Merlin follows Arthur everywhere, but Arthur follows Merlin everywhere too (what I believe was a possible Camelot’s Golden Age)
Do we talk about this enough? I don’t know (obviously we do), so here I am, because I need to get this out of my system.
But before I get straight to the point, you’ll need to bear with me and listen to my ranting about Freya.
I genuinely don’t know why and maybe I just read the wrong fanfictions, but why does there seem to be a collective thinking about how Merlin wouldn’t have gone with Freya because he couldn’t abandon Arthur?
Are we talking about the same Merlin?
Whatever someone believes Merlin and Freya loved each other platonically or romantically, my man was ready to flee:
Merlin didn’t think about it one second, before he went back home to Ealdor to save his mother and the villagers. “Oh, but it’s his mom”, and Freya was a poor, tortured and outcasted girl, traumatised and oppressed by the same system that oppressed Merlin, who had been finally understood by a girl who was ready to love him and live with him. And my babygirl Merlin was ready to have that, ready to live as himself and run away with someone who cared enough about him to wait for him.
Merlin never thought about the consequences of helping someone, especially in the first seasons. I could argue the point that he didn’t care about Freya (much like he didn’t care about a lot of other people) with season four/season five Merlin, but in the second season, Merlin still had the faith and hope of doing what was right, and even if very dangerous, didn’t care about his actions to the point even Gaius didn’t know what he was up to.
The following up seasons are a contradiction to the first two, because Merlin and Arthur had began to finally change. We see them talk back to both Gaius and Uther, siding with Morgana and her plans, and try to do what was right in the best of their capacity (and it makes even more sense that Merlin couldn’t still do much, since he was starting to understand his powers and their extent only then)
And even in season four, with no one by his side, not even Arthur, and barely Gwaine, Merlin didn’t think about it twice to go save Gaius all by himself, against people he didn’t know, Agravaine and Morgana.
So for those who has stayed, here comes my point:
Arthur has a tendency, if we don’t want to name it an homosexual calling towards his manservant, to follow Merlin almost everywhere:
Even if Merlin and Arthur had already tested their limits, and by this, I mean for how long they could stay more than one inch apart from each other, Arthur followed Merlin to Ealdor. My man had two heads, and for a moment longer than what was considered not gay, he thought more with one than the other, and we all know which one I’m referring too. But jokes aside, Merlin had already drank poison for Arthur, and yet, he loved more people than just him, like his mother, and did what he felt was right;
With Freya, Arthur would have resisted two seconds without Merlin, somehow found out that the idiot had had to protect the fourth magical creature of the week, and after rolling his eyes and debating his heterosexuality for the umpteenth time during the last hours, would have packed his things and followed Merlin, to hell with the kingdom (and if we want to be romantic, what’s a kingdom to Arthur without his best friend, court sorcerer, lover, Merlin? Consequently, Arthur would have even followed Freya, and the three would have been followed by Gwen and Morgana, and together start the revolution we deserved to see).
And if it hadn’t been for Agravaine, with his horrid, yet somehow successful manipulation, (I blame this on Arthur’s stupidity and his lack of affection), Arthur would have believed Merlin’s thoughts about Gaius and followed him there, too.
And I’m not even talking about the times where Arthur blindly followed Merlin on quests because of his ‘funny feelings’, didn’t think about it twice to bring Gwaine with them on a quest that was supposed to be a secret, followed Merlin around the castle, because he needed him either for practise or to clean his things, or to polish the bloody armour (it should have been the other way around, Merlin following Arthur around because the chores were literally his job, but fine) and whenever Merlin mysteriously disappeared, Arthur questioned the entire castle about him, following not Merlin, but those who could have seen him. If we were given the show we deserved, now we would have scenes of Arthur walking all the way down the lower town in nothing but breeches, a tunic and bare feet to haul Merlin by the back of his collar and bring him back to the castle, with a grumpy face on, because: “How could you abandon me, Merlin?” (he had been gone away for one hour).
We often talk about how much Merlin goes around Arthur, because he is literally his destiny, but if we are talking about two sides of the same coin, two halfs that cannot hate the other, very heterosexual endearing names they have given each other over the duration of ten years…
Then,
Merlin is Arthur’s destiny.
It’s balanced, even with their relationship:
One is a servant, the other is a prince/king;
One is oppressed, the other oppresses him;
One is rich, the other is poor;
One is awful at fighting (with anything other than his magic), the other is one of the best warriors in all Five Kingdoms;
One is literally magic, the other doesn’t have it, but was born of it;
In the first part of the series, one has a father, the other has a mother;
One is good at and likes hunting, the other isn’t good at and dislikes hunting;
One is an idiot, the other is… Alright, this is fair, at least.
One is gay, the other isn’t.
The differences are there, but Merlin and Arthur have one goal in common:
Bring peace to Camelot, and unite all of Albion.
Aside the obvious fact, which is that they both didn’t achieve the goal, and when trying to do just that, they were both shite at it, the Golden Age they had to bring was literally each other.
Merlin and Arthur are balanced by character and personality, behaviour and station, but there was only one thing they really cared about:
each other.
Merlin had to bring out Arthur’s love and respect for those unlike him, show him that magic was not the fault of people’s crimes, but their actions, help him distance himself from Uther and everything that is Uther, and build a new reign of prosperity and equality, and therefore peace.
Meanwhile, Arthur had to help, by being a king, bring out Merlin’s voice, powers, true self, and by listening to him, following him, and liberating all who were like him and make actual peace.
Okay, both didn’t do shit, but we can say they tried (?)
All of this to say that Arthur and Merlin did things the same, but differently. The story described them as two sides of the same coin, and did show exactly that (even if, at times, poorly).
If they had the chance to truly loved each other, in the right way, the Golden Age would have arrived for everyone.
And the Golden Age was meant to first make Merlin and Arthur see who they really were, show their true feelings, and finally fuck each other’s brains out, and then to bring prosperity to the kingdom of Camelot, and therefore all of Albion.
We can say:
Merlin’s Golden Age was Arthur, and Arthur’s Golden Age was Merlin.
And this implies that Albion’s greatest need is Merlin, and Arthur will rise again when Merlin will need him the most.
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