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

Fandom/Canon Name: Stranger
What's awesome about it: Korean crime show, main character is a prosecutor who lost the ability to feel emotions in a pain-relieving surgery when he was a child, and my favorite thing about it is the fact that he gets sort of adopted by a female detective and it never turns into token romance, and he also has an interesting relationship, also platonic, with a younger female prosecutor. If slash is more your speed, there's also a fellow male prosecutor who sways back and forth between working for the good guys and the bad guys and they have to trust each other in a bit of a case of mutually assured destruction.
Where to find: Netflix

Edited 2017-09-14 09:16 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name:The Girl With The Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Rogers

What's awesome about it: The muumuu wearing old fat lady who lives alone with her cat and her books and gives no fucks and is #rolemodel. The fact that the main character can TALK TO CATS. The constant references to other YA fantasy/sf novels by the same publishing imprint that she is reading. How much this book distrusts all adult people. How much this book also distrusts all non-readers. How the kids have psychic powers and are super-smart, but they're also explicitly non-neurotypical in a way that reads a lot more Autism Spectrum than any of the books about supposedly autistic kids that I was reading at the time this came out, and those difference are much more of an issue for them than the psi powers. The swimming pool. The bus. The way Monica tries so hard. The way Miss K effortlessly shuts down all of Mr. P's attempts to nice-guy her into a not-a-date.

Where to find: It's a kids' novel from the early 80s but it had a relatively recent reprint and you can get it used cheap online or at a lot of public libraries.

Fandom/Canon Name: Fantasia (1940)
What's awesome about it: Specifically this is about the The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven section! Describe by wikipedia as: A mythical Greco-Roman world of colorful centaurs and "centaurettes", cupids, fauns and other figures from classical mythology is portrayed to Beethoven's music. A gathering for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, is interrupted by Zeus, who creates a storm and directs Vulcan to forge lightning bolts for him to throw at the attendees.

Sounds great, right? It's full of amazingly pretty fantasy creatures, such as centaurs, pegasus, unicorns, and fauns!

They all seem to have a society - they're even working on a festival together.

The centaurs are my favourite part, here are the designs of the ones nominated:

It's a short about a fantasy society of mythological creatures, pretty much, and I think there's a lot of room to create there.

Where to find: I got my copy off itunes. However:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fantasia+the+pastoral+symphony

Fandom/Canon Name: Magical Girl Raising Project

What's awesome about it: Magical girls! Intriguing plots and page turning twists! This is a very tiny fandom with few people contributing to it. The anime only has 12 episodes, and there are currently 3 books fan-translated (personally I read them within a few days on my first read through). Yen Press is officially translating it, but they've only translated the first book so far. Here's a brief twitter thread summing up the girls with photos in case that piques interest. The way this series handles plot is so amazing imo that it inspired me to actually learn how to outline. Each book/arc succumbs to a game that becomes a fight to the death (personally it reminds me of Danganronpa), but throughout the series, the arcs drift more to plots that are more morally grey and resemble war with no right or wrong sides (at least, that's the feeling I get from later arcs, but later arcs haven't been translated yet in a way that the fandom can agree on, so I'm not linking that). Each magical girl receives a special power, and that power is their one magic, no matter how incredibly specific or quirky it is. The way the girls fight with these bizarre powers (and trust me, it gets BIZARRE; there's one obscure spinoff with a girl who has the magic to bring drawings of sheep to life) is so creative and clever that it's honestly hard to predict what happens next. Off the top of my head, two of the girls are canonically in love, and some relationships/friendships between other girls are up to interpretation, so if you're interested in shipping, there's definitely potential there. Because of the existence of magical powers and twists, there's also easy room for writing plotty fics/gen, too. And if you're into gore/death/angst, well, this is definitely in your ballpark. I never even liked gore/death/angst before this series came along. (Crueltide anyone? I've never done crueltide before, but this fandom has made me change my mind.) On the other hand, it's also easy to write fluff for this series, surprisingly.

Where to find: Crunchyroll and Reddit Translation of light novels.

TW for death, gore, transphobia, and suicide.

Edited 2017-09-15 02:30 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Murderbot Diaries

What's awesome about it: I'm just going to copy and paste the intro paragraph at you, because Murderbot is possibly the single most relatable (not-quite-a-)robot you've ever run into:

I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.

Murderbot proceeds to spend the next ~150 pages trying (and mostly failing) to pretend they don't have feelings, especially about this weird group of humans they've been assigned to protect. It's glorious.

Where to find: You can read the first chapter here! The novella is available from all your major booksellers (B&N; Amazon)

Edited 2017-09-14 00:05 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Falsettos

What's awesome about it: Do you like morally grey characters and beautiful, catchy music? Do you like canons that make you laugh and then make you cry? Do you like canon gay and lesbian characters? Then you might want to check out the Broadway musical Falsettos!

Falsettos begins in 1979, and tells the story of Marvin, a closeted gay man who has come out and left his wife and child to be with a man. Marvin is selfish, quick to anger, and desperate to be loved - and he so badly wants to bring everyone in his life together to form a new kind of tight-knit family. That goes pretty much as well as you’d expect! But people grow up, and people change, and with the beginning of the 1980s and the AIDS crisis picking up steam in New York City, Falsettos shows that love really does bring people together in the worst of times.

Falsettos premiered on Broadway in 1992. It had its first revival on Broadway last year, in 2016, starring Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells, Stephanie J Block, Brandon Uranowitz, Tracie Thoms, and Betsy Wolfe. All incredible performers who bring a lot of depth, beauty, and heart to this little gem of a show!

I love Falsettos because I think the characters are beautifully written - no one is a perfect person, but watching them come together and figure out how to love each other despite all the pain they’ve experienced is so beautiful. It’s a very real story, very truthful, and I love the way it makes you both laugh and cry as it takes you along. The music is catchy and conversational and modern, and the acting is just so damn good. I would love to see fic for this show this Yuletide! (Plus, I wanna write it, so I’d love to see someone other than me requesting it!)

Where to find: The Falsettos revival was fortunate enough to get a cast album, which you can find on Spotify - it’s completely sung through so you get the whole story with it!

And it was even more fortunate to be professionally filmed!!! The trailer for Falsettos is right here, to give you a taste of what the show is like. See? Funny and sweet and heartbreaking, all at once. And you can rent the full show at BroadwayHD’s website legally, for $7.99 USD. The professionally shot recording is incredibly well done and well worth the money, if you ask me. But it will also be airing on PBS’ Great Performances series on Friday, October 27, if you’d like to catch it for free! (And if you’d like to see it before then but can’t afford to pay to rent it from BroadwayHD, well… I won’t tell you to message me so I can hook you up, but I do get email notifications for PMs!)

Falsettos. Beautiful music, funny and heartbreaking story, canon gay & lesbian characters, fantastic actors, a damn good show. I hope other people will check it out so we can have some fun with it this Yuletide!

Edited 2017-09-14 00:25 (UTC)

I've nominated Elizabeth of the Garrett Theatre by Gwendoline Courtney. My ultimate feelgood book about four sisters who are suddenly get a stepmother they decide to hate. But she turns up to be nice and with a great deal of humour. I crave happy what-happens-next.

I also tool Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward because I would really like to know more about Joseph Curwens marriage.

And lastly, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova because Dracula.

Fandom/Canon Name: Die Ärzte
What's awesome about it: Everything! See below.
Where to find: Youtube mostly (See below)

Die Ärzte is a German punk band that is very famous in Germany but not so well-known in other places. They are semi-retired but they have been around since the 80s (though this exact lineup came slightly later). They consist of Farin Urlaub on guitar, Bela B on drums, and Rodrigo González on bass.

I know a band is a much bigger fandom than those people usually get into for Yuletide, but these are very fun guys and I always love talking about them and encouraging people to listen to them so here I am.

Their lyrics, which is virtually all in German, are a huge part of the appeal of the band. Most of their songs are funny, though they have some kickass serious ones too, and they are often very insightful. I have links below for several of their songs. The links are for a fan translation site and they have English translations (done by fans, quality varies) of the songs as well as a link to songs on Youtube.

Main Lyrics Page

3-Tage-Bart. (3 Day Beard). A very funny song, and the video is a parody of boy band videos that I find hilarious.

Zu spät (Too Late), a classic from their early days.

Mach die Augen zu (Close Your Eyes). This is a sad one.

Schrei Nach Liebe (Cry for Love) Their famous anti-Nazi anthem.

This band is very easy to write fic about because they are total goofballs and they turn the stage gay up to 11, especially Farin and Bela. In fact I have here a NSFW mini-picspam of Farin/Bela moments.

Enjoy!

Edited 2017-09-14 01:12 (UTC)

I discovered this after I'd already settled on my nominations so I guess technically not my fandom but this is my fangirl siren alert that there are BRUNO AND BOOTS MOVIES and they are surprisingly well-done and well-cast and every bit as sweetly homoerotic as they should be and also AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX??? god bless Canada. if you are nostalgic for the Macdonald Hall series or just really like movies about twinky codependent boarding school boys and the wacky hijinks they get up to with the girls from the school across the street, you should 100% check them out and then nominate them for Yuletide. Bruno/Boots, Cathy/Diane, Wilbur/the cute asthmatic kid on the swim team, Scrimmage/The Fish: the possibilities are endless and varied. it's not Yuletide without Bruno & Boots!

Fandom/Canon Name: Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi | Sunday Without God

What's awesome about it: Do you like post-apocalyptic stories that are both hopeful and melancholy? Are you interested in stories about journeys and family? Then come follow twelve-year-old gravekeeper Ai on her quest to help others and make new friends to be part of her family!

Where to find: Crunchyroll! You can also watch the opening here.

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Fandom/Canon Name: Stray Little Devil

What's awesome about it: Do you like portal fantasy? What about worlds split between devils and angels, and the human protagonist suddenly finds herself transformed into a devil? That's the fate of Pam Akumachi, who decides to train hard in hopes of finding a way home, and eventually her relationship with snobbish angel Linfa blossoms into surprise canon yuri!

Where to find: It's a five-volume manga, and while the English release is out-of-print, used copies aren't hard to find, and some library systems may have copies available for interloan.

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Fandom/Canon Name: Venus Versus Virus

What's awesome about it: Do you like urban fantasy with female protagonists? What about an eyepatch-wearing beauty teaming up with a normal schoolgirl with strange berserker powers and taking down zombie-like ghosts called "Viruses"? Lucia and Sumire make a great team, and there's plenty of action and femslashy subtext to be had.

Where to find: The anime can be watched on Funimation, and while the English release of the manga is out-of-print, used copies aren't hard to find, and again, interlibrary loan might be helpful too. Watch the opening here!

I promoted these canons in a previous post, and my comment is here if you want a little more information.

Fandom: The Barrow
What's awesome about it:
If anybody remembers the Artesia comics of the early 2000s, this is a novel set in that world, which tells the story of Artesia's older brother, Stjepan Blackheart.

This is a dark (but not grim-dark crapsack world) and tropey fantasy novel where --

1) Our gay POC POV character lives. (He can get it up and perform for a woman, but all of his erotic thoughts are about men.)

2) Our gender non-conforming POV character lives.

3) A woman gets an epic revenge. EPIC.

4) The kind of guy who's usually the hero of a fantasy novel dies horribly by the end.

5) There's an awesome & prominent transwoman secondary character who wields a great deal of power and authority.

6) There is a lot of swinging dick. (Did I mention bi/gay POV character?)

7) Fuck or die ... in a grave. (Did I mention it's tropey? Kinky, too.)

8) There's a 300 page set up for a joke. ("That book is forbidden, Master ...")

9) And ... the quest for the magical missing sword goes completely off the rails in the best way possible.

ETA: There is incest in the book and it's presented as a troubling thing.

Where to find:
Official Website

The Barrow at Amazon

Blackguards Anthology at Amazon (contains a short story where the transwoman character shows up for a great scene.)

A post at my journal where I talk about my love for said transwoman, and quote an excerpt from the story in Blackguards.

Edited 2017-09-14 01:34 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Krabat | The Satanic Mill by Otfried Preußler -- An orphan finds work in a mill where the boys are also studying the dark arts. He becomes a star pupil.
What's awesome about it: It's dark yet hopeful in a way that only YA translated from the German can be! Sorcery! Satan! Suicide! Redemption!
Where to find:Here be all 24 works on Ao3 : https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Krabat%20%7C%20The%20Satanic%20Mill%20-%20Otfried%20Preußler/works

Fandom/Canon Name: Club de Cuervos (TV)

What's awesome about it: Do you like family dramas with brother-sister power dynamics? Do you like soccer — or at least like the concept of a team trying to overcome the odds together? Do you dig ensemble dramadies? Do you love flashy, rude yet lovable boys who define their sexuality as men, women and robots? Do you wish your shows had 150% more no mames güey? Have I got a show for you!

Club de Cuervos, the first Spanish-language Netflix original, opens with the death of a Liga Mx soccer club owner and Iglesias family patriarch. Ownership is given to his son Chava, a ridiculous and obnoxious egomaniac who doesn't know shit about running a club and only wants to be famous — but it should have gone to his daughter Isabel, who's worked her whole life to take over the Cuervos. Isabel vows to take control of the Cuervos from Chava, and things unfold from there.

Chava and Isabel (and the rest of the Iglesias family) are the heart of the show, but there's also a whole cast of enormously endearing secondary characters. Chava's assistant Hugo Sánchez lives to do everything for his boss, Isabel's husband Rafa struggles with retiring from the team while they're in decline, aforementioned pansexual superstar Aitor explodes onto the scene mid-season one and the show immediately gets infinitely more amazing, Mary Luz is the mysterious and complicated lover of the Iglesias patriarch at the time of his death. The rest of the Cuervos? Incredible. Moi is the captain who goes through hell in season one, Potro is the cocky but insecure striker, Tony is the young upstart trying to fit into the team, on and on. There are so many characters and they're all so wonderful to watch.

Club de Cuervos bills itself as a comedy-drama, and when I first got into it years ago I was expecting it to be ridiculous fun, and any emotional punches it pulled would be more telenovela-esque than anything else. But the show has an extraordinary amount of heart to it and sometimes it gets real deep. I've cried real tears and laughed myself sick during a single episode of this show. I've also come out of it with like, 83840938 ships and very little fic, so! Join me and let's rectify that together! :D

Where to find: Season 1 and Season 2 are currently on Netflix! Season 3 will be put up on 9/29.

Fandom/Canon Name: The Time of the Singing - Louise Blaydon

What's awesome about it: I was sold on this book by a friend with nothing more than "age difference m/m with overt Catholic imagery," so let me preface this by saying it definitely isn't for everyone! The story centers around a priest (presumed to be in his mid-20s) and a 17 year old boy (who turns 18 mid-story, though the book goes to great lengths to mention it takes place somewhere where the age of consent is 17). If that age difference or the religious theme squicks you, I don't recommend it.

But if you are into that, I can't recommend it enough. I honestly picked it up assuming it would be pulpy, iddy fun and nothing more. I was more than pleasantly surprised. Blaydon's writing is lovely. The perspective of the main character, Israfel Vacek, is so interesting — and everything that delves into his life before priesthood will make your heart hurt in the best way. It took an approach to being gay and Catholic that I didn't expect and that I enjoyed a lot. It's nuanced but never feels ham-handed. Also, the smut is super hot.

Basic plot summary: Israfel moves to small New England town to lead his new congregation, and it's all well and good until he meets a high school senior, Nate Mulligan, who sees right through Israfel and seems to only live to make his life hell. The Mulligan family are good church-going folk, so Nate and his younger brother are regular altar servers — Israfel literally can't avoid being around Nate. He tries to keep their relationship surface-level and platonic, but Nate has other plans, and things unravel from there.

Also, it has a happy ending. In case you were worried it might end in tragedy. (I was.)

Where to find: Here, both eBook and paperback!

Fandom/Canon Name: Keltiad - Patricia Kennealy-Morrison
What's awesome about it: CELTS. IN. SPACE.

Duels with light swords! Duels with spaceships! Duels with magic! Magic that destroys planets! A love triangle full of angst! Sibling rivalry! A GLORIOUS Mary Sue heroine and the jealous mean girl who love/hates her! Magic school! Battle school! Horses! Telepathy! (No telepathic horses, though.) Generational feuds! A space ship that looks like a huge golden dragon! Descendants of the Atlanteans! Gods that might be aliens! Dream voyages! People speaking an amazing mishmash of Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English, and whatever the fuck else they feel like!

And then a small Earth spaceship shows up right in the middle of the war among the space Celts and the space Egyptians (who are genuinely sympathetic, not cartoonish villains) and the space English (more or less) and you get what is basically a racebent version of the ST:TOS crew (Japanese captain, Irish comm officer, Russian science officer, etc.) wandering around going "no but what the fuck".

It is the best, best, best cracktastic crack I have ever had the pleasure of ~~smoking~~ reading and I recommend it highly.

Notable for Yuletide purposes: there is a love triangle where the guy she doesn't marry goes to hang out with her and the guy she does marry on their honeymoon. I genuinely forget that there's no canon polyamory in these because the subtext is || close to being text. And there are a great many foster siblings and blood siblings and cousins if that is your thing. And single-sex boarding schools. And co-ed boarding schools. And Beltane sex rituals. (Really.)

Caveats: these came out in the 80s and 90s and have many of the common flaws of fantasy novels of the era. There are no fat people and no disabled people—literally everyone is a ridiculous 12 out of 10 on PKM's personal hot or not scale, which means they're all seven feet tall and hyperathletic with long flowing hair. There are no canon trans or queer people; there's also no canon disparaging of trans or queer people. The society is fully gender-egalitarian with some sex-segregated magic/religion stuff that will be familiar to anyone who's even glanced at 1980s-style Wicca/paganism. There are no skeptics of the religion because the gods do miracles and show up and wander around on the regular. The only dark-skinned people are the space Egyptians and a very brief cameo from some space Amazons, until the Earth folks show up and bring with them one (1) Black dude (who isn't a villain and doesn't get killed but also doesn't get many lines). There are no poor people but they take some effort to explain why there shouldn't be poor people anywhere because it is the government's responsibility to care for the populace. (The government is an elected monarchy clan something something something. Whatever. It's not important.) The prose can only be described as grandiose.

When people say "The golden age of fantasy is 11" these books are what I think of; I read them when I was an 11-year-old girl and I thought they were the best thing since things.

Where to find: Three paperback novels, which should be read in this order: The Silver Branch, The Copper Crown, The Throne of Scone. All are long out of print but can be found on AbeBooks for pennies. Alas, there are no e-book editions. (WHY NOT. THESE BOOKS ARE SO GREAT.) Alas, they have not been turned into movies. (WHY. NOT.) There are other related books—she retold the Arthurian legends in this setting, with a big section set on the planet of the space Amazons because space Amazons are cool, and also wrote a standalone that sucks—but for my requests I'm focusing on the original three.

Edited 2017-09-14 08:43 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Gabriel Knight

What's awesome about it: Urban fantasy mystery point-and-click RPGs from the latter days of Sierra. Gabriel Knight is a mystery novelist who turns out to be from a bloodline tasked with hunting supernatural threats -- only he's the last of that line because they screwed up generations ago and have been cursed ever since. In the later two games his assistant/sidekick Grace Nakimura becomes a playable character and co-protagonist. The character development across the three games is really satisfying. And each game takes a surprisingly deep dive into its subject matter: New Orleans voodoo in the first title, Sins of the Fathers; werewolves and Ludwig II and Richard Wagner in the second, The Beast Within; and vampires, wine-making, Templars, and the whole "Jesus had a child" idea in the third, Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned.

Where to find: GOG sells all three games for $5.99 a pop -- cheaper than a paperback book, these days!

fandom: Vermilion - Molly Tanzer

what it is: a Weird West horror novel that puts queer poc front and center. In alt-1870's San Francisco, Half-Chinese, half-English Lou Merriwether is a psychopomp-- a specialist in laying the unquiet dead, from unhappy ghosts to full-on zombies. She's good at her job, and it keeps her from thinking too much about her father's death and her rocky relationship with her estranged mother. Until she reluctantly takes on the task of investigating the mysterious disappearances of Chinese men who were lured to a mysterious Sanitorium in the Colorado rockies with the promise of work and haven't been heard from since...

why it's awesome: do you like necromancy? Adventures in the mountains? Gunslinging, foul-mouthed, give-no-fucks heroines? Pulpy dime-novel plots and villainy? Historical fantasy about POC? Un-erased queer and genderqueer characters? If yes, you will probably enjoy this novel, and perhaps you will even want to request/offer fic for it!

Edited 2017-09-14 07:48 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Daughters of Mannerling by M.C. Beaton (Marion Chesney)
What's awesome about it: Do you expect, when picking up another slight, light-hearted Regency series to be confronted with a possessed/sentient beautiful but evil stately home? I certainly didn't and now I need to know more. Yuletide seems like my only hope.

Imagine Pemberley, but so evil it drives everyone into desperate deeds to possess it, up to and including murder. And once they do, it then tends to drive them to throw themselves (or other people) off the bannister and haunt the place.

How did it get that way? Is it just so in love with its own perfect proportions and beautiful landscaping? Built on a cursed site? What? Did it torment previous generations? What happens next? (The ending suggests that it'll just start the game again with the next generation). Does it survive into the post-stately home era and become a goverment department with the highest casualty rate and inter-office rivalry in the country? Or burn down and curse in turn a modern estate? I mean, these are questions I need to have answered. Does it get investigated over the years by ghost-hunters/detectives/eccentric government outfits? (Clearly there are some options for appropriate crossovers here.)

The series is fairly fun, too - if you've read an MC Beaton Regency, you know the kind of thing. But with added blink-inducing crack of an EVIL house. Which is, as you can tell, exactly the kind of crack I am here for.

Where to find: It's a very slight series - six books, but you could get through them in not much more than a day, and you'd probably only have to read the last couple to get the gist. It seems to have been relatively recently reprinted and available in libraries both here (in the UK) and in the US.

On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/series/55378-the-daughters-of-mannerling

Fandom/Canon Name: The Shadow of the Tower
What's awesome about it: Did you watch The White Princess and pine for a more historically accurate dramatisation of the same period?* Your luck is in: the BBC made such a thing in 1972, a 13x 50 min serial composed entirely of historical accuracy, curtains, bad wigs and absolutely no budget whatsoever. And a monkey. \o/

It was made as a prequel to the BBC's earlier Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R. It's an odd little serial, but it is fairly accurate as these things go (although not entirely, of course; it's fiction and it has its own agenda), and has a really interesting take on many aspects. It does require some getting used to the theatrical style, and episode 1 is unfortunately pretty dire - but it improves fairly rapidly after that. If you're into Shakespeare's histories, Tudors, or historical drama generally and don't mind theatrical TV, there's a lot to appreciate in this, especially James Maxwell's layered take on Henry VII. It's all about trust/mistrust, power, paranoia, the terribleness of kings, and irony and, of course, people getting their heads chopped off. I would love to have some things followed up, or missing years covered, and just more generally. ("The Serpent and the Comforter" "The White Hart" and "Do the Sheep Sin?" are definite highlights, at least IMO.)

Also, James Maxwell's face generally, although I accept that is probably just me and I need help or something.

Also: I wasn't joking about the monkey.

Online info & reviews:
Shadow of the Tower (Wiki entry)
http://venetianvase.co.uk/2015/01/27/henry-vii-winter-king-and-the-shadow-of-the-tower/
https://thehistorylady.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/henry-vii-the-tudor-who-started-it-all-beset-by-pretenders-in-the-shadow-of-the-tower/
http://www.frockflicks.com/the-shadow-of-the-tower-pt-2/
tumblr post on my favourite episode: http://lost-spook.tumblr.com/post/147694255839/favourite-episodes-of-old-telly-3-the-shadow#notes

Where to find: here on YouTube. It is also out on DVD in R1 and R2 (although oddly, only in non-UK editions, but they play! I have the Dutch one, which came pretty cheap second hand.)

* I haven't actually seen TWP, so apologies if I'm maligning it, but I have seen The White Queen, so I suspect not.

Edited 2017-10-01 11:57 (UTC)

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.

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!!

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.

Stranger (TV, 2017)

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Fantasia (1940)

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Keltiad - Patricia Kennealy-Morrison

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Vermilion - Molly Tanzer

Daughters of Mannerling

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Bacchanalian Conspiracy RPF

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One Day at a Time (TV) (2017)

5 minute fandoms?

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea