Fandom5k 2021
Apr. 10th, 2021 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lastwingedthingDear author, I'm so excited you're writing something for me!
Likes
I am generally pretty flexible with the things I like. Character-driven stories are awesome, plot-driven stories are awesome, explicit porn is awesome, angst and bleakness are awesome, happy endings are awesome, humor is awesome! Etc.
A few of my favourite things include:
-Canon divergence AUs!
-Time travel shenanigans, particularly characters going back in time to change their own past (I always love a good Peggy Sue!)
-Politics, history and worldbuilding
-Road trips (or spaceship trips, actual ship trips, etc)
-Stoic women with repressed feelings
-Female antiheroes or villains with complex motivations
-Enemies forced to work together by circumstance
-Unexpected and unconventional happy endings
-Bittersweet endings
-Tragedies that are more-or-less inevitable given the nature of the individuals involved
-People living in less-than-ideal or even actively hostile situations who manage to carve out some kind of happiness despite that.
Porn likes include rough/frantic sex, emphasising nonhuman strengths/capabilities/anatomy for nonhuman or superpowered characters, dirty talk, mild D/s, and bondage/restraints.
I am generally okay with violence, noncon, character death, etc - provided that it is warned for up front - though I would prefer that stories do not focus solely on trauma/horror/violence, and if these do come up as part of the story, I am more interested in the lead up and the aftermath than in dragging out the details of the act itself.
If you need to work your way around a canon relationship of any configuration to write a pairing I've requested (or just like writing it), I do generally enjoy poly and open relationships! "They were together and then they broke up" and "don't even mention it" are also fine. Infidelity is also fine in most circumstances, I'm cool with reading about requested characters doing morally dubious things - as long as the cheated-on party doesn't get written wildly out of character to "justify" it. This is particularly the case in ASOIAF, where almost all the marriages we see involve at least some level of power imbalance and/or coercion - I'm really happy for the primary romantic pairing(s) of a fic to occur on the side of a formal marriage.
General DNWs:
-Modern/mundane and genre-shift AUs - basically anything that takes the requested characters/pairings out of their canon setting. Fusions (eg a daemon AU or Fallen London AU) that keep the canon setting are fine though.
-Soulmates and soulmark universes
-Lengthy descriptions of violence/horror/noncon/major character death
-Noncon between requested characters
-Non-canon character death of requested characters (and if a requested character's canon character death is averted, please don't then kill them off in a different way!)
-M/f D/s
-Unrequested kinks
-Explicit underage (I'm fine with older teenagers having sex with adults or each other, or with mentions of underage, I just don't want explicit adult/child sex)
-Unrequested, non-canonical gender or sexuality identities for requested canon characters.
Fandom-specific DNWs:
-Geralt/Jaskier
-Yennefer finding a cure for her infertility and having a biological child
-Tyrion Lannister - I'm okay with him showing up as a kid or in an AU version of himself, but not the character as we know him by the end of ADWD.
-Ned/Ashara
-Romantic Rhaegar/Lyanna (mentioning it happened is fine, keeping them as married for plot reasons is fine, a complicated/messed up ongoing relationship is fine, I'm just not interested in the shippy romantic version of this pairing.)
-Aang/Katara.
As for the fandoms and pairings, I requested:
The Silmarillion
Galadriel
Celebrimbor/Annatar
Turin Turambar/Niënor Níniel
Finduilas
AU - Canon Divergence
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Fix-it fic
Action/Adventure
Character Development
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
Galadriel
I really love the side of Galadriel we see in The Silmarillion, impulsive and reckless as well as powerful and wise, and I'd love to see anything more about her - her childhood, her adventures in Middle-Earth in any period: building kingdoms and then coming to terms with the loss and decline of everything she's built. I particularly like her complicated relationship with the Valar (and my very strong preference is for the version of the story where she is barred from returning to Valinor until the moment she turns down the one ring) and also her understanding of and empathy with the dwarves. I'd love to see her hanging out in Khazad-dum!
There's also a bit of a contradiction in First Age Galadriel that absolutely fascinates me - she's already powerful and very ambitious, and yet plays a comparatively small role in Beleriand politics. We know that early on she was learning from Melian and falling in love with Celeborn, but what else was she doing? Particularly after the death of Thingol, she just seems to fall out of the story until the Second Age - anything about what on earth she was doing would be really satisfying! There is a line in the Fellowship of the Ring where Galadriel says of her past that "...ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains..." - which doesn't then seem to be picked up in the Silmarillion, but if you wanted to write a story where Galadriel crossed the Blue Mountains to have adventures in the mid-First Age (maybe she went all the way to Khazad-dum!) only to return to Beleriand during the War of Wrath to find everything on fire, like the Troy pizza gif, I would be DELIGHTED.
I'm fairly neutral about Galadriel/Celeborn - happy to have it appear or not - and also happy with any other non-canon Galadriel pairings, particularly femslash - but no Galadriel/Feanor, please, noncon or otherwise.
Annatar/Celebrimbor
I can't help myself, I love the delicious tragedy of Celebrimbor's seduction and ruin in canon, but I'm also slightly obsessed by the idea that Annatar might have been tempted, at some point, to become exactly what he was pretending to be, and stay in Eregion with Celebrimbor. Given Tolkien's religious beliefs, surely he intended for it to be possible for Annatar to repent and make different choices - I would love to see something exploring this, whether Annatar was genuinely tempted but went with his canon plan (and then maybe regretted it?) or whether you write the AU where Annatar changes his mind.
If you do go AU I would LOVE to see the canon divergence that could make this possible! Would it just be a matter of one tiny, seemingly-inconsequential event going slightly differently and snowballing into Annatar making larger choices that are different? Or Celebrimbor finding out the truth about Annatar earlier, or differently, and reacting in a different way? Time travel AUs and/or enemies forced to work together by circumstance might also be a lot of fun for an AU! Alternatively, just a slice of life/small adventure during their happy period would be delightful!
Soulmates are usually not my thing at all, but if you wanted to riff off Tolkien's monogomy fetish and have Celebrimbor angsting about the fact that, now he's slept with Annatar/Sauron once, he's bound to him for life... I wouldn't complain about that.
Turin Turambar/Nienor Niniel
Turin is SO TERRIBLE and yet I have a sneaking affection for him despite myself - probably because so many people who are so much better than him seem invested in him and his happiness. And also because his whole family came so close to finding happiness so many times, and yet inevitably fucked it up somehow, with Nienor and Turin's first meeting being the epitome of family fuck ups.
I can't help but wonder what would have happened if they'd been married for longer - five or ten years, say - before they found out the truth that they were siblings? Or even if Nienor found out the truth in a less traumatic way and didn't immediately commit suicide? I'd love to see how they could have tried to come to terms with the truth and live with it, somehow.
I'd also love to see more of Nienor before she lost her memory - how did she feel about her childhood and her famous brother? And even after she lost her memory, was part of her attraction to Turin her subconscious longing for her lost family? I'd also love an AU where they met in a different way and still fell in love - maybe even as adults who knew they were siblings but couldn't get past their feelings - or a role reversal where Nienor also became a warrior and rescued a lost Turin, and Turin was the one who lost his memories?
(I ship almost every possible Turin and Nienor-adjacent pairing and if you'd like to add Beleg or Finduilas or Gwindor or Brandir in, as a past relationship or poly, please feel free!)
Finduilas
Speaking of people who got unjustifiably fucked over by Turin Turambar... Finduilas really got dealt a rough hand in canon, but she was such an interesting character, and I would love to see more of her. I'd particularly like to see more about her own feelings about Nargothrond and the war - was she drawn to Turin in part because she too was sick of hiding while others died, and she (thought she?) loved him because he was saying what she was really thinking out loud?
I've seen a lot of meta around the idea that Finduilas actually survived Nargothrond and became Gil-Galad - whether that's because of an act of the Valar or just her(/his) own resourcefulness, whether it was a disguise or an opportunity for him to live as his true self, I would be absolutely fascinated! I think a story that touched on Elven ideas about gender and transness could be really, really interesting, but I'd also be happy with a classic girl-disguised-as-a-boy story.
Pairing-wise, I have a real soft spot for Finduilas/Nienor and for complicated Turin-adjacent poly - and Turin being more interested in Gil-Galad than Finduilas, in an AU where they met, could be great.
The Witcher
Yennefer/Tissaia
Yennefer/Fringilla
Renfri
Marilka
Renfri & Ciri
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Fix-it fic
Action/Adventure
Character Development
AU - Canon Divergence
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
Yennefer/Tissaia
Yennefer and Tissaia and their complex, fucked up relationship is at the heart of what I love about this show - Tissaia was absolutely emotionally abusive when Yennefer was her student, and neither of them can get past that (and maybe nor should they?) but at the same time they are both desperate for the other's approval and love, it's absolutely compelling to me and I can't get enough of their dynamic.
Any kind of story between the two of them would thrill me - maybe working together during canon at some point after Yennefer went to Aedirn, or reconnecting after Yennefer left the Brotherhood, or even postcanon in the aftermath of Sodden Hill? I could also potentially be interested in a story set while Yennefer was still a student; it would be seriously fucked up, but I'm okay with that!
I would also really love a canon divergence AU for them, maybe something where Yennefer did go back to Aretuza, or maybe didn't get to Aretuza at all until she was much older? (Though given the age of the actress, I see Yenenfer as already in her very late teens at the youngest when she gets there in canon.)
Yennefer/Fringilla
I also love Fringilla, I really wish we saw more of her transformation from the kind, slightly awkward student in Aretuza to the ice-cold true believer of Sodden Hill, and I love her rivalry with Yennefer as a way to show how she changes. Perhaps a moment when they stepped up the rivalry a level to hatesex, or showing them developing something more caring or passionate during their time as students, or chance meetings after they'd both left the Brotherhood? Or another meeting in the aftermath of Sodden Hill - whether they're still enemies or maybe forced to work together against a different threat? "Enemies forced to work together" is one of my all-time favourite tropes, I love it, and any scenario to make that happen would be delightful, canon or otherwise.
If you did want to explore an AU, I would love to see the story where Yennefer went to Nilfgaard instead of or as well as Fringilla, and how that would change both of them. Or an AU where Fringilla travels back in time, realising that she can only win for Nilfgaard with Yennefer's help, and tries to bring a younger Yennefer to Nilfgaard as an ally? (How well that works is up to you).
Renfri, Marilka
The worst thing about the Witcher is that it introduced two of my favourite characters, Renfri and Marilka, in episode 1 - and promptly wrote them both out! I would be so thrilled by anything more you could give me, for either of them alone or both together as gen or femslash - literally ANYTHING would be a delight! They're both such interesting blends of ruthless pragmatism and real caring, clearly shaped by the misogyny of their lives but trying to rise above it - I just loved them both so much.
I'd love to see what Marilka does after the end of the episode; I don't believe that's it, she's going to be stuck in Blaviken for the rest of her life. Any kind of Marilka adventures would be delightful! And I'd also love to see Renfri come back in whatever form you wanted - something supernatural and haunting, Renfri coming back as a ghost or maybe a different kind of monster? Maybe Marilka used her knowledge gained from working for Stregobor to bring her back somehow? Or maybe Stregobor's experiments bring Renfri back, and Marilka helps her escape? I'd also love backstory for either character. And I always love a canon divergence AU! Maybe Marilka switched sides to help Renfri instead of Stregobor, and they were able to walk away together and find a new post-revenge life and adventures outside Blaviken?
Renfri & Ciri
Renfri & Ciri seems a bit cracky but they really do have some amazing parallels, and they're already linked by Renfri's prophecy via Geralt. A Renfri who managed to survive to the present day would already be so interesting, and I'd absolutely love to see her interacting with another princess with uncomfortable powers, who'd been forced into the wild to survive. Renfri would have a lot of practical life lessons for Ciri, but it would be also potentially very difficult for Renfri to be confronted with this parallel to her former self and recognise how much she herself had changed, and also for Ciri to see how far it is possible to change, and how much she might need to do so.
It could be interesting if Geralt was the one who died at Blaviken, and Renfri is the one who is haunted by his memory, but I'm also happy if you want to keep him alive. I'm generally agnostic on other characters showing up, and on pairings (Renfri/Geralt and Yennefer/Geralt are both great) but I'm not a fan of Jaskier or Geralt/Jaskier.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Ashara Dayne
Elia Martell
Catelyn Tully
Ned Stark
AU - Canon Divergence
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Fix-it fic
Action/Adventure
Character Development
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
While I love many of the younger generation of characters too, I'm most fascinated by the Rebellion era characters - during the Rebellion itself, but also how the Rebellion casts such a long shadow on the rest of their lives. I'd be thrilled by a story set in any period of their canon lives, and I'm also absolutely fascinated by canon divergence AUs in this fandom; there are so many seemingly small decisions and moments that had massive consequences down the line, and I absolutely love exploring all the what-ifs and maybes. In particular, I absolutely can't get enough of "what if the Rebellion era generation all married other people" AUs - like if Ned married Cersei or Elia, or Catelyn married Robert or Rhaegar, or Elbert Arryn lived and married Lysa - go wild! I'm pretty pairing agnostic in ASOIAF and love exploring rarepairs, cracky or otherwise.
As well as the characters I requested, I'm really interested in Rhaella, Lyanna, Rhaenys and the other members of the Dead Ladies Club, as well as other members of the Rebellion era generation - particularly Oberyn, Arthur, Cersei and Jaime.
Elia Martell
We're given so little of Elia, in canon - she's generally just reduced to being kind and frail and tragic, except in Oberyn's memories - and I would absolutely love any story that fleshes out her character and makes something more real out of her. An AU where she (and ideally at least Rhaenys) survived always delights me, and I would absolutely love to see how that would work, whether it was a Rhaegar-wins AU, or maybe Ned reached the Red Keep first and managed to save her (and then she had to try and stay alive as Robert took the throne?)
But I'd also love a character study set in canon! I'm particularly interested in her marriage with Rhaegar, and why she chose to marry him, since it doesn't seem to have been a love match. Was she ambitious - for herself, for her family, for Dorne? Did she believe she could do good for the realm? Perhaps she had a passion for history or law, and believed she could help bring positive reforms to the kingdom? It would be an interesting split if Elia was trying to survive Aerys so she could encourage practical legal and economic reforms, while Rhaegar was trying to survive Aerys so he could fulfill a magical prophecy - both idealists in their own way.
Note - the Elia/Rhaegar/Lyanna triangle is messy as hell and I'm absolutely up for stories exploring that, but I'm much less interested in Rhaegar's relationships with either (or both!) women being portrayed as straightforward romance. Elia/Lyanna does interest me as a romantic pairing, but I think it would take working through a lot of hostility and shame to get them there.
Ashara Dayne
Another woman whose life is basically reduced to "beautifully, tragically dead" - I'd love to see Ashara fleshed out more and given more depth and character, in canon or in an AU. Ashara was caught in a horrible way between both sides of the Rebellion - I'm pretty firmly of the opinion that Brandon fathered her child; even if their relationship was a one-off and she wasn't passionately in love with him, finding out how he died must have been horrific for her - and I feel that would make her a fascinating POV character on the Rebellion, but also I'd be just as interested to see what her life was like serving Elia, before she lost everything.
Alternatively, I feel like if just one or two things had gone slightly differently, Ashara might not have been overwhelmed by depression and despair - maybe if her own child survived, or her brother? Or if Ned managed to save Elia and perhaps her children? I'd be fascinated by an AU where a slightly different set of characters survived to make it to Starfall, and maybe Ashara was more actively involved in a plan to protect Jon.
I don't tend to enjoy Ned/Ashara only because I've been put off by all the bashing fics that basically use Ashara as a stick to beat Catelyn with - but I do really enjoy both characters, and wouldn't mind a fic where they're friends! Lyanna is the only Stark I actively ship Ashara with, though - generally I'm all about the femslash pairings for Ashara.
Catelyn Tully
I love Catelyn, both the adult woman we see in canon and the slightly wild teenager it sounds like she once was (I am ALWAYS here for Catelyn-Arya parallels just as much as Catelyn-Sansa parallels), and would love a fic exploring either era - or the years of her marriage in the middle - as well as pretty much any canon divergence AU. I like Catelyn/Ned, but I would also love some Catelyn femslash - Catelyn/Cersei, Catelyn/Elia and Catelyn/Ashara particularly interest me!
I'd be really interested to see a story about Catelyn during the Rebellion - how she felt about Brandon's death and the Rebellion as well as her marriage to Ned, and her experience of being pregnant and giving birth in wartime. I'd also like to see the early years of her marriage to Ned, settling in and making friends and allies in the North as well as falling in love with him. GRRM really skips over her household but surely she brought some ladies with her originally from the Riverlands, and had Northern ladies of her own?
Catelyn in a Rhaegar-won AU would be interesting too, whether or not she'd married Ned! Or an AU where she found out the truth about Jon? A Brandon survives AU, or a Lyanna survives AU?
Ned Stark
My first experience with Ned was watching Game of Thrones, and back then his naivety and bad decisions annoyed me so much - but I've pretty much come full circle and now I love him, despite his flaws. His choices are a lot more understandable once I realised they're a combination of Rebellion-era PTSD and an understandable desire to see no more children murdered for politics, ever - as well as the usual blinders of his gender and class - and I appreciate that he always tries to do the decent thing, within the limits of his understanding.
I think Ned would be a really interesting POV character on the Rebellion - he's still so idealistic and naive in his thirties, I can't imagine how traumatic it would have been to fight a brutal war at 19 - particularly since he'd never expected to be the Lord Stark in charge. But his childhood in the Vale would also be fascinating (if you wanted to write Ned/Robert, requited or unrequited, I would be there with bells on!) as would the early years of his marriage to Catelyn, as they settled into their roles and fell in love.
As above, though, I would also be fascinated to see what would become of Ned in an AU where Brandon lived, or Rhaegar won, or Robert didn't survive, or Ned had to marry someone else - what would happen? Would he still fall in love with Catelyn? I'm also fascinated by a lot of m/m ships for Ned - particularly Ned/Oberyn and Ned/Jaime(/Cersei), maybe also Ned/Rhaegar? - and would love to see the circumstances under which he'd sleep with another man.
Avatar: the Last Airbender
Katara/Azula
Katara/Mai
AU - Canon Divergence
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Action/Adventure
Character Development
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
Katara/Azula
This is one of my all-time favourite ATLA pairings. I love the epic contrasts between them - fire versus ice, manipulation and control versus hope and passion, healer versus killer - but I also love how they sometimes parallel - very powerful and dedicated in their bending, almost prodigies, both of them the little sisters in their families coming to terms with patriarchy and gender roles (albeit in different ways). I also really like how Katara was the one to defeat Azula, in the end?
For this pairing I'd be more interested in something set mainly postcanon or an AU. I do find it very disappointing that we never saw Azula get a chance for a redemption/healing arc - despite everything she did, she was only a child, and the final season did show how Ozai's abuse affected her as well as Zuko. Anything centred around this would be delightful! But I'd also like straight-up hatesex, or enemies forced to work together (and finding common ground).
Or if you wanted to go full AU, there's so many wonderful possibilities - what if Azula was the one to be scarred and banished, and end up on a voyage of self-discovery, instead of Zuko? Or what if Katara was kidnapped by the Fire Nation as a child and ended up working for Azula as one of her dangerous ladies? Or arranged marriage AU - Azula in the Southern Icefield would be just as interesting as Katara in the Fire Nation!
Katara/Mai
I love Katara and Mai, and I really wish they'd had the chance to interact more in canon - I think they have more in common than it seems, and I could see them becoming friends given half a chance. On the surface level, they both have no patience with stupid or unpleasant people and share a common interest in looking nice and staying clean; they are extremely skilled and willing to use violence, but only when necessary. Katara is an eternal optimist and Mai is the show's biggest cynic, but oddly I think they both come from a similar idealistic place; Katara's life has taught her that you can fix things if you try hard enough, whereas Mai has been stuck in an amoral society with no real escape, and has chosen to reject everything rather than go along with an ideology she doesn't really believe in (even helping Azula is something she does to reduce her own boredom, I think, I never get the sense that she really believes in Fire Nation propaganda). I think they could balance each other out very well, and it would be a lot of fun to see.
I'd love to see a reluctant allies story where they have to work together for some plot reason, or a gradually developing friendship/romance as they discover common ground, set post-canon or in an AU - maybe Mai joined the Gaang earlier, alongside or instead of Zuko? Or a story where Katara was stuck in a post-Agni Kai Fire Nation for longer than canon, and ended up working with Mai to help Zuko secure his position on the throne?
Note: I also ship Katara/Zuko and Mai/Zuko, and would be very interested in any kind of poly relationship, but just Katara/Mai would be delightful too.
Thank you for writing for me!
Likes
I am generally pretty flexible with the things I like. Character-driven stories are awesome, plot-driven stories are awesome, explicit porn is awesome, angst and bleakness are awesome, happy endings are awesome, humor is awesome! Etc.
A few of my favourite things include:
-Canon divergence AUs!
-Time travel shenanigans, particularly characters going back in time to change their own past (I always love a good Peggy Sue!)
-Politics, history and worldbuilding
-Road trips (or spaceship trips, actual ship trips, etc)
-Stoic women with repressed feelings
-Female antiheroes or villains with complex motivations
-Enemies forced to work together by circumstance
-Unexpected and unconventional happy endings
-Bittersweet endings
-Tragedies that are more-or-less inevitable given the nature of the individuals involved
-People living in less-than-ideal or even actively hostile situations who manage to carve out some kind of happiness despite that.
Porn likes include rough/frantic sex, emphasising nonhuman strengths/capabilities/anatomy for nonhuman or superpowered characters, dirty talk, mild D/s, and bondage/restraints.
I am generally okay with violence, noncon, character death, etc - provided that it is warned for up front - though I would prefer that stories do not focus solely on trauma/horror/violence, and if these do come up as part of the story, I am more interested in the lead up and the aftermath than in dragging out the details of the act itself.
If you need to work your way around a canon relationship of any configuration to write a pairing I've requested (or just like writing it), I do generally enjoy poly and open relationships! "They were together and then they broke up" and "don't even mention it" are also fine. Infidelity is also fine in most circumstances, I'm cool with reading about requested characters doing morally dubious things - as long as the cheated-on party doesn't get written wildly out of character to "justify" it. This is particularly the case in ASOIAF, where almost all the marriages we see involve at least some level of power imbalance and/or coercion - I'm really happy for the primary romantic pairing(s) of a fic to occur on the side of a formal marriage.
General DNWs:
-Modern/mundane and genre-shift AUs - basically anything that takes the requested characters/pairings out of their canon setting. Fusions (eg a daemon AU or Fallen London AU) that keep the canon setting are fine though.
-Soulmates and soulmark universes
-Lengthy descriptions of violence/horror/noncon/major character death
-Noncon between requested characters
-Non-canon character death of requested characters (and if a requested character's canon character death is averted, please don't then kill them off in a different way!)
-M/f D/s
-Unrequested kinks
-Explicit underage (I'm fine with older teenagers having sex with adults or each other, or with mentions of underage, I just don't want explicit adult/child sex)
-Unrequested, non-canonical gender or sexuality identities for requested canon characters.
Fandom-specific DNWs:
-Geralt/Jaskier
-Yennefer finding a cure for her infertility and having a biological child
-Tyrion Lannister - I'm okay with him showing up as a kid or in an AU version of himself, but not the character as we know him by the end of ADWD.
-Ned/Ashara
-Romantic Rhaegar/Lyanna (mentioning it happened is fine, keeping them as married for plot reasons is fine, a complicated/messed up ongoing relationship is fine, I'm just not interested in the shippy romantic version of this pairing.)
-Aang/Katara.
As for the fandoms and pairings, I requested:
The Silmarillion
Galadriel
Celebrimbor/Annatar
Turin Turambar/Niënor Níniel
Finduilas
AU - Canon Divergence
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Fix-it fic
Action/Adventure
Character Development
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
Galadriel
I really love the side of Galadriel we see in The Silmarillion, impulsive and reckless as well as powerful and wise, and I'd love to see anything more about her - her childhood, her adventures in Middle-Earth in any period: building kingdoms and then coming to terms with the loss and decline of everything she's built. I particularly like her complicated relationship with the Valar (and my very strong preference is for the version of the story where she is barred from returning to Valinor until the moment she turns down the one ring) and also her understanding of and empathy with the dwarves. I'd love to see her hanging out in Khazad-dum!
There's also a bit of a contradiction in First Age Galadriel that absolutely fascinates me - she's already powerful and very ambitious, and yet plays a comparatively small role in Beleriand politics. We know that early on she was learning from Melian and falling in love with Celeborn, but what else was she doing? Particularly after the death of Thingol, she just seems to fall out of the story until the Second Age - anything about what on earth she was doing would be really satisfying! There is a line in the Fellowship of the Ring where Galadriel says of her past that "...ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains..." - which doesn't then seem to be picked up in the Silmarillion, but if you wanted to write a story where Galadriel crossed the Blue Mountains to have adventures in the mid-First Age (maybe she went all the way to Khazad-dum!) only to return to Beleriand during the War of Wrath to find everything on fire, like the Troy pizza gif, I would be DELIGHTED.
I'm fairly neutral about Galadriel/Celeborn - happy to have it appear or not - and also happy with any other non-canon Galadriel pairings, particularly femslash - but no Galadriel/Feanor, please, noncon or otherwise.
Annatar/Celebrimbor
I can't help myself, I love the delicious tragedy of Celebrimbor's seduction and ruin in canon, but I'm also slightly obsessed by the idea that Annatar might have been tempted, at some point, to become exactly what he was pretending to be, and stay in Eregion with Celebrimbor. Given Tolkien's religious beliefs, surely he intended for it to be possible for Annatar to repent and make different choices - I would love to see something exploring this, whether Annatar was genuinely tempted but went with his canon plan (and then maybe regretted it?) or whether you write the AU where Annatar changes his mind.
If you do go AU I would LOVE to see the canon divergence that could make this possible! Would it just be a matter of one tiny, seemingly-inconsequential event going slightly differently and snowballing into Annatar making larger choices that are different? Or Celebrimbor finding out the truth about Annatar earlier, or differently, and reacting in a different way? Time travel AUs and/or enemies forced to work together by circumstance might also be a lot of fun for an AU! Alternatively, just a slice of life/small adventure during their happy period would be delightful!
Soulmates are usually not my thing at all, but if you wanted to riff off Tolkien's monogomy fetish and have Celebrimbor angsting about the fact that, now he's slept with Annatar/Sauron once, he's bound to him for life... I wouldn't complain about that.
Turin Turambar/Nienor Niniel
Turin is SO TERRIBLE and yet I have a sneaking affection for him despite myself - probably because so many people who are so much better than him seem invested in him and his happiness. And also because his whole family came so close to finding happiness so many times, and yet inevitably fucked it up somehow, with Nienor and Turin's first meeting being the epitome of family fuck ups.
I can't help but wonder what would have happened if they'd been married for longer - five or ten years, say - before they found out the truth that they were siblings? Or even if Nienor found out the truth in a less traumatic way and didn't immediately commit suicide? I'd love to see how they could have tried to come to terms with the truth and live with it, somehow.
I'd also love to see more of Nienor before she lost her memory - how did she feel about her childhood and her famous brother? And even after she lost her memory, was part of her attraction to Turin her subconscious longing for her lost family? I'd also love an AU where they met in a different way and still fell in love - maybe even as adults who knew they were siblings but couldn't get past their feelings - or a role reversal where Nienor also became a warrior and rescued a lost Turin, and Turin was the one who lost his memories?
(I ship almost every possible Turin and Nienor-adjacent pairing and if you'd like to add Beleg or Finduilas or Gwindor or Brandir in, as a past relationship or poly, please feel free!)
Finduilas
Speaking of people who got unjustifiably fucked over by Turin Turambar... Finduilas really got dealt a rough hand in canon, but she was such an interesting character, and I would love to see more of her. I'd particularly like to see more about her own feelings about Nargothrond and the war - was she drawn to Turin in part because she too was sick of hiding while others died, and she (thought she?) loved him because he was saying what she was really thinking out loud?
I've seen a lot of meta around the idea that Finduilas actually survived Nargothrond and became Gil-Galad - whether that's because of an act of the Valar or just her(/his) own resourcefulness, whether it was a disguise or an opportunity for him to live as his true self, I would be absolutely fascinated! I think a story that touched on Elven ideas about gender and transness could be really, really interesting, but I'd also be happy with a classic girl-disguised-as-a-boy story.
Pairing-wise, I have a real soft spot for Finduilas/Nienor and for complicated Turin-adjacent poly - and Turin being more interested in Gil-Galad than Finduilas, in an AU where they met, could be great.
The Witcher
Yennefer/Tissaia
Yennefer/Fringilla
Renfri
Marilka
Renfri & Ciri
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Fix-it fic
Action/Adventure
Character Development
AU - Canon Divergence
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
Yennefer/Tissaia
Yennefer and Tissaia and their complex, fucked up relationship is at the heart of what I love about this show - Tissaia was absolutely emotionally abusive when Yennefer was her student, and neither of them can get past that (and maybe nor should they?) but at the same time they are both desperate for the other's approval and love, it's absolutely compelling to me and I can't get enough of their dynamic.
Any kind of story between the two of them would thrill me - maybe working together during canon at some point after Yennefer went to Aedirn, or reconnecting after Yennefer left the Brotherhood, or even postcanon in the aftermath of Sodden Hill? I could also potentially be interested in a story set while Yennefer was still a student; it would be seriously fucked up, but I'm okay with that!
I would also really love a canon divergence AU for them, maybe something where Yennefer did go back to Aretuza, or maybe didn't get to Aretuza at all until she was much older? (Though given the age of the actress, I see Yenenfer as already in her very late teens at the youngest when she gets there in canon.)
Yennefer/Fringilla
I also love Fringilla, I really wish we saw more of her transformation from the kind, slightly awkward student in Aretuza to the ice-cold true believer of Sodden Hill, and I love her rivalry with Yennefer as a way to show how she changes. Perhaps a moment when they stepped up the rivalry a level to hatesex, or showing them developing something more caring or passionate during their time as students, or chance meetings after they'd both left the Brotherhood? Or another meeting in the aftermath of Sodden Hill - whether they're still enemies or maybe forced to work together against a different threat? "Enemies forced to work together" is one of my all-time favourite tropes, I love it, and any scenario to make that happen would be delightful, canon or otherwise.
If you did want to explore an AU, I would love to see the story where Yennefer went to Nilfgaard instead of or as well as Fringilla, and how that would change both of them. Or an AU where Fringilla travels back in time, realising that she can only win for Nilfgaard with Yennefer's help, and tries to bring a younger Yennefer to Nilfgaard as an ally? (How well that works is up to you).
Renfri, Marilka
The worst thing about the Witcher is that it introduced two of my favourite characters, Renfri and Marilka, in episode 1 - and promptly wrote them both out! I would be so thrilled by anything more you could give me, for either of them alone or both together as gen or femslash - literally ANYTHING would be a delight! They're both such interesting blends of ruthless pragmatism and real caring, clearly shaped by the misogyny of their lives but trying to rise above it - I just loved them both so much.
I'd love to see what Marilka does after the end of the episode; I don't believe that's it, she's going to be stuck in Blaviken for the rest of her life. Any kind of Marilka adventures would be delightful! And I'd also love to see Renfri come back in whatever form you wanted - something supernatural and haunting, Renfri coming back as a ghost or maybe a different kind of monster? Maybe Marilka used her knowledge gained from working for Stregobor to bring her back somehow? Or maybe Stregobor's experiments bring Renfri back, and Marilka helps her escape? I'd also love backstory for either character. And I always love a canon divergence AU! Maybe Marilka switched sides to help Renfri instead of Stregobor, and they were able to walk away together and find a new post-revenge life and adventures outside Blaviken?
Renfri & Ciri
Renfri & Ciri seems a bit cracky but they really do have some amazing parallels, and they're already linked by Renfri's prophecy via Geralt. A Renfri who managed to survive to the present day would already be so interesting, and I'd absolutely love to see her interacting with another princess with uncomfortable powers, who'd been forced into the wild to survive. Renfri would have a lot of practical life lessons for Ciri, but it would be also potentially very difficult for Renfri to be confronted with this parallel to her former self and recognise how much she herself had changed, and also for Ciri to see how far it is possible to change, and how much she might need to do so.
It could be interesting if Geralt was the one who died at Blaviken, and Renfri is the one who is haunted by his memory, but I'm also happy if you want to keep him alive. I'm generally agnostic on other characters showing up, and on pairings (Renfri/Geralt and Yennefer/Geralt are both great) but I'm not a fan of Jaskier or Geralt/Jaskier.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Ashara Dayne
Elia Martell
Catelyn Tully
Ned Stark
AU - Canon Divergence
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Fix-it fic
Action/Adventure
Character Development
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
While I love many of the younger generation of characters too, I'm most fascinated by the Rebellion era characters - during the Rebellion itself, but also how the Rebellion casts such a long shadow on the rest of their lives. I'd be thrilled by a story set in any period of their canon lives, and I'm also absolutely fascinated by canon divergence AUs in this fandom; there are so many seemingly small decisions and moments that had massive consequences down the line, and I absolutely love exploring all the what-ifs and maybes. In particular, I absolutely can't get enough of "what if the Rebellion era generation all married other people" AUs - like if Ned married Cersei or Elia, or Catelyn married Robert or Rhaegar, or Elbert Arryn lived and married Lysa - go wild! I'm pretty pairing agnostic in ASOIAF and love exploring rarepairs, cracky or otherwise.
As well as the characters I requested, I'm really interested in Rhaella, Lyanna, Rhaenys and the other members of the Dead Ladies Club, as well as other members of the Rebellion era generation - particularly Oberyn, Arthur, Cersei and Jaime.
Elia Martell
We're given so little of Elia, in canon - she's generally just reduced to being kind and frail and tragic, except in Oberyn's memories - and I would absolutely love any story that fleshes out her character and makes something more real out of her. An AU where she (and ideally at least Rhaenys) survived always delights me, and I would absolutely love to see how that would work, whether it was a Rhaegar-wins AU, or maybe Ned reached the Red Keep first and managed to save her (and then she had to try and stay alive as Robert took the throne?)
But I'd also love a character study set in canon! I'm particularly interested in her marriage with Rhaegar, and why she chose to marry him, since it doesn't seem to have been a love match. Was she ambitious - for herself, for her family, for Dorne? Did she believe she could do good for the realm? Perhaps she had a passion for history or law, and believed she could help bring positive reforms to the kingdom? It would be an interesting split if Elia was trying to survive Aerys so she could encourage practical legal and economic reforms, while Rhaegar was trying to survive Aerys so he could fulfill a magical prophecy - both idealists in their own way.
Note - the Elia/Rhaegar/Lyanna triangle is messy as hell and I'm absolutely up for stories exploring that, but I'm much less interested in Rhaegar's relationships with either (or both!) women being portrayed as straightforward romance. Elia/Lyanna does interest me as a romantic pairing, but I think it would take working through a lot of hostility and shame to get them there.
Ashara Dayne
Another woman whose life is basically reduced to "beautifully, tragically dead" - I'd love to see Ashara fleshed out more and given more depth and character, in canon or in an AU. Ashara was caught in a horrible way between both sides of the Rebellion - I'm pretty firmly of the opinion that Brandon fathered her child; even if their relationship was a one-off and she wasn't passionately in love with him, finding out how he died must have been horrific for her - and I feel that would make her a fascinating POV character on the Rebellion, but also I'd be just as interested to see what her life was like serving Elia, before she lost everything.
Alternatively, I feel like if just one or two things had gone slightly differently, Ashara might not have been overwhelmed by depression and despair - maybe if her own child survived, or her brother? Or if Ned managed to save Elia and perhaps her children? I'd be fascinated by an AU where a slightly different set of characters survived to make it to Starfall, and maybe Ashara was more actively involved in a plan to protect Jon.
I don't tend to enjoy Ned/Ashara only because I've been put off by all the bashing fics that basically use Ashara as a stick to beat Catelyn with - but I do really enjoy both characters, and wouldn't mind a fic where they're friends! Lyanna is the only Stark I actively ship Ashara with, though - generally I'm all about the femslash pairings for Ashara.
Catelyn Tully
I love Catelyn, both the adult woman we see in canon and the slightly wild teenager it sounds like she once was (I am ALWAYS here for Catelyn-Arya parallels just as much as Catelyn-Sansa parallels), and would love a fic exploring either era - or the years of her marriage in the middle - as well as pretty much any canon divergence AU. I like Catelyn/Ned, but I would also love some Catelyn femslash - Catelyn/Cersei, Catelyn/Elia and Catelyn/Ashara particularly interest me!
I'd be really interested to see a story about Catelyn during the Rebellion - how she felt about Brandon's death and the Rebellion as well as her marriage to Ned, and her experience of being pregnant and giving birth in wartime. I'd also like to see the early years of her marriage to Ned, settling in and making friends and allies in the North as well as falling in love with him. GRRM really skips over her household but surely she brought some ladies with her originally from the Riverlands, and had Northern ladies of her own?
Catelyn in a Rhaegar-won AU would be interesting too, whether or not she'd married Ned! Or an AU where she found out the truth about Jon? A Brandon survives AU, or a Lyanna survives AU?
Ned Stark
My first experience with Ned was watching Game of Thrones, and back then his naivety and bad decisions annoyed me so much - but I've pretty much come full circle and now I love him, despite his flaws. His choices are a lot more understandable once I realised they're a combination of Rebellion-era PTSD and an understandable desire to see no more children murdered for politics, ever - as well as the usual blinders of his gender and class - and I appreciate that he always tries to do the decent thing, within the limits of his understanding.
I think Ned would be a really interesting POV character on the Rebellion - he's still so idealistic and naive in his thirties, I can't imagine how traumatic it would have been to fight a brutal war at 19 - particularly since he'd never expected to be the Lord Stark in charge. But his childhood in the Vale would also be fascinating (if you wanted to write Ned/Robert, requited or unrequited, I would be there with bells on!) as would the early years of his marriage to Catelyn, as they settled into their roles and fell in love.
As above, though, I would also be fascinated to see what would become of Ned in an AU where Brandon lived, or Rhaegar won, or Robert didn't survive, or Ned had to marry someone else - what would happen? Would he still fall in love with Catelyn? I'm also fascinated by a lot of m/m ships for Ned - particularly Ned/Oberyn and Ned/Jaime(/Cersei), maybe also Ned/Rhaegar? - and would love to see the circumstances under which he'd sleep with another man.
Avatar: the Last Airbender
Katara/Azula
Katara/Mai
AU - Canon Divergence
Worldbuilding
Slice of life
Action/Adventure
Character Development
Canon-style Plot
Fantasy
Katara/Azula
This is one of my all-time favourite ATLA pairings. I love the epic contrasts between them - fire versus ice, manipulation and control versus hope and passion, healer versus killer - but I also love how they sometimes parallel - very powerful and dedicated in their bending, almost prodigies, both of them the little sisters in their families coming to terms with patriarchy and gender roles (albeit in different ways). I also really like how Katara was the one to defeat Azula, in the end?
For this pairing I'd be more interested in something set mainly postcanon or an AU. I do find it very disappointing that we never saw Azula get a chance for a redemption/healing arc - despite everything she did, she was only a child, and the final season did show how Ozai's abuse affected her as well as Zuko. Anything centred around this would be delightful! But I'd also like straight-up hatesex, or enemies forced to work together (and finding common ground).
Or if you wanted to go full AU, there's so many wonderful possibilities - what if Azula was the one to be scarred and banished, and end up on a voyage of self-discovery, instead of Zuko? Or what if Katara was kidnapped by the Fire Nation as a child and ended up working for Azula as one of her dangerous ladies? Or arranged marriage AU - Azula in the Southern Icefield would be just as interesting as Katara in the Fire Nation!
Katara/Mai
I love Katara and Mai, and I really wish they'd had the chance to interact more in canon - I think they have more in common than it seems, and I could see them becoming friends given half a chance. On the surface level, they both have no patience with stupid or unpleasant people and share a common interest in looking nice and staying clean; they are extremely skilled and willing to use violence, but only when necessary. Katara is an eternal optimist and Mai is the show's biggest cynic, but oddly I think they both come from a similar idealistic place; Katara's life has taught her that you can fix things if you try hard enough, whereas Mai has been stuck in an amoral society with no real escape, and has chosen to reject everything rather than go along with an ideology she doesn't really believe in (even helping Azula is something she does to reduce her own boredom, I think, I never get the sense that she really believes in Fire Nation propaganda). I think they could balance each other out very well, and it would be a lot of fun to see.
I'd love to see a reluctant allies story where they have to work together for some plot reason, or a gradually developing friendship/romance as they discover common ground, set post-canon or in an AU - maybe Mai joined the Gaang earlier, alongside or instead of Zuko? Or a story where Katara was stuck in a post-Agni Kai Fire Nation for longer than canon, and ended up working with Mai to help Zuko secure his position on the throne?
Note: I also ship Katara/Zuko and Mai/Zuko, and would be very interested in any kind of poly relationship, but just Katara/Mai would be delightful too.
Thank you for writing for me!
