we_protect_each_other (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
we_protect_each_other) wrote2017-07-11 01:36 am
we_protect_each_other) wrote2017-07-11 01:36 am
Entry tags:
[comm] dear genex author:
Dear GenEx author,
Thank you for writing something for me! I have enjoyed this exchange for a couple of years, and I always find that it's much easier to write gen than I remember. I think that, even when I participate in shippy exchanges, a lot of my requests could be read as gen if one really wanted to. What I love in fanfiction, really, is the development of relationships and the exploration and resolution of conflict. It doesn't really matter how characters love each other, as long as they do. And I also love reading about characters who, maybe, couldn't really be said to love each other but who are important in one another's lives no less. My likes and dislikes are slightly adapted from my usual copy-paste to help them illuminate my gen-specific likes more, but you can see my other letters if, for some reason, you want to. Please take my prompts as helpful suggestions and not demands. If you have an idea, please go with it, whether or not it meets one of my prompts or not; as long as we stay away from my very short dislikes list, I'll be very happy with whatever you give me!
Dislikes: character bashing towards anybody, explicit gore, nihilism, hopeless endings (but sad is okay)
Likes: canon-typical violence, missing scenes, emotional ambiguity, friendly enemies, belligerent friendships, found families, time travel, pre-canon, post-canon, bedsharing (even nonromantic/sexy kind), loyalty, worldbuilding, epistolary/journal/log fiction, monster-of-the-week / slice of ordinary life adventures, earned second chances, dealing with consequences, "what if" / canon divergent AUs, earned happy endings, holidays, casefic, groundhog day trope, mysteries, healing, survival (wilderness, zombie apocalypse, etc.), last stands, trying against impossible odds, succeeding against impossible odds, heartfelt goodbyes, unexpected reunions, foils
CTRL+F to find your fandom, if you like.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Gen-Relationships Requested: Sokka & Katara; Momo & Appa; Iroh & the Gaang; Azula & Zuko; Zuko & the Gaang; Katara & Zuko
I love all the characters in ATLA. I've been rewatching it recently, and I love it more every time I see it. There are just so many nuanced relationships and the ability to speculate about them is so much fun. I love stories that are pure and simply enough to be palpable for children but which keep giving in order to adapt themselves easily to adult themes. For ATLA fanfic, I love things that explore the adult aspects of the story and how the characters, even as teenagers, are young adults in their world. (It is once-mentioned the Yue is of marrying age at sixteen, in the Northern Water Tribe, and I think this carries over thematically throughout as an age of majority and responsibility in other ways too.) I have seen the first season of Legend of Korra but not the others; if you write future!fic it's up to you whether you comply with it or not.
Sokka & Katara
I love their sibling relationship and how important it is to both of them. I appreciate the fact that they are completely okay with being affectionate to each other when the time is right and never make it weird. I would love to read a fic about them fighting and making up in a funny or serious way. If you wanted to write a fic about their adult lives, a little after the war, that would be fun. I would like to see them supporting each other through a major life event. Also, seeing Sokka hone a skill and having Katara appreciate it would be nice, since he doesn't do "magic water."
Momo & Appa
I am just so impressed with how they have such a developing and rather nuanced relationship without the benefit of understandable speech. I love that the show took the time to do an episode about it. I'd like to know how they get on after the war. Platonic hurt/comfort would be nice, too. We got to see Appa go on a long journey that wasn't exactly pleasant, so maybe Momo having a personal development adventure would be a place to start.
Iroh & the Gaang
Iroh saw before Zuko did the potential of the Gaang as something that would be good for Zuko, I think. He also always seemed to respect Aang, even when his goals were in some ways at odds with his as he supported Zuko. I also love how he got to have a nice, friendly, paternal influence on Toph. I would love to see how he gets along with the Gaang, in missing scenes or after the war, having known all along (or at least most of the way along) that they were doing the right thing and were the friends his nephew needed. Just some slice of life situations would be cool, continuations of relationships we saw and development of those we didn't really beyond the surface.
Azula & Zuko
You might see it differently, and if you do please tell me about it! But I have always gotten the sense that Azula did not actually believe that she hated Zuko. In some strange ways, I think that she, at times, believed she cared about him while balancing it with indifference and abuse in a way that didn't seem to be contradictory to her. Zuko wanted his family's love for so long, and it seems that he at least understood that Azula had hurt him many times before, but he always found himself wanting to believe her. Maybe a story about Azula getting help after the war and Zuko seeing her during or after. If you want to do darker themes or not have it quite work out for the best, that's okay too. I just like endings that have some hope, even if they're sad. Scenes from their childhood would also be welcome. Bonding, or trying to bond, and failing, of half-succeeding, whatever you'd like.
Zuko & the Gaang
I just would really like to read some missing scenes about their learning to trust him. I would also like to see his development toward being the kind of person who can function within a group of friends when he had spent so long not having one. This could take place during off-screen time during canon or when he is just becoming the Fire Lord. I love political drama, so if you wanted to include a scenario like that, go for it!
Zuko & Katara
I just love what complements they are as characters. I am really fascinated with the fact that Aang, on the one hand, is such a genuine pacifist that he doesn't really understand an impulse toward violence and retribution in some ways. The fact that Zuko understood when he and Katara traveled together was really interesting to me. I appreciate that Katara came to terms with her inner demons about her mother's murder, but I just would really like a continuation of that theme. Since Katara knows what they share that Aang doesn't understand, culturally and personally, maybe a story about her helping Zuko dealing with his own and his family's history of violence.
Doctor Who (2005)
Gen-Relationships Requested: The Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald; Twelfth Doctor & Missy; the Doctor & the Master; Missy & Clara Oswin Oswald; Clara Oswin Oswald & Amy Pond & Rory Williams; Twelfth Doctor & Bill Potts
Doctor Who is one of my most-abiding fandoms. Every time I thought I escaped in the past, I came right back. I love it, even when I am not thinking about it. I love its themes of love and thinking things through winning. Even when they don't, there is some redeeming quality there. I love when Doctor Who addresses darker themes but still gives us hope at the end of the day.
The Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald
Eleven, Twelve, or any Doctor (she did meet Ten, briefly, after all). I just really love their relationship and how its boundaries and shape evolved over time. I have seen some people describe their relationship as a queer platonic partnership. I can't say that I feel confident enough in my understanding of that dynamic to say that it is definitely true, but that description of it is interesting to me. They have a partnership, but they have multiple growing pains of determining that it is not a romantic one, even though they love each other so much that it can be brilliant and destructive. If you wanted to do an adventure with Clara (or one of her Echoes) meeting another Doctor, Ten or otherwise, go for it. Or missing scenes or episodes. Or a reunion, given Clara's current canon state, or a fic about the Doctor's memories.
Twelfth Doctor & Missy | The Doctor & the Master
I am folding these together because my feelings about the two relationships are entwined. After all, they are in most ways the same relationship. The end of Missy's arc in The Doctor Falls absolutely broke my heart. Given that I am a New Who fan for the most part, I have only ever seen Missy and Simm!Master, and it was an unsettling and heartbreaking delight to see them on screen together. However, the end of that absolutely tore me to pieces. If you wanted to do a fic where both Ten and Simm!Master and Twelve and Missy interact and the two overlap in, perhaps, a fix-fic-y way, that would be a dream come true. However, I would also be equally happy with dark fic about almosts and maybes of the two becoming friends again, or being friends in a doomed place or in a doomed timeline. I've seen clips of the Doctor and the Master's relationship in Old Who, or if you wanted to do Academy days that would be good too.
Missy & Clara Oswin Oswald
I am so fascinated with the notion that Missy chose Clara for the Doctor. It is my understanding from the canon narrative that she saw Clara as essentially perfect for driving to become expendable to save the Doctor without getting Missy's hands dirty but that it became something more than that. I love that they seem to be enemies, fast friends, and to have a sort of familial relationship all in one. The fact that Clara is somehow Missy's familiar is very fascinating to me, as are all the themes about how, in some ways, Missy is right and Clara is deadly, play into the narrative between them. A reunion during Clara's current-canon-state would be good, as would missing scenes, or simply a fic about how it was that Missy "chose" Clara without her knowing or realizing.
Clara Oswin Oswald & Amy Pond & Rory Williams
After "Oswin's" first appearance, I was just always really disappointed that Amy and Rory never got to interact with her again. Whether it was Oswin, Clara-proper, or another Echo, I would love to read more about their interaction. Perhaps Amy and Rory meet an Echo sometime after their settled and final fate in New York. Perhaps things go differently and Amy and Rory do not get trapped in the past in New York, or Oswin can be saved somehow, or some other "fix fic" where the three are companions all at once.
Twelfth Doctor & Bill Potts
I'd love a fic about Bill teaching the Doctor something she knows from the working class life she has led. I'd love them arguing about a lesson the Doctor teaches her. A missing, happy adventure together would be nice. Maybe the Doctor very awkwardly tries his hand at being a wingman for Bill, trying to prove that he's cool and understands. Or anything that would just integrate Bill deeper with the mythology of past New Who stuff, too! If Heather makes a guest appearance, that'd be cool, but is not a requirement. Oh, and Nardole is also welcome!
Fate/stay night
Gen-Relationships Requested: Waver Velvet & Emiya Shirou & Tohsaka Rin; Illyasviel von Einzbern & Matou Sakura; Matou Sakura & Emiya Shirou; Matou Sakura & Gilgamesh
Oh, Type Moon stuff. My blessing and my curse. The buffet that not only gives you all that you can eat more but than you can eat. I love Fate, but I am often overwhelmed by the sheer size of everything. My favorite route, in terms of resolution, is Unlimited Blade Works, but please feel free to construct your own routes, to write new stories, to rearrange and cobble things together as you like. I love the ensemble of characters and the set-up of the Holy Grail War, but I'd also like Everybody Lives slice of life fun, too.
Waver Velvet & Emiya Shirou & Tohsaka Rin
This could take place either during Shirou and Rin's HGW, or afterward if they are both at Clock Tower together (if they are in a background relationship, that's welcome, but not required). Essentially, I would love a fic that is about Waver confronting and/or resolving any lingering issues he has about his own Holy Grail War. In turn, I would like for Shirou and Rin to somehow see the legacy of this; if this happened during their Holy Grail War, would it make their attitudes toward it any different to have contact with someone who'd seen the war their parents fought in? Also, if you want to tackle it, future Grail dismantling would also definitely be a welcome theme. Any unrequested characters are free to make guest appearances as you see fit.
Ilyasviel von Einzbern & Matou Sakura
Both of them are Grails and both of them are girls who really, really deserved better treatment as children. I would like a fic exploring natural enmity between them, and if it turns into a friendship or a partnership of some kind that's just icing on the cake. I would just like to see them as foils, as forces that are both the same and at odds. I would also like to see them interact on a human level, where they can just discuss and somehow respond to how unfair their lots in life are, whether it results in just sharing some pain and a burden or in finding a way to rebel.
Matou Sakura & Emiya Shirou
I really appreciate Sakura and Shirou's friendship, but I don't think it's especially healthy or good for their friendship to become a romance as it's presented. Therefore, I'd really like a fic about their having a very strong, beneficial, fierce friendship that doesn't have to be romantic. I think that this might allow for a more satisfying "Sakura route" narrative, for me, so if you wanted to sort of retool some Heaven's Feel stuff to give this relationship some breathing room but not to belittle how much they care about each other, that would be really nice. I would also like a fic that sort of settles Sakura into a life of her own where she and Shirou are still friends without it being an ultimatum between life and death, romance or permanent separation. Or, if you want something simpler, just a slice of life from before the Holy Grail War.
Matou Sakura & Gilgamesh
I would like to see them interact again after the one, strange interaction in the prologue or in Gilgamesh getting killed in HF. This could just be sort of palace intrigue stuff in the Matou house, or it could be a full-on AU scenario. What would happen if Sakura became Gilgamesh's Master instead? How might that happen? I can kind imagine that if Gilgamesh knew Sakura more closely that his view of her might be different and that, therefore, the outcome of everything for her would be different. I'd like to see her stand up for herself against him and for that to change everything.
Fate/Zero
Gen-Relationships Requested: Iskandar & Waver Velvet | Rider & Waver Velvet; Iskandar & Artoria Pendragon | Rider & Saber
You can see my paragraph about FSN too, if you like. Fate/Zero is something that I saw after originally watching the Unlimited Blade Works anime. I have also read the English translation of the LN, such as it is. It is a story that I love for its atmosphere, its sense of how no one is really right, no one is entirely wrong (except maybe Caster & Ryunosuke), and everyone is to blame. I love that it gets a silver lining in that it will lead to Fate/stay night but that it is also a tragedy. However, I would not be opposed to fics that made it somewhat less tragic. Either way is good!
Iskandar & Waver Velvet
Their relationship was initially what I was least-interested in. Who is this big, brauny, loud Servant and this character from Harry Potter? Why should I care? But then, the more I watched, the more attached to them I became. As far as a character arc actually resulting in anything good, I feel like their relationship was the single-most positive one in Fate/Zero, and I love it for that. I will cry if I listen to "You Are My King," no matter how many times I hear the piece of music that accompanies that scene. I would love a fic about a later reunion, communication through dreams, a missing scene, or Waver doing something significant at the Clock Tower that has reference to Iskandar and his impact on his life. Alternatively, wherever Servants go (I know canon doesn't jive with this 100% but bear with me) while they wait, what does Iskandar think of Waver in the very end?
Iskandar & Artoria Pendragon
Let's face it, Iskandar is kind of condescending toward Artoria. But I think it's well-meaning? I think that he really does just lament that she never got to be a kid, a young girl, a maiden, whatever. But on the other hand, I think Artoria is rightfully insulted by his way of going about that lament. I'd love to have them butt heads an actually confront this, whether in a silly Everybody Lives sitcom-y scenario or in a serious alternative scene to what transpires in canon. I would just really like an opportunity for Iskandar to, maybe, realize how he is wrong about her and for Artoria to realize that he actually cares, even if in a way that needs a knock in the head.
Thank you for writing something for me! I have enjoyed this exchange for a couple of years, and I always find that it's much easier to write gen than I remember. I think that, even when I participate in shippy exchanges, a lot of my requests could be read as gen if one really wanted to. What I love in fanfiction, really, is the development of relationships and the exploration and resolution of conflict. It doesn't really matter how characters love each other, as long as they do. And I also love reading about characters who, maybe, couldn't really be said to love each other but who are important in one another's lives no less. My likes and dislikes are slightly adapted from my usual copy-paste to help them illuminate my gen-specific likes more, but you can see my other letters if, for some reason, you want to. Please take my prompts as helpful suggestions and not demands. If you have an idea, please go with it, whether or not it meets one of my prompts or not; as long as we stay away from my very short dislikes list, I'll be very happy with whatever you give me!
Dislikes: character bashing towards anybody, explicit gore, nihilism, hopeless endings (but sad is okay)
Likes: canon-typical violence, missing scenes, emotional ambiguity, friendly enemies, belligerent friendships, found families, time travel, pre-canon, post-canon, bedsharing (even nonromantic/sexy kind), loyalty, worldbuilding, epistolary/journal/log fiction, monster-of-the-week / slice of ordinary life adventures, earned second chances, dealing with consequences, "what if" / canon divergent AUs, earned happy endings, holidays, casefic, groundhog day trope, mysteries, healing, survival (wilderness, zombie apocalypse, etc.), last stands, trying against impossible odds, succeeding against impossible odds, heartfelt goodbyes, unexpected reunions, foils
CTRL+F to find your fandom, if you like.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Gen-Relationships Requested: Sokka & Katara; Momo & Appa; Iroh & the Gaang; Azula & Zuko; Zuko & the Gaang; Katara & Zuko
I love all the characters in ATLA. I've been rewatching it recently, and I love it more every time I see it. There are just so many nuanced relationships and the ability to speculate about them is so much fun. I love stories that are pure and simply enough to be palpable for children but which keep giving in order to adapt themselves easily to adult themes. For ATLA fanfic, I love things that explore the adult aspects of the story and how the characters, even as teenagers, are young adults in their world. (It is once-mentioned the Yue is of marrying age at sixteen, in the Northern Water Tribe, and I think this carries over thematically throughout as an age of majority and responsibility in other ways too.) I have seen the first season of Legend of Korra but not the others; if you write future!fic it's up to you whether you comply with it or not.
Sokka & Katara
I love their sibling relationship and how important it is to both of them. I appreciate the fact that they are completely okay with being affectionate to each other when the time is right and never make it weird. I would love to read a fic about them fighting and making up in a funny or serious way. If you wanted to write a fic about their adult lives, a little after the war, that would be fun. I would like to see them supporting each other through a major life event. Also, seeing Sokka hone a skill and having Katara appreciate it would be nice, since he doesn't do "magic water."
Momo & Appa
I am just so impressed with how they have such a developing and rather nuanced relationship without the benefit of understandable speech. I love that the show took the time to do an episode about it. I'd like to know how they get on after the war. Platonic hurt/comfort would be nice, too. We got to see Appa go on a long journey that wasn't exactly pleasant, so maybe Momo having a personal development adventure would be a place to start.
Iroh & the Gaang
Iroh saw before Zuko did the potential of the Gaang as something that would be good for Zuko, I think. He also always seemed to respect Aang, even when his goals were in some ways at odds with his as he supported Zuko. I also love how he got to have a nice, friendly, paternal influence on Toph. I would love to see how he gets along with the Gaang, in missing scenes or after the war, having known all along (or at least most of the way along) that they were doing the right thing and were the friends his nephew needed. Just some slice of life situations would be cool, continuations of relationships we saw and development of those we didn't really beyond the surface.
Azula & Zuko
You might see it differently, and if you do please tell me about it! But I have always gotten the sense that Azula did not actually believe that she hated Zuko. In some strange ways, I think that she, at times, believed she cared about him while balancing it with indifference and abuse in a way that didn't seem to be contradictory to her. Zuko wanted his family's love for so long, and it seems that he at least understood that Azula had hurt him many times before, but he always found himself wanting to believe her. Maybe a story about Azula getting help after the war and Zuko seeing her during or after. If you want to do darker themes or not have it quite work out for the best, that's okay too. I just like endings that have some hope, even if they're sad. Scenes from their childhood would also be welcome. Bonding, or trying to bond, and failing, of half-succeeding, whatever you'd like.
Zuko & the Gaang
I just would really like to read some missing scenes about their learning to trust him. I would also like to see his development toward being the kind of person who can function within a group of friends when he had spent so long not having one. This could take place during off-screen time during canon or when he is just becoming the Fire Lord. I love political drama, so if you wanted to include a scenario like that, go for it!
Zuko & Katara
I just love what complements they are as characters. I am really fascinated with the fact that Aang, on the one hand, is such a genuine pacifist that he doesn't really understand an impulse toward violence and retribution in some ways. The fact that Zuko understood when he and Katara traveled together was really interesting to me. I appreciate that Katara came to terms with her inner demons about her mother's murder, but I just would really like a continuation of that theme. Since Katara knows what they share that Aang doesn't understand, culturally and personally, maybe a story about her helping Zuko dealing with his own and his family's history of violence.
Doctor Who (2005)
Gen-Relationships Requested: The Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald; Twelfth Doctor & Missy; the Doctor & the Master; Missy & Clara Oswin Oswald; Clara Oswin Oswald & Amy Pond & Rory Williams; Twelfth Doctor & Bill Potts
Doctor Who is one of my most-abiding fandoms. Every time I thought I escaped in the past, I came right back. I love it, even when I am not thinking about it. I love its themes of love and thinking things through winning. Even when they don't, there is some redeeming quality there. I love when Doctor Who addresses darker themes but still gives us hope at the end of the day.
The Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald
Eleven, Twelve, or any Doctor (she did meet Ten, briefly, after all). I just really love their relationship and how its boundaries and shape evolved over time. I have seen some people describe their relationship as a queer platonic partnership. I can't say that I feel confident enough in my understanding of that dynamic to say that it is definitely true, but that description of it is interesting to me. They have a partnership, but they have multiple growing pains of determining that it is not a romantic one, even though they love each other so much that it can be brilliant and destructive. If you wanted to do an adventure with Clara (or one of her Echoes) meeting another Doctor, Ten or otherwise, go for it. Or missing scenes or episodes. Or a reunion, given Clara's current canon state, or a fic about the Doctor's memories.
Twelfth Doctor & Missy | The Doctor & the Master
I am folding these together because my feelings about the two relationships are entwined. After all, they are in most ways the same relationship. The end of Missy's arc in The Doctor Falls absolutely broke my heart. Given that I am a New Who fan for the most part, I have only ever seen Missy and Simm!Master, and it was an unsettling and heartbreaking delight to see them on screen together. However, the end of that absolutely tore me to pieces. If you wanted to do a fic where both Ten and Simm!Master and Twelve and Missy interact and the two overlap in, perhaps, a fix-fic-y way, that would be a dream come true. However, I would also be equally happy with dark fic about almosts and maybes of the two becoming friends again, or being friends in a doomed place or in a doomed timeline. I've seen clips of the Doctor and the Master's relationship in Old Who, or if you wanted to do Academy days that would be good too.
Missy & Clara Oswin Oswald
I am so fascinated with the notion that Missy chose Clara for the Doctor. It is my understanding from the canon narrative that she saw Clara as essentially perfect for driving to become expendable to save the Doctor without getting Missy's hands dirty but that it became something more than that. I love that they seem to be enemies, fast friends, and to have a sort of familial relationship all in one. The fact that Clara is somehow Missy's familiar is very fascinating to me, as are all the themes about how, in some ways, Missy is right and Clara is deadly, play into the narrative between them. A reunion during Clara's current-canon-state would be good, as would missing scenes, or simply a fic about how it was that Missy "chose" Clara without her knowing or realizing.
Clara Oswin Oswald & Amy Pond & Rory Williams
After "Oswin's" first appearance, I was just always really disappointed that Amy and Rory never got to interact with her again. Whether it was Oswin, Clara-proper, or another Echo, I would love to read more about their interaction. Perhaps Amy and Rory meet an Echo sometime after their settled and final fate in New York. Perhaps things go differently and Amy and Rory do not get trapped in the past in New York, or Oswin can be saved somehow, or some other "fix fic" where the three are companions all at once.
Twelfth Doctor & Bill Potts
I'd love a fic about Bill teaching the Doctor something she knows from the working class life she has led. I'd love them arguing about a lesson the Doctor teaches her. A missing, happy adventure together would be nice. Maybe the Doctor very awkwardly tries his hand at being a wingman for Bill, trying to prove that he's cool and understands. Or anything that would just integrate Bill deeper with the mythology of past New Who stuff, too! If Heather makes a guest appearance, that'd be cool, but is not a requirement. Oh, and Nardole is also welcome!
Fate/stay night
Gen-Relationships Requested: Waver Velvet & Emiya Shirou & Tohsaka Rin; Illyasviel von Einzbern & Matou Sakura; Matou Sakura & Emiya Shirou; Matou Sakura & Gilgamesh
Oh, Type Moon stuff. My blessing and my curse. The buffet that not only gives you all that you can eat more but than you can eat. I love Fate, but I am often overwhelmed by the sheer size of everything. My favorite route, in terms of resolution, is Unlimited Blade Works, but please feel free to construct your own routes, to write new stories, to rearrange and cobble things together as you like. I love the ensemble of characters and the set-up of the Holy Grail War, but I'd also like Everybody Lives slice of life fun, too.
Waver Velvet & Emiya Shirou & Tohsaka Rin
This could take place either during Shirou and Rin's HGW, or afterward if they are both at Clock Tower together (if they are in a background relationship, that's welcome, but not required). Essentially, I would love a fic that is about Waver confronting and/or resolving any lingering issues he has about his own Holy Grail War. In turn, I would like for Shirou and Rin to somehow see the legacy of this; if this happened during their Holy Grail War, would it make their attitudes toward it any different to have contact with someone who'd seen the war their parents fought in? Also, if you want to tackle it, future Grail dismantling would also definitely be a welcome theme. Any unrequested characters are free to make guest appearances as you see fit.
Ilyasviel von Einzbern & Matou Sakura
Both of them are Grails and both of them are girls who really, really deserved better treatment as children. I would like a fic exploring natural enmity between them, and if it turns into a friendship or a partnership of some kind that's just icing on the cake. I would just like to see them as foils, as forces that are both the same and at odds. I would also like to see them interact on a human level, where they can just discuss and somehow respond to how unfair their lots in life are, whether it results in just sharing some pain and a burden or in finding a way to rebel.
Matou Sakura & Emiya Shirou
I really appreciate Sakura and Shirou's friendship, but I don't think it's especially healthy or good for their friendship to become a romance as it's presented. Therefore, I'd really like a fic about their having a very strong, beneficial, fierce friendship that doesn't have to be romantic. I think that this might allow for a more satisfying "Sakura route" narrative, for me, so if you wanted to sort of retool some Heaven's Feel stuff to give this relationship some breathing room but not to belittle how much they care about each other, that would be really nice. I would also like a fic that sort of settles Sakura into a life of her own where she and Shirou are still friends without it being an ultimatum between life and death, romance or permanent separation. Or, if you want something simpler, just a slice of life from before the Holy Grail War.
Matou Sakura & Gilgamesh
I would like to see them interact again after the one, strange interaction in the prologue or in Gilgamesh getting killed in HF. This could just be sort of palace intrigue stuff in the Matou house, or it could be a full-on AU scenario. What would happen if Sakura became Gilgamesh's Master instead? How might that happen? I can kind imagine that if Gilgamesh knew Sakura more closely that his view of her might be different and that, therefore, the outcome of everything for her would be different. I'd like to see her stand up for herself against him and for that to change everything.
Fate/Zero
Gen-Relationships Requested: Iskandar & Waver Velvet | Rider & Waver Velvet; Iskandar & Artoria Pendragon | Rider & Saber
You can see my paragraph about FSN too, if you like. Fate/Zero is something that I saw after originally watching the Unlimited Blade Works anime. I have also read the English translation of the LN, such as it is. It is a story that I love for its atmosphere, its sense of how no one is really right, no one is entirely wrong (except maybe Caster & Ryunosuke), and everyone is to blame. I love that it gets a silver lining in that it will lead to Fate/stay night but that it is also a tragedy. However, I would not be opposed to fics that made it somewhat less tragic. Either way is good!
Iskandar & Waver Velvet
Their relationship was initially what I was least-interested in. Who is this big, brauny, loud Servant and this character from Harry Potter? Why should I care? But then, the more I watched, the more attached to them I became. As far as a character arc actually resulting in anything good, I feel like their relationship was the single-most positive one in Fate/Zero, and I love it for that. I will cry if I listen to "You Are My King," no matter how many times I hear the piece of music that accompanies that scene. I would love a fic about a later reunion, communication through dreams, a missing scene, or Waver doing something significant at the Clock Tower that has reference to Iskandar and his impact on his life. Alternatively, wherever Servants go (I know canon doesn't jive with this 100% but bear with me) while they wait, what does Iskandar think of Waver in the very end?
Iskandar & Artoria Pendragon
Let's face it, Iskandar is kind of condescending toward Artoria. But I think it's well-meaning? I think that he really does just lament that she never got to be a kid, a young girl, a maiden, whatever. But on the other hand, I think Artoria is rightfully insulted by his way of going about that lament. I'd love to have them butt heads an actually confront this, whether in a silly Everybody Lives sitcom-y scenario or in a serious alternative scene to what transpires in canon. I would just really like an opportunity for Iskandar to, maybe, realize how he is wrong about her and for Artoria to realize that he actually cares, even if in a way that needs a knock in the head.