Canon Promo Post 2020

[modzilla]

Please use this post to promote the fandoms you're interested in requesting, or ask for recommendations of canons that suit you!

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.

Comments

[aearis]

I know you said Chimera Squad is a standalone, but would you recommend playing any of the other games first to better understand the world/backstory?

[kanadka]

That's actually a really good question. While the other games aren't necessary to enjoy Chimera Squad, they do provide some background information (just not nearly as much as you might think). But they're also tonally completely different from Chimera Squad. So I think on the whole the answer would be 'no, but check out some of the cutscenes from XCOM 2, specifically War of the Chosen; and if you like it, go ahead and play XCOM 2! it is fun!'

While there's an 'in medias res' feel to the opening of the campaign movie I linked, I suspect that's intentional - there's no missing in-game information from XCOM 2 that would help bridge XCOM 2 to Chimera Squad in a satisfying way. Chimera Squad just sort of starts off with that X Years Later feel, and I'm fairly sure that's by design.

But there is a difference in tone between Chimera Squad, and the first XCOM ("Enemy Unknown", has an expansion "Enemy Within") and its sequel XCOM 2 (has an expansion "War of the Chosen"). Chimera Squad is sort of a post-war more jocular team feel but XCOM/XCOM 2 are darker and come with a few more content warnings (body horror, autopsying/mad science, explosions, the usual alien invasion war stuff). It's a little like if Men in Black were the sequel to Independence Day. Both main XCOM games are also a lot longer than Chimera Squad is.

That said, if you're interested in the mood-whiplashy potential of Chimera Squad and the characters' darker pasts (which are hinted-at in the game and promo materials, but never really fleshed out), then XCOM 2 does help ground that aspect of the world and backstory. The expansion "War of the Chosen" especially gives more information about what happens to Earth and its citizens during the occupation and control by the aliens, as well as resistance groups on Earth who aren't XCOM (and most of those groups are human, but one is made up of rebellious genetically altered human/alien hybrids). For the most part, XCOM 2/War of the Chosen takes place in and around XCOM headquarters, not on Earth, though, so I'd advocate watching the cutscenes (the first 35 minutes are probably enough, and bonus, you get to meet the Chosen, who are really fun enemies) over an actual playthrough (between 30-50 hours). But if those cutscenes pique your interest about the game, I absolutely do recommend it.

(While the first XCOM: Enemy Unknown, is also good, the game mechanics are similar enough to XCOM 2 that you're not missing anything, and it's a bit dated.)

I should also note that one character does show up in XCOM 2 and Chimera Squad, and that's Jane Kelly, who starts in XCOM 2 as a wee baby Rookie and then shows up in Chimera Squad as a Colonel. But I think that's more for fun continuity than anything else; she doesn't feature as more than a name in XCOM 2 and only gets developed in Chimera Squad.

that... was really wordy, I am sorry /o\ I'm just really passionate about XCOM!

[aearis]

Thanks for the information! I'll check it out :)

[kanadka]

❤️❤️ I hope you'll enjoy it!