Merlin Fanfic Recommendations
In this episode we recommend some of our favourite Merlin fanfic, so you’ve got some reading material while you wait for Destiny & Chicken to return from hiatus.
Head over here to find The Full Rec List!
Please remember to leave kudos and comments for anything you read and like. Fanfic writers are the backbone of fandom.
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5th April 2021 @ 1:54 am
LJ is still alive but really small now. There are still fests and it’s pretty active even if there aren’t that many authors. I still post to fanfiction.net, too, although not any of my NC-17 fic. I adore AO3. It’s made it so much easier to post and read fic.
LOL, as for shagging on a rug, I found that people really will read stories with sex in it so you get more readers and comments with it. Sometimes I’ll put shagging into my stories just because of that.
I adore Lady Ragnall. Her stories are amazing.
They are still doing big bangs on LJ, they now call it aftercamlann big bang (ACBB). I do miss the reverse big bangs, though, where they post a piece of art and then write something for it.
The Good Times are Killing Me is probably my favorite of all Merlin fics. I downloaded it as soon as I refound it on AO3.
I always love to hear about new fics that I might have missed.
I apologize if this shows up in 2 places. The internet was acting weirdly when I posted.
28th February 2021 @ 10:23 pm
I loved this podcast, and the fic brackets on Thinky Thoughts! I really appreciate that:
A.) you both treat fandom and fanworks with respect, bringing the critical “fascination and frustration” to it where I think others might ignore it. It’s super interesting to start thinking about patterns and tropes in fic the way I meant think about the same things in TV, movies, books, etc.
B.) I now have SO MANY things to read! Thank you!
C.) it makes me want to write fic again which I haven’t done in AGES. I blame you both for all the imminent writers blocks and overthinking how to write stories.
9th March 2021 @ 10:06 pm
aww, so glad you liked it!! people seem to really enjoy fic rec episodes, though it always feels a little bit odd to record them, as you don’t want to give too much away, can’t really get stuck into the ins and outs of a fic and we wouldn’t want to in depth discuss a fic without the author’s permission, but at the same time you don’t just want to list titles and where to find them, either, so I’m always really glad to hear about it when people enjoy them, thank you!!
sorry not sorry to get you back into the fic writing madness? lol
M Xx
1st February 2021 @ 10:16 pm
Reni_dats republished FYI on ao3 a while ago! Here’s the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24086596
8th February 2021 @ 3:01 pm
OH! thank you. I wonder why it didn’t show up in my google search, how odd. Thank you, I’ve updated the rec list!!
M Xx
14th January 2021 @ 10:41 pm
ooh! also! fic recs!
i just reread this:
A Heap of Broken Images (the digital life remix) by glim
https://archiveofourown.org/works/715871
reincarnation, very short, gen, makes me very sad but it’s more hopefully melancholy than miserable
And like the cycle of the year, we begin again by katherynefromphilly (first in a series)
fandom staple i think but for any new fans, it’s so good!! merlin/arthur, arthur returns, mature (explicit sex scenes which as far i can remember aren’t too plot essential but don’t quote me on that), has hilarity and angst and epicness in equal measure.
These Breaths We Breathe by kayura_sanada
https://archiveofourown.org/series/137616
this is a series and it’s reaaally long. read the warnings, please. i mean, always read warnings, but especially here. does a thing i think is often lacking in fic, which is that it gives arthur the time and space to really process merlin’s magic and arcs him relatively realistically.
14th January 2021 @ 10:43 pm
more things to add to my open tabs, yay!!! 😀 😀
(that sounded sarcastic, but I couldn’t mean this more genuine!!!)
14th January 2021 @ 10:55 pm
A Heap of Broken Images (the digital life remix) by glim
😢 😢 😢 😢 😢 😢 😢
14th January 2021 @ 9:28 pm
ah this episode was so fun! i wish i had time to actually read everything you recommended. well, i have time, since i’ve made a very strict schedule for myself, but after spending five hours every weekday reading on my laptop (no access to physical libraries makes me sad…) reading more on a screen is… less appealing than it would otherwise be. oh well. i’ll be saving that rec list for later!
anyway, most of the enjoyment i get from this is actually the bit of my brain that’s just fascinated by how fandom works – the fact that fanon is even a thing that exists is so interesting! like, as a collective people pick up ideas like “the modern au equivalent to merlin having magic is for him to be an artist” is so cool! it reminds me of the les mis fandom actually – grantaire is so universally headcanoned as an artist that new fans or fans who haven’t read the book don’t realise that he isn’t an artist in the book. we all just kind of… decided he was. and the les mis modern au equivalent of arthur being a businessman is enjolras being a lawyer or a law student – it’s like “here’s a serious character doing a serious and difficult job/degree that makes him stressed and grumpy and possibly unfulfilled in life” – and i guess enjolras and arthur both have the whole idealism vs practical leadership thing going on? and even though grantaire and merlin are totally different characters and bring differents things to enjolras and arthur respectively, the way the characters are described physically seems to parallel them in a way – holey jeans, messy dark hair, etc. like fic writers only have one idea of what an artist looks like 😉 but also it’s really obvious to me when the writer, however good, has not yet been to university and/or has not met any actual art(/arts/humanities) students. that’s a tangent. tl;dr, if you ever feel like chatting about your histories in fandom and/or your opinions on how fandom works and why fic works the way it does, i’d be very interested! especially since i came to fandom later than you and my only experience of livejournal was both short-lived and very confusing (a brief stint in the horrible histories fandom, embarrassingly, and i couldn’t figure out how the site worked at ALL)
14th January 2021 @ 9:45 pm
If you are into podfic, I can send you a fair number of these as podfic files, if that helps at all? Merlin was awesome for podfic, and I’ve just send a whole bunch to someone else, and was thinking while I was doing it, I should totally have done a round robin call first, and send it to multiple email addresses haha but yes, let me know, happy to wetransfer podfic, if it lightens your laptop screen reading load? 🙂
and yes, fandom, and how fanons come about is an amazing thing, and insanely fascinating! Ruth is hugely into The Old Guard fandom at the moment, partially because she likes everything fandom can give you about the old guard, that the movie didn’t, but partially also because it is insanely fascinating! I haven’t dipped my toes in it, at all, but I love listening to her talk about this whole group of fanfic writers suddenly being confronted with thousand years of history, and language barriers, and trying to figure out how these characters would have communicated, across the hundreds and hundreds of years they’ve known each other. there’s also something very amazing about fandom, which largely has been english language speaking dominated, suddenly doing a ton of research into foreign languages and getting beta readers that speak these languages, or being corrected by people, because they used google translate for stuff, but missed all nuance of language… And yes, I love your description of ‘this is what an artist looks like’ haha I was just listening back to an old episode of ours where we talk about the ‘villains in Merlin are ugly’ short hand that is used, and why it is used, and how it universally translates. I think the ‘jobs people can have in fanfic’ works in a similar way. you just need a short hand that will work for everyone, which is why people have this “proper” jobs, that you know what exactly they do every single day, or the nebulous “business man”, who wears suits, and signs contracts, and is terribly terribly important, but no one actually understands the ins and outs of it all haha
I think it would be very very easy to convince us to do a fandom generic episode. we LOVE talking about fandom, and all its idiosyncrasies, and how things become fanon, and fandom wars and why you suddenly get people standing up on podiums shouting about how their fanon is correct, whereas this other fanon is utter nonsense… fandom is wild and I love it!!!
I feel like I literally grew up on livejournal, so it’s very strange to think back on it and realise that yeah, it was kind of confusing, cause everyone had their own blog, but then there were also the communitites, and there was different ways of filtering and locking things, to keep people out of various places, so I can see how things were confusing. But I was running multiple communities and moderating a whole bunch of groups, so to me it’s like breathing air, and god, livejournal declining is still one of my most painful phases in fandom… 🙁 🙁 🙁 and I’m now on tumblr like ‘but I don’t get it, this doesn’t make any sense, how do I talk to people???’ hahaha
M Xx
14th January 2021 @ 10:03 pm
ooh yes podfic recs would be very helpful! thank you!!
gosh that all sounds so complicated – i couldn’t even figure out how to make your text go under a link (whatever the livejournal equivalent of tumblr’s “read more” feature is) and aged 13 or whatever was a tad nervous to be yelled at bout community rules by 18 year olds who it turned out were writing a lot of surprising pwp…
14th January 2021 @ 10:07 pm
which, again, suddenly reminded me that I learned basic html, because I had to, because of livejournal, and that’s something I now use in my job and people are like ‘why do you know this???’ and… erm… well, I had to learn it, because I wanted to read the suprisingly large amount of pwp on livejournal just isn’t an acceptable workplace answer, somehow… hahaha
there’ll be a wetransfer file coming your way, as soon as my internet will send it (slowest. wifi. EVER.) haha
14th January 2021 @ 10:24 pm
podfics veeeery slowely coming your way! I sent the most easy to grab from this rec list that I had on my laptop, and also a few that weren’t in this rec list, but we’ve talked about on the thinky thoughts fic brackets episodes we did or that are just SO GOOD! but shout if you want more, as I have many more, which honestly isn’t even scratching the surface, so if you want to jump in at the deep end…
http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/category/television-fandoms-live-action/merlin-bbc
🙂
14th January 2021 @ 10:58 pm
thank you so much!!
14th January 2021 @ 11:00 pm
Yayy, thank you, I’m also very much into podfics – one can only read so much…
If you have any that are no longer to be found online, I’d also be very happy to receive a transfer – in your own time of course, I don’t want to overburden your wifi 😉
14th January 2021 @ 11:05 pm
I’ve just emailed you three links, let me know if they work! I don’t think there’s a download limit on wetransfer links, but if there is. I’ll upload them proper. Not sure which if them are or are not online, sorry, but it’s all the good stuff I have on my laptop 🙂
oh, including All the Other Ghosts, the Glee fic Ruth and I go on about A LOT, just in case you want to venture there… lol
14th January 2021 @ 11:37 pm
They’re working, so it’s all good 🙂 Thank you so much! 🙂
14th January 2021 @ 9:16 pm
First of all, THANK YOU for the recs. SO MUCH TO READ NOW! And I’m only one third through the Loaded March! Oh well, sleepless nights are coming 😀
Secondly, I love how you talk about fanfic as a genre, including some meta in it, because it also helps me know if I’m going to like the work you’re reccing 🙂 And I agree a lot with what you’ve said about creating your own version of the characters before you’re ready to embark on an AU adventure. So true!
That being said, since you encouraged us to share some of our recs too, here’s my humble list on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TyalanganD/bookmarks
It has many fandom classics on it, as well as some fics you already recced on Thinky Thoughts, so I’m just going to briefly highlight the fics that might be lesser known (or moderately known, idk 😉 ):
“The Lonely King” by Cori Lannam – Modern Royalty AU, of course 🙂 I love this one because Merlin is an anti-monarchist and he writes an anti-monarchist blog with Will. While Arthur reads the said blog in secret. And it’s HILARIOUS. There is also some sadness, but all in all, it’s a very heartwarming story.
“The Wallfahrt Witch” by rotrude – historical AU. Rotrude writes a lot of historical AUs which are usually pretty well researched, and I remember you once reccing their “Viking Slave” on Thinky Thoughts. The one I’m reccing takes place in post-reformation Germany and Merlin is an organist. I repeat, Merlin is an organist. <3 And honestly, this fic is such a Mood. It's pretty Halloween-y, though there is no Halloween in sight. But there are witches. And heartbreak, so be prepared.
"Gadarene" by unpossible – canon divergent, in which Uther has died pre-season 1, Agravaine is the regent and Arthur is pronounced unfit to rule on account on a mysterious madness. There is some heavy stuff in this one (including rape/non-con), so be warned. But I like it for taking a bit more possibly historically realistic take on Camelot. And it's very well written.
"From the Ashes" by RandomSlasher – Canon divergent. Quoting the summary, "When Merlin uses magic to save Arthur’s life, he is condemned to death, and Arthur is too late to save him. But when the grief-stricken prince, along with Morgana and Gwen, journeys to Ealdor to return Merlin’s ashes, a series of strange events leads them to believe the warlock may not be as dead as they thought." It's beautifully written. Merlin and Arthur are so soft.
"In Spite of Everything, The Stars" by Polomonkey – Modern AU with magic. Yes, it has kidnapping. Yes, it has some problematic themes. But it also deals very well with the trope of magic users being discriminated in modern society. It also has one of the most devious Uthers I have ever read in fic. And I love the psychological portrait of Arthur in this one. Having been raised in a home full of propaganda, I really appreciate how Arthur works to battle his prejudices and how he deals with guilt. It's nicely done. And it has the most beautiful art by mushroomtale.
"Come Alive" by kianspo – Modern AU with magic, taking place in modern Camelot which very much resembles any modern British city with a castle. Arthur is a police officer and Merlin is… well, a genius student who's broke. And there is someone who's killing all the magic users in the city. This one is truly epic. It has engaging plot, and Merlin is so well portrayed (especially in how he has problems with accepting others' help).
"Awake" by kathkin – Canon divergent, in which Arthur discovers he has magic and I LOVE IT.
"Not a Girl" by YvonneSilver – Canon divergent / canon 1-shot in which Merlin is trans. And magic.
I'm also reccing 2 Merlin/Morgana fics for those who feel adventurous:
"Homecoming" by Elveatas – historical AU/reincarnation – it's 19th century, and they are a power couple. And they shag (not) on a carpet.
"The Snow Must Go On" by Polomonkey – a very fluffy modern AU. It's all snow and winter cabins and sweetness.
Thank you again! 🙂
14th January 2021 @ 9:55 pm
oh, amazing, thank you!!! I made the mistake of doing a deep dive into my bookmarks for this episode, and I now seriously have half the stuff I chose to rec open on browser tabs, word documents, and my phone, to re-read, however I will happily add a dozen more recs to it!!!!
I actually feel like I’ve read the lonely king, though neither the title nor the author ring any bells, but the blog definitely does!!
–The one I’m reccing takes place in post-reformation Germany and Merlin is an organist. I repeat, Merlin is an organist. <3 --
This is why I love fandom!!!! Of course Merlin is an organist, what else would he possibly be? fandom's amazing hahaha
--"Gadarene" by unpossible--
hahaha literally open on the tab next to this one, as I type haha I clearly loved it enough to save in word a decade ago, but didn't get a chance to re-read it before we recorded this episode, and I have veeery little memory of it, but desperately wanted to re-read it, so it will go higher on the priority list, thanks!
-- Having been raised in a home full of propaganda, I really appreciate how Arthur works to battle his prejudices and how he deals with guilt. It's nicely done. And it has the most beautiful art by mushroomtale.--
this sounds fantastic! I think quite often the "turn around" arthur makes is very simplified in fanfic (understandably so, I'm not knocking it!) so I look forward to reading this
--"Come Alive" by kianspo --
I must have read this, as I will read pretty much anything by kianspo, but it rings no bells, and again, sounds fantastic!
--"Awake" by kathkin – Canon divergent, in which Arthur discovers he has magic and I LOVE IT.--
LOVE!!!!
--"Not a Girl" by YvonneSilver – Canon divergent / canon 1-shot in which Merlin is trans. And magic.--
which just reminded me I didn't get it into this rec list, but there's a number of trans Merlin stories which I really rate. I am very aware, I cannot speak for how authentic the experience is portrayed, but I absolutely love Edit The Sad Parts by cruentum
https://archiveofourown.org/works/246837
–I’m also reccing 2 Merlin/Morgana fics for those who feel adventurous–
haha nice! I multiship with the best of them, so I am here for it!
Thank you
M Xx
14th January 2021 @ 11:02 pm
Oh wow, thank you for the trans fic, I’m definitely gonna read it! I’ve been also searching for a fic where Merlin / Arthur / whomever else is nonbinary, but without much luck… If anyone knows, let me know! If not, I’ll have to write it myself ^^
14th January 2021 @ 11:07 pm
can’t say I’ve ever come across nonbinary fic, but I’ll keep an eye out for you 🙂
there’s also this one, which I haven’t re-read in a long long looooong time, but at the time liked enough to save in word, too, so must have struck a chord back in the day 🙂
https://archiveofourown.org/works/162516
14th January 2021 @ 11:24 pm
I’ve also been on the lookout for good trans fics – surprisingly few on Ao3 for such an established fandom. If you ever write one, let me know! Or maybe I’ll do it one day.
14th January 2021 @ 4:50 pm
Hi! I am so happy there’s an update, and it got me ridicoulsly exited 🙂 So thanks for making these days a bit brighter! I just wanted to pop in to say that apparently, my cat loves you guys’s voices, as the little traitor started purring as soon as I played the episode :”)
(I’m also not sure what the ‘your website’ thing is, so I hope I won’t need it to comment xD)
14th January 2021 @ 9:56 pm
beloved by cats! that’s basically all I have ever aimed for in life!!! what’s the cat called? 🙂
I’m really not sure about the ‘your website’ thing, but I haven’t found a way to edit it. I think it’s because originally wordpress was a blogging site, so I guess it’s so people can link to their own blog? maybe? but yeah, it makes no odds if you leave it blank, it’s all good 🙂
M Xx
14th January 2021 @ 12:33 pm
Happy New Year and thanks for this fic rec episode! Lots of fics there to add to my list. I adore fanfiction (I came to it very late – only 4 years ago and I am in my 50s so making up for lost time!) and the Merlin fandom is particularly rich, diverse – and prolific! So yes please from me for more of these rec episodes 🙂
14th January 2021 @ 12:40 pm
a vote for yes it is! hope this will keep you busy for at least a little while 😀 😀 😀
M Xx