#post-resurrection

[viria]

healing ✨muggle✨ way

#drarry #harry potter #draco malfoy #viria art #my art #I have more so I will post more and I will try to resurrect this blog hopefully..and not forget to post my new things here too

[kiisaes]

big day for annoying people (me)

#posting this a day early (from my time zone) bc i will probably be too busy tomorrow to make anything .. #need this boy to eat a full buffet after literally dying and resurrecting and collecting all that trauma in the span of like 20 minutes #pretend that i am a doting mother right now #bnha #mha #bakugou katsuki #fan art #becki draws stuff n stuff #rendered

[ash-and-starlight]

i have no particular ideas but i would die if you ever did griddlehark <3

not rlly griddlehark but u know what i do have some misc bone lesbians thingies laying around

#id in alt text #idk why they never felt good enough to post but whatever throwing them at the void now djhdh #also i firmly believe nobody in the whole resurrected world deserves a mullet more than gideon #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #ianthe tridentarius #the locked tomb #my art

[maireyart]

"But I..." starts Obito. "Zip it," Kakashi wills Obito's mouth to shut. "Now go." I love how the fandom has gotten excited about Kakashi edo-tenseing Obito! ❤️ While everybody's discussing the possible sick angst of it (and a bit of fun, too), my brain has supplied some outright crack..... I'm incorrigible xD Thank you @malifiquemakes @hairybeardtongue @cool-thymus and @badninken for the new brainrot 🤭

#he just needs his fine literature back #normal ppl: hang out with each other #kakashi: resurrects a zombie #white-haired obito #obito #uchiha obito #kakashi #hatake kakashi #rokudaime #post-canon #edo tensei obito #kakaobi #obikaka #kkob #obkk #if you squint #crack #comedy #narutoart #comic

[sunderwight]

Bingqiu roleswap where disciple Shen Yuan knows he's gay, and figures out that he has a big huge crush on his handsome Shizun, but also concludes nearly at once that he's not going to be drawing Luo Binghe's eye any time soon. Firstly, Luo Binghe is notoriously straight. Secondly, even if he weren't, he wouldn't go for his scrawny untalented nerd of a disciple! Shen Yuan's not bad looking, not before or after transmigrating, but he's neither a beautiful nor a hot manly man, and he assumes if Luo Binghe were into dudes he'd be into the same kinds of twunks that Shen Yuan likes. Guys on his own level, etc etc.

Plus Luo Binghe hated the original disciple Shen, and only started to warm up to the transmigrated version after Shen Yuan got injured in front of him trying to stop the other disciples on the peak from killing a small animal. For some reason, Luo Binghe brought Shen Yuan medicine. He got even nicer after Shen Yuan distracted the skinner demon by trying to convince it to take his skin instead of Luo Binghe's, and then again when Shen Yuan successfully fought off a demon invader -- though initially when Luo Binghe volunteered him for that job, he thought it was an assassination attempt. His heart was in his throat when Luo Binghe nearly took a poisoned blow for him, but luckily he reacted more quickly and got hit by the thorns instead. His heavenly demon blood took care of the poison, and he managed to convince everyone that he narrowly avoided getting cut at all.

Shen Yuan's careful not to read anything into it when Luo Binghe finds out about his, erm, uncomfortable dormitory situation and moves him into the side room, or when he completely messes up trying to make dinner and Luo Binghe takes over cooking and bans him from the kitchen (he swears he's not actually that bad at cooking, he just never had to use a kitchen without a microwave or an electric hot plate before...)

After all, it's not like Luo Binghe is cooking for him, he's just making food he likes and letting Shen Yuan eat it too! Because he's nice! He's way nicer than the book gave him credit for being, see, clearly Shen Yuan was correct in signing up for his defense squad, "top ten worst villains of all time" his ass that poll was nonsense...

Unfortunately, though, the plot's still gotta plot. Shen Yuan is heartbroken when the Immortal Alliance Conference rolls around and his shizun stabs him and throws him down into the Endless Abyss. Heartbroken, but not surprised. After all, it was always going to go this way, wasn't it?

But at least, now that it's done, he has some agency in how he reacts to it. He's changed the story enough that he doesn't need to go get revenge. Maybe Luo Binghe's still the villain of his story, maybe that was inevitable, but some heroes let the villains get away. Don't they? It's all part of that noble, breaking the cycle of abuse type stuff. He can be that kind of hero. He can let it go. As long as he avoids Luo Binghe altogether, it should be fine, right? It's not like he's obligated to turn people into human sticks. He asked the system, he's definitely not!

Technically he's not even required to conquer the demon realms. He just has to get out of the Abyss and the be sufficiently cool and/or tragic. Conquest is just one means of doing that, and not even Shen Yuan's preferred, since he doesn't exactly want to rule over anybody. Going around the demon realms beating up some jackasses and rescuing some damsels in distress and becoming sworn brothers with Shang Qinghua, one of the current demon kings, is suitable. He definitely doesn't want to marry any of the damsels he encounters (thank fuck the system lets him off the hook for that!)

But eventually he has to go back to the human world. Not only is it mandated by the system, but he also misses living there. The demonic realms are in many ways better than expected, plus a lot of the monsters are really cool, but he misses the weather and plants and the people he's more accustomed to being around.

He misses Qing Jing Peak, if he's being honest with himself. Shizun's cooking and the bamboo forest and the crisp mountain breezes, the comforts of home.

Not that he can actually go back there in specific. Of course not. If he did that, Luo Binghe would try to kill him, or else the system would try and make him kill Luo Binghe. Bad ideas all around. No, he can't go back to Qing Jing Peak, but he can go find someplace nicer than the demon realms at least. He just has to keep a low profile, which shouldn't be hard since the original goods did that even while actively scheming to kill his former master!

Except.

Everywhere he goes, suddenly Luo Binghe is also there?!

Good thing Shen Yuan thought to take a page out of the book of Luo Binghe's actual love interest, Liu Mingyan, and start wearing a veil. He just didn't want any randos who might have seen him at the Immortal Alliance Conference or on any of the other missions his shizun sent him on to recognize him. But one minute he's investigating a strange case in Jinlan City, and the next the streets are full of Huan Hua cultivators (Shen Yuan has no intention of joining them, that's the path the original took to getting revenge! He doesn't want revenge!), and then Luo Binghe and Sect Leader MBJ and Peak Lord SHL show up, and SY is ducking down alleys and hiding behind columns, just trying to stay out of the way until the lockdown on Jinlan lifts and he can leave.

Except...

Luo Binghe really isn't acting like himself?

He looks like he hasn't been eating or sleeping well. There are dark circles around his eyes, and something almost melancholy in his countenance. And he's dressed entirely in white, none of the usual Qing Jing greens and blues anywhere to be seen. Of even greater concern, he's being reckless. Shen Yuan can't stop himself from rushing out when he sees his former shizun get infected by a sower demon.

Luckily, it's been some years since the last time they saw one another. Shen Yuan's gained a few inches in height, so he's almost at eye-level with his old master now, and though he's still more slender than bulky he's picked up some totally new styles from training the demon realms. He doesn't move the same way he used to. With that, plus the veil, it's enough for him to quickly swallow back his words as he grabs Luo Binghe and quickly administers a cure for the sower infection.

Well, he has one of course. He wouldn't need it himself, heavenly demon blood and all, but his time running around playing hero in the demon realms meant he rescued a lot of humans from such fates. Which is hard to do if you don't have a cure to their afflictions, but between him and Shang Qinghua, sourcing such things was almost easy.

Luo Binghe looks at him like he's just seen a ghost. The other Cang Qiong sect members are alarmed by SY suddenly accosting one of their own and of course find him suspicious, so he runs away right after, and then he has to lose Sha Hualing's pursuit in the city.

But what else could he do? He manages to evade the system's attempts to railroad him into meeting Gongyi Xiao, avoids the rest of the Cang Qiong crowd, and drops some of the cure through the current Qian Cao peak lord's window to get the incident sorted out. Then he flees and puts a good amount of distance between himself, Jinlan City, and every righteous sect he can think of.

The only problem is that after this point, Luo Binghe is everywhere.

Any time Shen Yuan stays in one place for longer than a few days, Qing Jing disciples start turning up. Any time he takes a job hunting some cool-sounding monster or pursuing some interesting tome of knowledge, the better to satisfy the system, it seems like Luo Binghe has selected and gone after the exact same target! Which is especially annoying because back when SY was a disciple, Luo Binghe was always assigning him to do this stuff. Since when does his chronic homebody master have an interesting in six-tailed scorpion lemurs or ancient spiritual kilns?

What's weirder, though, are the rumors.

It seems like any time SY stops at some well-populated place and asks for the latest gossip, he has to hear about how the Qing Jing peak lord lost his beloved disciple during the Immortal Alliance Conference, and mourned like a widow, and now wanders the earth in search of solace for his grief. Seeking something, possibly even the ghost of his dear disciple.

What nonsense! Luo Binghe threw SY into the Abyss himself. He had to do it, it was the plot! And also his obligation as a righteous cultivator, confronted with a "dangerous" half-demon. Does it sting? Yes it stings! That's why SY wouldn't just forget it! Despite logically knowing it's pointless, is there some part of him that wishes his master would have chosen differently? That thinks he should have known that no matter what kind of power Shen Yuan had, he would never use it to hurt people recklessly, or harm innocents, or especially not harm... well. It's pointless, his blood condemned him, and if there is some part of Luo Binghe which regrets what happened, it's doubtless just that he unwittingly harbored a monster for so long.

Which is fine and Shen Yuan would leave it at that, if the guy would just let him!

But no. Instead he has to deal with Luo Binghe turning up and asking him questions, trying to get him to talk (SY has no hope of disguising his voice, if he says anything he's not even sure it won't crack as he comes perilously close to tears instead, so he just stays silent), and then asking for his name, asking if he's mute, asking about his background, his sect, his kin. Is his a righteous cultivator? Where did he get that sword? (NOT Xin Mo, thanks, he used that thing once and then tossed it back into the Abyss before the portal finished closing behind him -- he knows a poisoned chalice when he sees one, although knowing the plot twist about that sword from the novel sure helped.) Where did he learn those forms? Is he... does he have a safe place to go home to? Someone to tend his injuries? Make sure he eats his meals?

SY, of course, stays silent. But it's difficult. Not only because Luo Binghe asks, but because he still looks... bad. Sunken, sorrowful, desperate almost. Shen Yuan can't figure out if he knows or not. Maybe he's unsure, maybe he's looking for SY to give him a sign, so that he can figure him out and then flip a switch and try to finish the job he started.

That can't happen. If they fight, SY will win, and he doesn't want to hurt Luo Binghe.

But even if Luo Binghe's not a heavenly demon, he is a highly accomplished cultivator, and it seems he's got his own breaking points to reach. Eventually he corners SY and gets a hand on his veil, and for a moment SY is sure he's going to rip it off, see his face, and confront him all "I knew it was you, you twisted evil demon, you won't escape justice a second time" and he feels a deep, icy terror close around his lungs--

Luo Binghe lets go of the veil before he can lift it.

But then something even worse happens. Because Shen Yuan's handsome, peerless, noble master breaks down. He falls to his knees, begging forgiveness, sobbing, clutching at his head like he's being driven to madness.

It all spills out of him, then. How he pushed his own dearest disciple into the Abyss, which obviously SY already knew, but also how he was apparently qi-deviating the whole time, and his senses could not differentiate between one kind of demonic "threat" and another. How he realized what he'd done only after he regained his senses hours later, and rushed back to the place where the tear to the Abyss had opened, but could not find a way in after the one he lost. How he had betrayed and thrown away the only person who cared about him, and couldn't even explain that he hadn't intended to. How he would accept anything, any punishment, hatred, penance, or revenge, if only he could see his disciple's face once more.

SY is stunned.

Apparently, Luo Binghe hadn't rejected him for his demon blood?

Not only that, but beforehand, he seemed to have valued Shen Yuan a lot more than Shen Yuan would have credited.

Is it a trick? Is he lying? SY would have guessed so, would have assumed that Luo Binghe's plan was to lull him into complacency only to turn on him once he finally had confirmation. But somehow, he just... doesn't think this is an insincere display. His old master is too cool for this stuff! He has too much dignity to just throw it away on a scheme! There are other ways to get what he wants.

Even if it is a lie, Shen Yuan is tired of running. He's the hero. He won't actually lose, and if it comes to it, it's still in his hands to decide if he wants to spare Luo Binghe or not (he does, of course he does, even if this whole spiel is an act). Plus he's got a backup plant body in one of Shang Qinghua's greenhouses if all goes to shit.

He takes the veil off himself.

Luo Binghe, teary-eyed, stares at him as if his face is the most beautiful he's ever seen.

Shen Yuan nearly puts the veil back on. His cheeks heat up. Dear Shizun, aren't you an immortal master? A noble peak lord? Isn't it your calling to vanquish demons? Get up off the dirty ground right this minute! Where did your dignity go? Shen Yuan did not spend all those nights doing the laundry to watch his teacher dirty his knees for no good reason!

There's a quaver in Luo Binghe's voice as he points out that Shen Yuan was terrible at doing laundry. Luo Binghe had to redo it the day after, all the time.

Shen Yuan chides at him that he should have made one of the other disciples do it then.

Luo Binghe just laughs, and stays on the ground, until finally Shen Yuan has to physically pull him up. Muttering about how he's being ridiculous, what's he crying for, why's he been moping so much, doesn't he know that handsome face should never look so bereft? Then he realizes what he's saying and shuts his mouth, but Luo Binghe just looks happy for the first time in years. Since the Abyss. How is it possible that SY, who actually had to slog through that awful place, can still smile more than Luo Binghe, who didn't?

They're standing so close. Holding on to one another. Almost as if... as if the scene's tone is... well...

Oh what the hell!

Shen Yuan closes the last little bit of distance between them, and kisses Luo Binghe.

#svsss #scum villain's self saving system #bingqiu #long post #of course the plot probably interferes further then #turns out that while luo binghe was desperately trying to get sy back he accidentally woke up sy's father #who for this au let's say is sj instead of tlj #sj does NOT approve of this match and also hates all the righteous cultivators (and demons... and everyone mostly...) #but he is also busy trying to resurrect yqy or something #kidnaps sy like well I missed the chance to raise you and actually that's probably for the best but now I need your blood #for Reasons #luo binghe is not a fan of this turn of events #reverse holy mausoleum arc when SY is mostly unconscious except to sometimes throw out advice and LBH is dodging traps and villains #the pining-over-the-dead-shizun arc is probably AFTER the holy mausoleum and lbh self-destructs to rescue sy from sj's plans #sy refuses to accept this outcome he decided luo binghe was NOT to die he didn't need a redemption arc he was FINE sy DECIDED #but luckily they're in the holy mausoleum so sy grabs a resurrection artifact of some kind #has to spend a few years restoring and maintaining lbh's corpse before he can get the to actually work but it's fine #he's fine everything's fine he's GOING to get lbh back lbh is NOT ALLOWED TO DIE #luckily unhinged sy results in way less collateral damage than unhinged lbh #so mostly he just fights off mbj's attempts to honorably recover his shidi's body and offer him a proper burial #while camping out in the holy mausoleum and arguing with sj's detached body parts #y'know normal healthy behavior

[magnetothemagnificent]

Today sure was a day for ruining Magneto's character huh....

First, Resurrection of Magneto depicted him without his tattoo, and then X Men 97 had him say that the Holocaust was about religion and that Jews oppressed him.

I hate it here.

#magneto posting #magneto #max eisenhardt #erik lehnsherr #resurrection of magneto #x men 97 #marvel #antisemitism #sighhhhh

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Parallel Lines and Brothers.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #lan wangji #lan xichen #jin zixuan #Does anyone else think about the tragedy of the parallel lines? Of characters who are parallel lines? #Of running the same course as someone. Of echoing each other in perfect synchronicity. #It's more than being a foil. It's about being on the same path and being so near to each other. #and yet parallel lines never intersect. They cannot meet each other despite their existence being tied to another. #I think the brothers tragedy is just as much of a tragedy of parallel lines as is pre-resurrection wangxian. #Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian spend so much time running side by side and yet - they cant close this gap between them. #Even if their relationship never recovers - they are forever tied together through their past. The good and bad and ugly. #All the things that are left unsaid between them. All the love and sacrifices they made for each other that are never shared. Parallel line #I firmly believe any post-canon material that would have them be indifferent towards each other is just...really doing them a disservice. #And dear god the Lan brothers. They certainly love each other! Its a far fonder fraternal relationship than jiangxian (/platonic) #They fool you by having you think they have a good read on each other. Lan Xichen certainly wingmans + advocates for lwj! #But lets not forget - Lan Xichen by the end is in the reverse situation and headspace as Lan Wangji by the end of this story. #Lan Wangji is more free and open than he has ever been. He's in love. He's married. He and wwx are intersecting lines. #& LXC who grew up with and lived the same path as LWJ - who even is said to resemble him visually - his parallel line - shuts himself away #Despite all the love LWJ has for his brother I don't think he ever manages to reach him.

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

ok rereading nona the ninth and i can't believe this never occurred to me but. the kids know about resurrection beasts. they know varun the eater by name.

but like. of course they do. this is what people are constantly being "resettled" over, isn't it? it's not just the war. the lyctors move people off populated planets to flip them. of fucking course beautiful ruby knows what a resurrection beast is. even if he doesn't understand it, even if he doesn't know it by that name, of course he would know what it is. of course these people have names for them.

i can't believe i never considered this before. the children of the nine houses are raised not even knowing about them. harrow, with all her appetite for learning, with an entire library of nasty, forbidden little books at her disposal, had never even heard of them until she became a lyctor. but fucking kevin knows what a resurrection beast is. he knows their names, because he has to.

john has spent ten thousand years keeping them off his precious houses, and he did that by leading them straight into the path of populated planets. this isn't even subtext. we knew this. this isn't new information. i had just never really thought about it in those terms before.

jesus christ, john.

#my post #nona the ninth #nona's gang #the locked tomb #tlt #resurrection beasts

[purpleshadow-star]

Grover was really out here finding and collecting Big Three kids like they were Pokémon. He really said, "gotta catch em all," and he did.

#technically he was sent to get thalia so he didnt find her on his own... but it was still his job to get her to camp so it still counts #also he technically found the golden fleece that brought her back so... technically he completed his mission ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #good job grover #grover underwood #this is a grover appreciation post #thalia grace #percy jackson #nico di angelo #bianca di angelo #big three #big three kids #he also found the guy who would try to resurrect kronos and one of the future seven demigods #he found all the important people #rick riordan #riordanverse #percy jackon and the olympians

[lockedtombbrainworms]

I think the funniest transgender headcanon for TLT is pre-lyctorhood Pyrrha Dve. She put so much goddamn effort into transitioning and then one day she woke up in Gideon the First's body like "aw dude what the FUCK? I have to do all that shit AGAIN??"

#she actually transitioned post-resurrection but Trans Ally John Gaius just uses she/her pronouns to refer to her in his story #the locked tomb #pyrrha dve #it is of course left as an exercise for the reader to determine whether or not she still had a massive cock post-transition

[shimmershy]

Just two siblings back from the dead, hanging out, totally not using this opportunity to torment one another for the rest of time! <3

Chara Week Day 4: Flowers

[Image Description: A digital drawing of Chara and Flowey from Undertale. They're on the Surface, with grass and trees and mountains stretching out behind them. Chara has golden flowers clustered around their left eye and speckled in their hair and on their hands. They're kneeling on the ground and smiling wide, holding Flowey's flower pot in one arm. Their other hand is outstretched in front of them and holding a camera. Flowey has a red bow wrapped around his stem and stickers in the shape of hearts, stars, and smiley faces decorating his pot. He looks annoyed as Chara leans their face in close to his to take a photo. /End ID]

#chara week #chara week 2023 #safeutdr #undertale #chara dreemurr #my art #flowey #undertale flowey #undertale chara #chara undertale #flowey undertale #chara #there were a lot of things I could have done with the flowers prompt but I wanted to do something more wholesome than my last post #plus this was the first thing that came to mind. flowey is a flower. and I usually draw Chara with flowers all over them post-pacifist so #it's like the golden flowers became a part of both of them after they got resurrected. ✨symbolism ✨ idk. #the stickers on Flowey's pot are courtesy of Frisk. they like decorating everything with stickers #also. sorry for giving every character I draw black nail polish. it will happen again. </3 #i'm not super satisfied with the background of this one because I was pretty lazy with it and it doesn't mesh well with the foreground #buuuuut I'm fine with it because I don't want to spend more time fixing it. and it's like. fine. just not as good as it COULD be #also I'm new to writing image descriptions so if there's anything I could adjust/describe better let me know #I just thought I should try adding one when I can #🌼

[kittykatninja321]

When people say “Jason wouldn’t smoke because he died of smoke inhalation” I respectfully have to disagree, because if there’s one thing Jason is going to do he’s going to take aspects of his trauma and use them for himself and push on them like a bruise (he takes the name red hood, he uses explosives and guns, the crowbars were lame but they weren’t out of character), so I don’t think that would stop him from smoking. The way I see it I think Jason would be one of those people who occasionally smokes a cigarette when things are Particularly Bad, even though they swear they stopped smoking, like a maladaptive coping mechanism basically

#Guy who has extremely detailed headcanons on Jason Todd’s smoking habits for no reason (me) #I think he would’ve stopped during his Robin training and would’ve been really proud of himself at the time #and then he picks it up again after resurrection. Maladaptive coping mechanism go brrr #Jason Todd #dc #smoking is basically controlled smoke inhalation and if there’s anything Jason loves it’s taking aspects of his trauma and controlling #them for his own needs #When I look at post-fear toxin lobotomy Jason I’m like somebody please buy that man a pack he needs something to take edge off 🙈

[daeyumi]

Hero 💠💎🗡️

[Linktober 2022 Day 17: Link]

#zelda #zelda au #legend of zelda #zelda fanart #linktober #linktober 2022 #zelda oc #au link #zelda botw #botw #BotW au #breath of the wild #link #loz au #daeyumi art #OKAY so this is my first post here featuring any of my AU charas!! #i will post more about story & charas here later but for now i’ll just say my initial inspiration for the au #which is one of my theories about botw’s link from seeing the intro of him waking up in the shrine of resurrection pre-release of BotW #i’ve also been thinking a lot about what to name my au so i’m gonna tag a couple options on here just in case #though i’ll prob end up going with cycle of the stars cuz it seems fitting #cycle of the stars au #genesis au #cycle of the stars #tbh im just hoping my tags will be good enough for organization so that all my au stuff can be found in one place later

[kitocrystal]

I'm tired.

#kitos art #fanart #dc #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #robin #people forget that jason and tim never had any positive connections until much later AFTER tim became robin #at the start tim didn't give that much of a frick for jason's robin #while jason would ofc only know of tim's existence after his resurrection #people thinking jason is tim's favorite makes my chest ache with pain #because they removed a special connection that tim had with dick #some fanon stuff are good #but this one #i dont agree with #and continue to deny it exists #this fanon sucks #tags were edited mere minutes after this was posted #bc i wrote it on half a braincell #jason was never tim's favorite #fight me on that bc i will die on this hill

[completely-legit]

There's a surprising lack of discussion surrounding the fact that it's mentioned in several places that Gale was an archmage prior to the events of BG3, and a pretty talented one at that, naturally capable of all the schools of magic

By normal 5E rules, Archmages are at LEAST lvl 18 - which means he already had access to (and presumably mastery of) 9th lvl spells. He still seems to have Astral Projection down, at least, heh.

True Polymorph (9th lvl), when concentrated upon for the full duration of an hour becomes permanent*. No checks are needed on a willing creature. Traditionally beyond that, polymorph only doesn't work when used against shapechangers specifically - which vampires are tagged as (mist and bats etc). However vampire SPAWN are not. This important distinction is further supported by the fact in game normal polymorph works on Astarion to be turned into a sheep per usual.

Tldr, there's nothing preventing Astarion from being true polymorphed back into a normal elf who looks the same, but would once again be alive and able to frolick in the sun. Ironically this happy ending remains available to him only if he does not ascend, as True Polymorph does not work on True Vampires.

*I believe he will still be susceptible to dispel magic. But Larian's rightfully afraid of implementing that spell anyway. And nothing would prevent True Polymorph from being re-upped again later.

#this post was brought to you by the 'why doesnt gale use his scroll of true resurrection to help kharlach' gang #astarion #gale of waterdeep #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bloodweave

[oswinsdolma]

the bbc merlin writers actually went so hard when they decided "actually no, magic isn't some grotesque perversion of the natural order, it is nature itself" because like. it would have been so easy to write merlin's internal conflict as one between the inherent evil of magic and the good of humanity, to put arthur in the right for his persecution and to turn merlin into some kind of doomed hero within himself, but no. because in the end, magic had very little to do with anything, it was just something that was there. morgana didn't turn evil because she was magic, she did because she was scared and angry and manipulated. merlin doesn't wait for arthur because of the promise of a golden age, at least not really; he does it because he loves arthur and wants him back. in the disiir episode, if it had only ever been about restoring magic to camelot, merlin should have sacrificed arthur in a heartbeat for the promise of magic's legalisation. hell, even mordred didn't kill arthur because of his views on magic, he did so because arthur took away the person he loved. like yeah it's a fantasy show and magic is a massive part of that world, but in the end it was a story about people, and all the hopes and dreams within it are deeply and tragically human, and that's what makes it a good story, what keeps us going apeshit over it even ten years after it ended. in a way, there are two shows in the same way there are two merlins: one about magic, "emrys" and the other about friendship, and like merlin, the audience has to choose which one we should care about most. and every time, we make the same choice as he did: we, however foolishly, choose humanity. we sob at the tragic trajectory and scream as we see destiny gathering traction, but isn't that the point of tragedy?? if we followed logic over emotion, tragedy would never take place, but equally, if we followed logic over emotion, the idea of tragedy itself would become lost to obselescebce. the whole point of the show is to tell us that "no, we can't define things as one or the other, because anything with meaning exists as something more complex, because to give something meaning is to perceive it with a human gaze". magic may be a force of nature, but good and evil are ideas perpetuated by our innate, incurable humanity, and it is here we have a choice. we can't choose our destinies but we can choose from which direction to embrace it, and that's a surprisingly radical, beautiful thing.

#i really am mass posting shit these days huh #terrible midnight analysis #← time to resurrect this iconic tag #bbc merlin #merlin #merlin meta #idek how much of this makes sense but whatever