Fic: Merlin: Hope Is A Waking Dream
From the day she meets Merlin, Gwen wants. She isn’t sure what, precisely. His understated bravery draws her to him like a moth to a candle. At the feast for Lady Helen, when Merlin pushes the Prince out of danger’s way, Gwen looks at him and thinks that this is what courage looks like. A slim country boy in plain clothes, standing unafraid and ( Read more... )
I love how even though we all know Merlin's actually go, it's never said, so you almost start believing how Gwen sees it. And that look Merlin gives her when they see each other at the end... Bittersweet once again. I love it, even though I should feel bad about that...
Oh look, I gave up on exclamation marks and moved onto ellipses.
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Oh it makes me happy that you liked the way it's completely Gwen's point of view - it makes the genderbend very understated, but this is Gwen's story, so. Her beliefs.
Thank you!! (You get a bonus exclamation mark just for you. Return gift.)
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It's good to get the story from different points of view, especially since completely Gwen stories aren't particularly common so it's a good insight into her character. The genderbend's also good because it's so understated.
(Thankyou! I shall treasure it always.) ! - You may do what you will with this one.
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I want more Gwen in fandom, really. She's interesting enough to have lots and lots of stories told about her.
Thank you. I shall use it wisely.
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I think she suffers from the fact that Guinevere in legends is not such a popular character, and interferes with preferred fan couples (eg, Arthur/Merlin). Which is a shame, because she is more than that.
Make sure that you do, for otherwise you shall anger the gods of punctuation.
Fmeh, don't worry about it, I've done it much later, trust me.
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Mm. That might also be why Gwen is paired with Morgana so often i Arthur/Merlin fics - because it's an easy way to make her sympathic and completely unthreatening vs Arthur/Merlin. (Combined with, you know, the general shininess of Gwen/Morgana.) It's probably a very general trend (sadly), that any character who could be interpreted as a hindrance for the One True Paring-love is either overlooked or bashed. It's lucky there seems to be little in the way of bashing in Merlin fics, at least.
Oh no, the gods of puntuation must not be trifled with. They'd come for me with pitchforks and sharpened semi-colons.
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I think there's also a degree of `this way everybody is happy` with Gwen/Morgana, since the other options aren't so appealing. You have the canon Arthur/Gwen and Merlin and Morgana alone or together, Merlin/Gwen and Arthur and Morgana either alone or together (I seem to have some issue with this pairing or various other alones or togethers that don't seem nearly as shiny. Still, the bashing because it stops One-True-Pairing seems incredibly unnecessary. #has seen whole characters and groups in other fandoms condemned for such a reason# The Gwen/Arthur scene in the last Merlin episode was pretty much the only time I have seen Merlin fans come anywhere close to bashing.
And those semi-colons HURT. Although blunt ones or normal colons hurt more.
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That's another good point - and possibly the Gwen/Morgana + Arthur/Merlin is easier to make work with the legends, give them some happiness and keep the shiny slash. I'm with you on the Arthur/Morgana. For whatever reason it's the pairing that I find the least appealing of all Merlin's possibilities. I guess I just don't find their dynamic romantically interesting.
Better be very very careful. One can never duck fast enough when a colon comes whirling...
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Except I have seen a way of doing that without Gwen/Morgana, since Gwen/Lancelot turned out to be much cuter and can make the whole legend sound okay. I think the trouble with Arthur/Morgana is that they're so brilliant as sort-of-siblings that it seems a little incest-y. Which is awjward when they're flirting in the second episode.
Indeed. You duck the first dot and the other one catches you.
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Of course, naturally that works much better. Lancelot slipped my mind for a moment, there. And then Morgana can go be mad&evil all on her own.
they're so brilliant as sort-of-siblings I wouldn't say I have a problem with incesty overtones in fiction, per se. But! The Arthur-Morgana-sort of siblings is brilliant enough as it is. They really don't need to be anything else or more.
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I feel sorry for Lancelot, mainly that he is so often forgetten about, especially with two lovely couples all ready and waiting from the whole series rather than one episode. Morgana is so cool she doesn't need anybody? Seriously, I was kind of `yeah, she's alright`, then fanfics actually made me love her more. And surely the best relationships (or the best-written ones) are the ones which don't need to be romantic?
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I feel sorry for all of them once I start thinking about it. It's the Legendary Tragedy that sneaks in... And if the looming future isn't pity-making enough, it's that they get to little attention. Bah.
(or the best-written ones) are the ones which don't need to be romantic? WORD. I mean, I love well-written romance, but give me a complex relationship without the 'natural' complexity of romantic love and I'm all yours.
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#sighs# I know. You've got Arthur being killed epically by Mordred (cute, but curiously reminiscent of Damian from The Omen), Merlin trapped inside a tree, Morgana mad and psycho, and Gwen and Lancelot having an affair and then practically dying of guilt. Or a lack of attention. It's hard to tell which is worse.
Indeed. I forget what it was I was reading, but there was this amazing pair that I tried to imagine as a couple, but couldn't, because they were too brilliant as friends. Interesting dilemma.
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