Fanfiction Fridays: Bird in a Cage by etothepii

Some of you may remember Animorphs, a series which was all fun animal transformations on the surface and all war crimes and child soldiers when you got deeper. It’s been one of my favorite series my whole life, and so I periodically search AO3 and the trash fire that is FF.net for new fanfic, hoping that someone will someday write me the fix-it fic of my dreams. Though I haven’t yet found that, I have discovered that as our civil rights dialogue has advanced, particularly online, more and more fanfiction writers have been applying it to their fanfic. And Animorphs, which was about a multicultural and multiethnic group of kids working together to save humankind from alien invaders, is a particularly meaningful story to which to apply some of this social justice.

When Animorphs was written in the late 90s, Western society’s understanding of trans issues was fairly low (or nonexistent). Now, though, there are more trans people out in the public eye than ever, and subsequently, people are slowly starting to believe that there can and should be trans characters in fiction as well. It’s a long road to more actual canon representation, but in the meantime, no one can stop anyone from having all the trans headcanons they want. Though today’s fanfic is short, it’s a fantastic example of what I’m talking about.

Trigger warning for body dysmorphia and internalized transphobia after the jump.

Fanfiction Fridays: Baccano! Double Feature

In my mind, there’s a secret list of anime I want to watch or catch up on. This list is made full well knowing that I might get to maybe 10% of those series due to my own apathy toward finding streaming sites—because, as we are all aware, using Google is hard and typing anime titles into search bars is too time consuming. Luckily, I have the best support in the world for marking off entries on this list that no one knows about. Which is to say that with very little prodding from her end, my girlfriend and I sat down and marathoned Baccano! I feel like I’ve cheated myself by not watching it sooner, but hindsight is 20/20.

This is one of those situations where I knew I liked what the series had to offer, but watching it itself was always in the back of my mind, in the dark abysses where I forget things. The series watches from an objective viewpoint the events that unfold on The Flying Pussyfoot, a transcontinental locomotive that happens to be transporting a cult bent on gaining immortality, a mafia family that gains joy from killing other people, a couple of thieves who have a strangely positive outlook on life, a gang full of sweet cinnamon rolls (who will also potentially kill you), and several other characters who mostly fall under the theme of “they will kill you”. Cut so the storyline jumps between “present” and past events, this mildly fantastical look at the 1930’s keeps watchers glued to the show so they don’t miss any hints at what’s actually going on.

Upon finishing the show, I desperately needed family fic of the adorable found family formed at the end of the series. Unfortunately, since the fandom is hella small—apparently—instead of cute family fic, I had to wade through pages of NOTP fic and other things that just didn’t fit the bill. And while I may not have found what I was looking for, I did end up finding two really great fics. And to my joy, they were both written by the same author!

Throwback Thursdays: You Mattered, Animorphs

When I was a kid, my elementary school took part in this “encourage kids to read” program—most likely the Scholastic Reading Club—that was also probably a ploy for people to buy more books from Scholastic. But every month or so, our teacher would pass out the Scholastic reading catalogs, and my brother and I quickly latched onto one series: Animorphs.

Animorphs was a book series that had a new book out every couple of months, making it more like a TV show than other book series where you’d have to wait at least a year for the next installment. This series definitely got the most money from us—I don’t think we’d discovered the existence of the library yet. Every time we saw this in the catalog, we’d go home and clamor for our parents to pay for it, and this worked until we had roughly half of the fifty-four book series, at which point my parents forcibly introduced us to the library. But it was too late. We were hooked.

Orphan Black: “Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion” Review

Man, I love these episode titles; this one is especially apt for Orphan Black’s second episode of the season. This time we dive a little deeper into the factions vying for control over the fate of Clone Club. We’re also treated to a few plot twists, just in case you thought you had a handle on where the show was going.

Spoilers after the jump.

Orphan Black: “Nature Under Constraint and Vexed” Review

First of all, how ’bout these episode titles? Apparently last season they were all Origin of Species quotes—appropriate, of course—and this season they’re all from the works of Sir Francis Bacon. Classy.

Anyway, I came late to the Orphan Black party (I only watched it last Christmas as opposed to when it aired), but I’ve still been feeling that special sort of pain that comes from waiting for a show you love to come off hiatus. Thankfully, as of last night, the Clone Club is back in action.

Spoilers for the Season 2 premiere after the jump!