The Student Prince

The Student Prince is a popular Merlin/Arthur college and modern royal family AU, written and recorded by FayJay. It was written and posted in 35 chapters as a work in progress with a new part every day. The serial format contributed to the popularity of the novel because people were talking about it after every new part which created a lot of buzz so that more and more people checked it out. FayJay also recorded the podfic of this story.
The Student Prince was for a time the story with the second highest number of hits on fanfiction website Ao3. This occured in January 2012, when the AO3 version of this fic had more than 800 comments and over 90,000 hits.As of Jul 26th, 2013 The Student Prince was the fifth most popular fic on AO3, ranked by hits.More recently, the story's popularity has been superseded by other stories on the archive. As of 4 March 2013, The Student Prince has 1,049 comments (ranked 31st place); 3,333 kudos (24th place); 1,103 bookmarks (roughly 479th place); and 203,968 total hits (7th place). The story was also crossposted on Dreamwidth, where the final chapter received 90 comments. As of October 2021, the story has more than 2500 comments, 18500+ Kudos, 6500 bookmarks and a very impressive 715,000+ hits on AO3.
When it comes to Modern AUs, the story often gets described as "right up there with Drastically Redefining Protocol"._pinkchocolate. Fic rec: The Student Prince, 10 July 2010. (Accessed 14 September) Given the similar premises, the comparison is not particularly surprising.
It is one of the most popular fanfics in the Merlin fandom. Fans of this story have created fanart, gifs, vids and other transformative works in the universe of The Student Prince. The Student Prince is widely recced and has often being referred to as a "Merlin classic". 
==Summary==
Summary:
The original summary read: 
==Podfic==
FayJay podficced her own novel in three partspandarus. Podfic: The Student Prince, 3/3, 14 September 2010. Length: 441 MB, 15:09:00 in 3 parts. (Accessed 14 September 2010) and cybel turned it into an audiobook. The complete work is more than 15 hours long and both mp3 and audiobook are available at the Audiofic Archive. The podbook cover is a manip by ladyflowdi.ladyflowdi. Merlin fanart: The CEO and the Assistant, 19 February 2010. (Accessed 14 September 2010) The original artwork shows a "CEO and Assistant" version of AU!Merlin/Arthur but it works for the characters from The Student Prince just as well.
==Recs and Reviews==
There are several reviews of The Student Prince at Goodreads.The Student Prince by FayJay. (Accessed 05 January 2013) The M/M Romance Group, the largest M/M group on Goodreads, chose the story for one of its books of the month in January 2013.Submitted by bigbustygeek to fy_merlinxarthur. The Student Prince chosen as a M/M Romance group Book of the Month on GoodReads. (Accessed 05 January 2013)
==Fanworks Inspired by the Story==
===Vids===
*starlit_morning made a fanvid based on the story:
*GreenePearl also made a vid trailer for the story.GreenePearl. Modern Merlin & Arthur | The Student Prince trailer, 10 August 2012. (Accessed 24 August 2013)
===Art===
*Go With The Kraken by ReniMilchstrasse, is a fanart illustration of a scene "where Merlin is all emo and the kraken comes along to cheer him up by exploring the ocean all afternoon." The Kraken is a dangerous mystical being Merlin accidentally summoned once before, when he was a teenager.
* by achelseabee
* by samkatdiz
* by kingdamianos
* by merlindoesburnhas
===Graphics and Gif Sets===
* by pilotspoe
* moodboard by isleofapplepies
* graphic by lefayss-blog
* by steinisms
* gif set by candlewinds
* by fanficovers
==Example Art Gallery==
File:St Andrews Merlin.jpg|St Andrews Merlin by lukita (2010)
File:The Student Prionce moodboard.jpg|Moodboard by futureandonce (2011)
==Resources==
* The Student Prince: The Tumblr Reread. From the About section:
==Further Reading==
* by Ellie Bate, buzzfeed.com, The Student Prince is listed first in the Merlin section.
==References==
Category:Merlin AU
Category:2010 Fanfiction‎
Category:2021 Featured Articles