yuletide | Yuletide Fandom Promo 2024!

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yuletide fandom promo

Yuletide Fandom Promo 2024!

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!

Cheju has started a spreadsheet for promo! Here's the link!

Here are some areas you can cover:

Title:
Please put your fandom's title in the subject of your comment, too. This helps people find your promo again.

Media:

Approx length:

Where to find it:
(If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)

What is it, in summary?:

What do you love about it?:

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
This is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive

(Bonus options: What are you thinking of requesting for this? If you're thinking of nominating worldbuilding, what sort of worldbuilding topics might people explore?)

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

- 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.

Previous fandom promo posts can be found at this tag!

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Update about the availability of this canon: as of October 1st, the paid ebook/paperback/hardcover versions of this book will no longer be available for purchase on Amazon/Gumroad/Google Play. The free online version of the book will continue to be available at the link above.

(This is because Penguin Random House is now traditionally publishing this book & it will be in stores next year - yay!)

Title:
Our Life: Beginnings and Always

Media: Visual novel

Approx length: depends on whether you purchase the DLC, anywhere from 5+ hours to 15+ hours

Where to find it:
Steam, itch.io

What is it, in summary?: You play the (name-able) main character, who grows up alongside a new friend in town (Cove). Your choices play out numerous scenes that take place in various summers throughout growing up, developing relationships and preferences along the way.

What do you love about it?: How wholesome, affirming, and emotional the narrative is.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Anything involving Cove as a character

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: You can get the general idea of all the characters without the DLC for each section--the DLC is great, but not necessary in my opinion.

Title:
Bokura no Shokutaku (Our Dining Table)

Media: Live action Japanese TV show

Approx length: 3 hours 50 minutes total runtime

Where to find it:
Miiiiiiight just ask me directly if you're struggling

What is it, in summary?: A young man finds love and family through eating together with a semi-stranger and the (not-a-stranger-for-long) stranger's kid brother and father.

What do you love about it?: It's sooooo sweet, the slow development of care and love for each other, as well as across the whole family.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Short sweet happy moments between the leads, possibly alongside the younger brother.

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: There is a bonus episode/special, but it's not necessary to understand the characters and development.

Title:
Rokuhodo Yotsuiro Biyori

Media: Live action Japanese TV show

Approx length: 4 hours 10 minutes total runtime

Where to find it:
Miiiiiiight just ask me directly if you're struggling

What is it, in summary?: Bromance (with plenty of room for further imagination) starring four guys running a traditional-style tea and dessert shop together, and helping their patrons overcome problems. Bonus for a fantastic "villain" that you can root for.

What do you love about it?: How much these dudes care about each other :'-)

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Honestly open to just about any pairing or character study

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Not really, except that you don't need the manga or other variations to understand and appreciate the live action show.

omfg I LOVED these books as a kid! this just gave me a huge wave of nostalgia :)

Title: Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)

Media: Song

Approx length: 2'23"

Where to find it: The Weakerthans' album Reconstruction Site, various music streaming services. The official video is here on YouTube, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it because the video tells a really different story from the song itself, and it's the song I'm interested in. But if it's your only way to hear it, it'll do.

What is it, in summary?: The title really does sum it up. A former Antarctic explorer finds himself making awkward conversation on a dinner date with philosopher Michel Foucault.

What do you love about it?: It's clever and jaunty and completely silly, and unexpectedly lovely too, with a middle section about the beauty and terror of Antarctica.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: There's a lot a writer could do with this song, and my request will give a lot of leeway. There's room to go shippy/sexy or not (it's clear from the song that Foucault is interested, but the explorer is a lot more ambivalent), depending on what strikes the writer's fancy.

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Nope.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): None for the song itself. The video contains injury and implied character death.

Title: Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire

Media: Books

Approx length: ~200 pages per book

Where to find it: Available at your local library or bookstore! (Try searching on Worldcat or Bookshop.org.)

What is it, in summary?: Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a boarding school for teens exiled from fantasy worlds. AKA… where do you go after Narnia throws you out?

Onishi Sumi's parents wanted her to be quiet, still, and focused, the perfect daughter of a powerful corporate empire. Unfortunately for them, she escaped into Confection, a nonsensical land of sweets where she was finally able to be the exuberant, always-moving girl she'd always wanted to be. Despite the prophecy that she'd overthrow the tyrannous Queen of Cakes, she was ultimately exiled back to the world she came from.

Book 1/book 3 spoilers:

Sumi dies in book 1, but they bake her a new body out of candy in book 3.

As a child, Kade West was snatched by fairies to be their champion against the Goblin Empire. When he killed the Goblin King, the king named him Goblin Prince-in-Waiting with his dying breath, prompting Kade to start figuring out his gender. But when Kade changed his pronouns, the fairies claimed he'd sold them a false bill of goods and threw him back to the world he came from. He made the best of a bad situation, and now he's a tailor and researcher who helps run his great aunt Eleanor's boarding school. He doesn't want to ever go back to Prism, the fairyland he was exiled from.

Book 9 spoilers:

But the goblins still want him to be their prince — if he can ever stand to return.

Nancy Whitman belongs in the Halls of the Dead, where she serves the Lord and Lady of the Dead as a living statue. Silence and stillness come naturally to her, and she despises the hot, fast world of the living. She doesn't want to be attending Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she doesn’t want to have a crush on Kade, and she especially doesn't want to be suspected of a string of murders among the student body. Unfortunately for her, that's what's happening.

Over a hundred years ago, Eleanor West was known as little Ely West, the Wayward Girl, and in her heart, that's who she still is. Blessed with one of the rare stable doors between worlds, Eleanor traveled into a nonsensical world countless times as a child, until her mind became too mature for her to survive there. Now, she's the eccentric headmistress of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, having dedicated her life to caring for the children of the doors. She dreams of the day when her mind will finally deteriorate from age enough that she'll be able to live in nonsense again.

What do you love about it?: Sumi! I’m here for Sumi. I love that she's weird and scattered and competent and creepy. I love that she always needs something to do with her hands. I love that she’s blink-and-you-miss-it implied to be plural in book 5, I love that she has undiagnosed ADHD (not canon, but it’s really obvious if you stop and think about it), I love that she’s queer and Japanese American.

And man, Kade’s awesome too. I mean, he’s a goblin prince-in-waiting who lives in an attic full of fabric and books. His hobby is mapping worlds. That’s super cool.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Genfic, pre-canon, post-canon, missing scenes, Kade’s research

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:

For Nancy and Eleanor, read Every Heart a Doorway (book 1). (Nancy also appears in chapters 5 and 6 of Beneath the Sugar Sky, which is book 3. Eleanor appears in every book except for books 2 and 6, but most of her page time is in book 1.)

For Sumi and Kade, you have a lot of options!

If you like murder mysteries, read Every Heart a Doorway (book 1)
If you like candyland, read Beneath the Sugar Sky (book 3; sequel to book 1; set partly in Confection, Sumi’s world)
If you like vampires and mad scientists, read Come Tumbling Down (book 5; sequel to books 1 & 2)
If you like scary dystopian boarding schools, read Where the Drowned Girls Go (book 7; sequel to books 3 & 5, with a character from book 6; just Sumi, not Kade)
If you like magic lost-and-found shops, read Mislaid in Parts Half-Unknown (book 9; sequel to books 7 & 8; set partly in Prism, Kade’s world)

Content warnings: Murder (mostly in books 1, 2, 3, 5, & 7), some gore, creepiness, references to bigotry, discussion of war (mostly in books 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, & 9), restrictive eating (book 1 only, but mentioned in book 3 and possibly others), kid who used to have cancer (he got magically healed, he's fine, there are some brief concerns about it coming back but it doesn't) (book 3 only, but mentioned in books 1, 3, 5, & 9), animated skeletons (on-page only in book 3, but mentioned as romantic partners in books 1, 3, 5, & 9), discussion of eating sentient beings, on-page institutional abuse of children/teens (book 7 only), sexual grooming of a child (on-page in book 8, discussed in book 9)

Edited (content warnings + html + spoiler tagging) 2024-09-22 22:20 (UTC)

This is hilarious, thanks for linking!

This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.

If you wouldn't mind a clarifying question - does animal death come up in the video with Adelia and Verity? I'm thinking about watching it, but animal death's a hard no for me right now.

Me five!

OMG, yes!!! I loved Lord of the Last Heartbeat, I really need to read the others.

A broom gets thrown away and falls in love with a rake and they go on a date. Oh and it’s an ad for Swiffer but like. Look at them they’re on a date.

Oh my god I love the way you put this

This was SO good, the worldbuilding was next level!

Title: 映像研には手を出すな! | Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Media: Anime

Approx length: 12 episodes

Where to find it: Crunchyroll, probably other anime streaming sites! It's based on a partially-translated ongoing manga I have not read yet, and also has a live action adaptation.

What it is, in summary?: Three very different high school girls with very different hyperfixations start a club to create the greatest science fiction anime!

- Asakusa is short, socially anxious and has sketchbooks full of incredible concept art and world building notes she's initially too timid to do anything with.

- Misuzaki is a celebrity actress and model who really wants to be an animator. She joined Eizouken because her famous parents banned her from joining the anime club, as if that would stop her.

- Kanamori is tall, toothy, motivated by money, hilariously pragmatic, and maybe the only reason they get anything done.

Other characters are introduced to the club (though most are in the ongoing manga). The overall story is about the realities and difficulties of making anime, but the flights of fancy and discussions the club has are depicted in incredible imaginary sequences, and the show overall is a tribute to how anime can bring these to life.

What do you love about it?: It's a fun, very funny series that's a little more grounded in reality than your typical high school anime (a lot of comments I see on it mention the characters feel like real high schoolers) yet reaches incredible heights of whimsy. It doesn't shy away from or gloss over how hard it is to make anime and all the pitfalls and compromises, but the characters never lose their passion for it. It's just nice, you know?
And the characters themselves are fantastic. Kanamori was a memetic badass for a while and for good reason (illustrative GIF), but they're all great and I love their dynamic.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Gen, shippy, I'm not fussy honestly. The anime was popular when it came out but fannish content dropped right off after it finished and I would like more.

Content warnings: None? There's some cartoon violence and a character is rescued from drowning but it's resolved very quickly. Overwork, I guess?

Edited 2024-09-22 03:10 (UTC)

It doesn't! The pet death storyline concerns Belladonna the Nightshade Witch and Evangeline the Willow Witch so as long as you avoid their videos you should be fine (maybe avoid Bridgette the Babblebrook Innkeeper too, she's very close to Belladonna and I can't remember whether or not she ever brings it up).
The Adelia and Verity video does contain vague mentions of human murder (they mention the disappearance of a character that appears as a ghost in other videos).

Title: A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

Media: Novella

Approx length: 126 pgs

Where to find it: Ugh, idk, probably the library? I am all for not necessarily giving OSC more money, though, so if you can find it somewhere more illicitly, I am all for it.

What is it, in summary?: This is a novella in the Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow continuity which takes place at Battle School. The main character is not one who features anywhere else in the canon, although supporting characters from the rest of the series, notably Dink Meeker, who I have always thought of as one of the more interesting loose end characters of the series proper, do play significant roles. The main storyline traces student resistance to the homogenizing secularism of Battle School through a group of students' underground practice of Dutch Christmas traditions, and one traumatized student, Zech Morgan, the main character's attempt to leverage the tension of this resistance to authority to leave the school.

What do you love about it?: Look, I think a lot of us weirdo queers who read Ender's Game before the point in our cultural relationship with authors where their personal views were immediately accessible, or even something we thought to look for, wound up feeling a little betrayed by Card's political views and agenda. And a part of that sense of betrayal is that in some ways he can be so good and so compassionate in the ways he looks at his characters. And then in so many other ways, having the context of his religious and cultural background made so many of the fucked up things, and the conclusions he leads his readers to so certainly which don't feel quite right, make so much more sense. This novella is kind of the epitome of that tension for me -- I love so much of what it's trying to gesture towards emotionally, and so much of the character work, and then I just so absolutely disagree with the conclusions it comes to. It's the kind of work which demands an intellectual fistfight, which a fanfic response is perfectly positioned to offer.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I'd be interested in a look at what happens to Zech in the post-Battle School world, both in terms of the personal situation of his home life and the political setup of the Shadow series, which would make him a hot commodity, and would put his pacifism in conflict with the prevailing energy of the world around him again. I'd also love to see he and Dink interact again as adults, maybe even adults who are actually able to articulate some of what was going on with them when they were younger. And with regard to what I said about being a weirdo queer who felt somewhat betrayed by the Orson Scott Card of it all, I wouldn't say no if anyone wanted to make it all a little gayer.

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Nah, it's a quick read.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Fairly graphic depictions and thematic centrality of child abuse and intimate partner violence in the context of an environment of repressive extreme religious control.

Edited 2024-09-21 18:08 (UTC)

I haven't thought about this book in so long, I'm fascinated thinking about what it would be like to return to it at this point!

Man, what's really grabbing me here is that the mice are rescuing Lucy. Dracula is served by rats - surely he can control mice too! So did Lucy win them over... or is this all part of Dracula's plan?

oh my god I love this video so much, thank you for nominating

Title: We Are Lady Parts (TV 2021-)

Media: 2 season British comedic TV show (6 episodes of 20 minutes per season).

Approx length: 4 hours.

Where to find it: Peacock in the US and Channel 4 in the UK I believe. Neon in New Zealand.

What is it, in summary?: A comedy about a British Muslim punk-rock band. I am completely obsessed with this show. This is the best TV show I have ever seen, hands down. If you matched with me on something else and you like female-driven comedies like Derry Girls or Hacks, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. It's kind of like that and kind of like if your 12 year old self who liked to sing into a wooden spoon microphone got a TV show and kind of like a study on feminine rage.

What do you love about it?: Nida Manzoor's directing is insanely good. The characters are all so unique and interesting. Amina is an uptight student getting her PhD in microbiology and on the husband hunt. Saira is an anarchist guitar player. Bisma is a happily married mum of one who sells zines about rage on the side. Ayesha is an angry Uber driver who is also a disaster queer and doesn't want to tell her family about it. Momtaz is their business savvy manager.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: character studies, shippy fic about Saira and Amina, band shenanigans.

Title: Zolita - Bloodstream (Official Music Video)

Media: Music Video

Approx length: 8 minutes

Where to find it: Zolita - Bloodstream (Official Music Video)

What is it, in summary?: A sapphic pop music video set at a fictional pageant where two of the contestants have a complicated romantic past.

What do you love about it?: Aesthetically pleasing video. The feminine rituals of it all. Everybody clapped ending. Etc. If you've seen Zolita's other narrative type videos, you'll like this one.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Exploration of their history, angsty stuff, novelization of the video.

Title:西出玉门 | Parallel World | West Out of Yumen (TV)

Media: TV Show

Approx length: 38 half-hour episodes

Where to find it:
Viki: https://www.viki.com/tv/40138c-parallel-world
YouTube: https://youtu.be/INzoQ35rPDc?si=hRbN4nFskhT06ooj

What is it, in summary?: Sci-fi/fantasy Chinese drama set in the desert with cool worldbuilding and great characters. Ye Liuxi has amnesia, Chang Dong has a tragic backstory, they've acquired a found family, and together they will go on adventures, learn how to love and trust each other, and save the world.

What do you love about it?:
Tropes I go feral for in this show include:

Found family

Traumatized people healing together

Actual communication

Insane amounts of chemistry

Roosters

Beautiful desert scenery

Amazing acting

m/f ship with no Het Romance Bullshit

Devotion and loyalty

I love this show so much I made a whole ppt about it: https://www.tumblr.com/gavilansblog/754679199558696961/so-a-few-months-ago-i-watched-this-show-called?source=share

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I just love the relationships in this show so much. The intimacy and communication and choosing to trust and care for one another and heal even when it's fucking hard. I love the romantic relationship and the found family relationships both.

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Not really tbh. I will say it doesn't require any knowledge of like, C-drama Fandom the way a historical one with the costumes and the worldbuilding would, being modern setting and paranormal. You don't have to be in the wider c-drama fandom to like this show.

Content warnings: ghosts and general spookiness, suicide mentions, grief

Just a quick heads up that we don't really say "aborigines" here in Australia! It comes across a little dated & dehumanising. You can use "Aboriginal people" "indigenous people" "first nations people" instead.

Title:
Beyond the Light - Nyx Rising

Media: Actual-Play Horror RPG

Approx length: ~13 Hrs

Where to find it:
YouTube Playlist

What is it, in summary?: A mystery/horror RPG in which a group of seemingly unconnected visitors to Alder Island join forces to investigate a string of disappearances.

"September 1998. Three strangers wake up in a bunker with no memory of the past week or how they got there. There’s no choice but to work together as they attempt to untangle the puzzle of the mysterious Adler Island and the monsters that dwell there."

What do you love about it?: The horror is super tense and genuinely creepy, and the amnesia/intertwining flashbacks and present are done in a really unique way. All of the players are charming and the characters are compelling and have great chemistry with each other. If you're feeling like something to watch around Halloween, this is perfect; if you just like horror in general, also great; even if you don't (I usually don't) the uniqueness of the actual-play aspect and the compelling characters are worth it.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I am planning to request post-cannon where-are-they-now sort of fic, with a focus on worldbuilding. The main campaign is set around a single threat, I'm curious what other supernatural encounters the characters might have going forward.

That, or a mid-cannon ship-fic between the three player characters, Jai, Chris and Robin!

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: I think you really have to watch the whole series - In my experience, it is very bingeable 😁

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Violence, Murder, Kidnapping, Self-harm, Drugging, There is a fair amount of verbally described gore, The characters' mental health deteriorates severely through the game. It's been a while since I rewatched, so I may be missing some warnings.

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Page 14 of 19

Yuletide Fandom Promo 2024!

Re: There Is No Antimemetics Division - qntm

Our Life: Beginnings and Always (visual novel)

Bokura no Shokutaku - Our Dining Table (live action tv show)

Rokuhodo Yotsuiro Biyori (live action tv show)

Re: How I Survived Middle School - Nancy Krulik

Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)

Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire (Books)

Re: In which a Visitor proves a Nuisance - David Malki! (webcomic)

Re: SUNDOWN (Short Film)

Re: Babblebrook (ASMR videos)

Re: Brocéliande (TV show)

Re: The Sacred Dark Trilogy - May Peterson

Re: Swiffer Sweeper - "Garage (Who's That Lady)" Commercial

Re: To Shape a Dragon's Breath - Moniquill Blackgoose

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Re: Babblebrook (ASMR videos)

A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

Re: The Witch Family, by Eleanor Estes

Re: Don Bluth's Dracula (Jozef Szekeres artwork)

Re: When You Forget Your Girlfriend's Name - Phony Texts (Short Film)

We Are Lady Parts (TV show)

Zolita - Bloodstream (Official Music Video)

西出玉门 | Parallel World | West Out of Yumen (TV)

Re: Quigley Down Under

Beyond the Light - Nyx Rising