Yuletide Fandom Promo 2025!

[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!

SPREADSHEET: Check it out! Thank you to Ouie!

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Here are some areas you can cover:

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

<b>Media</b>:

<b>Approx length</b>:

<b>Where to find it</b>:
(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)

<b>What is it, in summary?</b>:

<b>What do you love about it?</b>:

<b>What sort of things are you likely to request for it?</b>:

<b>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?</b>:

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

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(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!

Comments

From All False Doctrine - Alice Degan

[choirwoman]

Title: From All False Doctrine / Neither Have I Wings

Media: Books

Approx length: 526 and 334 pages, respectively

Where to find it: "Anywhere books are sold" (I got Kobo editions from my go-to ebook store, which is not the Big A)

What is it, in summary? Fantasy of an Anglo-Catholic flavour set in the 1920s in Toronto / the 1940s in England (with English and Canadian characters).

What do you love about it? People are friends! People are being good people! People do good things for each other! The books are unashamedly Christian without being in any way proselytising or sappy. The pace is leisurely, even slow, without dragging. In the first book, there's a wonderful slow-burn romance. In the second book a trope I dislike (friends to lovers) is evaded very elegantly: both of the friends already firmly love elsewhere, but they remain friends throughout. The magic is solid but mostly understated: no great hue and cry made of it, but tacitly assumed that these things exist.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Missing-scene stories, friendship banter. Defintely gen rather than ship, though there's a lot of potential for shippiness.

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? Either book can stand on its own. Some characters in False Doctrine appear in Wings, mostly in the background, but the story is perfectly clear if you don't know them. False Doctrine has more music and church doings, Wings more war heroism and suspense.

Content warnings: Rampant Anglo-Catholicism (and in the second book also Greek Orthodoxy). Angels and demons; suspense and supernatural events but no overt horror. Some story-appropriate violence. In Wings, amputation because of war events (not graphic, but mentioned and aftermath shown).

This has been a fandom of three for the last couple of years, and the books are so good that I'd like more people to enjoy them!

L'Oréal "Time Engraver" Commercials

[trobadora]

Title: L'Oréal "Time Engraver" Commercials

Media: commercials
Total runtime:: 10 minutes 8 seconds

Where to find it:
2019 Time Engraver commercial
2020 Time Engraver commercial

What is it, in summary?: Two short film-style commercials around a sort of anthropomorphic personification of time who transports people into his workshop to engrave wrinkles and lines into their skin.

What do you love about it?: Despite also being a vehicle for an "O NOES NOT THE WRINKLES" product, these commercials really are great little mini-films. There's fascinating worldbuilding/mythology to play with and expand on; there's a lot of potential for mortal/immortal interaction (the Time Engraver chats at his subjects! what if one of them wakes up?). There's stunning beauty. And I don't mean just Zhu Yilong, who plays the Time Engraver - the cinematography is genuinely gorgeous, and personally I adore the aesthetic especially of the first commercial. (It's also a great concept for optional crossovers!)

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: just anything about the Time Engraver and his world!

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?: each commercial can be watched and written for on its own :p

Content warnings: n/a

长公主在上 | Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng (Web Series) - aka Eldest Princess On Top

[trobadora]

Title: 长公主在上 | Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng (Web Series)
(also known as: Eldest Princess Above, Her Royal Highness, My Princess, The Dowager Princess is Above Me, Eldest Princess On Top, etc.)

Media: webseries
Approx length: 27 mini-episodes with a total runtime of just under one hour

Where to find it:
Compilation (all episodes in a single video)

What is it, in summary?: A mini-drama about a princess/bodyguard relationship in a reverse harem setting with spy shenanigans and political intrigue. Li Yunzhen, princess and regent for her little brother the Emperor, lives a sybaritic lifestyle and is rumoured to be corrupt and cruel; Gu Xuanqing is sent by the Emperor to spy on her in the role of a guard, but finds her not quite what the rumours say.

What do you love about it?: The dynamic between Li Yunzhen and Gu Xuanqing is great. She's in charge, of course, and plays the dominant seducer with gusto - and he's entirely unprepared for finding himself actually into it, and wanting to hand himself over to her for real. (So, yes, the titular princess is indeed very much on top. *g*) And even though he's been sent in as a spy, once he comes to know her beyond the facade she presents, betraying her starts to weigh on him. Trust, loyalty, betrayal - all that tasty stuff! (And many of the usual tropes, including kneeling in the rain.) And the political intrigue doesn't just provide context for the relationship, but plays a major role itself. There's enough material for a full-length drama in this, compressed into one hour - distilled down to its most crucial and dramatic moments, which is fascinating as well as enjoyable.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I want more of anything and everything – the romance, the BDSM, the spy shenanigans, the loyalty kink, the political intrigue ...

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 don't think so, but the total runtime is less than an hour.

Content warnings: there's some ethnic stereotyping around the visit of "the Prince and Princess of the Turks" (突厥王子和郡主).

[maulester]

Title: Tales of the Rays Recollection — "An RPG about knowing the power of the truth".




Official page (it looks to be heavily MTL'd, however).


(Game's Opening on YouTube)

Media: Mobile J-RPG.

Approx length: The Main Story arc of 'Recollection' takes around five hours in total, a little more if you also watch optional content like the short stories.

Where to find it: TimeFactor uploaded the whole main story to YouTube, while 'Recollection' starts here (recommended to skip the "Origin Regression" event if you're a newcomer). The official YouTube channel also has the story up, but it misses the non-main story parts (like short stories and events) and also removed audio voice, so the former is encouraged to be used instead*.

If you don't speak Japanese, this arc was also translated by FeatherSnek in her public Discord server. Here is the invite. There is no channel signaling people who enter, so feel free to just drop by and read through the translation channels (though if you do end up liking what you are reading, we would be very happy to chat about it!). The story channel is also up for questions (as well as Feather themselves, through Discord or social media like Twitter or Tumblr, if you're shy).

*The game ended its service after seven years during summer 2024, having finished the story, so don't worry about legality concerns with the videos being uploaded: BanNam is not making money of it anymore so they don't care.

What is it, in summary?:

If someone makes a copy of yourself, is that copy still "you"?
How would you react if you saw someone who you loved but is supposed to be dead, or if that what was meant to kill you was no longer in effect?
What if you were resurrected into the body of someone you detest, or if you were brought back but could do nothing but watch?
What if you gave your memories up and turned yourself into a martyr to keep the world alive? How much would still be yourself? Would you even be alive?

And what if the only way to stop the world's destruction was to turn to other worlds and make copies from them instead? Would a Frankenstein-like world like that even deserve to exist? Could it ever be recognized as a true world and not as a mere lie?

Tir Na Nog, the world of Tales of the Rays, is built upon copying the contents of other worlds through a process called exoflection, then processing them and adapting them through another process called encoding. This provides the Aegis barrier with the very much needed chiral particles made from anima that it needs to be repaired and prevent the world from being erased.

Under these guidelines, the hero and heroine Ix and Mileena start using their powers as mirrists to exoflect worlds and save theirs. These exoflections end up making copies of its habitants as well, granting a different life and sometimes a second chance to the nexuses: many known faces that Tales fans will recognize from other games.

(And it's a very fic-friendly story for this reason! But this post is about the original story rather than the crossover aspect. I'm also focusing on the sequel so, after this brief introduction, let's move on)

“This is a tale about weaving memories. Your Tale – proof that even if everything is lost, the memories engraved in our hearts will never disappear.”

This is the first thing the narrator of 'Recollection' says.

'Recollection' is the formal arc-sequel to Tales of the Rays. Rather than continuing where things left of, because the main conflict was already resolved, the arc is set two hundred years into the future and features a whole new cast and story.

In it, Neo-Eidyia's kingdom is all what remains of the once prosperous world of Tir Na Nog and its habitants, and the Aegis now protects its capital, Idavoll. It's all due to the attacks of mysterious entities called Wraiths that suddenly appeared two hundred years prior, destroying everything else while people could do nothing but watch.

Only the Reaper Knights have the power to harm Wraiths, but they are vastly outnumbered. The situation is dire and, upon a discovery, the main party starts considering an idea. What if they used the Chronos pillar, which has the power of the spirit of time, to turn back on time and fix the problem of the Wraiths at its source? Of course, the possibility of going back in time causes them to be confronted with a question that soon divides them: changing the future means they could stop existing. Would you give up the past to save your future?

What do you love about it?:

If you have ever heard of the Tales of franchise, chances are that you did it by playing through either the classic Tales of Symphonia or Tales of Abyss. In which case, I have good news! The main scriptwriter behind those entries was also behind this game and, in my opinion, you can tell: there are a lot of similarities in themes and she has a very distinctive writing style.

'Recollection' is a very complete story. It's clear it was well planned and plotted from the start, without being cut short or dragged on for longer than it should, as it happens to many games in mobile format. Unlike the first arc of the main story of Tales of the Rays, which took its time to set up the world first, the plot in 'Recollection' is engaging from the very beginning and has a quick start--The introduction of this new cast involves them attacking the former protagonist of the game, and the scene leaves an intense impression.

Much like with the main story of Tales of the Rays, the characters in 'Recollection' are very nuanced. All of them have their personalities and motivations driving them forward, and they mash well with each other as a group, leading to a lot of different relationship dynamics. As someone who has played a lot of Tales of games, it was quite a surprise to find such quality writing in a mobile game of all places, one that had nothing to envy to many mainline entries. There are a lot of revelations and twists that you can't see coming or, if you do, the conclusion is also completely different.

Nothing in Tales of the Rays was ever what it looked like at first glance: it wasn't for what was seen during most of the first arc, and that applies to 'Recollection' as well: the Wraiths suddenly start taking the shape of people, the Death Star power that's used to combat them actually comes from the mysterious Baldr M., neither Kodama nor Elnath remember their pasts, and you soon realize there are too many missing puzzle pieces in this "Rainbow Night" when the Wraiths first appeared...

If you like fantasy worlds with elaborated worldbuilding, intriguing plots and entertaining characters, even if you are not familiar with Tales of the Rays or even Tales of yet, this might be for you!

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Genfic: character studies, canon divergences, what-ifs, post-canon continuations,... There's also a lot of ship potential too, though I am not going to ask for it myself.

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?:

'Recollection' is exactly that! Because it's set centuries into the future and the main cast is different, you can watch through 'Recollection' without being familiar with Tales of the Rays and even Tales of as a whole. It's true that the story rewards you for having read through the previous four arcs, just like those arcs also rewarded you for being familiar with the nexuses (Tales characters from other games), but it's also easy to jump in right into 'Recollection' without knowing of the main story: It’s self-contained enough and the original cast, as well as the crossover characters, don't have much of a role. There was also a dictionary in-game, and the narrator sometimes pauses to give a short explanation of story and terms.

Tales of does this sometimes: Tales of Phantasia is a distant sequel of Tales of Symphonia; Tales of Berseria is a distant prequel of Tales of Zestiria, etc. They are better experienced when you have played everything in the same universe, but it's not a requisite: even for direct sequels like Tales of Xillia and Tales of Xillia 2, the latter made the effort of giving you options in the main menu to explain the story and terms.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):

The main character suffers from discrimination due to being a Wastelander, people who have been pushed to migrate due to their countries being destroyed by Wraiths that now live in colonies near the capital. They carry the prejudice and superstitions, such as the perception that they take up on resources or the belief that their presence attracts Wraiths.

There is also violence, as the Wraiths mutilate, infect (phantom disease) and kill people, and part of the main cast also lost parts of their bodies on Wraith attacks, but neither of this is ever shown in a graphic manner on-screen.

Outside of mentioning that, I can't think of anything that merits a big warning.

The last polar bears

[ouie]

Title: The last polar bears - Harry Horse

Media: book

Approx length: 80 pages

Where to find it: Book places.

What is it, in summary?:
An eccentric grandfather goes on a quest to see the last polar bears, together with his dog Roo. The story is told through letters to his grandchild.

What do you love about it?:
It is very funny! There’s also a lot of caring about animals, which is nice.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
More of Grandfather and Roo. Backstory, or just plain stories, about Roo's grandfather.

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’s a short animated film that takes a lot word-for-word from the book. It covers less than the book, but would probably be enough to write for it, or at least determine whether you want to read the book or not.

Content warnings: Not really.

The Ascent of Rum Doodle

[ouie]

Title: The Ascent of Rum Doodle

Media: Book

Approx length: 160 pages

Where to find it: Book places.

What is it, in summary?:
A team of marvelously incompetent mountaineers go on an expedition to conquer the world’s highest mountain, Rum Doodle. To help them they have about a thousand porters. Basically, it's an old parody of mountaineering books.

What do you love about it?:
It is very funny.

Content warnings: Not really.

Sinners (2025)

[peppermint_shamrock]

Title:
Sinners (2025)

Media: Film

Approx length: 137 minutes

Where to find it:
Anywhere you can usually find movies; it's been out on DVD for a couple months now.

What is it, in summary?:
It's a vampire horror movie, but for about the first third of it you could take it for a period piece of 1930's era Mississippi, focused on the Black community.

What do you love about it?: It focuses so much on the characters; we really get a picture of a community and their relationships with each other, before it's torn apart by the vampire's obsession with Sammie's music. This isn't the sort of horror movie where the monster is the only one the narrative or viewers care about. The atmosphere is excellent, because it really takes the time to establish the setting first.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I'm most interested in post-canon stories in the immediate aftermath. A lot of people died that night, how do their families find out and what do they think happened? Does anyone try to track down Sammie to ask him? How does Sammie recover from the trauma and return to playing music? What do Stack and Mary do, where do they go, how do they cope with being changed into vampires now that they're no longer under Remmick's control?

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, people would need to watch the whole movie.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
All the blood and gore and death (including major characters) that you'd expect from a vampire horror film. Some level of mind control involved arguably makes one of the sex scenes dubious consent. Period typical racism, it's set in 1930's Mississippi and the KKK are secondary villains. References to past infant death.

Windows 95 Tips

[peppermint_shamrock]

Title: Windows 95 Tips

Media: Tumblr blog

Approx length: ~30 posts

Where to find it: Tumblr

What is it, in summary?: A lighthearted computer horror blog made of mockup screenshots of Windows 95 in a creepypasta-esque way.

What do you love about it?: It's a just a fun bit of computer horror that doesn't take itself too seriously.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Anything that emulates the tone of the source material. It would be a great fandom for interactive fiction, too!

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 probably get the idea from just a handful of posts but it also doesn't take very long to scroll through all of them.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
Some body horror.

When the Sun Rose by Barbara Berger

[lady_ragnell]

Title: "When the Sun Rose" by Barbara Berger

Media: Children's book (out of print)

Approx length: This is a very short illustrated children's book--readings of it rarely take more than five minutes.

Where to find it: The paper version is out of print and copies are quite expensive, but several kind people have recorded it for storytimes on YouTube for educational purposes! This version is a nice soothing reading of it.

What is it, in summary?: Our narrator receives a visit from and plays with a girl who may or may not be a representation of the sun (but the narrative doesn't really care about that).

What do you love about it?:



The illustrations! Lovely colors that are both vivid and soft, beautiful design. Plus it's a sweet little story! The last page in particular lives in my heart, both the illustration and the words.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: In part, I want to see what people will do with it! But also as a child I thought of this as a romance and I would not object in the LEAST to someone wanting to explore that as the girls age (though probably my prompts will remain pretty G-rated).

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?: No, this one's a five-minute canon!

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): None of the common ones apply!

Taproot by Keezy Young

[sarajayechan]

Title: Taproot

Media: Graphic Novel

Approx length: 127 pages

Where to find it: You can request it from a library or find cheap used copies on Amazon.

What is it, in summary?: A ghost named Blue falls in love with a gardener named Hamal, the only one who can see him and other ghosts. But Hamal's ability is causing a disturbance between the balance of life and death, and a grim reaper is stalking Blue. The two have to figure out how to solve the imbalance, but Hamal doesn't want to sacrifice Blue.

There's also a short story after the main one involving Blue, Hamal, and a girl who seemed to be crushing on Hamal at the beginning, but it's not a love triangle so much as it is a ghost hunting story.

What do you love about it?: It turns the Tragic Gays trope on its head with a supernatural twist and it's absolutely beautiful. The art is gorgeous, the plot is amazing, and it's got plenty of levity to balance out the angst and melancholy.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Shippy fic and gen

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?: It's best to read the whole thing.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Skeletons and disintegration associated with death, but there's no blood or gore involved.

Hadestown

[peppermint_shamrock]

Title: Hadestown

Media: Theatre

Approx length: ~2 hours

Where to find it: There are tour dates listed on its website, but if you can't get to see it in person, there's likely YouTube videos of some performances. The show is almost entirely in song, too, so you can get a pretty good idea of it just by listening to the soundtrack, though you'll miss the visuals.

What is it, in summary?: A retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in an Industrial Revolution setting. Hades is cast as a sort of industrialist tycoon; the souls of the dead as the ground-down workers in a company town.

What do you love about it?: It's just a really good musical, and a compelling take on a well-known myth. I've seen a lot of complaints of the oversaturation of Greek myth retellings, but I think Hadestown does it really well. It gets tragedy right, in that it still feels like it mattered even though our heroes failed in the end.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Persephone's relationship with our two central mortals, or perhaps Eurydice after she has to go back.

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?: No, it's the whole play.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Infidelity (mostly implied, and also coerced/dubious consent for Eurydice), alcoholism, character death

Earthbound

[sarajayechan]

Title: Earthbound

Media: Video Game

Approx length: Discounting any grinding for rare items, not that long!

Where to find it: Nintendo Switch Online's SNES Library, or watch a let's play here.

What is it, in summary?: A story about Chosen Children stopping an angry alien from taking over the world. It's pretty straightforward but also trippy and quirky, you fight aliens and objects, and the setting is very Modern Western rather than the usual high fantasy of most 90s RPGs.

What do you love about it?: The quirky humor, the colorful characters, the setting, the music, the graphics. It's a high-stakes adventure that really makes you feel like a part of it by the end, there's time travel, and a little cultural diversity in that the character Poo (yes that is his default name) is an Eastern Prince whose strict non-Western diet is actually a game mechanic (he doesn't restore much HP with items like burgers and beef jerky).

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

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 watch the beginning and Ness's Magicant sequence to get a feel for his relationship to Pokey and Picky and Pokey's overall issues. But it's best to experience the whole game.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): None

Tiny Bookshop (Video Game)

[hangingfire]

Title: Tiny Bookshop
Media: Video game (Steam, Nintendo Switch)
Approx length: A dedicated player could probably get through it in 20-40 hours
Where to find it: https://tinybookshopgame.com/

What is it, in summary?: A cosy slice of life and resource management game about running a small bookshop in the little town of Bookstonbury. You stock books and set up your mobile shop in locations around town, recommend books to buyers, and get to know the locals. There are some quest lines that help you develop your friendships, and one significant one where you learn about the true identity of the town's namesake.

What do you love about it?: It is delightfully soothing to play, especially for a big reader. The characters (a diverse crowd across a wide range of ages, ethnicities, and LGBTQIA identity) and storylines are charming and sometimes genuinely moving.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Cosy slice of life stories about the characters (including the blank-slate player character, the bookshop proprietor), possibly also some worldbuilding around the town and its history.

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 don't really need to finish the entire game, but you should have enough to know the general vibe, the personalities of the characters, and at least a couple of the major questlines (in particular the St Bookston quest).

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): None

F1 (2025)

[hangingfire]

Title: F1
Media: Movie
Approx length: 2h 35m
Where to find it: Amazon video, AppleTV+

What is it, in summary?: A retired F1 driver comes out of retirement to save a failing racing team. It's Top Gun: Maverick with cars.

What do you love about it?: Fast cars go vroom. It's got some of the best racing scenes of all time. I'm an F1 fan and while I have some major quibbles with the movie (some of the stuff that Sonny Hayes gets up to would be worthy of a racing ban), it's a good time.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Further adventures of Joshua Pearce (hotshot young racing driver) and Kate McKenna (technical director and engineer). For the most part I really do not care about Sonny Hayes (the retired F1 driver), but backstory for Sonny and Ruben Cervantes (the team owner; old friend of Sonny's) might be fun too.

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'll need to watch the whole thing. You might want to supplement it with a season or two of Drive to Survive if you're not already conversant in Formula 1 racing.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Underwritten female characters and a relationship between Sonny and Kate that I personally find offensive (I cannot imagine any intelligent self-respecting engineer romancing or banging a driver on her own team). Some scary car crashes. Also Brad Pitt himself may constitute a content warning for some.

The Repair Shop (UK TV)

[hangingfire]

Title: The Repair Shop
Media: TV
Approx length: Many, many episodes of about 40-45 min each
Where to find it: YouTube

What is it, in summary?: Highly skilled artisans restoring items of great sentimental value.

What do you love about it?: If you have a jones for highly competent people doing lovely things for others, this is your thing. It's genuinely interesting to see the skills at work (clockmaking, leatherwork, silversmithing, welding, woodwork, upholstering, bookbinding, and more) and the objects being restored are always accompanied by fascinating and moving stories.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: The Repair Shop crew at work, but in unusual or genre-specific situations. Crossovers. Fantastical elements. Ghost stories.

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?: Once you've seen about half a dozen episodes or so, you'll get the idea.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Sometimes elements of British colonial history are referred to, but for the most part the show is as gentle as they come.

Mahou Sentai Magiranger

[sarajayechan]

Title: Mahou Sentai Magiranger

Media: TV show

Approx length: 49 episodes plus one movie (Bride of Infershia) that fits in with canon

Where to find it: You can download it here.

What is it, in summary?: An entry in the Super Sentai franchise, five siblings end up fighting in a war between a magical utopia and an underground evil organization to protect the Earth.

What do you love about it?: The themes of family love, magic, courage, and self-discovery through learning lessons. The fact that it has a perfect happy ending but that the ending also feels totally earned, like the characters fought to make it that way. The characters are unique and allowed to grow outside their set roles, the team dynamic, the theme song absolutely slaps. There's also a kitty and a cute talking plant!

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

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, you need the full series for context.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Loss of parents, grief, one two-parter is about vampirism

[larryhammer]

Title: 赠答诗 | Poems Composed in Reply - 金车美人 (弘农) | Beautiful Woman in a Golden Carriage (Hong Nong)

Media: Very short story with poetry (~450 characters/~550 words in translation)

Where to find it: The Classical Chinese original is at https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/御定全唐詩_(四庫全書本)/卷866#金車美人, and my translation is at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/796115.html#hongnong. There are alternate versions of this story in Extensive Records of the Taiping Era at https://ctext.org/taiping-guangji/364/xieao/ens and Xuanshi Records at https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/宣室志/補遺#謝翱, neither of which have been translated AFAIK.

What is it, in summary?: A short romance of Tang Dynasty China where one of the couple happens to be a ghost, or at least some sort of non-human. (In Complete Tang Poetry, it’s in a chapter of poems by ghosts, but the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era version is put in tales about 妖怪, monsters/devils.) Poems are exchanged after a one-night stand that neither can forget, and after being reunited (exchanging more poems) they spend a few nights together until the ghost “vanished in both sight and sound.”

What do you love about it?: It’s enigmatic, even by the standards of ghost stories of the time. Why is Hong Nong interested in Xie Ao and his peonies? Why does she have to vanish? What’s with the golden carriage? What type of being is she anyway? Plus I love her sass when they meet: “He naturally asked who she was, and she replied, ‘You understand I’m not human, yet calmly ask such a question?’”

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: More about the enigmatic Hong Nong of the Crooked Path. Answers to any of the above questions.

Content warnings: major character death (before the story start)

The other stories in that translation post (and the other ghost poem posts) may also be of interest, and certainly the lore of Chinese ghosts they reveal might be useful.

Vampire Gastelbrau (2011)

[donutsweeper]

Title: Vampire Gastelbrau (2011)


Media: Animated short film

Approx length: 3 minutes

Where to find it: On youtube here or vimeo here

What is it, in summary?: An animated short where Vampire Gastelbrau helps Gerta and Gabi with their chores in order to earn back his vampire fang.

What do you love about it?: It's just such a sweet little story with cute animation and lovely music.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: The further adventures of Gerta, Gabi and Gastelbrau.

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?: No, but it's less than 3 minutes long.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): despite being about a vampire no warnings apply

Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀

[atamascolily]

Title: Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀

Media: TV and movies

Approx length: 4 seasons (51 episodes @ 24 minutes per episode) and 3 90-minute movies. Complete.

Where to find it: Streaming on Crunchyroll. Recommended viewing in order of release: Season 1, movie 1, Season 2, Movie 2, Season 3, Season 4, Movie 3.

What is it, in summary?: Taiwanese-Japanese wuxia fantasy puppet epic written by Gen Urobuchi (of Madoka Magica fame) about a middle-aged wandering swordsman who gets roped into a D&D-esque quest to protect a sacred sword that goes increasingly off the rails.

What do you love about it?: This show is SO much fun... the classic textbook example of "well that escalated quickly" while being SO zany and over the top in the best ways possible (not to mention a lot of fun twists and classic wuxia tropes). The main character, Shang Bu Huan, is super-relatable, as he's a fundamentally decent guy who just keeps getting into situations. So many characters have chemistry with each other, and there's SO much homoerotic subtext.

The traditional Taiwanese budaixi puppetry and costumes and practical effects are incredible! The closest Western equivalent is probably The Dark Crystal, but there's really nothing else quite like it.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I love the relationship between the 2 main characters, Shang Bu Huan and Lin Xue Ya, so anything involving them is fair game.

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?: Season 1 is stand alone and 13 episodes.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Extreme puppet violence, including blood and decapitation.

The Great Wolf Pack

[gooigi]

Title: The Great Wolf Pack

Media: Animation

Approx length: One 45 minute movie, four 22 minute episodes, and five 5 minute shorts.

Where to find it: All officially uploaded onto The Great Wolf Pack Youtube channel.

What is it, in summary?: The Great Wolf Lodge is a chain of hotel/water parks with an outdoorsy theme. These animations were created to promote the brand. Five young animals have to work together to solve problems that the Great Wolf Spirit presents to them.

What do you love about it?: I watched this series with a friend of mine right before we met up at a Great Wolf Lodge. We had extremely low expectations for this series, but ended up having fun with it. Not going to claim that it's groundbreaking or anything, but it earned a soft spot in my heart.



What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Anything regarding the dynamic between Cascade and Trickles. During our watch session, my friend and I decided that they definitely had a tragic romance together. The show even pretended that it might make their dynamic complicated for a little while! They didn't follow through with it, since this is a pretty simplistic show for kids. But I thought it was fun to force an angsty interpretation onto this show, and I would love to see something for that. I'd also love a canon compliant take.

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?: Trickles only shows up in the episode A Spoonful of Wicked. Cascade has some appearances throughout the rest of the show, but you'd only need this episode to understand the dynamic I'll be requesting.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): The series attempts to discuss discrimination and prejudice, using fantasy creatures instead of any real world populations.

You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne

[gooigi]

Title: You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne



Media: Graphic Novel

Approx length: 219 pages

Where to find it: You can look for a copy at your library, or wherever you buy books. If you're going to order it online, exercise your best judgement when looking at preview pages. For some reason, the Amazon listing has MAJOR SPOILER PAGES in their page previews.

What is it, in summary?: Two former friends are trapped in a time loop together, repeating their high school graduation day over and over and over.

What do you love about it?: Nearly everything! First, it has absolutely gorgeous art. Color is used in very clever ways throughout the novel.

The characters are very believable and fleshed out. There's good character writing all around, but the dynamic between our two protagonists is a particular triumph. I also enjoy the casual LGBT representation - the main romance of the book is M/F with a bisexual female lead, and there is lesbian and transgender representation among the supporting characters.

The specifics of how the time loop works is satisfying plotted out and fun to unravel.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I'll be requesting the two main characters - Alicia and Chris. Pre-canon, missing scenes from loops we didn't see, and post-canon all sound wonderful to me.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Homophobia, misogyny, racism, bullying, car crash fatalities, and grief all play a role in the wider narrative. There's a throwaway line about a teacher grooming his students, but that plot thread doesn't go anywhere.

Re: Sinners (2025)

[devilc]

Fingers and toes crossed that this makes the cut. It's on the cusp!

Re: Sinners (2025)

[peppermint_shamrock]

With the bookmarklet applied it comes out to less than 700 fics, so it should still qualify by the time nominations open up! I wouldn't expect it to be eligible next year, though.

Friday Night Lights

[devilc]

Title:Friday Night Lights (TV)


Media:Television

Approx length: 5 seasons (seasons 2-5 are short seasons)

Where to find it:Amazon Prime, Peacock. (Can be purchased from Apple TV, Youtube, Fandango, etc.)

What is it, in summary?: The series details events surrounding a high school football team from a fictional town called Dillon: a small, close-knit community in rural Texas. The town deals a lot with issues of every day life in ways that are nuanced and sensitive: class, race, religion, broken families, friendships, and the ways in which the town's football culture can be just as devastating as it is uplifting.

It's also where several famous actors in other franchises such as Aldis Hodge, Michael B. Jordan, Jurnee Smollett, Jesse Plemmons, Adrienne Palicki, Scott Porter, Zach Gilford, and Taylor Kitsch got their first big roles.

What do you love about it?: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose! The key theme of the series is the power of kindness, the power of forgiveness, and the power of dreams.

Also, it is so very, VERY pre-slashed (Tim/Jason) / pre-OT3'd (Tim/Jason/Lyla) for your convenience.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: What if, missing scenes, stories that explore potential after-series adventures for the characters.

(Oh, and slash, because Tim and Jason? It's only subtext when it's subtle.)

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?: For the full emotional arc of Tim Riggins, or Coach Taylor, all 5 seasons need to be watched.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Canon deals quite frankly with the impact of racism, domestic violence, drug & alcohol abuse, life changing injuries, and class issues.

Re: Earthbound

[larryhammer]

Most gameplay sites claim about 30-40 hours to complete Earthbound. I hope you get something -- it's one of my favorite RPGs.