The Rec Center #204
Hello! If you are in the middle of the holiday weekend, hope things are...going well. If you are not based in the U.S., well, happy Friday! :-)) In honor of the extended American break, we have a multi-fandom list of *extra* long fic (500K words baby!!), plus interesting pieces about Harry Styles ticket scalping, New Jersey’s SopronosCon, and, of course, a whole bunch of Baby Yoda. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“The New Ticket Scalpers Are Young, Unashamed, and Very Online” by Kaitlyn Tiffany at The Atlantic
“This is how the boys talk—with the same energy as fans, but with a mercantile mind-set and the language of sneakerheads.” An interesting piece about communities of ticket reselling communities on Discord, with a focus on the upcoming Harry Styles concert in LA.
“The Baby Yoda GIF takedown shows us how media corporations misunderstand fans” by Abigail De Kosnik at the Washington Post
In case you hadn’t heard, it was Giphy, not Disney, that took down Baby Yoda gifs last week (for reasons unknown)! De Kosnik is a well-known fan studies scholar, and this is a deeper (and v accessible) dive into the broader implications of the whole debacle for both media corporations and fans. (For more light-hearted B.Y. content, see our special section below!!)
“SopranosCon Was a New Jersey of the Mind” by Miles Klee at Mel Magazine
“I can say, however, that I finally grasp something of the delight others take in fan conferences. Whether it’s The Sopranos or Star Trek, people yearn to step into an alternate reality where they are seen and appreciated.”
older stuff
“Growing Up and Role-Playing on Xanga, the Proto-Tumblr” by Adryan Corcione at Vice
“It was intense and invigorating, but no one around me in real life knew the double life I lived. I felt embarrassed by my internet obsession and didn’t feel comfortable talking about it to anyone outside of the role-playing community.”
tumblr & beyond
IT fanart by Sas Milledge
Yes, Han Solo was totally a drug dealer.
Riverdale fandom vs Twin Peaks fandom.
“it has been my honor to serve as the officiant of the finnpoe marriage.”
Star Trek: TNG/Goose Game fanart!!!
Love these fanart portraits of black cosplayers. <3
unofficial baby yoda section
Say hello to “medieval Yodas.”
One of the TikTok priests... baptised Baby Yoda?
OK, someone already figured out how to KNIT A BABY YODA, and the pattern is available on Etsy.
And finally, the most important Baby Yoda news of all: “Baby Yoda is driving almost twice as many average social media interactions as any 2020 Democrat.”
fanfiction
We put out a call for extra-long fic last week and we got *way* more submissions than we could use in a single list. So here are a few! All of these are at least 200K words long. (We joked about needing long fic to to hide from relatives, and perhaps you’ve seen that AO3’s been going down the past few days due to unusually heavy use! Just sayin lol) If you need even more extra-long fic, we ran a previous list of them about a year ago. Thank you to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth
The Eden!Verse by improbabledreams900. 546K words over 9 works, rated Mature.
Fandom: Good Omens (book); Ship: Aziraphale/Crowley
Recced by: Runawaymarbles
Backstory: Aziraphale and Crowley have recently angered their superiors by helping to stop Armageddon. Aziraphale has to rescue Crowley from Heaven, which results in Aziraphale becoming human.
Rec: This series goes from the small and personal and expands to a truly epic scale, with wonderful side characters, a really cool take on heaven, and some great historical cameos. It also has some of the tightest plotting I’ve seen in a fic of this length.
Content warnings: Temporary character death, terminal illness
“Baba” by Crownofpins. 202K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Castlevania; Ship: Trevor/Sypha/Alucard
Recced by: Alexa
Backstory: Set before season 2 of the Netflix series. The trio wanders into the realm of the Baba Yaga, where they must face both her trials and their pasts.
Rec: Baba is an engrossing dark fairy-tale featuring the Castlevania OT3 in all their emotional complexity. (I’ve made people watch the show just so they could read this beautiful novel of a fic.)
Content warnings: Violence and horror, though no more than present in the cartoon
“Blood Magic” by GatewayGirl. 335K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Poetry
Backstory: This is a Severitus fic, where Harry and Snape find out that Snape is secretly Harry’s father. Neither of them react well to the news.
Rec: This fic delves deep into the complexities of what a father-son relationship between Snape and Harry might look like without ever trying to excuse Snape for his bastardry or smooth over his harsh edges.
Content warnings: Snape being Snape, non-explicit torture
“Crossfire” by kittebasu (chanyeol). 523K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond; Ship: Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun
Recced by: Elle
Backstory: Future (university) fic. Slow burn that will roast you alive while it happens, social media, a secret relationship that’s the main focus, and the faceted experience of coming out in a society that while not wholely homophobic, still contains it.
Rec: It’s the kind of fic that will make you feel all the emotions, from agonizing pain to tear-inducing joy. Engaging descriptions, healthy friendships, and communication—actual legitimate communication—all make this a standout.
Content warnings: Unplanned pregnancy (for minor characters), implied/referenced homophobia
And two people recently sent in recs for this fic, so as we’ve done in the past, we combined their submissions:
“Work of All Saints” by antistar_e (kaikamahine). 211K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Coco; Ships: Héctor Rivera/Imelda Rivera, Ernesto De La Cruz/Héctor Rivera, Ernesto De La Cruz & Imelda Rivera, Ernesto De La Cruz/Héctor Rivera/Imelda Rivera
Recced by: anon and 2012bookworm
Backstory: 2012bookworm writes: “Coco is a Pixar film about a young boy who ends up in the land of the dead. This particular work expands on the backstory of Imelda Rivera, the dead matriarch of the boy’s family.”
Rec: 2012bookworm writes: The prose is beautiful, the Mexican history is wonderfully researched, and every single character feels real, exultant and flawed and living, even when they’re dead. The author doesn’t shy away from the hard parts of history or of living, but they still infuse everything with so much joy and hope.
Anon writes: I watched the movie with my 4-year-old and then stumbled on this story and started it without checking the wordcount. HA! 2 looooong nights later I knew a lot more about 19th-early 20th c. Mexican history and politics, plus the central relationships are so very true to the movie and expand enormously on them. I am enriched for having read it.
Content warnings: Period-typical homophobia, colorism, sexism, unplanned pregnancy, miscarriage, canonical character death
FINAL THOUGHT
That’s all, folks! Have a good weekend! — Gav
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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