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fandomgrowthexchange2017-08-04 09:14 am
fgemods) wrote in fandomgrowthexchange2017-08-04 09:14 am
Promote Your Rare Characters, Relationships, and Fandoms
The Fandom Growth Exchange is all about growing the rare fandoms, relationships, and characters of your heart. We have an awesome tagset loaded with canons that many of us haven't yet had the pleasure of experiencing.
Comment below to share your fandom, where to find the canon, and what you love about it!
A form to help if you like:
Comment below to share your fandom, where to find the canon, and what you love about it!
A form to help if you like:
no subject
Where to find the canon:Season 1-2 on Netflix in the US (not sure about abroad), Season 3 currently airing
What I love about it: Diverse cast led by a woman of color; tropey fun; wrestling with what makes a human; overwhelming plot is humans vs corporate domination, which is v. real in 2017
Fandom Name: British Comedy RPF
Where to find the canon: Clips all over YouTube, look for sources like The IT Crowd (Richard and Noel), The Great British Bake-Off (Mel and Sue), Travel Man (Starring Richard, with episodes guest-starring Noel and Mel) and basically any quiz show, especially The Big Fat Quiz 20xx (it's annual, and frequently features Richard and/or Noel (usually on a hilarious team together) with occasional Mel and Sue)
What I love about it: Gosh wow these people are so funny and have good comedy ethics (see Richard complaining about the sexual assault themes in "Blurred Lines" on The Big Fat Quiz, etc). The shows they're on are (to me) relateable and funny and highly quotable. Also, just, The Great British Bake-Off! What more can you say, really.
Fandom Name: Jane the Virgin
Where to find the canon: Seasons 1-3 on Netflix in the US,
not sure about abroad
What I love about it: sfhsdflsdfsdf just the best soap opera/telenovela ever. Spoofs/gently teases telenovelas a lot. Fantastic, dimensional characters with complicated interpersonal relationships and drama. Hilarious narrator is great! Main character Jane is sdlfjsd;fsdf amazing omg. Her actress, Gina Rodriguez, is an amazing human as well.
Fandom Name:Stargate Atlantis
Where to find the canon: Hulu, I think?
What I love about it: man I feel dirty requesting Stargate, but these really are rare relationships!! idk it's stargate
Hythrun Chronicles - Jennifer Fallon
Where to find the canon: Available on Kindle and there's been recent new books so they should be accessible in print pretty easily. The most recent release (after Lyre Thief) isn't available in Europe yet though, grr.
What I love about it: Jennifer Fallon is one of my absolute favourite Australian fantasy authors, and is a delightfully consistent one at that. When she starts a new series you know they're going to run for 3-4 books and probably be released six months apart, and they're going to have some awesome female characters and interesting worldbuilding.
The Hythrun Chronicles strings together three of those mini-series into a cohesive world. The Medalon trilogy was written first and can be read as a self-contained story that is much more about gods and magic. The Hythrun or Wolfblade trilogy came next (and lead to the overall series name) and is a prequel more focused on political machinations and can also be read alone. Lyre Thief was released last year as the first of the War of the Gods trilogy, and builds off both Medalon and Hythrun/Wolfblade.
This series is largely about strong and complex female characters kicking butt and taking names with a fun side of magic, gods who walk among people and get up to shenanigans, demons, and typical fantasy style politics and warring nations. Worth noting as well, and very indicative of this series and the ways in which it can be subtly clever and unique, is that demons aren't scary bad things here. They're tiny slightly absurd squeaky creatures that want to be friends and love pranks but do still have big scary powers when they want to.
From a content notes perspective, this series contains violence, death, sexual assault, coercion, slavery, and generally doesn't shy away from the potential darker themes of a feudal-style fantasy setting. It's also no Terry Goodkind or Game of Thrones, but if you need more specific information I'm always happy to answer questions.
Obernewtyn Chronicles - Isobelle Carmody
Where to find the canon: it was concluded just over a year or so ago so should still be easily found in print at least.
What I love about it: Obernewtyn is a post-apocalyptic fantasy series with plenty of commentary on our present day society (the Beforetime) with a healthy dose of fantastical elements introduced through super human abilities and by upping the technology level of the present day prior to the actual apocalypse. There's also secret underground rebellions, (mentally) talking animals, the odd and the down trodden taking back control, grand quests, lots of found family, artificial intelligences playing god and getting strange outcomes, and the main storyline is about two women in different times who get to save the world together.
This series was one of the formative series of my childhood so I will always love it dearly, even if Isobelle developed a serious problem with editors towards the end of it. Books 1-4 are fantastic, and then the writing goes progressively downhill from there (though when you can look past that, the story and worldbuilding are still greatly enjoyable!) The downhill nature is more in the form of she took so long between books that she seemed to be convinced the reader needs lots and lots of backstory and exposition to remember previous events, so I generally find it bad in the easily skimmed through the bad bits kind of way. The series also works towards an ultimate arc with Elspeth's quest, but there's plenty of smaller arcs and conclusion points that could be a satisfying stop point if you wanted to just get the best bits out of it.
From a content notes perspective, the main good guys in this series are considered sub-human and lacking in full rights according to the dominant social system. There's also some violence, death, torture, and slavery at points, and we're talking about a post-nuclear war setting so life can be hard in various ways. Isobelle also fails pretty hard with the Romani/gypsies-as-a-fantasy-trope thing, and a few similar issues. If you need more specific information I'm always happy to answer questions
Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Where to find the canon: Kindle or they should be in print as there's been recent additions to the series.
What I love about it: Oh, another series of my childhood/heart! This series can be broken down into the original trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) which can be read as standalone, Clariel which is a prequel and can be read standalone as well, Across the Wall which is a short story/novelette in a short story compilation of the same name and takes place between Abhorsen and Goldenhand but could be skipped, and Goldenhand which is the latest book and builds off everything that came before it. All are young adult, so all are a reasonably quick read as well.
If you haven't read it before, why start? Well, here is a series about female protagonists written well despite a male author. It's also a glorified magic zombie book filled with necromancy and the young women in it charge off into challenges and battles alone and largely unprepared and tend to do well along the way regardless. There's also malevolent magic creatures, a mystical library full of dangerous things where being a librarian is more like being a warrior, a rather complicatedly fascinating toying with the idea of reality by literally smooshing two realms (mundane and magical) against each other, and a pretty rich backstory and setting that the author can't seem to stop himself returning to despite all intentions otherwise because it's that damn good.
From a content notes perspective, the primary focus of these books is on an extended family of people with magical abilities, one branch of which is about using magic to quell evil sorcerers and send their zombies and demons back into death where they can't hurt people anymore. So there's death (though the actual place Death is really kind of interesting and peaceful), there's pain, there's misery and destroyed villages and desolation. The magic involved can at its worst be used to strip mental and bodily autonomy from people, so that's not exactly light. It's also a young adult series about young women triumphing though, so the tone is lighter than you might expect and it's not unrelenting misery. If you need more specific information I'm always happy to answer questions.
The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Where to find the canon: Currently available on Netflix UK, so check your local streaming service.
What I love about it: I'll be honest, I have a soft spot for Vin in fantasy and sci-fi roles. I blame his inner DnD geek, but he just seems to have so much fun with them and I never care about how silly they are. This movie, however, has layers that particularly grab at me. With a premise of immortal dude faces off against evil inhuman witch, it would be really easy to make it a pretty 2D fight. Yet we see Kaulder kind and caring, despite his horrible long life. He wants to help the teenage witch who mucked up on the plane not scare her into sense, he'd care if Chloe was falsely accused, and he doesn't think they're like us (humans) but it's just an unemotional fact to him. Not a judgement. For a man who lost everything he loved to witches and is thought of as the boogeyman, he doesn't have a lot of vengeance in him.
I also love the little glimpses we get into the normal everyday life of witches. I want to know about the society that allows for a bar like Chloe's to prosper. I want to know about the tiny, pleasurable magics that feed into that awesome looking light flower on her drinks tray. Or their ties to the earth. Or the many ways in which they feel connected to human society, and not superior to it. Just witches being witches and getting on with their lives. There's a bit of a Harry Potter amazement factor there that is obviously irrelevant to the part of the story that would include Vin Diesel so it's not the focus, but it's tantalising.
From a content notes perspective, it's a Vin Diesel movie. So there's plenty of violence, death, evil magic, magic used to strip autonomy from people or punish them, etc. etc. They're pretty good at not making all the evil witches female, but the ultimate fight is still good dude vs. evil woman. I am, as always, happy to answer any questions
Robotics;Notes
Where to find the canon: http://www.crunchyroll.com/roboticsnotes/episode-1-because-gunvarrel-is-waiting-743755
I originally watched the dub on some streaming site. If you hate subs and can find it, the dub for both this anime and its same-universe predecessor are truly phenomenal dubs. This coming from someone who begrudgingly learned to prefer subs, I still would almost consider them equal.
What I love about it: This show is the successor to a more popular anime and VN, Steins;Gate. They are both part of a slightly larger universe called Science Adventure. (There's another bit of the universe I've never seen and couldn't really tell you about.) Without spoiling Steins;Gate too much, it is about time travel and shifting world-lines. I highly recommend that series, too, but it has an established English-language fanbase.
In the first few seconds of Robotics;Notes, you will see some orange numbers projected on the screen. This is to indicate that it is not only in the same overall universe but in the same timeline as Steins;Gate was at its end. If you have seen Steins;Gate, this is extremely heartwarming and exciting from the get-go. I will say that if I were to guess why Robotics;Notes is nowhere near as popular as Steins;Gate, I would say that its relationship to its predecessor might hurt as much as help it. Steins;Gate is a very intense, emotionally involved experience from the very beginning. Robotics;Notes, on the other hand, is a much lighter-feeling show until at least halfway through the series. It is a much slower build to its own drama, and when the drama gets there it somehow feels more optimistic even when things are very dire. I think that this is a strength of it as a descendant of Steins;Gate, but some might find it to be a considerable mood whiplash.
Of course, if you have seen neither of these things, you are completely in the dark about both of them. As I said, this is a dual recommendation for Robotics;Notes and Steins;Gate, but Robotics;Notes is the fandom in need of much, much more love in the English speaking fan community.
Set in Tanegashima, a small island in Japan which houses a launchpad facility of JAXA (Japanese equivalent to NASA), the story revolves around Senomiya Akiho and her neighbor and best friend Yashio Kaito. They are in their second-to-last year of high school when the story begins. Aki and Kai are the only members of their high school's robotics club, a club started by Aki's older sister before she graduated high school and got a job. Aki has lost much of her contact with her sister and wants to keep her sister's dream alive. The primary and ultimate goal of the club has been to construct a life-size and working model of Gunvarrel, the title mech from a popular mecha genre anime that had ended abruptly, just before its final episode, some time earlier.
Aki is still very invested in the series itself, its plot and characters, as well as the aspect of it which involves a real life project. Kai, on the other hand, remains involved in name only for Aki's sake. While he had at one point been into the anime as she was, he has moved on to primarily being interested in Kill Ballad, an app fighting game on their PhoneDroid pads. (This series is from a few years ago and is strangely prophetic of something like Type Moon's relationship to something like Fate/Grand Order.)
Over the course of the series, the pair make friends with three other characters who round out a sort of Five Man Band trope cast. The group's first task is to compete in a small robot fighting tournament. Then, things gradually get more and more serious until there actually is some world-saving involved. This series is really nice on a meta level about fandom and its meaning. Another thing I adore about this series and Steins;Gate is that both series is the near perfect mixture of slice of life and a building plot with an ominous, technology-based paranoia about the future with the pervading idea that bringing humanity back into it can make it less terrifying after all.
Robotics;Notes combines a lot of elements in a way I'm not sure I can do justice: friendship and relationships, the frustration of living in a small town where the primary industry has mostly moved on, the cusp of adulthood and the end of childhood, urban legends, conspiracy theories, an honest to goodness evil organization, and young women being interested in science.
I cannot hear the soundtrack without feeling happy. It has a very cartoony, light art style, but I have got to say that it works for the tone of the show while the show itself isn't unbearably bubbly. Don't be fooled by the first couple of episodes, there will be death and terror. But ultimately, you will find that no matter how dark the cloud gets, there will turn out to be a silver lining, and that is my favorite kind of fiction.
It's really great, and I'm not sure I've done it justice. Its episodes are only 23 minutes or so long, and I'd love to have more people interested! If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.
Alphas (TV)
Where to find the canon: Amazon (sadly, it's not on Netflix or Hulu, and Amazon Prime only has the 2nd season free)
What I love about it: So many things, it's ridiculous. First off, it has the best ensemble cast I've seen yet. It's diverse in many ways - with one of the women being Iranian-American, a black guy who's the one experienced law enforcement member of the team, a canon autistic character that's done very very well, there's a lot to like! The show is also not afraid to let the characters grow, change, and transform in interesting ways. You can see the team here: http://www.entertainmentwallpaper.com/images/desktops/movie/tv-alphas18.jpg
The general plot is as follows: Dr. Lee Rosen, a psychiatrist and therapist, leads a government-sponsored team of Alphas, people with extraordinary abilities (often referred to as "neurological differences"). Using their various gifts (which range from being able to temporarily reprogram minds to being able to see all electromagnetic waves), they solve crimes and, over time, are gradually sucked into a deeper agenda involving the government and an Alpha terrorist group called Red Flag. The moral dilemmas are complex, with few black-and-white lines, and the characters run a similar gamut.
Alphas is frequently compared to X-Men (not surprising, given Zak Penn wrote X2 and X3 before Alphas) and Heroes, but takes a slightly different approach. Rather than focusing on over-the-top, flashy, impossible gifts, Alphas takes ordinary human talents (overall) and dials them up by 1000 to get Alpha abilities. Plus, every Alpha ability comes with a downside; the show is more a deconstruction of humans with superpowers than a celebration of it. These characters, as one trailer put it, don't get to crime scenes in fancy jets beneath their office floor, they have to deal with the ordinary transportation issues anyone else does. They also deal with overprotective or dysfunctional families, insecurities and emotional scars, and various other challenges like anyone else.
As far as plot goes, no show is perfect, but Alphas does a great job at blending A-plot and B-plot, weaving in big themes and showing the characters wrestling with them over time. There's shadowy government agencies and rumors, there's Alpha terrorists with unclear motives and plans, there are loyalties tested and stretched and divided. And the show does not pull punches with the viewers - if you get into it, you'll probably shed a tear or two in a few episodes. But it is well worth watching all 24 episodes (even with the terrible cliffhanger at the end of the show!). I can't recommend this one enough.
Dance Academy
Dance Academy
Where to find the canon:
Three seasons available on Hulu
What I love about it: It's plain fun, treats the dancers like real humans and they feel real with all their awkwardness, depth, and multidimensionality. I started off hating Abigail and by the end of the series she became my favorite character. They're all genuinely flawed and yet compelling and likeable and it's funny for real and actually makes me cry on the sad moments and dancing. This is TV comfort food.
If you like school canons, dancing, and characters who have some spectacular failboat moments on their way to figuring out life but that you can truly root for, this is a great canon for that.
To Kiss the Granite Choir – Michael Anthony Ashley
To Kiss the Granite Choir – Michael Anthony Ashley
Where to find the canon:
A short story on Beneath Ceaseless Skies
What I love about it: The worldbuilding. Sword-fighting as singing. A fantasy race practically born to fight. They grow their stone swords from their arms! And a shapeshifting race that adapts to anything. And a super competent, ornery failboat who falls in love and does it all wrong with aborted, frustrated sex in the middle and misunderstandings and an ending that makes you feel it. With a super fun brother for lighthearted commentary through some of the rough bits. (I love Eroico.)
Doppelganger series – Marie Brennan
Doppelganger series – Marie Brennan
Where to find the canon:
What I love about it: Dancers and warriors and magic and deep characterization and ethical issues and serious study of said magic and engaged deity and all of it, just yes, please.
The characters and the worldbuilding grabbed me on this one. Most of the important characters are woman. Everyone's complicated. People who start off as enemies or annoying may win you over. The characters end up questioning their own world and remaking it through the course of it all. If you love dancing, good combat scenes, and an interesting religious and magic system with lots of different ways of interacting with it and a non-monolithic culture that actually gets explored a bit, this is an awesome series.
食戟のソーマ | Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
食戟のソーマ | Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
Where to find the canon:
Manga free to read online
What I love about it: Lots of food porn and cooking competence and a fun set of characters. It's the characters that make the manga for me, and really, all the food porn. You get these sets of two or three characters you just fall in love with, like Megumi, quiet but quietly competent, and more colorful personalities who are nonetheless dedicated to their craft and often to their special person they are loyal to. And then there's Souma who's just hardheaded determined to be the best, more than a little annoying, and fond of playing with food combinations that are either amazing or horrific.
Norn9 (Anime)
Norn9 (Anime)
Where to find the canon:
A single season of anime, available on Hulu
What I love about it: I love all things superhumans. There are superhumans and messing with time shenanigans and characters from different timelines and enemies turned friends, family turned enemy, an actual immortal cyborg, painful backstory, and irrevocable huge decisions. If you're a sucker for any of those things, this is an awesome little one-season anime.
The Fey – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Fey – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Where to find the canon:
Fantasy book series (with lots of bloody violence) available on Scribd
While the overall worldbuilding storyline is incomplete still, each book finishes a story arc and leaves the characters at a suitable ending point for the most part. There are often years (story-time) between books.
What I love about it: This series is full of awesome characters who aren’t always on the same side when you’re rooting for both and it’s bloodier than I usually like (yes, I skim the gore), but the WORLDBUILDING.
There are different cultures understanding of how power and the magic system work, clashing religions, coy Powers orchestrating much of this mess, family with a magical law necessary to prevent them from killing each other, history mostly lost to time with all sorts of intriguing stuff dropped all over the place, characters that grab me, stakes that matter, favorite characters that die, favorite characters that survive (and a lot of times you really can't predict which it will be). It's just so good.
Razor Sharp (2006)
Razor Sharp (2006)
Where to find the canon:
A 25-minute short film free on Vimeo
What I love about it: It’s a 25 minute short movie (avail. free on Vimeo) about a banged up thief operation where Veronica Sharpe (who inherited the business and old family friend + Russian supercomputer sister from her dad) has morals and will happily grift some tech from a corporation but she doesn’t touch art and she certainly isn’t going to steal what sleazy Dex (played by the Pretender) has in mind. (Well, she will, but not hand it over afterward.)
The banter is so good and it's just this funny, perfect little gem.
Winnie the Horse Gentler Series – Dandi Daley Mackall
Winnie the Horse Gentler Series – Dandi Daley Mackall
Where to find the canon:
A wonderful kids series of eight books about horses and family. It’s lighthearted fun and best if you don’t take it too seriously. Starlight Animal Rescue is the follow-up series, a quartet, and my requested pairing appears in the last book of that, Dark Horse, complete with first kiss.
What I love about it: Basically, it's funny, cute, light comfort reading. If you don't mind that the characters are Christian and if you like the Phantom Stallion books, this is a delightful series in that vein. The dad's an inventor, the main character Winnie is good with horses, she's friend with a dog-lover and Catman Coolidge who collects cats like he's the pied piper. It's heartwarming and that's what I love about it.
no subject
Where to find the canon: The whole Heroine/Toma storyline on Youtube: Episode 8 (English sub): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qShek8LwGD0
Episode 9 (English sub): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txOTe4CZicE
Episode 10 (English sub): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO8-POKTJJ4
What I love about it: In Amnesia, the amnesiac heroine has to investigate her past within a time limit, and I love the identity issues and the mystery of the game. I love Toma/Heroine because I like pining angst, obsessiveness and protectiveness and Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome in a perfect match.
Fandom Name: Imperial Steamworks Series - James Ng
Where to find the canon: http://jamesngart.com/imperialsteamandlight.html
What I love about it: I love the mix of ancient Chinese and steampunk in this series of paintings, and the character concept are fascinating and begging for stories.
Fandom Name: Minus. (Web Comics)
Where to find the canon: You can read the entire comics free online: https://web.archive.org/web/20060413173320/http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus.html
What I love about it: Minus is a web comics about a quiet little girl who can change everything in the world. I love the sense of childlike wonder and how the comic ranges from flight of whimsy and surreal horror.
Fandom Name: The Heroic Trio (1993)
Where to find the canon: Y仙鍆乞Y: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPeAkNULyZc
What I love about it: The ultimate Dream Team of female Hong Kong talent: Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh, and Maggie Cheung in the same movie? Check.
Competent action heroines who spent a lot of time fighting and know what they’re doing? Check.
Angsty second meeting with presumed dead friend now on different side and has angsty reconciliation? Check.
Villainess with angsty background and reluctantly turns to the good people’s side? Check.
Fandom Name: Autumn's Journey (Visual Novel)
Where to find the canon: The game is free and you can download it here: https://apple-cider.itch.io/autumns-journey
What I love about it: It's a very cute otome game with adorable interaction between the three main characters. I love how enthusiastic the heroine is about being a knight, and her both love interests are very sweet.