Reader Thread - A Dish Best Served Cold

Hi folks <waves nervously>. This could get a bit long - you have been warned

First of all, I thought I should maybe introduce myself a little more thoroughly so y'all know who I am and where I suddenly sprang from! Maeglin invited me over to the forum as a 'reader' after we'd been talking some about her (rather excellent) stories on FF net. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous that you folks are going to wonder 'what's this person doing here sticking her nose in?' So, ahem, first of all, I just wanted to say that I've read (and loved) all of the 'Friday Knight' stuff - I think its great fun! And I'm really excited to be here where its all happening

What I thought I would do perhaps (having talked this through with Maeglin) is make any random thoughts, comments, suggestions etc here, so they don't get in the way of the rpg and your plot discussions, but you can see them, reply, heh, or ignore here. I really, really don't want to interupt something that's already going so well! Anything I say is absolutely only a random thought or idea and I am by no means expecting you to start changing stuff because of me!

I guess we'll just see how it goes?

So, serious stuff and EA disclaimers over, I'll just say a teensy bit about who I am (I'm not super interesting so this won't take long!)

I'm ahem, 39 and a Brit, living in Wales at the moment. I'm originally from Chester where ( and yeah, I'm biased ) but I like to go with the theory of some Arthurian experts was one of the likely places for Arthur to have been based (Carleon, pah!) A thousand years or so ago, I studied English Lit at Uni, where I did a module on Arthurian Lit and have been hooked ever since. I only started watching Merlin in Season 3 because I was sure I would hate it, but heh, how wrong was I? I'm now totally hooked - on the show and on the fanfic.

Anyway, to stop this getting even super longer I think I'll quit while I'm behind and just finish by saying I'm looking forward to getting to know you all, hope you'll say if I'm getting on your nerves, won't get offended at me making suggestions/comments, and I'm super excited to be here!

This sounds good, EA!

Oookay, first annoying (and possibly stupid question) I've been nosing around the plot discussions and reading the story so far (totally love the way you've made Kilwch and Kay the same person, clever clever!) but I'm wondering how much of a 'bad guy' is Kilwch in this? Is he just a bit mean and has no idea what the gnomes are or does he actually know and is bringing them to Arthur on purpose to endanger him? If he's doing that then why? Does he really not like Arthur? Does he have an eye on the throne, or is he in some way related to or on the side of the forest spirits - is that where his magic comes from?

Is that too many questions? You've probably talked about this amongst yourselves but I can't see it on the forum and its not obvious so far in the story (although maybe it'll be all explained later on?)

A couple of random thoughts and comments as well. Did you know that Kilwch (or Culwch in Welsh so apologies if my spelling meanders around between the two) means 'slender young pig?' if any of the others know (Merlin?) then would they play around with his name, make pig references?

And second and last random thought. In the Kilwch and Olwen story they have to pull some hairs out of the beard of a big scary guy...with so many lovely beards around (Gwaine and Leon spring to mind ) would it be fun to mingle that into the story and have Kilwch do something horrible to one of their beards?

Okay, end of random thoughts and ramblings...

Those are good questions, EA! I'll answer them in order:

as far as K's motives and morals are concerned, when we originally planned him (which was actually quite a while ago so I don't know if Mae remembers...I forget some of it too) we wanted him to be the epitome of "ambivalent". We wanted him to be this smart, sexy, charismatic guy that looks at people like playthings--maybe kind of like Q from Star Trek, if you know that character. We wrote some of this in the "Merlin NPCs" thread (its in the "Library" I think!). So he would be giving the gnome to Arthur mainly because he think it will be funny to watch what happens--maybe not maliciously, but mischieviously? Does that make sense? What do YOU think he should be like? I'd like to hear your thoughts on him! See, we wanted him to be a better villain that Agravaine (since we won't have Agravaine and he was annoying anyway). So I'd like to hear your thoughts on where his charrie could go!

As to your comments about pigs and beards, that is awesome canon that we must include! Maybe it should be something that happens in the next episode "The Tapestry," That way Gwaine can get his beard messed up too! I think that would be adorable

And, though I really have nothing terribly relevant to add, it'd be fantastic to have SOME ammo Merlin can use against Sir K. His name meaning is PERFECT. I don't see Merlin winning many arguments with that guy, because there's always the risk that if he really pisses him off, K will just tell Arthur aaaaaall about the magic without getting in trouble himself. But here or there, tormenting him about his name would be awesome.

Hello, I'm Cait, and I have random and disorganized thoughts.

whoops! I was signed in the wrong account, the stuff from MerlinNPC is from me, BA!

Yay, thanks for all your positive responses to my post - I must admit I'm breathing easier now

BA- thanks for clueing me in on Kilhwch, that makes sense - the mischevious thing I mean. I can see him as a trouble-maker, just stirring things (and people) up then stepping back to watch and enjoy what happens. Its going to be a fun story! Looking forward to watching it unfold.

You should help us make sure K never gets *too* evil!

I have to say - poor Arthur, he doesn't have much luck with relatives! But pah, he was sooooooo annoyingly slow in season 4 with aggravating Argavaine - he deserves it!

yeah, poor Arthur! Its not his fault that everyone else in his family is crazy....

....Except for Gwaine!

Oh, wait...

Well at least Gwaine doesn't actually, you know, want to kill him, but yeah Gwaine and sane are not two words you'd generally find in the same sentence...

Hmm, I agree with you there EA! Unless it's a sentence like 'gwaine was the least sane of all the knights', which is quite a common sentence!
Btw, I'm a Brit to! I live kinda central/south and am 13! Um, I'm not really studying anything as such at the mo because we haven't started are GCSEs yet, but I'm taking Art, Geography, german + french and cooking along with the normal stuff so yeah, that's a bit about me! I have two chickens and two rabbits, am a vegetarian and am very random! VERY. And yeah, hi I shall post some comments on the stories soon but I shall have to think carefully about them! X

Bunnies! We have two bunnies as well!

But I'm not a vegetarian...if BA let me, I'd probably eat the bunnies. JK JK, they are too sweet and soft. Yay bunnies!

Okay, and clearly Gwaine isn't the only one with whom "sane" cannot be in the same sentence...

I used to have an 'attack bunny' when I was (a lot) younger. It may have looked cute and cuddly, but even the cat was terrified of it!

And yeah, Maeglin, I think all of the knights have a good full set of neuroses (heh, poor wee Leon for example), its just that Gwaine tends to wear his right there, pinned to his sleeve

Should I make my own reader thread thing? I don't really know what I'm doing! So I just post helpful comments etc about the story yeah? What should I call the thread thing? Sorry I'm asking loads of annoying questions! XD I shall try and stop soon!

Also, how did you create this thing? Is it free? Because me and my friend are doing a series at the mo on FF called 'Camelots school of knighthood and chivalry year 1' (hoping to carry it on as a series!) and are trying to get it more KNOWN! XD our writing is pretty terrible but we try x

Noooo, well, not unless you really want to I kind of started this thread for any 'reader' to comment on the current Merlin rpg, so post away here! And there's no such thing as annoying questions, only annoying answers! Watch me ask a zillion questions once I get going!

Yes I ask too many questions! When I'm hyper...and I never awnswer the questions in school! Well that's a lie cos I'm kinda a goody two shoes really...:/ anyway, lemme think of a good question to ask about the story...
Ok! Um, what are all their horses called? See? STUPID question! he he

Yay a horse question! All that obsessing about horses I inflicted on Mae and BA came in handy!

Gwaine's all have their names in his thread, but let me see how many I can remember (since I helped with the horses a lot, being the obsessive horse person I am. )

Merlin rides Diablo, named after the actual horse in the series, but it's not his- I can't remember if we decided if he was one of Arthur's, or if he belongs to Gaius. He's a really pretty dark bay, which is brown with black feet, if you don't know horse colors.

Leon has twin bright bays and I forget their names.

Gwaine has about half a million horses, one is a palomino called Leon Jr., and another is Pussy Willow, a grey, and there's a third that's a demon horse, and I forget his name.

After looking at Gwaine's character sheet: He has a chestnut mare called Nogglevi, Pussy Willow, Leon Jr., Nero the pack horse, Studly Royale the huge black demon warhorse, and Bacardi, Scrumpy, Beefeater, and Drambuie.

We actually sat around on Skype one afternoon and found pictures of all the series horses to try and figure out which horses belonged to which knights. They've all got at least two, because of the French horses and the English horses, but in some cases they look the same (thus Leon's twin bays).

Ah cool leons horseys could be called...well one honeysuckle because of that flower in UC and um jasmine cos that's another pretty flower!

I used to have an 'attack bunny' when I was (a lot) younger. It may have looked cute and cuddly, but even the cat was terrified of it!

SWEET! I would love a rabbit like that! A GUARD RABBIT!

Also, how did you create this thing? Is it free? Because me and my friend are doing a series at the mo on FF called 'Camelots school of knighthood and chivalry year 1' (hoping to carry it on as a series!) and are trying to get it more KNOWN! XD our writing is pretty terrible but we try x

You basically go to forumotion.com (I think there's a link on the right-hand side of our page) and build your own forum, and it talks you through it. It's free and fairly easy to use (*I* figured it out, and that's saying something)! We would be glad to do a traffic-share exchange type of thing (like we do with Sekkai Fractures, a Dragon RP site Caitydid is on), where we host your button and you host ours!

Gwaine's all have their names in his thread, but let me see how many I can remember (since I helped with the horses a lot, being the obsessive horse person I am. )

Here's the direct link for Gwaine's equine fleet.

I think that was it! Honey, you're welcome to post Reader comments here or on your own thread. If you would like to create your own thread, go to "The Library" under the "Merlin" thread, and find the "New Topic" button to start your own thread. I am totally cool with whatever you would like to do.

Also:

And yeah, Maeglin, I think all of the knights have a good full set of neuroses (heh, poor wee Leon for example), its just that Gwaine tends to wear his right there, pinned to his sleeve

...and that's a beautiful thing!

hahaha I love Leon has twin horses. Only he can tell them apart! I know one of them is named "Lamrei" for one of the horses in Arthurian legend. I'll have to find another name for the other one I guess

I will now be nerdy and mention some of the horse's names from the myths

Gawain's horse is called Gringolet - or Gringalet (he wins it in a duel and in some stories its a fairy horse)

For reasons known only to him Arthur has a horse called Spudamor! I really think he needed to work on his horse naming skills...he also had a dun stallion that is said to haunt a village called Castle Eden in Durham County. And, yeah, he had quite a few horses, he is also said to have had a stallion called Hengroen and a mare called Llamrei.

Lancelot doesn't seem to have had a 'special horse' and sometimes borrowed other knights' horses.

So there you go...<takes off nerd hat>

LANCELOT, if we ask Chretien de Troyes, was a jerkface who rode horses to death on a regular basis (to be fair, he was rescuing Gwen, but STILL. That boy is NOT good with horsies!).