Hello all! This week we have articles about accessibility logistics for disabled theater-goers, and a pair of copyright-related arrests. Also some beautiful Disco Elysium fanart, and a letter of recommendation plus fanworks for Robin Hood (2006) by guest reccer glorious_clio! — Gav

new stuff

“The Alleged ‘Avatar’ Movie Leaker Has Been Arrested” by Isaiah Colbert at Gizmodo
Continuing a story we mentioned in last week’s letter, there’s been a major update regarding the recently-leaked new Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. (Side note: Paramount... still doesn’t seem to be promoting this film in any real capacity??)

“Japanese man sentenced to prison for posting spoilers” by Charles Pulliam-Moore at The Verge
In a rather odd case concerning copyright and fair use law (a recurring topic for this newsletter!), a man in Japan has been sentenced to jail time for running a blog that shared extremely detailed movie spoilers. These posts included images and transcribed dialogue, and turned a tidy profit from ad revenue.

“For Patrons With a Disability, Masquerade Is a Journey That Is Accessible For All” by Meg Masseron at Playbill
“I had wondered if doing the ADA track would leave one feeling less immersed, like the illusion is somewhat broken, or left out from all the action. Fortunately this time, I felt even more at the center of the story.” A report from a disabled “super Phan” about accessibility at Masquerade, an immersive, multi-story version of Phantom of the Opera currently running in NYC.

Im in a problematic age gap relationship where we're both 36 years old but she watches The Amazing Digital Circus

— Haus of Decline (@hausofdecline.bsky.social) April 10, 2026 at 10:47 AM

older stuff

“The Acolyte’s Squandered Potential” by Gav at Fansplaining
Today, James Whitbrook reports that per streaming numbers, canceled-after-one-season Star Wars series The Acolyte remains extremely popular among viewers on Disney+. He mentions that the show was a victim of the right-wing cultural outrage cycle—something Gav thoroughly analyzed in this 2024 piece about the show’s cancellation.

tumblr & beyond

Disco Elysium fanart by piernik-miodowy

“Imagine being one of the parents for the kids in the Magic School Bus class.”

check out this dollhouse model of the Rue Royale house from IWTV!

great things are happening on the Heated Rivalry side of tumblr.

“me and the mutuals are giving some minor characters rich inner worlds later if you wanna pull up.”

regrettably true.

letter of recommendation: Robin Hood (BBC, 2006)

glorious_clio is a librarian and a denizen of multiple fandoms, but the oldest one is Robin Hood—she started watching the adaptation in 2006 and made lasting friendships in that fandom. She has a tumblr and has transferred most of her RH fic to AO3.

Well met, dear reader! In October 2006, the BBC aired a new, fresh, modern Robin Hood show. In a lot of ways, it has not held up. And yet, many of us still are called back to Sherwood Forest in the springtime.

In 2016, @nettlestonenell/neftzer brought the fandom together to commemorate not the pilot episode, but the date mentioned in the pilot. On April 26th 1192, our Robin Hood (Jonas Armstrong) was outlawed for saving four prisoners from the sheriff’s gallows.

My dash gets flooded every April 26th, and it’s always a pleasure. Gifsets, meta, fic roundups, playlists, fanvids, new fic. We use “#my gang to me” for an organizing tag, and are encouraged to submit to https://mygangtome.tumblr.com/. There’s still (usually friendly) tension between the Marian/Guy shippers and the Marian/Robin shippers. Expect lots of hurt/comfort, and if you’re a fan of fix-its and AUs, we have scores of them. There’s plenty of fic with the ensemble cast too.

But what is this show? It’s camp and earnest. Proudly anachronistic. Robin once shoots his way out of a deep trench filled with CGI snakes. It has all of your expected trappings of Robin Hood: he’s a returning crusader to find his lands have been repossessed; Nottingham suffers under a cruel sheriff (Keith Allen). The sheriff and Guy of Gisbourne (Richard Armitage) stride around being comically evil in their (occasionally squeaking) leathers.

The show is intentionally critical of the U.K.’s support of the U.S. in Afghanistan. Returning from a war in “The Holy Land”, Robin deals with PTSD in quiet moments (there are a few racist missteps—beware). Several episodes are spent trying to send messages to the absent king to put things right. There’s also a character that we might now recognize as gender queer. For 2006, this felt pretty groundbreaking. In 2026, it’s still depressingly relevant.

I don’t usually recommend the show itself. Apart from the issues already mentioned, the aesthetics are choices. The costumes are bad. Marian somehow has three different engagement rings, they all look terrible. And as good as the first and even second series can be, things fall apart at the end of series two when they write off three major characters.

I am recc’ing the fandom this weekend. I always try to bring something to the April 26th party in Sherwood Forest. Maybe I’ll see you there? Come along, join the gang, if you don’t have a bow, bring a toasting fork. — glorious_clio

fanfiction

“Book of Secrets” by medieval_scribe. 1.9K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: Set after 1x09 “A Thing or Two About Loyalty” where a friend of Guy of Gisborne is killed by the sheriff over his means of creating explosives. Robin attempts to destroy the ledger that the recipe is written on, but Djaq, who can read it, steals it back before it can burn. (It’s never again discussed on the show.)
Rec: Djaq is such an interesting character and this delves into her inner thoughts of that moment. It’s a defiant moment, he’s the gang’s leader after all, but Djaq whats to know. I wish they had done more with it on the show, so I love medieval_scribe’s exploration here.
Content warnings: N/A

“Next Round’s On Me” by NahaFlowers. 1.1K words, rated Gen.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: Allan spends much of series 2 in the Castle, switching sides to the baddies. Marian, also in the castle (as much as Robin’s spy as her own agent), the two have an uneasy understanding.
Rec: This is a fun exploration of Allan and Marian as wild cards in the show. We don’t get to see many scenes between the two of them, but the character voices and their conversation feel true to me.
Content warnings: N/A

“For Better, Rather Than For Worse” by thereweresunflowers. 40K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Multi-ship
Backstory: Fix-it/AU for the end of series 2 (most of the fixits are of the end of series 2).
Rec: A favorite for the fandom, this one is drawn out in a good way. Evil cannot be defeated in a oneshot. And fandom favorite baddie Guy gets a redemption arc, one that’s much better than the one the show attempts. Content warnings: Canon-typical violence

“Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree” by Neftzer (Neftzer_nettlestonenell on ao3). 16K words for the fic, 536K words for the series, rated Teen.
Ship: Robin/Marian
Backstory: This is a WWII AU of Robin Hood. It’s set on the Channel Islands. The first story could end there, but, well.
Rec: I think about this fic all the time. All the time. I wish I was joking, but a month can’t go by without me thinking of it. If I’m in London, one of my first stops in a jet-lagged haze is Cleopatra’s Needle because of this fic. First of all, the translation of the story to a Nazi-occupied Guernsey is an inspired choice. The tension, the yearning, the choices that the author makes spins out into a story that lasts beyond the end of the war. All of the gang and the baddies feel even more real than they ever do on the show. I stayed with this story for all seven years Neftzer took to write it, and I revisit it every few years.
Content warnings: Violence, sexual assault. And trigger warnings for genocide.

The series has not been fully moved over to AO3, hence the fanfic.net links:
“Don’t Go Walkin’ Down Lover’s Lane”
“Don’t Give Out With Those Lips of Yours”
“Don’t: The Ghosts of Christmas Past” (set between parts one and two of Lips of Yours)
“Til I Come Marchin’ Home”

“Come Winter Time” by Trixter82. 9.9K words, rated Mature.
Ship: Robin/Marian
Backstory: It’s a wintry respite for Robin and Marian, seeking to be alone. The first chapter is through the eyes of a wolf that’s stalking them through the forest. The second chapter is a rare (for the fandom), but treasured intimate scene.
Rec: It’s just a fun and original fic that I revisit often.
Content warnings: Smut. The wolf lives!

And vids!

“Remember The Name” by Liisakee. 0:57, Not Rated.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: No story, it feels like a trailer.
Rec: Between the editing, and song choice, I come back to this when I need to get back into the essence of the show. I love their other vids too.
Content warnings: Rapidly moving images

“Tic Tok - Robin Hood Style” by Britisharcherfan. 2:49, Not Rated.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: No story, just early naughtie vibes.
Rec: Tell me you don’t love a fanvid set to TiK ToK by Ke$ha. The party vibes are strong, and exactly what I want for My Gang To Me.
Content warnings: Rapidly moving images, flashing, rhyming swagger with Jagger

“Robin Hood - All The Things That I've Done” by Happy Ending Videos. 5:08, Not Rated.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: Follows our hero Robin, and his emotions at surviving a crusade and living though the hostile takeover of his home. Set to the Killers.
Rec: For me these older fanvids, although they are lower quality by today’s standards, really capture what I love about the show AND the early days of the fandom. I had Hot Fuzz by the Killers on repeat.
Content warnings: Rapidly moving images

“You're Gonna Catch Me // Robin/Marian” by Liisakee. 1:19, Not Rated.
Ship: Robin/Marian
Backstory: Some of my favorite moments of Robin and Marian throughout the show. For me, they will always be OTP and 0:46 will always give me chills. (Narratively and visually drawing their bows at the same target? I’m a sucker for it every time I see it.)
Rec: Same as the others, this is an oldie but a goody, and appeals to my R/M shipper heart. All of Lissakee’s videos for this fandom are short and sweet and pretty.
Content warnings: Rapidly moving images, some flashes

HASTINGS: I say, Poirot, this vial’s labeled “hyaluronic acid”! Is it a poison? SKINCARE HERCULE POIROT: Non, mon ami. This acid, it replenishes the skin’s barrier naturale HASTINGS: So this is a gal who takes care of her skin. SKINCARE HERCULE POIROT: *irritated* The gentleman may use it as well

— Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) November 21, 2024 at 2:23 AM

FINAL THOUGHT

If you didn’t see the announcement yesterday: the revamped Fansplaining has a launch date, and it is very soon!! Next Wednesday, April 29th, we’ll go live with the new site, including an introduction from me and our first piece, which is about The Pitt fandom. If you have no idea what I’m talking about haha, a few months back I announced that the podcast was becoming a weekly independent publication about fan culture! I’ve been working hard with fellow editors Lin Codega and Aja Romano to get our first batch of articles ready to go, and I’m really excited to share them with the world.

One thing we haven’t announced yet is Gav will be Fansplaining’s first staff writer! That means she’ll be writing for us on a very regular basis. :-D As such, we thought it might be worth mentioning that we’re going to do our best to make sure Fansplaining doesn’t cannibalize The Rec Center. We know there’s a huge crossover between the two audiences, and we definitely think Rec Center readers will be interested in the subjects of Fansplaining pieces even if they aren’t Fansplaining subscribers, but these are two totally separate projects and will remain separate! — Elizabeth