my happy is a cuddly and pornographic apolcalypse

On a topic completely unrelated to any current or near-current past events, it just occurred to me while pondering my reading is that Merlin has a very low proportion of uberangst. I mean, there is angst, but not like, the kind where you leave a story wanting to slit your own wrists in the bathtub afterward because, woe, the world is dark and all is doomed to love and despair, and even brownies soaked in chocolate fudge isn't going to help this.

...granted, this is because our (multiple) source ending is angsty as anything, so really, we're rebels and totally subverting the paradigm to synergize a new and exciting appropriation of the end game. I would like to encourage continuation of this trend.

I'd like to know if you are impressed with that sentence, too. I learned those words recently at an office meeting. I also learned you can't will yourself to death no matter how long you hold your breath. Odd, that.

Comments

[ranalore]

...granted, this is because our (multiple) source ending is angsty as anything, so really, we're rebels and totally subverting the paradigm to synergize a new and exciting appropriation of the end game. I would like to encourage continuation of this trend.

That's beautiful on so many levels. I might have shed a single perfect tear.

[seperis]

I admit it. I get tiny netgasms just reading it aloud.

[shina]

we're rebels and totally subverting the paradigm to synergize a new and exciting appropriation of the end game

Yes, totally. Not that I'm complaining, because as much as I am a sucker for angst, I live for happy endings. :)

[seperis]

Happyangst is good angst!

[jeeps]

i'm so impressed i'm adding you for that sentence.

[sami]

Yes. Yes, I am impressed.

[seperis]

*purrs* I am going to look up new and even more obscure buzz words now!

[ladyvyola]

Ooooo, ooooo! Miss! ::waves hand in the air::

We used to play that game in sv chat all the time!

Smallville as Meta-Text: A Critical Symposium

I am particularly pleased that we were tapping into underlying archetypes as this scenario is clearly adaptable with the Merlin setting:

[Vyola] But for the assigning of rent-boy status to Clark to be considered a valid reading of the genre, surely we must then accept the role of Lex as pimptastic. The spankings in front of the fireplace and the repeated chant of "Who's your daddy? Who's your daddy?" then take on a ritual tone, akin perhaps to early Christian assimilation of druidic fertility practices.

[Caro] While not discounting the influence of early rituals, one cannot avoid taking a psychoanalytic approach to Lex's daddy issues

[blueraccoon] Indeed, it's quite possible--probable, even--that Lex's pimptastic attitude and behavior toward Clark stems from unresolved issues with his own father. Clark's willingness to take on the rent-boy role, however, indicates some deeply buried issues of his own.

[Vyola] While Clark clearly equates to Electra and Jonathan takes up the role of Clytemnestra, we cannot forget that Martha wanders through Lex's internal dreamscape in the guise of Jocasta. Lex's baldness, his symbolic 'blindness' if you will, can only be seen as the result of his visit to the Sphinx (personified by Cassandra, of course)

[seperis]

Holy obscure text references are obscure, Batman!

[blueraccoon] Vy: If we accept that Clark is Electra and Jonathan is Clytemnestra, what role would Lionel fill? Achilles, perhaps?

[Caro] Darth Vader.

That was a thing of beauty. All of it. *breathless*

[fyrdrakken]

...granted, this is because our (multiple) source ending is angsty as anything, so really, we're rebels and totally subverting the paradigm

This, yes. In keeping with my Hypothesis of Balance in Fandom, the darker the source material, the fluffier the response, and vice versa. (Though in Merlin's case, the recent TV series is itself a fluffy reimagining of a really fucking depressing story cycle. But the fans are reaching back into the gloomy old legends, too, so the fics themselves show that range from schmoop to angst.)

[sgrio]

Am I allowed to metaquote DW posts?

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha.

*AMUSED*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*smiles beatifically*

[aelora.livejournal.com]

our (multiple) source ending is angsty as anything, so really, we're rebels and totally subverting the paradigm to synergize a new and exciting appropriation of the end game

I think this sentence needs to be on a bookmark.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It took me several tries to give it that special incomprehensible oomph.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Just you wait, this happened in Phantom Menace, for a while it was all "HAHA LUCAS, YOU LOSE." But then some people get bored of that, and they crave death and destruction and THE END OF THE UNIVERSE *eyes you warily*. And get this, they end the tail in UBER TRAGEDY that's not even IN canon.

...and then we get amnesia fic.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

YOU SHUT UP YOU.

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

I was honestly a little concerned when I started reading in the fandom, since the end of the standard mytharc IS so very very bleak. Then I realized the whole show and the fans and fanwriters were pretty much giving the finger to that in every way possible, and FELL IN LOVE.

Seriously. Seriously, there's nothing that makes me happier than a hopeful-ending Merlin/Arthur story, because for so damn long that story has been SO TRAGICAL, and it's so freaking cool that fandom's turning that on its head!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

YES THIS. HAPPY ENDING. I mean, end the world, sure, but add a happy ending, you know? Happy.

[fireflower314.livejournal.com]

I'd never really thought about that, but you're right. I approve.

(I'd approve even more if people were posting new fics tonight. I need something to distract me from the schoolwork I should be doing!)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I would approve of this as well. *stares at the Merlin authors out there*

[geeklite.livejournal.com]

'paradigm' is so last century. ;)

I would be perfectly happy for Merlin to be a fandom of fluff. And porn. Or at least fic where the angst happens and then Arthur kills it with his sword (either one).

Also, I have found that having two pens or pencils works best at meetings, because you can contemplate sticking one up each nostril and headbutting the desk.

[cathalin.livejournal.com]

So, no psychopathic mass murdering galaxy-conquering MFEO Merlin/Arthur?

That kind of thing *can* be happy, you know!

*whistles innocently*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Now did I ever exclude serial killing mass murdering OTPs from happy? No, I did not. *innocent*

[bendtothesun.livejournal.com]

Heh! Yes this! I like being in on a the awesome stories that everyone in fandom is talking about because hey, they've got actual happy and stuff in them and I can read them without having to click out halfway through! (confession: I have a very low tolerance for angst so... yeah :))

And since I'm here and I've been pimping this out to everyone Merlin: The First and Last (http://mclachland.livejournal.com/12966.html?view=162214#t162214)

*goes back into semi-lurkerdom*

[gweneiriol.livejournal.com]

...granted, this is because our (multiple) source ending is angsty as anything, so really, we're rebels and totally subverting the paradigm to synergize a new and exciting appropriation of the end game.

*puts on shades to shield eyes from shininess of sentence*

I also learned you can't will yourself to death no matter how long you hold your breath. Odd, that.

Was this learned during your office meeting too? I find that's when I try to will myself to death...well, that or to porn land. But going to porn land in the middle of the office never turns out well.

[justabi.livejournal.com]

I think this is why I have yet to be able to write Merlin, because I really like for it to have a happy ending in Merlin and ... I fail at that a lot. And I want like everyone to be happy and have (big-eared, magic) babies and flowers and hold hands and for some kind of Narnia arrangement where Arthur gets to be king and essentially have three queens and magic sparkles. The Mists of Avalon may actually have used up all my Arthur-related angst.

[verhalten.livejournal.com]

I'm unable to write Merlin fic for that same reason. And I have been trying. Don't get me wrong. I'm in love with all the fluffy fiction that's being produced, but.

But nothing. I love all the fluffy fiction that's being produced.

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Being a fan of happy endings, I'm now worried people are going to take this as a challenge... plz keeping subverting the Arthurian paradigm fans! It's a legend--obviously they got the names all mixed up anyway (or Merlin spent most of his post-teens shapeshifting like crazy... or some other fluffy events involving adorable dragons kittens)!

I did find this (http://skellerbvvt.livejournal.com/42494.html#cutid1) on the angsty side, but I think the bbc show lends itself much more easily to goofy humor than high tragedy.

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

What amireal said. First there was angst in The Phantom Menace! So much, so very much of it! And I admit it - I loved it! Loved the angst.

Then there was uberangst and suddenly there were dead puppies and life, the universe and everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Alas, now that you've brought up the uberangst, we'll be inundated by it in Merlin fandom, inundated I say! :(

We must resist and write about fluffy unicorns and Merlin and Arthur going off into the sunset, happy and healthy and living forever.

[elaran.livejournal.com]

ahahaah that sentence is pretty fantastic.

re: your last bit about not dying, there's a fantastic sentence that i love in sky full of that i was like whoa, yes, i was totally like this too:

When she was very young, Jeannie was terribly in love with the idea of death. She used to lie still and silent and hold her breath--but instead of going pale and lovely and frozen like paintings of ravished maidens and Roman women, she went red and gasping for breath. Death was romantic to her.

[perseid.livejournal.com]

Merlin is my happy, shiny place, and I hope to gods it does not go uberangst on me because I'll have to break up with it and I don't have the energy nor the inclination to go looking for a new affair right now.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

Okay, going by the amount of Merlin-apocalyptothon prompts, I would say there is certainly a need to blow things up, but looking at the nature of them, the fandom is still happy-fluffy about killing most of the planet - Merlin and Arthur are apparently like cockroaches that way.

[ionaonie.livejournal.com]

That is, by far, the most impressive sentence I think I've read all year.

It deserves an award *g*

[flamebyrd]

I skim-read the Sentence, then read the next paragraph, then went back and reread the Sentence to see if you'd use "synergy", and was satisfied to see that you had.

It's buzz-word compliant. I approve.

I also approve of the sentiment.

[vanishing-cake.livejournal.com]

That was a pretty epic sentence, yeah.

However, I must beg to differ on the matter of proportion. A decent body of semi-uberangst exists within the Merlin fandom because we are a strange bunch, and we like our daily dose of death and torture and madness and mindfuckery. Reincarnation! Fic is the ultimate subverting-the-paradigm FAIL; Arthur reborn ought to be a second chance at happiness (or third or twentieth) for him & co., but I can't remember the last time I read a reincarnation fic that wasn't tragic.

We do cuddly and pornographic when we get caught up in the one brief shining moment of it all, or when we play with AUs, but even then, in the back of our minds, we are very aware that the show we use as a happy fic springboard is supposed to end very badly and will probably break our hearts.

At least there will be jousting.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The legends lie. And if they do not, it is time for better legends.

*sniffs*

We do cuddly and pornographic when we get caught up in the one brief shining moment of it all, or when we play with AUs, but even then, in the back of our minds, we are very aware that the show we use as a happy fic springboard is supposed to end very badly and will probably break our hearts.

Well, tbh, everyone dies. At least canonically, Arthur's destiny is just not to die forever . Like Cthulhu, but more attractive, and without tentacles.

...though this does make me want to write Arthur by way of Lovecraft.