Fannish options & enthusiasms: March 2024

[brightknightie]

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share:

Highlight
fkficfest is on for 2024! It's choosing its challenge-style prompt pool via single-eliminations brackets, with sequential polls. No sign-ups. Nominate prompts by March 7. Post stories by May 25. Get the details.

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • lozworld is a new, all-purpose (discussion + fic) The Legend of Zelda community.
  • insert_title_here is a new challenge game for writing a story of any length, type, and fandom for 1 of 3 titles (submitted by other players) sent by the mod. Sign-ups close March 3 (7am Pacific).
  • unsent_letters_exchange is an epistolary fic exchange. Sign-ups through March 9. Stories due April 27.
  • bethefirst is an annual challenge to write for a fandom with zero fanfic in the usual places. Stories due April 20.
  • resurrectfeeling is hosting a Babylon 5 promptfest through May 31. Get the details.
  • marchmetamatterschallenge encourages preserving old and creating new fandom meta (essays, timelines, FAQs, etc.).
  • story_works is running a "Year of the Dragon" challenge through March 31.
  • whatif_au's March challenge is "immortal AU."
  • trope_of_the_month's March theme is "pregnancy & parenthood."
  • allbingo's March theme is "crafting."
  • pinchhits is a forum for recruiting pinch-hits in fannish exchanges.
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake is a themed fanfic recs comm. March theme: "no canon required."
  • recthething is a general fanwork recs comm with open reccing.
  • fanart_recs is a general fanart recs comm with signed-up and open recs.
  • het_reccers is a m/f fanfic recs comm with open reccing.
  • gensplosion is a gen fanfic recs comm with open reccing.

Some shows I missed the first time around (and am watching now)

• Babylon 5 (1993-1998)
  

  Where I lived at the time, B5 aired opposite DS9. Having grown up on Trek, of course I chose DS9. Over the years, many people have told me that B5 had extraordinary storytelling (and continuity before continuity was cool). Last fall, a friend loaned me some DVDs. I'm about halfway through season one.

  While the sets and (especially) the special effects are now almost painfully dated -- excessively more than DS9's, frankly -- I don't have any trouble suspending disbelief as for a stage production. I'm finding the themes really, startlingly relevant to today's questions and conflicts. (A subplot in the premiere hit like the proverbial ton of bricks when I watched it shortly after October 7.) The writing and acting are usually quite good. I'm told that it only gets better as it continues. I'll keep watching -- likely slowly, unless my friend requests the DVDs back soon -- with high hopes.

• Earth: Final Conflict (1997-2002)
  

  I don't remember having much awareness of E:FC while it was on the air, beyond that Lisa Howard (HL's Anne) and Lisa Ryder (FK's Tracy) had roles in it. It slipped past me almost entirely unnoticed as, I imagined, probably some sort of inferior proto-Trek. Malinaldarose suggested it in '20; I watched the premiere while sick; I've since been watching the series on and off whenever it's been available for streaming on YouTube Premium (I love YouTube Premium; no commercials on YouTube (!!!) + ample B-tier older shows and movies).

  I came to really enjoy E:FC's first season, engaging with the human characters -- especially the lead; I do love hard-pressed, conflicted, good guys with tragic losses -- and the slow uncovering of the mysterious hidden agenda of the Taelons, but then...! The first season crashed into the second and exploded. This is the most extreme retooling of a series I have ever seen that I can recall. Any genre, any medium, anything. They didn't just suddenly kill off and replace the lead with a very different character in an exceedingly improbable way, they changed the whole tone, mood, and direction (and maybe premise). I'm now somewhere in the second season, slowly pressing on, but... I must admit that the show may not be for me anymore, unless a new or restored element emerges.

• Daredevil (2015-2018)
  

  I've never had Netflix. And I rarely watch R-rated or "mature" media (the last R-rated movie I saw was Logan (2017)). Hesitant about the "mature" content, I started watching Daredevil, now on Disney+, only after Echo ended, and am now one episode from the end of the first season.

  Through fannish osmosis, I knew of some of the especially violent scenes, and have been firmly closing my eyes on much of the explicit violence. My ears convey plenty! I don't like having the camera on the violence.

  I do like pretty much everything else. The writing and acting are both usually top-notch. The stakes, micro and macro, are excellently rendered and maintained. The friendships, loneliness, learning to trust and depend, routing emotions, consequences, hopes... it's all excellent. Matt's self-scrutinies are right up my alley. (They do need more actual clients, though -- at least mentioned, if not shown. Gotta pay the rent somehow.)

Note: I converted my monthly FK recap ("Recently:FK") into general fannish engagement ("Recently:Enthusiasms").