Dear Yuletide
Gen, het, slash/femslash-- it's all good. I like specific characters, and the pairings/moresomes that involve them, rather than being a solid OTP-er. It doesn't have to always be love or forever, but I want even the bad-idea relationships to be bad-idea-but-what-I-need-right-now. Good gen is always a joy as well. I like tropefic, especially fic that takes a fresh look on tropes, crack taken seriously and speculative fanfiction in general (genderswitch! huddele-together-for-warmth! inappropriate mythical beings! aliens! sudden telepathy!), people taking care of people and affection that's read in actions rather than heard with words.
I don't like AUs that are less interesting than canon (space is always going to be more interesting to me than starbucks). Also, part of the appeal of AUs for me is seeing how the characters are still themselves in those settings. An AU where someone is so different as to be utterly OoC doesn't work for me at all-- at that point, it's just someone else with the same name. In the words of Sam Vimes, “There was no universe, anywhere, where a Sam Vimes would give in on this, because if he did then he wouldn't be Sam Vimes anymore.”
I love competency and decency in a character, and people that put the work into doing good because they know it has to be done.
I also love people with flexible morality, people who are 99% amoral, except for this one thing or one person that's basically what they're for.
I don't necessarily go for pure fluff (I like the endings to feel deserved), but I prefer a happy ending-- or at least, an ending that's no darker than one these canons would have anyway.
I'm not a fan of biology-is-destiny (not in RL and not in fic). I have read some good fic that uses some of those tropes (ABO, BDSM aus, etc.) that I loved, but I've read a lot more than made me back-button so fast... Similiarly, soulbond stuff can really work for me, but soulmates (by which I mean one OTP for everyone in the world that trumps all other relationships and without any choice or change in it at all), as concept, I find somewhat dystopic. That said, I do like specualting on how [trope] has cultural variations, how even if you're going to have a universal effect, it's not going to be the same for everyone.
Wolf 359
How much do I love this show? And how much does every episode make me anxious for everyone involved? I'm very invested in the relationships in this show, especially with Kepler et al doing their best to break them up-- they way they have to trust each other, and also can't entirely trust each other (Hera's programming, Doug and Renée's differences in the ethics of necessity, Lovelace's past, and all of their secrets). They're different kinds of damaged and different kinds of strong. They've survived so much, and they have to keep going and keep going and keep going and... yeah.
This show actually meets two of the big criteria for horror for me-- it's got that whole trapped-claustrophobic-nowhere-to-run thing, and it's got the thing where who-you-are might be lost, and something else goes on (death-of-self... like, Hera could have had her programming tweaked without ever knowing to be this Hera, but the old one would be dead and... I don't even have words, but that kind of thing seems like an anhiliation of self much more so than even death...) Which is not to say I want horror, because my days, but they all just need one good thing to happen without two bad things happening because of it, just that... yeah.
Also, bonus points for bringing back the Space Mutant Plant Monster (seriously, that bit made me sad!) or the aliens.
Girl Genius
I love the jaegers' relationship with Agatha-- actually, the whole of Mechanicsburg's relationship with their Heterodyne, that she's theirs and that she in turn is also so protective of them. It's not mindless loyalty, but it's utterly sincere-- the Boyz having to be isolated from the Horde, Dimo persistantly having to be responsible and in charge (for jaegerish definitions of the words)-- anything that gets into that or the history and culture of Mechanicsburg would be good.
One of the things Agatha, Gil and Tarvek have in common (along with mind control, personality control, ambition, being subject to poor parenting decisions and sensible appreciation for just how dangerous each of them are) is a certain sense of responsibility. Love and rivalries aside, they will do what they know is the necessary thing to do. Even at their sparkybest, they're not... well, they're not their parents.
I'm not normally pairing specific, but in this case, I'd rather have gen or OT3 for Agatha/Gil/Tarvek-- a pairing with just the two would probably make me a bit sorry for whoever was left on the outside.
Wynonna Earp
My themes for this show are loyalty, necessity and family. Also, characters who do the right thing because it has to be done. The main plot is fun, but everything around it? The way they built Wynnona and Waverly's backstory (that siblings can be loving and oblivious and be treated and treat each other unevenly-- and that the curse has less to do with that than you might think).
Wynonna is my favourite-- strength and compassion and actually, a willingness to accept joy or excitement (which is something she has in common with Waverly, even thought it comes out differently. I also love Dolls-- who definitely has his own story going on-- and Doc (who... wow, should really hope the ghost of Wyatt never makes an appearance). I like that people can be ruthless and caring, and one doesn't mean the other isn't true. And that the right thing to do is sometimes also the compassionate thing to do. And that liking someone and trusting them aren't the same. I just really like a lot about this show, you know?
Pitch
Yeah, I blame my friends for this. I honestly don't know what happened-- you see some gifs, someone writes a fic, and then you're going back to your dear yuletide to add a fandom despite having seen only three episodes because it's still just started on the first season and... Well. I kind of love Ginny's relationships with everyone-- I love that she has people at her back even with everyone biting at her heels. Sports fandoms lend themselves pretty well to tropefic, so you culd go that way... though honestly, this show is that already. I think Ginny and Mike definitely works for me, but honestly, gen would be great as well.
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