#wildman merlin my beloved

[ollyrewind]

The stars tell us of a great king. They rise, the pole star will ascend the heavens with the constellations of the king's namesake upon the higher cycles of the Earth, foretelling his rise and the golden age that he will bring. His age will go on and on and reach its peak in the far future when the pole star comes to occupy the truest central position in the heavens.

Like Every Tree Stands on Its Own by wonderful @mightybog

[queer-ragnelle]

do you have any arthur/guinevere/lancelot recommendations? if not, just stories where their characters were done justice and their friendship is explored and the love triangle comes to some satisfying solution.

i sure do! as always, with caveats. this list has two parts: films first and then books as i have suggestions for both! all of these movies can be watched here and the books read here.

TL;DR movies: Excalibur (1981), Camelot (1967), Knights of The Round Table (1953), Merlin and The Sword (1985), Sword of Lancelot (1963)

TL;DR books: The Birth of Galahad by Richard Hovey, Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger, Guinevere Trilogy by Persia Woolley, Guinevere by Lavinia Collins, Spear by Nicola Griffith, honorable mention to Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart

MOVIES:

Excalibur (1981): for me it has everything. we get to see young stupid arthur and clever curious guinevere fall in love, their wedding is gorgeous, then nicholas clay my beloved lancelot throws a wrench in it as he loves and respects them both so much, and they love him. he gets to be crazy about it too like running off to the woods to beg god to take these feelings away, dreams he's fighting himself and ends up impaled<3 meanwhile arthur/guinevere leave a cup out for him even when he isn't there. the crux of it comes when guinevere is accused of cheating (which she hadn't even at this point) and arthur won't champion her because his kingship comes before husbandly duties, so lancelot fights for her honor instead. at the end, after guinevere has gone away to a convent (lancelot is a wildman with a full beard lost to them all) arthur comes to retrieve excalibur from her and his speech is so romantic about finding her in the next life. i die every time. here is my review of that movie.

Camelot (1967): i adoooore this guinevere. jenny<3 she does whatever she wants and i love that for her. the whole may day queen aspect of her is muah chef's kiss. small wonder arthur loved her immediately. this arthur gets to wear eyeliner which is a plus. lancelot almost kills arthur on meeting him and then falls at his feet on realizing it, only for guinevere to be really cold to him at first, trying to get other knights to defeat him, but ends up falling in love with him. which arthur totally knows and turns a blind eye to btw. even when pellinore brings it up in as gently as possible, arthur bites his head off, knowing he cant even entertain the rumor or else the kingdom is in danger, and he just wants his two favorite people to be happy....cries forever.

Knights of The Round Table (1953): the biggest downside to this one is that lancelot has a horrible insufferable american accent. however his celebrity worship/instant friendship with arthur is soooo good. he breaks his own sword for threatening the king and then arthur gives him his own....is that even allowed to be so adorable? anyway so lancelot had met guinevere before they were arthur's friend and wife, essentially had a charming meet cute, and went their separate ways, only to formally meet at the wedding in front of everyone....god, the eye contact could turn someone to stone. arthur is extremely sympathetic and compassionate, to the point that when he catches guinevere sulking alone on the roof with a gift from lancelot, he says "i miss him too..." bruh???? my heart?? all around delicious food.

Merlin and The Sword (1985): huge disclaimer...this movie is ugly as sin lol the only version available is ripped from a vhs tape so it might as well be a crunchy gif at this point. it was also cut down from the 3 hour tv version to 1.5 hours which is a tragedy. (i've tried emailing the studio for a rerelease to no avail...) however it has the most insane arthur/guinevere/lancelot ever i'll never be the same. arthur is played by malcom mcdowell who always brings his a game to roles. he's a bit older than guinevere, but she apparently taught him to read? he dotes on her but he's somewhat emotionally stunted which gets in the way. this guinevere is gorgeous i'm obsessed with her she has this deep sultry voice and a simple elegance that completely shatters lancelot's resolve. i get it, it would work on me. lancelot meanwhile is this incredibly lanky sometimes mute shy guy who is besties with gawain and his meet cute with guinevere involves the mingling of their blood after they are both cut on some rose thorns? hello???? they're freaks just like chrétien intended. the blood. they share bath water and fuck in a dungeon. then after guinevere is rescued from meleagant, arthur asks merlin for some sort of potion to help guinevere recover emotionally instead of like.....talking to her? he's trying but so so bad at it<3 he then takes her to bed to "treat her like a queen." IT'S ALL GREAT IT MAKES ME FERAL ARGH

Sword of Lancelot (1963): this one is fun because cornel wilde wrote it, directed it, and starred as lancelot himself!! the other fun factoid is the woman who plays guinevere is his real life wife. how stinking cute is that? so obviously their chemistry is ridiculous. but arthur is a cutie too. he's older and tends to talk down to guinevere a bit, which makes sense why she befriends lancelot in her loneliness. lancelot gets a lot of development, taking young tor under his wing, besties with gawain and lamorak and gareth. being irl married to guinevere also makes their disagreements feel very real. arthur is counseled by a ton of characters, bedievere, merlin, even mordred is here giving his two cents. so you really feel that tug of war pulling the throuple apart. it hurts.

BOOKS:

The Birth of Galahad by Richard Hovey: this play is wiiiiiild but the take away here is that guinevere is the mother of galahad. like what a twist. meanwhile all the men are away fighting rome so you get this tragic back and forth switching of perspective between lancelot and arthur missing guinevere (plus galehaut is here as counsel which really kicks this up a notch) then it cuts to guinevere with a new baby and tormented by the prospect of whether to write to rome with the news but afraid it will cause an upset where she cant be.....hovey you mad lad you've done it again.

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger: i hate i keep having to recommend this bigoted book but damn it this arthur/guinevere/lancelot are so good. why are they sooo goood???? this arthur is compelling since he loses his virginity to morgause and is forever messed up after that, so he struggles to connect with guinevere in the way she needs, not really understanding her even though he bends over backwards to please her. meanwhile there isnt a word for what she and lancelot have here they need to be studied under a microscope so history doesn't repeat itself they're so twisted it's wild i can't look away. and the friendship between arthur and lancelot is so powerful and enduring that even at the end while joyous garde is under siege, arthur sends in kay with food the moment he hears their stores are low, and has him serve them like old times. he doesnt want it to be the way it is....sick and twisted narrative choices.

Guinevere Trilogy by Persia Woolley: i admit this isn't my favorite guinevere, but credit where it's due, she's a complex and fully realized character. through her we come to understand both arthur and lancelot as deeply damaged men, who had their emotional states devastated by the fall out of sexual abuse, and how that impacts their relationship with her (and their sons, mordred and galahad, who likewise suffer as a result of their fathers' emotional states). as a celtic queen, guinevere has every right to take a lover if she so desires, and arthur is not ignorant of his own failings as a husband, but the tragedy plays out anyway as the orkney brothers are there to wreak havoc on the place as usual. (you might find that this has a movie adaptation Guinevere (1994) don't watch it, trust me, it's not even fun bad, just cursed.)

Guinevere by Lavinia Collins: this is technically part of a series so you'll also get a lot of arthur and lancelot in the other three (Igraine, Morgawse, Morgan) but for the sake of this list, the guinevere one will suffice. anyway what i like about this is the strong contrast in relationships with both men. lancelot is bisexual and guinevere is the first woman he ever sleeps with (but not the last...) so theyre very tender and sweet together meanwhile arthur sired mordred before marrying her he's overall more adventurous while keeping entirely faithful to her for the rest of his life......there is a threesome in this but ironically its lancelot/guinevere/kay and not arthur but you know what? he deserves a win. this still goes on the list.

Spear by Nicola Griffith: this is perceval pov so the focus on arthur/guinevere/lancelot is minimal, but its delicious. arthur is kinda cold and mean here (falling back on the celtic "bear" thing, same as woolley does) but its revealed that he, lancelot, and guinevere are in a throuple, the characterization of lancelot's shy explanation of this was so good, and he goes on the grail quest to try and heal guinevere's womb so she can have their children, as it's a point of tension that mordred and galahad both exist, but guinevere wants to have children with arthur and lancelot. there's literally a part she faints and they both carry her off to bed like....they dont even pretend its any other way. no homophobia or slut shaming or anything like that in this book which is a huge plus. palate cleanser after arthur rex lol

Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart: this is more of an honorable mention, as the first three books are merlin pov and the fourth is mordred. but book two (the hollow hills) has arthur raised alongside bedwyr (who is lancelot in all but name, son of ban, eventual lover of guinevere etc) they are the best of friends its adorable, bedwyr gave him his dog cabal, which is cute on its own, then fast forward to mordred pov (the wicked day) decades later and arthur is picking out a new puppy and names that one cabal too, its like this long homoromantic ritual that every dog descended from the first calls back to his original gift....im pulling my hair out. guinevere here is underdeveloped at best, as merlin doesnt really know her well and mordred's perspective on her is that shes (respectfully) hot lmao but worth mentioning as mary stewart is the goat, highly recommend her books.

and that's the list. hope that gives you some stuff to chew over!

[icarus-suraki]

for the weird asks: 4, 29, 46

Weird asks! Ask me things!

4 which cryptid being do you believe in? I'm pretty skeptical about cryptids in general. I'm very much in the "I want to believe" camp. I like thinking about them, theorizing about them, reading about them, watching low-quality filmed-on-a-potato videos of them, all of that. The Fresno Nightcrawlers have a special place in my heart. But it's always in the back of my mind that there's a logical explanation for whatever someone has seen or claims to have seen, though sometimes the logical explanations are equally weird. It might really have been ball lighting.

All that said, I'd like to believe in Bigfoot. There are so many stories from Native and First Nations communities about beings that sound an awful lot like popular culture's Bigfoot. And given that white people (like me) have a terrible track record of actually listening to Native people when they've explained things (the moai of Easter Island did walk to their places; Squirrel really did teach people about maple sap; the landscape of Australia really was different long ago and people really did preserve that memory) maybe there's something to the really old Bigfoot or Sasquatch stories. I know the stories have gotten all mixed up with European wildman stories and American folklore. Maybe the oldest Bigfoot story is a recollection of an extinct bear, but there's something in there.

Also extraterrestrials. Not that I think they've come to Earth or anything but, to borrow from Carl Sagan, otherwise it seems like an awful waste of space.

29 how do you like your shower water? Hot. Very hot. Extremely hot. Scalding. Boiling. Could make good tea in a cup of it. Just a few degrees below the temperature of lava.

But I like the air outside the shower to be cool (or even cold) because I don't want to overheat the minute I get out of the shower. So I'll open the windows in winter or turn the AC down in summer. Maybe that's weird, but it's also how I like to sleep: cozy under blankets but breathing cold air.

But yeah, mmmmm, hot water~

46 favorite holiday film? YOU WANT ME TO SAY THE CROW, DON'T YOU? Well, that's certainly a favorite holiday film. Gotta watch that on October 30th since that's when the main events in the film happen. But this low budget New Zealand-made Christmas movie called Nearly No Christmas that I saw as a small child is also very near and dear to my heart (any whoever gave it two stars, please turn on your location; I just want to talk). It's kind of about…the problems of capitalism and the benefits of cooperation? Also overthrowing monarchies.

And I love the MST3k episode Santa Claus, which is a slightly bizarre Mexican-made kids' movie dubbed into English. (I like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians too, of course, but Lupita's aggressive cuteness, Merlin's inexplicable presence, the wind-up reindeer, and all the international kids making toys are just too odd. Love it.)

Also Home Alone (the original and still the best) is always fun, even if it is a white suburban revenge story. It's a great movie, don't @ me, but it's still a white suburban revenge story. It's a bit like Hot Fuzz in that all of it's good but the payoff at the end is great.

Never been a huge fan of Nightmare Before Christmas. People have assumed that about me before, which I get, but I'm just not a fan? I'll sing along with "This Is Halloween" and have a good time with it but, eh.

There are a number of movies that I associate with holidays that aren't strictly related to said holiday. I mean, I have a litany of horror and gothic movies that I love for Halloween--like The Crow, sure, but also Crimson Peak, The VVitch, Dario Argento's giallo masterpieces, Ghostbusters (1 and 2 but more 1 than 2; or is that set at Halloween? I can't remember), Dracula (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994), The Craft, Hereditary, A Tale of Two Sisters (which I can't find anywhere anymore, pieeeen), The Exorcist, Hellraiser (my beloved), weird shit like Beyond the Black Rainbow, non-supernatural horror (or "thriller") like The House That Jack Built or I Saw the Devil, German Expressionism but mostly just The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Asian Extreme/J-horror like Oldboy or Suicide Club or World of Kanako… I'm down to watch The Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man (1973) even though those two are set in spring. Don't care, didn't ask, bring me a snack. (I legitimately have a subscription to Shudder, which is an all-horror, all-giallo streaming service and it's pretty good so I can glut myself there. It's not all gold but what streaming service is? But they're the ones who helped fund Skinamarink, so they do know what they're about.)

Honestly, a lot of what's in the top three tiers of this iceberg is or could be a Halloween Favorite (and maybe a couple in the fourth tier if I'm feeling more like a sicko).

You know I tried to watch that Hallmark Christmas Prince or A Princess for Christmas or whatever it was when it was being talked about a bit and I found it so tedious and so uninteresting that I never got more than a half hour into it (if that).