Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist

Shirley can be a polarising character, or at least certainly was when the show came out, and in a show that centred and celebrated queerness so much, a character who struggled with homophobia—which, in my reading of her (and I think this is a pretty surface level take, honestly) is a manifestation of her OCD and her obsessions about contamination, and I cannot despite a mentally ill young woman from the 1940s with a "masculine" interest and talent who was terrified of being gay, because it would mean she would "have" to be lobotomised. Shirley also faces the things that terrify her so she can disprove her own fears out of love of her queer friends. I think that honest and compassionate represtations of the less "relatable" and sympathetic manifestations of mental illness, in particular with stuff like OCD, is so important and this vid was just so, so pitch perfect in how it handled its subject matter.

There is a lot of repetition in the song's lyrics and the vid uses this to its advantage by using repeated refrains, in particular, "I just wanna be okay, be okay, be okay" to edit montages of visually similar clips together, often showing Shirley repeating the same compulsive rituals and movements in different scenes. This is so effective and really helps to centre Shirley's point of view and anxieties really solidly at the heart of the vid. And, having established this motif, then transitions away from it in the last section, and instead shows several different instances of Shirley being happy and joyful with her teammates in very visually different scenes over the refrain.

• Fic that is largely canon compliant. Canon divergent AUs are great, fic that re-interprets or re-examines canon events with a different lens is also great. I am not especially reverent towards canon and non-canon compliant fic is not a problem, but I do really like fic that rattles the bars of its canonical confines while remaining within them (or stays within them for the most part). See also:
• Post-canon fic and prequel fic—especially ones that are:
• Character studies, especially of characters who are sparsely characterised or underutilised in canon.
• Missing scene fic.
• Fic with a strong ensemble cast.
• AUs that are a completely different setting to canon, especially fusions with other canons such as Pacific Rim AUs or The Last Unicorn AUs (see DNWs for exceptions).
• Dramatic irony, especially when it’s comedic.
  • That said, I love sincerity that is entirely unembarrassed of itself and does not try to deflate itself with irony.
• Witty or otherwise humorous dialogue.
• As you can probably tell from the last two listed likes, I prefer fics with a comedic tone, or at least a comedic tinge (which can be ironic and/or bitter, in fics that skew more towards the dramatic side of the comedy-drama spectrum). I like pretty dry and understated humour, but I am also just a fan of Funny more generally.
• Bittersweet or melancholy fics are also wonderful. I am always a sucker for regret and missed opportunities/wasted time.
• Quiet, domestic stories that have a sense of contentment about them.
• Exciting, dynamic stories that have a sense of uncertainty about them. I particularly really love stuff where I don’t know what’s going on for 85% of the fic and then it all clicks into place in the last 15% as reveals that were set up earlier start to fall like dominoes.
• Found family.
  additional details

  Characters can have any kind of relationship to their family of origin in these kinds of fics—I am equally happy with fic about or featuring found families where the characters haven’t spoken to their parents in years and never intend to again and fic where one of the characters called their mom to talk to her about sourdough starter yesterday. Mixing and matching between these two extremes can be fun too!
• Queer platonic partnerships.
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  The character(s) can be aro and/or ace, and/or be sexually and/or romantically attracted to a different gender to their QPP, or they can just be queer platonic partners because that is the kind of relationship that suits them and not due to a mismatch/mutual incompatibility of sexual and/or romantic orientation.
• References to queer culture and history. This can be in conjunction with one or more queer ships, but can also be in a gen fic featuring one or more queer characters.
• Pining.
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  I especially like this when the character in question’s feelings are actually requited and they’re just unaware (especially-especially if the reader is aware before the character is through clues given but not explicitly stated in the narration) but also when their feelings genuinely are one-sided.
• Rarepairs.
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  In most of my fandoms, I usually end up getting more and more niche over time. I love when my first reaction to seeing a ship tag is, “Huh?” but then when I read the fic I’m completely sold by the execution of it because it feels true to the canonical characterisation of the characters and the evolution of the relationship (or invention of it, if they’ve never met before in canon) is a natural extension of that, so feel free to include ships that you really love that I have not mentioned in my fandom specific likes, as long as I haven’t mentioned actively disliking them. Also, this probably goes without saying, but just in case: I am using an interpretation of “rarepair” here includes ships that involve more than two partners.
• Polyamory/non-monogamy, very much including forms of non-monogamy other than polyfidelitous triads, such as vee arrangements, polycules or open relationships etc.
  additional details

  Your fic can be primarily about X/Y and have it as a background detail that this relationship is non-monogamous, if you like. I really like fic that is about X/Y, but X’s canonical relationship with Z also exists in the fic without anyone cheating or getting jealous. For examples of the kind of thing I mean, cosmic_llin has some great fic where Deanna Troi is dating something who is not her canonical love interest Will Riker, while also being in an open relationship with Riker.
• Emotionally intense and tempestuous co-dependent relationships, which can either get healthier over the course of the narrative or remain very much a "don’t try this at home" kind of depiction.
• Unironic “issuefic.”
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  This is a term that turns up in DNWs rather than likes in a lot of fandom exchange letters, in my experience, but I genuinely love reading about The Issues™. This can include, but is not limited to, things like disability theory adjacent themes, trans headcanons, depictions of characters being very deliberate and careful about respecting consent, unironic depictions of characters talking like they’re trying to get a good grade in therapy (maybe He Would Not Fucking Say That, but if we’re going to limit ourselves to what he would fucking do and say why not just call it quits on fandom and stick to canon, lol), examinations of the broader social context of the settings of various fandoms, middle aged men trying to be kind.
• Kid fic.
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  I prefer if the kid seems broadly realistic for the age they are depicted as being, but what is typical at a certain age varies a lot (I certainly had a very spiky developmental profile myself as a child) so don’t stress about it.
• Knitting or other kinds of crafts, especially from authors who are crafters and especially-especially when it includes technical or jargon-y details.
• Speaking of jargon, I love STEM-y things being featured in fic.
  additional details

  An example of what I mean is things like the stuff about mathematical proofs in astolat‘s Rodney McCay/John Sheppard fic Time in a Bottle. You don’t have to go into enormous depth here to get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of how much it will please me. I nearly swooned when I read the main character of the novel Hold Me by Courtney Milan mention something about something being three standard deviations above the mean.
• I also love wildly unrealistic and campy fake science escapades.
  additional details

  Things à la this Karate Kid fic I wrote where a CEO character’s R&D department creates a super soldier who he falls in love with or this fic trinityofone wrote for the same ship where the CEO character uses fake science, again from his R&D department, to babytrap his love interest. Basically though, if a bubbling, neon green liquid housed in a beaker that is smoking profusely appears in your fic then you are on the right track!
• Things relating to ageing.
  additional details, some NSFW.

  Including, but not limited to: moments of wistfulness or melancholy about it, older characters having active and fulfilling sex lives, broader themes about ageing, or matter of fact inclusion of details about changes brought about with age. In terms of that last one, I once wrote a fic where a character’s wrist started clicking after he fingered the woman he was having sex with for a long time, so stuff along those lines is great. That fic also had some sci-fi age-related stuff about the Phase where post-menopausal Betazoids’ sex drive quadruples or more, so feel free to include speculative/sci-fi stuff about ageing too if it fits the setting of your fic!
• Stuff about (wanted) pregnancy. I have some pregnancy related DNWs at the link here, so if this is an option you’re attracted to, please click through to see what I do not want from this kind of story.
  additional details about what I do like (some NSFW)

  Including, but not limited to: cloyingly fluffy family fic, breeding kink (and/or risky sex) and overly specific and/or scientific details about pregnancy itself. These details can relate to real pregnancy or speculative/sci-fi pregnancies featuring alien physiology or artificial wombs, etc. Speculative/sci-fi pregnancy does not have to be realistic for me to enjoy it! Depictions of real pregnancy would ideally have a higher degree of realism though, as pregnancy has been a long standing special interest of mine. I don’t mean, by this though, that you have to give someone a difficult pregnancy because they’re over 36 and that’s “more realistic” or something (also, fwiw, my aunt had her first baby at 48 and she had a very healthy and active pregnancy with both of her children), just that I would prefer that any specifics that you mention are accurate (so no feeling the baby kick before 16 weeks, for example). If you want to write about someone having a difficult pregnancy, or complications like gestational diabetes, though, go right ahead! I would ask though that if you go this route that it’s more along the lines of h/c than something that ends tragically. Regarding abortion, where termination is discussed (if, for example, the pregnancy was unplanned and the potential parent is thinking about options) I would strongly prefer that it was in a pro-choice context, unless you really feel that one or more of the characters would be pro-life and the overall narrative itself did not endorse them on this. I’m totally open to angsty fic about infertility that does not end with the character becoming pregnant, however.

  Notes regarding mpreg and people other than cis women getting pregnant

  Cis mpreg heavily depends on execution for me and I am generally not that interested in it—when I do read it, I prefer cis mpreg where pregnancy is not the norm for cis men in that universe and it’s contextually a fake science or magic-related thing. I am okay with trans mpreg, especially written by other transmasculine authors, and with other AFAB trans people getting pregnant as long as it is a wanted pregnancy and any depictions of dysphoria are not extremely graphic. If you would like to write a story where a trans woman or transfeminine or other AMAB trans person gets pregnant, then I’m totally open to that and my preferences for that align more closely to the ones I’ve mentioned for speculative/sci-fi pregnancy than to my preferences relating to cis men being depicted as being pregnant. Rather than wanting the pregnancy to be depicted as unusual or unique, as is my preferance for cis mpreg, I would prefer a fic where transition related healthcare has progressed or is on the cusp or progressing far enough to allow this kind of pregnancy to happen. Also, despite what I just said about preferring this kind of pregnancy not to be depicted as being singular in-universe, if you want to write fic where your character has gotten pregnant after being granted a wish by fairies, set in a universe where transition related healthcare has not, and will not in the near future, allow for AMAB people to get pregnant, go right ahead! This is relatively uncharted territory, fic-wise, to my knowledge, so go forth and be fruitful, as it were 😉 My only truly strong preference here would be that your character is pregnant due to wanting to be pregnant rather than for another reason.
• Since I mentioned it briefly in the above bullet point: speculative or canon alien physiology in settings where this is relevant.
  additional details (mildly NSFW?)

  Can be related to non-human typical genital configurations like Spock’s various fanonical space!junk, or more along the lines of Spock’s heart being where a human’s liver would be, and him having copper based blood.
• Inclusion of sensory and sensual details (which may or may not be erotic).

• Getting together and/or stuff with a first kiss (I know, how NSFW, lol) or first time having sex. I particularly like if first time sex scenes (and sex scenes generally) aren’t Perfect™ and things are a little awkward in a way that the characters can laugh about.
  • First time bottoming and, more generally, first time doing X sex act or kink and/or characters realising that something they hadn’t given much thought to, or had assumed they wouldn’t be into, is something they’re really into. I’d prefer they go into it with a “Sure, I’ll try anything once” attitude rather than an “I’ll suffer through it for you 😥” attitude.
• Friends with benefits/platonic sex. This can turn into fuckbuddies-to-lovers, but it doesn’t have to. I am particularly partial to a character who wingmans for their fuckbuddy and gets them together with another love interest (whether or not the two friends continue to have platonic sex afterwards is fine either way).
• Non-penetrative sex.
  additional details

  The characters can be actively choosing not to have non-penetrative sex specifically because of practical concerns, such as them don’t want to risk pregnancy, or them wanting to fuck right the fuck now and not wanting to wait for an opportune time for anal, or a character having vaginismus, or one or more of the characters just not really liking penetration. It can also just be something with non-penetrative sex without the need to justify that choice in-text. I really like when fics don’t make a distinction between penetrative and non-penetrative sex in terms of what is considered to be “real” sex, e.g. things like characters referring to a time they had oral sex as, “When we fucked” in dialogue, or similar casual nods to non-penetrative sex also being sex.
  • Intercrural sex specifically. This can transition into penetrative sex or not.
  • Oral sex of all varieties. I don’t particularly care about erotica being historical accurate or not (or, indeed, about erotica being strictly realistic in general—it can be fun to write realistic sex, but if you want to write impromptu anal fisting, go for it! I have, lol), so feel free to include it in a setting where it would be unlikely, e.g. the Golden Age of Piracy.
• Virginity kink, especially if the fic itself doesn’t buy into the social construction of virginity as a concept.
• Re: the above, I really it like, in general, when a work winks at the idea that kinky elements are just roleplay and not Real. Not for moralistic reasons or anything, I just think it gives a nice atmosphere and feel to the relationship and dynamic between the characters to imagine them being kinky together on purpose, as opposed to fics that play to the kink, but are not explicitly written to portray the characters as kinky, if that makes sense. I don’t mind if this is not something in play though, and I can definitely tell the difference between id-heavy smutty fan fiction and writing intended to be taken as a strictly literal account of how things are or should be.

• First or second person narration, unless that is canon typical.
• Mundane/modern AUs (e.g. college or coffee shop AUs, etc.), Harry Potter AUs/fusions, AUs or pre-canon fic where the characters are aged down.
  random tangent about Scooby Doo

  Although, come to think of it, I’d love to see a fic, AU or post-canon, where characters were depicted as much older than they appear in canon, e.g. something like the gang from the original 1969 Scooby Doo cartoon in the modern day as 70-somethings … in this purely hypothetical Scooby Doo fic that nobody will ever write though, Scooby is obviously still alive, typical 8-10 year lifespan of a Great Dane be damned.
  (return to where you left off in Likes)
• Pregnancy related DNWs:
  • Unwanted pregnancy.
  • Fic where a character is coerced or tricked into becoming pregnant, even if they come around to the idea and/or are not upset by it (babytrapping from the side of the gestational parent isn’t a problem for me, because it’s a bodily autonomy thing for me mainly and also I’m a hypocrite).
  • Fic where the overall narrative explicitly promotes a pro-life sentiment.
  • Pregnancy fic where the pregnancy ends in abortion (re: the apparent contradiction with the last bullet point, for me this is like “there was only one bed” fic where they resolve it with someone sleeping on the couch, because I like pregnancy fic and the kind I seek out start from a premise that the pregnancy is wanted, even if unplanned).
  • Fic where the pregnancy ends in miscarriage, unless the character does manage to carry a pregnancy to term (or after 12 weeks, with the implication that they will carry to term) by the end of the story and the miscarriages are not depicted graphically. (return to where you left off in Likes)
• Dark fic. I’m fine with angsty or bittersweet fic or with stories that are framed as tragedies, but I do not want something that is primary intended to be disturbing, or that is unrelentingly miserable with no reprieve and no catharsis at the end.
• More than passing depictions of bigotry. You do not have to engage in historical revisionism or erase bigotry that exists in canon or the real world and I do enjoy fic that engages with the broader social contexts of various fandom settings, but I do not want a fic that is centred primarily around experiences of bigotry.
• Fetishisation or romanticisation of a marginalised group.
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  For example: race play, fetishisation of trans people, fat fetishism, fetishisation of physically disabled people’s bodies, romanticisation of mental illness, etc. One exception is that I do have a weakness for clueless class privileged characters who are poverty tourists, à la the song Common People, so I will say that I’m generally neutral-to-positive on this one, provided the character whose socioeconomic circumstances are being romanticised explicitly thinks that the poverty tourist is being a privileged dick (regardless of whether they also still have, or want to have, sex and/or a relationship with them).
• Intimate partner violence or other related forms of abuse.
  additional details

  I do like some specific ships where the characters are unhealthily obsessed with each other and mutually destructive, but I do not like fics where a character is primarily a victim of their partner rather than someone willingly walking into a lake of bad decisions with their partner and drowning, hand in unlovable hand. N.B. I don’t mean by this distinction that I think that anyone in a real life abusive relationship is culpable for the abuse they suffer in any way.

• Kink related DNWs:
  • Consensual non-consent or other rape fantasies.
  • 24–7 D/s relationships.
  • Master/slave relationships.
  • Humiliation kink. Non-kinky humiliation is fine.
  • Desperation kink.
  • Edging.
  • Chastity belts/cages, etc.
  • Degrading or insulting language in a kink context.
  • Erotic asphyxiation. Non-erotic choking is okay.
  • Heavy pain play. Light impact kink or discomfort from restraints is fine.
  • Sadism.
  • Sounding.
  • Things likely to edge near a hygiene squick.
• Non-con or dub-con.
• Characters consenting to sex they think they won’t like, whether they turn out to be right about this or not.
• Detailed descriptions of sex that is painful or unpleasant.
  additional details

  While I love badsex where it all goes pear-shaped in a way that’s funny to both the reader and the characters, and I love fic where characters get better at communicating what they enjoy sexually and their sex life improving as a result, I really don’t want to read long or in-depth depictions of characters being subjected to sex they absolutely hate with a partner who is either unaware that they don’t like it, or doesn’t care, that never gets any better.

• Humourous lyrics or ironic pairings of clips with lyrics for a humorous effect
• Vids with a narrative/emotional arc
• Character study vids
• Ensemble vids
• Uptempo vids with lots of quick cuts on the beat and a sense of movement
• But also: slower, contemplative vids with long clips
• Music specific likes:
• Vocal jazz, especially Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Chet Baker (my token white man in this category, lol). I mostly listen to stuff from the 1930s-1960s, but I'd be thrilled to get something set to more contemporary jazz too
• Great American Songbook singers, i.e. anyone known for singing things composed by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. but especially Judy Garland
• Motown, e.g. Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and Smokey Robinson
• Disco, e.g. The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan and the Village People
• Rock and pop from the 1960s-1980s, e.g. The Mamas & the Papas, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Cher, The Turtles, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, ABBA and Queen
• Contemporary pop, e.g. Carly Rae Jepsen, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Mitski, Hayley Kiyoko, Marina (& the Diamonds), Florence + the Machine
• Contemporary hip hop and R&B, e.g. Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Shea Couleé and Janelle Monáe
• Pop folk, e.g. Simon & Garfunkel, Sufjan Stevens, Belle and Sebastian, Mumford & Sons and Joni Mitchell
• Musical theatre e.g. Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel
• Country, e.g. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Trixie Mattel, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lyn, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Norah Jones, Lil Nas X, Sheryl Crow and Miley Cyrus

• Why I like this fandom: This is a real comfort fandom for me from my childhood and I really love all the female characters in it (well... love to hate Bavmorda—she is delightfully camp and evil). It's kind of interesting that, besides Willow himself and Madmartigan, almost all the key players in Willow are women, which feels a bit atypical and special for 1980s fantasy movies, which is a genre that I dearly love.
• Fandom-specific vid prompts: I think that something that taps into the fairy tale adjacent vibe of the movie (or, alternately, that completely contrasted with it in an interesting or funny way) would be great. I'm very happy to receive a vid featuring more than one of my requested characters if we've matched on multiple characters.
• Requested characters:
  • Sorsha: I love Sorsha so much. Having rewatched the movie recently, I think that my memory of her arc was a bit more fleshed out than it was in the actual film, where she just sort of decided not to be evil anymore because Madmartigan flirted with her, but I actually don't even care because I consider my rose-tinted glasses to be the true canon here. She's just so compelling! She's that kind of "daughter of the evil wizard who turns towards the light when a male hero falls in love with her" archetype, but that is complicated by the fact that the evil wizard, in this instance, is a single mother (who doesn't seem to value her or treat her very well, but that's another matter). She's also a military commander! She's not a passsive figure in the narrative who gets traded off between the bad guys and the good guys as a trophy, she goes from active antagonist to active ally. I think something about her relationship with her mother and/or her heel-turn would be amazing. I do ship Sorsha/Madmartigan, so feel free to include that if you like, but it's not necessary. You can also incorporate footage of Sorsha from the Willow TV show that came out last year, if you'd like!
  • Fin Raziel: Raziel! My beloved! She's just so... I don't even have the words. There's something so tragic about her lost youth and then something so interesting in how she pragmatically just moves on after a brief "Has it been that long?" when Willow finally succeeds in turning her back into a human, and just gets to work. I'm also always a sucker for characters who are physically transformed. I'd be really interested in any kind of Raziel vid, whether it was angsty or about her being a #girlboss who gets shit done or anything else between those extremes of emotion and seriousness.
  • Bavmorda: As I said above, Bavmorda is fantastically camp. I love villains and she really has it all. The deranged laughing, the plot to not only kill a baby but banish her to a realm of eternal suffering to prevent her being reincarnated. I think that something silly along the lines of something set to Eartha Kitt's I Wanna Be Evil would be really fun here. Also! If you happen to have matched with me on both Bavmorda and Raziel, I recently had the galaxy brained idea that maybe they are ex-girlfriends, so if that's something that appeals to you and that you'd like to run with then that would be amazing. I love enemies to lovers, but lovers to enemies is also extremely good.
  • Cherlindrea: She's so cool! I don't know how feasable it would be to do a whole 1 minute Cherlindrea-only vid, since she doesn't have a lot of screentime, but I think that you could probably get creative with including things that sort of evoked her as well as footage of her. I think this one would probably work best played straight, with sort of ethereal and magic overtones to it.

• Why I like this fandom: As I said above, the Willow movie is incredibly dear to me. I was really looking forward to this show for a long time (it kept getting pushed back, which made waiting feel agonizing) but it turned out to be everything I could ever have wanted from a sequel/reboot. Visually, it's so in keeping with the aesthetic of the movie, with the higher production values not implying a disrespect or reinvention of what came before. Also! The new characters are so, so amazing! The returning characters are also amazing and there isn't this kid-gloves treatment where they're afraid to present beloved characters as complex and flawed. If you haven't seen it and you like the original movie, I really recommend it.
• Fandom-specific vid prompts: I think that, again, you could span the whole spectrum from a very straight epic fantasy vibe to something more irreverant and silly. The show handles both tones very well and either (or a combination of both) would be very in keeping with that. I think a contemporary choice of music would work well—maybe a cover of something from the 80s if you wanted to get meta with it?
• Requested characters:
  • Kit Tanthalos: Oh Kit... trashfire gay baby of my heart. She's so, so awful, I love her. She's privileged and proud and jealous and hurt and loving and- argh! It feels so refreshing to me to see a female character get to be this messy and not be relegated to the "holder of the brain cell." Something about her relationship with her family (or her mother Sorsha, her brother Airk, or her father Madmartigan specifically), or the responsibilities and privileges her nobility brings, or something shippy about her and Jade, or something about her jealousy of Elora would all be awesome. I am also a fan of her BroTP with Boorman.
  • Jade Claymore: Jade! Sweet precious angel! She is a bit saddled with being the keeper of the brain cell, poor thing, but her character is not flattened or sidelined by this, I feel? She's just so... I love her. I love that she tries so, so hard to be what her mentors/Kit/Tir Asleen needs and how she has been failed by all of the people and things she's devoted herself to. The fact that she was the child of General Kael and was, essentially, kidnapped by the Knights of Galladoorn and raised to despise the Bone Reavers is really compelling to me and I like how it complicates the more simplistic Good vs Evil broad strokes of the movie.
  • Elora Danan: I'm so, so delighted with how they handled Elora. She's such a great take on the Chosen One archetype and the fact that she is so human and feels so authentically like a young person with big, complicated feelings who is dealing with A Lot. I think something about identity and finding yourself or coming of age might work here? Or anything about any of her relationships (platonic and romantic) in the show, or about her efforts to live up to her foretold destiny and how it feels when she thinks she's falling short of what is expected of her.
  • Scorpia: Scorpia is someone I really hope we see more of in future seasons if the show gets renewed. As I mentioned in Jade's bullet point, I really like how the show has expanded and complicated the role of the Bone Reavers and she is such a big part of that, both as Jade's sister who was separated from her, as one of General Kael's two living children (of twelve) and as a leader. I also ship her canonical relationship with Boorman and if you wanted to include something about that, go for it.
  • Mims Ufgood: It was so lovely seeing Mims all grown up! There is so much tragedy and dignity in her and I wish she was in more of the show. I think that something played straight is the way to go for a Mims vid and probably something pretty angsty.

• Why I like this fandom: Full disclosure: I started watching this show primarily for reasons of being thirsty for Martin Kove. However! It's so much more than that. It is, of course, a cop show, with all that that entails, but I think that, in many ways, it does a better job of portraying nuance and honesty about the failings of the police than a lot of more contemporary police procedurals? Your mileage may vary, of course. I certainly think that it holds up very well compared to its contemporaries in the genres at any rate though.
• Fandom-specific vid prompts: I think that there's a lot of ways you could go on this! You could do something about gendered expectations of the 1980s (in the police force and more generally), you could do something about friendship, you could do something that was explicitly critical of the show's more overtly copaganda moments. Music-wise, I think something from the time period would work well, but that's not to say that something more modern, or something from an earlier time period, like something deeply sexist that came out when that sentiment was less controversial in the mainstream, along the lines of Wives and Lovers.
• Requested characters:
  • Ginger Cohen: I looooove Ginger. Honestly, if I had only requested Ginger's episodes then I'm 99% sure this would have counted as a safety fandom. But even if she's not a main character, she is to me. She is Detective Victor Isbecki's eventual wife and, basically, the first woman he's seen who he didn't go out with because they were young and cute. She's older than he is, academic, a divorcee, a mother. I mean... maybe she went out with him because he was young and cute! I'm also interested in if and how she helped Isbecki explore his Jewish heritage after he found out that his father had been Jewish. Whether you wanted to go with something serous or lighthearted with this, it's all good! I think if you were going lighthearted something like Does Your Mother Know would be a fun Ginger/Victor vid from her POV.
  • Mary Beth Lacey: I started watching Cagney and Lacey because I was thirsty for Martin Kove, but when I got into it I swiftly started being thirsty for Tyne Daly. I really like that in the odd couple pairing of Cagney and Lacey, it's Lacey who is the one with left wing politics and that they didn't go with the easy "Well, she's married and has kids, she's probably the Republican" route. Something about how she's in the era of "you can have it all!" and how demanding it actually is to try to have it all would be really great, as would something about her partnership with Cagney.
  • Christine Cagney: Oh Christine... you problematic fave, you. I probably would not remotely like Christine Cagney in real life, but as a fictional character I find her facinating. The contradictions in her poltics where she's very against sexism as it pertains to her, but then she's typically on the right elsewhere and seems quite happy to pull the ladder up behind her with regards women who make different choices to her or who aren't from a background she finds respectable. I see her as a closeted (even to herself) lesbian who has been very messed up by being raised by her socially conservative father. Something about her struggles with alcoholism would be very interesting, as would something about her politics or her partnership with Lacey or her issues with maintaining romantic relationships.

• Why I like this fandom: I actually actively resisted watching Succession for a long time, because I saw a lot of people on Tumblr poking fun at people blorbifying capitalists and I was like... okay, maybe not. Also I mostly saw stuff about Tom/Greg which, no hate to that ship, didn't really seem to be unmissable given that, as I so often say, we have white dude slash at home. However! Then I found out about Gerri/Roman and my kinky older woman/younger man ship loving ears pricked up. And I'm really glad I did, because I love all of these awful people now and I am unironically blorbifying all of my special little 1%ers.
• Fandom-specific vid prompts: I'm madly in love with the scoring of this show and I think it makes great use of dissonance to imply the dissonant relationships of the Roy family, so I suppose my possibly-not-very-helpful suggestion here is to try to find something that uses a lot of dissonance or music that supports the themes in terms of the music itself as well as the lyrics (if you go with something that has lyrics).
• Requested characters:
  • Gerri Kellman: As I said above, Gerri is one of the main reasons that I watched the show in the first place. I would die for Gerri. I love how she's so calculated and careful, but then also does things that are wildly reckless, like starting up that quasi-affair with Roman (and then gaslight, gatekeep, girlbossing her way into pretending it wasn't happening). I think that she is a stone cold killer bitch, as Roman called her in one episode, but I also think that she has a vulnerable and soft side that she's wary of exposing. I think that being widowed had a big impact on her, because as well as losing her life partner she lost possibly her only guaranteed ally in Waystar Royco. She is also very flawed and has gotten her hands dirty being the Roys' sin-eater, but, as she says to Tom, it is a great job and you get to eat a shit tonne of cake. I'd love something about her ambivalence, either about her role in the business or in her relationships.
  • Shiv Roy: Shiv is so great. I love that she thinks she's the good Roy. Like what I was saying about Christine Cagney in the Cagney & Lacey section, I really love the contradictions and willful self delusions in Shiv's politics. She is A Woman™, so she must be progressive on that basis alone, right? She plays at being a campaign manager for Democrats to piss off her dad and to differentiate herself from her family, but she has no moral convictions, or at least none that she won't sacrifice for her own self interest. In the words of her father she's blue but she "gets it" and she never betrays her class interests. I think that something satirizing the #girlboss #leanin nature of Shiv would be really fun, but if you wanted to go down a more serious route and look at her various emotional wounds and the context of her awfulness that would also be amazing. I also, for what it's worth, think she genuinely does love Tom, which I imagine is very embarassing for her.

• Why I like this fandom: I am so, so fond of this show. I watched The Tick cartoon as a child, but wasn't really aware of the other adaptations until the 2017 show came out. Having explored the franchise more now, the 2017 show is far and away my favourite of them. It's so sincere and sweet, while also being hilarious and quite cutting at times. Truly, it has it all.
• Fandom-specific vid prompts: I think, like the show, you could go either goofy and heighted or play the more devastating parts of it quite straight (or do both!). I don't have any specific thoughts about music for this fandom, but I don't think there's anything that really wouldn't work.
• Requested characters:
  • Dot Everest: I love Dot so much. Her arc from being her brother's keeper as it were, to going completely off the rails of her sensible, carefully planned life and embracing chaos in season two when she drops out of school and quits her job to become a masked vigilante. You love to see it. I think that something about her being so tightly coiled and type-A and compartmentalising her own trauma to prioritise her brother's and how she let go of that would be really great. I do also ship her with Overkill, so I'm very happy to have some Overdot vibes included.
  • Ms Lint: Ms Lint is such a beautiful marriage of a campy villain that you can enjoy hammy around chewing the scenary and also someone who is genuinely very chilling. I also love that she isn't ever truly redeemed! She gets to go around doing her evil thing and if she's nominally on the same side as the good guys sometimes then that's purely incidental. Like Bavmorda, I think that something about enjoying being evil would be a really great fit. If you were able to do something that balanced the tone between silly, fun camp and something more chilling then that would be amazing, but I'd be happy with either take on its own too.

• Why I like this fandom:I grew up on the 1989 Quantum Leap show and I couldn't be more thrilled with this reboot. It's everything I could possibly want as a continuation and/or reboot of the original. It's true to what made the Scott Bakula show so special, but it's not so reverent of it that it's not afraid to do its own thing and it improves on the representation of the original. To date, there are no recurring white male characters and that's never treated as something remarkable.
• Fandom-specific vid prompts: Oof, this would really depend on the character you wanted to focus on! I think that, similar to what I said about the Willow TV show, that a fun thing to do with the choice of music would be to use a modern cover of a song from the 80s, but that's just an idea.
• Requested characters:
  • Addison Augustine: Addison is so, so interesting and compelling to me. Her fury at choices being taken away from her and her inability to physically help Ben on his leaps is really powerful. I love Addison/Ben, so something along those lines would be great, but if you wanted to focus in on her specifically I think something about her perfectionism and desire for control would be great.
  • Jenn Chou: Jenn! Reformed criminal of my heart. I love that she's kind of the big stick that Project Quantum Leap carries while walking quietly, in a way. There is also so much depth hinted at but not spelled out explicitly with her characterisation. I think that she's someone who has had a lot of tragedy in her life and who has had to be self sufficient and is just now learning how to rely on others.
  • Ian Wright: My sole non-woman request! I love Ian and I love their casual inclusion in the main cast. They are maybe the first canonically non-binary character I watched without bracing myself and who I turned out not to have needed to brace myself, or certainly among the first (thinking it over, Jim Jimenez from Our Flag Means Death might be numero uno). And, with that being said, the casual nature of their inclusion and the fact that they are not used as a didactic tool for cis viewers does not mean that their gender is never relevant! I think the ways they talk about gender are very true to how real non-binary people talk about it and it never feels tacked on or forced or fetishistic. I also love that their skill as a programmer is the main focus of their characterisation. Also, let's be real, a transfeminine computer scientist who keeps a cat ears headband in their desk "in case of emeowgencies" is literally the most accurate trans represenation I've ever seen.
  • Janis Calavicci: Janis, as Al's daughter, is such a vital link to the original show! It's kind of an interesting meta thing that she's explicitly excluded from Project Quantum Leap because of her ties to the original project, which could maybe act as a metaphor for this show doing its own thing? And yet, she insistently inserts herself into the narrative and is the whole reason that it kicks off in the first place. I'm so intrigued by her and what her Deal is. Also, I kind of ship her with Jenn, but that's another story.
  • Ziggy: I felt incredibly cheeky nominating Ziggy, given that, as an AI, she has no embodied presence on the show, but colls said it was okay, so I will let go of my scruples about requesting something that would be very challenging to vid! I think that this could be a really interesting challenge though, tbh? I think that something from Janelle Monáe's album Dirty Computer or something by Daft Punk or Kraftwerk, or something else along similar lines, could be really fun. Feel free to pull footage of the handlink from the original Quantum Leap show and from any non-canon sources that help to evoke Ziggy.