Fandoms old and new

[selenak]

It's always nice to find one's old stories remembered. Oh, Babylon 5. I still love that universe as much as ever, and I'd say the only reason why I haven't written stories set in it for a long while was that all my stories in this 'verse are told, except that's not exactly true, as I found out via Remix Redux and the six degrees of character connection meme, which got hte B5 writing juices going this year as if they hadn't left.

Still in a nostalgic meme: nomadicwriter has written a fabulous lengthy and plotty Alias AU, Twist of Faith, posting a chapter each day (it'll be twenty all in all, and six are posted so far), in why My Darling Arvin has a central role but Jack, Sydney and even Vaughn are all wonderfully drawn (and important) as well. The departure from canon happens when things go awry in the season one episode Page 47, and so far, I've been loving every step.

On to new and current fandoms: found via samdonne: Precious Illusion is hands down one of the best comicverse Iron Man stories I've ever read. It's set post-Civil War. Steve Rogers is back, but instead of going the way reunion stories usually go, this one takes a very different turn. It's gen, with as much subtext as when Bendis, Brubaker or Cage write Steve and Tony (which is to say, a lot, but avowed anti-slashers can ignore it), and refuses any easy answers. harmonyangel, likeadeuce, if you haven't read it already, you must!

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I'd never read that story about the lidara before - it's beautiful!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was one of those inspirations one has during discussions (in this case about the non-human telepaths, with someone wondering whatever became of the women in white around Turhan), and I loved writing it.

[nomadicwriter]

Thanks! And heh, I'm amused by the "even Vaughn", because I was surprised myself by how much he ended up becoming the fourth main character in this. He turns out to be a really useful character in the s1/s2 dynamic where he's Sydney's only sounding board.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, when I did a meme about good things done by characters I dislike, that was my very example for Alias - Vaughn was really necessary and good for Sydney during the first two seasons.

(Though I don't dislike Vaughn all the time. I'm just indifferent to him in s1 and 2, have my period of violent dislike in season 3, and then am surprised by actually liking him in s4. Ice is Vaughn-centric and a favourite episode of mine, who'd have thunk it. He's hardly in s5, so no like or dislike there.)

[nomadicwriter]

That was pretty much my pattern as well, although the point where I started really enjoying the Syd-Vaughn dynamic again was... the first episode of season five. *facepalm* I mostly just found him blandly inoffensive, but yeah, in s3 he successfully stomped to death any sympathy I was supposed to have over the Lauren arc with his actions. (Especially in "Legacy" when he ran off to chase Lauren, leaving Syd alone with a semi-conscious Nadia when neither Sloane nor his guards had been secured. If Sloane had actually meant either of the girls any harm they would have been so dead right then. And the show kept trying to draw parallels between Vaughn and Jack while ignoring the fact that in the same situation, Jack put the official mission of capturing Sloane above chasing after Irina. Grr.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me started on the show's attempt to make Vaughn into Jack Lite. As you say, those parallels really, really didn't work. Really, the only time when I enjoy Vaughn being on screen during season 3 is when Sloane messes with him. (´"Don't worry, Agent Vaughn. I love her just like you do.") Otherwise it's grrrr, arggghhh all the way in that season, plus I go *facepalm* about the writing staff actually using the term "soulmate" on screen re Syd/Vaughn...