A totally unprompted merthur reclist

Why? Because I'm a woman possessed and more people need to read these gems in the year of our lord 2024

So Are They All, All Honourable Men by @seperis

Privileges of Rank by @seperis

Misrule by @thehoyden

In Want of a Wife by @singingkingoftheroad

Love Potion Number Nine (The Shy Remix) by @clea2011

Before the Sun Rises by @marguerite26

Sharing is Caring by @vegan-hermione

Stranded by fluffssnowflake (theyneeddrying)

A Collapsing Star With Tunnel Vision by @alienfuckeronmain

hold onto me as we go by @schweetheart

Dower the Stars by @thegertie

Nineteen by @kickflaw

If It Stands Still Long Enough by arthur_pendragon

A Modern Manservant by @mamalazzer

L’Intérieur by aprettyaway

Time Forward by @kianspo

Castle (the rules by which we live) by @kickflaw

Pieces of Us by dentedsky

Dyslexia Friendly Ao3 Skin (or at least an attempt at)

I've been slowly working at a dyslexia friendly skin following the design suggestions I've found in the British Dyslexia Association Style Guide.

You can find it here with all the instructions to install it

It is still a work in progress and I'm begging for feedback so that I can make it better for everyone.

To Do List:

I’ve updated the link to have a guide on how to customize the skin even for people who know nothing about css!

Next thing I’m working on is going to be the dark mode (which I know people are waiting for. I’ll publish it on the same ao3 work in that link as a new chapter, so if you want to be reminded just follow that work)

AND DARK MODE IS HERE

The link is still the same: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30918077/chapters/76349072 in chapter 2 you’ll find the customization guide for people who know nothing about css and in chapter 3 the dark mode skin!

I’ve made a few changes and adjustments. (these skins are always a work in progress) Most prominently the tags on mobile now look better when they are too long:

while before they showed like this:

everything is still in the link in the ao3 work. I’ve just changed the code and updated it.

Okay seriously... 🥺😭 this is amazing. Its hard to discribe what reading with severe dyslexia is like. But in a word, it sucks.

The appreciation I have for this skin is just...I can't. I wish I had found this sooner! No two people with dyslexia are exactly the same but if you have it, trying this skin is so worth while.

My art for Out of the Dark (Into the Light), part of this year's AfterCamlann big bang! I decided to go for a comic vignette approach and I'm pretty happy with the results. You can read it here!

Merthur Soulmate Fic Recs

For my @merlinbingo square I3, soulmarks

Strangled by the Red String of Fate by @idlestories

Explicit; 9,971 words; posted 2020; canon era

Idlestories writes the best banter between these two idiots and that's absolutely the case here! If you like this you should also read Nicest Thing, which might be my favourite ever Merlin fic (not soulmates).

The Rebel, the Prat and the Unfortunate Soulbound by Leandra @nuttersinc

Teen; 10,310 words; 2022; canon era

I loved betaing this fic. It is pretty darn hot for a teen rated fic, and very funny. Rebellious, sassy Merlin and pining Arthur <3 - another reluctant soulmates one.

Bare Your Soul by Polomonkey

Teen; 4,256 words; 2021; modern era

Delightful, funny and completely in character case of reluctant-soulmates, mixed with a classic bit of they-didn’t-realise-they-were-dating. Two sides of the same idiot. Loved Kilgharrah in this too.

Let it be you by Amithia

Explicit; 33,323 words; 2021; modern era

This is funny, and hot, and has a great cast of characters, besides the main pair. All the phone messages are brilliant. And it's a coffee shop au. Reluctant soulmates with great banter.

True Love by platonic_boner

Teen; 6,927 words; 2016; canon era

Recommended to me by my friend Seth and I loved it. Such a great concept and leading to delicious mix of mutual pining, light angst and funny misunderstandings.

And finally...

Honourable mention to Gamut by Nahara - great world-building in a contemporary/future country at war au. It's hot - there's quite an age difference so mind the tags if that's not your thing.

Also for something seasonal, Seth recommended Santa ain't got nothing on tone-deaf carollers by headfirstforwaywardhalos, which is also funny and I loved the concept for the soulmarks, which behave like mood rings.

modern au friends to lovers fics

- a hundred quid by supercalvin

- i love you more than you think, without any terms or conditions by junemo10

- easy if it’s you by hattukissa

- you hear him howling around your kitchen door by thenerdyindividual

- knights of the faceoff circle by kirani

- sorry i fucked your dad (not) by creammoon

- you’re there with open arms by merlinemrys (divineauthor)

- the boy with the dragon tattoo by fornevertash

- in desperate need of adventure by orphan_account

- treat me like a lover by caledonia

- you hear him howling around your kitchen door by thenerdyindividual

time travel merthur fics

- once and future by taketheshot

- a glimpse into the future by fahrenheitlove

- golden age by supercalvin

- unweave a rainbow by midnightlefay

- we’ll be a fine line (we’ll be alright) by merlinemrys (divineauthor)

- not our first time around by seravia

- time, mystical time by andiwriteordie

- i stepped out of time and landed in your lap by surrenderdammit

- the prick of a finger in exchange for a rose by 3ckster

- let’s do the time warp (hopefully not again) by justalittleobsessed

- long live the king, the priestess and the warlock

- time and time again by deansbrokenheart

- déjà vu by elirwen

- the time warp by p_peaches

- time’s arrow by schweet_heart (series)

- if i’d only known by albusgellertalways

- did i ever tell you that i have a quilt named wilt? by katasstrobee

- restart by plant_night

- albion: does not compute (plutonia’s birthday bash round robin) by little_dhampir, moonflower999, nebula5030, orphan_account

- stranded by fluffssnowflake (theyneeddrying)

- merlin is almost wise by lindsey_kkay

- past imperfect by thehoyden

- no more fucks to give by merlioske

- truthful dreams by scatteredmerlin

- would you wait for me by noel803

BBC Merlin Reverse Bang Sign-Ups Open!

It’s time to sign up for the 2023-2024 round of the BBC Merlin Reverse Bang!

If you haven’t already done so, please refamiliarize yourself with our FAQs & Info/Rules, as there are some big changes from the first round! Also check out this year’s schedule!

Without further ado, here are the sign-up links!

Podficcer sign-ups are open thru Sept 23rd and writer claims will open the weekend of Sept 30th.

Artist sign-ups are open thru Nov 18th, art is due on Dec 2nd, and writer claims will open the weekend of Dec 9th.

Please sign up, spread the word, ask any questions you have, and get hyped!!

We're a month into round three, and oh wow have you all hit the ground running! We've already got an amazing 122 participants, 44 of whom shared a whopping 90 fills in February! As ever, there's someone out there determined to skew the curve completely, having already filled over half their card in just 28 freaking days!

Last month you created fills including fic (63), art (16), gifs (6), art that is a gif (2), fanvids (2) and a lovely fic + art combo as well.

Merlin/Arthur are once again top of the ship list (45), but we've also had a fair few people claiming the bonus badge for either a gen work (30) or one of eleven different rarepairs! Remember, you've got until the end of March to claim the gen/rarepair bonus badge, so if there's a rarepair you've been itching to create something for or a gen dynamic you really want to see more of, now is your chance!

And now, on to the thing you actually want to see: the round up! As per usual, fills are sorted by ship and then by rating and hidden below the cut, and we look forward to seeing everything you create next!

by the_seaworthy_muffin

In which Arthur is a patient with the rottenest luck, Merlin is an overworked doctor, and they keep meeting at the Emergency Room. (This is NOT a fic about serious injuries or terminal illness!)

Words: 3010, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

‘Once and Future Pride‘ a fancomic collab with @papysanzo to celebrate this wonderful month! 🌈🏳️‍🌈

>>Arthur’s Side 

>>Read it on Ao3

Consider Participating in Fandom Trumps Hate

Do you create fanworks for BBC Merlin? Do you wish there were more fanworks for BBC Merlin? Do you wish you could get your favorite fanartist,  fic writer giffer, podficcer, or other fan creator to make a thing specifically for you? Do you wish you had a way to raise money for progressive charities and programs, or were better about donating to those causes yourself?

Consider getting involved with Fandom Trumps Hate. It’s a fan charity auction in which fan creators sign up to offer a work as a thank you gift. Whoever bids the most on that thank you gift donates that offering directly to one of the supported organizations, and then gets a custom thank you gift in return.

Do you want your favorite artist to draw Gwen as knight? Do you wish there were more fics out there for Merlin/Elyan? Would you kill for a gifset comparing the way Arthur looks at Gwen to the way he looks at Merlin? Those are things you can offer as a creator, or potentially request from a creator as a bidder.

This is a pan fandom event, so if you’re new to Merlin and don’t feel comfortable creating for it yet, you’re perfectly welcome to sign up as a creator for a different fandom. I have participated the last four years, and it’s a great way to raise money and motivate yourself to get those WIPs finished. 

For more info check out @fandomtrumpshate​ or take a look at their CARRD which can be found here.

Even if you can’t participate, consider reblogging this so that it reaches more Merlin fans. The more people to bid on, the more money raised!

Forgot to post about this until I saw someone on here had bound Like The Cycle of the Year we Begin Again and I was like wait I bound The Student Prince by FayJay into a book a while back. Merlin fanfic classics library assemble!

Made some fanfic writer achievements, might add more later

Part 2

Give me Merlin fic recs I forgot what reading fanfiction for big established ships is like and I am lost in a sea of mischaracterizations

I promise you, this is the best fic for characterisation, not just of Merlin and Arthur, but all the characters.

Oh my god I’m so excited it’s so long!!! I fucking love canon rewrites I’m going to occupied for at least three days lol

@fictional-femme this fic will rewire your brain chemistry. good luck and god speed

@aemelia I started it today! I’m like a fourth of the way through (let’s not discuss that, of course I wasn’t at work what are you talking about) but I am OBSESSED already (I am very anxious about it’s unfinished nature)

Okay, so, I get it. Its a great site! You can post things there without worry that someone who claims that media seeing it and sending lawsuits on your ass.

You can write all sorts of things, and you can have it be taggable and organizable on this neat website.

It runs donations every now and again so that they can keep the site's servers (and therefore the stories) up. It also keeps a team of lawyers so that any person who takes issue will have to deal with actual law know how.

Thats great, and I love the site for the neat, organizable system it is. It sucks that people write shitty stuff, but fiction can help you run through situations you never want happening irl, and if you dont like it, don't read it!

But. Uh. Enough about ao3, the twitter post is made by a Thorki shipper. They emphasize the part of no censorship of adult content. Hm.

Okay look, you made a very rational post for the most part, and I am not trying to pick on you or start a fight (unlike my recent replies to anon where I let my cranky out full-steam).  You appear to be generally getting the drift, and I appreciate your moderate tone.  

I am not bitching at you, here.  I am kind of laughing at you, though.  In a gentle and non-aggressive way.

I, uh, I have some news for you... about the people who, y’know, founded AO3:

Oh this is... *chef's kiss* I haven't seen such delicious dramatic irony in the wild since the days when first-time New Who viewers would plaster their Doomsday liveblogs and distraught Tenth Doctor Feels reaction posts with that one "I'm in a glass case of emotion" gif.

ASTOLAT STARTED AO3?!?!?!?!?!?!

I should be used to these posts by now, but they never fail to crack me up.

AO3 was proposed in astolat’s 2007 post An Archive of One’s Own (making the Virginia Woolf reference even more obvious).

Always hilarious. A little sad, in that it shows how much people don’t look into the “About” pages or histories of popular websites, but also, delightful that AO3 is being used by people who have no idea why it was made; it’s just useful to them. (Which was absolutely the plan.)

But yeah. AO3 is never going to get rid of the underage sex, the incest, the sex-pollen orgies, the forced marriage fics, the mpreg, the underage incestuous forced-marriage sex pollen orgies resulting in mpreg fics... because those were the reason it was created.

@elfwreck AO3 was created in response to a series of actions being taken by several authors who didn't like fans writing content in the authors sandbox for themselves, for free, and sharing it with other fans. Entire archives of fan fiction were taken down and purged. LiveJournals were particularly affected by this, as well as many other sites I can't remember the names of right now (it's almost 6am and I haven't slept yet, forgive me).

That's why it's called Archive of Our Own. It's a fan-created, fan-run, fan-moderated archive of fan fiction that is well protected by lawyers so that the authors who just want to have fun and be creative don't have formal legal action taken against them again.

Yes, that happened. It was terrifying.

In case you ever run across a fic with a disclaimer on it that says something to the effect of: "don't own, not making money, please don't come after me" that's why. I remember putting those on my cringey af fics myself on ff.net, or fanfiction.net.

That site is another large reason why AO3 is what it is, too. FF.net decided one day that adult/mature content was no longer allowed, and they promptly removed all of it. Didn't inform the authors, nothing. Just... Whoosh. Gone. Mind you, they had a rating system, so if you didn't want to find explicit fics, it was easy not to. AFF.net, or adultfanfiction.net, was put in place rather quickly and it was alright for awhile, but ultimately a bandaid.

Then, AO3 came along, and the game changed. Things could be tagged, collated, and organised like never before, and part of that was because AO3 decided not to censor content. They decided not to because of the damage that had been done to the fanfiction community due to all the recent bans and purges. All of the tropes you mentioned have been around for way, waaaaay longer than AO3.

The site wasn't created to cater to ships, tropes, or kinky stuff; it was created to house fan fiction, no matter the type, and to keep the fans who wrote it from being legally attacked by angry authors. Anne Rice was one of the big names in this, btw. AO3 is a virtual library, essentially; they expect the reader to have responsibility about the media they consume.

Btw, I'm not trying to start a fight or anything; I only wanted to educate you if you didn't know. I think it's very important to preserve our own history, because it's so unique and also because things have changed so much and so rapidly. If you did already know all this background, then please just disregard 💚

AO3 was created for a lot of reasons; protection from authors who got upset at fanfic involving their characters was one of them.

Mainly - it was created for fic that was at risk of being thrown off other platforms. It was created after Strikethrough and Fanlib, with several of the founders still coping with the sudden closing of Detention.

“Fics that might be challenged by authors” was a large category AO3 was built to welcome. AO3′s founders looked into the legalities of Rice’s claims, and the history of things like Yarbro’s legal action against a fanzine, and decided: No more. We’re done with fanworks being squished by the mere threat of lawyers, without fans having any idea how copyright law actually works.

Extreme kink was another big category: Fic and art with content that regularly got thrown off of hosting sites, regardless of the legality, because it squicked someone who couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the “don’t like? don’t click” warnings.The definition of “extreme kink” shifted around a lot; in some places, any slash pairing was considered “adult rated” and “too kinky.” In others, slash was fine; explicit sex was not. In others, sex was fine, but any hint of BDSM would get a work removed. And so on. Lots of shifting goalposts. 

AO3 wasn’t specifically focused around “extreme kinky smut,” but it was made with that content specifically in mind; the terms of service and acceptable content policies were shaped by “how do we allow for stuff that’s going to disturb or offend a lot of people?” Content that would bother fans was just as important as allowing content that would bother outsiders, authors and media companies and moralistic crusaders trying to purge the world of whatever fictional tropes were most hated this year.

(@lesdeuxcygnes I don’t think we’re in disagreement, just focused on different parts of the history.)

"You can write all sorts of things, and you can have it be taggable and organizable on this neat website. "

"It sucks that people write shitty stuff, but fiction can help you run through situations you never want happening irl, and if you dont like it, don't read it!"

"But. Uh. Enough about ao3, the twitter post is made by a Thorki shipper."

All of this. AO3 was created to be permissive of any type of content that isn't actually illegal, explicitly because there was a well-documented history--which its founders lived through personally--showing that any other kind of censorship of the material posted would inevitably open the site up to bad actors who would weaponize the TOS to go after whatever type of content they didn't like. And no, not just the three or four types people who give AO3 flak always cite. Never just that. Often not even starting with that.

The conclusion this incredibly dedicated group of fans with legal knowledge and years of fandom experience came to after great deliberation was that obviously, censoring illegal content is necessary for the protection of fanworks and the archive. But the second you try to start censoring works beyond what's actually illegal, the TOS is open to abuse and the archive is no longer protected. Because no matter how specific or careful you think you're being, it will never be specific or careful enough not to open the door to third parties who want to exploit the TOS to censor content they don't personally like.

Want an example? Fics containing sexual content involving underage characters. Seems straightforward, right? Should be super easy to ban that at least!

Underage according to which state or country? And what counts as sexual content? Does this change if the characters are queer? Can you guarantee any possible person interpreting the TOS will have all the same answers to those questions as you?

If two 17-year-old boys kiss or hold hands, does that scene logically get lumped in with a graphically described sex scene between a man and woman in their 30s, and banned accordingly since the characters are underage? I would say no, you might say no...but there are a TON of people in the world that would say yes, absolutely. And that isn't some edge case. That is a very real and prominent pillar of the arguments homophobes make against ANY queer content especially in traditional children's and young adult's media. And it all starts with saying "just ban underage sexual content" as if the whole world understands and agrees on the definition of all those words.

Also, because AO3 doesn’t censor, there’s no incentive to hide what’s in a fic.... which is good for readers.  I posted in FF.net for my first fandom, and there was plenty of kinky porn on there that was marked “Mature” because technically “Explicit” wasn’t allowed.  And it’s completely true that stuff got pulled...  I was there for one of the purges around 2012... but it’s also true that there are a LOT of fics that don’t meet the TOS and are nonetheless there with virtually no tags and using euphemisms like citrus ratings.

I have four fics on that site.  Three are canon-compliant, and while they have sex and violence in them, they are huge epics where the sex just shows intimacy and relationship growth.  The fourth was written for a kinkfest, and is by far the kinkiest thing I’ve ever written (and those of you familiar with my AO3 fics know that’s saying something).  It does not comply with the TOS.  None of the fics written for that challenge and posted on FFnet did.

When fics I knew started getting pulled, I kept waiting for mine to get pulled as well.  But it wasn’t.  It’s still there, 11 years later.  The actual tags are ridiculously vague.  I put content warnings at the top of each chapter because I really wanted readers to be able to avoid stuff they might not want to read, but the site really isn’t set up for that, and it’s not part of the culture.  So as a reader, the ratings aren’t helpful because everything gets lumped in Mature, and while some fics get pulled for some content, countless others remain because fics really only get pulled after complaints.  It would be VERY EASY to stumble upon content you didn’t want to read and not realize it until you were halfway through a fic.

The lack of censorship means we all get to be honest about what we, as writers, are doing.  And that makes it better for readers.  Easier to curate their experiences, and not waste their time backing out of things when they’ve already invested time.  Really AO3 and the culture it’s developed are amazing.  

The ao3 "search within results" field is able to do a lot of stuff to help you curate your reading. I know a lot of us use "otp: true" to ensure we only get the one pairing in our search results (I use this a lot if the ship in looking for is also the favourite side ship to a much more popular pairing, oof) but there's other stuff you can do that pretty much nobody uses.

You can reverse the sorting by metrics if you want, like, instead of sorting by comments you can use "sort:>comments" and get the fewest comments to most comments instead.

You only want to have one-shots? You can use "expected_number_of_chapters: 1". You can exclude creators. You can exclude fics with 4 chapters. You can look for a specific word or phrase in the notes field.

There's so much weird stuff we don't use the ao3 search for, but we could. It lets us.

Ao3 made a hidden operator sheet back in 2018, which you can find here!  I reference it all the time when I want to make more complicated searches.  

Pictured below are a couple screenshots with examples of what you can do with search, though there are far more listed in the link

there it is

Okay this is amazing but pretty pretty please ao3 team add an “OR” operator so I can search multiple fav ships without having them both to be in the same story 🙏

This does exist... sort of. There IS an OR operator but it's non-exclusive and a little fiddly to make work. You can use "OR" or "||" in the "search within results" field.

For one example, you can write into the "search within results" field:

OR you can write

and this will add all the fics with the "Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi" pairing and the fics with "Hidan/Kakuzu (Naruto)" to your results, without both pairings having to be present

My experience with this is that it's pretty fiddly, though, because it is not the tag search and it does not consider the phrase you entered as a discrete tag. It's looking for the specific phrase you entered, so you have to use the exact tag you want. Usually it works best to copy and paste the pairing from the canonical tag (which is why you keep the fandom name in hidan/kakuzu but not in sakura/itachi) and then also enclose it in quotes, as above. Just putting in the pairing tags in with no quotes causes the filter to treat spaces like an "AND".

So, to summarise the fiddly parts using this example:

797 of the Itachi/Sakura works on the archive do NOT overlap with the 728 Hidan/Kakuzu works. So in theory, you'll think you should get 1525 works—but you actually get 1720, because you're including any mention of the phrase. So you'll get that one fic that's tagged Hidan/Kakuzu/Reader, or Sakura/Itachi/Madara/Shisui or whatever. It's got a lot of caveats and it's not a perfect solution, but I use it sometimes and it does work, so it might help you for this.

You can also use this for characters, additional tags and warnings and stuff. So it's pretty handy, but pretty fiddly. Requires experimenting and then saving your search in your bookmarks haha.

holy crap this is groundbreaking!! Fiddly and some irrelevant content is fine — it’s worth it not to have to do multiple separate searches for each pairing you’re looking for. Thank you OP! <3333