New fandoms
Jul. 12th, 2025 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
artemisdartI've been getting into two new fandoms recently; one old and huge, and one new and small.
Warhammer 40K is a whole world. I've only read two books in the world so far: Helsreach, where I got the ship Merek Grimaldus / Andrej Valatok, and Pariah, which is the first of a trilogy. I have the next book in the series and need to read it as well. So far I don't have any good ships from this cast of characters.
I don't like all the war in Warhammer, which is fairly awkward, since 'war' is right there in the name. Reading scene after scene of 'good guys' pulping orks was just not very much fun for me; I only made it through Helsreach because I'd heard that ship I mentioned existed in the book (it did... barely...), and I wanted to have enough background information to write about them.
Although I don't like the 'war' part, I do enjoy themes of ruined, noble men suffering bravely and dying for a noble cause. I also enjoy the obvious Catholic symbolism, and everything that comes with it. It's easy to weave in themes of vows of chastity, sexual guilt, religious guilt, sacrificing one's self for a greater good, and so on and so forth. I love that stuff! Plus, I have always enjoyed partners of very different sizes where the smaller one is in charge.
Then, just a few days ago, my husband and I started watching Murderbot. It's an adaptation of some books by Martha Wells that I haven't read, but I've heard a lot about it and I've seen the IP pop up in exchange after exchange, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I LOVE IT SO MUCH! It has so many themes that I gravitate towards in stories -- hurt/comfort, noble self-sacrifice, philosophical ponderings about what it means to be human, a large cast of well-drawn characters, a dystopian setting with flashes of hope if you look for them hard enough, cutting social commentary -- oh, and hot people. The fact that Murderbot is played by Alexander Skarsgård is certainly no downside. (His father, Stellan Skarsgård, played Luthen in Andor -- such a great role.)
There's even recognition in the story of polyamory and other alternate family arrangement styles being commonly practiced in Preservation Alliance. There's even a poly triad forming -- well, maybe -- out of three of the experts on the mission. It's honestly great to see some scrap of poly awareness in media. Too often, it's treated as harem building on the part of the man, or as inherently toxic and destructive. As someone who's been practicing poly for almost twenty years, I love to see more realistic and positive representations in media.
So, even though my husband and I are only up through episode nine, I've started reading Murderbot (TV) fan fiction on AO3. There are only 80 fics, and many of them are quite short, and were obviously written without all the information that later episodes revealed. There's room for me to contribute, if I can think of any original ideas that haven't already been done!
Warhammer 40K is a whole world. I've only read two books in the world so far: Helsreach, where I got the ship Merek Grimaldus / Andrej Valatok, and Pariah, which is the first of a trilogy. I have the next book in the series and need to read it as well. So far I don't have any good ships from this cast of characters.
I don't like all the war in Warhammer, which is fairly awkward, since 'war' is right there in the name. Reading scene after scene of 'good guys' pulping orks was just not very much fun for me; I only made it through Helsreach because I'd heard that ship I mentioned existed in the book (it did... barely...), and I wanted to have enough background information to write about them.
Although I don't like the 'war' part, I do enjoy themes of ruined, noble men suffering bravely and dying for a noble cause. I also enjoy the obvious Catholic symbolism, and everything that comes with it. It's easy to weave in themes of vows of chastity, sexual guilt, religious guilt, sacrificing one's self for a greater good, and so on and so forth. I love that stuff! Plus, I have always enjoyed partners of very different sizes where the smaller one is in charge.
Then, just a few days ago, my husband and I started watching Murderbot. It's an adaptation of some books by Martha Wells that I haven't read, but I've heard a lot about it and I've seen the IP pop up in exchange after exchange, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I LOVE IT SO MUCH! It has so many themes that I gravitate towards in stories -- hurt/comfort, noble self-sacrifice, philosophical ponderings about what it means to be human, a large cast of well-drawn characters, a dystopian setting with flashes of hope if you look for them hard enough, cutting social commentary -- oh, and hot people. The fact that Murderbot is played by Alexander Skarsgård is certainly no downside. (His father, Stellan Skarsgård, played Luthen in Andor -- such a great role.)
There's even recognition in the story of polyamory and other alternate family arrangement styles being commonly practiced in Preservation Alliance. There's even a poly triad forming -- well, maybe -- out of three of the experts on the mission. It's honestly great to see some scrap of poly awareness in media. Too often, it's treated as harem building on the part of the man, or as inherently toxic and destructive. As someone who's been practicing poly for almost twenty years, I love to see more realistic and positive representations in media.
So, even though my husband and I are only up through episode nine, I've started reading Murderbot (TV) fan fiction on AO3. There are only 80 fics, and many of them are quite short, and were obviously written without all the information that later episodes revealed. There's room for me to contribute, if I can think of any original ideas that haven't already been done!
