The Rec Center #80
We have a rare video game theme this week! Basia kindly offered to write an Overwatch primer for us, introducing one of the biggest gaming fandoms around right now. Plus, we’ve got Star Wars pun cosplay, Spidey fandom, and more. Next week’s newsletter will be a little light because Elizabeth and I are both traveling, so we recommend replacing your fanfic time with watching Black Sails. Have a great weekend! — Gav
new stuff
“15 Years Later, Here’s Why A Gamer Was Duct-Taped To A Ceiling” by Eric Van Allen at io9
Have you seen that old, viral photo of a guy taped to a ceiling, playing video games on a vintage PC? Someone finally tracked down the origins of this photo that exemplifies both early-2000s LAN party culture, and ~teens.
“Spider-Man Taught Me How to Live, Comics Taught Me How to Write” by Nikesh Shukla at LitHub
“Spider-Man was the perfect superhero for the child of immigrants from London in the 1990s. He understood shame and guilt like I did.” A beautiful piece about finding yourself in a character.
older stuff
“A Note on the Whole Fake Geek (Fill in the Blank) Thing” by teaberryblue at the Fan Meta Reader
“There are plenty of people gatekeepers assume aren’t ‘true fans,’ who can stymie the gatekeepers with trivia. But everyone, trivia or no, deserves to be there and deserves to be treated with respect.”
tumblr & beyond
Edgar Allen Poe Dameron cosplay
In honor of the Overwatch explainer, here’s a comic in the style of “Same Hat,” but with Doomfist.
Not to get too clickbaity, but this Discworld joke will blow your mind. (Unless you’re one of the smart people who already worked it out, in which case: congratulations!)
Fanfiction as our communal sword.
Luv this friendly neighborhood Star Trek feud.
overwatch primer
Last week we put out a call for Overwatch fans and Basia delivered! This is an explainer, not a rec list, but there’s a lot of Overwatch fic out there. If you want to rec any, either in a full list or via our individual submissions form, please send your favorites our way!
Basia is a linguist by training, contractually obligated to buy anything cat-themed, and also spends altogether too much time replaying video games she's played hundreds of times. She can be found on Twitter, Tumblr, and AO3.
To start off with the video game part, Overwatch is a competitive team-based shooter developed by Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft). What makes this game so fun to play (and so wildly popular) is that each of the 25 heroes you can pick is vividly different from the others—this video by Extra Credit is a great breakdown of some of the in-game stuff.
What’s interesting about Overwatch is that almost all of the lore and worldbuilding happens outside of the game. There are six animated shorts (playlist is in reverse order), several comics, and a number of in-universe “news articles,” all in addition to the hero profiles; once you watch/read most of those, you’re good to go. This means that you honestly don’t need to play the game to be into Overwatch–and even the in-game stuff, like voice lines between characters, is all easily findable on the wiki or on YouTube.
To finally bring this around to fandom, the characters and the setting are a pretty significant break from what a lot of popular shooters look like right now, and that’s absolutely why fandom—fandom fandom—has latched onto this game so hard. Of the 25 heroes, 6 are white Europeans or Americans, 11 heroes are women, many of them speak another language in-game, and the mascot character for the game is canonically a lesbian.
What really drives this fandom, in my experience, is the fact that the canon is still wishy-washy. The creators haven’t solidified a lot of information (yet) so there are still big holes, which are incidentally perfect for fandom to fill. Thanks to the huge number of characters there’s a huge number of relationships for fandom to explore: vaguely-defined-and-thus-very-exploitable mutual history, meet-cute crackship, BFFs, found family, actual family, and a healthy amount of I Thought You Were Dead, which is my personal favorite trope across fandoms.
Like anything, Overwatch isn’t perfect; it very much has issues with how they involve certain demographics, especially when it comes to people of color. The fandom shouldn’t have to work to fix Blizzard’s issues with representation, but alas, that’s how it is right now. That being said, though, Overwatch truly has something for everyone, and with a vagueish canon, fans have been churning out an incredible amount of creative, touching, and inspiring content.
fanfiction
No theme, no one fandom—as we both travel over the next few weeks, we’ll be pulling a variety of stories from our bank of submissions. Thanks, as always, to everyone who sent in a rec! We’re always looking for more, just as we’re always looking for people to author whole lists. If you want to rec five or six stories (or any other kind of fanwork) within a fandom, a ship, or a multi-fandom theme, please get in touch! — Elizabeth
“Match Cord” by misspamela. 1K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Black Sails; Ship: Anne Bonny/“Calico” Jack Rackham
Recced by: aknightfornawt
Backstory: A look at how Anne and Jack met, and how it shaped their relationship thereafter.
Rec: Beautifully written, true to the characters (Anne has a temper, Jack is something of an idiot with ambitions and enough self-confidence that it might just take him places). I was gifted this fic for Yuletide this year and since y’all seem to be getting on the Black Sails bandwagon, I figure it’s time I rec it and double-rec it.
Content warnings: Language and some violence, both of which are canon-typical
“Heavy Weapons and How to Use Them” by Armengard. 6.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Horizon Zero Dawn; Ship: Petra/Aloy
Recced by: Celeste
Backstory: Aloy meets the older, flirtatious Petra Forgewoman in Free Heap and fires her cannon (literally). In this story, we see how the wandering Aloy, who has never belonged, is drawn to keep returning to Petra’s side.
Rec: I love the way the fic seamlessly incorporates consent. Plus, the characterisation is great! I loved Petra’s character as soon as she appeared and knew she would be a firm ship fave. Queer lady metalworkers for the win! *heart eyes*
Content warnings: abandonment
“Noche Sin Estrella” by lambnoire. 92K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Law & Order: SVU; Ship: Rafael Barba/Sonny Carisi
Recced by: lookslikeaquentinblakedrawing
Backstory: Rafael Barba is a haughty, snarky ADA who dresses like he just stepped out of a men’s magazine. Sonny Carisi is a brash-yet-sweet detective who studies at night to become a lawyer and brings his co-workers cannoli. His fanboy admiration of Barba becomes apparent early on, and it's adorable.
Rec: This story is an amazing, complex casefic with a slow-build relationship between Barba and Carisi that is so good it makes your heart go all fluttery. It handles every character perfectly, has a healthy dose of hurt/comfort, and ties up every loose end. It’s basically the holy grail of fics.
Content warnings: violence, major character injury, discussion of sexual abuse, domestic violence relating to the case
“Running On Air” by eleventy7. 75K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Harry/Draco
Recced by: bookspark
Backstory: Draco Malfoy has been missing for three years. Harry is assigned the cold case and finds himself slowly falling in love with the memories he collects.
Rec: It’s a great slow burn, with a fun twist with time-turners.
Content warnings: N/A
“when the evening comes, we smile” by loveleee. 5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Mad Men; Ship: Stan Rizzo/Peggy Olson
Recced by: Victoria
Backstory: What happens after the Mad Men finale and the Stan and Peggy phone call.
Rec: This is so sweet but still captures what these characters’ lives would be like once they were together. It’s my headcanon now.
Content warnings: N/A
Plus a vid!
“Hey Ho” by Thuvia Ptarth. 2:56, rated PG-13.
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe; Ships: Gen
Recced by: anon
Backstory: This is a vid about the MCU and the military industrial complex and about MCU’s relationship to children, both in-universe and out, set to Tracy Grammer's anti-war song “Hey Ho.”
Rec: This is an incredibly well-crafted vid. The choice of clips is inspired, the lyric-matching is impeccable, the storytelling, the song editing, the transitions, everything. It also pulls no punches at all in its critique of the MCU while using such a wide range of sources that you know this isn’t a shallow reading.
Creator’s warnings: Old film flicker. Camera flashes and other sudden bright lights. Action movie violence (PG-13). Needles.
FINAL THOUGHT
If anyone is headed to San Diego Comic-Con next week, make sure to RSVP for the party that the Organization for Transformative Works is hosting on Thursday, July 20th! It starts at 6:30 at Analog Bar (cash bar, 21+). I’ll be there and so will my podcast partner, Flourish, if you’d like to say hello. :-) I’ll also be on the Harry Potter panel Sunday afternoon, if you’re still in town! Otherwise, you might see me wandering the streets/at literally any poolside bar I can find/sneaking onto some sort of Ye Olde Ship in the harbor… — Elizabeth
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)