#-he chooses to believe that it corrupts people because it’s an easier guilt-free explanation)

[sneakyboymerlin]

Begging you all to watch the show without the m•rthur lens, because all sense of who these characters even are has been lost here.

[oracleofdiscord]

#you will all just see whatever you wanna see huh. even if it is this disturbing. even if it is this dehumanizing. and all of it romanticized #also arthur doesn’t trust too much. or else maybe he’d legalize magic 🤪 his trust clearly doesn’t extend to the people he’s oppressing #arthur’s problem is nepotism! his problem is that he always trusts what is most comfortable for him to believe! #and most of the time he only looks as far as he is affected on a personal level! #he cares if someone /shows/ him the effects but it’s as gwen says… he shouldn’t need someone to hold his hand through being a decent person. #he’s not a child. and as prince he is supposed to have an even greater responsibility in this area. #anyways arthur has absolutely disagreed with people he trusts and stood his ground when he thinks it’s right. he has a mind of his own. #if he believed that his actions were truly wrong then he simply wouldn’t do them. we have seen this in action. #and this isn’t even touching on the merlin side of things. merlin did not cause arthur’s death. #you can scream it all you want but arthur’s bigotry is his alone. he chooses to lean into it again and again. arthur always has a choice. #it’s not that merlin didn’t ‘do enough’ to ‘fix’ him. wiping clean any accountability for arthur and putting it all on merlin’s shoulders #simply because merlin is one of those oppressed people and so ‘knows better’ (arthur already knows that magic isn’t inherently harmful- #-he chooses to believe that it corrupts people because it’s an easier guilt-free explanation) #…blaming merlin for arthur’s preference towards anti-magic sentiment is sick. arthur and merlin are their own individual people. #merlin is loyal to arthur because he sees his potential for the goodness that will unite albion and give his people a future. #arthur is his only hope. he’s battling tooth and nail with all these prophecies. ffs. #you cannot understand this series or these characters or their relationship dynamics in any way that matters #without first recognizing them as individuals and as people. people with different values motives approaches etc. #also the fact merlin is arthur’s servant and ‘happy’ to deal with his classism is inextricable from this

all of this is very true

also, can we all just agree that “[servant] is the same person as [the one they serve]” is just a fucked up thing to say? let’s not make implying that servants arent individuals the new fandom trend

Begging you all to watch the show without the m•rthur lens, because all sense of who these characters even are has been lost here.