#bbc merlin meta

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

Broke: Merlin and Arthur's fates were predetermined and there was nothing either could do to prevent it. Love is a powerless force compared to the hands of destiny.

Woke: Love directly prevents both Merlin and Arthur from fulfilling their destiny. Merlin's blind love for Arthur skews his moral compass and causes him to lose sight of his true destiny. He prioritises Arthur and their relationship over his own happiness and the wellbeing of all sorcerers. Arthur is blindly trusting and desperate to please the people he loves. This allows him to be easily manipulated by Uther, Morgana, Agravaine and often, Merlin, which prevents him from becoming the king he was destined to be. He hesitates when he sees Mordred at Camlaan because he doesn't want to believe that he has been betrayed, which directly leads to his death. Both Merlin and Arthur (and the audience) wants to believe that love will redeem them, but it becomes their doom.

Bespoke: Love is a benevolent force, the tragedy arises from shame preventing it from being expressed. We are told from the start that "a half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole" and that their destiny is entirely dependent on Merlin changing Arthur for the better, overcoming hate with love. But the power of love will only go as far as you let it. Merlin is repeatedly told by people that he trusts (Gaius, Kilgarrah, Hunith) that Arthur can never know about his magic*, so he hides the true depths of his loyalty in order to avoid making Arthur uncomfortable. Merlin is so afraid that Arthur would hate him if he knew the truth, that he self-sabotages any opportunity that would challenge Arthur's views, eventually becoming complicit in his own oppression. In actuality, Arthur is just as fiercely devoted to Merlin and would have legalised magic for him if he was ever given the chance to grow. However, the confines of class divides, toxic masculinity and the expectations placed upon him prevents him from ever communicating his feelings to Merlin. If either Merlin or Arthur had felt comfortable expressing their love for each other and had allowed their relationship to develop, they would indeed have fulfilled their destiny, but they are held back by external factors. "They tell me it was fate. No, darling, it was not the stars which crossed us. It was people."

*Although this post is more of a general commentary on themes, also... magic is a metaphor for sexuality, the true evil is homophobia

[thenerdyindividual]

Sometimes I think about how the first time Arthur finally acknowledges Merlin as a friend, the first time he calls Merlin a friend in a genuine way, is the morning after Uther’s death and I go insane. It’s just… as soon as Uther is no longer there to enforce the boundaries of class, as soon as Uther can no longer express disapproval of those that Arthur cares for, Arthur opens his heart like it was never hidden to begin with.

[groundbreakingdot872]

brb rewriting bbc Merlin into a romantic comedy with Gwen and Merlin as the hilarious buddy duo who everyone’s falling and fighting for

…

Wait

[captain-lonagan]

no like season 1 merlin rocks up to camelot and every magic user he meets is burnt out, bitter, or both. in season 5 mordred rocks up to camelot and the senior magic user that’s burned out and bitter is merlin. it’s merlin that’s perpetuating the cycle of hurt now and that’s crazy and they never get into it!

[inalandofsadclowns]

The "I want to say something I've never said to you before" scene where Arthur supposedly says I love you but they voiceovered it with thank you?

Old record, but "thank you" makes little sense even beyond that it's not true. Because of course Arthur had thanked Merlin before. Right, but maybe they impied that "he never said it like this." Like what? Like he meant it?

That's to say, him expressing this I-would-give-my-life-for-yours kind of appreciation since episode 4 was not real enough? Arthur "quit being a girl, Merlin" Pendragon was "only dropping by to make sure he's alright". For someone to deny it?? Did "you're the only friend I have and I couldn't bear to lose you" not come from a place of honesty and gratitude? Grow tf up.

[pyjamacryptid]

I just went on a 20 minute infodump to my friends about Arthur’s character and how his decision to trust in others can often be read as stupidity. Don’t get me wrong, Arthur is top tier himbo and we love him for it. But he sees more than people give him credit for. “How did he miss that???” (it’s a fair question. I ask it a lot too, mostly out of endeared exasperation). Many other reasons aside, it’s mainly because Arthur will often decide to put his faith in others over faith in himself.

[its-merlin-time-babey]

The show is so focused on what Merlin has to teach Arthur, but the cruel irony is that Merlin failed to learn from Arthur and that was their undoing.

The entire show, it's always about what Merlin knows about the prophecy, when he'll reveal his magic, and helping Arthur become less of a prat. These are important and central to the show, but Arthur and Merlin are two sides of the same coin, so surely Merlin has plenty to learn from Arthur as well.

He DOES learn a lot and grow from his friendship with Arthur, but he failed the most important lesson. Merlin's knowledge of the prophecy is misconstrued as wisdom, and Arthur's wisdom is taken for granted. No one ever stressed how important it would be for Merlin to learn from Arthur (because almost all his magical counsel comes from Kilgarrah, who is majorly biased and focuses on the wrong parts of the prophecy).

It comes down to this: "No matter what adversity we face, we stand for what is right. To betray our beliefs - that is what will destroy everything we strive for." (Arthur in 5x01)

Cut to 5x05 The Disir and Merlin goes directly against Arthur's wisdom by betraying his belief that magic should be legalized, as well as betraying his fellow magic users. Instead he goes along with his reply to Arthur's statement in 5x01: "I will protect you or die trying."

And naturally the cruelty of this show is that Merlin is never wagering his own life when he protects Arthur, but in fact dooming him.

[igniferrus]

I can't believe the BBC's The Adventures of Merlin peaked at S01E04 "The Poisoned Chalice."

OBVIOUSLY I love the absolute absurdity of Merlin and Arthur trying to die for each other after knowing each other for like a week. Just for the vibes and for the Merthur implications, however; this episode is the one that does the characters and their interpersonal relationships the most justice, in my opinion.

Now with a read more, because this got out of hand, fast.

We start with the Gauis and Merlin father-son relationship, with them bantering in the hallways about work. Gwen and Merlin get to giggle together at the feast, and then we see their bond as Gwen worries over Merlin (and her blaming herself when he 'dies').

Merlin is also a wonderful sunshine boy in this episode. The weight of his destiny hasn't worn him down yet, he's still riding the high of finally understanding the reason he was born as he was. He perks up when Arthur tells him he's going to the feast, he treats the guests as guests (no immediate suspicion, trying to impress Kara/Nimueh), and we get to see some of his best cheeky moments - like calling Gaius out for making up a proverb, telling Kara he runs the castle, pestering Arthur about his smelly clothes and the food fights, and, of course, when he wakes up mock scolding Gaius for hugging Gwen, and then claiming not to be alive but his own ghost. He's still a silly boy, especially when he wakes up and says he doesn't remember what happened after drinking the wine.

But what I think this episode does particularly well is the Pendragons, especially Arthur.

We get Morgana ready to cut a bitch immediately when things go wrong at the feast, but also see her compassionate side when she allows Gwen to go tend to Merlin. Her relationships with Uther and Arthur are phenomenally well done. Uther scolds her (off-screen) for wanting to bash people about the head with ladles at the feast. But she also gets to stand up to him and show her displeasure at his choices.

When Uther rants at her after Arthur leaves, she agrees with his every point, sarcastically. His ordering Arthur to stay "worked like a charm" and "[her] lips are sealed" when he tells her to knock it off. She calls him out for oppressing Arthur and not letting him make his own choice, telling Uther "[He] can't chain [Arthur] up every time he disagrees with [Uther]" and "Arthur's old enough to make decisions for himself"

But Uther wins this argument (or is at least conceded to), because he asks Morgana if he should allow Arthur to make his own choices, if that means Arthur will die. And Morgana has no answer for him. Which is especially interesting as Morgana was the one to push for Arthur to go.

There is a lot to be said for Morgana and Arthur's relationship in the show as a whole, and this episode too. I could probably write a whole post about them just using The Poisoned Chalice. But I'll keep it to two main points here.

The first, and most important one, which I think is overlooked in a lot of people's take on their relationship, comes from a short line in a transition scene. There is a total of six pieces of dialogues, split between Morgana and Gwen, as Gwen fills Morgana in on the Merlin situation, which includes this bit:

MORGANA: Don't worry, I'm alright. How's Merlin? GUINEVERE: If Arthur comes back with the antidote in time, he'll be fine. MORGANA: Then he'll be fine.

Just like that. If Merlin's health relies on Arthur succeeding it is a forgone conclusion for Morgana. Arthur will not fail. She has enough faith in him that she is no longer worried about Merlin's fate. I don't think enough people consider this angle of their relationship. She knows who Arthur is. He is a good, capable man of honour. He will do what needs to be done. She never says this to his face, and actually implies the opposite when she thinks he won't go and rescue Gwen in a later episode, but that's sibling banter and desperation, baby! She's his older sister, she can't be seen hyping him up. Even when she gives him the chance to talk about his success at the end of the episode, she frames it as "bragging." C'mon. He just traveled to a place where few people come back from, defied his king, and still managed to save a man whose life was already deemed "worth less" that the cost of saving him. It's not bragging, it's a true achievement.

There has also been plenty said for Morgana being a guiding figure at first. When Arthur is stuck with indecision about going, when Uther has gotten into his head about this quest being an abandonment of his people, it is Morgana who encourages him to go, saying his people want and deserve a king who will do what is right. Which is all Arthur ever wants to do, despite the way Uther raised him.

Which brings us to the Uther and Arthur relationship. Uther prohibits Arthur from doing what is right. Calls into question his judgement ("jeopardise the future of this kingdom"? Realty, Uther?). Arrests his son. Locks him in the dungeon. Does his best to throw away all that Arthur sacrificed for to teach him a lesson about not doing things the "right" (Uther's) way. Continued to lie about Arthur's birth and magic, when given the perfect opportunity to come clean.

And yet.

Uther loves his boy. He wants to kill Bayard with his own hands, if it was true that he was going to harm Uther's son. Rants and raves to Morgana and Arthur leaving (and disobeying), putting himself in danger (could never say he's worried to his son's face, though). And in that moment, uses the exact justification he told Gaius wasn't good enough. When Merlin accuses Bayard of poison, Gaius claims "he's just a boy" and should be given leniency, which Uther refutes, saying Gaius should have taught him better. But when it's Uther's own (older) son, "he's just a boy" Morgana, not old enough to make his own decisions.

And at the end? When Uther does tell Arthur he's proud of him, despite it all? Arthur pulls this face, almost a kind of grimace. Like he doesn't know what to do with this information. How often does Uther say this? Not enough, obviously. Uther is a tyrant, a hypocrite, a terrible parent, and a father who cares so very deeply about his child(ren). The love is there, but it is not enough to redeem him. This, along with Beauty and the Beast (especially part two) are some of my top Uther episodes. Because they show how much he loves his boy, and it doesn't change anything. It cannot help either of them now.

Finally. Arthur Pendragon. My main man, in all forms, across all media.

He is at his best in this episode. In every conceivable way.

Aside from the excellent insight into his relationships with his family, in a way with more depth and nuance than most episodes, we get to see the Best Arthur, both physically and mentally.

As a man, he excels. He shows up for the diplomatic aspects of the position as Prince. His teases and needles Merlin, but it is less mean spirited than some episodes portray him. The silly hat is hilarious, but I also think putting Merlin in Pendragon red, with the family's crest emblazoned on his chest was a smart move. This is a new, incredibly untrained servant, with no idea of the decorum of the court. It wasn't Merlin's fault, but he really put himself in a bad light during the tournament by accusing Valiant and not being able to back up his claims, and he did recently confess to sorcery to the entire court...... Arthur all but putting his name on Merlin definitely would have afforded some protection if Merlin's trouble had been a little less dire. Calling Merlin an alcoholic may have been a bit harsh, but impugning Merlin's intelligence had already worked once in getting Uther to let him go, so I see why Arthur would stick with what works. Especially if defying Uther regularly gets him clapped in irons himself.

People routinely call Arthur honourable, and he really shows it in this episode. He tries to drink the poison himself to protect Merlin, after all his other attempts fail. He refuses to allow Merlin's sacrifice to go unrepaid. Even when he hears about how dangerous the quest will be, and that few who try it make it back alive, he says "Sounds like fun." There's no reality where Arthur doesn't want to go. Not even Uther pressing on Arthur's sore spots makes him want to abandon the quest, it just makes him wonder if he should. Also. On a time-sensitive quest that is more likely to kill him than not, he still stops to offer help to an apparently battered servant. It was the wrong choice, but the honourable one none the less.

He's so incredibly clever, too. I talked about my interpretation of his choice of Merlin's outfit already, but the scene with Gwen in the dungeon is so well-written. He's already in trouble. Uther has all but sentenced Merlin to die, twice. Once by forbidding Arthur from leaving the castle, and again when he crushes the flower to teach Arthur a lesson. The guards have to know this, along with the fact that the prince is out of favour enough to be in the dungeon for a week. And yet Arthur uses their perception of him, as a spoiled arrogant prince, to help Gwen smuggle the flower out. It is an exceptionally well-laid and executed plan. He has been studying to be a king (and kill) from birth. By necessity, Arthur is a skilled tactician. He wouldn't lead the army if he wasn't - Uther punishes failure harshly.

Arthur also gets to show off his physical skills in this episode. My man is STRONG and SKILLED. He carries Merlin from the hall to the physician's chambers. I don't know how long of a walk that it, but we've seen there are plenty of stairs up to Gaius' tower, and Arthur gets there without being out of breath. Incredible. Plus, in the cave, Arthur supports his entire body weight with one hand while hanging off a ledge AND waving a sword around to fight off a big spider. In chainmail. This man is Strong As Fuck. I don't think I could hang for very long, even using both hands, much less fight a monster.

We also get to see Arthur's skills with a sword. I've mentioned somewhere before that I understand Merlin was the protagonist and therefore got to be the hero most of the time, at the expense of Arthur. But damn. The cockatrice is the main reason why people don't return from this quest, a single drop of its venom is deadly. And Arthur takes care of it without a single thought. It lunges, he rolls under it, and then he THROWS HIS SWORD and spears it. How much did he have to practice to be able to throw a sword with accuracy, and enough power to be lethal? Absolute unit of a man. He fights off the spider mentioned above, and then climbs the cave wall to freedom. His arms must be so jacked. The only thing he can't carry is the weight of his father's disapproval.

This is also the only episode where we get to see Merlin and Arthur working perfectly together as they were meant to. In other episodes, Arthur is unconscious or unaware of Merlin's magic; or at the end, he is simply an audience to Merlin as the reveal at Camlann doesn't give them enough time to have a healthy Arthur and Merlin team up. Arthur only watches Merlin-as-Dragoon at the battle proper, or is too weak to do anything after.

But in this episode, Merlin, fever-ridden, dying, miles away in Camelot, is still able to provide Arthur magical aid in the cave. He lights the way, showing Arthur the spiders and the route to the exit. It is one of the few times Arthur is exposed to "good" magic. Could you imagine a world where the best swordsman in Albion and the most powerful warlock to walk the earth get to fight side-by-side? With Merlin providing magical support and Arthur the physical aspect? it would have been amazing, but this is the closest we come to it.

It also adds an interesting dimension to the idea of Merlin and Arthur being two sides of the same coin. Merlin's connection to Arthur despite the distance, knowing what Arthur is facing, should have been explored more. We only see it again when they are separated at Camlann, and Arthur wakes, seemingly knowing something isn't right with Merlin. Absolutely underused concept.

This has ended up criminally long, and didn't even cover everything I thought about during my rewatch of the episode. Thank you if you took the time to read all this.

[kitkatt0430]

☕️ on BBC Merlin!!!!!!!!!

Not the worst case of protagonist centered morality I've ever seen on a tv show, but it definitely sets the bar high. And I probably would have been okay with that - I mean, Stargate Atlantis and their many war crimes still kept me hooked all the way to the end - but the show failed in it's central premise and I gave up before the final season. I don't think I've ever actually made it through to the final season on rewatch either, i tend to stick to the glory days of S1 and S2 where there was still a chance...

Anyway, the show's central premise was that King Arthur was supposed to 'bring back magic' after Uther had outlawed it, ushering in a Golden Age that would end with his death in battle with Mordred - you know, the typical Arthurian legend stuff but with fantastic racism thrown in. But Arthur never fulfills this promise. It's Gwen who finally does it.

The biggest issue is that Merlin never truly trusts Arthur. If he did, then he'd have, at some point, told Arthur the truth. And because Merlin chooses not to trust Arthur, he makes it impossible for Arthur to ever trust Merlin in full, not because Arthur doesn't trust Merlin even with his own life... but because he doesn't have the full picture of who Merlin is. He trusts the version of Merlin he thinks he knows, not the warlock Merlin actually is.

Which is where the show fell apart completely. Merlin never trusts Arthur with his big secret. Therefor any good magic done that might have made Arthur reassess his father's laws against magic was hidden from Arthur or outright lied about. (Good lord the amount of gaslighting Arthur went through from the people who loved him.) So Arthur rarely saw good magic and often saw bad. Which reinforced his father's bad laws in Arthur's eyes.

Merlin's not trusting people, honestly, was what led to the bad part of the prophecy - Arthur's death - without the good part - Arthur legalizing magic again - happening first.

Merlin doesn't trust Morgana, further isolating her. Then instead of telling her when she's been cursed and that the sleeping sickness is something her sister did to her to kill the rest of the royal family, he straight up poisons her. He makes his own villain out of her and somehow we're supposed to hate her for it? Good job breaking it hero.

Then he goes and does it again with Mordred, refusing to trust him until the kid snaps over his girlfriend being put to death for murder. And maybe Mordred would've snapped even if the anti-magic laws had been repealed, but he'd have been under a lot less stress so we'll never know. Maybe if Merlin had trusted Mordred and they'd worked together to show Arthur magic could be good...

It's almost like there were two prophecies that were conflated as one and by being so afraid of the bad one happening, Merlin not only ensured the bad prophecy came to pass, he made it so the good prophecy couldn't happen at all.

Anyway this is why letting a dragon talk you into having trust issues is a bad idea. Dragons are not replacements for therapists, please don't utilize them as such.

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

Adam raised a Cain

BBC Merlin, The Beginning of the End (1x08) /// Cut by Catherine Lacey /// BBC Merlin, To Kill the King (1x12) /// Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente /// BBC Merlin, The Crystal Cave (3x05) /// Cassandra, Florence and the Machine /// BBC Merlin, The Coming of Arthur: Part 1 (3x12) /// The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde /// BBC Merlin, The Coming of Arthur: Part 2 (3x13) /// Adam Raised a Cain, Bruce Springsteen /// BBC Merlin, The Sword in the Stone: Part 2 (4x13)

[thenerdyindividual]

“Morgana was brainwashed by Morgause”

Look. I get it. We all fell in love with Morgana off the bat in season 1. She is gorgeous and righteous and fights Uther whenever she can. But not only does that take not have canon basis, it makes the writing bad. Morgana always had a self-righteous streak that blinds her to the goodness of other people, especially Arthur. Off the top of my head I can think of three separate occasions in which she is convinced she is the only one with morals in Camelot. In S1, she is thrown in the dungeons for speaking against Uther, and Arthur comes to bail her out. Her first instinct is to assume Arthur is there to gloat or help the guards harm her in some way, even though there is no evidence that Arthur would gloat about something like this or happily witness harm come to her. There is evidence to the opposite given how desperate he was to save her in the episode with Edwin. Then in S2, she is still convinced only she has morals after Gwen is captured and barges into Arthur’s room while he is packing to go on a rescue mission, and begins to accuse him of being a coward. She’s so caught up in her righteousness that she doesn’t even notice he’s wearing chainmail and packing.

Did Morgause have influence on Morgana’s slide into unhinged, uncompromising hate? Yes. But there is a big difference between brainwashing (especially in Merlin when magical brainwashing is a thing), and someone stating their own beliefs and having that happen to play on someone’s worst instincts.

I love Morgana’s arc. It’s super well written, fans just don’t want their fave to take their agency in a negative direction.

[merthur-mybad]

Okay so one thing I don't like about BBC Merlin is how they made Arthur a dick. I feel like Merlin's dislike of Arthur should've been more about how Arthur hates magic and not about how Arthur is a prat because of class or something because the show was also trying to preserve the King Arthur Good of Heart theme. I feel like Arthur was more tolerant of magic than he should've been and the audience should've been exposed to more of Uther's influence in him. It would've added to the tom and jerry ness of the relationship if Merlin disliked Arthur because he hated magic but he couldn't tell him that because he's a sorcerer and so Arthur didn't know why he disliked him so he just thought Merlin was being an asshole for no reason thus the strain on their relationship. The flaw of the show was that there was no narrative arc throughout the seasons, there was more of a narrative arc for each episode and then at the beginning of the next episode Arthur would forget his magic tolerance and reset. But I feel like they also didn't do this because then there would've had to be a magic reveal earlier in the show once Arthur proved to accept magic because then it would've been for realsies. Also this might've put more emphasis on Merlin and Arthur's relationship and we all know the BBC didn't want to give more emphasis than they already did cus this was the early 2010s.

[groundbreakingdot872]

Ever think about the fact that Uther fell in love with a corpse?

That Catrina was dead, had already been dead for weeks, when the troll strutted into court wearing her face

And speaking of the origins of their plan- the troll had likely scavenged the estate of Tregor after the invasion minutes after the event, kicking bodies out the way on her instinctual hunt gold

Instead of finding anything valuable, which the bandits had already taken, she found pretty personal belongings, too lesser for a thief... and the lady that they belonged too.

Brutally murdered maybe, but intact enough to be recreated, and impersonated.

Finding her manservant’s body fallen nearby made the idea too easy to conceive, a "Jonas" in hand and the personal items of Catrina ruthlessly ripped away, the plan wealth beyond their imagining was already in motion

And then in the aftermath, of the whole horrid, gruesome, embarrassing affair, when the rumors had died down enough…

Uther must’ve gone quietly, in the early hours of the morning, to visit Catrina’s grave - the real Catrina

Laid flowers, and shed a few private tears over the woman he had never met, but had strong feelings for, perhaps love. Her physique and voice had enchanted him, in more ways than one, and temporarily given him a happy out from the sins of the past

Though it must've unsettled him, that he had fallen for the figment of a woman, not even a ghost, and pledged his entire Kingdom in a heartbeat over a pleasant if pitying face

Although I'm sure the irony, of beloveds coming back to the present, wearing marred faces with a masked intent for vengeance over ghosts of his evils, must have eluded him...

[captain-lonagan]

hello bbc merlin enjoyers remember that there was an entire city with an open populous of magical warriors called the catha? remember that there was a city of couldve-been high priestesses called the bendrui and we met one and it was kinda implied that there were more that had survived the purge? remember when it was implied that different factions of the old religion had different beliefs and stances?

and then the show never explored any of that or even spared a single thought for the implications of these things? that was fucking crazy what was up with that

[someguyinc]

uther-morgana parallels SAVE MEEEE

[pyjamacryptid]

Merlin and the Fomorroh; parallels

ok so I’m editing yet another merlin fanvid wip and currently collecting what scenes I may or may not use, so I’m already analysing media even more like a puzzle piece. maybe I’m reading too much into this! but I’m currently going somewhat feral over this train of thought

when Morgana introduces the fomorroh in a servant of two masters she coos and says “he’s a little grumpy. He’s not used to being out in the light.” and the camera is focused on Merlin.

and wow my brain zeroed in on that double meaning.

Merlin, who hides half of himself in the shadows for fear of what secrets the light might shed, and what consequences it might wrought. Merlin, who gets rather grumpy and snarky when backed into a corner with the only escape a spotlight (until he fights his way out).

That’s not the only double meaning I connected. Further on in the scene, Morgana continues her little monologue about the fomorroh; it is a creature of dark magic. even if you cut off one head, another will grow in its place.

and once again the camera focuses on Merlin directly after she says this. I know that obviously this is just to show Merlin’s naturally horrified reaction, and dread, because he’s putting together that whatever Morgana’s about to do to him, it’s not easily solved with the swing of a sword. But the camera focus just enables my love of double meanings.

Because Merlin is both mortal and immortal. You can try to kill him. And maybe you will succeed. Maybe you’ll chop off his metaphorical head and think you’ve triumphed. But he lives, he wakes, and he does not die. Merlin is dragged back to life, growing in the place of his old self.

Head after head after head. Life after life after life. Year after year after year.

And secondly, while this isn’t a double meaning, it’s got me thinking. Morgana called the fomorroh a creature of dark magic. and dark magic is called dark for good reason, from the examples we have gotten in the show - both the ones mentioned and seen, as part of the plot - but dark magic is still magic, isn’t it.

And Merlin is magic.

Merlin is all magic.

And as Merlin said, there is no evil in sorcery, only in the hearts of men. Dark magic is dark because of how it was abused by those who wielded it unchecked, by those with dark motives and actions. I have no idea if the fomorroh was created by those who practiced dark magic, if it manifested on its own from the use of dark magic, or if it existed neutrally like any other magical creature before it was either appropriated or trained or manipulated by those with dark magic, until it became associated with it. I’ve no idea.

Merlin and the fomorroh are both creatures of magic, dark or not. Both manipulated and used to manipulate. Both forced into the shadows and both toeing the line between mortality and immortality.