Entries tagged with fandom: merlin

Entry tags:

Cap Ironman Remix Madness and Merlin RPF Prompt Fest

I'm helping out at the

cap_ironman remix event this year.

Remix Madness is a prompt event in which you submit your Steve/Tony (any universe) works to be remixed by other participants. Only participants who offer their fanworks to be remixed can participate. But if you sign up, there is no minimum word count and you don't have to remix a work if you don't end up finding a prompt you like.

Sign-ups for the Cap-Ironman Remix Madness are open until February 20!

Here are the Remix Madness Guidelines for more info. You can Sign up for 2022 Remix Madness here!

an informal prompt fest
hosted on AO3 by the

merlinrpf community

Entry tags:

Loose Lips Sink Ships, SamBucky Events, and Holiday Exchanges

🎃So excited to have earned this rank flash *points to icon* at the

looselipssinkships Band of Brothers/Generation Kill prompt meme. But super sad that the meme closed down :( It was one of my favorite things about HBO war fandom. The biweekly newsletter always gave me new fic to check out and new prompts to consider writing. I rushed my last two fics a little, but that Brad/Nate fic about hooking up and then ditching each other was a WIP for a long time. And I loved that Johnny/Bull prompt about tattoos - I always mean to write more of them but then I get worried about getting Bull's accent right.

🎃I signed up for TWO different Sam/Bucky bingos! One is exclusively halloween themed which is a whole lot of fun. I love all of the new! exciting! Sam/Bucky love, but I also feel unreasonably possessive about this ship in general... it's hard to explain but I don't exactly want to be in another mega-ship. Stony and Merthur sort of burned me out on that mega-ship life.

( Cards under here )

🎃Really looking forward to Holiday exchanges this year, but I don't want to overbook like I did last time. I will definitely do Yuletide, and the Band of Brothers exchange if there is one. I will probably choose between Merlin Holidays and Stony Holiday Exchange. Not sure if there will be a Teen Wolf/Thiam related exchange like last year.

🎃

kinkalot 2021 came to an end. What a whirlwind of writing. My team, the Knights, tied for first place! And I tied for third during the individual competition of week 2, which means I accomplished my goal of placing at least one round. And with a non-merthur fic! I wrote 4 bingo fills (Gwen/Morgana and Merlin/Gwaine) and one poem, so I'd call that a success.

Entry tags:

fandom: merlin

Merlin Bingo

I feel behind on writing even though I currently have controlled myself and I've only got two outstanding assignments. I couldn't resist a fandom-specific bingo card, though. Someday I will graduate from bingo cards to Big Bangs, but maybe not quite yet.

My card for Merlin Bingo 2021 ( under the cut. )

Entry tags:

Snowflake Challenge 9: Brag About Yourself

I still don't really understand what hits mean on AO3? I'm assuming it means the amount of times my fic was clicked on, but for that reason I avoid looking at the hit count - it's always way higher than kudos. Oof, I guess people had to click away from it.

ANYWAY, this post is supposed to be about good things! So, I'm quite proud of the fic I've written with the most kudos on AO3. My top two stories are Merlin/Arthur stories, but even though they're in a huge fandom I'm proud of the way they turned out. Waiting is Such Misery has 792 kudos and Whatever You Want to Be has 673 kudos. They were written in 2019 and 2020, and both deal with a canon divergence scenario. Third place is a Stony fic I wrote for Marvel Trumps Hate. Interestingly for me, the top three are all rated T. Waiting is Such Misery also has the highest number of hits, but the rest of the list sorted by hits is significantly different from my highest kudos list. My first, second, and third highest kudos fics are also the three highest bookmarked fics, although in a slightly different order.

Entry tags:

Fall Equinox Favs + Fic in a Box PH

Fall Equinox vids are live! These are my favorites:

⭐Baby Outlaw | Charlize Theron Multifandom Appreciation | I realized I should be more of a Theron fan, because this vid is badass!

⭐Whatta Man | George of the Jungle (live action) Appreciation Vid | This is the perfect song for this film! This vid is totally heartwarming and fun.

⭐Vampire Heart | SPN, Benny/Dean | Oof, right in the feels! This reminded me of how tragic Benny and Dean are - maybe that's why I shipped them in the first place.

I got to write two pinch hits for

ficinabox - I think I'll be brave enough to give it a go next year:

• The Dragon Egg | Merlin, Gwaine/Merlin | Teen

This is a canon divergence AU of 4.04, featuring a magic reveal and some fluff with Aithusa.

•Risk and Needs Assessment | 13 Reasons Why, Bryce Walker | Mature (with warnings)

The request for a psychological evaluation for this fandom gave me the opportunity to put some of my work research to use. I'm not a psych, but I did go through the juvenile sex offender assessment. I love when fandom presents opportunities to incorporate RL things to existing characters.

Also, sign-ups for

fandomtrees are open. I think this is the newest replacement to fandom_stocking?

Entry tags:

Sunshine Challenge: Red

Red reminds me of Pendragon red! And the Canadian Snowbirds. My assignment for camelot remix this year was to write fic for amph's art, and I was so excited because look at this art! I did a deep dive into the Snowbirds, females in the Canadian military, and Canadian slang; I have so much respect for the Snowbirds now.

Canda Remix.jpeg

(Original Post)

Looking to the Sky (the Oh Canada remix) (8896 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Military, Alternate Universe - Canada, Pilots, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, News Media, POV Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), First Meetings, Getting to Know Each Other, Awesome Morgana (Merlin), Mention of Uther Pendragon, Getting Together, Pining, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), Women in the Military, Angst with a Happy Ending
Summary:

It's Arthur's last year as a Snowbirds pilot, and he wants to ensure the squadron has the best year they've ever had. He's confident that his half-sister Morgana will be their new rising star, but he's completely unprepared to meet his match in the form of pilot Merlin Emrys.

Entry tags:

Kink Bingo 2020

Entry tags:

King Charming and Fandom Introspection

Swagger published a new article about Bradley James. It notes that the interview was done via Zoom, but obviously a team was used to get these gorgeous photographs. The set and the styling are just top tier!!! so I'm honestly not going to overthink this. ETA the shoot was in LA in March, before the COVID lockdown.

He also appeared as a guest on the fan podcast Destiny and Chicken. I always have such mixed reactions to fan interviews. On the one hand, I'm so thrilled that an actor is humble enough to interact with "normal" people. On the other hand, it feels like I'm a bad fan somehow? Like I didn't put myself out there enough? These two podcasters have been fans for a long time, but the show started in August of 2019. How did they get so famous so quickly? Or at least famous enough to get to talk with Bradley James for two hours?

But then I feel guilty about thinking that, because I obviously want to be supportive of fan products and people who create that type of content - because fandom is absolutely an escape for me. I'm still of the mind that fandom should stay secret, to an extent? Not that I feel guilty about being a fan, but fandom is something too personal to be shared with someone who doesn't get it. And I'm weirded out by people who get famous because of the fan products they make - because I feel like those people are creating very bland, very "mainstream" works that garner a lot of attention without delving into the reasons I like fandom in the first place: i.e. the way we can freely talk about sexuality and gender issues in fanworks.

In other news, I finished season three of Schitt's Creek ♥ I like every single one of these characters, which is so rare for a TV show. Also, the found/actual family feels get to me. This is my feel-good show of COVID 20. So thankful it's on Netflix.

Entry tags:

Bradley James Trivia Night

I'm having an emotional day, and it's definitely because I just finished episode 2.08 of Looking. My OTP Kevin and Patrick got back together! And they are currently happy and having great sex! I am SHOOK. There are still two more episodes left, so I'm on pins and needles waiting for something bad to happen...

Thanks to

singedsun for introducing me to Angel of the Get Through. I read the words and I loved the poem, but listening to it spoken put it on a whole new level. The words feel so appropriate for how I feel about the pandemic.

I got to participate in Bradley James' trivia night, a benefit for Redemption Paws. All the knights showed up on zoom with the exception of Lancelot. Kat McNamara also made a surprise appearance to announce the total dollar amount raised and at first I was like OMG I know her!! But I also thought it was a little weird. How did this charity get so many celebrity endorsements?

At any rate, Bradley seemed so genuine and fun while he was talking to different fans through zoom. Adetomiwa Edun kept changing his zoom background to make it Merlin themed, and Rupert Young, Bradley, and Eoin Macken changed outfits several times without saying anything about it, which was pretty funny. Eoin seemed drunk? and they all made fun of him for not speaking clearly enough: apparently he was told to speak more clearly a lot on set. He definitely ran with that when he was reading trivia questions. Tom Hopper's wife made an appearance to say hi, and he was teasing her for being intoxicated on her own zoom call with friends. She kissed him all off kilter and it was really cute. Tom Hopper also made a joke about Bradley getting out of the closet, and they all laughed and said only Brits would get it. So someone care to explain?

As for the trivia, there were some obvious questions and some tough ones. I got 19 out of 26 correct. The winner only missed one! He was a dude with a Dutch name who got to appear on Zoom, but he seemed very shy. I learned that Bradley's go to song to get amped up before fight scenes was Run Boy Run, Adetomiwa Edun loved working with his horse on set (the actors called him a horse whisperer), Rupert had a weird incident where he fell off a horse but they didn't want to talk about it, there was a guy that had to get stitches before they switched to rubber swords, and Eoin Macken thinks Kat McNamara is hot.

Bradley didn't bring up Colin at all, but there were a few Merlin focused questions. At the beginning, Bradley congratulated Rupert for his nomination, and Rupert was like "And Colin too!" and Bradley was like "yeah...". Of course I'm over here like, oooo drama.

Conclusion: glad to see that these blokes are all still friends and have fond memories of shooting Merlin. It was all really fun and light hearted, which was a great set up to my day.

Entry tags:

fandom: merlin

Morgana in Season Three Episode Five

I'm currently rewatching Merlin Season 3 and I was inspired by the

marchmetamatterschallenge to write more meta. The episode before this one is when Gwaine is introduced (so episodes 4 and 5 are both memorable for me), but the more I watch the series the more I sympathize with Morgana.

This episode marks a dramatic turning point for Morgana because of what she learns while she's on her death bed. I find it odd that she can hear Uther talking to her, but not Merlin and Gaius? I'm just going to go ahead and assume Merlin cast some kind of quiet spell to explain that one.

Anyway, it was Morgana's intent since season two to destroy Uther's Camelot and take the throne. And her beef with Uther had always been personal, considering he raised her to hate magic and to hate who she turned out to be. But after she learns that Uther is her father, it intensifies her hatred of him personally. Her earlier plans with Morgause involved Uther dying by other means/other people, but now Morgana is actually ready to carry out the assassination herself - against Morgause's advice. Uther's worry over her safety cannot erase the years he spent lying to her and ensuring that only Arthur had a claim to the throne. He may have a flash of conscious as he sees her lying on her death bed, but that only shows he'd feel personally guilty if she died (as her sole caregiver). That sentiment is made abundantly clear by the end of the episode.

( the rest behind the cut )

Entry tags:

Trick or Treat Exchange & Shipoween Reccs

🎃With These Hands I will Kill | Merlin | Gwen/Morgana
Morgana using dark magic! My gift is so vivid and visceral and I loved how the battle of wills between Morgana and Merlin is portrayed.

🎃Looking for Friends | Original Fiction | Pumpkin Farmer/Man purchasing a suspicious amount of pumpkins
A great meet-cute that gives me happy fall vibes!

🎃Wolves of Ice | MCU | Loki & Thor
Thor sets out to solve a mystery and is drawn into Loki's surreal imagination. The details are so haunting. I really like the gentle build-up of this fic.

🎃Electric Dreams | MCU | Natasha & Clint
This fic manages to be so creepy very quickly! Also, hooray for a robot AU! I love how that creepiness is balanced out with Clint's good humor and loyalty.

🎃my heartbeat is a slow one | Original Fiction | Monster School classmate/Monster school classmate
I love the diverse array of monster characters! And the enemies to lovers trope is fantastic. This fic really embodies the monster mash song imo.

🎃The Woman in Black | Agent Carter | Implied Jack/Daniel/Peggy
A really great whump fic featuring Jack dealing with pain, and Daniel and Peggy being great protectors. I loved the mystery weaved in.

Entry tags:

fandom: merlin

More Merlin Thoughts

I've been making some very interesting observations about Merlin's sexuality.

List of people Merlin was instantly attracted to:
-Nimueh dressed as a servant
-Lady Morgana
-Lancelot
-The troll as Lady Catrina
-Gwaine
-Freya

List of people Arthur was instantly attracted to (not counting enchantments):
-Merlin

So far in Season Two, I'm getting the impression that Arthur is feeling very anxious about being named Crown Prince. He's hyper-focused on his people and his role as a leader, and he feels confused and distracted about his attraction to Gwen. He also seems content in the fact that Merlin is so loyal to him and he's pretty confident at this point that he knows Merlin well. In 2x06 when Uther sends all the Knights after Merlin, Arthur unconditionally tells him to escape. He doesn't even question what Merlin may or may not have done. Then later they have their weird almost hug, and to me that signals how Arthur is still holding fast to the notion that he has to keep his emotions locked down in order to be a strong leader. The theme of the two of them pulling apart with firm boundaries/separate lives continues because now Arthur has bought into it too.

Also Leon is a gift (and has an astute political mind) and I can't believe I didn't see that before.

Entry tags:

fandom: merlin

1x10 to 2x02 Merlin Meta

Season 1, Episode 10 Ealdor is probably my favorite episode of the first season. The episode puts a lot of character relationships in motion, and I could really see those developments affect the core four. This rewatch was mostly to help me with the Merlin_Canon fest, but I am becoming a bigger Gwen fan as a consequence.

( My somewhat lengthy thoughts under here )

Entry tags:

fandom: merlin

Yay I'm so excited!

Sign-ups open: 26 July 2019
Challenge starts: 3 August 2019

Head over to kinkalot for more details!

Entry tags:

Season of Kink 2019

Entry tags:

Smutswap Reccs

Smutswap was really fun this year. There were a lot of good fics! Below are my favorites. All of them are NSFW/Explicit.

My gift:
★The Tremble of Your Body on the Day You Let Me In, Merlin, Merlin/Arthur
Summary: Merlin's puzzled when Arthur moves their sparring session to the privacy of the Darkling Woods. As the afternoon wears on, however, he starts to get an inkling that there's more than just lessons in swordplay on the agenda. So, of course that's just when they're quite rudely interrupted. But Merlin's not going to let bandits or nefarious magic or even a lack of lubrication get in the way of finishing what they started.

This transitions from Arthur being a sly fox to an almost-funny magic curse and I love all of the tropes in it! 13k of smut, how did I get so lucky :D

★As Above, So Below, Original Fiction, OMC/OMC
Summary: Many years ago, the leaders of Kyr and Kault signed a treaty to keep the peace in the peninsulae; their successors, however, did not honour it.

Istvan, the Giant of Kault, invades Kyr with all his forces and takes the king as his prize. Ettian, the newly deposed king, slowly begins to understand precisely why the treaty was broken in the first place.

This one has fascinating world building, a conqueror set on his conquest, and two characters you end up loving for being bad in their own ways.

★a resting place for weary men, Original Fiction, OMC/OMC
Summary: London, 1889. The newly widowed Duke of Carlisle, burdened with the task of managing the steel factories his late husband owned, entertains an unexpected nighttime visitor.

Really well done political kink & power imbalance with two great characters and some super sexy banter and desk sex. And the 1880s outfits and decor are so detailed!

And the fic I wrote:

★When You Treat Me Like That, Teen Wolf, Chris Argent/Lydia Martin
Summary: It’s been at least seven years since she’s seen him, but his hair barely has any grays. He’s wearing brown leather boots, dark wash denim, a deep green henley, and a leather jacket, and he looks damn good.

Between working on her PhD, forming an underground network of banshees and hellhounds, and keeping track of Scott’s pack when he’s busy with vet school or a mission, Lydia’s been busy.

But that doesn’t mean she can’t make up for lost time now.

Entry tags:

fandom: merlin

Merlin Season 4

YES. This season was everything I've wanted for Merlin and Arthur and the Knights. The way Arthur ruled over the castle was so different from this father. He never sat at the thrown while talking to his advisors or asking questions, and the atmosphere at the castle was much brighter and happier. Arthur trusted Merlin with serious moral questions, which showed how much he'd come to respect Merlin. And I got not one, but TWO coronation scenes :D Arthur's crown is so over the top that it totally fits. And Gwen's crown is absolutely gorgeous. I'm glad they made purple her color. I also thought Morgana's plans made a lot more sense, even though Agravaine was the worst.

I like how they play with Merlin's Emrys persona, even though I'm still not clear on why he's called that by the Druids. Colin Morgan is quite hilarious as an old wizard.

The end of 4.03 did me in. Merlin shouting Long Live the King gave me chills. Also, any time Merlin speaks to Dragons, I'm like why is that sexy?? The end of 4.04 was great. It was like the Dragonlord and Kilgarrah were staring their own little Dragon family.

"Bodes well.. for you and Arthur, and the land you will build together." Ummmm, HUGE merthur vibes ♥

Tristan and Isolde in the two-part finale! I love that Tristan had to be convinced - it was like they were doing a throwback to when Merlin first met Arthur, and highlighting how there may still be many negative stereotypes out there about him, but once people watch him and his leadership ability, they realize he is a different King than his father. And then that ending totally broke my heart.

Sidenote, I miss the format of big two-part finales with full resolutions at the end that tie in the whole season. With all of the Netflix shows I watch, it feels like I'm just watching a 6 or 8 hour movie, with a big climax at the last minute instead of a steady build up to a resolution.

Entry tags:

Merlin Season 3

Season three was not my favorite, at first. Merlin just seemed so sad all the time. And Arthur seemed to act with an edge of cruelty that wasn't there before. I literally cringed when he threw things at Merlin. Gwen showed a lot of growth this season, and Gwaine was a delight, but Merlin and Arthur were not in sync at all. And then, the two-part finale took my breath away. All that build-up was worth it for Merlin inspiring Arthur, and Arthur gathering his resolve, and for the Knights to be absolutely kick-ass. The round table scene had me crying.

At any rate, I've fallen down several fanfic rabbit holes. Since this fandom has been around since 2008, a lot of content is still on LiveJournal, and it's almost like I've stepped into a time machine. Some journals I came across have been deleted, but some journals still have their massive multi-chapter fics up with their own layouts and formatting. I am reminded of the early days of SPN, Smallville, or Jonas Brothers Fandom, where everything was posted on individual journals and linked on communities. Tagging is kind of a nightmare, and it would be impossible to find this stuff now if people hadn't posted recc lists. I am reminded of how much I love AO3, and how it's easy to forget how disorganized fic reading was before AO3 allowed for hosting and tagging and bookmarking.

★Withadashofmilk's Recc List

★Papered's Recc List

★August - NSFW Merthur Circa s1, where Arthur goes back to Ealdor with Merlin for Hunith's birthday. Such a tender, witty, and detail-rich fic with all of the things I love about that Ealdor episode.