kitewithfish

Specifically, the Richard Armitage bullshit. (I even rewatched some of the first two seasons of the goddawful 2006ish BBC Robin Hood, where time periods are a joke and the points don't matter!)

I'll cut here for spoilers that are at least a decade old now, just in case you care, and also so I don't subject you to the inevitable weirdness of my Brain on A Fictional Dude Crush.

So far, I have rewatched some of the awful Robin Hood - which I do not recommend, both for the quality problems with the general writing, but also specifically because the gender violence that the show jus sort of handwaves. Armitage plays a hot and brooding Guy of Gisbourne who has complex flirtations with Maid Marian, and then, when rebuffed, burns her house down! And then the show doubles down on their weird flirtation even further in the second season, to the point where they are kind of actually making sense together, before he MURDERS HER for betraying him for Robin Hood. And then Gisbourne gets another season of the show to mope around in black leather feeling deeply sorry for himself and not actually repenting effectively.

So, of course, my brain has demanded I read a lot of fixit fic for *that* vile mess. Some of which is honestly great.

Then, of course, I bounced to North and South (delightful but the fic is pretty light), then to Hannibal, where while Frances Dolarhyde is *awful*, he is admittedly, clearly awful, and the Hannibal the show is *fine with that* because it's a show where the main character EATS PEOPLE. No one has a moral high ground, it is great.

Sadly, there is basically no fixit fic for Frances Dolarhyde, because he is very, very murdery, and that meant I had to fall back on the one fandom that I know has lots of Richard Armitage flavored fic.

I speak, of course, of the Hobbit.

The Hobbit films were just meh, honestly. I don't like Martin Freeman, and yet he seems to get cast as some sort of British Everyman almost reflexively. He's smarmy and self important and allergic to earnestness. It dulls even my affection for the source material to have to picture Bilbo Baggins as Martin Freeman.
Bless the people putting together the extended features for putting Adam Brown's audition for Bilbo in, it has saved my enjoyment of that fandom immensely to just imagine him playing Bilbo in all the fic.

All of this indulgent prelude is to say that I have been reading a lot of fic, and here are some recs.

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach by Nnm
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20177950
Fandom: Good Omens (TV and Book)
Pairing: Gen Aziraphale/Crowley
Author Summary: As soon as Aubrey Thyme, psychotherapist, had opened her office door and seen her new client, Anthony J. Crowley, sitting in her waiting area, she was observing and assessing him. At first glance, she paid attention to the following:

--His clothing was expensive and stylish;

--He wore very strange but noticeable cologne;

--His relationship to the seat he occupied could only, very loosely, be described as “sitting;”

--He looked angry;

--He was wearing sunglasses.

What Aubrey Thyme, a professional, thought, upon first seeing her new client was: you’re going to be a fun one, aren’t you?
Why I love it: Aubrey Thyme is the best therapist I have ever seen. The fic takes therapy SERIOUSLY, and does the work of understanding it, and shows how it can work and how it can fail and how to do it will and how to make mistakes and fix them. Crowley so perfectly in canon, and so snarky and hilarious and fun to watch, and Aubrey's affection for him just shines thru in the same way she will not permit him get away with his bullshit. Even a little. It's a joy to read along with this work that starts as a character study of Crowley and ends with the creation of this thoughtful, joyfully spiteful, determined human being. This story is a gem, download it immediately if you can't read it now in case it falls off the face of the earth.

Warnings: Some discussion of suicide, a view of the divine in keeping with Good Omens, some abuse of alcohol, detailed discussion of therapy and trauma

Xenoethnography is a series by Therrae (Dasha_mte)
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458
Fandom: Transformers
Pairing: None, Optimus Prime/OFC if you reeaaaaaaaally wanted to squint

Why I love it: I have talked about this series before, it's continuining, it's still a great outsider POV on the Transformers that blends multiple approaches to canon and takes the alien part of alien space robots really seriously. I think this is one of the best continuing series I am watching grow, and I cannot tell you enough that it's worth a read.

I Chose You by Coleen561
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3872953
Fandom: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Pairing:Marian/ Guy of Gisbourne

Why I love it: I... I don't recommend this tv series. I don't. This fic is a fixit AU that diverges before the end of season 1. Guy avoids most of his more evil deeds and gets a backstory that makes him more reasonable and sympathetic but not a good person. Robin is as annoying as he is in the series. Marian is slightly better? I have enjoyed this fic a great deal, but I don't feel super great about the source material and I recommend this only with the understanding that you should watch the show by fastforwarding to the bits where Richard Armitage is on screen.

Forget Me Not by allyss
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3886780
Fandom: Hobbit films
Pairing: Fíli/Sigrid
Author's Notes: It’s a marriage of convenience, a way to forever strengthen the bond between the Dwarves of Erebor and the people of Dale. Or so Sigrid tells herself.
Why I love it: So, it's the usual fixit story of "Thorin and his nephews all survive the Battle of Five Armies" with some added thoughts on the politics of how the people of Laketown would actually feel about some randos showing up and stirring up trouble with the local dragon. Sigrid is Bard the Bowman's daughter, now a princess and in a arranged marriage with Fili, heir to the throne, feeling her way thru the morass of politics and distrust amongst her people and the dwarves while also figuring out if just maybe she can actually fall in love with her husband. This fic was a total surprise to me and it has completely sold me on this relationship and this pairing and I want it to be twice as long. I love it

Your New Twin Sized Bed by out_there
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89396
Fandom: Prison Break
Pairing: Alexander Mahone/Michael Scofield/Sara Tancredi
Author's Notes: Alex takes a two bedroom apartment that's close to his new office. The main bedroom is serviceably large, but it seems too big after months spent in a cabin, feels too empty after sharing a small boat with Michael and Sara, so Alex buys a large desk and makes it a study. The second room is tiny, but it fits a twin sized bed and a bedside table.
Why I love it: So, Prison Break had four seasons from 2005-2008, and ended with a death that got undone in the SURPRISE! 2017 fifth season reboot. I have not seen the fifth season, this fic has not seen the fifth season, and I legit will never see the fifth season. This fic takes three characters past the end of the fourth season of the show in a slightly different direction - as a V shaped poly triad, that has broken up. Alex Mahone is a ruthless investigator and killer and he is also more loyal to his need to protect the people loves than he is willing to risk them. So, when he thinks he's a risk to the people he loves? He leaves. And they follow. And it's just a bulletproof kink for me, to have a character think that they are less loved, less important, that they won't be missed, and then to be proven WRONG. And this fic does that. It also feels like a quick dip into a way that fanfic used to be, somehow, shorter and a little willing to indulge in character descriptions in a way that I think tumblr might drain out of modern fic? But I like all of it and I don't think it is a flaw.