#would he grow to old age and die - leaving Merlin immortal and alone knowing that they succeed in something or other

[kateis-cakeis]

God fuck sorry Im on a Series 5 brainrot but do you ever consider this prophecy:

"Let loose the hounds of war. Let the dread fire of the Last Priestess rain down from angry skies, for brother will slaughter brother, for friend will murder friend, as the great horn sounds a cold dawn at Camlann. The prophets do not lie. There, Arthur will meet his end, upon that mighty plain."

Because because, Finna says this about it:

"For hundreds of years the Catha have guarded their ancient knowledge. But now the time has come to pass it on to you, Emrys. For only you can carry their hopes into the great battle itself."

Finna says throughout S5Ep11 that the great battle is nearing. So it is common knowledge amongst the Catha that Camlann will happen.

Merlin knows this from the vision he was gifted by the Vates, but he had no further knowledge than the battle itself. Even Kilgharrah doesn't have this exact knowledge.

And yet, the Catha have guarded this knowledge for hundreds of years.

For hundreds of years, Camlann was known. Arthur's death there was known. That there would be a Last Priestess was known. That a friend and a brother of arms would slaughter Arthur was known.

The prophets do not lie. They never did. That's the thing! All this prophecy, all this doom, all this futile effort to save a man that cannot be saved, it's the entire point of the show. It's the reason that it is a tragedy with a sad ending.

Like the Disir said in Ep5, "You are known, Arthur. you have always been known."

It fucks right? Because everyone from the Catha, to Kilgharrah, to Nimueh, to the Druids, they all knew of Merlin's and Arthur's destiny. But they had different bits and pieces.

The Catha had the most knowledge, and while the Druids knew much of Emrys, it is unclear how much they knew of Arthur's death. Kilgharrah seems very clued in, but not all the way, not in the same way the Catha were. And Nimueh had the vaguest knowledge of all but she still knew something was up.

For hundreds of years, the Catha kept the knowledge of Camlann in a box, sealed in a folded bit of paper, in their own language.

They knew Merlin would fail.

That's the thing, the prophecy doesn't lie at all, this was the path that was set before Arthur was born, before Uther, before Ygraine, Hunith, Balinor, Merlin. Hundreds of years before the Purge. No amount of trying to prevent it would ever work.

Not when the 'prophets do not lie'. Everything Merlin did was fighting against a fate that had already long been decided. The Once and Future King has to have a future, and to do that, he must die.

Perhaps the real meaning of uniting Albion, bringing magic back, maybe that was never meant for the Once, but was always meant for the Future.

He was meant to die right from the start, no matter what anyone did or advised, this was how it was meant to go down. During that cold dawn at Camlann.

Isn't that beautiful?

#bbc merlin #merlin #it's very beautiful to me #i like tragedies #i think people miss how much nothing could be changed #that's why the Disir episode exists #that was the last chance for the Triple Goddess to change his fate #if he refused then yeah the original path continues - who knows what would have happened if he had accepted #would he grow to old age and die - leaving Merlin immortal and alone knowing that they succeed in something or other #or would merlin then become mortal #ideas to think about here :P

[unexpected-possibilities]

So! Let’s talk mental health and extended lifespans for magic users!

This has been a topic of a lot of thought for me, and I’ve landed on a couple of headcanons that aren’t necessarily close to how it works, but they sound plausible and work within the range of things that I want in my fics.

First things first, I’ve decided to go with a theory that it takes about a decade of regular magic use to extend the lifespan of a human mage/wizard/witch, etc. This means basically using magic with frequency- a couple times a year with low-strength spells isn’t gonna give you immortality, whereas daily or every other day use will, no matter what level the magic is on. Over that decade, the magic user still ages relatively normally, maybe a few hitches here and there(I decided that Zoe blames magic for being short) but otherwise they’re not really stuck until that 10th year or so. So I headcanoned Douxie as having begun regular magic use at the age of 9 (quite early by any means.) which leaves him stuck at 19, assuming he always kept up with magic over the years. I put Zoe at starting magic at 11, leaving her stuck at 23. Now, wait a minute, that math just doesn’t sound right, you say. I’m saying that it took about 12 years for her extended lifespan to kick in because of on-and-off magic use while trying to hide her abilities.

Magical creatures, on the other hand, age slower naturally. Trolls seem to have much-extended lifespans, but they do age. Vendel appeared younger in the 1100′s because of this, and considerably older in Trollhunters, a natural process of aging(and maybe all the stress of leading a town of trolls for over a thousand years.) Now, wouldn’t Gunmar and Bular have aged as well? Bular, I would say, absolutely should look a bit older, along with Blinky and Aarrrghh and Draal and anyone else who showed up then. I’m willing to let that slide on account of not wanting to redo character models that significantly. Gunmar was sucked into the Darklands, which I can excuse as having an altered way of interacting with time. HOWEVER, trolls do age that much slower, and maybe it’s possible the Vendel we see in the 12th century is simply already old. Charlemange is at least a thousand years old I would say, probably older. Who knows how dragon aging works, especially in regards to shapeshifting ones. I would presume that their interaction with magic, as with mages, would leave them unaging and therefore their form never shows indication of age.

So what about mental health? Well, trolls already live ‘slower’ lives, less eventful on a day to day basis, takes them longer to mature, things just aren’t as quick as in a human life. I’d say most trolls would be decently well off, besides the lingering affects of living through various disasters, wars, and other traumatizing events. The amount of stress that a troll like Vendel goes through probably has a bit of an exacting toll. I don’t blame him for getting irritable.

But a human immortal would not be able to live in a slowly moving society like the trolls do. As far as we know, very little has changed for the actual process of Trollish society. Human society advances quickly, as we know. Not only that, but a human immortal would be basically alone in regards to all of this.

Let’s start with Merlin. Grumpy, irritable, easily annoyed or frustrated, and constantly busy or stressed. And he is old. When would Merlin have started magic? Or was he on and off with magic in his life? Did he grow up at the same time as Arthur? I think? I don’t know but it would be neat to find out a little about his history. Merlin also seems to cling to the few immortal friends he has, between Morgana, Arthur, and then Galahead. And he has really no patience to put up with a maturing apprentice. Also, how many apprentices has he had? Both he and Morgana would indicate there being multiple. What happened with them, and where are they now? What has Douxie heard about their ends, because so far, up until him, it wasn’t good things.

Morgana is a case where I think her immortality never comes much into play, but it does make me wonder how she got to be Merlin’s apprentice (again, would be neat to hear about). I’d really love to know more about the whole Camelot history but I’m guessing some of that was cut, seeing as how we get little tidbits but nothing so substantial as, say, Merlin’s history prior to Douxie.

Now onto Douxie, who was really the main part of this post originally. Where do I even begin? Poor guy absolutely has a whole host of issues as I’ve discussed in my fics, but I’m really guessing over the years he’s formed a few, namely a distinct rejection sensitivity, probably some abandonment issues, and I’d have to say depression and anxiety as I’ve already talked about. Think about how much happens in one human lifetime. There’s tons of things that would be depressing as all hell, not to mention that if he ever makes mortal friends, he has to be very aware that they are going to die well before he ever will. Wars, natural disasters, crises, and so on and so forth. Merlin gave the boy increased anxiety and an unhealthy amount of stress, and then left moppet!Douxie with a list of things to do while he waits for his master to come back. And ultimately, Merlin acts like he forgot his apprentice even existed. That could have only destroyed him on the inside, and especially to lose Merlin just about the same day he finally got him back. I could talk for days about what the world has probably done to Douxie, but instead I’ll leave that up to my fics to elaborate on.

We don’t know much about Zoe, besides things here and there and that she’s known Douxie and Archie for a while. I’d have to guess she spent a lot of time with Doux and Arch over the years just traveling along with them. But I’d imagine that sometimes they split up, things changed, etc etc and they always found their way back to each other again. I haven’t really delved into what her mental stuff looks like, but not to fear, because it is certainly coming(in fic form). But much like Douxie, she probably also went through an assortment of traumatic events. Humans do not do well on their lonesome, so I can imagine that she probably chose to stick with other magic users for the most part to protect her emotions. I’m not confident Douxie could really bring himself to do that, however, seeing as he cares so deeply for other beings.

Conclusion? The only reason Douxie and Zoe made it through nearly a thousand years of crazy human bullsh*t with very little mental health support for the majority of the time is that they had each other and Archie.

#my ramblings #toa headcanons #douxie headcanons #long post #verrrrrrryyyyyy long post sorry lol #douxie #toa zoe #toa merlin #toa morgana #toa wizards #wizards #wizards spoilers. #toa archie #this is a lot of writing lol #but im glad to be putting my thoughts out there somewhere and in a comprehensive way #anyways have fun with this one folks

[itsgrandstudentdestinyblog]

Trollhunters: Nemesis (Evil Merlin)

A bit of an AU, running with the idea of evil Merlin. (Warning, Rather a lot of character death). 

When Mike came to his mentor’s house he was shocked for a moment. It was empty, a few books lying around, but everything else, gone. Even the circles that Merlin had insisted must always be kept up were gone, the protective sigils on the walls looking like they had burned, charred into unrecognizable shapes.

“What…Merlin?” Mike called, a little out of breath. He’d been out of breath a lot since he’d been learning magic.

“He’s gone.”

Mike jumped in shock. Behind him there was a girl, wearing old fashioned clothing. She looked… About his age.

But there had been nobody in that part of the room, he was certain. “Who are you?”

“Claire. Just Claire.” She stood up, and Mike lifted his hand, his integrated scanner activating.

Then he blinked. “You don’t have a bodychip? But that’s ill—”

“They were long after my time,” she said softly. “Hold still.” Her hand lanced out and grabbed his hand, and it was cold, cold…

“What—”

Then there was an odd snapping feeling,and suddenly Mike’s chest felt a little better. “What did you do?”

“I freed you from Merlin. How do you think an ‘immortal’ fuels his life, especially since Morganna no longer is an issue.”

“What, but Merlin’s a—”

“Hero? A wizard manipulating the world to make it better?” Claire smiled at him. There was something odd about that smile. Something cold and frightening. “Than why does he leave nothing but destroyed lives in his wake. Who are you, by the way?”

“Mike Wilkes! I’m Merlin’s apprentice.”

“Well, Mike Wilkes, you are his sacrifice, or were. That cold you have would never have gotten better.” She fell silent. “But you wouldn’t have noticed and had you noticed—well, crusades always have victims.”

“Who are you?!” Mike repeated.

“Did he tell you of the Eternal night and the Trollhunter, of the battle with Morganna?”

“What were those? I mean, he said he fought Morganna and saved the world, but… none of that other stuff.”

Claire stared at Mike. Then she shook her head. “Why am I unsurprised? Merlin never would share the light with any others. No, Mike the Apprentice, there were others. Myself, my love, my closest friend and we, along with the trolls fought Morganna and Gunmar and victory was achieved at a terrible cost. Merlin had us leave for a new heartstone…”

“Heartstone?”

“A source of healing and magic for Trolls—and a way to keep their minds sharp rather than reverting to their animal ways. There are no more. But Merlin knew that. He sent us to New Jersey, where he’d heard tell of a new stone.” She fell silent, and once again, Mike was struck by how strange she looked. Then the girl started talking again. “I should have been worried. But I was happy, happy that my love, even if Merlin had warped his body, would have a home, so I didn’t ask how someone who had been asleep for hundreds of years would even know what New Jersey was, let alone why it held a heartstone. Maybe I was too busy being creeped out by how he looked at me. If I had known what he’d done to Morganna, why she had been so brok—well, that’s over.”

“What happened?”

“There was no heartstone in New Jersey. The trolls had been as much his tools as anything else, and he no longer needed them—but didn’t want to risk being known for who he truly was. A week after we left, some of the trolls started getting irrational, animalistic. J-my lover, controlled them. Others became sick, delirious, claiming that something cold was sucking their lives away. We stopped in a cave, a safe place so that Blinky would be able to research the issue—and then Merlin vanished.

“And a few days later, we learned why. The last Heartstone had been destroyed, but it had always been doomed, from the moment he imprisoned Morganna in it. And with that, the trolls, all of them were doomed, doomed to become animals, to die, to lose their minds. We spent a month in that place, hearing how Arr—how some of our friends had chosen to expose themselves to the sun rather than be a danger. How others had been killed when they became a danger. Jim cradled his father in his arms when he turned to stone. Blinky’s last words were to absolve him of his guilt. Jim needed that.”

Mike stared. She was relating it like she might the weather. There was something off about this girl.

But she was telling the Truth. Mike didn’t know how he knew, but he did.

“What happened?”

“Jim died, in my arms like his father had in his. We spent weeks down there, surrounded by the stone corpses of our friends, and I used every sorcery I could, but Jim died. I sealed the cave so that the bodies of my friends wouldn’t be desecrated by vandals or teen explorers and I sat with my love.”

“But you’re here…I mean, so you left.”

“No.” Claire said. “I did not.”

And suddenly, Mike realized what had been bugging him. Claire had only taken breaths when she talked. Other than that, she was completely still.

“I called upon the Powers that forged the earth in deep time, and swore that I would never move beyond the circles of the world, not until my friends were avenged, not until the oathbreaker, kinslayer, Merlin had been cast into the void.”

Mike shivered. Because all of a sudden her clothes were turning translucent, her skin as well, revealing white bone underneath, and a pair of gleaming pinpoints of light stood in her eyesockets. The room was growing cold.

“And on that day,” the thing sitting before him said. “He will find that a truly huge number of people have preceded him and will have their justice.”

“What about you?” Mike asked, trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

“I?” Claire smiled, and suddenly her skin was back. “I will return to where my skeleton yet lies, holding my love, the man who would have been with me for a life, who would have fathered my children, the man who was cheated out of his life, and I will hold him again, and then pass away. Who knows, if the Powers are kind, I may see him again. But I am the only one who can speak for the unjustly slain, and I shall have justice for them, whatever the price!” She stood up and looked at Mike. “Now flee this house, Mike, for you are no longer apprentice, and count yourself lucky, for none of Merlin’s gifts come without a price. If you should see him again, tell him that Claire Maria Nunez continues to pursue him, and however long it takes, at the end of the road I shall take his immortality, his fame, and his very memory out of this world—So I swear upon the Name of the Most High!”

And with that, there was neither girl nor skeleton, but a terrible figure that Mike’s eyes reflexively avoided. To look at it, he somehow knew, would be death, or worse, and so he fled. Out the door, through the gates, onto his hover board—and before he hit the end of the street, eerie blueish flames were roaring up through the structure, hungrily clinging to every bit of wood and concrete.

Mike didn’t stop until he got home, the sound of sirens dim in the distance. He stared at the folios of “homework”  Merlin had given him, then shook his head and put them in the shredder. Tomorrow he’d go apologize to his friends that his teacher had been so oddly insistent about getting him away from.

But for tonight, he’d sleep, and pray he wouldn’t dream about a girl whose bones remained in the dark, but who still walked the earth seeking her murderer.

#Trollhunters #Merlin #claire nunez #revenge #ghost