A community for fannish manifestos (This thing is AMAZING. Here's why.)

March Meta Matters Challenge 2026 Returning!

2026-02-17T22:41:04Z

Posted by: yourlibrarian

March 1 is just weeks away, so that means the kickoff to this year's March Meta Matters Challenge will be taking place soon! The challenge involves locating and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation, plus there will be some prompts for creating new meta.

Feel free to ask questions here about the challenge, locations, etc. Otherwise subscribe to marchmetamatterschallenge and look for our opening post on March 1!

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The Goes Wrong Show: A Primer

2026-01-26T10:39:45Z

Posted by: rionaleonhart

I originally wrote this primer for tv_talk, and a friend said I should also post it here! I apologise to anyone who's seeing this multiple times.

If anyone's in the mood for something silly and fun, I'd like to recommend The Goes Wrong Show, which I discovered recently and absolutely fell in love with.

What is The Goes Wrong Show?

If you've heard of The Play That Goes Wrong, this comedy series is from the same theatre company, Mischief Theatre. Every thirty-minute episode is a new short play, performed by the determined but deeply unfortunate Cornley Drama Society. Every play goes as wrong as humanly possible.

In addition to being very funny, the plays are startlingly impressive technical achievements. These are genuine stage plays being filmed in front of a live audience, and making things 'go wrong' convincingly requires incredible pinpoint timing. So much hard work goes into messing everything up; it must be so much trickier than performing a play that goes right!

If you like Taskmaster, you might also enjoy this; they have a similar sense of people desperately struggling on with their mission while everything falls apart around them.

( Character overview below the cut. )

How much of The Goes Wrong Show is there?

Just twelve episodes of thirty minutes each. The Goes Wrong Show was dropped by the BBC after the second series, but the episodes are largely self-contained and satisfying in themselves, so there's no sense of an overarching story cut short.

If you watch and enjoy the show, there are two one-hour television specials you might also want to seek out: Peter Pan Goes Wrong, and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, both of which predate the show itself.

Where can I watch The Goes Wrong Show?

There's a good chance you'll be able to watch it at no cost! If you're in the UK, it's on BBC iPlayer (or DVD, if you don't have a television licence).

If you're outside the UK, I believe The Goes Wrong Show is officially available for free on the Lionsgate YouTube channel; this YouTube playlist should have all twelve episodes. I've heard from a couple of people based in the US that it's also on Amazon Prime there.

If I only ever watch one episode of this show, which would you recommend?

I love the whole show, and I think the first-listed episode ('The Spirit of Christmas') is a solid starting point. If you only ever watch one, though, the episode '90 Degrees' is a genuinely insane, extraordinary feat of performance. If you're wondering, they're not using CGI; they actually did that.

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Manga primer: K-9: Public Security Bureau – Division 9 – Special Abilities Countermeasure

2025-12-25T11:01:55Z

Posted by: vriddy

I've fallen into a new manga head-first, and hope to maybe entice some of you out there to check it out, if it seems like it might be relevant to your interests :D If you enjoy OT4 ships, it can work as a mini-primer on them♡ too, but no need for shipping goggles to enjoy this series, it's really really good as it is! Crossposted to my journal.)

It was hard for me to figure out how to even start a promo post, because it only took one picture to get me to try it out:

...I didn't really ask any more questions after that. Bonus impact for stumbling on it in Japanese because the "kept pet" implied in the verb is lovely, and obviously plays with the K-9/"police dog" title.

Anyway, meet Oboro on the left - he's great - and Ren on the right - she's great. The art is beautiful, and everyone is very pretty.

About the world

Some people have special abilities, most of which are not well understood. Only one thing is known for sure: these abilities manifest after someone commits a crime. For example, the criminal from the first chapter is an arsonist and can control/become fire. (Somewhat unrelated, but this is pretty fun coming in from the Boku No Hero Academia world, because it's like a universe in which only bad guys get a quirk.) Here, these abilities are called "sins." In the Japanese, it's simply the kanji for crime with "sin" written in katakana beside it.

This seems pretty simplistic at first glance, but that slowly changes as we drill deeper into the worldbuilding and learn the nuances of these abilities and how they manifest. The implications are deeply fucked up, with often devastating consequences that I'm totally here for as my heart gets shattered again and again.

The story premise

Our plucky detective Ren is selected to join Division 9, a newly created division that pairs a detective with a sin user in order to fight fire with fire -- what could possibly go wrong?! I love her. She kicks so much ass.

So, who's our main cast?

( Short character profiles )

TOGETHER THEY FIGHT CRIME! More specifically, crime related to sin users. But they also get their asses kicked and handed over to them quite a bit, haha.

( A bit more on the story and on them )

Where to read? How many chapters are out?

( 37 chapters, 3 volumes. Totally possible to catch up in a reasonable amount of time! )

Bonus scythe, for fellow appreciators of the Rule of Cool

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TTRPG Primer: JENNA MORAN'S MIRACULOUS ROLE-PLAYING MULTIVERSE

2025-03-21T21:50:59Z

Posted by: stepnix

I'm going to tell you about a bunch of games by Jenna Moran!

FOR FANTASY FANS: These are games with complex symbolic landscapes, a million little glimpses into larger stories, and they're literally designed for building OCs with strong personal aesthetics.

FOR TTRPG FANS: These games are largely diceless, with strong narrative infrastructure, and plenty of fuel for drama that can't be simply be solved through combat

You WILL have extended philosophical debates during play. This is a significant appeal for my particular circles.

Nobilis and Glitch

( These are the stories of the Age of Pain, and the war between Creation and the void... )

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, and the Far Roofs

( These are the stories of... what comes after. )

The Community

The Apocynum Press Itch collection gathers homebrew and fan materials that get posted to Itch.

Karma Chameleon is a pillar of the community. As well as their lovely art, they've made the Quest Set builder for managing Chuubo's and Glitch quests, and an interactive overview of recurring miraculous traits.

Here on Dreamwidth, we have the Jennafans Community!. On Discord, there's the Ninuan fan server.

Jenna Moran herself can be found at her personal site, Tumblr; and on Patreon, where she sometimes posts draft or preview material for the games mentioned. Her older fiction can be found at the Hitherby Dragons wiki

Finally, The Flood is not set in any of these worlds. It's a game about something else entirely (poetry farming). But it does feature its own version of the recurring Arcs scaffolding, so it may be worth a look.

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March Meta Matters Challenge 2025

2025-02-04T18:25:03Z

Posted by: yourlibrarian

The kickoff to this year's March Meta Matters Challenge is just 4 weeks away! As usual, the challenge involves identifying and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation. There will also be several prompts for creating new meta. ( Read more... )

Feel free to ask questions about the challenge, locations, etc. at our announcement post and then look for our opening post on March 1!

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Ship Manifesto: Delenn/Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5)

2025-02-02T23:17:36Z

Posted by: muccamukk

What Is the Canon?

Babylon 5 was a military science fiction/space opera TV series that ran from 1993 to 1998 (plus or minus a variety of spin offs and TV movies, which are not relevant to this manifesto). It followed a space station in a neutral area of the galaxy, which was built to be a diplomatic and trading hub between various galactic empires. After about one and a half seasons of trying to keep the peace, the plot moved on to several inter-planetary wars and attempts to build a new order.

The special effects showed off the very finest of computer-generated images from the 1990s, and the plot showed off one guy manically writing almost the entirety of five 22-episode seasons. It will spoil you for all other science fiction arc plots, and is also awkwardly earnest a lot. I've seen it short-handed as "The Lord of the Rings in Space" which is... fair if you forget that the Hobbits were the main characters in LotR.

Here's the opening credits from season one, to give you an idea of the tone:

(Also, every season redid the credits to match where the arc plot was, including with different music, which was really cool. Also, also the music throughout the series was great!)

Show Me the Space Ladies!

( Read more... )

Is There Much Shippy Canon?

This is admittedly more of a "two great tastes that taste great together" type ship, rather than a "Wow! It's practically canon!" situation. Because they both have separate romance plots, and Ivanova tends to be in charge of the station when other characters are off doing stuff, Delenn and Ivanova don't interact whole lot. However, here's a handful of jumping off points. ( Read more... )

So What Do You Like About Them?

( Read more... )

What's the Fandom Like?

Small. The fandom is small. There are, as of posting, forty two works on AO3, and a handful in older archives. However, what fic one can find is great quality, and the fandom's very welcoming and enthusiastic about new people joining in.

(Big thank you to kanadka for helping me put this together, to nenya_kanadka for beta reading, and to cap-that for the images.)

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Game Primer: ZENO Remake

2025-01-18T16:58:21Z

Posted by: marinehaddock

Links

itch.io

ZENO Remake

ZENO is an RPGMaker horror game originally released in 2015 and remade in 2021. It's only available on PC but is available in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese and English. It can take 1-3 hours for a playthrough but it took me about 8 hours for all the endings I got.

I can't speak for the quality of the Korean, Chinese, and Portuguese translations, but the English translation is... a bit lacking. My Japanese speaking friend suspects it was almost entirely machine translated; I suspect it's because the translator is Chinese and was either translating from the Chinese version or from the Japanese into English (which would be two non-native languages) and wasn't quite as fluent as people may be looking for. That said, the story is coherent except for some confusion with the localisation of "nii-chan"/"nii-san" but it's most notable for the choice to have Tsugino occassionally talk in chat speak and "something" is consistently written as "sth" (which, as a smth truther, took me a bit to work out). Also dead people are referred to as "unconscious", which makes it seem like Maeno is just in denial about the corpses. I've played through the game multiple times and while the translation issues definitely jumped out at me the first time, on subsequent playthroughs I found they weren't actually that prominent and there were no points where the translation prevented me from progressing.

( The Brief )

( Content Warnings )

( Characters )

( Endings )

( Why I Like It )

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March Meta Matters Challenge Returning Soon!

2024-02-04T18:12:35Z

Posted by: yourlibrarian

It's less than a month until the kickoff for this year's March Meta Matters Challenge! As usual, the challenge involves locating and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation. There will also be several prompts for creating new meta.

Check out our FAQ or ask questions about how to participate. Or just subscribe to marchmetamatterschallenge and look for our opening post on March 1!

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Quantum Break Manifesto: Why This Apparently Mediocre Game From 2016 Is Worth Your Time

2023-09-27T01:06:00Z

Posted by: cmdonovann

First things first. Quantum Break: What The Hell Is It?

Well, it's a video game. If you've heard of Alan Wake (2013) or Control (2019), you're already familiar with Remedy Entertainment. They also made Quantum Break, and while it's not the same genre of weird as their other, more popular titles, it's got some weirdness going for it that I really enjoy.

So what's the appeal? To me, it's the combo of characters who are all flawed in various ways, a focus on relationships and interactions between those characters, and the epic drama of closed loop time travel wherein nothing can be changed and no tragedy can be prevented because everything that's going to happen has, for all intents and purposes, already happened.

I've already written a couple of posts on Dreamwidth about Quantum Break, so you can always check those out if you want a straight-up elevator pitch for why this game is good. But right now, I wanna talk about why this game is worth your time. I wanna talk about the parts of it that I've invested my time into. Fair warning, I'm gonna say some spoiler-y things in here.

( A Quick Summary )

( The Pitch: Why You Should Play It Yourself! )

So! If you've been looking at my other Quantum Break posts and thinking "wow, I think I'd like to play that game, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth my time and/or money yet" then here's your excuse! There's so much to dig into in this game, and while Let's Plays and walkthroughs are great, they're not quite a replacement for playing it yourself, if you can!

In short: Quantum Break is a good game! You should play it!

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Primer: Petscop

2023-09-21T23:33:19Z

Posted by: jellyfishlover

Petscop (Pronounced: Pet-scop) is an horror un-fiction* and “This game I found”** type web series (notably: NOT an ARG***, although it was believed to be so for a while.) spanning from 2017 to 2019 with 24 episodes (ranging from a couple of minutes to half an hour long) and a soundtrack. The plot follows Paul playing through a game he found while slowly uncovering the secrets of said game and what, exactly, the developer of the secret portion is trying to say or re-create.

Due to the nature of the series, this primer contains some spoilers in order to get a fuller idea of what this web series is about.

( Primer Continues )

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March Meta Matters Challenge Starts in 3 Weeks!

2023-02-11T18:57:26Z

Posted by: yourlibrarian

The March Meta Matters Challenge is focused on not just new meta, but making sure older meta gets a chance to be read and remain a part of fandom history. Join us in March to start archiving your work!

Participants will be locating past meta work and copying it over to a secondary location to ensure its preservation and improve its access. Everyone will work at their own pace and set their own goals for the month. Prompts for new meta will be offered and check in posts will encourage participants to keep going with their older work.

Visit the community for more information and join in on March 1!

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Game Primer: The Caligula Effect: Overdose

2023-01-04T03:37:37Z

Posted by: marinehaddock

Links

The Caligula Effect: Overdose

The Caligula Effect: Overdose (Known as Caligula: Overdose in Japan) is the definitive version of The Caligula Effect (a 2016 PS Vita release). It was released in 2018 for PC, Playstation 4, and Switch with an international release in 2019. It's a turn-based JRPG.

( Name Drop Everyone Who Worked On This )

( Give Me The Brief )

( Content Warnings )

( Let's Meet The Cast )

( Some Tips )

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HIStory 3 - 圈套 (2019)

2022-04-20T18:49:58Z

Posted by: corvidology

The HIStory series are Taiwanese, featuring canon M/M couples. Each year they've released two short run series and we're now up to HIStory4. But enough of this completely inadequate explanation. :D

I'm here to talk about HIStory3: Trapped (2019), which centres around two couples, both cop/mobster. ( The description from MyDramaList is under here )

I love that this show isn't just about the relationships, much as I love them but that it actually fleshes out the other characters and the background story which can't all be tied up in a nice little bow. It's surprisingly funny at times, sweet, violent, flirtatious and complex, featuring all different kinds of love, including friendship and found family. I really cared about what happened to a bunch of characters in this show, not just the main couples.

While the show doesn't have great production values so it's a little creaky at times, the relationships between Meng Shaofei/Tang Yi and Jack/Zhao Lian are compelling and oddly believable given where they all start out from. They don't manipulate the characterization, in that all of them remain the men they are to begin with it's just that they find ways to make it work between them!

Also, y'know, the manhandling, wall slamming (well lots of uses of walls *g*) and partner worry just enhances the whole thing!

Let me tempt you with a few gifs:
( Two more under here )

I also love the secondary couple:
( Two more under here )

The 10 episodes with English subtitles can be watched for free here on Viki

One of the other HIStory series has been given a sequel so I have everything crossed that we might get one for Trapped as well. :D

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: ( I'm also going to tuck a couple of fanvids under here, because I can! :D )

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Ship Manifesto: Graham Gregson/Zelik Lindemann (Mother Keeper)

2022-04-04T12:47:05Z

Posted by: marinehaddock

Title: Let's Return
Author: MarineHaddock
Fandom: Mother Keeper
Pairing: Graham Gregson/Zelik Lindemann
Warnings: Torture, blood, amputation, burning
Spoilers: Will include chapter numbers for each section, however, Zelik is introduced in Chapter 16, so that's your base number.
Notes: I'm going to include "past" and "present" so that you know when in the timeline this is because this series loves to do flashbacks

I already wrote a primer for Mother Keeper that alludes to the fact I needed to rewrite this after the original was deleted from my tumblr.

Mother Keeper was a manga by Kaili Sorano that ran from 2005 until 2014. It's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi manga with cool cyborgs and stuff.

( Show Me The Boys )
( Canon )
( Why ship this? )
( Bonus Images )
( Fandom )

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成化十四年 | The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

2022-04-03T17:51:04Z

Posted by: corvidology

48 episodes, available on Viki and iQiyi.

In 15th-century China, a quick-witted, low-ranking government official named Tang Fan (Darren Chen) who writes romance novels under a pen name, gets pulled into investigating a murder, teaming up with an Imperial Guard/military veteran Sui Zhou (Fu Meng-Po) in the process and crossing paths with Wang Zhi (Liu Yaoyuan), the palace eunuch wunderkind the Emperor put in change of the Western Depot when he was only 17 as one of the only officials he felt he could trust... and we're off!

Frankly, what's not to love here? It's got a beautifully complex plot, the sort where you'll find yourself thinking back over it and still not being quite sure how they managed to pack so many interwoven cases and stories into only 48 episodes. Within this plot, the character development is believable and consistent as are the relationships, often between characters that had very good reasons to dislike each other to begin with. A lot of this is down to the script but frankly a lot of the credit should also go to the fantastic acting across the board which makes it all come to life. Plot wise, it manages that hardest of all things, to convince you a character is doing 'X' which is just stupid, only to find out they were doing it for all the right reasons - People, I'm trying to avoid spoilers here! Honestly, I don't remember the last time I was rooting for so many characters while hoping so many others would die in a fire and all at the same time. This series has it all. Partner worry, FOUND FAMILY (yes, it's a bit of a thing with me), loyalty, treachery, sacrifice and love in all its forms, not just the usual romance you see in dramas. It even throws in a few fandom tropey things for good measure like tons of hurt/comfort, whump, moving in together, random child acquisition, evil twins, one of the main characters being disguised as a woman and undercover as a couple. Even the emperor is only a bit of a bastard on the 'Emperor Bastard' scale (probably a 3?), cares about his people, loves and admires his noble consort and is mostly likeable. It was produced by Jackie Chan and the fight scenes are brilliant! Ultimately, these characters care so much about each other and their society and its citizens that you can't help but care about them as well. It took us ages to watch all 48 episodes and I'm already sorry we've finished.

The most popular ships are Tang Fan/Sui Zhou, Tang Fan/Sui Zhou/Wang Zhi... and another one I'm not going to mention because *spoilers*. Personally, I'm here for the Tang Fan/Sui Zhou and Wang Zhi & Dong'er. If you don't love Dong'er, I'm afraid it's pistols at dawn!

( Two fun gifs, trailer, fanvids )
.

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Leif & Thorn

2022-04-01T09:18:58Z

Posted by: silveredeye

Leif&Thorn is a fantasy drama/comedy webcomic about a knight trying to have a romance in his second language.

The premise: Sir Thorn is a magic knight assigned to guard a foreign embassy where he meets (and falls in love with) Leif, a gardener working for said embassy. It gets complicated from there.

It is ongoing, with a new page every day (main plot on weekdays, bonus art and shorter side stories on weekends). The entire main archive is available online. There are Patreon-locked side stories and more NSFW comics, but they're nice extras, not an obligatory part of the experience.

The comic has a large ensemble cast, most of whom get some time in the spotlight (and the majority of whom are queer). It’s mostly a lighthearted comedy, but does not shy away from the darker moments – some of the characters are in very unpleasant situations or have pretty fucked up pasts. Darker storylines get content warnings in the beginning, so they’re not just sprung on readers.

Why should I read it?

Do you enjoy some combo of

earnest and smart knights,
queer romance,
magitech fantasy world,
people trying very hard to communicate across language barriers and massively different starting assumptions,
iron woobies with awful pasts,
mysterious secret agents pursuing mysterious secret agendas,
extremely hate-able vampires in the background,
worldbuilding that’s a combo of “because that’s cool” and well-reasoned (magical girls and knights with Utena-style magical heartswords are both reasonable career choices in this world; and the author certainly has thought about its influence on the society over the centuries),
occasional pointed social commentary (Sønheim is shown to share some of the United States’ more interesting viewpoints, and that is not a good thing)

Well. You may like this comic!

( characters with pictures + a little about the plot )

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Manga Primer: Mother Keeper

2022-03-28T15:47:23Z

Posted by: marinehaddock

Links

Volumes 1-3 (Official Translation) | Mangadex | Sense Scans | Official Manga from Kaili Sorano

Mother Keeper

Mother Keeper by Kaili Sorano was a shounen manga running from 2005 until 2014. While the series was technically localised, the localisation was digital-only and at a time when that wasn't something typical of the manga industry. It was also shortly before the company shut down for good, with only 3 volumes having been translated and released. IP rights for series that were hosted on the service have a rather complex goings-on that make it difficult to know how rights will progress in the future.

( Wait, go back to how I read this )
( Content Warnings )
( What's The Story? )
( Cast! )
( Some Notes )
( I Get Into Fandom For Shipping And That's Okay )

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I am so desperately lonely in this fandom, so please talk to me about it.

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Visual Novel Primer: UuultraC

2022-03-27T11:11:08Z

Posted by: marinehaddock

Links

Official Release (DRM Free) | Official Release (Steam) | Epilogue Stories (JP Exclusive) | Does the Dog Die?

UuultraC

UuultraC is a BL visual novel released in Japan in October 2020, and had it's English release in March 2022, provided by MangaGamer. The story is set in Tokyo in 1970, and inspired by the tokusatsu genre that was gaining popularity in the 70s.

Kaiju have appeared throughout Japan, spreading as an infection that turns ordinary people into kaiju. The first generation Sun Mask Icarus used to fight the kaiju, but the title has passed to a new generation; a generation of multiple Icarus and local heroes who want to protect Japan.

But kaiju were people. The infected are shunned and have had enough, starting their battle for acceptance as still being human.

The novel includes references to classic series like Devilman, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Super Sentai and other Kaiju media.

Anyway, this is an 18+ BL visual novel so that's the real reason-

There are three chapters to this story, each with a different protagonist.

( Content Warnings )

( Who are my cast? )
( What's it about? )
( Picspam! )

Please contact me if you have any questions! I have brain worms and I did my best to keep this mostly spoiler-free so I'll probably be writing more manifestos about the individual ships as those wriggle.

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大唐女法医 | Miss Truth (TV)

2022-03-15T14:45:23Z

Posted by: corvidology

NOTE: If you're into Korean Pop, you may recognize Zhou Jie Qiong in the middle here, who under the name Kyulkyung performed in I.O.I, Pristin and Pristin V and possibly some other groups.

It's 36 x 45 minute episodes and is available on youtube and Amazon Prime (included in subscription). It's also available on some iterations of Netflix and Dailymotion though you have to track down the individual episodes on DM.

Miss Truth centres around Ran Yan (Zhou Jie Qiong), a Tang Dynasty (yes, you read that right) forensic coroner. Disowned by her family in childhood as a jinx who brought about her mother's death (she grew up in a house in the yard of her parent's house), she was informally adopted by a coroner who taught her everything he knew. Her focus is on finding her mother's body so she can find clues to who murdered her. However, her family has decided it's now time to marry her off in a fashion appropriate to her family's station in life. Needless to say, she's against this idea. :D

That proposed marriage, however, is definitely the 'B' plot. The 'A' plot is totally focused on solving a series of mysteries some of which link into a far bigger mystery although not all of them. The Ancient China forensic work is fascinating and the mysteries have a nice complexity to them without the series cheating us out of the necessary clues. Also, there are various subplots of shenanigans involving different groups.

I'd have to say the first half is stronger than the second half after a location change but it's still one of my favourite Cdramas. :D

( More truths, more piccies and a trailer under here )
.

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S.C. I. Mystery | S.C.I.谜案集 – 24 episodes

2022-03-12T19:27:44Z

Posted by: corvidology

You can watch it here on youtube [WARNING: Episode 21 on youtube has no English subs] or follow this watch list to Dailymotion. Once you get to Dailymotion it's pretty easy to move from one to another. They are making a second season. If you watch this show, be sure to sit through the credits. Apart from outtakes there are also cut scenes I wish they hadn't edited out, like bed wrestling. :D

Ah, where to begin? In my head, I call this show Fashion Model Solves Crimes with assistance from his (alleged platonic) life partner.

Gao Hanyu who plays Bai Yutong, actually was a member of the Cpop group, HIT-5. I think 'fashion model' because the obviously practical clothing of choice for a detective is white, light grey or silver from head to toe no matter what he's doing. ( Even when he attends a party he's wearing a white tailcoat ). I wondered if Ginger Rogers was about to show up?This is of course after he's interrupted a lecture to drag Zhan Yao to the cocktail party with him. Did I mention he drives a white sports car? With a SCI number plate on it? This is obviously the absolute best choice when discreetly tailing people.

Ji Xiaobing plays Zhan Yao who's his oldest friend/rival and a psychologist. Together, ~~they're adorable~~ they fight crime... and stuff!

It's based on a BL crime novel, SCI Mystery Collection where Bai Yutong and Zhan Yao are a couple but of course it being China it got turned into a bromance... yeah. They seem to have forgotten this decision somewhere along the line as neither one of them has a girlfriend or apparently any interest – both look very confused when it's suggested the other one has one – and they spend most of their time manhandling each other and running around together when they're not basically living together -- Everyone knows to look for them at each other's house when in doubt and why wouldn't they be found with one of them stripped down to his underwear working out while the other one meditates? -- or bitching at each other in an 'old couple' way. In case I'm not communicating this drift well enough, the obvious place to discuss crimes is in urinals while using them side-by-side, ( showering in side-by-side stalls ) where they keep stepping around the end of said stalls to make a point *ahem* or hanging out in the sauna together, like you do... Did I mention bed, ( clothing ) and pyjama sharing and even doing your friend's laundry for him because the weather looks nice? ( Did I mention posing for three hours in your underwear so your friend can sketch you? ) I didn't? Well, now I have. :D

Also, also, in the BL novel they call each other Cat (Zhan Yao) and Mouse (Bai Yutong). A drinking game might be spotting all the cat and mouse references in the series including slippers, pyjamas and a sweater.

Fan fiction tropes a go-go! ( Sharing one bed ), accidental child acquisition, wearing each other's clothes, PARTNER WORRY, living together (there's another pairing also living together)... I could go on but I think you should get your own chance to sit there with your mouth hanging open.

There is a plot... of sorts... something, something... serial killer... something, something magic... And there's even an excellent and interesting villain although we don't get to spend very much time with him. Who needs either one when you're basically just watching these two lads running around together, almost dying and declaring their undying affection for each other.

Apart from Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao, there's also ( Bai Chi/Zhao Zhen ) and a little ( Ma Han/Chen Jiayi ).

Actually, in general, play spot the het romance. It's quite a hard game and it would leave you sober. The only on-screen one is an absolute train wreck.

Vids: Popped under cuts cos of potential spoilers:

( Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao fanvids )

( Bai Yutong making himself at home at Zhan Yao's place )

( Bai Chi/Zhao Zhen fanvid )

( Ma Han/Chen Jiayi's second meeting )
.

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Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson Fanifesto

2022-03-07T15:37:02Z

Posted by: rekishi

courtesy of corvidology

Caveat: It's been a few years (anywhere between 4-7) since I read the series in its entirety and I may be forgetting a few things, and my stance towards some details I don't remember clearly may have changed in the meantime. Also, the first book was written in 1992 and the whole world developed in the 80s (I'm getting to that), so the series may have a few plot points and tropes that a reader today looks at differently.

Cool? Cool.

Because I forgot it the last time I made a post like this:

What is the story, actually?

It's hard to say! XD

Ok, that doesn't help at all. It's a collection of interconnected epic fantasy series that is extremely complex and spans various continents and many many many years. It has several storylines it follows, some of those are the personal stories of characters, some of them are about nothing less than saving the world while showing us how the characters we get to know manage it, what it costs them, and where they mess up. It is a little bit the history of the world it's set in, which makes it extremely intriguing, and one novel might cover one geographic area while the next covers around the same time frame but in a different location. A lot of these different stories do interconnect later.

The last time I made a post like this I said, "That's because this is spanning continents and people and situations, and it's a bit as if you wanted to summarize the history of Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia at the time of Trajan without going into the history and socioeconomic situation of each people and continent separately", and that pretty much holds true. How do you give a summary about all of that in a few sentences. This series is, in the best sense of the word, an epic fantasy series.

( general explanation of genre, number of books, and why it's better than GoT ever was )

( some of the worldbuilding, story, characters, magic! )

Ooph.

Srsly, these are really good books.

Don't be mistaken: They're not easy reads. A friend of mine recently said that it was a process to read them, but oh so worth it. I carried these around for years in backpacks to and from uni, on the train, bus etc, so you can absolutely read these on your commute, but this isn't a fluffy fic, and it's dense writing. Very satisfying though, and I personally really like the style (especially Erikson's).

Bottom line is, this series (at least the two main series) was thought through from start to finish, they're well written, super imaginative, and to my mind very unique.

And if you're still reading and have questions, I'm willing to answer them to the best of my ability.

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Ship Manifesto: Sora Takeuchi/Kilik (Air Gear)

2022-03-02T17:57:42Z

Posted by: marinehaddock

Title: Enclave
Author: MarineHaddock
Fandom: Air Gear
Pairing: Sora Takeuchi/Kilik
Warnings: Abusive, Violent and Bloody
Spoilers: There will be but there will be warnings! Rule of thumb is everything here is post chapter 156.

Air Gear was a manga, running from 2002 until 2012, with an anime running from 2006 until 2007. It was written by Oh! Great, otherwise known as Ogure Ito, and is a sci-fi rollerblading manga. It’s extremely horny, violent, and full of incest for reasons unknown to everyone (I’m kidding; Oh! Great probably has an incest kink).
( Read more... )

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Look upwards, and share the wonders I've seen - A Farscape Fanifesto

2022-03-02T17:45:23Z

Posted by: rekishi

courtesy of corvidology

Farscape premiered in 1999 on the SciFi Channel and it was weird and fun and organic. It was also different starting with many of the actors accents because the show was shot in Australia and the majority of the actors were casted locally.

And maybe what's most significant, because y'all probably think I'm talking about a retro-show: Farscape visuals still hold up today!

Read the whole post on my DW

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The March Meta Matters Challenge Is Returning...

2022-02-09T17:52:07Z

Posted by: yourlibrarian

...for year 3! The marchmetamatterschallenge is focused on not just new meta, but making sure older meta gets a chance to be read and remain a part of fandom history.

While new meta is also encouraged, the priority for Meta Matters is to make sure meta doesn't vanish with sites or personal accounts when those get closed or moved. That's also why the challenge will be using the Archive of Our Own as a destination site and collection host.

This will be a month-long event kicking off on March 1 with bi-weekly check-ins. March Meta Matters will close on April 1.

Find out more about the challenge through our introduction or the FAQ. Feel free to leave questions on either post.

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Fandom Manifesto/Primer for DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (Broadway 2002/03) – Steinman/Ives/Kunze

2022-02-04T14:28:51Z

Posted by: krolock

We posted our manifesto/primer as blog entry on the DOTV Fans website, in the DW comm danceofthevampires, and of course on the AO3:

[meta] Fandom Manifesto/Primer for DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (Broadway 2002/03) – Steinman/Ives/Kunze (3066 words) by broadwaybat

Fandom: Dance of the Vampires (Broadway 2002/03) – Steinman/Ives/Kunze
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sarah Chagal/Giovanni von Krolock (DOTV Broadway), Sarah Chagal/Alfred (DOTV Broadway), Alfred/Herbert von Krolock (DOTV Broadway), Yoyneh Chagal/Rebecca Chagal/Magda (DOTV Broadway)
Characters: Sarah Chagal (DotV Broadway), Giovanni von Krolock (DOTV Broadway), Professor Abronsius (DotV Broadway), Alfred (DotV Broadway), Yoyneh Chagal (DotV Broadway), Herbert von Krolock (DotV Broadway), Rebecca Chagal (DotV Broadway), Magda (DotV Broadway), Boris (DotV Broadway), Nadja (DOTV Broadway), Zsa-Zsa (DotV Broadway), Madame von Krolock (DOTV Broadway)
Additional Tags: Meta, Fandom Manifesto, Original Broadway Cast, Vampires, Musicals, Embedded Images

Summary: A meta essay to introduce fans to the canon DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (Broadway 2002/03) – Steinman/Ives/Kunze. Includes a plot overview, information on the characters (with images), and links to fannish places.

As this is a niche fandom (and one that gets wrongly synned on the AO3 all the time) we appreciate the opportunity to spread the word.

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