no i'm not putting a shrek gif here shame on you shame on your cow

[khajidont]

SO GUYS what we have here is a very big game, and one of the perks??? Huge fandom representation.

STEP ONE: WHAT'S YOUR CANON? GIVE US A NAME
STEP TWO: TELL US WHY WE SHOULD LIKE IT
STEP THREE: LINK TO GIFS, PICTURES, EXCERPTS, CLIPS, ETC. ETC. But be courteous to people with slow connections make sure to put things under top levels if it gets long!
STEP FOUR: PROFIT??? You might get a canonmate out of it! The world is your oyster, friends.

EDIT: HEY GUYS so there's a metric ton of gifs being posted here -- sorry about that, folks with slow connections and sensitivities to flashing gifs! I'll fix that up if I ever do this meme again, but in the meantime, if you'd like to see which canons have been pimped, I've put up a comment with individual links to every top thread. I hope that helps!

Comments

[glowsferatu]

reading homestuck is legitimately not worth it, probably don't bother

dumb semi-canon summer camp au on the other hand

[brushoff]

holy shit that blingee has broken my friends page

anyway, THE CONFESSIONS OF DORIAN GRAY. what is it (an audio series) how long is it (eps are usually 30-45 minutes long, occasionally you get hour long specials) how can you get it (Big Finish.com, the first ep is just $3 for a thirty minute download, that's cheaper than a smoothie and probably lasts longer) and now for the important question what do you get:

the world's best vampire boyfriend, imaginary friends pushing people down stairs, body-swapping, Christmas crossover fanfiction, Victoria "hbic" Lowell, Dorian telling you his feelings on alligators, evil plague doctors, evil tarot cards, evil cocaine, evil paintings, Oscar Wilde vs. Oscar Wilde's wallpaper, that time where majohng saved the world, ghosts, more ghosts, James Moriarity as a ghost, bad decisions, Mina Harker drugging Dorian, killing people via fire escape, that one Bernice Summerfield crossover ep of dubious canon, Dorian hasn't seen Back to the Future, golems, Simon Darlow: banker extraordinaire who really needs better friends, the rock band episode, and various Doctor Who actors playing various terrible people with Romana being the worst of them all (except for Colin Baker. He plays someone nice.)

here is where you can listen to trailers for each of the episodes, as well as a ten minute preview of each s1 episode. listen to "The Heart that Lives Alone" because you will then want to buy it and Toby is the goddamn best. here is a link to 'Frostbite' a short, complete story that Big Finish released for free at Christmas.

subscribers get more.

[steed]

Shrek. You'll like it because it teaches valuable life lessons, like

what to do if there's an arrow in your butt, how to handle your new life as a royal, and how communication is the most important part of any relationship, even if you're completely different species who can't speak at all. If you've never seen it, no worry about cliffhangers. The series has been ogre for a while now.

[khajidont]

MY BAD, I switched it up a little! Is that any better?

[khajidont]

GET OUT

[cephalothorax]

WHAT'S THE CANON: HUNTERXHUNTER HI
WHY SHOULD WE LIKE IT: BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME. OKay but seriously, it's great - it's great from the very beginning, just very fun and exciting and silly at times and fascinating at times. And then things get really rolling and it just gets cooler and cooler. Every arc is like discovering a new canon within the canon, because the feel can switch a lot, but at the same time it still feels cohesive. And it can really slide between upbeat to the point of absurdity and really... heartbreaking and grim.

One thing I really love about HxH though is that I feel like it doesn't have a distinct moral perspective. ...this is probably not the biggest selling point if you aren't ME, but like... i love how some characters have very black and white perspectives and the series never says they're wrong, but at the same time you also have a lot of greytones and the series doesn't say they're wrong either. At times, especially with Kurapika and the Phantom Troupe, the lines really get blurred, and that's great for ME.

Also: Gon and Killua are insanely adorable?

Also you can just watch it on crunchyroll, like HEY NO REASON NOT TO GO WATCH THIS SERIES.

Plus we have Hisoka. You know you want Hisoka in your anime viewing life.

LINKS AND GIFS AND STUFF, WOW.

Uh, I suck and only ever save gifs of the Phantom Troupe, because I play Chrollo. So, uh, gifs to follow, though.

PROFIT: My friends, if you watch or read HxH, you are the one who profits.

/bows

[rathercommon]

MY CANON: The Bartimaeus Sequence
WHY YOU SHOULD LIKE IT: Oh my fucking god you guys?? it's fucking amazing???? Like okay you read the first book and it's this kid Nathaniel who's a little bit harder-edged than most YA protagonists, and who's not unlikable but who also isn't acting from motives like nobility or decency so much as his own injured pride, and you're like, "Man, this kid's sort of a dick, but I still like him and feel sorry for him because he's a 12-year-old who's seen some shit." And his relative unlikability is cut by Bartimaeus, who's the other narrator, who's an asshole himself but who calls Nathaniel on all his crap, so that's pretty fun. They balance each other out pretty well. And the plot's fun! Saving the government, being a hero. Okay, pretty standard YA stuff, that's pretty great. Then you hit the second book and some of the things that struck you as vaguely problematic in the first book start getting underlined pretty hard, and you're like, "Huh, that's...really problematic. Is the author aware of that?" And you feel somewhat uneasy, but the plot's really fun and there are plenty of quips and Bartimaeus is really hilarious, but boy Nathaniel himself is also becoming really shitty, isn't he? He sure was a decent character in the first one, but he's really turning into a dick - Oh, look, more neat world-building! Cool. And then the third book hits and as it progresses you realize that this whole fucking time this whole fucking series has been building up into a stealth critique of privilege and the way that it blinds us and makes us complicit in harming the world when we think we're helping, the way that we're always able to justify what we do as long as we stay ignorant, the way that violence just begets violence and only gestures of kindness and forgiveness can actually bring about any improvement in the world around you. And everything that struck you as problematic earlier? The author dismantles, dissects, examines, and puts together. Every moment where you're like "Jesus, Nathaniel"? That's answered. It's the rare book where patience and understanding are rewarded much more than courage or strength, not just by the other characters but by the narrative as a whole. The author completely put his money where his mouth was in crafting a story that harmonized perfectly with his worldview. And he did this while crafting a ripping good yarn. Also, holy shit the worldbuilding? The worldbuilding is fucking amazing. The author builds a really convincing vision of a) how magic might feed a totalitarian dictatorship and b) how simple greed and malice can feed a totalitarian dictatorship, and all the magic is just used so fucking creatively and intelligently. Like, people need to make a game based on this astonishing world stat.

Oh and also, fucking also, I think this is the ONE FUCKING PIECE OF MEDIA where the main character has a crush on a girl, redeems himself, and THE GIRL DOES NOT START LOVING HIM BACK
Like sound the fucking sirens you guys this series does not treat a girl's private parts as a reward for decency
PICTURES AND SHIT One of the characters is a spirit who takes the form of a cyclops who likes to wear dresses
And this goddamn nerd is your main character
And I love Kitty Jones so much that I want to scream

[friendshiprocks]

AND NOW FOR THE OTHER CANON, Happiness Charge Precure aka 'no wait, come back, I promise the name is the most stupid thing.'

it's part of the Precure franchise! which consists of magical girls punching things and destroying shit with the power of friendship! it's a Japanese anime, a season long, about 49 episodes if I remember correctly and two movies of dubious canonicity. each episode is about 24 minutes long. and again, what you get includes:

love triangles with God, attacking with a tambourine, Hawaiian magical girls, skirts and frills, friendship rocks, songs about rice that will get stuck in your head for the rest of the night, summoning GIANT CLOVERS FROM OUTER SPACE, Hime constantly being enthusiastic about food, singing, more singing, there's a lot of singing, French magical girls, nobody dying, crossover movies of dubious canonicity, changing clothes gives you superpowers, an episode where they defeat the monster by playing baseball, possibly the best example of 'civilian friend who knows the secret identity', American magical girls, someone holding a wedding at a Japanese lunch store, the loner outsider character getting a crush and holy hell you're adorable when did that happen, ridiculously cute ending songs, the best minibosses ever, outfits that are a cosplayer's nightmare, and Hime falling in love with a doll.

here is where you can watch the anime. Doremi Fansubs also subbed the series + the movies and has them available to torrent. since Hachapre is the tenth anniversary series, each episode starts off with a former Precure (and Shiny Luminous and Milky Rose) doing a little "wow, it's been ten years, keep watching please!" sort of introduction. You will inevitably think "oh man, this one's cute" and you'll end up watching yet another series because of that.

great episodes to start (aside from episode 1) include episode 4 (Hime starts school!), episode 20 (we learn about Hime's past and MAN IS IT TRAGIC), or episode 28 (they go to Hawaii!). so yes. watch it.

[friendshiprocks]

IT IS INDEED BETTER thank you tons

[trickstar]

My Canon: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure



this is all i'm going to post

[hostage]

BREAKING BAD

Created by X-Files writer Vince Gilligan and set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad revolves around Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher with a teenage son who has cerebral palsy (RJ Mitte) and a pregnant wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn). When Walt is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he breaks down and turns to a life of crime, producing and selling crystal methamphetamine with his former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), in an attempt to secure his family's financial future while avoiding detection from his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris). Betsy Brandt, Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Krysten Ritter, Laura Fraser, and Jesse Plemons also play major roles. Simultaneously a Tarantino-esque black comedy and a Shakespearean tragedy, the show is a smart, stylish, and visually stunning crime thriller that's been called the best television series of all time. Look at all these fucking awards. I don't think I can stress enough how fantastic this series is. There's a reason everyone was talking about it in 2013. It's beautiful, gut-wrenching, and hilarious, and it only gets better as the story goes on. If you enjoyed Reservoir Dogs, Sons of Anarchy, House of Cards, Urasawa's Monster, classic Westerns, or Macbeth, you'll probably enjoy this show. Breaking Bad's 62-episode run ended on September 29, 2013. All five seasons are available on Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon Prime. The spinoff prequel series Better Call Saul airs on AMC at 10 pm Monday. Now enjoy a relatively spoiler-free trailer.

[hands4healing]

Oh, comma, dear.

[Lalla Ward-Romana? Because part of the reason I love Winry so is because she looks like she could be Lalla's daughter.]

[brushoff]

INDEED LALLA WARD ROMANA. Big Finish has the license to do Classic Who audiobooks, so they've got a whole bunch of Classic Who actors that they can pull from/have already recorded with and go "hey, wanna voice somebody in this show?"

we've had Katy Manning, Lalla Ward, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Terry Molloy show up in the audios so far (and I'm also probably missing one because I'm me)

[brushoff]

what the hell is the kneeling guy wearing on his head.

[cephalothorax]

here you go. My babies.








And Gon and Killua





And Kurapika the bondage hero



And Leorio...


...who looks cooler in that gif than he ever will again.


Yeah that's better.

And this.... awesome, catperson who is actually an ant not a cat.


okay im done, anyway yeah watch it, its cool. >_>

[trickstar]

that would be johnny joestar, the alternate universe version of jonathan joestar who is a paraplegic horseracer. he is wearing a horseshoe on his head because horses, clearly.

COME JOIN ME ON THE RAILWAY OF TEARS AND FRIENDSHIP.....IN SPACE

[siriusly]

THE GALAXY RAILWAYS...is one of the Leiji Matsumoto titles nobody's ever heard of but includes lots of tropes/character doppelgangers that look familiar.


Harlock hair, Maetel hair...oh huh, character designs that are actually diverse. Go fig


It's for you if you enjoy the following:
-Tragic backstories/childhoods
-Coming-of-age tales
-Silly space logic (steam locomotives powering through space is the big one but there are so many)
-Cute episodic buddycop police teambuilding and survival adventures
-That thing some shows do where they lull you into a false sense of security and predictable plots and then COMPLETELY RIP YOUR HEART OUT AND SLAP IT ONTO THE FLOOR AND STEP ON IT OUT OF NOWHERE
-Forreal though I watched this and did not expect to feel so strongly about it AND THEN THE THING HAPPENED
-Shows where cute boys get shot/punched/the snot beat out of them fairly regularly and the sometimes they cry


It is currently available:
-FUNimation's Youtube channel has some episodes up (I didn't check to see if it's all of them, don't ask me for so much God)
-Streamable on any of those goddang anime streaming sites
-First season is for sale on Amazon for 20 bux or cheaper



THE PLOT
Out in space, people go planet to planet via locomotives along the Galaxy Railways. The SDF (Space Defense Force) exists to help protect said railway. One of the SDF platoons, Sirius Platoon, works on the military space train Big One. It's the train Manabu's dad once captained, and it's the train Manabu has been stationed to when he joins the SDF.

The show starts with his youth, his inspiration to joining, his initial friction and adjustment to seasoned military comrades, and all the weird shit that can happen on a job that takes you through space to planets and places that can get really really weird. TROPE COMRADES EVERYWHERE! Stern but mother hennish captain, hot-headed and self-conscious girl, can-never-be-pleased hurts-you-because-he-loves-you sempai, carefree gambling problem guy who bets on odds of survival, sexy nurse android........that's a trope right.......

Anyway, the show is pretty episodic with most of them being self-contained stories of the Platoon solving x-mystery or fighting y-terrorist with some kind of sad theme of humanity behind it because this is Leijiverse. Near the tail end though shit gets all overarching plot and SAD and VIOLENT and WHAT HAPPENED and doesn't slow down until the end.

There is a second season which I have only watched an episode of because it's hard to find with subs and also I'm not sure I'm emotionally prepared to embark on life after season one.



WHY I LIKE IT AND RECOMMEND IT
I really grew attached to the friendships/character dynamics. Every character on the Platoon is fleshed out and gets their own arc episodes – if not two or three. And even many of the tertiary/support characters get more focus than you'd expect a show like this to give, so it really fleshes out the relationships and stuff they're fighting for.
The animation is ok – it's actually really really good for Leijiverse standards, but I know it wouldn't be much to write home to compared to some other titles. A fun thing to do, though, is to recognize when the animation quality increases because those tend to be the tearjerker/violent episodes. I love that shit. Character designs are cute, the train designs are amazing because Leiji is all about trains and shit.

Leijiverse titles are kind of niche in that love-em-or-hate-em way because they tend to follow the same formulas in design and story structure, so it's absolutely not everyone's cup of tea. There's storytelling cliches and melodrama you either find really endearing and enjoyable or just roll your eyes and pass, and I get that. But in this case, I find it really charming and sweet. Manabu's a really strong main character who could've easily just been a boring blank slate, but he actually learns and grows and becomes quite a character on his own.


There's also a train full of ghosts. Ghost train.


GOD OK but if anyone is interested in watching bits of it sometime I am the kind of person totally into livestreaming an ep or two just for sampling. SPACE TRAINS FOR EVERYONE...

Tyfyt and consideration

[brushoff]

my ask was more about the doo-rag with the orange duck bill sticking out of his head??? but I don't think I'll ever get a satisfactory answer for that.

you do you horseman.

[glitterateur]

Gravity Falls is adorable wholesome fun for the whole family (warning that clip is not wholesome fun)! In the words of Hirsch himself, it's about cuddles and spookums. DO YOU LIKE:

-wonderful developed casts
-the Twin Peaks aesthetic
-a level of detail and foreshadowing that's (and this is the technical term) crazy bananas
-a hugely talented fandom
-stuff that's cute and also horrifying??
-a showrunner that's a really good sport and sometimes he pretends to be possessed by the villain

THEN GRAVITY FALLS IS FOR YOU! it's currently on a small hiatus and the last episode was a big ol' spoiler bomb and it's so worth watching please do it thank u

[trickstar]

the doo-rag because he's COOL and the orange thing is actually like weird wing things he wears on his back just angled badly

[siriusly]

SO THIS IS ON NETFLIX AND I WATCHED TWO EPISODES...how many episodes would you say it takes to get a good grip on how the show will go. I know some usually take 4-6 to get their pacing, but I got a really mixed read from this one
TEACH ME YOUR WAYS

[siriusly]

stop drinking the haterade

[hands4healing]

Lalla Ward and Katy Manning? Be still my little fangirl heart!

[prostheticbody]

WHAT'S MY CANON? Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

WHY YOU SHOULD LIKE IT: It's one of the best animes there is. It's basically CSI if CSI wasn't horribly insulting to the intelligence of anyone remotely familiar with how technology works. The show follows Section 9, an elite counter-terrorism squad in a cyberpunk future version of Japan. The show deals with themes of what it means to be human in an age where mankind is becoming more and more integrated with technology, how constant connection to the internet has changed the nature of society and crime, and government conspiracies and corruption. It's complicated and philosophical but has great characters and the first season plot arc is one of the best there is.

WHERE CAN I WATCH IT? The entire first season is free and legal to watch on youtube! Note that you'll have to get to episode 4 before the main plot arc kicks in, but it's worth it, trust me.

GIFS AND STUFF THIS SHOW IS AWESOME SO HAVE AN AWESOME GIF OF THE MOST AWESOME MOMENT

BLUE BEETLE

[khajidont]

I ALREADY HAVE PERFECT MOMENTS ON MY JOURNAL so I'm just going to copy and paste that! But first off, a summary of my canon, and why you should like it:

Do you like your comics grim and gritty? Do you like death and destruction? Do you want your hero to be a lone avenger, looking out at the rainy, ravaged remains of his city? DON'T COME HERE because Blue Beetle is, honestly, a gentle, feel-good superhero comic about the triumph of kindness in the face of cruelty, and the power of friends, family and communication. It's about Jaime Reyes and his fabulous supporting cast, including his loving parents and little sister and his two best childhood friends alongside characters from the wider superhero universe poking their heads into an ordinary boy's life gone extraordinary in El Paso. It hits a lot of wonderful character and emotional beats, and it's just as quick to bring humour as it is sadness. HONESTLY I LOVE IT A LOT it's a really fun, family friendly comic, and it's main (and best) arc is only 25 issues long! If you're interested, I encourage you to PM me for.... details..........

OKAY LINK TIME, SPOILERS AHEAD:

Issue 11: Jaime has his (somewhat pedantic) priorities in check while fighting a New God on a different planet.
Issue 14: Green Lanterns are known as intergalactic peacekeepers, immensely powerful and limited only by the constraints of their own mind. They still don't have shit on Mama Reyes, nurse, wife, mother of two and certifiable badass.
Issue 16: One common fault of supervillains is their fondness for making everything personal. As such, Eclipso decides to awaken Jaime's deepest, darkest desire to battle against his best friend for the life of a baby she kidnapped (kind of a long story). Bear witness to the beast within the Blue Beetle!
Issue 18: As Jaime attempts - and fails - to save everyone in danger from a hurricane made by a metahuman-for-hire, he stops acting like a scared kid in a superpowered suit, and starts thinking like the Blue Beetle, first by lying to one Bruce Wayne to get him to buy out the corporate hotels to house the needy... and then leading the villain to the very oilfields he said he was going to protect. How do you defeat a man powerful enough to wield the elements? You light him on fire.
Issue 18: ...but Jaime's still a kid, inexperienced with matters of life and death, and being faced with one's own perceived inadequacy is enough to rattle anyone. Luckily, his dad is there for him.
Issue 23: The perks of your family knowing that you're a superhero is the fact that when hurtling headfirst into what could potentially be a suicide mission, you have a chance to let them know what you're doing and why - and if necessary, to say goodbye.
Issue 24: And of course, said mission ends up with Jaime naked, powerless and injured on a spaceship. Well done.
Issue 25: The Scarab that the Reach - its creators - insisted was nothing more than a piece of faulty technology shows its sentience, its loyalty to Jaime and the fact that it's as willing to sacrifice itself for a cause as Jaime is in one fell swoop.
Issue 28: The law, age, and experience are things that Jaime does respect -- but for him, sometimes being a hero isn't the punishment of the guilty, but the protection of the innocent.

...and I'll stop myself here before I ramble on any further. It's just a comic full of perfect moments for me! And as a parting gift: