#arthur crit

[wumiings]

You know, it sure is interesting how Arthur never throws anything harder than a pillow or a generic insult at Merlin when Gwen is in the room. As far as I can remember, she’s never seen her best friend being actually struck or threatened by her romantic interest — almost as if Arthur/the writers are aware that abuse isn’t cute and Gwen would be measurably less interested in a man who treated her best friend like that 🤔

#bbc merlin #gwen pendragon #merwen #arthur crit

[arguablysomaya]

please, elaborate on merlin bbc propaganda and stuff

okay basically:

bbc merlin is a show taking place during a genocide

camelot for 20 years has been genociding and ethnically cleansing everyone who can use magic, including magical creatures. They were all either exiled, fled, live in refugee camps or in hiding, and a great many were executed and slaughtered. Generally speaking, life is inhospitable in camelot for magic users.

And the show makes no attempt to hide this fact, either. We see multiple times over the death and destruction this genocide has wraught, and how radicalized most of the remaining magic population is because of it. For the past few decades, camelot has essentially been doing 2 things: persecuting magic users, and defending itself from vengeful/liberationist magic users

the king (uther) believes that magic users are (stop me if you've heard this one) corruptive, shifty, and evil. he's always paranoid that a magic user will take their revenge on him. and in a way, he's right: there are in fact a lot of magic users eager to kill him, but given the whole Great Purge and literally drowning children thing, you'd thing the show would be a bit more sympathetic to their plight. Nope.

in come merlin and gaius, our two main magic users. merlin is the protagonist, and gaius his benevolent mentor, so the audience is primed to be on their side. only one problem: from bascially the beginning of the series, these two are nothing more than agents for the very state carrying out the genocide. they devote their time to wholeheartedly defending camelot, especially from magic users, something they are rightfully called traitors for. they actively intervene to prolong the lives (and therefore regimes) of both arthur and uther, despite neither king showing any real interest in freeing their people. gauis represents the "diversity" of a genocidaire state; as someone uther only keeps around so long as he shuns any involvement with magic except what helps uther carry put his genocide, gaius hides and rejects every marginalized part of himself that threatens his access to power. even as a member of the oppressed class, he aids and abets the oppressors every step of the way. merlin, as an extremely powerful agic user in hiding, follows suit. the thing is, like so many other minority collaborators, this doesn't actually buy them safety, since they are Other, they still have to walk around on eggshells knowing one wrong move could get their heads chopped off. but this action of defending a regime that would kill you without a second's hesitation is presented as noble and heroic in the show, when in reality it's stupid at best and evil at worst. merlin and gaius might save a token kid from being brutally murdered, but they will never let anyone take action, let alone take action themselves, to proactively stop the brutality.

merlin is literally the most powerful sorcerer alive. if he wanted to, he could create a more fair, more just, better world in a blink. instead, he spends his time pretending to be a hapless servent, messing around with his war criminal friends, and killing any freedom fighter who dares to even look at the prince or king. why? well, he believes in the institutions (and a prophecy that never comes true... lol). ultimately, merlin and gauis hold the same prejudices and stereotypes about magic users that uther does: that they're untrustworthy, dangerous, and that it would be better for everyone if all but themselves (the good ones) just died or left.

and all the people they're defending the empire against... are other oppressed magic users. the VAST majority of antagonists are either magicians or magic sympathizers. even in the context of a genocide, the show takes the firm stance that the architects of genocide (the literal kings who order it to happen) are just flawed human beings who still don't deserve to be killed, while when the people they seek to wipe out fight back, our protagonists will happily mow them down. the show has no problem with killing people,and even killing innocents is only worthy of a fingerwag. it's fighting for liberation that the show makes the real problem. even when uther finally dies the show plays it like something sad, as if anyone is supposed to feel anything but joy that this old tyrant genocidaire finally kicked the bucket after having been saved a million times over from getting his comeuppance. Every magic user that has genuinely good reasons to want to tear down the kingdom are all painted with the "crazy evil person" brush.

another thing is that this show likes to get ~quirky~ with their agents of the state. along with arthur and merlin come a colorful cast of characters like the knights that you can laugh and cry with. the only problem is that despite how lovable these people are, they're still actively carrying out and enforcing a genocide. it's a bit like those tiktoks of IDF soldiers dancing or proposing. i can't feel for these people because despite seeming like relatable people, they're still engaging in something horrific. you can't escape the fact that these people can only exist in the relatively easy capacity that they do because the empire they work for is brutally repressing and eliminating entire cultures.

but the thing is, this strategy actually works. the fandom is often so taken in by fun character interactions and shipping moments that you can often witness people literally look past, or even praise their acts of genocide. these characters are so charming with each other that you can look past how awfully they treat oppressed people. yay! the prevalence of merthur brings up too many idf pinkwashing parallels it's actually insufferable. i had hoped we left oppressor/oppressed person ships behind in the 2010s but guess it's still around

by the time he takes over as king, the "great, kind" arthur is essentially an IDF soldier who only realized that Killing Is Bad Actually when he's got crosshairs on a random kid. now Reformed (TM), he takes the brave stance that he should only kill the angry bad magic users who try to exact their revenge for the whole genocide thing on him, and the peaceful (more often than not, harmless) magic users should accept the merciful counterplan of ethnically cleansing themselves from the region, or continuing to live in refugee camps, but this time with less threat of massacre. in this show, the only acceptable answer to being genocided is to either lay down and die, hide forever, or displace yourself hoping the empire doesn't come and kill you anyway. fighting back, getting revenge, defending oneself, trying to change things: these are all reserved only for the genocidal state.

in other words, bbc merlin is the exact type of genocide obfuscation that most modern genocides engage in. the suffering of oppressed peoples, even innocents, is a footnote. when they suffer, sometimes it's presented as sad, and other times it's presented as deserved. meanwhile, the suffering of the oppressors, no matter how justifyable, is always landmark and deserves our full attention and sympathies, because the thing about the oppressors is that it's always their story.

(the last thing is a common fantasy problem, which is that when you create stories where different classes have actual, material, biological distinctions, it can end up justifying the oppression. in the real world, there is a very limited range of innate human abilities, and people from across the world are largely evenly matched. but in merlin, a sorcerer actually does pose an increased threat to those around them. in terms of allegory... kinda not the best thing to so without any real refutation to the idea that magic corrupts)

so yeah. that's why i don't fuck with this show even though it's enjoyable to watch.

#shut up somaya #bbc merlin #adventures of merlin #bbc arthur #bbc gaius #anti arthur #anti merlin #anti merthur #merlin crit #merlin critical #arthur crit #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #uther pendragon

[tiodolma]

Gaius and Merlin were the most powerful class traitors of magic who were complicit in the actions of their genocidal bigot bosses just because they believe in one big dumb prophecy.

Gaius taught Merlin to distrust other magic users, to not help them, to hide himself and just devote himself to the crown.

Tbf to merlin he was just 16-18 when all these just started. He was too young. He wasn’t ready. He was sent to the most dangerous place for people like him. He was impressionable. His heart was too good. He was too moldable.

He took “I will not fall into anger and rage like Morgana” too far to the point where he couldn’t even find his voice against Arthur who was still relentlessly chasing down and killing his people anymore. He put all his eggs into the biggest bigot in their universe because the magic world told him that the guy was the hottest sht. Merlin was so broken down, so brainwashed, so indoctrinated that he still continued to forgive even after years of getting dismissed, insulted, derided and abused and only shown rare bouts of kindness by his supposed best friend in the universe.

Arthur didn’t deserve any of that devotion. As king he still persecuted and treated magic folk like shit. He blamed them for their own oppression, never accepted his father’s actions as wrong, showed no remorse in arresting and killing their women and children (shut up he only made promises to a frkn ghost), refused to learn more about their ways despite having the biggest knowledge base in albion, continued to imprisoned them for existing, calling them the most disgusting slurs, using their magic techniques recklessly for himself and still called magic “evil” when they don’t work.....and then played victim when he got called out by the oppressed magic folk.

It’s such a shame that Merlin hoped and believed in his potential after everything. Merlin could never truly relate to magic folk after all. The only people left alive who truly loved him made sure of that. His mother raised him to fear and hide himself. His mentor taught him how to be the judge and be the arbiter of life and death not only over the kingdom but also the magic folk. He was overworked and pressured to the point that he had no free time for himself. He was supposed to be the strongest warlock but he only had enough time to receive education from the dude who hasnt practiced sorcery for 20 years when he should have beenseeking out other magic users and learning from them. His life was constantly dictated by the big magic institutions who never give him the tools to actually start their liberation, only empty promises.

Merlin’s sense of self died gradually throughout the span of the whole series every time he lost a loved one and every time Gaius/Kilgharrah/Hunith asked him to forget himself and serve the crown. The kid who wanted to be seen and recognized for his talent, kindness and potential turned into a biggest self-sacrificing royalist who truly believed that his life was valued lesser than a king.

It’s a monarchist story. It’s a divine right of kings story. It’s a fascist story. It’s an anti-radicalism story, it’s a defender-of-the-status-quo story.

It is NOT a story of acceptance, of positive change, of equality, of democracy.

I thought we learned from Diogenes for fuck’s sake.

#adventures of merlin #bbc merlin #bbc arthur #bbc gaius #anti arthur #bbc hunith #anti merthur #merlin crit #merlin critical #arthur crit #doomed hero merlin #there i said it #hot takes #thots #aom is democracy bait

[ramblingmerlin]

arthur is such an arse in 4x11 my boy merlin needs an apology

#arthur crit #bbc merlin #merlin #merlin bbc #love arthur but god do I hate him #richie speaking

[peptodismaltruck]

Do you feel trapped, Jim? On Tarsus IV?

-

thinking about how Jim is constantly used a poster boy for the very things he fights against in @bamfspock 's Know All Your Enemies (and also how you should totally all read it)

#aos kirk #aos star trek #star trek #spirk #jim kirk #captain kirk #star trek fic #arthur draws #without colour on this one as per usual but just picture a lil bit of red etc. #tarsus iv #im never not thinking about the Backstory #but also fr go read this fic its so beautiful and even has vaild crits of starfleet which i LOVE to see 🫶🫶🫡

[punkxcalibur]

the logic of bbc merlin is kind of just 

“arthur good. someone is against arthur? they bad.”

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin critical #merlin commentary #arthur pendragon #anti arthur #merlin crit

[that-house]

getting back into practice on Hades for when Hades 2 comes out <3

:3 <- excited

#just beat 18 heat with the sword. aspect of arthur crit/backstab build to hit dad for 4.5k #i love crit i love crit

[talesfromthebandgeekmafia]

There is something so incredibly satisfying and poetic in the juxtaposition between The Bad Kids’ first fight against the corn cuties and their performance in The Last Stand. Where they were laid low by bad luck and tables, Gorgug not only lives but solos a fucking purple worm and dominates the battlefield with crit after crit. Kristen lives and with incredible wisdom and faith in Doubt makes a move that turns the tables on their entire conflict with The Ratgrinders. (and ends with another cleric of Helio meeting their god. Hopefully, history repeats itself there too) There is redemption at every turn. Against all odds they sail through to the end and are met once again by Arthur Aguefort, as he affirms that the faith he placed in them at the end of their first battle all those years ago was always going to be justified.

They’ve worked so hard and come so far. The Bad Kids are officially the greatest adventuring party to ever come out of Aguefort Adventuring Academy. THE Maximum Legends.

#fhjy #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #dimension 20 #d20 #d20 fhjy #fhjy spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers #I’m going crazy about this episode truly there’s been nothing like it since Battle of The Brands #spilling the Tea

[mccoyquialisms]

Incredible things from the london D20 live show in no particular order (straight from memory so may not be totally accurate or have much context at all):

First of all the line up was incredible. Kugrash, Pete, Sundry Sydney, Skip, Fabian and Adaine. What a terrible combination of personalities, it was so funny

Btw everyone looked so good. They looked really good, those fits <3. Murph striped button up/polo? shirt and Lou grandpa sweater you will always be famous

When Siobhan rolled Adaine everyone was so excited. Lou (who had already rolled for Fabian) hugged her, picked her up and spun her around on stage ❤️

Everyone was so excited to have a buddy ❤️

The setting was rolled as a crown of candy, after Brennan literally said “wow we happened to have a few people from the same place, wouldn’t it be hilarious if we got a crown of candy or neverafter or something?”

Everyone arrives and are doing introductions and the first thing Fabian says is “[tearfully] Adaine is that a giant rat?” Cue the whole atrium losing it.

Sydney then proceeds to minor illusion Kugrash as “sexy.” After some deliberation and when prompted by Brennan, Murph decided this means he looks exactly the same except for giant veneers

Beardsley: Can I distract the guard?

Brennan [flabbergasted, as the rest of the party was doing INSANE shit around this]: Sure, the DC is 500.

Beardsley: If I crit will you let it happen

Brennan [indulgently]: sure

Beardsley: [rolls a nat 20]

Brennan: [despair], cast: [running around in circles on stage and jumping], fans: [losing it]

And that’s how they accidentally start a revolt in Candia within minutes of arrival by Pete the Chosen Outsider with the peppermint tooth and prophesied king of candia. But it’s cool because in the next few minutes Kugrash teaches them about democracy.

So many little references to past campaigns and character one liners. Way too many for me to list but the cast was clearly enjoying dropping them

Sundry Sydney hitting King Calroy with 3 grenades ON SIGHT

A Hasted Kugrash doing an opposed athletics against Calroy and Brennan rolls a Nat 1. The dice wanted that motherfucker DEAD.

Kugrash to Calroy: “I eat from the trash, and I’ve never seen a cake as shitty as you!’ And then proceeds to 300-style kick him off the castle wall (as acted out by human man Murph)

Sooo much PVP though really most of that was between Pete and Fabian as they fought over the crown of candia

Sundry Sydney successfully seduced and awakens personhood in Adaine’s identify spell. His name is ANUS now. (Another use…)

Skip is quangled out and replaced by Lapin (played by Zac) and tries to keep the party on track. He fails many times. He takes up smoking from the stress. Adaine does as well.

At some point Pete’s wild magic turns his hands into rock candy, which he uses to deal 2d20 damage to Fabian during a fight

Emily as Sydney, whenever crazy shit happens: this is canon! [raises cannon arm]

All of them (except Pete) have some bad baby milk and do kublacaine. Cue a small detour for more pvp between Pete and Fabian

Arthur Aguefort is released from captivity in a castle full of/made from eggs. He and Lapin may or may not know each other biblically. They met on an app for old magical men, don’t worry about it.

Bill Seacaster is the pirate prince of the dairy lands and has the quangle. They get into his castle with Operation Fancy Perfume Part 2 except Emily rolled a nat 1 for her assist, so first poisonous perfume takes out most of the party and everyone inside the castle. I think Emily may have been crying she was laughing so hard.

They sort of defeat Bill by giving him pleasure putty (which he USES behind a curtain in front of EVERYONE) and then has to go take a nap, so they sneak into the rest of the castle to find the quangle. I am never going to forgive Brennan for making it canon that he goes “yar har har YO HO HO” when he gets off. I WILL NEVER UNHEAR THIS.

Pete Conlan somehow gains the power of flight from Bambi LeRoux (Sydney brought her) singing the Reading Rainbow theme song. He does a flying ribbon dance out the window, where she stops singing and he falls and takes max fall damage. He’s still up, so Fabian jumps out the window with Feather Fall and shoots him with a laser gun until he actually dies lmao. He gets injured too somehow but I forgot how. They both get healed and everyone continues on like nothing happened.

Emily took her dice that rolled a Nat 1, kissed it, and threw it into audience with a cheeky expression. I’m in love with her I fear

The time quangle is an entire pool of lemon yogurt. At the bottom of the pool is a completely naked Gilear Faeth

Kugrash eats all the yogurt despite knowing it will kill him in order to end the quangle. His farewell speech has as a backdrop Gilear’s giant hog (played by Brennan’s arm, as he got out of his chair to stand behind Murph the ENTIRE time he was talking). Kugrash then ascends to the big bodega in the sky.

Sydney also seduces Annabelle Cheddar (EDIT: fuck it was like 12 AM forgive me) Primsy Coldbottle, who is explicitly 29 in this version of time. Both her and Anus join Sydney in returning to AnarchEra. I cannot emphasize enough how horny this live show was

Everyone gets sent back to their respective universes, except Arthur. He’s going to hang out in Candia for a bit to be Lapin’s “roommate.”

Fabian’s last line is that he has to call his banker because he has a new nemesis

Lapin: “That was the worst group of people I have ever met.”

God that was so funny, I really hope these live shows are getting recorded and will be released somewhere later. I need everyone to experience the epic highs and lows of this d20 session.

#dimension 20 live #dimension 20 #dropout #dimension 20 spoilers #d20 live #my musings

[milkyetoile]

the amount of crits Zac got for the Last Stand is unbelievable. it makes sense for Gorgug though, after figuring out that perfect combination of barbarian and artificer and pretty much being so tired of everything at this point lmao this boi is no longer taking any shit

...and then Arthur Aguefort tells them they were stupid for working hard when they just passed with the Last Stand with A+ grade. everyday, we get closer to the day the Bad Kids just straight up just murder Aguefort 😂

#fhjy spoilers #fantasy high junior year spoilers #fhjy ep 15 #but then aguefort will approve #bc trying to kill him is in the spirit of his goal for the school #or some other shit #and sadly that will take away the satisfaction of trying #rip bad kids #d20 spoilers #dimension 20 #fantasy high

[wumiings]

seeing fanon!arthur feels like watching the wrong person get arrested due to a laughably bad police sketch. officer the man you are looking for is adolin kholin.

#bbc merlin #arthur crit #sort of

[queer-ragnelle]

favorite queer retellings/interpretations of arthurian legend

hello anon!

this simple question has a complicated answer if only bc some authors seem to have created queer stories unintentionally! & i like them! i'll include quotes from my suggestions below a cut as there will be some mild spoilers but that may help you decide what stories suit your tastes as they vary a lot. you can also just go ahead & assume kay & agravaine are always queer (bc they are, not accepting crit) which makes narrowing down the list difficult for me.

TL;DR: Camelot 3000 Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland, Exiled From Camelot/Trial of Sir Kay/Hunt for Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry, Spear Nicola Griffith, Guinevere/Morgan/Morgawse by Lavinia Collins, The Queen's Knight by Marvin Borowsky, Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger, The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf.

Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland: reincarnation story with transman sir tristan coming to terms with his gender & sexuality so he can accept isolde's love for him & reciprocate. it's really beautifully written imo plus the art is so 80s & my exact cup of tea. it's dated in some of its handling of the subject matter but i think it was done thoughtfully for the time.

Exiled From Camelot, The Trial of Sir Kay, The Hunt for The Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry: the way baldry writes is overall my favorite ever but her kay is unparalleled he is everything to me. unequivocally disinterested in women (without misogyny, very important note). codependent on gawain if not fully in love with him the crown style. lots of hurt/comfort, kissing, holding & worrying over each other. they exchange a ring for god's sake. in exiled it says ragnelle was the only woman for gawain (based) but after she passed he's all kay's basically so this checks all my boxes. love wins.

Spear by Nicola Griffith: butch perceval pulling bitches chapter after chapter it's glorious. ends up settling down with nimue. bonus throuple arthur/guin/lance with a very sweet moment with lance talking to percy about them both. no homophobia (external nor internal) to be found its very enjoyable. beautiful prose. audiobook was wonderfully narrated by the author, which is how i read it, thus i've written out a quote here:

"Secrets may prove a burden. So...Lance, my mother is indeed Merlin's sister but I am not Merlin's sister's son." Lance frowned. "I don't understand..." "I am not his sister's son." His eyes stretched wide. He reassessed the line of her jaw, the size of her hands. She nodded. Then he reassessed how she and Nimue sat with one another. This time, Nimue nodded.

Guinevere, Morgan, & Morgawse by Lavinia Collins: these aren't my favorite (did gawain really dirty, deal breaker) but the fact is they have multiple explicitly queer characters including: kay, lancelot, morgawse, agravaine, isolde, dinadan, etc. plus there were several poly scenes including one with guin/lance/kay, another morgawse/lot/visiting king/queen swinging. wild all around everyone is sleeping with everyone no character is unaccounted for. be warned these books are extremely graphic in every conceivable way. queer solidarity in the face of homophobia is a theme throughout. kay punches phobic urien & agravaine "saw nothing." shh its fine urien sucks. this hilarious convo between agravaine & morgawse kills me.

The Queen's Knight by Marvin Borowsky: an interesting retelling in which mordred is a grown up warlord right from the outset. he also happens to be queer. mind this came out in the 50s & contains pederasty, but mordred does later have a loving tragic relationship with fellow knight calogrenant (yay crackships<3), which others were aware of & helped conceal (kay, for example). agravaine is also queer, he only joins arthur's forces bc lancelot asks him to & continues to fixate on him for the whole book. typical.

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger: so this book is super homophobic. but it's so homophobic that it circles back around to being pretty queer bc berger saw queerness everywhere, apparently. but the green knight is purposefully queer, so the kissing game's gender-role-reversal/bisexuality....escalates. david lowery wishes. both gawain & arthur are pretty homoromantic with lancelot to the point the narrative calls attention to it & then no-homos their closeness. agravaine appears to be queer too. he's the only unmarried brother (claims to be in love with guinevere but i don't buy it), he wants lancelot so bad he gets all tongue tied & stupid around him...wrecked.

The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf: what's this? agravaine again? so in this version, lancelot is named bedwyr (inspired by mary stewart's quadrilogy) but he's lance in all but name. anyway agravaine constantly beefs with guinevere for his attention...& loses. plus it's implied agravaine slept with lamorak before his mother which is hysterical. (my fave crackship is thriving<3) agravaine topples the empire for a much older straight man. it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. let's give it up for problematic jealous slutty queers.

these are just the retellings i have read & liked. there are more on my retellings list but those were suggestions from others i haven't gotten to yet with the exception of dishonorable mention to the winter knight by jes battis. it has gay gawain & his bestie transgirl bi kay in that but the writing style was unbearable to me unfortunately i'm so sorry i just didn't like it. anyway thanks for the ask!

#arthurian legend #arthuriana #arthurian legends #queer #lgbtq #book recommendations #book reccs #sir tristan #queen isolde #sir lancelot #sir kay #sir gawain #sir bertilak #the green knight #sir agravaine #sir mordred #sir bedwyr #sir calogrenant #sir dinadan #queen guinevere #sir perceval #sir percival #nimue #lady of the lake #king arthur #queen morgause #ask #anonymous

[tiodolma]

S1

Will - got killed when he took an arrow in arthur’s place. Will takes Merlin’s secret to the grave when he told arthur that he was the sorcerer instead of outting Merlin. Arthur gets mad at Merlin for consorting with a sorcerer and that magic is dangerous in front of Will’s funeral pyre. Hunith persuades Merlin that Arthur needs him more.

Hunith - temporarily die when Cup of Life chooses her as payment for Merlins bargain to save Arthur’s life. Is saved by Gaius.

Gaius - temporarily die when Gaius bargains his life for Hunith and Merlin. Merlin saves his life by killing Nimueh.

S2

Freya - got fatally stabbed by Arthur when she was in Bastet form. Arthur and knights had been trying to capture and destroy the bastet. Gaius actually told Uther about the bastet/freya and thus the alarm was sounded. Merlin grieves alone. Gaius tells him it is for the best.

Balinor - died when he tried to protect Merlin from bandits. Merlin and Arthur had concvinced him to come out from hiding to save at least Gaius. Merlin keeps himself from weeping openly so as not to arouse Arthur’s suspicions. Arthur tells him “no man is worth your tears.”

S4

Lancelot - Steps into the veil between living and death in Merlin’s place. Merlin had been trying to sacrifice himself for Arthur who had been trying to sacrifice himself for Camelot. Merlin grieves.

S5

Alator - Morgana kills him for hiding who Emrys is. Merlim doesn’t know

Finna - kills herself with Merlin’s sword so that Morgana and Arthur’s forces wont be able to get anything from her (who emrys is). Merlin is rescued by Kilgharrah.

Daegal - a druid that died when he took a stray arrow that was meant to assasinate Arthur while Arthur was signing another anti-magic treaty. Merlin allowed to grieve this time

....bruh

2 of Merlin’s friends died when they took arrows meant for Arthur (Will and Daegal)

1 almost died when fate choose them instead of merlin as bargain to save Arthur’s life (Hunith)

1 literally died by Arthur’s hand (Freya)

3 willingly walked to their deaths to stop Merlin from sacrifiing/revealing himself (Gaius, Lancelot, Finna)

2 died while actively protecting Merlin (Balinor, Alator)

And Merlin was barely allowed to openly grieve for many of these. He had to hide showing his emotions coz it was dangerous to reveal his connections. He had been told right after their deaths that Arthur and Camelot were more important and that magic was inherently evil

Merlin is not alright.

#bbc merlin #merlin crit #arthur crit #doomed hero merlin #i dont think i missed a name

[saingirl101]

NeverAfter Ep 20 As Brian David Gilbert Gifs (FINALE SPOILERS!!!!)

i'm not ready for the series to be over Mr. Mulligan. God i cant believe how far i fell into this series so fast. I missed out on the previous D20 adventures because I just got hook only last November or Dec. I truly love every one of the PCs and many of these NPCs and i am terrified for their fates.

Should note physically I am unwell i somehow pinched a nerve so I am in great pain but trying to manage so apologies if I am late to posting this or miss something.

In any case without further ado enjoy my dramatic liveblog and as always:

Gerard getting Scheherazade up with a good berry:

Timothy starting concentration and hearing the arthurs in the ink and repelling their intent to turn them into paper:

TIMOTHY USING CUTTING WORDS TO HELP BABA YAGA KEEP CINDERELLA RESTRAINED:

Ylfa risking jumping up onto Baba Yaga, making it, and TAKING SHEHERZADE'S BOOK BACK, AND THROWS IT BACK TO SHEHERAZADE:

Rosamund summoning a bird to be PIBs mount:

Rosamund criting on the blue fairy and going into a new special form:

Pinocchio using strands of fate to give all the bookholders total cover:

THE INK BECOMING MASTER HAND FROM SUPER SMASH BROS:

PIB using the bird to send a firework at the fairies and pib attacking the green fairy:

brennan losing his godamn mind with that move by Zac:

Tom Thumb giving Mira a goodberry:

Pinocchio managing to convince the fairy with the turquoise hair to join destiny's children and then fucking diving into the ocean of pages:

GERARD BLEPPING OUT HIS TONGUE TO PUT THE FAIRY GODMOTHER IN ROSAMUND'S BOOK CONTINUING HIS REVENGE TOUR + the evil fairy i guess:

THE STEPMOTHER COMING IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR AND BEING A PAPER MONSTROSITY:

BEAKY GOING DOWN ON A NAT 1 CON SAVE AND RIPPING THE HAND A NEW ONE:

Lou and Emily desperately trying to convince the orange top hat fairy and having to cobble together the stupidest pc creep to get her to leave the fight and she moonwalks straight into the sea of pages AND NOW YLFA HAS AN ORANGE HAT:

ROSAMUND CRITTING ON THE STEPMOTHER AND HAVING HER BURN A LEGENDARY RESISTANCE TO NOT IMMEDIATELY DIE:

THE STEPMOTHER BANISHING THE BABA YAGA:

PINOCCHIO GIVING THE STEPMOTHER MEGA DISAVANTAGE AFTER CALLING HER NAME "MINERVA":

ZAC CALLING HIS CRIT AGAINST THE HAND AND INSTA KILLING IT AS IT ROLLS A 7, FAILLING TO SAVE:

GERARD AND MIRA DYING and so many of the characters going down:

GERARD AND MIRA DYING and so many of the characters going down:

ZAC ROLLING AN 18 TO ALLOW THE SPELL TO TAKE EFFECT:

PIB STEALING BACK THE THINGS THE BABA YAGA TOOK:

EVERYONE'S FINAL MOMENTS OF THE LINES BETWEEN MAKING ME BAWL WITH THE BITTERSWEET SACRIFICES (ESPECIALLY GERELODY):

Everyone getting to write their stories down in the village of happily and find their own peace in their stories:

Brennan lee Mulligan as he sends us off to the next D20 campaign as the journeys of our cast continues:

SEE YOU IN THE STARS LOVELY NEVERAFTER FANS. AND LIVE HAPPILY YOURSELVES.

#neverafter #neverafter spoilers #neverafter episode 20 #neverafter finale #dimension 20 neverafter #destinys children #ylfa snorgelsson #prince gerard of greenleigh #mother timothy goose #neverafter pinocchio #neverafter puss in boots #rosamund du prix #sheherazade #princess elody #mira the little mermaid #neverafter baba yaga #neverafter fairies #neverafter stepmother #the gander #neverafter cinderella #fairy with turquoise hair #neverafter the big bad wolf #neverafter minerva

[laundrybiscuits]

Do you think Eddie was flagging in the show?

If this approaches discourse, I'll understand if you choose not to respond.

This is kind of a multi-layered question, but I think it’s worth talking about in the context of broader approaches to fandom.

I haven’t seen these terms used for a while, but fans used to talk about “Watsonian” and “Doylist” explanations as a good shorthand for “in-universe logic/rationale” and “out-of-universe motivations.” For example, the Watsonian (as in what John Watson might think) explanation for a villain monologue might be that the character wanted to prolong his moment of victory because he wasn’t ready to let the feud go. The Doylist (as in what Arthur Conan Doyle might think) explanation might be that the author needed to pad out the wordcount. 

The important part is that neither of those lenses is wrong. They’re just different ways of looking at a text. 

Word of God (i.e. what the creators say about a work in interviews etc.) is not the same as canon, and canon is not sacred. It’s just what’s on the screen or page.

I’m going to be a little self-indulgent here and bring in some Death of the Author by Roland Barthes, because I literally have a page of quotes stored on my tumblr. Admittedly, the translation I have is a little dense, but I think I’ve pulled out the key points. (Also, caveat that this is not the only valid way to do lit crit, but I think it can be very helpful in fandom.)

“The text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture.” 

I think about this all the time in regard to fandom, because it reminds me that texts don’t spring fully-formed from some ethereal plane. The cultural and literary references you grew up with, as well as the ones you continue to consume, feed directly into whatever you produce as a creator. That’s why my number one tip for young creatives who want to improve is to be intentional about the media they consume*. That’s where inspiration comes from: just tip more material into the slurry of your subconscious, and see what alchemized new thing bubbles to the surface. 

That also means that as critical readers, we can always try to see connections and patterns, regardless of Word of God. However, it’s important to remember that those connections and patterns are not necessarily lodged within the text itself…and that brings me to my next quote.

“The unity of a text is not in its origin, it is in its destination.” 

It’s rarely useful or interesting, in the context of fandom, to treat a text as an artifact to be excavated. It’s much more relevant and functional to ask what you as an individual get from the text—what your own relationship is to the themes, motifs, ideas, messages you’ve gleaned from your experience of reading/watching. Every reader has a different relationship to the text, because every reader is a different person with a different history. 

The difference between fandom and Extended Universe-type stuff isn’t just licensing. Frankly, I personally would find that a pretty boring fandom experience, if absolutely everything were strictly canon-compliant and cross-referenced. Fandom is transformative, which means it interprets and reinterprets texts as a form of consumption/creation, and that necessarily means a willingness to discard anything that doesn’t suit whatever story we’re trying to tell. 

In other words, Eddie doesn’t have a canon sexuality. Hell, very few characters in general do. As I mentioned in the first footnote to my last reply, it’s useful to think about sexuality as behavior + identity + desire; we often see behavior on screen, but we rarely see the other two in an explicit way. We can read him as flirting with Steve, we can read him as flirting with Chrissy, or both, or neither. That’s how fandom works. 

So, do I think Eddie was flagging in the show?

Let’s break that question down into a few different aspects.

Doylist: do I personally believe that the various people involved in the show deliberately intended Eddie to flag as a(n implicitly MSM) sado top? 

No. I don’t. Honestly, I simply don’t trust them that much. I don’t think they had queerness explicitly in mind when they created Eddie, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is queer-coded, much like a Disney villain. He represents anxieties about nonconformity and morality—of course he’s going to resonate with queer people. 

Ultimately, though, I don't really care about this particular creative team's intent. It's not interesting to me. There are so many shows that I enjoy more than ST for their artistic choices, and I'm interested in hearing the intent behind those, but specifically what I personally enjoy about ST is the stories its components let other people tell.

Watsonian (1): do I personally believe it’s within Eddie’s canon characterization to be flagging? 

It’s not impossible. It’s also not impossible that he’s just aping more generic metal accessories. Personally, I think it’s somewhat unlikely that at 19-20, living in the middle of nowhere and with the various plates he’s spinning, Eddie’s had enough exposure to kink to be really confident and knowledgeable about flagging. But I’ve also heard some pretty wild stories about small town gays back in the day, so I’m willing to be convinced either way.

Watsonian (2): do I personally believe it’s within Eddie’s canon characterization to be a sado top?

This is venturing into some even trickier waters, but my answer’s very similar to the last question—it’s not impossible. You don’t need to be a particular kind of person to be a top/bottom/dom/sub, no matter what the old fandom flamewars may have claimed. (Being in my early teens and witnessing the SasuNaru vs NaruSasu discourse was not a good way to learn about this.) Different parts of the same experience can resonate with people for different reasons, and there’s more than enough wiggle room to interpret literally any character in any way. 

(I will say that people who actively seek out DMing tend to enjoy controlling a scene to evoke particular emotional responses from players, and that's the angle I find most plausible for Eddie.)

I am personally agnostic on the matter of Eddie’s sexual preferences. As a reader, it’s most important to me that those preferences are coherent with the rest of the characterization within the fic. As a writer, I tend to characterize him as pretty switchy for the same reason I tend to characterize him as gay and into mythology: I am just projecting onto a blorbo.

That’s all any of this really is. 

*On a practical level: I often suggest to young creatives that they make a habit of identifying at least one thing they like AND at least one thing they don’t like about art, whatever form that art comes in. It builds critical faculties by making sure you actually digest the art you're consuming, and it’s also a good reminder that even the worst piece of dreck (probably) has something worth learning from—and even the most sublime masterpiece has flaws.

#askbox #WHY NOT witter on for 1k words about a knot of hot-button issues for my 100th post. why not. christ. #overusing the word 'personally' to emphasize that IT'S ALL SUBJECTIVE art is fake critique is fake live ur life #I'm just...the kind of insufferable person who has a color-coded spreadsheet rating all the musicals and plays I see #again: I will delete & block at the first sign of discourse! can u tell I have like. tumblr trauma from 2013 #ST meta for TS

[300iqprower]

Hypothetical Rank Ups No. 89-92: Bedivere

New Passive:

Caretaker (Camelot) B

While on the field: - Increase buff success rate for all [KOTRT] allies by 20%. - Increase HP Recovery for all other [KOTRT] allies by 20%.

As Camelot's official team mom steward and personal caretaker to the King themselves, Bedi's definitely gonna need a few automatic benefits if they want to wrangle a group as dysfunctional as that lot. To that end we're giving a buff to all KOTRT healing while Bedi's on the field. They're not going to be gaining any direct healing effects, but this will increase anyone else's healing, be it a fellow knight or a third party providing the heals - from Barghest's buff devouring to Merlin's regen to any non-knight providing support. Though, running around caring for a group like that doesn't leave Bedi with much time to look after himself, so while there's no demerits involved, don't expect the steward himself to benefit from the extra healing. As for the Buff Success Rate, while none of the KOTRT normally have chance based skills, this will act a niche shielding against anyone who would LOWER their otherwise normal success rates, be it something like a unique/situational boss debuff or, more realistically, a certain Moth's pettiness. (Plus who knows, maybe i have some WIP ideas about conscripting temporary KOTRT members who would find buff success rate much more directly useful)

Knight's Tactics B -> Knight’s Tutelage B

Increase NP Strength for all allies (3 turns). Increase NP Gain for all allies (3 turns). Increase DEF for all [Chivalrous] allies (3 turns). [10-20%] Increase ATK for all other [KOTRT] allies (3 turns). [5-15%]

A model knight in most every regard, Bedivere not only supports his allies, but inspired his fellow knights. Chivalrous allies take their duty to protect more seriously, and his fellow Round Table members in particular especially benefit from this coordination. for other knights, works even more efficiently with the KOTRT who cover one another's strengths and weaknesses (even if as their support he's not exactly leading the charge). Simple as that!

Calm and Collected B -> B+

Increase own NP Gauge by 30%. Increase own Mental Debuff Resist (3 turns).^ Apply Buff to self: Increase NP Gauge for all [KOTRT] allies every turn (3 turns). [2-8%] Applies "gain 4 Crit Stars per turn" to all [Chivalrous] allies (3 turns).

If it wasn't obvious yet, there's something of a theme here in wrangling other knights into doing their job properly. Well, case in point, Calm and Collected is Bedivere doing exactly that as he calms himself and collects his allies, providing moral support to fellow chivalrous types, and going even further to accommodate his comrades from Camelot. This not only only keeps the instincts of his allies well honed, but brings out the Knights of the Round's greatest strength and source of their legend: Unity. Not only does Bedivere embolden the feats of all KOTRT, but the more knightly allies at his side, the more honed their attacks. IE more crit stars. (...That said, unity implies looking out for Bedi as much as his allies, so don't go thinking you can or should just send Bedi out to pop the skill and die, because that NP Regen is going with him if you do.)

Oath of Protection B -> B+++

Increase DEF by 30% for all allies (1 turn). Increase Debuff Resist for all allies (1 turn). Apply Target Focus to self if there is an [Arthur] ally (3 times, 3 turns). Apply Delayed On-Death Buff (1 turn). - Restore HP for all other allies. [1000-4000] - Increase NP Overcharge Level for all [KOTRT] allies (1 time). [1 stage at level 1-3, 2 stages at level 4-5, 3 stages at level 6-8, 4 stages at level 9+]

Enough about what kind of person Bedi is in general though, lets get into the things truly specific to him...even if that means acknowledging his failings as well. Arthur's steward, he's the first to defend his King, but....well, it's fleeting to say the least as something of a legacy to the incident at the lake. Rather than 3 turns of Target focus, Bedivere gains 3 Single Target charges of Target Focus. To remind you, Target Focus Charges are used up when any single target attack or debuff is used. Thankfully, Bedivere's new max of 50% defense up between his S1 and S3 means he can tank very well when optimized, and his debuff res is pretty damn well off too. However, should both those things fail him and he ends up falling the very same turn, it'll clear a path for his allies much like a certain Gudaguda flower of war. At it's absolute max potential, this sacrifice will bring the wrath of the entire round table down on the fool who struck him down.

EX Rankup:

Switch On - Airgetlám C+ -> EX-

Ignore an enemy's Anti-Enforcement Defense buffs (1 turn). [Activates first] Deal damage to a single enemy. Deal 150% extra Special Attack damage to enemies who are both [Knight or Cavalry class] and [Threat to Humanity]. Removes a single enemy's Invincibility buffs. Reduce your Max HP by 2000 (5 turns). [Demerit] <Overcharge> Increase your Buster effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]

This one's pretty self explanatory, and probably completely unnecessary for the most part given Bedi's already seen as having a really good budget ST NP, but there's just too much potential given the whole role he played in Camelot for me to not give it SOMETHING. I was really on the fence about making "Anti Purge Defense a thing" thing since Purge Defense is, itself, a bad solution to how ubiquitous Anti Invincibility has become, but i figured if there was EVER going to be someone who deserved it it'd be the slayer of Rhongomyniad. Plus, unlike Ignore Invincibility, anti purge defense would have no overlap with Invincible let alone evade. The invincibility removal grants a degree of utility but is mostly flavor since...well, unlike the Anti Enforcement ignore, it activates after, meaning if you didnt already have Ignore Invincible you'll be doing no damage with the NP. On top of all that, it's especially effective on story bosses, since that's pretty much the only time we see non-extra class enemies with the Threat to Humanity trait. No prizes though for guessing which particular threat to humanity goddess from the main story this is meant for. Of course, the massive burst in power comes with a similar story based penalty, with each use of Airgetlám draining Bedivere life force.

....So yeah! I dont know why this one took me so long to write up when in hindsight it's pretty damn straightforward where most if not all the effects are coming from. I admit though that's the last time I leave which one is next up to a vote because now I not only need to post Phantom and Sanson's rework, but after Summer 6 i'm dying to post Blackbeard's sweep of rank ups too-

(also I used official arts this time not because I'm too lazy to find fitting art like i usually do, but because Bedi's official art always goes hard)

#artist: Tenkuu Sphere #artist: Hosoi Mieko #fgo #long post #fgo meta #fate grand order #fate kotrt #fgo bedivere #hypothetical rank ups