yuletide | Praise! Your! Fandoms! Get others interested!

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Praise! Your! Fandoms! Get others interested!

Hey, everyone! It's Praise Your Fandom time!

Get people into your canon! Tell them what's awesome about it!

Tell them where to find it!

Tell them ALL ABOUT IT!

Please use this format:

Fandom/Canon Name:
What's awesome about it:
Where to find:

Thank you and have a great yuletide!

(ALSO: Please feel free to ask for specific recs too! Like post a thread going 'hey I'm looking for canons with bisexual leads' or something!)

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Fandom/Canon Name: Yakuza
What's awesome about it: Yakuza is famous for a few things: violent, bone-breaking combat where you can repurpose a horrifying variety of environmental objects into weapons, including but not limited to tea kettles, salt shakers, and mopeds; convoluted conspiracy-filled plots; incredibly weird, cracky sidequests that derail or overshadow the main plot; and extensive minigames. The tone of the main plot frequently tries for noir but slides toward melodrama, not helped by the way you can identify a major boss fight because everyone is suddenly and inexplicably topless. The sidequests, on the other hand, tend to run to farce. Even in Yakuza Kiwami, where they often aim for a more serious tone, the effect is undercut by the sheer number of them that involve an attempt to scam the main character. After a while, the fact that there's a con artist practically on every block just becomes unintentionally funny. And then there's the way that everyone and their cousin seems to believe Kiryu, a dude who wears a permanent glare and who attracts fights without even trying, is the perfect candidate to play agony aunt for their romantic and sexual troubles. The mood whiplash is profound and delightful.

Then there are the characters: Kiryu Kazuma, the main character, is perpetually trying to stop being a yakuza, despite the fact that he actually loves everything about being one (except extorting people..., or harming innocents..., or murder..., or bribery..., or sex trafficking..., or drug running... Actually, why does Kiryu want to be involved in organized crime anyway? I'd assume it was the brawling, but he can't seem to go two blocks without getting into a street fight.) He looks like a thug and has a permanent glare, and yet for some reason passersby continually decide he's the ideal person on whom to unload their sexual and romantic woes. He's actually a pretty good dude and does his best to help, but he's so terminally awkward around sex and relationships that sometimes you just wish he'd learn to say no whenever a stranger decides to succumb to a serious case of TMI.

To be fair to Kiryu, most of his determination to go straight rests on a deep desire to provide his foster daughter, and later the other orphan kids he ends up looking after, with the best possible life and not, you know, saddling them with a father-figure who's out shaking down the local shopkeepers for protection money or in prison for murder. It's actually an admirable goal, if only he didn't get sucked right back in every couple years.

And then there's Majima Goro, who started as a side character and a bit of a joke, albeit a menacing one. He was first introduced nearly beating one of his own men to death with an umbrella for picking a fight with Kiryu, because he's somewhat terrifying and unpredictable and violent. He's also an absurdly loyal friend who would do practically anything for Kiryu (except stop showing up and picking fights). The recent remake of the first game has finally moved Majima's not-straightness and sexual interest in Kiryu out of the realm of subtext and into the realm of "I rented a strip club and then showed up alone to do a sexy pole dance for your welcome back from prison party. Can we fight now?" (Kiryu unironically thanks him for caring enough to have a party. They have an amazing relationship.)

Majima has a best friend/sworn brother, Saejima, who's in prison for most of the games, convicted of murdering 18 people. Majima was supposed to help with that, but life kind of got away from him. They also have an incredibly homoerotic relationship that mostly revolves around beating the stuffing out of each other as a means of expressing their deep feelings. In one game, a villain forces them to fight each other and then is visibly creeped out by how enthusiastic they are about it. Saejima is basically a bear: he's big, slow, and quiet in a way that could be mistaken for easygoing, but piss him off and he'll flatten you. Decisively.

Those three are my faves, but this is a sprawling series with a vast cast, many of whom are memorable. If none of them work for you, odds are good you'll find someone who will. And really, the main reason to play the series is that it's just pure fun.

(One note: the series is awful at female characters. There are plenty, and they're generally pretty great in and of themselves, but they tend to be sidelined, end up damsels in distress, and/or die. This is not a series to pick up if you're sensitive to sexism, because even loving it dearly, I end up wincing an awful lot.)

Where to find: If you're just thinking of picking up the fandom for the first time, you're in luck, because the first game just got a remake (a PS4 exclusive) and it's substantially shorter than more recent installments, with a main plot that only requires about 25 hours to complete! With later games requiring easily 60-100 hours, this is the perfect place to pick up the series. Or, if you want the mature Yakuza experience, pick up Yakuza 0, a prequel set in the bubble era of the late 80s intended to be playable by newcomers to the series. It's chock full of fun things to do and features Kiryu and Majima as dual protagonists.

name: Bacchanalian Conspiracy RPF

what is it: In 186 BCE the Roman Senate flipped out about scary illicit sex rites happening around the cult of Bacchus. The story that we have of the whole affair -- commonly called 'The Bacchanalian --Conspiracy', is told by Livy, in book 39 of his history. It's a tale of moral panic over a religious cult that wasn't under the control of the state, uncovered by a sex worker with a heart of gold trying to save her boyfriend from his abusive family, and two nice old ladies.

Here's what goes down. (but you can find the whole tale starting here (here).

Faecennia Hispala is a freedwoman who works as a prostitute, makes a pretty good living at it, too. But her one true love is the boy-next-door P. Aebutius, a nice young man from a good family fallen on hard times, whose father died when he was young, and whose stepfather is squandering his inheritance-- your standard Hamlet situation, basically. So he spends a lot of time with his girlfriend, since his mother and stepfather are pretty terrible to him, and she's even helped him out financially. Mom and Stepdad realize that Aebutius is old enough to sue them for mismanaging his inheritance; decide to ensnare in a Wicked Debauched Sex Cult where people have been known to disappear. The Bachanalia, we're told, was originally a respectable mystery cult of Bacchus run by women--but then one of the priestesses initiated her sons and they started to initiate more men, and now it's devolved into horrific orgies, rape, murder, cannibalism, forgery, assasination-plots and basically a conspiracy against the entirety of society.

When Aebutius tells Hispala, 'hey, I won't be around for a week or so-- my mom really wants me to get initiated into this thing called the Bacchanalia,' she freaks out and begs him not to: she reveals that when she was a slave, her mistress was involved with the cult, and it became terrifying and horrible --- orgies and rapes and murder etc etc.--- as soon as she had bought her freedom, she never went back, and she wants Aebutius to promise her he won't become involved. When Aebutius tells his mother that, actually, he's decided not to join the Bacchanalia, she gets furious and kicks him out of the house.

LUCKILY, not only does Aebutius have a girlfriend to watch out for him, he has an aunt, his sister's father. She takes Aebutius in, and when she finds out what's going on, she urges him to go to the consul with what he's discovered about the Terrible Sex Cult And Conspiracy. Also, Aebutius' aunt is best friends with the consul's mother-in-law, Sulpicia. The combination of two respectable elderly ladies convinces the consul to investigate, and he summons Hispala. And is making a total mess of interviewing her (b/c (a) Hispala knows that it's never a good thing for a freedwoman to be summoned by the highest ranking magistrate in Rome and (b) she really doesn't want to betray the Bacchanalia because she's terrified of what they might do to her if they find out she ratted)--until his mother-in-law steps in and invites Hispala to move in with her where she'll be safe until the investigation is over. Upshot is: conspiracy is foiled, Evil Dangerous Cult is reined in, Aebutius and Hispala are rewarded, and they all live happily ever after.

why it's awesome: granted, there are a lot of Problematic Normative Roman assumptions that the story upholds: conspiracy theories about minority religions are never particularly great, and from the perspective of modernity, one rather feels that the Bacchanalia were just fine (and if they were having polyamorous orgies, more power to them!) At the same time, it's a marvelous episode that puts women and the relationships between women of all ranks front and center in Roman history/historiography. (Even the Bacchanalia is framed as something that became dangerous once it passed out of the control of women). All of these things and characters have a huge potential for fic, I think: whether pushback against the Roman state narrative of the "conspiracy", showing how this religious community recovers and remakes itself afterwards, or exploring Hispala's backstory (or/and future story-- how does her friendship with Sulpicia play out?), having Aebutia and Sulpicia (working with Hispala?) solve more crimes... the possibilities seem endless.

This sounds amaaaaaazing! And my library has the first one as an ebook - definitely going to check it out.

Fandom/Canon Name: Pretty Cure! I'm nominating two this year, my favorites of the franchise, Heartcatch Precure and Go! Princess Precure.

What's awesome about it: They're magical girl shows that are aimed squarely at children but are written strongly enough to appeal to adults. Heroines and villains alike can play against type in twisty little ways, and won't always develop the way you'd expect. Both shows avoid the frequent pit-trap of Young Girls versus Older Women, and allow male characters to exist in-universe--sometimes even quite prominently!--without yoking the heroines' happiness to romance. In different ways, both shows make the victim-of-the-day trope matter, giving the "filler" episodes some real thematic pay-off in the end. Both dabble in melancholy and unresolved issues, but prove to be ultimately compassionate. They're also both just very cool. The franchise's signature focus on physical combat brings all manner of talent to play in the sandbox; you simply will not find better choreographed magical girl teamwork action than when a Pretty Cure animation team is bringing their A-Game. As to how they're differently awesome...

This is the late-season Heartcatch finisher attack. If you can argue with a fifty-foot tall woman with flowing pink hair and a glowing white dress wearing gold-spiked knuckle dusters piledriving monsters of the day into the ground to "purify" them, well, you're a stronger person than me.

In seriousness, though, Heartcatch does have the more solid structure of the two, with by far the more effective villain, and a really great core pair in Tsubomi and Erika. It's more light-hearted overall, though veteran Cure Moonlight is keeping a stoic face on significantly more searing trauma than the other cast members, which Tsubomi and Erika eventually come face-to-face with. It also engages with its history and lore far more than the average magical girl show, making it a great watch for people interested in magical girl shows with interesting world-building, and anyone who ever wondered what happens to a magical girl after she wins her fight and grows up. Its finale inspired Madoka Magica in a big obvious pink way, and if it can impress someone like Urobochi Gen, I really think that says it all, don't you?

Meanwhile, Princess also has a great core heroine group, but really sets itself apart with the way it incorporates its side cast into the heroines' struggles. It has a unique La Resistance flavor to its structure, as its villain begins episode one wrapping up loose ends from her victory in the backstory. Friends, teachers, classmates, displaced magical royalty, talking fairy animals, redeemed villains--if you ever wished Sailor Moon remembered the existence of any of these allies come time to fight a season boss, Go! Princess Precure is a show you should watch.

It's also very friendly to a queer reading! For those who like femslash, it features very close relationships between its heroines (think dreamy dance sequences and domestic intimacies) and limited if not wholly absent options for male love interests. Less ambiguously, it also features a male villain whose interest in fashion and makeup is never conflated with his villainy, but rather treated with such casual positivity that one of the talking animal fairies gives him a pep-talk about it late in the show.

Where to find: Pick your poison for unlicensed anime, I'm afraid. But they're around and streamable, if you're looking to binge.

Edited 2017-09-14 11:26 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: One Day at a Time (TV) (2017)
What's awesome about it: I'm not even sure where to start. This reboot takes everything that the original show was famous for (pushing limits, putting things on TV that people didn't talk about politely) and modernizes it. We have three generations living together from Abuela, who came from Cuba, to Penelope, who was born in the US, to the kids who are sometimes struggling between their Cuban heritage and their American lives. They treat everything with both humor and love, and it's not uncommon to be brought to tears and fall into laughter in the same episode. It handled Elena's storyline and coming to terms with her sexuality with wonderful realism (and again, humor). Better yet was how Penelope handled her daughter's coming out, and how her traditional grandmother handled it.

This is a show about family and about found family. It's about traditional vs. modern. It's about race, feminism, sexuality. It's about growing up, and it's about still finding yourself when you're an adult. It's about everything human.

I've found that this show appeals to everyone. I watched it with my 15 year old son and we both loved it. My husband randomly watched an episode with us because he walked in while it was on. Everyone I've recommended it to seems to have enjoyed it. It's just... it leaves you feeling good in the end. And I adore Elena, Penelope, and Abuela SO MUCH. Three generations of FANTASTIC women.

Where to find: This is a Netflix original series.

Are you nominating and planning to request fandoms based on videos, songs, commercials, or other five minute fandoms? Please point me toward them and tell me about them!!

Yay! The books are fairly slight and random, but I enjoy them when I'm after lighter things - the concept of Mannerling, however, is pure gold & I hope it gets played with for Yuletide.

I'm so in for this! I am pleased to see that it has already been nominated and that so many other folks are excited for it :D

Fandom/Canon Name: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
What's awesome about it: Do you like cheesy, impossibly large sea monsters? What about guest stars/plot devices like mermaids, aliens, werewolves, evil mummies, mind control, ghosts, leprechauns or time travel? This is the show for you! Airing in the 60s but set in the 'futuristic' 70s and 80s the crew of the Seaview in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea had one impossibly crackfilled adventure after another.
Where to find: Most of seasons one and two are available on yahoo view while the entire four season run is fairly easily findable in numerous other places.

Fandom/Canon Name: Department S
What's awesome about it: It's one of those UK 60s action-adventure serials (made on film! with US money! Not 100% composed of cardboard!), about an Interpol Department that investigate inexplicable and surreal incidents that nobody else can explain. (Why did someone suffocate in a space suit in central London? A plane goes missing for six days, but everyone on board is sure they've landed 20 minutes early... Why is there a body in a fake, beautifully furnished room in a warehouse?)

The Department consists of the diplomat in charge, Sir Curtis Seretse (Dennis Alaba Peters), and his three operatives, Stewart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani) who heads up the team and tends to do the legwork and the action scenes (although he has an impressive tendency to get drugged/knocked out/tortured in the process, especially in the first half of the series), computer expert Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nicols) who's brainy, competent, and is let in on the action far more than most ITC female leads, and flamboyant thriller author Jason King (Peter Wyngarde), who's there to flirt with the enemy and provide outside-the-box answers using his imagination. You can ship them in pretty much any direction you like, and they a pretty great OT3 of whatever kind you prefer.

It's a lot of fun and the "Mary Celeste" type openers are v cool, its moments of seriousness are actually pretty great, and the guest cast even includes a young Anthony Hopkins, while Jason and his fictional hero Mark Caine mean it comes with a post-modern tongue-in-cheek/meta element. I picked it up this summer and loved it far more than I'd expected, going by the vague idea I had of Jason King.

Where to find: It's out on DVD and even Blu-Ray; I can't find it on YT, though, but I did find some trailers/fanvids that give a pretty good idea of its virtues and flaws:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-UUbdLDrU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n06YHH9eEjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4V2nZBYvnM

Edited 2021-01-10 20:55 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Twenty Planets by Carolyn Ives Gilman

What's awesome about it: Twenty Planets is a loosely connected series of books set in the same universe. There are a few crossover characters, but each novel/novella is definitely a stand-alone. Gilman writes great characters, my favorite being Tedla from Halfway Human.

Tedla is an asexual, agender person from a planet called Gammadis where they have 3 biological sexes: male, female, and neuter. Halfway Human takes this premise and sets up a really complex world where gender and class struggles are framed in totally different ways by having a third gender. Neuters are stigmatized and looked down on by the rest of the population, but Tedla's experiences show that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Dark Orbit, the most recent novel, is also wonderful. Another planet is being explored in this story, and here the population is adapted to living underground in total darkness. So there are some really amazing descriptions of how the society uses their senses of touch, sound, and smell to understand their world.

Where to find: You can get the novels from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The ebook for Halfway Human runs about $5, and a used paperback is only $2+shipping on Amazon.

If you're a fan, check out

twentyplanets. It's a new community that I created to, hopefully, meet other fans and and discuss the series with each other.

Also, check out this beautiful portrait of Tedla from a wonderful artist on tumblr: LINK. (Pic is SFW, but blog is *not*).

Fandom/Canon Name: Dragon's Winter by Elizabeth A. Lynn

What's awesome about it: It's a two-book series about Karadur Atani, a canonically bisexual, shape-shifting, dragon prince. He's in love with his best friend, Azil, who is a harpist and singer with a beautiful voice. But Karadur's twin brother is super jealous of his dragon shapeshifting power and the fact that Karadur is the elder twin. So he steals his dragon power talisman and kidnaps Azil. After three years, Azil escapes and comes back to Karadur completely broken from torture and guilt. The rest of the book is about Karadur and Azil trying to figure out how to trust each other again and also going on a quest to get Karadur's dragon power talisman back.

The second book seems less well-known, but it's called Dragon's Treasure and is equally wonderful. The main conflict of the book is Karadur trying to balance his love for Azil with his need to have children and continue his line (and thus his need to find a woman who is capable of surviving dragon babies, which I guess make for a pretty tough pregnancy). There are plenty of sweet moments between Karadur and Azil though, which I just live for. These two are the absolute best.

Lynn's prose style is minimal and poetic, sort of like an ancient legend. It's beautiful and evocative. Despite a lot of the story being about Karadur (and Azil), it's largely told by secondary characters who are all equally interesting. One of the things I like most about the books is how much is implied, rather than outright told. This is especially great for fic writers, because there are so many intriguing gaps that could be filled in.

Where to find: Ebooks are available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Used copies are going pretty cheap on Amazon. I was able to get Dragon's Winter from my local library.

For more details about the series, I recommend the TV Tropes page: LINK.

Edited 2017-09-14 15:30 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Choice of Robots
What's awesome about it: Do you like robots and AI? Do you like a deeply moving piece of interactive fiction that really hinges on your choices? Do you like exploration of technology, AI, and their relation to humanity? Do you like canon bisexual romance option and games that you can build the future skynet or romance a robot? Choice of Robots is a text adventure that has everything from above with an impressive length (300k) and very good writing.
Where to find: https://www.choiceofgames.com/robots/

Fandom/Canon Name: The Reward (2013)
What's awesome about it: The Reward 's 9 minutes long, authors truthfully describe it as "epic, feel good, bromantic roadtrip short film", and it's BURSTING with awesome fantasy worlbduilding potential.
Where to find: The whole film: https://vimeo.com/58179094

Fandom/Canon Name: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - Various Authors

What's awesome about it: The illegitimate child of Monty Python and Umberto Eco, this is a beautifully produced anthology with pseudo-scholarly essays and stories about a numbber of strange artefacts owned by Dr. Lambshead, an eccentric collector of the bizarre and macabre. A lot of the book is playing with the uncanny, things that are almost, but not quite, human; or straddle the line between animate and inanimate.

Where to find: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thackery-T-Lambshead-Cabinet-Curiosities/dp/0062004751

I used to like the original show and this sounds like a big improvement on it. Not sure I'll finish watching in time for Yuletide but I'm definitely going to check it out.

I bought Halfway Human and I'm definitely going to read it, I hope in time for Yuletide.

Fandom/Canon Name: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois

What's awesome about it: Multimedia sci-fi storytelling! The celebration of weird and wonderful real-life oddities! Sentient space probes! Available to read for free!

Where to find: https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football

Fandom/Canon Name: You're the Worst
What's awesome about it: It's a romantic comedy about assholes in love that also regularly turns in nuanced, heartbreaking drama. (Deals a lot with clinical depression and PTSD.) If you like gorgeous people stealing froyo samples, touring murder houses, having enthusiastic sex, and breaking down into tears when they realize the weight of their unhappiness, this is the show for you. The main romance, Gretchen/Jimmy, is one of my favorites on TV--flawed, prickly, warm, and full of chemistry--and Jimmy's roommate Edgar, by far the sweetest person on the show and genuinely adorable, is a fan favorite. There is also terrific femslash potential between Gretchen and her best friend, ditzy mostly-amoral trainwreck-with-a-heart Lindsay.
Where to find: The first three seasons are streaming on Hulu and the fourth is currently airing on FXX.

Fandom/Canon Name: The Ramsay Scallop - Frances Temple

What's awesome about it: If you like historical fiction, children's literature, travelogues, ships with age gaps, or discussions of religion, I think you ought to give The Ramsay Scallop a try.

The year is 1300. Elenor of Ramsay is a noble's daughter who spends her days gallivanting around her estate and trying not to think about how she's betrothed to a boy called Thomas of Thornham. She hasn't seen him since he went to fight in the Crusades, and she's not looking forward to seeing him now that word's come that the Crusaders are returning. But Thomas isn't the boy he was--the Crusades have broken him, and it's with shame that he tells their priest of the sins he witnessed.

Plenty of sinning's been happening back home, too, let's be real here, so it's decided that Elenor and Thomas will make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as penance for their people. What follows is the story of a very long walk through France and Spain and a slowly deepening respect and affection for each other. Elenor and Thomas meet people from all walks of life, from peasants to troubadors to a pair of shepherds who are Muslim and Albigensian, respectively. They see a cathedral being built, explore the world of books (just a little--they're expensive!), and get fleas. It's a quiet story of traveling and new experiences for two people reacquainting themselves with each other.

Where to find: So, unfortunately, this book has been out of print for years, and there isn't an ebook edition unless I can get around to transcribing mine at some point. ON THE UPSIDE, that also means that it starts at $1.99 right now on Amazon.

Oh, that's so cool! Definitely let me know what you think of it, whether you finish it for Yuletide or not.

That paragraph. Is adorable.

Going off to read now...

Ooh, I really liked her collection A Pretty Mouth (and she had one of my favorite stories in the Laird Barron tribute anthology, too) and I'd completely forgotten that she wrote a novel. I'll have to check this out.

It is a super quick watch--I would've finished it far sooner if I hadn't been trying to coordinate time with my son. We tended to watch in 2-4 episode chunks, since it's a shorter show.

It is absolutely amazing, and I hope you enjoy watching it!!!

Fandom/Canon Name: Dixit.

What's awesome about it: It's a card game where all the cards are beautiful and/or unnerving surrealist images, and one player "describes" their card with a snippet of story, a reference, or an explanation of what it makes them think of, and the other players try to match it with something from their own hand. (There's a scoring system that provides incentive for the "storyteller" to come up with a description that's neither too abstract nor too obvious and for the other players to try as hard as they can to match the concept.) I'm really drawn to the illustrations on the cards, any one of which could qualify as a five-minute fandom for some good fantasy/horror/science fiction imagery.

Where to find: Board game stores or online for the whole game; lots of sample cards on Google Image search.

Edited 2017-09-14 15:59 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel
What's awesome about it: Incorporating Indian mythology, a heartbroken guardian spirit of an abandoned tells her dark and tragic story of the lose of her love - Pooja, a mortal girl unfazed by her, and the tragical aftermath for the village to Pooja's female descendent, who has (unknowingly?) just become hers. It's beautifully written, touching and creepy.
Where to find: The story is collected in the once free Event Horizon 2017 (https://www.shirtsleevepress.com/single-post/2017/03/23/Event-Horizon-Now-Available-in-Paperback), and https://www.ragnarokpub.com/genius-loci

So you're basically planning to request with the intent of someone picking a card to write about? That seems pretty cool! And it's a board game I'm not familiar with (but I'm betting my son would have a blast with it, and thus, I may have to become more familiar anyway).

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Page 2 of 13

Praise! Your! Fandoms! Get others interested!

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Bacchanalian Conspiracy RPF

Re: Daughters of Mannerling

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One Day at a Time (TV) (2017)

5 minute fandoms?

Re: Daughters of Mannerling

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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

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Twenty Planets

Dragon's Winter

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Re: One Day at a Time (TV) (2017)

Re: Twenty Planets

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You're the Worst (TV)

The Ramsay Scallop - Frances Temple

Re: Twenty Planets

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Re: Vermilion - Molly Tanzer

Re: One Day at a Time (TV) (2017)

Re: 5 minute fandoms?

The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel

Re: 5 minute fandoms?