The Rec Center #74
Hello! Greetings from ~the very depths~ of New Fandom Land, where you could ask me literally any question and somehow I will drag the conversation towards a particular group of sad pirates. In honor of Black Sails (which Gav loves, too, though she’s watching at a more sensible pace) we’ve got fanart! Plus fanfic definitions, a grab-bag of fic, a whole bunch of Wonder Woman stuff, and a guest explainer from Rebecca on the web series Critical Role! — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Towards a Definition of ‘Fanfiction’” by Flourish Klink at Fansplaining
3,564 people took Flourish & Elizabeth’s latest fanfic definitions survey, and Fansplaining’s Chief Data Analyst Flourish delved into some of the quantitative and quantitative results.
“Alamo Drafthouse Apologizes for Starting Manpocalypse With Women-Only Screening” by Bethy Squires at Medium
Just a quick little preview of the upcoming revolution. Elizabeth will be at the Brooklyn showing this weekend, btw! :-)
“Pinboard just bought Delicious, bringing a strange story full circle” by Gav at the Daily Dot
Social bookmarking site Pinboard just bought its rival Delicious, which sounds like a boring tech story on the surface, but actually has a rather entertaining fandom backstory. (Short version: Delicious screwed itself by making it impossible to search for fanfic pairings using the “/” symbol.)
older stuff
“The Last Amazon” by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker
Lepore wrote an entire book on the history of Wonder Woman, but this piece is a good start to get you in the mood if you’re headed to the cinema this weekend.
Anne Bonny from Black Sails by sadfishkid!
critical role explainer
Rebecca spends her days taking care of real babies and her nights crying about fictional ones. She’s mischief7manager on tumblr and ao3 and @mischiefseven on twitter.
The premise of Geek & Sundry’s Critical Role is that it’s a game of D&D, being played by a bunch of nerdy friends, all of whom happen to be professional voice actors. It follows the exploits of adventuring party Vox Machina as they trawl dungeons, fight monsters, and generally make loveable asses of themselves. This show hits all of my fiction trope buttons: families of choice, rich and extensive world building, female characters that are complex and respected by the narrative, queer characters that are complex and respected by the narrative, and one of the best goddamn slow build ships I've ever experienced. (60+ episodes of build-up, y’all. 60. Plus. Episodes.)
I know. It’s a lot to take in.
That said, it might not be for everyone. The live-streamed improv feel can lead to some secondhand embarrassment at times, especially in the early days when the show was still finding its feet. It’s also incredibly long. Each episode is an average of three and a half hours, and there’s over 90. There are several places it’s possible to jump into the story without starting at the beginning, however! Tumblr user theargentumlupine made a ludicrously detailed fandom primer, and tumblr user/one of my favorite people eponymous-rose made a lovely post with several options for jumping-in points for different arcs in the show.
(image via Geek & Sundry)
Critical Role legitimately changed my life. I hadn’t written anything outside an academic context before I started watching, and now, a year and a half later, my ao3 account has 43 works and counting. I’ve made friends in the fandom who are some of the best people I've ever met, and I’ve started playing D&D for myself, and am having an absolute blast. I’ve grown so tired recently of the grimdark edginess trend in fiction, and to find something that revels in being so unapologetically nerdy, created by a bunch of friends hanging out and telling a story, has been a thoroughly welcome change.
I’ll leave you with a taste of what you’ll see in Critical Role, with a clip of the introduction of one of my favorite characters. It serves, I feel as a good example of the best parts of Critical Role: laughter, friendship, and Matt Mercer making some really weird goddamn faces. Enjoy.
tumblr & beyond
Madi from Black Sails (also by sadfishkid)
If you’re interested in fan/creator stuff and how TV gets made, you should be following Riverdale writer and fangirl Britta Lundin on Tumblr for her pretty frank answers to asks. Two samples: “what’s it like this go from participant to creator in the world of fandom?” and “myths about TPTB and how TV gets made”
“who knew the sheriff of nottingham had a blog”
An intensely embarrassing history of “yaoi paddles” at anime conventions in the 2000s.
Rations for various RPG races. Artemis-entreri took wonderful photos of IRL meals designed for RPG races like orcs, elfs, etc.
fanfiction
A genuine grab-bag this week—no theme or single fandom, just a collection of stories (plus a vid!). Thanks, as always, to everyone who’s sent in a rec. And if you have another story to share, see the link at the bottom of the letter! — Elizabeth
“A Bit Too Much Good Work” by a_t_rain. 96K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga; Ship: Rish/Byerly Vorrutyer
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Behind the scenes of Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Byerly grapples with bomb threats, Council of Counts politics, fallout from a previous case, and the difficulty of maintaining a romance when one’s profession blurs the lines between lovers, colleagues, witnesses, and suspects.
Rec: A flawless continuation/addition to the canon—written so well that by the end of the fic I couldn’t remember who was originally in the series, and who was created by a_t_rain. I’m still not sure they’re not Lois McMaster Bujold in disguise.
Content warnings: N/A
“Means the world to me” by Petra, thatyourefuse. 16K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Scott & Bailey; Ship: Rachel Bailey/Gill Murray
Recced by: (havingbeen)breathedout
Backstory: Rachel Bailey is a brilliant but alcoholic and otherwise dysfunctional Detective Constable on the Major Incident Team of the Manchester police; Gill Murray is her hyper-competent and slightly terrifying Detective Chief Inspector. Shortly before this story takes place Rachel has canonically called Gill drunk, in the middle of the night, with an insight about the case they’re working.
Rec: This story is half brilliant situational comedy—as Rachel tries to navigate the did-I didn’t-I awkwardness of realizing she possibly needs to apologize to her boss for a possible drunken love confession that she possibly may have made—and half incredibly hot yet realistically awkward sex with power-exchange overtones. The whole thing is superbly in-character; both Rachel and Gill’s voices are absolutely true to canon, and since this canon involves so many poor decisions around sex and drinking, the supervisor/supervisee hookup isn’t even much of a stretch.
Content warnings: Sex between a boss and an employee, alcohol abuse, BDSM(ish)
“all the roads we have to walk” by Aramley. 17K words; rated Mature.
Fandom: Tennis RPF; Ship: Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal
Recced by: Gilly
Backstory: Federer & Nadal were the two top leading men in tennis for a long time, and despite their on-court rivalry, they are close friends off-court. Add that to the fact that they are both smoking hot, and you have yourself a pretty good ship.
Rec: The premise, that a film is made about the Fedal rivalry and turns out to be hella gay, is pretty funny in itself. It’s also beautiful to see Roger & Rafa meeting after all those years, realising how close they were back then, and how good they could be now.
Content warnings: N/A
“after the night, the morning comes” by QueenWithABeeThrone. 62K words over 12 works, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Star Wars/Marvel TV; Ships: Padme/Anakin, Poe/Finn/Rey, Obi-Wan/Anakin
Recced by: Shadaras
Backstory: This series of fics is about Star Wars characters in the roles of Marvel characters, mostly focused on Daredevil. Everyone is vigilantes and/or lawyers. It works far better than you'd expect. Ages are compressed and a bit wibbly, and Padme is alive.
Rec: Complicated family dynamics, superheroes, explorations of relative morality.
Content warnings: mind control, children being vigilantes, general violence
“Margin of Error” by idiopathicsmile. 7.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Brooklyn 99; Ship: Rosa Diaz/Amy Santiago
Recced by: Astrid
Backstory: Disaster strikes and Amy moves in with Rosa. Amy should be an annoying roommate but strangely, Rosa isn’t irritated. They also work together to save a local coffee shop!
Rec: Sweet and funny! It can be hard to find femslash fics, but this one is really good. Everyone is in character, and the background banter makes it feel like a real episode.
Content warnings: N/A
Plus a fanvid!
“Long After You’re Gone: A Leverage Tribute” by hannasus42. 3:41, rated PG-13.
Fandom: Leverage; Ships: Just the ones in the show—Nate/Sophie, Parker/Hardison (and arguably Parker/Hardison/Elliot)
Recced by: driftcompatible
Backstory: This is a fanvid tribute to the entire show (including shots of the crew at the end).
Rec: It’s such a good overview of the found family theme of the show and the editing is brilliant—every cut is on the beat as well as punches/high-fives/etc that are perfectly timed.
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence
FINAL THOUGHT
Wonder Woman! Is very good!! I HIGHLY recommend watching this movie over the weekend. It’s fun and optimistic and intense and romantic, with some SERIOUSLY badass action scenes where middle-aged ladies shoot arrows while horseback riding. Here’s my full (spoiler-free) review! I greatly look forward to the fanfic this movie inspires. — Gav
FINAL FINAL THOUGHT
Had to slip Captain Flint in. :-) Art, once again, by the amazing sadfishkid.
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)