Title: Between the Bars by kiki-miserychic
Musical artist: Chris Garneau
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Length: 2:30 minutes
Author on LJ: kiki_miserychic
Author Website: vid tag
Why this must be watched: I've decided to rec a songvid for crossover day, for one simple reason: it's awesome. It takes the Arthurian myth from so many different sources, and weaves it into something that shines new light not only on Prince Arthur and Merlin in Merlin, but on why this story has endured for so long and still contains so much power.

Between the Bars

Vidder: Steakslim
Musical artist: Kenji Kawai
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: steakslim
Vidder's website: None
Why this vid kicks ass: This is very, very violent, but then that's pretty appropriate for a songvid about war. Steakslim treads a difficult line here, between glorifying violence, and horrifying the viewer, and does it brilliantly. Even though "EpicKU" is very short, the balletic, epic grace of so much beautifully shot bloodshed builds to a climax that always leaves me both disturbed and uplifted, as well as remembering quotes about the middle ages, like: "It was a time of blood and roses."

EpicKU

Fandom: KING ARTHUR
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot
Author on LJ: amari_z
Author Website: same
Why this must be read: I'm being a bit selfish and for my last rec I'm posting a fic that was written for me for my birthday last year.

No one does a Lancelot voice like my friend A here. This fic suited my day and my mood perfectly and it captures the typical Arthur and Lancelot day - Arthur being his obtuse, melancholy self, and Lancelot being a brat - and then showing he does have more than his own interests at heart.

And actually I think that is part of Lancelot's downfall in the end, and his greatest feature - the hidden self sacrificing friend and loyal soul mate that is buried under layers and layers of bitchiness, loneliness and sarcasm. Arthur reacts perfectly to this - thus the reason they work so well. Both so silly and never making anything easy for one another.

(although don't tell Lancelot I said that. He'll have me for breakfast - and not in the good way. :p)


Here's Fates Weave.

I want to let y'all know I've had a really fun time this month, and I hope all of you have enjoyed delving into the small, relatively wank-free fandom that I love like a second home. I'm very very glad that crack_van chose King Arthur as a small fandom at last and I look forward to speaking to any of y'all that are interested in the fandom beyond what you've seen here.

I have several links on my user info page and feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers, everyone, and I raise my wine to you all.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR
Pairing: implied Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere
Author on LJ: countesscole
Author Website: same
Why this must be viewed: usually I see something in Crack Van where the mods let the posters know they can rec videos. I didn't see anything like that this time (I could be crazy due to work) and I've seen a few other vids rec'ed, so I'm including one here as it's the last day of my month. If this isn't okay, just take it down.

Cole does awesome editing. I don't think I've seen a fan vid done better than she does them. The song fits perfectly and I was so impressed by the quality of this video and the editing that I saw new things about a film I've seen many, many times. That to me is the mark of a quality vidd'er.

Here's So Cold by Breaking Benjamin. Visuals edited by countesscole.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot; Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere
Author on LJ: guede_mazaka
Author Website: (or a link to where more of their fic is archived)Here
Why this must be read:

There are multiple fics like this in every fandom, where basically the idea is to take a character or characters and change their outcome or future. The reason I've chosen to include this one is to showcase its delicate, flowery, aching words and its ability to make me cry for want of a different finish for one of my favorite characters in any fandom. *flails fists at screenwriters*

Guede's summary of this is "other possibilities," which definitely describes this fic. It's sectioned into five parts, each one a different outcome for Lancelot.


Five Ways The Arrow Missed can be found here.

I've got one more day to rec KA stuff, and will also include a video tomorrow as well, if the mods are okay with that.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot
Author on LJ: astolat
Author Website: Here
Why this must be read: This is a short but sweet post battle portrait of mid-service Arthur and Lancelot; they are still young but already poisoned by the dirty futility that is war.
It's essentially a PWP but the characterizations and dialog are so dead on that it reads like a piece of a book that you can't remember why you didn't finish. It does have the normal angst that fuels their relationship but it's not heartbreakingly sad like so much fic in this fandom.

( Excerpt )



Ante Bellum.

Enjoy this lovely and realistic portrait of love in war.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: Lancelot/Arthur/Guinevere; Tristan/Gawain, Galahad/Mariette
Author on LJ: guede_mazaka
Author Website: Tangible Schizophrenia.
Why this must be read: Here's Guede's summary of this series:

Modern-day AU, set in New York City partly at a fictional university, Avalon College, and partly at regional Interpol offices. The KA characters explore life and dating in the modern world, only with the unusual complications of guns, dark pasts, philosophy and pouncing. Light in tone, but tackles some heavy issues along the way. Guest stars from Horatio Hornblower [movieverse]. Series is technically ongoing, but each internal series is a self-contained episode.

And actually, as of today, the series is complete. *sniffs*

I love this AU because not only does it take characters that are complex and driven to do what is right in their own worlds for themselves and plops them into a modern setting, but does it with such believable aplomb that even if you don't like AU's this totally works.

Arthur is ex MI6, and Lancelot and Guinevere are Interpol operatives. Gawain, Galahad and Mariette (taken from Horatio Hornblower) are students at Avalon College, the school Arthur teaches for.

Tristan is Arthur's ward - sort of.

Many complicated and fun and heartbreaking twists and turns keep one interested through the whole thing - aside from the fact that Guede can write some of the best smut ever.

( excerpt )


Enjoy the complicated fun and original madness that is Theoryverse.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot and a bevy of knights and OC's.
Author on LJ: amari_z
Author Website: same as above.
Why this must be read: Oh, I could post a book on this story. Why should it be read? Well, one of the best things about the King Arthur fandom is you can take the notion of the AU type of story and go all kinds of crazy with it. guede_mazaka does one of the best versions of this - and I'll rec her AU later.

Resurrection is a stand alone that spawned an entire verse. I gleefully take credit and/or damnation for "influencing" Amari into writing more. As I mentioned before in Amari's other rec, she does one of the best Lancelot voices I've ever read. He's calculating, angry, controlled and explosive, sweet, young and stupid and adorable and full of issues and he loves/loved Arthur with all the violence their turbulent relationship deserves.

Her Arthur I don't necessarily agree with as much as I do her L (and that's mostly due to me being too much like Arthur and writing him as my primary character in my own stuff), but he's still so ridiculously Arthur (God love the poor sod) that I can't help but worship him too.

In this standalone Amari shows us a look behind the thought What if Arthur was the once and future king - but nobody told Lancelot?

I cannot rec this piece/series enough. Amari does twisty shifting plots and characters like almost no one in this fandom or any other for that matter that I've ever had the horrible pleasure to read.

Take some time and enjoy the story that spawned teh crack known as Resurrection.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: implied Arthur/Lancelot
Author on LJ: romanticalgirl
Author Website: same as above.
Why this must be read: This is one of the best examples of the pain that must be involved in every conversation, every action, every battle, every day between Arthur and Lancelot. Laura can do smut with the best of them, but my favorites of her King Arthur fics are ones like this - over-aching pain, endless round and round arguments, but in the end, Arthur's love for his lieutenant shining through the hurt despite whatever words and acid feelings Lancelot can heap upon him. Not just romantic love - though that's there - but heart love.

/schmoop. *laughs*


Arthur tugs his tunic over his head and presses the graying fabric against the crimson that runs down his throat. “It is not just you.” He gets to his feet, swaying slightly. “It is not just you who mourns their deaths.”


Limits by Laura Smith.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: Guinevere/Arthur; Guinevere/Lancelot
Author on LJ: literarylemming
Author Website: The Seventeenth Ring
Why this must be read: I first started talking to Melissa through Livejournal and through KAFF. While I'm not a follower of the love triangle of Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere anymore in this 'verse, this is one of the stories that I still enjoy and still sigh over. It is lyrical in its prose and the imagery is vivid and heart-rending.

I love the idea of the small amount of magic in this piece - the film basically cut out all ideas of magic in its retelling of Arthur, and while that works for the film, the idea of the magic involved in a blood ritual to call on a lost loved one works for any fandom.

This is a post movie AU, and features Guinevere, while married to Arthur, sill mourning Lancelot's death.

Melissa's Arthur is only in this fic for a small scene, but he's wonderful and steadfast and very human.

Here's The Silver Lady by Mnemosyne.

Each man, woman and child who saw the gray lady let her take a measure of their own sorrow, until it surrounded her like a shroud; living or dead, flesh or fairy, she had become a touchstone for the living to make their peace with the dead. They let her pass unmolested, and never a word was spoken to the Silver Lady. In exchange, she bore their silent prayers, painful regrets, secret hopes and lingering desires, and carried them on small feet into the dark forest that loomed in the shadow of Arthur's fortress.

Two men knew the Lady's name. One was her lord, and he spoke not a word. The other was her lover, and he dwelt with the dead.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (2004)
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot
Author on LJ: dea_liberty or tigers_prowl
Author Website: tigers_prowl
Why this must be read: Although Dea writes mostly in the Supernatural fandom now, she was the first person that I ever wrote slash with in the King Arthur universe.

She's young and very, very talented. She was one of the more actively posting writers in this fandom, and I'd never read slash that was so poetic and poignant and absolutely something that will suck you in and grab a hold of your throat only to never let you go until her stories have wrung the life out of you.

I'd never read stories written about men who were still men but loved strongly and with every breath in their bodies. Her Arthur and Lancelot are almost like Romeo and Juliet to me - fighting as long as they can against the constraints of their situation, until reality intervenes and crushes them.

I'm an h/c addict, can you tell? *laughs*

Here is Sign, Symbol, Token, a multi part fic that was written originally for a challenge issued on the King Arthur group I run.


Footsteps on the battlements - and he recognises them before the voice he's come to know so well has even called his name.

Lancelot. The young boy who'd grown up to be his best knight - one he'd have to inevitably send out because of the orders (had the most chance of coming back - but so small Arthur can't even imagine it) - and the one he doesn't want to lose the most. He hates the fact that he's come to care for this one particular knight more than the others - his second in command, in friendship - but he knows he can't deny it; to lose Lancelot would be like losing his soul.

And the other man doesn't even know it.

Fandom: KING ARTHUR
Pairing: implied Arthur/Lancelot
Author on LJ: guede_mazaka
Author Website: Here is her archive.
Why this must be read: Guede is someone I started reading at the very beginning of my King Arthur obsession. She leans toward slash and poly fics, but in this particular fic the solitary character is featured. It's truly a study of my boy Lancelot and my other favorite character in the film, Dagonet.

Dagonet doesn't get his due in this fandom. At first glance he could be seen to be somewhat staid and boring, but I feel he's got a lot of unexplored depth, and Guede does a fantastic job here of showing not only Lancelot's issues with relationships and his general attitudes toward life, but Dagonet's as well.

Most of the other fic by Guede I'll feature will be more "ship" oriented, but I chose this one as the first one of her fics to rec because it's short, sweet and one of the best pieces of King Arthur character development I've ever had the pleasure to read.


( Excerpt )



Flotsam

Hiya. I'm Ashley, like I said, and I present my first rec for the King Arthur fandom for February.

I'm a slash fan, so most of my recs will be slash fics. However, I will rec some gen stuff too.

And away we go!

Fandom: KING ARTHUR (film version 2004)
Pairing: Arthur/Lancelot
Author on LJ: amari_z
Author Website: Amari tags most of her work so it's easy to find.
Why this must be read: I discovered amari_z through knightgasm, which is a KA comm here on LJ. She's a prolific, plotty, prose-driven writer who has one of the best Lancelot voices I've ever read. She's a tad mean to Arthur for my taste *laughs* but as he's my primary muse I'm afraid I'm a bit biased.

We're a small fandom so it's really interesting to me to see the different takes on the different knights - but Arthur generally has one defining characteristic that everyone picks up on - and that's guilt. The man would drop dead of a heart attack if he ever dared to do something for himself or to make himself happy for purely selfish reasons. Why Lancelot put up with him for so long I'll never figure out.

This is a small AU ficlet but it's very telling of Amari's style and of the way the fandom sees Arthur and Lancelot's relationship in general. The slashing of these two is probably the most popular pair in the fandom and I think this fic is an excellent first way to share that idea with y'all.

Amari doesn't use traditional ratings so I've guessed at an R for this. It does have descriptive slash in it.


Words Unspoken

Hi. Let's try this again since I now have a basic understanding of how most normal things work. *headdesk* Sorry. It's been a weird week for me - I'm not normally this slow.

I'm Ashley. I'm going to be driving one of the small fandom vans this month. The fandom I'm currently squeeing over (and have been for quite some time) is King Arthur, the film that was released in the summer of '04, starring Clive Owen.

Here's my Overview - and I shall cut it since it's long, and them's the rules.

Overview for King Arthur (2004), crack_van small fandom February, 2007.

( Read more... )