claryfrayed - Tumblr blog

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arthur crawling out of the lake after 1500 years of being dead and starts shaking uncontrollably after seeing a streetlight

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Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice, how did you did that.

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the spirit is not willing and the flesh it is not so into the idea either

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PLS WHO IS RUNNING THE MERLIN TWITTER

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Do you ever think of how, to Arthur, Merlin is a clumsy, idiot of a servant with no care for tradition, but he makes Arthur laugh and gives the best advice and somehow, without Arthur even noticing, has become his best friend in the entire world, the person he wants to face every battle with, not only so he can protect Merlin but also so he can have Merlin’s support and approval

And then it turns out that Merlin doesn’t need protecting, and he’s the most powerful sorcerer to exist, he has magic, and has actually been the one protecting Arthur this entire time

And Arthur has to face their entire relationship being turned upside down, because okay you have magic, he’s had his suspicions about magic not being evil for a while now and of course Merlin isn’t evil, but it’s more how dare you not tell me, after I’ve came to you for everything and I thought you did too, I thought I noticed when things were wrong and put a smile on your face but this whole time you’ve not trusted me

And in a matter of hours he has to relearn their entire friendship and try to understand why Merlin has done this and why he keeps doing this and make sure that everything else about our friendship is true please say the rest was true

And by the end, because he is dying and the end is so very near, it doesn’t matter anymore because he is Arthur and he is Merlin and it doesn’t matter that they’re also the Once and Future King of Camelot and Emrys the Most Powerful Sorcerer Ever to Live

No, they’re just Merlin and Arthur in their last few minutes together and they both know it and this is his last chance so it’s not you betrayed me and I need time and how could you do this to us, instead it’s it’s okay and hold me and thank you because if this is his last chance to protect Merlin then of course he is going to take it, that’s always been his job and neither death nor magic is going to change that

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the black dog 🐾🤍

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it’s called character development

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"The Tortured Poets Department" mural at a Nashville record store

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The smollest boy who ever lived. 🤏

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wait, no-

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x // merlin, s01e02 // the other boleyn girl // merlin, s03e01 // x // merlin, s01e02 // merlin s03e13 // merlin, s5 deleted scene // merlin s01e03 // the haunting of hill house s01e01 //merlin, s5 deleted scene // merlin, s04e03 // taylor swift, my tears ricochet // merlin, s05e13 // eric larocca, things have gotten worse since we last spoke // melodie ramone, after forever ends // merlin, s05e13.

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I cant stop thinking ab the idea of merlin one day post s5, where they all survived, becoming really secretive and protective of his room and not telling anyone at all whats inside. Not even gaius. He even gets a lock installed and whenever anybody asks he brushes it off with jokes like “its to stop arthur from finding me” or smth.

he also unrelatedly really hates any talk of destiny, going to war, and anytime morgana mentions her fear of her magic turning her merlin slightly freaks out.

That is until one day gaius manages to catch merlin off guard while hes rushing between the main room and his bedroom and walks in.

Only to see a whole bunch of stuff that hes never seen before.

Merlin freaks out, tries to play it off as some weird experiments and stuff hes been collecting but gaius can feel it, somethings different about these items, not wrong but not right. Not really magic either.

It takes 3 weeks of gaius pestering him before merlin breaks and explains to him that he IS A TIME TRAVELER. after the battle of camlan as we know it that lead to arthurs death, merlin did wait, he really did, but in the year 2020 when arthur didnt return for yet another global crisis, merlin broke and did spell upon spell until he figured out how throw himself back in time.

And holy shit did it work well. He managed to come back just at the perfect time to change everything that needed to be done to assure that everyone lives happily and safely, and when he realises hes done it, he decides to stay in this time. See his friends and family grow old as they should have. See arthur rule as he should have. Live the life he has been craving to go back to for centuries now.

Until a month in he realises how old everything is. Sure merlin can survive without his phone and stuff but theres a few things he really misses. Like his slippers, his potato peeler, his favourite hoodie, and especially his favourite tea flavours.

So once in a while he allowed himself to go back to the modern day and bring one thing back. He started with a scented candle, because candles exist in camelot and having one here shouldn’t mess up time right? Then moved onto a herbal tea that he knows if he traveled past the boarders he may be able to find similar ingredients.

Then he brings a new release of his favourite book series because he cant help it and realises small things like that dont change time.

And so thats what he’s been hiding away in his room, all of his modern day stuff. Ranging from trinkets hes collected over his life to his favourite scarf to his stuffed lion that he won at a fair in the 80s. He doesn’t go back often, only when his tea runs out or he really needs something, he tries to limit it he really does.

It takes gaius another 4 weeks to wrap his head around it all. Another 2 weeks after that to touch merlins stuffed lion thinking it may attack him at any moment.

He makes gaius promise to not tell a soul, offering him tea bags as payment. They have a nice system from then on, gaius would try a new flavour of tea everytime merlin returned, once in a while he would also bring a modern day snack (gaius yelled when he first tried salt and vinegar crisps).

A yell which led to leon finding out. And so a cycle began.

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s5 canon divergence

After Ismere, Merlin reflects on his conversation with the Diamair (instead of seemingly forgetting about it??) - he interprets the bit about Arthur being his own bane rather than Mordred to mean that, if Mordred does try to kill Arthur, it will be because the King has done something to deserve it.

Naturally, the result of this is that Merlin doesn’t treat Mordred with the same distrust, particularly after their conversation about why Mordred sided with them over Morgana. They have a proper conversation about the prophecy and the conclusions Merlin has now drawn regarding it.

This turns out to be mildly unfortunate for Arthur who is trying very hard to adopt his new and youngest knight, but Mordred consistently looks first to Merlin for approval rather than Arthur (who can’t figure out why his manservant’s opinion is worth more than his and he’s lowkey salty).

Meanwhile, seeing Aithusa at Ismere has shaken Merlin badly enough that he tracks Morgana down again and, despite a lot of very raw anger and distrust, they actually have a proper conversation in which Morgana agrees to let Merlin treat Aithusa’s injuries/chronic pain as best he can.

Afterwards they basically act like bitter co-parenting divorcées, but they also end up talking more and more. Merlin reveals his magic because Fuck It (he didn’t know Fuck It was an emotion but he’s been feeling it increasingly (perhaps worryingly) often lately).

And while Merlin isn’t quite ready to give up on Arthur yet, and Morgana certainly has no intention of just trusting that the King will come around eventually, they learn to compromise on things like not needlessly harming peasants (Morgana) or killing righteously vengeful sorcerers instead of incapacitating them (Merlin).

Eventually, they settle into a kind of good-cop-bad-cop approach to making Arthur legalize magic: Merlin more earnestly forces the King to confront the good sides of magic while Morgana and her allies (now including those who follow Emrys) loom threateningly on the border, prepared to invade again if magic isn’t freed.

It helps that Merlin is slowly letting more of his friends in the loop about his magic and gaining their trust and support in his efforts to sway Arthur (Gwen is the pivotal player here, esp. once she gets confirmation that Merlin was the one to heal her father all those years ago - a fact which later also helps win Elyan’s loyalty).

It’s still a slow and messy process, and it only works at all because Merlin and Morgana don’t let on to anyone (except Mordred) that they’re coordinating their efforts; it’s simply too late to regain any trust on that front. In the end, though, Arthur concedes and (somewhat grudgingly) repeals the magic ban.

Arthur offers Merlin the Court Sorcerer position - though he says it in a way that sounds uncomfortably like “I’m putting you in charge so keep your people in line.” Merlin refuses on the grounds that he’s due for the complete mental breakdown he’s been staving off for nearly a decade.

In a fit of (evil) genius, Merlin nominates Kara for the position instead, which successfully turns ‘keeping their people in line’ into ‘professionally bullying Arthur into learning how magic actually works and not being a dick because he literally has access to dozens of books on the subject and no excuse not to have read them by now’.

(Kara is very good at this job, and Merlin considers “having the best sister-in-law ever” to be of great benefit to his mental health and speed of recovery from aforementioned breakdown.)

And they all live (reasonably) happily ever after — the end.

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🚶🏼🚶🏻‍♂️🚶🏻‍♂️🚶🏻‍♂️🚶🏻‍♂️🚶🏾‍♂️🚶🏻‍♂️

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5.05 The Disir

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Arthur taking Merlin along literally anytime he goes on a quest.