#but gwen isn't made out of rags either...

[songofdeath]

i wish gwen was a ball jointed doll. i bet that would be very cute.

[bitsandbobsofwriting]

Hi, I was wondering who is your favourite character and who is the most disliked one

Ok so this is... impossible to answer in a concise way lol.

I'll just stick with the main characters because I don't think I could go through all of them lol.

There aren't any characters I hate necessarily, except maybe Kilgharrah. For obvious reasons. If not obvious, I shall explain: He's a manipulative bastard who twisted Merlin round and round until he didn't know who he was anymore, to the point of hurting his friends and mistrusting everyone he met, to hiding himself from Arthur, Gwaine, Gwen, to thinking his only worth was what he could do for destiny. Merlin was a whole ass person, and yes the destiny was important, but Merlin shouldn't have had the whole thing resting on only his shoulders. His and Arthur's destiny was shared, they were meant to be equal, but Kilgharrah (and Gaius, I'll get to him in a moment) just kept piling the pressure on Merlin alone whilst driving home the point that Arthur can't know. First off, that's very infantilising towards Arthur (at least it is in the later seasons, after he's matured a bit), and second off, how cruel to continuously tell a man that his only importance is in what he does for another, another who can't know the truth, who would probably kill him/banish him/be angry with him if he found out who he was. I've just got... lots of feelings about Kilgharrah. Mainly angry ones. And when it all fails (OR, alternatively, when Kilgharrah gets what he wants, aka the Pendragons dead) he fucks off!! He abandons Merlin when he is the only thing Merlin has left of his kin and destiny. I understand his bitterness and arsehole-ry, I do, but I can't excuse it.

My feelings for Gaius are... similar, though not quite to this extent. I get that he was always worried about Merlin's safety, but the way he spoke about his magic sometimes, the way he made Merlin feel about his magic, just made me sad. And the fact that he never gives Merlin a break. He's worse than Arthur in that respect, because Gaius knows about all the destiny shit, he knows that Merlin has to look after Arthur in a manservant-y way, in a Warlock-y way, and do all of his other Physician's Apprenticeship work, AND anything else he's asked to do by anyone in the castle. The guy never gets a free hour, let alone a free day, and Gaius runs him ragged despite all of this. And I don't know, maybe it's cruel of me, but the idea of Gaius taking advantage of his friendship with the King to barter for his life as he watched his friends burn... rubs me up the wrong way. Why stay? The love of his life left, his friends either left or were executed, and he stays, and manages to actually like Uther, even if only a little. I can't comprehend that. Supporting the genocide of your own people with the flimsy excuse of "The man who orchestrated it all is a friend-ish of mine, and he's grieving for his wife, whom he accidentally killed" like what?? The fuck??? No. Not a fan. I do get that he was just trying his best, and that he really thought by instilling Merlin with terror he was helping, but he really wasn't. And the constant pressure that nothing about Merlin matters except what he is in relation to Arthur. How cruel can he be to such a young person, who relies on him and loves and trusts him and believes in him, to constantly be told that his worth nothing without a man who would see his head on a spike if ever found out who he is. Man. I have... emotions... about this.

On a lighter note... I couldn't tell you who my one favourite character is. When I think about Arthur too much, I swing between loving and hating him, BUT, I do think all the reasons I hate him (the way he treats Merlin and thinks of magic in the later seasons) are all down to writing, I think. They just kept re-setting his character development so they could keep the "keep the magic a secret" drama going, even if it didn't make sense to. Mostly I love him, but he isn't my favourite tooooo often, and I'm definitely aware of the fact that he's a HUGE arse most of the time. If I met him in passing, I'd punch him in the face, if I had long term, friendly exposure to him, I'd want to cuddle and mother him.

Percival and Lancelot have never been my favourites. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE them, but they've never been favourites just because they got a criminal amount of screen time. That is to say... barely any at all.

I ADORE Mordred and Gwaine and Elyan. I really just love them, they're so interesting and sweet and I wish all three of them had more eps, especially Elyan. Leon holds a special place in my heart and I literally couldn't tell you why. The crossbow scene. The poetry scene. I adore him. He's definitely at the top of the list the most often out of all the knights, though I think a lot of the reasons I love him (his relationships with Arthur and Merlin, his mama bear tendencies, him remembering before the purge and secretly liking magic) are more fandom than canon. But I'm not going to let that stop me :D

I love Morgana. I understand her and I sympathise with her, and though I may not like her as a person in the later seasons (sorry guys, I don't think slaughtering innocents indescriminently to gain power is a cool quirky thing, guess I'm just sexy like that), I still think she's an incredibly complicated and compelling character. I wish she and Mordred had got their redemptions though :(

Gwen!!!! I love her!!!! Honestly her and Merlin himself are at the top of my list of favourites like... most of the time. The way her character deteriorates in the later seasons makes me so sad because it was such a HUGE opportunity!! We should have seen her do Queen shit!! We should have seen her order knights around and take charge of the council!! WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN HER USING HER NEW STATUS TO HELP OUT MERLIN/OTHER SERVANTS!!! Do not tell me Arthur doesn't wake up at least once a week to find Merlin missing and Gwen saying "I used my Queenly powers to give him the day off. Deal with it, bitch.". I wish I'd seen her struggle more with the transition from servant to Queen. Like... she still wakes up at the crack of dawn and gets all restless because she feels like she should be doing something. She wouldn't let Arthur throw out all her old servant's clothes and wears them sometimes to potter around with Merlin to ground herself. She leaves banquets early and Merlin goes with her and they chat and catch up and cuddle like the besties they are. She has to like... stop herself from bowing to people, and she struggles with the fact that, other than Merlin, none of her old friends can really look her in the eye now (I mean I'd also LOVE a horror moment when The Gang realise something is deeply wrong with Merlin, and her going "When did my best friend start calling me My Lady?!").

As for Merlin. I just... love him. It's so rare that my favourite character is the main character but he so is. He's so complicated and compelling and wonderful. You can understand every decision he makes, the good and the bad, even if you don't agree with him you can look at his life and his fear and 100% agree that it was an understandable way for him to react. It may sound cruel, but I wish we'd seen more of his suffering, and I wish that OTHER characters had seen his suffering too. I wish we'd seen him get angry, and the others had had an opportunity to see him go batshit with his magic. I wish he'd got the apology he deserves form Arthur/the others, but I also wish we'd seen him... still coming to terms with that? Subconsciously holding back from doing magic in front of them long after the reveal, flinching anytime Arthur waves a sword in his vague direction, still feeling the need to lie and hide what he's up to even though he really doesn't have to anymore. Despite all the missed opportunity, he's still on a par with Gwen in terms on "favourite character", I just really love him, gang🥺✌

(As an aside, a hate Uther and everything about him, everything he says and does and stands for, but I actually LIVE for OOC Uther. Uther being nice?? And supportive??? Uther being protective of not only Arthur but Merlin as well?? My favourite trope in the ENTIRE fandom.)

~

Send me your thoughts lads!! I love to hear 'em!!

Also I apologise for any typos, they'll get fixed at some point I'm sure, but I'm typing this on my phone at work atm😅