I say this every year but I'd really like to see some Twilight stories -- there are a fair number of ships nominated (Bella/Alice is my preference but some other cool possibilities in there too). I know there's not exactly a dearth of Twilight fanfic in the universe but I feel like there's a lot of opportunity for subversion and world-building within the canon -- what could happen in this universe without the monogamous and heteronormative assumptions that are built into the text.

Also, I forgot to nominate Jessica, I'm a failure.

I'm so sorry, this comment turned into something of a novel. I just really love Borderlands!

(Tales from the) Borderlands

You'll probably like this if you're into:

• space westerns and stories set on alien planets
• lovable characters who don't fit the standard character molds
• canons that don't take themselves too seriously
• great canon and non-canon f/f ships (as well as canon f/m and strong potential for m/m, though those are less relevant to this exchange!)
• unreliable narrators
• found families/families of choice
• sisters with an "us-against-the-world" dynamic
• choice-based, character-driven narratives

What is it?

Borderlands is a series of action role-playing games in a space western setting, starting with three first-person shooters (Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) followed by Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic adventure-comedy developed by Telltale Games.

There were 16(!) Borderlands ships nominated this year and I'm excited about each and every one of them, but I can hardly expect anyone looking to pick up a new fandom for this year's Femslash Exchange to play four full games just to get all the content. Luckily, a good number of the ships nominated can be picked up just by playing Tales from the Borderlands!

Tales (a.k.a. TFTBL) is still a bit of a time-commitment - 15 hours to play from beginning to end, roughly - but it's become one of my favourite games ever and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's both a wholly self-contained story and a fantastic introduction to the Borderlands universe.

You play as both Rhys, a company man driven by ambition to reach the top of the corporate ladder in the evil Hyperion, and Fiona, a con artist working on the planet Pandora with her younger sister Sasha, as they work - sometimes apart, sometimes together, always with a fabulous cast of secondary characters - to find a legendary Vault. The game is driven by its characters and always carries with it a sense of joy and humour.

Who are the other female characters?

• Sasha - Fiona's younger sister. She's a thoroughly competent con artist and thief, just like Fiona, but despite this is a fairly straightforward person. She knows who she is and what she wants, and, as mentioned above, seems to have grown up with a very "us-against-the-world" dynamic with Fiona.
• Athena - A hired gun with a traumatic backstory. She's emotionally awkward with a dry sense of humour and a (relatively) strong moral compass, even if she doubts it sometimes.
• Janey Springs - A junk dealer, weapons enthusiast, and rocket specialist who writes "children's books" on the side. She is, to put it bluntly, an effusive weirdo, and I found it impossible not to love her. As shown in The Pre-Sequel, Janey is more than happy to have people killed for being rude to her about her being a lesbian.
• Yvette - One of Rhys' two best friends and also an employee of Hyperion. Yvette is a more ambiguous character, and the motivations for her actions are up to the interpretation of the player.

Tell me about the ships!

This comment is getting tl;dr enough so I won't describe every single ship, but in brief, the nominated ships that can be picked up via TFTBL only are: Athena/Janey, Athena/Fiona, and Athena/Fiona/Janey; Fiona/Sasha; Fiona/Yvette; Sasha/Janey; and Sasha/Yvette. If you want to know about any of the dynamics involved in these ships, let me know and I'll try my best to describe them to you!

And if you're wondering about the canon f/f couple I mentioned way up there, that would be Athena/Janey! They were actually introduced as characters in The Pre-Sequel - I'll link to a video of their shippy interactions there below - but only confirmed as a canon couple in Tales. Their relationship provides a ton of opportunity for both fluff and angsty, complicated dynamics, depending on what you're in the mood for.

Check it out!

And finally, here's a few videos showcasing the game and what various characters or their relationships are all about, in lieu of my being able to link you to the canon itself (which is available on both console and PC, BTW!):

• A trailer for the first episode.
• Another trailer. Don't mind the stuff in the beginning with Handsome Jack - you'll learn all about him in the game.
• Athena's introduction in TFTBL, featuring Fiona, Sasha, and Janey. (And also, unfortunately, featuring Scooter being a creep. But I promise he doesn't do that too much!)
• Athena and Janey's flirty interactions in The Pre-Sequel. There's not much of it, sadly!
• I'm having trouble finding videos of good, non-spoilery interactions with just Fiona and Sasha, or videos of Yvette (who doesn't interact much, if at all, with other women in the game - the ships with her are purely speculative!). I'll edit this comment when I've found some.

Edited 2016-08-27 06:23 pm (UTC)

Who wants to read 6 beautifully illustrated chapters about acrobats at a Cirque falling in love?

http://dynasty-scans.com/series/cirque_arachne

It's free and legal (never been licensed outside Japan) and very touching and beautiful!

Two f/f comics that are really wonderful and I hope even if people don't request or offer them they check them out.

Their Story by Tan Jiu

Is a really sweet korean comic kindly translated by the people at yaoi-blcd. It's funny and charming about two goofy high school girls. Sun Jing takes an interest in Qiu Tong who catches the same bus as her and it's a romantic comedy about the two of them growing closer as Sun Jing pursues Qiu Tong.


Morning Glory and Kase-san by Takashima Hiromi

A manga about a girl who loves tending the flowers at her school falling hard and fast for a member of the track team who she watches through the fence as she gardens. It's sweet and awkward and charming and well worth checking out. As far as I know it hasn't been officially released in English so the fan scans linked above are fine.

Kase-san is a great manga! It is licensed for an English release by Seven Seas Entertainment, and the first volume is due out in February 2017.

Now, to wait patiently for the next chapter.

omg yay I hadn't realised! gently places a preorder

I love the series a lot new chapters make my day every time

August was a very good month for Kase-san fans, and it looks like the scanlators are all caught up now.

Seven Seas Entertainment, the yuri saviors. I know what I will be buying on February.

There are quite a few yuri manga coming out February. Seems appropriate, with Valentine's and all.

I'd love to see some stories from Sci-fi tv series from the 1990s and 2000s. Stargate SG-1, Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek DS9 had amazing women character with lots of chemistry between them.

These are the fandoms of my heart, too. I'm still dithering about whether or not to sign up, but...yes. <3

DC Comics: Bombshells started life as a line of 1940s-pinup-inspired statues and comics covers, which spun off into their own ongoing comic about a year ago. The series is a DC comics AU where there are only female superheroes (in the very first issue Batwoman rescues Bruce Wayne's parents), set during the second world war. It's written by Marguerite Bennett and drawn by a variety of artists and has an ensemble cast.

If you're familiar with Marguerite Bennett's work you're probably not surprised to learn that there's a lot of canon femslash pairings and shippy interactions. Definitely one of my favourite comics coming out right now and it's a contained universe, so if you're interested in superheroes but find the sprawling canons overwhelming this might be a good starter series!

Posted some supporting material for the CW-related ships in the Actor RPF section to tumblr, pics and videos. Ladies from The Vampire Diaries, The Flash, Gossip Girl, and RL crossover friendships!

Was less familiar with a couple of pairings, feel free to tell me what cute stuff I missed.

Edited 2016-08-28 06:33 pm (UTC)

Do you like fantasy novels with an intriguingly fresh take on magical systems, POC protagonists (most of whom are women), queer and trans characters, and tons of femslash potential?

How about a science fiction universe populated with people living very everyday lives that just happen to span galaxies and alien species? One which features serious found family feels, humanity as a very small player in a broad interplanetary society, and a canonical human/alien lesbian relationship?

Or maybe you'd enjoy faery-focused urban fantasy, intertwined with Hollywood, with a side order of varied and complex portrayals of mental illness and recovery/survival? One with a very complicated and emotionally fraught f/f working relationship that I am dying to see explored in more depth?

It sounds to me like you might want to check out The Craft Sequence (Max Gladstone), Wayfarers (Becky Chambers), and/or The Arcadia Project (Mishell Baker; listed under Uncategorized fandoms). I've written them up in more detail over on tumblr! The latter two series only have one book out so far apiece, and they're pretty quick reads ... ;)



Edited 2016-08-29 07:30 pm (UTC)