#Arthurian humor

[woozapooza]

#Lancelot in knight of the cart after crossing the sword bridge and seeing Guinevere who has never paid him a second glance in her life

[DAZED FROM BLOOD LOSS] hey not to kill the vibe completely but i think i am in love with you

[escespace]

Arthur: I know he might seem clumsy,disrespectful and idiotic but he is not a traitor.

Merlin: jeez... What have I done to earn such a good defense?

Arthur: Shut up Merlin, I'm trying to prove that you didn't break the law.

Merlin: Well, you certainly believe that so that's half the battle won.

[wronghands1]

[cynicalclassicist]

Keep up with the Arthurian humour!

Put thee not on Silent

[taliesin-the-bored]

They could have snuck parts of Jaufre into Monty Python and the Holy Grail and no one would have noticed a stylistic difference.

--A wicked knight describing to Jaufre (Griflet) what a knight who touches his lance can do to obtain his mercy as an alternative to being killed after a fight

[howifeltabouthim]

'Oh dear,' Guinevere said dryly. 'I hope you're not having another evil scheme, Morgan.'

Lev Grossman, from The Bright Sword

[el-ffej]

Asher Perlman, The New Yorker 6/17/2024 issue

[silmarillion-ways-to-die]

Watching Pawn Stars:

Customer: This is the original Excalibur. I want a billion trillion dollars for it.

Pawn Guy: If this is the original Excalibur I'll pay you $10.

Expert: I can tell by this smudge that this is a replica Excalibur sold at Medieval Times in Buena Park in 1973.

Customer: I still want a billion dollars.

Pawn Guy: I'll give you a penny.

[honeybadger-has-a-grimoire]

Just a Note—

I’ll make a post about my herbal cold infusions soon, probably after the Lemon Ginger Honey Infusion post and the Arthurian Paganism Post, but I needed to talk about this real quick…

Sometimes the gods surprise me with how they show that they hear me—and it’s slightly comical.

A week ago, I made a ginger-lemon-white peach cold infused water because my stomach was very cross with me. I ate a lot of foods that I am sensitive to… on top of the very diary heavy birthday cake for my boyfriend being eaten by a very lactose intolerant witch ( me, Clover, I’m the witch ).

So, at the end of last weekend, I made a ginger-lemon-white peach cold infused water to help repair the damage that I did to my stomach. As I did it, I dedicated the infusion to the Ladies Brigid and Morgana because it felt right to. And, in doing so, these lovely goddesses extended the use of the ingredients to about a week’s worth of cold infusions. I only threw out the ingredients today, almost a week later, out of fear of the possibility of mold growing on them or in the pitcher I was using.

My first thought was: “HOLY SHIT HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!” [insert Clover internal panic here]

My second was: “Oh, right, the gods. I need to write this down in my cookbook and do it again. Thanks Ladies!”

And then I immediately told people because I was low key in awe that it happened.

So yeah, thank you Lady Brigid and Lady Morgana for showing me that you heard me. It’s nice to see proof sometimes.

[krabkrab-wontshutup]

Only the most classy discussions about arthurian legend in this discord server

[sailforvalinor]

Shoutout to Lord Tennyson for ending his epic 1430 line poem retelling of Sir Gareth and the Red Knight by saying “my ship is better.” Absolutely iconic

[escespace]

Lancelot: How have you been? I feel like you recently acted a bit... strange

Merlin: I have no idea what you're talking about

Lancelot: So nothing is happening? Something for which you act like this?

Merlin: No, no, a lot of things happen all the time so I have no idea what you mean by "recently"

[tossawary]

The winner of that poll I put up was the "Merlin" fic tentatively titled "Two Can Keep A Secret"! Which is a Canon Divergence AU in which Arthur learns about Merlin's magic at the end of S01E02 "Valiant". ✨

Currently, I'm building up my world building and character list document for "Merlin" by going through the episode transcripts. (The fandom wiki has all of them, which is very handy.) And also casually reading some Arthurian Romance (mostly English and French, though I do have a reading list of the Welsh stuff), mostly just to have a loose understanding of the world there and its vibes just in case. Know the "rules" to break them purposefully, yeah?

At the moment, I'm slowly reading through Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" and finding some of it (very gross in a "oh, hm, there's mythology-typical sexual assault in this" way, but some of the other stuff is) VERY funny. The humor in this reminds me a lot of reading Tolkien.

I did not know that (in this version) some of the lords and knights had Arthur pull the sword out of the stone repeatedly for MONTHS. They're just not suuuuure, you know? He's just some kid! He's not even nobility (as far as they know)! He should pull the sword out again at Candlemas after other people have had a go again. No, wait, after Easter! After Easter, then maaaaaybe- Until ultimately the "commons" are like, "Crown this guy already or we'll maul you," and these guys have to beg Arthur's forgiveness afterwards.

Links to Project Gutenberg's collections (free to read online or download):

[sonic-fankid-showdown]

Poll 11, Round 1.

About Mordred: (by @mephiles-the-jester) Mordred was hatched from an egg that appeared from Sonic and Shadow's super forms, and as he grew up it became apparent that he was born to be the next leader and creator of the Black Arms due to his visual similarities/heritage with Black Doom and inherited power. However Mordred was instead raised to be a sweetheart and a knight alongside Sonic, protecting the planet rather than destroying it. His name also may or may not foreshadow that he and his father King Arthur/Sonic will kill each other in battle like in Arthurian Legend, don't even worry about it. He is also aroace and as tall as a human, and is very awkward and shy about it, and bumps his wide horns on doorways almost daily.

About Lapis: (by @time-of-your-life-au) Lapis was created by Sage using a defective Shadow Android and some of Sonic's DNA to be a rival to Sonic and Shadow, but it ended up leaving to go off on their own, and they were soon adopted by Sonic and Shadow. Lapis has a rather dry and sarcastic sense of humor most of the time, and they can be quick to snap back when provoked. It spends most of its time sprawled out in a tree or on the couch, but they frequently get random bursts of energy, which results in it skating around at top speed and/or gnawing on something (they used to chew on sticks before they got an actual stim toy). It also keeps a collection of cool rocks, shells, sticks--whatever it finds on the ground!

[joemerl]

#have you guys read the one where he goes to hell and beats up witches for like. ages #all to get one of his homies a wife #adapt that tv executives. i dare you

How dare you post that without at least a title, if not a link.

joining the king arthur fandom but not like the merlin tv show fandom like the old poems where arthur makes a single cameo and contributes nothing fandom

[avelera]

So this is a bit random but:

Dream as the hero in a Greek tragedy and Hob as an Arthurian knight.

Thoughts?

(You obviously don’t have to answer if this is stupid or you don't want to)

If I may riff a bit on this, since I don't exactly have a pre-made answer (it's not a line of inquiry I've really considered), I'd say this:

Dream is absolutely a Greek tragedy protagonist. He thinks of himself that way, he's written that way. A major, indeed central, characteristic of Greek tragic heroes is that their virtues in some situations become their ultimate downfall. No one is dying in a Greek tragedy because they're inherently bad or failed people. It is the essence of that Picard line, "It's possible to do everything right and still lose. That's not failure, that's life."

Dream's dedication to his duty is an incredibly familiar virtue for a Greek tragic figure. It is also the virtue that will lead to his eventual end (in this incarnation). At least, in the comic. We'll see in the show if that's the case, and I have my suspicions based on the story's structure that we'll be seeing some deviation or, at the very least, a more optimistic spin on Dream's end.

Neil certainly wrote Dream to be a figure from a Greek Tragedy too, ironic considering he's also the "deus ex machina" in other situations, being literally a creature of godlike (or superior) power.

As for Hob as an Arthurian figure.... I'm less convinced. And I have a lot of reasons why because I think a lot about Hob's relationship, or lack thereof, with the tropes of knighthood as explored in both canon and fanon.

Let me quickly say that for fanon, sure, absolutely. I've seen incredible, complex, lovely takes on Hob as a Questing Knight or suffering the throes of textbook courtly love (more on that in a second, because I do find that part at least plausible) or otherwise being a gallant and heroic figure.

However, this is fanon. Canon Hob is certainly made more romantic, and I mean much more romantic by the show with the whole missed 1989 meeting and Ferdie's inherent and overwhelming charm. But comic Hob is... hmm, let's say he also has his charm but he's deliberately quite rough, quite crass, more than a bit dim at times, and the furthest thing from protagonist let alone romantic hero material. I think comic Hob would laugh, perhaps a bit wistfully, at the very idea of being an Arthurian figure. Certainly the Hob of "Sunday Mournings" (the Ren Faire comic issue) would be outright derisive of the notion of himself as a romantic figure or a questing knight.

Hob bought his knighthood. I think it's something that bears remembering: he bought it.

(Let me very briefly aside say, as a grubby Yankee myself, I actually find his audacity and sort of "Ha! I got away with it!" humor in that moment incredibly charming. Fuck yeah, stick it to the nobility! Fuck aristocracy, fuck nobility, and fuck aristocratic mythology like Arthuriana that reinforces those power structures. Good for Hob being a peasant who bought his knighthood, something that would be all but unthinkable in the grand sweep of Arthuriana, which for all its romanticism is still pretty definitive about everyone belonging in their social place.)

Anyway, Hob bought his knighthood with money he made getting into early English shipping and with money made from being on the right side of Henry VIII dissolving the monasteries (which were corrupt but were also one of the only forms of social services available to common people at the time, it's an incredibly complex issue) and Hob is as unbothered by the moral quandaries of this as he was the moral quandaries of being a soldier or a bandit. Hob is the furthest thing from being a Galahad. I'm not sure he could even aspire to Lancelot at his lowest on Hob's very best of days. He's just not built like that that we see.

At least, until 1989.

Now, as I've noted elsewhere, Hob's story is fundamentally altered by this ever so minor change in the show of making him still in England in 2022, still presumably waiting for Dream about a block away from the White Horse! Now, this is some courtly love shit right there! My jaw dropped when I began to map out the implications, not just of his waiting but of his becoming a history teacher.

Comic Hob never became a history teacher. Comic Hob seems all but allergic to romanticism and nostalgia. Comic Hob's highest moment of romanticism is wondering what exists in the depths of the ocean and thinking that maybe reincarnation possibly exists.

1989 changes everything. Actually, we even have evidence that in the comic timeline, Hob wasn't even in England by, what, 1992 when Dream passes away? He's in America with Gwen and they've been dating for a bit when she takes him to the Ren Faire, which is the day after Dream died. This implies that Hob doesn't usually stick around England like he does in the show timeline. If that wasn't already clear from the fact that most of his professions throughout the glimpses we see seem to involve maritime trade (sometimes of the very worst sort). The guy is constantly on the move but he stayed in England for Dream for over 30 years.

So there, at least, I think we have the first tendrils of something for fandom to grip onto that Hob does have the potential within him to go on a 30 year quest for his lost love, which is very Arthurian. I think even Hob would be perhaps shocked at himself for this, perhaps alongside becoming a history professor, finally coming to grips perhaps with the history he's seen, learning to care about it, learning that there's more to himself than he thought.

Because Hob is a weird immortal. He doesn't do the things we expect immortals to do, like learn from his mistakes and become some sort of avenging superhero, or even accumulate enough money to not need to have a day job any more, to just utterly detached from normal human life. Instead, he seems to stay grounded in a normal middle class life for whatever era he's in (barring disaster or windfall) and just happen to stick at it longer than anyone else by virtue of his immortality. It's so bizarre in the most fascinating way, it's why I'm obsessed with him, because he stays so grounded in his time period and not in any sort of special superhero way.

But 1989 really brings into sharp relief that there is an element of courtly love to how he interacts with Dream, the Beatrice to his Dante, this figure who inspires him, whom he waits for, whom he changes for (even when Dream himself perhaps doesn't believe himself capable of change?).

There I think there's something to the notion of Hob as, perhaps, a budding figure of courtly love, if not full Arthuriana knighthood.

But more intriguing and, if I may presume, what I think you're perhaps getting at with all of this is: could Hob's Questing Knight perhaps in some way disrupt Dream's Greek Tragic fate?

Well, it's not really possible in either of those genres played straight but, in the original canon, Hob didn't wait 33 years for Dream to come home to him.

So really, in the most optimistic way I'd say, anything is possible.