Fic: Men at sometime are the masters of their fate [Merlin, G/PG]

[bewarethespork]

Title: Men at sometime are the masters of their fate
Author: Jay (bewarethespork)
Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairings (in order of appearance): Uther, the Dragon, Merlin, Morgana, Gaius, Arthur; cameos from Mordred and Anhora. Can be read as Merlin/Arthur pre-slash if you squint.
Rating: PG, because I always feel strange rating things G.
Spoilers:

Comments

[persiflage_1]

I'm giggling that you quoted my comment about being 'a walking Shakespeare compendium' in your A/N.

As I said to you, I loved this fic - it's very clever and beautifully written. It's the first Merlin fic I've read so far, and what a brilliant one to begin with!

[bewarethespork]

Well, it's true! I think I giggled a bit when I first read your email, actually.

Thank you so, so much - both for beta-ing and for your review. I'm really glad you enjoyed the fic! :)

[persiflage_1]

Heh, well I don't blame for giggling...

Not only enjoyed the fic but got a (non-Merlin) plot bunny of my own out of it.

[bewarethespork]

For some reason, it makes me picture my Complete Works of Shakespeare with arms and legs, walking around and quoting at people...

Oooh, yay for plotbunnies! (Or not yay, as the case may be - I know they can be annoying at times.) I see you have a different plotbunny icon now - I like it.

[archaeologist_d]

This was lovely. I really liked the repetitions and the weaving and reweaving of things. Well done.

[bewarethespork]

Thank you! This was my first Merlin fic (and my first fic for any fandom in quite a while), so I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[autumn_belias]

This was an interesting interpretation and certainly not a bad one. I would have done a few things differently but that's entirely up to each author's own liking. The transition from Arthur standing over Uther's grave to his being invested King could have had one more explanatory sentence but all in all well rounded, I liked it. (Who the hell set the dragon free???)

Two things, mainly personal preference:
When you post fic announcement in a fic com please don't use an animated icon; it's distracting as hell when you're skimming stuff on your friends page and the eye is always drawn away from the header to the icon (at least mine is).
While I love to use quotes as titles myself, this one is a bit long. I like it because it very well sums up what the story is about and I adore the fate <-> destiny component that gets added (without explicitly doing so), I almost didn't click. I haven't read fic in a while and I'm generally picky but I really like this one, but many people simply don't click if the title doesn't speak to them (

[bewarethespork]

Hi, and thanks very much for your review! I'm glad you liked the fic overall, and appreciate your critique as well.

You're right, there were parts that could have been more fully explained. A lot of this is straight out of my Arthur headcanon, which means that it makes perfect sense to me, but not necessarily to everyone else. To answer your question about the dragon, I think that either Arthur set him free, or Uther was persuaded to free him before he died. The former is more likely than the latter, I think, though I've read some excellent fics where the latter was done very convincingly.

Hmmm, I'd never thought about the icon thing - the animation is my default icon, and I don't really change it often. But I'll bear that in mind for next time. As for the title, I guess I liked it enough that I hoped it wouldn't matter that it was so long. You made a good point about people simply not clicking, though. I'll bear that in mind for the future.

Thanks again for the review and for the concrit - I found it very helpful. :)

[megaloo13]

That was beautiful! I like your interpretation of Merlin and Arthur weaving their own destinies and not being ruled by it especially at the disgust Merlin showed towards the revelation in Le Morte d'Arthur that the Dragon was controlling Merlin's view regardin destiny to suit his own means.

There are no villains; there are only humans.
Ooooh, so much yes. Very true, and a valuable thing to keep in mind when dealing with Arthurian legend in general.

I also really loved individual character's reactions to the "pulse" of destiny. A very lovely read! :)

[bewarethespork]

About the whole "there are no villains" thing - most of my Arthurian headcanon is pretty heavily influenced by The Mists of Avalon, which makes a point of showing how even the "evil" characters weren't all evil, and the "heroes" were certainly not all good. I think those are the best stories: the ones that aren't about heroes and villains, but are just about human beings doing human things and then having to deal with the consequences, good or bad.

Thank you very much for the review, I'm really glad you enjoyed the fic! :)

[katakokk]

This is beautiful. I love the patterns and how you take one sentence and rework it for different characters and their values.

Great job!

[bewarethespork]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! :)