2021 Yuletide Promo Post

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional)</b>:


(Bonus optional: What are you thinking of requesting for this?)

EDIT:

Useful tips (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):

- Mention what form of media the canon is. Is it a comic miniseries? Is it a twenty season tv show? Is it a book? Is it a twitter feed?
- Is it standalone or part of a series?
- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.


For reference, last year's promo post!

Comments

Gossip Girl 2021

[gala_apples]

FANDOM NAME: Gossip Girl 2021
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: I’m gonna be honest, I watched this show entirely because in the trailer there appeared to be a threesome. My poly ass is always starving for content. I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, and being invested in several of the characters, but the people I’m nomming are (SPOILERS AHEAD)

Audrey: a pretty rich blonde with control issues. She’s essentially running her home and raising herself, her mom being clinically depressed post infidelity and divorce. Long time girlfriend of Aki, but has cheated on him with Max.

Max: a mildly drug addicted slutty pansexual boy with currently divorcing gay dads. Self destructively sleeping with a predator high school teacher for a while until his best friend Aki rescues him.

Aki: a very chill skater, whose zen outlook occasionally pisses off his dramatic friends. Realises he’s bisexual when he makes out with Max at a bathhouse. Is accidentally outed to his family by his girlfriend, then forcibly outed by his father to the world on the national news.

The second half of the season comes out in November, and I desperately hope they don’t fuck up my ot3. These three are so messed up and I LOVE THEM.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): in Canada it’s on Crave, in the USA it’s on HBOmax.

Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules

[coinmanatee]

FANDOM NAME: (Marven Comics) Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: So the premise of the comic is that it's the Secret History of the real people who inspired the Fantastic Four comics. This is, of course, bullshit, and the comic itself focuses much more on messy interpersonal relationships than on any kind of Fantastic elements of these characters.

Reed Richards is a jerk who can't remember his fiance's anniversary and forgets to show up to the house party that he promised his bosses and made Sue organise with.

Sue is an unhappy housewife trying to get by in a suburbia that hates her, trying to raise a brother who desperately wants to leave this town behind (and is so queer coded it hurts)

While Ben is a womanizing drunk who tries to get with his best friends girl!

How these people do any of the things that the blurbs in the comic (which hold onto the illusion that this is about the origin of an extraordinary group of people) beggars belief.

There's some really good moments in the comic that are hard to describe so I've linked to my favourite pages.


Issue 2, page 23. Wherein Sue realises how unhappy she is.

Issue 3, page 16. Wherein Jonny has a gay awakening

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): So while you should ask your LCS first, it can be found for free
here and is available on the Marvel Unlimited Comics app

POTENTIAL REQUESTSI plan to ask for things that are focused on the Storm siblings (renamed to the Sturms). I just really like their dynamic and feel so horribly sad for them. I want Sue to be happy so bad. I want Jonny go come home, older and wiser, and needing his sister after all.
And I want to know how these disasters of people did all the things that they apparently did in the blurbs at the back of the books!

[lirazel]

FANDOM NAME: "This Is New Gehesran Calling" by Rebecca Fraimow

WHAT IT IS: A short scifi story about a pirate radio station run by exiles from a planet called New Gehesran.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: DIASPORA DIASPORA DIASPORA. The former citizens of New Gehesran are scattered throughout the galaxy, dealing with their memories of their lost home. A radio show offers them a way to connect. It's poignant and hopeful while still being realistic and is all about loving the culture you're from. There's love for accents and esoteric subgenres of music, there's arguments about whose grandma's recipe is the right one, there's discussion about how to grow plants away from their natural environment...this story is diaspora life.

Also, it's short!

I'm going to nominate a handful of mentioned characters from the story, but I'm especially looking forward to nominating this fandom for worldbuilding. The possibilities for stories that could fit inside this world are endless.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: It's part of the anthology Consolation Songs: Optimistic Speculative Fiction For A Time of Coronavirus which you can buy through Amazon, Smashword, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

sounds great!!

My Country: the New Age

[convenientalias]

FANDOM NAME: My Country: the New Age

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:
My Country the New Age is a 16-episode historical kdrama set at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty. It's about two friends (Seo Hwi and Nam Seon-ho) whose friendship rifts due to circumstances, and who go on to get involved in a lot of political drama.

Items of appeal:
-A very slashy bromance between Hwi and Seon-ho. Much betrayal. Much stabbing. But still so much love and protectiveness. And a ton of angst over how they always (...with a couple notable exceptions) end up on opposing sides.
-There's also a murder prince (Yi Bang-won, historically King Taejong) who has a complicated relationship with both of the two leads (he's sort of a lead in his own right).
-If you like het, the canon m/f romance subplot is not incredible, but it's not awful either, it just gets sidelined a lot. Some people also ship Seon-ho with Hwi's sister Yeon, a ship with a lot of protectiveness and amnesia.
-It you like poly, I personally ship Hwi/Seon-ho/Bang-won bc all the dynamics in that OT3 are very interesting. They don't tend to interact much with all three of them present, though.
-Hwi, Seon-ho, and Bang-won are played by Yang Se-jong, Woo Do-hwan and Jang Hyuk.
-There are some wonderful fight scenes, involving swordsfighting but also a lot of archery. Seo Hwi, the main character, is an amazing archer and he gets his chances to show off.
-Aesthetically speaking, everyone's very pretty and there's nice clothes and scenery.
-If you watch historical dramas for the history, well, the accuracy isn't amazing, but it's an interesting depiction of the shift between the Goryeo dynasty and the Joseon dynasty, and also of Yi Bang-won's fight for the throne.
-Admittedly it is a tragedy with a lot of angst along the way. But the ending was satisfying to me, even though it was very sad.

Here are some relevant gifsets:
A tense reunion with swords involved
Hwi being cool
Seon-ho being murderous
Bang-won using a fan
Hwi, Seon-ho and Yeon back in the good old days
Hwi/Seon-ho vibes
Hwi/Seon-ho fluff
And a little Seon-ho vs. Bang-won



WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional):
Netflix, or wherever you watch your kdramas. It's not currently on Viki, though.

Room Full of Vampires (Drawfee Series)

[razia]

FANDOM NAME: Room Full of Vampires (Drawfee Series)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: If you watch Drawfee, you know. If you don't know, allow me to explain: Drawfee is a youtube channel that does weekly drawing challenges, and one of those was a Random Shapes challenge that became the famous Room Full of Vampires, because Julia Mother of Monsters is incapable of following guidelines. If I explain more than this, it's spoilers. Just watch the videos, it's not even an hour to watch everything, I promise it will be worth your while :D

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: I'm glad you asked >:3c
1. Karina's cute animation
2. Julia draws more RFV (1:00 - 1:25; 30:14 - 37:10)
3. everyone draws RFV
4. a small snippet (34:50 - 43:08)

(RFV does show up in other videos, but I separated these ones because I think they encompass really well the whole idea)

Re: Room Full of Vampires (Drawfee Series)

[gloria_scott]

I was so glad to see this was nominated! I am now in dire need of Room Full of Vampires fic.

锦衣之下 | Under the Power (2019)

[corvidology]

55 x 45 minute episodes available on Iqiyi, Viki, Amazon Prime and youtube.

When a single-minded Jǐnyīwèi guard gets accidentally embroiled with an extremely talented female constable... It just opens up from there into far larger conspiracies, complex family histories and court issues involving an Emperor who'd rather be right than hear the truth. The other characters also get their own storylines which develop, intertwine and collide along the way. I love the 'B' couple in this although I wish Yang Yue (Lu Hong) could catch a break.

Tonally, it hits a lot of notes. This is a difficult and treacherous world but there are overriding themes of friendship, trust, loyalty and found family as well. Also, comedic moments that blend in better than you'd expect.

It stars Seven Tan, Allen Ren and Han Dong plus a bunch of actors in supporting roles you probably know from elsewhere.

I think Seven Tan and Allen Ren are bloody marvellous in anything they're in. Han Dong who usually plays sympathetic, well-meaning or at least 'someone with a bit of a mysterious plan' characters plays a full-on villain in this to the degree where I found myself hissing at the screen in a way I haven't indulged in since attending Christmas pantos in England as a kid. I mean, "LOOK OUT! HE'S BEHIND YOU!" would have been very useful here. According to an in-house witness, I was also muttering "kill him already!" at the screen a lot. He's that type of villain where part of his scariness is embedded in how very calm and reasonable he always seems while doing despicable things or ordering them done.

WARNINGS: Erm... lots of violence, some of it towards women but mostly spread around pretty evenly? I did mention Yang Yue gets rather an unfair share of it, right? Right! There's one ugly thing involving a child but it's not represented on screen. Despite this (because of this?) the main women characters in this series have a lot of agency and are exercising it to its fullest. If you're one of those people that torture scenes really get to then you're going to have to look away a few times, just saying.

It's full of complex relationships and is a handful of mysteries within a bigger mystery wrapped in a veneer of fandom tropes... De-aging, anyone?

6 minute trailer with spoilery bits... only this is six minutes of 55 episodes so not really? It does give a really good flavour of the show.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0GdFMo1PZmM

.

Score: A Hockey Musical, nominated by whetherwoman

[(Anonymous)]

FANDOM NAME: Score: A Hockey Musical

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Hockey! Singing! A locker room shower dance sequence! Rhyming "baloney" and "zamboni"! Cameos from Nelly Furtado and Theo Fleury! This extremely terrible movie has made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe multiple times and I have pretty much memorized every line. Full promo post, with gifs, here: https://whetherwoman.tumblr.com/post/188037972671/an-ode-to-the-best-worst-movie-score-a-hockey

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Free on YouTube! https://youtu.be/QTdv4lAzvHE?t=60

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, nominated by whetherwoman

[(Anonymous)]

FANDOM NAME: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (book)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Data analysis to save the world! The real villain was capitalism all along! Casual bisexuality! Friendship is the most important relationship! Here is the official book blurb: "Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics." And yes, yes it does.

The premise of Hench is that supervillains can find assistants at temp agencies, for roles ranging from drivers and bodyguards to tech support and data entry. While on one of these temp gigs, Anna is injured by a superhero, and while recovering (without health insurance, because, of course, temp gig) starts running the data on all the harm superheroes do. Things Progress From There.

While I freaking ADORE the premise (and have nominated Worldbuilding, because I DEFINITELY want to know more about this world of temp henching!) what really drew me into this book were the relationships between women. There is a friendship breakup that is given the emotional attention and impact that a romantic breakup would have received in a mainstream superhero movie. The friendships and relationships Anna forms are directly contrasted with the ways male supervillains and superheroes alike isolate themselves. I deeply, DEEPLY want fic of Anna and Quantum Entanglement getting coffee and just TALKING. (And maybe making out. I would very much like that as well.)

Alternately, if you're into sexxy times with a brooding genius villain who has had so many body modifications that it's basically monsterfucking, there is a LOT of fic opportunity for you here as well.

Content notes: There is a LOT of violence, and in-depth exploration of the long term impacts of and recovery from violence. Significant body horror, especially at the very end. Threatened harm to children. Vast amounts of moral ambiguity.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: wherever you usually find your books. It's widely available from online and in print booksellers, and many libraries as well.

Mother of Learning - nobody103

[liryian]

FANDOM NAME: Mother of Learning – nobody103
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It’s a long, intricate webnovel about a teenage student mage who gets stuck in a monthlong timeloop, and I absolutely adore how everything unfolds and the different layers of revelations; there’s an intricate mystery of what the hell is even going on and the way it comes together is something I find extremely satisfying.
Also, there’s quite an ensemble of characters Zorian (the protagonist) meets over the story, and they’re also pretty great. Since they’re not in the loop, they don’t exactly develop the way Zorian can, but since his side of the interactions is constantly changing we still see a lot of different sides to them, which is a lot of fun!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/1/Mother-of-Learning, https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning
Possibly other platforms as well, but I couldn’t say. Also, fair warning, it’s 824k, so not exactly a short read.

Anyway! I have latched onto the protagonist’s little sister, Kirielle—she’s adorable and I love her—and she’s currently the only character I have nominated, but if you want more characters just let me know!

The Other Side & Waiting in the Wings - emilyamiao (Animatics)

[liryian]

FANDOM NAME: The Other Side & Waiting in the Wings – emilyamiao (Animatics)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: a pair of really fun, really well-done animatics! The drawings are great, the movement is great, the backgrounds are exquisite, they’re excellently timed with the music… honestly I’d recommend anyone check them out.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): The Other Side
Waiting in the Wings
The google doc I made which includes links to the animatics, links to the various community posts, and links to youtube comments that contain more information about the characters and world, with the relevant text copied into the doc for ease of access and reference purposes

Re: The Other Side & Waiting in the Wings - emilyamiao (Animatics)

[magpiemountains]

!!!!!

I think I've watched The Other Side about five billion times prior to this (ridiculously beautiful guys arguing, expressive animation, really clear personalities, how is that not repeat watchable?) so I'm delighted to see it come up here. It's so. good. I knew the animator had some backstory for her OCs, but I didn't realise the level of detail involved, so thank you for the GDoc!

Natural - Imagine Dragons (Lyric Video)

[liryian]

FANDOM NAME: Natural – Imagine Dragons (Lyric Video)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It’s done in an animation style I really like, with a tantalizingly mysterious/ambiguous story and setting, and the song is great too ofc. Big Red Riding Hood vibes, which I'm a fan of.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): https://youtu.be/V5M2WZiAy6k

Dungeon Critters

[geri_chan]

FANDOM NAME: Dungeon Critters

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a really cute and funny graphic novel about a group of Dungeons & Dragons style adventurers who are anthropomorphized animals. This trailer is a pretty good promo/intro to the book and characters. They fight evil plants! They go undercover at a fancy ball to spy on their leader's arch-nemesis! There is adventure, magic, mayhem, and botany! (Remember the evil plant?)

And also romance: there are plenty of LGBT characters and romances or potential romances among them. I love all the characters, but my favorite is Goro, the stoic snake-man warrior who has a boyfriend named Horseboy, who is (as one might expect) a male horse. Horseboy only appears briefly in the book, but it's clear that he means a lot to Goro, who blushes adorably whenever he thinks about his boyfriend. There is also a separate comic available as a download (see link below) in which Horseboy plays a more prominent role when the Critters have to rescue him after he's been kidnapped by eels. (And in world where there are monstrous plants, why shouldn't there be sinister eels? There's also a frog prince who is a girl, whose mother and father are bears. This is just the kind of ridiculous yet hilarious world that Dungeon Critters takes place in.)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): The book is available in both print and ebook formats, and can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and possibly at your local library, which is where I discovered it. The first 80 or so pages are available as a preview on the official website. There are also a few short comics available as "set your own price" downloads here. FYI, they were written before the book was published, and #2 became part of the book. #3 is definitely not part of the book, and is the one where Horseboy appears.

Transplant (TV 2020)

[geri_chan]

FANDOM NAME: Transplant (TV 2020)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: The show is about Dr. Bashir “Bash” Hamed, a Syrian refugee trying to build a new life in Canada with his younger sister Amira. He's unable to get a job as a doctor until he saves the life of Dr. Jed Bishop, who just happens to be the Chief of Emergency Medicine at the hospital where he was just turned down. Naturally, he gets the job after all, but he still has a lot of challenges to face. As a Muslim immigrant, Bash has to deal with prejudice, but I feel like the show handles it in a way that isn't overly preachy. He also has to take on the responsibility of raising his sister after their parents were killed in Syria, while also dealing with more mundane problems like paying the rent and finding a place to live.

Bash is such a wonderful character: he's warm and caring, devoted to his sister and passionate about his work as a doctor. He tries so hard to do the right thing, and in the process sometimes takes on too much responsibility and tries to do everything himself. Part of what I like about the show is the friendships that he makes at the hospital, and how he learns that sometimes it's okay to accept help from your friends.

One of those friends is Theo Hunter, a fellow doctor at the hospital. In contrast to Bash, he's a family man from a small town, who is supposed to return back home to his wife and young kids after his residency is over. But he's thriving at the hospital, with challenges and opportunities that he hadn't expected, and he starts to think that maybe he wants to stay there permanently, which puts his marriage in jeopardy.

I love the friendship between Bash and Theo and how close they become, especially after Theo lets Bash and Amira move in with him after they lose their apartment. He has to overcome Bash's initial reluctance, but it's clear that he genuinely enjoys having them around, and it's not just pity or charity on his part. I kind of started shipping Bash and Theo after that, but equally enjoy their platonic canonical friendship.

I'm only planning to request Bash and Theo, but all the cast and characters are great! John Hannah is great as Dr. Bishop, and I also love Amira and the brother/sister bond between her and Bash.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): It's available for free streaming on the NBC website.

Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore

[geri_chan]

FANDOM NAME: Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a fantasy book series about a world in which certain people called gracelings have special powers, which can range from something as simple as a talent for swimming to something as powerful and sinister as mind control. (There are a few spoilers ahead, since the characters I'm requesting are from the latest book in the series, Winterkeep.)

Bitterblue first appears as a child in the series, who like the other people in her country, has been tortured and mind-controlled by her father, the evil King Leck. By the time Winterkeep takes place, Leck has been defeated and Bitterblue has matured into a confident and compassionate young queen. Two of her envoys to the distant republic of Winterkeep have drowned under suspicious circumstances, so Bitterblue sets out on a diplomatic mission to Winterkeep, intending to find out the truth. During the journey there, she is swept out to sea and presumed dead by her griefstruck companions.

However, she was rescued by the silbercows (intelligent, telepathic sea creatures that are something like manatees). On the the downside, she wakes up to find herself injured and held prisoner...where, is not immediately clear until we switch to the POV of Lovisa Cavenda, the teenage daughter of two powerful Winterkeep politicians. Lovisa appears to be shallow and immature at first, but we see that she's been emotionally damaged by her abusive mother and does her best to protect her little brothers from her mother's rages. When she discovers Bitterblue imprisoned in the attic of her family's house, Lovisa has to decide whether to keep quiet or to do the right thing and rescue Bitterblue. I felt so much sympathy for Lovisa, and really loved seeing the way that she grows and matures over the course of the novel.

And that's only skimming the surface of the book! I haven't even mentioned the telepathic blue foxes who bond with the humans of Winterkeep, but have secrets of their own that they hide from their human partners. Or the Keeper, another telepathic sea creature (who resembles a giant octopus). Or the airships built in Winterkeep, and the political and environmental issues related to them. There are so many great characters and so much great worldbuilding potential!

And while I've mainly talked about Winterkeep, the series does include the previous three books which focus more on the powers of the graceling characters, so there's a lot of worldbuilding potential there as well.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Amazon, Barnes & Noble, libraries.

Re: Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore

[queenbookwench]

Okay, so I’ve been meaning to read this since I did really enjoy the first 3 books, but the sapient sea cows and telepathic foxes just bumped it up the TBR _significantly_

God of Vengeance: a play about Yiddish Lesbians who kiss on stage

[(Anonymous)]

FANDOM NAME: God of Vengeance by Sholom Asch
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Written in 1907 (!!!), it's a play set in a shtetl at the turn of the 20th century. Our main character, Rifkele, is the lover of one of the sex workers who lives in the brothel underneath the house. Her father is trying to atone for his bad life choices by marrying her off to a respectable man, and gets progressively more unhinged as the play goes on. It's genuinely one of my favourite depictions of wlw ever; their love isn't demonised and the thing standing in their way is misogyny, not homophobia.

There's also a play about its first English staging in New York in 1923, in which the entire cast was arrested for performing "immoral" material -- that play is also incredibly good, Indecent by Paula Vogel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indecent_(play)).
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): It's freely available on wikisource!! (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_God_of_Vengeance)

Re: God of Vengeance: a play about Yiddish Lesbians who kiss on stage

[spacegandalf]

oh no I forgot to log in!!! anyway, the links: God of Vengeance on wikisource and Indecent by Paula Vogel(which i haven't nommed but is very good)

Amadeus (1984 film)

[firecat]

FANDOM NAME: Amadeus (1984 film)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Deliciously lush costume drama. The music, OMG. The acting! Thomas Hulce and F. Murray Abraham going at it and making it as big and overwrought as they possibly can! So much angst — jealousy, envy, shame, revenge, debauchery, sacrilege. So much shipping potential.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Rent or buy at the usual suspects. Libraries with DVD collections are likely to have it.

Archy and Mehitabel - Don Marquis

[firecat]

FANDOM NAME: Archy and Mehitabel - Don Marquis (books)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Archy is a poet who was reincarnated into the body of a cockroach. Every night he uses a typewriter (flinging himself headfirst on the keys, and writing all in lowercase because he couldn’t operate the Shift key) to recount some of his adventures and those of his friend, the alley cat Mehitabel, who claims to have been Cleopatra in a past life. The characters originally appeared in Marquis’s newspaper column in 1916.

The stories were collected into several books, including Archy and Mehitabel and Archys Life of Mehitabel. There’s also an annotated version. The stories are short and episodic. You don’t have to read the whole thing to get it or be able to write fanfic about it.

The musings of Archy are styled as poetry but I think they can be appreciated by people who don’t like most poetry.

George Herriman created delightful illustrations.

Archy and Mehitabel have fascinating, wry observations about life that don’t feel dated even a century later. The premise is so wacky that the stories could really be taken anywhere. Archy and Mehitabel in spaaaace! In the modern era. Solving crimes…

WHERE CAN I FIND IT:
The works are available as ebooks and paperbacks, can probably be borrowed from many libraries, and can be borrowed from the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/archymehitabel00marqrich < Archy and Mehitabel
https://archive.org/details/archyslifeofmehi0000marq < Archys Life of Mehitabel
https://archive.org/details/annotatedarchyme0000marq < The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel

Re: Archy and Mehitabel - Don Marquis

[(Anonymous)]

You have no idea how happy I am to see Archy and Mehitabel at Yuletide!

Wings of Desire | Der Himmel über Berlin (1987 film)

[firecat]

FANDOM NAME: Der Himmel über Berlin | Wings of Desire (1987 film)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a poetic, haunting, beautifully filmed story about Berlin and two angels who watch over it and its inhabitants. It’s in German, directed by Wim Wenders. The angels listen in on people’s thoughts, comfort the dying, hang out in the library a lot, and report particularly notable events to each other:

“And today on the Lilienthaler Chausee, a man, walking, slowed down and looked over his shoulder into space.”

“At the Zoo-U-Bahn station, instead of the station's name, the conductor suddenly shouted ‘Tierra del Fuego.’”

Peter Falk plays a supporting character, and he’s kind of playing...himself. Except not.

I love these angels and their longstanding relationship and their philosophical. The film touches briefly on their feelings about a sudden change in their relationship but there’s room for so much more. There are some great worldbuilding possibilities too.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Stream on HBOMax or The Criterion Channel, rent or buy on the usual suspects. You can buy a DVD used on Amazon for about $7-$8.

Re: Wings of Desire | Der Himmel über Berlin (1987 film)

[(Anonymous)]

ooooh this would be fun to do something with! this is one of my fav movies - i've never considered making fanfic or fanart for it

shinebrightlikeanimon

The Magpie Chronicles - Michaela Ro

[stifledlaughter]

FANDOM NAME: The Magpie Chronicles - Michaela Ro
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: A book series (ongoing, 2 books so far) written by a fic author who found that she loved the OCs she created so much (and people also responded so well to them!) that she wrote a book series taking her OCs out of the fic universe they were in and giving them an entire new universe and backstories. It's a fantastic Modern with Magic fantasy series about East Asian mythology (author focuses a lot on Korean mythology, and Japanese and Chinese mythologies are also very present). It's got slow burn found family (everyone has to earn it and learn to trust each other) as well as great writing and humor. Plot summary is very much "Four people are thrown into a Quest together that No One Signed Up for but Here We Are I Guess!!"
WHERE CAN I FIND IT : Books one and two ("Shine the Brightest" and "Honor the Words", respectively) are out and available on Amazon.

The Warrior's Guild - Scarlett Gale

[stifledlaughter]

FANDOM NAME: The Warrior's Guild - Scarlett Gale (2 books, completed series)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Shy and soft monk mage Lucían has to quest with Tall Beautiful Amazing Warrior Woman, they fall in love, it's wonderful. The books are more "adventure with lots of romance" than a "romance" series, but still very romantic. The worldbuilding is fantastic (lots of Tortall vibes with how the magic is done) and the characters are delightful diverse and queer. The author writes fic as well and you can tell they can from how they hit some of the beats and the sense of humor - it's very fun to read!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Anywhere online where books are sold, digital or paperback

Re: The Warrior's Guild - Scarlett Gale

[nonesensed]

Yessss, Warrior's Guild! Clearly I need to finish reading book 2 asap :D

[ricardienne]

FANDOM NAME: Zofia Szczupaczyńska | Zofia Turbotyńska mysteries, by Maryla Szymiczkowa (book series; two have been translated into English)

The premise is that Zofia Turbotyńska is the wife of a university professor in 1890s Krakow: she's ambitious and restless and frustrated that she has pretty much risen as high as she's likely to be able to get (until she can finagle a promotion to for her rather unambitious husband) in the ultra competitive world of society-lady charity work; so when a resident of the elder hostel whose nuns she is trying to rope into a charitable scheme is found murdered, she finds it much more interesting to investigate (and of course, if she can solve the murder, the Mother Superior will *have* to donate some handicrafts to her charity auction!)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: 1. Zofia. She's absolutely appallingly bourgeoise and appallingly judgmental, but there's something really compelling about her enthusiasm and pragmatic cleverness and feeling of unfulfilled housewifery, even before she starts to have her horizons opened (and her conservative assumptions somewhat challenged) as her investigations take her into the less savory corners of her world.

2. The setting/tone. The authors (Maryla Szymiczkowa is pen-name for a husband-and-husband couple of literary critics from Krakow) love Krakow and its history, and they give the setting an incredible sense of place, with all the conflict between pride in being part of the "modern" Austro-Hungarian empire vs. Polish nationalism, the debates about art and style simmering beneath the surface. They also have a lot of affection for their characters, while being quite arch and ironic about their foibles. Also, they fully get that the late 19th century was actually incredibly full of kitsch: there are amazing descriptions of OTT funeral cortèges, sappy religious paintings, ridiculous neo-Gothic interior design, and the entirely unironic love that everyone has for the same.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): the first two books have been translated into English, and are available on as ebooks and as audiobooks read (brilliantly) by Moira Quirk

[(Anonymous)]

Omg what is this, how have I never heard of it? I'd love to see this in Yuletide, thanks for the rec!

Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper

[thisbluespirit]

FANDOM NAME: Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper

WHAT IT IS: British fantasy novel series from the 1980s/90s



WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: When I was a teenager and first setting out into the strange world of Adult Books and trying to find fantasy that wasn't about a boy and his sword in three whacking great volumes (though I read a few of those as well), Indigo was the series that answered my need. There are a few things inevitably that have dated, but overall, the quest and world-building and the central, enduring relationship of Indigo and Grimya still works really well, and I surprised myself last year when taking what I thought would be a farewell read and instead finding new things in it and falling in love with it all over again.

It's a take on Pandora's Box, set in a world that seems to be either an alternate or future version of ours, following a what seems to be a massive shake-up and geomagnetic reversal at the hands of the earth Goddess, restoring nature - turning the map upside down and trying to work it out is fun and it results in some interesting things, like an epic snowy AU Australia in Book 5.

Anghara Kaligsdaughter, princess of the Southern Isles releases 7 demons from the Tower of Regrets, and after the destruction of her family at their hands, is doomed to walk the world in penance until she has defeated each of the demons & freed her fiance Fenran from their hands. She's accompanied only by Grimya, a mutant telepathic wolf who befriends her & opposed by her alter ego Nemesis (but a lot of this is not what it appears. Not Grimya, though: Grimya is always and absolutely what she appears and is the very best and most faithful friend. ♥).

Each book is therefore set in a different location, defeating a different kind of demon, with the aid (or otherwise) of a different set of characters that Indigo & Grimya meet, with Books 1 & 8 both set in Indigo's homeland.

I'll be looking for missing tales, or possibly what Indigo & Grimya did after it was over, which would be wonderful! There's a suggestion they might help others to fight their demons, or maybe they will risk revisiting some old friends once or twice??

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Unfortunately, they don't seem to have ebooks available (too old and not reprinted since), but they're easy enough to come by secondhand online. In order to write for it, you wouldn't need to read it all - just whichever ones you preferred. 7 & 8 contain the big plot resolves & development/twists you might need to look up if you can't get hold of them, as they affect a lot retroactively.

My favourites are probably 3-5, but I love 7 & 8 too. 2 is the most horror-like (it's not horror, but some of the demons do lean towards it) & you might want to skip #2 if that's not your thing. (I don't generally do much horror beyond Gothic, but am fine with the levels in the series, even Bk 2, really - I'm just mentioning because it might be off-putting in a way that isn't representative of the rest.) #6 is probably the most problematic; #3 has some weirder bits, too (although I love its setting and characters a lot). It's generally het but balanced out, subverted maybe even, by the focus & endgame always being Indigo & Grimya. (telepathic wolf bffs forever ♥)

There's also a handy wiki here: https://indigo-saga-louise-cooper.fandom.com/wiki/Indigo_(Louise_Cooper)_Wiki (So I'm not the only fan on the internet!)

Re: Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper

[luna]

I also stumbled upon these in my preteen library wanderings! I never finished the series, I'm so glad there's a wiki. Sad that they're out of print.

[redgear]

FANDOM NAME: Hungry Hearts Diner series (video games)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Have you ever had the urge to waste time with a shop management/cooking phone game? Now, what if that management time-waster phone game not only had good gameplay mechanics, but also had cute art and a really touching and surprisingly detailed story about how families and lives can be taken apart and/or put together through memories, cooking, and coming together around food?

In Hungry Hearts Diner 1, you help our intrepid Grandma as she navigates running a diner in Showa-era Japan by herself just before Tanabata, after Grandpa became too sick to work anymore. As she works, Grandma slowly learns more about her growing cast of regulars, including her grandson Mabo, the local doctor who has an overly-healthy appetite, the neighborhood patrolman, a hostess, a shady-looking man, and more. Most of her customers have problems that they become gradually more willing to open up about as they get to know Grandma better, and she can usually think of advice or a snack that is just the thing. But who will help her with her problems...?



WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Android and iphone! (free, and in-app purchases aren't necessary to play)

The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin

[lannamichaels]

FANDOM NAME: The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

Sunset Towers faced east and had no towers. The Westing Game is a children's mystery novel that asks the question: who took Sam Westing's life?

It is the late 1970s in Wisconsin. Industrialist Sam Westing has been found dead in his mansion, after living as a recluse for years. In his will, he designated sixteen heirs, all of whom had just recently been recruited to live in Sunset Towers by Barney Northrup.

There was no such person as Barney Northrup.

Westing's purpose? He believed that one of his heirs had taken his life. And so he paired them up into teams, gave them clues, and set to them to solving his Game. The prize would be the Westing fortune.

Who are these Westing heirs? To quote the book:

They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. Barney Northrup had rented one of the apartments to the wrong person.

They range in age from Sandy, the oldest at 65, the same age as Westing was, who was fired for union organizing at Westing's company (Westing was an American industrialist, after all!), to Turtle, the youngest at 13, who wears her hair in a long braid and kicks people's shins if they pull on her hair. They come from all educational backgrounds, from Crow who dropped out of school at 16 to get married and now works as a cleaner, to Judge J. J. Ford, who graduated from Harvard Law and was the first African-American and the first woman to be elected to a judgeship in Wisconsin (in the novel canon). Four of them are in high school and the delivery boy is 62 years old.

And, yes, one of them is a mistake.

How can you play this Game yourself? If your library doesn't have a copy, the book and ebook are purchasable by legitimate means; there's also an audiobook, but I've never listened to it so I can't speak to the quality. Archive.org as well has several copies of the book.

So take stock in America, my friends, and may god thy gold refine!



(I've nominated Westing, Turtle, and Judge Ford. I'm happy to use my 4th slot if someone wants another character included!)

Re: The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin

[catalists]

Ahhhhhh the childhood nostalgia! I still have this book on my shelf.

Vicious Lips (1986)

[singedsun]

FANDOM NAME: Vicious Lips
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This movie is a 1986 fantastical sci-fi... that defies real description.

You can view some screenshots I posted on tumblr here to get an idea of what you're getting into. Best I can tell you the story: An up-and-coming band loses it's lead singer and their sleazy manager goes to a high school talent show to recruit a new lead singer. The band gets an offer from a fancy club owner to come perform at her club but on the way across the galaxy their ship crashes after avoiding an asteroid. Shenanigans ensue. (There's a creature locked aboard the ship, some planet madness, dream sequences and zombies maybe?)

But listen, that short description doesn't do ANY of this movie justice. This is peak punk club aesthetic, there's a girl that literally looks like every late 80s/early 90s graphic neon fancy lady, complete with the spiky black hair and beauty mark. Something like this old Patrick Nagel artwork. Anyway, nothing can quite prepare you for the assault on your eyes that is this weird collision of sights and sounds that BARELY string something resembling a story together.

Now, would I recommend it as a good movie? No, absolutely not. But would I recommend you watch it and laugh and have a good time? ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

For wlw types, there's also some very strong shippery vibes to be had between newcomer to the band "Judy Jetson" (that's really her name at the start of the movie) and like all the other women in the band. Take your pick. There are also a group of women in the desert that basically act as sirens, and 10/10 I would watch a movie (or read a fic) about them luring weird men to their deaths on this strange planet.

And if music is your thing there's some of that too. I think we only get one full song though and it's "Lunar Madness". And you can watch that extravagance here on YouTube. This is basically a music video so there's some movie clips and deleted scenes mixed into it that makes this movie look way more coherent than it probably is.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Aside from the song clip on YT above, the full movie is Amazon & YouTube as a $3.99 rental, or it's on Paramount+ for subscribers. There's a few other longer clips on YT of the music here & here.