Really, this can all be blamed upon hllangel.

She's the one with whom I'd been joking about writing Merlin fic, and brought up the potential of a Big Bang. She's also the one who tracked down boxofmagic, and then shoved it in my face.

Totally her fault.

I'm currently signed up for Section 4, meaning a 35,000 word fic. I figure it'll force me to write that Merlin/Highlander crossover I've been waxing melodramatic about.

On that note, I'm probably going to set up a "Big Bang Progress" post somewhere in the next week with due dates, word minimums, and current word-counts. The first of my check-in deadlines has already passed, but I've got until March 1 before drafts start coming due, so a lot of things are still very much in the planning stages.

So, Merlin is apparently all that in fandom right now. Or at least in the running.

While I completely see the Slash Appeal - in the name of the Valar, the DRAGON ships Arthur/Merlin - I've gotten a little over 4 episodes in, and have concluded that there's just a sort of Train Wreck Appeal to the whole thing. I say "a little over 4", because I got five minutes into episode 5 and was overcome by a perverse desire to dig up old Hercules or Xena episodes to see how their CGI compared with Merlin's.


The clip is essentially spoiler free - no names are mentioned, and it's pretty damn hard to even tell what's being battled.

The conclusion this leaves me with is that Merlin is being produced with an SFX budget roughly equivalent to my monthly groceries (and this includes their fight/stunt coordination). Most of this went into paying for the neat little trick with Merlin's eyes. This doesn't mean the show is bad; it just means that one has to be realistic when it comes to expectations. I find that if I acknowledge that it is in no way set on Earth, the suspension of disbelief works a lot better. Also, it's just really fun to watch for the simple purpose of ID-ing what random branch of Arthurian Mythology they decide to mutilate next*.

For the alternative approach, I recommend cf33's Merlin Drinking Game.

*For the Record: I'm currently writing my Senior Honors Thesis on the evolution of familial obligation in the King Arthur Mythology, studying works from 0900-1500, give or take.

So, due to unexpected weather (5-12" in various parts of town. And, honestly, who believes the predictions for snow these days? Especially when it stopped yesterday by noon. Of course, it re-started around 11PM, but still...), Repo! didn't happen. I may or may not make it over to the mainland while it's still playing. If I don't, life continues. Right now, it's looking like there will be a viewing party at my place when it comes out on DVD (b/c it's about 1/3 the cost to just buy the DVD instead of paying ferry fare, bus fare, parking, movie admission, and dinner). Reading Week FTW, right?

In other news, when I staggered into bed at 6:30AM after falling asleep on the couch at 2 when my guests left (End-of-Term Media Marathon: Prince Caspian, Torchwood - Everything Changes, Futurama - Bender's Game. Accompanied by: Baked Ziti, Baby Spinach w/ feta & dried cranberries with balsamic vinaigrette, freshly made garlic bread, homemade butter, Bailey's Mint Chocolate Fudge w/ Pecans, and homemade Almond Roca), I noticed that it was snowing kind of heavy (and accordingly turned off my alarm). Slept myself out, more or less, and ever since I finally made it into the living room I've been curled up under 2 blankets and a heating pad with a pile of Holiday Cards, more of the homemade bread, and tea.

Suffice it to say, I am feeling unusually Zen w/ the state of the world. I have 2 cards remaining to write, after which I will be completely done with my holiday obligations. The whole lot of them hit the post tomorrow on my way to campus. Once they're complete, I'll be pulling up my remaining academic work for the term and seeing if I can't get that more-or-less wrapped up tonight. The King Arthur paper is a bit of a loss - that's going to be another week in the writing, likely - but everything else goes in tomorrow, and then it's *done*.

I'm not allowing myself to write anything fannish until I've got these last couple of papers in tomorrow. This is because, given the way my brain has been chomping at the bit, once I start writing, I'm going to binge-write several of my Valentines in a couple of sittings. I'm pretty sure one of them will be the Massive!Narnia!Fic (brought back to the forefront of my brain by the possibly ill-advised acquisition of Prince Caspian). It's just so much fun to screw around with Narnian Movie!Canon, b/c there are so many areas in which to play and infer, and now I've got easy access to said movie!canon. *Happy sigh* Gods, that's going to be one cliched fic...

Oh, and fellow fan-types, I've decided that I want one of my Valentines to be Merlin fic. Thoughts, suggestions, prompts? It won't get posted until mid-February, so feel free to take some time to think about it, but help would be appreciated.