Talk:Merlin (TV series)

Disambig page

Umm, I'm not sure, but wouldn't it be better if "Merlin" was a disambiguation? I seem to recall at least one other TV series (the one starring Sam Neill), and I suppose there are at least a few characters called Merlin. -- Rodo 19:33, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

You're right, of course. I just checked Wikipedia; there's a mini-series with the same title. I can edit the "Merlin" page into a disambiguation page, and create a new page called "Merlin (TV)".-- Ghani 20:00, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

But the one with Sam Neill is made for TV too. I think it would be better to distinguish between "Merlin (TV miniseries)" and "Merlin (TV series)". Or by the years they were produced in (1998 and 2008). -- Rodo 20:23, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Another option would be "Merlin (BBC)" for the TV series. I've seen it referred to by that name on LJ already. -- Ghani 20:46, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Hi Gardeners, would it be possible to move the "Merlin" page to "Merlin (BBC)"? "Merlin" should really be a disambiguation page. I wasn't sure if I'd mess up something hideously if I'd do it manually. Thanks.

Done! I created the disambiguation for Merlin as well, to get things started. --Arduinna 20:26, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that was fast. Thank you very much! -- Ghani 20:29, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

moving LJ comm list to subpage?

I have expanded and sorted the list of comms a bit, and as a result it is now rather long in relation to the rest of the page. Would it be better to move that list to a subpage as in some other large fandoms, or should it remain on the main page? Any opinions?--Ratcreature 09:55, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I watched you adding all these comms (I had no idea there were so many!) and just had the same thought. *g* I would say moving it to a subpage would be a good idea. --Doro 09:59, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, me neither. Last time I really looked was last year when I edited this page as well, and then just now I just intended to sort the list but looked around whether any were missing, and it turns out the number had since kind of exploded...o.O

Would "Communities" work as subpage title? I mean, currently all I know of are on LJ, but who knows whether there are or will be some on other servicelike IJ or the future DW. On the SGA page it is called "lists and communities" but I don't know of any mailing lists at all.--Ratcreature 10:26, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

concerns about limited pov

Hi guys! I noticed that the "Other pairings" section is both short and has strong statements that I'm not sure everyone who actually ships those pairings would agree with. Would it be possible to hedge a bit more, link to meta that's been posted discussing the pairings and reactions to them, or create subpages where these pairings can be discussed in detail? I'd be happy to help, but I'm not an expert on all the new pairings cropping up out there.--the old briar pipe 03:59, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

LOL! Yes, that is somewhat limited POV. The Merlin newsletter's delicious account: http://delicious.com/bbc_merlin gives a good sense of how the pairings are growing. Nothing approaches the primacy of Merlin/Arthur in the fandom, but Gwen/Arthur is pretty much next most popular by number of delicious links. -- Vera 04:23, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Made a section for Arthur/Gwen and added some text. -- Vera 04:43, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Forewarning to editors - a whole bunch of Merlin fen plan to descend on this page on the weekend of March 27/28 to add some structure and flesh out... just about everything. If you want to be part of the prepwork, we'll be meeting to talk about it at Camelot_fleet (and possibly other comms, including Drawmelot). the old briar pipe 21:00, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

\o/! --MegR 22:36, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Ok, guys, we're starting our work on the stubs over in Googledocs, where we can work with newbies without them running and screaming. If you want access to the docs and/or the chat, just email theoldbriarpipe at gmail. We're starting at 4pm GMT and working until 4am GMT, then doing it again tomorrow for a shorter period. All are welcome. I will post summaries of the chats here and a link to the saved logs. No pages with significant content will be touched in this way, just the mostly empty stubs. And of course, you're all welcome to edit to your hearts' content - this is only so we have a lot of raw material to work with from people who normally wouldn't touch a Wiki with a ten foot pole. the old briar pipe 15:32, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Spoiler Warnings

I removed the spoiler warnings from the stub pages. The last episode of series two aired 3 month ago, the DVDs have been out for a month and even kinkme_merlin, who are very strinct with their spoiler warnings, don't require warnings for series two anymore. Series three hasn't been filmed yet and I doubt anyone is going to add a lot about series three right now, so I don't see what we would need spoiler warnings for. --Doro 18:50, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I didn't know if we needed those or not. the old briar pipe 15:32, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Structural Concerns

Right now there are a lot of subpages with no content, some of them for minor pairings where we don't know yet how much there is to say about them, and there are many red links demanding subpages for minor characters. The info box already looks cluttered and come next weekend, it will probably get worse. I suggest that we create a Merlin (BBC)/Pairings and Merlin (BBC)/Characters page where all the information about minor pairings and charcters can be added (existing subpages like Merlin/Uther and Uther/Morgana can easily be turned into redirects for now) and if it turns out that people add so much fannish content about one of these characters or pairings that it would be better to move them to their own page, we can still create a subpage for them. --Doro 19:04, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Hm, I disagree. I think the reason most of the pages don't have content is because they've been created in advance of the weekend party, so people new to the wiki can just add content without worrying about how to create pages and add templates. So we might as well leave them and see how much gets added in the next week. If some stay empty or short, maybe they can then be deleted and their content moved to Other Characters & Other Pairings pages or something. But I feel this is pretty much what subpages are for, so I don't see a problem with having a bunch of them. --MegR 21:28, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

The subpage list always looks like incomprehensible clutter as soon as there are more than four or so. That is a design failing that IMO in itself does not count against subpages. Perhaps we should think how to better arrange subpages instead. I can see that having a bunch of almost empty subpages is not great, but I agree that we might as well see whether any get filled with the planned editing event.--RatCreature 22:07, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

I made those in anticipation of editing this weekend (and in the hopes that some people would add content between then and now). I based it off the SGA page structure, but I'd happily see it organized in a more readable fashion, at least on the main page itself. Could we do it with lists, perhaps? the old briar pipe 15:32, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

SGA isn't such a good example because it's a real mess /o\ (it burned so many people that hardly anyone now dares to touch it) but structure isn't a problem right now. We can clean it up later, when the party is over and we have a better idea of what content we have. PS: I think I changed some red links for minor characters to go to a non-existend characters page instead of creating a separate page for each minor character, but I'm not sure where that was, sorry. :/ --Doro 15:51, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

I can totally understand that! My own experience with the SGA page was frustrating. As for the minor character links, that could be a good compromise. If you could find that page it might be helpful? P.S. Sophie convinced us to come over here, but the pages we're working on are a right mess, please be forewarned. We're on the chat right now if you want to see. the old briar pipe 18:31, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Proposed subpages

Some pages we (the newbies) have talked about making but haven't yet, as far as I can tell:

• A page for minor characters like Edwin and Freya, maybe Nimueh and Morgause. Maybe we could do like Doro suggested, make Merlin (BBC)/Characters, link to the ones that have their own pages, and just write a paragraph or two there for minor ones. That would probably be better than what I was thinking, which was Merlin (BBC)/Minor characters.
• A list of tropes like magical reveal, modern AU, and reincarnation. Should this be on a fanfiction page, a Merlin tropes page, fanfiction tropes, or what?
• Discussions and debates about race and misogyny within Merlin canon and fandom

Should these pages exist? Should they be subpages? What should they be called? Sophinisba 13:42, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

I think a Merlin (BBC)/Characters subpage is a good idea. There is a Story Tropes by Fandom page, if that's any use; some individual tropes might want their own pages - Modern AU & Reincarnation certainly need top level pages, not subpages; they are not Merlin-specific tropes. Actually, I don't think Revealfic is either. I'm not sure you'll need a separate subpage for a list of tropes, but if you do I'd go with Merlin (BBC)/Tropes or something non fic-specific, as some of them will probably apply to other types of fanworks. For discussions about race etc, you might want to put them on the main page first and see whether there's enough to warrant a subpage, but I wouldn't know what to call it if you need one. You might also want to reference the latter on the Race and Fandom & Misogyny in Fandom pages. --MegR 16:40, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the input, Meg. I'll start a characters page now and try waiting to hear from more people on the tropes and issues stuff.

I agree that things like modern AUs and Reincarnation should have their own panfandom pages, but I also think there should be a place for talking specifically about how they get handled in Merlin fandom, and like how those tropes relate to each other (modern and historical AUs and crossovers and fusions that turn out to be reincarnation fics in the last chapter, or whatever). Maybe you're right that that should just be on the main fandom page, at least for now. Sophinisba 17:01, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Sophie, I would be in favor of a minor character page as long as, when a particular section gets too big, it would be okay to break it out into its own page. I could easily see the Lancelot, Mordred, Morgause, or Leon sections coming to dominate the page visually with multiple subheadings and would prefer to remove them to their own pages in that case to keep from swallowing up the smaller characters. On a related note, would we include the character template for each character? I'm also very much in favor of a page about meta and discussions on race, mysogyny, class, and magic, since the intersections of oppression just keep coming up in this fandom over and over and at least two of those (class and magic) are major themes of the show. the old briar pipe 16:51, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Mei, Agreed on the minor characters and not wanting Morgause or whoever to take it over. As soon as something gets beyond two paragraphs or so we could just move it to its own page. I think we'd start it out without character templates and just have a sentence or two for each, like saying which episode(s) they were in.

Does anyone know of List of Character pages in other fandoms that we could use as a model? Sophinisba 17:01, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer/Characters is essentially a links list, but it could easily have the unlinked characters described briefly.--facetofcathy 17:21, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Pudsey!AU

So, we have this AU created by the show's creators and aired on TV, much like Mirror!verse in Trek or Mensa!verse in SGA. Where do you guys think the page for it should be placed? Top level or under the Merlin pages as a subcategory? the old briar pipe 16:51, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Top level. See Pegasus B, Kraith, Mensaverse, etc. This is an AU based on a clip that was filmed for a charity event and definitely not part of canon but fans use it as a setting for their own fanworks, making it a shared universe. --Doro 17:11, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Dead Link

there's a BBC Merlin newsletter on delicious as a reference and I attempted to replace it with a Wayback link since the site's dead, but it's blocked by spam filter (del.icio.us is, I mean) — Sobqjmv sphinx(talk), 15 Dec 2022 10:39 EST Sobqjmv sphinx (talk) 15:39, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

which link is dead and which one did you try to use instead? --Ellakbhesse (talk) 18:12, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Sobqjmv sphinx I managed to make a modification that allowed the edition to be accepted by the site. I hope it's good now --Ellakbhesse (talk) 18:38, 15 December 2022 (UTC)