#gwen/arthur just. had no real development

[abbyofthefirenation]

the writers really did such a poor job with arthur and gwens relationship. merlin and freya had more chemistry in one episode than arthur and gwen had across the entire series. the only times i really felt anything for their relationship was in the once and future queen and in lancelot de luc. and even in the once and future queen gwen goes off listing all the reasons why she doesnt like arthur and why they wont work and then theyre kissing that same episode? not to mention, it annoyed me when arthur made merlin prepare gwen breakfast and get her flowers in 5x10 despite gwen once being furious at him because he lied about making her dinner in 2x02 and now shes just like whatever.

it just felt like to me that their feelings for each other had no real development. gwen didnt even seem to like arthur at all in the first season, and even calls him a bully in the first episode. then she suddenly likes him and thinks he’ll be the greatest king camelot has had in le morte d’arthur? theyd barely even interacted before then. their relationship also seemed to come at the cost of gwens character in the sense that the more involved they got, the more gwen just became arthurs love interest and his advisor when they got married. the writers made an already dull relationship even duller. i swear arthur and gwen had more genuine affection for each other when gwen was evil than when she wasnt.

i also dont like how merlin and gwens friendship was basically forgotten. gwen annoyed me when she told arthur not to look for merlin in a servant of two masters and she seemed more concerned about the threat merlin was to arthur than about what happened to merlin. they just stripped gwen of pretty much all of her agency and made her into this perfect queen. of course arthur and gwen were going to get together because they were following the arthurian legend, but that doesn’t mean the writers couldnt have done a better job at writing their relationship.

[fanon-not-canon]

Honestly, bbc merlin did Gwen dirty. I ADORE her character, and yeah let's be real a lot of the character development was sketchy across the board, but she had sooo much potential.

I wanted a Gwen with flaws and humanity! Gwen who hated Uther with all her heart but would have put up with him a thousand times over for Arthur and Morgana. Gwen who plays pranks on people with her bestie Merlin. Gwen who figures out that Merlin has magic on her own, and loves him all the fiercer for it. Gwen who has random beef with one of the stablehands for some inane reason. I wanted a Gwen who has to fight to stay gentle and kind in the face of injustice, who holds onto her optimism with gritted teeth, who fucks up sometimes but always has her friends' best interests at heart.

I love Guinevere so much and i wanted more of her being messy and human and fun, just in her daily life.

[bookishwriter7]

“The one where Merlin admits he poisoned Morgana and Gwaine starts designing save-the-dates before Arthur finishes screaming.” 💀💍📣

🥀 Group Chat: “Merlgana: The Couple That Almost Killed Each Other (Twice)” (Renamed 34 times. Arthur is one notification away from fleeing into the woods.)

Merlin: So I have a super casual hypothetical question... 🤔😅 Arthur: Do I have to sit down or start screaming now? 🪑😤 Merlin: If someone hypothetically poisoned someone, then hypothetically made sure her evil sister knew how to brew the antidote, and now they’re hypothetically dating— 😬💀💘 Arthur: MERLIIIIIN. NO! 😱 Merlin: Okay, before anyone panics— 🙏 Arthur: THAT LINE NEVER HELPS! 😡 Merlin: I may have... accidentally poisoned Morgana. Once. Briefly. With love. 🧪💋🖤 Everyone: ... 🧠🔻📉

Leon: This group chat needs a therapist. 🧠 Elyan: What do you mean may have?? Percival: My man. That’s not a may thing. 💀 Morgana: I did technically almost die, yes. 💋💀 Gwen: And now you two are truly in love? ❤️ Merlin: Uhhh… yes? 🫣 Morgana: Hopelessly. 💘 Gwen: Just checking. Please continue. 😌

Arthur: YOU POISONED MY SISTER AND NOW YOU’RE DATING HER?! I DON’T KNOW WHICH IS WORSE! 😤 Merlin: It was during the Sleeping Curse! I panicked! There were cursed knights! The Great Dragon told me it was the only way to save everyone else! It was a very emotional Tuesday. 😓🐉 Gwen: I mean... if you think about it... it technically worked. 🤷‍♀️ Lancelot: Merlin, I consider you my best friend... but you poisoned your girlfriend and hid it from us?? 💔 Merlin: I was going to tell you! I just… forgot. For three seasons. 😬 Gwaine: AND I’VE BEEN SHIPPING IT SINCE SEASON ONE. “Friends to Enemies to Lovers, with attempted homicide” is my favorite trope. 😍✨ Percival: He made a fanmix. There were tambourines. Again. 🎶🥁 Arthur: MY MANSERVANT POISONED MY SISTER AND GWAINE IS OUT HERE MAKING PLAYLISTS AND ROMANTICIZING HOMICIDE?! 😠

Gaius has joined the chat. Gaius: What fresh chaos have I walked into? 🧙‍♂️ Gwen: Merlin poisoned Morgana, they’re still in love, Arthur is combusting, and Gwaine is writing fanfic. 🔥💞📝 Gaius: Ah. A Tuesday. It was finally time my boy had closure about the poisoning incident. Arthur: YOU TOO, GAIUS?! 😡 Gaius: Look, my lord, Merlin needs a confidant. His destiny anxiety is severe. He’s under a lot of pressure trying to save you all the time. Have you tried mentoring someone who cries over soup? 🍲😭 Arthur: STOP MAKING THIS MY FAULT! 😩

Morgause has joined the chat. Morgause: I went away for one weekend to the Isle of the Blessed and came back to find my sister cuddling with the man who killed her via herbal sabotage?! 🌿🔪 Arthur: FINALLY A VOICE OF REASON! Morgause: This entire affair is disgraceful, reckless, and sentimentally offensive! 👀 Arthur: THANK YOU! 🙌 Morgause: …Also, Lancelot, call me sometime. 😘 Lancelot: Why ?? 😱😐 Gwaine: You’re tragically handsome and she’s emotionally unstable. That’s a ship with sails. 🚢💘 Morgana: Oh no. Gwaine’s matchmaking again. 😒 Gwen: Last time he did this, poor Leon nearly eloped with a willow nymph. 🧝‍♀️ Leon: I said I don’t want to talk about it! 😤

Lancelot: Merlin, I’m here for you—but if she stabs you again, I will hide you into a moat for your own safety. 🛡️💦 Merlin: Love you too, bro! 🥹❤️ Morgana: I CAN READ THIS, YOU KNOW! 🔪 Arthur: CAN WE GO BACK TO THE PART WHERE YOU POISONED HER AND NOW YOU’RE PLANNING A LIFE TOGETHER?! 😭 Gwaine: Arthur, this is the slow-burn payoff: years of tension, betrayal, loyalty, poison—real romance. 💍🔥 Percival: He wrote vows. 😭✒️ Arthur: MERLIIIIIIN. YOU. ARE. NOT. ALLOWED. TO. MARRY. MY. SISTER. 🧨 Morgause: I second that. With evil stares and, probably, 20 murder plans involving a certain warlock. 🧪🖤 Morgana: You are such a drama queen, Morgause! 🙄👑 Merlin: Gwen said the wedding is character development! 🕊️💐 Gwen: It is. They’ve matured and resolved conflict. It is emotional growth through botanical disaster. 🌿❤️

Merlin: So maybe this isn’t the right time to talk about... the stairs? 🪜 Arthur: WHAT STAIRS?! 😱 Gwen: Abort. Arthur is spiraling again. 🫢 Arthur: I AM NOT SPIRALING. I AM THE ONLY SANE PERSON IN THIS CHAT ROOM AND PROBABLY THE ENTIRE KINGDOM! 😤👑 Merlin: In my defense, that time was an accident and I did fight the dragon to get her a cure. 🐉🗡️ Morgana: He’s so deadly romantic when he wants to be. 🖤✨ Gwaine: My OTP is even better than I hoped. I’m going to need a full timeline. Annotated. With GIFs. 📚📸 Arthur: GWAINE, I SWEAR— Gwaine: Shhh. This is love, princess. 👑💕

The Great Dragon has joined the chat. The Great Dragon: DESTINY IS COLLAPSING. STARS ARE WEEPING. ROMANCE IS A CAGE OF CHAOS. 🌌🔥 Merlin: Bro, you yell in riddles and still haven’t processed your abandonment issues. 🙃 Morgana: Someone mute Smaug’s dramatic cousin. 🔇🗣️ The Great Dragon: YOU WITCH… 🐉💢

Aithusa has joined the chat. Aithusa: 🐲✨ My beautiful OTP. I drew them holding hands in front of a burning castle. Morgana: My sweet chaos noodle, I love you. 💞🐲 Gwaine: Finally, someone who gets me. Love you too, little thing—even though I just met you. Can I see the drawing? Let’s exchange fanart! 🎨🖌️ Aithusa: Morgana is the best. Merlin is my dad and he makes her smile, so he can stay. I would love to see your fanart fellow shipper. 💕👨‍👩‍👧 The Great Dragon: THIS IS HERESY. AITHUSA I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS! 😡 Aithusa: You raised me on dramatic destiny, and now you’re mad I crave plot twists? 🤷‍♂️📖

Arthur: Gaius, please, make this stop. 😩 Gaius: I once reattached a man’s ear with tree sap. This is worse.🌿 Gwaine: So! Wedding theme ideas: “Poisonous Passion” or “Till Death (Stairs Optional)”? 💀💐 Arthur: I AM NOT PAYING FOR A CAKE SHAPED LIKE A VIAL OF POISON. 🍰☠️ Gwen: You know we’ll cover it, love. It’s romantic symbolism. 🥰

Gwaine changed the group name to: 💀 Merlgana: Poison, Passion, and Petty Siblings Arthur changed it to: I’m Not Officiating This 😠 Morgause changed it to: Lancelot’s Jawline Deserves Better 😍 Gaius changed it to: Please Stop Involving Me 😫 Lancelot changed it to: Merlin’s Unstoppable Love Life (Send Help) 🚨 Gwen changed it to: Let People Love (And Maybe Talk About It First) 🥀 Aithusa changed it to:💖Morgana & Merlin Forever: Stab Me Gently With Affection💖

Arthur muted the chat for 3 days.

Arthur rejoined after 6 minutes:

“I JUST FOUND A SAVE-THE-DATE THAT BLEEDS GLITTER AND SINGS ‘LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD’ WHEN OPENED AND I AM GOING TO SCREAM 😱💥.”

[sneakyboymerlin]

Any thoughts on s5 merwaine strained relationship (Merlin not wanting to save him in ep1/2,not hugging him in ep4, Gwaine not speaking up for Merlin when Gwen accused him of Arthur’s murder, Eira (ep12).

First off, I’m going to start with the obvious: season 5 eps 1 & 2 are painfully out of character, poorly written imposter episodes. The sole purpose of Merlin’s hesitance to ride out is to uplift Arthur’s character, making him appear more heroic and matured than Merlin, and by comparison to where we saw him in s4, without having to actually develop his character. It’s cheap, lazy writing, to put it bluntly.

But, if it helps… Merlin wasn’t just ~abandoning~ Gwaine. He thought Gwaine was dead and that Arthur was going on a fool’s errand to join him in an early grave. Regardless of the fact that Gwaine was very much still kickin’, this is the place that Merlin was coming from. If the writers really needed to take the route they did, they should have given us a scene of Merlin mourning Gwaine to make this clearer, but since the writers only care about Arthur, they only show us this information through Merlin’s concern for Arthur. But it is present in the text.

In 5x04, we can see that Merlin is frantic to get to Arthur because Arthur is walking into a trap. It’s a time-sensitive mission. The purpose of writing a scene where Merlin shoves off Gwaine’s hug is simply to express this urgency. It comes across worse because, again, the writers do not find it important to show Merlin and Gwaine after they save the battle. They only care about how these events fuel Arthur’s reputation (not to be mistaken with development… he does not truly develop).

The belief that Gwaine simply let Merlin be arrested in 5x07 is a fanon pet peeve of mine. We don’t actually see any of the knights’ reactions in the immediate aftermath— only that Merlin did indeed get thrown in the dungeons. Later, we see that Leon believes the accusation and fully supports Gwen. We also see Gwaine pursuing what he believes to be an intruder in the citadel and, later, releasing Merlin from the dungeons himself with a massive smile on his face. We can pretty easily infer from this that 1) Gwaine did not believe that Merlin did it; 2) He may have been attempting to find the real culprit; and 3) He was outnumbered by the knights who did believe Gwen/follow her orders (such as Leon). After all, if Gwaine had arrested Merlin or believed the accusation for a second, he would have shown guilt upon releasing him from the dungeons. And why have Gwaine specifically be the only knight to release Merlin otherwise?

Gwaine sleeping with Eira is not evidence of a strained friendship between Merlin and Gwaine. Rather, it ends up proving where Gwaine’s loyalties truly lay— and it showcases Merlin’s friendship with Gwaine, which has indeed been ignored in s5. The reason for this is because it is their last episode together, and the writers are aware that fans care enough about their friendship that it needed the attention promised from Gwaine’s intro ep.

Gwaine rescues a cute girl (and gets rescued in return) and takes a special interest in her because he’s attracted to her. Merlin does Gwaine a personal favor by tending to her wounds. Later, Merlin asks Gwaine to escort him into the Valley of the Fallen Kings and does not provide an explanation for why, because he trusts Gwaine to protect him. Gwaine acquiesces, leaving Eira behind even though she asks him to stay. Gwaine makes it clear to Merlin that he’s doing this for Merlin because he wants to and does not expect anything in return— in fact, he feels he’s gotten more than enough in return. Merlin trusts Gwaine enough to admit he’s lying to him, even if he won’t tell Gwaine what about. And Gwaine trusts Merlin enough to leave him to it, then leaves Merlin with his sword since he won’t accept Gwaine’s protection any further.

Offscreen, Gaius reveals to Gwaine that Merlin believes Eira to be the traitor in the court, and provides Merlin’s evidence. Gwaine takes Merlin’s word for it and sets Eira up, sending her to her execution. So, really, the whole Eira situation is functionally meant to boost our view of their selfless friendship… but a bit too late, since the writers have neglected them quite literally all season long. It’s very much a last minute “shit we forgot to care” project.

When they do give Merlin and Gwaine’s dynamic attention, though, the writers make sure to present how close they are, but they ignore this for the most part to focus on Arthur. Essentially, it’s not that Merlin doesn’t still care about Gwaine… it’s that the writers don’t. The writers literally do not care about anyone besides Arthur— not even Merlin, the titular character. Not only did they neglect to give Merlin any character consistency in s5, but they did so (and framed events in a specific way) to ensure that Arthur’s reputation would remain unstained, as he is a personified fantasy of avoiding accountability and being coddled for one’s own wrongdoings.

Fans, of course, buy into this and argue that Arthur can do no wrong because he’s “too ignorant” to know any better, instead placing blame on characters like Morgana for “proving the stereotypes right” or onto Gwen and Merlin for “coddling” him. Thus, these fans coddle Arthur, despite claiming the opposite.

The truth is that Arthur is responsible for his own actions and beliefs. Those actions and beliefs are the mass slaughter of innocent people simply because they have magic. He’s already seen more than enough evidence that magical peoples are not inherently evil or harmful, and applied this same logic to other areas of life (such as nobles vs. commoners), and found that no one is inherently superior or inferior for their birth circumstances. It is only in the topics of magic (and gender…) that Arthur believes this. But even after the Dolma saves Gwen, he still refuses to lift the ban… so, yeah, all in all you can blame the lack of Merlin and Gwaine content in s5 on the writers not wanting Arthur to either develop or be held accountable for his actions. Instead, they wanted to present a character to be lauded above all others no matter what he does. This tells you a lot about the morals of the people writing the story… and maybe some of the things they don’t want to be held responsible for. After all, 35% of all BBCM episodes come with a message of, “If you try to stop this oppressive bigot, you’re just as bad as he is!”

TL;DR: they shoved Merlin and Gwaine aside to make more room for monarchy propaganda.

[astra-galaxie]

I decided I wanted to make one of these! Explanations of my choices can be found below!

Favourite character: Shocker! My favourite character is Diego! Who could have foreseen this coming? I've always loved Diego, and his character development is so well-written! Plus, Pretty Simple was VERY generous when designing him!😏

Liked by everyone but me: This might be a bit of a controversial take, so please don't grab the pitchforks and torches until you hear me out! I don't, nor have I ever hated Elliot; I've just never understood the hype surrounding him. He's just never appealed to me like he does for others, but he's still an interesting character.

Didn't like at first: Asal still isn't high on my list of liked characters, but I like her more than I used to. I had forgotten about the more specific aspects of her character, and when I wrote my Save The World story, I realized she was more complex than I remembered. Mainly how she was hostile towards the Bureau because she thought they were aware of Ripley's involvement with SOMBRA, and after finding out they were unaware, she seemed remorseful for her actions.

Would like to know more about: I feel like there is so much more we could have learned about Arthur. Why did he start the rebellion? Why did he become a writer? How did he manage to escape from the Demon Queen's faithful? How was he captured? So many questions that I want to know the answers to!

Least favourite character: Do I need to say anything about this one? No, seriously, do I? Because I feel like it's pretty obvious why I would hate him, given his LONG list of dirty deeds!

Like the design, dislike the character: While I might not like Morgana, I LOVE her design! Her dress is so pretty, and her hair and make suit her aesthetic! Plus, her accessories are wicked! (See what I did there?😉)

Like the character, dislike the design: Abigail is such a cool and unique character, but I wish her design was better. It just seems so simple and plain... PS could have at least given her some accessories or something instead of just a basic tank top! Someone give this ghost a makeover!

Similar personality: I connect with Evie on a spiritual level. I, too, enjoy hiding away from the real world and doing something I love. Also, I am very shy and quiet, so much so that I am constantly accidentally sneaking up on people!

Fav ship: Maddie and Charlie's love story is so good! It's the perfect friends-to-lovers story, and watching them get together made me so happy!

Least fave ship: Again, do I need to say anything? These two have ZERO chemistry beyond friendship, and their sudden "rekindled" romance made no sense. Gwen and Hope deserved to get together, and I stand by that fact!

Would befriend IRL: Luke reminds me of some of my current and old IRL friends. I think he and I would get along! I've already said that I would like to be his friend, which hasn't changed.

Would never befriend IRL: And because I had to state my dislike of Fabian somehow, this is where I'm doing it! I HATE this guy (but not as much as Horatio) and would NEVER be his friend! I'd rather drive a stake through my heart than be his friend! Whenever he came on the screen while playing S7, I would glare at him...

And that's everything! Can you tell which seasons are my favourite?😉

Again, these are just my personal opinions, so please do not gather the mob! People are allowed to like or dislike whichever characters they choose, so please be respectful of mine.✨

[closetsof-backlogged-dreams]

opinions on morgwen

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHDSJFH;DAJKSDJ

hot take of the day: morgwen, when looking at just the plot and its existing holes, actually makes more sense than merthur

ik!! ik!! outrageous. proposterous. INSANITY. but morgwen would actually ASSIST in fixing my biggest problem with the entire series, the biggest hole in morgana's very holey character arc: her hatred for arthur.

ive actually talked about this before, in this post:

"for example, when morgana began to hate arthur and want him dead and stuff—that development came out of nowhere. for the entire series up until that point, she had loved and cared for him. now, all of the sudden, she wants him dead?? now, it had made sense for uther. he had done terrible things to morgana and could very clearly see the line between her love and hate for him. you could to watch her tip-toe along it in real time until she began plotting his murder. that arc made sense. but arthur? there was no point where we saw arthur do anything that would make her hate him the way she did. he was just randomly lumped together with uther as another pendragon she had to kill to get the throne. but, again, it doesn't make sense! she never lumped them together. in the episode To Kill the King, morgana directly compares arthur and uther by telling him that, 'You're a better man than your father. Always were.' again, she never lumped them together! yet, later on, that's exactly what she does."

expanding on the beginning of that quote: in my opinion, this is what a character arc should look like: (and behold, the reason this ask took me a hundred years to answer... a CHART (made by moi))

^that is a very basic idea of a character arc, when a person starts one way and ends in another, all because of different inciting incidents forcing them to change. a slightly more complex version of this will look a little like this:

In this one, there is a very clear "Point B" where you can see that they've changed—that there is still more change to come, but that they have grown. this is how Morgana's character arc is shaped. in season two, you can very clearly see that Point B, and it's actually why it's my favorite season of Morgana's character development. season two showcases her gradual downfall as she struggles being a sorceress in the center of Camelot as Uther's own ward. everything you see her feel and struggle with feels very real.

season three is when it all starts to go awry. we obviously know that this is the season that she reaches that horrible Point C, when her character arc is complete and she turns into that wretched villainess we all know and love.

the issue with this is that there is a very important checklist-style of things she needs to believe in order to turn into this person:

✅find out about her magic

✅hate Uther

✅meet Morgause and believe in her goals

✅hate Arthur

i fully believe that she would not and could not change into the person she became without hating Arthur, because that was why she wanted to take the throne—she believed that both Pendragons couldn't be trusted to repeal the magic ban, and would continue the endless cycle of genocide. if she still cared about Arthur, still had faith in him, then she wouldn't have been so desperate to be crowned queen.

do i think that Morgana's faith in him was already wavering? absolutely. but i also believe that something HUGE had to happen to shatter her faith in him entirely. what could have been one of the best ways to do this?

eating away at her affections for him, slowly, with one or two issues before wiping out every good feeling she has ever felt for him with one big incident. how does morgwen tie into this, though?

it's simple: make arthur and gwen's relationship very obvious to morgana. force her to encounter it often. make her uncomfortable, because SHE loves gwen, has always loved gwen, and now her brother who spent years not even knowing who she was is supposedly in love with her?? that would be enough to eat away at anyone's affection for their brother. morgana wasn't stupid. she figured out their relationship very quickly, and was obviously disgusted with the idea. BUILD on that disgust. and then, once its obvious morgana is heart-wrenchingly jealous of arthur, make arthur do something stupid or harmful towards magic. shatter morgana's faith in him.

it would work so perfectly!! everything would fall into place!! all those weird plot holes surrounding morgana's downfall would make a million times more sense. imagine really only loving two people in the world: your best friend, your maidservant, the love of your life and your childhood friend, your ever-lasting nuisance, your brother. imagine them both falling in love while you can only watch helplessly. that's a perfect villian origin story, paired with uther's abuse, morgause's manipulation, and her own alienation from the people around her.

so, i know this was a lot, and took me a hundred million YEARS to respond to, but i'm literally so passionate about this its not even funny. if you want me to expand on anything or if you have any questions, please let me know!!! i love talking about this part of the show:)

[arthemrys]

ramblings about my merlin rewatch nobody asked for under the cut 😁

okay so yesterday i finished my merlin rewatch and i must say it really cleared my view on arwen. and no i wasn't expecting that

when i first watched it the relationship between arthur and merlin took me off guard, bc i honestly didn't expect it to be *that* intense and complex (it wasn't the reason i first watched it in the first place and i didn't know anything about it), so it ended up absorbing my attention completely and obscuring everything else. and what a fucking ride it was LMFAOO i had never done "live commentary" (more or less) about a show i watched on my bts related main, but merthur had me SO instantly and fervently engaged i needed to !!!!!! scream !!!!!!!!!!! so i started bothering my followers about it . anyways lol

considering this was my first experience i did agree with some of the criticism i read about arwen, mostly the fact that it seemed to come out of nowhere and that it was never as emotionally charged as merthur, but that's SO not true and in the end it was simply a matter of me not watching objectively and attentively enough the first time!!!!!!!

i think the main difference between merthur and arwen is the way intensity builds. and i hope this makes sense bc i can't really explain it either lmfaoooo but basically what i mean is that while with merthur feelings immediately burst in your face, also (not exclusively) thanks to the circumstances (i.e. 1. merlin's instant commitment because of the prophecy 2. them being forcefully in each other's proximity all the time bc of merlin's literal job), with arwen its a slowwww and gradual emotional build up that starts since s1. at first gwen is (rightfully) critical of him, he's not in her graces AT ALL, and he pretty much ignores her presence, she's just his sister's maidservant. but then (off the top of my mind) she tends to his illness, she shows willingness to fight bandits, she scolds him for turning up his nose at the food he's offered, and he notices, and by the time he stays at her house she's already someone he has a fairly positive opinion of that goes beyond "she's good at her job", even though the stuck up and arrogant part of him still can't fathom treating her with the respect she deserves (which leads to her telling him off like the queen she is . anyways)

and then gradually that fairly positive opinion becomes the foundation for something more, and isn't that how stuff develops in real life as well? arthur discovers the intensity of his feelings and gwen starts being up there with merlin as the most important people in his life, despite not being his "soulmate" in the same bound-together-by-a-prophecy, two-sides-of-the-same-coin, i-will-spend-the-next-millenium-and-a-half-waiting-for-you way merlin is. merlin was placed at arthur's side by fate, gwen was chosen by arthur himself.

in conclusion i still am a merthur enthusiast first and foremost but . arwen <<<333 . denying gwen's role and importance in arthur's life is pure insanity

[princess-of-morkva]

Most of morgwen fics is just Gwen uselessly and pathetically simping for Morgana, serving her emotionally and physically. The latest of yours is not an exception. Morgwen!Gwen is always humiliated, always secondary to Morgana's development. Just a little nostalgic thing for Morgana, just a pretty thing to receive care from, just a device to become good and sane again. Like a sink for Morgana to pour out her evil in, a tool. Gwen didn't deserve this. Why should she forgive Morgana's multiple attempts on her life? Real Gwen didn't get a fuck about Morgana after everything she had done to the people Gwen truly loved: Merlin, Arthur, her brother. Real Gwen was afraid of Morgana's magic, real Gwen sensed her evil, real Gwen gave up every Morgana's plan. In your fic a pathetically crying Gwen knew Morgana didn't care about her, but you stopped at the realization that in fact, Gwen didn't either.

i'm just really curious what gave you an impression that the fic you're talking about was supposed to be a representation of a healthy relationship? morgana is not even alive in that fic.

what are you even doing in fandom spaces if you can't tolerate fucked-up relationship dynamics so badly you feel the need to rant about it in my inbox

[theredpharaoah]

Reading comprehension is at an all time low. You way too in your feelings over my lil Merthur post. Fanfiction wasn’t part of my argument brain trust. I brought that up in regards to her finding out about Merthur from TikTok. I never said anything about fanfiction providing evidence for this ship in the show. No one knows their character better than the actors and they interpreted their characters as being attracted to one another. The writers also interpreted it that way. Where was I nasty to Gwen? I’ve never had a problem with Gwen. I’m a fem black individual myself - I loved Gwen. I wanted them to do more with her and they did not. I literally stated that just as Merthur is the dominant ship in the fandom, Morgwen is right there next to it.

Ok, let’s talk about Gwen and Arthur’s marriage….it ain’t shit to say cuz it gave nothing. It was boring, stale, and Arthur never seemed to care for her as much as he did Merlin. And I never said Gwen and Arthur’s relationship was fake. The OP said that BOTH Merlin and Arthur liked Gwen. Which is why I specifically said that Gwen and Merlin’s little bit of attraction in season 1 gave “girl falls in love with gay boy because she thinks he’s sweet and charming”.

Pump the brakes. Who the fuck is going ”uwu”? I am not one of these lil smol bean bitches you used to dealing with on this app. We could meet up in real life and see what you really about, trust. You have a difference in opinion and that’s fine, but you ain’t have to come up in here being disrespectful. Furthermore, I didn’t diminish, replace, insult or ignore Gwen. But if I wanted to do that, I damn sure would do that and ain’t shit you could or would do about it. Know that.

Now on to the next one:

Nobody ever said or thought “Arthur was just using Gwen for her womb”. Please keep your assumptions and bullshit to the people you know and not me. I never said the authors didn’t write that they were in love. They TOLD us that on multiple occasions. But when it comes to writing it’s better to show and not tell. If you have to do the latter then usually there’s something wrong with the writing. The subtext(because yes, that does exist. Shocking I know.) reads Merthur. And that makes sense since that was what the writers intended. There’s some shit on one of the Blue rays where a writer literally says it’s a love story between two men. It’s as platonic as Xena and Gabrielle. I said Gwen doesn’t have chemistry with anyone and I was mostly talking about Merlin and Arthur. But no I don’t think she had much chemistry with anyone because I don’t think her character was ever developed all that greatly to begin with. She’s a side character. This whole conversation is hilarious because you two are both working off of these crazy ass assumptions. The main one seems to be that I’m some white person when I’m not only black and fem, but an anthropologist and philosopher who primarily studies race/gender and spirituality religion - specifically in relation to black peoples mostly. My entire life revolves around me being black and fem. So go on ahead and miss me with all this “all the white boy characters are just so lovable” shit, cuz that was never in my thought process. Again, never stated that the Merthur subtext was diminishing anything. I simply stated that it was clear that Merthur was the ship of the show. And again, the writer and I believe Katie said on the season 5 tape that the show was a love story between Merlin and Arthur. I never lied about the canon material. I stated how I saw Merlin and Gwen’s relationship in season one. You are attributing a bunch of shit to a short and quick post that was never even stated. Again, where is it even implied I said omegaverse fanfiction was canon? I specifically brought that up in relation to her saying she learned about Merthur from TikTok. It was the usual “Yall wasn’t there in the trenches with us” type of statement. Both you sorry ass hoes need to learn how to read. Maybe print out the post next time and annotate it or something. Idk. Yall are referring to a bunch of shit that was never said by me. Both of you are working entirely off of assumptions about me that are not at all true. The first fool said some “uwu ships wars are dumb” shit and you over here talking about white boys and “we gays”. Keep it cute cuz I’m definitely the bitch to make it ugly. I am NOT one of them smol bean bitches. Metaphorically speaking; the only trigger warning you gon get from me is the sound of the bullet firing.

You started with a good premise but now I think you’re actually insane. Merlin and Arthur had tension from day one. I was a child and I knew they were gay for one another. Gwen didn’t have chemistry with anyone - least of all Merlin. Merlin wasn’t interested in Gwen at all. Season 1 read as when the girl falls for the gay boy cuz he’s so nice and sweet. The actors shipped Merthur. The writers shipped Merthur and they wanted the fandom to ship Merthur. The only reason they probably didn’t explicitly put it in the show was because of the time we were in. The writers and fandom have always been gay af. Because right next to Merthur is Morgwen and after that, Gwen/Lancelot. This is not at all an example of what you’re talking about. Also, TikTok? Did you just start watching the show? Watch it again please. And then watch it another time. Like we were reading/writing Merthur fanfic in 2008. I was on mf livejournal reading A/B/O dynamics Merthur fanfics. Hello??!!! Like maybe it’s because I’ve been in this fandom for over a decade - Merthur was my first fandom - but I’m literally so affronted and flabbergasted. How do you even-

[thisisjustmefangirling]

BBC Merlin rewatch, 1x05 : "Lancelot"

Today, we meet Lancelot !

Why doesn’t Merlin use his magic to protect himself against the griffin ? He didn't even try. Maybe he was too scared... some fics say it's because he was still recovering from being poisoned.

Aaaand from the get go we are introduced to Lancelot as a brave and selfless character, a hero willing to risk his life to save someone else.

It's nice to see Arthur and Uther out in the forest doing kingly things, checking out villages together.

"You could shame the great Arthur himself" awww Merlin you're sweet, acknowledging what a good fighter Arthur already is.

"You face the most feared of all foes, the ultimate killing machine. You face me." This much bragging and ego is giving serious Gilderoy Lockhart vibes and makes me want to laugh but Arthur actually has the skills to support his claim. He took out that Wessex guy in less than 30 seconds. The guy had two swords, and Arthur did not even use his own, he ducked, punched and kneed the guy, and voilà.

I LOVE sword fighting scenes. Especially when they involve Arthur.

Arthur points out he's the third noble to fail the test this month and "How am I meant to defeat Camelot with rubbish like that ?" and I think it nicely sets up the idea that the knights of the Round Table will be coming from elsewhere and deep down he juges them by their skills and honor.

As another post has already pointed out, Arthur rejects the idea of Merlin becoming a knight ("I think I might be able to help") not because Merlin is not noble born but due to what he thinks Merlin lacks for the job. "Courage, fortitude, discipline"

Aaaand Merlin openly lies. "He IS a nobleman".

"Thanks Arthur. You won’t regret it". Merlin doesn’t even bother with "my lord" or "sire" or "your highness" haha.

Merlin suddenly develops a talent for forgery. Congratulations.

Geoffrey of Monmouth's eyebrows are impressive and probably fake.

Gwen highlights Merlin's kindness : "Merlin would do anything for anyone"

Gwen and Lancelot are cute together

Nice music as Merlin and Lancelot walk in the corridor

Did I mention I love to see Arthur training his knights and himself ? Cause I do.

"Lance... lot". Thanks Arthur now I imagine Philomena Cunk going "Lance A Lot" just like she said "King Arthur came a lot, didn't he ?"

Maybe you think that Arthur slapping Lancelot was a dick move; to me it shows he's fed up with nobles who think their skills are better than what they truly are. He NEEDS good fighters to defend his kingdom. "Sluggish reactions. On the battlefield, you'd be dead by now". Have you already been on the battlefield, Arthur ? I wonder.

Lancelot shows he's tenacious by getting back up and declaring he's ready now.

I think Arthur is amused by Lancelot's eagerness to prove himself, and he likes it, and him. Look at his face... He's smirking :

The real dick move was making Lancelot cleaning the stables.

Lancelot went straight to Merlin's room... do they sleep in the same room ?

"Your magic is not a toy, Merlin. It is not for you to use and abuse as you see fit." Ugh Gaius you're annoying.

Also Lancelot is right on the other side of the door while they talk about Merlin's magic ??? Gaius you keep berating Merlin for his use of magic, for fear he could be found out, but you are not discreet at all !

Great fight scene between Lancelot and Arthur, who seemed eager to test this newcomer.

I love the way Bradley moves. I don't know anything about how much training he got for these fight scenes but there's a great physicality to him, his arms and shoulders seem nicely developed and used to the exercise. He hasn’t lost any of that, he was fantastic in "Vikings : Valhalla", though it felt strange to see him playing a villain.

Arthur is in a rush to have Lancelot be tested and be knighted. He smells potential.

I love that Lancelot bested Arthur by being more clever than him and tricking him. I didn’t think it was in his nature.

Morgana eyeing Lancelot makes me laugh

Oh look, women with wimples.

Morgana looks beautiful in burgundy.

I can't believe Arthur is staring at Morgana and Lancelot is staring at Gwen and they bond over "do you think she's beautiful?" Like... Arthur and Lancelot should have had a strong friendship on this show, aren’t they supposed to be best friends in the original texts and some of the adaptations ? I know a book in which Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot have a threesome to make sure Guinevere gets pregnant. Arthur and Lancelot were close enough for that. Of course here, Merlin is/will be Arthur's best friend... but Arthur deserves to have friends, and to have friends left after being betrayed by so many people by season 5. He was too lonely. Look, he's smiling at him here :

"He [Lancelot] is not really my type".

"Sometimes Guinevere, I wonder if you would know what your type was if he was standing right next to you." Merlin you are standing right next to her...

This episode is so funny for this, all the main characters are looking at someone and their looks are not returned. Arthur is looking at Morgana, who's looking at Lancelot, who's looking at Gwen, while Gwen is looking at Merlin, who is looking at Arthur and Lancelot.

MERLIN MAKING GWEN CHOOSE BETWEEN ARTHUR AND LANCELOT WHEN SHE'S NOT INTERESTED IN ANY OF THEM YET OMG. "Just for the sake of the argument".

This is another one of these occasions when Arthur and his knights are wearing CHAINMAIL, something you wear for PROTECTION in BATTLE, at a feast. Yes, you're knights, we get it. You're also the Prince, Arthur. Wear something fancy.

I never get tired of seeing Pierrefonds from afar.

You are wearing your fancy vest this morning Arthur, so why couldn’t you wear something similar last night ?

Uther doesn’t need chainmail either but it could go with his paranoid personality so I'll let it slide, especially since he's wearing a nice dark... surcoat ? I love that Arthur wears bright reds and Uther and Morgana wear darker tones of red.

"How can you trust a man who's lied to you?" asks Uther, and the scene cuts to show Merlin.

Gaius and his books remind me of Giles.

The griffin attacks. Arthur leads his knights. "ON ME ! ON MEEEE". The show does a good job at establishing Arthur's skills as a fighter and leader of his knights, and his qualities such as his bravoury and sense of self-sacrifice.

I wish the show wouldn’t use so much slow motion during fight scenes...

"You said your knights were the best in the land, and you proved that today". So once again it goes to show that Arthur expects a high level of skills from his knights, but for a good reason.

Uther refusing to listen to reason even though it could cost him his son's life is sending me. Arthur will ride out against the creature because it is his duty to protect Camelot but also because his father ordered him to and he yearns for his father's approval and fears his disappointment.

"Merlin you are the only thing I care about in all this world. I would give my life for you without a thought", says Gaius, while obviously still being loyal to Uther somehow.

Arthur thinks he's been "so stupid" for believing in Lancelot and Merlin's lie. It's just the beginning...

"I need... Camelot needs" yeah Arthur just admit you like Lancelot and admire him, it's alright.

"It doesn't matter what I believe. The use of magic is not permitted".

Arthur gives Lancelot his freedom, in his father's back.

Sweet moment between Gwen and Lancelot. She might be developing her crush.

Ooooh right, Arthur and his knights were still wearing helmets that season.

They found a good option for Arthur, because helmets and filmmaking don't really go together (unless it's The Mandalorian), and this helmet protects the head but shows enough of the actor's face to let the viewer enjoy the acting and see the character's emotions.

"I'm failing, and if Arthur dies because I am not good enough..." Merlin's biggest fear.

How come both of Lancelot's shoulders are protected when Arthur is only protected on his right side ? ...it's purely decorative, isn’t it ?

Oh I didn’t expect the forest scene to be so close to the castle.

That's a nice horse Lancelot has. Totally epic sequence.

Arthur is so happy Lancelot managed to kill the griffin, oooooh.

Aw and Gaius is proud of Merlin... That's sweet. Also interesting to note he struggled to enchant a weapon now in season 1 but in the pilot he could stop time without thinking and in season 5 he can accomplish feats of magic like no one else can.

Who are these random people in the room with Uther, Arthur and the guards ? They are useless and shouldn't be here.

"He laid down his life for me ! He served with honour".

"The law is the law. The code bends for no man". "Then the code is wrong !" Arthur, my darling, I love to see you make your own conclusions and realise that your father is not right about everything. Keep turning into the great King you will be ❤️

Lancelot knows about Merlin's magic and accepts him.

Lancelot barging in to say goodbye... Dude, Arthur was fighting for you to be pardoned and reinstated as a knight. He liked you and wanted you to stay and he basically told you so. You don't have to sacrifice yourself all the damn time. Fight for what you want. You are too noble for your own good. YOU killed the griffin. You were the one who fought it and won. Merlin helped, but it doesn't mean that it is his accomplishment alone. It was team work.

Morgana's voice is softer this season than later. She and Gwen are sweet together.

Byyye Lancelot, see you later !

Okay, my conclusions :

Merlin is learning not to mess with other people's destiny, and learning new spells.

Arthur's skills and sense of honor were nicely shown, and he wasn't very prattish in this episode

Arthur is amused by people who defy him, like Merlin or Lancelot. Let him have real friends, pleaaaase.

So many ships were created by that episode.

Lancelot is too noble for his own good and I'm afraid that's what made him a bit boring to my eyes in later seasons.

Arthur is not afraid to go against his father and stand for what is right, he did it at least twice if not three times : by telling his father in denial that he thinks Gaius is right, by freeing Lancelot behind his father's back, and by going to see his father to demand to have Lancelot pardoned and restaured as a knight.

I don't expect perfect costuming (or even historical accuracy) from this show but a tiny bit more consistency and logic wouldn't have hurt. Fan artists and fashion historians, if you ever come this way... I'll take all the art of Merlin and Arthur and Morgana in the BEST outfits.

They've really pulled the knight/chivalry card in this ep and I loved it.

[pluckyredhead]

Please Care About Aquaman With Me: Everybody Has a Bad Time in the Bronze Age

Thank you for returning to my irregularly scheduled Aquaman micro-hyperfixation! Last time, I talked about the first 35-ish years of Aquahistory. Now we’re up to 1975 and comics have developed longer plotlines and gotten angstier and more melodramatic - and major characters are fair game to be killed off. Gwen Stacy died in 1974, but the death this post kicks off with is even more shocking.

CW: Child death, comic book sexism.

The very short version of the setup is that Black Manta has captured Arthur, Garth, and Aquababy. He puts Aquababy in a glass ball full of air (instead of water), which he will suffocate in after a few minutes, and Arthur and Garth in an arena to fight to the death. Once one of them dies, he’ll fill Aquababy’s prison with water.

So just to make this absolutely clear: to save his biological son, Arthur will have to kill or be killed by his foster son.

He doesn’t hesitate for a second.

I know we talk about Bruce being a bad dad all the time, but at least when Ra’s al Ghul tried to make him chose whether Tim or Damian would die, he offered himself instead. Arthur had that option here! And yet.

The look on Garth’s face here absolutely kills me and this is the comic that made me start going feral over the Aquafam. Of course absolutely zero time is spent on his emotional reaction to this, but the only father he’s ever known not only just tried to kill him - he made it clear that he doesn’t actually consider Garth his child. “That’s my son up there! My son!!” THAT’S YOUR SON DOWN HERE TOO, ARTHUR. The fact that he calls him “Minnow” while he does it (one of his two long-running nicknames for Garth, the other being “Tadpole”) makes it hurt even worse.

I think this moment, too, is why Arthur and Garth basically never refer to each other as father and son. On paper, they have a similar relationship to Bruce and Dick and Roy and Ollie, who acknowledge their father-son dynamics all the time. But despite Garth saying Arthur’s like a father to him in his very first appearance, after this, they just...don’t say those words. Arthur is Garth’s liege and his friend, but he is not his father.

(Mera is still his mom. He loves Mera so much.)

But wait! It gets worse!

Arthur and Garth escape the arena and shatter Aquababy’s prison, but it’s too late - he’s suffocated. He was only one year old. The panels aren’t graphic - it’s still only 1975, after all - but I’m still not sharing them because that is too sad to make anyone look at.

Black Manta flees, and Arthur tells Garth they’re going after him, but Garth refuses:

Oof.

Arthur - this is so horrible - gives Aquababy’s body to Topo, his pet octopus, to bring home to Mera, and takes off after Black Manta. This is basically like having your dog do it. He doesn’t even bother to break the news to her himself. In fact, he spends literally months away chasing Black Manta but then just, like, fighting crime. Like, he teams up with Batman at one point. What the fuck is wrong with you, Arthur? To make matters worse, it turns out Aquababy WASN’T EVEN DEAD and Mera spends several issues desperately trying to save him but fails, so if Arthur had spent more time thinking about his wife and son(s) instead of revenge, Aquababy probably would have lived. Arthur’s the worst.

Meanwhile, Garth decides to figure out who his real parents are, so he does some digging and discovers that he actually comes from a hidden society of purple-eyed pacifists called the Idylists, and his parents were actually king and queen, but his father went crazy and decided to start a lot of wars for no reason so his people, uhhhhh...killed him. And exiled the queen, hence Garth being born in Atlantis and not Idylist-ville (later named Shayeris). Weirdly this all makes him feel much better and he decides to make up with Arthur? Okay, Bronze Age, okay.

The Aquaman comic was canceled, then briefly uncanceled, then canceled again by the end of the decade. Arthur spent the remainder of the pre-Crisis universe leading Justice League Detroit, a low point for the team, while Garth lurked around the fringes of the Teen Titans but wasn’t a regular member at this point. (He did team up with them while attending boarding school in Scotland, though. He wore a kilt and the Titans fought the Loch Ness monster. It was great.)

Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happened and Tula became canon fodder, dying early on when the radioactive monster Chemo poisoned the water she was swimming in.

Garth was devastated by her death, to the point that he was still very actively mourning her a decade later.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, new origins had to be established, and Arthur’s came in the 1986 Aquaman miniseries. (I’m going to be covering the rest of the 80s here, which is stretching the definition of “Bronze Age,” but...deal with it.) This miniseries brings in a high fantasy element to Aquaman comics for the first time, with a grandiose plot about Ocean Master stealing magical crystals from undersea cities like Atlantis and Thierna Na Oge. It also establishes the idea that "brother fighting brother” is a key element of Atlantis’s mythology and destiny. Anyway Arthur wears a blue wetsuit and has an emotional affair with the queen of Thierna Na Oge.

Bro, you’re still married.

This was followed by the 1988 Aquaman Special, which didn’t really bring anything new to the table, and then the 1989 The Legend of Aquaman Special, which...did. Arthur was no longer the son of an Atlantean woman and a human lighthouse keeper; he was a fully Atlantean child, abandoned at birth because of his blond hair, following in Garth’s proud tradition of “an all-white city is racist to people who are extra white in a super problematic metaphor for...something.” On the other hand, we do get this phenomenal panel of Arthur hunting:

As a teenager, he encounters a human fisherman who teaches him how to speak and read, but one day the fisherman is killed by Atlanteans for his connection to Arthur. Arthur goes looking for Atlantis, but is promptly thrown into prison, and we learn that his classic orange shirt and green pants are actually a prison uniform that he now wears to remind him of where he came from, which makes sense until you think about it for even a second. He could escape at any time, but he wants to find and speak to his birth mother, so he hangs out in prison, where he meets Vulko, who teaches him the Atlantean language. But then his mom dies before he can ever speak to her, so he breaks out and goes back to land and like, becomes Aquaman and hangs out with the Justice League and stuff.

Finally he’s like “I should go break all those other people out of jail,” but when he gets back to Atlantis he discovers that they’ve fixed all their political problems and he’s welcomed with open arms. Also, he’s royalty:

The current king does what no king would ever do and is like “Well, you should definitely have the throne instead of me,” and steps down. So these are the elements we’ll be working with until the New 52: no human heritage, royal on his mother’s side, abandoned at birth, foster fisherman dad. I wonder if that’s going to get super complicated?

(How do portraits work underwater??? Did this comic forget they were underwater? This comic definitely forgot they were underwater. This happens a lot.)

Then there’s the 1989 Aquaman series. Atlantis is temporarily conquered by giant alien jellyfish. So that’s a thing that happens.

More importantly, Mera abruptly goes crazy because her baby died...*checks notes*...14 years ago, and her delicate lady brain can’t handle it, so she attacks Arthur. I don’t mean to make light of the severe impact losing a child could have on one’s mental health, but the fact that she goes Comic Book Crazy while Arthur is basically completely fine is misogynistic as fuck.

While trying to fend her off, Arthur uhhhhhhh impales her and kills her. GREAT JOB, BUDDY. There is a very somber royal funeral.

LOL J/K. She’s from another dimension, so she’s immune to impalement, apparently! But decided to chill out in the coffin for a while anyway, I guess? This is the fucking funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Absolutely what you should do if your husband is as terrible as Arthur is, Mera is a queen in every possible way.

Anyway she zhwoops off back to her dimension like fucking Bugs Bunny unzipping reality and zipping it back up behind her, and Arthur cries. It’s great. (Oh, and also he steps down from being king, which is probably a good idea because he’s terrible at it.)

Next up: the nineties! Well, part of them. Also, my favorite Aquacharacter!

[pippin-katz]

i actually disagree. not every character has to be a favorite (as we all know) and there's nothing wrong with not liking them. You dont need a good reason. As long as they don't spread hate against them, quitely not liking them is fine.

it doesnt make someone misogynistic or racist to just not like a character. its a neutral thing, not everyone's vibe will suit everyone, and not everyone finds the same character interesting.

on the whole are female characters neglected across fandom? sure.

That doesn't mean a person should force themselves to like a paring or a character, just so they dont offend someone LMAO thats not what fandom is for. its people engaging with shit they love for fun and creating stuff from that love.

You seem to be missing my point and manipulating my words.

I did not say that disliking Guinevere makes you misogynistic or racist, but that there are people who ARE that will spread hate.

When I say you need a “reason” not to like a character, that reason can be as simple as “I don’t like her personality” or “I don’t like her vibe”.

THAT is a personal preference a person can have about a character that has nothing to do with a fan-driven ship.

Saying “Gwen sucks because she ruins Merthur!” has nothing to do with her as a character or her portrayal. It is not a commentary or opinion of her character at all, but just a blatantly rude statement because Merthur is not in the show.

If Merlin and Arthur were set up and explored as a potential relationship within the context of the show, and they ended up not doing it/breaking them up within the show, saying you don’t like Guinevere for her role in that plot line would be completely valid. Because they are not explored as a potential relationship, that is not a real criticism of her character.

Nothing I have said implies that you have to like Guinevere, or her relationship with Arthur.

I personally like the chemistry he and Merlin have better. If they had been willing or planning to go that route, I would have much preferred it, but that is not what happened, and that does not mean that what we got is inherently bad because of my personal preference.

People mistake opinions for critiques.

Do not misunderstand, many critiques are opinions, but most opinions are not critiques.

For example: my mother cannot watch the first fifteen minutes of Pixar’s Up because it upsets her too much. She then goes on to say that “it’s horrible”.

Those are two entirely separate concepts. You can dislike something, or be upset by something, but still recognize the quality of that something.

This can work both ways. You can love something, and recognize the lack of quality in it.

Cult classics are a fantastic example. The film Rocky Horror Picture Show is not a well-made, high quality movie. In this case, that is an intentional part of the film’s goal, but regardless, nearly every part of that movie is lackluster in execution. However, I and many other people love it. I am not saying that it is a good film because I personally love it. I can recognize something as poor quality even if I personally enjoy it.

In regards to Guinevere, you are well within your right not to like her. I have my own qualms with the character myself. Her writing in later seasons started lacking the spark and personality she had in season 1, in a way that was clearly not an intentional development. Notice how I did not outright say “Guinevere is a bad character” just because I feel her writing got worse.

When you choose to share your opinion in a public space, you should be thoughtful of how you do so. Not everyone will be, obviously, but if you have no ill intentions, you should be.

THAT is what I mean when I say you should have a “real reason” for disliking a character. If you have an opinion that is a valid personal preference you want to share, that is completely fine, but otherwise, you should “quietly dislike the character” as you put it.

Even if you do not intend spread hate with your own post, there are people who will use it as an opportunity for them to do so.

THAT is my point.

You are correct. Fandoms are meant to be places to engage with something they love, to create and talk about it with other fans. It is meant to be fun, which is why more people, in all fandoms, should think more when choosing what to say and what not to say and how to say it.

If more people made the individual effort to be polite and understanding with their opinions of media, so many fandoms would not be as toxic as they are.

THAT is my goal in saying all this.

I have not been perfect in the past with being considerate or polite in sharing my opinions, and every time, it led to negativity and frustration that could’ve been avoid if I or the other person had stopped to consider how our words could come across.

It ruins the experience of a fandom for the people involved, and many times steers curious individuals away from the content itself out of fear or distaste for the fandom’s behavior.

I hope that this clears things up a bit.

[lexa-gui]

I can't believe I'm finally done! I had a blast making this video, it's been my baby for ages. It's my take on a more darkish continuation of canon. Mind the TW in the video description! This video gets a lot darker than its canon basis.

Here's a thorough explanation of everything in the vid (also TW for attempted suicide):

So! Basically, I kept canon the same here, except for a couple of things. Merlin doesn't age physically (unlike what we see in the show's ending) and Kilgharrah gets replaced with a GoT dragon xd (what can I say the VFX are much cooler). Whenever you see bearded merlin though, that's an older post-Arthur merlin. And the video jumps back and forward a bit.

It starts with an older post-Camelot Merlin (00:05) (during the witch burnings), and then there's a clip that's supposed to be earlier on when Gwen is still alive and queen (00:15) (after Arthur's death though). It's a battle/invasion that I'll leave open for interpretation because I didn't think through it a lot xd, but it can't be in Camelot (the city) itself obviously, because of the sea. I'm thinking they went to a coastal fortress to defend themselves against the invading Saxons.

Then we have more battles (00:23) (I'm thinking the one in season 4, where Merlin calls on Kilgharrah, since he's supposed to die in season 5).

Then we have some visuals for the great purge (00:33).

I leant on a couple of fan theories: that Merlin is magic itself made flesh and blood, and that his birth was a direct result of the great purge (that is to say, because such a great amount of magic was snuffed out suddenly, it concentrated and poured itself into merlin -- basically balance, and magic being this immutable force that can't be created or destroyed, only transformed and passed on).

Then we get to see Merlin through the ages, until the present day (01:10), struggling with his immortality. There's a callback to Camelot and the witch hunts (01:25), and then we get Camlann! Where he called on Kilgarrah this time! (01:36) It is intercut with a later post-canon scene, where Guinevere has been captured by some warlord or another at some point (01:45). Leon goes to Merlin for help and rescues her (this is not long after Arthur's death, which is why Merlin still looks like he does in canon).

At (01:56) we get Camlann again.

Then we have Merlin losing Gwen and Leon to the years (02:01), and we see the impact of being alone throughout eternity on his psyche. We get some nightmares (02:19), mostly centred on Arthur (because they'd absolutely be -- #merthurforlife).

There's Merlin talking down some soldiers going after him during the witch hunts (02:36). In (02:43) we see Merlin in Avalon lake (now I'll be honest here, my intention wasn't to put Merlin on the isle, since I'm not sure if it's even supposed to be accessible xd but I couldn't find a way to put him on the other margin, so let's just assume all is well xd).

We get Merlin in present-day (02:44), still chasing breadcrumbs (and maybe even starting to doubt his sanity a little bit? -- see "Was King Arthur a real person?").

And then,,,, the attempted suicides (02:49). Because you can't tell me a person with Merlin's behemoth amount of trauma wouldn't develop a major depression after lifetimes of waiting around alone -- not even knowing quite what he's waiting for or if it'll ever happen). Aaaaaaand (03:06) Merlin has maybe lost it a little bit. I think he tries to venture into necromancy and some,,,, not-great stuff (magic-wise).

But we catch a glimpse of Arthur at (03:19) so either it worked or... well, you decide.

Also at (03:11), we have a painting of Gwen in the background of Buckingham palace. It was commissioned by Merlin sometime during the renaissance period (does not mean that the painting itself is renaissance style). He made sure it found its way into the royal treasuries and it is displayed to this day, so it would probably have been the work of a famous artist. (In reality, it is a very beautiful portrait by Thérèse Schwartze that I have edited to feature Angel Coulby).

[friendlyneighborhoodcapricorn]

OHMYGOD IM SORRY IM SPAMMING BUT: ANOTHER DRABBLE IDEA (or headcanons, or preferences with all of them, I don't mind)

the knights having to take apart in like, you know, one of those combat duel event thingies no idea what they're called, and gwaine winning and running up to the audience and lifting his s/o up and kissing them in front of everyone

I believe they’re either called tournaments (one on one) or Mêlées (everyone against everyone) lol

Anyway, the real question is: are they allowed to fight dirty in either of those? No, wait, the real question is: do I care whether or not they’re allowed to?

You watched with held breath as Gwaine went up against Arthur. You knew there was no risk of them actually wounding each other, but some of the blows they landed had to hurt.

“They’ll be fine,” Gwen said, even though she was squeezing your hand like she was trying to break it.

You knew they would be, you had participated in tournaments before. But participating in one and simply watching was an entirely different thing. You were starting to understand why Uther had always looked so tense during them: there was a lot that could go wrong.

Subconsciously, you reached up to touch Gwaine’s necklace. He’d given it to you before the start of the tournament, for safekeeping, and you felt a little better when you felt the cold metal of his father’s wedding ring under your fingers.

“Of course they’ll be fine,” you said to Gwen, squeezing her hand softly. “They’re the best fighters in Camelot.” Raising your voice, you shouted: “Come on, Gwaine! Kick his arse!”

“Hey!” Gwen protested, but she was grinning. “That’s my-“

She broke off, her cheeks flushed.

“That’s your what?” you teased, nudging her with your elbow.

“You know what,” she mumbled, averting her eyes back to the man she loved.

You didn’t pester her. It was only a recent development that she and Arthur didn’t have to hide anymore, and it was only normal that it still made them both fumble occasionally.

It wasn’t like with you and Gwaine: you had been engaged for years and would finally be getting married in the winter, much to the delight of you both.

On the dusty battlefield below, Arthur made a move to hit Gwaine in the chest, but Gwaine stepped aside and slammed the wooden staff they were using instead of swords into Arthur’s ribs. When Arthur stumbled to the side, Gwaine used the opportunity to trip him up, letting Arthur land flat on his back in the dirt. Gwaine, more for show than anything else, put the end of the staff against Arthur’s throat.

“Do you surrender, sire?” he asked, and you could hear the teasing quality to his tone even from where you were standing.

Arthur smiled. “I surrender.”

Gwaine tossed the staff aside and held out a hand to pull Arthur up, and the crowd erupted into cheers. But Gwaine had little interest in the attention of the crowd: he was making a beeline for you.

Gwen, smart as she was, let go of your hand and stepped aside. Just in time too, because the second Gwaine reached you, he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you in for a kiss.

Even though everyone was staring at you, your eyes fluttered shut as you fell into it. That was always the thing with kissing Gwaine: there was no easing into it. It always felt like falling.

“Congratulations,” you whispered when he finally pulled away.

“Are you proud of me?”

Usually, you would have teased him for his ego. But you could tell this was a genuine question, that he really wanted you to be. You tucked his hair behind his ear, your fingers lingering on the small braid you’d made only a few hours ago.

“You don’t have to kick Arthur’s arse for me to be proud of you,” you murmured before smiling up at him. “But it certainly helps.”

[knightofmordred]

people saying gwen and arthur liked each other out of nowhere despite being in each others lives for a long time, did you actually watch the show? they paid little attention to each other UNTIL they got to know one another.

it's a classic situation which literally also happens in real life too ?? 'boy-girl barely know each other but they start hanging out and getting to know each other better, feelings start to develop' c'mon guys be better than this please

gwen and arthur wouldn't have really crossed paths a lot of times anyway. gwen was a maid to morgana and had her duties and naturally arthur was a prince. they would have only seen each other in passing. not everything has to be love at first sight.

gwen and arthur had a slow burn relationship where they both only noticed each other when they were in situations where they had to interact (and naturally got to know each other better by being in places where they had to remain close).

not everything has to be love and sparks at first sight. love without that is valid and just as magical. they did not just "like each other out of nowhere"

watch the damn show again

[closetsof-backlogged-dreams]

okay let’s do more

thoughts on gwen + lancelot

ohhhhhhhhh, this is a good one—so many thoughts on these two.

okay, in order to ~properly~ give you my thoughts on them, i also have to give you my thoughts on arthur and gwen. more specifically, season one arthur and gwen.

when we meet lancelot in season one, i'm sorry, but it doesn't look like arthur and gwen are going to be together at all. there are several points (too many, tbh) where arthur arrests her or someone related to her (like her father) without even flinching. the only reason he ever intervened was due to morgana initiating it and bringing athur into the conversation. overall, arthur really doesn't care about gwen. there's nothing wrong with it. it's not his fault; he just doesn't know her. he cares about people like merlin and morgana far more.

enter: lancelot. i will admit, the part where lancelot is supposed to fall in love with gwen is arguably terrible. horrible. abysmal, if you will. but the actual love? *whistle* it's awesome. (and to be fair, arthur's and gwen's was pretty bad too. obviously wayy better, but still bad.) they're so sweet and loving to each other, and you can really tell that they would make such a good couple with good communication and just a healthy relationship in general. they could have been so great, but they ditched gwen and lancelot for arwen. remember, up until this point, arthur did not give two shits about gwen. then suddenly, out of the blue, they fall in love in an episode in season two after showing no signs of this in season one?? especially when the only relationships that would have made sense when building off of season one were gwen and lancelot??? i'm sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me.

but that isn't even my biggest problem with all this. my biggest issue with both gwencelot and arwen is that they gave us this dramatic love triangle and did... absolutely nothing with it.

i'm sorry, where's the drama? where's the emotional turmoil? where's the who could i possibly choose of these two completely different men, the blonde one or the brunette one? they set up a scenario that should have had so much drama and angst and just completely ditched it in favor of making lancelot leave and not return until like season three for AN EPISODE before FINALLY coming back semi-permanently in season four. like. what?? but honestly, that could've been fine, if gwen expressed any kind of loyalty or devotion to lancelot!! of course they weren't in a relationship, so she wasn't under any moral obligation to, but gwen obviously really cared about him. it felt so odd to me when the show writers just dropped gwencelot like a hot potato so they could pick up arwen and show it off to everybody, like baby simba in the lion king. yk what im talking about. it just felt so out of character to me.

even worse? gwen and lancelot never once have a real conversation about their feelings!! there's one verge-of-death "i love you" (kind of) from lancelot in season two, but again, he disappears and gwen never has the chance to really communicate to him whether she reciprocates or not (which she probably did.) then, when lancelot comes back again, her and arthur are together and that whole drama isn't really addressed.

overall, i think gwen and lancelot could have been such a great relationship if it had just been given the time to properly grow and develop. instead, they only gave it to us in tiny patches without actually developing the relationship, so all we were left with was this sad mess.