We plunge into the DCAU ass-backwards with two short Batman Beyond stories. In "Only One Can Wear the Crown," Bat "Bruce Wayne" Man reminiscences about how goddamn good Dick Grayson was at acrobatics. (Spoiler: very good.) In "Hope Is The Thing With Leather," Max finds herself drawn increasingly deeper into the bat-lifestyle, which is a great idea that nobody ever regrets.

Links to the stories:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7091848/1/Only-one-can-wear-the-Crown

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3096336/1/Hope-Is-the-Thing-With-Leather

Anime Music Videos: the carefully-crafted works of transformative media that we watched in our youth, largely because downloading full episodes of anime off the internet was nigh impossible. Tory, Della, and Amado each pick a few AMVs to discuss, and somehow we don't hit any Evanescence songs. (We've got U2 and Linkin Park covered, though.) Amado tries to force his arbitrary categorization dichotomy on the others to limited success.

Links to the AMVs:

• Jinnai and the Bugrom Live (El-Hazard): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypGWEXFpxyA

Soviet and/or Eastern European Planeteer Linka is transported to an alternate (?) future where she died five years ago, but her troubles don't end there - she'll need to survive a cruise ship full of villains, environmental devastation, Central Park, and maybe a Balrog if we're lucky. Also, romancing sad future Wheeler.

Link to the story: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2819108/4/Alternate-Destination

We continue to stretch the ambit of our podcast by discussing proto-Gainax's fan animations for the Nihon SF Taikai science fiction conventions. It's a kind of fanfiction, although the narrative that emerges is mostly "what if all of early-1980s sci-fi crashed into each other and exploded?" In the time it took you to read this, a woman dressed as a playboy bunny could already have beaten up Godzilla, Darth Vader, and a Xenomorph.

Daicon III and IV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZqXJotlBY

Remastered Daicon III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQjruwkyOaU

Remastered Daicon IV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDN68LxWW-8&t=314s

Densha Otoko Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jg7tpJO6P4

In the wake of the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series, we return to Fernwithy's take on young Leia, the Alderaanean princess who is also a senator who is also the bio-kid of a fascist supervillain who used to be a child slave. Could it be that underneath Vader's cold shell is a deeply wounded man desperately seeking personal connection? Probably. Is any relationship with him going to end in horrible betrayal? Oh, definitely.

Link to the story: http://fanfic.theforce.net/fanfic.asp?action=view&ID=368

Erstwhile fanfiction author and Arcade Spirits co-writer Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne joins us to talk through his background in anime fanfiction. There are plenty of digressions along the way, as we talk old anime fan culture, the utilization of nostalgia in fiction, and Stefan's one degree of separation from Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Link to the author's webfiction: stefangagne.com 

Link to the Arcade Spirits site: https://www.arcadespirits.com

Sara B. rejoins us with a strong recommendation to the world of music RPF. In Liverpool circa 1958, John Lennon is a charismatic asshole, while Paul McCartney is less charismatic but also less of an asshole. Together, they make music and have outrageous chemistry together. Stuart Sutcliffe is also there. Everyone needs to be a lot nicer to poor George Harrison.

Link to the story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188089

Link to Sara's AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyshark2005

It's time to investigate a 100 year-old fanfic zine, with Vincent Starett's The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet (no, not like a small town). The author writes what he knows, and what he knows is bibliophiles. The more Sherlock moves like some kind of dog or spider, the happier we are. We expect more of Watson.

Link to the story: http://www.bestofsherlock.com/story/unique-hamlet-text.htm

Taran joins us, ready for a moderate amount of Ultraviolence, as we chat about the beginnings of the classic Improfanfic headliner, MTCFF Ultra. It's a wrestling-style gonzo megacrossover where Gambit, Dan Hibiki, Lina Inverse, and Shinji fight under the sponsorship of God Herself, Kasumi Tendo. But the real struggle is for each author to keep their predecessor's plot threads going.

Link to the story: mtcffultra.com

Actual fanfiction writers OutHereNow and EveHypo555 of the Canon Divergent podcast join us to talk Buffy. Spike commandeers a company jet to deal with a crisis from his past in Italy. Italy is also where Buffy is half-heartedly sleeping with the hottest supernatural being on the continent. Could these two crazy kids get back together? Maybe it would be a good start if someone got around to telling Buffy that he was still alive?

Link to the story: http://spikeluver.com/SpuffyRealm/viewstory.php?sid=24538

Canon Divergent on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/canon-divergent-a-fanfic-podcast/id1615306973