#ygraine

[fluffypotatey]

I find it deeply aesthetically pleasing, character-wise, that Arthur and Merlin are both very much like their mothers, which is especially meaningful in Arthur's case since he's never known his mother beyond a single painfully brief meeting in "Sins of the Father."

Not only does Arthur look like Ygraine (which adds several layers to the clusterfuck of his and Uther's relationship) but it's clear that he takes after her temperament, too. Yes, he sometimes shows his father's temper, and yes, he does stupid things when he's in a temper, but unlike Uther, who literally took his prejudices to his grave and beyond, Arthur never stays mad at people, and he's overall a far more caring and kind person than his father, which is an interesting case of nature vs nurture.

And then on the other hand, we have Hunith, who told a mounted, armed brigand to go fuck himself, later fought another (also armed) brigand with a twig broom, harboured fugitives on multiple occasions, and raised an illegal magic child out of wedlock, and Merlin "Fuck the Police" Ambrosius, who got in a fistfight, got thrown in jail for the fistfight, called the prince a bitch to his face in a public market square, got in a second, armed fight all within his first 48 hours in Camelot, and then committed treason on a daily basis for the next 10+ years, compared to Balinor, who became a weird antisocial hermit that lived in a cave for twenty years.

couldn't have said it better myself bestie

also, there's a reason hunith and ygraine never met in the show. their dynamic duo would outshine everyone, they'd be unstoppable, untouchable, I FEEL ROBBED

#ahem anyway #yes they do take after their mothers and yes this does provide insight in how merlin and arthur complement one another #and like i just have such a soft heart at the thought of arthur wanting to know about his mother and asking the staff what he can #maybe he asks the older knights who treat him like a nephew they never had and one of the most common thing they'll say is #“ygraine was kind and cared for her people” #“ygraine was not one to abandon the needy when times got tough” #“ygraine saw her role as monarch as one of service and not greed for power” #and mini arthur internalized that shit i accept NO criticism #merlin was a total mama's boy as we all saw and she had him drinking that anarchy juice since he was small #hunith was merlin's first hero and fuck i'm crying #bye i'm too soft for this #bbc merlin #headcanons #arthur pendragon #merlin emrys #hunith #ygraine #hunith & ygraine would have totally wreaked some shit if they ever met i assure you it is a CRIME (to me) THAT SUCH A DUO NEVER *gunshots*

[emrys-the-wild]

Merlin is Ygraine reincarnated don’t @ me

#merlin #merlin bbc #bbc merlin #prince arthur #arthur pendragon #ygraine #ygraine pendragon #ygraine de bois #the adventures of merlin #merlin tv #merlin x arthur #arthur x merlin #arthur and merlin #merlin emrys #merlin meta #merlinbbc #merlin headcanons #merlin fandom

[vooruitmariek]

@mortiscausa's march to camelot 6: grudge

Uther wages war on Gorlois to get Ygraine

#vooruitmariek #arthuriana #arthurian legends #march to camelot #arthurian illustration #promarkers #uther pendragon #gorlois of tintagel #ygraine #i finisheeed #justice for ygraine! #photo because my scanner makes the orange way too red - still trying to fix it 🥲 #this one was difficult because i was too conflicted #but i do like how it turned out

[shut-up-merlin]

Becoming a mom has made me realise just how truly devastating the idea was of Ygraine meeting Arthur when he’s a grown man.

Let’s assume for a moment that it was her spirit in The Sins of the Father, and not some illusion. This is actually not that unlikely, given how Morgause has an affinity with summoning beings from beyond the veil.

So Ygraine is revealing all this information to Arthur that she had no way of knowing while she was still alive. That means she could see what happened in Camelot after she died.

That woman watched her son grow up. Her son. The one she struggled to conceive and felt grow in her belly. The one she almost, almost got to meet.

She gets to watch as Uther bans magic, bans her friends (since its been established they knew Nimueh, I’m assuming she probably had friends who wielded magic). And then she sees how Uther turns into this bitter, abusing asshole we all know him to be. How he sets impossibly high standards for her poor son. How the kid gets no physical affection whatsoever which is how he grows into the touch starved man we get to meet in the show.

Ygraine has to watch all of this, unable to do something about it. And then when Morgause finally introduces them, this happens:

Arthur apologises. Her baby apologises. I can tell you with absolute certainty that even if she had a choice in the matter, she would have chosen his life over hers. (She literally says so in the end, too) And that precious child apologises 💔

Then, when she tries to tell him not to feel sorry, she puts the blame with Uther (where it belongs) but in doing so, the conversation turns into one about Uther rather than giving Ygraine the chance to talk to her boy. To finally get to meet him after spending so many years watching from afar.

They barely get any time together. And this is the conversation they have. So yeah. Heartbreak. Pure heartbreak.

#bbc merlin #arthur pendragon #ygraine #ygraine de bois #uther pendragon #motherhood changed me people what can I say #these are the things I notice now

[camelotsheart]

I think part of the reason Arthur gave the sigil to Merlin was because he didn't want to take the sigil into the veil. He wanted to keep some part of Ygraine alive. And since Merlin is the one who's saved Arthur's life countless times (not even counting the times Arthur doesn't know about) and is always following him into near-death situations, he's requesting Merlin to keep this part of him alive.

In Arthur's eyes, Ygraine gave her life to birth him. Arthur is living two lives: as himself and as Ygraine's son ("Almost as though she's part of me"). And when he's giving the sigil, he's giving away both parts of himself. The one that's made from the memory of Ygraine and the one that grew to care for Merlin enough to give him the sigil, and he's asking Merlin to keep both memories alive.

Because he's not only Arthur Pendragon (just as Merlin and Arthur's devotion can't be encompassed by the logic of "What is the life of a servant compared to that of a prince?"), he's also Arthur du Bois.

#bbc merlin #ygraine #arthur pendragon #merthur

[gawaincomic]

Merry Christmas!

(I am still writing and sending my cards, I am soooo late this year...)

Have an Ygraine dreaming of Spring!

#arthuriana #gawain comic #ygraine #igerna #arthurian legend #la reine aux blanches tresses #christmas

[merlinemrys]

i’m actually Very interested in a pre-canon fic about life pre-purge esp for like uther and ygraine. it’s just so hard for me to conceptualise a young king uther whose kingdom had magic running through its very soil. he’s brash, arrogant, too full of hard love, but still a young man—still happy. or ygraine who we’ve never seen outside the bounds of Dead Mother. and what about the royals’ best friend, nimueh who loved them so much to grant them a baby knowing that magic will take a life away. and what of balinor? was he their friend too? did he and uther make jokes about the pendragon name? did uther ever joke around and ask if balinor should ever take a wife? i want to see their camelot. bright with promise, hiding shadows within.

#shows #bbc merlin #uther #ygraine #nimueh #balinor #text #tais toi lys #HIS LOVE FOR YGRAINE SLAUGHTERED THOUSANDS. WHAT A STORY THIS IS. A FOOTNOTE IN THE PROPHECY. A DARK TIME CREATED ONLY TO PRECEDE THE #GOLDEN AGE. INSANE. INSANE. #*

[inamagicalhallucination]

i love time travel fics and i would literally kill for a fic where merlin arthur - the gang really - meet pre-purge residents of camelot like imagine how fucking funny that would be just ygraine and uther chilling and boom a blond ygraine-looking kid pops in like “ayo mom, dad im ur son in the future” and a skinny balinor-looking kid behind him “and im his underpaid servant” while wearing ygraine’s sigil

#merlin #merlin bbc #bbc merlin #bbcm #bbc emrys #bbc arthur #arthur pendragon #uther #ygraine #merlin au #merlin fic #merlin prompts

[adhd-merlin]

you need to read this if you haven't (on arthur's [mother's] ring)

#I've seen it mentioned before that arthur's ring belonged to his mother but #I thought it might've been mentioned by bradley in an interview or something #maybe a personal headcanon of his #but no you can actually see it in the show #so it's 100% canon. I love this so much #merlin meta #ygraine #arthur pendragon #arthur's ring #merlin

[joemerl]

The Whumps of March 2024: "In Disguise"

A series of vignettes based on Arthurian legend, collected on AO3 here.

Please forgive me, Gorlois.

You must realize that I was fooled. I couldn’t have known it was him. If I had, you know that I never would have…

He looked just like you. I didn’t know.

But looking back—you weren't acting like yourself. Something about the way you moved, the words you said…I should have known. I know, I should have. But with the stress of the war, and the weeks that had passed since we were together—

Maybe I did know. I’m going mad, thinking of that. Did some part of me guess the truth? I knew what Uther was like, knew that he had that warlock to command—I should have guessed, I should have seen—!

I need you, Gorlois. Need to feel you stroke my hair and tell me that it’s alright, that I didn’t know, that you forgive me for not knowing.

I was so happy on our last night together. Until I realized that it was never even you.

#Arthurian legend #Arthurian mythology #TheWhumpsOfMarch2024 #Igraine #Ygraine #Gorlois #Uther #Uther Pendragon

[yellow-faerie]

I really wish I had the patience and time to write a really long au fic/fic series that centres on Ygraine - and later, as we get into the main series, the main cast - as she grows up surrounded by magic and as a dear friend to Nimueh and pretty much anyone she spends any time around, to meeting Uther and becoming queen and maybe having some of his more anti-magic rhetoric start to stick just a little bit

And then Uther is killed soon after Arthur is born by an assassination attempt done by a rogue group of mages

And then we see Ygraine's slow descent into revenge for the man that she loved (a man who's faults she continues to deny and warp after he died) as she goes after those mages and then some more rogue mages until it's almost an all out war against magic

The dragons and the dragonlords fight Camelot in an all out war which ends in Camelot winning, after which Ygraine gives Kilgarrah the "mercy" of being imprisoned rather than killed for being the only dragon not to fight (as Balinor asked him not to, for he still held friendship for Ygraine so couldn't fight her) and Balinor is exiled

Anyway, I kinda want to write this like that so that you can see her slow descent into villainy. She's still kind and she's still just (for the most part), but magic blinds her so that those who practise magic tend to get killed or imprisoned for the most minor of offenses, made out to be something terrible

Still, Nimueh stays at her side and is allowed to train her nieces, Morgana and Morgause. Nimueh is Ygraine's one weakness, for she is wilfully blind to the almost genocide the queen is creating because she loves her so dearly.

Arthur is maybe a tad kinder, a tad more patient, but he is still brash and loud and incredibly proud of his skill with a blade and for being a prince. He doesn't necessarily hate magic but he has an inherent wariness of it in strangers that his mother has instilled in him.

Morgana is far more naïve here, learning magic from her mother's sister and doesn't fully realise the prejudice that magic users suffer because it's not in the law that they can't practise magic - she doesn't realise that the air of fear and distrust makes it incredibly difficult for any magic user to openly practise and still survive because she's lived her whole life as one of the few the Queen trusts

(Ygraine knows that Morgana is Uther's daughter but that is something she is keeping to herself for later use)

Merlin arrives from Ealdor where his mother and father still live because he was growing restless and they trusted Gaius and Alice to take care of him.

The first season is a few minor antagonists (and a few extras who take the place of Nimueh) and it is Merlin keeping his magic secret due to a very natural fear that the Queen might decide he's too dangerous

The second and third seasons have Cornelius Sigan being a much more major threat, taking the place of Morgana and Morgause when minor villains can't, and being the one who eventually takes over Camelot in the S3 finale (and who throws the sleeping curse on Camelot in the S2 finale)

Nimueh is killed in the S3 finale which is the thing that finally breaks Ygraine and leads to Arthur being a stand in king and knight the knights, and all that - Ygraine's death is committed by that same group who killed Uther which fuels some of the anger and hatred in Arthur

S4 focuses on Arthur grappling with magic and what it is, with Agravaine on one shoulder telling him it's evil, and Tristan (Ygraine's brother Tristan) on the other saying that it's good which comes to a head in the S4 finale where Merlin uses magic to save the group and it's revealed

S5 would be more focused on finding ways to allow magic back into the country, while still fighting the odd fringe group of magic users who are still unhappy and a lot of not magic groups who are unhappy the crown is doing this

It ends happily though because it's a sort-of fix-it where most people live and aren't evil

But yeah, I think this would work better in a longer form fic just for the slow descent that you can't quite do in shorter form

#like I said it's a sort of fix-it so I also call this AU #Forcibly Found Family's Your Camelot #since people who arrive in Camelot have about a 50/50 chance of being inducted in #but also yeah I love AUs where Ygraine lives (instead of or with Uther) and makes things better #but I kinda want to do one where she goes a little bit insane from grief #because why not? #Nimueh #Ygraine #Arthur Pendragon #Merlin #Balinor #Morgana #BBC Merlin #Fanfic #kinda #Fae's Stuff #Fae's Fic

[penguicorns-are-cool]

all the queens in camelot are so hot

like anyone who has ever been queen. they're powerful and hot. is that like a requirement in Camelot or something.

#merlin #merlin bbc #gwen #queen gwen #morgana #ygraine #ygraine pendragon #guenevere #queen guenevere

[witchmd13]

Camelot's Older Generation Oneshots (1): Waiting in the Almost.

A glimpse into Ygraine and Nimueh’s relationship before Uther Pendragon ruined everything for everyone. Or; two friends and a talk of love and destiny beneath a weeping willow. "we lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow, but now alone I lie and weep beside the tree, singing, oh willow waley, by the tree that weeps with me, singing oh, willow waley until my love returns to me."

#merlin #merlin bbc #ygraine #nimueh #nimueh x ygraine #ygraine pendragon #ygraine de bois #camelot's older generation series #fanfic #merlin fanfic #merlin au #my fanfic #waiting in the almost #merlin fanfiction #fanfic rec #**m

[vooruitmariek]

march to camelot wrapup ✨

#vooruitmariek #march to camelot #arthurian illustration #arthuriana #arthurian legend #sir gawain and the green knight #morgan le fay #ygraine #tristan and isolde #morgan la fey #promarkers #the last scan isn't exactly what it should be oh well #this was so fun! #for those who are interested: most of my borders/patterns were inspired by the book The World of Ornament published by Taschen #it's a great resource

[fluffypotatey]

Since it's canon that spirits are aware of what's going on in the living world, I have to imagine that Ygraine and Balinor are laughing their asses off beyond the veil, knowing the full irony of Arthur and Merlin's relationship, and are making bets on what'll happen when Uther finds out.

Balinor just entering the spirit realm: woah, okay Ygraine, shoving a popcorn box in his face: here Balinor: wha- Ygraine: you'll need it

~a few seasons later~

Ygraine: SEE I FUCKING TOLD YOU Balinor: THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAID Lancelot, here to stir the pot: pretty sure Arthur said "i'll show you horseplay" Ygraine: AHA

#freya does not join the bets because she's having enough entertainment watching those three wreak havoc #ygraine and balinor are always too biased with their bets but most of the time ygraine wins #bbc merlin #headcanons #ygraine #balinor #lancelot #asks #i love this image of already dead cast members just making their own betting pool for the current cast

[shitakimooshrooms]

Woodcarving is one of those things that will always make a character better. Like, no matter how terrible they are, if someone says they headcannon that they carve things for someone they care about, immediately I like them more. Like, I fucking hate Agravaine, but if you told me that he carved Morgana something as a gift, I would be like “he spent time making something for her.” And yeah. Tell me that Uther used to make wood carvings for Ygraine before she died? Fuck yeah man, headcannon accepted. Cenred would carve little trinkets for Morgause? Seems like something he would do! Morgause making gifts for Morgana? Hell yeah! Morgana making things for Mordred and Aithusa? So fucking cute. It just makes everyone so much more likable. I can even say for other fandoms! The only thing Gilderoy Lockhart know how to do is widdle? Alright then. Goyle carves little animals for his fellow slytherins? Sure, why not?

I could go on, but I actually can’t. This is my favorite thing ever!!!!

#wood carving #bbc merlin #uther pendragon #lord agravaine #Morgana #morgaude #Cenred #mordred #aithusa #crabbe and goyle #gilderoy lockhart #Harry potter #ygraine #ygraine de bois