Hello all! This week we have coverage of the dismal post-Olympics hockey fallout, IMDB review-bombing, and Elizabeth on the radio talking about fanfic and the romance genre. Also some more amazing IWTV fanart, our final batch of Femslash February fic recs, and more! — Gav

new stuff

“How We Love: Exploring the spicy, imaginative world of romance fanfiction” on WGBH’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley
Elizabeth was on public radio this week to discuss fanfic (including both romance within fic and the stuff getting pulled to publish) alongside Anne Jamison (author of Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World) and Dylan Morrison (aka beloved fic author gyzym). A fairly nuanced conversation for a 101 segment—and in under half an hour!

“stop counting” by Sacha Judd at what you love matters
“When we organise our relationship to art around rankings and metrics, we lose the critical vocabulary for talking about why something matters.” In light of coordinated IMDB review-bombing around A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Breaking Bad, some great analysis of the metricization of fandom more broadly.

“Heated Rivalry Was a Fun Fantasy, But Hockey Is Still Deeply Toxic” by Frankie de la Cretaz at Harper’s Bazaar
It’s almost impressive how quickly the U.S. men’s hockey team tanked their own goodwill after winning gold at the Olympics. After partying with FBI director Kash Patel, laughing at a misogynistic joke from the president, and attending the latest State of the Union this week, the team has faced harsh criticism associating itself with the Trump administration. This piece explores the unfolding PR disaster and how it reflects both the conservative nature of hockey culture, and the gender divide within the sport.

For further coverage, Defector recently published some thoughtful criticism of how the U.S. men’s team torpedoed people’s rose-tinted, Heated Rivalry-influenced view of hockey. And for an insider sports angle, the latest episode of The Athletic’s hockey podcast did a deep dive on all the post-Olympic fallout.

People in sci-fi novels are always naming their exploratory vessels shit like ICARUS and IXION and while I am not superstitious, I would maybe go with the USS GOT-THERE-SAFELY.

— Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 (@scumbelievable.bsky.social) February 21, 2026 at 6:59 PM

older stuff

“Here at the End of All Things” by Adrian Daub at Longreads
On the maps in fantasy novels: “For every moment when we take in glumly how far our heroes still have to travel, there are ten moments of the opposite: of luxuriating in how much world is yet out there for our heroes to traverse, a burning desire to see the lines and shadings filled in with people and story.”

tumblr & beyond

Interview with the Vampire fanart by ainosgarden

a true meeting of the minds

“this recent trend of teenagers using genAI chatbots to talk to fictional characters is fucking grim.”

okay yes the Fifth Element alien opera song is in fact an ideal fit for theremin.

it’s actually so easy to understand why people went feral over Mulder and Scully back in the day

“hey there welcome to superpower school”

some extremely charming Alysa Liu animated fanart!

fanfiction

It’s the final week of Femslash February (here’s week 1, week 2, and week 3), but because we got such a good response, we have lots of F/F that we’ll be able to use in lists for the rest of the year. :-D Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth

“Like A Phantom Limb” by OwlsOwlsOwls. 29K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Yellowjackets; Ship: Van Palmer/Taissa Turner
Recced by: daphneblakess
Backstory: Canon divergence where the plane crash never happens, but the team acquires all the memories of the timeline where it did.
Rec: Takes the concept that the team was doomed from the moment they got on that plane and runs in such a fun direction with it. Misty is also not the central character in this but I love how the author writes her.
Content warnings: Canon-typical CWs for Yellowjackets, body horror

“Mountain at My Gates” by Jonga. 300K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Cyberpunk 2077; Ship: V/Judy
Recced by: disasterhawke
Backstory: Cyberpunk 2077 gets the gayest sports AU and it’s everything you could wish for. Judy and V start as strikers on opposing football teams and end up in a dark spy drama.
Rec: I love how smoothly Jonga takes us through Sports AU meet-cute into spy thriller. I’m not a sports gal at all, but I loved this story!
Content warnings: Abuse, drug use (including non-consensual), sexual assault, suicide

“i wish i never knew this kind of love” by beezyland. 22K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Glass Onion; Ship: Peg/Whiskey
Recced by: beatrice-babe
Backstory: Peg needs a roommate. Whiskey needs to move out of Ma Cody’s house. Moving in together is just a convenient fix. While learning to exist in the same space, they discover things about each other that any well-adjusted person would consider red flags. Fortunately (unfortunately?), neither of them are well-adjusted people.
Rec: Peg and Whiskey are both characters who are in Glass Onion as supporting characters to others, and they both are trying to become a better person after the events of Glass Onion. This fic is about them supporting each other in that, and still being human and thus fallible.
Content warnings: Drinking, drug use, unhealthy relationships

“For Success” by Light Gets In. 2.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Scandal (TV); Ship: Mellie Grant/Olivia Pope
Recced by: c
Backstory: An imagining of Scandal if Mellie Grant had been the one to run for President of the United States... and began an affair with Olivia Pope.
Rec: This is such a smart study of Mellie Grant that uses fashion as a vehicle to discuss her ambition.
Content warnings: N/A

“Kerosene Valentines” by UnmovingGreatLibrary. 36K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Otherside Picnic (裏世界ピクニック); Ship: Kamikoshi Sorawo/Nishina Toriko
Recced by: Rachele
Backstory: Toriko and Sorawo are young women with a hobby of exploring an alternate universe populated by, essentially, Japanese creepypasta monsters. This fic explores how their relationship fares with interference from the monsters, as well as a bad timeline where they never met.
Rec: I think it perfectly nails the girls’ voices and the surreal spooky atmosphere of the Otherside, its bleed into real life. It feels like a plausible “case file” from the source works, the light novels by Iori Miyazawa.
Content warnings: Arson, monster-induced suicidal ideation, hospital visit

“so deep, so empty (i need thee)” by 1971. 5.5K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: House of the Dragon; Ship: Rhaenyra Targaeryen/Alicent Hightower
Recced by: zarya
Backstory: In canon, Alicent and Rhaenyra are two ambiguously-into-each-other childhood friends who get torn apart by war and end up enemies. In this modern au, they are a married couple in the midst of divorce who still want each other.
Rec: This story features wonderful, biting characterisation of both women, and the tension between them is just crazy!!! Very sexy agony.
Content warnings: Divorce, dom/sub undertones

“Your Necro Questions Answered” by Magichorse. 34K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Locked Tomb; Ship: Gideon/Harrow
Recced by: Eclectic-hellscape
Backstory: Behind her penumbral lady’s back, Gideon runs an advice column in a porno mag. The fic is written in the style of the advice column.
Rec: You wouldn’t think that you’d get a well-rounded, funny, story from a fic told entirely in advice columns. You would be wrong. Adorable, hilarious, and just so so Griddlehark.
Content warnings: N/A

it's all just art. "porn" is just art that makes you horny, in precisely the way that "horror" is art that makes you scared and "metroidvania" is art that makes you write video essays

— Valerie Halla (@valeriehalla.dicot.moe) February 25, 2026 at 2:36 PM

FINAL THOUGHT

Have a great weekend, everyone! — Elizabeth