The Rec Center #90
After a long, sad-pirate-filled summer, we finally—FINALLY—have a proper Black Sails rec list for you: I’ve teamed up with my friend Pamphilia for a slightly-longer-than-normal list that, weirdly enough, features characters other than Thomas Hamilton. I know?? We also have our usual mix of articles and tumblr/twitter stuff, plus Gav is HYPED for the new Star Trek series (scroll all the way to the end if you’re trying to avoid Black Sails spoilers—there are many in our recs). — Elizabeth
new stuff
“5 Things I Learned Studying Fandom” by Elizabeth at Medium
For a Medium members’ series, Elizabeth wrote about some big themes that she focuses on when she talks about fandom with ~random people at parties. If you haven’t used all your free reads on Medium this month, it’ll be in front of the paywall as long as you have a Medium account.
Gallery of Beatlemania photos at Buzzfeed
Ignoring the official headline for this photo gallery, we love these vintage photos of Beatles fans getting seriously into their favorite band.
“At World’s End” at Reply All
This week’s episode of Reply All was a sweet and strange tale of a student who desperately wants to reconnect with a long-forgotten Flash game to remind her of happier times. The investigation leads to a dive into early-2000s Flash game fandom, and why this medium died out.
older stuff
“Women who love ‘Star Trek’ are the reason that modern fandom exists” by Victoria McNally at Revelist
For “Star Trek is back” weekend, a look at the female fans who have long been the foundation of Trek fandom—and the foundation of media fandom at large.
tumblr & beyond
Lilo & Stitch/Pacific Rim crossover fanart by skiptomy
THE “IT” CINEMATIC UNIVERSE CORRECT VIEWING ORDER
Someone made a political alignment chart for the sex fetishes of Star Trek: DS9 characters, and it is truly inspired.
Tumblr blog Fashion It So spent years collecting screencaps of every weird and wonderful costume from Star Trek: TNG.
fanfiction
AT LONG LAST. Ask for Black Sails fic recs and ye shall receive...several months later. A very important caveat up front: I know both Gav and I have gotten multiple requests from people who are one, two seasons in and want to read fic. NO. STOP. PLEASE FINISH THE SHOW. I mean, do what you want, but I highly recommend you don’t even read these recs, let along the fics we are reccing, which will contain lots of spoilers as well as characters that have developed beyond where you’re seeing them. Other people might feel differently, but for me, Black Sails fic is an accompaniment to the show, rather than the sort of thing where people might, say, read the fic without having seen later seasons or something. You know?
Anyway! I was just going to do a big list of the ship(s)/characters I am into, James McGraw and the Hamiltons, but my friend Pamphilia—who, it should be stated for the record, is equally into these three—is a bit more omnivorous in this fandom. So we’ve teamed up to write a longish rec list. Pamphilia (yunitsa on AO3), by way of introduction, writes, “A few months ago I fell hard for this pirate show—including, yes, Thomas Hamilton, who is absolutely the heart of it!—and have enjoyed yelling about it on various platforms, and meeting so many excellent people through the fandom.” Please come and yell with both of us. — Elizabeth
James/Thomas fics I have previously recced:
“Unaccommodated Man,” “Peaceable Kingdom,” and “Congress” by kvikindi in The Rec Center #79
“The Sundering Sea” by x_art in The Rec Center #83
“you’ll always paint my sky” by mapped. 2.3K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Max/Anne Bonny
Recced by: Pamphilia
Backstory: Max and Anne go through a lot, loving each other and betraying each other, and the show's depiction of how they reconcile in season 4 is a bit oblique (though still very satisfying!).
Rec: This story fills in the blanks, showing Anne's changing feelings as she recovers from her injuries—a particularly difficult POV to pull off given that she's such a taciturn character with a unique idiom. There are so many lovely lines and emotions here.
Content warnings: Aftermath of injury, mentions of past abuse
“and into what it will be changed” by sea_changed (foxlives). 17K words, not rated (I’d estimate Mature).
Ship: James/Thomas/Miranda (a quick note here: I’m using this as a shorthand for “the canonical relationship they had that is open to interpretation.” Each of the J + T + M fics I’m reccing has a different take on their dynamic, something I appreciate and wrote a little bit about here and here.)
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: This story follows James’s evolving relationship with the Hamiltons in 1705, from James’s perspective, and oh God, James McGraw!!
Rec: This. Story. Is. Exquisite. It skirts along that tricky space in which we understand the narrator slightly better than he understands himself, and it does so beautifully. And while I wouldn’t rec a fic that feels OOC to me, this one feels especially right, especially the interactions between the Hamiltons themselves.
Content warnings: N/A
“Whetstone” by balloonstand. 5K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: James Flint/John Silver
Recced by: Pamphilia
Backstory: Elizabeth is Ideologically Opposed to this pairing, but I can appreciate the aesthetics as well as the push-and-pull of growing intimacy between them, particularly around the end of season 3 when this story takes place.
Rec: While it may *seem* like a tropey PWP about shaving, this fic does an excellent job of showing the delicate balance of trust at this point in Flint and Silver’s relationship, and the build-up of tension—long before anything explicit happens—is exquisitely maintained: the best kind of porn-with-feelings.
Content warnings: N/A
“Time Covers All Things” by lilithilien. 12K words, rated Teen.
Ship: James/Thomas/Miranda
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: “How Lady Hamilton becomes Mrs Barlow.” This fic follows the events of the show in true chronological order, from the flashback era to her death.
Rec: One thing that struck me rewatching season 1 was how excited I was to see Miranda—I shouted “MIRANDA!!!” and I hung on her every word, whereas the first time around I was like, “Who is this woman again??” Obviously shifting perspectives to a relatively minor character is a staple of fanfiction, but I especially love this fic for centering a character who is, by the structure of the show, deliberately obscured, or kept relatively opaque, for a good portion of her screen time. And while I love all 1705-era things so, so much, I especially like that we see her transition from London to Nassau.
Content warnings: Canonical character death
“Katabasis” by csoru. 15K words, rated Teen.
Ship: James/Thomas (+ Miranda, who is back in Nassau...just...canonical ships, you know)
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: There’s a mini-subgenre of Black Sails AUs where Thomas is found alive at some point during or before the events of the show. This one is my favorite. After James kills Alfred Hamilton aboard the Maria Aleyne, the Walrus crew find Thomas on board, too.
Rec: So I’m a sucker for this AU trope, it seems, but this one is really excellent on top of that—beautifully written and exactly the kind of sort of thing I love about reunion fic, everything that happens after that initial first glimpse of each other, learning who they’ve become and if (er, or actually, how, don’t worry) they still fit together.
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence
“Terms of Endearment” by Palebluedot. 1.8K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Jack Rackham/Anne Bonny/Max/Mary Read
Recced by: Pamphilia
Backstory: Jack, Anne, and Max have a complicated relationship that’s not quite a love triangle and not quite a threesome, and in the very last minutes of the final episode Mary (alias Mark) Read also joins the picture.
Rec: Set post-canon, this is just a delightful story: Jack gets drunk and tries to work out What They All Mean to Each Other, and is gently told not to overthink it. The tags (“Established Relationship” “but established as WHAT”) pretty much sum it up—I love Jack’s confused narration and want these crazy kids to make it work.
Content warnings: N/A
“May it happen to me (all)” and “A Savor of the Heart” by drivingsideways. 11K words between two stories, rated Mature and Gen, respectively.
Ship: James/Thomas/Miranda
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: The two stories in this verse are both beautiful, but they vary a fair bit in tone and style. The first is set pre-series, with the meeting and courtship of Thomas and Miranda. The second is set at various points from the flashback era to post-series, and centers around two of the triad feeling the absence the third.
Rec: I love both of these, but the second one: MY HEART PHYSICALLY ACHED WHILE READING THIS GOOD LORD. I love how drivingsideways digs into the messy complications of their relationship, and like “Time Covers All Things,” highly recommended if you’re looking for stuff that centers Miranda amongst a sea of fic that casts her as an extra to the James/Thomas relationship.
Content warnings: Canonical character death
And some vid recs!
“Celebrity Skin” by some_stars. 2:42, rated Mature.
Ship: Max/Eleanor Guthrie and their other canon pairings
Recced by: Pamphilia
Backstory: Max and Eleanor go from lovers to enemies to allies to friends over the course of the show, as both try (and fail) to rule Nassau without sacrificing what’s most important to them.
Rec: Despite its brevity, this vid perfectly traces the parallels and divergences between Max and Eleanor’s stories. The clip choices and lyric matches are sharp and brutal, showing how these ambitious women are constrained by and complicit within their society.
Content warnings: Violence against women, attempted and alluded-to rape, sexual content, canonical character death
“Loves Like This” by Sarashina_Nikki. 3:34, rated Mature.
Ships: James Flint/Thomas Hamilton, James Flint/Miranda Hamilton, James Flint/John Silver
Recced by: Pamphilia
Backstory: Linking the London flashbacks and present-day action, this vid is a character study of Flint and all the things that he is willing to do for love—as well as how Silver eventually joins him in the darkness. (Made at the end of season 3, so contains no spoilers beyond that.)
Rec: Ajfdjgfjg. This is not only distilled Essence of Feelings (Flint has *so many* feelings, and I have so many feelings about Flint!) but it’s also such a great use of intercutting and internal motion to tell a story, and the structure and pacing are impeccable.
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, suicide
FINAL THOUGHT
Star Trek: Discovery starts on Sunday night!! (Or Monday morning on Netflix, depending on where you live.) It’s safe to say I’m FLIPPING THE FUCK OUT because I’ve waited 1,000 years for this show to arrive. A! New! Star Trek! Is! Happening! And! It! Looks! Incredible!
If you’re new to Star Trek, ignore all those “all you need to watch/know before watching Discovery” articles. You don’t ~need to watch anything, or know any canonical minutiae. That being said! If do you want info about Discovery, I’ve put together a pretty exhaustive post of all the trailers, casting news, non-spoilery backstory from the creators, etc. I also made a ~listicle of important Klingon episodes because the Klingons will have an unprecedentedly central role in this show. Personally, I’m planning to rewatch Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country this weekend, marking the end of the Klingon/Federation war that will still be in its early stages during Discovery.
Needless to say, I will also be recapping this show in passionate detail at the Daily Dot. Live long and prosper, nerds! — 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)