Episode 12: Ship: Gwen/Arthur [Part 2]

cover art in which Merlin wears a headset with microphone and holds up a finger to his lips as if to tell you to be quiet

In today’s episode, MissSnowfox and Momo are joined again by two guests, and an interviewee to talk about the next ship in this fandom, Gwen/Arthur, aka Arwen.

To get in touch with us, send an email, an ask on tumblr, or tweet at us on twitter.

Find the stream or download options for this episode below the cut. It’s a long one again, which is why this was cut into two parts – again. 🙂

This is part 2 of a two-part episode. Part 1, a look at Arwen in Canon was posted last Sunday. Today we’re taking a closer look at Arwen in Fandom.

The episode is, again, almost 1h 45m long…

Download here [Right click, save as]


News:

Merlin Art & Writers Game
After Camlann Big Bang Schedule
Merlin Memory Month

Resources:

GeekyZelda on tumblr
May aka yousaidwithallmyheart on tumblr
Ella_Rose88 on LiveJournal
The Pendragons on LJ
The Pendragons on tumblr
Interview with Ella_Rose88
Autumn’s comment on Episode 06: Character Study “Arthur”
Nicole’s comment on Episode 09: Character Study: Gwen
allofuswithwings on tumblr | allofuswithwings on AO3
camelot-love on LJ
All Arwen works on FF.net
sapphireswimming on tumblr</a<
Interview Music from the Free Music Archive by Kevin MacLeod. The track is called Monkeys Spinning Monkeys.
Our Episode on Merthur (re: Statistics)

Statistics

[as of 22 Jan 2018,  Archiveofourown.org]

Disclaimer: The works listed below (especially the ones in the Top 5 categories) are Arwen works by the best estimation of momo, who compiled the stats. Momo checked the summaries, tags, and author’s notes to determine if these fics looked like they actually focused on Arwen as a pairing, or at least gave the pairing a central role, rather than treat them as background decoration. If any of the listed fics aren’t Arwen works by the estimate of an Arwen shipper, we apologise for the error.

Top 5 by Kudos

Top 5 by Comments

Oldest

Newest

Longest

Shortest

Mentioned Fanworks/Recs

Two Weeks Notice, by Ras_Elased, read by Jenna Corinth
Time Forward, by kianspo, read by SweetandSharp –> That fic that momo couldn’t remember the title of in which Arthur is first with Gwen and then with Merlin. (Beware: Merthur ending!)
Guinevere Pendragon | Soldier On, edited by ilovehertjes
Arthur and Guinevere, by nero749
Merlin with Arthur & Gwen’s kids in Camelot, by whimsycatcher
Tropes – Arwen, by sneetchstar
May’s Arwen Playlist
Ella_Rose88’s Arwen bookmarks on AO3
Arwen Collection on AO3
Ella_Rose88’s Arwen bookmarks on FF.net
Somebody to Die For, edited by toufinus
Sinners, edited by ilovehertjes
What Hurts the Most, edited by missdaydreamer101
Threegether, by whimsycatcher
An Ever Fixed Mark, by imperfectcircle, read by kalakirya
Trust (lay down your burdens), by such_heights, read by sophinisba
The place where I belong, edited by ilikeyou31x
You really care about her, edited by specialisyou
You Make Me Whole, edited by ilovehertjes

6 thoughts on “Episode 12: Ship: Gwen/Arthur [Part 2]

  1. I’m glad you guys brought up Gwen’s lack of pregnancy thing and how the show straight up never addresses it, because it’s always really bothered me. I think we know the writers only used aspects of the medieval setting when it was convenient for the plot and basically ignored it the rest of the time. But Gwen not falling pregnant for three god damn years after marriage would have been a really big deal – especially because the show made such a thing about Arthur marrying a servant to begin with.

    I can buy that the people of Camelot would could around to the idea of their king marrying for love rather than station, because by that point Arthur had already shown that he didn’t need marriage to create alliances and make the kingdom strong. But then for him not to have any heirs to inherit his legacy, and keep Camelot in a position of power and security? Yeah, no. The people would not have been okay with that. Who the hell was supposed to rule the kingdom after Arthur and Gwen died?

    I mean, obviously the showrunners wanted the end of the series to be tragic on every level – basically everybody is dead, Merlin is burdened with awaiting Arthur’s return, and there are no more Pendragons – but doing it at the expense of making contextual and narrative sense is just really shitty. They wanted us to believe that Arthur was like “Yep, I put all my energy into building this great kingdom, the greatest this land has ever known. Oh, but I didn’t bother to ensure it continued after my death by banging my wife.” I know they couldn’t address it like that specifically, because family show and all that, but they could’ve done *something*.

    I really think they should’ve at least had Gwen say she thought she was pregnant in the last episode. Their last scene together in bed in the tent would’ve been the perfect opportunity. Her not having any babies before this point still would’ve been a bit questionable I guess, but it would’ve at least indicated that they’d been trying. And would’ve shown that the writers had actually thought about this very important part of royal medieval life. Ideally, I would’ve liked them to address it more directly and had something about Arthur and Gwen not being able to conceive, but evidently that wasn’t something they wanted to go into in the last season. To which I say booooooooo but then again, I say that about basically the entirety of the last season anyway lol

    I mean, I love this show, obviously. But boy does it drive me crazy!

  2. Camelot_drabble on LJ has Arwen pairing stories every week. It may be only 1-2 people but they are still posting.
    Another great episode. I’m really enjoying them.

  3. I just listened to this and I really liked the discussion about the lack of a pregnancy, as well as a lack of discussion around that topic. I’d be very interested in hearing why the writers decided not to discuss that topic within the show, but I guess we’ll never know.

    Thank you for recommending three of my videos! Your kind words meant a lot to me and it was wonderful to hear people actually talk about my videos (rather than just reading comments). It really made my day!

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