Friendships and Fandoms started out as a disturbingly meta Once Upon a Time fanfiction by WorryinglyInnocent in which Rum Gold is a famous actor starring in the sci-fi series Star Force, which is now coming to an end, prompting his realisation that he only has so long left to spend with make-up artist Belle French. When Belle introduces him to his online fandom, however, things take a turn for the even-more-meta-than-usual, while Gold's over-amorous co-star Zelena West attempts to undermine Belle and Rum's fledgling relationship.
Despite being relatively short, the series is notable for having spawned an entire tumblr-based fandom universe, with four sideblogs from the perspectives of various characters and a great deal of Recursive Fanfiction being written about the various fandoms to which these characters belong in-universe, turning what was originally a cute, meta idea into a sort of love-letter to tumblr fandom at large.
The main fic can be found here
, Star Force episodes are here, and the sideblogs are below:
- Star Force TV, the 'official' Star Force tumblr feed.
- Bookworm with a Brush, Belle's incognito fan tumblr.
- Dragonwarrior-97, Belle's roommate Mulan's tumblr.
- The Sparkly Disco Lizard, Rum's incognito tumblr, mostly used for commenting on Belle's fic.
- Greeniestiltskinlove, Zelena's incognito tumblr.
- Life in the Background A mostly-anonymous fan blog from the perspective of one of the waitresses at Granny's, loosely based on the heroine of The Seven Ravens.
The main fanfic provides examples of:
- Ascended Fangirl: Belle is established as having had a previous crush on the Duke of Wetherford, a character Rum played in the film Her Handsome Hero, and by the time the story starts is close friends and later begins a relationship with Rum himself.
- Nice to the Waiter: Pointedly averted by Zelena, who treats the make-up staff like trash, at least partly out of jealousy over Belle's relationship with Rum.
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Romance on the Set: Both Belle and Rum and Emma and Graham have these sorts of relationship, although it is played with in the former case as it's between an actor and one of the crew. - Show Within a Show: Lots of them.
- Stalker with a Crush: Zelena towards Rum.
Star Force provides examples of:
- "Ass" in Ambassador: Miss Greenie, the resident diplomat, who is implied to have earned her position through unethical means and is very rarely of any actual use to the crew.
- The Captain: Hook, natch.
- Cool Ship: The Aurora Borealis.
- Ensign Newbie: Downplayed, but at the start of the show Hook is portrayed as a young and inexperienced captain in his first position of command over a vessel the size of the Aurora Borealis.
- Fantastic Racism: Against anyone who isn't fully human, which both Stiltskin and Arendelle have suffered from.
- The Ghost: Lacey. The only description the audience has of her is that she has 'brown hair, beautiful blue eyes and an accent you wouldn't soon forget'.
- My Girl Back Home: Lacey for Doctor Stiltskin.
- Number Two: Commander Leyah, who acts as a counterbalance for Hook's rashness and inexperience.
- Retirony: This was supposed to be Doctor Stiltskin's last mission in space before taking a post on the Star Force base in order to stay closer to his wife Lacey.
- Sole Survivor: Doctor Stiltskin is the last survivor of his family, and one of the last survivors of the destruction of the Rumplurian people and their homeworld of Dharkastil.
- Stalker with a Crush: Miss Greenie towards Doctor Stiltskin.
The sideblogs provide examples of:
- Flame War: Several, mostly between bookworm-with-a-brush and greeniestiltskinlove, although eighthraven has recently started joining in on these.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: It began with the mention of Claire Littleton playing Lacey in the finale, and since then Steve Rogers, Count Dooku, Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier, Thomas Sharpe and Harry Kennedy have all been referenced as actors in-universe.
- Nice to the Waiter: Again resoundingly averted with Zelena West in eighthraven's posts, as the blog is written in the persona of a waitress at Granny's who has had at least one post about how inconsiderate to the staff she is.
- Playing Against Type: Steve Rogers' first referenced acting role was in a WWII series called Vichy...in which he plays the fanatic Nazi commander Herr Friedrich.
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Portmanteau Couple Name: This is fandom, after all - so far the major ones are Laceskin and Greeniestiltskin. - Recursive Fanfiction
