The Rec Center #479
Hello all! This week we have articles about film and TV preservation, OFMD fandom activism, and the phenomenon of theater fans waiting to meet their faves outside the stage door. Also some multifandom canon-divergent AU fic recs, some vampiric Bridgerton fanart, and more! — Gav
new stuff
“‘Just to see Tom Hiddleston would be enough!’ My eye-popping night with the fans who mob stage doors” by Chris Wiegand at the Guardian
“The stage door is where fandom, fuelled by the razzle-dazzle of theatre and 24/7 social media activity, butts against real people’s prosaic lives.”
“Our Flag Means Death fans have raised more than $85,000 to help trans youth” by Chantelle Billson at Pink News
The recent OFMD fandom charity craft fair surpassed its initial fundraising goal of $5,000 in just 11 minutes! By the end, they’d auctioned off items from the cast and crew, and raised $85,417 for the Campaign for Southern Equality’s Trans Youth Emergency Project.
“Someone Has To Save The Film And TV That Studios Won’t” by Dan McQuade, David Roth, and Chris Person at Defector
“Preservation is an act of collective willpower and effort. It cannot just be one person. I don’t want to live in a world where the things I love actually disappear.”
[WILSON FISK VOICE.] To achieve… GREATNESS… People must… WORK TOGETHER… I thought we… AGREED on this… And YET… I look to our… CHORE WHEEL…
— Avery Edison (@averyedison.com) 2025-03-05T14:15:05.953Z
older stuff
“How Disney Stumbled” by EJ Dickson at Rolling Stone
“Disney built an empire on childhood nostalgia and intangible magic. But in its relentless quest for IP, did it leave its true fans behind?”
tumblr & beyond
Bridgerton fanart by iiilllsam
For Severance fans: eight hours of ambient music to help your innie focus through the workday, courtesy of Apple TV+...?
Some beautiful illustrations from the vintage Star Trek fanzine Spockanalia.
“i wish my choices in life mattered, like in fallout 2.”
A taxonomy of toxic vs wholesome ship dynamics. (Not a moral judgement!!)
"Transformers Fandom: Firetruck Steve must be held accountable for his war crimes"
fanfiction
This week we have one of my very favorite fanfiction things: the canon-divergent AU. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth
“plummet down far into hungry tides” by violet_pencil. 14K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: DCEU (Aquaman, Justice League); Ship: Arthur Curry (Aquaman)/Mera
Recced by: anon
Backstory: A canon-divergent AU that sets up a slightly different start for Mera and Arthur, in that they become betrothed (for political reasons) when they‘re very young children.
Rec: Incredible character work and some really fantastic worldbuilding that fleshes out the thin details in the movies and makes it feel like a fully-realized, complex world. The way Arthur belligerently stomps through the delicate webs of politics on Atlantis is so true to character and yet you can also see his charisma and bravery, the elements that would make him a good king, once he‘s ready. The miscommunication is deftly handled (& makes a lot of sense, considering Arthur’s... entire personality lmao) and the angst is delicious. It has a bit of an unresolved ending but that doesn‘t make it any less enjoyable in my opinion. One of the best fics out there for this (underloved) pairing!
Content warnings: N/A
“Fallen” by Confusedknight. 424K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Protector of the Small Quartet; Ship: Keladry/Domitan
Recced by: Jess
Backstory: What would have happened if Kel was kicked out of Page training?
Rec: The author understands the characters so well, that I almost prefer this to the actual books. It explores some parts of Tamora Pierce’s world that haven‘t been fully fleshed out in canon, and brings them to life.
Content warnings: Slavery
“Never Forget, Never Forgive” by starvingwritist. 118K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù; Ship: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian
Recced by: Chocolatepot
Backstory: In canon, Xie Lian allows himself to be trapped in a coffin for a century as punishment for the murder of Lang Qianqiu‘s family and walks away from it; in this fic (and the series that follow it), he‘s truly trapped and has to be rescued and nursed back to health by Hua Cheng.
Rec: Both the hurt and comfort in this story are pretty strong—Xie Lian is deeply harmed by 70 years of solitary with an ever-bleeding wound, and Hua Cheng has to put him back together bit by bit. At the same time, we get Hua Cheng‘s POV, showing the tender care and devotion he has for his god from the inside.
Content warnings: Blood, depictions of mental illness, suicidal thoughts
“Off Duty” by thosenearandfarwars. 4.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Ship: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Cody
Recced by: door
Backstory: This is the first part of an au series about what the Star Wars universe would look like if the Clone Wars had ended before Order 66. It imagines the reforms the Senate and the Jedi might enact, and the ways in which characters learn to live in that new world.
Rec: This story (and series) walk a delicate balance between post-traumatic hurt/comfort and sheer competence porn for me. I love how detailed the author is about how you build a new world, and I love the care they take with all the relationships.
Content warnings: N/A
“Deeper Wonders than the Waves” by vibishan. 4.4K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Moby Dick - Herman Melville; Ship: Captain Ahab/Mrs. Ahab, Captain Ahab/Starbuck, Captain Ahab/Moby Dick
Recced by: breathedout
Backstory: Ahab is a monomaniacal whaling-ship captain who is obsessed with killing the particular whale—Moby Dick—who cost him his leg. Canonically, Ahab‘s obsession costs him and almost everyone else on his ship their lives.
Rec: A deliciously Lovecraftian take on the connection between Ahab and the whale post-injury, with a canon-divergent dark-fairytale trade at the end. The language is appropriately Melvillean in its rich chewiness and density; the imagery is arresting; the morality (?) refuses to simplify or reassure. I seriously love everything about this story. The body horror warning is not messing around, though.
Content warnings: Body horror, medical horror, canon-typical violence against whales
i like the whole gondor/mordor thing. all cities should have an evil version right across the river, like DC and arlington
— rax ‘levon honkers’ king (@raxkingisdead.bsky.social) 2025-03-05T13:43:08.349Z
FINAL THOUGHT
With a week to go until the Hugo nominations deadline (next Friday, March 14th), we wanted to re-up our plug: please consider nominating The Rec Center for Best Fanzine! (Instructions are here, though if you are eligible to do this, you probably already know how it works haha.) We were finalists in 2020 and we’ve come close to making it off the longlist a bunch of other years; we’d love your help to make it onto the finalist list again!
And while you’re in Hugo-nominating mode: Gav’s podcast, Overinvested, is eligible for Best Fancast, and Fansplaining, which has been a written publication for the better part of the past year, would fall under Best Semiprozine. :-)) — Elizabeth