Nevanna's Forest of Stories

I am pretty sure what, when I first started watching Heated Rivalry,, I said to myself, "I'm enjoying this series so far and I'm glad that the fandom is so active, but I'm not really into sports or sports romance so I don't think I'll be fannish about it." Possibly I also told you something to that effect. Time makes fools of us all, I suppose, because here I am, two months later, spending some time writing my own fanfiction (although that's set in an AU that makes shameless use of my favorite tropes) and a lot more time admiring the immense talent of other writers in this fandom.

Here are five fanfics that I've particularly enjoyed. Please heed the ratings and warnings in the AO3 headers.

1. other forms of intimacy by ultravioletdaydream

Shane and Ilya taking care of each other.

The four installments in this fanfic - two set during the show's first season, and two after - perfectly capture a series of moments in the evolution of Shane and Ilya's relationship and the growing affection and understanding between them. (Fun fact: the third section appeared on my radar because of a post about How To Believably Torment Shane Hollander, which I have kept in mind as I've set out to do exactly that.)

2. Mr. Emergency Contact by fandom_commitment_issues

Ilya Rozanov realizes he's an emergency contact in the exact moment he needs to act like an emergency contact. Hayden Pike has to release a statement about it.

"Kidfic" isn't exactly one of my go-to fannish tropes, but I was both entertained and moved by the way this story took a premise that even the writer admits is "crack treated seriously" (Ilya has to pick up the child of Shane's friend and teammate from school in the middle of the day) and ran with it. In addition to Ilya's grouchiness at Hayden for putting him in this position, and the adorable moments in which he and the sick little girl negotiate snacks, movies, and medicine-taking, I always like when fanfic delves into the public perception of the Hockey Lads and the lives that they lead, and that's a big part of how this fic unfolds. I also love how readily Ilya calls on Shane's mom for advice, and how she helps him without hesitation.

3. Knowing by toomuchplor

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are not Scott's problem. That's all there is to it.

I always love a well-written outsider POV, and this story explores Scott Hunter's perspective on Shane and Ilya's (very unsuccessful) attempts to be sneaky, while Scott himself is falling for Kip and dealing with the pressure of the closet. Their scenes together are sweet and sexy and funny, but also include a very believable argument and attempt at compromise. Also, Ilya continues his tradition, established in the books (none of which I'd read when I first encountered this fic), of showing up in the middle of other hockey players' romantic drama to be a hilarious menace.

4. hayden needs to take a minute by profdanglais

Hayden's curiosity gets the better of him and he ends up learning more about his best friend than he needed to know.

At the end of Heated Rivalry The Book, Hayden figures out that Shane and Ilya are together, but it has yet to happen in the show, so in the meatime, fanfic writers have, naturally, taken it upon themselves to write their own versions of how it might happen. I love all of the character voices in this little story, and although Shane is not the Game Changers character whom those in the know would likely associate with Steve Rogers, the mention of his "Captain Frown" inevitably reminds me of The Ballad of Captain America's Disapproving Face.

5. knockout by PenAndInkPrincess

(in which Ilya learns that being a passenger in the car knocks Shane tf out)

I was completely charmed by this post-canon character and relationship study, which affirms that even long-established partners can learn things about each other.

In recognition of the Trans Day of Visibility, here are five trans or nonbinary Makers of Stuff whose work I admire. This is not an exhaustive list. All of the links offer ways to give the creators money, if you are so inclined.

1. Harmony Colangelo co-hosts This Ends At Prom, a podcast that discusses movies about and/or marketed toward teen girls, alongside her wife BJ. I enjoy their conversations so much that I’ve listened to episodes about movies that I haven’t actually seen, but I might have also listened to their episode on Scream multiple times, not only because I like the movie but because I love how much they love it.

2. Jay Edidin has co-hosted the podcast Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men for over a decade. Although I’m only an occasional listener these days, I’ve continued to vocally and financially support what he and his podcasting partner (and their team) have have created, in terms of both critical analysis and entertainment. Jay also designs T-shirts that can be found on TeePublic here; I bought the "follow your weird heart" one the last time they had a sale.

3. Jude Doyle has published book-length nonfiction, both before and after transitioning, but also hosts a newsletter/column about media and pop culture. I linked to his essay "Broken Watch" in a previous Top Five entry, but as someone who has a lot of mixed feelings about "Problematic Faves" discourse, I also appreciated "Reading Rainbow: On problematic feminists and what queer people are allowed to read."

4. Kat Blaque’s catalog of YouTube videos is extensive, and I can’t guarantee that I’d love or agree with everything that she produces, but I did enjoy her review of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie, which she explored through the lens of her experience in real-life kink spaces. (Her opinions are a bit more nuanced than "Fifty Shades doesn't reflect real BDSM at all.")

5. Spider Perry helps to run NerdyKeppie, a small company in the Pacific Northwest that makes Pride-themed clothing, accessories, home goods, and other trinkets. I have bought numerous gifts for myself and others from them.

Here are five works of historical fiction that I loved when I was growing up.

1. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) by Joan Aiken

When a cruel governess takes control of Bonnie’s home, she, her cousin Sylvia, and their friend Simon team up to thwart her plans.

Many of the stories and make-believe games of my childhood involved the cruel treatment of children in orphanages or boarding schools. I partially blame multiple viewings of the musical Annie on VHS (I didn’t only love it because the title character shared my name!), and Willoughby Chase pushed all the right buttons, while also offering a lot of pleasingly aspirational depictions of wealth and an enthralling story about two girls on an adventure together (along with a perfectly nice boy, but I didn’t care as much about him). Although it’s the first in a series, and the alternate-history elements are more prominent in later installments, this one stands very well on its own.

2. Child of the Owl (1977) by Laurence Yep

When her father’s gambling misadventures land him in the hospital, Casey goes to live with her maternal grandmother in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where she learns more about her Chinese heritage.

I questioned whether to call this book “historical fiction,” because it takes place only a little more than a decade before it was published, but I remember it fondly enough that I decided to go ahead anyway. It definitely does a good job of evoking a particular time and place (I can envision those roast ducks in the window now), and features a strong and enjoyable heroine and a touching story of intergenerational connection.

3. The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp (1983) by Richard Peck

During plans to turn a local abandoned house into a Halloween attraction, Blossom’s psychic powers propel her from the 1910s to the 1980s, where she befriends the lonely boy currently living in the house.

I talked about the previous book in the Blossom Culp series, Ghosts I Have Been, last October. I think that I liked this one even more; it had a higher concentration of Teen Shenanigans, and Blossom’s fish-out-of-water experience in the 80s was a lot of fun to read about.

4. Back Home (1984) by Michelle Magorian

As the Second World War draws to a close, twelve-year-old Rusty, who spent the previous five years with a loving foster family in America, returns to an England that she barely recognizes and struggles against the social expectations of her family and school.

I probably picked up this book because it had a Terrible Boarding School, too, but it’s just one slice of the world that Magorian so richly brings to life. Rusty is a memorable and sympathetic main character, but when I skimmed the book again recently, I found her mother, Peggy, to be at least as interesting. After working as a driver and mechanic during the war, alongside a capable crew of other women, Peggy finds herself dissatisfied at the prospect of simply being a wife and mother, and as she tries awkwardly to reconnect with her daughter and keep the peace in a family that is experiencing many changes very quickly, she reclaims her own voice and agency.

5. Stepping on the Cracks (1991) by Mary Downing Hahn

Best friends Margaret and Elizabeth both have brothers who are fighting in World War II, and they believe without hesitation that all of the fighting is necessary, until an encounter with a military deserter challenges their convictions.

Hahn wrote a few historical novels in addition to her ghostly tales and contemporary coming-of-age stories, and I had a particular fondness for this one, which explored the impact of a faraway war on a community and the families that lived there. If Molly was your favorite American Girl, you probably would have enjoyed Stepping on the Cracks as well.

In recognition of Pi(e) Day last weekend, here are five of my favorite pies that I've baked over the last few years.

1. Vegan sweet potato pie with brown sugar and Brazil nut topping

2. Cherry mint pie

3. Apple pear persimmon pie

4. TIED: Peach blueberry pie and peach blackberry basil pie

5. Custard pie with rosewater

Here five of my favorite maligned or frequently bashed female characters in media, based on my own memories and a brief review of fandom wiki pages.

1. Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter)

Even when I (and most of us) still liked the HP books, I had mixed feelings about how Ginny was developed as a love interest for our hero, but that had more to do with Rowling’s frequent inability to write a convincing romance than anything objectionable about Ginny herself. (We all remember Harry’s chest monster, don’t we?) I admired her bravery and how readily she shot down her brothers’ attempts at slut-shaming, and I also liked thinking about her backstory with Tom Riddle and how it might have informed the young woman she became. I did not appreciate it when other readers insulted her or mischaracterized her in fanfic because they wanted Harry to end up with somebody else.

2. Dawn Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

I wrote about Dawn for a Fandom Throwback Thursday post last year (after the actress who once played her, Michelle Trachtenberg, unexpectedly passed away). Although I didn’t start watching BTVS until after the show ended, I was aware that making fun of Dawn – particularly at screenings of the musical – was a fandom tradition, and one that made me very uncomfortable. I found Dawn, in all her emotional messiness, to be a compelling character, and I never thought that she, or Michelle, deserved the vehement hatred that the fandom directed at her.

3. Jean Grey (X-Men: Evolution)

In his recap of an early episode of XME, Jay Edidin (then writing under his old name) noted “a running theme with Jean: the subtle disharmony between the perfect façade people see and the fact that she’s really only got about as much of her shit worked out as the next scared teenager.” I think that this is a brilliant take on her character, but it also serves as a reminder that many viewers in the fandom of the early 2000s – including myself, sometimes – only saw Jean’s model-student persona and judged the hell out of her for it, dismissing her as a shallow and fickle Mean Girl with no substantive inner life or real problems (never mind that her powers could be incredibly destructive to herself and others if left unchecked).

4. Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)

As a spinoff from Doctor Who, Torchwood struggled at first to find its own narrative identity. The early episodes positioned Gwen as the Nice Girl Swept Up In Alien Adventures – the equivalent of a companion for the Doctor – as well as a source of morality and human empathy for her colleagues, who’d lived behind the curtain of “normal” life much longer than she had. For this reason, especially in earlier episodes, she came across as sanctimonious at times – much like Jean in XME – and I admit to having been one of the viewers who was dismissive or and even hostile toward Gwen, especially when I thought that the show was trying too hard to make me like her. (A lot of audience hostility, which I find a lot harder to understand or forgive, was also probably due to shipping preferences and Gwen’s own sexual and romantic choices.) Once she was given storylines that leaned into her flaws and mistakes, I started to enjoy her character a lot more.

5. Joan Watson (Elementary)

I was lucky to have missed a lot of this drama while it was happening, but according to Fanlore and other sources, much of the negativity toward Joan and toward Lucy Liu (including some inexcusable sexism and racism) was generated before the show even aired, primarily from fans of BBC Sherlock. Thankfully, once Elementary was underway, both the show and its Watson deservedly gained their share of fans.

The Cartoon Night squad finished our rewatch of X-Men: Evolution last week, and I’ve wanted to make this list ever since we started (if not before).

The show’s fourth season was significantly shorter than the previous three, and although it’s unclear whether the creative team knew all along that it would be their last, the final minutes of “Ascension, Part 2” suggest some understanding that this was at least a strong possibility. Still, Season 4 set up the potential for some continuing storylines even before Professor Xavier’s closing speech about The Future.

Here – in no particular order – are some things that I would have liked to see if the series had continued. I’m mostly focusing less on characters/storylines from the comics that I wanted to see adapted, and more on pre-existing narrative threads from the show itself. (The Venn Diagram of “what I wanted from canon” and “what I’d enjoy reading about in fanfic” is not a circle, but it does exist.)

( Whatever awaits us, terrible or wondrous )

Before Black History Month comes to a close – and with Women’s History Month ahead – I want to talk about some of my top five Black female characters in live-action TV (not necessarily characters I, as a white viewer, feel qualified to judge as Good or Bad Representation – just characters whom I enjoyed watching).

1. Zoe Washburne (Firefly)

As with most of Joss Whedon’s work – and for some extra reasons having to do with the show’s unapologetic Orientalism – I think the cultural re-evaluation of Firefly has, overall, been a good thing. I still think that Zoe was and is a standout character: capable, tough, loyal, loving, sexy and funny, in ways that balanced each other and (although at least as much credit has to go to Gina Torres as to Whedon and the writing team) made her feel like a whole and authentic person.

2. Martha Jones (Doctor Who)

In her long-running TARDIS Eruditorum project, Elisabeth Sandifer describes Martha as “the forgotten companion – the one that didn’t quite work. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have her fans and admirers, nor that those fans are wrong. But they are swimming against the tide…” Sandifer does her best to back up that thesis in her discussion of Martha’s narrative role on Doctor Who, and I don’t think she’s entirely wrong, either, but Martha is still one of my favorite characters. She’s brave and clever and adventurous, like many of the Doctor’s companions, but is also willing to push back when he’s taking her for granted, despite her doomed crush on him, and cares as much about her family on Earth as she does about her travels in other worlds. Watching her pine for the Doctor while he’s still fixated on Rose is sometimes frustrating,, but that makes her choice to walk away from the TARDIS on her own terms – after traveling over a post-apocalyptic earth and laughing in the face of the near-omnipotent being who tried to take it over – all the more satisfying.

3. Lynn Stewart (Black Lightning)

I love all the members of the Pierce-Stewart family, but – even based upon the season and change of Black Lightning that I’ve seen – I really appreciated the direction that the show took Lynn’s character. Not only was she the civilian partner of a superhero, and the non-powered parent of super-powered children, who knew about her family’s abilities (instead of being kept in the dark like many wives and girlfriends in this genre), but she had an entire storyline that wasn’t primarily about her husband but about her, her medical expertise, and her relationships with other supers and a morally ambiguous scientific colleague. I would definitely love to finish the show at some point soon, and even if something infuriating happens to Lynn in the episodes that I haven’t seen yet, she’ll always have had that.

4. Monica Rambeau (WandaVision)

Monica was first introduced as an adorable child in the Captain Marvel movie. WandaVision revisits her as an adult re-acclimating to her life after Thanos’s Snap (which happened in another movie that I did not watch, but I understand the basic gist) was reversed. I like how she’s integrated into the story, first as a victim of Wanda’s illusion and then as one of the people investigating it, grieving but still determined. I agree with the observation in this video essay that her motivations and moral compass – both of which were very sympathetic – started to fall apart toward the end as it became more evident where the show’s sympathies were weighted,, but she’s a wonderful character up until that point.

5. Spanish Jackie (Our Flag Means Death)

Whether her character was collecting husbands or noses, Leslie Jones stole every scene that she was in. No notes.

Characters whom I considered listing include Amanita Caplan (Sense8), Aisha Robinson (Cobra Kai), Bonnie Bennett (The Vampire Diaries), and Viv (Sex Education).

Here are five pieces of popular culture and media commentary that I enjoyed in 2025.

1. Wizards vs. Lesbians (Podcast)

The best way that I can describe this show is that the podcasters, Isaac and Alexis, have identified a recurring cluster of tropes in science fiction/fantasy, relating to queer desire, patriarchy, and empire, and are exploring how those tropes manifest across different works – mostly literature, though they have discussed a movie or TV series here and there. Their approach to their subject matter seems largely to be “we know it when we see it,” but their discussions are usually thoughtful and enjoyably snarky, even if I don’t fully agree with their opinions.

2. Broken Watch (Blog Post)

Jude Doyle’s essay is primarily about Alan Moore’s Watchmen and its influence on superhero comics, but it’s also about the power – and the failures – of Dark And Gritty Takes on established genres. (Consequently, it talks a fair amount about sexual assault and other types of violence.) In this essay and others, Doyle is really good at analyzing why he, and many of us, love and hate certain works of fiction, or find them compelling and infuriating and culturally foundational, at the same time.

3. The Problem With "The Year of Dramione" (Video Essay)

Princess Weekes posts reliably insightful YouTube video essays about pop culture and fandom, with a particular eye toward racial politics and speculative fiction. In this video, she discusses three popular Harry Potter fanfics that were re-worked into original fiction and released by major publishing houses in the same year. This “pull-to-publish” practice has fascinated me for a very long time, and Weekes does an admirable job of examining how those particular authors and their publishers handle (or fair to handle) the problematic origins of their work.

4. Queer As Folk Ran So Heated Rivalry Could Skate (Newsletter)

In this installment of the Fandom Exile newsletter, Monia Ali compares and contrasts Queer As Folk, which was adapted for American viewers in the early 2000s, with recent fandom darling Heated Rivalry. I never watched the former and am newly fannish about the latter, but I found myself nodding along at Ali’s discussion of how both shows fit into the modern queer media landscape and ongoing discourse about what counts as Good Representation, and how audience responses have and haven’t changed.

5. Untitled Tumblr post about Shadow Daddies, Kylo Rens and Dracos in Leather Pants

This post, by a blogger called goblins-riddles-or-frocks, is a sort of analytical neighbor to Princess Weekes’ video linked above. I don’t currently have much interest in the “romantasy” genre, in which all three of the relevant romantic archetypes are thriving, but I am interested in Fictional Boyfriends.

With Valentine’s Day coming up at the end of the week, I decided to list my top five polyamorous ships across my various fandoms.

1. The Crew of Light aka the Polycula (Dracula)

When I was following Dracula Daily in 2022, I summed up the relationships between Stoker’s heroes as follows, more or less: “Lucy, her three boyfriends, her girlfriend Mina, Mina’s husband Jonathan, and… whatever Doctors Seward and Van Helsing have going on.”

2. Rose Tyler/Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness (Doctor Who)

Each of the three characters and component pairings was fascinating and charming in their own way, and the trio clearly and believably cared for each other, and enjoyed their adventures together, within their relatively little shared screen time.

3. Kara Danvers/James Olsen/Winn Schott (Supergirl)

The connection between these three, as it developed over the first season of the CW’s Supergirl, was what inspired nightforest and me to coin the phrase “Team Triad.”

4. Poe Dameron/Rey/Finn (Star Wars)

I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Rise of Skywalker, but I did enjoy seeing Finn, Poe, and Rey go on an adventure together, and the group hug between them at the end.

5. Varice Kingsford/Numair Salmalín/Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe (Tortall series)

The backstory in Tempests & Slaughter, in which Arram (later Numair) and Ozorne are best friends at mage school, makes the events of Emperor Mage at least ten times more tragic than it already was.

My Cartoon Night group just finished watching The Dragon Prince, so I decided to share some of my favorite books that feature dragons.

1. Dragon of the Lost Sea (1982) by Laurence Yep

The dragon princess Shimmer and her human companion, Thorn, embark on a quest to reclaim the sea that Shimmer calls home, after a sorceress has contained it inside a magical talisman.

My mom read this book – the first in a quartet – aloud to me when I was younger, and I loved the sequences of magic and adventure as well as the dynamic between the two lead characters.

2. Dealing With Dragons (1990) by Patricia C Wrede

I talked about Princess Cimorene, the human heroine of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, in a previous Top Five list, but the dragons, who become her new family, are also well-realized characters with a fascinating but not overly complex culture. I respect a community of fairy-tale creatures that appreciates a well-organized library.

3. The Immortals (1992 -1996) by Tamora Pierce

In the second of Pierce’s quartets set in the kingdom of Tortall, teenage wanderer Daine’s mysterious affinity with animals brings her into contact with unusual immortal beings from a parallel realm.

One of the most touching lines in the first book is, “I’ve gone from having no home to having too many!” Daine’s new found family encompasses both human and non-human beings, including an adorable baby dragon named Skysong, whom she calls “Kitten.” She also attends a council of fully grown dragons in the final volume.

4. Damsel (2018) by Elana K. Arnold

Ama wakes up in the arms of Prince Emory, who tells her that he (like many princes before him) has rescued her from a dragon (like many damsels before her), and that they are destined to marry. But as she adjusts to life in the palace, Ama suspects a different truth behind that story.

Arnold offers a take on the “princess trapped in a restrictive engagement and the gender expectations that come with it” premise that I, although no stranger to those tropes, hadn’t encountered before when I first read her celebrated YA fantasy. Reader opinions may vary on how effective the reveal of Ama’s origin turns out to be, but the claustrophobic, secretive palace atmosphere is very compelling, and the final scene is extremely satisfying.

5. When Women Were Dragons (2022) by Kelly Barnhill

In the middle of the twentieth century, thousands of women spontaneously transformed into dragons and flew away, seemingly forever. Most of the world collectively decided to pretend that it had never happened, leaving narrator Alex to wrestle with her grief, new responsibilities, and unanswered questions.

Like Arnold in Damsel, Barnhill uses her dragons to explore themes of female agency and the narratives imposed by the patriarchy, but her story is set in a world closer to our own, covers a much longer span of time, and focuses more on relationships and (eventually) communities between women and girls, as well as the possibility of creating a better world instead of escaping the existing, oppressive one. I think that both power fantasies have their place.

Honorable mention: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, of which I’ve only read a couple of chapters but which I think I’ll enjoy.