The Rec Center #187
Hi folks! This week we have a fandom primer for the Chinese web drama Guardian, some cute LOTR fanart, an excerpt from Philip Pullman’s new His Dark Materials book, an article about fandom validation, and more! — Gav
new stuff
“Why the ending of Game of Thrones elevated the worst of fan culture” by Aja Romano at Vox
On the ending of GoT and the gendered affirmational/transformational fandom divide.
“Validation in Fandom and Feelings of Pride Through Online Communities” by Zina Hutton at Color Bloq
“Being able to engage honestly and openly about BTS with other queer people and fans of color, our shared hopes for the future, and thoughts about our experiences inspires me to keep going, keep loving, and for the first time in an overwhelmingly long time, to have pride in fandom.”
“Lyra in the Fens” by Philip Pullman
Our first excerpt from The Secret Commonwealth, the new book in Philip Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy—a follow-up to His Dark Materials.
older stuff
“How Music Fans Built the Internet” by Nancy Baym at Wired
“Where musicologists see mass media as thwarting audiences’ capacity for participation, audience researchers have spent decades documenting and analyzing how productive and creative audiences became in their wake.”
tumblr & beyond
“This is what happens to characters when you write an AU fanfic.”
For any Star Trek: DS9 fans in the house, here’s a quasi-canonical map of Bajor.
Treasuring this X-Men fic tag in our hearts.
Some cute fanart speculation about Legolas’s elvish sleep patterns.
fanfiction
The last time Clever Manka had a media obsession like this, it was 1982 and she’d just discovered Duran Duran. She can be found on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, and does a terrible job of pretending to be on Twitter. She also hosts an online house party for former Toasties.
Guardian is 40-episode Chinese web drama based on a Boy Love novel by priest. The book’s overt romance was removed and the supernatural aspects were transformed into "science" in order to accommodate Chinese censorship laws (the show was pulled almost immediately after airing and edited for re-release). The show creators managed to skate just under the edge of plausible deniability, though, to keep the love story intact (Twitter codename #socialistbrotherhood).
The plot is impossible to describe concisely, but contains: aliens, found family, police procedurals, political criticism, shapeshifters, superpowers, and time travel. I love all those things except time travel—which I usually despise. The time travel absolutely worked for me with this, though, because of how thoroughly and intimately it influences the two main characters’ relationship.
I agree with the fans who compare it to the last two seasons of due South (full disclosure, one of my other great fandom loves) because while there are still major events happening plot-wise, the show’s main focus is that relationship between the two main characters. There’s a secondary m/m ship that’s about as obvious as the main one, but with very different dynamics. Female representation isn’t as great as it could be (only two of the nine core actors are women) but all of the women on the show, even the ones who are minor or one-shot characters, have agency—they’re doctors, scientists, leaders—not a sexy lamp in the bunch.
That’s not to say everyone with a major role on this show isn’t outrageously attractive. They are—especially the two leads, Shen Wei (played by Zhu Yilong) and Zhao Yunlan (played by Bai Yu). The special effects are sometimes questionable, but the actors supply plenty of eye candy as well as chemistry that’s more convincing than a lot of explicitly-portrayed romances (both actors read the novel before filming).
The subtitles on YouTube are fan-generated and can be spotty quality but I prefer them to the subtitles on Viki which convert Chinese names for the three types of people populating the world (Haixing, Dixing, and Yashou) into English words (human, undergrounders, demi-humans). Even better, though, are the revised subtitles by Guardian fandom hero Solo, downloadable here.
Please be aware, this show is an emotional roller-coaster and may result in more Feels than expected. Luckily, there’s a great fandom community on Dreamwidth if you find yourself falling down the rabbit hole.
Canon-compliant fic that’s even moderately spoiler-free is thin on the ground for Guardian. There’s a ton of great stuff when you better know the show/characters or if you don’t mind spoilers. There’s a directory for Guardian works in English that are listed as public on AO3. — Clever Manka
All recs are Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan:
“A constellation of two” by naye. 9K words, rated Explicit.
Backstory: Zhao Yunlan gets the impression that Shen Wei is holding back something in bed and wants to find out what.
Rec: This is the story that inspired me to write my first fic (I remixed it from Shen Wei’s point of view). Not terribly spoilery, even though it’s set nearly halfway into the series. A lighthearted and hot exploration of boundaries and roleplay in an established relationship.
Content warnings: N/A
“Love Touch” by china_shop. 1.6K words, rated Mature.
Backstory: Dixingians (the aliens with superpower potential) usually have only one power. Shen Wei’s power is learning—including learning other powers. Zhao Yunlan appreciates that some of those are applicable during sexy times.
Rec: Superpower-enhanced sex (with feels, because this fandom does very little without feels) in an established relationship.
Content warnings: N/A
“Not All Those Who Wander” by Xparrot. 23K words, rated Teen.
Backstory: “The god Kunlun is as old as the mountain range that bears his name, if not older. Or so the villagers say. He was here before any people were, as eternal as the mountains — moreso, in truth. The mountains might change, but Kunlun remains Kunlun.”
Rec: An epic fantasy AU that draws inspiration from the show and book but you don’t need to have seen or read either to appreciate it.
Content warnings: N/A
“If Life Was A Movie We’d Have A Better Soundtrack Than This” by galaxysoup. 46K words, rated Teen.
Backstory: A no-powers meet-cute AU.
Rec: Charming and angsty slow burn fic with great character voices that incorporates some canon circumstances without spoiling anything that actually happens in the show.
Content warnings: N/A
And vids!
“Augustine” by bonibaru. 3:13, not rated.
Backstory: “Shen Wei finds something to believe in.”
Rec: My favorite Guardian vid, and an excellent portrayal of their relationship. Some mild spoilers, but nothing major or past mid-series.
Content warnings: N/A
“Say Something” by eliroly. 2:14, not rated (vid).
Backstory: Shen Wei has secrets.
Rec: This one has a few spoilers for particular events and episodes (but not the series end), and is a good, angsty portrayal of their sometimes-fraught relationship.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
For those who asked, the full Fansplaining SDCC 2019 panel is up online!
Many thanks to Annalise Ophelian (the director of the forthcoming doc Looking for Leia!!) for filming it for us! <33 — Elizabeth
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, zines, 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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