The Rec Center #377
Hello everyone! This week we have coverage of queer-led show cancellations and the Funko/Mondo situation, Magnus Archives fanart, and an ambitious crossover event: Fansplaining’s latest article/episode on whump and a corresponding hurt/comfort fic rec list. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“The Pain Fandom” by Maria Temming at Fansplaining
A deep dive into whump and hurt/comfort, with lots of quotes from folks in the whump community. Plus! Maria came on the podcast to talk about her research for the piece and her personal interest in h/c.
“Almost a third of queer TV characters will disappear from screens next year, report finds” by Louis Chilton at the Independent
Over the past year or so we’ve seen a lot of fan backlash against the cancellation of queer-led TV shows, particularly Netflix releases with queer female leads. Unfortunately, it looks like the numbers back this up.
“Funko Guts Mondo: Lays Off Majority of Pop Culture Label’s Staff, Shutters Poster Business” by Drew Taylor at The Wrap
More extremely bleak Funko news!! The headline says it all—and it hasn’t even been a year since they acquired them.
Me talking to Christopher Nolan as the hair and makeup people make final touches before my first take as the Joker: “So what’s the deal with this Joker guy, he’s sort of a live wire? He likes to make a scene?”
— Brooks Otterlake (@i_zzzzzz) March 20, 2023
older stuff
“‘Kill’ replaced with ‘suck’ in TV series subtitles under Chinese censorship” by Stephanie Chiang at Taiwan News
In order to reduce negative/violent content in a Chinese broadcast of Hannibal (!), an overzealous subtitle writer replaced the word “kill” with a character that translates as “suck,” resulting in some truly delightful new dialogue. (Let us not forget that in its original American broadcast, NBC executives asked that nude corpse butts be made more family-friendly by adding extra blood. A proud tradition.)
tumblr & beyond
Magnus Archives fanart by spooksier
“thinking ‘haha what if i jokingly shipped them’ is your last chance to get out btw”
is the Phantom of the Opera a landlord?
the originating post of “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” as a fanfic tag.
“obsessed with this dispatch straight out of a heated x-files fan forum flamewar in 1993”
Brendan Fraser’s vampire sons 🙏🏼
we think this can safely be described as the Ultimate tumblr poll.
fanfiction
This week we have a multifandom batch of hurt/comfort fic in conjunction with Fansplaining’s whump coverage (see above!!). If you want even more h/c, check out our most recent list from last fall. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth
“The Icarus Experiment” by stvrkey. 192K words, rated Mature.
Fandoms: Les Miserables, Maximum Ride; Ship: Enjolras/Grantaire
Recced by: rare
Backstory: This is a Maximum Ride AU of Les Miserables, with Les Amis as the experimented-upon children who are born with wings. Knowledge of neither canon is required.
Rec: This is not only probably my favorite Les Mis fic, but one of my favorite fics of all time. I’m a sucker for wingfic, but the best thing about this story is the time and care it takes with the characters’ relationships with themselves and each other. It contains one of the most nuanced portrayals of mental illness, trauma, and the complex process of learning to live with it that I’ve ever seen, and the emotional payoff each time things fall into place is so incredibly worth the time it takes to get there.
Content warnings: Experimentation on/abuse of children (canon-typical to Maximum Ride, as I understand it). See author’s thorough, specific warnings in the endnotes of each chapter.
“hold me tender, hold me sweet” by crossroadswrite. 10K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Yuri!!! On Ice; Ship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Recced by: Beatrice-Babe
Backstory: Characters who go into heat sometimes just need a cuddle buddy and a friend to keep them together. As the author puts it: “what if heats sucked a little bit and you just cuddled a lot and also being touch starved made you physically ill?”
Rec: What if instead of wild and raucous sex, they just Cuddled and took care of each other?
Content warnings: N/A
“faith’s not quite dead” by helloearthlings. 3K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: King Falls AM; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Raizel
Backstory: Most KFAM fic is something you can’t really talk about without a major spoiler, but let’s just say that while new radio host Sammy Stevens comforts Mary Jensen after her husband is abducted on the line with him, Mary begins to recognize something unexplained in Sammy.
Rec: I love Mary Jensen a lot, her sharpness and kindness, and I love figuring out the gaps in our Sammy’s armor.
Content warnings: Grief
“For A Good Time, Call” by ScarlettStorm. 17K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: MDZS/The Untamed; Ship: Lan Zhan/Wei Ying
Recced by: calyx
Backstory: A modern AU which requires no prior knowledge of the fandom, this story centres around a repressed Lan Zhan who is overwhelmingly in love with his best friend, Wei Ying, and discovers that said best friend has an OnlyFans account.
Rec: While on the face of it, this seems like it will be straightforwardly focused on love (and porn), this is a highly introspective deep dive into Lan Zhan’s character. A central theme is the importance of therapy, and learning to live outside of the boundaries you may have been inflicting on yourself, and it’s done in a very nuanced, careful, and well written way.
Content warnings: Someone tries to out a sex worker, panic attack, some BDSM
“I Dated a Tentacle Babe From Outer Space” by Snickfic. 7.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Decoys (2004); Ship: Roger/Constance
Recced by: lnich
Backstory: Decoys is a horror film about aliens who have infiltrated a Canadian university disguised as sexy blondes because they have to lay their young in human males to save their species. Roger/Constance is the canon human/alien ship that ends tragically in the movie but is super sweet.
Rec: This is a Yuletide fic and the only story for this fandom, but if there’s never anything else written I won’t be able to complain because Snick has crafted the perfect fix-it AU. While the movie teases at trope subversion without actually delivering, Snick’s story follows through by giving Constance and Roger a happy ending and reframing Luke as the film’s villain.
Content warnings: Mpreg, vomit, violent death (minor character)
“Ipseity” by SkyisGray. 146K words over 3 works, rated Explicit.
Fandom: MCU, Captain America; Ship: Steve/Bucky
Recced by: Persephone
Backstory: The story of how Bucky not only became the Winter Soldier, but the other people he became too—and how Steve came to love and accept all his selves.
Rec: This fic destroyed me emotionally, in a good way. And it made me realise the boundless scope of what it’s possible to do within fanfic—previously I’d assumed it was all basically just porn or fluff or fix-it fics, not epic heartbreaking century-spanning stories of trauma and recovery and deep love.
Content warnings: ALL OF THEM! ok torture, rape, violence, psychological disintegration
sometimes I think about the brave women who watched the original run of Star Trek, looked at William Shatner, and said “this man is breedable. this man should be bred.” that was a huge leap forward in evolution. it was like the first time a monkey used a tool.
— lb hunktears (@hunktears) March 21, 2023
FINAL THOUGHT
Have a relaxing weekend, everyone! — Gav