#fosterson week

[fostersonweek]

Sooo will we be having a fosterson week this year?

So, Mod Jordan went back to grad school and is DYING because ADHD sucks ass.

@the-irish-mayhem, are you still around? Want to attempt to organize something with me?

I am feeling inspired after those bts photos from Love and Thunder.

[notallthosewho-wanderarelost]

Fosterson Week Day 4: Tropes + Bonus: 

[drfxster]

The L Word

Fosterson Week 2019 Day 1: Missing scene

“Excuse me?”

“Babe, behind us,” Jane said, brushing Thor’s arm to turn and face the two women approaching them. College students from the looks of it, and the sheer number of buttons on the straps of their bags. One of them pulled out a flag in different shaded stripes of pink, white, and red, and Thor’s face split into a grin as he realized what it was.

“Um, would you mind…” the girl trailed off as Thor took the flag from her without a moment’s hesitation.

“Not at all, I quite enjoy it!” he answered proudly. “Do you have a phone you’d like to use to capture the moment?” Flag girl’s friend took out her phone, and Jane smiled a little, seeing that it had a diagram of an Einstein-Rosen bridge on the case. “Excellent. Jane?”

“I’m on it.” Jane moved to take the phone and open the camera app. “Do you guys want video or photo?”

“We can do video?” the second girl asked eagerly.

“Of course you can. I’m guessing you want ‘let’s go, lesbians?’” Ever since Darcy had shown Thor Billy on the Streets, he’d latched onto that phrase, and Jane had grown fond of it. If nothing else, he’d had fun at Pride events.

“You would really do that?” the first girl asked in amazement, and Jane hit record just before Thor gave the answer that he’d gotten down to an art at this point.

“I am Thor, God of Thunder and Lesbians, protector of the Sapphics, of course I would do that. Now, look at the camera, and let’s go, lesbians—”

“Let’s go!” the girls finished the shout with him before bursting into giggles and Jane ended the video, passing the phone back.

“Actually, do you mind taking a picture, Dr. Foster?” the second girl asked, suddenly timid and Jane blinked in surprise.

“Wait, for real?”

“Yeah, I, um,” the girl blushes and pulls a thick stack of papers, holding them out to Jane. “I wrote one of my term papers about you. Would you mind signing this draft too? Please?”

“I mean… I’m…” Jane sputtered a little, trying to make her brain work through her shock at someone actually wanting her autograph.

“Give her a moment, she’s unused to this sort of attention,” Thor chuckled as he took the phone from the girl and retrieved a pen from his pocket. “But that is part of why I love her.”

Oh, my god, THOR. Jane cleared her throat as she managed to take the pen and look at the girl. “What’s your name?”

“Roz.”

“Roz,” Jane repeated, scribbling her name on the front page of the paper, along with ‘Roz, keep aiming for the stars.’ “This is… really gratifying, thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Roz said, hugging the paper to her chest.

“Jane, look at me,” Thor coached. “Both of you say Nobel.”

“Nobel!” Roz said more enthusiastically than Jane, who was still kind of processing everything, but managed to smile. As Thor took the picture, then gave the phone back to the two girls with one last energetic hug, Jane took the moment to collect herself.

“They were delightful,” Thor said cheerfully as they resumed walking.

“Yeah, they were.” She looked up at him. “But was it your plan to tell two complete strangers that you loved me before you told me?”

“Jane Foster, if you didn’t know how deeply I loved you before this moment, I have utterly failed as a boyfriend.”

“I mean, the issue could just as easily be my performance as a girlfriend.”

“Nonsense,” he chuckled, bending down to kiss her forehead.

“Oh, yeah, it’s definitely my fault,” she laughed. “But for the record, I love you too.”

“I know,” he grinned.

“Oh, my god, do not Solo me!”

“You should not have shown me the movies.”

“I hate you so much right now.”

“No,” he paused to brush back her hair with a smile. “No, you don’t.”

And even as she huffed to demonstrate that she was serious, she leaned up and kissed him, knowing that it was hardly the worst way to say their first ‘I love you’s.

[the-irish-mayhem]

Happy Fosterson Week Day 2: Outside POV! This fic stemmed from my love of fake academia, but also my absolute desire to never write an academic paper ever again. So I found a bit of a middle ground. Fair warning: Both Jane and Thor have passed away in this. But never fear, their life together was long and happy.

A generation later, a budding social scientist tries to figure out Jane and Thor.

Read on AO3.

Legacy.

Post Thread Created: 1/23/01 Originally Posted: 1/23/01 Post Edited: 10/30/04

Edit 10/30/04: WOW, I did not anticipate that this post series would blow up the way it did! Thank you to all who shared this and supported me in this journey, and if you’re wondering, yes, my book is now out! You can get your copy of The Dynasty That Never Was: A Biography at your local retailer, the Bionic Press cloudstore, or at your local library.

Just a little bit of context: this was very early in my thesis writing process, back when Jane and Thor were only planned to encompass a single chapter of my book (ha!) and I was planning on writing a straight cultural analysis rather than the cultural analysis-slash-biography it became.

Okay, now on with the original post!

Good morning, fellow New Asgard Anthropologists. For any newcomers, my name is (future Dr.) Melanie LaComb, and the purpose of this blog has been to share my research on a little more of a ground level, record my process of writing my thesis, and talk/write through some problems and put them up for community collaboration. It’s also nice to be able to shed the academic discourse for just a few minutes and write informally. So much freedom! So many exclamations and I statements! Anyway, I’m writing this new post to talk my way through a bit of a new thorn in my research. The late Thor Odinson and Jane Foster.

A lot of academics have kind of scoffed at this problem of mine—they were two extremely famous individuals! Integral to so many galactically significant events! Of course there is absolute mega loads of information on them! There must be dozens of biographies and at least two definitive autobiographies for beings of such impressive historical stature!

This may shock you, but NO there actually isn’t. Or, I suppose in some ways there is but not in the ways that would be most useful for me. For Odinson, who grew up on Old Asgard, the destruction of the planet meant the destruction of many records kept from his years before the Greatest War Against Thanos. His years afterwards are better trackable, but hardly centralized and hardly the more personalized records I am (now trying to get at. Foster, known on Midgard as Dr. Jane Foster and colloquially throughout the galaxy as “Jane the Thinker” or “Jane the Brilliant,” is surprisingly easier to get a handle on. Her fame wasn’t contingent upon her marital status, and she was well-known in scientific circles even before the first battle of the War in the year 2012.

So the root of my problem is this: fitting this pair into my New Asgard diaspora research. Because they are….. how do I say this…. not fitting? With my methodology? (I went to the school of redundancy school, but F*ck I’ve been writing and writing and writing for like 8 hours today already and I’m not changing it so THERE.)

So most of my research deals with the formation of a New Asgardian identity, and it relies heavily upon the shared cultural experiences of the Dark Elf Invasion of Old Asgard and the death of Queen Frigga (an aside, but one of my classmates, Korla Majer, wrote a really stellar article on why the Dark Elf invasion should be included as one of the major battles of the Greatest War, and how the dismissal of the event by most historians actively hurts our understanding of galactic politics at the time and I absolutely 10/10 would recommend you go read it after you finish this blog post) as well as the battle for and destruction of New Asgard. For beings so long lived as us, Asgardians have proven that we can make our memories as short as we need to, and those two events seemed to create the largest basis for the new cultural identity forged on Earth. (For some obvious reasons, namely being the events that led to the planet being destroyed and necessitating the move to Midgard, but ANYWAY.)

But I can’t really deny Jane and Thor’s place in the New Asgardian identity because their effect on the masses is well-documented. There are libraries full of memes, old paper magazines with paparazzi photos paired with barely-real stories that say a lot more about the readership than they do the subjects, even some old FanFiction that I was able to dig up that is in some ways more helpful than all the academia from that time period combined XD

In my roundabout way, the problem I’m trying to sort through is this: HOW do I tackle the Jane/Thor chapter?

Because in my original outlining of my thesis, I had planned on their chapter being a quick summation of how they met just before the Greatest War’s beginning, courted through the course of it, and married at its conclusion. Then, I’d give some context on their influence on galactic politics (because despite what some people erroneously think, they actually were not the monarchs of New Asgard. They remained advisors only after Thor abdicated the throne and named Brunnhilde [of house Dragonfang, an extremely old and well-respected Old Asgardian family] his successor. There was the five year gap of the Blip where Thor was officially King, but it was hardly a politically significant time as for much of this period Thor was gone from New Asgard), how some political maneuvers affected the general New Asgardian populace, and then move back to the cultural study portion of things. But the more sources I gather about them, the more I think this chapter might need to be extended, or made into some… sub point of my main thesis.

Because while I said earlier that information on them is hard to find (because it is!!! You try making document requests to 17 different universities on 15 different planets!!!! Alfheim literally delivered what I asked for in a light spectrum file format!!!!!!!! Like WHAT!!!!!! AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS????? HOW DO I CONVERT THIS INTO A PDF OR EVEN JUST MAKE IT COMPATIBLE WITH HOLOREADERS) it’s not always the quantity that’s the issue, it’s the content. I found myself longing to know more about who these people were and why they did the things they did. I’ve always found that I've done my best research when I follow my gut feelings, and research things that I’m passionate about. New Asgardian diaspora culture? I’m living it, baby! I’m very interested because my generation is the first generation to have never set foot on Asgard, and that’s something worth exploring!

And now here I am weirdly fascinated by an almost-king whose magical powers are pretty legendary who was banished and fell in love with a woman (who was 100% human at the time, by the way) whose scientific theories were so advanced that her own people thought she was a bit of a kook until all of her theories started getting proven right. From a non-academic perspective, that sounds like a freaking romance novel or epic movie or something. (Which, by the way, it was! There were at least 6 separate pieces of media [film, novel, television show] that were based on their story that I can find on record.) So on a personal level, here I am wondering why two people in the past got married in spite of wildly different life circumstances/why one of them abdicated a throne that was his birthright, and on an academic level A) trying to figure out how to fit this weird fascination into my thesis B) how did these two political and cultural figures shape the cultural landscape C) was their effect on the cultural landscape more or less significant than the two events which have been taking the most of my focus for the last year? D) how productive is it to even ask the question of more or less significance?

*screaming*

A few people have asked me if I should just switch my track to talk about how they affected Brunnhilde’s rule over New Asgard (which, in case you missed previous posts, Brunnhilde is a huge part of my current thesis as she essentially presided over what I’m terming “The New Asgardian Cultural Renaissance” and was absolutely critical to how things were shaped.) I’m hesitant to do this because this has actually already been done. I’ll stick JSTOR links in the endnotes, but Dr. Hamel Radley literally wrote this. “A King For the Ages: Brunnhilde’s First Three Decades.” Also, Dr. Leslie Storn’s “A King’s Court: Brunnhilde’s Advisory Council.” AND Dr. Jorseph Naulty’s “King Brunnhilde’s Surprising Advisory Council: Steady Hands, Scientists, Military Minds, and Galactic Politicking.” Look, there’s a LOT on Brunnhilde’s rule, and a LOT written on her advisory council. She was the ruling monarch, so it’s pretty par for the course.

But for how politically and culturally significant they seemed to be, there’s not really much specifically on Jane and Thor. Their cultural influences are given lip-service, and that’s it. (Again, Jane has been scientifically significant in a way no one has achieved since Albert Einstein, so in that way she’s more famous than her husband, but scientific notoriety isn’t the same as recognizing the fullness of her cultural contributions.)

I brought this stuff up to my advisor, and she said to keep pulling this thread because I’m on to something here, I just need to figure out what.

So my next research goal is to reach out to their descendents. They have a few children and grandchildren living, and hopefully at least one of them is willing to speak to me about them as people so I can get that portion of things nailed down before I go insane.

My almost-insanity probably bled into this post a little bit because it’s redundant as heck and you can bet your bum I am not spell-checking or proofreading. I need a break from that garbage. The life of a doctoral student continues.

Here’s to pulling the thread. Hopefully something useful unravels.

-(Future Dr.) Melanie LaComb

Reply posted by: Winsome34, 1/23/01 08:23

Melanie--this is a super interesting track, and your advisor was absolutely right when they said to follow it. I think it would be really interesting to read a sort of half-biography, half-cultural analysis piece. Would be really unique, and I’m sure any doctoral committee would find it an engaging topic.

Not sure if you’ve tried the Avengers Museum and Historical Library yet, but that might be a good place to go for some more primary sources, since Thor was a founding member and Jane was closely tied to them throughout their life. They have a really solid amazing librarians there who know the stacks backwards and forwards. I relied heavily on them when I was researching my last paper about racism against superheroes of color in the early 21st century.

Reply posted by: KorlaMajer, 1/23/01 10:22

Thanks for the shoutout boo ;) Your thesis is gonna be amazing!

ALSO: I have a light spectrum file converter from my dad. He does a ton of business with Alfheim and they are NOTORIOUS for sending incompatible LSFs.

Reply posted by: Chloe Durbin, 2/2/01 20:40

Hey! My mom is actually really tight with Thor and Jane’s oldest daughter Valkyrie. I think they knew each other from school or something back in the day, but she’s really awesome and basically my aunt, so if you need an intro or a number to call, I’ve got you! Just shoot me an email [email protected]. She’s really approachable if you don’t mind walking up to a lady who is literally 6’8” and looks like she literally HAS killed a man with her bare hands. But super nice though!

Universal Reply posted by: Blogmaster, 5/3/01 06:27

Thank you everyone for the tips! It’s going to help so much! The Avengers Library has actually been majorly helpful (I never even thought to look there, honestly!) and Valkyrie has agreed to sit down to an interview (of sorts) so everything is seriously looking up. And THE LSF CONVERTER WORKED LIKE A CHARM.

[strawberrykole]

just finished my first fosterson week drabble and i can’t wait to share it with you all tomorrow.

[hermiome]

I give you my word I will return for you.

[hariboowrites]

Jane/Thor Week: Day 1

I normally forget about these things, but the world has been kind to me this week and 1) I remembered b) HAVE TIME! 

Day One is anything Post TDW and well, sure I could post one of my WIPs, but I hate doing that bc I fear I’ll never finish them and I don’t want the people to suffer. Doing a post TDW graphic is... doable you just have to get creative with caps, but eh. So I wondered what to do. Meta is hard to do without the context of what Jane is up. And canon isn’t really giving us a happy place to explore atm. 

So I realised I should do what I do best: LINK FIC. A couple weeks ago I was asked to do a Thor/Jane rec list and lazily I just kinda threw my pinboard link out there. (I’ll still do it one day!) But today I realised I could do a rec list of my fave Post TDW Jane/Thor fic. Let’s go. (these are in no particular order except the order they’re saved on my pinboard.)

A Magical Solution to the Einstein Field Equations - shinyopals  technically this falls under age of ultron but that’s after tdw so IT WORKS. i read this fic recently after having it saved for months bc i’m great like that and it is a DELIGHT. it is a great jane character piece, but also a great what if thor 3 synopsis. shinyopals honestly writes so ace character interaction and their style is fresh and fun to read. they also write one of my fave fic tropes (5x in case you don’t me) and i’m p sure i’ll be linking another fic of theirs in this list.

The Secret of Mind and Memory - capitainpistol a great pwp dealing with memory loss and thor and jane’s immediate attraction to each other. it’s kinda a wip but easily read as a stand alone

all the best distractions - fuzzy_paint another pwp but fuzz’s writing is honestly the best, read all her stuff. (what i’m finding interesting here is that a lot fic can be ambiguously placed in a future after thor 2 esp pwp’s so i’m being discerning and linking fic that were also written after thor 2 which is why i’m only linking this fic of her “getting hitched” series: Put a Ring on It)

Jane Foster Works - Niobium all the fics here were written after thor 2 BUT the post tdw fics start at number four: We Have Joyed To Be Forlorn. i haven’t reread these in a while but i remember enjoying them a lot especially with all the focus on jane doing science and being badass about it.

Princely Bickering - shinyopals told you there’d be another! this one is jane/thor, thought told through an outsider’s pov, another favourite fic trope of mine. steve is on the run after winter solider with some buddies, they look for refuge. steve and thor’s friendship here is great. steve and jane’s equally wonderfully. plus it’s just nice having other ppl look at jane/thor as a stable loving couple.

look actually a GOOD chuck of shinyopals fics fit the criteria so like here’s some more i like bc why pretend 

Five Times Having An Alien Prince's Baby Sucked A Lot, And One Time It Didn't - shinyopals  Five Times Thor Gets His Shirt Off FOR GREAT JUSTICE And One Time He Doesn't - shinyopals  On the Physics of Magical Space Hammers by shinyopals Five Times Jane and Thor Broke Up and One Time They Didn't by shinyopals Turtures In Aeternum by shinyopals

per aspera ad astra - biochemprincess short and almost lyrical i love reading this fic

halfway between the gutter and the stars - verity this is just some cute shit about social media posting.

of course there are more, but these are the ones i’ve read, remembered to save, and fit the post thor 2 criteria. but here are some to get you started. 

[twasjane]

Okay, this cosplay is amazing and if you're missing Jane and Fosterson, it's just what you need! (We can pretend it's canon!) Happy Fosterson week!