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thefourthvine) wrote2022-02-20 10:08 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2022-02-20 10:08 pm
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[FIHL] IT: If We Can Live Through This, We Can Do Anything
It is a movie series about a ... clown-spider-alien-god (frankly, the DM should NOT have allowed that multi-class) that infests Derry, a town in the cursed state of Maine, rising every 27 years like a homicidal cicada to kill children. (Evil gonna evil.) And also there is a human serial killer involved somehow? Which really seems like piling on, frankly, but there might be some kind of good reason for it. I will never know. I am absolutely incapable of watching the movies. I am a wimp. I do not do horror. My personal limit is four jump scares per calendar year at the outside.
(Yes, I could also read the book on which the movies are based, except a) there is still a murder clown b) I am still a wimp and c) I understand it ends with thirteen year olds having a fuck or die orgy in the sewers so no.)
So why is a noted horror hater and general wimp in love with this fandom? I'm glad you asked. See, It fic is largely about how you survive, rebuild, and recover after horrible, fucked-up experiences that ate a huge chunk of your life and made you question everything you once believed and hoped. For some reason that just feels relevant right now!
It: A Summary By Someone Who Has Only Ever Read The Fic
If you, like me, have a low tolerance for horror and clowns, good news! You do not need to know much about It to read It fan fiction. Here are my best-guess key points (spoiler warning for anyone who plans to watch or read It):
The Ships
The main pairing here is Richie/Eddie, and it has everything:
It Fic: Like Id Fic, But -- No, Really, It’s Mostly Id Fic
Okay, so that said, what should you be reading? (Note: my recs tend to be mostly free of clowns and supernatural horror, but there are memories, as well as, you know -- all the other crap they went through. So these are happy stories but not necessarily fluffy ones.)
The After Derry series, by pineapplecrushface. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
Here’s where we get to the good stuff. Because I genuinely do not give a shit about killing evil clown-spider-alien-gods. Like, yay, you faced your fears! You defeated your childhood demons! I have an anxiety disorder, people, I don’t need dramatic supernatural evil to be terrified and fight through it. I can get that from going to a grocery store and I frankly already have more than I need.
No. The real good stuff, the real question I always want the answer to is: what happens after? So you survive something terrible, you go, you fight, you win -- what happens then? How do you look around you at everything you destroyed as you fought for your life, pick up the pieces, and start building something new out of them? That’s why I’m in a fandom with a murder clown, and that is exactly what this series provides.
I mean, yes, it’s also about Richie and Eddie and also all the Losers getting nice things, because they deserve it after, you know, the terror and the deaths and the waiting in Derry and the losing the memories and the trudging through actual sewage and the facing their worst nightmares. But mostly it’s about surviving, and looking at yourself at forty and realizing hey, this is not your beautiful life, and then going out and making a new one.
Empty Your Basket, by pineapplecrushface. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
Okay, so you know how sometimes you have baggage hanging around because of your childhood trauma and terrible life experiences? Some people, they might choose to go to therapy because of that. Other people might instead choose to deal with that through platonically spanking their friends, and by “other people” I actually just mean “Richie Tozier,” because I need to believe everyone else with a history of traumatic amnesia who axe murdered a serial killer is actually getting therapy.
Also, I probably don’t need to tell you this, but: it isn’t platonic. It was never platonic. I am sure that somewhere out there there is someone who can spank his best friend, with whom he is in love, totally platonically, but that person is not and will never be Richie Tozier. Platonic is just a lie he tells himself to further his terrible life choices, because -- you know, honestly, I think when you started out in life by fighting a clown god in a sewer, probably every other possible life choice looks like a great one in comparison.
But while this story should never be taken as life advice, it absolutely should be read intensively. It is so them, so very Richie and Eddie: bickering instead of functional communication, and poor decisions (Richie) or no decisions (Eddie) as a lifestyle, but somehow they get there in the end. And by “get there,” I mean “to orgasms and then a reasonably functional relationship, given their limitations,” which I assume is not spoiling anything for anyone.
Memories of a Stolen Place, by glorious_spoon. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
I love stories that explore what would happen if a Loser encountered another Loser while under the effect of It’s magical memory bleach, and this story is a prime and excellent example of the genre. Also, it answers that question with, “They would bang like a screen door," and that is a good answer. I like it very much, and the author shows their work convincingly, if you see what I mean.
But I also very much enjoy this alternate version of the It-killing events in Derry. First and foremost, it supports my fundamental thesis of “queerness makes everything better.” Like, see? Eddie did not have to die! You could have just had him fuck Richie instead, director Andres Muschietti! In the future, please consider every alternative, including queer sex, and don’t just go straight (heh) for the unnecessary, agonizing death, okay? Great, glad we had this talk, looking forward to improvement on that.
Also, this story neatly glosses over the events of the movie while still hitting enough notes to make me understand some of what happened in it, which is a great deal for wimps such as myself. (So, yeah, warning: there is a modicum of clown and serial killer in here. I didn't find it over my limit or anything, but your mileage may vary.)
I really love the way glorious_spoon writes Eddie and Richie. It’s good. They’re good. The end.
Yes, Homo, by Amuly. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
Okay, so you know those stories where everyone knows the pairing is dating except for the two of them? The ones that could just as easily be tagged “peer pressure made them do it” except that sounds less like fun and more like "get new friends"? This is a trope inversion of that. What if -- just go with me here -- what if two people have been so weird about each other (and so weird, just generally) for so long that their closest friends hear “WE FUCKED AND I AM SO IN LOVE WITH HIM” and go “haha, classic, really happy you have such a great friendship”?
Because that’s what’s happening here. It’s hard to blame the Losers, because they did not grow up with great references for things like “normal” and “sensible,” and then they forgot the references they did have for, you know, three decades. Plus, they’re friends with Richie, who has decided that yelling as loudly and obnoxiously as he possibly can is the best way to deflect attention. (And to be fair, he is making that work for him.) How can they not completely fail to figure out what’s going on?
Also, gotta say: it’s nice to have some humor in your alien-clown-spider-god serial killer fandom. Just as a treat.
The Other Half Is Me, by focusfixated. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Richie gets a leash. That’s it, that’s the story.
That’s not actually why I love the story, though. What’s great about this is -- okay. At least at the start of It: Chapter Two, Richie and Eddie do not have, well, any experience AT ALL in getting what they want. Richie, specifically, doesn’t have a career he wants, any relationship of any kind, or, you know, friends, and also he’s been in the closet for thirty healthy, healthy years. He’s turned denial, deflection, and loneliness into a lifestyle.
So part of what I truly love about this story is Richie figuring out he wants something, managing to ask for it, and then getting it. Like. That is such progress for him! I am just over there on the other side of the screen going, “Look at you wanting things and getting them and enjoying them! That alien clown spider god thing is spinning in its grave right now!” (Not literally spinning in its grave; that thing is extremely dead and not moving at all. There will be no zombie god clowns on my watch, thank you.)
And then we have Eddie. Eddie, at the start of the movie, has taken a different path to a miserable adulthood: he’s reliving his terrible childhood, except instead of a controlling mother, he’s got a controlling wife who looks exactly like her, who he passively submits to while boiling with undirected anger.
So Eddie being in charge of something? Eddie hearing what someone else wants and getting that for him? I am absolutely here for that.
Areas of Expertise, by dudski. Gen-ish.
Remember how I said that a little humor is just what a Stephen King adjacent fandom needs? This is more of it, though I am honestly unsure how funny it is to anyone who is not Extremely Online in the same way that I am. But I also love the ensembleness of it all -- like, I didn’t list any pairings up there because it would end up more like tags. Like, “everyone/puzzles, additional background pairings, Losers gonna win.”
I am here in this fandom for survival and recovery and Eddie/Richie, but I am also very into the found family aspect -- especially since these people were mostly hugely isolated and basically familyless for their entire adult lives and then they went back to their hometown and discovered that indeed, home is where, when you have to go there (to kill a clown), they have to take you in (to their arms). (And rediscovering that family changes their lives for the better! Almost immediately! It’s pretty great.) This story really nails that found family aspect.
Plus, well, I just enjoy fictional internet drama. It’s like real life internet drama, except no one is getting hurt and no one is going to try to destroy the environment by selling a link to it.
Houses in Your Heart, by Tafadhali.
Speaking of found family! This is alllll about that found family thing. This vid covers all the other big emotions -- happiness, sorrow, love, joy -- and leaves out the, you know. Terrifying parts. (No clown and only a little bit of blood, which -- seriously, that is a GIFT.) The vid absolutely nails that classic combination: gold dust childhood memories limned in summer light and, just slightly out of frame, unimaginable awfulness lurking. But here, the awfulness takes a back seat to the pure found family love, and that is the way I like it.
So, basically, this vid: Sweet! Soft! Only a hint of evil! And the song choice somehow feels like the 1980s! Come for the hugging, stay for the hugging, basically.
The year of the goat and your kid back, by derryfacts2. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, OMC/OMC.
Okay, so. Second person is not my favorite (third person best person!), and also I tend to avoid stories where homophobia drives the plot, because if I want homophobia, real life is right there. This story is a second-person story where homophobia plays a huge part. Oh, and it’s also a mundane AU (no clown god, no serial killers). AND it’s about parents and children being separated, and a little bit about (non-physical) child abuse.
In short: this story shouldn't be for me. And yet it is. I read this with absorption and enjoyed the hell out of it. There is something so appealing about the idea of at least some of these kids having a caring parent, about them getting to deal with the hurts of childhood as young adults instead of as middle-aged high-functioning disasters, and I super enjoyed the OMC that is the main focus of the fic. It’s just a really compelling story, at least to me. So I’m tacking it on here at the end, in case one of you was sitting there going, “But where is the second-person teen-rated story about homophobia?” (I mean. It’s also about good parenting. And healing. And finding your people. So it isn’t entirely off-brand for me. Just ... mostly. And I love it anyway.)
(Yes, I could also read the book on which the movies are based, except a) there is still a murder clown b) I am still a wimp and c) I understand it ends with thirteen year olds having a fuck or die orgy in the sewers so no.)
So why is a noted horror hater and general wimp in love with this fandom? I'm glad you asked. See, It fic is largely about how you survive, rebuild, and recover after horrible, fucked-up experiences that ate a huge chunk of your life and made you question everything you once believed and hoped. For some reason that just feels relevant right now!
It: A Summary By Someone Who Has Only Ever Read The Fic
If you, like me, have a low tolerance for horror and clowns, good news! You do not need to know much about It to read It fan fiction. Here are my best-guess key points (spoiler warning for anyone who plans to watch or read It):
- Back in 1989, a group of seven thirteen year old kids (called the Losers) fought It, the aforementioned clown-spider-alien-god: Bill, Ben, Beverly, Mike, Richie, Eddie, and Stan. (Do I want to ask Stephen King why he gave three major characters B names and two others ie names? No. I prefer to believe that he was trying to signal his OTPs and move on with my life.) They defeated It, but not permanently. This was It: Chapter One.
- Six of them then left Derry and lost their memories of the whole ordeal.
- Mike retained his memories by never leaving Derry, the child murder capital of the United States and an all-around shitty place to live, especially if you, like Mike, are black. Plus, again, those memories he got to keep involve a DEMON CLOWN, so that’s kind of the definition of “mixed blessing.”
- In 2016, It respawns and begins another killing spree. (Again, evil’s gonna evil.) Mike calls on the Losers to come back and fight It, and this begins It: Chapter Two.
- At this point, Bill is a successful writer, Ben is a successful architect, Bev is a successful fashion designer, Richie is a successful comedian, Eddie is a successful risk analyst, Stan is a successful accountant, and Mike is a librarian even though he never got a library degree. (I assume, since he couldn’t leave town.) Their overall degree of success and accomplishment despite being walking trauma-bombs with no memories of their childhoods suggests that fighting It warps reality; this theme is not explored in the movies to my knowledge but I’m right and we all know it.
- Stan commits suicide. The rest of them go back to Derry, get their memories back, and kill It for real. Also at some point in there Richie axe murders the serial killer who is about to kill Mike, which for other groups of people in other towns would be the whole story, but here is just kind of a bonus optional extra. You know, like heated seats, but Derry-style: the aftermarket add-in serial killer.
- Also Richie is canonically gay and in love with Eddie, who is literally married to his abusive mother. (They hired the same actress to play his wife in Chapter Two as played his mother in Chapter One.)
Eddie dies. - Fic tends to ignore or fix the Eddie-dies part, and also sometimes the Stan-dies part, and I fully support that. Sometimes canon is wrong and you just have to work around it, and this is one of those times.
The Ships
The main pairing here is Richie/Eddie, and it has everything:
- A double helping of “OH MY GOD JUST LET HIM HAVE ONE NICE THING.”
- A full course of pining gay with extra pining thrown in for the sheer joy of it.
- Another full course of “wait, am I into this? Oh no, I’m so into this.”
- A sweet combination of “childhood friends to lovers” and “strangers to lovers” that you frankly just cannot get most places these days.
- A hint of soulbond extract, for added spice.
- Plus, you know, amnesia, trauma, recovery: everything. It’s all in there.
- Bev and Ben, because a) the canon does and b) Ben is a good person, which makes him a giant improvement over her husband (abusive asshole) and father (abusive asshole). I support this because someone needs to be nice to Bev for a change.
- Bill and Mike, largely, I think, because of the It miniseries, or maybe there’s some canonical hints I missed by not consuming any of it. I support this pairing because I believe Mike should have whatever he wants, the end.
It Fic: Like Id Fic, But -- No, Really, It’s Mostly Id Fic
Okay, so that said, what should you be reading? (Note: my recs tend to be mostly free of clowns and supernatural horror, but there are memories, as well as, you know -- all the other crap they went through. So these are happy stories but not necessarily fluffy ones.)
The After Derry series, by pineapplecrushface. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
Here’s where we get to the good stuff. Because I genuinely do not give a shit about killing evil clown-spider-alien-gods. Like, yay, you faced your fears! You defeated your childhood demons! I have an anxiety disorder, people, I don’t need dramatic supernatural evil to be terrified and fight through it. I can get that from going to a grocery store and I frankly already have more than I need.
No. The real good stuff, the real question I always want the answer to is: what happens after? So you survive something terrible, you go, you fight, you win -- what happens then? How do you look around you at everything you destroyed as you fought for your life, pick up the pieces, and start building something new out of them? That’s why I’m in a fandom with a murder clown, and that is exactly what this series provides.
I mean, yes, it’s also about Richie and Eddie and also all the Losers getting nice things, because they deserve it after, you know, the terror and the deaths and the waiting in Derry and the losing the memories and the trudging through actual sewage and the facing their worst nightmares. But mostly it’s about surviving, and looking at yourself at forty and realizing hey, this is not your beautiful life, and then going out and making a new one.
Empty Your Basket, by pineapplecrushface. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
Okay, so you know how sometimes you have baggage hanging around because of your childhood trauma and terrible life experiences? Some people, they might choose to go to therapy because of that. Other people might instead choose to deal with that through platonically spanking their friends, and by “other people” I actually just mean “Richie Tozier,” because I need to believe everyone else with a history of traumatic amnesia who axe murdered a serial killer is actually getting therapy.
Also, I probably don’t need to tell you this, but: it isn’t platonic. It was never platonic. I am sure that somewhere out there there is someone who can spank his best friend, with whom he is in love, totally platonically, but that person is not and will never be Richie Tozier. Platonic is just a lie he tells himself to further his terrible life choices, because -- you know, honestly, I think when you started out in life by fighting a clown god in a sewer, probably every other possible life choice looks like a great one in comparison.
But while this story should never be taken as life advice, it absolutely should be read intensively. It is so them, so very Richie and Eddie: bickering instead of functional communication, and poor decisions (Richie) or no decisions (Eddie) as a lifestyle, but somehow they get there in the end. And by “get there,” I mean “to orgasms and then a reasonably functional relationship, given their limitations,” which I assume is not spoiling anything for anyone.
Memories of a Stolen Place, by glorious_spoon. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
I love stories that explore what would happen if a Loser encountered another Loser while under the effect of It’s magical memory bleach, and this story is a prime and excellent example of the genre. Also, it answers that question with, “They would bang like a screen door," and that is a good answer. I like it very much, and the author shows their work convincingly, if you see what I mean.
But I also very much enjoy this alternate version of the It-killing events in Derry. First and foremost, it supports my fundamental thesis of “queerness makes everything better.” Like, see? Eddie did not have to die! You could have just had him fuck Richie instead, director Andres Muschietti! In the future, please consider every alternative, including queer sex, and don’t just go straight (heh) for the unnecessary, agonizing death, okay? Great, glad we had this talk, looking forward to improvement on that.
Also, this story neatly glosses over the events of the movie while still hitting enough notes to make me understand some of what happened in it, which is a great deal for wimps such as myself. (So, yeah, warning: there is a modicum of clown and serial killer in here. I didn't find it over my limit or anything, but your mileage may vary.)
I really love the way glorious_spoon writes Eddie and Richie. It’s good. They’re good. The end.
Yes, Homo, by Amuly. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier.
Okay, so you know those stories where everyone knows the pairing is dating except for the two of them? The ones that could just as easily be tagged “peer pressure made them do it” except that sounds less like fun and more like "get new friends"? This is a trope inversion of that. What if -- just go with me here -- what if two people have been so weird about each other (and so weird, just generally) for so long that their closest friends hear “WE FUCKED AND I AM SO IN LOVE WITH HIM” and go “haha, classic, really happy you have such a great friendship”?
Because that’s what’s happening here. It’s hard to blame the Losers, because they did not grow up with great references for things like “normal” and “sensible,” and then they forgot the references they did have for, you know, three decades. Plus, they’re friends with Richie, who has decided that yelling as loudly and obnoxiously as he possibly can is the best way to deflect attention. (And to be fair, he is making that work for him.) How can they not completely fail to figure out what’s going on?
Also, gotta say: it’s nice to have some humor in your alien-clown-spider-god serial killer fandom. Just as a treat.
The Other Half Is Me, by focusfixated. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Richie gets a leash. That’s it, that’s the story.
That’s not actually why I love the story, though. What’s great about this is -- okay. At least at the start of It: Chapter Two, Richie and Eddie do not have, well, any experience AT ALL in getting what they want. Richie, specifically, doesn’t have a career he wants, any relationship of any kind, or, you know, friends, and also he’s been in the closet for thirty healthy, healthy years. He’s turned denial, deflection, and loneliness into a lifestyle.
So part of what I truly love about this story is Richie figuring out he wants something, managing to ask for it, and then getting it. Like. That is such progress for him! I am just over there on the other side of the screen going, “Look at you wanting things and getting them and enjoying them! That alien clown spider god thing is spinning in its grave right now!” (Not literally spinning in its grave; that thing is extremely dead and not moving at all. There will be no zombie god clowns on my watch, thank you.)
And then we have Eddie. Eddie, at the start of the movie, has taken a different path to a miserable adulthood: he’s reliving his terrible childhood, except instead of a controlling mother, he’s got a controlling wife who looks exactly like her, who he passively submits to while boiling with undirected anger.
So Eddie being in charge of something? Eddie hearing what someone else wants and getting that for him? I am absolutely here for that.
Areas of Expertise, by dudski. Gen-ish.
Remember how I said that a little humor is just what a Stephen King adjacent fandom needs? This is more of it, though I am honestly unsure how funny it is to anyone who is not Extremely Online in the same way that I am. But I also love the ensembleness of it all -- like, I didn’t list any pairings up there because it would end up more like tags. Like, “everyone/puzzles, additional background pairings, Losers gonna win.”
I am here in this fandom for survival and recovery and Eddie/Richie, but I am also very into the found family aspect -- especially since these people were mostly hugely isolated and basically familyless for their entire adult lives and then they went back to their hometown and discovered that indeed, home is where, when you have to go there (to kill a clown), they have to take you in (to their arms). (And rediscovering that family changes their lives for the better! Almost immediately! It’s pretty great.) This story really nails that found family aspect.
Plus, well, I just enjoy fictional internet drama. It’s like real life internet drama, except no one is getting hurt and no one is going to try to destroy the environment by selling a link to it.
Houses in Your Heart, by Tafadhali.
Speaking of found family! This is alllll about that found family thing. This vid covers all the other big emotions -- happiness, sorrow, love, joy -- and leaves out the, you know. Terrifying parts. (No clown and only a little bit of blood, which -- seriously, that is a GIFT.) The vid absolutely nails that classic combination: gold dust childhood memories limned in summer light and, just slightly out of frame, unimaginable awfulness lurking. But here, the awfulness takes a back seat to the pure found family love, and that is the way I like it.
So, basically, this vid: Sweet! Soft! Only a hint of evil! And the song choice somehow feels like the 1980s! Come for the hugging, stay for the hugging, basically.
The year of the goat and your kid back, by derryfacts2. Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, OMC/OMC.
Okay, so. Second person is not my favorite (third person best person!), and also I tend to avoid stories where homophobia drives the plot, because if I want homophobia, real life is right there. This story is a second-person story where homophobia plays a huge part. Oh, and it’s also a mundane AU (no clown god, no serial killers). AND it’s about parents and children being separated, and a little bit about (non-physical) child abuse.
In short: this story shouldn't be for me. And yet it is. I read this with absorption and enjoyed the hell out of it. There is something so appealing about the idea of at least some of these kids having a caring parent, about them getting to deal with the hurts of childhood as young adults instead of as middle-aged high-functioning disasters, and I super enjoyed the OMC that is the main focus of the fic. It’s just a really compelling story, at least to me. So I’m tacking it on here at the end, in case one of you was sitting there going, “But where is the second-person teen-rated story about homophobia?” (I mean. It’s also about good parenting. And healing. And finding your people. So it isn’t entirely off-brand for me. Just ... mostly. And I love it anyway.)