Fannish5: Say what?

Five canon events that you found unbelievable and wished had not happened.

Actually, dear meme, these are two different categories, which do not always go hand in hand with each other. For example, given that Londo Mollari is my favourite tv character of all time, I did, of course, spend a lot of canon wishing he wouldn't keep making certain decisions, and much later on I went "oh no!" when the ultimate consequences happened, of course I did. But at no point did I find the decisions Londo made unbelievable, and as horrible as certain late canon events were if you're fond of Londo, they were the right events from a storytelling pov. So I had to think about canon events meeting both criteria, and a third one - i.e. that they don't just make me sad because I'm fond of the character(s) concerned but that I wish they had not happened because that would have improved the story story canon was telling instead of lessening it.

( My results are spoilery for Babylon 5, Doctor Who, Angel, Alias (tv), and Fringe )

Avengers recs, continued

Everything I've seen twice: short and poignant Bruce pov after the film.


Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight : Natasha and Bruce, working on those trust issues. This one is categorized Natasha/Bruce, though personally I'd call it subtext rather than main text; it has a terrific Natasha pov, excellent ensemble use (including having-each-other's-back buddyness with Clint) - I do so love when the main characters of a story don't live in a vacuum - and doesn't offer facile solutions.

Don't we all want happy endings?: also a character centric piece with excellent use of the rest of the ensemble. In this case, the character in question is Thor, and most unusually, the story isn't about his relationship with Loki. His Loki worries play their part, because that's inevitable if you want to write true to character Thor, but in this lovely missing scene tale it occurs to him to contact Jane Foster (and Darcy) before returning to Asgard with Loki, and the rest of the Avengers are helpful (or, err, not so much). Thor is a character who exists for other reasons than to worry about Loki or for Loki to resent is so incredibly rare in fanfic, and Thor allowed more than one emotion and team interaction as well. This story was so enjoyable to read, with lots of great little touches, like Darcy's voicemail text.

Another bizarre and thankless situation: speaking of unusual trope-defying combinations: this story has Tony, and later Natasha, taken hostage by Loki. And lo and behold, it's not about either of them having sex with Loki or realising how misunderstood Loki is. There is terrific continuity given Tony's backstory with being taken hostage. Natasha, for plot reasons, only gets to act in the last third of the tale, but when she does she's wonderfully ic and awesome, plus this is an intriguing and plausible take on how she and Tony might interact post-Avengers. As for Loki: his fans should be happy, too; I certainly am because what he ends up doing isn't for the reasons those tropes avoided in the story would have given him, but for reasons I find compatible for the in-over-his-head emotional adolescent supervillain wannabenot in need of a hug we've seen on screen.


Putting out fire (with gasoline) : a lovely and charming Tony/Pepper/Bruce threesome tale written by the magnificent in any fandom penknife.

And lastly, an Avengers/Silence of the Lambs crossover in an awesome drawing, in which Natasha and Clarice Starling have the conversation you know they did.

ETA: and this link goes to the original artist.