Fandom malaise

[cimorene]

You know when you find a surprisingly great fanfic, usually an au, novel length or novella at least, that would still be great if you didn't know the canon? I really want to read something like that. Failing that, a fandom that's new to me but has tons of fic in it already so there's plenty to read and lots of variety to choose from, but not old enough to throw me out of the story with since-vanished fad tropes and clichés.

Comments

[yvannairie]

.... if you don't mind scifi I might have a few Transformers recommendations? There's a shockingly high number of good gen in this fandom, and there's a high chance it's drawing on some lore that is so obscure it almost might as well be an AU.

[cimorene]

Sure, it can't hurt to try! I've always assumed that most Transformers fic would be a bit difficult to come into without any canon knowledge, but also, of course, there's unfortunate mental associations with Michael Bay to overcome which leaves a definite bad taste in my mouth. I did feel positively towards Transformers, the toy and cartoon, when I was like, six, though, and I used to read lots of science fiction when I lived with my parents and had free access to their library.

[yvannairie]

Full disclosure -- I read your post and immediately went "oh like Xenoethnography?" so I was always hopeful to find a way to suggest it to you :'D It's a canon mashup but you can go in cold, a lot of what you'd get out of it if you were in the fandom would just be "oh that's a clever take". I've got one friend whose interest in TF died the moment they realised the canon wasn't as clever and interesting as the worldbuilding Therrae adds. It's basically all the things Bayformers could have been if they weren't done by Michael Bay.

Also if you're not totally put off by the concept of Weird Robot Sex(tm), I feel obligated to recommend Victory Condition by astolat. I don't think it's her best TF work, and it's not even my favourite of her TF works, but it's approachable as long as you're familiar with the theme-song premise version of the lore, and it has a lot of meat on its bones. My favourite astolat story is "The Revolutionary" which is similarly dense af, but the cast in that one is big enough that you'll probably need to check names and bios on TFWiki to keep up -- and fyi, that one also has weird robot sex in it. Hasn't stopped me from recommending it to like five different people while forgetting to mention that it contains an orgy, I legit read it for the drama. (I also think astolat's Beltane Cycle is, like, legit great, possibly my favourite thing from her ever, but you gotta be familiar with BBC Merlin for that to land the way it's supposed to.)

Caveats apply, though, I am a glutton for dense themes and broad, dramatic narratives and I'm generally unbothered by slightly sparse characterisation, logical inconsistensies, and the timeline of events not making sense :'D

[cimorene]

That's not what I was thinking of AT ALL, it's much better; the author's take was so unusual (their... genre?) that I can't think of another example to compare it to in fanfiction, though of course it stands on its own and still bears a relationship to the canon behind it and all that (and there's plenty of fanfic that shares those qualities). The type of story is so unusual in fanfiction, and then so well and thoroughly done and so engrossing! The only part that I could identify as a slight weakness - if you don't count errors on their beta's part - is the romance that eventually takes more of the space on the page, mostly because it wasn't as fun to read about as the rest.

I've read astolat's stuff forever and I feel confident in saying it's always more like everything else she writes than it is like whatever fandom or idea she's interested in at the time, so I didn't read any of those right now... not in the mood for it I guess.

Actually after reading Xenoethnography I kind of want to reread some actual novels that it was somewhat reminiscent of, but I'm too lazy because I only have hardcopies (or don't have them at all).

[cimorene]

If you have more weird alien-focused gen I'd be interested though.

[princessofgeeks]

I wish I knew what to rec but I am not up on what your fandoms are or were except our beloved Lotrips of Yore.

[cimorene]

I'm a very multifannish reader when I don't have a strong fandom loyalty! I used to try to keep a list of which fandoms I'd been reading most recently somewhere, but I've stopped thinking about it so much since AO3 now keeps your history and bookmarks for you so handily.

I've been glancing back at Dean/Castiel fic the last week or so, but there hasn't been a great deal since the last time I looked. Before that I was reading Garak/Bashir (Deep Space Nine). I'm still checking back for Geralt/Jaskier (The Witcher TV) periodically even though I wanted to drown the character in a pond and found the show almost unbearably badly written... it fascinated me because it felt like it COULD be better, like a good story was surface rewritten by a bad writer, and the same is true of the fanfiction, a majority is terrible with a surprise minority of genuinely fun and funny things every now and then. Also of late I've been checking in on What We Do in the Shadows (Guillermo/Nandor), The Old Guard (Nicky/Joe) and Shetland periodically. Earlier this year I read a lot of Mycroft/Lestrade (BBC Sherlock) straight from the firehose, as it were, just wading through the archive and looking at every single header and opening a lot of them, which I like to do from time to time. The last thing I read like... in a way where you could almost say I was in the fandom sort of? was Good Omens, but I stopped checking regularly more than a year ago when the volume slowed down a bit and the proportion of decent writing fell to a tiny trickle. I read some Finn/Poe and some Hux/Ren after the recent Star Wars trilogy movies, but never got fully into it.

The other top fandoms on my bookmarks page right now are MCU (but not Steve/Bucky), Pacific Rim (Geizler/Gottlieb), Harry Potter (mostly Harry/Draco in recent years), Due South (Fraser/Kowalski). Also have gone through bandom and other RPFs (hockey rpf, star trek rpf), Kirk/Spock, Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, and Clark/Lex fandoms over the years and at one time or another most of the media fandom mega pairings like Teen Wolf and SGA, Jim/Blair (Sentinel), Duncan/Methos (Highlander), Bodie/Doyle (The Professionals)...

[princessofgeeks]

You are very widely read!

I will keep an eye peeled for you!

[cimorene]

I read compulsively when I'm anxious! The technical term for this is "counterphobic coping mechanism". It's kind of inconvenient sometimes, and difficult to overcome (the compulsion) when I want to... but it's better than not having any way to manage anxiety levels I guess... 😬

[princessofgeeks]

Well I can think of many unhealthier ways to deal with anxiety, honestly. Reading fanfic is pretty benign. Here's hoping for better days and less stress for us all.

But you and wax have had a doozey of a year. I hope you are being very kind to yourselves.

[cimorene]

I try to be! That was one of my former psychologist's major themes. I'm a master at remembering that I'm supposed to not feel guilty and give myself a break, and then feeling a bit guilty that I was feeling guiltier than I'm supposed to.

[princessofgeeks]

Our brains are so good at using our tendencies against us! Hang in there.

[isilya]

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex51324/pseuds/Alex51324

Soldier’s Heart is an amazing WWII Thomas from Downton Abbey AU, Halo Effect comes first to make sense of the world but doesn’t have as much traction.

https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMarguerite/pseuds/AMarguerite

Jane Austen AUs — I love the Duke of Wellington/Lizzy fork of her big soul Mark universe the best, but I also really enjoy her Temeraire/Austen crossover.

Let me know if you want me to dig up more recs, it’s been a looooong iso for me.

[cimorene]

Thank you, I downloaded a bunch of these to bookmark. I would welcome more recs! I like h/c but too much hurt or angst will usually drive me away - I often avoid war fic for this reason, so no guarantees with this one.

[stultiloquentia]

Ooh, seconding Margz' Austen fic.

Besides that... Mm, have you heard the good news about cdrama fandom? Stop me if you're weary of them, because it would be SO EASY for me to roll up like a door-to-door vacuum cleaner saleslady and spend all morning squealing in your face about the latest models. But I am neck deep in The Untamed right now and not only is the canon absurdly delicious and epic and fanfic-feelsy in its aesthetic, the fandom is bustling and among the most creative I've ever found, especially in its range of AUs.

Here are a couple recruiter vids. I can come back later with a handful of fic recs, including stuff that doesn't rely on deep canon knowledge, if you're curious. :D

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22973692

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23829676

[cimorene]

I'm not averse to historical fantasies from China, although I haven't gone out of my way to find them; I think... after the last couple of times I read in Japan-based-canon fandoms I got really fed up and decided I didn't want to dive into any more east asian fandoms (piles of fanfic, that is) written by clueless westerners. Obviously some of it is always gonna be good and written by experts or meticulously researched by people who do know about the culture and period, it's just that my normal habit is to go in reading everything and compile the list of recs myself, so the idea of just selecting from other people's recs is a bit new to me.

I have just enough interest in history to get infuriated by historical fanfic regularly when it gets things wrong, and while I know hugely less about the history of China, the fact that I expect many other people know even less than that fills me with nervousness for what I would encounter out there in fandom at large. Obviously this would just mean I would need a good source of recs, but I haven't known where to look and I haven't gone looking for it.

But I would welcome a few recs from you, since you offered! Not too much, though. I probably don't have the bandwidth to watch a lot of new canon in the immediate future.

[stultiloquentia]

Heh, that is all very understandable. I saw your other comment about not wanting too much angst, so I have to concede that this canon has plenty of sweetness and a happy ending, but the middle is heart-wrenching, so it might not be your ideal distraction right now.

Untamed fandom, meanwhile, is big enough to have exactly the spectrum you'd expect, from the people who are just here to splash in the shallows for a couple months without doing any research, to people who are so excited, and they've got a beta, and they've downloaded Duolingo, and they're doing their best and not letting bloopers stop them, to the magnificent, experienced authors who are writing about their own culture and/or have embarked on years-long research dives. I'm having a wonderful time as a reader and reccer, and learning new stuff every day, but am also willing to be pretty forgiving about other people's learning curves, as long as I see evidence of sensitivity and effort. Xianxia is a slippery genre anyway, for historical accuracy. It's "ancient China," but with potatoes and chili peppers, and costumes spanning several dynasties, and no functional economic system in sight, AND it's danmei, which has its own intentionally modern social agenda. It's such an interesting cultural space!

Three recs as promised:

live from new york by varnes is a Saturday Night Live AU. One would hope that anybody with the huevos to write a Saturday Night Live AU would be funny, and dear god in heaven, varnes is that, but it's UNFAIR how lush and moving and generally brilliant their storytelling is all joking aside.

this river runs to you by sundiscus is a modern-with-magic AU in which Wei Wuxian is a disgraced cursebreaker and Lan Wangji is a dragon who has lost his pearl.

You, Asleep and Dreaming by etymologyplayground is a short, simple, post-canon story in which Wei Wuxian comes home from his wanderings and sleeps in Lan Wangji's bed. That's it, that's the fic: bed-sharing and hair-brushing and a love confession a long time coming.