Merlin challenges and other stuff!

[sophinisba]

Merlin challenges

-lilian_cho and netgirl_y2k are helping me run camelotremix, and signups are going well! I mean, slowly, but we don't need to have a huge number of people, and also I know of a few people who are working on getting their fic listings organized and planning to sign up later. We have some AWESOME writers already though, and other awesome folks who have decided the challenge isn't for them but who are posting about it and spreading the word anyway. Also mrs_leary made us some banners so we can start using those as soon as I can figure out the coding. :) Thank you, you guys! I am really happy about this!

-camelotsolstice is going to run again! I'll be sitting out this round but yay for more Merlin fic and art! Lots of people should sign up!

-I am seriously considering signing up for merlinfemfest! On the one hand, the next few months will be busy between remix modding and serious rl stuffs. On the other hand, Merlin femslash! And again, lots of awesome people's signing up! Makes me want to join in! What do you think?

It's a bit unfortunate that so many of these fests happen in the last few months of the year (in the case of most of these exchanges it's because of Christmas, though camelotremix is going up in October rather than August just because I was too disorganized to get it started in June like I'd hoped to do), meaning we're all creating while the show is airing and we don't know from week to week whether our epics are going to be jossed. IDK maybe some people enjoy that kind of excitement but I would much rather write during the hiatus. I remember last year I had a hard time getting through the episode "The Sins of the Father" because I was so afraid it would contradict the giant Hunith/Nimueh fic I was writing for themadlurker (in which Nimueh was Merlin's dad!) for camelotsolstice. As it turned out that didn't happen until the last episode, at which point I'd already finished and turned in my fic so I was more relaxed about it, but damn.

Of course, I say that but I actually wrote way more Merlin fic during those last few months of 2009 than I have before or since. I mean I wrote 8000 words of a post-season-2 Gwen fic but I never did follow through and finish it, and I'm sure it'll be jossed once season 3 starts, so…well, that's a shame, and exchanges can be stressful but they do help us get things finished and posted, so yay for exchanges and deadlines.

-kinkelot is having a tentacles challenge! I think Merlin is a challenging fandom for bringing in tentacles (not like The Faculty or Star Trek or something) but people have managed it and I hope there will be more soon.

-Eeep only three more weeks until the main deadline for kink_bingo! (Okay I know it's not a Merlin challenge but I'm writing Merlin fic for it so.) Besides writing I need to get back into podficcing. I've filled a bunch of squares already but I'll be sad if I don't make a bingo.

Other stuff

-Take Me Home by such_heights has all my favorite femslash ships in one happy vid! Suitable for dancing! (Hey gamerchick I think you would enjoy this!)

-Old Spice Man/Merlin parody or fusion or something by villainny. Hee!

-I watched episodes 2 and 3 of Sherlock and continued to think they were well done and clever and that Sherlock was really disturbingly hot, and yet I had to sort of put a lot of my politics/ideas aside in order to enjoy the old school slashy vibe, and that was a weird feeling. So I'm okay with the show being over for now.

-I watched the movie Murderball and concur with gamerchick's post about it: it is neat to see a movie about people with disabilities that doesn't follow a traditional script of brave souls overcoming adversity in an inspiring way. This is a movie about badass athletes who do wheelchair rugby and it's, like, not my favorite kind of movie in that I'm not into contact sports or movies about guys being assholes, as some of these guys were, and yet there were parts of this that were awesome and the whole thing kept my interest and I mostly liked it.

-Some other things I have watched/am watching and will talk about in comments if you ask me to: Treme season 1 (♥ ♥), The Wire season 1, half of Legend of the Seeker season 2, most of Leverage season 3, the first two episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Inception (twice).

Comments

[be_themoon]

Leverage! ooh, Airbender! how are you enjoying it?

and also Sherlock! I have issues with parts of it, and would have liked more ladies (I always want more ladies, though, pretty much), but overall it was loads of fun, and the cliffhanger? well that's just not FAIR. D:

[sophinisba]

I loved Sherlock! And I had LotR as my only fandom for years so you know it's not like having white dudes in all the main roles is an automatic disqualifier for me liking a fandom. I enjoyed it a lot as long as I didn't think too much, which is sad since in some ways it's such a smart show. *shakes fist at it*

When I was typing up this post I was going to say something about liking this season of Leverage less than previous ones but then I watched some more and it was great, so, I don't know! Hardison continues to be awesome. I would like to see a bit more of Sophie Doing Stuff. (And I haven't seen enough Avatar yet to say anything much about that!)

[glass_icarus]

Merlin fests! So conflicted, augh. I feel like I should come back around to writing them because I remember the epic looooove that fandom used to inspire in me, and also there are ideas that I never got around to writing, but... signing up for things while not actually feeling that is, uh. Not the smartest idea? :\

A:TLA!!!! *\o/* A:TLA is my main squee right now, omg. TELL ME YOUR FEEEEELINGS SO FAR. :D :D

[sophinisba]

You know, I almost feel like I shouldn't have mentioned I'd started ATLA because I know it's a lot of people's squee but I don't actually have Feelings about it yet. I have seen three episodes and will watch more soon. I don't dislike it but I'm not especially excited either. I'm sorry! Maybe once I see a little bit more.

Your talk about Merlin fests remind me of my own feelings about LotR fic maybe two years ago. Like, it's my friends and I still want to participate and want it to be good, but, eh.

I am really excited about this remix though and the femslash fest, I think I'm going to have to go for it! I'm a little sad though that the fandom feels a bit more fragmented than it did this time last year and maybe me signing up for the femslash fest rather than the everything fest doesn't help with that. :/

WE WILL SEE.

[glass_icarus]

Hahaha, I hear that! It is a bit slow-starting, I am just very over-excitable when it comes to A:TLA. xD

This exactly. *sigh* I don't know. I am thinking about camelotremix especially because I dropped out of Remix this year, but- I have epic plans that more fests might derail? Augh. :|

[sophinisba]

If you sign up for remix though your fics will be in the mix and someone else will have a chance to do something cool with them! *tempts*

[gamerchick]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh that vid is so great!!!!!1 I wish that Legend of the Seeker didn't look so pretty because, like, I don't WANT to watch it because of how much I hate those books, but it's really hard when vids like this one come out!

I'm glad you enjoyed Murderball. I'm not a huge sports fan either, but I find something really magnetic about watching people who are really passionate about something do what they do best and then see their efforts pay off (which is probably the biggest reason I like the Olympics so much), and the movie definitely had that.

A:TLA is awesome too! I am about a quarter of the way into the third season right now and OMG it just gets better and better.

[sophinisba]

I'm really glad you recommended Murderball! You know my attention span has been really short lately and like I'll have trouble sitting through an episode of Leverage or LotS even though they're just fun entertainment with fast-moving plots and lots of pretty, but I didn't get bored with this movie at all. I thought they did a great job balancing the sports stuff including the USA/Canada rivalry with some of the personal dramas and I liked how you saw so many different personalities and attitudes, even between Joe Soares and Zupan who are both the badass competitive types.

IDK I'm still stuck in the middle of LotS season two. I think you'd like it and the ladies are VERY VERY PRETTY and the plots often kinky, but I have trouble staying interested through the little plots from one episode to the next so I put on other stuff instead, or get distracted by the Internet.

[gamerchick]

Ugh I don't know about LotS. I mean I know the show is really different from the books, but I really cannot overstate how much I hate those books and I'm afraid that would prevent me from enjoying the show. Like I'd be trying to watch the pretty and all I'd be able to think about is how the books are full of rape and evil chickens and crappy Ayn Rand supporting garbage and Terry Goodkind's magical FemDom BDSM sex fantasies. Buuuuuuuuuuuuut I did just add it to my Netflix instant watch queue so maybe I will give it a chance. Merlin first though (which I also just added today)!

[sophinisba]

I would say the femdom fantasies are definitely there but enjoyed those parts so I didn't have a problem, and the rest of it I did not see, and also there was a lot of pretty!

BUT NOT AS MUCH PRETTY AS MERLIN! WHEE!!!

[gamerchick]

Well, probably it will have to be presented way differently in the TV series than in the books, but in Wizard's First Rule it's seriously this like 200-page section of sex and torture and sexy torture that's like dropped in from Mars. Which is not to say I have a problem with anybody's fantasies, but I do have a problem with a) somebody's fantasies appearing in my reading material without warning, and b) getting the distinct feeling that the author had to type certain passages with one hand. In the books too there's this element of "aww, cute little sex workers, I will save you from your dominatrix fate with my magical healing peen because obviously you are only doing this because you were abused as a child" which is gross IMHO.

[sophinisba]

Yeah, I'm not familiar with the books at all but from what I hear the show mostly avoids Goodkind's creepy politics. I mean it is very cheesy ye olde high fantasy derivative nonsense and with pretty people and sometimes sexy torture.

I think it would be one of my favorite shows if they'd cast a better actor as Richard. The guy they have is very nice looking (in particular his torso) but can't hold a candle to Kahlan as far as emotion. (Also she has better hair and her dresses are AMAZING.) A lot of my friends deal with this by ignoring him and concentrating on the ladies, but he is actually the main character, so that gets kind of tiresome.

[lilian_cho]

!!!

I shall avoid Terry Goodkind books forever and ever O_o

The actor who plays Richard reminds me of Firefly's Captain, which is BAD in my book because I don't like that character. Or that actor =/
Erm, the only time I actually enjoyed his performance was as Captain Hammer.

[gamerchick]

Oh, and I'm not even getting into any of the other stuff like the evil chicken, or all the rape, or the extremely noble goat, or the time that Richard murders all the pacifists who are "armed only with their hatred for moral clarity" (quote is verbatim), or the thinly veiled Bill and Hillary Clinton analogues who are comically evil and then die of horrible STDs, or the time that Richard rips a guy's spine out with his bare hands and then gives a ten-page speech about Justice but then it turns out that the guy is only mostly dead and he pops back up for more fighting, or when Richard becomes Libertarian Jesus and carves an amazing statue while telling all the people Ayn Rand parables and then inspiring them to rise up against their liberal masters...

...Yeah, don't read Terry Goodkind. :/