#he doesn't say 'merlin'

[fighting-naturalist]

[dollopheadedmerlin]

Gwen really just kissed Merlin on the mouth and he still was like huh what a nice friendly gesture

[nancywheeeler]

arthur / guenevere is compelling because it brings that arranged marriage flavor of "do i love you out of duty or of my own free will?" guenevere / lancelot is compelling because giving into their attraction not only betrays a man they both love, but inherently taints the chivalrous and dutiful qualities they love in one another. arthur / lancelot is compelling because nothing fucks harder than "i pledge my life to you." and arthur / guenevere / lancelot is compelling because it wouldn't change the ending.

[gaspodegirl-blog]

You don't understand. I awoke in a cold sweat with the realization of what this statement really means.

[fluffypotatey]

Uther trying to find Arthur a trophy wife versus Arthur wanting to be Merlin's trophy wife, fuckin fight

DING DING DING

WAKE UP BITCHES WE GOTTA BRAWL GOING ON

IN THE LEFT IS UTHER PENDRAGON, TYRANT KING, AND HATER OF MAGIC. HE APPROACHES THE RING WITH THE INTENTIONS OF WINNING AND CONVINCING HIS SON, THE CROWN PRINCE, THAT HE SHOULD HURRY UP AND MARRY SOME PRETTY LADY TO COMPLETE THE HETERO ROYAL AGENDA

TO THE RIGHT IS THE CROWN PRINCE, THE SWORD SWISHING BISEXUAL.....ARTHURRRRRRR PENDRAGON!!!!! HE ENTERS THE RING ALSO INTENDING TO WIN

(AH DAMN, BOTH ARE VERY SURE OF THEMSELVES)

RIGHT THEY ARE, JACK

ARTHUR STANDS AGAINST HIS FATHER ON THE BASIS THAT HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO BE TROPHY WIFE AFTER SPENDING 20 YEARS DOING ALL THE WORK FOR THE KINGDOM. IT'S A VERY BI WAY OF THINKING AND ONE I AM ALL FOR THIS IDEOLOGY

(SAME HERE, I'D LIKE TO BE THE STAY AT HOME SPOUSE FOR ONCE)

JACK, YOU'RE ONE OF KIND

NOW, THE TWO MEN ARE CIRCLING EACH OTHER SENDING THROWS THAT NEVER HIT. AND OH, WHAT'S THIS???

(I BELIEVE THAT'S---)

MERGWEN ENTERS THE RING WITH A STEEL CHAIR, EFFECTIVELY KNOCKING OUT UTHER PENDRAGON. FOLKS...I THINK WE'VE FOUND OURSELVES CAMELOT'S NEW RULERS

[bisaster-energy]

Merlin but Merlin loses it when Arthur dies and instinctively starts a time loop and every time Arthur dies it automatically resets...for angst purposes it could stay tragic..no matter what he does to change the past kilgharra was right. no one can change their destiny nor can they escape it. or by starting this time loop at all he's doing is preventing the rise of the once and future king so by staving off Arthur's death he's actually preventing anyone from ever really living again. a never ending story with one character aware of the narrative but powerless to change it. a puppet with a brain but no autonomy to put it to use. A tragedy of his own making instead the one prophesized

[eliounora]

sweet bejesus mordred grew up nicely

[someguyinc]

*clears throat* THE OLD RELIGION LIKES TO PUNISH MERLIN FOR DREAMING OF FREEDOM

[asterouslyaesthetic]

something about fairy godmother!merlin after gudako lets it slip that she thinks cindereli's dress is gorgeous and that she'd love to try it on makes me feral

so of course, when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she's in a beautiful castle, in a beautiful dress, staring at the mirror like she can't believe it's actually her

and then comes a knock at the door, and who appears but merlin himself, dressed up and ready to escort her to the ball

and there are tons of people there, mostly background characters with little bearing on her day to day life, but some of them are also the friends and family and classmates she hasn't seen in what feels like years

randomly, servants enter her dream and get put into appropriate costumes. abby and dantes are also there the entire time as bodyguards (abby is her lady in waiting/maid and dantes is her suave mercenary friend, it's in the script that merlin never ends up giving her), mash is there as a princess from a neighboring kingdom, and oberon is ALSO there, he forced himself there because he got no invite and he heard about it from castoria, and kind of miffed he didn't hear about this first because he can also do that. it's very important to him that gudako knows that, even if he'll never do it for her, obviously

she spends the night dancing away (always making sure to check on merlin, though he doesn't dance himself), until the clock hits twelve and merlin spirits her back to a room that looks like chaldea, but there are subtle touches to it that suggest its either OG chaldea or novum chaldea with the things she's missing from her OG room that sion couldn't replicate

and he makes her some hot chocolate, mimicking a certain someone (which causes a brief lull in the conversation after which merlin mocks the man mercilessly, but in a very frenemy way, and it gets a small smile out of her as she tells him not to make fun of the dead, but she's still agreeing with him), and they talk about how fun the night was

until gudako jokes about how she didn't have a prince charming. you can't have fairy tales without prince charming, who is the princess supposed to marry??

they end up debating whether she actually didn't have one or if she just isn't a princess who needs a prince charming right now (gudako rejects the premise that she doesn't want one—why does everyone else get knight kings, she says, pointing at shirou and hakuno for artoria and charlie), and she offhandedly says that if fairy godmothers looked like him, prince charmings would be out of a job

and that—

and that catches him off guard because the very next thing she says is "maybe prince charming was the fairy godmother who helped me along the way"

and he automatically says, "i'm not sure that's how the saying goes, my lord"

but anything else he can say dies in his throat when she stands up and asks him to dance with her and how can he say no when she's smiling at him so brilliantly

"shall we, o' wizard of mine?"

"as my lord commands."

and they live happily ever after

(when morning comes, gudako wakes up to a surprise in her bed. she figures out pretty quickly that he's just pretending to sleep, so she kicks him off her bed.

"my lord is a cruel master," he complains, cuddling her.

after they show up to breakfast like that, gawain straight up asks if she needs him to bail her out and is extremely disappointed when he finds that's not the case.)

[deuteragonist1]

This has been gnawing at my brain since I first heard it

because

And the way Arthur says it is so honest, so serious, so earnest. He's exhausted but he makes sure to look at Merlin's right in the eye. Like this comes from the bottom of his soul and he absolutely, desperately needs Merlin to understand (and considering he most likely knew he was going to die at this point, well). Look at Merlin's face. There's such solemnity and vulnerability in this scene. It hurts to watch.

[regulusrules]

AU merlin fic idea that after dotd, merlin saves arthur and he is alive and okay. HOWEVER, arthur is so broken from the lifetime of lies and could no longer trust any of those around him and refuses to accept merlin's "betrayal". this taints their relationship so much that merlin would be so brokenhearted and would lose faith in everything he wished they could have had. at the same time, arthur's knights would begin to tell merlin how undeserving he is of this treatment, how bitter the king has turned, and how this is subsequently ruining camelot. they begin to formulate a plan to kill arthur, and merlin is so heartbroken and in despair from the idea of having to live the entirety of his life with his arthur hating him, so without thinking he goes with them and is the last to stab arthur in the heart (bc mhiry has this impact on me) and at that point arthur would just look at him with such shock and grief and lost love that all he would be able to say is,

“Et tu, Merlin?”

and falls in merlin's arms

[lil-llewellyn]

"He tells ransom facts to random people."

I wrote this at 3am and I can't decide whether it was a mistype and it should be random both times. Talking about Merlin here.

[planet-poptropica]

*SLAPS A CHEESE ON MERLIN'S FOREHEAD AND RUNS*

⋆ Merlin: "It's just a slice of cheese....I'm not harmed." ^v^; ⋆

[adhd-merlin]

I've read the Will post you reblogged, it's all very sweet, but: Merlin himself has said that the years before he came in Camelot were the loneliest years of his life. His mother, Will, the entire village of people not hostile to magic were less dear to him that his destiny service to Camelot. So, no: relationship with Will is secondary to him, there ficwriters are right writing them in such manner. This passage about loneliness was probably created by the writers to emphasize Arthur & Merlin's unusual kind of friendship, like they only have each other, but in fact it devaluated Will for Merlin and the knights for Arthur.

Hi anon! Cool glasses.

Yeah, I haven't analysed that post that deeply, I just thought there were some interesting points in there (as someone who's never given much thought to Will). And for the record, sometimes I might agree with 90% of a meta post and go "eh, I don't know" about the rest — I might still reblog it, because it's still food for thought, and I'm okay with not agreeing 100% with everyone all of the time. (Unless I think they are blatantly wrong about the remaining 10%). People can interpret things differently and that's alright. That's what makes things interesting!

That said.

Merlin himself has said that the years before he came in Camelot were the loneliest years of his life.

This passage about loneliness was probably created by the writers to emphasize Arthur & Merlin's unusual kind of friendship (...) but in fact it devaluated Will for Merlin

Merlin was always lonely. He might have been less lonely in Camelot than he was in Ealdor, just by virtue of being around more people and feeling like he was working towards a bigger purpose, but he was lonely. He is so lonely it's heartbreaking.

It's... lonely. To be more powerful than any man you know, and have to live like a shadow. To be special, and have to pretend you're a fool.

It's a loneliness born out of having to hide his true nature and, at the same time, being unable to befriend those he could be open with about his magic, people like him — Morgana and Mordred, of course, but occasionally also the Baddie of the Week — because fate and prophecies have set them on opposing sides. It's tragic.*

(Colin Morgan himself briefly touches upon Merlin's loneliness in his commentary to Ep 5x02, when he says "there's a sense of loneliness in all the magical characters, I think. [...] All united in the loneliness.")

So, personally, I don't think Merlin talking about his loneliness says anything negative or even especially significant about the quality of his friendship with Will. Merlin was (and remains) lonely because of his nature and of his circumstances. It's not really anything to do with Will.

His mother, Will, the entire village of people not hostile to magic were less dear to him that his destiny service to Camelot

Just because magic isn't banned in Cenred's kingdom, it doesn't mean that the people there are less hostile to magic. If people in Ealdor were tolerant towards magic, Merlin wouldn't have had to hide it the whole time he was there. He might not have been burnt at the stake for it, but it's very much implied he would've been (at the very least) viewed with mistrust or even ostracised by the other villagers.

And I don't believe S1 Merlin considered his mother less important than his destiny. He tries to bargain his life for hers in 1x13. (Even in 2x09 he is ready to give up his destiny to run away with Freya. Also almost killed Arthur, btw. And yes, in my book that is pretty much a murder attempt).

I assume you're saying that because he initially refused to use magic to defend his village? But like I said, Ealdor was only slightly less hostile to sorcerers than Camelot, and Arthur was right there. It wasn't just a matter of what was more important to Merlin, it was a matter of his own survival too. S1 Arthur wasn't ready to hear about Merlin's magic. He literally lectures Merlin about magic being dangerous while he's watching his childhood friend burn on a funeral pyre (dick move, by the way). The man who died saving his life. So that didn't leave Merlin with much choice, despite what Will's rebuke implies.

In the end he does use magic, and he's almost discovered — he only gets away with it because Will takes the blame. So his reluctance in using magic to defend his village wasn't completely unfounded.

Was Will more important than Arthur to S1 Merlin, or even equally important? I suppose that's a matter of interpretation.

The author wrote:

I feel that Merlin’s relationship with Will is something that is important to him, and something that he has never considered to be secondary or less important than the relationships he built in Camelot.

IMO, Will was clearly a dear friend to Merlin, regardless of his comment about feeling lonely in Ealdor. And I don't know if Merlin's relationship with Will was as important to him as the relationships he built in Camelot (in which I include people other than Arthur, like Gaius and Gwen), but it clearly was important.

Will was literally the only person who knew about Merlin's magic, other than his mother, before he met Gaius. The only person he didn't have to hide his true nature from. That's got to count for something.

And as much as Merlin cared about Arthur, he never had that with him. It was, tragically, a very one-sided relationship, until almost the very end.

I think you might still argue that Merlin's relationship with Arthur was more important — if you were so inclined — because of the whole destiny thing and how it gave Merlin a sense of purpose. But based on the friendship alone? Very one-sided, like I said. And I don't think Merlin was significantly less lonely around Arthur.

Sorry, I've just rambled on.

_____________________________________________

*I'm 100% sure I wrote a short meta post (well, random thoughts) about this because it's something I've thought about so much. And now I can't find it. Why do I even tag posts when I can't find anything half of the time!!

ETA: found it

[fluffypotatey]

When you think about the tavern excuse in Merlin (the only excuse Giaus seems to know), it makes a lot more sense in the later seasons if you're going under the assumption that Gwaine is just covering for Merlin. Like lying when Arthur asks occasionally while having no idea what Merlin is actually doing because he ain't no snitch.

Just a random thought that occurred to me while I was reading some fanfiction.

i mean, yeah, it does work a lot better and it's more believable if gwaine were the one to tell it.

if i'm remembering right, "the tavern" was used in the beginning of s3 before we meet gwaine and unfortunately, gwaine's stay in camelot that season is short bc he got banished. so, there'd be no way for him to cover for merlin BUT after the whole fisher king episode it would make sense (to arthur, i feel) that merlin would leave camelot to visit gwaine at a tavern bc the two just click.

i have half a mind to guess that arthur turns a blind eye if gwaine were to somehow sneak into camelot just to visit merlin during s3. i know we all joke about arthur being an oblivious idiot when it comes to noticing magic and shit, but the man is observant to a fault. he's got a keen eye (unfortunatley his observations fail when something contradicts a person he believes to know fairly well, and he chooses to ignore it), and it is not that hard to notice the chemistry between merlin and gwaine.

so when gwaine does join the knights in s4 and merlin starts going to "the tavern" more often, arthur could just chalk it up as him and gwaine having a night out. sure, he has to keep up appearances and one day visits gwaine just to remind him that it's not good for his manservant to be hungover almost every week. like, he has a job, ga-waine!

and gwaine just sits there, nods, cracks a joke about how maybe he should lighten merlin's chores, whilst making a mental note to ask merlin about whether or not he'll need him to cover for the man later this weekend. he never asks merlin why he'd need to cover for him (i'm of the belief that gwaine, though never told, had some idea of what big secret merlin was hiding), and merlin never asks gwaine why he'd lie to their king for him.

it's just a silent act of trust and love the two share and by god do i wish this was used because sure, gaius using the tavern is funny and all, but i would kill to have at least one scene where gwaine confirms, that him and merlin were hanging out at the tavern, covering for his friend without question.

[arthurslesbian]

"sometimes, you puzzle me" // "you never fathomed me out?" // "no"