#character: arthur pendragon

[goneprophet]

something about how arthur pendragon is represented by two colors: red and gold. his hair is golden his skin is tan his crown made of gold. how merlin says his magic is all for arthur and his eyes turn golden too. how arthur's flag and heart are red, how his love is fervent. how merlin is always either wearing a pendragon red neckerchief or tunic, being enveloped by it, him, both literally and figuratively.

#pairing: merthur #character: arthur pendragon #character: merlin #media: bbc merlin #notes: 1k

[noodles-and-tea]

A scene from this fic by @katherynefromphilly !!

#I have been reading it over the last few days and it’s just been an absolute delight #I love the overall plot and how well it connects to the original show #and I can literally just see the whole thing in my brain the writing is loVELY!! #and the characters are so wonderful and it’s just a great time :))) #my art #bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #merlin emrys #merthur

[whataboutthreateninganass]

never getting over the fact that merlin is THE MOST POWERFUL SORCERER OF ALL TIME, and simply does not give a single fuck.

bro just uses his magic to clean his room, prank his boyfriend, and occasionally (begrudgingly) save camelot from its own stupidity.

the fact he could do ANYTHING with his level of power. and yet he chooses arthur, every time, over every other possibility.

bbc never admitted it, but that’s pure love right there folks.

#this is why merlin is the best character to ever have existed #bbc merlin #merlin #merthur #arthur pendragon #merlin bbc

[emrys-merlin]

Merlin is the FATHER of savagery:

“Look, I’ve told you you’re an ass. I just didn’t realize you were a royal one.”

"How long have you been training to be a prat, my lord"

Arthur: “We’re supposed to be hunting. It requires speed, strength, and an agile mind!” Merlin: "So you're able to get by on two of the three then?"

Uther: “If this were a time of war, I’d have you flogged.” Merlin: “But since it’s not we’ll let it go just this once?”

"One day you'll transform into a beautiful prince. But magic's outlawed in Camelot so that'll probably never happen."                                      

Merlin: "She likes you?" Gaius: nods head Merlin:"Oh, that is disgusting." "Imagine...imagine if she kissed you! UGH"

Arthur: "Take some advice from someone who knows about women-” Merlin: “If such a person existed maybe I would”

Arthur: "You have the mind of a child" Merlin: "Yet I'm still more intelligent than you" 

"I take it you haven't come all this way JUST TO SMASH MY FAVORITE POT"

Leon: "Whats the job, exactly?" Merlin: "To kill Arthur" Leon: "Driving you mad isn't he?" Merlin: "Not for much longer!"

Gaius: “Sometimes two heads are better than one.” Merlin: “Yes but not when one of them is yours.” 

"PERCIVAL, that is a sword, it DOES hurt"

"Will it be hot? Will it be cold? Will it be wet? Will it be dry?" 

Merlin: "I wouldn't do that if I were you because if you do that....you'll never learn of my plan." Arthur: "... What plan?" Merlin: "EXACTLY! That's why you can't run me through!"

"Don't think too hard, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself"

"Are you threatening me with a SPOON?"

Morgana: "You’re just my imagination" Merlin: "That’s right. I’m not really here. Just pretend i’m not really here!"

"The belt is one hole shy of perfection!"

"Do you want us to help you?.... Or do you want to do this alOoOone" 

......

...

No other character will be as iconic as Merlin :)

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #arthur pendragon #morgana pendragon #morgana #merlin emrys #gaius #merthur #the best main character #sassy merlin

[khruschevshoe]

There's just something very specific about homoerotic character-enveloping friendships from around 2010 where they're semi-aware that gay people exist but queerbaiting isn't quite a thing yet sp their relationship consumes the narrative and changes them both irrevocably forever and they end in tragedy but the ending is JUST open enough for the fic writers to wriggle into that just makes me go fucking FERAL

#yes this is about trobed and merthur #trobed #merthur #merlin emrys #merlin x arthur #troy x abed #abed nadir #troy barnes #arthur pendragon #geothermal escapism #the diamond of the day #these two ships fundamentally altered my brain chemistry #I'll just be doing something else and randomly think about them #i honest to god don't think they'd be as poweful without the tragedy #i want to read every fix it fic specifically because of the unfinished tragic nature of their endings #because of the ways these characters fundamentally alter each other's lives so they can't exist without each other #platonic romantic who cares it's queer baby #two sides of the same coin

[arthurpendragonssassydaggers]

Nothing drives me more crazy then seeing people take away skills from Arthur he would have to know and giving them to Merlin to teach him.

Like wdym he Arthur can’t read?!?! He would be one of the only people that actually knew how. I’ve seen fics where Merlin tells Arthur about stars and while I kinda of see it Arthur would already know a good deal about them it’s how he has to navigate.

seen someone write that he didn’t know what to say to a group of people because Merlin usually told him and I burst into tears. Because did you watch the show in a different language with your eyes close wdym Arthur can’t speak infront of people he does it all the time😭

Or the one where MERLIN teaches Arthur to dance.Merlin can barely walk and he’s going to teach Arthur the prince who even if he wasn’t the best dancer would still do better then Merlin with two left feet to dance . And we have seen how serious Arthur takes footwork that man would be able to dance be serious.

Arthur is not a sim stop having Merlin give him all his skills and personality traits thank you😁

#Do people think Arthur was sitting around doing nothing all day before merlin #He is still the prince with or without Merlin he would have skills #needed to get this off my chest #bbc merlin #arthur pendragon #merthur #(and yes I know at the end of the day their just fictional characters but idc)

[bibuck-saved-me]

it’s a selfish thought and arthur knows it because merlin has spent so much time hiding a vital part of his existence, his very being, all because of arthur. so he presses it down into the deepest recesses of himself and focuses on doing everything he can to support merlin, to give merlin the world he deserves. a world where he is free.

but sometimes, when he’s alone in his room surrounded by his endless responsibilities, he will think to himself, i am nothing.

merlin and the old religion hold him as this once and future king, but no matter what they say, he can’t understand why they think any of this is about him. it was never him. everything he’d done, every accomplishment and fight he’d won had never been his to claim. he was a fraud. he was a lonely king with nothing to his name beyond the blood on his hands, the blood staining his every crevice.

he isn’t the once and future king. he doesn’t deserve any of the praise. he is the moon, a piece of rock in the sky that shines only because of the sun. without the sun, the moon is worthless. without the sun, no one would have ever looked at the moon twice.

arthur had never been proud of his mistakes and his inaction when it came to his father’s slaughter, but he had been proud of the things he had done to keep his kingdom and his people safe and healthy and happy. he has fought and fought and fought only to discover he had never even landed a punch. every knockout, every victory he had held up to hide the ugly nothingness of his true, empty self was never his to hold. with the discovery of merlin’s magic, any worthiness he thought he’d earned had slipped through his fingers like sand through a sieve.

merlin is beautiful and powerful. merlin is a god amongst men, a gift given to this world, given to arthur, and for what?

this prophecy for arthur was always about merlin. he carried the weight, he fought and fought and fought and he won, merlin was the one who had carried this kingdom on his back until they reached the safety of the golden era of the current day.

it’s a selfish thought, to be thinking of himself in relation to merlin’s magic when merlin has suffered every single day because of arthur. and yet, in those moments, he can’t help but wonder why he was born at all, why he was named savior of a group of people who would’ve never died if only he had stayed unmade, a whisper of nothingness in his mother’s womb.

his first breath caused a massacre, a genocide, and yet he was given an angel and a title and a prophecy of greatness he could never actually fulfill.

he would never tell merlin about these thoughts he had. merlin would end up feeling guilty somehow, would carry the weight of arthur’s worthlessness even more by taking on the deserved revulsion arthur had for himself.

no, he couldn’t tell merlin about this. merlin would tell him he was wrong, would try to talk him up and fix it. would use that endless kindness to tell arthur endless stories about his own importance. merlin would shine his sunshine on arthur until arthur forgot he was just a lump of rock. he wouldn’t rest until arthur loved himself, until arthur took all the credit for merlin’s own accomplishments again.

no, he would keep this to himself. he would give merlin the attention and love he deserves. this story isn’t actually about arthur pendragon. it never was.

#idk what this is #anyway #sorry #me? projecting? never #also to clarify uh this is obviously not how i feel personally about arthur!! #i love that man i just wanted to explore how the insecurities we see him have in the show would look post magic reveal #merlin #arthur pendragon #bbc merlin #bbc arthur #merthur #it’s hinted at more than anything though #character study #character introspection #might delete later #ficlet #angst

[earlgodwin]

SOPHIA and ARTHUR PENDRAGON — MERLIN (2008-2012) || 'The gates of Avalon'

#they look so pretty!!! #she should've been a main character idc!!! #imagine wasting HER with just being a monster of the week type of guest?? okay #sophia merlin #arthur pendragon #arthurpendragonedit #merlinedit #bbcmerlinedit #bradleyjamesedit #bradley james #holliday grainger #hollidaygraingeredit #ughmerlin #merlingifs #perioddramaedit #tvedit #arthurpendragonns #dailytvfilmgifs #userlenna #by jen

[stevenslittleshop]

Listen, I love going “the people of Camelot must’ve been so oblivious” just as much as the next person

But think about it

You’re living in a time of constant crisis. People are getting accused of magic, most of those people barely even know what magic looks like. People are killed, every day, just because they were accused of something they couldn’t disprove.

And in comes this young lad. This awfully cheery little man who takes his punishments with a smile and is slowly turning the future king into an actual person instead of some little spoiled twat. And everyone loves him. It’s the most joyous Camelot has been since the queen died.

And yes, maybe his eyes glow a little sometimes, and maybe things move on their own when he’s around, but he’s a good person and hes not hurting anyone, quite the opposite in fact.

So at a time where Merlin could’ve been killed if you said the wrong thing to the wrong person, nobody was gonna say a damn word because they did not want to see this boy, practically the one who kept the place running, the light of Camelot, burned at the stake.

They weren’t oblivious. They knew. They just refused to believe it, because if they did, then the great purge would most likely restart and Camelot could fall.

#arthur x merlin #bbc merlin #merlin #merlin x arthur #merthur #bbc merthur #bbcm #merlin headcanon #merlin headcanons #merlin characters #knights of camelot #camelot #people of Camelot #comfort character #comfort show #the great purge merlin #merlin warlock #uther pendragon #fuck uther #bbc uther #king uther #Shane’s merlin

[kateis-cakeis]

Do you ever think about how the scene where Arthur catches Merlin with a dress in S2Ep9, and the scenes where Arthur is like "girl??????" in S5Ep8

that it's like just a lil bit suggested that Arthur thinks Merlin is both into men and crossdresses (which does that suggest some kind of queer culture in Camelot where gay men are known to do drag?? who knows) and not only thinks that, but accepts it too.

Like Arthur who is presented with the fact that Merlin might wear dresses in his spare times just shrugs and says what a man does in his spare time is up to him, and that the colour suits him.

He literally could have made any joke about Merlin being a girl like he often does when he teases Merlin about being a coward (which we know is just teasing) but instead he just accepts it, and still calls Merlin a man.

Meanwhile in The Hollow Queen, well, I'll let the lines speak for themselves:

GUINEVERE: He’s not in danger. He’s seeing a girl.

ARTHUR: Merlin?

GUINEVERE: Gaius, I’m sorry, but there is no reason to worry.

ARTHUR: Except for the poor girl.

---

ARTHUR: Oh, so you can go and visit that girl again.

MERLIN: What?

ARTHUR: Girl.

MERLIN: Don't have one.

ARTHUR: That's not what Guinevere tells me. So, why don't you tell us all about her?

MERLIN: Right.

ARTHUR: And why you're walking with a limp.

---

The first lines could be interpreted that Arthur doesn't think Merlin is good with women, but paired with the lines from the 2nd scene where Arthur asks him about it.... it definitely feels like Arthur is saying to worry for the girl because he thinks Merlin isn't attracted to women.

I mean the sheer disbelief alone when he says "Merlin?" like it's so out of realm of possibility. (I mean it could also be suggested that Arthur doesn't think anyone would be attracted to Merlin, but with the 2nd scene it definitely doesn't seem so.)

Especially the way he says "girl" with sarcasm dropping from his tone, like literally "girrrl" is how he says it. Like he's basically calling out Merlin, or saying that he knows that the girl Gwen told him about is actually a man.

Which I believe is why the "and why you're walking with a limp" has Arthur so, well,

like this. I think he truly believes that Merlin is lying sjhdfghsdfg Like he's thinking in that little brain of his that Merlin got pegged by a man and just isn't admitting to it.

And he's definitely accusing Merlin of sneaking away to have sex, you know, during an important time and all.

Basically, with these like 3 scenes in the show, I'd say it really comes off as Arthur accepting Merlin as gay and just waiting for the day where Merlin tells him the truth.

And that's really funny to me.

#bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #Arthur disbelieving Merlin going to see a girl is genuinely hilarious no matter how you see it #like this man who has known Merlin for years - Merlin whose only romance was in secret over a few days #like he just doesnt believe it and whether it's because he thinks Merlin is into men and only men or that the man just doesnt care for it #either is funny because like Arthur knows so little in reality dhfghfg but hey in this fandom we know the truth #and that boy is bi bi bi just like his king :PPPP #of course any references to gay as an identity are just references because obviously it would not be used by the characters sdhfhsdg #this post was inspired by me writing about the dress scene in an arthur returns fic where Merlin is like ???? at Arthur being accepting #of queerness

[chaoticallymuse]

Quote that reminds me of : Merlin

"If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to."

- Margaret Atwood

#the fact all the destinies were self fulfilling propechies just- #doomed by the narrative #boy tries to save the future. boy accidentally ends it #cursed fr #merlin bbc #merlin #arthur pendragon #morgana #Mordred #merthur #aesthetic #web weaving #quotes #character study

[goneprophet]

merlin; beloved, belated.

#pairing: merthur #character: merlin #character: arthur pendragon #media: bbc merlin

[camelotsheart]

gods. when arthur asks gwen to look at him before he leaves on the journey to sacrifice himself to the veil because that's the memory i will take with me. like as a warrior he's always living with the knowledge that death could come to him at any moment and he's decided that the one thing he wishes at death is to die with remembrance of the people that made his life worth living. and then in his actual deathbed he deliberately looks at merlin and rubs his head and smiles as long as he could until he falls unconscious

like!!! its just!!! this man defines his life by trying to be of value to the people he loves and actively makes his death be defined by it too

#like i cannot stand him!!!!! i cannot stand this part of his character study i cannot!!!!!! #bbc merlin #merwenthur #arthur pendragon #arwen #merthur #merlin #gwen

[whataboutthreateninganass]

this promotional image of Bradley literally haunts my dreams:

PLEASEEEE 😭😭

why is he standing like that !!

#pov my sleep paralysis demon #poor Bradley #if someone asks me what Arthur’s energy is like #I will show them this exact photo #I’m just imagining the direction they gave him to take this photo #bradley your character is a hardened warrior who has trained in combat his whole life #so for this photo please stand there as if you have never held a sword before #and look as clueless and as lost as possible please #bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #merthur #merlin bbc #bradley james

[emrys-merlin]

I just love Merlin loving magic, those moments are the best ones for me. The dragon out of fire, the butterflies, the horse out of smoke, the flying lights...it's just so Merlin, and it makes your heart ache how badly he just wants to make pretty things

It's so great to see how happy magic makes him, and how badly he wants Arthur to feel that too (and not only Arthur)

It's what's so good about his character, he stays optimistic and good, despite all this hate and murder.  Even in season 5, yes. The fact that when he gets his magic back he could do whatever he wants, and he chooses to create butterflies

This particular scene makes me sad. Look at him

Merlin doesn’t have a whole lot of opportunity to use his magic for fun really, you can see how badly Merlin wants to be free. It's something tragically beautiful.

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #merthur #arthur pendragon #merlin emrys #merlin various seasons #the best main character #the most tragic character #you can see the difference between him and Morgana #or between him and Morgause/Nimueh

[dorcasmeadoweswife]

literally every blonde male character is either the biggest golden retriever ever or the villain that tried to tear the whole world apart. there's no in-between.

#sometimes the same character goes from one to the other #percy jackson #luke castellan #will solace #jason grace #magnus chase #the shadowhunter chronicles #jace herondale #kit herondale #jonathan morgenstern #peter pettigrew #noah czerny #tedros of camelot #nick nelson #arthur pendragon #nikolai lantsov #and so many more