Meta recs

Mostly I'm not big on fannish meta (fannish RANTING is another sport entirely, and one in which I excel). It's half thought and half fans blowing smoke up one another's asses. Hey, I do it, too.

But occasionally there is some arranged in cohesive enough fashion that it's well-put and enjoyable to read even if you don't agree with everything in it. For POTC, there are a couple of communities that deal with the characters, both alone and in combinations - idol_reflection and ship_manifesto, respectively. (These are each actually multifandom communities, and I'll post a link to their master lists at the end.) These are set up for fans to "claim" unexamined characters and 'ships, get an "assignment" deadline from the mod, and post their thoughts on said topics, as well as their recommendations on fanfic, communities, websites, and other meta related to that character or relationship. At this point, I don't know if they allow more than one essay per character or 'ship; you can always ask by leaving a comment, though (which, incidentally, is also how you put in a claim). And, on occasion, someone will let their claim expire without posting the meta, in which case that topic is fair game for someone else to request.

Anyway ... the latest pairing post was on Will/Elizabeth. There's also Norrington/Elizabeth, Jack/Will, Jack/Elizabeth, Jack/Norrington, and even the threesome of Jack/Will/Elizabeth.

For individual characters, there's Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, James Norrington, Cutler Beckett, and even Mr. Gibbs. I say "even" because that brings me to the other part of this post: Characters are not listed for assignation, they are fan's choice. If there's even a minor character for whom there's no essay and you want to contribute one for your fellow fans to chew over and appreciate, you can do that. That's what I like about these communities.

The Master List of claimed 'ships is here and the Master List of claimed characters is here.