The Rec Center #29
GREETINGS FROM THE MOTHERSHIP. Or rather, from San Diego Comic-Con. Not gonna lie, spending yesterday on the con floor reminded me just how much I prefer fanfiction to...literally anything that happens at cons (except parties, I love all parties ever). If you want to see what I’m doing here, I offer up my #sdcc2016 tumblr tag, though it is literally going to be a bunch of this:
(which is maybe the con content you’re after) (also that’s my friend Amanda, who’s amazing and who’s snapchatting for Tumblr and can actually offer up quality SDCC #content—if you’re on snapchat, follow them!)
If you don’t care about cons, not to worry: we’ve got lots of Ghostbusters (obviously), John Cho, Marge Simpson’s inner life, and guest reccer Courtney, who brings us a Kingsman list that’s half not-so-explicit, half “white-hot trash fire.” — Elizabeth
new stuff
“John Cho on representation and his concerns with gay Sulu” by Esther Zuckerman at the AV Club
An interesting interview with John Cho, who always puts a lot of thought into his role as Sulu. (We also strongly recommend this John Cho interview at Vulture.)
“Pokémon and the Great Unknown” by David Sims at The Atlantic
A short and sweet look at the ethos and origins of the original Pokémon games and their creator, and how this influenced Pokémon Go.
“Unbreaking the Relationship with Fandom” by Flourish Klink at Medium
Yes, this is Elizabeth’s podcast partner, whose job often puts her on the creator side of fan/creator interactions. This piece tackles the “Fandom is Broken” conversation from her perspective on both sides of the equation.
“How the Lucasfilm Story Group controls every corner of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise” by Gav at The Daily Dot
Gav was at Star Wars Celebration in London last week, the biggest Star Wars convention in the world. Despite the hype for Rogue One and Carrie Fisher etc, one of her main takeaways was the all-encompassing influence of the Lucasfilm Story Group, a small team of Lucasfilm executives and writers who shape the future of Star Wars canon. This article explores what the Lucasfilm Story Group does, and how it helps Star Wars stand out from other sci-fi franchises.
If you’ve been online at all this week, you’ve almost certainly seen the swarm of racist harassment that Leslie Jones suffered on Twitter (as well the resulting fallout). Rather than linking to any one article, we thought we’d just share a clip of her on Seth Meyers last night, talking about the experience and getting messages of support from fans.
old(er) stuff
“Downey Jr. dances, Arnold surprises, Spider-Man rushes the stage: Every year of Comic-Con in one giant timeline” by Tracy Brown, David Lewis, Jevon Phillips, and Meredith Woerner at the LA Times
From San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Minicon (attendance: 145) to the mega-show that it is today (attendance: 130,000-plus), a history of SDCC from 1970 to the present.
tumblr and beyond
“Who you gonna call? CUTE GIRLFRIENDS GHOSTBUSTERS!” by mutiemenace
A surprisingly moving Twitter thread about Marge Simpson’s personal life and friendships.
There are a million ways to draw Hermione.
“Nichelle Nichols to Whoopi Goldberg to Leslie Jones.”
“This is the OTP I left the movie with,” writes Kat Leyh, speaking for basically all many of us.
fanfiction
Courtney Stanton lives on the internet on her blog, tumblr, twitter, and as a general sense of awkward enthusiasm.
Kingsman: The Secret Service was a 2014 movie directed by Matthew Vaughn, who also directed X-Men: First Class. So if you watched that movie and thought, “but what if...only the homoerotic training sequences...but add Colin Firth??” This is basically that movie. (Also, it’s based on a Mark Millar comic, so the film is covered in a fine garbage mist.) In this corner: working class good-kid-gone-young-thug Eggsy. Aaaaand in this corner: Colin Firth, gentleman spy, who sees “potential” in Eggsy. It's basically Pygmalion. Or Pretty Woman. Or My Fair Lady. But spies.
(Spoilers for plot: Also, you really have to slow clap it out for a fandom that takes one of the main characters getting shot point blank in the head in canon and just “NOPE!”s it out of fanon.)
They told me “five-ish recs” and I said, “you clearly mean both for non-explicit and explicit, right?” Because this fandom is a white-hot trash fire, god bless this mess. This is an all Harry/Eggsy rec set, so just imagine that written in every description. I’m *consistent*. — Courtney
The Non-explicit Editions
“I’m not calling you a ghost” by elletromil. 1.9K words, rated GA.
There is a lot of angst in this fandom, but if there was a density scale for angst, this fic has the most angst-per-word of any I have found. Eggsy wakes up in hospital and can see Harry, even though Harry is dead.
“sins without tragedies” by kingstier. 11K words, rated Teen.
I find all varieties of the “utterly clueless and accidentally in a relationship” trope to be charming and so here we are. Accidentally kind of married spies: the Eggsy edition.
“Couple of (Couples) Mugs” by ilokheimsins. 2.8K words, rated Teen.
And as a follow-on: Accidentally kind of seriously dating spies: the Harry edition.
“my old man is a bad man” by eversincewefellapart. 3.6K words, rated Teen.
One of the beautiful things about canonical spies is that you get to do a lot of the classic tropes of fandom that would normally be AU while staying within canon. Which is my way of saying that this is an “Eggsy has to be pretend to be an escort” fic. Also this is literally the only fic tagged with “platonic daddy kink” in all of AO3, yes I checked.
“Kingsman: The Misadventures Edition” by LazyBaker. 8.5K words, rated Teen.
Eggsy gets whammied with a serum that makes him say whatever he's thinking and he cannot shut up about how hot and great Harry is. Unfortunately for everyone, Harry also hears this, which means this fic goes from hilarious to angst pretty fast, which is my favorite turn.
Ahem
“the train is a metaphor” by autoschediastic, Ponderosa. 6.5K words, rated Explicit.
Something something mission, something something weird behavior altering technology, whatever the point is it’s a sex pollen fic. Spies, mission, moving train, worried advisor on a headset the whole time, whatever. Sex pollen fic.
“The Green” by Ataraxetta. 2.2K words, rated Explicit.
The word count is deceptive, as this is part one of a two-part, 39K series, but either way. The point is, this is the best post-film reunion fic between Harry and Eggsy, for me, and I reread it whenever I need to feel overwhelmed by too many emotions at once (which is more often than you’d suspect).
“Licence my roving hands” by concernedlily. 6.2K words, rated Explicit.
One of the final tasks during candidacy is to resist seduction and not give away information. Eggsy is on high alert and definitely sure to look out for anybody participating in the challenge. Good job Eggsy.
“Audience of One” by Calico and Habernero. 3.7K words, rated Explicit.
Another fic that is the first part of an excellent series, fwiw. After Harry and Eggsy part ways the first time, Harry uses the bug he planted to listen in on the rest of Eggsy’s afternoon. I'm convinced that every men's toilet in London features at least one dude masturbating at all times, based on Kingsman fic.
“No one likes us (we don't care)” by concernedlily. 25K words, rated Explicit.
As if I could leave you without an Omegaverse rec! I like this one in particular for a couple of reasons: a commitment to Eggsy’s Brit slang and the way the fic’s A/B/O world is set up. Eggsy and Harry are both Alphas...otherwise, the plot is the same. Except for, y’know. All the ways that the world being structured this way change things.
FINAL THOUGHT
For everyone who isn’t at SDCC this year, here’s a quick list of major panels you should be able to stream and/or follow on social media over the next few days. (All times are San Diego/Pacific Standard Time!)
Luke Cage, Teen Wolf, the Rocky Horror remake and the new (!?) Battlestar Galactica all happened on Thursday.
Captain America: Civil War screenwriters Q&A (Friday, 1-2pm)
Agents of SHIELD (Friday, 3-4pm)
American Gods (Friday, 3.15-4.15pm)
Warner Bros panel—Harry Potter and DC Comics franchise (Saturday, 11.30am-1.30pm)
The big Star Trek panel, hosted by new showrunner Bryan Fuller (Saturday, 2-3pm)
Marvel Studios (Saturday, 5.30-6.45pm)
Sherlock (Sunday, 10-11am)
Supernatural (Sunday 11.15am-12.15pm)
Alright, nerds. ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? — Gav
FINAL FINAL THOUGHT
Star Trek Beyond is out this weekend! It’s very fun, and in my opinion a lot better than Star Trek Into Darkness. Here’s my spoiler-free review! — Gav
Have a great fic to rec? Please share it with us! We’ll be using your one-off recs to build multi-fandom lists around themes, tropes, etc in the future.
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)