I love good guys

snowflake_challenge: Top-ten list: "The category(ies) you choose are up to you."

I'd like to share my top ten personal favorite YouTube channels overall. In countdown order, more and more awesome as we go:

#10. DominicNoble : Compares a book to its media adaptations(s): what's the same, what's different, and does it work?

#9. CinemaWins : Points out all the most awesome, fan-loved points of a given movie. No shade here, only joy.

#8. RobWords : Explores, exposes, and revels in a cool aspect of or historical tidbit about the English language.

#7. QuestWithAaron : Deep-dives revealing Japanese nuances of The Legend of Zelda lost in English localizations.

#6. ScreenCrush : Recaps, analyzes, predicts, celebrates, or laments fannish movies and television.

#5. TechnologyConnections : Explains how everyday machines, from lightswitches to dishwashers, really work and why.

#4. QuinBoBin : Jokes at his own expense through precisely-edited video-game playthrough abridgements (often, but not only, TLOZ).

#3. MandJTV / MandJTVExtra / MandJTVPlays : "Plays" serves Pokemon playthroughs as fanfic, where the player is an original character living the game, part script and part improv. "Main" is Pokemon game analysis. "Extra" is miscellaneous other Pokemon fun.

#2. Zeltik : Sleek, classic-style mini-documentaries and video essays on the lore of The Legend of Zelda.

#1. OverlySarcasticProductions : More cheeky than actually sarcastic, romps through summaries and analyses of history, literature, mythology, media, and culture, demonstrating how fun learning really is.

snowflake_challenge: Wishlist: "Create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts."

Years ago, I mentioned that I would love to read a thoughtful Rurouni Kenshin/Highlander crossover, and skieswideopen recommended one from FFnet -- indeed, a substantial one with a substantial sequel. That happy memory, plus several folks setting good examples, reminded me that the comfortable thing for me to do with this prompt is to ask to receive recommendations, if you happen to have some. Here are a few:

I'd enjoy some recommendations of really well-written and thoughtful gen The Legend of Zelda stories, any game. More specifically, stories that dig into some aspect of the lore/worldbuilding/themes of their game society, along with strong characterizations -- probably, but certainly not necessarily, starring NPCs. (Favorite approaches to Link can differ so. Some are brilliant; some are not.) No villain stories, of course, including Tingle, please: good guys and ordinary folks and tragic failures preferred. (And possibly redeemed monsters, where relevant. What does it mean in Twilight Princess that the King Bulblin chooses Link over Ganondorf at the last and appears in the end credits?)

I'd enjoy recommendations of well-written Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon, 1983) stories that I have not already read, or perhaps have not read for a long time. There are not that many on the AO3. While I'd prefer gen or canon ships, I'll happily read well-written romance, including non-canon ships, as long as they do not pair any of our heroes with villains, and as long as they are age-appropriate and era-aware (our gang are adolescents or teenagers in the '80s and in their 50s today). I think I'd particularly enjoy "returned from the Realm" or "grew up in the Realm," but canon-like adventures are always most welcome.

And while the Rurouni Kenshin/Highlander crossover that skieswideopen recommended years ago was very good, I still wish to read one focusing more on Kenshin's decision never to kill again, and how that moral direction intersects not only with HL's game's imperatives, but how it intersects with the moral imperatives of HL characters like Darius, Grace, the false Methos, Richie, and Duncan.

What recommendations might you like that I can supply?

snowflake_challenge: Pets of fandom: "Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!"

I unfortunately must take the show-your-ID antihistamines when visiting furry pets. Few characters are similarly afflicted! So some thoughts on just a select few of their pets...

I won't count horses or similar as pets for this purpose, categorizing them as full partners, so that omits Uni (D&DC) and Epona (TLoZ), along with all pokémon, dragons, etc.

In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Zelda has a cat, white like her horse, and all kudos to the unknown-by-me fan who first cleverly fanon/headcanon-named the unnamed cat "Purra" (after the character Purah in the Wilds games by way of the cat Purry in The Minish Cap). When this Zelda wears a certain enchanted outfit, she can speak with cats throughout Hyrule, and discovers their busy cat lives and receives cat side-quests, my favorite of which is "A Treat for my Person," accessible only after completing two other side quests, in which a cat, originally from Gerudo Desert, needs Zelda's help to give her human, a Seesyde Village fisherperson, a specific Gerudo-flavor smoothie as thanks. (Trivia: In the obscure Tri Force Heroes, Link can similarly wear a costume to talk to cats. And of course he talks to all the animals when he's a wolf in Twilight Princess.)

In Battlestar Galactica (1978), Boxy, Serina and Apollo's son, gets Muffit, an experimental robotic daggit (dog), to succeed the real daggit he lost in the Annihilation of the Colonies. This is explained as training for the robot to be a guard for soldiers on planets, and of all the children in the rag-tag fleet of survivors Boxy alone gets this privilege because of Apollo's connections, but of course the real-world reason Muffy exists is merchandising. That said, Muffy, like the CORA Viper-fighter interface, sits conspicuously, problematically, and wholly unacknowledged at a thematic core of the show. The humans fear all forms of artificial intelligence because of how it led to the Cylons. Yet they keep making things like Muffit and CORA, and a recurring character is a robotics scientist. This nagging inconsistency is likely due to the Cylons mostly representing fears of Soviet communism and nuclear war at the time, not actually social/technology fears. Nevertheless, it's a point in the story that fanfic can explore. (I admit I have a small, WIP draft poking into that; I haven't touched it since before LLMs exploded onto the scene, though.)

In Forever Knight, of course Natalie's cat Sidney is seen on screen once and mentioned on screen a second time, and that's it for the full three seasons of show. As annavere mentioned, animals are generally rarer on screen than in real life, because they're difficult and expensive to work with in acting. But Sidney figures prominently in the fandom's understanding of Natalie, firmly treated as a recurring character in his own right in fanfic. Nick's lack of pets, on the other hand, is given a tragic and fully believable in-universe explanation in the "Blind Faith" flashbacks, as -- and I'm phrasing this carefully to not spoil Annavere, who is watching FK for the first time -- Lacroix sadistically intervenes.

What do you think of pets in these canons...?

Meme picked up from senmut: From your AO3 Works page, look at the tags and find the answers to these questions.

Find me at Brightknightie

1. Under what rating do you write most?
To my surprise, "General Audiences" (68) only barely edges out "Teen and up" (66). Interesting. (There are also 5 "Mature;" I remember just 2 of those off the top of my head.)

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?

• Forever Knight (TV 1992) (88)
• Highlander: The Series (18)
• Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon) (8)

"The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms" will match D&DC soon. I should perhaps choose to keep them neck-and-neck.

3. Which character do you write about most?
Historically and altogether, of course it is Nick Knight (58). That's too obvious and predictable.

4. What are the 3 top pairings you've written?
My most frequently-written FK pairing is Nick/Natalie, HL Duncan/Tessa, and Sailor Moon Darien/Serena. (These are not the top three overall, but listing just FK all the time feels dull and distant.)

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?
This is the question that makes this meme most interesting, as I would not have guessed, though I really should have if I'd thought it through mathematically:

• Post-Canon (27)
• Historical (24)
• Flashbacks (16)

sunshine_revival '25 Challenge #1: "Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025."

My fannish goals for the rest of this summer include:

• Participate in everywoman, the fanfic exchange starring women characters, when it comes along. I will definitely offer D&DC, TLOZ, and BSG78; others' requests will influence what else I may list.


• Build a pattern of recommending something once per week on recommendation communities, and then including a wrap-up of my recs here in my own journal in my monthly "Enthusiasms" post. (Or give it its own monthly post?) Probably usually in recthething, but it could be any suitable recs community. (Is it appropriate to cross-post recs to multiple recs communities? Maybe at staggered intervals?)


• Finish writing and post an odd TLOZ piece I'm thinking of as: "Three Gerudo Ficlets in the Past of Tears of the Kingdom, Before Age of Imprisonment Totally Josses Them." ( Read more... )

At the end of the year, of course I plan to participate in hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander fanfic exchange.

Catching up on TV whenever, I plan to watch Andor (season two) and Ironheart (season one). I wish that they released one episode per week, not tranches of episodes! I find one-episode-per-week so inviting, and these tranches so overwhelming, that I end up putting off watching these, while I am of course wholly caught up on the current season of Grantchester. Back-watching TV, I will continue my one-episode-per-week first-time viewing of Babylon 5. (Again, if you mentally classify the special effects as meant for stage instead of screen, this show does much more than merely "hold up;" I feel that it beats the heck out of most of what we have today. Storytelling, acting, episodicness and continuity...)

I already have my pre-sale tickets for Superman (2025) and The Fantastic Four (2025), of course. (Please let me say again that folks should consider watching Thunderbolts*; it's rich and satisfying in multiple layers. I'm disheartened that so many people skipped it. It's well-made and deserves better.)


How about you...?