Slightly Tookish

Title: Hunith’s Decision
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Hunith, Merlin
Rating: G
Word Count: 200
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Hunith decides to send Merlin away.
Notes: Spoilers for episode 1x01 “The Dragon’s Call.” Thank you to sophinisba for the prompt.

( Hunith’s Decision )

I've had a very nice day of doing Not Much as I recover from my crazy week :) Most notably, this afternoon I finished up Doctor Who season four which I adored so much. ♥ I really love the multi-part episodes and this is something I wish they'd do on Merlin as well so that they'd have more time to develop the villains and the plots (and because cliffhangers are fun!).

Speaking of Doctor Who, let me introduce ( the newest member of the family: )

( cut for spoilers )

Title: No Time Like the Present
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Arthur and Merlin
Rating: G
Word Count: 525
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Arthur, to his credit, listened very patiently when Merlin appeared in his rooms completely drenched in lake water and babbling some nonsense about a sword.
Notes: Spoilers for episode 1x09 “Excalibur.” Thank you to glass_icarus for the prompt.

( No Time Like the Present )

I finally got to watch The Hunt for Gollum. It looks great - the costumes, the scenery/sets, everything! It's almost hard to believe that it's a fan-made video. There are a couple of scenes between Aragorn and Gandalf that I really enjoyed. It's definitely worth a watch for a LOTR fan :D

Also! Check out the trailer for Born of Hope :D

As for this week's Lost: ( cut for spoilers )

Title: The King’s Ward
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Uther, young Morgana, with a tiny glimpse of young Arthur
Rating: G
Word Count: 829
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Uther was not a neglectful father. He was simply a very busy man, and not given to coddling children. So when Morgana arrived at Camelot, looking small and pale and reminding him so much of her father, Uther was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with her.
Notes: Mild spoilers for series one, especially episode 1x12. Morgana is 10 years old. I don’t think the show makes it clear whether she’s older or younger than Arthur, but they’re close enough in age that I’ve imagined him here as anywhere between 8 and 12 years old. Thank you to rivendells for the prompt – it’s evolved a bit, but I hope you still enjoy. Many thanks to thedoingofit for the beta!

( The King’s Ward )

I've finished my Paper of Doom, yay! It's edited and formatted just in time to hand in tomorrow. And I'm completely worn out from it, which means I need to talk about fandom stuff to recuperate :)

~ Doctor Who: I've finished the third season and am currently two episodes into the fourth, and I'm completely in love. ♥

~ Lost: ( do not click unless you've seen the most recent episode, even though I will not discuss spoilers outright )

~ Merlin: Many thanks to staraflur for linking to these on-set photos (all from series one, so no spoilers). I have so much love for these photos, especially these: ( because this post needs more Colin. And more Bradley. )

I will never tire of seeing the epic battle of Colin v. gigantic jacket. (Will Colin ever win?) :D

( cut for spoilers )

Icon meme gacked from magickalmolly, who chose six of my icons for me to discuss:

( six icons )

If anyone else wants to play, let me know and I'll choose six icons for you :)

P.S. Happy Birthday to staraflur!

Last night was the finale for Little Dorrit, which I liked very much except for the last twenty minutes or so, which totally baffled me. I had to go and poke around online to find a clearer explanation of who was related, who wasn't related, and just what happened with all the money at the end. I wish the filmmakers hadn't rushed the final episode so much - I thought the pacing was great throughout the series until the end, which involved too many confusing explanations at hyper speed.

Oh, well. I still liked the miniseries overall. I really liked the costumes and the lighting was SO pretty, all the shadows and beams of sunlight, yay! I LOVED Sparkler and Fanny and John Chivery. Aww, John! Russell Tovey was just so precious and heartbreaking and a total scene-stealer. Also, Andy Serkis played an over-the-top villian, complete with a French accent that kept reminding me of the "evil revolutionary" from Blackadder (about four minutes into this clip). :D

*collapses in exhaustion* I actually have a first draft of my Paper of Doom. It's a little rough in some places, and it's still lacking a conclusion (which I'll write after I re-read the entire thing, as it's over 20 pages now and everything I wrote about in the beginning seems a little fuzzy at the moment) but there it is. Yay!

I've been watching more Doctor Who - I'm almost at the midpoint of the third series - and I'm in love. And because I have no willpower when it comes to icons, I now have a pretty new one :)

Some fun fannish stuff:

~ Wodehouse Saved My Life by Hugh Laurie. An absolute GEM of an article ♥

~ There are some new on-set Merlin series 2 photos here (spoiler warning, of course!) :D

~ The final part of Little Dorrit is on tonight, woot!

One sad note: the Merlin Easter eggs departed for Avalon today. They lasted much longer than usual but still, sigh!

It's a very dreary Monday. I'm going to focus on some happy things:

1. After a discussion about Lost and Star Wars, the lovely o_deanna made me Darth Dr. Chang, complete with a Dharma rabbit! So sinister and yet so adorable. Thanks again! ♥

2. Little Dorrit last night was wonderful yet again. I can't believe that next week is the final episode already. I've really enjoyed watching it.

3. Yesterday I also watched two more episodes of Doctor Who: "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" and I ADORED them both. I especially loved the references to His Dark Materials. But my heart belongs to the Daleks...they are so cute and evil and snarky and hilarious. Am I horrible for squeeing over them? :D

4. Finally, gealach_ros posted a bunch of on-set pics from series two of Merlin (mainly of the crew milling around an outdoor set). At the bottom of the post there are a couple of pics of Colin Morgan on-set. I don't see anything too spoilery in them, just Colin looking adorable as usual (and being somewhat overpowered by a gigantic puffy jacket, but that just adds to the charm) :D

There's a new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer here and it looks amazing. I think it's the best HP trailer I've ever seen. The music! Beautiful scenery! The unicorn tapestry (which I have a print of in my room)! Eeeee!

*bounces* Is it July yet? :D

ETA: Found a clearer version here :D

Last month I posted a list of things I want to see next season on Merlin (beware of season one spoilers in that entry). I've thought of a few more:

1. New clothes for Merlin and Gwen...which made me realize something about Gwen's wardrobe that may have been obvious to everyone else but surprised me:

( cut for season one spoilers )

2. Arthur's dogs. We hear about them but we never see them. I'm sure he has some tough-looking hunting dogs but wouldn't it be fun if he owned, like, teacup poodles? :D

3. In the fine tradition of Eowyn and Mulan, I'd love to see Morgana sneakily dressing up as a knight - which will be difficult to do, since Uther likes his background checks - and entering a tournament or something. Maybe this time Merlin can properly forge some documents (and by that I mean leaving a forged copy in Geoffrey's records too)? But leaving aside all issues of practicality, I'd really like to see Morgana beating everyone in the tournament including Arthur and then at the end taking off her helmet and revealing who she really is. Which would of course give Arthur even more issues than he already has, but it would be fun :D

4. MUSICAL EPISODE. The lovely kalamitykat brought this up, thinking that I had suggested it, and while I can't take credit for it I'll embrace it wholeheartedly. Because it needs to happen, it really does. Uther would totally get a Sweeney Todd-esque song about killing everyone (especially those pesky sorcerers), the girls...I don't know, I'm picturing something Mamma Mia-ish, with lots of bright colors and dancing and the sheer joy of being BFFs. And Arthur and Merlin can sing some sort of Wicked-type medley about how annoying they find each other but they're still the bestest friends ever and how just by knowing each other their lives have been changed for good. OMG I DESPERATELY WANT TO SEE THIS.

( cut for spoilers )

Title: Only the Beginning
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Morgana and the dragon
Rating: G
Word Count: 735
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Night after night she hears him calling for Merlin, his roars angry enough to shake the very foundations of the castle. No one else hears him; no one else feels the stones rattling in the walls. No one, except for her.
Notes: This takes place immediately after Episode 1x13, so spoilers for the entire series. Many thanks to thedoingofit for the beta.

( Only the Beginning )

I've done LOTR-themed Easter eggs in the past, and this year I wanted to try making some Merlin eggs :D

Spoiler warning: The first couple of pics are spoiler-free but the rest are a re-imagining of my absolute favorite episode of the series, so beware of spoilers for Episode 1x11: The Labyrinth of Gedref. (You can see the real scene here if you want :) )

Also, it's not dial-up friendly.





( Merlin eggs! )

So it turns out that I'm actually sick enough to require antibiotics, which I now have, and hopefully they'll work quickly because this severe ear pain/hacking cough routine is getting to be very tedious.

( last night's Lost, cut for spoilers )

Once again it's National Poetry Month, and I wanted to share a recording I found on YouTube of my favorite poet, W.B. Yeats, reading his work, including one of my favorites, The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

I first heard this recording in a class I took on Yeats a few years ago, and I'm really excited to find it on YouTube. It's wonderful to hear a writer read his own work, especially when it's Yeats, who had such a particular way of reading verse :)

In other news, I'm continuing to adore Little Dorrit on PBS. It's so beautifully filmed (the lighting is especially amazing) and the cast is fantastic. I'm so glad that there are three more episodes of it to look forward to.

I finally read it (but I still haven't seen the movie).

( Brief but potentially spoilery comments )

Nite Owl II is my favorite, because he's so wonderfully awkward and geeky. This should surprise no one, because I adore so many wonderfully awkward and geeky characters (like a certain other Dan from Lost...another inspiration?) :D