#arthurian ask game

[taliesin-the-bored]

any platonic ships?

I like the wacky friendship between Galahad and the Grail Heroine. They’re both such weirdos (affectionate) that he thinks nothing of wearing a belt which she made of her own hair which she had previously been carrying around in a box because she had a prophecy. He needed a belt. She had hair. That’s just how they are. 

When it comes to not-canon-anywhere friendships in not-canon-anywhere timelines, I think that it would be entertaining if Galahad was also friends with Mordred but either Galahad strenuously denied it to himself until he couldn’t any longer or was somehow unaware of or unable to comprehend the absolute havoc wreaked by his friend.

[gingersnaptaff]

😤

😤Your Most Specific Nitpick About Your Fave (anything from "Gareth would not have a beard" to "this is basically a different guy"):

MAKE GUINEVERE DO MORE WITCHY SHIT! Also, people who make her just be rude and bitter without adding anything else to her character piss me tf off.

(Also, make her Welsh!!!!! We are overdue for a Welsh re-telling of the Arthurian myths!!!!!)

[poparthuriana]

Arthurian Theme Song

Kay

“Angel on Fire” by Halsey

I think it relates to the shift in his characterization over time—he goes from being one of the greatest warriors (and having fire powers) to being a cantankerous member of the castle staff, often scorned and shoved to the side. This is Kay if he remembered who he used to be.

“I woke up to another mess in the living room

Broken bottles all around my feet

They came again in the night under crescent moon

Didn't wake me in my sleep

'Cause they talk and drink and laugh 'bout things

And fall in love in my backyard

I hide and cower in the corner; conversation’s getting hard

'Cause nobody seems to ask about me anymore

And nobody seems to care about anything I think

And nobody seems to recognize me in the crowd

In the background, screaming, ‘Everybody, look at me’

And I'm fading away, you know I used to be on fire

And I'm fading away, you know I used to be on fire

I'm standing in the ashes of who I used to be

And I'm fading away, you know I used to be on fire…”

[crownprinceknut]

Gaheris, Mordred and Lady of the Lake for the Arthurian asks :)

Gaheris: Do you have any regrets? What are they?

I regret letting other determine who I was.

Mordred: What is your greatest fear?

I am afraid of being alone, not in a physical sense but rather in a chronicly lonely sort of way.

Lady of the Lake: What is your most prized possession and why?

My most prized possession is my stuffed polar bear named Knut. (He's in my profile picture.) I've had him since I was about five years old and he was purchased with my own money.

[caer-gai]

Arthuriana ask game!!

bc why not

♘ Favourite Knight/King

🫅Favorite Lady/Damsol/Queen

💚 Favorite Quest/Story Arc

✒A Medieval Text You Like

📚A Retelling/Modern Work You Like

📽Recommend a book/movie/tv show etc

💛A Sibling Group/Dynamic That IS NOT The Orkneys

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Okay Now You Can Talk About Orkneys

😤Your Most Specific Nitpick About Your Fave (anything from "Gareth would not have a beard" to "this is basically a different guy")

🥰An Arthuriana Headcanon

😏Gawain?

🥖Favorite French/du lac (Lancelot, Hector de Maris, Bors, Lionel, Galahad, ect)

👨‍👦Favorite Parent

🗡️Who Are You Betting On In This Month's Tournament?

🙏Pick A Grail Knight

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Pick A Pelli Spawn (Percival, Aglovale, Tor, Lamorak, Aylane, Dindrane, Donar, ect)

💏Crack Ship (s)

🫂Platonic Ship(s)

[queer-ragnelle]

For the writing ask 🖊️ ‼️

🖊️ How does your magic system work?

This is gonna be long lol I did actually have to sit down and work this out. I'm generally not a fan of "hard" magic systems, ie something with rigid rules that cannot be broken, because they feel limiting, or the writer can sometimes accidentally break their own rules and then the reader feels cheated. On the other hand, having a magic system that's too "soft," ie everyone has exactly the magical fix they need whenever they need it, then magic ceases to have any weight and can be used as a band aid for everything.

When it comes to Arthurian Legend, there isn't really a magic system to start with. Merlin just does whatever he wants until he can't. So I gave the universe a little more structure than that while still skirting the definition of any rules. Nobody has a mana limit or anything measurable, but there are limits. I love the balance of Avatar The Last Airbender. Katara's water bending extends to ice, and with special training, blood. It fits within the realm of possibility the narrative set up, manipulating with material of the same element, without breaking the system by suddenly letting her bend an additional element. In Arthurian Legend, and in my works specifically, there are many categories the magic users fall into.

Gods, Power Dependent on Believers' Faith: Ahura Mazda, Simorgh, Apollo, etc.

Creatures, Immortal Unless Slain: White & Red Dragons, Twrch Trwyth, Questing Beast, etc.

Fay, "Immortal" as the Land, Elemental Magic: Vivian, Saraide, Bertilak, etc.

Wizards, Internal Power: Gwydion, Merlin, Gromer, etc.

Giants, Long Life, Strong: Olwen, Ysbaddaden, Galehaut, etc.

Humans, Born "Special": Kay, Gawain, Aglovale, etc.

Otherworld Schooling: Morgan le Fay, Amurfina, Queen of Ireland, Lynette, etc.

Construct/False Fay: Blodeuwedd, Green Knight, etc.

Harnesses Gods, Strong Faith = Strong Power: Lancelot, Galahad, Dindrane, etc.

Harnesses Magical Items: Luned/Ring, Perceval/Ever Bleeding Lance, Arthur/Excalibur, etc.

Just Some Guy: Ragnelle, Elaine, Lamorak, Gaheris, Laurel, most characters, etc.

Generally speaking this is the hierarchy. While Morgan's schooling technically makes her stronger than Gawain, the sun strength is innate, it's not something he has to learn in order to utilize, so he's one level up, closer to the inhuman side of the scale. While Lynette, who learned how to do necromancy, would be above basic Gaheris. Does that make sense?

Magical items are sometimes discovered with unknown origins or powers yet to be determined or magical items can be created by someone with the knowledge to do so. There's a part in book 1 where an item loses it's power after it's maker dies. Arthur explains in book 2 that it's because it was a spell on the object, whereas a higher level caster would have transformed it into something which generates its own power and would have, theoretically, lasted forever. Vivian forged Ban's sword, then reforged it for Lancelot to use, the blade never dulls. Some legendary items can only be activated under certain circumstances, such as Arthur's Excalibur which could only be wielded by him. Some hedge witch could even be commissioned for a charm or helpful little item, like a parchment which can only be read by the recipient or a necklace which encourages infatuation of the wearer. For this reason lots of characters have handy trinkets that don't really constitute "having powers," and serve only to offer quality of life changes in really small stakes. The scale for these items is vast from Tristan's harp with strings which never go out of tune all the way to Arthur's scabbard which prevents the user from bleeding, a spell so powerful that it couldn't be replicated after he lost the first one. In book 2, Gawain mentions the infirmary has bowls of hot water that never cool, floors that are never slippery, and a constant, pleasant breeze so the sick ward never smells stale. Magic is a part of the characters' every day lives and manifests in an infinite number of ways.

I don't know if that makes any sense lol I've put a lot of thought into this and like what I've created. It gives me enough wiggle room to introduce new items as needed while still allowing a semblance of limitations. Agravaine or Gareth are never going to randomly create a magical item, and anyone who can is limited by themselves, or their faith. It's a skill-based aspect, which I think can be said for most magic systems and can often be rushed with savant type characters. It also eats away the body. While someone old as Merlin may be able to sustain innumerable small spells all at once while also covering the entire battle field with mist all while in disguise as a child, Gromer has to pick and choose what he's doing or he'll not only hurt himself, but dry up the well and be unable to tap into that magic again until he's recharged. There's no way to quantify what that looks like, its an individual matter. Think of Excalibur (1981), when Merlin transformed Uther into Gorlois and allowed him to cross the way on the mists. Merlin said he had to rest for nine months afterward, conveniently waking up to retrieve baby Arthur. Did Merlin know how long he would have to rest after that? Who knows! But I'm adopting a similar idea. Sure, some characters are performing miracles, but if Lancelot goes mad after, well, that's on him. Aim lower.

!! What has stayed consistent across all drafts?

Ragnelle is in every book. RIP to authors who incorporate the Wedding story and then disappear her from the narrative after that but I'm different.

[roimargot]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿?

It's Percy I think he was the first knight that I was interested with. I have a bunch of random sketches of him here he's a golden retriever boy

[trisshawkeye]

Would love to hear about Gawain and the Green Knight retelling and Sad Bi Astronauts if you are still sharing WIPs!!

Yeah! So, Gawain and the Green Knight retelling is... not exactly fanfic in the sense that I'm approaching it like I would ofic. But the gist is that, due to a friend misremembering how the story goes and thinking that Lord and Lady Bertalik were the same person rather than Lord Bertalik and the Green Knight, I then thought to myself, well, what if they all were the same person, offering to Gawain something like a challenge and a courtship?

I then wondered about the aftermath of the story, when all is revealed, what if Gawain were inclined to accept that bizarre sort of courtship visited upon him, but only if he could set a challenge—if this genderfluid fay could stand to be a regular ordinary guest at King Arthur's court and play along with the ritual there. And it ends up overlapping a bit with the Dame Ragnelle and Pulzella Gaia stories, only there's more gender and queer desire involved. As well as old and new religion, the romantic ideal of Camelot versus the reality, what it means to be insiders and outsiders to a space, and growing beyond your own bounds while still staying true to the core of your identity.

Anyway, this WIP is still mostly outline, though a lot of that outline is quite detailed, but I haven't figured out the details of how it's going to end yet. If I set it down, though, it's probably something I'll see if I can float towards professional publishing rather than AO3. We'll see!

--

Next up, Sad Bi Astronauts is where I'm keeping my Space Brothers rarepairs, which is a hilarious situation to be in when the fandom itself is so tiny and there are hardly any fics at all, let alone depressing queer minor character ones.

There's two WIPs in there right now. One is for Jason Butler/Ronald Cooper, two very closeted astronaut candidates, one the backup for the other and who later drops out of the program due to trauma from a plane crash, wrecking their relationship beyond repair. Seriously—while Jason is a fairly regular minor character, Ronald only shows up in like one episode when we learn more about his backstory. This fic does not end happily for them.

The other is Pico Norton/Vincent Bold, which is the more obvious old-man-yaoi ship in the show. Their whole deal is that they were part of a childhood trio who wanted to go into the space industry, but they lost their friend Rick young to a car accident. They both go on to become a space engineer and astronaut and gain large amounts of baggage over that time. The fic is about them hooking up over the years but always feeling kinda bad about it because there's one of them missing. Sad!

These will get finished eventually, but only because I know there's at least one person in the world interested in reading them, which is my housemate.

[universestreasures]

Maria Robotnik of Sonic The Hedgehog has been added as a Plotting Dependent muse! Mixed media Canon based and headcanon expanded, with verses for Sonic and the Black Knight and the movie verse (both will be fleshed out at a later date, especially after I see Sonic 3) are included!

[pendragaryen]

Just wanted to say that I love your url! It's a good name

Omg, thank you!😮😍🫂 That's the first time since I founded this sideblog that someone said this!!! (And that was literally 8 years ago (or even more)!

Means a lot, mate! I'm grinning all over my face.😁😘

[i-dont-know134]

💏

💏- crack ship (s)

Uhhhh… Galahad+Mordred 🫢 they’re narrative foils

I’m not much of a shipper let alone crack ships :/ But thanks for the ask!!!

[taliesin-the-bored]

🧙, but also what's gringolet 👀

What's Merlin's deal, in your own words?

Merlin’s deal varies. He’s the result of mashing a few different characters into one, and he does a lot of dubious things in the texts which became most influential but does them on the side of the good guys so people want to like him and water him down into a less sinister figure. 

It’s the Historia Regum Britanniae which lays the groundwork for the character as we know him today. First a wunderkind, whose father is thought to have been an incubus, Merlin is nearly used as a human sacrifice as a child but talks his way out of it by explaining the real reason why King Vortigern’s tower keeps falling down. He’s later responsible for the construction of Stonehenge and for disguising Uther Pendragon as Gorlois so that Uther can sleep with Gorlois’ wife Igerna. She doesn’t know it’s Uther at the time, so Merlin is an accomplice to rape by deception. Later on, Merlin is the magical advisor to Uther’s son Arthur, and Arthur is considered a righteous king (even if he does some very dubious things from time to time). That puts Merlin on “the right side” most of the time going forward but also doesn’t make everything Merlin does morally justifiable. There are some texts where he’s downright antagonistic—the big example being Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando, where Arthur nearly has him burned at the stake for his crimes but Arthur’s daughter Melora says they should show him mercy—and some where he’s just very, very morally gray. There are exceptions. Myrddin Wyllt, the possibly-historical Welsh bard who appears in The Black Book of Carmarthen, is more sympathetic, almost Lancelotlike in personality: after inadvertently killing his own nephew in battle, he goes insane and wanders forlornly in the forest, talking to a piglet because his sister won’t forgive him. Then again, “didn’t want to kill a relative (but did anyway)” is a very low bar, and that’s not the Merlin iteration who’s in the public consciousness. 

The Merlin we see most in modern media is the archetypal wizard, the friendlier Gandalf figure who guides the righteous king, with his fouler deeds omitted or justified or glossed over, and that’s…fine. I guess. It takes away a lot of nuance, but if you want a wise, magical grandfather figure for your plucky young king, then Merlin is the closest option at hand and has a cultural resonance. I understand it, and I enjoy a good Merlin from time to time, but that’s not who he is, or at least not who he always is. I would appreciate more questionable Merlins—and they do exist. I would appreciate more meant-well-did-badly, non-Arthur-affiliated, bardic Myrddins, too. 

(P.S. At least in the BBoC translation I read, Myrddin himself says that he is “second only to Taliesin”. Mull on that a bit. Given Taliesin’s own questionable moments, I’m not sure whether it’s really a compliment or an insult).

What’s Gringolet?

Gringolet, my friend, is a horse. Not just any horse, however. Gringolet (also known as Ceincaled) is Gawain’s horse, and he is a force of nature, one of the Three Spirited Horses in the Triads. Gawain is a notorious horsegirl, so naturally he requires a horse as awesome and bloodthirsty as he is, and Gringolet is at least as well-regarded as his usual rider by members of the Arthuriana fandom (I’ve seen tier lists which ranked him higher than Gawain). In short, Gringolet is a phenomenon, and one I’m sure a Beri stan like yourself would appreciate, though I admit my enthusiasm for Gringolet is not as great as a lot of people’s because there are other awesome Arthurian horses (Guinevere’s gray palfrey who can go on water or land, Kay’s horse Gwineu Goddwf Hir, etc.) who remain overlooked while he hogs the limelight. That’s not Gringolet's fault, though. 

He also has his own Wikipedia page. Who among us can say that?

Thank you for the ask!

[gingersnaptaff]

💏

💏Crack Ship (s): Peredur and Gwalchmai. PEREDUR AND GWALCHMAI. OH MY GOOOOOOOD. Everybody adores Gawain and Lancelot (and they are Valid!!!!) But... Peredur and Gwalchmai sjxjxkxkdxk they DEFINITELY BONED. Gwalchmai's just like Peredur's bestie when he comes to court and ejdjdjxjx lads. LADS.

'And Peredur and Gwalchmai went to Gwalchmai's pavilion to take off their armour. And Peredur put on the same kind of garment that Gwalchmai wore. And then they went hand in hand to where Arthur was, and greeted him.'

THEY DEFO BONED IN THAT TENT. SHDJXKXKDK ALSO TUNIC SHARING. HAND HOLDING. I CAN'T-

[poparthuriana]

Theme song ask game:

Mordred 💙

I was hoping someone would ask that! I have a lot of songs for Mordred, but I’ll go with this one, since it’s the most recent one I’ve found:

“Dinner at Eight” by Rufus Wainwright

Some lyrics:

“But why is it so That I've always been the one who must go That I've always been the one told to flee When in fact you were the one long ago Actually In the driftin' white snow Who left me

So put up your fists, and I'll put up mine No runnin' away from the scene of the crime God's chosen a place Somewhere near the end of the world Somewhere near the end of our lives

But 'till then no, Daddy, don't be surprised If I want to see the tears in your eyes Then I know it had to be long ago Actually In the driftin' white snow You loved me…”

[leondegranced]

9 People You’d Like to Get to Know Better

Tagged by @the-tenth-arcanum (on my personal account but I'm posting here instead hello something non-merlin related)

Last song I listened to: I watched Camelot last week (the 1967 film version) and the Guenevere track has had me in a chokehold, so that's been on repeat while intermittently being interspersed by the rest of the OST (very good movie, very good music, would recommend)

Currently watching: I'm slowly catching up with the new season of It's Always Sunny, along with Dead To Me and Five Star Chef (really I'll inhale any decent competition show)

Currently reading: The Committee by Sonallah Ibrahim. It's… a strange one, and not a book I would've picked up myself, but my aunt gave it to me for my birthday last year and I needed a short read after getting through Idylls of the King so I figured why not give it a go (I should finish it by tonight and then I'll start reading Inferno by Catherine Cho)

Current obsession: All things Arthuriana, I'm compounding the brainrot bby 😎

Tagging (no pressure): @gardenbastard @feuxx @groundbreakingdot872 @gargoylewithcottagecheese @kitmarloweki @anamericanwerewolfintraffic @tamaha @agapantoblu @kuronnii

[the-starry-seas]

Silly Game Time: For reasons that aren't all that interesting to discuss (just some time travel and some pirates, the usual), I am now responsible for taking care of a mated pair of galapagos tortoises.

What should I name them?

Guinevere and Lancelot!