Jul. 9th, 2009
Praise your Favourite Fic Writer Week
Jul. 9th, 2009 08:03 pmFrom ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lizamanynames:
Things have been tough and little chaotic for everyone here lately and I think a little praise pointed in the direction of the wonderful people that offer fandom a distraction from RL, even for just a few minutes each day, will help each of us feel a little bit better and put a smile on someone's face.
So until next Sunday, if you're so inclined, take a minute to say something nice about one of your favorite fic writers and say why you enjoy their work. Remember you don't have show the love to just one writer over the course of this week.
I have several writers I love, and might not have the chance to devote a post to them, but one at least I will do: Andraste, akaandrastewhite.
First of all,andrastewhite doesn't "just" write fanfiction. She also creates fabulous vids, and she hosts the Multiverse Ficathon each year. Her meta, whether we're talking about episode reaction posts or long term analysis, is always worth reading. She was and is active in several fandoms, some of which we share, some of which we don't. So here is what I swear is just a small selection of her talent:
Meta:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Superstar and Storyteller as meta narratives. I love this essay. And not just because it's devoted to two episodes which were at the time of first broadcast less than popular and has nothing whatsoever to do with shipping. It's smart, and deals with both the episodes themselves and the habits of fanfiction. If you're not familiar with it, you're missing something.
Babylon 5:
Day of the Dead meta, inspired by the season 5 Neil Gaiman episode. You might want to check out the comments as well. (The discussion we had inspired a vid of hers and a story of mine respectively.)
Vids:
Babylon 5:
Ophelia: that would be the vid. A tender reflection on all the dead women of Babylon 5, and the way they keep coming back.
Brothers in Arms: still the definite B5 vid, covering all five seasons and the entire ensemble.
Alias and Crusade:
American Tune and Holy Grail: American Tune is a great Jack Bristow character vid; now I can't relate the song to any other character. Holy Grail is one of the funnest, most spirited advertisements for a show I've ever watched, in this case the ill-fated B5 spin-off Crusade. After seeing it, one wants to grab the dvds immediately and start watching.
Fanfiction
One of the many great things about Andraste is that she can write comedy and angsty character insight alike. I've tried to include both here.
Alias
Edge of Darkness: Arvin Sloane between seasons 2 and 3, with Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko in the background. It's been a while since I've actively looked for Alias fanfic, but back in the day good Sloane stories were hard to find, and once Andraste wasseduced cajoled into watching the show, I was thrilled she decided to write some. This captures the shades of grey, the simultanous insights and self delusions, the ruthlessness and sentiment exactly.
Get me to the church on time: this, on the other hand, is lighthearted entertainment, except for the tiniest bit of foreshadowing and awareness on the part of the readers as to what will happen with these men. Shortly before Jack's wedding to "Laura", he and Arvin get stuck in an extremely uncomfortable situation. A story which also manages to pull off convincing slash between these two (not that easy due to Jack more than due to Arvin) while never for a moment neglecting Jack's devotion to Laura/Irina.
Babylon 5:
Camera Obscura: great missing scene set in early s4, during one of those prison visits on Centauri Prime.
Funeral Feast: the Narn get a bit neglected by fanfiction, and so does G'Kar's fabulous aide Na'Toth. This story is both a Na'Toth character portrait and explores Narn culture, and I love it.
Proposition: missing s1 scene set during Mind War. You know, G'Kar really wanted those telepathic genes back then. Guess what happens when he asks a certain visiting Psi Cop for a contribution?
Certamen: I might have written the first Londo/G'Kar slash, but Andraste wrote the very first tentacle porn, coming up with a name for the Centauri... attributes... while she was at it. Londo/Urza, back in the day.
X-Men:
The first stories of Andraste's I've ever read were X-Men stories. She writes Charles Xavier like no one else, no matter whether we're talking about comics Xavier or movieverse Xavier. (She also wrote one of my favourite movieverse Mystique stories.) Of her many explorations of the man, this remains my favourite:
Ten Thousand Candles: set post-X2, this describes Xavier dealing with both what he almost did and what he did do.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Living Dangerously: Andrew in season 7, during his time as a "guestage" chez Summers. Andrew character portraits were rare (and I bet this hasn't changed), but Andraste has a soft spot for him, without overlooking his flaws.
If you're curious and want to know more - and believe me, I could have gone on praising her Farscape fanfiction, the way she rp'd Crais, her Blake's 7 fanfiction, her fabulous "when Avon met Scorpius" crossover, and so forth, and so on - check out her website, here.
lizamanynames:Things have been tough and little chaotic for everyone here lately and I think a little praise pointed in the direction of the wonderful people that offer fandom a distraction from RL, even for just a few minutes each day, will help each of us feel a little bit better and put a smile on someone's face.
So until next Sunday, if you're so inclined, take a minute to say something nice about one of your favorite fic writers and say why you enjoy their work. Remember you don't have show the love to just one writer over the course of this week.
I have several writers I love, and might not have the chance to devote a post to them, but one at least I will do: Andraste, aka
andrastewhite. First of all,
andrastewhite doesn't "just" write fanfiction. She also creates fabulous vids, and she hosts the Multiverse Ficathon each year. Her meta, whether we're talking about episode reaction posts or long term analysis, is always worth reading. She was and is active in several fandoms, some of which we share, some of which we don't. So here is what I swear is just a small selection of her talent: Meta:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Superstar and Storyteller as meta narratives. I love this essay. And not just because it's devoted to two episodes which were at the time of first broadcast less than popular and has nothing whatsoever to do with shipping. It's smart, and deals with both the episodes themselves and the habits of fanfiction. If you're not familiar with it, you're missing something.
Babylon 5:
Day of the Dead meta, inspired by the season 5 Neil Gaiman episode. You might want to check out the comments as well. (The discussion we had inspired a vid of hers and a story of mine respectively.)
Vids:
Babylon 5:
Ophelia: that would be the vid. A tender reflection on all the dead women of Babylon 5, and the way they keep coming back.
Brothers in Arms: still the definite B5 vid, covering all five seasons and the entire ensemble.
Alias and Crusade:
American Tune and Holy Grail: American Tune is a great Jack Bristow character vid; now I can't relate the song to any other character. Holy Grail is one of the funnest, most spirited advertisements for a show I've ever watched, in this case the ill-fated B5 spin-off Crusade. After seeing it, one wants to grab the dvds immediately and start watching.
Fanfiction
One of the many great things about Andraste is that she can write comedy and angsty character insight alike. I've tried to include both here.
Alias
Edge of Darkness: Arvin Sloane between seasons 2 and 3, with Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko in the background. It's been a while since I've actively looked for Alias fanfic, but back in the day good Sloane stories were hard to find, and once Andraste was
Get me to the church on time: this, on the other hand, is lighthearted entertainment, except for the tiniest bit of foreshadowing and awareness on the part of the readers as to what will happen with these men. Shortly before Jack's wedding to "Laura", he and Arvin get stuck in an extremely uncomfortable situation. A story which also manages to pull off convincing slash between these two (not that easy due to Jack more than due to Arvin) while never for a moment neglecting Jack's devotion to Laura/Irina.
Babylon 5:
Camera Obscura: great missing scene set in early s4, during one of those prison visits on Centauri Prime.
Funeral Feast: the Narn get a bit neglected by fanfiction, and so does G'Kar's fabulous aide Na'Toth. This story is both a Na'Toth character portrait and explores Narn culture, and I love it.
Proposition: missing s1 scene set during Mind War. You know, G'Kar really wanted those telepathic genes back then. Guess what happens when he asks a certain visiting Psi Cop for a contribution?
Certamen: I might have written the first Londo/G'Kar slash, but Andraste wrote the very first tentacle porn, coming up with a name for the Centauri... attributes... while she was at it. Londo/Urza, back in the day.
X-Men:
The first stories of Andraste's I've ever read were X-Men stories. She writes Charles Xavier like no one else, no matter whether we're talking about comics Xavier or movieverse Xavier. (She also wrote one of my favourite movieverse Mystique stories.) Of her many explorations of the man, this remains my favourite:
Ten Thousand Candles: set post-X2, this describes Xavier dealing with both what he almost did and what he did do.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Living Dangerously: Andrew in season 7, during his time as a "guestage" chez Summers. Andrew character portraits were rare (and I bet this hasn't changed), but Andraste has a soft spot for him, without overlooking his flaws.
If you're curious and want to know more - and believe me, I could have gone on praising her Farscape fanfiction, the way she rp'd Crais, her Blake's 7 fanfiction, her fabulous "when Avon met Scorpius" crossover, and so forth, and so on - check out her website, here.
