants, no one else can enjoy them either.”
Vintage Harry Potter archive FictionAlley is moving to AO3! Here’s everything you need to know, including how to claim your own fanfic or (if you’re a little embarrassed by your pre-teen writing) make sure it doesn’t get transferred.
older stuff
“My SDCC Diary: Our Fandom Anthropologist Reports Back” by Morgan Leigh Davies at The Toast
We shared Morgan’s vital dispatches from SDCC a few Comic-Cons ago, and they are more relevant than ever.
“Gav this is so bonkers and it hasn’t even started yet I feel like I am in an actual cult situation,” I had tweeted at my friend only moments before.
“probably because you are in an actual cult situation,” she replied, which was true.
tumblr & beyond
Please enjoy this photo of Margaret Atwood and a Homestuck cosplayer.
Some deep Waluigi headcanons over here.
Thor: Ragnarok as an anime intro!
“god i love the transformers wiki”
fanfiction
We’ve done a few “friends to lovers” or friendship-oriented lists (see here and here) but we’ve never run one about the “friends with benefits” subset of this trope. In the real world, “friends with benefits” is often just that; in fanfic, it’s nearly always “they both actually want a romantic relationship as well but think the other is uninterested,” a special kind of pining-oriented miscommunication, so...ENJOY. — Elizabeth
“Strings Attached” by JeanJacquesFrancois. 97K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire; Ships: Renly Baratheon/Loras Tyrell, Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Recced by: anon
Backstory: A modern day AU where Loras and Renly start out as friends with benefits, gradually grow closer, and ends with them together, with plenty of drama and sex along the way. :)
Rec: I didn’t use to care about Loras/Renly, I didn’t hate the pairing or anything, I just accepted it, but this fic changed my view of them. There is also a great amount of background Jaime/Brienne which I adore. They are so cute together here, and the drama is realistic and exciting all the way.
Content warning: consensual underage sex—Loras has sex when he’s 15, and the age of consent in the UK, where this story is set, is 16
“The Arrangement” by Maldoror_Chant. 312K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Gundam Wing; Ship: Chang Wufei/Heero Yuy
Recced by: vargs
Backstory: Thank you to Effex’s “Freeport” rec from Rec Center #92 for converting me to the Gundam Wing fandom 13 years late. I raise you another from Maldoror’s GW legacy. I knew nothing about GW before I devoured this 300K monster, but by the end, I was willing to try this 90s-weird show about child soldiers piloting deus ex machina mechs, because Maldoror sells these characters so well.
Rec: Less than lovers, more than brothers-in-arms, not friends, definitely rivals, but also perfect partners, prompting each other to be their best selves. This is the friends-with-benefits premise taken to its conclusion, with two people who don’t realize what they have until it crashes into them. Maldoror is ridiculously good at writing layered dialogue, evoking a lived-in quality with subtle world-building, and engineering amazing casefic plots. This fic was also revised last year and fully reposted with a bonus chapter on AO3!
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, some non-con drug use, some psychological torture
“Mi amore vole fe” by htebazytook. 5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Star Trek RPF; Ship: Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto
Recced by: Sofia
Backstory: Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are the main actors in the current Star Trek movie franchise, as Kirk and Spock, respectively. They’re also friends in real life.
Rec: It’s bittersweet in a realistic way and it reads as a very organic story. The writing itself is also sublime and there are passages I quote to this day, years after reading it for the first time.
Content warnings: N/A
“Some Such Place (The Big Screen Classics Remix)” by pocky_slash. 17K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: X-Men: First Class; Ship: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: A modern, still-have-powers AU in which Charles and Erik, both prominent mutant activists, meet at a cinema every two weeks for the latest installment of a classic movie series, then have sex and/or argue about politics while very aggressively failing admit their true feelings for each other. A remix of a canon-era fic that’s also about going to the movies, where those ‘classic’ films are first-run, in the mid-1960s (I find this connection to the modern AU update *very* charming).
Rec: There’s something extraordinarily gentle about this fic, in a way I have trouble truly articulating, that sort of “oh, of course” moment of revelation, stretched out across an entire fic. I love XMFC fic where authors properly engage with the fact that one of them is a telepath—it really muddles the standard methods of poor communication on which so much fanfic relies! This fic handles it really well, in my opinion—honesty here isn’t about understanding what you want, but about asking for it, too.
Content warnings: N/A
“Never Be Satisfied” by torakowalski. 15K words, rated Explicit
Fandom: Les Miserables; Ship: Enjolras/Grantaire
Backstory: Modern-day AU where Les Mis revolutionary leader Enjolras and his devoted-yet-cynical follower Grantaire are a) LGBTQ activists and b) women.
Rec: This is basically a sex fic. Enjolras is inexperienced and doesn’t know how to orgasm, and Grantaire teaches her how. (While secretly pining, of course).
Content warnings: N/A
“Tangled” by Thingswithwings. 28K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Community; Ships: Troy/Abed, Abed/Annie, polyamory with asexual Abed
Recced by: Aja
Backstory: Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) are the dream team of NBC’s beloved cult comedy Community. Troy is a former jock who’s embraced his true life as a huge geek, thanks to his best friend, Abed, a pop culture savant who’s probably on the spectrum. Annie (Allison Brie) is the goofy but determined Hermione of their oddball but tightknit group of friends at Greendale Community College.
Rec: Thingswithwings is one of those every-fandom writers you can’t go wrong with, and TWW writing Community is a no-brainer. In this fic, Abed, who’s asexual, initiates FWB relationships with both Annie and Troy, simultaneously, but it doesn’t go quite as expected. Nuanced, hot, and full of warm banter and geekery, this fic is a wonderful look at relationship negotiation and sexual exploration among three best friends. Heart heart heart.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
I’m hijacking both the intro and outro this week to plug the final thing I’m doing at SDCC this year: Flourish and I are having a Fansplaining meetup at the Marriott Marquis pool bar (which is officially called the “Tequila Bar & Grille,” because of course it is) tomorrow (Saturday) evening from ~6 pm onwards. This is *very* casual, we’re just planning on claiming some space, and everyone is welcome to stop by and enjoy the glory that is the Marriott pool bar, the finest place to spend San Diego Comic-Con. — Elizabeth
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.
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