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Please use this post to promote the fandoms you're interested in requesting, or ask for recommendations of canons that suit you!
Comment here with information about the canons you are thinking of requesting, or otherwise want to get people into!
Information you might include
Title
Media
Approx length
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips.)
What is it, in summary?
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Some examples: Yuletide, Fandom5k
Please keep an eye on comments, as people may have follow-up questions about your canons.
You're also welcome to leave comments (anon or not) asking people to rec you canons that they are likely to request.
Consider letting people know if you're interested in specific media only, or have other restrictions.
Promoting your canons
Comment here with information about the canons you are thinking of requesting, or otherwise want to get people into!
Information you might include
Title
Media
Approx length
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips.)
What is it, in summary?
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Some examples: Yuletide, Fandom5k
Please keep an eye on comments, as people may have follow-up questions about your canons.
Asking for recs
You're also welcome to leave comments (anon or not) asking people to rec you canons that they are likely to request.
Consider letting people know if you're interested in specific media only, or have other restrictions.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-25 11:19 pm (UTC)Media: Novel
Approx length: 480 pages
Where to find it: Libraries, bookstores, and ebook providers
What is it, in summary?: Loose Rumpelstiltskin/Hades and Persephone retelling in a Snow Queen-like setting: Miryem, a Jewish woman whose father is a moneylender, gets fed up with how their customers take advantage of him and hate her family, and takes over the business, turning it around to the point where she boasts that she can turn silver to gold. This catches the attention of the Staryk, a sort of winter fairy, whose king sets her tests and then spirits her away to be his queen.
What do you love about it?: I love Miryem a lot - I love practical, hard-headed, ruthless female characters who get into adventures because of, rather than in spite of, those qualities. I like how Naomi Novik, the author, weaves fairy tales into the history of the Jews in this setting, and I like Miryem's relationships with the other female characters, including Wanda, initially her servant and later her friend, and Irina, the tsarina who has her own secret.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? - Writing and/or requesting plotty femslash or gen.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - antisemitism; some violence; brief instance(s?) of fear of rape, though nothing happens
Rivers of London
Date: 2020-07-25 11:34 pm (UTC)Edit: links aren't working for mysterious reasons but you can google for the books or go directly to
What is it?
The Rivers of London series follows Peter Grant, a probationary constable in the Metropolitan Police, whose unexpected ability to talk to ghosts lands him in a hush-hush specialist unit that deals with the magical and uncanny. Other members of the cast include: Lesley May, fellow probationary constable and the sensible one of the two; Thomas Nightingale, Peter’s senior officer and the last wizard in England (bonus: comes with a mysterious past!); and a variety of river gods, fae, and a persistently malevolent spirit who likes to make people’s faces fall off. Plus a host of other bad guys, good guys, and people in between.
It’s very fucking funny, and while not a comedy (it definitely deals with some serious topics, ranging from serial killers to the horrors of war), Peter’s wit remains on point throughout the whole series. It also has: mysteries! The science of magic! Betrayal*! Jazz! A dog! Cool worldbuilding! Flashy suits! Angst**! Some very shippable characters and also the opportunity for a lot of casefic, gen, and/or character studies!
*it takes a few books to get there
**in a subdued, British way
What am I likely to request?
Attempting to be spoiler-free here…
My requests are mostly for Nightingale and Lesley. For Nightingale, I’m interested in anything set during the war or maybe casefic during the period of time where he was alone in the Folly. I feel like he has such potential for angsty fic. Then again, I’m also interested in Peter/Nightingale, and it’s difficult to be angsty with Peter around!
For Lesley, I want to see her side of the story! After [redacted for spoilers] happens, we don’t really see as much of her, and we certainly don’t know what’s going on in her head. I’d love to read about that. (I know, this is extremely vague for a promo post, but any detail is a major spoiler!)
Either way, I'm interested in both gen and shippy content.
Content Notes
Some violence — no on-page torture or anything. About standard for police procedurals. I can't recall anything else of note.
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Date: 2020-07-25 11:36 pm (UTC)Media: video game
Approx length: 15 hours
Where to find it: on Steam or on your preferred video game store. It's available for Windows, PS4 or Xbox One.
What is it, in summary? It's a story rich action-adventure/stealth game about Amicia and her brother, Hugo, who tries to escape the Inquisition during the plague, set in 14th-century France.
What do you love about it?
- The characters! They're a group of teens, they go through hell but they stick together, they survive everything through bravery and resourcefulness, perfect for found family trope lovers.
- The story! Though the villains are a bit one-sided, the emotional story of the two siblings is compelling and heartfelt.
- Dark, horror atmosphere.
- The game mechanics mostly include stealth and environmental puzzles, they are well-balanced, not especially hard, you don't need to be a hard gamer to get through.
- It has a fantastic soundtrack!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Some fix-it for the characters who died. I ship Amicia with everyone, so I'd most likely request f/f and f/m hurt/comfort, tropey shipfic.
Content warnings: blood and gore (characters are eaten alive by swarms of rats, people are burned alive, the dead bodies are detailed), animal death.
Moonlight Garden
Date: 2020-07-26 12:01 am (UTC)What is it?
It’s an F/F webcomic about love, obsession, politics, dark secrets, and sex. Lots of sex. I’ll let the website tell it…
“The enchanting flower maidens of Moonlight Garden are coveted by all, as they are known to provide sexual pleasures beyond the imagination. But Dohwa, a young flower maiden who has not yet “bloomed,” concocts potions in the hopes of escaping her destined fate at the brothel. One night, she is caught stealing ingredients for her potions by Lady Hyewon, the new mistress of the Garden. But it turns out Dohwa isn’t the only one with an agenda. Lady Hyewon harbors a few terrible secrets of her own.”
Note: the “blooming” mentioned here is similar to the kink of going into heat, except there’s no breeding/pregnancy involved. Just uncontrollable sexual desire (that can only be satisfied by the touch of a woman).
Something I enjoyed about this is that there are literally no men involved! (Well, I can think of two, but they are more exposition characters than anything.) All relationships are between women, which is a nice change.
What am I likely to request?
I would be happy with literally anything about this comic. The tale of an OC flower maiden? Awesome! Yoosun/Dohwa/Hyewon? Fantastic! General worldbuilding? I am all for it! 10k of smut loosely connected by plot? Sure!
Content Notes
Blooming happens regardless of what the flower maidens want, so sex with flower maidens in bloom is inherently dubcon, and there are depictions of rape — although not to the main characters, if I recall correctly (they do get threatened with it, though). There are medium amounts of violence and depictions of slavery.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-26 12:30 am (UTC)Promo: Kaptara
Date: 2020-07-26 04:27 am (UTC)Media: A one-volume comic series (on hiatus)
Approximate Length: 128 pages
Where to Find It: Available in both print and digital format. See the Image Comics series page for a list of where to purchase online and links to a comic shop locator.
What It's About
Kaptara is a delightfully silly sci-fi/fantasy romp about Keith Kanga, a gay xenobotanist who crash-lands on an absurd alien planet. Jaded by his experiences with bigotry, he's more than happy to leave Earth behind for good—until an alien threat to his home planet inspires him to (reluctantly) set off on a heroic quest with a dry-witted tracker, a half-witted prince, a hovering orb that can only communicate through motivational slogans, and a by-the-books warrior who just might be the man of Keith's dreams.
Meet Keith and Manton.
What I Love About It
Chip Zdarksy's writing and Kagan McLeod's art make me laugh out loud, but the humour wouldn't work half as well without the real feelings at the core of all the silliness. Keith's motivations are understandable, and the burgeoning understanding between him and Manton is legitimately sweet.
What I'm Likely to Request
The series went on hiatus after the first volume, so there's a ton to explore! I'd be requesting anything from a proposed take on the rest of the arc, to slow-burn romance between Keith and Manton, to more about both characters' lives before meeting, to future wacky space adventures. The improbably coloured sky's the limit.
Ruse and Route 666
Date: 2020-07-26 04:52 am (UTC)Media/length:: Comics. Ruse has 26 issues + 3 bonus side issues. Route 666 has 22 issues.
Where to find it:: Amazon has 2 graphic novels for Ruse and one for Route 666. The individual issues are also floating around online, and are fairly easy to find.
Summary:: I've bunched these together because they are both linked to the larger Sigilverse of other CrossGen comics. These particular titles, however, work very well on their own. Knowing what's going on in the rest of the CrossGen universe adds a bit of context but is absolutely unnecessary to enjoy either comic. CrossGen went bankrupt; this doesn't really affect the ending of Ruse but Route 666 ends a bit abruptly.
RUSE: A Victorian detective/adventure comic set on a fictitious planet resembling Victorian Earth. Simon Archard is our Sherlock Holmes and Emma Bishop is his Watson. She is hiding magic powers from him as she tries to learn more about his past. They must solve the puzzle of the Enigmatic Prism, a gem that has a bloody history and a terrible secret.
ROUTE 666: A horror comic set on a planet resembling 1950s Earth. Classic movie monsters are hiding in plain sight. Cassie, the protagonist, has always been able to see dead people. The ghost of her dead grandfather awakens her power to see these monsters too. She kills one in self-defense but everyone else sees only a normal person so it looks like she killed an innocent man. She is now on the run from monsters and the police as she tries to uncover why the monsters are stealing souls.
What do you love about it? :
CrossGen as a whole is deeply rewarding for anyone who reads all the titles to stitch together the larger picture of what is going on, but each title works very well on its own too.
Ruse is full of witty banter and fun adventure. There are loads of awesome characters, not the least of which are Emma and Simon who have an amazing relationship. Their friendship is so rewarding, and I love the found family they have with Simon's network of agents.
For Route 666, I love the age gap relationship between Cassie and Cisco. I'm not usually a horror fan but I was sucked into this comic immediately. I really loved watching Cassie's powers grow throughout the series, and I was invested in the mystery of what the monsters were doing and what was going on.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? :
Since both titles ended before their time, there are a lot of things that were set up that canon never had a chance to explore and I'd love to see someone tackle them. I'm also looking for tropey ship fic.
Content warning: Route 666 is a horror comic so there's a bit of gore.
Promo: Team Fortress 2
Date: 2020-07-26 07:01 am (UTC)Media: A multiplayer first-person video game, and a comic book series and collection of short videos where the plot and major character work happens
Approximate Length: To get a grounding, six comic book issues plus a short catch-up comic, 35 minutes of video, and as much time with the game as you like.
What It's About
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter video game that was released by Valve in 2007. Jokingly referred to as America's #1 war-themed hat simulator, the game doesn't take itself seriously in the least. You play as one of nine classes of mercenary hired to fight over a New Mexico gravel mine in an alternative version of the late 1960s/early 1970s in which Australia has long ruled as the world's technological superpower thanks to its deposits of wonder-element Australium. Mostly, you strategize with your team, shoot at the opposing side, and collect funny hats.
The game is a hoot, but it didn't spawn such a passionate fandom on its own. As staff at Valve put it:
TF2 didn't start with a lot of story. There wasn't room for one. But as the updates got more ambitious, we found the perfect way to explore the mercs' world: comics. Over the years, the comics have spawned ancillary characters, then assistants to the ancillary characters. Companies mentioned in passing became global empires three generations old. The game that started as a handful of guys in a desert shooting at each other slowly blossomed into the most labyrinthine story in Valve history.
This labyrinthine story includes century-long revenge plots, secret parentage, wizard roommates, Welsh crooner Tom Jones, corporate takeovers, classic comic homages, friendship, romance, loyalty, cross-species male pregnancy, and a whole lot of naked mercenaries (occasionally slathered in honey).
Where to Find It
Everything is free online!
Videos
Meet the Team (a series of 1-3 minute animated videos introducing each of the mercenaries)
Expiration Date (a 15-minute short film)
Other optional videos include canonized fan project End of the Line and ads for updates to the game like Mann vs. Machine, The Sound of Medicine, and Jungle Inferno.
Comics
Catch-Up Comic (a primer on the canon)
TF Comics #1: Ring of Fired
TF Comics #2: Unhappy Returns
TF Comics #3: A Cold Day in Hell
TF Comics #4: Blood in the Water
TF Comics #5: Old Wounds
TF Comics #6: The Naked and the Dead
Other optional reads include supplementary and game update comics.
The game is available for free on Steam.
There is also an official wiki that includes information on all plot points, character moments, game assets and voice lines.
What I Love About It
I love the chaotic humour and the wild flights of worldbuilding fancy. Even after consuming the canon an overenthusiastic number of times, there are still lines that make me laugh. But what keeps me coming back are the characters, especially the Medic (a mad scientist stripped of his medical license who canonically sold his soul to the devil), Miss Pauling (handler and corpse-disposer extraordinaire who is still working out how to tell jokes and once turned up at a bar's Ladies' Night expecting to meet ladies), the Engineer (a seemingly down to earth Texan who once cut off his own hand to install a robotic upgrade), and the Sniper (a polite and professional Australian who always uses his turn signal, enjoys hallucinogens, and always observes proper protocol when murdering people for money). They're part of a large cast of off-beat and oddly charming people who can be thrown together in any combination to tell an entertaining story.
What I'm Likely to Request
Shippy stuff (likely Engineer/Medic and The Administrator/Miss Pauling at the very least) with any amount of backstory, lore, or mission-based adventure that someone might be inspired to include.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-26 10:26 am (UTC)Re: Promo: Team Fortress 2
Date: 2020-07-26 10:33 am (UTC)Re: Promo: Team Fortress 2
Date: 2020-07-26 06:30 pm (UTC)Watch Dogs
Date: 2020-07-27 01:54 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approx length: 17-20 hours for the main campaign in both games, 20-25 including side content
Where to find it:
Watch Dogs is on Steam, Uplay, and EGS
Watch Dogs 2 is also on Steam, Uplay, and EGS
It's worth checking the price on each store, because all of them run sales at different times and it can be the difference between paying $5 for a game and paying $40. Both games are also available on the PS4 and Xbox One, and Watch Dogs is also available on the PS3, 360, and WiiU.
What is it, in summary?:
Watch Dogs is a revenge story, starting with the death of Aiden Pearce's niece and culminating in the murder of one of the most powerful crime lords in Chicago. Aiden is a criminal who's hunting for answers, and the more threads he unravels about the night that changed his life, the deeper he falls into the web of crime and conspiracy that's trapping Chicago. It's dark, it doesn't have a happy ending, and it shows a man spiraling down into obsession that drives everyone else away.
Watch Dogs 2, in sharp contrast, is the story of a hacktivist group trying to make a change, fighting against the overreach of the tech companies using people's data for profit. Marcus Holloway is a hacker that was unjustly framed, taking back control of his life as he and his friends do their best to make a difference. If the first game is grim as hell, the second is bright, vibrant, and full of hope; Marcus ends up triumphant, and his connections with others are a large part of that.
Both games are open-world third person shooters, with the first taking place in Chicago and the second taking place in San Francisco. One of the core gameplay mechanics revolves around hacking and exploiting the smart city system that the Big Bad is pushing out across the globe, though it's much more nuanced and well-developed in the second game. The second game can be played 100% nonlethally, while the first one has a morality meter but basically no nonlethal options for dealing with enemies.
What do you love about it?
Jordi's an absolutely hilarious character in both games (though he's a DLC mission character in WD2) whose presence never fails to make me smile, and the gameplay is genuinely engaging (albeit really goddamn frustrating on the mandatory driving missions early in both games; those missions only happen once, but they're still hellish to deal with.)
But putting literal best character Jordi aside, the main cast of both games is super interesting on their own; Aiden's self-destructive spiral is painful to watch but still very true to the kind of person he is, to the point where the inevitable outcomes aren't a surprise to anyone, least of all him. He's an absolute wreck of a human being and I find that super compelling about him.
And Marcus is both an absolute goddamn delight - earnest, empathetic, willing to joke around but still deeply passionate about what he feels is right - and a fantastic main character to meet the rest of DedSec with. Playing the game and hearing their banter is a lot like sitting in a room full of friends for me, and sometimes I pop in to play through certain missions just to watch Marcus joke around and do things with his friends. And there was a lot of care put into the game, from the devs and the actors who did voicework and stunts for the characters. You can feel the love poured into it.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Shipping, definitely! For Watch Dogs, Aiden/Damien is a friends-turned-enemies ship, while Aiden/Jordi is the straight man/funny man of amoral killers bantering as they murder their way through mooks. Both ships have a lot of potential and interaction in the game itself, and I am starving to content here.
For Watch Dogs 2, Marcus/Wrench is the friends-to-lovers, ride or die, two people who meet and click and always get along ship that comes with a ton of UST and shipteasing. Marcus/Jordi is the enemies to reluctant allies ship that mostly involves Jordi still being the funny man amoral killer but now Marcus is here to be a rational human being that thinks that's PRETTY FUCKED UP ACTUALLY and also this guy is terrifying.
There's a lot of room for exploring canon, both during the game events and after, and I'm going to be requesting some of that. But the character dynamics stand up well enough on their own that I think you can have a lot of fun doing AUs with them too.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests?
There's cutscene movies for both games, along with Let's Plays if that's more appealing. The cutscene movies drop some of the between-mission chatter, but both of them have the bulk of character and plot mission information, and both come in at just under 2 hours.
Watch Dogs:
https://youtu.be/b2SP5qlMwUM
Watch Dogs 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoObghaZ9Y
Content warnings:
Watch Dogs - Graphic violence (as in, some of the takedowns involve Aiden beating someone to death with a tactical baton, along with the usual gun violence of the genre), lots of violence towards and objectification of women, human trafficking including sexual slavery, nudity, major character death, and some of the side content involves Aiden spying on people with references to eating disorders, drug use, domestic abuse, and suicide.
Watch Dogs 2 - Graphic violence (though Marcus's takedowns are comparatively gentler and you can go through the game without firing a gun even once, there's some violence that can't be avoided), major character death, nudity, drug use, and some of the missions and side missions involve spying on people with references to abuse and suicide.
Gemini (2017 film)
Date: 2020-07-28 07:22 am (UTC)Media: Single movie
Approx length: 1h33m
Where to find it: Streaming on Hulu
What is it, in summary? Gemini is a quiet, neon-soaked neo-noir movie about an actress, her personal assistant, and her murder. It's also about mirrors, and long motorcycle rides through a very empty Southern California, and how that first sentence isn't quite true.
Heather Anderson is dead, the morning after meeting her someone who might be her stalker and turning down a movie deal. Her assistant/best friend who might be in love with her, Jill, is used to picking up after Heather but she may or may not be prepared to handle a murder investigation. Heather's girlfriend, Tracy, might know more than she seems to, and Heather's manager, Jamie, is balancing her dislike of Jill with her affection for Heather.
It's about tragedy, and the different ways in which people ask why, and the different types of people who are actually interested in those answers, and why people give different answers.
What do you love about it?: I love that the film centres relationships - romantic, obsessive, one-sided, business, platonic - between women. I love how pretty it is and how, noir-cliche though it might be, Los Angeles is a character. I love that it's self-aware without being obnoxious about it, that Jill is genre-savvy without necessarily being good at being genre savvy.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I think the movie works really well as a self-contained story of a few days, so probably pre-canon and post-canon stuff. Also, I am me and I always want 'canon, but make them vampires', so expect that as well!
Content warnings: Murder, stalking
The Blending Series - Sharon Green
Date: 2020-07-28 10:28 am (UTC)The premise: The Empire is always ruled jointly by five adepts, each of whom is the master of a different discipline of elemental magic. And more: to rule as a Blending, they must be able to perfectly combine their powers.
Every twenty-five years, for Reasons, the current ruling Blending have to step down and a new Blending of five adepts must be enthroned instead. For Reasons, the new rulers are (supposedly) chosen by random strangers being thrown together into a group with the right magical distribution, and then taking part in competitions, to find out: Will They Blend?
I want to say that these books are good if, and only if, the specific plots and tropes in them are your literary catnip. But I also just want to say, "Please do not expect these books to be good." If you love them wholeheartedly, then I'm sorry for the following, but I basically love them as trashy nonsense, so you might want to give up on the rest of this promo comment. Here's a much kinder review I generally agree with.
What these books have
-Underdogs-Evil rulers
-Much scenery chewing
-Magical training montages
-An elemental magical sorting system with power rankings
-Elaborate competitions with secret stakes!
-Absurd rigging of same
-Truth drugs
-Mind control
-Telepathy
-Being sold into slavery
-Good conspiracies within the evil conspiracies
-Extremely trashy villains
-Extremely pretty and righteous protagonists
-Woobie backstory drama
-Extremely glamorised sex workers
-Unlikely Group Must Learn To Work Together...
-but even more than that, fucking makes their magic stronger, which means...
-poly house drama that rivals any reality TV.
What these books do not have
-Good pacing-Consistent worldbuilding
-Consistent characterisation
-Distinct character voices, other than what can be achieved with slightly spelled-out dialect
-Nuanced villains (some are pretty rapey, fyi)
-Any sense of restraint.
Apparently you should not judge a book by its cover, but I think the following is illustrative.
This (click for larger) is the original print cover of Book 5. Honestly, I think it's beautiful. This is what you think you're getting.
This (click for larger) is the lurid option of the cover currently available on Kindle. It is truth in advertising.
What I'm requesting
-Worldbuilding; I basically see this as a crack played straight request. How do all these conspiracies keep from toppling over? If the Seated Five did really work as a system of government, how would they earnestly handle the 25-year turnover? What do middle or high adepts do, especially when it's nowhere near, or just after, a Competition year?-Original characters: the drama of "we've been placed in a mansion together and now we must train together to win or die!" is both absurd and compelling to me, especially when combined with the ridiculousness of "also we must sleep together." (The books only have het sex. Boooooooo. I look forward to subversions of that, and plenty of other ways not to play it straight. Maybe your group figures out how to be a Blending and then successfully runs away.)
-Jovvi/Tamrissa: These two women are very supportive of each other and, apart from some Tamrissa character assassination in book 4, are the most sympathetic to me. Maybe some canon divergence in the first series, or some closeness within their polycule-whatever in the second series?
To fill my request, you can probably get away with skimming the first four books. I will consider you as noble and glorious as a Tom Cantry cover.
NB: I think I gestured to most of the major warn-worthy content, but it includes rape, domestic violence, sexually sadistic murder (in the background), slavery, mind control, very tropey treatment of sex work, and protagonist centred morality.
Full set of titles:
Convergence: Book One of the Blending
Competitions: Book Two of the Blending
Challenges: Book Three of the Blending
Betrayals: Book Four of the Blending
Prophecy: Book Five of the Blending
Intrigues: Book One of the Blending Enthroned
Deceptions: Book Two of the Blending Enthroned
Destiny: Book Three of the Blending Enthroned
Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya Ichi)
Date: 2020-07-28 11:22 pm (UTC)Media (/length): One 10-volume manga, and/or its 2 hour movie adaptation
Where to find it?: I don't think the manga has ever been officially licensed, but scanlations are easily found online. The movie is available to rent on Youtube, with subtitles.
Content warnings: I'm going to lead with this, because the absolute defining feature of Ichi is how incredibly, over-the-top violent it is. If you don't have a stomach for gore, this is not going to be a canon for you. Barely a page goes by without someone getting a limb ripped off or having something sharp shoved in places it shouldn't go. There's also a fair amount of sexual violence, including rape, necrophilia, and genital torture. There's a few scenes of underage noncon. The movie is a lot tamer than the manga, but it's still not something I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't know what they're getting into. Ichi the Killer is a story about terrible people doing terrible things, portrayed in heavy detail. And it does a great job of that! It's just. Not gonna be for everyone.
What's it about?: Shiroishi Hajime is a mentally and emotionally stunted young man with a lot of pent-up violent tendencies. Seeing his potential, an old man nicknamed Jijii decides to take him in and mold him into "Ichi," a superhero-esque persona who goes around the red light district of Shinjuku and kills all the bad people. Which sounds great! Until you realize that Jijii has no morals of his own and just wants someone to fight his gang wars for him, and Ichi is incapable of processing the difference between violent criminals and innocent bystanders. Things only go more downhill when Ichi builds a mental connection between killing people and getting aroused, leading to a frighteningly intense sadistic streak that Ichi just does not have the maturity to understand in any normal sense.
Ichi, however, is not the real protagonist of the story. The plot kicks off when Ichi gets the orders to kill a gang leader named Anjou. Anjou's right-hand man is Masao Kakihara, and he is one kinky bastard. He's open and proud about being a huge masochist who gets off on people beating him up, and he has no time for weak-ass sadists who do silly things like "respect his boundaries" or "care about his well-being." No, he wants someone who will absolutely destroy him. Which Anjou was happy to provide. As a result, Kakihara was madly in love with his boss. (Multiple characters call him out on it. It's great.) And when Anjou seemingly goes missing? Kakihara starts tearing apart the entire yakuza underworld in order to get him back.
When Kakihara eventually finds out that Anjou's dead, he's of course devastated...but more than that, he's intrigued by the man who apparently killed his boss. Ichi's been killing other yakuza this whole time, and by analyzing the, er, evidence left at the crime scenes, Kakihara deduces that this mysterious "Ichi" figure must be a stone-cold sadist. Enchanted by the idea that there might be someone out there who could please him even better than Anjou, Kakihara sets out to find the fabled killer. Thus begins a bizarre game of cat and mouse, with Ichi slowly picking off Kakihara's allies while Kakihara tries to have Ichi for himself.
The movie is, for the most part, a pretty faithful abridging of the events of the manga. (With many of the more gratuitous gore scenes eschewed, as I mentioned earlier.) Honestly, the biggest change the movie made was turning Kakihara into a prettyboy, which I certainly can't say I mind.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Awful, awful men doing awful, awful things to each other. And loving it. Both Ichi/Kakihara and Anjou/Kakihara are ships full of potential for so much fun emotional weirdness and strange power dynamics, even aside from the obvious massive kink potential. These characters are so fucking good and they play off each other like a game of horny, dysfunctional Pong. Gimme more, please.
RE:ZERO
Date: 2020-07-29 01:14 am (UTC)Media: I requested the anime adaptation for this exchange (the original is a light novel and there's also manga adaptation)
Approx length: 25 episode series and two OVAs. Second season is currently airing, but even without it the first season is a pretty satisfying watch.
Where to find it: It's available on Crunchyroll. I suggest watching Director's Cut which is a remastered version of first season
What is it: One day Natsuki Subaru suddenly finds himself in another world. He figures this might be the big thing that will change his life for better. After all, being transported to another world means that he has received some special magical powers and now he will lead a life of luxury... except he dies a gruesome death less than a day after being summoned into this fantasy world. Luckily for him, that's when he discovers his special power, he has a unique ability to return back in time after dying. Which is an ability that he will keep having to rely on, because the fantasy world he ended up in is a dangerous place to live and Subaru will end up dying a lot.
What do you love about it? It's a very unusual take on an isekai story in that it's an honest to god reconstruction of the isekai tropes. Subaru is absolutely insufferable at the beginning of the story, believing that being transported to another world means that he is special. However, the story goes to great lengths to beat that mindset out of him to the point where the whole second half of the show is about him having to overcome his entitelment before he can succeed. It's one of the best character arcs I've seen, tearing the protagonist apart physically and mentally in a really visceral way and forcing the protagonist to face all his failings. But the series isn't just the protagonist. Every character feels like a living and breathing person who has their own live. There isn't a secondary character I don't like and the whole cast could easily have their own interesting adventures without protagonist ever appearing in their life (though in some cases those would be tragically short lives). The places, the people, the history, they are all fleshed out to create an intricate and fascinating world. Also, there's just something extremely satisfying about watching the character having to repeatedly die and put a lot of effort to earn their happy ending.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I'm requesting gen for Subaru and some of the great secondary characters. Particualrly a great spirit, Puck; the withdrawn librarian Beatrice; and other queen candidate knights who all have interesting interactions with Subaru.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? The first season should be enough on it's own. Frozen Bond OVA gives some interesting insight into Puck, if you decide to write about him.
Content warnings: A lot of gore, since the protagonist keeps dying or watching people he love get murdered pretty regularly. It's a pretty brutal series in that regard not pulling any punches. There's also some fantasy racism.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-29 06:15 am (UTC)promo: All American
Date: 2020-07-29 06:57 pm (UTC)32 episodes on CW/Netflix in the US. I think you have to use other methods in other countries.
what it is: a teenager moves from his poor Los Angeles neighbourhood to play football at a Beverly Hills high school; drama ensues.
longer: a teen drama/sports drama with a very charming cast, that gets into personal and social issues very sincerely. There's romance, there's secrets, there's adorable hot messes trying to find their way. I don't think there's any need to be a fan of or expert in American football, though it would probably help to not hate all mentions of it. It airs in CW's block of shows with a predominantly black cast, with Black Lightning, so if you're looking for representation on your screen here it is.
fannish appeal: Taye Diggs is here and he's still lovely. Cody Christian is also here. Has all the friends and family sticking together you could want, great male-female friendships, sweet canon het, adorable canon lesbians, and for slash potential a bunch of boys who veer between bffs and frenemies, and general teammate dynamics. (My requests are gen and het.)
contains: storylines/beats about being a black teenager in America, not all with a totally happy resolution. Antagonists will occasionally say racist or homophobic/transphobic things. All the serious life topics you'd expect of a teen soap, in general.
Looking for Recs
Date: 2020-07-30 04:53 am (UTC)The Magnus Archives (podcast) - Preseries fic with Gertrude and her dynamic with Emma and Agnes. Jonah picking his new hosts through the centuries.
Bloodborne (video game) - Choir rituals or school of Mensis studies. Another Hunter of the Dream and how they failed and descended into madness.
Dishonored (video games) - Something from the point of view of Delilah or Breanna's coven or the Sisters of the Oracular Order would be fun. Granny Rags, the Lonely Rat Boy, or other marked characters that inhabit the edges of Corvo and Emily's stories.
Others stuff I'm familiar with that I think would work: Pathologic (video game), The Southern Reach trilogy (books), Steven Universe (show)
I'm totally willing to learn a new fandom for this!
Visual Novels by parade
Date: 2020-07-30 06:12 pm (UTC)Title: No Thank You!!!, Room No. 9
Media: Visual Novels
Approx length: NTY!!! took me around 35 hours to play in English. Rn9 took me approximately 10 hours to read in Japanese, but my Japanese reading speed is much slower; it's due to be released in English on August 6th, and I'm approximating that it'll take around 4 hours to play.
Where to find it: Both NTY!!! and Rn9 are available on Mangagamer and Steam. Both are uncensored on Steam, if that was a concern. If you prefer to read them in Japanese, they also are available on DMM and physical copies are available on the usual Japanese storefronts. There are also setting books that you can buy from parade's official website for extra info (Japanese only), but this is by no means required.
What is it, in summary? These are 18+ Boy's Love (M/M) visual novels that veer much less romantic than the typical fare that has been translated, and instead focus more on porn (that is usually, but not always, noncon or dubcon) and either mystery or character development respectively. They take place in the same universe, but they do not look connected at first glance.
The premise of NTY!!! - You play Haru, a mysterious man who has amnesia after being hit by a car to save a stranger's life. Said stranger is the owner of a bar that secretly doubles as an under-the-table detective agency. Haru gets hired as one of the bar staff while he tries to remember who he is, as he has no identifying materials on him when he was hit by the car. Throughout the game, Haru solves mysteries with the rest of the bar staff as he woos one of them! Haru is bisexual and an exclusive top in the game. The love interests include the beefy, middle-aged bar owner Kouichi, the quiet and mysterious well-built chef Maki, the stern and cold piano player Ryu, and the gentle and unlucky-in-love bartender Hiroyuki. All of the love interests are "straight". There are approximately 3 endings per boy.
The premise of Room No. 9 - Childhood best friends and university students Daichi and Seiji have just been dumped by their girlfriends, right after Daichi bought tickets to go on a trip to Okinawa. It's their last summer before they get full-time work, so Seiji offers to go on the vacation with Daichi. Daichi happily accepts, and is excited to go on a vacation with his super cool, super hot best friend! However, when they land in Okinawa, they end up boarding a bus that was filled with some sort of knock-out gas, and they wake up in a strange hotel room. An LED screen replaces the window, and a tablet lets them know that they have been selected for a social experiment. Every day for the next ten days, either Seiji needs to hurt Daichi physically, or Daichi needs to debase Seiji sexually. Neither of them wants to hurt the other, so this will be a very difficult task for them... You play as Daichi, and Seiji is the only "love interest". There are six endings across three routes.
What do you love about it? I'm a parade/Clock Up stan, I won't lie. These games are definitely not for everyone, and people can argue about the taste of including some of the things they choose to include, but I think that these games have a more sensitive take especially on child abuse than many visual novels of the same genre do. While these are porn games (and the porn is really hot! both beautifully drawn and sexily described!), I feel like there's much more to them than just porn. NTY!!! has a really interesting mystery that is super fun to watch unfold with a really cool gameplay system, and Rn9 just... is one of the most tragic VNs I've ever read, one of the best Fuck or Die stories Ever in my opinion. You really get inside Daichi's head as he's forced to hurt and be hurt, trying to find the best way out of an absolutely impossible situation, and it's heartbreaking to watch.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I'm mostly interested in pre-canon and post-canon for both games, but I'm flexible! Explaining my pre-canon prompts would be a bit spoilery, but post-canon I'm mostly looking for fix-it since things don't always go well for the main characters and I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY.
Content warnings (apply to both games): noncon and dubcon, watersports, breathplay/choking, major character death (can be avoided), extensive discussions of child abuse, neglect, and child sexual abuse. Discussions of yakuza/criminal activity, drug use. Very heavily implied off-screen child death.
NTY only - a parent/child incest subplot that isn't explicit, but is shown from the child's point of view and they are clearly unhappy with what's happening to them.
Rn9 only - minor gore, scat (images can be toggled off for both, but the scat scene is actually plot important so I wouldn't recommend skipping through the scat), avoidable but character development-important gang rape scene. Daichi dissociates a few times. Internalized homophobia.
Sarazanmai
Date: 2020-07-31 05:59 am (UTC)Media: I personally believe that the best experience is multi-media, but only the anime is required both to enjoy the experience and to fulfill my requests! (Recommended order for my requests: spin-off manga -> Twitter -> first volume of the LN -> anime -> both volumes of the LN. Most to least important for my requests: anime >>> Twitter > manga >>> LN.)
Approx length: the anime is 11 episodes, so less than 4 hours. The spin-off manga, Sarazanmai: Reo and Mabu is a single volume that you can read in an hour or less. There is a fan translation floating around of the ReoMabu Twitter @/keeponly1luv that takes an hour or two to read through (it's around six months of daily tweets, with pictures). Only one of the light novels has been translated into English as of yet, but the second is coming out in November and both light novels are fairly short and shouldn't take that long to read (a few hours at most)!
Where to find it: The anime is licensed by Crunchyroll and Funimation, and is available for streaming or physical purchase on both of those websites. The manga and light novels are both licensed by Seven Seas, and are available in both hard copy and digital formats (Google Play, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon are all accessible vendors that I know of off the top of my head). Contact me if you want to see the translated Twitter, since I'm unsure of the strict legality of that? It was originally online for free (because it was an in-character Twitter...), but the Twitter was blacked out during episode 10, and all the deleted tweets were published in a book in limited quantities after the fact (Japanese only).
What is it, in summary? From Ikuhara Kunihito (of Utena fame), this anime is about connections, love, desire, and (mis)communication. It follows three teenage boys who break open a statue and release the mysterious Keppi, who claims to be the Prince of the Kappa Kingdom, and turns them into kappas to fight against the Otters, whose mission is destroy every connection on earth. Kazuki, Enta, and Tooi all need to learn to connect with each other and the people that they love to be able to defeat humans-turned-monsters (kappa zombies) and put the world back into balance. On the sidelines, mysterious Reo and Mabu are working for the Otters, and something seems to be... off about their relationship. They dance so close to one another, so why do they look so sad?
The manga and Twitter take place before the anime, and are a lot of ReoMabu's backstory that make their moments in the anime even more poignant. The LN has some exclusive backstory for ReoMabu as well, and some cut scenes that don't make it into the anime.
What do you love about it? In terms of themes: a lot of people think that this anime is confusing to follow and a bit absurd (the extended shirikodama extraction scene in the first episode is, uh... probably a deal-breaker for a lot of people, lol), and they might be right, but I think that it's most fun to just sit back and enjoy it! Sarazanmai is incredibly earnest, and it has a really wholesome message at the end that made me cry. It's often as funny as it is heartbreaking! I loved the symbolism in the show, especially the water and circle imagery.
In terms of characters: Okay, I won't lie: I love everybody in this show dearly and would be happy to see them as background characters in any fic you might think of writing for me, but Tragic Cop Dads have stolen my heart and have free real estate in my brain at all times. Their entire arc feels like it was written just for me. Every part of it is special, and putting it all together creates a tapestry of tropes that I love (childhood friends! miscommunication! dads!!! angst with consent issues!!!!), and the ending of their story I found incredibly moving (and the openness that lies afterwards)! Not only do I find their literal storyline appealing, but I love the meta elements too. Like, the way that both the audience's and Reo's opinions of Mabu's feelings towards him changed as more information slowly came out. It was really fascinating watching people say "haha ReoMabu isn't like canon canon even though they're baiting it really hard" at around episode 7 and then episode 10 happened and blew everything wide open! (Although a lot of us already considered it explicitly canon by episode 9 for... many reasons.) I'm not sure how well this will translate to people getting into the series later, but one of the things that I found really cool about Sarazanmai was how the staff constantly played with expectations by teasing us both within the show and on social media. I would love to see that in fic, too!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I'm still coming up with prompts as of the time I'm writing this promo post, but I'm likely to request a wide variety of scenarios for Reo/Mabu(/Otter), from pre-canon to post-canon, canon compliant to AU, fluffy to angsty, gen to smutty (I have a wide variety of kinks that I'm into, and I love vanilla as well). I love it all, and I'll try to give you some different options to work with!
Content warnings: character death (both temporary and permanent), fade to black noncon, BDSM and other fetishes shown on-screen, children in peril, a waterboarding scene, drugs, gun violence, yakuza/gang violence, police brutality/vigilante justice (it's more symbolic than literal, but still probably warrants a warning)
Kim Possible Promo Post
Date: 2020-07-31 04:01 pm (UTC)TV cartoon show
87 episodes + one movie
Where to find it: Disney+ is a legit source. A less legit source is, surprisingly, YouTube. Last I checked nearly all the episodes (not the movie) were on YouTube
Kim Possible is a combination action/adventure, comedy, and high school drama about a teenage heroine defeating villains while trying to maintain her social life. She succeeds for the most part! Most episodes are a balance of regular life drama and actiony villain fighting. Sometimes there’s an Aesop, a couple of times there’s a spoof Aesop. Very much a comedy, too, with lots of running gags and a few callbacks. But! There is no real overarching plot. You can pick out a few episodes (like those with your favorite villain) and still know what’s going on. So the Drama is the movie capping the third season that doubles as a mystery.
What do I love about it? What DON’T I love about it? Great protagonists and antagonists! Each character is unique and memorable. There’s practically a villain for everyone to like. Mad science! Ninja monkeys! Killer golfers! Life lessons that make sense (for the most part...I’m looking at you, Halloween episode). Subtext! Obvious text! Relationship advice! (Though I really don’t like Kim/Ron)
What sort of things am I likely to request for it? Drakken. Dr. Drakken is, hands down, my favorite character. Good things happening to him make me happy and I LOVE Drakken/Kim (mid-season 3 onwards only due to ages). I’m not going to specifically request it, but I would love exploring the deaths of the synthodrones with personalities in So the Drama as a debate point on the measure of non-human lives in the Kim Possible universe.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests? As I said earlier, each episode (save for A Sitch in Time which I hate with a burning passion) is standalone. You could just pick out the Drakken episodes. Or, if you’re daring and short on time, you could just watch So the Drama and get a good idea on the main characters.
Content warnings: The worst I can think of is violence due to the action scenes. Death is more of a dropped a bridge on them in season 4. There is a genuine ‘what measure is a non-human?’ death in So the Drama that I would LOVE to be explored a bit.
PG Wodehouse - Psmith
Date: 2020-08-01 02:09 am (UTC)Media: Books
Approx Length: There are four short novels. You only need the first two books in order to write most of the Psmith/Mike requests that people make. I promise.
Where to Find It: The books are all free on Gutenberg HERE.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Pretty much every request ever is for Psmith/Mike shipfic. It's not just me.
Series Overview: The official order is:
1) Mike & Psmith – classic boarding school hijinks | meet-cute | devoted roommates | so much loyalty porn, gah
2) Psmith In the City – living and working in London | devoted roommates | even more loyalty porn
3) Psmith, Journalist – Psmith vs NYC gangsters | gun fights | running a newspaper | a ridiculously shippy Ch2 & Epilogue
4) Leave It to Psmith – country estate hijinks | identity porn | jewelry heist | comedy of errors
Jump in with whichever one has a setting or trope that you like! They each work as standalones. All that said, I'd read 'Psmith, Journalist' last.
What It's About: A hilarious, eccentric, badass, dandy hero in early 20th century England. Think 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' with lower stakes, but even more charming eccentricity and homoeroticism (I know, right?!). In almost every book, Psmith ends up throwing himself on his sword in various hilarious ways for the benefit of Mike, who is a non-eccentric, everyman cricket star.
What Makes It Great:
Do you like identity porn? Do you like satire? Do you like completely devoted, self-sacrificing best friends who are immensely shippable? Do you like odd couples? Do you like stories set at dreamy English castles, with bonus mysteries, heists, and action scenes? Do you like angst with a happy ending? Do you like exquisitely pyrotechnic celebrations of the English language? Do you like to laugh? Do you like breathing? If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, you will like these books!
This series often gets recced as a good example of the English boarding school genre; however, only the first book takes place at school. The rest put the boys in a variety of locales and situations. There's truly something for everyone.
The greatest draws of the series are:
• Psmith himself – Psmith's dialogue is unparalleled in gentle, eccentric hilarity. The guy talks non-stop and it's always so weird and funny and charming. But then, when necessity demands, he will very calmly, very elegantly, very sexily take you down and make you squirm. If you go after Mike, he will destroy you and blandly pretend to Mike that he had nothing to do with it. He's an eccentric genius, but a really nice example of one. He's a snob about everything except people, whom he likes no matter their class.
• Odd Couples – Mike is the opposite of Psmith in terms of dialogue and temperament. Watching their back and forth is beautiful. Even better is how mastermind Psmith respects and constantly compliments Mike's simple, straightforward contributions (compliments AND complements!). The wonderful thing is how the narrative never makes Mike the butt of the joke, or treats him as bland foil. One of the reasons this is my favorite series is because, unlike in his other books, Wodehouse allows Mike to wallow in so much believable ANGST, which makes Psmith's sly resolutions all the more satisfying.
• The writing – In addition to the dialogue, the plotting -- specifically in Leave It to Psmith -- is AMAZING. Even aside from the character of Psmith, this is one of Wodehouse's most satisfying, perfectly crafted masterpieces.
If, after reading the main four books, you find yourself equally in love with Mike as with Psmith, try the prequel called simply "Mike". It's on Gutenberg HERE. It's a classic boarding school novel about Mike before he met Psmith. I wouldn't recommend starting with it, since it's not as interesting as the Psmith ones (and therefore might bore you and make you stop before you get to the good stuff), and it isn't remotely necessary to understand the later ones.
Content Warnings: Honestly, the biggest content warning is about the cricket content. It's zzzzz. When you see a game starting, just skim until it looks like the characters and narrative start talking about other things. You won't be missing anything. More seriously, part of the reason Psmith, Journalist is my least favorite is because Wodehouse wrote out phonetic accents for a few NYC characters, which, with most writers, tends to come off... yikes. You don't get that in the other books, thankfully.
I know a lot of people consider writing Wodehouse fic very intimidating ; however, this is not Jeeves. Mike's canonical 3rd person POV is incredibly straightforward and simple. I promise. Please? Pretty please?
Vagrant Story
Date: 2020-08-01 04:38 am (UTC)Title: Vagrant Story
Media: Video Game (Playstation One, available on later platforms as well, released in 2000.)
Approx length: 24 - 30 hours playtime, or two hours to watch the cut scenes.
Where to find it: Watch all the cut scenes as a movie, or Playstation (discs or download). See the concept art here.
What is it, in summary?
Would you like:
An iron woobie, one man army with memory/identity tropes and, it must be said, assless battle shorts?
A sorcerer prophet with metal limbs, claws, and a magical tattoo that binds him to The Dark, a supernatural force that may or may not be sentient? And telepathy powers that let him play on the woobie's memory issues? And, it also must be said, leather pants with a butt cape that do not do up at the front?
A loyal lieutenant to the sorcerer, who will follow him anywhere?
An evil Templar on a mission to steal the supernatural force for ~~his church~~ himself?
A small supporting cast of mercenaries, agents and knights who all get enough story to be interesting?
An abandoned magical city in ruins?
Dragons, zombies, creepy dolls, animate suits of armour, minotaurs, zombie minotaurs, and monsters of all kinds?
Vagrant Story is an RPG style dungeon crawl with a focus on weapons, the creation and use thereof, with a pretty cool story.
Riskbreaker Ashley "I am the reinforcements" Riot, is sent to deal with a situation at a politically important Duke's manor. Cult leader Sydney "I am the hart and you are the hunter" Losstarot is searching for a grimoire there, but when he doesn't find it, escapes to the ruined magical city of Lea Monde. You play as Ashley, fighting his way through Lea Monde's denizens and Sydney's mind games while building better and better gear for yourself.
Meanwhile Romeo Guildenstern commands the cardinal's Crimson Blades, sent to seize the grimoire for the church, and - yes - Rosencrantz is an amoral rival Riskbreaker there to steal Ashley's thunder and play more mind games. Blade officers Tieger and Neesa are a delight.
There are three female characters who get lines. Inquisitor Callo Merlose should be working with Ashley but he's not cooperative, so she's doing her own thing, and she's really cool. She gets superpowers by the end. Lady Samantha gets a terrible storyline, but she has excellent potential. Commander Neesa of the Crimson Blades is a total delight and I wish we got more of her.
The ending is ambiguous enough to leave a lot of room open for post-canon directions.
A warning, if you decide to play this: working out the Snowfly Forest on your own is not worth the trouble. Go look up a map for it. It's a stupid level and every single person who has ever played this game agrees.
What do you love about it?
This game is just visually beautiful. I mean, the in-game graphics are twenty years old, the resolution is pretty horrible, but the concept art gives you enough to go on.
An enemies to allies mind games ship, an iron woobie, and a snarky metal armed sorcerer with claws. CLAWS. Sydney gave up his arms (and possibly his legs, it's a debate) voluntarily in order to become the Rood Bearer, the person who wears the Blood Sin tattoo and therefore is the avatar of The Dark. He can, as a short list, summon creatures, heal himself but not without pain, and use telepathy-like powers to push Ashley into his memories and talk to him there.
Ashley is kind of mentally disintegrating as he fights his way through the game, thanks to Sydney's forcing him to question his memories, and that plus his obsession with catching Sydney to see his mission through is my catnip.
By the end, Ashley, a brute-force fighter, has magic he has very little idea what to do with. It hits my love for "I'm dangerous to other people, I need to go off by myself, oh no, here is my old enemy here to help me" tropes so hard.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Likely comics, and maybe fic too. Monster fighting, Ashley and Sydney working together, post-game mentor/student magic learning, Idk, sex magic maybe.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? See links to cut scenes above.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): There are zombies, and zombies who know they are zombies and are sad about it. There is an instance of betrayal and murder of a female partner by a male character. The violence is not graphic but when there are death scenes they are drawn out.
The Seer and the Sword - Victoria Hanley
Date: 2020-08-01 10:51 am (UTC)Media, length, availability, what it is: One Young Adult fantasy novel. Out of print, available on Kindle in some regions and possibly secondhand in paperback.
The Seer and the Sword is part of the author's "Healer and Seer Series", but this is an extremely loose grouping that does not share an era, a location, or a magic system, let alone characters; you do not remotely need to read the other two books.
This is an indulgently tropey fantasy that starts with a conquered and enslaved prince (Landen) being given as a gift to a princess (Torina), who promptly frees him. Over the course of the novel, both characters find their lives violently uprooted and must assume new identities and discover new skills; the courses of their lives are also deeply affected by the goals of a third royal figure, High King Dahmis.
What I love: There is so much pining! Pining for people you can't have, pining for people thought dead... Just pining in general. There is also competence, and dramatic episodes of competence! Torina is self-assured and brave; Landen is defiant and inventive and charismatic; Dahmis is charismatic, dedicated, and a visionary. And there is identity porn. So much identity porn. Also, of course, there is an adventure plot, involving politics between kings, a magic sword, a crystal ball that gives visions in the right hands, and a foreign invasion...
What I'm asking for: You can probably guess from the description so far that there is a romance between Landen and Torina, but the romance between Dahmis and Torina, and Dahmis and Landen, is nearly as textual. Dahmis can't stop thinking of Torina; Torina is tempted by Dahmis. Landen is utterly thrilled to work for Dahmis; Dahmis is intrigued by and deeply admiring of Landen. I really want to get all of them together, though more pining, or more politics and worldbuilding, would be a plus.
Content warnings: This is pretty safely middle-grade in tone and content (and prose). However, realms invade each other, there is slavery, there is murder and threatened murder, there is drugging, and there is a threat of coerced marriage.