The Rec Center #51
Welcome to the second half of our holiday fanfic recs! Next week’s newsletter will be a little different, but for now we’ve got an end-of-year book retrospective from Elizabeth, some essential coverage of the Diego Luna/Jabba the Hutt issue, and plenty of Yuri on Ice stuff including THEMED COCKTAILS. — Gav
new stuff
“A Year in Reading” by Elizabeth at The Millions
Not INCREDIBLY fandomy, but Elizabeth’s annual Year in Reading is up and she names both “fanfiction” at large and Eichmann in Jerusalem within the space of three paragraphs. The Millions enlists both staffers and guest contributors to talk about what they read in the past year, and since it doesn’t have to be new stuff, the contributions are usually pretty interesting! And if you’re browsing, definitely check out Kevin Nguyen’s YiR, on the whiteness of Book Twitter and the publishing industry at large.
“The case for Chris Pratt banging Michael Sheen’s robot character in ‘Passengers,’” by Alanna Bennett at Buzzfeed
Passengers is a nightmarishly bad movie and this is the only Yuletide fanfic idea it deserves.
“Yuri on Ice ended its first season on a perfect note” by Gav at the Daily Dot
This review/analysis goes into how the Yuri on Ice finale struck a perfect balance between giving fans what we wanted, and giving us what we needed to fuel fanfic and speculation in the wait for season 2.
“The movie that doesn’t exist and the Redditors who think it does” by Amelia Tait at the New Statesman
On the slim chance you haven’t seen this already, you have got to read this intensive follow-up to the Berenst(e)ain Bears situation, wherein a bunch of people become obsessed with a movie that never actually existed.
Important follow-up:
older stuff
“The Case for the Empire” Jonathan V. Last at the Weekly Standard, 2002
This historically Bad Take on Star Wars is now unfortunately relevant, since more and more people seem to sympathise with the villains of the Star Wars franchise. We were already planning to include this piece today, but we then noticed it was also given an honorary position on io9’s list of The Worst Takes on Rogue One. So if you want to hear some more terrible opinions, head on over there!
tumblr & beyond
Wanda, Natasha, and Sharon! by kissingculllens
[ROGUE ONE SPOILERS] ok can we please discuss how the Empire maybe just lost allll of its employment records and that could explain A LOT about later movies in the franchise.
Omg Chris Giacometti’s ~mystery guy~ has been in the background of Yuri on Ice for SEVERAL SCENES and we didn’t notice!!
Yuri on Ice cocktails omg.
The saga of Diego Luna’s Jabba the Hutt fixation is one of the best things to come out of Rogue One fandom so far:
Diego Luna stated in MULTIPLE INTERVIEWS that he’s obsessed with Jabba the Hutt’s “skin texture.”
Please watch this Diego Luna/Jabba the Hutt fan video
The entire Diego/Jabba tag on tumblr rn.
fanfiction
And here’s the second half of the big holiday/wintry/etc multi-fandom list! To reiterate what I wrote last week, I strive for a relatively diverse mix, both fandom-wise and character-wise, when I put together a multi-fandom list from our backlog of submissions. But for this list, just like our end-of-summer list, I wanted to publish everything we got, which means both this list and the first half last week tend to lean pretty heavily on certain fandoms and even certain ships. Thank you again to everyone who submitted! — Elizabeth
“The Water-Horse” by Thamiris. 9.7K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Gawain and the Green Knight; Ship: Gawain/Green Knight
Recced by: cwena
Rec: A gorgeously written continuation of the Gawain story, it feels lush and dreamlike—perfect to curl up and read on a cold winter night! Thamiris did a stellar job with the dialogue between Gawain and Bertilak and the sex scenes remain some of the hottest I’ve ever read.
Content warnings: N/A
“Turn” by Saras_Girl. 306K words, rated NC-17.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ships: Harry/Draco, Ginny/Blaise, Ron/Hermione
Recced by: dingoesatemy
Backstory: Author Summary: ‘One good turn always deserves another. Apparently.’ During the month of December, a tired, mid aged father of three is launched into an alternate universe where he sees the consequences of making a different choice as a teenager. Of course we're talking about Harry Potter.
Rec: The way that saras_girl handles Harry being a husband and father is very moving, even when his relationship with Ginny is falling apart he is still so devoted to all of them. I love the exploration of Harry's alternate life as an artist and lover of Draco Malfoy. And Harry's pet snakes are hilarious. This is an epic length work I truly did not want to end. Also has a great podfic.
Content warning: Infidelity
“A Winter Walk” by cathedral_carver. 3K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: BBC Sherlock; Ship: Sherlock/John
Recced by: dingoesatemy
Backstory: Author Summary: “Time is the longest distance between two places.” Sherlock time travels to a snowy future, and John greets him when he knocks on the door to their home.
Rec: The way John takes in the surprise appearance of a young Sherlock is wonderful. He acts like a guide, reassuring him in the most romantic way that everything is going to turn out alright.
Content warnings: N/A
“All Through The Night” by Casira. 23K words, rated PG.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Remus/Sirius
Recced by: Tara
Backstory: McGonagall starts an all-house choir in time for Christmas and all of the marauders want to join. Sirius is haunted by a voice singing in the halls...
Rec: This is classic wolfstar-sweet and also melancholy (but ends happily!) A wonderful fic exploring Christmas through carols, so if you love them like I do I highly recommend this.
Content warnings: N/A
“Consecration” by fox1013. 3K words, rated G.
Fandom: Firefly; Ship: Gen
Recced by: stars_inthe_sky
Backstory: Firefly is, among other things, the story of nine very different people living on one very special spaceship, trying to make a living and keep flying while staying one step ahead of the law and their own demons. This fic takes place roughly after the TV series and before the Big Damn Movie.
Rec: I reread this fic almost every December. It's calm and lyrical, and so very rich. To say what it's about would sort of ruin the slow realization of discovering it as a reader, but please be assured that it's a small miracle of a fic.
Content warnings: N/A
“Star-Spangled Christmas” by SD_Ryan. 7K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Captain America; Ship: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
Recced by: Rachel
Backstory: Holiday tropes and shipper cliches abound in this unapologetic, Hallmark-inspired Stucky fic. Featuring a grieving widower, a vet-turned-history-teacher, and match-making kids.
Rec: It’s full of all the tropey, fluffy holiday shenanigans you can expect from a Hallmark movie, but also manages to be deeply emotional.
Content warnings: N/A
“And Try To Keep It All the Year” by and-backagain. 21K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Inception; Ship: Arthur/Eames
Recced by: Aja
Backstory: Eames is a Christmas superfan. Arthur is from the North Pole.
Rec: NOTHING IS BETTER THAN THIS FIC. It’s a magical, surprisingly poignant look at two people finding a way to love each other around one hell of an obstacle.
Content warnings: pretty big ideological clash, if “I hate christmas but my dad is Santa Claus” counts as an ideological clash
“Good Decisions” by Copperbadge. 2,220 words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Avengers comicverse; Ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Recced by: Elsajeni
Backstory: Because of Comics Nonsense, Steve Rogers at one point raised a son, Ian, in another dimension. Ultimates-verse Tony Stark had a version of himself as a child that lived in his brain (or... something). Neither one got a happy ending in the comics, so Copperbadge wrote some fics where they made it to Earth-616, the main comics universe, and found their dads again. This is one of those fics.
Rec: I love Steve and Tony's banter in this fic, Tony’s struggle with unexpectedly being a dad, and the way helping the kids adjust to life on Earth brings them together.
Content warnings: N/A
“Star Shaped” by harriet_vane. 54K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Bandom; Ship: Brendon Urie/Ryan Ross
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Complete AU, where Brendon Urie is a college student and babysitter for pre-teen foster kids Gerard and Mikey Way.
Rec: It's a story of found family set around the holidays and is one of my favourites to re-read before christmas
Content warnings: N/A
“Over the River and Through the Woods” by scifigrl47. 20K words, rated PG.
Fandom: Avengers; Ship: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson
Recced by: dingoesatemy
Backstory: Author’s Summary “It’s five days before Christmas, and Clint Barton is on his way to a SHIELD approved safe house. It’s not his choice and it's not something he’s happy about, and that was before he found out where he'd be spending the next week.”
Rec: Surprise, the safe house is with Phil’s family, so he ends up spending the holiday surrounded with Coulson family traditions. And he gets Phil the best possible gift.
Content warnings: N/A
“It’s a Wonderful Life, Sherlock” by noadventureshere. 4K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: BBC Sherlock; Ship: Gen
Recced by: noadventureshere
Backstory: Post S3, PreTAB. Sherlock is in custody after the confrontation at Appledore. He makes a wish. (“It’s a Wonderful Life” fusion)
Rec: I hate to rec something I wrote, but I enjoyed it. (toes the floor)
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
A quick plug if you’re a creator—and something to put on your radar if you love fanfic and want to donate to charity, especially organizations that help marginalized groups. Fandom Trumps Hate, a project set up after the U.S. presidential election, is organizing a charity fic auction for January, and author and artist signups close on December 31st! Check them out here, and sign up to write or draw here. And if you’d like to reblog the post, consider using this version, meant for people who have blacklisted You Know Who. (But who likely still want to fight him!)
FINAL FINAL THOUGHT
Sooooooo we are rapidly approaching the end of this terrible, terrible year. But one nice meme I’ve seen on social media in the past few weeks is people listing small, positive things to come out of 2016. If I were to make a list, starting this newsletter with Gav would definitely be at the top. :-)
Next week we’re going to break format a little bit and give our own “Year in Fandom” perspectives (about our personal fannish 2016 rather than about fandom at large). And the week after that, our first newsletter of 2107, will be our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, because we started this letter when Our Lord and Savior Kfan tweeted:
We’ll likely do something to celebrate the occasion, plus Yuletide recs! Until then, if you’re celebrating them this weekend, Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah. <3 — Elizabeth
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)