Recs and Wedding? What Wedding?

[marguerite_26]

The Difference of You by ingberry (xfortytwo) [NC-17] (14k) Merlin/Arthur
Summary: It’s not that Arthur Pendragon can’t get girls to fall for him; it’s just that he can’t seem to keep them around. Relationships and Arthur aren't on the same page at all, really, but one day there's Merlin on a bus and then it's different.

Awe. This fic. *draws hearts around it* It’s a well written, charming, romantic and funny Modern AU. Do you really need any more reason to read it? Arthur is frustrated with himself and his life because all his relationships seem ‘off’. They just sorta... stop. And he’s starting to realise it’s him that’s the problem but he can’t figure out how exactly he is supposed to feel when he likes someone. That is until he finally actually likes someone. I really enjoyed Arthur’s POV in this as he tries figure out to why he’s broken when it comes to relationships.

The secrets of your flesh by Violette_Royale [NC-17] (2k) Merlin/Arthur
Content Notes: Body Issues, Intersexuality, Arthur is a hermaphrodite (both male and female genitals).
Summary: Arthur confronts Merlin about his magic, after having seen Merlin kill Agravaine. The last thing Merlin expects is Arthur to be pleased about the fact that Merlin is the most powerful sorcerer alive, and to ask him a favour. But Arthur's request proves too much, even for Merlin's magic.

I stumbled on this last night as I was poking around for ‘something different’ and I certainly found it. Arthur’s body issues are really well done as is his trust in Merlin and willingness to share this secret. I love the idea behind this... that he was created this way because of magic ‘blessing’ him with optimized fertility. It’s such a positive way of looking at something that Arthur finds shame in. And I think the canon setting worked brilliantly for this fic.

ALSO tags on A03...

So, In the HP world we throw around ‘EWE’ like it’s part of the English language. It means ‘Epilogue? What Epilogue?’ (as in, this fic is compliant with book canon, but we ignore the ’19 yrs later’ so as to not have to deal with Harry marrying Ginny/Draco marrying Astoria... having kids) It’s TERRIBLY CONVENIENT. It’s means I’m cool with canon!!! I’ll just ignore that bit that blasts holes in my ship.

So... with S5 of Merlin coming upon us, it’s getting harder and harder to write ‘Canon compliant’ fic without having to deal with THE MARRIAGE.

For lack of any other ideas, i used “Merlin: Marriage? What Marriage?” in the past.

I’ve also seen “Wedding? What Wedding?” which is also cleverly WWW. :D

What are your thoughts? Can we band together and figure out how to tag, because we need the same tag used for it to become popular enough to search on/have it pop up when you are adding your tags.

eta: Merlin: WWW is currently the favourite.

Comments

[alby-mangroves.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAH! I love WWW. That would absolutely work for me :D
Also, Both of your recs are FANTASTIC. <333

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

I saw that you were the anon prompter on KMM for The secrets of your flesh! :D

GO YOU!

I'll admit that it's not a topic/kink I go out of my way to read because the risk of humiliation kink getting in the mix upsets me. But I really like the way this was handled. :)

[alby-mangroves.livejournal.com]

In the prompt, I did actually specify: "Merlin goes to great lengths to show Arthur he loves him just the same, if not more." - I think she did a fabulous job with it, and I completely agree with the humiliation aspect being a huge turn-off, for me personally.

And it was a huge step for her to de-anon for something like this. The least I could do is show porny deviant solidarity LOL

She really did a marvelous job. It was a fantastic read.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

porny deviant solidarity IS VERY IMPORTANT.

We should stand proud or we all stand alone. :D

[faynia.livejournal.com]

LOLZ WWW would be amazingly easy to remember.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it?

I think we'd need to go with

Merlin: WWW

on A03.

or just WWW would have no meaning lol. or too many.

AND!!! very little typo potential!

[faynia.livejournal.com]

It'd be even nicer once AO3 gets its tag search system back online. I miss it so.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

yes!

*fingers crossed*

[otta-ff.livejournal.com]

Yes! We need a tag, definitely. And WWW works for me. Easy to remember, virtually impossible to typo. I'm completely on board with this!

Loved both of your recs, too.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

YAY! Let's make it a thing! :)

[magnolia822.livejournal.com]

I like WWW! This will be a very helpful thing!

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

yes. I need a way to still write canon fics while not having to be focused on Arthur cheating or dealing with Arthur and Gwen having to 'break up' or have an 'arrangement'. Too much potential for Gwen bashing with I totally DNW! I like Gwen, just not in Arthur's bed. :/


so... when I'm writing M/A I need for that marriage to have NOT HAPPENED.

D:

[magnolia822.livejournal.com]

It's going to be a challenge to write canon now, for sure. The good thing about EWE is the epilogue was so lame and tacked on that one really can disregard it with virtually no loss (I think) of fidelity, but the Gwen as Queen narrative is so ingrained in both the legend and the show, I feel like I'll have a hard time overlooking it.

I am ready to see the wedding as a completely congenial arrangement wherein Gwen boinks whoever she wants (this is a problem, as both Lance and Morgana are no-gos at this point. Hmmm... maybe one of the other knights?) and same for Arthur (though of course he only boinks Merlin). I find that stories that use this model don't normally have a problem with Gwen bashing. Anyway, it's hard. Stupid show.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

The Gwen bashing in fics is a lot less common (or I'm a selective reader) than the Ginny bashing in HP (or at least she was often poorly characterised?) BUT I think in the past Gwen has been easy enough to separate because Gwen's scenes were often so apart from the Arthur/Merlin scenes. And the Arthur/Merlin scene were so focused on THEM. You could easily write an M/A fic without even mentioning another character! Now, Arthur's cheating on his wife unless it's otherwise explained away... which I DNW.

I'm just hoping S5 doesn't kill my muse (or send me running Modern AUs) because S4 I found very inspiring for the most part and was able to write and read a lot episode inspired fics. And I want that to happen again. *crosses fingers*

[magnolia822.livejournal.com]

You know, from the trailer and what I saw at SDCC, I have renewed hopes for series 5! It promises to be a more cohesive, rather than episodic, and I'm excited to see how this will effect the overall quality of the show (hopefully for the better!)

[xsmoonshine.livejournal.com]

I find that for purposes of fandom, I am happy to remain blithely in S1-3 mindset, though I like reading fics that deal with the canon too. I've only watched a couple of eps off S4 to date, and I'm sticking with just general knowledge of what went down in S4 for now.

Don't think I'll be writing anything but fluff and nonsense anyway. :) Despite my show-avoiding ways, I'm a huge canon stickler and can't really wrap my head around writing (even ridiculous AUs) until the canon is closed for hiatus or permanently.

[imera.livejournal.com]

if www won't catch on, then changing wedding with marriage might work. But don't pay any attention to me, just a thought.

Anyway, who marries who? Feel like I might have lost a great chunk of the plot, or maybe I didn't watch the entire series :P

[lunadeath02.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the lovely recs! I've been in the need of a good read. :)

I think WWW works well, but I don't mind MWM either. We don't really see a wedding happening though, so there's another tidbit there for canon. Although I'm sure that it's something that's supposed to be obvious, we don't get to see them marry. It's just Gwen getting crowned as queen. Is it possible that maybe she could become queen without actually marrying the king? I'm sure that legally she would have to marry, but this is a fantacy world. Maybe it would be okay for Gwen to just become second in command, so to speak, without even marrying Arthur. Hmmm.

[vix-spes.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs ... bookmarking for when I've actually got time to sit down and read them!!

Personally, I don't have a favourite out of MWM or WWW - I think either of them would work and be infinitely helpful!!

[fuckyeah.livejournal.com]

I read Difference of You before and loved it! The secrets of your flesh looks really interesting, so I have to add it to my read pile. (Still overwhelmed with pthon and PL at the moment, hahaha)

To answer your question, I don't mind either way, though WWW is rather clever. Though I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who has the headcanon that Gwen is okay with Arthur/Merlin (http://archiveofourown.org/works/441919)?

[sorrylatenew.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about having an EWE thing for Merlin fic the other day. I like WWW as well.

[chantefable.livejournal.com]

Weasly Wizard Wheezes conveniently offers time-turning services for retconning any unshippable plot events. Yes, including weddings.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahah....

[kerryblaze.livejournal.com]

My vote is for WWW!