Chromatic Yuletide 2023

[dauntlessshadowice]

 Chromatic Yuletide is a collection post for Yuletide requests that include characters of color. Posting here doesn't obligate you to do anything, but it helps writers find your requests and treat you.

Posting requirements:
Your request centers around at least one character of color.

(I acknowledge there are some shortcomings with the "person of color" descriptor. I'm also not going to police who is or isn't a character of color; please just use your best judgment.)

What you must include:
Your AO3 name
Whatever fandoms & characters of color you're requesting

What you should probably include:
Links to your letter or copy/pasted requests
A brief description of your canon or a link to a canon promo, if you think it's unfamiliar to most people & you want to boost interest in it

If you write for one of these requests, you can tag your fic with Chromatic Yuletide so people can easily find it.

Comments

[lezridax]

A03 name: SirenOfTitan
Letter link: http://lezridax.dreamwidth.org/2451.html (needs to be updated)

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990)
Promo: link to promo post. In short: "sequel" to the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia featuring a focus on geopolitics and the relationship between Emir Faisal and T.E. Lawrence, with great performances and writing.
Requested character of color: Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi

Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Promo: It's really hard to summarize Utena, often called the "Evangelion of shoujo anime," as in, it's an anime that is full of metaphor and symbolism and deeper meanings that instead engages with the genre of relationship-focused anime for teenage girls for its genre trappings. It's a story about a headstrong transfer student sword-fighting her way through her new school's elaborate system of duels, called for by a mysterious entity known as the "End of the World." It's also about the destructive nature of gender and heteropatriarchy and how it constrains the way we imagine both our futures and our pasts, and how that particularly plays out in the way that adolescents develop and come to understand their sexualities. It's also a heartrending love story between two girls, all the more groundbreaking for the fact that it was released in 1997. And that's not even going into its fascinating supporting cast; this series has one of my favorite sets of characters in anything ever and I have a new set of favorites every time I rewatch. Strong candidate (and my personal choice) for the title of "greatest anime of all time," seriously.
Requested characters of color: Any nominated character (all qualify as characters of color) - though current personal favorites are Arisugawa Juri, Saionji Kyouichi, Mikage Souji, Kaoru Miki, Kiryuu Nanami, Wakaba Shinohara and of course the two main characters, Himemiya Anthy and Tenjou Utena.

Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers
Promo: The promo post by penguinzero explains it well. Basically, a very exploratory, Star Trek-esque style space opera book series of mostly standalone (with a few overarching characters) sci-fi stories set in an expansive world of many different planets with distinct cultures, biology and worldbuilding, but with a scrappier, more Cowboy Bebop or Space Dandy feeling to what it's like to live in that world, without plunging into outright darkness; the books are eventful, but fairly hopeful. Some things I love about it: the aliens feel truly alien and the cultures avoid the "just one trait" problem that a lot of this kind of sci-fi (for instance, Star Trek) can tend to have; humans and human cultures don't have much power in this world and are considered pretty minor by residents of other worlds; lots of diversity (including lots of characters of color) among the human cast; and lots of LGBTQ+ characters and unusual approaches to sexuality, gender and relationships.
Requested character of color: Rosemary Harper

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | Legend of Galactic Heroes
Promo: I can't really do better than this promo post from natsinator, but a gloriously dense political and military drama about warring space empires in the far future, featuring really fascinating characters and relationships (of all kinds) between them, philosophical and historical discussions that leave you with a lot to chew on, and sooo much gay subtext especially for something of that era (1980s) that isn't aimed at the typical BL audience. If you love a lot of politics and philosophy in your science fiction but would prefer something more character-driven than, say, Asimov's Foundation, this is the series for you.
Requested character of color: Yang Wenli

おにいさまへ... | Oniisama e... | Dear Brother
Promo: 1970s manga and 1990s anime by the pioneering Ikeda Riyoko (of Rose of Versailles fame) that follows the complex relationships, rivalries and betrayals among the female students at a private school in Japan. Centering, as usual, on an everygirl scholarship transfer student, Nanako, she finds herself drawn into the dramas of the school's most elite students when she's selected for the exclusive society known as the Sorority. There are a loooooot of even fairly explicit queer themes here, and while it follows the typical construction of manga/anime of those times where people can't end the story openly queer and happy, it's shockingly forthright about that for its time period, and you can see its influence on later yuri series from similarly serious, thoughtful stuff like the aforementioned Revolutionary Girl Utena to sillier genre fare like Strawberry Panic.
Requested characters of color: Misonoo Nanako, Asaka Rei, Shinobu Mariko, Orihara Kaoru
Other nominated characters of color I'm eager to see show up: Any but particularly Ichinomiya Fukiko and Arikura Tomoko

The Wire
Promo: Regularly and deservedly acclaimed as one of the best television series of all time, it follows a wide cast of characters who illustrate the corruption in various sectors of society in Baltimore, Maryland - from the police force to the education system to local/state politics to trade and the ports - in failing to contain the city's organized crime problem, especially with regard to the drug trade. There are a lot of characters of color (mostly, but not exclusively, Black Americans) in basically every role and sector of this show. If you like video essays, here's a good spoiler-free one that explains why the show is so special. (Also, your requester here went to university in and has spent a good chunk of adult life in Baltimore, so I can speak to how well the show captures the city and that's another huge part of what I like about it.)
Requested characters of color: Omar Little, Brother Mouzone
Other nominated characters of color I'm eager to see show up: Kima Greggs, Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell, Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins