Awesome Artist Alert | Merwild

Sometimes, the best part of being in a fandom is seeking out—or happening upon—the great works of related content other people in said fandom create. I'm a huge fan of fanfiction, fan videos, and fan art (when done well, mind you) and enjoy being able to celebrate the things I'm excited about with more than just the original thing. When you love something, you want it all, you know?

I can't recall when I first ran across the art of Merwild, a.k.a. Coralie Jubénot, but I was enamored from the very start. She creates absolutely stunning illustrations inspired by some of my favorite pop culture properties, including Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses and Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows, which are three of my favorite YA series.

I mean:

Six of Crows

Sarah J. Maas

And here's a Thane, from Mass Effect, just because.

Wow, right?

Check out more of her art—WARNING: some of it is NSFW—on her DeviantArt or her Twitter.

Nerd News | Mass Effect: Andromeda trailer

Happy N7 Day, y'all! And a happy day it is, since the Bioware gods have gifted us this new trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda:

I've written about this before, but Mass Effect means a lot to me. The original trilogy is the first video game series I've ever played all the way through. The story sucked me in from beginning to end—yes, even the damned Mako missions—and I'll always have a special place in my nerd heart for Commander Shepard and crew. So saying that I'm a little excited for a new visit to the ME universe is a bit of an understatement.

After Colt sent me the link to the trailer, I responded thusly (in green):

Also, please notice his excitement, too. We make an excellent pair.

Learn more about the game, and the Andromeda Initiative, here.

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Also of note:

• Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of all the Disney princess movies, and the recently released photos of the live action version has Younger Mandy feeling quite giddy.
• This new Wonder Woman trailer gives me hope.
• I hadn't heard of the new Ryan Gosling/Emma Stone movie La La Land until recently, but after seeing this trailer, I am so on board.
• Here's a trailer for John Wick 2, which also looks awesome. I loved the first movie—minus the incident that set John off in the first place, which still makes me choked up just thinking about it—and had hoped that we'd get to visit the the crazy, assassin-filled world again.

Nerd News | Mass Effect Andromeda play video

As a huge fan of the original Mass Effect trilogy—it's the first video game series I played all the way through, and I loved it so much I immortalized it in tattoo form—I am super excited about this:

I've known for a while that this was coming, but until yesterday¹ hadn't really seen what the game was going to look like. It doesn't really give much context as to what the larger story will be, of course, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it regardless.

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Also of interest:

• Older news, but: Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) will play Lara Croft in the upcoming video game adaptation.
• FX has ordered a new X-Men series, Legion. The series will focus on David Haller, Professor X's son.
• John Boyega has been cast as the lead—and Stacker Pentecost's (Idris Elba) son—in Pacific Rim 2.

¹Thanks, Colt!