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At this point, I’m convinced they had no script/plan for Gwaine’s character, they just put Eoin in a medieval custom, told him to be himself and released him into set.

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This has been a Daegal Appreciate Post.

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I love the contrast between Arthur and Merlin’s love for each other.

To Merlin, Arthur is like the sun. His love blinds him to everything else. It’s why he only saw Mordred as Arthur’s bane rather than the loyal knight he could have been, and why he chose Arthur’s life over the legalisation of magic in Camelot. Merlin’s love is obsessive.

To Arthur, Merlin is like the sky. A constant where everything else exists. Merlin is there in Arthur’s dreams of being a farmer, he’s there watching all of his dates, he’s there in battle, in peace, in almost every aspect of his life. Arthur takes Merlin for granted.

In a way, the finale is perfect for them. Arthur learns to truly see Merlin for the first time, and Merlin learns to live without Arthur.

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“In a land of myth and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young man. His name? Merlin” - Just finished drawing Merlin and Kilgharrah in the Lake of Avalon

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I rewatched Darkest Hour today and noticed something both interesting and heartbreaking:

When Merlin throws himself in front of the dorocha to save Arthur, arguably dying in the process (don't even get me started on the Multiple Deaths Theory), pay attention to the sound design. The music.

There's a sort of triumphant, victorious, almost uplifting swell to the orchestrals as Merlin gets struck and dies. I may not be an expert on music theory, but cinematography is one of my main hyperfixations so i can confidently say that the music choice seems a bit disjointed. Triumph and hope, right as Merlin is mortally wounded?

For the longest time, that music choice never made much sense to me. I always just pegged it as a minor flaw to an otherwise amazing episode, and told myself to stop nitpicking. But as i was watching it today, it finally clicked.

Its not a mistake at all. Its actually genius.

From Merlin's perspective, this is a moment of triumph. He's dying to save Arthur, and in his eyes there is no better way to go. Its an honorable death, to give up your life for the one you love. So yes, it's triumphant and hopeful and victorious because those are the feelings that cross through Merlin as he smiles and bites the proverbial bullet.

But then, as Arthur rolls his friend into his arms and the camera pans to Merlin's frostbitten face, the music shifts from triumphant to sinister. Because now the perspective has likewise shifted away from Merlin and onto Arthur. And while Merlin considers it a victory, Arthur feels exactly the opposite. Because losing Merlin will never be a victory for him, and the sudden change in music reflects that.

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nobility is defined by what you DO -

- not by who you are.

sO LET’S TALK ABOUT GWAINE

and specifically about how merlin reacts to him in this intro ep, because this is another of those episodes that has more stuff going on under the surface than merlin is able to articulate out loud.

i said in an earlier post that gwaine is the person in merlin’s circle who most closely approximates will’s audaciously unapologetic spirit of “good morning to MERLIN and MERLIN ONLY,” and on a rewatch, it’s apparent that this episode actually takes the parallels between those two characters way further than that.

what is it with you and nobles?  he doesn’t trust anyone of nobility.

my father was a knight, in caerleon’s army.  he died in battle. his father was killed, fighting for king cenred.

you saved his life / if i’d known who he was, i probably wouldn’t have. you just saved my life / yeah, don’t know what i was thinking!

arthur’s a thoroughbred little braggart. when i first met [arthur]…i thought he was pompous and arrogant / well, nothing’s changed there, then.

people get sick of me too quickly. they’re used to ignoring him.

you livened the place up. this place has been boring without you.

the first time merlin and gwaine meet, gwaine bum-rushes some dude trying to kill arthur and gets stabbed for his trouble, and then the first conversation merlin has with him after that is about how if gwaine had known who arthur was, he wouldn’t have bothered to help.

“he’s a noble,” gwaine says, by way of explanation.  and then later, when merlin says “arthur’s not like that,” gwaine replies, “maybe.  but none of them are worth dying for.”

i mean.  

merlin looks at gwaine and sees something he recognizes.  of course he goes ride or die for gwaine three seconds after meeting him.  of course he instantly gravitates towards him.  of course he feels reflexively affectionate for him; he can’t help it - he feels like he already knows him.  

gwaine isn’t just friendly and fun to merlin; he’s familiar. 

so familiar, in fact, that merlin, having known gwaine for a grand total of twenty-four hours, completely drops every single scrupulous precaution he’s supposed to be taking with regard to his private personal information and immediately dishes up all the dirty details of his father’s situation, despite the fact that NOBODY IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW ANY OF THAT STUFF.  

like - merlin keeps the dragonlord part a secret, at least, but the things he does say are dangerous enough on their own.  in 2.08, merlin straight up tells arthur that he’s never met his father, that he doesn’t even know who his father was.  and that’s the impression arthur is still carrying around.  if arthur were to somehow get wind of the fact that this isn’t the case - if the subject happened to pop up one day and a confused gwaine was like, “uhhh merlin told me his father served uther and was banished; he told me he met his father before the man died” - it would prompt more than a few awkward questions.  how would merlin even begin to explain that?  when is he supposed to have discovered his father’s identity, or met his father personally, or learned that his father had died, without arthur being somehow involved?  merlin works for arthur all day, every day, from dawn til dusk.  there’s no conceivable way something this momentous could have occurred outside of arthur’s notice.  

the whole thing looks suspicious as hell.  it’s a dangerous hole in merlin’s cover.  

and yet -

merlin can’t help himself.  he hears gwaine saying, ‘yeah, my dad was killed fighting one of the king’s stupid wars and then the king left me and mine for dead, so fuck the nobility, amirite?’ and merlin’s mind short-circuits.  he goes OH?!?!??? and then he immediately fumbles every single shred of common sense he’s ever had.  he word-vomits his dad’s story all over gwaine’s lap.  

it’s like - look, merlin hears that and reflexively thinks I KNOW YOU, and he blurts out the thing he hasn’t been able to say for a year.  he temporarily forgets that he isn’t safe, because he feels safe, around someone who feels like this, like someone he used to know, like the only friend he had who was safe, for him, like the only person who would’ve known enough about merlin’s personal history to even care about an update on his mysteriously missing father to begin with.  gwaine feels like the one person merlin has been wanting to tell about balinor in the first place.  the confession is automatic.  instinctive.  and it’s not like it’s a little one time slip-up, either; it’s a mistake merlin keeps making, because he talks to gwaine about it again, when they’re polishing the army’s boots for punishment work, and merlin is going on and on about how no, his father didn’t have servants, he didn’t have anybody; he died about a year ago, and merlin wishes he’d known him better; his father could have taught him so much - and he’s just sitting there scrubbing those shoes, talking about things nobody else knows and nobody else is supposed to know, like it’s the most natural thing in the world.  

and he should know better.  if any of the things he said to gwaine ever got back to arthur, merlin would be up the proverbial creek.  none of these things are things he should be saying out loud, to anybody.  to this day, that whole conversation is a ticking time bomb waiting to blow up in his face.

but gwaine feels familiar to him.  he forgets.  

i say it a lot, but merlin spent something close to the first two decades of his life being known and loved, undercover and in secret, by exactly two people.  the feeling, elusive and impossibly rare, of what it was like to be safe and accepted and understood - that was something he could only get from two people.  and when everyone and everywhere else was potentially deadly - the magnitude of those relationships can’t be overstated.  it just can’t.  

so when merlin sees echoes of them in somebody else, of course he trips over his own feet trying to get close to that as fast as he can.  of course he tries to convince gwaine to stay in camelot; he literally puts himself in between gwaine and the door at the end to stop him from leaving.  of course merlin begs arthur “oh, you’ve got to speak to [uther], arthur; make him change his mind.”  

and it’s sad, at the end, when gwaine has to go, but the nice thing about it, in this case, is that gwaine is totally worth merlin’s effort.  merlin is chasing the right guy.  gwaine is exactly the kind of person that merlin’s (mistaken, yet somehow still accurate) mental associations assume he must be.  more so than any of merlin’s other friends, gwaine is the one who ultimately proves most likely to dump everyone and drop everything in defense of merlin’s interests.  he’s the one most likely to flip prince arthur pendragon the bird.  he’s the only one who comes to help merlin when gaius is framed for treason in season 4, after arthur turns his back on merlin and the rest of the court buys agravaine’s lies. 

i love that about him.  merlin needs people like that in his life.  merlin deserves people who put him first.  

and gwaine, for his part, deserves to have friends who appreciate him, people who want him around, people who are sorry to see him go.  when he says “i never stay in one place too long - people get sick of me too quickly,” gwaine deserves to have someone like merlin, who will respond, immediately and sincerely: “i didn’t.”  

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If every knight was an animal what animal would they be?

OK this is gonna take a long time i can already tell

Arthur - golden retriever, easy

Elyan - a fox. he's very sneaky and very quiet

Percival - a bear. gentle as long as you leave him alone, otherwise........ rip lmao

Gwaine - ohhhh gosh. a crow, maybe? very smart, very free, very cool, very playful, ready to swoop in and pick at food at any time

Lancelot - once again, DIFFICULT. an owl, perhaps?? very calm and noble, cares a lot about their family and keeping them safe and well

Leon - emperor penguin, v caring and protective once again, also super cool looking and honourable

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Merlin Rewatch

Season 2, episode 1: “The Curse of Cornelius Sigan”

- Think, Merlin! To have the world appreciate your greatness, to have Arthur know you for what you are.

- That can never be.

- It can. If you join me.

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I’ve been thinking about Merlin being sent to Camelot in his younger age, and Gaius has to deal with him :’D

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Gwaine as Heir to Camelot

So it has come to my attention that in many versions of the King Arthur story, Gwaine is technically Arthur’s nephew, and since Arthur never has any children, the rightful heir to Camelot. And just… I know it doesn’t fit with Merlin canon in so many different ways, but what if Arthur dies (and Gwaine doesn’t because he didn’t die he just passed out) and Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Court Genealogist, figures out that Gwaine is the rightful heir and he just… assumes the throne? Can you imagine?

So Gwaine is obviously not qualified for diplomatic relations, so he asks Gwen, who is apparently now his aunt, to stay on as Queen Regent and they share power. She handles dealing with other kingdoms and convinces them that no, Camelot is not going to just utterly fall apart now that Arthur is dead and manages to maintain some dignity for her late husband, herself, and the realm.

Meanwhile, Gwaine handles a lot of the domestic policy and just… it’s wild. Some of it is expected, like lifting the ban on sorcery and instating Merlin as the Court Sorcerer or allowing more commoners to become knights. But then he also straight up removes the gender barrier for soldiers (seeing as he’s gotten his ass kicked by enough ladies to know that he needs them in the army) and abolishes the nobility and redistributes most of their land throughout the peasantry. Taverns don’t have to pay taxes and apple orchards are funded to an absurd degree. He starts a menagerie of magical creatures that little kids can visit as long as they don’t mind risking their life to do so (no one has actually died, though, because it’s not as dangerous as he makes it out to be; he just wants the kids to get a taste of adventure). You can legally fight anyone who refuses to pay your wages or provide a promised pension. The rules of inheritance are expanded to include women, because after all, his Aunt Gwen (he refuses to call her anything else) got half the throne, so why shouldn’t low-born women have the same rights?

Basically, he’s the Himbo King that Arthur could have been if he actually drank his respecting other people juice

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because of quarantine I've been rewatching merlin and categorizing each episode in how they make me feel for when I wanna watch merlin but I need one to hit the mood just right. Anyway I've just finished my first page and I'm gonna probably post all my findings on here when I've finished it all, not that my opinion is be all end all or whatever the phrase is I just thought some people might be interested. However if u have a list like this and have different opinions and categories I'd love to hear them

ps ik my handwriting is mug ugly but at least shes a legible bachelor

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x 

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I feel like this is an unpopular opinion because she turned Mordred to the dark side or whatever, but I fucking love Kara.

During her trial, Arthur says “i’m not my father” as if he’s done anything during his reign to indicate that to magic users (note that this episode comes after Arthur sends his knights after Osgar just for being a sorcerer who resisted arrest, and after he sent men after Finna just for practicing the Old Religion)

And Kara rightly calls him on his bullshit when she says, “You don’t kill those with magic?” To which Arthur has no response because how does.

Kara stands before the king of Camelot who holds her life in his hands and tells him exactly what she thinks of him: 

“It is not I, Arthur Pendragon, who needs to answer for my crimes, it is you. You and your father have brutally and mercilessly heaped misery on my kind. It is you who has turned a peaceful people to war.”

Like damn. She doesn’t waver. She doesn’t soften her words. She doesn’t beg for leniency. 

Even when Arthur tells her he’ll rethink his sentence if she repents, she refuses. Arthur makes it so easy for her to say, “you know what, I’ll pass on this whole execution business” but she doesn’t because staying true to her cause and her people is more important.

Arthur gave her the most patronizing out in the world, talking about how “young” and “impressionable” she is–as if she’s the one between the two of them who’s deluded by prejudices–and instead of taking that out, she looks death right in the eye and tells him: 

“It is not a crime to fight for your freedom. It is not a crime to fight for the right to be who you are. You deserve everything that is coming to you, Arthur Pendragon.”

I mean seriously, the sheer power of this woman. Her very existence is outlawed, and yet she stands before the king and refuses to humor him for even a second, not even to save her own life.

Like yeah, it sucks that Mordred killed blond pendragon man but Kara is a fucking hero, and she doesn’t get enough credit for it.

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[Arthur and Merlin in a fight]

Arthur: why don’t you just leave, huh? Go on! I don’t need you!

Merlin: you literally need me for everything!

Arthur: no I absolutely do not!

Merlin: okay then prove it! Go a whole week without me! See if I care!

Arthur: fine! I will!

[Later, Merlin is organizing things for Gaius when there is a knock on the door, Merlin opens it]

Arthur stands shivering, covered in dirt, his shoulder was bleeding through his tunic (which was on backwards and his armor was hanging uselessly off his side), his sword was sheathed on the wrong hip, he had something that looked possibly edible smeared on his chin and his hair was sticking straight up in a tangled mess:

Merlin: Arthur, it’s only been 2 hours! how did you possibly-

Arthur, sobbing: I’m so sorry, please never leave me again

Merlin, rolling his eyes fondly: come here you prat

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Me: *Enters barging into the Merlin fandom 12 years late and shipping Merthur* GOOOD MORNING EVERYBODY

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english: coconut oil

french: :)

english: oh boy

french: oil of the nut of the coco