Canon Promo Post

[morbane]

If you'd like to entice people into your fandoms, or just give them information about length/media/content, you are welcome to post here!

Please put your fandom's title in the subject of your comment.

Some information you can optionally include:

• Media


• Approx length


• Where to find it (direct links to legal content only please)


• What is it


• What you love about it


• Extra bonus: does it have inbuilt crossover potential like dimensional travel, or a simple system that lends itself well to fusions?


• Extra bonus: are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to cover the aspects you care about most?


• Extra bonus: Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - you do not have to be comprehensive, but please be prepared to answer extra questions about sensitive content either here or through the mod.

Comments

Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic

[casta_y]

Media:
videogames x2

Approx length:
20-30 hours for one playthrough of the first game, 30-40 hours for the second game. Highly replayable at least 1 extra time each (personally I've done at least half a dozen).

Where to find it:
Steam; maybe if you still own an original X-Box you might find their discs at a videogame retailer who deals in second-hand.

What is it:
a Star Wars story set 4000 years before the movie, and since it's a videogame *you* are the protagonist. It's a consistently highly rated videogame series and it would be very safe to say one of the best Star Wars videogames.

What you love about it:
it was fun to play, and I enjoyed the storyline, your companions are interesting. The second game honestly is probably the deepest Star Wars ever gets philosophically.

Extra bonus does it have inbuilt crossover potential like dimensional travel, or a simple system that lends itself well to fusions?:
it's Star Wars, so you're likely familiar with the general setting, but you can always take your favourite characters from other canons and replace the ships crew with them. There's no reason you can't make up a space travel mishap that transports a starship crew in time or space to somewhen/somewhere else.

Extra bonus: are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to cover the aspects you care about most?
I'm going to say no to that. Best to just play the thing, otherwise you'll have zero emotional investment if you just looked at clips on YouTube rather than playing for yourself.

Extra bonus: Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - you do not have to be comprehensive, but please be prepared to answer extra questions about sensitive content either here or through the mod:
Star Wars-typical fantasy racism, otherwise nothing.

Shadow & Bone

[angstythumbs]

Media: TV (Netflix)

Length: 8 episodes in Season 1 (Season 2 about to release)

What is it: An adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels


❤️❤️❤️ About Shadow & Bone:

Cinematically beautiful, starring Ben Barnes as the self-possessed, suave, and elusive Shadow Summoner and Ravka's "Black General." His dialogue is all so well-written and well-delivered. Machinations abound, as he has been scheming and striving endlessly for centuries to keep Ravka from annihilating his people, the Grisha. He is framed as the antagonist, the villain, because of his desperation, methods, and his ability to sacrifice what others would not, but many in fandom agree he is the weathered, weary, and outraged hero, just presented to us from a relatively rare-choice in literature: the POV of a naive and unreliable anti-hero.


❤️❤️❤️ Crossover Potentials:

- 1800s/Steampunk

- Magic system/Elementalism:
(Dracula, Underworld, The Witcher, etc)

- Horses: A bit of an easter egg, the Black General's horse is the same one used in Netflix's The Witcher

- Time Travel / Flash Back Centuries: in Shadow & Bone, the Darkling ie Aleksander Morozova (the secret [true] identity of the Black General) is hundreds of years old--at least 450. Many in fandom put him closer to 600. He used Merzost, a "corruption if the Making," and it had unintended effects. So, this could lend itself to either Flashbacks to centuries ago, or Time Travel via Merzost to another Age / Dimension.

- Experiments and Creatures:
His grandfather, Ilya Morozova, was the first recorded Grisha and a powerful Durast who experimented with the limits of power. Ilya was the one to discover Merzost that Aleksander later tried and failed to use (with disastrous consequence). We do not know how extensively Ilya dabbled or used Merzost, or for what purpose. But we do know that Ilya imbued several Mythical Creatures with his one finger bones, giving them prolonged, near immortal life--a Stag, a Firebird, and a Sea Serpent. What other Creatures or Experimentations he did that we don't know about... that's up to you. 😉

The Darkside Detective (Original and A Fumble In The Dark)

[fleetsparrow]

Media: Video Game

Approximate Length: Definitely several hours, but it's only two games. There's not really an overarching storyline in the first game, but there is to the second (sort of). Each case can be played on its own, and mostly what happens is that you meet people from either earlier puzzles or games in future episodes.

Acquirement: Steam, Nintendo Switch (often on sale on both, but I won't even lie, if anyone's interested, I'll gladly gift this series, it's amazing).

What is it: OK, so, like, this game has been out for a while, but I only recently played it and omg it's my favorite.

It's a point-and-click adventure game. Detective Francis McQueen and his partner Officer Patrick Dooley are called out to deal with any and all occult happenings (i.e. things that go bump in the night--things that go bump during the day is another department). That last parenthetical is a direct quote from the game's site and should give a good idea of the sense of humor this game has.

It's very fun. Dooley has something to say in every scene you can click on him. You get to meet the ghosts of famous authors, fight zombies with a supersoaker of holy water, and go to a totally real definitely not made up Jamboree with a lake monster named Nigel.

As for the Bloodwolves, they're the "scouts" of this universe... sort of. Dooley is the Blood Alpha who runs the troop (it's only him and three kids), but each one of the troop members is a delight in their own strange way.

There are a ton of characters to meet, things to collect in pretty much every scene, jokes so rapid fire you'd think the writers were getting paid by the laugh, and just overall great gameplay. It is a bit reminiscent of old P-A-C's, but it's also less obtuse than most of them. Plus, you can click on every inventory item and see McQueen describe them.

I will warn, the first game (once you do the bonus episodes) does end on a cliffhanger, but the second game, A Fumble In The Dark, is out and now getting it's own bonus cases, so you don't have to worry about being left hanging for too long.

The episodes are each short enough to play in about an hour or so, but they don't feel so short you feel ripped off. Just... man, I love this series so much.

Also, like, it's not fully outright queer in text, but it's very queer in game, like, Dooley is mistaken for a lady several times and feels no embarrassment about this, which is golden. In the sequel, there's even a Steam achievement for setting up two male wrestlers on a date. How cool is that?

TL;DR: The Darkside Detective and its sequel, A Fumble In The Dark, are very fun point-and-click adventure games with a lot of spookiness, humor, and heart contained in a very beautiful pixel environment. I can't recommend this game enough.

Extra One: It's very good for crossovers and fusions because the Brightside and the Darkside coexist next to (and in some cases, actually overlap and smash into) each other. There's inter-dimensional variety, ghosts, all kinds of different monsters/creatures, plus, the whole vibe is very "noir with jokes", which means it's golden for a whole bunch of fusion premises with anything similar or if you're looking for a good magic noir to place characters into. (Personally, I love it mashed with Batman/Gotham City, because both towns are equally nightmarish in their way, yet people still live there.)

Extra Two: Honestly, the main noirish/magic + humor vibes show up in the very first case (which IIRC is quite short to get you used to the game), so you don't really have to play very long to get a feel for the world. It's just so fun, you might anyway.

Extra Three: There's some minor character death (but I believe every minor character who dies comes back as a ghost), a few existential O-O moments that'll make you question your life or life in general, but there's no gore, nothing really extra violent, nothing special I can think of to warn for.

There are clowns in the second game, though. Just in case. They're not very good clowns (well, technically they're very bad clowns), but they are a bit frightening, especially if you're not fond of/actively afraid of clowns. Everything is pixel art, though, so nothing's really up close and hi-def rendered or anything.