brightknightie: With Hank and Diana in the lead, the children confront Tiamat. (Other Fandom D&D poster)
2023-12-01 07:08 am

My November '23 D&DC fanart recs

I contributed 6 D&DC recommendations to [community profile] fanart_recs in November. If you're interested:Maybe I will do more sometime.

By a curious quirk of the show's age and the internet's age and the licensing of reruns, almost all the D&DC fanart online is by artists who live in the southern hemisphere (mostly, but not exclusively, Brazil). I understand that Robson M. (appears once in the list above; could have supplied all six slots) actually made the leap to pro illustrations for Wizards of the Coast.

I gather that the show is running on the new DnD channel/linear-streaming thing now. (I have the "red box" DVDs and haven't looked into that, so don't know details.)

brightknightie: With Hank and Diana in the lead, the children confront Tiamat. (Other Fandom D&D poster)
2023-11-15 07:44 am

D&DC fanart recs continue

I'm up to 4 of my planned 6 (max 8) D&DC fanart recommendations this month at [community profile] fanart_recs. If you're interested, check them all out on that community's newly added D&D fandom tag.

And if you enjoy fanart, follow the community, and recommend yourself!

brightknightie: With Hank and Diana in the lead, the children confront Tiamat. (Other Fandom D&D poster)
2023-11-01 08:39 pm

I'll be reccing D&DC on Fanart_recs this November

This month, I'm signed up to recommend Dungeons & Dragons cartoon fanart on [community profile] fanart_recs. The other signed-up monthly reccer (doing Baldur's Gate 3) already posted today, so I'll wait until at least tomorrow to post my first rec (min 4, max 8, in a month; I have 6 planned).

If you're interested in D&DC and/or fanart, come play!

(Of course I'll post a round-up here when it's done, too.)

Addendum, Thursday morning: My first rec for this project is up.

brightknightie: Nick looking up. (Nick)
2023-10-04 07:17 am

Nitelvr AO3 account

The recently-new AO3 account [archiveofourown.org profile] nitelvr has been uploading the author's vintage fic from FKFic-L days. If you were there then, you probably recall this fan; check the profile for the author's self-identification.

Back in the days of my very defunct, not to be revived, "FK recommendation of the month" project (DW tag) (fansite), I recommended 2 of this author's pieces that are now available on the AO3:

This author was reliably Nick-centric and pro-Nick. If that's your cup of Ribena, maybe check out a few stories?

brightknightie: Cassiopeia, in uniform (Other Fandom BSG)
2023-08-05 11:05 am

Everywoman '23 stories still released & anonymous

As you know, the [community profile] everywoman exchange released this past week. Visit the collection by fandom.

I can't well list recommendations until the stories de-anonymize, because that would process-of-elimination reveal which I wrote to those who know my fandom scope. :-) But I have now read every story in the exchange in fandoms I know that doesn't have a personal DNW in the tags, and there are several gems!

One is the BSG78 story written for my request (G, gen; ~3K words), which poses an exciting scenario that could easily have been the B plot of a canon episode: a clunky civilian shuttle is caught in transit between bigger ships during a Cylon attack on the fleet.

brightknightie: Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, floating on a cloud, as drawn by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions (Other Fandom OSP JttW)
2023-02-11 12:18 pm

I recommend OSP's latest Trope Talk ("The Heart")

When I recommend the fantastic Overly Sarcastic Productions to folks who haven't yet met this unique YouTube channel, I usually recommend an episode from their "Miscellaneous Myths," "Classics Summarized," or "History Hijinks." I often link directly to their latest "Previously on OSP" for a frenetic two-minute montage of their delights. I never recommend a "Trope Talk" cold. Never...

Until now! Check out yesterday's new episode: "Trope Talk: The Heart" (15:37). This is (apparently) the last in a series analyzing the storytelling utility and deployment of each member of the famous "five-man band" trope (leader, lancer, brawn, brains, heart). Perhaps unexpectedly, considering how "the heart" (formerly known as "the chick") is often deprecated and downplayed, this analysis is not only an absolute banger, with a gem of a pop-media history timeline in the middle, it may be the most useful in the series. Are you writing a team? Does your team have a character, any character, performing the core structural storytelling job of the heart, which is actually not -- contrary to popular belief (sarcasm!) -- getting kidnapped? If not, you could wind up with a team that just won't jell, and here's, structurally, a possible reason why.

So. Yeah! ;-D

brightknightie: Duncan and Tessa embrace on the sidewalk. (Other Fandom Highlander)
2023-01-14 09:55 am

HLH_Shortcuts '22 recommendations

The 15 new stories in this year's [community profile] hlh_shortcuts will surely all be someone's favorites! For example, I must admit that, after a few paragraphs, I backed out and chose not to read Killa's no doubt outstanding "Pleased to Meet You" because it's a crossover with Lucifer, with which I'm personally not super comfortable. We all like different things!

Here are a few stories that appealed to me, myself:

"The Jaded Journalist" by Hafital
(G, gen, ~10K words) (Randi, Duncan, Tessa, Amanda, the De Valincourts, Methos)
I already recommended this while it was anonymous. Read my recommendation. This is the "What happened to Randi?" that I've been waiting for. It starts with a missing scene from "Band of Brothers" and then runs forward, always intertwining with canon yet never changing it, with the focus always on Randi and her career. Well-written, canon-rich, unique, perfectly voiced. Fantastic!

"A Credit To Her Teacher" by Malinaldarose
(G, gen, ~5K words) (Amanda, Michelle, Duncan, Joe)
I love "What happened with Michelle?" takes, and this one is the first I recall wholly from Amanda's perspective. It explores how taking on Michelle as a student connects to Amanda's memories of Rebecca and Kenny and ensures that Amanda succeeds -- that her canonical return with no on-screen mention of Michelle just means that Michelle is doing fine and Duncan knows all about it. Rebecca would be proud.

"To Be Useful" by Adabsolutely
(G, gen, ~3K words) (Methos, Duncan, Joe, Amanda, Amy)
The main appeal in this dialogue-heavy approach is the charming conversations in familiar voices. There's also a charming throughline of helping a very confused, homeless, new immortal, and other side-quests of helping various people in various ways. Lovely theming.

"Wintersong" by Black_Dwarf
(G, gen, ~2K words) (Amanda, Methos)
If Amanda is a favorite, maybe check this out. It's an on-point Amanda voice blending flippancy and insight. Methos takes time to miss who he was when he was with Alexa and Amanda pulls him back to the present.

"The Crane and the Pine" by Mackiedockie
(unrated, gen, 13K words) (Duncan, Methos, Amanda, Joe, Mai-Ling, Connor, others)
A pleasantly sprawling modern western fully of that comfortably familiar genre, with some action, some history, and a lot of connecting. It's a crossover with Longmire, but, not knowing that series, I still had no problem reading it as pure HL.

brightknightie: Tessa working with a chisel tool at her desk in the barge (Other Fandom HL Tessa)
2022-12-30 05:33 pm

The gift-story I received in HLH_Shortcuts '22 is just what I wanted

The gift-story written for my request slate in this year's [community profile] hlh_shortcuts revealed last night. It's amazing. I recommend it to all lovers of early HL canon, anyone who has ever wanted more Randi in particular, and those who dote on the network of friendships Duncan gathers around himself.

"The Jaded Journalist" by [Hafital (name added after reveals)] (~10K words, G, gen)

The story is something I believe to be wholly new in the fandom even after three decades: a chronicle of Randi McFarland's career from "Band of Brothers" to the present. It's insightful and canon-compliant. She was there all along, every step of the way, but out of distance, out of the frame, this story posits. She was living her own rich life, not waiting for canon to keep up with her, yet though we didn't see her, our favorite characters did, from time to time. I don't want to spoil any more of it -- you can see the other characters with lines in the tags, including Amanda, the de Valicourts, and Methos, as well as Tessa and Duncan -- but it's thoroughly imagined and carefully built and touches on friendships, grief, remembering, second chances, striving for the right, and all kinds of things I like.

I'm on the way to adopting this premise as head-canon.

brightknightie: Nick and his remote control (Remote Control)
2022-12-29 06:33 pm

Yuletide recommendations '22

I think that I've read all the Yuletide '22 stories that I'll read on my own; from here on, I'll be following others' recs. Share 'em if you've got 'em!

Here are mine: Expand2 A Christmas Carol, 2 Dracula, 3 Quantum Leap, 1 Scarlet Pimpernel, 1 Equalizer )

brightknightie: Rebecca with her guitar in jail (Music)
2022-12-11 06:14 pm

Podcast recommendation: "Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols"

For those who enjoy Christmas music, history, and podcasts, I'd like to recommend "Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols," now in its second season. You can find it wherever you ordinarily get your podcasts (I use Google Podcasts; I'm very basic) or play it from its own site, previously linked.

Episodes so far: "Huron Carol (Twas in the Moon of Wintertime)," "Good King Wenceslas," "Carol of the Bells," "Silent Night," "Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful)," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," "The history of Christmas carols."

brightknightie: Schanke reading Emily's novel (Reads)
2022-04-24 07:15 pm

Seeking recs for first-season & hiatus FK favorites

Around the edges of doodling on my story notes and otherwise procrastinating writing my '22 [community profile] fkficfest entry, I'm reading/re-reading FK fanfic set during first season and the hiatus (that is, the 18 months between first and second season).

Any recommendations for favorite FK stories set after "Dark Knight" and before "Killer Instinct"? Bonus points if the story was also written before second season!

brightknightie: Rebecca in medieval flashback, on horseback, holding her sword (Other Fandom Highlander Again)
2022-02-21 11:23 am

Halfamoon '22 #7: Generations (HL, Michelle)

I fell behind on my [community profile] halfamoon '22 recommendations challenge. Here's the last.

For the seventh and final theme, "Generations," I recommend this bright, encouraging, inspiring encounter with Michelle Webster (from "Rite of Passage"). It chatters backstory as Michelle bucks herself up to face her present. She reflects a little on her parents and how she believes she failed them -- a topic perhaps still too sore -- and a great deal on her various immortal teachers, whom she has not failed. She receives a kind of generational legacy from each, but the story makes a special connection from Rebecca, to Amanda, to Michelle.

"Even Better" by [archiveofourown.org profile] Melina
~1K words
T


brightknightie: Grace smiling, wearing coloful collared blouse over white knit top (Grace)
2022-02-13 08:01 am

Halfamoon '22 #6: Sickness & Health (FK Grace & HL Tessa)

I'm playing [community profile] halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For the sixth theme, "Sickness and Health," I'm torn between two favorites. So: bonus! One rec for health, another for sickness.

First, a rich take on Forever Knight's Grace Balthazar. This Grace is both the pathology professional we know and also a Gullah Herb Doctor with a supernatural role -- akin to Doctor Chung, Marian Blackwing, and Denise Fort. In letters from Grace to her mom, the story recaps much of canon from this fascinating perspective while quietly building a new subplot. It then diverges firmly with a burst of... wingfic! (Yes, wingfic.)

"Full of Grace" by [archiveofourown.org profile] LastScorpion
~7K words
T


Second, an unforgettable Highlander divergence in which Tessa lived through "The Darkness." The bullet entered just a little to the side, and everything was different. Tessa, Duncan, and Richie got decades more of life and love together. Now, Tessa, ill, sees her own death coming unstoppably this time and she worries, fears what it will do to Duncan. I have teared up every time I've read and re-read this story over the years.

"All That Glitters" by [archiveofourown.org profile] killabeez
~3K words
M


brightknightie: Toronto sunset cityscape (Toronto)
2022-02-12 07:42 am

Halfamoon '22 Recommendation #5: Borders (FK, Cohen)

I'm playing [community profile] halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For the fifth theme, "Borders," I recommend one of the very best Forever Knight Captain Amanda Cohen stories. These borders are personal, emotional, and cultural. We know so little of Cohen's private life and motivations in canon -- really, just enough to know we don't know. This story picks up the slivers of Cohen's backstory, weighs the absences, and runs them brilliantly home... all within the frame of an annual precinct winter-holiday party.

"Rondeau" by [archiveofourown.org profile] tolakasa
~2K words
G


brightknightie: Tessa working with a chisel tool at her desk in the barge (Other Fandom HL Tessa)
2022-02-06 03:11 pm

Halfamoon '22 Recommendation #3: Time & Space (HL, Tessa)

I'm playing [community profile] halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For the third theme, "Time and Space," I recommend this Highlander: The Series story. It winds up to its pitch through a patter of light, amusing, passing encounters between Tessa and assorted immortal characters we know and love, long before we meet them in the present day. It then bursts out into a tale -- as rich as it is tiny -- of young and aged, energized and tired, hopeful and jaded. It is not a torch passing from the other character to Tessa. Much, much better, she re-lights his flame.

(When the story was new, I didn't pick up on who the other character is. I hadn't yet learned the fanon vocabulary. I do know now.)

"Paris, 1978" by [archiveofourown.org profile] lferion
~2K words
G


brightknightie: Cassiopeia, in uniform (Other Fandom BSG)
2022-02-04 10:19 pm

Halfamoon '22 recommendation #2: Politics (BSG78, Serina & Cassiopeia)

I'm playing [community profile] halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For the second theme, "Politics," I recommend this Battlestar Galactica (1978) story in which we get to re-experience early canon from the civilian side with the main female characters. While that might at first seem far from the political struggles of the Council and Commander, this story shows the grassroots as the front lines in whether and how society will rebuild.

"Ragtag" by [archiveofourown.org profile] malinaldarose
10K words
G


brightknightie: Tracy at the railroad tracks with snow (Winter)
2022-02-01 06:24 pm

Halfamoon '22 recommendation #1: War and Peace (OUaT, Mulan)

I've decided to approach [community profile] halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For Day 1's theme, "War and Peace," I recommend this Once Upon a Time story in which Mulan was there in Storybrooke, believing herself a US veteran of the wars with Afghanistan and Iraq and carrying battle PTSD that maps onto her experiences in the land of folktales in the life she doesn't remember.

More, this is a meticulously crafted AU. This time, Maleficent, not Regina, casts the curse. So it targets Aurora, not Snow. Nothing -- and everything -- is the same.

"a story, a tale" by [archiveofourown.org profile] maleficently
27K words
G


brightknightie: Darius pours tea for Duncan. (Other Fandom HL Darius)
2022-01-10 07:12 pm

'21 HLH_Shortcuts author reveals & recs

[community profile] hlh_shortcuts has officially announced its '21 author reveals (read the post). As I type this, the stories on the AO3 still show as anonymous. But I've gone and added endnotes (they've been waiting on the guessing game), and...

I wrote "Legend Has It" (G, gen, ~3K words) (Richie, Darius, Methos, Joe, Duncan) for [archiveofourown.org profile] Black_Dwarf. For a long time, I tried to write a Methos tale, but got nowhere. In the end, a story found me that has Darius arm Richie with knowledge at "Band of Brothers," such that Richie can aim in "The Messenger" and hit in "Archangel." (Many thanks to those who spoke with me when I struggled, especially Celli and Sholio!)

Find all 18 works in this year's AO3 collection. A few that most particularly struck my own personal fancy:
  • "Puissance" (unrated, gen, ~14K words) (Rebecca, Methos, John, Luther, OCs) by [personal profile] hafital. In the present, this rich, canon-adjacent, fix-it takes down "Legacy" and returns with a better choice available to Rebecca. Yet most of the story is in the past, building -- adventure by adventure -- an origin for Rebecca and a long friendship with Methos.

  • "Little Blessings" (T, multi, ~4K words) (Methos, Duncan, OCs) by [archiveofourown.org profile] pennywashburne. These widely-staggered but consecutive and cumulative vignettes each have moods and implications of their own. The uniting conceit comes as clever and charming -- that Methos is rather the darling of long-forgotten old gods and spirits, as no one else ever calls on them anymore.

  • "Reflections on the Future" (G, gen, ~1K words) (Duncan, Tessa) by [personal profile] dkwilliams. This was written for my prompt request. It's well-timed introspection, nestled at the very start of the series, looking out across a future yet unknown.

For those with other kinds of fancies -- all of you!?! :-D -- there's a funny time-travel escapades piece, an immortals-in-space adventure caper, a crossover with Dune and one with Sherlock and one with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, an in-the-time-of-COVID episodic tale, several Watcher stories, a de Valincourts wedding, and more!

brightknightie: Toronto sunset cityscape (Toronto)
2021-10-27 08:36 pm

fun FK essay on Vulture.com today

Today, Vulture.com posted: "Forever Knight Is the Best Vampire Cop Show Ever Made (in Canada)" by Naomi Skwarna.

You may enjoy reading it! She knows what she's talking about, says it sassily, and more than merely name-checks Ger and Parriot. A few excerpts:
"...a certain candlelit, Vaseline-y haze that elicited the feeling, if not the reality, of a saxophone solo — a soft-goth Canadiana aesthetic..."

"...people are constantly getting murdered during the show’s three seasons, often in the cold open — it’s hard to tell if Nick’s vampire-cop tactics are affecting the crime rate at all. Mostly, he tools around Toronto in his teal Caddy on his way to question some babe of interest. And you know what? It’s great. Forever Knight makes a meal of the horny gaze, abundantly populating scenes with smoldering glances, billowing windbreakers, rose petals, and close-ups of bra straps."

"...one may wonder, Why would a French vampire move to Toronto? Did he go to Toronto Police College? There are no clear answers. As in most Canadian shows, Canada simply happens, even to vampire cops."

"As campy as it is, the series is frequently touching, even adventurous..."
brightknightie: With Hank and Diana in the lead, the children confront Tiamat. (Other Fandom D&D poster)
2021-10-04 09:57 pm

the Retrotvexchange story written for my sign-up

The 2021 [community profile] retrotvexchange released on Saturday, with 24 total stories in 24 fandoms (including some crossovers). Peruse the collection. Stories remain anonymous until October 9.

The story written for my sign-up is "Time Out," a Dungeons & Dragons (the '80s cartoon) story from Diana's perspective -- yay, Diana's perspective! -- focusing on Diana and Sheila's friendship, and Diana's goals as an Olympic-caliber gymnast back in the real world.

I interpret the story as layered atop a lament for connections not quite made. It seems to me to parallel its set-up, in which Eric is focused only on himself and not Diana (to whom he's ostensibly speaking), with its main body, in which Diana tries to connect with Sheila, but is so narrowly focused on her own goal that she doesn't grasp Sheila's concerns. It's set almost immediately after the kids' time with Ramoud, when they run into Billy Whitaker in the City on the Edge of Midnight, and explores that jolt of home as a motivation in their choice to move on from Ramoud and Ayesha, to keep searching for a way home, perhaps more urgently than ever. There's a sadness, mostly Sheila's, of reaching out and not finding the person to whom you're reaching, reaching back.

-----
Some other stories from the exchange that I've enjoyed so far: "Diplomacy" (ST:TOS, ~4K words), "Yarn Over, Pull Through" (Starman, ~3K words), "and pretend like there's no world outside" (As Time Goes By, ~1K words).