The Gentleman's Guide to Heat
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Gentleman's Guide to Heat |
| Author(s): | azrielen |
| Date(s): | 28 Feb 2015 |
| Length: | 3088 |
| Genre(s): | A/B/O, Five Things |
| Fandom(s): | Kingsman |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | The Gentleman's Guide to Heat at AO3 |
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The Gentleman's Guide to Heat is a Kingsman A/B/O fic by azrielen. It's an early example of the A/B/O trope from 2015, focusing on Eggsy's heat cycle and his relationship to Harry Hart. Notable for its treatment of the A/B/O trope, the fic is mainly a Five Things Character Study from Eggsy's perspective and only rated explicit for the subject matter of heats.
It is an extremely popular fic, being the most kudos'd A/B/O Kingsman fic on AO3[1] as well as the fourth most kudos'd Kingsman fic overall.[2] The fic has been translated into Russian by GilbertBruegel[3] and a podfic by Dr_Fumbles_McStupid is available.[4]
The Fic
Dedicated to j_gabrielle, a prolific Hartwin writer in the Kingsman fandom, and to Ryvchan, who wrote Alpha Kingsman the first A/B/O fic in the fandom, The Gentleman's Guide to Heat is a Five Things Character Study focused on five heats Eggsy goes through. Although not the first A/B/O fic in the Kingsman fandom, it has proven to be popular for a relatively short fic. It's the most kudos'd A/B/O Kingsman fic on AO3[1] at 8252 kudos as of June 2020.[5] The fic is also the fourth most kudos'd Kingsman fic overall, being beaten out by three relative long fic ranging from 20k to 160k words.[2] It was azrielen's first A/B/O fic, a trope the author would not return to until seven years later in the Encanto fandom, and their first Kingsman fic.
The fic largely reads as gen, however the fic also shows the progression of the Harry/Eggsy relationship and, because it deals with Eggsy's heats, is rated Explicit. Like many other fic that came out after the first Kingsman movie, The Gentleman's Guide to Heat involves the fan theory (canonized in the following film) that Harry survived being shot by Valentine, although it makes no attempt to explain how Harry's survival was accomplished. The summary for The Gentleman's Guide to Heat on AO3 is:
Because it's an earlier example of A/B/O, written just as the trope was beginning to proliferate from the original fandoms of Supernatural and Teen Wolf, it features the typical gender distribution: Alpha Harry because he's the top and Omega Eggsy because he's the bottom. The fic does, however, feature an interesting subversion of the typical traits in A/B/O, given that Harry manages to keep from immediately ravishing Eggsy at one point and Eggsy has been written with an unusual amount of agency and a proactive personality that was uncommon for a character assigned "omega" in an A/B/O fic. One commenter even pointed out this was slightly unusual for the time period it was written in:
Oh man. I didn't realise the fandom needs the A/B/O verse until I read this. I loved how your Eggsy refused to apologise for being an omega. And how at the end, he's learned to utilise it, brilliant.[6]
and comments from the author also seem to indicate that Eggsy's proactive nature within the story was a conscious decision.[7] The author's note, however, indicates that it was written in the "traditional" A/B/O framework, rather than being deliberately "non-traditional":
This is A/B/O, with all the dub-con implications usually found there-in. Do heed the warnings/tags."[5]
Selected Comments
Omg that was delicious and gorgeous. All-in-all verywell put together, and very sexy. I know that I, for one, would love to see a sequel where Harry does break and mount Eggsy over the Round Table. Everyone stays delightfully in character, and I am just absolutely in love with this. Thank you for sharing.[8]
Unf. I loved it. My first fic in this fandom, and what a grand introduction. I especially liked some of the specific sensory details--"the burnt-sugar scent of his impending heat". They can really make or break an ABO fic, imo, and they definitely made this. Great job timing the scene breaks, giving us just enough information to watch the transitions, but not dragging us down with too much. This could easily have been a 40k fic, but it didn't really -need- to be, so well done there. Just generally, I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for writing it.[9]
I was sure ABO fics were a complete squick for me but this is delightful in every way, not despite but because of. The whole thing about the week before a heat turning Eggsy into a devastating spy machine just hit me in the best way. What have you done???[10]
I love the trope, but there are fine lines in every fandom and character, and avoiding OOC is one of the hardest things to do, from what I have read.My opinion is that if you keep certain canon personality aspects, the character is believable, and I am delighted with Eggsy and Harry~
The fact that Eggsy learnt to use his heats was unexpected and totally welcomed.
I cannot remember the last time I read an A/B/O fic with some actual BAMF!Omega protagonist (or secondary character tbh) so it's clear I was on the wrong side of Ao3.[11]
References
- ^ a b Kingsman works in Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, sorted by kudos. Accessed 14 June 2020.
- ^ a b Kingsman works, sorted by kudos. Accessed 7 Mar 2023.
- ^ Путеводитель джентльмена для омег. Posted 2 Mar 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ [Podfic of] The Gentleman's Guide to Heat. Posted 7 Apr 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ a b c The Gentleman's Guide to Heat. Posted 28 Feb 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ Comment on "The Gentleman's Guide to Heat." Posted 28 Feb 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ Comment Thread: "A/B/O can get OOC and damsel-in-distressy sometimes. I wanted to show a progression through different elements of it." Posted 28 Feb 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ Comment. Posted 3 Mar 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ Comment. Posted 13 April 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ Comment. Posted 23 Jul 2015. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.
- ^ Comment. Posted 8 Jul 2016. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.