kingstoken

Hi, for anyone who is not aware, it appears that spikedluv passed away unexpectedly near the beginning of the month. The information is shared here on a comment on her last post, https://spikedluv.dreamwidth.org/2143159.html#comments, and has a link to her obituary.

spikedluv and I would often comment on each other's posts. I also had the honour of making art for multiple of her fics. She often bid on my offers for Fandom Trumps Hate and other fandom auctions. She was always such a pleasure to work with, and was always delighted by the graphics I created for her.

She loved Hudson & Rex and Murder She Wrote, among many other fandoms.

She will be missed.

Challenge #14

In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom

I wasn't sure what to do with this at first, I talked about my love for the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films earlier during the snowflake challenge and I've made primers for other things I love for previous challenges, see Dead Boy Detectives and Sherlock & Daughter, so I decided to do something slightly different and try and convince Doctor Who fans to watch the Twelfth Doctor's run, specially his last season.

I've heard many Doctor Who fans say that they bounced right off of Twelve's first season, which I understand, because it was a little rough at first. Plus I know not everyone was a fan of Clara. So, they stopped watching or they skipped it. This is my way of trying to convince you to watch Twelve's last season (series 10).

Title: Doctor Who

Media: Television series

Approx length: 12 episodes plus one special, approx 13 hours (Optional: the two specials before this season "The Husbands of River Song" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", they are both fun, and if you like River Song you might want to check out "The Husbands of River Song" as it is River Song's send-off, at least for now).

What is it, in summary?: The Doctor finds himself acting as a Professor at St Luke's University, where he meets Bill, a cafeteria worker who sneaks in to listen to his lectures. All while the Doctor keeps a secret locked in a vault under the university. Bill is the main companion of the season, along with occasionally Nardole, a cyborg who is the Doctor's manservant/keeper.

What do you love about it?: First off, I love Bill, the Doctor and her have a great dynamic. She is impressed by the Doctor, but not in awe of him, and she's not afraid to ask questions, but rarely in a cruel way. At one point Bill pretends that he's her grandfather, which kind of fits. Bill's a lesbian, so there is no romantic tension, none of that, they're just friends.
Nardole is mostly there for comic relief. He is not impressed by the Doctor in the slightest, and he tries his best to keep the Doctor focused and following certain rules, with very little success.
Last, but not least, the third component to this season, that I love so much, is Missy, Missy, Missy! For those who don't know, Missy is the female incarnation of The Master. She was introduced near the end of Twelve's first season, but I don't think you necessarily need that context, you only need to know that this is the Master, and if you know Who at all you know something of their history. One sub-theme in this season is "Can the Master be rehabilitated?"

Content warnings: this kind of depends on the episode, but death, non-consensual body modification, injury, violence

Who do I ship?: First off, I kind of ship Doctor/Master a little bit in any form, but Twelve/Missy above all others. There is all this history and tension between them, but also this softness that neither one of them quite wants to admit to. There is also this yearning for a relationship from them both, but they can't quite trust each other enough to let it happen. There's a real tragedy about it. (Also, the chemistry between Capaldi and Gomez is great.)

I did like Clara, but I do wish that her time on the show had been a little shorter, or that Capaldi had agreed to do a fourth season, because I would have loved to have Bill for longer, and I wanted more time for Twelve and Missy's dynamic to develop, to see if they could build a better relationship between them.

I'm not saying every episode is great, some are much better than others, but I think it deserves so much more love than it gets.

Lastly, let me persuade with some gifs:

Bill:


Twelve, Bill, and Nardole


Missy:


Twelve and Missy (like look at the chemistry!)

Challenge #12

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

I'm terrible with posts like this, but here goes. Thank you to everyone who follows me and leaves comments on my posts. Thank you to everyone who does the Book Bingo with me. Aand last but not least, thank you to all my fellow Fanlore editors, there aren't a lot of us, but we toil away trying our best to archive fandom history.

Anyways, please enjoy this multifandom dance vid I found on the net:

Challenge #10: Big Mood (Board)

CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).

So yesterday while doing some editing on Fanlore I found out what a colorbar was and I thought they were kind of neat. So for today's Snowflake Challenge I'm twenty years too late for a trend and made a colorbar for Holmes/Watson:



And yes I do realize one pic is of Basil/Dawson, but they are the mouse equivalent for Holmes/Watson, and I love them.

If there are any vidders who follow me, Dashcon 3 is looking for vids for their AMV Showcase, they're having an in person show and a virtual show.  If anyone is interested you can find more info here: https://www.tumblr.com/dashcon-two/805639043423535104/amv-showcase?source=share ;

Challenge #5

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

This one is fun and easy.  My wishes are:

1. Check out my fandomtree and if you'd like you can leave me a little something under my tree.  I'm asking for Sherlock Holmes (Granada and Rathbone films), The Great Mouse Detective, Our Flag Means Death, Doctor Who, and Dead Boy Detectives.  The deadline is Jan 17th.

2. Kudos and Comments on my fanworks!  My AO3, I've created fanworks for Star Trek, Good Omens, Sherlock Holmes, Supernatural, OFMD, and many more!

3. Go to arab.org and "click to help", it's free and all money raised is donated to UN agencies. 

Stole this from lebateleur

Your main fandom last year?
Sherlock Holmes, various adaptations but Holmes in general  

Your favorite movie watched last year?
I didn't watch many, but I would say K-Pop Demon Hunters, it's very fun. 
However, I also watched all the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films this year and my favourites were The Spider Woman and The Woman in Green.

Your favorite book read last year?
If I can chose a children's book, I'm going to say Basil of Baker Street.  I was delighted by it, so many Holmes references, and a good little mystery and adventure story. 

Your favorite TV show of the year?
I watched the good chunk of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series year, and I loved it!  It's very book accurate, and where they did makes some changes it works out well.
Also, Interview with a Vampire season 2 was fantastic!
But also, I'm currently working my way through Heated Rivalry and I'm enjoying it so far.  

Your favorite video game of the year?
I didn't really play any games this year unfortunately.  I started The Beekeeper's Picnic, but unfortunately never finished it, but hopefully some day.

Your favorite song, album, or artist to listen to this year?
Song: Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters (it is such a great sing-along, belt it out type of song)
Album: K-Pop Demon Hunters Soundtrack (so many great bangers on that, although my choices were also slim because I didn't listen to many full albums this year) 
Artist: The only one that comes to mind is Chappel Roan, although I think she was more 2024 than 2025, but I was still listening her quite a bit at the beginning of the year

Favorite podcast of the year?
Sherlock & Co (although, I've fallen behind on it).  I also enjoy If Books Could Kill.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
I guess falling into Sherlock Holmes fandom this year was unexpected, and something I really needed this year to distract me from stuff going on in my life.  One of my fave Good Omens authors starting posting Granada Holmes related stuff and it got me to check out the series and I've been in thick of it ever since.  I loved the Sherlock Holmes stories as a teen, and there has been some comfort in returning to what I previously loved only in a different way.

Your biggest fandom disappointment?
No real major disappointments I can think of, but that's mostly because I've been sticking with older completed series recently so no newer series that are cancelled after only one season like previous years.

Your TV boyfriend of the year?
John Watson

Your TV girlfriend of the year?
Svetlana from Heated Rivalry, maybe?

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Can I tell you how times I rewatched The Empty House and the scene where Watson finds out Holmes is alive?  Way too many times!

Fandom resolutions for 2026?
I have a lot of IRL stuff happening this year, so I'm putting no pressure on myself when it comes to fandom.

Your biggest fannish anticipations for the new year?
I have no idea, I didn't expect to fall into the fandoms I did this year, so I'm sure I'll be surprised again this year.

I finished my 2025 Book Bingo card! I am very late finishing this year, and I almost thought I wouldn't complete it in time. With everything going on in my real life it was very hard to concentrate on reading. Thank God for short books and audiobooks, I could listen to those while I was doing other things like cleaning, sorting, packing, etc. Also, the 2026 card is ready, so go check that out if you haven't seen it.

Behold my complete card!



( Reading Wrap-up )

Wow, the end of the year approaches, which means planning for next year's book bingo! (Good news, I'm very close to being finished my bingo card, only one square left to go, which I'm pretty sure I can read/listen to one book before the end of the year.)

This is the list with substitutions from last year:

*Over 300 Pages
*Book in Series
*LGBTQ+
*From your TBR
*Recommended
*POC Author
*Multiple POVs
*YA/Children's
*ebook/Audiobook
*Classic/Retelling
*Female Author
*Sci-fi/Fantasy
*Free Space
*Anthology/Collection
*Biography/Memoir
*Friendship
*Banned Book
*Name in the Title
*Movie/TV Tie-in
*With a Woman Protagonist
*From the Library
*Thriller/Suspense
*Set Somewhere You've Been
*Crime/Mystery
*Non-Human POV
*Author you've never read before
*Book older then you are
*Fairy Tale or Fairy Tale Retelling
*Graphic novel or Comic
*Pet or Animal Companion
*A main character over the age of 30
*Under 100 Pages
*Romance Plot or Sub-plot
*Translated
*Humour
*Non- fiction
*With a Blue Cover
*Horror or Paranormal
*Colour in the Title
*Seasonal Read
*Book made into a film or tv series
*Historical (fiction or non-fiction)
*Number in title
*Female author
*Three word title
*Craft, Hobby or Cookbook
*Written by an author from your state or country
*Animal on the cover
*Disability or Mental health
*Read a book from the year you were born
*Mythology
*Title begins with first letter of your name
*Dystopian
*Book mentioned in another book
*Diverse reads
*One word title
*Award Winning/Bestseller
*Disabled Author
*Non-western Setting
*Set in your state/country
*Title is at Least Five Words Long
*indigenous author
*Has illustrations (but not a comic or graphic novel)
*Set at a school/university
*No sex/romance
*Re-read
*A favourite author blurbed it
*Figures without facial features on the cover
*First Person POV
*Job/Profession in the title

If you have any suggestions please comment on this post and I will add them to the list.  Then in a few days I will make the 2026 Bingo card!