Rounding Up Suggestions

[animangod]

In only alphabetical order (and taking out only the two explicitly sexual ones), here is the Team Suggestion Roundup:

Adventure vs Domestic / Adventure vs Slice of Life?
Alien Vs Predator
Alternate Canon vs. Alternate Universe?
Business vs Casual
Cannon vs Au?
Comedy Vs Tragedy?
Convention vs. Rebellion
Dragon vs Phoenix / Fai vs Kurogane
Eros vs Agape
Fantasy vs Sci-fi
Fluff vs. Angst!
Heaven vs Hell / Angels vs Demons
HGTV (Home & Garden TV) vs Food Network
Historical vs Folklore
Horror vs comedy
Love at first sight vs Slow burn
Nature vs machine
Nature vs Nurture?
New vs Old? Or Maybe Beginnings vs Endings
Pirate vs ninja
Police vs. Mafia
Sky vs Sea
Vices vs Virtues / Good vs. Bad
War vs. Peace
West vs east
Winter Vs. Summer; could also be Heat vs. Chill



And suggestions without a corresponding partner:

Action
Adventure
Comedy
Crossover
Drama
Horror
Hurt/comfort
Legend
Mystery
Romance
Sci-fi
Songfic
Steampunk
Thriller
Western



Mods, please pick out your favorite two from this list in the comment section below. Since I did the roundup, I'll wait till last to place my vote. Otherwise, I'll feel I prejudiced the list.

Comments

[peaceful_fury]

Is this open to everyone or just Mods?

[animangod]

I personally don't see any harm/reason why others who wish to participate in the Olympfics can't voice their preference for an overall Team vs Team.

However, in the end, the mods are gonna pit the Team vs Teams against each other until there's only one Team vs Team left standing this year before those two Teams get prepared to duke it out with fics.

[notpotable]

As a reader, I'd love to see Teams picked that weren't already used in previous years. (Though that's obviously getting tougher to do...)

[mikkeneko]

I'll be honest: I think a lot of these wouldn't work. Team themes need to basically encompass broad genres in order to allow enough flexibility not only for prompts, but within prompts. At the same time, they need to be universal enough to be immediately recognizable.

I think the 'Dragon vs Phoenix' / Fai pov vs Kurogane pov is workable along those lines, and the 'Vices and Virtues' theme also, although that would set the prompts in stone. Aside from these two, I strongly urge we go with a tested set of themes. I vote for Canon Vs. AU.

[badluck_koi]

How do you not see the endless potential of HGTV vs Food Network?!!!!

Kay, if I were to be completely serious. I agree. We are pretty good if we stick to the classic general themes like AU vs. Canon. We have enough is tory and variety as not to be completely stale. My personal favorite was Sci Fi vs Fantasy.

[blue_phoenix_tears]

I think Dragon vs. Phoenix is quite good (but not with just Fai POV and Kurogane POV though, we need to keep the theme broad) Vices vs. Virtues is just as good I believe, the prompts may be set in stone but they have quite a lot of room for interpretation if we set them as vice vs corresponding virtue, and the writers could pick what they want to interpret in whatever way they want.

[peaceful_fury]

Eros vs Agape could be fun but I would see that more turning into smut vs fluff type thing
otherwise fantasy vs sci-fi would fun to re-visit.

[peaceful_fury]

Slightly different to sci-fi vs fantasy would be technology vs magic. Very similar but also different enough

[blue_phoenix_tears]

Not at all. Despite how it has been misrepresented lately eros is NOT about sex. That's a possible afterthought on on eros.

Eros is the most romantic word about love, it means being hopelessly, irrevocably in love, it's all these sappy, heartwarming, heartwrenching and heartbreaking things we associate with being in love. Feeling eros is being deeply in love, it's having your world be forever changed because this person showed up in your life. It's losing your mind over this person. :)

So you can write fluffy, angsty, sappy, even smutty stories,(passionate revering, gentle, worshipping lovemaking) hou can write falling in Love at first sight, a slow burn, hurt/comfort, anything really. It's a great prompt, perfect for Kurofai!^^

Agape means unconditional love and maybe it's just me but angst comes to mind first, especially about Kurofai, agape is the most selfless form of love, where you love this person so much you are willing to do anything to help them, put yourself and your needs aside so that you can be there for them when they need you, so that you can help them with everything that's in your power to do, and even go above and beyond to find a way to help them or save them if they are in need or in danger with disregard for yourself, and you will sacrifice everything even yourself if it means you can save them. Its the most selfless form of love and the most rare:) So most everything could go for these two (though I think angst and hurt/comfort suits them the most but that's just what I tend to write ahout them^^)

And when you feel both eros and agape combined for that person? That's the most rare feeling in the world. That's what all the greatest love stories are about, two people who are deeply, hopelessly in love, who care for and treasure this person, their soulmate more than anything in the world and will walk in fire and battle the entire universe if it means that their lover will be happy and safe^^

So, as you can see there are a TON of things you can write about Kurofai, who are the very definition of eros & agape^^

[notpotable]

(very good post yes thank you)

[flowerspeaks]

I think Dragon Vs Phoenix could work but also Sky vs Sea or Nature vs Machine. I do think the Vices vs Virtue could work but then the prompts are already picked out, which is why I guess I am hesitant towards it. With the other choices I feel we can throw in random prompts that would still work with the theme.

[animangod]

As much as a couple call to me personally (e.g. Historical vs Folklore) I'm not sure all our lovely writers want to be that research heavy.

And while many of these suggestions sound like great ideas for a prompt/plot twist to a day's theme rather than a team (picking on you pirates vs ninjas because I can just picture a day's theme being, for example, to the air and to the sea, so we have traditional pirate story and then we have the ATLA spin-off where the air tribe is ninjas and the fire folks are pirates)

So my favorite two are the Dragon vs Phoenix team and Fluff vs Angst (Mokona in an Easter Bunny outfit spreading the seeds of plot bunnies and on the other side a field of corpses <3 )

With a small bias towards Vices and Virtues just because I happened to have been writing a story with those same features and having an Olympfics competition about it might spurn me to write more...
Because this is an actual pillow talk conversation in that story:
“You should leave me,” Fai mentioned.

“I’m not going to leave you,” Kurogane stated.

“My sweet love; don’t fall further into vices because of me,” Fai encouraged.

“Who knows; you may find yourself falling up into virtues… For someone who enjoys being lazy, you sure do keep things tidy after all,” Kurogane retorted.

“That’s because Kuro is so messy; where did you ever learn to be this way?” Fai asked, poking Kurogane in the cheek.

“Never had to clean before, and besides the bed’s gonna be messed up as soon as we go back there so there’s no sense making it look nice,” Kurogane dismissed and lightly swatted the finger away.

“What terrible manners, Kuro...what angel could have taught you them? You surely didn’t learn them here,” Fai lightly scolded.

“Tch.”

[tsubasafan]

The mods should narrow down the list for us and then all of us vote? I can't remember how it was done before.

[mindlessadri]

Nature Vs. Machine and Sky vs. Sea are my personal choices.
BUT, if we do default to an previously used theme I am all in on AU vs. Canon

[arisprite]

I'm very excited you guys! Welcome to our new mods! It looks like we've got some fun theme ideas, I can't wait to see what is chosen :)

(Though my personal favs are sky vs sea, fantasy 's sci fi, or canon vs au)

<3 so happy I get to participate in this again!

[evig_sang]

this might just be because i'm a sucker for POV experiments, but i love the idea of "Fai vs. Kurogane". they're broad enough to get a lot of different prompts out of, but subjects we all (presumably) know a lot about

[mikkeneko]

I was hoping that a vote would narrow the field a bit, but it looks like opinions are still pretty scattered all over the place; so far we have:

3 vote for canon vs au
3 vote for vices vs virtues
2 vote for fantasty vs scifi
3 vote for dragon vs phoenix
3 vote for sky vs sea
2 vote for nature vs machine
2 vote for fluff vs angst

So there's really no clear consensus. I think we need to call in a heavyweight to be our tiebreaker. @cloverfield, as this is your Olympics, perhaps you can provide your veto?

Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[cloverfield]

Hmm. Lemme put on my thinking cap.

Okay, I've read over the prompts and I've read everyone's comments, and this is what I think. Seeing as we're in a tied situation for votes, as per Mikke's comment here, I'd like to give you two options that I - as a previous event mod, an experienced participant, and a third-party from the moderation team - think would work best to break the stalemate.

Option One: Team Dragon (Kurogane-POV) vs. Team Phoenix (Fai-POV).
This is a new theme we haven't had before, but one that has been previously suggested in years past; a POV-based Olympics has been requested before, and is deceptively simple but at the same time gives us a lot of room to move.

Like a genre-based theme, it opens up the possibilities of us having a wide variety of prompts, but allows for two very distinct takes on them, whatever they may be: Kurogane and Fai are very different, characterisation-wise, and that means that we're going to get two different works from the same prompt no matter what the prompt is. Also, by using a theme that allows the prompts to bear the brunt of the creative inspiration, it means our writers are going to have a lot of options, but at the same time, a very simple theme that provides a firm guide for each team.

I also suggest that, if we take this option, we stick with the Team Dragon vs. Team Phoenix names for the beauty of the symbolism, and also because it sounds cool, which is definitely a plus in my book!

Option Two: Canon vs. AU.
Now, this option is a tried and tested theme; we know it works, as it has worked well before, but it's been about five years since it was last used so it's not too fresh - it's been long enough now that we don't have to worry about repetition.

Canon vs. AU is a very simple theme (simple themes seem to work best - just because it's simple doesn't mean it's not good, and often a simple theme actually allows for more creativity) and it means that the two teams are going to have very distinct takes on the prompts, no matter what they are; we don't have to worry about the teams ending up with similar writing, because even if they share a common prompt, their approaches are going to be radically different.

Like option one, it allows for the prompts themselves to do the brunt of the creative work: the theme is a guide, but the prompts should be the inspiration, and this also means we can have a little fun working in vastly different ideas into the prompt list. We don't have to restrict ourselves to prompts we think "fit" with the theme: we can choose whatever we like, as long as it is something that we think would feasibly work for both teams. (It also means we can totally have Ninjas and Pirates as a prompt if we want, which is awesome.)

Now. Here comes the tricky part: we need to pick which option we want to use.

My personal preference is for the POV-based theme, because it's not been done before and I honestly think it would work really, really well. That said, I do love Canon vs. AU (I've written for it myself in the past) and I know it definitely works.

Mods, if you could please reply with which option of the two I have suggested that you personally prefer, we can hopefully get the ball rolling for this year's Olympics :D

p.s. please note I'm not trying to take over the organisation of the events - I'm just hoping to lend my opinion and thoughts on the thematic choices, as someone who's been on both sides of the fence as a participant and as a moderator. I have every faith that, once we can get the details ironed out, you wonderful people are going to do a great job as our moderator team!

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[mikkeneko]

Ah, the old 5-2-1 method :D Well, I will put in a vote for Canon Vs AU, but I'll be perfectly happy if the vote goes the other way, since I like both options!

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[superyuui]

Seconded o/

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[badluck_koi]

Actually, I just remembered that sci fi vs. fantasy was just a couple years ago. I must have blocked my poor attempt at participation that year. >.<

For option 1, I might just be a little confused on the specifics. Would narrative POV matter? Does it have to be 1st person for Kurogane or Fai? Or would the story's narrative just have to center around them. This is an interesting idea. I'm just wondering how limiting it is. If a story is 3rd person omniscient, would it be judged as not following the Kurogane/Fai guidelines close enough?

My vote can be swayed easily. I am definitely attracted to new shiny ideas. And whenever I'm given the option, I like to choose a new and exciting path at full throttle. It's worth a shot!

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[cloverfield]

Okay, to clarify: it's narrative POV. So like, for Team Kuro-POV, it doesn't matter if it's 1st, 2nd or 3rd POV, as long as it centres around Kurogane. In this example, 3rd person restricted is probably your best bet in terms of 3rd person, but you could do omniscient as long as it was focused on Kurogane. Does that make sense?

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[badluck_koi]

Yes, thank you. Glad the POV isn't limited.

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[blue_phoenix_tears]

I vote for team Dragon vs team Phoenix because it sounds awesome and it hasn't been done before, but I'm 100% on board with canon vs. au if more people prefer it^^

Re: Two options for a theme selection tie-breaker - please read!

[animangod]

My preferred vote then is for Dragon vs Phoenix but if Canon vs AU wins that's fine too.

[cloverfield]

Alright then... tallying it up, it looks like we've got:

2 votes for Canon vs. AU

3 votes for Kuro-POV vs. Fai POV

...and it looks like Kuro-POV vs. Fai POV, aka Team Dragon vs. Team Phoenix is the winner.

Is everyone happy with that? Is everyone clear on what the theme is? Are we all excited? I know I am - I look forward to seeing what amazing fic Team Dragon vs. Team Phoenix brings us!

[animangod]

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it
I'm about to lose control and I think I like it

[mikkeneko]

Excellent! Sounds like a plan. I will work up a post tomorrow announcing the team themeing and opening writer sign-ups?

[animangod]

Alright. Shall I start working on looking for themed Prompts for after we get our valiant writers set on their teams? I can make a Google Doc...

[flowerspeaks]

How do we come up with themes, do we just make a list and choose from them?

[animangod]

Because it's Dragon vs Phoenix teams, some can easily come from their symbolism (e.g. Dragon To the Sea, Phoenix, to the Air) as Dragon is associated with Earth and Water among other things while the Phoenix is Air and Fire among other things. Another option could be something like The Perfect Marriage for both teams so because they are side centric stories, they won't be the same and no two people have the exact same idea of what Perfect Marriage is. So there is no way the stories will be exactly alike.

As for picking them out, it will eventually depend on how many writers we get to how many themed prompts we need, so better to have too many and wheedle out some after we have a final writer count.

[flowerspeaks]

Ahhh I was busy and couldn't check until today, but I would have voted for theme Kuro vs Fai/ dragon v phoenix!! So excited!

[blue_phoenix_tears]

Awesome!^^