Better to save a good man

So it has come to my attention recently that I'm addicted to Merlin to the point where it has taken over my main blog, iwillalwaysbearealfan, so I decided to do this properly

[pandalikeelf]

knights of the round table week | day 1: foundations and first meetings

[endlesslogo]

Drew idea from twitter

[theghostofbean]

Um. I’ll just leave this here.

[hurglewurm]

s2e11 the witch's quickening / s4e5 his father's son

ough the inescapable poetic downfall as morgana becomes the very person she hated most

[limbel]

category 5 homo moment alert every time a hot guy has to leave arthur's immediate proximity

[limbel]

goddamn. okay

[pchelostas]

Scriptorium demo is so fun i had to make these two

[sneakyboymerlin]

BBC Merlin + Text Posts

[saladscream]

"To the task!"

(I know. Please ignore the fact that I had to flip the source picture to make it work. 😖)

No AI used, because I don't need that shit.

Inspired by the universe of @the-pen-pot's WIP Sigh No More

[saladscream]

I hate that we live in a world where people doubt artists and accuse them of using AI.

I hate that we live in a world where there are douchebags out there who call themselves 'artists' and use AI.

And in only vaguely related matters, I hate that my one and only set of skills means people don't even notice how much work goes into my pictures.

left: source pic (Captain Flint in Black Sails) right: manip - broadened shoulders and slimmed hips to better suit Bradley James' physique + red shirt to better suit the Pendragon theme The differences are subtle, but they require efforts and mean the resulting manip works better as a whole.

I don't know why I wanted to show you this, but I just saw a great artist on the verge of quitting a fandom because of such hideous accusations, and it's made me angry and truly disheartened.

And, to be perfectly honest... when I see the number of notes my stuff gets, it makes me wonder why I continue to share out here. I'm still posting because of the few die hard friends who engage and interact and reblog, but I could get the same kick out of just sending them my stuff directly via DMs or Discord.

Something to consider.

[the-pen-pot]

*all the hugs* I know I'm one of those die hard fans, but I adore seeing your stuff on Tumblr too, and seeing your hard work! I'm only sorry that there are people out there who have fallen into that trap of accusing everyone of AI, all the time.

It's reached the point where the accusations are becoming more damaging than the ai itself.

I wish there was an easy answer. It sucks so bad. I can't wait for the gen AI bubble to burst.

[cbk1000]

I love your manips (and love the behind-the-scenes peek; I have no photo editing skills and can only imagine the work that must go into it) but hate that you have to put a disclaimer that your work is not AI. I'm tired of seeing generative AI in creative spaces; I'm even more tired of mindless pitchfork-seizing by people who are convinced they can spot an AI work with 100% accuracy based on some arbitrary tell.

I'm sorry you're feeling discouraged. I've done the shouting into the void thing before and know how much it sucks. No artist or writer is owed engagement...but people seem to forget sometimes that engagement is what keeps fandom active and thriving. You don’t HAVE to reblog art or comment on a fic, but eventually that artist or writer will stop posting. Most of us are sharing our work because we want to actively participate in the community; if we feel like the community's collective response is, 'So what?' to our work, it puts a bit of a damper on the sharing spirit.

I think tumblr has got worse for this. I suspect it's the bleeding in of other social media platforms where people just consume and move on. People might like artwork or a snippet of a fic, but far fewer actually reblog or comment on it. I've been on tumblr a long time and I feel the ratios used to be better; more people would actually reblog a post and keep it circulating in the community.

[misspendragon]

[greatdumbking]

arthur in text posts

[theonebraincell]

the thing about a shadow (1/4)

When Merlin finally returned to the city, three months after her somber coronation and a few weeks after her belly began to visibly swell, the first thing Gwen did was slap him across the face. “Alright,” he said after a moment, head still turned away from the force of the blow and rubbing at the blooming patch of red beneath the stubble covering his cheek. “I deserved that.” [in the wake of arthur's death and unexpectedly inheriting the throne of albion, a pregnant gwen comes to terms with her new reality while reuniting with merlin. or: a study in grief]

[exclusivelymerlin]

I need every single person still hung up on the finale to read this. This is truly something special. In my opinion, this is exactly what happened in canon.

[dollopheadedmerlin]

I love how in Merlin the lady of the lake is legitimately a catgirl

[castielstiel]

[idkhowtomakethis]

Bradley James: this is a love story

Everyone else: yes...

Bradley James: with Merlin

Everyone else: YES

[linen-finch]

additional merthur drawing because obviouslyyyyyyy

[ene-scribbles]

guess who has discovered the existence of this show over decade later than everyone else