thisbluespirit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisbluespirit) wrote2021-09-27 09:29 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote2021-09-27 09:29 pm
Dear Yuletide Letter 2021
Thank you for writing for me! This letter is bound to be long, so tl;dr: I love all kinds of different things at different times, I love these fandoms and characters, and I'm sure to enjoy whatever you come up with.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: hurt/comfort, forced to work together, x times format, apocalypse, crack played straight, comedy of manners/cultural differences, canon divergence AUs, historical/fantasy/supernatural AUs, rescues, fantasy, history, mystery, ghosts, time travel, time loops, crossovers, banter, humour, tropes, trope subversion.
Generally, I love sensible people dealing with tropey stuff or fantastical things they never asked for, tropey fake/accidental/convenient marriage scenarios, trapped together, or otherwise landed in unexpected scenarios, whether serious or humorous, but I also love my chosen canons and will be equally happy with entirely non-tropey canon-typical missing episodes/case fic/scenes etc.
Ship-wise, I prefer implicit over explicit - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, undressing, hands, historical costumes, kissing, love conveyed by actions over words, but, honestly, whatever seems right for the characters in question is the most important thing & I'm fine if that includes sex, but a full on PWP is going to be tragically wasted on me.
DNWs: over-eating,* character bashing, genderswap, age regression, incest, rape, explicit porn without plot, issuefic, non-canonical body horror/unexpected physical transformations, non-canonical identity headcanons, a/b/o. (If a DNW is also present in the canon, though, references are generally fine - canon is canon - just no heavy focus on that aspect, but see ind. fandom sections.)
*re. over-eating - mentions of food/eating are fine - it's just an odd squick about excessive/rapid over-eating (e.g. eating competitions, forced to eat multiple meals, that kind of thing).
I enjoy other setting AUs a lot, but not in all fandoms, so check my fandom-specific DNWs.
I'm![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
thisbluespirit at AO3 and pretty much everywhere else I hang out. I have a dear author tag for exchange letters.
Happy writing!
Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper
Indigo, Grimya
I'd love any missing scenes, or anything set post-canon, focusing on Indigo & Grimya and there enduring friendship. Do they help others overcome their own demons? Or revisit old friends, even if only to watch from a distance? Or do they find new battles to fight - or just enjoy being somewhere beautiful/fascinating without having to fight demons? Are they still immortal or not and, if so, what does that imply? Maybe Indigo really is/does become the goddess's emissary? What would that mean? Also missing scenes - small meetings & adventures in between the books, or missing scenes from them would also be loved.
I've loved these books since I was a teenager and recently re-read them and enjoyed it far more than I expected. Grimya & Indigo's relationship is just so enduring and and I'll always be very happy to see more of them.
I also love the world (which I'm pretty sure from the map and the 'myth' in Book 1 is a geomagnetically reversed AU/future version of our own), so exploring new places in it would be great. I love some of the settings and characters we've already seen - the Summer Isles, Simhara, Bruhome, the Redoubt in particular, Joyful Travail - and would be very happy to revisit or have missing scenes involving them with Indigo & Grimya.
There are only 2 works on AO3 and 1 of them is mine, so anything you want to do as long as it involves Indigo & Grimya somewhere in their fascinating world, wolf, human, immortal, whatever at some point in their long lives, I shall be delighted! There's so much possibility in this series! And Grimya is just the best, isn't she? <3
Fandom DNW: Other setting AUs - as you can tell, I'm really interested in Indigo's world as well. No "fixits" re. Fenran - (how that winds up is one of my favourite things, I'm afraid!)
Sapphire and Steel
Silver
I love Silver, as will become obvious if you poke about anywhere on my AO3 account or here on Dreamwidth, so pretty much anything you can write me will be adored.
I love Elements (or whatever you prefer to call them) - I love the mysterious nature of them, how they attract and repel and interact, and their strange abilities and distinct characters. I do very much love Sapphire and Steel themselves, of course. I just love Silver that little bit more! Feel free to include them, and, indeed, any established Elements, either from the show or the audios, those mentioned in passing, like Mercury, Copper & Jet, or come up with your own original elements.
I ship Silver, at least in passing, with everyone and everything from other Elements to flirting with humans to get the job done to any reasonably shiny AI probably up to and including a smart kettle. Sapphire/Silver/Steel, though, is the beautiful inhuman OT3 of my heart. I love the weird ways in which they are intimate yet see each other as mysteries, and how effective they are together, which seems to be maybe the elemental ideal and ship all corners of the OT3. I love the way Silver annoys Steel and Silver's nervous of Steel, but they're still fascinated with each other, as well as their individual and combined interactions with Sapphire. But, as I said, I will ship Silver with pretty much anyone or anything for the space of a fic (and I sometimes think that in some ways all Elements/Elements may plausibly be canon anyway).
Any missing assignments would be wonderful, whether with Sapphire & Steel (<3) or any other 'elements' that we've met or mentioned or of your own devising. Pre-canon (historical!), post-canon, historically-set assignments generally, time loops. Or what has Silver been doing to annoy Copper? What other 'elemental' gossip is going round involving (or courtesy of) Silver? Elements/elements in their own weird way; exploring something of their natures (although never too much. It's a go-anywhere fandom, & a great one for outsider POV from whichever way around, so crossovers are always cool.
But one of the pleasures of this fandom is how everyone interprets its weirdness differently, so please just have fun writing S&S however works best for you, and give me some more Silver along the way, and I'll be happy.
Fandom DNW: Evil/traitor Silver; AUs where they're human (unless it's not an AU, it's a terrible temporary time-related peril, that's obv just something that would happen).
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this old series! It's fascinating, wordy and weird and theatrical & sometimes dark while also a pretty plausible fictional take on an interesting historical period. I find its version of Henry equally fascinating & the BBC made me ship Henry/Elizabeth hard & then broke my heart with the final episode. (I mean, look at them.) And (despite the misleading number of works on AO3 - it's just almost all "kitchen sink" fandom tagging) there's actually very little fic at all that's not by me. It's tragic. I need your help, dear author!
Anything you want to write will be wonderful - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon divergence or other setting). Honestly, I'm really genuinely just curious to see what people want to write for this.
There are so many possibilities - build a story from a random line from Henry's account books, like some of the eps, or missing Henry/Elizabeth scenes would be adored (I love their awkward dynamics in this), or give me some more Henry & Margaret (there's a particularly painful exchange in ep6 that intrigues me, but anything with them), or play with the whole ongoing Conspirators/Henry - so much mirroring/obsession going on there, with Lincoln & Perkin in particular, and there's definitely a certain slashiness to be explored.
This is one canon where I'd also adore all the AUs - canon divergence/alternate takes on history, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, Elizabeth/Henry AUs, the one where it happens in a BBC cardboard spaceship instead of a castle, magic AUs - I think the way there's always a feel of supernatural things to canon makes me want to push it further (like the astrology plot - how would it be in a world where you could attack the king with magic? Or the fact that Henry feels that Arthur's death is his curse for having killed Warwick and Perkin.)
I want all the things, so have fun with whatever aspect of the series, period, and this Henry that grabs you. I'm happy to see any of the other characters, whether from the show (I'd have loved more Jasper & Thomas Stanley as well as Elizabeth & Margaret, or Catherine Gordon), or historical figures who didn't make it in, but you're dying to include. Henry's interactions with everybody are always interesting, so go for it.
(I've been requesting this for a while & my prompts list kept growing, so if you want more (!?!) you can check the Dear Author tag as linked above to see if anything else there strikes your fancy more.
Canon DNWs: any non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry (weird Henry/conspirators is cool, though!); no Elizabeth/Richard III. (Generally, like the series, ignore the whole RIII controversary, if you will.)
A Sudden Wild Magic - Diana Wynne Jones
Edward, Judy
I re-read this over the summer & fell for Edward & Judy - I thought they were unexpectedly sweet, if also complicated, of course, and I loved the quiet little healer/healer dynamic they have (with their own different issues going on) & the hurt/comfort potential there.
The whole sort of seduction/breaking of Arth's repression really resonated with me for some reason this time, too. I'd love to see more of Edward & Judy & Arth generally, whether missing scenes or post-canon in Arth. The other members of the Arth invading team are very welcome - Helen and her methods are particularly great & as was Sandra being charmed by her old-school courtship, and Flan's sabotage by dancing, & Roz's marching about oblivious to what was going on with everyone else until the last minute.
So, yes, I had more fun than I expected in revisiting of this & am curious about Arth, and wanting any bonus scenes of Judy's pursuit of Edward and his healing of her, or post-canon. Any oher canon characters are welcome if you want to include them (I loved Gladys a lot), just Arth ends up very separate, certainly to begin with, and that's what I was focusing on.
Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully
Any
I would love anything for this canon! I listened to it this summer on a rec, had a blast and relistened to it all over again, wrote fic and then pined for more and here I am, making puppy dog eyes at you, dear author.
Give me missing scenes/episodes, or tell me what happened post-canon - does Uljabaan wind up picking up far too many human habits? Is the invasion forever post-poned? What happens if Cresdon Green is remembered by the rest of the world? I also have a weird maybe-not-serious-maybe-actually-it-is-idk yen for Uljabaan/Katrina, because obv. that is a way that humans win over their enemies, right? For research/resistance! What could go wrong? Katrina's own schemes, her relationship with her parents & accidentally having to help Uljabaan are all good.
I love Lucy and how she grows over the two series (our real heroine, y/y?) and also her filking. I would be very happy to know if she has any more protest songs in her repertoire - and how she goes on growing up in this very weird place.
Everything involving the Computer is always a highlight. Does this one also have any hobbies? Does it still manage to date the virus? Will the Printer ever co-operate properly?
I love the whole thing and would have nommed Margaret & Richard as well if Yuletide had spaces enough, so bring in any villagers or Geonin inspectors/bureaucracy or rebelling Minions you want - more Minions' book club! They have opinions! Let them unionise! - or more of Ravella, or any other of Uljabaan's superiors or Margaret ruling the world via cake, or Richard's totally-not-Van-der-Valk detective novel & I'll be delighted to see them as well.
DNW: Other setting AUs; I am here for one (1) invaded tiny Bucks village and its alien overlords. I also can't really imagine wanting fic where Uljabaan has to go home, either.
How to find my requested fandoms, should you wish to, in order of length:
A Sudden Wild Magic - 90s standalone fantasy book, although no longer in print (& I'm not aware of ebooks, either, sorry), but I found a secondhand copy online & should be available via ILL in the US & UK at least. (It was DWJ's first attempt at doing an adult book and it does maybe try too hard in that direction & certainly contains some things that don't read so well now, but it is also very DWJ in terms of being inventive, loads going on, funny & some great characters (especially Gladys), and, as ever, hidden depths & so well worth reading still.
Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully - BBC radio sitcom of 11x 28min episodes over 2 series & a pilot. It's short, you can get the typical episode feel & characters within only 1 or 2 episodes, and it's available by various methods - see the promo post for more info.
The Shadow of the Tower is a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). It's at least mostly up on YT and available on DVD in R1 & 2 (often pretty cheap & I hear US libraries sometimes have it). Details here at the fandom promo post.
Sapphire & Steel was an SFF show (ITV 1979-81) consisting of 6 'Assignments' (made up of 4-8 25 min episodes each (think Classic Who serials), starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum in the title roles. It's original, spooky and turns low-budget TV into an art form and will scare you with nursery rhymes, photographs, flowers, railway stations, clocks and motorway service stations. Plus there's an evil pillow. The lead characters are non-human mysterious 'elements' (or whatever you choose to call them) who each have particular powers, which they use to fight Time, which is always trying to break into reality and destroy things. Sapphire and Steel are our only regulars but they are helped out on occasions by 'specialists' or 'technicians' It's weird, original and if you've a love of SFF and any patience with this era's TV, I can't recommend it enough. It's out on DVD in both R1 & 2 and several people have it up on YouTube.
Silver is only in A3 and 6 if you wanted to keep it to the absolute minimum, but I would recommend also watching at least half of A1 as well (because that's about the only explanation you'll ever get of anything.)
Indigo Saga - series of 8 (fairly short!) 90s fantasy novels with a female protagonist with a telepathic wolf bff who sets off on a quest to rid the world of the demons she loosed upon it. It is harder to get than some of the others, but you'd only need 1 or 2 to write a missing moment, and there are cheap secondhand copies available online + again it's recent enough it should be obtainable via ILL in the UK and US and other places. And if you want a cheat sheet for checking the end books' plot twists, there's a fandom wiki available. See the promo post for links & info.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: hurt/comfort, forced to work together, x times format, apocalypse, crack played straight, comedy of manners/cultural differences, canon divergence AUs, historical/fantasy/supernatural AUs, rescues, fantasy, history, mystery, ghosts, time travel, time loops, crossovers, banter, humour, tropes, trope subversion.
Generally, I love sensible people dealing with tropey stuff or fantastical things they never asked for, tropey fake/accidental/convenient marriage scenarios, trapped together, or otherwise landed in unexpected scenarios, whether serious or humorous, but I also love my chosen canons and will be equally happy with entirely non-tropey canon-typical missing episodes/case fic/scenes etc.
Ship-wise, I prefer implicit over explicit - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, undressing, hands, historical costumes, kissing, love conveyed by actions over words, but, honestly, whatever seems right for the characters in question is the most important thing & I'm fine if that includes sex, but a full on PWP is going to be tragically wasted on me.
DNWs: over-eating,* character bashing, genderswap, age regression, incest, rape, explicit porn without plot, issuefic, non-canonical body horror/unexpected physical transformations, non-canonical identity headcanons, a/b/o. (If a DNW is also present in the canon, though, references are generally fine - canon is canon - just no heavy focus on that aspect, but see ind. fandom sections.)
*re. over-eating - mentions of food/eating are fine - it's just an odd squick about excessive/rapid over-eating (e.g. eating competitions, forced to eat multiple meals, that kind of thing).
I enjoy other setting AUs a lot, but not in all fandoms, so check my fandom-specific DNWs.
I'm
Happy writing!
Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper
Indigo, Grimya
I'd love any missing scenes, or anything set post-canon, focusing on Indigo & Grimya and there enduring friendship. Do they help others overcome their own demons? Or revisit old friends, even if only to watch from a distance? Or do they find new battles to fight - or just enjoy being somewhere beautiful/fascinating without having to fight demons? Are they still immortal or not and, if so, what does that imply? Maybe Indigo really is/does become the goddess's emissary? What would that mean? Also missing scenes - small meetings & adventures in between the books, or missing scenes from them would also be loved.
I've loved these books since I was a teenager and recently re-read them and enjoyed it far more than I expected. Grimya & Indigo's relationship is just so enduring and and I'll always be very happy to see more of them.
I also love the world (which I'm pretty sure from the map and the 'myth' in Book 1 is a geomagnetically reversed AU/future version of our own), so exploring new places in it would be great. I love some of the settings and characters we've already seen - the Summer Isles, Simhara, Bruhome, the Redoubt in particular, Joyful Travail - and would be very happy to revisit or have missing scenes involving them with Indigo & Grimya.
There are only 2 works on AO3 and 1 of them is mine, so anything you want to do as long as it involves Indigo & Grimya somewhere in their fascinating world, wolf, human, immortal, whatever at some point in their long lives, I shall be delighted! There's so much possibility in this series! And Grimya is just the best, isn't she? <3
Fandom DNW: Other setting AUs - as you can tell, I'm really interested in Indigo's world as well. No "fixits" re. Fenran - (how that winds up is one of my favourite things, I'm afraid!)
Sapphire and Steel
Silver
I love Silver, as will become obvious if you poke about anywhere on my AO3 account or here on Dreamwidth, so pretty much anything you can write me will be adored.
I love Elements (or whatever you prefer to call them) - I love the mysterious nature of them, how they attract and repel and interact, and their strange abilities and distinct characters. I do very much love Sapphire and Steel themselves, of course. I just love Silver that little bit more! Feel free to include them, and, indeed, any established Elements, either from the show or the audios, those mentioned in passing, like Mercury, Copper & Jet, or come up with your own original elements.
I ship Silver, at least in passing, with everyone and everything from other Elements to flirting with humans to get the job done to any reasonably shiny AI probably up to and including a smart kettle. Sapphire/Silver/Steel, though, is the beautiful inhuman OT3 of my heart. I love the weird ways in which they are intimate yet see each other as mysteries, and how effective they are together, which seems to be maybe the elemental ideal and ship all corners of the OT3. I love the way Silver annoys Steel and Silver's nervous of Steel, but they're still fascinated with each other, as well as their individual and combined interactions with Sapphire. But, as I said, I will ship Silver with pretty much anyone or anything for the space of a fic (and I sometimes think that in some ways all Elements/Elements may plausibly be canon anyway).
Any missing assignments would be wonderful, whether with Sapphire & Steel (<3) or any other 'elements' that we've met or mentioned or of your own devising. Pre-canon (historical!), post-canon, historically-set assignments generally, time loops. Or what has Silver been doing to annoy Copper? What other 'elemental' gossip is going round involving (or courtesy of) Silver? Elements/elements in their own weird way; exploring something of their natures (although never too much. It's a go-anywhere fandom, & a great one for outsider POV from whichever way around, so crossovers are always cool.
But one of the pleasures of this fandom is how everyone interprets its weirdness differently, so please just have fun writing S&S however works best for you, and give me some more Silver along the way, and I'll be happy.
Fandom DNW: Evil/traitor Silver; AUs where they're human (unless it's not an AU, it's a terrible temporary time-related peril, that's obv just something that would happen).
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this old series! It's fascinating, wordy and weird and theatrical & sometimes dark while also a pretty plausible fictional take on an interesting historical period. I find its version of Henry equally fascinating & the BBC made me ship Henry/Elizabeth hard & then broke my heart with the final episode. (I mean, look at them.) And (despite the misleading number of works on AO3 - it's just almost all "kitchen sink" fandom tagging) there's actually very little fic at all that's not by me. It's tragic. I need your help, dear author!
Anything you want to write will be wonderful - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon divergence or other setting). Honestly, I'm really genuinely just curious to see what people want to write for this.
There are so many possibilities - build a story from a random line from Henry's account books, like some of the eps, or missing Henry/Elizabeth scenes would be adored (I love their awkward dynamics in this), or give me some more Henry & Margaret (there's a particularly painful exchange in ep6 that intrigues me, but anything with them), or play with the whole ongoing Conspirators/Henry - so much mirroring/obsession going on there, with Lincoln & Perkin in particular, and there's definitely a certain slashiness to be explored.
This is one canon where I'd also adore all the AUs - canon divergence/alternate takes on history, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, Elizabeth/Henry AUs, the one where it happens in a BBC cardboard spaceship instead of a castle, magic AUs - I think the way there's always a feel of supernatural things to canon makes me want to push it further (like the astrology plot - how would it be in a world where you could attack the king with magic? Or the fact that Henry feels that Arthur's death is his curse for having killed Warwick and Perkin.)
I want all the things, so have fun with whatever aspect of the series, period, and this Henry that grabs you. I'm happy to see any of the other characters, whether from the show (I'd have loved more Jasper & Thomas Stanley as well as Elizabeth & Margaret, or Catherine Gordon), or historical figures who didn't make it in, but you're dying to include. Henry's interactions with everybody are always interesting, so go for it.
(I've been requesting this for a while & my prompts list kept growing, so if you want more (!?!) you can check the Dear Author tag as linked above to see if anything else there strikes your fancy more.
Canon DNWs: any non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry (weird Henry/conspirators is cool, though!); no Elizabeth/Richard III. (Generally, like the series, ignore the whole RIII controversary, if you will.)
A Sudden Wild Magic - Diana Wynne Jones
Edward, Judy
I re-read this over the summer & fell for Edward & Judy - I thought they were unexpectedly sweet, if also complicated, of course, and I loved the quiet little healer/healer dynamic they have (with their own different issues going on) & the hurt/comfort potential there.
The whole sort of seduction/breaking of Arth's repression really resonated with me for some reason this time, too. I'd love to see more of Edward & Judy & Arth generally, whether missing scenes or post-canon in Arth. The other members of the Arth invading team are very welcome - Helen and her methods are particularly great & as was Sandra being charmed by her old-school courtship, and Flan's sabotage by dancing, & Roz's marching about oblivious to what was going on with everyone else until the last minute.
So, yes, I had more fun than I expected in revisiting of this & am curious about Arth, and wanting any bonus scenes of Judy's pursuit of Edward and his healing of her, or post-canon. Any oher canon characters are welcome if you want to include them (I loved Gladys a lot), just Arth ends up very separate, certainly to begin with, and that's what I was focusing on.
Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully
Any
I would love anything for this canon! I listened to it this summer on a rec, had a blast and relistened to it all over again, wrote fic and then pined for more and here I am, making puppy dog eyes at you, dear author.
Give me missing scenes/episodes, or tell me what happened post-canon - does Uljabaan wind up picking up far too many human habits? Is the invasion forever post-poned? What happens if Cresdon Green is remembered by the rest of the world? I also have a weird maybe-not-serious-maybe-actually-it-is-idk yen for Uljabaan/Katrina, because obv. that is a way that humans win over their enemies, right? For research/resistance! What could go wrong? Katrina's own schemes, her relationship with her parents & accidentally having to help Uljabaan are all good.
I love Lucy and how she grows over the two series (our real heroine, y/y?) and also her filking. I would be very happy to know if she has any more protest songs in her repertoire - and how she goes on growing up in this very weird place.
Everything involving the Computer is always a highlight. Does this one also have any hobbies? Does it still manage to date the virus? Will the Printer ever co-operate properly?
I love the whole thing and would have nommed Margaret & Richard as well if Yuletide had spaces enough, so bring in any villagers or Geonin inspectors/bureaucracy or rebelling Minions you want - more Minions' book club! They have opinions! Let them unionise! - or more of Ravella, or any other of Uljabaan's superiors or Margaret ruling the world via cake, or Richard's totally-not-Van-der-Valk detective novel & I'll be delighted to see them as well.
DNW: Other setting AUs; I am here for one (1) invaded tiny Bucks village and its alien overlords. I also can't really imagine wanting fic where Uljabaan has to go home, either.
How to find my requested fandoms, should you wish to, in order of length:
A Sudden Wild Magic - 90s standalone fantasy book, although no longer in print (& I'm not aware of ebooks, either, sorry), but I found a secondhand copy online & should be available via ILL in the US & UK at least. (It was DWJ's first attempt at doing an adult book and it does maybe try too hard in that direction & certainly contains some things that don't read so well now, but it is also very DWJ in terms of being inventive, loads going on, funny & some great characters (especially Gladys), and, as ever, hidden depths & so well worth reading still.
Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully - BBC radio sitcom of 11x 28min episodes over 2 series & a pilot. It's short, you can get the typical episode feel & characters within only 1 or 2 episodes, and it's available by various methods - see the promo post for more info.
The Shadow of the Tower is a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). It's at least mostly up on YT and available on DVD in R1 & 2 (often pretty cheap & I hear US libraries sometimes have it). Details here at the fandom promo post.
Sapphire & Steel was an SFF show (ITV 1979-81) consisting of 6 'Assignments' (made up of 4-8 25 min episodes each (think Classic Who serials), starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum in the title roles. It's original, spooky and turns low-budget TV into an art form and will scare you with nursery rhymes, photographs, flowers, railway stations, clocks and motorway service stations. Plus there's an evil pillow. The lead characters are non-human mysterious 'elements' (or whatever you choose to call them) who each have particular powers, which they use to fight Time, which is always trying to break into reality and destroy things. Sapphire and Steel are our only regulars but they are helped out on occasions by 'specialists' or 'technicians' It's weird, original and if you've a love of SFF and any patience with this era's TV, I can't recommend it enough. It's out on DVD in both R1 & 2 and several people have it up on YouTube.
Silver is only in A3 and 6 if you wanted to keep it to the absolute minimum, but I would recommend also watching at least half of A1 as well (because that's about the only explanation you'll ever get of anything.)
Indigo Saga - series of 8 (fairly short!) 90s fantasy novels with a female protagonist with a telepathic wolf bff who sets off on a quest to rid the world of the demons she loosed upon it. It is harder to get than some of the others, but you'd only need 1 or 2 to write a missing moment, and there are cheap secondhand copies available online + again it's recent enough it should be obtainable via ILL in the UK and US and other places. And if you want a cheat sheet for checking the end books' plot twists, there's a fandom wiki available. See the promo post for links & info.