May 2017

Fanfiction

I’m going on a strong Star Wars (all eras confounded) bender. I avoid Kylo/Rey (extra ew) and Kylo/Hux fics because ew, and I like time travel fix-it fics. Mostly I’ve been impressed at the depth and breadth of the verses crafted, and the large currency held by Queer-abundant fics. It “makes sense” to have genderqueer and varied sexualities in a universe where there’s several dozen species cohabiting with each other, among a few thousand worlds (sometimes the scale of it all boggles the mind), but it’s heartwarming every time.

I’ll certainly be adding a bunch of references and homages to some of the best fics out there into my fic, mostly in passing-by references to names and places. If you’ve been in the fanficdom, you should be able to pick out a few!

Something that’s been interesting to notice is fics and authors that were influenced by the Re-Entry fanfic epic. You see, in Canon (and Legends) Coruscant has a 24-hour day. In the Re-Entry fanon, though, Coruscant has a 26-hour day. Well, in many non-Re-Entry fics that should AU from Canon or Legends, and that state it as such, you get mentions of “25th hour” or “there isn’t more than 26 hours in the day” while in the Coruscanti Jedi Temple (or elsewhere on planet)!

Exceptional fics within those I read this month:

  • {SW Legends} The entire Re-Entry and Journey of the Whills corpus.

    An epic masterpiece. {50k + 1k + 11k + 37k + 18k + 30k + 32k + 27k + 25k + 23k + 25k + 53k + 55k + 2k + 76k + 16k + 28k + 21k + 24k + 7k + 1k + 1k + 17k + 33k + 3k + 6k + 10k + 33k + 9k + 10k + 6k + 36k + 14k + 6k + 7k + 5k + 8k + 10k + 11k + 13k + 12k + 7k + 7k + 10k + 9k + 19k + 8k + 13k + 13k + 12k + 8k + 13k + 11k + 15k + 12k + 7k + 10k + 9k + 20k + 18k + 11k + 21k + 26k + 20k + 21k + 24k + 27k + 33k + 3k + 79k + 22k + 24k + 33k + 2k + 11k words atow}

  • {SW} More Than Our Makers Intended.

    Excellent fic both in the romance/ship side and in the PTSD side. Notably, actually gets that Rey comes from a desert-world where water is precious and food was scarce and she is used to work and also not used to have food be guaranteed. Similarly, that Finn was a trooper in an extremely harsh and conditioned army, where even trivial-for-bacta medical issues were more often than not resolved with blaster-aided disappearances. Also great at non-binary and queer genders and sexualities in a wider universe without making it be a super minor discreet story element (like some novels do, like they want to have it but also are afraid to bring it front and center). {26k + 26k + 4k words atow}

  • {SW} heart in a headlock.

    Well-written, really, and has good emotions… I would have liked Rogue One to go more like this, I think. The depiction of Leia in this fic helped me re-evaluate a plot point that always bothered me in my fic, and that I’m going to change now. {53k words atow}

  • {SW} Back From the Future: Episode IV The Clone Wars.

    Has a fairly unique narrative style and form that I’m going to liberally borrow from, and not just because it seems tailor-made for my style and cadence of writing. I had been despairing of the glueing work I’d have to do to make my fic work, and the rewriting of scenes to comply with One Narrative, but this is much better. Story-wise, this is well done, both in plot that is organised and yet still surprising, in style which is “crack that takes itself seriously” and manages that perfectly, in humour both wordplay and plot irony and situational, in character development as well as characters stubbornly refusing to change, for good and bad. {107k words}

  • {LotR} Sansûkh.

    Another incredible epic fanfic. I really like both the concept and the execution, and have healthy respect for the huge amounts of research and outright creation that must have gone into it. The character growth shown and told for everyone involved is first-rate. The use of Sindarin and Khuzdul is appropriate and not overbearing, which is very well done indeed. And the language style itself, that manner of speaking… I love that. (Also the massive amounts of recursive fanart displayed throughout is both heartening and frankly quite cute.) AND DID I MENTION the vast diversity of cast! Gay/bi are merely common, colour is varying and fine, neuro-atypicals are well-represented, and a/bi/trans-gender characters! That’s right, with a plural! Not just two, either. Now that’s greatness. {518k words atow}