For statistics nerds and people curious about what is popular in fandom, here's the 2016 edition of the AO3 F/F stats. It shows which fandoms have exploded in the past year, which ones have a F/F ship as their main ship, the most popular polyships and other stuff. Definitely worth a read.
I'm a bit weirded out that only 50% of Madoka Magica fics, and 28% of Sailor Moon fics are yuri (this is only for AO3 though). I'm going to assume that the rest are mostly gen stories.

Also: I found a lesbian couple in Elder Scrolls Online! I know it isn't much, but so far same-sex couples in the Elder Scrolls series had this annoying tendency to turn up dead. I love TES and its lore with all my heart but that pattern really bummed me out. These ladies survived their personal quest and the attack on their town, so that was a welcome change. I Googled for more info and among all the predictable homophobic whining, there was a list of quests involving LGBT characters in the game. There seems to be a few of them! I'm looking forward to finding the Khajit (catfolk) woman who tries to woo a lady by bringing her dead rats.

So I ended up looking for polyamory fics myself when I played Dragon Age II and realized that I didn't want to choose between the two female love interests. I sifted through what little there is for Hawke/Merrill/Isabela on AO3 and three stories stood out for me. They're all oneshots with happy endings and contain sex or mentions of it, but they're more than smutty threesome fics.

• Simple and True (a bit on the angsty side)
• Why Do You Want What You Can't Have? (mentions of game plot, very much on the angsty side)
• dance the warrior (a different combination and more physical than romantic, but it... works somehow?)

If anyone wants to check it out for themselves, here's the AO3 tag with the slash-with-background-f/f filtered out. Some of it isn't just porn.

Thinking about poly ships also made me remember that the Battle Athletes Victory anime ends in a way that could be interpreted as the main character ending up with both her best friends/love interests. I didn't think of it that way when I watched it, but now... It would solve that love triangle nicely.

The Love Live fandom could deliver on this one, if you like the characters. Honoka/Umi/Kotori are basically married already. It's been a while since I lurked the LL parts of tumblr, but from what I remember many people were pretty open to multishipping the girls in various combinations, sometimes involving more than two people. Some of the fics in the AO3 tag seem to be more than porn. I remember looking for doujins for these three at some point and having trouble finding anything between platonic and plotless porn.

The 100 returns tonight, but they're currently filming the season finale and some REALLY spoilery pictures have surfaced. If you haven't seen them yet, you guys might want to blacklist spoilers on Tumblr, or avoid Twitter for a while... Or, you know, go hunting for the pictures.

last edited at Jan 21, 2016 5:41PM

Nikki & Nora

You mean this? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2n3phwUNLubFB8646kZZIo05GneVzF4X

Yeah, thanks for the link! That's the unaired pilot if anyone wants to check it out. I don't know much about the webseries but I've heard good things about it.

Kitsune Spirit

The TERF's? Yeah those people are no better than the loony religious folk.

Yup. Assholes.

OriginalGengar

Also found out that a tello Films abo might be worth it, seems like there are a lot of lesbian webseries there.

If you do get an account, check out Nikki & Nora. I don't think it's been mentioned here before. It's basically Rizzoli & Isles except the two leads are actually a couple. There's an unaired pilot floating around Youtube that was made in 2004 and tello picked it up as a webseries with the same actresses. I've only seen the pilot (don't have an account there, but it's really tempting), but it was a good introduction.

Afterellen's comment sections are a great example of bigotry within the LGBT community. Assholes usually get smacked down, but the fact that they're there in the first place is depressing.

Watched 2 episodes of Her Story now and it's shaping up to be one of the best webseries I've ever seen. Really genuine and realistic. I definitely recommend everybody to take a look at least.

Her Story sounds pretty amazing. Although I strongly recommend staying away from the comments section of the article Afterellen published about it. Fuck people, seriously.

I chose Merrill when I played the second game. She's really sweet

I know, right?!? I had to take a minute to compose myself when we encountered one of the big scary Qunari and she said she wanted to tickle him. But Isabela is awesome and from what I've read every romantic relationship hits a snag at some point... Back to hitting people for now I guess.

I know, but I can only imagine the massive pain in the ass it would be to get the sequels to acknowledge the romance in-game. I might get a mod if I ever want to go back and play it a second time. And there's the question of the Old God baby... Although I'm sure people have found workarounds for that, too. The modding community is hardcore.

I like that every romance option in DA II is for both genders. Shame they went back on that for Inquisition.

Someone was trying to apply the "If it's you, it's okay" trope saying that he's a straight guy with an exception. Yeah, right. Whatever makes them feel better :p

Oh man. Rolling my eyes right now. But I guess that's what the trope is for, seeing how the trope is really stupid.

I like reading TVtropes, but sometimes the temptation to headdesk is strong. When I read the character page for No Game No Life, it looked like someone really wanted to make sure that no one thought that the subtext between two of the girls meant anything because every other entry mentioned their "mother-daughter relationship".

I've been on a fantasy kick lately and one book that stood out to me is Chronicles of Osota: Warrior by Michelle Magly. It's a self-contained story, but the end teases a sequel (that hasn't come out yet). It's a quick read and it didn't seem particularly formulaic to me, but I don't have much experience reading fantasy novels, especially mainstream ones (Read: not about lesbians. Because what's the point?).

I also finished my playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins (a few years late) and it seemed to me that maximum emotional investment would be achieved by romancing Morrigan, which you can only do if you play as a man. I like Leliana though. The DLC about her past does a great job of showing the kind of person she was when she was younger and why she changed.

I've started playing Dragon Age II and I'm torn as to who I should romance, the cute blood mage or the sexy pirate. I think I'll put it off and stick to killing things while I try to decide.

I checked the TVtropes page a while back and it was really hilarious to see people try to downplay that element. I'm glad the show had the balls to go there.

Haha, didn't see anyone trying to downplay it, just whine about it. Those people, man. Downplaying it doesn't even work because his love for Thomas is such a big part of his motivation for everything he's done.

Someone was trying to apply the "If it's you, it's okay" trope saying that he's a straight guy with an exception. Yeah, right. Whatever makes them feel better :p

That's happens when I look at stuff late at night with a bad headache. >_< It was Morinaga Milk that retweeted the images... Her and Morishima similar twitter naming styles (name and then a date for something) and I wasn't looking too closely at the kanji.

Well this is what she retweeted:

https://twitter.com/re_notaround30/status/687125035870359552

Got it, thanks!

Sorry for necro-ing this thread. This isn't about the non-existent second tankoubon, but I thought people might be interested anyway: a while ago Shinonome Mizuo published a Carbonard Crown doujinshi. Here's Shinonome's announcement on Twitter. Better picture of the cover here.

It was released for Comitia in November 2014, but I suspect it was a very limited release. FYI, I searched for this book on Toranoana, Yahoo! Auctions, Suruga-ya and Mandarake and didn't find anything. But those of you who know how to look for obscure stuff might get better results. No idea about the contents though.

You're right, I'll do that. Now to phrase it in a way that doesn't give people false hope...

Kitsune Spirit

So I just discovered (I think) that Morishima Akiko is a Root x Shaw shipper. She retweed something that had one of those shipping collages with Root saying Shaw could end her anytime.

Couldn't find anything (recent tweets or back when the episode aired), I'd love a link if you've got one. She posts a lot of cat pictures, though!

I did, however, find this (completely unrelated). Seems very relevant to the interests of the people who have been waiting for years for the cell phone-only continuation to Carbonard Crown to make it online in a form or another. I was unable to find out anything more about it, and it might just be a one-shot doujinshi, but I guess that knowing this exists is a start. If anyone still cares.

OriginalGengar

Really brave though, not for the lack of a better word this time, was the reveal about Flint's bisexuality. Making the alpha-male-badass-main-character in a show so obviously aimed at straight men bisexual really takes some courage. It was also kinda nice to read them bitch about it. I like salt, apparently

I checked the TVtropes page a while back and it was really hilarious to see people try to downplay that element. I'm glad the show had the balls to go there.

I don't watch The 100, but Eliza Taylor is a sweetheart (sorry for posting a link to a tumblr screencap, it seemed easier). It makes me happy that she, her colleagues and the showrunner are so supportive of their same-sex pairing even though the het shippers keep harassing them to make their ship happen. I just hope they keep their word.

Judging from the latest news, it looks like you guys are in for some good stuff in season 3.

Anyone got a suggestion for a really good book (or long, completed fanfiction, AUs are very much okay)? Pretty much okay with anything that's fun to read but if you're really cool then you'll suggest something with either an anti hero or some kind of villain-hero romance. Happy end also kinda required.

Andi Marquette's Far Seek Chronicles is a sci-fi series featuring a slow burn romance between a criminal and a military officer. Other than that, I have trouble thinking of anything good with antiheroes in published lesbian fiction, and even then, the thief is, like, a nice thief. Afterparty by Daryl Gregory seems like it could fit from what I've heard, but I haven't read it (it's on my list, apparently it's really good). Most of the time, even vampires and assassins are 100% heroic.

If you don't mind reading fanfic for shows you haven't seen, This Glee story, about a killer for hire and a university professor, is one of those AU fics that completely change the characters so it doesn't matter if you don't know them. It's set in Japan for some reason, but doesn't give off a weeaboo vibe (only my opinion of course, but I have no patience for that sort of stuff). And it's really well-researched.

Oh, I hadn't thought of it that way. I assumed he referred to his orientation, but that would make sense for both a male or female Boss.

Saints Row IV is one of my favorite games when it comes to just running around and blowing stuff up, it's just SO MUCH FUN. I loved that they kept the exact same dialogue for a male or female Boss (for example, if you flirt with Pierce as a woman he still says he doesn't normally swing that way) and that you had to romance every companion to get their achievement. I wonder how homophobic achievement hunters reacted to that one.

And while it was probably deliberate in this case, in some games where you play as a custom character you can just tell that the developers inserted random flirty dialogue from female NPCs with a male player character in mind, and didn't bother removing it for female PCs.
In the intro for one of the factions in The Secret World, a woman goes down on your character regardless of their gender. It's a bit unexpected in a mainstream game, but why not. I know I didn't complain.

^Thanks. So how many explosions are there, Micheal Bay and all?

I don't know, sorry. I've only seen a trailer and a few fanvids, and I don't remember any explosions, but predictably there was a lot of blood. I wonder how much power Michael Bay has because it seems distinctly smarter than most of his usual productions.

It makes bigots so angry and I love it.

Yeah, that's always pretty funny.

Reading comments by het shippers angry that things didn't go their way for once can be really funny (if I'm not familiar with the source material; otherwise the hate does kind of sting). Last year when Legend of Korra ended and the het shippers were raising hell, I was cackling in front of my computer at all the displays of stupidity. Shame this kind of situation doesn't happen often.

Anyone know anything about Black Sails?

As far as I know none of the three (?) queer women have died yet, but their relationships are complicated and the initial couple might not have a happy ending. Also one of them gets raped at some point. Not really surprising in a show about pirates, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I heard that they revealed that their main (male) character is bisexual after a couple seasons, similar to what happened on The 100 or How to Get Away with Murder. That's a trend I can get behind. It makes bigots so angry and I love it.

I'm pretty much finished with Rebecca's Cove by LJ Maas now and it was okay but far from the best. It felt a little... clunkily written from time to time and the characters did some things that I felt came out of nothing just to make the relationship work. And not to mention how the first 200 pages were pretty much a standard romance and then the last pages were all like "Well, you just started dating and all but should totally get married now because WE'RE ALL WITCHES! MAGIC, MOTHERFUCKER!" Would have been better if they dropped some more hints along the way.
Also, now I want to read a story about the 2 women from the legend.

The supernatural part kind of weirded me out too. I was expecting something paranormal to happen, but the book was shaping up to be a traditional romance so I thought I was imagining things... then it went full-on magical and it kind of clashed with the tone of the story up until that point.

Found it- Rebecca's Cove by LJ Maas. I don't remember much about the rest of the book however. I think that almost-sex scene may have been the best thing about it...

Also, if you like Layce Gardner's works, have you tried reading some stuff by her partner, Saxon Bennett? They seem to have a similar sense of humor. The trilogy that starts with Family Affair is pretty funny, but focuses more on family life than romance.

And not like the sex scene is gonna be that different from any other lesbian romance novel. Kissing, ear lobes, neck, boobs, vagina, orgasm. Repeat 6 times in varying positions. Repeat 6 times the next morning.

Basically. Even when the buildup is good and there's some important emotional stuff before the sex scene, once they start fucking in earnest it's like every other sex scene you've ever read. There's rarely an attempt to fit the characters' personalities and quirks into the scene.

I can't remember the title at the moment, but there was one book where the first time the characters tried to have sex, they had to stop because they kept accidentally hitting each other and bumping into stuff. It was hilariously awkward. I dunno, I find that kind of scene way more memorable and earnest than the usual generic fingerbanging.

Something in the Wine has a short sequel, Seduction for Beginners. Seems like the author heard the complaints about the main story lacking sex scenes.