brightknightie | Saturdaymorningex "Dear Author" letter '25

Dear

saturdaymorningex Author:

Hi! Thank you for sharing these fandoms! I’m sure that whatever you most want to celebrate and explore in these characters and their worlds will make a lovely story. If you’d like more story suggestions from me, read on.

I've requested: Dungeons and Dragons (1983-1985), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) (and/or related canon, of course), and Transformers One (2024). I've offered: Dungeons and Dragons (1983-1985), Skeleton Warriors (1994), Thundarr the Barbarian (1980-1981), and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022). I didn't request or offer, but, for context and in case you'd enjoy writing a crossover, am also very fond of: Darkwing Duck, Robotech, Sailor Moon, Ruroni Kenshin, My Adventures with Superman, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Peanuts (Charlie Brown), Hanna-Barbera holiday specials, and most of the Disney folktale/princess movies, especially Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Brave, and Encanto.

Across all fandoms:

Want: I love good guys being good (especially when it's hard), the power of friendship, self sacrifice, striving, plot-rich adventures, character-rich downtime interludes between adventures, tragedies, triumphs, religious faith appropriate to the character, awareness of canon (I feel that AUs are most lovely when they ping canon), history, mystery, and story-size underlying metaphors for real life. I do usually prefer gen, but canon relationships are very welcome, and thoughtfully developed non-canon relationships can be very nice, too.

Do not want: I'd very much prefer not to receive a story that is pro-evil; explicitly brutal, gory, or sexual; uses concepts like mpreg, omegaverse, etc.; or has bigotry that goes unquestioned/unpunished, including anti-religion (my own religion or anyone else's, obviously).

"Solo" character nominations: Where I've requested individual characters, rather than groups or pairs, this doesn't mean that I want to confine you to writing a literally isolated solo story of "character against nature" or the like (though of course you may if you want to!). Rather, I'd like that requested character to be the focus or star of the story, and for you to select or create other characters to accompany, support, or oppose the requested character in whatever way you want to tell your story.

Fandom by fandom:

D&DC: Dungeons & Dragons (the ‘80s cartoon)

When this cartoon was on the air, it was very important to kid!me, and it's always been somewhere in the back of my imagination. I was so excited when it became available on DVD; I still admire and enjoy it so much. I love all the usual adventures and would love to share more of them. I’m intrigued by the possibilities of stories of our gang grown up, whether in the Realm or back here, and also by stories that reveal more than the faint clues we have about their lives back home, before or after the Realm. I enjoy stories of them in the midst of growing up, and every kind of quest for or journey home from the Realm or back to the Realm. Any romances should please appropriately suit their ages and eras (whether 1980s teenagers or 2020s adults).

All the nominated characters are intriguing, delightful, and welcome in their own ways! Please pick whichever you want to explore or celebrate, and please feel free to bring in those canon characters who weren't nominated, too. A "the whole gang" story would be very welcome, if that appeals to you. Here are just a few possible scenarios for just a few of the characters:

Diana: Maybe Diana is temporarily injured and has to deal with her deep fears of her body betraying her while still winning through the adventure of the week? Maybe Hank is unavailable and Diana has to lead and has to exercise authority in unfamiliar ways? Maybe a glimpse into Diana's life back home, where we know her father is an astronomer and she's an Olympic-hopeful gymnast, but not much more, not even her relationship to the rest of the our gang -- same school, same girl scout troop, same neighborhood, same church...? Diana/Kosar reflections or consequences? Diana & Eric bouncing off each other, Diana not taking his nonsense as he tries to assert superiority, and him becoming better for it? Or how does Diana process being, weirdly, nearly the only Black person in the Realm in that era -- maybe the kids could finally get somewhere in the Realm that doesn't look like Old Europe and Diana's not the one who visually stands out?

Sheila: Who is Sheila when she's not the big sister or the little mother? Maybe a story tackling the nexus between her thief/rogue invisibility and her fear of being alone? Maybe a between-the-adventures interlude with Sheila being very brave in her own way, and one of the others respecting it? What about a later encounter with Kareena, as it's surely no easy task to be Kareena's friend? Why/how are Sheila and Hank together as boyfriend and girlfriend and what does that mean to Sheila? What about her connections and conflicts with Eric, understanding or not understanding each other? Or, a pet theory, what if Sheila skipped a grade back at kindergarten, which is why she's younger than the others, and is actually The Smart One, and the others don't know, because she's always hidden it?

Hank: Hank never really got an episode of his own, not the way the others all did. We learn even less about his background and motivations than any of the others. We're always outside Hank looking in as he bears the burden of leadership, and he slips only once -- that one little time, carelessly letting Bobby and Eric open that box -- and then: disaster! Dungeon Master asks so much from Hank. Fanon and canon-adjacent materials often depict Hank as an American football quarterback, but of course high-school quarterbacks are usually seniors, and Hank was supposedly not quite that old yet that day in the amusement park. I'm sure Hank is a boy scout, and a very good one. As mentioned above for Diana, what about a look at Hank before the Realm, and how he knows the others? As mentioned for Sheila above, how/why are Hank and Sheila together as boyfriend and girlfriend, and what does that mean to Hank? Or how does Hank feel about being the leader -- or plan for the possibility that something will happen to him, and the others will have to go on without him?

Presto: Maybe mix and match Presto with the others in less common ways, to find new interactions for our favorite conjurer? Maybe Presto & Diana, Presto & Bobby, Presto & Shiela, Presto & Hank...? Or a trio with Presto, Eric, and one of the others? Not that I don't love Eric dearly! (I do!) It just seems like we saw Presto and Eric together so much that we didn't really learn who Presto is with the others, only with Eric and with Varla. Or maybe a glimpse of Presto before the Realm, where we know he earned his nickname from doing stage magic tricks... maybe a story of Presto getting a fresh new glasses prescription shortly before the amusement park? Or in the future, grown-up, in the Realm maybe with Varla, or at home on Earth with the lessons of the Realm making him who he is...

Martha: If Martha and/or her parents were once Dungeon Master's pupils, what was her, or were her parents', Weapons of Power from the Dragon's Graveyard, and what happened to those weapons? Perhaps a tale of Martha relating -- or refusing to relate -- her backstory to our gang? Maybe an interlude in the future where we see she's moved on from her one canon appearance stronger and happier and more satisfied with her life than we found her?

Eric: Please feel free to feature Eric! He's the fandom's woobie and most of the stories on the AO3 feature him, so I'm taking for granted that you have enough Eric-specific ideas yourself, already. ;-) TPTB meant the audience to find Eric annoying and want to not be like him, and so it was for kid!me. Adult!me has learned to love this most rounded character of the party, with the most known motivations and obstacles.

Bobby & Uni: Bobby and Uni are also welcome. They aren't my dearest darlings, like some of the other characters, but I don't want to seem to hint anything against them by leaving them out. I would be perfectly delighted with a story featuring Bobby and/or Uni. Maybe they could rescue the others? Maybe Uni has some secret connection (or remembers that she can teleport)? What does Bobby really feel about his big sister through their adventures, or through the years? A bit of whump -- what if Bobby is the last survivor from Earth, with or without Uni?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (and/or related canon, of course)

This marvelously well-made movie bowled me over with its powerful themes and resonant characters. Show me more! A side adventure? An interlude between adventures? Perrito needing rescue, or rescuing others, or being the best therapy dog for someone in need? Puss and Kitty being testy but true? Puss being histrionic and self-centered and being laughed at and pulled out of it by his friends? Please do feel free to include un-nominated canon characters as you like.

My Kitty headcanon is that her declawing metaphorically represents a disability and/or inflicted trauma, and she takes this, uses it, and never lets anything hold her back an inch, while also never downplaying it or making it easy for others. Puss and his anxiety have much to learn from her, if only by example. (I think this makes them better for each other, now that they are each a little more grown-up, not only Puss's manic ego, but Kitty's trust issues.)

Transformers One

This movie actually is as good, deep, and thoughtful as kid!me believed the original cartoons were when I watched them after school in the '80s, and as I hoped the first live-action movie would be when I first heard that Steven Spielberg was working on it. The crossing character arcs of the two main characters, as they become the Optimus Prime and Megatron we know, are magnificently motivated and balanced. I would love to believe that we will get the sequel/trilogy this story so richly deserves and set up so well, but ... the studio marketed it abysmally, clearly didn't understand it, and thus didn't get the money they'd hoped for. I would be especially interested in reading an epilogue to the movie, a short story set as the pieces get picked up and the adrenaline wears off and the emotional wounds ache. Or something from what should be Transformers Two, maybe, as they begin to face the environmental devastation they've wrought, most of them all unknowing as their leaders lied to them. But of course pre-canon and all the centuries after are available to you! And please do feel free to bring in un-nominated canon characters, too.

In the unlikely case that you'd like even more ramblings, I have a standing fanfic likes & dislikes post. Check it out?

Thank you very much!