Read The Last Knight of Camelot: The Chronicles of Sir Kay by Cherith Baldry (or as I have been calling it, Woobie Kay Whumpfest 2: Electric Woobaloo), a collection of short stories of Baldry following her bliss of Putting Kay In A Situation Where He Is Unappreciated - Maligned, Even - But Actually Kay Is The Best, It's Everyone Else That Sucks. I truly cannot emphasize enough how pretty much every story follows a pattern of Arthur/someone/everyone else being dismissive or outright cruel to Kay (accusing him of treason is a popular choice) --> Kay makes a bold and ill-advised vow (and/or a choice that is the best and most logical course of action but not honorable) and storms off to fulfill it, usually followed by Gareth and/or Gawain (who Love Kay So, So Much Even Though No One Else Can See How Great He Is) --> Kay is successful but, alas, still Unappreciated and Misunderstood, and he's so so brave about it.
In my review of Exiled from Camelot (aka Woobie Kay Whumpfest the first), I had noted the ""everyone's kind of in love with each other, in varying combinations and gradients of interpretable-as-non-platonic" flavor of the capital-L Loyalty among Arthur and his knights. Kay loves Arthur, Gawain, and Guinevere; Gawain loves Arthur and Kay; Gareth loves Kay ..." and, in the comments,
I revise my theory. Baldry's Kay is 1000% in unrequited romantic love with Arthur, and I'm like 98% sure this is on purpose, although there is technically enough plausible deniability - he's just Really Really Devoted to Arthur! Platonically! - that I can't be totally sure about the last 2%. Maybe she just... accidentally wrote some straight-up romance novels passages?
( Exhibit A )
tl;dr this is 30 years' (1994-2024) worth of Cherith Baldry's self-indulgent blorbo whumpfic and I love that for her.
ETA:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer's review!
In my review of Exiled from Camelot (aka Woobie Kay Whumpfest the first), I had noted the ""everyone's kind of in love with each other, in varying combinations and gradients of interpretable-as-non-platonic" flavor of the capital-L Loyalty among Arthur and his knights. Kay loves Arthur, Gawain, and Guinevere; Gawain loves Arthur and Kay; Gareth loves Kay ..." and, in the comments,
I just kind of tossed all the different variations together in the post, but if I had to break it up into different types of "love":
- Purely platonic: Kay <--> Arthur
- Admiration-crush: Kay --> Guenevere; Gareth --> Kay
- Please kiss: Kay/Gawain
I revise my theory. Baldry's Kay is 1000% in unrequited romantic love with Arthur, and I'm like 98% sure this is on purpose, although there is technically enough plausible deniability - he's just Really Really Devoted to Arthur! Platonically! - that I can't be totally sure about the last 2%. Maybe she just... accidentally wrote some straight-up romance novels passages?
( Exhibit A )
tl;dr this is 30 years' (1994-2024) worth of Cherith Baldry's self-indulgent blorbo whumpfic and I love that for her.
ETA:
osprey_archer's review!
