#merlin just hates him

[teefscrubz]

Sitting across from one another with the fire crackling between them, the knights are just occupying themselves with idle chatter as they always do, Arthur nattering on about whatever parry or thrust or whatnot they must work on in training when they get home.

Except they all one by one send glances in Merlin's direction, noticing more specifically how the manservant doesn't seem to stop shooting glares towards young Sir Mordred. Sir Mordred, however, isn't as subtle with his glances, instead staring slack-jawed at Merlin outright, for an increasingly long time. Elyan is the first to bring it up with a chuckle, nudging the young knight's side.

"Hey, I reckon Mordred has a little crush."

Merlin scoffs, turning to continue his previously abandoned chore of polishing Excalibur, while Arthur snickers at the thought. "Well, of course he does," The King hums idly, "He's only young. I wonder, Sir Mordred, which lady of Camelot have you taken fancy to?"

"I think our fair lady is with us right now." Percival grins, catching on fast to what Elyan was suggesting. With wiggling eyebrows, he jerks his head towards Merlin, who is actively ignoring all of them by now. Poor Mordred is sinking into his seat on an overturned log, face flushing furiously with embarrassment.

"Emrys.. Emys, it isn't true, please tell them to stop.."

Merlin darent flinch at the voice echoing in his head, instead shooting Mordred a warning glare in response. "Well, perhaps you should stop staring at me, then."

"Ohhh, they're staring so intensely. Kiss already!" Gwaine croons, "The tension is too much!"

It is now that Arthur looks up, dumbfounded as he glances between Mordred and Merlin in horror. His lip curls in disgust. "Mer-lin? Your crush is on this bloody idiot?"

Mordred can't help but simply stare out of fascination. How can Emrys, Magic Incarnate, polish swords and stoke fires?! It's blasphemous to him, if not insane! He shrinks back with a groan, pouting at his feet as the knights continue to poke fun.

[justaz]

need arthur repealing the magic ban bc its the Right Thing To Do and merlin is ecstatic bc finally finally he can be himself and tell arthur the truth. he can stop lying and hiding!! and the the ban is repealed and magic is free and theres a feast held in celebration and merlin lugs arthur to his chambers since the king had a bit too much wine and the night is warm and golden and steeped with happiness. merlin lays arthur down in bed and arthur looks up at him with half-lidded eyes, glazed over and warm and filled with love, and he says some sappy shit about merlin being a good friend and how loyal he is.

merlin isnt sure why his words make a stone settle in his stomach but he brushes it off and goes to bed, telling himself that he’ll tell arthur everything in the morning. then morning comes around and merlin sits at the table while arthur is eating breakfast and opens his mouth to tell him when his throat closes up and no words escape him. arthur is confused but merlin distracts him by insulting him and postpones the conversation. he’s been hiding for years, maybe he just needs to take it slow, take baby steps, let his mind and body get used to the idea of being free first.

merlin waits another week and a half before trying again. same result. the words wont come out and he’s choking on this secret he thought he could fess up to now and it takes him so long to realize he’s terrified. he isn’t sure why bc helloooo the ban is lifted!! he won’t be put to death!! what’s the problem?? he had an easier time confessing to sorcery to uther when such a thing was still punishable by death. why is it so hard to tell his best friend the truth when he won’t be punished for it??

answer: telling arthur the truth would mean telling him how merlin has lied for years and how arthur has never truly known the man he calls his friend. arthur will be hurt and angry and he’ll feel betrayed and that is something merlin has seen time and time again and he has fought so hard to prevent yet here he is about to put the same expression on his face. he’s about to break arthur’s heart once more. he can’t do it. he has to. he’ll hurt him. it gets worse the longer merlin takes. arthur will hate him. oh gods arthur will hate him.

[deuteragonist1]

Merthur really have it all huh. King and lionheart dynamic. Fucking hate at first sight then speedrun to trying to die for the other. Slow burn? Never heard of her. One of them wears gloves and one doesn't and I'm not even gonna bother to explain why that is top fucking tier. Lies and secrets that could bring about the doom of the kingdom. Obviously adore each other but will actually fucking die before saying it with actual words. The prince is a gigantic asshole who doesn't know how to show care or ask for attention like a person who had healthy emotional development as a child and oscillates between pulling pigtails and acting like an over-eager puppy or both at the same time. Domesticity levels previously unheard of. They canonically wear each other's clothes. One of them makes up words and the other promptly starts using them. Both are extremely into the other's specific brand of dumbassery. Their love language is fucking playing together. "I don't want you to change" fuck this fuck everything

[sapphickittykatherine]

for the record, i do not trust people who dislike lancelot. "he's too perfect" so he's not allowed to be perfect? one shouldn't be allowed to portray characters with no flaws? you hate him because he's beautiful and chivalrous and lovely? his eyes are too big and dark and gorgeous and his hair is too glossy and soft to the touch? you hate him because he's never done anything wrong in his life? you hate him for essentially being a saint and the bravest and most noble of them all and everything that is right with this world? this makes me worry for how you treat perfect people in real life :/

[that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction]

Writing Mordred is slowly making me realise I don’t actually hate him.

The more I think about it, the more I realise he’s just a traumatised child who felt trapped and ran out of options when every single person in his life who was supposed to help him failed in some way or others. Most in more than one way if we’re being honest.

The kid literally had no one to turn to when the girl he loved died and was openly hated by the guy he’s thought of as a god since he was a child.

Like let that sink in.

Merlin openly wished him dead, and Mordred literally worshipped the ground he walked on.

(I’m usually a Merlin apologist but bloody hell he fucked up at every opportunity when it came to Mordred)

Morgana was the exact opposite of his morals but wanted magic free, (at the cost of non magic users lives which is also problematic, but that’s a different conversation) so he didn’t stick around with her, but when Camelot no longer felt safe for him, he ran.

Which is definitely a trauma response considering how he grew up with the Druids and then whatever the fuck happened after he left them.

Arthur was the only person who was continuously good for him, saving him as a child and later becoming a brother/father figure, but then he killed Kara and Mordred had to watch another magic user be killed by Camelot except this time it was someone he truly believed was good. He didn’t see her attacking Arthur like she did, just that the king of Camelot was killing another magic user which was bound to bring up trauma that he hasn’t felt safe enough to unpack and heal from.

I have a lot more to say on this, but I’ve got to leave for work in a few minutes so I’ll come back and scream about it another time

Fucking Mordred though, poor kid. He really went through it.

[feelyoubehindmyeyes]

the way arthur dies thinking he disappointed his father, was despised by his sister and killed his mother

[mossmx]

Because I see routinely posts of the "we all hate Uther of course" variety:

I very much LOVE Uther Pendragon from bbc Merlin, yes HIM

I love his character, I enjoy what he does and how he does it, I want to draw him so much and he had AMAZING moments in the show.

I could go on but you get the point I hope 💕

I'm frankly tired of the fandom attitude that "of course every Merlin fan hates Uther" because we are not a hivemind and WE DO NOT.

Not everyone ships Merthur, not everyone hates Uther etc. but everyone deserves to go in the tags and not see constant negativity:

I'd like if haters would leave the tag alone for people who do want to see Uther content 👍 You can tag it uther hate or something else, you are making the tag unusable for other fans.

I am blocking every user that posts hate in the tag, so if you ever liked any of my art and would possibly like to see more of my art in the future it is in your interest to change tag you use if you hate him :)

For Uther fans: you'll always be welcome here 💙🤗

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

whether you see them as romantic or platonic, merlin and arthur are literally soulmates

[bellamyblakru]

idk why but the trope where character a changes the routine or something in the daily life of character b and character b complains and gets annoyed at the new addition and then suddenly one day character a gets genuinely upset and stops doing said thing which then makes character b all ☹️wheres the thing i miss the thing but has to pretend they want it back and is only doing it for character a’s sake when we all see its just them being in love or whatever is something i fucking LOVE to see?? every time???

[tipytap]

you ever just watch a tv show and there is a scene so overwhelmingly full of awkwardness and second hand embarrassment that you have to just,,, stop for a moment. like dude, come on. this is making me have to take my glasses off i couldnt possibly handle your lack of charisma in HD

[justaz]

merlin (immortal) giving arthur (pendragon) the only blade that could kill him

[wanderinggoddess]

i just don't get how merlin didn't take one look at little mordred with all his weird kid energy and immediately just take him in as an apprentice/ little brother

[bisclavret]

things that would have greatly improved bbc merlin (2008 - 2012)

if gaius died in the s1 finale when he was probably originally supposed to

if they'd framed merlin poisoning morgana in s2 as a culmination of gaius drugging her (what was in that sleep medication. quickly) for years

if the goblin had just permanently stayed in gaius after that s3 episode

if gaius died in s4

if gaius died in s5 jesus fucking christ how is he still alive

if gaius eclipsed morgana as the series villain because that conniving old man is up there with uther if not worse. to me

[kateis-cakeis]

"No, it must go free."

"Dragons cannot be used like that! They must be left unshackled, free to roam the earth."

"Dragon’s are magical creatures! They belong to no man! They are for the benefit of all!"

These are Merlin's lines during his confrontation with Borden (34:50 S4Ep4)

I know many in this fandom assume that Aithusa was under Kilgharrah's care after they (using they/them here because of the canon 'he' vs the fanon 'she') were born. But there's nothing to actually suggest that's true.

Instead, with Merlin's lines here, it heavily suggests dragons raise themselves. They go free, unbound from men (even Dragonlords it seems), and are left unshackled - in a world that lets them.

And this is directly seen in S4Ep13 as Aithusa seems to just be hanging about when they fly down to heal Morgana (and while they do fly away after, maybe they just felt the need to check in and got attached to Morgana at some point :P so I don't think it was an explicit betrayal)

Likeeee, let's say this was the Triple Goddess's way of prophecy being like yeah no, to letting Morgana just rot on a forest floor :P

But based off this, I think it's more than likely that dragons in BBC Merlin mirror many lizard species - where they just lay the egg and leave. This seems true and coincides with how Aithusa's egg ended up in a tomb to be protected (hundreds of years before the Great Purge).

And because a Dragonlord is needed to hatch it, this very much seems to be the case - that dragons are not raised but rather left to the wild to fend for themselves.

So Kilgharrah was never looking after Aithusa, and Merlin was never meant to either. Both left Aithusa to their own devices because that's how a dragon is meant to grow and live. On their own.

I know from the deleted scene in S4Ep1 that Daobeth was destroyed by dragons, suggesting that dragons can work together and be known to one another - so it's not like they're entirely solitary.

But I don't know! I think this is one of those things where it's like there's an assumption that's turned into a kinda blame game. (A bit like how some people believe in that Kilgharrah theory that feels sooo out of place to canon and the real story of the show).

Anyway, here's a different interpretation that doesn't put the blame on Merlin, or Kilgharrah, or Aithusa. Little dragon is allowed to make mistakes!

And hell, Kilgharrah's theory about Aithusa doesn't have to be wrong, 'the light of the sun' being a positive and fitting meaning could simply be about a new dragon at all. It could be about post canon even. There's a lot there, Kilgharrah only had a theory, he literally says 'I believe'. Cut him some slack!

sdfhhsdf all this to say, I think you can do some fun worldbuilding with dragons based off canon, and this is just one example of that.

Dragons roam free and have no parents :D It's fine, that's nature and magic ;)

[adhd-merlin]

sorry but I was rewatching some bits of The Hollow Queen and the transition from daegal's tragic death in merlin's arms to arthur sitting at the table and telling his wife "I still can't believe how lucky I was! :)" while merlin limps in the background is kind of funny

[nextstopparis]

me explaining how everything would’ve been different after bbc merlin episode 2.08 the sins of the father if morgause had juST USED THAT DAMNED CRYSTAL SOONER and seen arthur actually fighting uther and being lied to and manipulated back into thinking uther was right because tHEN SHE COULDVE SOUGHT HIM OUT BUT ALONE THIS TIME AND DEFENDED HERSELF AND GOTTEN ARTHUR ON HER SIDE and then when she reached out to morgana the three of them would’ve teamed up and brought uther to his knees