You Can Do That in Fanfiction

sunshine_revival '25 Challenge #2: "Write about anything you feel sentimental about..."

One thing I'm perpetually sentimental about is the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985; three seasons, the last one shorter). It was on the air before and after a significant event in my life, making a kind of continuous bridge through that, though of course I didn't know at the time that this was part of it imprinting itself on my imagination, as much as its superior writing (once you get past the first episodes that go out of their way to explain themselves to TPTB), voice acting (Diana's actress won an Emmy for her role, and of course Eric's actor is renowned), storytelling invitation to imagine yourself right into the scenario, and its sneaky continuity and deep lore in the days before continuity was permitted or lore wanted. And these were the days of bargaining with one's siblings over which Saturday morning cartoon would be viewed when on the one TV in the house, negotiating away blocks of the day to ensure you got the one half-hour that mattered.

Of course while the show was a huge success in the ratings, TPTB never stopped being nervous about it, in that age of moral panic about supposed cults and such supposedly using D&D to recruit/hurt kids, which looks like a pretty quaint worry now, but was indeed quite real (that is, not a real threat, just a real moral panic). That affected the show in many ways, most sad, but one incredibly good. TPTB lived in such fear of the Parents Television Council about this specific show that they mandated that our heroes must never use violence or offensive weapons. What a beautiful challenge to put in front of the writers! Surrounded by shows firing assorted colored lasers from guns, our heroes had to use their brains and empathy to solve puzzles and reconcile misunderstandings! And their very personally symbolic totemic enchanted weapons were highly defensive and evasive -- no swords in our heroes' hands! -- with even Hank's energy bow and Bobby's club aimed always at inanimate obstacles, never at people. (That was one of the mistakes the recent revival comics unfortunately made. They ditched that key constraint and gave Hank and Eric swords, showing they did not really understand.)

The recent D&D Honor Among Thieves movie (which was a good movie and deserved more audience attention) made use of widespread nostalgia for this show with a few background cameo tributes, which led some toys to finally come into existence for the show as cross-marketing with the movie, so many decades after we original viewers would have played with them. Though I'm not a collector, I snapped up the action figures and they bring me delight; the Diana figure is standing at the corner of my monitor right now, and the others are on a shelf I cleared for just them, even buying clear acrylic risers to display them better.

You can find the show on DVD (I have the "red box" version from the 25th anniversary). It ran around the clock on Twitch for an event leading up to the movie's premiere. I believe that it's not officially anywhere streaming now [Correction: It's on Amazon's "live" Freevee "Dungeons & Dragons Adventures" channel in the US! See comments!], probably because of complex rights issues (Marvel and Sunbow made the '80s cartoon; Hasbro now owns D&D; Paramount made the D&D movie; Disney now owns Marvel; etc.). Unofficially, it's on YouTube in both English and Portuguese, and many of the scripts are available online, most of them personally posted by the show's most prolific and daring writer, Michael Reaves, who died in '23, and loved the show as much as we do.

A tip for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, when you choose to play: To get all the cut-scenes, interactions, and story for a certain truly lovely character, approach the snowy Hebra region from the west, not from the east. Indeed, when the time comes, make it easy and just start from where the glowing quest marker is. They put it right there for a reason.

I, unfortunately, continued my "Explore first!" kick into Hebra and so blundered into Condé's story from the wrong side. Not that any option is wrong as such in an RPG or even JRPG, but... I've seen videos of folks playing this charming, intriguing section, so when I blundered into a certain spot and got compressed dialogue skipping that much more personal and exciting introduction to the character, I knew what I'd lost. You won't want to miss it.

That said, exploring Hebra thoroughly brought me fun discoveries that I was unspoiled on, probably because the people who streamed and wrote wiki entries when the game come out last fall had played the main quest at speed, rushing through straight to the end for reasons like not getting spoiled and satisfying their followers, and so missed some interesting tidbits, including about Condé himself. ( Spoilers (and one fanfic idea) about Condé )

Yes, it's a delightful game. Playing as Zelda is fun. Echoes are fun. The plot and lore are fun. If Condé and Dohna are richer characterizations than Link and Zelda, well, that's a peril of a "silent hero," I'm afraid.

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: Volume 1 of the fantasy webcomic Aurora by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions comes out from Andrews McMeel on July 29. New to you? A band of diverse misfits thrown together by circumstances try to save first themselves, then each other, and eventually their magic-ridden world, journeying much like a D&D party, interacting much like a superhero team, with many of the self-sacrifice, power of friendship, and metaphysical/moral themes I love. Already enjoy? Pre-orders can get an exclusive sticker sheet. Check it out.

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fkficfest, the annual Forever Knight fanfic challenge, finished revealing its stories in June.
  • sunshine_revival, a summertime sibling of snowflake_challenge, is in progress. No commitments, no deadlines, yes friending-meme. Let's engage with each other here on DW!
  • julybreakbingopresents, a month-long bingo-prompt fanwork game, has sign-ups through July 7.
  • fallingforyoufallexchange is a fanwork exchange celebrating falling in love in fall. Nominations through July 21; sign-ups through July 31; due September 15.
  • no_true_pair, a "Mad Libs"-style challenge community, is hosting a "No True Crossover" mini-event through July (with amnesty thereafter).
  • beauty-beast-week is an open celebration of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with posting August 18-24.
  • trope_of_the_month's July theme is an amnesty (create works for any previous theme).
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, fandom5k is seeking pinch hitters.
  • whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); July theme: "working together"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I've preordered tickets for Superman (2025) and The Fantastic Four (2025), fingers crossed for both (be good be good be good), but I also want to support original and non-genre films. I looked for what to see this holiday weekend and found... nothing? I hadn't known what The Life of Chuck might possibly be until its run ended, only that it had famous people in it, so I unfortunately missed that. I'm not into horror. The reviews of Pixar's latest are poor. Are there no dramas, historicals, comedies? Just the Nth Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible sequels? To be fair, there is a men-race-cars movie. Still. Eeek, Hollywood.