Fanfic Recs, Smaller Fandoms Edition

[selenak]

Just because I've currently two mega fandoms (MCU and Star Wars) on the brain, and am trying to stop myself from writing what would basically be a bad issues fic (consisting of Rhodey venting at Steve; self: character A giving character B a "The reasons you suck" speech is just the type of fanfiction you don't like as a reader! Don't do it!), doesn't mean I love my tiny fandoms less.

Black Sails:


Time covers everything: This is the Miranda story I wanted to have for Yuletide, and which someone just happened to write completely unrelatedly, describing her entire adult life. I loved reading it.

The Windmill Knight and the Meditating Emperor: in which tiny Abigail Ashe comes across Lt. James McGraw when he and the Hamiltons visit her father. Funny and touching at the same time, with great glimpses at James, Thomas and Miranda in ye olde days.

Penny Dreadful.



Things the devil taught me: a look at Lily's mind during season 2, taking into account both what's revealed at the end of s2 (i.e. that she always knew just what Victor had done to her), and in 3.02 (that she thinks of herself as the same person as Brona, if changed through what happened). Moreover, it deals with something the show so far has not, i.e. Brona/Lily's memories of Ethan.

Comments

[muccamukk]

am trying to stop myself from writing what would basically be a bad issues fic

Don't do it!

Pick fights on tumblr instead :D

[selenak]

I know! That way lies madness. (The tumblr way, too, though.) Endless, time-consuming madness. Must. Stay. Strong.

[wee_warrior]

Tumblr is currently fighting among themselves because apparently you can't like/feel sorry for both Tony and Bucky, or like both Tony and Steve (while still wanting to kick them occasionally), so bringing Rhodey into this might only confuse them.

[selenak]

Even the occasional LOOK at Tumblr reminds me of all the "stop being on my side, you're making my side look terrible" feelings in any fandom ever. *shudders*

[wee_warrior]

Tell me about it. I read a "confession" recently of someone who said she likes Bucky a lot, but is embarrassed to admit it, because his fans are often so... excitable. I'm long past that stage (embarrassment, that is), but do I ever wish for bug spray when I encounter them.

[andraste]

My solution to having fanfic I really shouldn't write stuck in my head is to write at least some of it down and then not bother edit or post it. At least then it's outside of my brain. And it doesn't need accurate spelling proper grammar, plausible characterization, a plot, or an ending!

[selenak]

That is a splendid idea. It will be cathartic, and I will be filled with renewed enormous fondness for Mr. Rogers as a result. Without getting into fights on the internet.

[andraste]

This is the technique that brought about my lost masterpiece Magneto Makes A Grovelling Apology After X2. (It's really terrible and completely out of character, and correctly consigned to my Unfinished Stories folder forever. But it was very cathartic!)

[wee_warrior]

You could have Rhodey rant to himself? Just writing it down and not posting it seems like a good idea, though, I second andraste here.

Bad news, only partially related: Agent Carter has been cancelled. :/ Damn those HYDRA minions.

[selenak]

HYDRA IS THE WORST, yes, I've heard. :(

That is a good idea of Andraste's. Mind you, I did think of a set up justifying it - Rhodey, post Civil War, goes to a veterans' self help group that Sam reccomended via SMS. (Not Sam's old group, because that one is in Washington, D.C.) (Sam reacted shocked to seeing Rhodey fall, and it seems to be as plausible this was something he'd do once free, whether or not he's in Wakanda or elsewhere.) Steve, because Rhodey is their big casualty (other than emotional devastation on all sides), and because Sam mentioned what he'd recced when they talk about this, decides to show up in disguise at a group meeting to express regret and good wishes. Unfortunately, when he pushes for an actual conversation instead of a terse "Sorry about your condition/Thanks, bye" exchange, Rhodey, still emotional from the veterans' meeting (that's why you go to such meetings, to unload without having to be present a brave face etc.), cuts loose, and my fic idea becomes a bad venting oportunity.

Because Rhodey is pretty much ideal for the purpose of actually arguing with Steve about the Accords - his support for them isn't due to his friendship with Tony (during the big Avengers discussion scene early on, he argued for them before Tony said a word about his own stand),. Unlike Tony, he's not driven by guilt over past bad decisions, so his support for the Accords can't be disimissed with "well, YOU may need oversight because look at Ultron, but the rest of us?". As opposed to Tony, he's actually walked the walk for his entire adult life (i.e. as a professional soldier, he's always accepted oversight); on the other hand, he isn't the type to follow orders blindly, either, and he does have experience with corruption from the top (in Iron Man 3, the Vice President was in the villains' pay). Rhodey even has experience in being used as a weapon against a friend and being helpless due to corruption (in Iron Man 2, his armor which had been altered from Tony's design by Hammer Industries on goverment orders gets hacked by the villain because of that and he's used against people, including Tony, until Pepper and Natasha can reboot the armor software and give Rhodey who's locked in the thing control over it again. And he's the character who paid the highest price for the Accords disagreement so far. (A broken spine, even if your BFF can pay for your therapy and can design some nifty prostheses, definitely trumps what happened to the rest of the gang.). So Steve pretty much would have to hear him out....and Rhodey in canon is the only one calling Steve on the arrogance of regarding the 117 nations supporting the Accords as irrelevant. So you can see why my imagination latched on the idea!

...But it would lead to nothing good, not even a good story, because I would not give Steve enough good counter arguments, and because Steve, being Steve, wouldn't yell back at a paralysed man anyway, under these cirumstances.

[wee_warrior]

..But it would lead to nothing good, not even a good story, because I would not give Steve enough good counter arguments, and because Steve, being Steve, wouldn't yell back at a paralysed man anyway, under these cirumstances.

Which might actually be an advantage, though. Steve doesn't have many people talking sense to him nowadays that he would listen to: Peggy is dead, Bucky is frozen (and not in good shape mentally), Natasha is MIA, and I feel Sam isn't quite at that state of their friendship yet. Rhodey might actually have a shot at getting through to him.

I wonder btw how the whole thing would have turned out if the Accords hadn't been sprung on them by Ross like that. I don't know how realistic the writers were going in building this part of the storyline, but a paper like this would have needed a while to be prepared and discussed by the UN, so it would have been in the cards for quite some time. Ross just used Lagos as a good jumping off point, and that put Steve in the defensive from the start. Maybe, with more preparation, he would have been less boneheaded about it.

[selenak]

Oh, realistically, the UN would have been debating this for months and they'd all have known about it, even assuming Steve for some reason doesn't watch the news (which I doubt). Even the comics Civil War, otherwise hardly an example of logical storytelling, took into account that a law/resolution first gets extensively debated, which was why before the CW main event, there was a storyline called Road to Civil War in which there were, for example, hearings at Washington (at which Tony testified, at this point in the comics still against the Superhero Registration Act before he changed his opinion).

(Sometimes I amuse myself with imagining a Bundestagsdebatte about whether or not to sign, though at a guess the coalition might have been among the first to suggest it, post-Stuttgart visit by Loki.)

So in order for Ross to be able to spring this on them without preparation in the MCU, you just have to handwave because it can't even be fanwanked.

I feel Sam isn't quite at that state of their friendship yet.

Not to mention that he shares Steve's opinion re: Accords. But I know what you mean.

Rhodey might actually have a shot at getting through to him.

That was what gave me originally the idea. But I still fear to let it go out of hand, and inciting rows which is just so damm easy on the internet. That story could be my Ultron!

[likeadeuce]

I see the drama problem w/ Rhodey confronting Steve -- I wonder if you'd want to write a Rhodey POV that incorporates some of these thoughts anyway -- maybe Rhodey interacting w/ Tony in a way that backs Tony into sort of defending Steve's counterarguments -- since they're basically the ones Tony made to justify himself in Iron Man 2.

I suspect Rhodey isn't going to get a lot of attention in fic + you might do something interesting w/ him.

Or what if you back up a bit in the timeline + it turns out Rhodey was instrumental in getting Tony to favor the accords in the first place? And maybe there's an interaction w/ Steve that foreshadows the position he is going to take w/o making it an obvious issue fic. What does Rhodey make of Steve anyway,prior to everything going to hell?

WHAT IF HENRY HELLRUNG WAS THERE AND ALSO AGENT BRAND AND LONDO MOLLARI? I may be straying from the point.

[selenak]

He. One of the reasons why I desperately hope everyone who thinks the Accords won't be an issue anymore by the time the next Marvel movie rolls along is wrong is that I want Tony to found the Order and introduce Henry Hellrung to the MCU. Though they'd have to change a bit of the backstory - not the "actor who has played Tony on tv" part, because as CW points out, it was eight years ago in the MCU as well as in rl that Tony said "I am Iron Man" for the first time, and he was a celebrity before that. It's enough to have some tv stuff churned out. However, MCU Tony never descended into alcoholism completely, and thus the whole "is Tony's sponsor in AA" part, which is even more important to their relationship, can't be done in this way; there'd have to be something else.

What does Rhodey make of Steve anyway,prior to everything going to hell?

Given that in the entire MCU, everyone likes Steve on sight unless they're a) a villain, or b) have issues because of their late father's life long passion for the man, I don't think Rhodey was an exception, plus he'd probably read Captain America comics as a kid, too, and respects Steve as a soldier. Until CW. (My imagined rant definitely includes the phrase "you lost the mission".) Otoh I don't think they were particularly close, either. My guess is Rhodey was comfortable serving under him but partly because of that didn't fraternize too much, seeing Steve as his C.O. in the way the Avengers without a military background of course wouldn't. (I see Rhodey as good at setting boundaries, evidence A) being that in a life time of friendship with Tony Stark - from their teenage days onward -, he was careful never to work for Tony. With Tony, sure (in his capacity as military liason to Stark Industries), but not for him. And didn't leave the military post Iron Man, either. The movies gave me the impression he's capable of maintaining his own life in addition to being Tony's friend in a way most bffs of Marvelverse main characters haven't, in fact.