Negotiating the Boundaries of Legend or yes Merlin...

I've been hearing all over the Merlin fandom how Merlin tramples the Arthurian legend into dust -- "but we don't care! We love it anyway!" Well. Ahem. I just finished my Arthurian Lit class. I'd like to call into question first the idea that there's "one" Arthurian legend. Second, certainly the BBC's Merlin tramples Malory's popular Morte d'Arthur, yes, but it returns to a 10th 1100s, i.e., the 12th century (Sigh. I do this all the time with dates.) Arthurian text, Geoffrey of Monmouth, where... read more

 i know a few people have only just started watching the show, and that some are put off, to a greater or lesser degree, by what they perceive as inaccuracies and liberties taken with the original legend. a few people have mentioned a meta post on this very subject. well i found it have a read. i think you'll find it interesting

mood theme progress: 51/132 (38.6% complete) Number of moods that have Arthur, either in foreground or background: 20 . I'm actually quite proud of myself that it's that low (less than half holy crap!). But give it time, and I'm sure it'll go up. I need more Gwen shots, and more Morgana, though unfortunately both of them are much more poised as characters and don't make these sorts of ridiculous faces. Oh Bradley James, please don't ever, ever change. My "bitchy" mood makes me think...

Merlin does, in fact, follow some of the legends. So stop saying it doesn't. Fic rec - Despoiled , by astolat , Merlin/Arthur. Absolutely one of Astolat's best works and she's got many awesome fics in more than one fandom. I'm so so happy she's writing Merlin. MAH ICONS. default oldest newest saddest happiest angriest cutest sexiest funniest fave ship fave fandom fave...

Thing 1: There's been tons of interesting meta out there about Merlin, and the ways it's the next Not Very Good show- in particular, Skeevy About Gender Issues show- to captivate fandom. I'm up to ep 8 or 9, and I like it immensely; it can hold up to a fair amount of meta discussion of Arthurian legend (might I recommend this one? ) and allegory and such, and it's a ridiculous amount of fun. But I don't love it, and after 9 episodes, I expected to. See, for me, liking a text and loving...

One of the more... interesting things about being 12 or so hours out of sync with 90% of LJ (between living in Oz and a complete ban on LJ at work) is going to bed with everything all fine and dandy, and coming back the next afternoon/evening and realising there's been a complete panic doing the rounds. *cue frantic catching up* On another topic, since I know there were a couple of people resisting the lure of Merlin due to worries about historical inaccuracy, I want to link this post by ...