May the 4th Be With You Fanworks Exchange

All creators are revealed!

Thank you all for participating, be that by making gifts, posting treats, pinch hitting, commenting, or all of the above! We ended up with a grand total of 117 works this year! Great job, everyone! For those of you who haven't had a chance yet to check out your gift, there's no time like the present. You can view your own Gifts tab at http://archiveofourown.org/users/yourusernamegoeshere/gifts in case the AO3 announcement missed your inbox.

May the Fourth be with you!

The May the Fourth Be With You 2025 Archive is now open! Read great fic, look at all the pretty art, and say thanks to your creators. If you have any issues, please reply to this post or email us at maythe4thmod@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do to help.

If you turned in your assignment before the deadline, you should be receiving a gift notification at the email you signed up with. You should also check your Gifts tab (https://archiveofourown.org/users/YOURUSERNAMEGOESHERE/gifts) on your AO3 dashboard, as the emails are often late and Gmail will sometimes miss or collapse items when you have multiple gifts. Remember to redate your works to May 4th! (To do this, click the "Edit" button at the top of your work, click the "Set a Different Publication Date" toggle, and change the date to May 4, 2025.)

The archive will remain open for treats until creator reveals, so if you've got an eye for an extra treat or two, you may continue to post and we'll continue to track.

Works will remain anonymous until 00:01 UTC on May 11th. Please do not crosspost your work or reveal yourself to your recipient before that time. Thanks!

EDIT: Unfortunately like all other websites, AO3 attracts trolls and spammers. The mods of this exchange have zero ability to prevent these or delete them from your works. If you receive a harassing comment (for example, guest accounts posting abuse about AI or spamming requests for you to pay for fan art), you should report them to AO3 Support. You can access the report form here: https://archiveofourown.org/abuse_reports/new.

We have our first set of post-deadline pinch hits. All claimed! Thank you, pinch hitters! These are due on or before 23:59 UTC on May 2nd. Please reply to this post if you want to claim one, and include the pinch hit number and your AO3 username. (Comments are screened.)

( Pinch Hit #5 CLAIMED! )

( Pinch Hit #6 CLAIMED! )

( Pinch Hit #7 CLAIMED! )

( Pinch Hit #8 CLAIMED )

( Pinch Hit #9 CLAIMED! )

Countdown to deadline

Reminder: works that are still in Draft form do not count as a fulfilled assignment. If you have not submitted a full length completed assignment that is a) minimum length/size, b) complete (no 1/? or 4/? chapter counts OR referring to your story as "Part One" in the title or author notes), and c) is NOT in Draft form by the deadline you will be defaulted and you will not be guaranteed a gift. Stories that are bullet point lists or outlines will not be considered complete works. Stories that have [insert planet name here] or other placeholder text will not be considered complete works. Stories or art that have a listed DNW, or do not contain at least one of your recipient's requested tags, will not be considered complete works so do check your assignment email carefully!

If you have already turned in your assignment, thank you! If you would like to leave a request for treats, check out the Grab Bag post, or if you want to browse treats, try out the Automagic App List of Requests or the Treat Tracker Spreadsheet.

Contact the mods by replying to posts or by email: maythe4thmod@gmail.com

We have a new shiny pinch hit up for grabs. Taken! Thank you, pinch hitter! Please reply to this post if you want to claim it, and include your AO3 username. (Comments are screened.) Pinch hit is due 27 April 2025.

( Pinch Hit #4 CLAIMED! )

Lots of great gifts have already started rolling in! You can browse the Treat Tracker Spreadsheet for the latest updates plus easy-click links to the app for browsing requests.

We still have one initial pinch hit up for grabs. Please reply to this post if you want to claim it. (Comments are screened.) The pinch hit is due 27 April 2025.

Request 1 by Ollie_Otterpops

Cal Kestis/Merrin
Fanfiction

I'd like just some post survival fluff!


Request 2 by Ollie_Otterpops

Trilla Suduri/Cal Kestis
Fanfiction

I'd like a fluff story about Cal and Trilla comforting each other post nightmare!


Request 3 by Ollie_Otterpops

Cal Kestis/Merrin/Trilla Suduri
Fanfiction

Anything Fluff, I love these three!

Sometimes you miss nominations and don't think about asking for your Babu Frik/Jacen Solo tag before the deadline. Sometimes you can't fit all the requests you want into your sign-up. Sometimes you see something you wanted after sign-ups have closed. Sometimes you want to leave an anonymous request for a pairing you have no intention of admitting you ship. Sometimes you want a crossover request that would be outside the bounds of the regular exchange nominations but you know in your heart that Vader/Dobby is the greatest ship of all time and space. Sometimes you pinch hit and would like to throw your hat in the ring to ask for the story of Grogu and Anakin's excellent adventures.

This post is for those extra requests, one request per comment, no limit on the number of comments you leave. You can provide as much or as little detail as you want; if you would like your treat to be gifted to you, you should include your AO3 name. Fills to the grab bag can be posted to the regular collection, but should be labeled in the tags or the notes that the fill is for a grab bag request. In cases where the requester has chosen to remain anonymous, these can be gifted to the mod account, or they can be posted without a recipient.

You do not have to have signed up for the exchange to leave a grab bag request.

We will be running matching shortly. If you are unmatchable (as in you have no one to create for who has requested what you are offering) we will contact you via the email associated with your AO3 account to ask you to add offers.

Sign Up Form


Signups for May the 4th Be With You 2025 are a go! You may make a minimum of three and a maximum of ten requests, with up to five relationship tags per request. (Relationship tags are defined as "Character: Name (SW)," "Character A & Character B," or "Character A/Character B" and so on per the nominated tags.) You may offer a minimum of three and a maximum of ten offers, with up to five relationships per offer. This means a total of fifty possible requests and fifty possible offers.

Please note that AO3 is being especially robust right now. Tags are not autocompleting as usual which has also delayed some of the tag nomination approvals. You may experience trouble signing up but that is not something we can fix from our end.

( Read more )
Signups will go until 11:59 PM UTC (8 PM Eastern Standard Time) Saturday, March 1, 2025. We will put up a timer closer to the end. You may edit your sign-up until then.

The full FAQ can be found on the May the 4th 2025 profile on AO3. You can comment here with any questions about signups or matching, or you can send an email to maythe4thmod@gmail.com.

Sign Up Form

Welcome to the 2025 edition of May the Fourth Be With You! We are in our tenth year of something May Mod thought would be a one-off event. (Oops.)

The schedule may be found in this year's schedule sticky and also on the AO3 Community Profile. Nominations are now open for this year's round. Sign ups open February 22nd.

Please read this post before you nominate. Incorrectly submitted nominations will take more time to approve and may be rejected. Do NOT disambiguate your nominations. Many AO3-based exchanges will ask you to add an extra tag at the end. This is NOT the case for this exchange.

May the 4th 2025 Tag Set

We will be accepting nominations from now until 23:59 UTC (7PM EDT) on February 28th. (Note this is one day before signups close to allow us to close the tag set.) As always, any character in any permutation of Star Wars is in, with Wookieepedia and Starwars.com as final arbiters. Do not nominate groups as groups (Ex: "Kanjiklub" "Stormtroopers" "Banthas" "Force Ghosts") and do nominate them as individual characters in & or / relationships. Do not nominate objects such as lightsabers, trees, helmets, or holocrons; "Bor Gullet" is a character, "tentacles" is not.

Use the Fandom dropdown field to select "Star Wars - All Media Types" for each individual nomination to help expedite nomination approvals. If you nominate twenty things, you must select "Star Wars - All Media Types" individually as the fandom for all twenty. If you do not add this step, your nominations will not be associated with the correct fandom and they may take longer to be approved.

You may nominate up to twenty relationships. This is the maximum number of nominations allowed by the Archive's software. The Relationships field may also be used to nominate individual characters. To nominate a platonic relationship, use the "&" symbol. To nominate a romantic relationship, use the "/" symbol. (Ex: The nomination "Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker" is very different from the nomination "Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker") You should NOT automatically select the suggested canonical tag that drops down.

To nominate individual characters, you must use the format "Character: Name (SW)" or the submission form may not accept your nomination. For relationships, please remove the (SW) or (Star Wars) from the suggested field. (Ex: "Finn/Rey" NOT "Finn/Rey (Star Wars)")

You may mix and match relationship types in a single nomination. (Ex: "Ben Solo | Kylo Ren/Rey & Grogu")

Use the following formats for all nominations:

Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Han Solo
Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
Leia Organa/Han Solo & Luke Skywalker
Character: Luke Skywalker (SW)

Conversely, "Luke Skywalker/Han Solo (Star Wars)" will not be accepted and may delay approval of your nominations.

We are not providing differentiation between character versions in Legends, the canon EU, the films, the TV series, the comics, the cereal boxes, or Robot Chicken. Go into as much detail as you want in your signup or letter.
( Guidelines, please read )
Any questions or problems getting the Archive to accept your nomination can be emailed to us at maythe4thmod@gmail.com or left as a reply to this post.

The fine print: AO3 sees "Finn/Rey" "Finn(SW)/Rey" "Finn/Rey(SW)" and "Finn/Rey (Star Wars)" as separate relationships, and our spreadsheet sees them as different characters. If you request the "Finn/Rey" tag and Random Participant Ben Solo offers the "Finn/Rey (Star Wars)" tag, he won't be matched to your request. Many Star Wars characters have multiple piped canonical names, some of which have all the pipes included in their canonical ship tags and some which have random (Star Wars) stuck in the middle or at the end. Stripping the extra information out as you nominate, and adding "Star Wars - All Media Types" as the fandom for each nominated tag, makes the rest of the process easier on the back end to expedite approvals and eliminate duplicates. We can and will be cleaning up errant nominations to adhere to the formatting; this may lead to a delay in accepting your nominations.


A special note for those of you into customizing your own AO3 experience: you can add a piece of code to your site skin to list all approved nominations on separate lines:

body,
#main
.tagset .fandom.listbox .tags.index.group li {
display: block;
margin-top: 0.4em;
line-height: 1;
}

.tagset .fandom.listbox .tags.index.group li::after {
content: none;
}

(Post last edited on 17 February 2025 for clarification.)