#so much fanlore

[spirk-trek]

Promises to Keep | Cover art by Caren Parnes for Jenna Sinclair's fan novel (available to read here on Ao3), 1995

Feedback from two anonymous fans below the cut because I thought they were so sweet :)

"Last week, two repairmen were in my house and one of them came into my dining room, which is covered with Trek memorabilia. He twisted his hands, lowered his head and muttered that he was a Trek fan, too. 'I like the guy with the visor,' he said, speaking to the floor. 'And I like the robot, a little. But what I really like,' he pointed up and at the original cover of Promises to Keep that I have framed on the wall, 'are those two fellows Kirk and Spock. Do you like them, too?' Needless to say, he did an excellent job installing my air ducts, and I kept him supplied with lemonade throughout the day."

"Until you read the novel, you cannot possibly understand the symbolism of this gorgeous color artwork. Both Spock and Kirk are drawn in exquisite detail and with the accuracy of a camera lens. And yet, the camera would not capture them so -- because this is how they appear in their melds: perfection. Flawless, timeless, handsome, sensitive. Unbelievable. The closer you look the more fine features you see. Tiny vessels in the whites of Kirk’s eyes, impeccably trimmed strands of Vulcan hair. Truly a piece to be treasured."

[25origami]

Lore on Beedabop

I think it's official: Ever since we did Heat Waves, every one of us secretly wanted some lore for Beedabop. Well, official lore I might not have, but I do have some pretty neat fanlore for the little dude!

Beedabop's real name is B33-D-B0P and he originally was just a construction worker, providing extra muscle for moving heavy things. Then, he was sent to go grab some extra supplies at one of his company's old warehouses in Wasterra. To help him on the journey, one of the mechanics gave him a built-in set of speakers so he could play music all the way there to keep his energy up.

However, when Beedabop made it out all the way to Wasterra, he ran into a problem. As Dancity, the Danceverse he's from, didn't have too many hot days, he didn't have extra solar-plating to keep him from overheating. And unfortunately, he got a little too hot and that caused his battery to drain quicker than it should. Right when Beedabop got to the supplies and was gearing up to take them back (And mind you, he didn't KNOW his battery was dying on him), he went into low-power mode and fell asleep where he stood.

And for all we know, that could have very well been the end of him, had it not been for a little unexpected help. Discoball, for whatever reason, happened to be a-whizzing through Wasterra on a little trip for fun when he flew by the warehouse and saw Beedabop all sad and asleep.

He decided to give the robot a second chance. Running to go find Fix (Built For This's coach, and YES, that name is confirmed canon!), the two went back to Wasterra and helped to fix Beedabop back up again! Discoball even set a little bit of Flow coursing into the robot's system, providing that little bit of extra personality that Beedabop is now known for! And, Fix let Beedabop come work with her at her shop, so now he gets to help repair other robots as well!

So yeah, there you have it people, my unofficial fanlore for Beedabop! Feel free to share your thoughts AND... I would LOVELOVELOVE some more Just Dance characters I can do more of these Lore Drops for! So please, provide the suggestions and I'll see what I can do!

Also... pssst @lyndexv I did promise you this, so I figured I'd tag you.

[khaleesiofalicante]

Is there a fanlore page for lbaf like tlnd?

There isn’t 😕

I will however make a “previously on LBAF” video before we start the next season 🫢

[writerproblem193]

I think to me, having truly made it ™ in fandom is to have a fanlore page about you or one of your works. That was not made by you, or a friend (especially not a friend after you’ve posted “damn I’ve made it if-“).

Obviously this is a double edged sword. MsScribe, for instance, has a fanlore page.

[fuckin-sick-bih]

zenith is on spotify i'm screaming

[transformativeworks]

We know Ao3 doesn't have an app and yet they keep popping app. That makes me feel that people want it and get exploited by the fake ones.

There isn't a plan to make one but, have a PWA been considered?

Hey chaoticneutralchocolate -

The main reason that apps pop up for AO3 is not because fandom folks want it, so much as app-making-folks want to monetize fans accessing fanfiction. All those apps? they have ads. that make the developer money.

Currently, we do not have an API (application program interface), which is needed to allow an app to interact with our servers. Developing such an interface and then the apps themselves (for the various mobile platforms) would take significant time and coder effort. It’s unlikely to happen while the Archive code is still rapidly changing, as this would require the apps to be updated for each change. You can see more details at our news post on the subject: https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/3390 .

Even a browser-based app interface would be a tremendous amount of work that we do not have the staffing (or inclination) to establish or maintain.

In the meantime, you should be able to access the fully functional Archive using your device’s browser with our mobile stylesheet, and to download works to read offline with an e-reader app. You can also add a link to the site on your home screen ( https://www.howtogeek.com/196087/how-to-add-websites-to-the-home-screen-on-any-smartphone-or-tablet/ ) for quick access!

I should note that, due to fannish response, the app stores removed a number of unofficial apps in 2020. See the Fanlore page for more information: https://fanlore.org/wiki/AO3_App_Wars

(if you see an app out there claiming to be AO3 or using our logo, send a message to OTW Legal and let them know the name of the app so they can look into it!)

I hope this answers your question!

~ Mod Remi

[vvanite]

iron lung is SUCH a good game it’s so atmospheric

mhm! the game does a great job to show the environment with its limited space and mechanics. It keeps the mystery alive <3 I haven't played the game myself besides watching folks do it but it looks pretty relaxing ngl just holding down buttons and taking pictures : ] besides the unsettling noises

[olderthannetfic]

Ok. Dumb question incoming, but I'd much have a 'conversation' than try to read fanlore or watch video essays or something because I want to hear individual people's contributions.

Why Star Trek?

Don't get me wrong - I like the franchise! I'm not super duper familiar with it, but I do enjoy the bits and pieces that I do know. But I am wondering why that in particular is hailed as the grandmother of all fandoms? Obviously people were fannish before Trek, but I don't think anyone can deny the impact that OG Trekkies had on fic, zines, and eventually on the internet.

I know that it's always been popular and well-liked, but it's not as if there was NO SUCH THING as popular culture/fan culture before that (I mean, come on, the term "parasocial" predates the first Star Trek episode by 10 years!) . Was it just a perfect mix of timing + popularity + etc? Is there something in particular about ST that "hit different" than other series at the time? Or is the fandom really really just that mighty and it's almost "luck" in a way? I guess I'm wondering what particular dominoes cascaded in a line in order for Star Trek to have the impact on fandom that it does today.

or am I wrong? were there just-as-big fandoms before and I simply overhype Trekkie power in my head / happen to see more talk of that than I do of other fandoms? It could definitely be a social circle bias thing.

Ugh. Asking OTNF why Star Trek is so important to fandom history feels very much like asking a Russian History major why War & Peace is so important to literature - hence why I warned you that it'd be a dumb question! But I am just so damn curious what sort of crack was in early ST fandom that made it SO widespread and SO strong.

Like, I guess the TLDR is: what was particularly 'different' about Star Trek, either as a fandom or as a franchise or both, that made it Theeeeee OG fandom, rather than something, like, i dunno, LOTR or the earliest versions of Marvel/DC comics or General Hospital or something else like that?

--

I await the hordes of angry Man from U.N.C.L.E. fans eager to prove that they were first.

And, no, it wasn't that popular. Hence the aggressive Save Our Show campaign and explosion of fan culture when it ended after three seasons.

Part of the answer to your question is that there were like three things on TV at the time. What big fandoms? 'Parasocial' was about non-subculture people feeling warmly towards news anchors or hosts of variety shows or something, wasn't it?

LOTR got rediscovered in the 60s or 70s from what I hear, but science fiction and fantasy books were for fringe weirdoes. SFF was not mainstream for the most part. There are a bunch of History of Book SF Fandom things on Youtube, and you should consult them on the complex role of LOTR in that space. LOTR wasn't a mainstream thing until there were live action movies a billion years later.

The key about Star Trek is that it was a hit with the pre-existing book SF crowd. They were an organized subculture. Some of their favorite writers wrote episodes. Other shit on TV was for people who did not form subcultures in that way. Other shit for SF fans had an audience 1/10,00th the size.

MFU was insanely popular. Illya Kuryakin was the heartthrob of a certain era of girl and inspired many a Russian major. (Seriously, there are soooo many Russia-boos of a certain age who probably still have a poster of him somewhere.) The actor set a record for fanmail. The show may have more influence on fandom history than we think now, but it also didn't rerun the way Trek did, at least in some eras, and it didn't have sequel series in a franchise. I'm always finding 2015 movie fans shocked that there's a still extant and semi-active fandom—or even shocked that the movie is based on something.

Starsky & Hutch was also hugely important and is the moment slash fandom and "Media Fandom" really split from book SF fandom. As Trek fans moved on to buddy cops, they were into a completely mainstream show but in a non-mainstream way. Trek was an awkward bedfellow at SF cons, but S&H just didn't fit at all.

Of course, while Trek is the grandma of AO3 type fandom, don't forget that a shitton of modern fans who are doing "research" just look at the same few sources. Enterprising Women is great and all, but even other fans of the same stuff are like "Oh, that was just X's friends. Where's [thing] and [thing] and [thing]?" Ditto Textual Poachers and the other scant early sources that people think have academic weight.

While Trek would still be central, the picture of what was going on in the late 60s-early 80s would look a bit different if you just found a bunch of 70-something nerds and asked them than if you regurgitate other people's research, you know?

If you want an idea of what else was going on in SF fandom back in the day, check out Galactic Journey, where they roleplay that it's 55 years ago and review SF things "as they come out".

If you want to understand MFU, here's a vid of Illya:

--

What say you, readers?

What have acafandom and fandom history and meta left out?

[archangelbeth]

huh! i had heard that there was a falling out over money (the version I was given was "fan's husband, a lawyer, thought the deal was bad and..."), but myyyyy things are interesting.

(Still don't wanna accidentally swipe anything, though!)

Okay, some fandom history, why show writers and authors say “for legal reasons” the can’t read fan fic.

Back in ancient times in the 1970s there was a show called Star Trek the Animated Series.  It was on the air as fandom culture around Star Trek was really taking route and there were many fanzines (things on actual paper that people bought) being published and the first conventions to attend.

David Gerrold was a writer for Star Trek the Animated Series who had also written one of the most famous episodes of the original series The Trouble with Tribbles.  While he was around the production office for STtAS he was introduced to a couple of fans who proceeded to tell him all about their ideas for an episode–essentially a sequel to his famous episode–which it so happens he had already written a script for.  When that episode aired he received a letter from one of those fans lawyers demanding “credit”.  It so happened that he could prove that the episode existed before the meeting but the involvement of lawyers and a threat to sue became widely known.

Marion Zimmer Bradly was, before recent horrifying revelations decades after her death, a titan of fantasy writing.  She also welcome fan fiction and published it in anthologies and in a magazine she published.  One day she opened a story sent to her and the plot of the story was essentially the plot of a a novel she had nearly finished writing.  More than a years worth of her work was now unpublishable because it was provable that she had read this story with this similar plot and she couldn’t prove the work on the novel existed before she saw the story.  She stopped publishing anthologies and fan fiction and in particular the MZB story is the one a lot of professional writers know as representative of the dangers of fan fiction.

So when a writer says they can’t read fan fiction for legal reasons it’s that their own lawyers are protecting them from outside lawsuits.

And this is why knowing your fandom history matters.

[spirk-trek]

hii this is really random but i'm writting a paper on star trek fanfiction from the 60s/70s and i was wondering if there were any fics youd recommend? are there any like iconic, keystone fics that are really significant to the fandom? (i'm having a bit of trouble sourcing pre-internet fics)

Hi! I'll try to help the best I can but I am by no means an expert- in fact, many people who end up seeing this may have better/more information so I'll extend it to any of them to answer as well :)

Disclaimer: many of the following links contain nsfw content!!!

Here is page 1 and page 2 of what might be the first known k/s fanfic published in Grup fanzine (1974). Grup is credited as being the first Star Trek fanzine with adult content. This fic, A Fragment Out of Time by Diane Marchant was vague enough that it had to be clarified as k/s in a later edition, but the author did do so.

Spockanalia is always a good source for early fandom. It is the earliest and best preserved example of fanzine content (beginning in 1967 before the second season had even aired). I'd definitely say that makes it influential! So much more can be found on the internet archive and on fanlore. Copies of Spockanalia found their ways into the hands of many people involved in the show, including Roddenberry himself.

Gayle F is a prolific fanzine artist (one of my favorites) for k/s and is also influential to k/s writing. She was behind the Cosmic Fuck Series (yes really lol) which begins with Desert Heat (1976) in which Spock prematurely enters his second Pon Farr with only Jim available to him. This is the first mention (that I know of) of Spock's "double ridges" which are still a fanon element of his anatomy today (fanlore link here).

Alexis Fegan Black is another name to know, but is actually the pen name for author Della Van Hise. She did a lot of her work in the 80s and beyond, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but I think she's very influential. You may know about her licensed trek novel Killing Time (1982) because the first edition was recalled for being way too gay (changes between the two versions are best documented here imo).

Jenna Sinclair was very influential but again, a lot of her works came a little later than what you're looking for (note: ao3 does NOT have the correct dates, you'll need to find those separately).

A few more links to throw at you:

List of Star Trek Fanzines

List of Star Trek SLASH Fanzines

Captain's Log (1968)

The Crewman's Log (1967)

Spock's Showcase (1968)

Spock's Underground (1968-71)

The Sensuous Vulcan (slash zine, 1977)

Thrust (slash zine, 1978)

I hope all these links work and at least something I mentioned is helpful for you!! Good luck! I'd love to hear about your research if you're so inclined to share :)

[breakandbuildfiction]

The Danny Phantom Crossover Power Scaling Issue

The existence of the Ghost Zone/Infinite Realms in Danny Phantom should, in theory, make it super easy to create crossover stories between DP and other series. The Ghost Zone is literally a dimension that exists between dimensions and has literal doorways and random portals that lead to random points between time and space and to pocket dimensions. There would be no reason NOT to have Danny just decide to check out another dimension, to have one of his rogues go cause trouble somewhere that Danny has to chase them down. And yet most people here and on AO3 only do Danny Phantom crossover prompts and stories with DC Comics.

Why? Well, for one thing DC Comics is just very easy to do crossover scenarios with thanks to it having so many different original locations, teams, and power origins. But another reason, from what I have been able to gather, is the problem of power scaling.

Danny Phantom, even without adding in fanlore like Ghost King Danny, Eldritch Danny, and Ancient of Space Danny, is incredibly OP both in terms of raw power and because he has a such a wide range of incredibly powerful, useful, and dangerous abilities.

Danny has superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes, he can fly, regenerate, shoot lasers/plasma from anywhere on his body, has cryokinesis and telekinesis, can duplicate himself, can vanish from the visible light spectrum and phase through solid mater and most forms of energy, and more. And there is only so many of those powers you can ignore and how much you can weaken them before it becomes ridiculous and character-breaking.

How can you have Danny become part of a story like Harry Potter without either making it so he never uses his powers or just steamrolls the challenges that nearly get Harry and his friends killed every year? How can you have Danny throw down in the MHA universe without him negating the danger presented to him by becoming intangible and attacking at range or overshadowing his opponents? Or Game of Thrones without making all the dangers and power plays of that world looking like a joke when he can just fly into King's Landing and force Cersei to confess to her infidelity and incest or make Joffrey look so deranged that his allies have no choice but to abandon him? Hell, I brought up shows like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss on this blog before and I had to be very careful to avoid anything that would boil down to Danny becoming part of the direct military conflict between Heaven and Hell or having to interact with IMP!

To make crossovers with Danny Phantom work you either need to use a universe that has powers that scale to Danny's own, like DC and Marvel, or you need to avoid stories that could be solved via direct combat, which means ignoring the primary genre of Danny Phantom and a severely major aspect of what makes Danny unique as a character. So people, including me, tend to restrict themselves to DPxDC to avoid the problem of powerscaling as much as possible and allow us to have Danny keep his powers and keep having a history of heroics and personality that is in line with protecting and fighting people.

[skumhuu]

Hi! Sorry if it was answered before, but do you have some links/know the most "correct" definition for comship and how it's different from proship?

I get really confused by the two, and it's always hard to tell what is the correct version, with how much misinterpretation there are around proshippers in general ._.

Oh!! Good question, so before I begin, disclaimer: I am not personally comfortable with the term comship or comshipper. I personally feel that it divides the community up and singles out people who actually like problematic themes. This makes it much easier to harass and target people.

Comshipper was created to make distance from the term proshipper, since it’s meaning has become so twisted due to harassment and people lying. In fact, a former anti was the one to coin the term due to the constant harassment one faces if they identify as a proshipper. Comship, or complex/complicated shipping means that on top of being against harassment over fiction and censorship, you actually like problematic themes. By definition I am both proship and comship

Here’s a fanlore link

Also here are some examples of proship definition and how it typically gets twisted:

[kuwdora]

I have two fanvid recs that are premiere examples of vidding whump so you too can see and enjoy the excruciating pain and suffering a character can go through. I know vidding conventions have curated hurt/comfort/whump themed vidshows so that’s something worth looking into if you want more whump vids. Or you can just ask me and if I don’t know of what you’re looking for I certainly can find someone who has vidded it. Because vidders fucking LOVE to vid the whump. :)

On the Prowl is a multi-fandom fanvid by sisabet and sweestdrain. This vid exemplifies psychological and physical torture that is inherent in whump and how far fans gleefully take it. Stripping the men, all the fighting, torture, flaying them. The way this vid escalates is horrifying and captivating and horny (until maybe it isn’t horny anymore, YMMV). It’s the fannish id in vid form. In fact it was created for the themed challenge of ‘self portrait’ at Vividcon. A must-see for any devotees and those curious about whump. You can also read more from sweetestdrain on the "On the Making of On The Prowl" here.

Flagpole Sitta is a Stargate SG-1 fanvid by LittleHeaven70. This is Daniel Jackson. He is literally the textbook definition of Whump. You can look it up on Fanlore or check the tags on this post where everyone is name-checking him. There’s plenty of hurt/comfort origins in X-Files and Star Trek but a lot of culmination of ‘whump’ as a specific term is because of Daniel. He’s died more times than I can remember, been beaten, drugged, gone through all dub-con situations, had his brain scrambled, electrocuted, died some more. For over 200 episodes! The tone of this vid is completely opposite compared to On the Prowl, but it works perfectly because of the tone of the show. Daniel Jackson is the embodiment of whump and this vid is soooo good at showing all the pain and suffering and agonies.

we used to have normalized whump. remember what they took from you....

[bikenesmith]

hi just heads-upping Cherik Nation (and xmen nation at large) abt something i heard thru the grapevine: a new xmen kink meme has been set up on dreamwidth! (lmk if this has been posted by the creators on tumblr already — would love to signal boost)

it's been ages since there's been an active one in xmen fandom (much less one that is for all xmen canons!), and i really want it to thrive, so i thought i'd shout it out. here's an old meme of mine for visibility 😭

(also. just realized that this is Kind Of Old Terminology, so if you don't know what a kink meme is, check out the fanlore page. tl;dr its an anonymous ongoing commentfic fest with usually, but not exclusively, nsfw prompts)

[kuwdora]

Saturday Morning Vid Recs - Space and Robots

@tafkarfanfic asked me for vid recs that are similar to the following vids:

Data’s Dream by GayleF (Gayle) and TasheryS which premiered at Escapade in 1994 - made on a VCR!! - and was remastered by morgandawn in 2004. Definitely check out the Fanlore page about Data’s Dream. Star Trek + multi-source.

Starships by bironic. Multi-source. The history of Starships on Fanlore.

These two vids are iconic. Please check them out and learn about their history from the Fanlore page, it's a great look at some vidding history and culture. Amazing vids, do love. As for some recs. I love this kind of prompt. More vids like [this vid] is so much fun. I dug deep into my vid rec archives and brain and bookmarks. I’ve also crowdsourced some recs from the vidding discord. Thank you to @rukbat3, @sandalwoodbox, @fairestcat, @monkeyswithjetpacks, @grammarwoman for the reccing help! And everyone else I might have forgotten.

From Land to Sky - and kicking ass while you're there!

Landsailor by @singlecrow/raven. Multi-source. Swades (We, The People); Master and Commander; 3 Idiots; The Dish; The West Wing; Parks and Recreation; Flight of the Phoenix; NASA archive footage; Apollo 13. ❤️ We're gonna need a bigger boat. Come O’ Eclipse by melodytree. Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer. Calendar-making! Math puzzles! Astronomy! Politics! Eclipses! Oh my! Galaxyrise by starlady. Multi-source. Apollo 13 (1995), Interstellar (2014), Gravity (2013), Europa Report (2013), Contact (1997), The Martian (2015). This vid is full of so much wonder! The sky calls to us/If we do not destroy ourselves/We will one day venture to the stars. Going through space with the world by bironic. Space Exploration RPF. ❤️❤️❤️ From "day in the life of an astronaut" videos to international stardom; or, Chris Hadfield and his adorable mustache. Monsters of the Cosmos by CherryIce. Thor/MCU. Jane Foster/Science.Cherry’s editing is goddamn incredible. In the last century, black holes have gone from being mathematical curiosities to real objects in the cosmos. This is a vid about Jane Foster and her one true love, Science. Also, Thor is there. Toxic by JinkyO. The Planets (TV - 2019). Humanity/The Solar System. This vid is so fucking brilliant and makes me cackle in love and awe so much. It's dangerous, I'm loving it. Sci-Fi Friday in a Blender by Luminosity. Multi-source. Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. So much happening in this vid. This is among one of the earliest vids I remember watching and became obsessed with back in the day. Supernova Girl by @usuallyhats. Multifandom. Doctor Who, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Steven Universe, Andromeda, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Mass Effect, Stargate. So many wonderful brilliant amazing EXCELLENT supernova women and girls. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Space Girl by @aurumcalendula. Multi-source scifi. Inspired by Charmax’s Space Girl vid and Bironic’s The Greatest. This vid has a great selection of newer tv shows and films and it’s fun to play spot that character. But also this vid will grab you by the heart, too. Utterly brilliant, perfection. A must watch!! 'I've been as far in hyperspace as anybody can.' One Girl Revolution by bessyboo. Star Wars, original and prequel. Padme and Leia!! Seeing these two focused on in one Star Wars vid is an adventurous kickass ride. I'll be everything that I want to be. Space Girl by charmax. Multi-source scifi. One of the most beautiful epic space vids out there! I know I’ve recced this before and I’ll rec it again and again and again. My momma told me I should never watch Sci-fi but I did, I did, I did.

Robots! More than wires.

If a Machine by caramarie, Multi-source. Robot narrative focusing on machine origin, intelligence, and interaction with humanity. And Human fallibility. An incredibly rewarding watch and rewatch. This is the story of cables and copper wirings. Electric Avenue by @monkeyswithjetpacks. Multi-source robots! Nate’s multi-vids are always so fun, especially when it’s showcasing classic cinema and all these excellent serials. Electric Avenue has source from 1919 to 2015. His editing is always on fucking point. Don’t miss this vid. We’re gonna rock down to electric avenue. Everybody by @kuwdora. Star Trek, the Borg. This vid was actually inspired by the Backstreet Boys original music video. I still have the vivid memory of watching or rewatching the original music video in @ars-amatoria ’s kitchen. And then at some point realizing it is perfect for the Borg. Am I original, am I the only one? Fembots by Grammarwoman. Multi-source. Sexy sharp editing and fun use of all the sources. The intersection of women and technology: a spectrum of clones, AIs, gynoids, cyborgs, and other artificial creations. On by @rhoboat77. Star Trek: Picard. A Soji fanvid. Rho has the sharpest editing skills this side of the Internet and this Soji vid is so fucking badass and worth 100 rewatches. Can’t hold me down cuz you know I’m a fighter. Que Sera Sera by @ohvienna. Star Trek Voyager and Picard. Seven of Nine.Nobody vids their Seven of Nine love like @ohvienna. You gotta watch this if you love Seven. Whatever will be, will be…"

Journey through Space.

To Touch the Face of God by destina. Multi-source. The Right Stuff (1983, )The Dream Is Alive, From the Earth to the Moon (TV).This is one of the most beautiful moving vids you will EVER, and I mean EVER see. From Chuck Yeager, to the Mercury 7, and on to Apollo and the Space Shuttle Program (STS) - a very human history of the triumphs, joys, and tragedies of the USA's journey into space. Doctor Who on Holiday by sisabet. Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. A mashup vid of Luminosity’s Sci-Fi Friday in a Blender. This vid inspired me so much. And I have 10 very intense ideas about how I would do my own remix of this vid if I were to make it right now. Fly Me To the Moon by thirdblindmouse. Multi-source. This vid has everything! Alien sex! Xenophilia! Zero-gravity sex! Mpreg!!! Because everyone knows this song is about space sex. Game Night in Space by garrideb. Multi-source. This vid!!!!! IS! SO! MUCH! FUN!! Game on! How are you going to spend those long nights on your starship? Play games, of course! Space poker, space chess, space Monopoly… this is a fanvid celebrating game night in space, set to Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. Starships (Monochromatic Remix) by @monkeyswithjetpacks. Multi-source. See the Fanlore page on the history of Starships (Monochromatic Remix). ALSO check out jetpack-monkey’s extensive notes and side-by-side comparison vid of the original vid and his vid!! He matched Starships shot-for-shot! Most brilliant work ever. The vid notes aren’t on the ao3 page so I HIGHLY recommend checking out the notes on his dreamwidth page! This vid is 10 million kinds of brilliant and technical prowess and perfection.

Vidshow Rec

Alien Invasion! - 30 vids curated and organized into a show by @tafadhali for VidUKon 2024. Featuring films and tv shows: Nope, Attack the Block, Pacific Rim, Venom, Doctor Who, Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek, Prey, Smallville, Rowswell, Supergirl, Arrival, Starship Troopers and more.

Follow these tags to keep up with vid recs this summer:

#saturday morning vid recs

#kuwdora recs

A helpful guide I wrote:

How to Leave Feedback on Fanvids

[lurking-latinist]

A The Prisoner fanzine from 1980 asks for fiction submissions, but with restrictions: "No sex fantasies, no Mary-Jane stories, no Billy-Joe stories. Number 6 never meets Number 1. No. 6 never meets God. No. 6 never becomes God. No. 6 never meets or becomes godzilla." (And a whole string of other universe-breaking no-nos.)

Me, I'm intrigued by "Mary-Jane" and "Billy-Joe stories." The editor doesn't define them at all, evidently assuming her readers recognize the term. Is this a variant name for "Mary Sues"?

Fanlore has some background on the more familiar term. Lt. Mary Sue of the starship Enterprise made her debut in the parody "A Trekkie's Tale" in 1973 and apparently took off quickly, at least in Star Trek fandom. I don't know how much overlap The Prisoner fandom had with Star Trek -- this fanzine, The Green Dome, is US-based, so there likely was at least some overlap. Was the editor thinking of the term "Mary Sue"? Was "Mary-Jane" also known as a term for an obnoxious self-insert character? Or are "Mary-Jane and Billy-Joe stories" something else?

Was "Billy-Joe" actually a common term? Or was it like how everyone says the male version of a Mary Sue is a Gary Stu, but far fewer people actually complain about Gary Stus?

In Fanlore's list of fics that have famously been described as containing Mary Sues (or something; it's a little unclear what this list is supposed to be examples of), the earliest non-Star Trek example is from 1980 (for the UFO fandom), but it's unclear whether it was being described as a "Mary Sue story" when published or in retrospect. By 1982, an article in a feminist fanzine discusses the development of the term/concept across multiple fandoms. The zine isn't fandom-specific and it seems neither is the term, by now; so maybe 1980 was about when it was moving into other fandoms?

But never in all this history of the Mary Sue do I find any variant of her name. Mary Sue is always Mary Sue (sometimes Lieutenant or Ensign, but still Mary Sue). So I'm not even sure if the Green Dome reference means the same type of character, or if it's referring to some other objectionable archetype.

Who the heck is Mary-Jane--and Billy-Joe, of course--and why don't we want her in the Village??

Genuine question. Anyone know?