Heart Attack 2021 Canon Promo!
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highadrenalineexchangeTagset nominations will open on November 1, and in the meantime, there's this post! Promote your fandoms in the comments. Talk about where to find them, how long they take to consume, what you like about them, what ships you think are great, etc. etc.
As a little incentive (and to make my own life easier), I'll check the length of every canon promoted. If it is a safety fandom, I'll reply to your comment, so you know. Hopefully this will make your signup planning easier :)
What's a safety fandom, you ask? A safety fandom is a fandom that can be consumed in five hours or less. Every signup must contain at least one safety fandom. This is designed to prevent the untimely death of our pinch hitters, who will have exactly one week to write 10k and who therefore cannot spend 20 hours consuming a new canon for a pinch hit.
The following qualify as safety fandoms:
If you are a fan of a series, you may nominate both the first item in the series (if you're willing to get fanfiction based only off of that one item!) and the entire series. For example, you can nominate both "The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett [SAFETY]" and "Discworld - Pratchett". However, if you use this in order to craft a signup that's three requests of only the same pairing, rendering your whole signup a one-pairing signup, I will transform into a Canada goose and fly to your location to fight you physically.
As a little incentive (and to make my own life easier), I'll check the length of every canon promoted. If it is a safety fandom, I'll reply to your comment, so you know. Hopefully this will make your signup planning easier :)
What's a safety fandom, you ask? A safety fandom is a fandom that can be consumed in five hours or less. Every signup must contain at least one safety fandom. This is designed to prevent the untimely death of our pinch hitters, who will have exactly one week to write 10k and who therefore cannot spend 20 hours consuming a new canon for a pinch hit.
More information about safety fandoms
The following qualify as safety fandoms:
- Any standalone movie, TV episode, TV season, youtube video, music video, letsplay, miniseries, etc, which is under 5 hours (300 minutes). For example, Fleabag season 1 is eligible as a safety fandom because it is less than 300 minutes total and it can be viewed, understood, and written about on its own. Iron Man 3 would not be eligible as a safety fandom because it requires you to also watch Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2 to understand. But Iron Man 1 would be eligible as a safety fandom.
- Any video game whose main story takes less than 5 hours to play. You can check it at howlongtobeat.com.
- Any comic book run with 30 comics or less.
- Any manga with 30 chapters or less at the time of nominations.
- Any book that is 100k words or less. You can get a wordcount estimate at readinglength.com.
- Any painting, photograph, map, etc (which is publicly available for viewing online)
- Original Work
- Any album of music under 300 minutes total.
- Please comment if you think one of your fandoms should be a safety, but it is not in one of the mediums listed above.
If you are a fan of a series, you may nominate both the first item in the series (if you're willing to get fanfiction based only off of that one item!) and the entire series. For example, you can nominate both "The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett [SAFETY]" and "Discworld - Pratchett". However, if you use this in order to craft a signup that's three requests of only the same pairing, rendering your whole signup a one-pairing signup, I will transform into a Canada goose and fly to your location to fight you physically.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-22 04:32 am (UTC)Media: video game for PC, PS4 and mobile
Where to find it: the basic stores for each platform (Steam, GOG, PS Store, etc.)
Summary: [from Steam] Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality.
Content warnings: Death of a parent and dealing with grief
Why I like it: The game is beautiful. Visually, aurally, emotionally. It deals with grief in the way of bringing color back into a grey world. The soundtrack and the way the music is used in emotional moments will make you cry. It's a fairly easy platformer (I say this as someone bad at platformers), where the intent of the game is to pay attention less to the game mechanics themselves and more to the emotional experience (though the way they incorporate the powers into Gris' clothes is genius). You can watch the trailer here <3
Safety fandom!
Date: 2021-08-22 04:34 am (UTC)Canon Promo: Sanders Sides
Date: 2021-08-22 04:34 am (UTC)The entirety of the canon can be found on YouTube HERE! It takes a little under 9 hours to watch in its entirety, but I hope to nominate the episode "Dealing with INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS" as a safety fandom, as that's the only video in the main series where "The Duke," AKA Remus, is included. Mods, feel free to say if that's not an acceptable safety fandom, and I will find something else!
Re: Canon Promo: Sanders Sides
Date: 2021-08-22 04:42 am (UTC)I do not know this fandom well at all, so I feel I should add: you do need to be reasonably sure that somebody who has not consumed any other episodes would be able to write fic based only on that episode. And you need to be reasonably sure you would be happy to receive a fic based only on that episode. But as long as those two things are in place, you're all good! :)
Band of Brothers (TV 2001)
Date: 2021-08-22 04:58 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Live action mini series of 10 one-hour episodes. On HBO Max, or whatever service offers HBO media, as well as on DVD.
Summary: Follows a company of US Army Airborne Infantry who served in WWII, from training through D-Day to the end of the war.
Content warnings: Because it's a show based on a book based on real people, it's something of an RPF lite thing (especially as many people supplement canon with details from history). There is a fair amount of movie war violence and gore, and some characters die. This is not a show with very many female characters, and there are no major Black characters.
Why I like it: I love it because it's an ensemble cast, and we get all kinds of different people tossed together and learning to function as a teem. The show is heavy on h/c and people supporting each other through difficult times, and with a few exceptions the characters are decent people trying their best. It's really, really slashy, with more or less every kind of m/m relationship you might enjoy. There's also one really great female character, who I will be requesting. I love all the historical details, and feeling of place, and it's really fun if you enjoy a canon that allows you to fill in the corners with your own ideas and research.
The Pacific (TV 2010)
Date: 2021-08-22 05:03 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Live action mini series of 10 one-hour episodes. On HBO Max, or whatever service offers HBO media, as well as on DVD.
Summary: Intercut narrative of the lives of three US Marines in the Pacific Theatre of WWII. I'm personally going to be asking for one smaller pairing, who are only in episodes 5-7.
Content warnings: Because it's a show based on a book based on real people, it's something of an RPF lite thing (especially as many people supplement canon with details from history). There is a fair amount of war movie violence and gore, and quite a few characters die. There are several female characters, but they are not the main characters, and there are no Black characters. There is a fair bit of anti-Japanese racism expressed by the characters, which isn't explicitly endorsed by the narrative, but it isn't contradicted much either.
Why I like it: As the title suggests, this show covers a more sprawling picture of the war, following different characters who only tangentially run into each other. There's less focus on the group as a team, and a more in depth look at how the trauma of combat affected individuals, starting before and ending after the actual combat. Despite that, there are still a lot of strong friendships, and we do get a lot of h/c and a wider picture of these men's lives. It's a lot more emotionally nuanced. There's a lot of really interesting period detail, and as with BoB, there's a lot of room to build your own story, and put new emphasis on the narrative.
Sinbad (TV 2012)
Date: 2021-08-22 05:05 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Live action TV Series of 12 45-minute episodes. On CWSeed and Amazon Prime in the US, as well as on DVD.
Summary: Fantasy series about the nautical voyages of a Basrah street rat and a motley crew he ends up stuck on a boat with. Together they attempt to learn team work, and fight gods and monsters out of legend.
Content warnings: There is a mild cliff hanger at the end of the show, but it's not a huge thing, just set up for the next season. Episode two has some weird sexism, and is just generally bad. I'd rec skipping it, even if it does guest star Sophie Okonedo. On the whole, the show is not actually good in terms of having a coherent plot, or plots that made sense, or decent CGI, or good dialogue (though there are some fantastic bits in there), but it's on par with cheesy '90s fantasy shows, so if you liked those, this is great. Several of my faves are written out part way through the series.
Why I like it: I adore this show for being a super cheesy Xena-style fantasy show that had zero shits to give in regards to production values or plot, but is shot in gorgeous Malta, has a great cast who are often eyeliner-positive/shirts optional, and if nothing else means well. There's a lot of learning to be a team, loyalty kink, h/c, people trying to redeem themselves from past mistakes, and fantasy trope soup. There's just about any kind of ship you care to ship happening here, and also Naveen Andrews without a shirt (guest stars were paid in tickets to Malta, and we have a lot of fantastic one-off characters, like Nikki Amuka-Bird as a mad scientist). There's a tonne of room to flesh out stuff the show didn't quite cover, and I'm very into the people from all different cultures stuck together on a boat aspect.
We Are Lady Parts (TV 2021)
Date: 2021-08-22 05:06 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Live action TV Series, of 6 30-minute episodes. On Channel 4 in the UK, Peacock in the US, Showcase in Canada. I know it's out in New Zealand and Australia, but not sure where.
Summary: Feel-good comedy about an all-female Muslim punk band trying to get off the ground in contemporary London. We throw together five very different women, mostly focusing on the character arcs of the lead guitarist who joins early in the show, and the front woman and lead singer who's trying to hold the whole thing together.
Content warnings: I have something of an embarrassment squick and was fine with it (there's a super awkward date scene in episode 2 that was the worst for me), but other people have said it's really hard to get through.
Why I like it: There's lots of friends trying to support each other, plus conflicts where all the characters have valid but different points of view, learning and growing. It's got a great soundtrack, where the actors do play and sing both original songs and covers of classics. Is really funny, and there's just a whole lot of love. There is also a queer character, though she's not as much of a focus as I'd like.
Re: We Are Lady Parts (TV 2021)
Date: 2021-08-22 11:30 am (UTC)The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Date: 2021-08-22 05:10 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Live action movie, 2-hour run time. Can be rented on youtube, etc.
Summary: A ragtag commando team raids a fictional Greek island in an attempt to disable a Nazi gun emplacement.
Content warnings: Lots of people get shot, one person gets dismembered, and there's some torture.
Why I like it: As a 1960s action movie, it's pretty bog standard: the cast, music and location are great, but it's doing what it does competently and not a lot more. As a homoerotic art film, it's an underrated masterpiece. The whole film is absolutely boiling with repressed sexual tension in a way that's really quite striking. There's also a tonne of unresolved plot threads and places to write fic about, and some pretty fantastic h/c.
Re: The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Date: 2021-08-22 11:31 am (UTC)The Reckoning (2003)
Date: 2021-08-22 05:12 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Live action movie, 2-hour run time. Can be rented on youtube, etc.
Summary: A defrocked priest falls in with a travelling theatre company, and together they solve crime. Set in 12th-century England.
Content warnings: Some pretty graphic violence, major character death, also a fair amount of discussion of sexual violence against children.
Why I like it: Something of an odd period piece, but one that really gets the past is a different country vibe where the characters really do seem to have a different world view. It has an intriguing focus on society's outcasts, where everyone doesn't quite fit into the world, but the outcast society still has a stratified world of its own. Also there's a lot of gender play, the leads (played by Paul Bettany and Willem Dafoe) are really slashy.
Re: The Reckoning (2003)
Date: 2021-08-22 11:32 am (UTC)Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Date: 2021-08-22 05:13 am (UTC)Medium/Location: Literary fiction novel of about 300 pages. Available where books are sold, your library etc.
Summary: Set before, during and after a pandemic sweeps across the world. The survivors try to find their way in a reshaped world, some forming a travelling Shakespeare company, and connections from the past keep weaving through the story.
Content warnings: Like 95% of everyone dies in a pandemic, including major characters, there's also violence, sexual violence (mostly off page/referenced), a cult, suicide, and some ableism (essentially people with disabilities do not fare well in post-apocalyptic world). The world building is more impressionistic than anything in places.
Why I like it: Despite the everyone dying, it's a weirdly optimistic book. We get a lot of small communities trying to find a way forward in the post-flu world, and different views of what works and what doesn't for leadership. I really love how the story is about the importance of art, and how the definition of art can be Shakespeare or Star Trek or someone's personal comics project, and how each of those can have a different legacy. There's a strong emphasis on kindness and justice and beauty.
Re: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Date: 2021-08-22 11:34 am (UTC)Eldorado - Electric Light Orchestra (Album)
Date: 2021-08-22 07:32 pm (UTC)Medium/Location: YouTube / Spotify.
Summary: Coming in at 39 minutes total listening time, Eldorado is a synth pop/borderline rock album by British pop giants Electric Light Orchestra. It is a concept album following an unnamed man who has very fantastical dreams. Each song represents one of many dreams this man experiences. They take on a sort of fantasy/vaguely sci-fi note. He meets several characters in his dreams, each one rich for mining plot, such as Robin Hood. The album is largely inspired by the Beatles’ work, who were good friends to the ELO gang (Mr Kingdom, for example, samples the main melody from Across The Universe).
Content warnings: discussion of mild war-related violence in the 3rd song.
Why I like it: Strings! Adventure! Mythical beings! Occasional delving into electro rock! The story! The lilting melodies! Lucid dreaming!
Re: Eldorado - Electric Light Orchestra (Album)
Date: 2021-08-22 09:51 pm (UTC)Rick Brant Science Adventure Series
Date: 2021-08-22 08:54 pm (UTC)Media: Novels
Approx length: All together there are 24 books about 150ish pages, but you only need to read one. And due to the nature of the type of book it is, you don't necessarily have to read them in order or start with the first. Everything gets a little re-introduction sentence or two in every book for new readers.
Where to find it: Since it's out of print your best bet is probably through Kindle or Project Gutenberg.
You can purchase The Rocket's Shadow (the first book in the series) for only 99 cents.
https://www.amazon.com/Rockets-Shadow-Brant-Electronic-Adventure-ebook/dp/B01BR1645K/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=Rick+Brant+kindle&qid=1629666057&s=books&sr=1-5
Some of the other books have been uploaded to Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7833
If you only read 1 of these I'd recommend Smugglers Reef
What is it, in summary?
It’s an adventure series in the vein of Hardy Boys and Johnny Quest. Rick Brant is the adventure boy in question, who loves inventing sort of useless gizmos. But his intelligence and knack for mechanical engineering always end up saving the day at least once. In the first book, The Rocket’s Shadow, he is saved from some nameless villains looking to kidnap or kill him by Don Scott, Scotty, an ex-marine who lied about his age to serve. Finding out that Scotty doesn’t have any family left and nowhere to go Rick convinces his father to hire Scotty as security for their research lab, and Scotty quickly becomes like a second son to them.
What do you love about it?
It's a very fun, quick and easy read. Rick and Scotty are great characters who have delightful banter. The writer was himself a scientist and there is a great deal of love and attention paid to the plausibility of the science explored in the series. Plus the Scotty/Rick ship hits my psuedo-incest kink.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests?
The first book is all that is necessary: The Rocket's Shadow
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive:
It's a book series written in the 50s there are unexamined biases and period typical -isms imbedded in the writing at times. It's not particularly noticeable the majority of the time, and books set in their home lab (Rocket's Shadow, Whispering Box, Smuggler Reef) are much better about it than when they go to different countries, but I didn't want anyone going in and getting blindsided by something.
Re: Rick Brant Science Adventure Series
Date: 2021-08-25 10:50 pm (UTC)The Rick Brant Science Adventure Series is more than 100k words and does not qualify as a safety fandom.
Feel free to nominate and request both if you wish 💛
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (TV)
Date: 2021-08-23 11:59 am (UTC)Here's the Wikipedia article for a start. And here's an overview by the BFI.
Length: 3 seasons (in total 19 episodes, each 30 minutes), plus 3 Christmas specials and 1 Sport Relief special.
Where to find it: it's available on DVD and iTunes (UK), and there are a few eps on YouTube. I am happy to share my episode files for download - please reach out to me if you are interested in the link!!
no subject
Date: 2021-08-23 08:05 pm (UTC)Medium: Sketch show; specifically, the Ted & Ralph sketches, which come in at just under an altogether, provided here by yours truly; the hour-long prequel film is also available on YouTube.
Summary: Ralph Mayhew is landed gentry/aristocracy (sketches are inconsistent on whether he's Mr or Lord Mayhew), living in his stately pile somewhere in south-west England. He's in his early thirties, shy, somewhat effete, and desperately in love with his much older Irish gardener, Ted.
The short sketches tend to feature Ralph coming to ask Ted something in the most awkward manner possible ("Do you like French cinema, Ted?"); after an awkward pause, Ted mumbles his catchphrase "...I wouldn't really know about that, sor" to gently head off Ralph's clumsy attempt at a pass.
Some of the later sketches get more into their relationship and give them more depth, including Ralph's struggle with mental illness at college and his distant relationship with his now deceased parents, and make it clear that Ted really does care very much for his employer.
Content Warnings: Cringe comedy. I have a huge secondhand embarrassment squick, and I cringed so hard at some of the awkward bits that I nearly did myself a mischief.
Why I Like It: ALL THAT PINING. They can't even look each other in the eye! The humour comes from Ralph's blatant enormous crush paired with his inability to bridge the social divide: the problem is less that they're both men, but that Ralph is upper class and English and can't share his stereotypically effete/posh interests with the working class Irish Ted. Perfect example: "Do you like Kipling, Ted?" "...He does a very good cream slice, sor." I'm especially partial to the "Green Overalls" sketch, which is full of blatant sexual tension.
I also like that the show is rooting for them. Ted is protective of Ralph, and we do get hints that Ralph's interest is reciprocated. The writers have gone on record that Ralph is "GAY gay" and Ted is also gay but very repressed. It's just really sweet and cute, and with some very poignant bits you wouldn't expect from a comedy show based on catchphrases.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-25 10:55 pm (UTC)If The Fast Show Ted & Ralph Spin-Off Special on Youtube is what you're talking about by prequel movie, that could definitely qualify as a safety fandom as it is well under 5 hours! 💛
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From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2023-04-16 10:23 pm (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2021-08-24 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-25 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 12:14 pm (UTC)What it is: Two short film-style commercials around a sort of anthrompomorphic personification of time who transports people into his workshop to engrave wrinkles and lines into their skin. (Total runtime: 10 minutes 8 seconds)
Why I love 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 crossovers, which I plan to nominate in addition to the fandom itself.)
Where to find it:
2019 Time Engraver commercial
2020 Time Engraver commercial
no subject
Date: 2021-08-28 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 03:26 pm (UTC)Title: Scream (movies)
Medium: English live-action movies
Approx length: Four feature-length movies over a span of 15 years.
Where to find it: Can be rented from Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, etc
What is it, in summary? Slasher horror series about final girl Sidney Prescott, whose story keeps inspiring new killers to try and murder her (in a flip from the classic slasher franchise structure, which largely kept the same killer from one movie to the next with new leads each time).
What do you love about it? I love the development of our main characters over the series, both individually and in their relationships with each other. The movies really focus on Sidney's trauma as the final girl, the different ways that she deals with that trauma, and how she grows and changes as a person. The series is also really fun slasher horror and very meta, commenting on classic slasher tropes (although IMO you don't need to be familiar with them to enjoy the Scream movies). I love that our obnoxious reporter character Gale Weathers, played by Courteney Cox, not only doesn't die but gets to be a little bit badass in the end (and continue showing up in later movies). The development of her relationship with Sidney over the course of the movies is really neat, as they move from antagonism to something closer to war buddies. And Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott is just very hot.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Femslash between Sidney and Gale, in tones ranging from h/c to casefic to horror.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests? For a lot of my requests you could get away with only watching the first movie (which tbh is the best one), although IMO the way the characterization builds over the course of the series is one of the best parts.
Content warnings: Lots of bloody murder! Mostly stabbings, but a handful of other memorable kills as well. There's also a very weird sexual backstory about Sidney's mom, including some offscreen sexual assault.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 03:28 pm (UTC)Medium: English live-action movies
Approx length: Two feature-length movies
Where to find it: Kanopy, Shudder, or you can rent it from the usual places
What is it, in summary? 80s/90s horror comedy franchise loosely adapted from a Lovecraft story, about a mad scientist med student and his roommate whom he drags along in a quest to re-animate the dead.
What do you love about it? Just as a movie, Re-Animator is very tightly written and very funny, with a great score and great physical special effects for its bloody gore. The cast is great, especially Jeffrey Combs as mad scientist Herbert West. (Combs later went on to play a bunch of different alien characters on Star Trek: DS9.) It's also VERY shippy. Herbert is a weird little amoral gremlin who dislikes basically everyone on Earth except, apparently, his roommate and fellow med student Daniel Cain. Meanwhile Dan seems like the sensible one at first, but no, it's just that unlike Herbert he has a modicum of emotional intelligence, which does nothing to prevent him from going along with all Herbert's REALLY BAD IDEAS.
The second movie, Bride of Re-Animator, isn't as good of a movie, but in some ways it's even shippier, to the point of "there is no heterosexual explanation for this" on Herbert's end. A third movie was released almost a decade later, but it's pretty bad and doesn't have Daniel in it, so I don't really recommend it, and you won't need it for most of my requests.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I ship Herbert/Dan a LOT. I really want fic of Herbert being his weird gremlin self while continuing his important
body desecrationscientific research. Feelings and gore, basically!Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests? I would be happy with fic for just the first movie or for the first first two movies.
Content warnings: Lots of blood, gore, and body horror, as well as institutionalization and a nonconsensual lobotomy. The first movie has a very uncomfortable gross-out scene of attempted sexual assault of a female character.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-23 05:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:Raffles - EW Hornung
Date: 2021-08-27 05:21 pm (UTC)Media Type: Literature
Length: 3 short story collections, 1 novel
Time Period: 1890s, England
Shipping Potential: m/m potential.
What Do I Ship? Raffles/Bunny! Raffles is the mastermind of the situation, charming and urbane and generally completely immoral. Bunny is his loyal sidekick, slightly bumbling and extremely prone to making bad decisions but also basically the sweetest man alive (and canonically prone to a spot of cross-dressing). I absolutely adore these two, and the incredibly intense relationship they have. I love how Bunny hero worships Raffles, how he's so loyal and innocent and utterly adoring of everything Raffles does. I love how Raffles is obviously fond of him in return, and takes pleasure in his company and wants him around constantly and obviously cares for him more than anybody else. and I love their relationship, the teasing and the intensity and just how much they need each other.
Summary: Bunny Manders, human disaster, gets into huge trouble while gambling and ends up visiting his old school friend Raffles in a last ditch attempt to stave off disaster. What he’s not expecting is that his old school friend Raffles has since become a gentleman thief, who quite cheerfully proceeds to drag him into a life of crime.
Why Do I love It?: They're so much fun. A loving take off of Sherlock Holmes, but also very much their own thing. I love how funny they are, I love what a loose view of morality they take and I love how they never seem to take themselves too seriously. They're just gloriously enjoyable, and such a good comfort read.
--
The overall canon is too long for a safety fandom, but I'm planning to nominate just the first set of short stories as a safety canon. They can definitely stand on their own without anything else!
Re: Raffles - EW Hornung
Date: 2021-08-28 11:30 am (UTC)Re: Raffles - EW Hornung
From:Frey & McGray
Date: 2021-08-27 05:22 pm (UTC)Length: 6 books, all 400-500 pages
Time Period: 1880s-1890s Edinburgh
Shipping Potential: potential m/m, f/m and f/m/m
What Do I Ship? Frey/McGray to an admittedly slightly frenzied degree. Frey is a prissy English detective, who is ABSOLUTELY a dick on every level but who is still somehow a good human being underneath. McGray is a Scottish detective who is loud, brutish, and with a worryingly intense belief in the supernatural… Which was born from great tragedy in his personal life, and doesn’t stop him from being incredibly kind to people who deserve it. They just have a dynamic that's absolute catnip to me. They're a historical detective duo, they're forced into close proximity to each other while solving cases, they have a certain amount of loyalty to each other... But at the same time they have an interesting amount of hostility between them, a large amount of mistrust and a lot of things to work through. They obviously care about each other a little while still finding each other incredibly difficult, and I LOVE it.
I also ship Frey/McGray/Caroline Ardglass. Frey and McGray remain Frey and McGray. Caroline is the granddaughter of one of the most prominent women in Edinburgh, she’s just as much of a jerk as the other two and also has rather rebellious views on how a woman should behave in society due to her rather complicated family background. I just think they'd be really interesting (and funny) together! Frey is a stuck up jerk with a surprising amount of heart, McGray is an overly impulsive jerk who has a surprising core of kindness and Caroline is a spiky jerk who has a surprising level of loyalty to those she truly loves. I think the combination of all of them together would really piss everybody around them off, and would also lead to all of them having a better time in general!
Summary: Ian Frey, English detective and jerk, loses his fiance and his job on the same day and ends up sent to Edinburgh to help head up a department focused on solving supernatural crimes. There he meets Adolphus “Nine Nails” McGray, Scottish detective (and jerk) with an extremely tragic family history. Together they have to solve potentially supernatural crimes, all while resisting the urge to murder each other.
Why Do I love It?: I just found these books so incredibly gripping. The cases are really interesting, the setting (with its slightest edge of paranormal stuff) is excellent and I just really love all the characters.
Sam Wyndham - Abir Mukherjee
Date: 2021-08-27 05:23 pm (UTC)Length: 4 books (the 5th releasing later this year!), all 300-500 pages
Time Period: 1920s India
Shipping Potential: Canon f/m, potential m/n
What Do I Ship? Sam Wyndham/Surendranath Banerjee. Sam is a jaded British policeman who lost absolutely everything in the first world war and only gained an opium addiction in return, Surendranath is his fresh faced sergeant who is fairly sweet but who definitely is aware of the injustices of his world. They shouldn't be close, they shouldn't really like each other at all, but they just have this really firm bond that's stood up against so many things. I love the loyalty between them, I love the fact that they're able to laugh with each other and I love that they have each other's backs even when the situation is fraught. I also, trying to avoid spoilers, love all the complexity that enters their relationship in book 4 and the way they both react to that.
Summary: Sam Wyndham, hot mess of a human being, is posted to India after the end of the first world war. On his first working day there he’s thrown head first into an incredibly complex crime, and has to solve it with the help of the extremely intelligent - but held back due to the attitudes of his time - Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee. They keep solving crimes together after they’ve solved that one, as their relationship gets ever more complex.
Why Do I love It?: I love the sense of atmosphere, I love the interesting mystery plots and I absolutely love the characters. This is just really gripping from start to finish, really well done and compelling in many ways. It is so good, and it breaks my heart afresh with every new instalment.
Re: Sam Wyndham - Abir Mukherjee
Date: 2021-08-28 11:33 am (UTC)Re: Sam Wyndham - Abir Mukherjee
From:Lonely Water (1973)
Date: 2021-08-27 07:10 pm (UTC)Medium and where to find it: It's a very short (1 minute 30) British public information film from the seventies about the dangers of drowning in gravel pits and reservoirs, narrated by a faceless figure (Death?) who's fantastically voiced by Donald Pleasence. It can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZWD2sDRESk&t=85s
Why I like it: It's so damn creepy. There's this theme I really like of things lurking beneath the surface and of bad things happening in peaceful places, and Donald Pleasence's malevolent voiceover absolutely makes the whole thing, veering from feigned sorrow to barely repressed glee, like the little half-chuckle he does when he's talking about the branch about to give way. I also love the way it reminds me of certain aspects of British folklore (Jenny Greenteeth), and I love the contrast of the pretty scenery with the shot of all the junk that might be lying beneath the surface. It's such a great set-up for a ghost story.
What sort of thing are you likely to request: Ghost stories! Anything that captures the creepy tone of the film, with the same sort of atmospheric sense of place, whether it's something understated along the lines of M.R. James or more overtly horrifying. Or expand on what we see in the film to develop the worldbuilding and explore who the narrator is. Is he Death, a ghost, or some sort of spirit of the water, and why is he bound to that water? What happens to the souls of the children who drown?
Content Warnings: The entire premise is children drowning, although it does fade to black before anyone actually dies.
Re: Lonely Water (1973)
Date: 2021-08-28 11:34 am (UTC)Re: Lonely Water (1973)
From:Gravity Falls
Date: 2021-08-27 08:41 pm (UTC)Where to consume: It's currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu in the USA, I believe, but you can also find it, you know...around.
Content warnings: It's a Disney cartoon, so not much! A couple episodes have mind control or body horror, though.
Summary: Dipper and Mabel Pines — 12-year-old twins — are sent to Gravity Falls, Oregon for the summer to stay with their weird great-uncle, Stan. Grunkle Stan runs a shitty tourist trap called the Mystery Shack, which is also his house, and has a lot of secrets. The woods around town are full of their own mysteries. The Pines twins make friends and and enemies, get into and out of trouble, learn more about their family history, etc.
Why I Like It: The family feels are SO good and the series mixes humor and horror in a really satisfying way! All of the main characters and many of the reoccurring characters are interesting, engaging, and allowed to have serious emotional depth. The show manages to be pretty episodic without sacrificing character development at all, too.I also think the worldbuilding is super fascinating and the setting itself really engaging.
Gen horror and/or worldbuilding and/or adventure is my preference in this fandom as I don't find most of the characters very shippable, but ymmv! If anyone else who stops by this post would like to reply to promo their ships specifically, please feel free.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 08:44 pm (UTC)Where to consume: You can find the first episode here and probably at any other podcast service, though you'll have to backscroll past the current Adventure Zone arc. The first transcript is here.
Content warnings: Some mind control/amnesia, but that's pretty much it I think.
Summary: The Graduation arc focuses on three students, Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt, Argo Keene, and a Firbolg, newly enrolled in the annex sidekick program at Hieronymous Wiggenstaff's School for Heroism and Villainy. It goes beyond just taking place at the school, though, and really explores what it would mean for a society to, uh, teach people to be professional heroes and villains.
Why I Like It: This is the DM's first time running a campaign so it takes a little while for the story to pick up and become engaging, but by the end of the podcast I was clutching my face from how good it is. The three player characters are really compelling! Argo is on a quest for vengeance, Fitzroy was kicked out of knight school for accidentally becoming a barbarian wizard, and Firbolg a) is from a society that has no concept of personal possessions or money and b) cannot tell a lie, which makes the parts where they're playing villains or trying to get away with stuff really great. I like how their friendships develop and how the world is fleshed out with interesting side characters! Also I laugh hysterically every time I listen to the scene where the Firbolg has to take an accounting class.
But what I am really in this promo post to tell you about is the good work of Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt/Gray the Demon Prince.
Fitzroy is six feet four inches for most of the series. Gray is twelve feet tall. Do you see where I'm going with this? But wait, there's more! Fitzroy is kind of a scumbag, just like, doing his own selfish asshole thing, but not quite down for murdering people who don't need murdering. Gray is a major antagonist who's trying to start a big ol' war. They're enemies and they're VERY polite about it — imagine business associates doing pleasant but meaningless small talk, but this is them talking in the middle of fights. Later in the series Gray signs at least one note to Fitzroy as "your best friend" and at one point he admits he was planning on recruiting Fitzroy for his side of the war and is disappointed it didn't work out. The chemistry is SO good. Please join me, I have already captured 2 people.
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Date: 2021-08-27 08:50 pm (UTC)Where to consume: An official translation was announced but won't be fully published until the end of 2022, iirc. However, it's been available via fan translation for awhile. If you're having trouble finding it, please get in contact with me!
Content warnings: Sexual content including extremely dubious consent of the fuck-or-die variety. Child abuse and torture (of an adult character) that happened in an alternate timeline but are referenced in a pretty graphic fashion.
Summary: Shen Yuan dies while reading the end of Proud Immortal Demon Way, a terrible stallion novel* where protagonist Luo Binghe is mistreated by a bunch of different people until he gets OP and can take revenge and have a lot of unnecessary sex with various women. Unfortunately for Shen Yuan, he hates PIDW so much that he transmigrates into the novel! He wakes up in the body of Shen Qingqiu, the scum villain who made Luo Binghe's life as a disciple of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect a living hell. Shen Yuan knows that Shen Qingqiu's ultimate fate in the novel was to be slowly tortured to death by Luo Binghe, and he wants none of that! No thank you! He sets out to try and change his fate in the book, and is hampered along the way by his and everyone else's inability to communicate pretty much anything clearly until the last possible moment.
(*"stallion novel" - a cnovel genre, roughly equivalent in tone to those extremely hetrosexual harem longfic that I was always running into on fanfiction.net.)
Also, this was my first-ever cultivation novel and it turned out to be a pretty good place to start! Some stuff needed googling, but overall once I realized that they fly on their swords by standing on them instead of sitting on them I felt mostly up to speed, haha.
Why I Like It: I won't lie, this is kind of a hard book to recommend! When I recommend it more casually to people I usually say, "I don't know if you'll think the book is good but I think you'll enjoy it!" and I am usually right. It's just...fun! It's really, really fun. The characters are engaging and the tone is lighthearted. The worldbuilding is centered around the idea that all of the terrible sideplots and stupid plot devices and horrible sex plots of Proud Immortal Demon Way are somehow shoved into some semblance of a real, actual world and forced to work, which means every single possible stupid trope you can imagine is absolutely fair game for fanfiction. Shen Yuan is one of those fans who was hate-reading the book because the early chapters sucked him in and Luo Binghe was his favorite character ever but he got more and more mad about the novel's later descent into raunchy nonsense, which makes him a really great POV character for exploring the world.
Also, there's really insane chemistry across the board so if you don't vibe with the main ship there's still plenty to love ship-wise, and the fandom is great for fix-its, time travel, dimension travel, and AUs. If you like the kind of canon that cannot for the life of it seem to tie up its lose ends, smooth its rough edges, or follow up on really interesting details, this is a great canon for you!
Below I have elaborated on ships you might ship after reading the book. There are spoilers!
The main ship (Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu) only gets together at the end of the book and Shen Yuan spends the first part of the book as Luo Binghe's now-beloved teacher and the second part of the book absolutely panicking, convinced Luo Binghe is going to torture him to death just like in PIDW. There are so many great twists and turns, and Luo Binghe spends several years away from Shen Yuan leveling up to become a hot adult demon with super OP powers, so although obviously ymmv I think they do end up on pretty equal footing by the time they get together at the end of the book. Uh, they do fuck-or-die as their get-together and it does involve anal tearing, but you can skip the sex scene if that's not your cup of tea. There's some great canon character resurrection, too! (Full disclosure I almost never read this and never request it but it would be weird to promo the book without mentioning the main ship, haha.)
The secondary canon ship (Mobei-jun/Shang Qinghua) is mostly fleshed out in the "Airplane Extras" and is very popular! Shang Qinghua is the author of Proud Immortal Demon Way and Mobei-jun is the minor supporting character he wrote to be his ideal of a perfect man. These two are absolutely never on the same page (it's a common theme in SVSSS!) but the potential for loyalty and pining is off the charts. There are canonical dramatic rescues!
Liu Qingge/Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu: Liu Qingge is an extremely loyal coworker who excels in combat and has some of the best lines in the book because he's INCREDIBLY direct. In PIDW he was enemies with Shen Qingqiu and supposedly died at Shen Qingqiu's hands without ever making an appearance in the story. Shen Yuan saves his life instead and he and Liu Qingge have a really fascinating friendship develop! A lot of their later canon interactions can be easily read as Liu Qingge being in love with Shen Yuan.
Liu Qingge/Original Shen Qingqiu: The original Shen Qingqiu HATED Liu Qingge in Proud Immortal Demon Way and the feeling was mutual. Shen Qingqiu is an incredibly difficult person who causes problems on purpose and absolutely does bad things...who also has a surprise compelling tragic background! The beef between him and Liu Qingge is more or less a series of misunderstandings made worse by their respective character flaws. I love a good enemies-to-lovers so this is one of my favorite ships in the fandom.
Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu/Shang Qinghua: People sleep on this ship but is there anything better than Popular Author Of Extremely Long, Excessively Smutty Serially Published Stallion Novel/His Biggest And Most Critical Fan? Probably not! This ship is great when it takes place after they transmigrate and great when it takes place before transmigration and their canon interactions are some of the funniest scenes in the book.
I could go on literally forever because this fandom is so great for multishippers but I think that this is enough!
Shadow of the Colossus
Date: 2021-08-27 09:34 pm (UTC)Medium/Where to find it: Video game, either for PS2 or PS4. According to the internet, the PS2 version takes 9 and a half hours to play, and the PS4 version takes 7 hours.
Summary: [from the PS Store] Tales speak of an ancient realm where Colossi roam the majestic landscape. Bound to the land, these creatures hold a key to a mystical power of revival – a power you must obtain to bring a loved one back to life.
Content warnings: major character death (but it's not like it's actually a surprise) and animal injury (but the animal is fine!)
Why I like it: Oh man, where to begin? SotC is amazing firstly for its atmosphere. You find yourself in a big, ancient, forbidden land where an old god/demon/something resides, and you make a bargain with them: kill some creatures, and they will bring back your loved one (with an extra price tag attached to it). The art of the game is amazing, and as far as I can tell, it's kinda based on mesoamerican/central american art? At least as far as the colossus totems go. It's hard to talk about it without spoilering things, but you basically go around the land with your loyal horse, looking for these majestic creatures you gotta kill, and the game is ready to throw your decisions back in your face later on. There's an underlying theme of grey morality and self-fulfilling prophecies, and let me tell you, the end is gonna get you (I hope).
The game leaves a lot of space open for creation, especially in worldbuilding, since we never really know where the characters come from, what happened to them pre-canon (aside from the obvious) and post-canon, and there's not much dialogue or item descriptions. If you know Team ICO at all, you know that they've created a trilogy that is vaaaaguely connected: Shadow of the Colossus > ICO > The Last Guardian (TLG's place is contested though. It could be a far future or even a far past.). According to the creators themselves, the games are not necessarily connected, and you can experience each of them separately.
If the only version you have access to is the PS2 one, don't worry. The game is still incredibly gorgeous; it's amazing what they managed to do with the PS2 hardware. But obviously, if you have access to a PS4 and the money to buy the game, it's totally worth it for the graphical upgrade. You can find the trailer for the new version here!
Also, the OST slaps.
Also also, if you play the game, come talk to me about it :D