The Rec Center #67
Hello and welcome to our new followers! This week we’ve got everything from Fast & Furious appreciation to boyband defense to some amazing Storm fanart. Plus I’ve put together a multi-fandom list of fics our readers have sent in with the tag “character study,” which you might enjoy if you, like me, appreciate fanfiction’s power to delve deep into characters we love. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“The Definitive ‘Fast & Furious’ Movie Rankings” by Andrew Gruttadaro and Shea Serrano at The Ringer
Two die-hard F&F fans rank the first 7 movies from worst to best, using a number of criteria including “Best Rapper Cameos” and “The Best Times Two Characters Talked About Manhood and Bonding.” Hilarious AND very accurate.
“How The Rock Became Our Favorite Populist Hero” by Scaachi Koul at Buzzfeed
The profile to pair with your F&F reading, which begins, “Dwayne Johnson is cut like a boulder, an unbreakable outcropping that somehow moves with fluid grace.”
“From Boyband to Beyond: Why Do Conversations About Pop Music Still Bash the Fangirl?” by Emily Roach at The Mary Sue
“The repetitive reassurance that it’s okay to take musicians seriously when they leave boybands behind rankles.” Music critics love to throw fangirls under the bus when boyband artists go solo—and Harry Styles is only the most recent example.
older stuff
“When We Mourn Paul Walker, We’re Really Mourning The Death Of Male Friendships” by Matt Thomas at Decider
Published after Fast and Furious 7 in 2015, this article explores the cultural impact of F&F star Paul Walker, and how the franchise has come to represent a particular kind of male friendship.
tumblr & beyond
Storm fanart by @ugh_bucky!
‘Did I tell y'all about the time I went to Harry Potter World & saw a crying kid point his wand at his parents and scream, “Avada Kedavra!!!”’ by Ashley C. Ford
“Just saw the phrase “yoda apologist” on my dash...”
Fanfiction: benefits with friendship
“ok dude, i know you wanna fuck the granny queen from a bugs life...” A truly iconic moment at Dirty Disney Confessions.
A vitally important cartoon cat battle
fanfiction
I put together a “character study” list after noticing the tag cropping up in our submissions a fair bit. “Character study” is a curious tag, because it doesn’t mean any one thing in particular. One submission included in the description, “you know when meta is sorta masquerading as fic,” which was an interesting way to think about it—fanfiction as argument, or as a way of deconstructing a character. As I was putting this together, I noticed that most of the stories tagged that way in our backlog were gen, and focused on a single character—as Gav and I were discussing this, we theorized that maybe when a story is shippy, people are more likely to describe ship dynamics when they tag a fic, even if plenty of shippy stories wind up being character studies themselves (and note that several of these are not gen). We had submissions from a wide range of fandoms, so hopefully there’s a character in here you want to spend some time with. — Elizabeth
“Disentanglement” by rageprufrock. 18K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Social Network; Ship: Eduardo/Healthy Coping Mechanisms, and I guess Mark/Eduardo (unrequited)
Recced by: anon
Backstory: The Social Network (2010) was such a good movie, y’all. One of its many gems was undoubtedly Andrew Garfield as Eduardo, whose nuanced portrayals of both hurt and affection were so Good that they spawned masterpieces like this one.
Rec: rageprufrock is a legend. They have a way of writing about things—in this case, stocks and shares? economics? You can tell how much I know—in a way that is convincing and interesting, and doing it all in the midst of a superb character study. This fic is a wonderful portrayal of how Eduardo gets back on his feet, gets his shit together, and grows up a little. I keep it on my phone for hard times.
Content warnings: N/A
“Shoreline” by Penknife. 2K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Remus/Sirius
Recced by: anon
Backstory: This ship has everything. The sheer volume of fanworks in this ship means that you are never left wanting. It also means there are some criminally under-read gems, such as this one.
Rec: A lovely little character study of Remus as he goes through his growing pains. Relatable, bittersweet, and lyrical. I only wish it was longer.
Content warnings: N/A
“The Last Poem of Jedha” by schweinsty. 15K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; Ship: Gen
Recced by: vands88
Backstory: Bodhi character study; about his past on Jedha, his family of poets, and his new home with the Rogue One team after Scarif.
Rec: This is so beautiful and so devastating and even if you rarely read gen, I highly recommend you make an exception.
Content warnings: Torture, suicidal thoughts, and death
“Sand in the Wind” by rain_sleet_snow. 20K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Tortall (Tamora Pierce); Ship: Gen
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: The Song of the Lioness quartet is the introductory series to the land of Tortall, swords and sorcery with lots of awesome ladies, magic, and political conniving. Kourrem is one of the awesome ladies, a student of SOTL’s main character who gets short shrift in both the series itself and the fandom.
Rec: This is one of the most gorgeous, deft character studies I’ve ever read, taking many of the problematic elements of the original story and examining them, making them better. Kourrem’s journey is by turns fascinating, tragic, and inspiring, and the author’s dry wit made me laugh out loud more than once.
Content warnings: Canon-typical sexism and racism
“Photophobia” by holyfant. 11.5K words, rated Explicit
Fandom: BBC Sherlock; Ship: Irene Adler/Kate
Recced by: (havingbeen)breathedout
Backstory: In Sherlock BBC canon, one-off antagonist Irene Adler is canonically a self-declared lesbian dominatrix, and Kate is her live-in maid(ish). Also relevant: at one point, like most people on this show, Irene fakes her own death.
Rec: This story gives Kate, and her relationship with Irene, the narrative investment that they never got in canon: we see Kate's exhilaration and her unease with Irene; her unmoored-ness in Irene's world; the way Irene remains elusive and unfair, and yet holds such an attraction for Kate. And it’s also a masterful meditation on Kate’s relationship to her chosen art form—how the habit of photography both facilitates and also impedes communication, and communion. Really excellent character study. Also: the sex is SMOKIN’.
Content warnings: BDSM, emotional manipulation, non-chronological storytelling, bittersweet ending
“Mister Vimes’d Go Spare!” by Lunik. 4.8K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Discworld; Ship: Gen
Recced by: kat
Backstory: In a world that’s a spinning disk suspended on four enormous elephants standing on a giant turtle flying through space, there are a great many stories to be told. One of them is about Sam Vimes: the consummate copper, which means he's a suspicious bastard who absolutely believes in the worst of people, but also means he is the truest force of justice on the Disc.
Rec: It’s just so VIMES. A perfect blend of what I love about Discworld—the mythology, the satire, the very serious and important underlying themes to what is ostensibly a humorous story—and it leaves you wanting about 20,000 words more of the same.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
Just in case you haven’t seen this yet: the first trailer for The Last Jedi is here!!
It’s veeery spoiler-free, focusing mainly on Rey and Luke, with glimpses other characters from The Force Awakens. But we do finally have a photo of Kelly Marie Tran as Rose, the new lead character alongside Rey and Finn! Happy weekend, everyone! — Gav
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, etc—are strongly encouraged as well.
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)