#merlin crit

[arguablysomaya]

please, elaborate on merlin bbc propaganda and stuff

okay basically:

bbc merlin is a show taking place during a genocide

camelot for 20 years has been genociding and ethnically cleansing everyone who can use magic, including magical creatures. They were all either exiled, fled, live in refugee camps or in hiding, and a great many were executed and slaughtered. Generally speaking, life is inhospitable in camelot for magic users.

And the show makes no attempt to hide this fact, either. We see multiple times over the death and destruction this genocide has wraught, and how radicalized most of the remaining magic population is because of it. For the past few decades, camelot has essentially been doing 2 things: persecuting magic users, and defending itself from vengeful/liberationist magic users

the king (uther) believes that magic users are (stop me if you've heard this one) corruptive, shifty, and evil. he's always paranoid that a magic user will take their revenge on him. and in a way, he's right: there are in fact a lot of magic users eager to kill him, but given the whole Great Purge and literally drowning children thing, you'd thing the show would be a bit more sympathetic to their plight. Nope.

in come merlin and gaius, our two main magic users. merlin is the protagonist, and gaius his benevolent mentor, so the audience is primed to be on their side. only one problem: from bascially the beginning of the series, these two are nothing more than agents for the very state carrying out the genocide. they devote their time to wholeheartedly defending camelot, especially from magic users, something they are rightfully called traitors for. they actively intervene to prolong the lives (and therefore regimes) of both arthur and uther, despite neither king showing any real interest in freeing their people. gauis represents the "diversity" of a genocidaire state; as someone uther only keeps around so long as he shuns any involvement with magic except what helps uther carry put his genocide, gaius hides and rejects every marginalized part of himself that threatens his access to power. even as a member of the oppressed class, he aids and abets the oppressors every step of the way. merlin, as an extremely powerful agic user in hiding, follows suit. the thing is, like so many other minority collaborators, this doesn't actually buy them safety, since they are Other, they still have to walk around on eggshells knowing one wrong move could get their heads chopped off. but this action of defending a regime that would kill you without a second's hesitation is presented as noble and heroic in the show, when in reality it's stupid at best and evil at worst. merlin and gaius might save a token kid from being brutally murdered, but they will never let anyone take action, let alone take action themselves, to proactively stop the brutality.

merlin is literally the most powerful sorcerer alive. if he wanted to, he could create a more fair, more just, better world in a blink. instead, he spends his time pretending to be a hapless servent, messing around with his war criminal friends, and killing any freedom fighter who dares to even look at the prince or king. why? well, he believes in the institutions (and a prophecy that never comes true... lol). ultimately, merlin and gauis hold the same prejudices and stereotypes about magic users that uther does: that they're untrustworthy, dangerous, and that it would be better for everyone if all but themselves (the good ones) just died or left.

and all the people they're defending the empire against... are other oppressed magic users. the VAST majority of antagonists are either magicians or magic sympathizers. even in the context of a genocide, the show takes the firm stance that the architects of genocide (the literal kings who order it to happen) are just flawed human beings who still don't deserve to be killed, while when the people they seek to wipe out fight back, our protagonists will happily mow them down. the show has no problem with killing people,and even killing innocents is only worthy of a fingerwag. it's fighting for liberation that the show makes the real problem. even when uther finally dies the show plays it like something sad, as if anyone is supposed to feel anything but joy that this old tyrant genocidaire finally kicked the bucket after having been saved a million times over from getting his comeuppance. Every magic user that has genuinely good reasons to want to tear down the kingdom are all painted with the "crazy evil person" brush.

another thing is that this show likes to get ~quirky~ with their agents of the state. along with arthur and merlin come a colorful cast of characters like the knights that you can laugh and cry with. the only problem is that despite how lovable these people are, they're still actively carrying out and enforcing a genocide. it's a bit like those tiktoks of IDF soldiers dancing or proposing. i can't feel for these people because despite seeming like relatable people, they're still engaging in something horrific. you can't escape the fact that these people can only exist in the relatively easy capacity that they do because the empire they work for is brutally repressing and eliminating entire cultures.

but the thing is, this strategy actually works. the fandom is often so taken in by fun character interactions and shipping moments that you can often witness people literally look past, or even praise their acts of genocide. these characters are so charming with each other that you can look past how awfully they treat oppressed people. yay! the prevalence of merthur brings up too many idf pinkwashing parallels it's actually insufferable. i had hoped we left oppressor/oppressed person ships behind in the 2010s but guess it's still around

by the time he takes over as king, the "great, kind" arthur is essentially an IDF soldier who only realized that Killing Is Bad Actually when he's got crosshairs on a random kid. now Reformed (TM), he takes the brave stance that he should only kill the angry bad magic users who try to exact their revenge for the whole genocide thing on him, and the peaceful (more often than not, harmless) magic users should accept the merciful counterplan of ethnically cleansing themselves from the region, or continuing to live in refugee camps, but this time with less threat of massacre. in this show, the only acceptable answer to being genocided is to either lay down and die, hide forever, or displace yourself hoping the empire doesn't come and kill you anyway. fighting back, getting revenge, defending oneself, trying to change things: these are all reserved only for the genocidal state.

in other words, bbc merlin is the exact type of genocide obfuscation that most modern genocides engage in. the suffering of oppressed peoples, even innocents, is a footnote. when they suffer, sometimes it's presented as sad, and other times it's presented as deserved. meanwhile, the suffering of the oppressors, no matter how justifyable, is always landmark and deserves our full attention and sympathies, because the thing about the oppressors is that it's always their story.

(the last thing is a common fantasy problem, which is that when you create stories where different classes have actual, material, biological distinctions, it can end up justifying the oppression. in the real world, there is a very limited range of innate human abilities, and people from across the world are largely evenly matched. but in merlin, a sorcerer actually does pose an increased threat to those around them. in terms of allegory... kinda not the best thing to so without any real refutation to the idea that magic corrupts)

so yeah. that's why i don't fuck with this show even though it's enjoyable to watch.

#shut up somaya #bbc merlin #adventures of merlin #bbc arthur #bbc gaius #anti arthur #anti merlin #anti merthur #merlin crit #merlin critical #arthur crit #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #uther pendragon

[tiodolma]

Merlin was the love to Morgana’s hate. The subservience to her tyranny. When he was willing to believe, she lost hope. When he forgave, she sought revenge.

Too much love made him blind. Too much hate made her lose sight. He clings to the future. She stays in the past. He is Prophecy. She is the Seer. She is Destiny. He is the Choice.

While Merlin lost people, she cast hers away. When she loved, they kept her in darkness. When they loved him, he set them on fire.

Morgana is truth to Merlin’s lies. She is the revelation to his secrets, the freedom to his prison, the chasm to his light. He is loyalty. She is defection. For Camelot. For the Old Religion.

In poverty, in wealth, in status and the lack of it, they mingle. In castles, in hovels, in huts, and dugouts, they dance. Death, despair, pride and joy are known to only them.

Morgana is teamwork. Merlin works alone. He is Diplomacy to her Ground troops, both of them wage losing wars on opposite fronts. She makes her plans by the candlelight and torches. He is impulsiveness and quick thought in the dark corners. He is the sleight of hand, the hidden tricks, misdirection. She is performance and presentation. She is counsel at the shining throne. He is an afterthought by the smoldering hearth.

He murders in the shadows, she kills in the sun. She the poison, he the antidote. Life and Death are at their mercy. They are judge, savior and executioner, playing god, magic and human whenever they see fit.

He is hope and healing. She is doom and destruction. He is complicit. She is active. She fights for the people. He fights for one man. She thinks only for herself. He thinks of everyone.

Selfish and Selfless. They are the same, but also not. Fear and Courage. Affection and Spite. Oh how they attract. Oh How they clash. Sparks fly. The destruction lasts.

Bodies hang. Innocents are chained. None are spared in their ego. Only a few are saved.

#adventures of merlin #bbc morgana #bbc merlin #mergana #merlin x morgana #merlin crit #anti merlin #prose mergana #fanwork #thots #prose i guess #their roles keep reversing #we found love in a hopelesss place #im obssessed with this two #btw u can find this on ao3 too

[punkxcalibur]

the logic of bbc merlin is kind of just 

“arthur good. someone is against arthur? they bad.”

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin critical #merlin commentary #arthur pendragon #anti arthur #merlin crit

[wumiings]

You know, it sure is interesting how Arthur never throws anything harder than a pillow or a generic insult at Merlin when Gwen is in the room. As far as I can remember, she’s never seen her best friend being actually struck or threatened by her romantic interest — almost as if Arthur/the writers are aware that abuse isn’t cute and Gwen would be measurably less interested in a man who treated her best friend like that 🤔

#bbc merlin #gwen pendragon #merwen #arthur crit

[merlevum]

#critical role #crit role #critical role fanart #crit role fanart #caleb widogast #caleb #merlin draws #I'm half tempted to turn this into a charm

[diana-bookfairchild]

People who say 'if Merlin were a girl, Merthur would totally be a thing!'. . .

Uh. . . You're wrong.

If Merlin was a girl, it's doubtful if 'she' would get the servant's position to the prince, and if 'she' did, there would be riots every thirty seconds about the way Arthur threw goblets at and shoved 'her' around and the way 'she' literally didn't have ANYTHING in 'her' life not about Arthur, and people screaming 'Abuse' and 'Unhealthy and Toxic!!'.

I'll leave it to you to decide if and why Male!Merlin should and doesn't get the same.

Also, if the main reason for shipping Merthur is 'they're destined!! Two sides of the same coin! Merlin would do anything for Arthur!! How can that not be romantic??', it's not just a complete lack of creativity, but also chock full of amatonormativity. Merlin having PLATONIC love for Arthur would also very much be enough to do all that he did for him. Let me remind you this is the guy who was perfectly willing to commit forgery, identity fraud and treason for Lancelot within a day of meeting him.

We have never ONCE seen Merlin try to throw a punch at Arthur after 1x01 or even toss one of the things thrown at him back at Arthur. Why the hell is that?? If this violence so normal for the friendship/romantic relationship these two share, why can't they show it on an equal basis at least once?

And the so oft quoted scene where Arthur apparently tells Gwen he'd leave her behind to go to a farm with Merlin. That ... is so not what happened. Arthur is confessing the dream he holds so close to himself to the girl he loves, and when Gwen laughs, questioning how someone like him would work hard, THEN Arthur says he'd take Merlin too - to do all the hard work while he lounged around. Then Gwen laughs and teases him back - because that is one thing they share in common, which was what brought them together, that both of their best friend is Merlin. Even when she later amusedly comments that maybe they can spend more time together when Arthur goes off to become a farmer, he just looks wistful, definitely not startled the way he would've if he were really having romantic fantasies about his manservant and best friend.

I'm not saying there aren't plenty good reasons to ship Merthur. Through everything, the two of them do genuinely love one another. And there is a sad general lack of queer relations in canon, which means fanon is the way to go.

But I AM saying that Merlin BBC ≠ Merthur.

It's perfectly fine to ship other ships, to see those relationships as the most important ones and best (to me), not bother about romantic relationships at all!!

#merlin bbc #merlin #platonic relationships #anti merthur #merthur friendship #merthur crit #don't get me wrong #i do think they could have a good romantic relationship if it were done better #i've certainly read my fair share of merthur fanfic #but the way that fans talk about how merthur is INEVITABLE and UNDENIABLE #is just so stupid #platonic relationships for the win!! #platonic merthur

[ramblingmerlin]

im a strong hater of the "arthur knows merlin has magic and doesn't let merlin know" fanfic trope. like?? that's so cruel actually, sorry. especially when in the trope arthur isn't upset at him for having magic but pretends he doesn't know anyway. that's just cruel on arthurs behalf- to let merlin be terrified that arthur will kill him for having magic only for arthur to know and accept it and yet?? not let merlin know?? i just don't get it soz

#LIKE WHY #idk what to tag this with honestly #uh #merlin #merlin fanfic crit #i guess

[karamazovim]

Okay but literally what if Merlin hadn’t told Arthur that Morgause was lying in ‘Sins of the Father’ (2x08) and he killed Uther, setting it up so that the primary antagonists of the back half of the show were Camelot’s nobility pushing back at a rule founded on regicide and the legalization of magic??

Bonus points if Arthur feels conflicted after the act since y’know he literally ordered the slaughter of a camp of druids 2 eps prior and no one shakes off a lifetime of prejudice and violence that quickly, but since he is now publicly Allied With Magic (since the genocide of magical people is his sole justification for patricide) Merlin and Morgana have very real leverage with which to pressure him into actually enforcing the protections he has nominally agreed to (by which I mean not just going ‘hey magic is okay now’ while turning a blind eye to lynchings bc it’s technically not his knights that are doing it).

There would still be plenty of plot/conflict to work with, so it’s not like it would wrap up the narrative too quickly, but it wouldn’t be so fucking,, Like That y’know?? Also it would mean getting into the politics of all the ppl whom the narrative skirts around (ex. would Gwaine still join the knights? He obv hates nobles and adores Merlin but he also spouts some significant anti-magic rhetoric so?? And what about Gwen, who never seems particularly hostile to magic but does co-rule a kingdom that continues to persecute sorcerers for several years— what would she do? What would Elyan?)

Other benefits of this AU are that the shift is before Freya, Balinor, and Lancelot’s deaths, so any of them have a shot at making it out alive. Plus potential for that sweet sweet Merlin-Mordred friendship (I still think Kara should show up and go off about how monarchy is still shit actually and the life or death of an entire race of people shouldn’t be dependent on there being a Nice Guy In Charge but maybe she doesn’t get fucking executed this time)

#ik ‘how it shoulda went’ isn’t rlly lit crit but listennn #it would be fun #bbc merlin #2x08 #fic idea #cw genocide

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

Day 474

a super serious tier ranking list of every support/semi support servant based solely off of how useful they are in buffing arjuna archer specifically

#i probably forgot someone. who care (me but let’s pretend) #hasarjunadoneanythingwrong #tbh idk how proto merin works either but allegedly she’s arts Merlin which would mean: crit stars if true #my post #anyway apparently jinako/nightingale/arjuna is a legit way to clear full strength kiara so #you all know what I’m doing whne that unlocks for free #i uh. don’t have nightingale tho. hm

[afklancelot]

on one hand, having popess johanna be another AOE arts np user sucks when all the new servants in 2023 so far are all AOE, but on the other, this is clearly in response to the fgo userbase prioritize loop farming with AOE NPs, so we did kinda bring is onto ourselves

#fgo #fate grand order #also she is more geared towards support (specifically arts crit) so she does have that #i probs wont roll her tho cuz i got totally not merlin (lady avalon) #wouldve been nice if she was AOE supports tho

[epic-sorcerer]

I jsut feel like the conversation surrounding Arthur’s abiltiy or inability to drsss himself…if he’s just spoiled or whatever, is dominated by people who not onyl have that abiltiy but alos don’t care enough to even think of considering those of us who do not/have not have that ability.

#ok to rb #bbc merlin #Merlin bbc #Merlin fandom crit #I’ll add on later if someoen asks but I’m low on energy and don’t wanna write an essay if I don’t have to

[arguablysomaya]

Exposing merlin bbc as a genocide monarchist propaganda thAt it actually is such a taboo topic that gets one blacklisted and dogpiled in the general fandom. You are brave for doing so. Thank you for voicing out these concerns tbh. Kudos to you.

yeah and it's honestly sad because simply trying to ignore the messenges present in media doesn't make them any less present or harmful. people shouldn't be afraid of consuming, enjoying, or breaking down problematic media, because content consumption is not activism. it's always best to acknowledge the real harmful parts of what you're consuming, otherwise communities formed around these things become hostile and reproduce the same marginalizations that went unaddressed in the canon :/

#shut up somaya #bbc merlin #merlin critical #adventures of merlin #anti merlin #merlin crit

[tiodolma]

Gaius and Merlin were the most powerful class traitors of magic who were complicit in the actions of their genocidal bigot bosses just because they believe in one big dumb prophecy.

Gaius taught Merlin to distrust other magic users, to not help them, to hide himself and just devote himself to the crown.

Tbf to merlin he was just 16-18 when all these just started. He was too young. He wasn’t ready. He was sent to the most dangerous place for people like him. He was impressionable. His heart was too good. He was too moldable.

He took “I will not fall into anger and rage like Morgana” too far to the point where he couldn’t even find his voice against Arthur who was still relentlessly chasing down and killing his people anymore. He put all his eggs into the biggest bigot in their universe because the magic world told him that the guy was the hottest sht. Merlin was so broken down, so brainwashed, so indoctrinated that he still continued to forgive even after years of getting dismissed, insulted, derided and abused and only shown rare bouts of kindness by his supposed best friend in the universe.

Arthur didn’t deserve any of that devotion. As king he still persecuted and treated magic folk like shit. He blamed them for their own oppression, never accepted his father’s actions as wrong, showed no remorse in arresting and killing their women and children (shut up he only made promises to a frkn ghost), refused to learn more about their ways despite having the biggest knowledge base in albion, continued to imprisoned them for existing, calling them the most disgusting slurs, using their magic techniques recklessly for himself and still called magic “evil” when they don’t work.....and then played victim when he got called out by the oppressed magic folk.

It’s such a shame that Merlin hoped and believed in his potential after everything. Merlin could never truly relate to magic folk after all. The only people left alive who truly loved him made sure of that. His mother raised him to fear and hide himself. His mentor taught him how to be the judge and be the arbiter of life and death not only over the kingdom but also the magic folk. He was overworked and pressured to the point that he had no free time for himself. He was supposed to be the strongest warlock but he only had enough time to receive education from the dude who hasnt practiced sorcery for 20 years when he should have beenseeking out other magic users and learning from them. His life was constantly dictated by the big magic institutions who never give him the tools to actually start their liberation, only empty promises.

Merlin’s sense of self died gradually throughout the span of the whole series every time he lost a loved one and every time Gaius/Kilgharrah/Hunith asked him to forget himself and serve the crown. The kid who wanted to be seen and recognized for his talent, kindness and potential turned into a biggest self-sacrificing royalist who truly believed that his life was valued lesser than a king.

It’s a monarchist story. It’s a divine right of kings story. It’s a fascist story. It’s an anti-radicalism story, it’s a defender-of-the-status-quo story.

It is NOT a story of acceptance, of positive change, of equality, of democracy.

I thought we learned from Diogenes for fuck’s sake.

#adventures of merlin #bbc merlin #bbc arthur #bbc gaius #anti arthur #bbc hunith #anti merthur #merlin crit #merlin critical #arthur crit #doomed hero merlin #there i said it #hot takes #thots #aom is democracy bait

[just-your-average-supervillain]

He's finally home.

I blew so much fucking SQ on rolling him, but by god is he gonna be more than worth it alongside Himiko.

Plus, he's gonna be eating well in the Saber Wars event, like reintroducing wolves into ecosystems without enough predators.

#fate grand order #fate/grand order #fgo #super orion #I'VE FINALLY GOT HIM #now i can perform the dreaded orion double himiko team #and i just need to roll merlin to finish gathering the staple buster crit servants #although i will be quite stingy with my sq and summoning tickets in the months to come since i do still want morgan and oberon

[rare-prism-s]

holmes solo aint going too well 😔

#goetia stop critting istg >:(( #fyi i have already beat this memorial quest (w double merlin abby) but i Really wanna solo it with holmes #😔 #rareprism txt

[merlevum]

#caleb widogast #frumpkin #cr2 #critical role fanart #critrole fanart #critical role #crit role #merlin draws #this was supposed to just be warm up sketch but umm opps XD