#I LOVE how much faith arthur has in merlin | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stressed-and-queer · 9 months

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Reasons why Merlins s1 ep4 "The Poisoned Chalice" is one of my favorite episodes (spoilers)

Gaius giving Merlin a fake proverb and Merlin calling him out on it

Merlin: "Someone has to keep the place running"

Gaius: 🤨

Merlin gets so excited he gets to go to the ball and it's adorable

The iconic outfit Arthur picks out for him

Gwen teasing him about the hat

Arthur looking back at Merlin clearly amused

The moment "Clara" confirms that Arthur's cup is poisoned he immediately leaves to save Arthur

Arthur keeps on trying to take a sip of the cup thinking the speech is over only to be interrupted again 🤣

Merlin: *Takes Arthur's cup*

Arthur: #annoyed

Uther asks Merlin for proof about his claims about the cup being poisoned and Arthur immediately goes into protective boyfriend mode

Arthur got so worried when Uther decided he would drink the wine

To the point that he tried to drink it himself knowing there was a possibility it was poisoned.

He was literally willing to do that for a servant he met 4 EP ago

Continuing with the point that they met 4 EP ago, they've known each other for like what, a month at the most and Merlin was already willing to die for Arthur

"but if it's poisoned, he'll die :('

Arthur was so fucking worried when Merlin drank the wine, you could tell just by the way he stood

*Dramatic music playing after Merlin drank the wine for a dramatic pause* Merlin: ...It's fine

The fact that the poison took a few moments to kick in. Idk it made it seem more realistic

You cannot convince me Arthur wasn't planning on somehow getting Merlin back from Bayard

When Merlin starts to choke, Arthur's face immediately drops. There's just a look of pure worry and dread

When Merlin falls to the ground unconscious, Arthur is there by his side in a matter of seconds

Arthur didn't even think twice when he picked Merlin up to carry him to Gaius's physician chambers

Arthur asking if Merlin was going to be ok

Gaius explains how to save Merlin, and how dangerous a journey it would be and Arthur is still willing to go to save Merlin

Gaius: A single drip of venom from the Cockatrice would mean certain death

Arthur: Sounds like fun!

Morgana has so much faith that Arthur would save Merlin she wasn't even worried

She relieved Gwen from her duties for the rest of the night so she could take care of Merlin!!!

"I can't stand by and watch him die!"

" Then don't watch"

The ways those lines are delivered are sooooo good omg

The way Arthur leans against the fireplace

Morgana is the one that convinced Arthur to defy his father and save Merlin

Merlin saying a spell in his sleep

And Gaius having to cover for him because Gwen was literally right there

Gaius immediately knows it's Nimue that poisoned the cup when he finds out the poison has been magically enhanced

"He's just a boy"

"Have you seen your son recently?"

Merlin literally moans Arthur's name in his sleep

"Art-Arthur, Arthur...ngh" -Merlin s1 ep4

Even when Merlin is literally dying and unconscious he's still trying to save Arthur

The whole act that Nimue puts on that Arthur falls for instantly

When Arthur flights the Cockatrice with his sword. I love all the fancy movements Bradley had to learn for the role of Arthur

Merlin moaning Arthur's name pt2

Merlin tries to warn Arthur that it's a trap in his sleep

"Who are you!"

"The last face you'll ever see"

Merlin moans Arthurs name pt3

THE BALL OF LIGHT MERLIN CREATES TO HELP ARTHUR

"Do not let Merlin die because of something I did"

Arthur is willing to be put into the stocks for a month if it means Merlin gets the antidote

Arthur reaching for the flower through the bars of his cell

The way they snuck the flower out of the cell

"That's disgusting, you would be ashamed of yourself you're old enough to be her grandfather"

"I'm proud of you Arthur, never forget that"

Arthur went to check in on Merlin to make sure he was doing ok

"Arthur....thank you"

"You too, get some rest"

#spoilers #bbc merlin #merlin #merthur #arthur pendragon #bbc arthur #merlin fandom #s1 ep4 #the poisoned chalice

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empty-blog-for-lurking · 10 months

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i dont know how to explain it but to me udad and hnoc are like opposites of each other. (Under read more, cause it is loooooonnnnng)

With udad the situation everyone is in is bonkers shit. The world they live in is absolutely shithole of a place that exploits everyone but the richest of the rich and the people there cant escape even after their death. Every single one of them is bitter and depressed and wronged and just wants to survive and they'll do anything to survive even if it meant killing the other one. All the natural part of that world is long dead and only thing exists is this cold dark metallic hellscape of a city that swallowed its own planet like a cancer. Almost all the songs are just how everyone was exploited, used, wronged, and discarded they were. Ulysses is a drunk fallen 'hero' completely guilt ridden by their role in Illium's fall. They had lost everyone and everything even before the album began. They spent so much of their throughout album getting their shit beat in. They, Heracles, and Orpheus go to Hades (Ashes) in hopes to be freed whether as a request, through theft, or through a deal. And Ashes all but set them all up to die for their own amusement (which btw very sexy of them <3 but that is besides the point). There seemed to be no hope for them.

And yet, despite everything the ending is so hopeful. We know that Ulysses would die, if it wasnt obvious from the title of the album itself it certainly becomes obvious when we learn how their world works. And yet they died a happier ending, they escaped the curse of their city and died reunited with their love. Ulysses died under an oak tree in a grassy fields, among nature which was thought to be dead since The City's takeover. Ulysses died being warmed by sunlight, a right denied to so many others like them. Ulysses died at dawn.

And then there is hnoc. Hnoc starts heroic. Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere take over Camelot from the corrupt Stone clan through their skills and teamwork. They turn it into a place of safety with all three of them incharge. Their lives are hard and filled with violence and hatred and fear and the world they live is harsh and unforgiving. But they still have each other, and they still care for the people around them. There is nature like scorpions and vultures despite it being a space station. The album has songs about love and being in love, about hope of peace, about power of faith. Everyone wants to survive and they are willing to work together to do it. Arthur is embittered by his "daughter's" death but still has his partners to keep him grounded and is ruler/sheriff of a powerful town with lots of knights working for him. What is more, the tragedy that hardened both Arthur and Gawain can be healed because the person they mourn isnt dead, he is Mordred and he is here to make amends. Arthur, Gawain, and Galahad go to Merlin (Brian) to seek aid, and he gives them advice that truly could have saved them, because Merlin really did wanted to save them and the entire station. There seemed to be hope for them.

And yet in the end it meant nothing. It was all for nothing. Alfred and Gawain did not listen to Brian's advice and ended up sealing theirs and everyone else's fate. Galahad did take Brian's advice and it destroyed him in a self sacrifice that ended up being for nothing. Mordred tried so hard for peace but at the end seeing the hatred and cruelty of his world hardened him to the core. Gawain's hatred turned peace talks into war and turned him into sawage barbaric monster he thought Saxons to be. Arthur's hardened core did not let him hope that his child could ever return to him and ended up not giving Mordred even a chance. What could have saved everyone Fort Gallfridian ended up turning into what destroyed Fort Gallfridian whether it be the GRAIL or Mordred. Almost all of them died a pointless avoidable death. And Arthur? Arthur lost everything. He lost his partners, he lost his chance to embrace his son, he lost his home, he lost his people. He may have survived but at the end he lost everything. High noon over Camelot. We didnt understand what it truly meant (all of them dying in the sun) until it was too late.

Ulysses shoots once, and it led to their happy ending. Gawain shoots once, and it led to everyone's tragedy. 3 shots all for Ulysses and it killed them. 3 shots for Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, and it hurt Arthur but never killed him. Ulysses was the only one who got to die under the sun, Arthur was the only one who didnt die in the sun.

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theroundbartable · 4 months

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What do you think are Merlin and Arthur’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic?

OOoh... interesting question.

Arthur Pendragon:

Arthur's positive traits, his strengths, are also his weaknesses. He questions everything. He tries to see the good in people and tries to do right by them. It is kind of why he's such a resetting character. Because every time he reaches out to something, like magic, he gets proven otherwise. Yet, he can't NOT question it. He's trusting and forgiving and yet, he's the character who has most often been deceived, lied to and actively betrayed. In a strange way, this behavior makes him extraordinary. He has trust issues, in the end, but he still offers his trust to his knights and especially to Merlin. In a way, he tends to overlook the bad things people did because he values their positive traits more (like with Agravaine).

And of course, he cares more about his kingdom than himself. His kingdom is even more important to him than his father or any of the people who's love he craves.

Other weaknesses of his are obviously that he can't do basic stuff like brush his hair or cook. And I'm pretty sure he's somehow cursed that all these magic events happen around him.

Another is his self worth. He sees worth in everyone else but never in himself. His life is important only to protect Camelot. His life belongs to his people and he really does believe that. It's not that he thinks he's worthless, it's that he misinterprets it and lives as a breathing sacrifice.

Merlin:

Merlin's strength is his confidence and his faith. From the moment we first see him, he's able to face one of the most powerful people in the world and not back down, even though he knows he has to hide his magic.

He is brave and selfless. In the sense that he doesn't care about his own feelings and life as much as about others, especially Arthur. And of course, he hates conflict.

Merlin is NOT trusting. Not the way Arthur is. Merlin trusts people he has seen do good in action. He does NOT trust people he doesn't know, and in some cases, even his friends. Best example for this part is Lancelot's shade, whom Merlin almost immediately suspected. I think, in a way, he seems more naive and trusting to us because for us this is fiction and just a show. But to Merlin, it is significant that some stuck up noble saves his life without question, or that someone is willing to keep his magic secret for Merlin's sake, or that the dragon helps him find his purpose and helps him to better Camelot. That is why Merlin's trust is RELIABLE, while Arthur's is not. And that is why Arthur trusts Merlin's instincts. I think Arthur knows that Merlin has a better hunch for people's true intentions than he does. It is just that after a while, he thinks he's learned from previous mistakes and he doesn't want to be so bad at it, when HE'S the one who should know, after being betrayed so many times, while Merlin is JUST a servant with no such history (that he knows of).

Their dynamic:

How could I start this part other than with 'they are two sides of the same coin'. And I think it's really fucked up because imagine a coin with a person on each side. They would NEVER be able to ever fully see each other.

Imagine that. I think, Arthur's side is the one with the number on it that tells him exactly what his worth is, where he's supposed to be, supposed to go, what he can be exchanged for.

On the other side is Merlin who is the side that talks about where he's from, what his traditions are, etc.

Merlin has to learn his self worth through the storyline, Arthur needs to learn the traditions and where he is from and what he is truly fighting for. That's kind of why I love the metaphor.

It also means that Arthur can never truly know who Merlin is unless Merlin tells him. Can't know magic, can't know his own background and the circumstances of his birth.

And Merlin can never truly see how important he is to the kingdom. He only knows he's tied to Arthur and that SOMEDAY it will be better. That he's already reached his destiny doesn't even occurr to him.

It makes me wonder what it means when Arthur dies, in relation to this metaphor. Is the side blank now? Has the coin simply been flipped and now Merlin is at the front? What does it mean???

Anyway. What else I love about their dynamic is how intimate it is. I'll say it as I always do, I think Gwen is the better queen and makes more sense to marry Arthur since they both see only the future of the kingdom. But that is the point. Their relationship is public and a symbol of peace. Merlin's and Arthur's shared destiny is always private, always hidden behind layers of lies. Even when they finally share their true feelings, it remains intimate and private. When they are together, they are focused on themselves and their soulbond.

Where Gwen and Arthur discuss the future of the kingdom and what to do with their people, Merlin is personal reassurance for Arthur.

Here are two example scenes that shall make this more clear.

In the episode where Arthur is meant to marry Elena, he asks Merlin what he thinks about the arranged marriage. And Merlin goes on a rant to tell Arthur that his feelings matter. That being emotionally available, by choosing himself and who he loves, he WILL be a better king. In Merlin's rant, Arthur's happiness comes fist. The kingdom, second. Even though they are clearly interconnected.

Arthur had a conversation with Gwen about the marriage beforehand and Gwen accepted his responsibility to marry for the better of the kingdom, putting CAMELOT first. While promising him that he can be happy with his wife too. Even if she's not what he wants at first, he can grow to love her.

Neither of those are bad things. As I said before, Arwen makes sense and MORE sense for the kingdom. But Arthur and Merlin are more private and intimate and basically soulmates. Romance aside, this is what I think makes their dynamic so fascinating to me. It is friendship, a deep emotional bond that often times goes beyond normal friendship. (Not necessarily romantic, but definitely deeper than best friends.)

There is more I love but I don't want to spam the tumblr. Lol. Thank you for the question, anon :)

#bbc merlin #merlin #merthur #merlin bbc #faq #ask #answer

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lxvenderjewel · 4 months

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song/ship analyses part 6: merthur and "call it what you want" by taylor swift

this one was inspired by a video i saw on yt: merlin & arthur || call it what you want [CC] go check it out after this!!

“My castle crumbled overnight” i mean in both s4 and s5 arthur loses control of his kingdom so like

“They took the crown, but it's alright” i know arthur’s like. magic-high during the s4 finale but if the shoe fits

“All the liars are calling me one” being a king he’s probably been called a liar a lot, even by his own father he’s been called a liar (which is like. hypocrite much??)

“Nobody's heard from me for months” during the entire s4 finale no one knows where arthur is except merlin

“Walkin' with his head down, I'm the one he's walkin' to” merlin’s arthur’s servant, so of course he’s walking with his head down towards him (well maybe not with his head down he doesn’t have that kind of respect for arthur 💀)

“High above the whole scene, loves me like I'm brand new” merlin never seems to be swayed by public opinion, he always has complete trust in arthur

“So call it what you want, yeah, call it what you want to” can you imagine how many rumors swirl around merlin and arthur? this lyric is so perfect be real

“Windows boarded up after the storm

He built a fire just to keep me warm” whenever arthur goes through hardship merlin’s always right there. when uther dies merlin sleeps right outside to offer arthur comfort as soon as he needs it

“All the jokers dressin' up as kings” morgana

“They fade to nothin' when I look at him” i think arthur has a lot of faith in merlin. like as in merlin is part of what motivates him to be a better king for his people

“And I know I make the same mistakes every time

Bridges burn, I never learn, at least I did one thing right” he often fumbles romantically, and when he finally thinks he has gwen, he ultimately loses her to lancelot, but merlin stays with his unwavering loyalty to arthur

“I'm laughin' with my lover, makin' forts under covers

Trust him like a brother, yeah, you know I did one thing right” arthur and merlin antics, like that one pillow fight scene in an episode i can’t recall, and “trust him like a brother” of course he does. a term that comes to mind for merthur is “t’hy’la” from star trek, which roughly translates to “friend, brother, lover”

“Starry eyes sparkin' up my darkest night” merlin’s eyes when he does magic

“I want to wear his initial

On a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck” this line reminds me of the deleted scene where arthur gives merlin his sigil (which i think is in the video as well)

“Not because he owns me

But 'cause he really knows me

Which is more than they can say, I” many people look at arthur like a kind of god, considering he’s king, and even his knights, who he’s closest with, still look at him with some sort of reverence, but merlin treats him like just another person, which must be so refreshing, to not have any expectations on your head and to be just known as you are without and preconceived notions

“I recall late November

Holdin' my breath, slowly I said

"You don't need to save me

But would you run away with me?"” he never actually says it to merlin but this line reminds me of when arthur is with gwen and he tells her he dreams of living in some village with merlin and just being a farmer, and living a calm, soft life

once again go watch the video!! it’s very well made and the person who made it is awfully talented

#can you tell i'm a swiftie #merthur #merlin bbc #arthur pendragon #taylor swift #reputation #call it what you want #song/ship analysis

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theladyragnell · 1 year

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Hello! I'm jumping on the chance to request a ficlet, and since I'm in a bit of a nostalgic mood : Merlin/Arthur ! And for a trope... Truth spell and declarations? Sending lots of love your way 💞

(Wrote the first bit of this from Merlin's POV, hard drive crashed and I lost it, now finally back to it and reconstructed from Arthur's POV. And also it's 3k because I was having some feelings. Set in a sort of nebulous AU-post-s3 situation.)

When Merlin finishes talking, Arthur is silent for a long, long time. He has to be. He’ll scream otherwise.

“What do you expect me to do now?” he asks at last. “I can’t very well kill you, not when I’ve just gone to all this trouble to legalize magic.” And then, spitting out the beginning of the bitterness he knows will twist him up for a long time, “Coward.”

“I don’t know.” Merlin shrugs, so hapless, as though none of this is his fault. Still playing the bumbling servant when he’s just told Arthur how many deaths can be laid at his door. Arthur respects killing, when it’s necessary, but the lying rankles. “I just had to tell you. I should have before.”

“Yes, you should have.” Arthur runs a hand through his hair and wishes for simplicity. “How am I ever supposed to trust you again?”

Merlin shakes his head. “You’ve heard all of that. What more do I have to lie about?”

“If I’d told you for five years that I’d never so much as held a sword and then won a duel while you watched, wouldn’t you wonder if there were other lies along the way?”

“There may have been,” Merlin admits. “It sort of got into everything, the big lie. But as I think of truths, I’ll tell them.”

“There’s still the problem of me believing them.” Arthur waves Merlin silent before he can continue. “Get out of my sight. Don’t let me see you again until I send for you.”

With honesty, it seems, comes obedience. For once, Merlin does what Arthur tells him to.

When the door is shut behind him, Arthur sits down at his table, stares at the stupid bowl of apples Merlin caused to float in the air, his declaration when words failed him. There are a hundred thousand problems with all of this, but perhaps the worst is the knowledge that he’s been giving unreturned trust for years now. His closest companion, the first person he sees every morning and the last he sees at night, may as well be a total stranger.

But Arthur doesn’t have so many allies, particularly so many magical allies, that he can simply send Merlin away and have done with it. He’ll have to learn to live with this, but he still can’t see how.

I have an idea, Merlin sends in a note two days later, having become so close to invisible that Arthur wishes he could make a joke about Merlin’s sudden skill in being a servant. The trouble is that he wants to make the joke to Merlin, and jokes between them will cut, he thinks, for a long time.

Arthur goes to Gaius’s rooms instead of summoning him, and sits in frosty silence with Gaius while they wait for Merlin to return from an errand in the forest before dismissing him while Merlin is still gaping in the doorway with a bag of useless mushrooms that make Arthur suspect he’s still lying.

Of course he is. Arthur knows, but Merlin hasn’t made a sign to Camelot as a whole what he is. Nobody trusts Arthur repealing his father’s laws.

“What were you doing in the forest?” he asks when they’re alone.

Merlin frowns. “Meeting with one of the druid leaders. He wanted reassurance.”

“Did you give it to him?”

“Yes. I’ve got no reason to believe you’ll kill others when you didn’t kill me.”

Arthur isn’t the noble king Merlin thinks him. He knew that even before he started repealing his father’s laws. If Merlin had told him a year ago, or two, Arthur would have let him live and sent him away and continued killing other sorcerers. He hasn’t earned this faith. “You said you have an idea.”

“A truth spell. I’ll cast it on myself, and it will last as long as I want it to. I won’t be able to lie to you or to anyone.”

It’s a pretty offer. There’s just one problem with it. “And how am I to trust that you’re casting the spell you say you are?”

Merlin reels back a little. Arthur won’t feel guilty for that. “I could,” he says after several soundless seconds, “I could cast it on someone else you trust? Someone you choose. You’d hear me say the same words.”

“And subject Leon or Gwen to magic to assuage my worry?” They would do it, and he won’t abuse their trust for just that reason. There’s one answer, and if it’s the one he hates most, it’s the one that will set his mind most at ease. “No. You’ll cast it on me.”

“Why would you do that? I could, I don’t know, I could cast a spell to control you so you’d think you were telling the truth, or something else awful.”

To his own relief, Arthur discovers that he’s found the limits of his own distrust. “I think if you were going to do that, you already would have. No, you’ll cast it on both of us, and when I find that I can lie again, I’ll know that you’ve let the spell lapse so you can lie.”

“You want the spell on us forever? You’re a king. Kings have to lie.”

“That’s not the kind of Camelot I want to build. And no. I just want to know you’re telling the truth until I can believe it.”

After a long moment, Merlin nods. “I don’t know a spell that will compel an answer to a question, and for the sake of Camelot and your advisors I wouldn’t cast it even if I could. One of us can always choose silence. But if we speak out loud, it’s going to be the truth—and if we try to lie, the truth comes out too.”

Arthur would be less angry if Merlin had chosen silence, at any point in these last years. At least he hopes that’s true. Maybe he should speak it out loud when he’s alone, once the spell is cast, and know for sure. “I’ll take that. When can you cast it?”

“Let me practice the incantation. Tomorrow, but I haven’t cast this one before. I don’t want to do something I can’t undo, or that will go wrong.”

Arthur nods sharply. “Tomorrow, then.”

He doesn’t linger. Merlin’s hunched posture and obvious misery are making him want to reach out in comfort and he can’t give either of them hope like that.

Merlin comes to his room the next afternoon and pulls his previously-very-illegal spellbook out of a satchel. Arthur despairs of his attempts at secrecy and hates himself a little for not guessing before. “Are you sure?” Merlin asks.

“Just do it. I’m not the one who has trouble with the truth.”

After a shaky sigh, Merlin reaches out and says a few words in that half-familiar language. He gestures at himself first, and then repeats the words and gestures at Arthur. Nothing seems to change, at least not that Arthur notices, though he’s busy being disconcerted at the way Merlin’s eyes go liquid gold when he does magic. “It’s done,” says Merlin. “Try to lie.”

My shirt is green, Arthur tries to say, but somewhere between his brain and his mouth, it comes out “My shirt is red.”

Merlin’s mouth twitches with what would have no doubt been a tease if everything hadn’t changed between them. “Safe one. Mine’s blue.” His expression of faint surprise is a comfort. “My hair is black.” More surprise.

Arthur can’t help responding with a glimmer of humor. “What color are you trying to say?”

“Pink,” Merlin admits, and Arthur has to swallow a smile. There’s a moment of awkward silence where he would have filled in a tease of his own a few days ago before Merlin forges on. “Is there anything you want to ask, now that you know I can’t lie?”

Arthur considers his options. “Do you regret telling me?” he finally asks.

“Yes and no.” Arthur glares and Merlin shrugs helplessly. “It’s the truth! I’ve been wanting to tell you for years and I was too scared, and I hate you being angry at me, so I wonder if I should have stayed scared. But I think in a while, when you’ve decided how much you do or don’t trust me, I’ll just be relieved that I can finally stop lying.” He hesitates. “Do you regret being told?”

Arthur could choose silence, but it’s not going to help either of them to do that. “I wish you weren’t a sorcerer,” he says after thinking it through. “But seeing as you are, no, I don’t regret knowing. Only what we’ve lost through all the lies.”

“Do you think we can regain any of it?”

He can’t imagine a “Yes” coming out, under the strictures of this spell. He can’t imagine a “No” working either. It would be so much simpler if he could say either. “I wish I knew,” he says instead, and then, before he can be dragged into saying anything else, “You’re dismissed.”

Arthur wakes every morning and tries to lie. For the first few days, it’s stupid factual information, and it’s pure comfort when he can’t say it’s raining on a sunny day, or that he’s going to wear one of Morgana’s gowns to a banquet, or that he prefers the bow to the sword. After that, he starts testing the limits of the spell. He can’t, he discovers, say outright that he’s the best swordsman in Camelot, but finds he’s saying “I believe I’m the best swordsman in Camelot” instead, and other opinions or facts he can’t know for sure come out in similar ways.

He tests his own opinions too, and fails at it. He can’t say “I believe magic is good” any more than he can say “I believe magic is evil.” The answer to both is “I don’t know what I believe about magic anymore.” Embarrassingly, the truth between “I trust Merlin” and “I don’t trust Merlin” is “I wish I trusted Merlin.”

He doesn’t recall Merlin to his service, but he doesn’t avoid him either. He suffers through the quiet and competent service of various palace servants and watches Merlin out of the corner of his eye. He’s quieter than usual, which isn’t surprising. He’s also good at lying without lying, which makes Arthur angrier for a few days, realizing how many times Merlin just led him without adding more outright lies to his conscience.

“You seem upset,” he overhears Gwen say to him in a corridor one afternoon. “Are you and Arthur still fighting?”

“I don’t know,” says Merlin, sounding exhausted. “I was never fighting with him, anyway. I made a mistake and he’s angry. He’s right to be. I don’t know what to do about it.”

Gwen makes soothing noises, and Arthur slips away to spar with anyone who will agree on the training fields.

The next day, he summons Merlin for dinner.

“Details,” he says when Merlin sits down. “You gave me broad strokes, and I can fill in some of it, but I don’t know what magic can do, aside from evil. Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

“That’s a lot for one dinner,” Merlin warns him.

“Start somewhere.”

After a bewildered little silence, Merlin does. He wanders terribly, and sometimes stops and grimaces and says “This is someone else’s secret, so I’m going to change the subject,” but he explains how often he’s been pulling strings, saving lives and hurting other ones. He doesn’t pretend, to Arthur’s relief, that everything he’s done was good, only the best he could do with the knowledge he had.

When he drifts to a stop, with much untold but more truths told between them, Arthur leans forward and meets his eyes. “Now try to lie to me,” he says.

Merlin winces, but he doesn’t look away. “My mother’s name is Hunith. I know you hate duck eggs and that you ordered them because I like them. I’m still sorry.”

I believe you, Arthur tries to say, and is relieved when it comes out “I want to believe you.”

Arthur is the king of Camelot. He can’t dine with a servant every night. Still, in the weeks that follow, he sets aside time every few days to invite Merlin to disgorge more secrets.

Some of the stories are awful, and Merlin doesn’t try to pretend that they aren’t. Others, to Arthur’s surprise, are funny, and Merlin’s obvious disgust at everyone treating him like some legendary figure goes a long way to earning his sympathy. He’s spending some time with the druids now, and he doesn’t like the way they talk about his future either. At the end of every meal, he asks Merlin to lie to him, and Merlin tells him the truth.

It’s been easy, for five years, to dismiss Merlin’s importance. Princes rely on servants to do things for them, but they don’t rely on the servants. The gaps in his life and his conversations where Merlin might have filled in seem constant and unbridgeable, and Merlin’s stories make it obvious that whatever they are, prince and servant isn’t it.

“I miss him,” he says one morning. A bare and simple truth, not qualified as an opinion.

It’s not surprising.

Merlin tells Gwen, and tells Leon and the other knights who don’t know. Arthur has a fight with Gwaine and with Lancelot about things they’ve known without telling their king, in his turn, but after that, when those closest to him know what Merlin can do, he invites him to council meetings and forces himself to ask Merlin’s opinion on how to bring magic back, how to convince Morgana that he’s in earnest and wants her help.

Gwen and Gwaine both lobby privately for Merlin to be named court sorcerer, but there’s not enough trust for that yet, and anyway it’s something he’s hoping to dangle to tempt Morgana home, a position that’s likely to matter more to her than being a princess or even a queen, if she’ll only trust him.

“Maybe I should tell her I can’t lie right now,” Arthur muses over dinner with Merlin one night. “It’s helping us.”

Merlin beams at him, knowing that’s true, before returning to a troubled frown. “Maybe. I’m not sure if she’s ready.” He hesitates, but he doesn’t choose silence often. Arthur isn’t sure how much of that is penance and how much of it is relief that he can finally speak. He’s not ready for the answer to that question. “I would do it. Everyone says I should, druids and dragon and all. Have I really ruined things that much?”

“You’re very bad at politics,” Arthur says. “I don’t know what you’ll be in my court, but not that, not unless Morgana turns me down.”

“I could learn,” says Merlin, scowling, and Arthur teases him about it, learning how to talk around the lies that teasing so often requires, and the next morning, when he tries to lie and say “I trust Merlin” it nearly comes out.

They have a stupid fight. Merlin mentions Arthur’s mother, Arthur gets a refusal of parlay from Morgana, and they both shout unforgivable things at each other that are, unfortunately, still true.

“What kind of legendary king do you think I’ll be,” Arthur yells when he’s had enough, “when you don’t even trust me to make my own choices with full knowledge?”

“Because you do make choices that make you a good king every day! And you wouldn’t accept full knowledge about magic until you came to it on your own!” Merlin shakes his head, visibly calming himself. “You are my king, Arthur. You have been for a long time now. I want to be at your side.”

The affirmation of his loyalty feels like a knife in the back. It would be easier if Arthur thought he were trying to lie, but he’s not. After weeks of being unable to lie, Merlin still looks startled every time he fails at it. “I don’t know why,” he says, exhausted. “You’ve told me all these things, and I still can’t understand why you’re loyal. You thought I would have you killed for having magic, but I’m still your king? Tell me it’s not just destiny. That’s not what I want from you.”

“Of course it’s not just destiny. If some prophecy had told me your father was a legendary king who should have my full loyalty, I’d have run off to live in a cave. But you … I trust you. I trust your heart. I trusted that once you understood, you would do the right thing.”

Arthur swallows. “And have I lived up to that trust?”

“Nearly every day.” Merlin gives him a thin smile. “Whenever you’re not being a prat.”

It’s answer enough, and it’s the truth. Arthur kisses him, and in a whirlwind of arms and legs and startled noises, Merlin kisses him back.

“I love you,” Merlin says in bed later, intense and, somehow, true. “You don’t have to try to say it if you don’t think it will come out.”

Arthur could say it, he thinks. It’s not, though, the thing that matters most now. “I trust you,” he says instead, and he doesn’t have to qualify it. It’s just true. And, while Merlin is staring at him with wide wet eyes, he continues. “Take the spell off.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“What’s the point of it? I trust you,” and it’s easier even to say the second time, “and that’s what this exercise has been. Surely you’ll be relieved to go back to fibbing about where my dessert has gone.”

“And this has nothing at all to do with you panicking when that ambassador offered you a marriage,” Merlin says, but he’s already taking Arthur’s hand, saying a few words with his eyes flaring gold, and then saying them again, removing the spell from himself as well. There’s a long silence. Eventually, Merlin clears his throat. “My hair is pink.”

Arthur chokes on a laugh. “And my bed hangings are made of spiderweb. Which might actually be true, come to that, given who my manservant is.”

“I haven’t cleaned your bed hangings in ages, blame your temporary servants for that.” Merlin hesitates, smile going softer. “I do love you.”

“I believe you,” says Arthur, and kisses him again.

#fkyb #answered asks #sometimes i write stories

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dreamcrow · 5 months

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I need some Hot Crow Takes on what was the worst example of Villain Decay throughout ToA. also on what Leonora Janeth uses in her hair

send me a meta prompt (currently closed); thank you for the ask!

the arcane and esoteric mysteries of janeth's haircare regimen are beyond my humble (straight-haired) supposings. but for the villain decay? oh, morgana, hands down.

gunmar is spooky, but a bit of a ham. for most of trollhunters, he’s also relatively distant. bular is a lot closer, and much more of an immediate threat, but he’s always ultimately subordinate (either to stricklander or his father) and he does, in the end, get got by a teenager. angor is initially presented as terrifying, and rightly so, but even if he becomes sympathetic he’s always formidable; stricklander starts out pretty nefarious (especially if you think about some of the implications of e.g. feeding bular a human security guard) but is of course, in proper gdt fashion, domesticated by wuv. obviously i have niche side blorbo brain fungus re: the arcane order but it's hard to assess their actual "villain decay" without having to think about That Film. at any rate, i don't think they're actually the worst example in toa: despite a concept/design that fucks so absolutely severely, once they get on screen, they're not actually built up all that much (or...well). it takes them less than the space of an episode (22 minutes) to go from "dread, ancient terrors that even merlin is afraid of" to "merlin shooing away them, the green knight, and their evil floating skull castle with less effort than he usually spares to criticize douxie." but that's another post.

morgana, though. part of what made her such a compelling villain was how little arthur figured in trollhunters. the existence of merlin implies the existence of arthur, of course, but in trollhunters arthur isn't there at all. instead, we get the negative space of him: his right hand (merlin) and the anti-arthur (morgana). obviously this is partly her role in arthuriana proper, but it also strikes me as pretty deliberate here: merlin's liege vs. merlin's student (and that liege's sister); humanity's last best hope vs. the queen of the otherworld; the king under the mountain vs. the witch under arcadia. i was not very tuned into morgana when i first got into trollhunters, but looking back over the series for this ask, the parallels are so obvious. and so tight! i wouldn't be surprised if some of this was even deliberate.

and the thing is: trollhunters has enough space as a series that its antagonists don't really have to pull their punches. morgana was nasty in trollhunters. pale lady, baba yaga, eldritch queen, mother of monsters—holy shit, right? and she's creepy, too: all muttering whispers and dread ancient magic! she takes angor’s soul, and then his free will. she taunts stricklander while possessing the body of one of his students (while threatening the permanent exile of two more to the depression dimension), and then in the guise of the human he's in love with. speaking to her faithful children—who only exist through morally dubious, unpleasant processes, for which she is implied to be responsible—via institutional heirloom phonograph! she's so much more connected to the shadow realm, here, probably the most compelling justification for reading shadow magic as dangerous. she's the big bad behind angor and gunmar (while playing them both against each other). she absolutely feels evenly paired with merlin, and (rightly) kicks his ass through most of the battle of the eternal night. she's evil but charismatic and even despite all that still a little human: when she taunts jim for not knowing merlin used her hand for the amulet, it isn't without a shadow of what must have been an ancient hurt.

and then. wizards. jesus christ (tired ben affleck smoking dot jpg)

[ » read the rest of the essay on ao3 ]

#tales of arcadia #toa morgana #trollhunters #toa wizards #morgana le fay #q&a #mine #the obvious solution to your second prompt is 'janeth is also a wizard' ofc #but i was sitting here thinking about the first one and if you will pardon the pun. this answer. possessed me #this is public for now bc i know at least one person i really want to read it who might not have an ao3 account... but watch out maybe

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amyreadsandstresses · 1 year

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AMY'S DAILY FIC REC

Here we go! We have returned! This time with some BBC Sherlock, BBC Merlin and Stranger Things

*Complications - EstravenAi

20k, 15/15, Johnlock, Medical Trauma, Permanent Injury, Angst with a Happy Ending

Heat and noise...

After John is seriously injured during a case, he and Sherlock must deal with the fallout.

*The Imaginary Boyfriend - Oliver_966

2k, 1/1, Johnlock, The Yard finds out, Humor, Angst, Fluff, Married Johnlock

John and Sherlock met after Johns first leave, and have been in a relationship for years. Sherlock hasn't ever mentioned this to anyone at the Yard, and when he does they turn it into a joke. Sherlock doesn't care though of course, because he knows his John is real.

*Illusory Correlation and Confirmation Bias - VanillaBroompolish

10k, 6/6, Johnlock, Greg is a good friend, Molly Hooper, Sally Donovan, Relationship Reveal

Looking back, there were a few things that should’ve tipped Greg off long before that night at the pub. A few things Sherlock left fairly obvious, that on reflection, made Greg question how he’d gotten his job in the first place.

*Limits - WhatLocked

41k, 23/23, Johnlock, Baby Watson, Mentions of Infidelity, Mary Ships Johnlock, Mycroft is a good brother and uncle, Arguments and Confusion, Fluff and Smut

Basically, John leaves, without a trace, after discovering that Mary has left and the baby is not his.

Sherlock gets frantic, Mycroft gets sassy and limits are reached.

Sherlock somehow acquires a baby that he didn't expect to meet and eventually John comes home.

That is when things get tricky...

*Sharp Angles and Thin Measurements - wistfulpisces

TRIGGER WARNING, 1k, 1/1, Sherlock-centric, OCD, Eating Disorders, Unilock, Stream of consciousness

Sherlock has always been sharply aware of his body.

Perhaps too aware for his own good.

*For Now and Always - merpancake

996, 1/1, Merwaine, Proposal, Short and lovely

It was a joke, surely just meant to be a joke, but- suddenly Gwaine could see a future unrolling in front of him like a tapestry.

*Mornings - ShipsUncloaking

320, 1/1, Merwaine, Short and Fluffy

Merlin and Gwaine have been married for a year, and at this point their morning routine is pretty much set in stone.

*to spill soup (down someone else's front) - southfarthing

615, 1/1, Gwen & Merlin, Gwen/Arthur, Fluff and Humor

A visiting noble says something rude. Merlin and Gwen try to out-friend each other.

*the things that you hold - EachPeachPearPlum

1k, 1/1, Merwaine, Gwen/Lancelot/Arthur, Magic Reveal, Fluff

“I’m a sorcerer,” Merlin announces, the second Gwaine closes his bedroom door behind himself (our bedroom, Gwaine would insist, but Merlin’s been hesitating on that, holding back until Gwaine knows all of him, because how can anything be theirs when Merlin is keeping so much from him).

Gwaine stares at him, somewhere between a little bit startled and actually alarmed, and Merlin curses internally. Idiot, he tells himself. You idiot, this wasn’t the plan.

*Little Miracles - Lola_Rose_Robins

3k, 1/1, No Slah, Parent Merlin, Parent Arthur, Queer Platonic Relationship, Family Fuff, Adoption

One of Merlin and Gaius' patients dies in childbirth, leaving behind two young children with nowhere to go. Merlin decides to take them in and pretty soon the entire castle is fully on board.

*A Golden Coin (With Two Sides) - Lilmia_Casand

939, 1/1, Merthur, Fluff

Merlin gets hit by a spell that gives him dragonish tendencies, it's really too bad that Arthur's hair is as golden as Merlin's brand new hoard. Because Merlin might try to hoard Arthur and that would just be- soft, fuffly, adorable. I could go on.

*It's The Little Things - KellyDrake6

1k, 1/1, Merlin & Arthur Pendragon, Gwen, Language of Flowers, Fluff, Hugging

Arthur notices Merlin hasn't smiled in awhile so gives him flowers to cheer him up

*Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend - VikingSong

4k, 1/1, Merlin & Arthur Pendragon, Gwen, Knights of the Round Table, Scar reveal, Magic reveal, Angst and Humor and a Happy Ending

Arthur catches sight of a scar on Merlin’s back which he can’t explain, so he asks each of the members of the Round Table if they’ve seen it, too. They have...but it wasn’t the same scar.

*The resident oddball - Lola_Rose_Robins

4k, 1/1, Aroace Merlin, Aroace Leon, Stimming, Oblivious Arthur, Autistic Merlin, George is a good friend, Arthur knows about Merlin's magic

Merlin's autistic, he's got some sensory issues, his friends help him.

*Cloth Armour Series - a_chilleus

2 works, 6k, No Slash, Autistic Merlin, Hurt/Comfort, Canon Era, Sensory Overload

He brushed his hand over the smooth metal of the freshly polished helmet, smiling at the cold texture, before picking up the breastplate. He carefully wiped the mud off the shoulders, revelling in the soft swish sound of the cloth against the metal, moving slowly simply to draw out the satisfying sound for longer. There was no hurry.

*Scenes From A Summer - vensre

2K, 1/1, Merthur, Autistic Merlin, First Kiss, Gwen, Gaius, Hunith

If Merlin had Asperger Syndrome on top of being magical, his life might be something like this.

*Taking a Chance - cordeliadelayne

2k, 1/1, Lancelot/Merlin, Arthur is a good friend, Light Angst, Getting Together

Merlin doesn't think that having something of his very own is too much to ask, not this once.

*On Shapes and Stories - TyalanganD

2k, 1/1, No Slash, Dyslexia, Light Angst, Humor

The spell book that Gaius gave Merlin upon his arrival in Camelot, is a really precious gift. It would be even more precious if Merlin could fucking read.

*Breathe - kriadydragon

9k, 1/1, Gen, PTSD, Friendship, Torture, Hurt/Comfort

Merlin saves the day - yet again - when he manages to get an injured Arthur and knights to safety. But Merlin's troubles are far from over when an investigation into what had happened to the king and knights leaves him in a bad way, and now it's Arthur and Gwaine's turn to be there for him.

*In Deep and Out of Control - LFB72

5k, 2/2, Gen, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury

Arthur and Merlin are trapped with no means of escape. Merlin is injured and struggles to control himself as a past trauma comes back to haunt him

*The Time Tried our Souls, and Through the Darkness we Overcame - mollrach13

8k, 1/1, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Grief, Healing, Torture, Magic Reveal

A fill for this prompt at kinkme_merlin: Merlin goes through a lot of trauma and has gotten very used to hiding it, moving on (or at least appearing to), and coping silently and without anyone noticing, because most of the time no one can know something happened. One day something traumatic happens to him, which everyone knows about, and everyone is waiting for Merlin to snap, only for him to...not. Arthur is caught between worried and suspicious, and sets about to get to the bottom of this.

*The Burning Truth - FoiblePNoteworthy

2k, 1/1, Gen, Magic Reveal, Drama, Merlin's Backstory

“My Father was a sorcerer,” Merlin said into the silence.

*Darker State of Grace - Nabula5030

6k, 1/1, Merwaine, Gaius & Merlin, Trauma, Serket Stings, PTSD, Scar Reveal, Chronic Pain, Physician Merlin

While on a patrol gone wrong, Gwaine leaps between Merlin and a serket, taking the sting himself.

*Over, Under, Around, and Through to the Heart - anarchycox

4k, 1/1, Merwaine, Arthur Pendragon, Elyan, Gwen, Fluff, Minor Angst, Secret Courtship, Happy Feels

In Ealdor, you court someone by braiding their hair. Gwaine does not know this. Merlin knows Gwaine does not know this. Which means that braiding Gwaine's hair can be just because Merlin wants to, not because he is really courting the man.

He is really courting the man.

*No Badges to Wear - mollrach13

12k, 7/7, Merwaine, Getting Together, Angst and Romance, Scars

“You could do with a good mark. How a man trails around after King Trouble-Magnet for years without a mark on him is an impressive feat.”

Merlin stills under his touch. It’s only for a short moment but Gwaine feels it none the less before Merlin’s body melts back down into the sheets.

“Oh, you know me,” Merlin says with a small shrug. “Just lucky I guess.”

Or; You've all read scar reveal fics. Well, this is an anti-scar reveal. With Merlin/Gwaine because there isn't enough imo.

*A Study in Natural Philosophy - Mad_Mauldin

13k, 1/1, Series 01, Daemons -His Dark Materials, Magic Reveal

It wasn't all that unusual for people to hide their daemons; Merlin, however, seems to be taking it a little far.

*take me up, cast me away - redkay

12k, 1/1, Merthur, Canon Era, Pre-slash, Gwen, Gwaine, SO GOOD

In which Merlin has a selective understanding of the term banishment, Arthur needs to lock his doors, and neither of them are half as good at mending themselves as they were at breaking in the first place.

*hide and seek - southfarthing

11k 2/3, Gen, Aithusa, ANGST, Recovery, Happy Ending, Post Magic Reveal, Good Morgana

In Arthur’s more selfish moments, he catches himself wondering whether it would be better if Merlin were dead. Better being at peace than fearing Arthur in a self-imposed exile.

On the run from Camelot, Merlin is captured and locked away with a dragon. It is years before Arthur can find him and bring him back.

*Dying to Return - StormDancer

19k, 1/1, Merthur, Gwen/Arthur, Gwen/Lancelot, Future Fic, Angsty but so good

When they try to hang him, he floats.

They put him on the pyre at dawn.

He doesn’t burn.

*All the Colours in Disguise - inktomi

3k, 1/1, Gwen/Arthur, BAMF Merlin, Magic Revealed, Humor, Angst

Arthur knows. Arthur knows that Merlin knows that Arthur knows. They don't talk about it. (They don't need to.)

*hide your dragons - southfarthing

6k, 2/2, Gen, Aithusa, Gwen is a good friend, Adorable and fluffy and so good, Humor

'It is clear in the law,' Arthur says. 'No magical creatures allowed in Camelot. Sorry.'

Merlin lifts Aithusa up so Arthur can get a better look.

Arthur blinks. 'I will make an exception because she looks very polite.'

In which Merlin tries to raise a very illegal dragon in a very dragons-aren't-allowed sort of place.

*Do You Have Need of Me? - TheActualAuthor

33k, 5/5, Gen, Assasins, Druids, Spy Merlin, Emrys Reveal, Grief, Angst, Identity Crisis

Merlin is Camelot’s spymaster and must reveal himself as such to Arthur when he becomes king.

*chosen family - safi

3k, 1/1, Hurt Steve Harrington, Sickfic, Joyce Byers

Sometimes the best family is the one that we choose, not the one we're born into.

Steve's parents never make him their priority, so when he's sick, he is left to his own devices. When Joyce finds this out, she treats him like one of her own sons and makes sure he gets the care he deserves.

*hungry heart - babadak

1k, 1/1, Steddie, Fluff and Crack, Eddie Munson Lives

The realization should be scary, but his perception of scary went down the drain after beating a demon with a baseball bat in Jonathan Byers' house in '83. And then being tortured by Russians in '85. So, being gay should be... it should be something bigger, he's well aware. But it isn't.

Or: Steve Harrington likes boys and isn't freaking out about it.

*The Steve Harrington Triptych - ouijaboy

6k, 2 works, Steddie, Disabled Character, Angst with a Happy Ending

Sometimes, he wishes it had been Vecna. At least they could’ve done something about that.

*Ignore my hurts (Silence my cries) - MossTheMarauder

3k, 1/1, No Slah, Head Trauma, Chronic Pain, Vision Impairement, Steve-centric, Child Abuse

It turns out there’s only so much damage a brain can take before something has to give, and when that brain frequently gets treated like a pinball perhaps side effects should have been expected sooner. Having said that, Steve didn’t realise the permanent harm being done until it was too late to stop it; not that he would have if it meant the people he cared about getting hurt.

#far too many fics dear god #bbc sherlock #johnlock #sherlock holmes #sherlock fanfic #bbc merlin #merthur #merwaine #stranger things #steddie #steve harington #amy's fic rec

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kitkatopinions · 1 year

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blake and yang losing 50 spots on the fandometrics 2022 ship list just shows that it’s only relevant because rwby is airing. when rwby finishes the ship is gonna get off the charts so fast 💀

A lot of ships and fandoms will be really popular during the height of the show/franchise, but the fandom will shrink after the end of the show/franchise. Something can blow up, and then grow smaller when the trend is over. This doesn't happen with all of them, some of the really big fandoms stay up and running, never quite dying no matter how long it's been. Like, the ship between Arthur and Merlin in BBC's Merlin went up 7 points, nearly ten years after the end of the show, and Spock and Kirk from Star Trek the Original Series went up fourteen points. You can never tell exactly what's gonna happen, what's gonna remain popular, what's gonna end up getting completely forgotten, etc. Fandoms are both fickle and freaking wild and unpredictable.

A part of me says that once RW/BY ends, a lot of the content creation and shipping and praise towards the show is gonna peter out and the fans are gonna move on to other things. But a part of me thinks that... It might stick it out. Here's why: Fans have put so much effort into this show, whether through rewrite AUs and fleshing out the world building, putting endless work into fanfics paying attention to character development and dynamics between people, or even sacrificing their time to debate and defend RW/BY and come up with explanations for all the BS that the writers do. In my opinion, the fans have put way more work into making something good than the writers have, they have to in order to just make RW/BY make sense. A fandom where the media itself isn't very well put together and needs a lot of work and doesn't have very much in terms of world building and character development and dynamics and story execution where the fans put their love and creative expression and work into it... That has just as much of a chance to last for a long time as a very well made labor-of-love high quality piece of media.

I do think that the fandom will lose a lot of casual fans after it ends and probably will drop in popularity, but there's every chance that it's gonna last at least a little and the bigger fans are just gonna stick around, because... Well, I would. There are very few pieces of media I ever drop completely even long after they're done no matter how disappointing or badly done I thought it was. And Bumble/by is the enforced ship in this fandom, it's the John/lock. It very well may stick around, especially if the writers stop dragging their feet and actually confirm it, because Bumble/by is kind of... The only thing that's keeping RW/BY on the map in my opinion. XD And on top of that, the Bumble/by fans are the ones who have actually made them into anything good or compelling. The fans are the people who write the fics where Blake and Yang actually talk about how Blake left, the fans are the ones who make the fan art showing Blake and Yang actually kissing or going on dates or getting married, the fans are the ones trying to keep the faith in the ship when RT and the writers let Yang be written to refer to Blake as her sister in Arrow/fell. So with how much work the shippers have put into this ship, I'm not sure they're gonna let it die that easily. They're a bit like John/lock fans, I think I could see them feverishly writing AU fics where their faves finally kiss looong after the show ends. XD

#rwde #anti rwby #some minor but not a lot of #anti bumbleby #anti-bumblebee #anti-bmblb #anti-bumblby

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awanderingmuse-ficrec · 1 year

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You were the one to teach me how to use knives (Merlin re-write Series)

Fandom: Merlin BBC

Author: Obsessedwithfanfiction, @turnsoutnoonewasexaggerating

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Violence, Major Character Death

Word Count: 318,538

Pairings: Arwen, Mergana, Merthur, Gwencelot, Freylin

Characters: Merlin, Morgana, Arthur Pendragon, Gwen, Gaius, Uther Pendragon, Lancelot, Leon, Catrina, Aredian, Morgause, Freya, Kilgharrah, Mithian, Mordred, Trickler, George, Hunith, Alvarr, Elyan, Balinor

Tags: Some of these feature more in this part than others, If you're in it for Merlin/Arthur be prepared for a slowburn, None of these pairings are necessarily their endgame, We're still in the early days, Pairings are only ordered by when they first appear in the story, Endgame potential is still v much in the air, And will be updated as we go- no one panic, Fix-It, Season 2 onwards rewrite, If Merlin had told Morgana about magic but not that he had it, Lol I promise it makes sense, What if the Merlin writers were actually capable of continuity and emotional catharsis, Morgana doesn't just suddenly become evil, But neither is everything magically fixed knowing she has a friend in the castle, And everyone is in love with Merlin fight me, Merlin finds out about Balinor slightly earlier than canon, Even I don't know who's going to end up with who, Every character in this show has romantic tension with every other character, I'm just taking the romantic tension where it leads me, One day the title will make sense I promise, This part covers Nightmare Begins-Lady of the Lake Vol 2 but we're still on S2 because I cannot control myself, You defo need to read the first part to read this part don't jump in here, My continuous crusade to bring emotional catharsis to Merlin, Everyone is still in love with Merlin and everyone can still fight me, I have slightly more of a plan about who ends up with who but I can still be persuaded, by myself, Don't try and persuade me yourself lol, Still just taking that romantic tension that is between everyone wherever it leads me, But probably not any time soon, This part covers Sweet Dreams- The Last Dragonlord, Whoo boy here we go again, Season 2 onwards re-write, WE'RE FINALLY ON SEASON 3 BBY, Pls read the other parts first or this will make little sense, What if BBC's Merlin had emotional catharsis?, And consistency?, Wouldn't that be... Beautiful, Everyone is still in love with Merlin, Except Merlin, He is in a bit of a guilt phase, We're still following that tensionnnnn, Probs not in this part, Maybe the Next One, who knows certainly not me, Posts every other Friday atm

You were the one who taught me how to use knives: Vol 1

Merlin chose to save Mordred against the dragon's advice. He should have made the same choice for Morgana. In which Merlin is more than a little fed up of old men and old dragons telling him what to do, and gives Morgana some hope. Maybe it won't change the dark path she's destined to walk down... Or perhaps in doing so, Merlin saves all of Albion from her wrath. Featuring the emotional catharsis and continuity we were denied in canon and a systematic re-writing of what could have been

You were the one who taught me how to use knives: Vol 2

Merlin's trained Morgana in magic against Gaius & the dragon's advice, hasn't killed Mordred, and honestly thought he was doing a pretty good job of moving his destiny along. Then, he lost Freya. Has his faith in Arthur been shaken enough to make the prophecised Albion further away than ever? Featuring Merlin actually reacting to Arthur killing his beloved, Morgana realising that Merlin's role in keeping Arthur alive is even harder than she thought, and Arthur still trying to come to terms with his own opinions on magic- and his father

You were the one who taught me how to use knives: Vol 3

Merlin's lost his first love and his father in the space of a few months, and he's not sure how much more he's willing to let destiny take from him. But with that loss has come the unburdening of some of his secrets, and now with fewer distractions, he can't deny his relationship with Arthur is changing...

Arthur's between a rock and a hard place; between his childhood and what he's learnt as an adult, between being loyal and being just, between his father and Mer- the magical community. With a heavier burden placed on him from the king's more frequent bouts of insanity, he's bound to break under the pressure, but perhaps that's the only way to heal straight...

Morgana's magic's been revealed to everyone, but somehow she's got to find a way back into her position in Camelot's court if she ever wants to make a change. The problem is, Morgana's only ally now is her sister, and she doesn't know how much she can trust her...

Gwen's going to get her answers. No matter what.

#merlinbbc #merthur #mergana #arewn #gwencelot #merlin #morgana #arthur pendragon #series 2 #mer:canon divergence #mer:angst #arthur knows #mer:fixit #mer:fluff #mer:slow burn #wip #100k #mature #fic rec

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claratyler · 1 year

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I actually lost sleep over merlin last night and i still have a lot of thoughts

i never actually watched the show after the first time through when i was 14. And the impressions i was left with this entire time was: merlin is gay; arthur and gwen are SO cute but i still think merthur is even stronger; morgana's downfall makes me depressed because once they were all friends and then she betrays them all; poor merlin trying his hardest to make the parts of destiny he likes happen and the parts he doesnt like NOT happen, he is literally a tragic hero and for all his efforts, for all his sacrifice and the time he spent closeted, arthur still dies and the ending made me sob for a week

But now that i'm rewatching i feel like i remembered it completely wrong and i feel like a lot of people do too. Yes the ending is tragic and it hits as hard as it did because we've always knownit was going to end like this, they've been telling us since season 1!!

But its also tragic because..merlin is such a damn bootlicker. Its tragic to see him stop fighting for his rights and even stop WANTING to stand up for himself. All he cares about is arthur arthur arthur, and i dont just mean this like he's obsessed in a bad way because he loves kissing the monarchy's ass. ITS BECAUSE MERLIN IS 100% ACTUALLY GENUINELY IN LOVE WITH ARTHUR! And arthur loves him a lot too, just not romantically. ANDTHESE TWO ASPECTS ONLY MAKE MERLIN'S SITUATION ALL THE MORE TRAGIC AND PATHETIC.

For some reason I remembered this show as being so sad because For The Power Of Good, merlin had to sacrifice living openly. When really this show is so sad because Merlin willingly submits and renounces his rights, his fire, his rightful desire for respect for himself and his kind all because he is in love with a man who, if he knew the real him, would have him exiled or even executed

And you know what? There's elements of that same Tragedy Of Bootlicking in gwen and gaius as well. Both have been wrongfully accused and nearly executed by uther (gwen's father was ACTUALLY executed by him) and yet they continue to not only not seek revenge (which fair enought, thats your choice) but they continue to serve under him DIRECTLY at his fucking palace. ?!?!? Logic?!?! Logic where did you go?!?

Gaius has been criticized in the show by other sorcerers for betraying their kind for standing by as they were slaughtered and now working directly for uther. Why?!? Why did gaius do this?!? Honestly, i have to believe it was just fear and cowardice and convenience. His other choice was exile or maybe death and he chose submission. MUCH LIKE MERLIN!!

What about gwen? Why does she stay in camelot after her father is murdered? How can she possibly bear it? Because she is in love with a man who she believes will bring about a new era of prosperity and peace and rights (for servants and the lower class in general). MUCH LIKE MERLIN!! (Except he also wants rights for those with magic)

Morgana is the only bitch i respect around here. She is the only one who says "you know what? Fuck this and fuck you, i will not submit just because i have blind faith in the hope that one day things might be a bit different". Oooo and she is the villain of this tale, i see... just because she refuses to bootlick...

#merlin #you know this show is really compelling because im somehow rooting for all the main four even though they're at odds with each other #and are all terrible in one way or another #particularly rooting for morgana though who am i kidding #but im shaking merlin and gwen like AMIGA DATE CUENTA!!#especially merlin #bc at least gwen does become queen. her efforts and patience do sort of pay off #but merin?? he reaps no reward #as for arthur im like..oh. hey. (greets cordially because you're my friend's boyfriend whom im sorta iffy about)#although he doeshave a really big heartand he does love gwen and merlin #and his storyline with gwen is so cute. im not gonna lie #long post #bbc merlin #merlin rewatch

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regulusrules · 1 year

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Hi there! I've read every Hurt/Comfort Merlin fics you recommend. Thank you!! These were gorgeous. Do you have any other recommendations for hurt/comfort 👉👈?

More Hurt/Comfort? Hold my hot chocolate!

It's physically improbable for me to go through all these at this point😂 but nevertheless! of course I'll rec you some!

1. Give Me Your Fear, I'll Give You My Faith by ironfamjam. I think this fic is one of the best H/C I've read recently. Merlin is cursed to lose all his senses while Arthur could only watch. The desperation you see in Arthur trying to save Merlin.. their communication beyond humane limitations.. the sheer understanding emanating between them.. it was all just amazing. So raw and beautiful. It's also written in TSOA writing style, so the emotions are practically flowing. Kudos to the author for slowly robbing us of our own senses while reading this.

2. The Patter of Tiny Feet on Cold Stone Floors by TheAvalonian. Whenever I get rec asks, I always go back and skim the fics to be absolutely sure of what I'm recommending. But in this one, I didn't need to do that. I read this fic nearly four years ago and it still rings in my heart the same way it did when I first read it. Just the perfect semblance of golden age with proper hurt. It truly did hurt. But the comfort in it made it worth the while. Definitely recommend it if you have time for a long one.

3. Winning A Battle by OhFantasyWorld. Oh how I love this fic. It's just so simply Merlin and Arthur. It perfectly captures the essence of their dynamic while Arthur was still an emotionally constipated prince. It also has a mysterious edge to it that makes it even the more interesting. You're left wondering all fic why Arthur is so sad and so drawn into his misery. Until the very end. And the H/C is 🤌. Really recommend.

4. A Story Behind Each by CaptainOzone. I really am w e a k for Scar Reveal fics. I think this as a trope is very underrated in our fandom. The sheer number of times we see Merlin getting hurt on Arthur's behalf is just insane. So much unused material. I really loved this one for how soft it was. And BAMF Merlin was crème de la crème. If it's a scars reveal AND a BAMF fic, then what more could we possibly ask for?

5. In the woods by transcastiel. A translation of MaryBarrens's fic. If you've been following me long enough, you must know by now how much I loathe S5E5 The Disir. Legit, I cannot even write all my thoughts down here from how much I hate it. This episode was all that went wrong. It was the hamartia of the show. Therefore, anyone who just writes two words as a fix-it for this fic, I'll kudos them to eternity. And even though this one is so short, but God it just perfectly captured what SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. This was what we deserved. This and nothing else.

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* Have you read My heart is readily yours? Can't waste an opportunity to circle this one around since I consider it my greatest H/C creation. Or Arthur-in-desperation creation. Or Screaming-in-my-face-worthy creation. I took the hurt to some real extremes, and I don't regret a single thing.

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Thank you for following my recs! Always happy to rec some more💖

#merlin #fic recs #bbc merlin #ao3 #fic #merthur fics #merlin bbc #merthur #merlin fic recs #fic recs list #arthur pendragon #merlin x arthur #merlin fic #fic rec list #king arthur #my heart is readily yours #LJ recs #regulusrules answers #regulusrules recs

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shipcestuous · 1 year

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I'm glad to find your blog, I can finally talk about Uther x Morgana, I think the best Subtext Father-Daughter incest

This will be long but I hope you are ready and I want to see your opinion on the matter

The love-hate that this relationship has is the basis of everything in the end, especially the character of Morgana

Because many misinterpret their relationship, since it is extremely romantic but tragic

It all starts with Morgana telling Arthur "I can't imagine a man loving me so much" when in the end that man was Uther

Uther at the beginning showed very "little" concern for Morgana, you can even see evidence that he wanted to marry her to Arthur (even though they were her brothers).

But that changed little by little and he was the one who became more obsessed (in love) with Morgana.

Since the chapter "to kill a king" where Morgana and he have a great moment, since that day if you pay attention, Uther rarely did anything to Morgana

He tried to be the same with her, but at the end of the day, he always gave in to Morgana and put her as number 1 priority.

-He knew that Morgana freed that bandit magician, but he didn't tell her anything about her, when the druids "kidnapped" her… He mobilized her entire kingdom for her

We have the phrase that Morgana said to Morgause "Uther hates magic more than he loves me" and that is one of the fundamental points, Morgana has no faith in the love that Uther has for her… that's why lives resentful with him, she wants Uther to love her above all things

The tragic thing is that once again Uther showed that he is even willing to sacrifice Arthur for Morgana, again this image from the third season where in their meeting they even used a Romantic Soundrack, says everything about their relationship

We also consider that Uther has already ruled out marrying Morgana to Arthur, but at the same time… he doesn't look for a partner for Morgana, let's consider that she is of marriageable age.

Because he wants to marry Arthur twice, that is, you have to add 2 + 2 to understand why he keeps Morgana for himself

We even see Morgana's anger rise when she discovers that she is the daughter of Uther… but the "Throne" thing is an excuse, because she is an illegitimate child and she is a woman, so even if she was recognized, she wouldn't could inherit

The real reason… is because now she "can't be with Uther" because they are "family", once again their conversation is very meaningful

She tells him that now she found out how important Uther and Arthur are to her…but at the same time she tells Uther that she wants the town of Camelot to know it too…but Uther says that the town already knows.

Look at this part, they both look so in love and I will always say that part of Morgana's plot was the evil side of her fighting with the good side of her and the side of her that was in love with Uther

Her disappointed face when Uther does not want to clarify what relationship they have more than that he is "her guardian"

Now how can we forget how the third season had so many couple moments, that it was ridiculous and many of the critics pointed it out

That's why she left Uther alive and kept him prisoner under the pretext of making him "suffer" she want that, but at the same time she didn't want to kill him.

Because when Uther dies… all she feels is empty void and holds back her tears in front of Agravaine, which once again reveals much of his true feelings.

That was long, but if we add to what the Actress said, I think the definitive subtextual incest of the Merlin series

It was Morgana and Uther, but in a tragic way

What a great write-up of their relationship, thank you so much for doing that and providing so many shippy-as-heck images. Some of those are almost unbelievable. I love your interpretation. I'm not an expert on this show, I don't think I've seen every episode, and it was a long time ago, but I do think you're write that Morgana's feelings that Uther doesn't love her very much drive a lot of her arc. I'm hesitant to say it's what the writers intended (just because it' seems unlikely, not because of the evidence), but you make an excellent case for it being romantic and subtext. I'm happy either way. It's making me itch to rewatch.

I like what Merlin BBC did with Morgana/Uther a lot more than other versions of these characters from the myths.

I need the full context on this quote from Katie McGrath, including from inside her brain. I want to know exactly what she meant.

#asks #lucywestenrasofruity #commentary #noiv #nr #r: fd #bbc merlin #morg* and uther #arthurian legend

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