'She walked over to Thea and pulled one of the games out of the box. It was an old fashioned wooden box with the game’s name actually carved into the front. “Jumanji?”
“I’ve never heard of that one,” Ollie said. He joined them to take a look.'
Sometimes, you gotta give points for creativity, y'know?
And there ain't no-one more creative than fic authors! 😉
OK, so have you ever thought to yourself:
I wonder what it would be like if the Arrowverse (specifically Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow) was actually the original, 1990s, Jumanji movie?
No?
Nah, me either.
It works weirdly well in novella(ish)-length fanfiction, though.
...Like, really. The canon just slides into place like it was always meant to be there. 😅
(Fandom notes:
Canon is the 'official' stuff in a book/TV series/film/whatever)
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| via Giphy |
So, we open with Oliver Queen and Sara Lance getting pulled into Jumanji - the game acting very much as the Arrow series' Lian Yu island in this AU.
Flash forward to friends Nate Heywood, Ray Palmer, Ava Sharpe, and Felicity Smoak, who are checking out the dilapidated Queen manor - empty after Oliver Queen went missing, all those years ago.
...along the way, they find a wooden box.
It kind of looks like an old board game... 😉
(Fandom notes:
AU = Alternate Universe. Which is what it sounds like it is.)
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| Via Giphy |
This really did work surprisingly well - and there were enough surprises to keep me reading.
I wanted to know how the author was gonna fit this thing into that plot structure, y'know?
For those who are wondering, yes Sara is Ava's love interest here, and vice versa - as it should be.
There is some early stuff going on between Sara and Oliver, too.
Basically, relationships are from canon, OK? OK.
The author also tried to include Nate's canonic haemophilia... with mixed success, but they managed to cover it better than the series did, so... *shrugs*
The writing could've been smoother in places, but overall was pretty steady.
I also loved some of the more creative game-turns the author used here! They're definitely at their strongest when writing the game itself.
A few Content Warnings, though I should point out that it never gets that dark:
- missing people
- general violence
- general action/adventure danger
- injury
- blood
- burns
- haemophilia
- assassins
- death
- references to suicide
- references to superhero-shenanigans-style terrorist events
- references to forced mental health institutionalisation
- general destruction
- persuit by police
- attempted suicide (self-sacrificing character)
...I think that's everything. But always be careful, dearest nerdlets!
What characters would you make play Jumanji?
Do you think you could win the game?
Talk to me! 😅💬
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Confession time: I've never seen Jumanji, and don't know anything about it besides the fact that it has to do with a boardgame and Robin Williams is in it. And I love Robin Williams, so I suppose I should give it a shot one day!
ReplyDelete*gasp* I must've watched it like a million times as a kid - def. worth the watch!
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