#this then and turn out the Twitter of Merlin poster

[fluffyspaceball]

After 15 years of waiting, Merlin's Twitter has finally posted.

I can't believe it 😭😭😭😂😂😁😁

[norsecoyote]

I keep touching the fucking stove.

Like -- I like SomethingAwful. It's been my primary home on the internet for 15 years. There's a great community there.

They're just absolutely fucking incapable of allowing any sort of nuance about anything under the vague umbrella of tumblr-style-social justice. And I keep trying to gently push back when the threads I hang out in go too far, and it never works, but I appear to have a toddler-like inability to just stop touching the fucking stove about this.

Today's self-inflicted burn revolved around game designer Alexis Kennedy, formerly of Failbetter Games (known for Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies) and currently of Weather Factory (known for Cultist Simulator). A year or two ago, Kennedy was #metoo'd, accused by several different people on Twitter of a number of abuses, mostly to do with predatory behavior towards female developers and abuse of his position of power within Failbetter.

I need to be clear from the outset here that I have less than zero interest in defending Kennedy. I think these accusations are believable, and even given what's about to follow I think the best he possibly comes off is as a creep, a terrible boss and plausibly an unpunished sexual harasser.

In any case, Kennedy doesn't need any defending, because a little over a month ago he published a gigantic blog post about the whole incident in which he continued to deny wrongdoing (as he has from the start) and produced a number of receipts supporting (though certainly not proving) the narrative that the whole incident was an coordinated smear campaign organized by Failbetter for the sake of financial gain. He also says that he has since shortly after the allegations first came out offered to submit to the verdict of an independent investigation, which Failbetter has refused to allow or support.

Anyway, I learned of this whole defense via superb indie game developer Jonas Kyratzes (whom I've actually written previously about), who tweeted a link to the post:

...and that was the last I thought about it, until today, when someone, in discussing Kyratzes' latest work (writing for the XCOM-like roguelike The Hand of Merlin), mentioned that "In the interest of informed purchasing decisions, one of the writers [...] is also a very ardent defender of Alexis Kennedy, sexual abuser.

and I know not to touch the fucking stove, I swear I know, but it really upset me to see this guy -- not just one of the best writers working in video games but someone completely unrelated to the controversy itself -- get smeared and boycotted because he dared to AGREE WITH THE ACCUSED'S DEFENSE.

Well. No points for guessing how many posts in the thread it took until I was being labeled a "defender of an abuser."

I don't know how to thread this needle. I don't want to walk away from the community, but I'm so, so tired of everything being a bright line on the ground and every attempt to maybe push back getting turned into... this bullshit. I tried everything I could think of to de-escalate, including explicitly agreeing with the fundamental premise that Bad Man Is Bad, but it doesn't matter; push back even a little bit against the corollary that "everyone who doesn't believe Bad Man Is Bad is, therefore, also Bad" and you face the firing squad.

To end on a less whiny note -- the last time I touched the stove, even though nobody in the actual thread was willing to budge even a single millimeter from their position, afterwards I actually got a private message from a newer poster in the thread. They were asking for advice on how best to contribute to the thread/community, and I gave what help I could but also noted that I probably wasn't the best person to talk to, both because of being new myself and also, you know, *gestures*. But what they said was, "You're the only person in the thread who wasn't making me nervous when I wrote the PM."

So I console myself, at least, with the hope that some of the many people lurking on SomethingAwful might benefit from my stove-touching; hopefully I'm moving the needle with some of the people who are straight-up too scared to post into the hurricane.

...but I'm probably just flattering myself.

[aion-rsa]

BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams Review: David Bowie's Memoirs Sparkle

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David Bowie is presented as a very human superhero alien in a cinematic graphic novel.

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BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams begins with a forward by Neil Gaiman called "If We Can Sparkle He May Land Tonight." It recounts the author's first contact with the third kind. David Bowie's songs were stories, he remembers, like the Gilbert and Sullivan ditties Gaiman preferred over rock and roll in his youth. He bonded with the rock star over the science fiction undercurrent in the music and image, and glorified him in his mind. Among his favorite memories is trekking to Victoria Station where the Thin White Duke arrived by special train before the 1975 Isolar Tour. Gaiman remembers the faux Bowies at the station, and the Station to Station albums scattered about to distract Bowie fans. The rest of the world was distracted by a blurred photograph which made it look like Bowie was giving a Nazi salute when it was enhanced. Such was the homo superior superpower of Bowie's myth.

Insight Comics' graphic novel is presented as a film directed by Mike Allred (Madman, Silver Surfer), who is also credited as co-screenwriter with Steve Horton (Satellite Falling). The illustrations by Mike and Laura Allred (Madman, iZombie) get her the credit as Technicolor cinematographer and the cinematic theme helps center the reading experience and nods to Bowie's acting exposure. The book points out Bowie trained in mime and appeared in a few films before his career took off like Major Tom in a tin can. He also had to turn down an appearance, Son of Dracula, where he would have played Harry Nilsson's son to Ringo Starr's Merlin, due to studio commitments. BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams opens at the Hamersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973, when Bowie said goodnight to his Ziggy Stardust persona, but the film crossfades to 1962 just before the actual announcement is made.

At the start, Bowie is presented as a tireless and curious artist, a veteran of bands The Konrads, The Mannish Boys and The King Bees, hanging with young London musicians who would make up the Small Faces and ultimately T Rex. BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams doubles as Bowie's memoir told against the rise and fall of his Ziggy Stardust persona, who comes across as a character conjured by the singer from the sky to bring his music to new life. Bowie is a superhero whose extraterrestrial exploits are made from the madness which runs in his family and the alchemy of the changing styles of rock and roll. His ears gobble up Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Pink Floyd, and his non-matching eyes catch the fiery fingers of Eric Clapton at night at the clubs. Forced to change his name to the strong sounding Bowie because David Jones is already singing for the Monkees, his first album debuts the same day as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but doesn't do quite as well.

read more: Why Mick Ronson is Essential to David Bowie's Legacy

Taking inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's science fiction masterwork 2001: A Space Odyssey and Roger Vadim's camp classic Barbarella, Bowie stars in the promotional film Love You Til Tuesday, which also features Hermione Farthingale, the girl with the mousy hair, in a segment. He meets Tony Visconti, the Brooklyn-born instrumentalist who would be a lifelong collaborator. The pair bond artistically over a viewing of Roman Polanski's film Knife in the Water. Bowie finds his Jeff Beck in Mick Ronson. The first glam rock performance happens on Feb. 22, 1970, when David Bowie appears as Spaceman, Vicsonti is Hypeman, Ronson is Gangster Man and John Cambridge is Cowboy Man in the band The Hype at the Roundhouse in London. Nobody applauds when the band leaves the stage, but Marc Bolan eats it up.

read more: Exploring David Bowie's Sci-Fi Fascination

If you're a rock fan, you know all the characters in the book. Bowie's career traversed the entire musical world in the short time it took for Ziggy Stardust to fall to earth. As a young artist, Bowie shops at the same stores as Freddy Mercury, shares stages with Peter Frampton and goodnaturedly ribs Marc Bolan, who will co-opt Tony Visconti, over tea. As he gains prominence he takes tea with Elton John, who Visconti passed on as a producer. There are some informational nuggets and gossip in the mix. The story throws in incidental tidbits like Bowie staying at the Warwick, same hotel the Beatles stayed at when they played Shea Stadium, when he was in New York to sign with RCA. Then adds details like how Iggy Pop got clean at the Warwick or how Bowie was taken straight to an Elvis Presley concert after one of his arrivals in the United States. 

read more: The Man Who Fell to Earth: The Myopic Wonder of David Bowie's Earth Oddity

Prepare yourself before reading. "Roll up your sleeves and show us your arms," as a censored bit of promotion for The Man Who Sold The World advised. You might want a playlist of Bowie songs for backing music or for easy reference. Bowie's early liftoff was propelled by Barbra Streisand's cover of "Life on Mars" and Peter Noone of Herman's Hermit's rendition of "Oh You Pretty Things." The illustrations are fantastic, conjuring the look of classic iconography as well as rock stardom. Many individual drawings could be comic book covers, others album posters. The biography is colorful and cosmic, following Bowie's alter egos against the backdrop of iconic cultural influences like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, The Twilight Zone, even the Last Supper.

read more: David Bowie Was No Chameleon: A Sound and Vision Lookback

The novel illustrates Bowie's love of happy accidents like a phone ringing through a vocal track and a botched take which can be saved with the right 12 string guitar, in the formation of his sound. Bowie defied classification, mixing mime with psychedelic music, forming an image through the parts he plays and mixing the surreal with motion picture futurism. Bowie’s artistic and commercial trajectory is paralleled by the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust. The Spiders from Mars disintegrates as Bowie wrestles with his alter ego. The internal conflict changes the world. The final separation between the character and the artist is sad, but necessary. He's saved the world, given us the Starman savior, grounded Major Tom and goes off for a few drinks, with ice.

BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams is a gift for David Bowie fans. It hit stands on Jan. 7, Bowie's 73rd birthday.

Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City's Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Jan 7, 2020

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[the-original-bookworm]

Merlin Rec list part 1

dreams for wings and wanderers

Dragons are feared and mistrusted throughout Albion, and there are very few of them left in Camelot, for Uther’s long campaign against magic also included hunting down all the dragons in the wild. Now, Camelot is recovering from the invasion of Cenred and Morgause's army. Prince Arthur is the one in charge, and Merlin finds out that his secret regular visits to the covert haven't been very secret at all. There's a great deal of manly bonding with the Knights, inquisitive dragons being inquisitive, and a record-breaking number of near-death experiences for Merlin. And this is before he gets his very own dragon. (A Merlin/Temeraire fusion.)

-little long, but extremely interesting concept. Loved the bond between Merlin and the dragons.

merlinfic: job orientation

In the not so distant future, Merlin builds a tower. That's not suspicious at all.

-short, post! Magic reveal, there is a prequel but I like this one better, love Merlin’s obliviousness. Both Arthur and Merlin felt very on point with characters, they acted exactly like themselves if that makes sense.

Touch Me (Not)

In which Merlin is reluctantly pure, Arthur is unfairly tempting, and the Great Dragon sits back with popcorn to watch.

-smut does happen. Basically Merlin thinks he can’t have sex cause he has to be “pure” for destiny to work. This doesn’t really have much of anything to do with any timeline in the series, it feels like you could stick it in between the scenes of the show and it just WORKS. Kinda short, one-shot type of thing

In Love with my Radio

Merlin listens to the radio, Arthur stalks Merlin, Morgana lives to create chaos in Arthur's life, and then everyone goes to McDonalds! Also love happens.

From the kmm prompt: Arthur has an anonymous blog/lj/twitter where he posts about his life, and Merlin follows it RELIGIOUSLY. Arthur starts posting about how he's stalking this amazingly hot guy...

-ok. This is just. HILARIOUS. And Merlin is so oblivious. Decent sized fic, there are some add on’s I would call them? Like one shots of the story continued. It’s an AU. And I just love it.

Pining for the Moon

First, there is the rage, like nothing Arthur has ever known. It’s hot, hotter than anything, hotter than the kitchen ovens and the blacksmith’s forge and dragon’s breath. It fills him to the brim and carries on, washing over him in waves that scald, and, as Arthur looks around him at the carnage, the man at its centre, he has no idea how he is ever meant to let go of it.

“I can explain,” Merlin says, his eyes still blazing as he kneels there, charred by the fires he lit, blood on his hands. So much blood. “Arthur, sire, please, I can explain.”

First, there is the rage, and then there is a knife at Merlin’s throat.

-this is. Wow. I gotta say, this is a really heavy fic. I usually go for more fluff, good plot line but happy endings type thing. This was completely not that, tho there is a happy ending. Arthur actually kills Merlin for being a sorcerer only regrets it so much and Merlin was actually - well no spoilers but there is a happy ending. Read it, but be warned it’s heavy.

Damsel in a Phone Booth

it’s the middle of the night and i’m walking home alone in the dark and there’s this guy following me and he’s starting to gain on me and i found this phone booth with a lock on the door and i tried to call my best friend but my hands were shaking so badly i accidentally dialed the wrong number and i don’t even know you but help me” au (merthur)

-so, short and sweet, a good story, good fluff after the “pining for the moon” fic.

Sort of a Tourniquet

Arthur gives Merlin a plastic ring as a joke. But what nobody knows is how much Merlin really likes wearing it. Modern AU with lots of pining.

-sweet, pure fluff. The pining almost hurt me. It’s an AU, and I wanted to kill Merlin a few times, but good story.

Evil Overlord, Inc. Official Website

Merlin is a recent graduate with a double doctorate in metaphysics and physics. Arthur is a low-level paper pusher with a desk in the sub-basement of MI5. They live in a world with ridiculous laws and restrictions against anyone who might be supernatural in any way, shape, or design.

Merlin has huge debts looming over this head, a few quid left in his bank account, and no job prospects. Arthur is pushing thirty, in a dead-end job with no chances of promotion to fieldwork agent, and is thoroughly bored with his life.

One ill-advised Craigslist advert, five pushy mates, one nosy all-knowing sister, and a hacked email account later, Merlin and Arthur take the world by storm.

(Or, more precisely, they take over the world.)

-love love l0ve love. Even in an AU, Arthur can’t stand not running everything. Must read.

The History of Two Conversations (On Paper)

This is a very useful spell, Merlin wrote. He formed the letters carefully, small so he could write more later, if he needed to, and did not at all wonder if he was going to get in trouble or be cursed or something for writing in the margins of an ancient spell book.

He told the book (in case it had an opinion on the matter), "I am just imparting my knowledge to future generations. I'm sure they will find my comments helpful."

The book made no reply, so Merlin decided it was fine and leaned over the tome again adding, You can clean almost anything with it, even though in this book it refers to badgers alone. Don't believe that for a second. Just yesterday I cleaned out the extraordinarily vile bottom of Arthur's miscellaneous chest using this spell and it worked a treat. He thought for a moment before finishing, One downside: Leaves an odd sulphurous odour after use. Better not to use on clothing and/or self.

-so completely recommend, Arthur finds Merlin’s magic book with merlin’s handwriting in it. Wish we could have seen Arthur’s thoughts but that’s my only complaint

Radioman

The reason SAS Captain Arthur Pendragon can't keep a communications specialist in Team Excalibur because none of them are good enough. And then Lieutenant Merlin Emrys gets assigned to his squad, and Arthur does everything he can to prove that Merlin isn't good enough, either. Except he is.

-ok so this is a series, EXTREMELY long. I gotta admit I haven’t finished it yet but everything I read has been downright amazing.

The Crown of the Summer Court

The king sent me to get you," Merlin said, with a tone that implied strongly that he wasn't rolling his eyes where Arthur could see, but just wait until his back was turned. "He said you're to get changed into formal clothes and meet him in the Great Hall, there's a delegation coming from the Summer Court."

-right, so I am not only recommending this fic, I recommend any and all Merlin fics written by the author. She is downright AMAZING. Like, one of the best fics I’ve read amazing. Maybe THE best.

Three Tasks

Arthur is the Royal Arbiter for Suitable Suitors' Disputes. He (and his trusty companion, the golden-dragon-tasselled hat) alone can determine who is fit to woo royal servants and other assorted courtiers in Uther's court.

(In light of the sentence above, the following may not appear to be a truthful statement, but: not as cracky as that makes it sound. Really.)

This time: Arthur arbitrates a dispute (with heretofore unforeseen wisdom); Merlin observes.

-weird concept, but very good. I could really imagine being in Arthur’s head, it sounded just like him. And it kinda humanizes Uther, which is really hard to do.

The Pendragon Guide to How Not to Date

Modern day student AU. Still set in Britain. Morgana sends Arthur on some blind dates that don’t go quite according to plan

-warning. Smut. Liked it, was more fluff then plot, but seriously adorable

The student prince

A Modern day Merlin AU set at the University of St Andrews, featuring teetotal kickboxers, secret wizards, magnificent bodyguards of various genders, irate fairies, imprisoned dragons, crumbling gothic architecture, arrogant princes, adorable engineering students, stolen gold, magical doorways, attempted assassination, drunken students, shaving foam fights, embarrassing mornings after, The Hammer Dance, duty, responsibility, friendship and true love...

This story was inspired by the thought of Prince William of Wales (and indeed the current Max von Hapsburg) studying at the University of St Andrews; it is also, as the title suggests, at least a little inspired by the operetta 'The Student Prince'.

-so I don’t really go for modern day royalty much, but this was really good. There is a plot, though it revolves mostly around the merthur romance. Reads like a romance novel.

Two Weeks Notice

Arthur is a prattish Executive VP of the Pendragon Corporation with a disturbingly non-ironic love of Demotivational posters. Merlin is a tree-hugging barista with a "magic" tongue. Morgana's a peeping Tom and her breasts have superpowers. Gwen and Lancelot get married. Owain is the company bicycle. Arthur attempts to steal Merlin's affections from Will through epic DDR combat. Merlin gets drunk a lot. There is a pillow fight, and a helicopter ride, and rooftop confessions, and Arthur decides Merlin really is his destiny, whether he likes it or not.

-it’s like if you took the Merlin story and set it in modern times. Like, almost exactly. There are plot differences of course but it just feels like Merlin. well, if it was ‘stop killing the planet’ instead of ‘stop killing sorcerers’ and Arthur was prince of a company instead of a kingdom.

Harmonia Mundiais

Music has always been the centre of Merlin’s reality, and the idea of silence is unimaginable. But when Camelot is deafening, Arthur is distracting and the dragon is utterly unhelpful, will his gift turn out to be a blessing or a curse?

-the ultimate concept , takes the music instead of magic idea and makes it music is magic, like literally. Amazing. It does do this thing where Merlin gives off this kind of innocent thought process? It’s not a bad thing, it just gives this idea that Merlin prioritizes this music in his head and on a subconscious level he can’t understand how others can’t hear it, though he knows they just don’t.

Stars Above, Stones Below

After the disastrous end of his betrothal to Gwen and the regret of his offer to Princess Mithian, Arthur swears off finding a wife until he's ready to wed. When Merlin offers himself to Arthur as bedmate, Arthur suggests they hand-fast in secret for a single year of mutual pleasure without obligation. As their year together unfolds, and secrets and betrayals unravel around them, Arthur and Merlin learn there is no such thing as uncomplicated pleasure. Everything they thought they knew can change in the span of a single year.

-smuuuuuut happens. Magic reveal is good, lobe how it handled the Gwen banishment thing

send me any awesome merthur fics not on the list!

[vvhiskcy]

whiskey deserved better : an essay. by me. So far, I’ve seen the movie twice, and I am not getting into all the things wrong with it but focus on whiskey and pedro in this thing;;

here we go! 1. We’ve seen a lot of his scenes in the trailer. A lot of us based our idea of Whiskey on that, and we felt pretty fucked over when we got presented with  - what exactly in the movie? An incredibly inconsistent and poorly drawn character. Lemme explain;

2. His motives. We don’t get to learn about them until the end; Whiskey is out to avenge the death of his wife and unborn child by the hands of druggies. No, wait. He’s out to boost Statesman Bourbon shares. Or - what? His motive literally changes from one moment to the next, and it’s not only inconsistent, but also all over the place. Considering we learn that he is running the NY HQ, we gotta assume he knows something about sales - enough to not argue that meth heads and some teens that smoke pot at festivals and in their dad’s garage would invest in Bourbon that costs 50 Bucks a bottle, thereby causing shares to rocket. Though this motive only lasts about 3 seconds, before he goes full on Oberyn Martell, holds a small speech about his late sister wife only to eventually get his ass handed to him.

3. Leading me to point 3; We don’t care. We cared more about John Kramer and his motives, because we got properly introduced to his character and backstory. They made us care. We could relate, and at least say; yeah, I get what he is on about.... With Whsikey, we get this guy that is supposed to be kinda funny, but that we don’t get to know well enough to actually care about to relate to. Therefore, we don’t really give too many shits about his whole agenda. Yeah, dead wife and kid, tragic, but we don’t care about you enough to care about that.  Also, genocide? Come on.

4. Whiskey and Ginger. This is mostly my POV on the entire thing, but her we go; From the incredibly old fashioned way he tried to hit on Clara at Glasto to Ginger’s comment on having had to go through with this whith Whiskey, who had no idea what he was doing, I got the impression that Whiskey was a lot less of a womanizer than he made himself/ was made out to be, possibly still being stuck in love with his high school sweetheart. ‘BUT HE PULLED THAT THING ON POOR GINGER’ - as he didn’t remember Maria (I named her that, sue me). BUT WHAT ABOUT HIM VOTING AGAINST HER? I kinda don’t believe the whole ‘he so sexist’ thing, as we can clearly see that there are other female agents on the table. Imho, he likes Ginger (watch him hit on her and listen to the things Pedro and Halle say in interviews), and the idea of her in the field gives him Nam flashbacks to his late wifes fate. He’s being a protective asshole. BUT THAT TIME HE YELLED AT HER ABOUT NOT FIXING HARRY RIGHT.  -. . . after she asked him why Harry shot him in the head. He ca hardly tell her it was because he has this poorly scripted hidden agenda. But idk, #4 here is prolly the most subjective one. Moving on.

5. His character only exists so they can cram in another fight and another death scene. Whiskey contributes nothing to the storyline in terms of things that would make his character as an individual stand out; It might as well have been any other agent, had they changed the stupid revenge backstory. Gin. Rum. Vodka. They might as well have been accompanied by Agent Jägermeister, might have accidentally - for real this time - dropped the antivirus as they got attacked, and the entire movie would have unravelled the same way. Agent Whiskey and his backstory literally only exist because someone went; not enough boss fights. It’s so lazily written, it’s not even a plot twist. Like, they put it in the bloody TRAILER!  Yay, another POC character that dies because ACTION!!!

6. Jack Daniels Burger. We get it. Haha. 

7. “This ain’t that kinda movie, bruv’ As if to prove my point 5, he literally rambles on about revenge for his sister wife instead of just killing Eggsy and Harry. It’s not like he could possibly let them live afterwards anyway, or am I wrong? He seems like a clever guy, so wtf is this??? And not only that - while Whiskey didn’t seem to have any actual issues with people - hence maybe his reluctance to kill Harry and Eggsy straight on? - he suddenly turns full asshole - AGAINST MERLIN, who he at no point had beef with whatsoever, stating that he’s gonna chop Harry in small enough pieces to fit in a bucket and still have enough room for ‘their Buddy Merlin’ That doesn’t sound like proper character development or anythign to me, just a sad attempt to get the viewer to dislike a character that they otherwise wouldn’t have cared about too much, because we simply weren’t given enough to care about to begin with. Hes literally just in this film so he can be wasted in a ‘cool’ fight and a ‘cool’ death. I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m hella angry?!

8. BONUS;; .PEDRO DESERVED BETTER.  Pedro has more scenes than Halle, Jeff and Channing together, yet his name wasn’t in any of the trailers or on the poster. And no, going ‘We put the well known names on the thing to draw in a crowd’ isn’t a fucking excuse, cause it wouldn’t have cost you shit to just slap another name onto there. He deserved it. Also, his ‘lack of popularity’ some might bring up as an argument is a shit argument as it didn’t stop the official fox twitter account to bank in on his GoT popularity by throwing out photoshop edits. Pedro is a lovely, incredibly gifted nugget, but his characters dialogue seemed so forced and scripted most of the time, even his acting couldn’t make up for it.  tl;dr they wasted a great actor and the possibility of a great character on behalf of lazy writing and a cool looking but completely redundant and unnecessary fight scene and im salty af.