Planeshift Fanworks

So, as some of you who know me irl may have noticed, I’ve gone completely off the rails about Zanger. No surprise there: I don’t think there’s a single show by A.R. Anderson that I haven’t fallen in love with. Planeshift was such a perfect first show in that world–very classic high fantasy, very tropey but good tropey, really optimistic and romantic. Mistworld really felt like the Torchwood to Planeshift’s Doctor Who; darker, hornier, significantly more existentially weird. It did a lot of fun subversion of the stuff that Planeshift had set up; the party was a lot more dysfunctional, and their circumstances exacerbated that dysfunction. It felt like Mistworld was taking a harder, funnier look at the bittersweetness that Planeshift often cut with heroism and sweeping gestures.

Zanger feels like we are swinging back toward optimism, but with I think a greater maturity to it? The pace is a bit slower, and the stakes lower (for now–Anderson has said in interviews that it’s going to build to world-endangering stakes, which, of course, it’s A.R. Anderson); but I like what that is doing in terms of how the characters are learning to relate to each other. This party feels like they are genuinely becoming friends more than trauma bonding, and I’m really intrigued about how those friendships are going to change and deepen when the stakes get way higher. It doesn’t feel like it’s just for the sake of setup, though: the way the story is focusing for now on interpersonal acts of kindness and on small-scale heroism is like it’s taking a step back and going “you know what, yeah, this stuff does matter, just as much as the world-saving stuff.” It’s really lovely, how palpably kind this show is, and how each of the main characters reflect and relate to that kindness, from Zakki’s untested enthusiasm about the world to Gary’s deliberate, experienced gentleness to Ev’s innate but heavily restrained compassion.

This post is supposed to be a fic rec list, but I’ve gotten sidetracked.

The AO3 has six hundred some odd fics in the Zanger tag, most of which are shippy in some capacity. Party Dads aka Crowtatohead seems to be emerging as a juggernaut pairing, though Ev really is the Little Black Dress of this fandom (which makes sense–the incredible fanservice of giving David Tennant sex scenes or post-coital scenes with, to date, Oscar Isaac, Lee Pace, Keanu Reeves, and Taika Waititi was never not going to have an effect on fic). Alieldrenne/Felrian seems to be gaining momentum as well, including several BDSM-focused modern AUs since Watermelon Sugar by 2horny4u ended up (deservedly!) on a bunch of rec lists. I think my favorite thing about the Zanger fandom specifically, though, is the sheer variety of pairings from this huge cast that have only a handful of fics for them. Like, no matter what it is you want from Zanger fic, it’s probably there. There might not be much of it, but an astonishing number of possible pairings have already been written at least once or twice. I can’t be comprehensive (like I said, hundreds of fics), but I want to make some honorable mentions by character.

Zakki:

Aria already mentions some great Zakki/Tasi and Zakki/Prix fics in his rec list from a year ago (linked at the end of this post), but shoutout also to For Vengeance, For Love by howdoyoudofellowtyns. You can definitely tell this one was written later in the show than their previous Zakki/Prix fic; it’s taken in the more recent interactions we’ve seen Zakki have around the idea of religion and incorporated them into the characterization in this fic, and sets up some really cool parallels to Prix’s relationship with his goddess. It makes the pairing feel both like an ill-advised plunge into a whirlwind romance and a serendipitous meeting of minds and hearts at the same time.

Zakki/Nemei seems to crop up a fair amount as well, so if you like the “grumpy one/sunshine one” dynamic you’re in luck–that dynamic alone isn’t usually enough to recommend a pairing for me, but I did love Sweet Sour by luckbaby: it’s about Zakki feeding people as a love language, and about Nemei learning to be cared for, and I’m soft for both of those things.

Other really excellent ones: Pan-sexual by MistSucker69, in which Zakki has group sex with the satyrs on Gloaming as a form of cultural exchange; Five Hearts, Ten Kisses by forcechampion, or poly shenanigans with a Prix/Zakki/Nemei/Ali/Felrian poly-W; Seek and Ye Shall Find by Railokas-rights, the one where Zakki starts a relationship with Cas to keep Tasi safe and feels weird about the deception the entire time; this Zakki/Eralore PWP.

Alieldrenne:

Besides the aforementioned Ali/Felrian (and in case you were curious, the BSDM AUs are here, here, and here), Ali/Nemei seems to crop up fairly often, ranging from some soft queer teen crushes a la speak to me in your native tongue by feministfaolan, to high-stakes political maneuvering among the nobles of Mileth and Dis a la Charming People by CruelThreadOfFate. Mask of Many Faces by forcechampion is an Ali/Ev fake-dating-to-real-dating slowburn that I found really believable in spite of Ev’s Kinsey-sixness; if you like darkfic, there’s on thy cheeks a fading rose by frogprophecy, in which Ali is sleeping with Isabel Malet in a long con for revenge; or frogprophecy's dead dove Ali/Shinailo porn, family secrets.

Nemei:

I mentioned some Nemei/Ali above; I’m also kind of losing my mind about these two Nemei/Hope fics–I really love what the show is doing with their burgeoning friendship, and these fics expand that into such a heartfelt, powerful relationship. I found Hell Is Other People by CruelThreadOfFate really compelling: basically Nemei and Ev get stuck in a more dangerous layer of Hell and get increasingly codependent in their attempts to survive it. Nothing Beside Remains by franklydeer is another supremely excellent one for Hell worldbuilding, and does really cool things with the power dynamic between Nemei and Vin. I also recently encountered a very fluffy accidental-coparenting Nemei/Neva the shadow dragon fic, here.

Gary:

Sherwood by Railokas-rights is a classic for many reasons, and I don’t know if any of us haven’t read and it all breaks down (at the role reversal) by Aria (the body swap episode was so good to us). I recently consumed the handful of Gary/Hope fics available; I think like complimenting cogs and gears by 2horny4u is my favorite for the balance it strikes between fluffy and filthy. something at work in my soul by simplecarrotfarmer is INCREDIBLE if you like longfic, and are interested in backstories: it’s a love story between Gary and his creator, and does a lot of work hypothesizing about what shaped Gary into the compassionate, fair-minded person we know from the show. SNUB the Shadow Princess’ Rise To Power by AllSeeingPrebi is Gary/SNUB, and is HILARIOUS as well as really sweet.

Everard:

There are so many good Ev/Ayveus and Ev/Vwotdrig fics that I legitimately don’t know how to narrow it down, so I just linked my AO3 bookmark tags for each. Holy Grief by franklydeer is definitely my favorite Ev/Vin fic; it altered my brain chemistry and made me cry.

Getting into the more obscure parings: Rush Week by AllSeeingPrebi is Ev/Brett from Brett’s POV, and it is even funnier than that implies (the beer pong scene, oh my god). Kings of Shadows by morallyethically brings two of the bigger Gary ships together with Ev/SNUB/Gary and balances each of the relationships really well–the reason I put this in the Ev section rather than the Gary section of this rec list is actually because SNUB and Ev’s respective relationships with Corvus is one of my favorite aspects of this fic. And speaking of: I realize Ev/Corvus isn’t exactly an obscure pairing, but there’s little enough fic that’s tagged Ev/Corvus rather than Ev&Corvus, so she makes hungry where most she satisfies by morallyethically is definitely worth mentioning here, for if you enjoy a particularly fucky flavor to your divine mystery. Also relatedly: Augury by forcechampion extrapolates on the potential for Ev/Felrian introduced by the body swap episode and takes it in the direction of extremely weird intimacy.

Raetha:

I love how much Raetha appears to be a beacon for useless lesbians femslash fans. onlyintrees has made a project of writing under-10k Raetha fics with as many different pairings as she can, including but not limited to:

Requisite Makeover Montage, a Raetha/Ali high school AU
Cat Got Your Tongue? a Raetha/Tasi comedy of errors though the Underground
Bear With Me, a Raetha/Breyah fic about communication through the things left unsaid
Professional Fingertips, a Raetha/Anais missing scene PWP
Combat Baby, another missing scene PWP with Raetha/Cas
And Fool’s Gold, a Raetha/Quinn/Shayani fic that does insanely cool things with the reinvention of self and finding your better self in others.

Again: this list is far from comprehensive, because there is so much good shit out there. Huge credit to Aria’s reclist from about a year ago: it was a valuable starting point to getting my thoughts together. This post is also pretty AO3-heavy; if there are tumblr fics or twitter threadfics that I’m missing, I HIGHLY encourage you to bring them to my attention in the comments!

For my recipient, the_w_is_silent : the light in me will guide you home, because they wanted Friend-ship hangouts!