#anyways arthur has absolutely disagreed with people he trusts and stood his ground when he thinks it’s right. he has a mind of his own.

[sneakyboymerlin]

Begging you all to watch the show without the m•rthur lens, because all sense of who these characters even are has been lost here.

#bbc merlin #merlin meta #tag meta #my meta #fandom critical #arthur critical #woobify much? #you will all just see whatever you wanna see huh. even if it is this disturbing. even if it is this dehumanizing. and all of it romanticized #also arthur doesn’t trust too much. or else maybe he’d legalize magic 🤪 his trust clearly doesn’t extend to the people he’s oppressing #arthur’s problem is nepotism! his problem is that he always trusts what is most comfortable for him to believe! #and most of the time he only looks as far as he is affected on a personal level! #he cares if someone /shows/ him the effects but it’s as gwen says… he shouldn’t need someone to hold his hand through being a decent person. #he’s not a child. and as prince he is supposed to have an even greater responsibility in this area. #anyways arthur has absolutely disagreed with people he trusts and stood his ground when he thinks it’s right. he has a mind of his own. #if he believed that his actions were truly wrong then he simply wouldn’t do them. we have seen this in action. #and this isn’t even touching on the merlin side of things. merlin did not cause arthur’s death. #you can scream it all you want but arthur’s bigotry is his alone. he chooses to lean into it again and again. arthur always has a choice. #it’s not that merlin didn’t ‘do enough’ to ‘fix’ him. wiping clean any accountability for arthur and putting it all on merlin’s shoulders #simply because merlin is one of those oppressed people and so ‘knows better’ (arthur already knows that magic isn’t inherently harmful- #-he chooses to believe that it corrupts people because it’s an easier guilt-free explanation) #…blaming merlin for arthur’s preference towards anti-magic sentiment is sick. arthur and merlin are their own individual people. #merlin is loyal to arthur because he sees his potential for the goodness that will unite albion and give his people a future. #arthur is his only hope. he’s battling tooth and nail with all these prophecies. ffs. #you cannot understand this series or these characters or their relationship dynamics in any way that matters #without first recognizing them as individuals and as people. people with different values motives approaches etc. #also the fact merlin is arthur’s servant and ‘happy’ to deal with his classism is inextricable from this #tw eye sore #tw hypnosis #tw unreality #tw delusion bait