Dear Yuletide Writer (2021)

[kriona]

Short placeholder post so I can make the deadline! I'll fill this in more in a few weeks.

Thanks for bearing with me — I barely made the deadline this year because I was traveling, and I just got home. Thank you for your patience, Yuletide writer!! 🙏❤

DNWs: same as previous years. No rape / sexual assault / mind-control / violation of consent. No active depictions of self-harm. No abusive relationships (physical or otherwise).

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (TV)

I really enjoyed watching this show, it was SO CUTE. I had been hoping for a sequel, but they wrapped things up pretty nicely, so that seems unlikely.

I don't remember much of the original Mighty Ducks, just that there wasn't a whole lot of hockey in them. I am a hockey player (who started playing as an adult) so it was really fun to watch the how-do-I-even-play scenes. Reading about hockey is just as fun, so if you feel up to writing hockey scenes, I'd be very happy to read them!

I really liked Sofi. Her need to be perfect made her a really compelling / relatable character. I could see her attempting to do something at hockey, not being good at it, and the story revolving around her coming to terms with / solving that.

Nick was hilarious, and I loved the banter he added to the show (a friend and I shout "get bent!" at each other now 😂). I'd be happy having him as a secondary character in a story.

A Maya / Lauren ship would be soooo cute 😍 Their very different worlds would make a great backdrop for them trying to navigate a relationship.

You could also very easily write about these characters when they're in college! We can follow up with them when they're older, if you're interested in writing that. Maybe they meet up and join a college hockey team, or *gasp* play AGAINST each other.

Dune (2021)

I requested Duncan Idaho. I love how down-to-earth and capable he is, without needing to boast or brag, which is in contrast to basically every other character. He just gets shit done. Plus I love Jason Momoa and re-imagining Duncan as him is 😍😍😍

It felt like the movie didn't do Duncan justice — we see him talking to Paul, we see him explaining Stilgar spitting, and we see him fight off lots of bad guys 😕 More Duncan would have been nice, so I'll just settle for fanfic.

This being a request for the 2021 movie limits the scope of what you can write about  — so no exploring Duncan + Siona vs Leto, I guess. Duncan's time among the Fremen would be a good place to explore (I don't remember reading much about it in the books, either). Anything pre-movie is probably good, too, as a way to set the stage.

If you enjoy writing fight scenes, write a fight scene! I'm less interested in the specifics of the action and more interested in the maneuvering it takes to win.

I tend to be most interested in f/f ships, but I'll make an exception for Duncan if Fremen ladies are fawning over him 😂

Dune Series - Frank Herbert

I really enjoyed the political / social maneuvering in Dune. It's SO intricate and SO fun to read. I love surprises — when someone has something in their back pocket that they planned for ahead of time (but isn't revealed to the reader) and they pull it out at the right moment (it does have to be believable / plausible, though). Dune is a setting where that happens ALL THE TIME.

I requested Alia Atreides. I desperately wanted her to be my favorite character, but I felt like the books skipped to "she's the bad guy" pretty quickly, and there wasn't much time for her to grow on me. I don't actually mind her being evil, so if you want her to be evil, by all means. I would love to see her coming to power — it'd be nice to see her trying to forge her own identity. Alia doesn't need to "win", either — it's OK if she gets out-maneuvered.

I loved the idea of a child that's an adult, and it'd be great to see people underestimate her because she plays up her child-ness (nothing sexual though please). I hated how the Baron took control of her and do not want a story with him in it (it's one of my DNWs).

Luca (2021)

This movie was delightful! I liked the second half of it the most — less of the "explore Luca / Alberto's relationship" and more "how do they interact with the town".

I'm an endurance athlete and tried to do a triathlon this summer (the swim got cancelled so it ended up being a duathlon (I actually didn't know how to swim before this summer)), so watching a movie about a triathlon was really fun. If you feel like writing about the trio getting back together for another triathlon, I'd love reading about it!

I think it'd be fun having Giulia go visit Luca's family underwater — maybe even his relatives in the deep. There'd be logistical problems, but that would be fun to explore in a fic.

Luca / Giulia in school / college would be a ton of fun, too. I imagine there's all sorts of things Luca doesn't know or understand and he gets into a lot of trouble because of it, and Giulia comes to his rescue.

I'm not much on m/m ships, and the movie ships Luca / Alberto pretty hard (and even shows jealousy!). I'm not big on m/f either, and Luca / Giulia is pretty obvious. I do love f/f ships but there's nobody to pair Giulia up with so 🤷‍♀️ If you feel like inventing a girlfriend for her, by all means!

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

I love this movie so much.

I really like Raya. I love how unbendable she becomes because of past trauma — it makes her very believable and very relatable. The movie glosses over her dealing with the trauma / guilt of her being responsible for the breaking of the world (the way she narrates the opening is pretty glib), and watching her struggle with that and coming to terms with it would be challenging to read (emotionally), but very rewarding.

I would love to hear about Namaari. Does she have any guilt for her role in the breaking of the world? Does she feel bad for betraying Raya at all? How does she process everything?

I love Raya and Namaari's relationship — I wish they had been canonically gay (we were SO close), and would swoon to have a story of their relationship becoming romantic / official.

It also feels like there were some interactions between Raya / Namaari that got skipped - interactions after the breaking of the world, but before they meet again in the movie. Those would be fun to explore, too!

I would also be happy with plain worldbuilding here — where do dragons come from? Where do Druun come from? Are they gone for good? Do they come back later? How were they created in the first place? The movie gives some hints — Druun are born of human discord — but details would be fun