metanews | Meta Links 2014/02/19

AMAZING (belated) ANNIVERSARY EDITION!

Yes, this is the (late, because your mod team can't count) anniversary edition of the newsletter. Wherein everything is exactly as usual, you just get a notice telling you we've been around for a whole year now! How crazy is that?

As ever, we're still on the look out for VOLUNTEERS to help gathering links. The number of places we have to look has only grown since we started. Extra eyes or hands or ears or various appendages much appreciated. If you have meta to submit or rec, please comment to this post or to the screened Submissions Post. If you'd like to give us blanket permission to link your meta please comment to the Blanket Permissions Post. If you have feedback or questions, check out our FAQ, Contact the Mods, or PM/email.

Links

General Fandom

Magical Mondays: Vampires and Their Limits: stinekey (blog) - "When it’s done well, fictional magic combines a certain amount of mystery with a solid set of rules. "

topic:vampires

In Brightest Day: Addiction in Geek Media: Lady Saika (blog) - "From Tony Stark’s alcoholism to Sherlock Holmes’s 7% solution, geek media is rife with portrayals of addiction and substance abuse."

topic:addiction

Tips on Exploring Difficult Issues: fandomwanderers (blog) - "what if you do decide to try and tackle some issues in your fan-based work? It can be quite a daunting prospect to consider exploring something as serious and emotive as say addiction or feminism or teenage pregnancy. This is regardless of whether you have personal experience or professional knowledge of them."

topic:meta

Why the SFWA Shoutback Matters: Juliet E. McKenna blog) - "So the time and effort I’ve put in over a decade and more, trying to convince these people that SF&F is a mature, nuanced literature worthy of respect had been effectively trashed by one entitled individual’s spiteful fit of pique. That infuriates me."

topic:sci-fi, topic:diversity, topic:feminism

Male (human) pregnancy - why it wouldn't work: del_rion (LJ) - "I've been trying to find facts on why men would not be able to carry out a pregnancy (skipping the obvious reason of missing equipment - that is being bypassed in the story). I'm looking for less obvious things, like the strength of a male heart versus that of a woman … What about other organs? How good are they at re-arranging themselves to make room for a growing baby? "

topic:writing

Untitled: anatsuno (tumblr) - "why did people claim that ao3 was gonna destroy fandom forever???"

topic:fandom, topic:ao3

Common Misconceptions About Old Mythologies & Religions: Springhole.net (blog) - "There are a lot of misconceptions about mythology that have been filtering into fiction and roleplays these days."

topic:religion, topic:myth

Talking to Aliens, and Talking Past Aliens: James L. Cambias - Nerds of a Feather (blog) - "My novel A Darkling Sea is about a lot of things — the value of science and exploration, the fallacy of trying to distinguish between human activity and what is "natural," and the way our goals are driven by personal desires as much as grand ideologies or rational calculation. But one of the main themes is communication."

topic:writing, topic:communication

Specific Fandoms

Arrow
Arrow Thursday: Antagonists: Jennifer Crusie (blog) - "If there’s one thing that Arrow does good, it’s Bad. So let’s talk about antagonists."

topic:writing, topic:antagonist, fandom:arrow

A Song of Ice and Fire
About how the Starks and Lannisters function as Parallels: secretlyatargaryen(tumblr) - "Specifically, the discussion of character parallels got me thinking about how Jon and Tyrion function as parallels, but I didn’t want to reply to the post directly because I’m going on my own little tangent here."

fandom:asoiaf

Meta with Arya and Self-Esteem: donewithwoodenteeth(tumblr) - "And of course, Arya and self-esteem is such a big theme in her arc! She’s very vulnerable about her own value to other people."

fandom:asoiaf, topic:character

so, i love tywin as well. he's one of my favorite characters and i feel like he's being misjudged by the fandom.: myrish-swamp (tumblr) - "I don’t think the fandom is misjudging Tywin at all. Tywin Lannister is a complete asshole, and he is most definitely not someone with “great” morality."

fandom:asoiaf, topic:character

Greywater Watch and the Neck : thickblackblood(tumblr) - "as the books continue to expand our knowledge of not just westeros but the entirety of the world of ice and fire, geographically and temporally back through to before aegon’s conquest, it seems like one of the big blind spots is still the neck."

fandom:asoiaf

if grrm says smallfolk have no last names and only acknowledged bastards of highborn parents get a (bastard) surname, why the fuck is gendry a waters?:donewithwoodenteeth(tumblr) - "Gendry is definitely not a Waters. He’s an unacknowledged bastard presumed to be born from someone “common” on both sides working as a smith for a band of outlaws and orphans (not really prominent.)"

fandom:asoiaf

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa VI: Steven Attewell (blog) - "Sansa VI is a brilliant conclusion of George R.R. Martin’s deconstruction of romantic fantasy, and it strikes me as strange that so many people don’t see the deconstruction, especially after this point, because so much of the chapter revolves around imagery of waking up from dreams to see a nightmarish reality around them."

fandom:asoiaf, fandom:gameofthrones

Bloom County
“Hasn’t anyone lost anything tangible?!” : Bloom County as realism: Albert Stabler - Hooded Utilitarian (blog) - "And there is of course the prisoner swap of the re-educated Bill the Cat to the Soviets to get back Opus and Cutter John, along with the memorable inventions of a Basselope-based missile and an air defense shield composed of orbiting money."

fandom:bloomcounty, topic:realism

Creating Children: Noah Berlatsky - Hooded Utilitarian (blog) - "Bill Waterson’s Calvin and Hobbes is a strip about the wonders of imagination. And, as this famous Sunday shows, the wonder there, and the imagination as well, is insistently self-referential."

fandom:calvinandhobbes, fandom:bloomcounty, topic:realism

Breaking Bad
I have a character issue: rosereddawn (tumblr) - "As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch."

fandom:breakingbad, topic:feminism

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The hardest thing for Buffy to forgive Spike: itsnotmymind (LJ) - "I think the hardest thing for Buffy to forgive Spike for was not, actually, the attempted rape, but his failure to save her from herself."

fandom:btvs

Die Hard
Die Hard and Fairy Tales: Max Gladstone (blog) - "I think Die Hard might be a fairy tale."

fandom:diehard

Doctor Who
Meditations on Character: dirgewithoutmusic (AO3) - "This is a series of short essays in which I attempt to answer some questions for the sake of my own curiosity and piece of mind.
So far, I've rambled on: Mickey/Martha and how it might play out; how to tell Amy's story with agency attached; Rose's importance to Nine and to Ten; whether Martha Jones is technically a "companion," or if she's something more (I like Martha. I didn't use to. If you do not like Martha, you are missing out on some real fun)."

fandom:doctorwho

Elementary
Elementary: “Child Predator”: James Daily (blog) - "1. Would the DA really offer such an all-encompassing deal. 2. When it’s discovered that he really is the prime instigator would the deal still hold. 3. Would the “solo” murder be covered by the deal or not."

fandom:elementary, topic:law

Fantastic Four
Future On!: Michael B. Jordan And The New Human Torch’s World: Arturo R. García - Racialicious (blog) - "A multiracial family background could do as much for Jordan and Mara’s characters than the adoption explanation most are expecting right now. More importantly, how great will it be to see a multiracial sibling pair of superheroes?"

fandom:mcu, topic:race

Game of Thrones
POP CULTURE NEEDS MORE BRIENNES OF TARTH: Caitlin (blog) - "“Why don’t we ever see female action heroes that look like Stefanie Dolson? I’m way more likely to buy that she can beat up a bunch of guys than most of the actresses in these shows.”"

fandom:gameofthrones

Harry Potter
Writing series: 2: Characters: harrybang (LJ) - "Welcome to the second post in our Writing Series, which looks at writing characters and drills down into the characterisation of Harry Potter."

topic:writing, fandom:harrypotter, topic:character

Oh, My Pop Culture Not-Jesus: How Harry Potter Ceases to be a Christ Figure: syngraphea (blog) - "Contributors to this blog have written before about how Harry Potter is a Christ figure. So I’m not going to go into that here. It’s kind of obvious, people! No, what I’m going to discuss is how Harry ceases to be a Christ figure after Voldemort is defeated."

fandom:harrypotter, topic:religion

Heroes Reborn
The Heroes We’d Like To See Most In Heroes: Reborn: Arturo R. García - Racialicious (blog) - "Yes, Heroes is apparently returning from the grave, with original showrunner Tim Kring in tow, sometime next year. As sensible longtime readers might have bleached out of their brain, the series’ first iteration ended, mercifully, with a pre-Nashville Claire-Bear outing the metahuman population to the world after Team Benetrelli saved the world from a group of angry carnival workers."

fandom:heroes

House of Cards
How Ignoring Ideology Makes ‘House Of Cards’ Boring: Alyssa Rosenberg - ThinkProgress (blog) - "Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) has no discernible reasons for being a Democrat, no particular view about how the world best functions, or what is fair and just."

fandom:houseofcards, topic:politics

Legend of Zelda
A Link Across Time: The Power of Childhood in The Legend of Zelda: Richard Rosenbaum - Overthinking It (blog) - "But while Nintendo has rereleased earlier 2D games with newly enhanced 3D graphics to give a nostalgic experience of old games using cutting-edge technology, A Link Between Worlds is absolutely an original and whole work that significantly builds upon A Link to the Past rather than merely repackages it."

fandom:legendofzelda

Leverage
Subsequently on Leverage: The Community Arc Through Season One: Jennifer Crusie (blog) - "The pilot for the series is a great tutorial on how to create a team very quickly while individualizing all its members."

fandom:leverage

Leverage Sunday: The Nigerian Job by John Rogers & Chris Downey: Creating a Community: Jennifer Crusie (blog) - "Since this series of TV Sundays is about building a community, here’s a synopsis of the community building done over the first season of Leverage"

fandom:leverage

Robocop, True Detective
10 Reasons RoboCop Is Perfect for True Detective: fenzel - Overthinking It (blog) - "This is one of the big themes of True Detective: Woody Harrelson’s character Hart is a wounded family man who doesn’t know how to live any other way. There’s something about being a cop that he can’t handle, and he’s destroys himself in bad decisions driven by fear and self-loathing."

fandom:robocop, fandom:true detective

RoboCop (2014)
Yo, it’s meta time. : sentimental mercenary(tumblr) - "I was thinking that Mattox, the EM 208s (hereafter EMs because I suck at typing numbers still apparently) and Alex form a sort of triangle."

fandom:robocop, topic:character

Scandal
Scandalous Alignments: Viv - The Learned Fangirl (blog) - "Not surprisingly, the number of good-aligned characters are in the single digits. It’s because of the writing of the show, where everyone is seen as almost anti-heros, which lends to the complexity of characters and the writing (as well as over the top soapy moments). "

fandom:scandal

Sherlock BBC
Lighting Mary TEH : (tumblr) - 221beemine"Because Mary has become a divisive character, here is my disclaimer. This isn’t Mary Hate."

fandom:bbcsherlock

Let’s play meta writer: mathildalocks(tumblr) - "This single frame is what made me question Moriarty’s real motivations for Sherlock"

fandom:bbcsherlock, topic:character

The Blame Game: whichwolfwins(tumblr) - "There is so much going on in this scene, it’s fantastic. This scene was basically the love confession a lot of us were hoping for sneaking out right under our noses."

fandom:bbcsherlock, topic:character

Each Frame Tells a Story : mid0nz (blog) - "It was when I watched the credits roll on The Great Game, season one’s gripping cliffhanger, that I realized I’d become utterly immersed in the Sherlock universe because of its stunning visuals.
"

topic:bbcsherlock

Star Wars
The Great Gender Divide: Teresa (blog) - "As soon as I noticed that the only Star Wars Rebels action figures that were shown at Toy Fair were male I knew I had to raise my voice."

fandom:starwars, topic:representation

Teen Wolf
Teen Wolf Fandom Will Devour Itself: How Fandom Threw Tyler Posey Under The Bus With Teen Wolf’s Blessing: Lady Geek Girl (blog) - "Things in the Teen Wolf fandom are, admittedly, almost always an unbearable shitstorm of hate, with fans doing everything from using offensive slurs against cast members to calling for their rape and murder. "

fandom:teenwolf, topic:fandom

Sexualized Saturdays: Teen Wolfand the Turmoils of Male Puberty: polyglotpisces (blog) - "Uncontrollable urges, animalistic appetites and aggression, hair growing in new and unusual places: these are the trials and struggles of any nascent werewolf. Or teenager. "

fandom:teenwolf

The Americans
Symmetries in "The Americans" Part 1: quantumrealist (DW) - "As the second season begins to ramp up, I want to revisit "The Americans" from the point of view of the symmetries I've seen in the series, starting with the opening credits."

fandom:theamericans

The Flash
The Flash and Property Rights: James Daily (blog) - "Now, what the Flash does here is pretty freaking cool, but as you can see in my tags… what happens afterwards? "

fandom:theflash, topic:law

True Detective
The One Literary Reference You Must Know to Appreciate True Detective: Michael M Hughes (blog) - "Two episodes into the series, True Detective dropped a reference to one of the strangest, most compelling tales in the canon of weird fiction: Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow"

fandom:truedetective