conneyes

[conneyes]

SWANN ARLAUD + LETTERBOXD REVIEWS Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

[conneyes]

The finale to Merlin is devastating, but you know what kills me? The tiny glimpse the episode gives us as to the banter we could’ve gotten if we had an earlier magic reveal:

Arthur is dying. And yet he gets this incredibly fond look on his face when remembering the day they first met.

Arthur is dying. And yet he looks at Merlin, the person who’s only just revealed his decade long lie regarding this thing that Arthur’s been raised to hate, and he jokes that Merlin cheated during their first meeting.

Arthur is dying. And he doesn’t really care that Merlin has magic. Only that he lied to him.

Can you imagine all the other moments of banter we could have had as Arthur found out all the other things Merlin did? How he didn’t really know how to juggle and that Arthur had a donkey voice for a bit because Merlin allowed it?

#merthur

[conneyes]

Let him go insane from his longing

Wait, don't let Merlin escape from Morgana so soon! Let Arthur attach himself to that bloody scrap of Merlin's jacket. Let Arthur keep it in his pocket every day, then pull it out each night to hold it and whisper "I will find you. I promise." Let him lose hope and not be the same person again. Let him turn to magic.

#merthur

[conneyes]

everyone is watching gaius confess. then you have arthur only watching merlin from way across the room. I mean gaius confessing to sorcery is probably the last thing anyone was expecting. the most loyal person to uther just casually confessing to being a sorcerer for 20 years. morgana is having a full blown panic attack in the corner. uther is sentencing gaius to death.

and then you have arthur still freaking watching merlin like??? and he catches the subtle change in merlin's expression from across the room and drags him away before merlin even has the chance to jump on adrian. before adrian has the chance to call the guards

LOOK HOW FAR AWAY THEY ARE FROM EACH OTHER HOW ARE THEY LIKE THIS

LOOK AT ARTHUR IN THE BACKGROUND HIS EYES NEVER LEAVE MERLIN

*head in my hands* they're going to kill me

#they will never let me move on #merthur

[conneyes]

He would

Merlin: you really think Arthur likes me?

Gwen: *thinking of how she found Arthur and the knights playing a customized card game in which all the characters were Merlins in different outfits and the jackpot was a scrapbook full of Merlin drawings that they had collected from the towns people. And Arthur was stressing out over it because he had the worst cards.*

Gwen: no

#merthur

[conneyes]

everyone is watching gaius confess. then you have arthur only watching merlin from way across the room. I mean gaius confessing to sorcery is probably the last thing anyone was expecting. the most loyal person to uther just casually confessing to being a sorcerer for 20 years. morgana is having a full blown panic attack in the corner. uther is sentencing gaius to death.

and then you have arthur still freaking watching merlin like??? and he catches the subtle change in merlin's expression from across the room and drags him away before merlin even has the chance to jump on adrian. before adrian has the chance to call the guards

LOOK HOW FAR AWAY THEY ARE FROM EACH OTHER HOW ARE THEY LIKE THIS

LOOK AT ARTHUR IN THE BACKGROUND HIS EYES NEVER LEAVE MERLIN

*head in my hands* they're going to kill me

#i hate them #please let me move on #merthur

[conneyes]

"#something about wanting to die by your lover's hands is just so sweet"

Can ANYONE be normal in this fandom ??

Merlin gets enchanted to want to kill Arthur (like the one episode) but this time Arthur knows it. But he doesn't know Merlin is enchanted, he thinks Merlin just had enough and now wants to kill him.

Arthur also doesn't really care. I mean, he would've liked to live a little longer but he doesn't care if he dies as long as it's by Merlin.

Merlin also fails horribly every time despite the fact that Arthur isn't stopping him. Arthur's not actively putting himself in harms way but if he just stands there and pretends he doesn't notice as Merlin strikes him with a sword, well no one has to know.

Cue some dramatic reveal that Merlin is trying to assassinate Arthur and Arthur has to pretend that he cares in front of everyone.

Then Merlin gets unenchanted and he's freaking out cause he remembers everything including Arthur looking at him multiple times as he very obviously was trying to kill him.

[conneyes]

“You would choose Merlin over your sovereign?” Frustration was present in his tone but it gave no indication of what Arthur wanted the answer to be.

So, instead, Leon told the King the truth.

“No, sire. We would choose Merlin because you are our sovereign.” Arthur was taken aback at that. “If we allowed any harm to befall Merlin, even by your own hand, you would never forgive us, Arthur.”

At once, Arthur knew Leon was right.

#merthur

[conneyes]

We could have had everything..

all merlin had to do to circumvent the prophecy of arthur’s death was take mordred in and turn him into a little arthur fanboy. it’s a win-win situation. merlin gets to gush about his man crush to this random ten year old and mordred gets a bunch of cool knights to love him and raise him. he’d hear about his destiny to kill arthur from someone and simply go “why the actual fuck would i do that.”

[conneyes]

Merlin losing his marbles is what I live for

AU where Gaius being convicted and sentenced to death is Merlin's breaking point.

He doesn't confront Uther about it because there's no point, but he does tell Arthur that he can't let Gaius die. If Gaius goes, so does Merlin. Arthur tries to apologize; the matter is out of his hands, he's only the prince, etc.

But on the day of the pyre burning, Gaius doesn't burn. He vanishes right out of his cell, guards in a coma, they're so knocked out, and Camelot wakes up to the pyre burning but they're confused because the burning wasn't supposed to happen until noon.

Arthur wakes up to see a crown on his table, waiting for him.

Uther Pendragon is nowhere to be found. Nor is Merlin.

[conneyes]

Every king eventually brings out their own money. The Pendragon crest is naturally on one side, but the King's face normally goes on the other.

And Arthur does that, or intends to. But when he talks to the guy who is meant to get his profile, Arthur can't help but ask what kind of other symbols he could use. At first, he asks if he could put other people on it, then he figures that it would probably be too controversial if he put a face on the coin that isn't his own.

Then he asks if it could be a bird, like his mother's sigil. Originally, he wants to honor her, but then Merlin walks in to gather his clothes and it suddenly strikes him that Merlin has done so much for him, and never gotten any reward.

And Arthur doesn't mean his servant work, Merlin is rubbish at that. But what about his council? His advice? The fact that Merlin always speaks his mind, yet always has Arthur's and Camelot's best interest at heart. The fact that Merlin always goes out of his way to fight alongside Arthur, despite not being a knight.

In an emotional outburst, (after Merlin left again) Arthur orders the coin guy to make the other side of his coin a Merlin.

Right after that, he realizes what he's done and drowns his embarrassment in wine.

A couple weeks later, the money is created and put out into the kingdom. And everyone immediately connects the dots. The symbol is only on the golden one.

The day Merlin finds out is a normal day at first. Only that everyone is staring holes into his head and whispers about him. Merlin has been send to get Arthur's new shirts and hands the tailor a golden coin. He hands it to him, then stops and stares at the crest.

....

Merlin: Arthur???? What the fuck is this?

Arthur: *sweats* your salary?

#merthur

[conneyes]

Merlin often has to order stuff for Arthur at the market or open and pay the tab at the tavern...

Of course, that's his job. As it used to be the Job of the manservants before him. But of course, with all the manservants shifting so much, the sellers wrote down their names and who they were coming for, so they'd know which manservant had to pick up what item.

It was usually marked down as Pendragon - Morris, Pendragon - George, Pendragon- Colin etc . Naturally, with Merlin, it became Pendragon - Merlin.

Once it became clear that Merlin was going to stay, people got more slack with the names. It turned to: Pendragon Merlin, Prince Merlin (as Merlin usually bought for Arthur and not the King), later it turned to King Merlin. Some only wrote him down as Merlin, but most thought it was quite funny.

After a while, Merlin found out and joined the fun. He starts signing stuff as King Merlin, or Merlin Pendragon.

It takes a while, but one day, royal guests hear about it and are shocked that Arthur was married to his manservant.

Then, finally, Arthur hears about it. As allegations that he's secretely married to Merlin...

And the worst part is, everything Merlin signed with King Merlin or Merlin Pendragon has been taken seriously so far. Those were legitimate signatures! And they count nearly everyhwhere! At the market, at the tavern, even during mail exchange and when people hand Merlin the laws that Arthur is meant to sign.

The entire Kingdom knows Merlin under those names. So much, that most of them started believing it true.

So, when Arthur tries to clear things up, his people think he's going through a divorce. Secretly, Arthur is pining through it all while Merlin can't contain his laughter.

#merthur

[conneyes]

This is actually insane... This is the gayest shit i've seen. Arthur FOUGHT 3 WHLE DUDES JUST TO MAKE SHOW OFF TO MERLIN

so I read someone talking about a merlin deleted scene where merlin compliments the knights and arthur gets pissy and goes fight them to prove that he is better, and I thought it was an exaggeration but it ISNT AT ALL

scene includes:

Arthur says that Percival is strong but not agile, he isn’t the whole package. Merlin agrees and says that GWAINE is the whole package

Arthur goes off to fight Gwaine, who takes his shirt and gives it to Percival??? akjdjda

(we were robbed of shirtless gwaine with a sword)

Arthur then goes fight Elyan, wins, and goes brag to merlin saying, and I quote, “Elyan has got concentration, strength, the whole package, and still I win! What do you have to say about that?” while being dangerously close to him

They had to take it out because it’s the gayest scene I’ve ever watched in my whole fucking life they wouldn’t be able to beat the merthur allegations after it

EDIT: the video is in this post

#merthur

[conneyes]

What if I was suicidal

Echoes

#STAB ME IT WOULD HURT LESS #merthur

[conneyes]

I have a hc that Arthur just picks Merlin up like a sack of flour whenever and everyone just gets used to it. I mean not a soul mentioned Arthur dragging Merlin out of the throne room in The Witch Finder. I like to imagine that that's just how they are. Merlin starts to pick a fight in the market with a neighboring kingdoms knights? Arthur has an easy solution. Throw that servant over your shoulder and walk away. Is Merlin trying to join a fight with no weapons to protect himself? As soon as your open and the other knights can handle it grab him bridle style and haul ass. Works every time. When this first started Merlin would try and fight back and squirm away but it was no use so he just goes with it now.

#obssessed with potato sack merlin #merthur

[conneyes]

We deserved this in canon

stealing moments

#merthur

[conneyes]

I was minding my own goddamn business only to suddenly remember this scene exists

I don't know how to explain it, but it's addressing something so visceral in me.

Like. Did anyone ever expand on how Arthur literally didn't even blink before getting up to save Merlin from the onslaught he would have faced for his outrage? He just got up immediately and took Merlin away, held and handled his anger, and even gave him the respite (visiting Gaius) that he needed.

Wtf. Like boy no you're not supposed to be this fucking in sync with your manservant's reactions. But it's as if he predicted it even, because he saw in Merlin the exact same reaction he wanted to do, but had the tact not to because he grew up with boundaries. So he goes on to save his boy instead.

Sick of how much these two loved each other

#i am spiraling #merthur