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inmyarmswrappedin · 4 years ago

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DRUCK reactions - s4 ep3

Featuring: the clip that made me infinitely more interested in the season.

Oops, I forgot to link to the Nadia clip twitter thread. It’s there now!

(Thanks again to @wodrueckts! 💛)

CLIP 1: What is this, a tent for ants?

LISTEN. Tua is already the smallest in the girl squad, and that tent doesn’t even look like she can lay fully stretched out inside.

I was so disturbed by this that I looked up 1-person tents, and they don’t look that small! They are longer and thinner.

Amira’s mom comes outside and she’s also disturbed, but not by Amira using a toddler-sized tent, but Amira going camping at all. She’s like, we’re going to have a conversation about traveling while hijabi, but Amira isn’t in the mood.

And her mood is further spoiled because Sam texts her hoping that she can hook her up with Mohammed.

Amira’s mom brings her some pepper spray, and holy shit! Is that legal in Germany? (Answer: yes, it is, but it’s sold as “animal repellent.”)

I’ve traveled on my own before but I’ve always stayed in B&Bs, hostels or hotels. Ngl I wouldn’t even couchsurf at a stranger’s without some kind of protective device, like a portable door lock. I would never carry a weapon because you never know if you’re going to use it properly in the heat of the moment, but something like a personal alarm for runners would work in a camping setting. Take care of yourself if you’re traveling on your own!

CLIP 2: Lemonade pining

Jonas is going on about supporting sea rescue efforts of African migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, a big topic last year because of the Salvini administration (in Italy) approving a law to fine migrant rescue ships. Salvini has been ousted since, and sea rescue has disappeared from the news what with 2020 being a dumpster fire and all.

Essam, high on power, demands that his slave Amira makes him some lemonade, but I already described my issues with this storyline last week. After threatening Amira with the ever classic sibling-on-sibling physical violence, Amira relents.

Mohammed comes in as Amira is sulkily preparing some lemonade for Essam, and he makes a flirty comment about Amira’s ice cold stare again.

The sweet thing about Mohammed is that he fully admits that he finds Amira intimidating, like he totally recognizes that Amira can be unapproachable when she wants to (even though Amira M. is also one of the friendliest Sanas), but like… For one thing he doesn’t neg her about it. He’s playful about Amira being scary, but he’s not trying to bring her down. And for another, Mohammed tries to find ways in which he fits into Amira’s life or can help her in some way.

This will keep coming up with them, but it happens here when he thinks of a way to prank Essam and, as a result, cheer Amira up.

Peep at the interaction between Amira and Mohammed when they come out with the lemonade. They don’t exchange a word, but they’re such a team.

CLIP 3: Beware bicyclists

Amira, apparently still on a high since the lemonade prank, is strolling down the street singing to herself, as I believe most of us have done at some point.

Jonas asks for Amira’s help with his solidarity party, further characterizing Amira as the one they all go to for help.

Sam also texts Amira. She’s found Mohammed’s insta, which makes Amira’s face fall for a moment… Even though Mohammed keeps seeking Amira out, it feels like Sam might be able to hook up with him through sheer force of will? Or maybe Amira is kinda hoping Sam’s crush goes away, but it ain’t.

There’s something really Formal about that family photo that makes it lowkey funny, like I can imagine that pic being one Mohammed’s family sends to their relatives (caption about family and all), instead of one would post on instagram. Somehow, you can feel Mohammed’s latent dad energy just waiting to be discovered.

Even though this wasn’t the way Amira wanted to come across that pic, Mohammed just looks so damn fine that she can’t help but zoom in on his face, a Druck classic at this point.

And she’s so focused on the thirst that she almost gets run over by an islamophobic bicyclist, who thoroughly spoils her day.

This is such a Northern Europe thing btw. I think each one of my friends who has lived in the bike using part of Europe for any period of time has a story about a bicyclist yelling profanities at them. It’s like they’re saving the planet with their lack of gas use so they have to be extra dickish to compensate for their do gooding.

Amira also looks around as this happens, maybe to see if someone else witnessed what happened (for support?).

Anyway, Amira is so angry that she double texts Sam (or possibly just texts? I checked a couple times and it isn’t clear that she sent Sam the text where she translates the caption about family) to be careful with Mohammed as Arabs will fuck you over. She does a double take to herself, like she’s checking with herself that this was appropriate, and seems to decide it is.

I really dislike the context here. When this happened on Skam, it was part of a larger conversation between Sana and Noora where it was clear that Sana was repeating stereotypes in order to discourage Noora’s interest. And even in that conversation, what Sana said is that Muslim guys will sleep with white Norwegians because they put out, but in the end they marry Muslim girls. So rather than saying, he’s gonna fuck you over, Sana explains how. What Amira tells Sam is so lacking in context, so random as a response to Sam asking what the caption says, and like… You kinda have to have watched the Skam scene in order for Amira not to come across like a total dick here.

It also makes no sense because Sana knew that Noora had been hurt in the past by guys using her for sex and then discarding her, but a no strings attached hook up is exactly what Sam is after. So like… How would Mohammed wanting just sex and nothing else fuck Sam over anyway?

CLIP 4: Sam is interested in getting fucked (over)

Amira and Sam are doing boxing intervals, and Sam is a bit taken aback by how intense Amira is at something Sam is presumably doing just for fun.

Now imagine they’d actually written a scene around that difference between both girls, instead of a brief subtextual moment for us to read into.

Mohammed comes in during a pause, which Amira is using to get a bit more practice in whereas Sam is showing off to Kiki (sensing a theme they could’ve explored, here).

It looks like he’s going to go say hi to Amira, but Sam gets there first and starts flirting with him, hair twirling and all. Amira looks upset and goes back to boxing.

CLIP 5: Nadia! [crowd cheers]

At this point when the season was dropping, I was, to be completely honest, a little bored. Like the clips were cute and all, but I wasn’t excited. (Of course, you have to keep in mind that this was in comparison to my excitement levels during Matteo’s season, where so much as a glimpse of David made my synapses light up.)

I loved this clip and immediately posted a full on analysis on twitter (which you can read here if you’re interested, but I’ll be rehashing most of it in this post), and it still holds up in rewatch even though they didn’t mine the Nadia/Amira dynamic for all it was worth.

So we open on Nadia and Amira and they’re already looking tense as shit. It doesn’t help that Amira’s mom seems, like, almost relieved that Nadia hasn’t totally cut ties with Amira lmao. And she’s like, “omg you must have so much to talk about!” even though we just saw them looking quiet and uncomfortable.

Amira is all, “never thought you’d be the first one to marry,” and to Nadia’s credit, she takes this comment, which could read as shady, as a friendly observation. She talks a bit about how Ahmed is not like the other dicks, but Amira isn’t convinced, and now she’s definitely shading Nadia.

She also gets on Nadia’s case about going to Dubai for their honeymoon, but Nadia doesn’t defend herself and just looks sheepish.

Kiki comes in with some vegan cupcakes that she made to thank Amira for her help last episode, and you can see how Amira is much more at ease with Kiki. Tbf they did see each other last week, whereas we know Nadia has been out of the picture for a while. Anyway Kiki seems to feel the tension in the air, so she tries to excuse herself.

At this point, Nadia finds her voice to ask Kiki to stay. Is it because she thinks that with Kiki around conversation will flow more freely? Or maybe because she’s hoping that Amira’s irritation will be redirected to this Alman?

After Kiki admires the vegan spread Amira’s mom prepared, we find out that Nadia’s intention is the latter. She all but tells Kiki that Amira told her Kiki was a racist piece of shit. So this is how Nadia gains the upper hand after Amira’s earlier comments.

Amira looks alarmed, but Kiki is like pfff yeah, I was so into Alexander Humberbumber that I might have been the worst s1 Vilde until Amber made her appearance, but now I’m getting dicked down by a good man and I see Amira for the Muslim goddess she is (I’m paraphrasing but not that much!).

Amira looks really touched by Kiki not just 1. Not picking up Nadia’s intention, but also 2. Swiftly clearing the air and complimenting Amira in the process.

Kiki figures out that Nadia is the friend who’s getting married and declares her love for weddings of all kinds but especially Bollywood-style ones. Nadia looks really amused at this and looks at Amira like, “get a load of this girl!” Amira looks a bit embarrassed.

Sidenote to say Druck started building up to Kiki’s love of weddings last episode when she was paging through a wedding magazine spread. Like, they really put in more work into this Kiki/wedding storyline than most storylines last week.

And when Kiki asks if Nadia’s marriage was arranged, Nadia makes fun of Kiki to Amira. Like I would love to say that Nadia isn’t being mean to Kiki, but she is, and the point is to bring Amira down a notch. Now Amira really does look embarrassed, because in some way she’s supposed to be responsible for Kiki not saying something islamophobic. Kiki isn’t Amira’s responsibility, and I’m sure Nadia would agree in other circumstances, but… That’s what Amira gets for calling Nadia out for the Dubai honeymoon!

But as the conversation goes on, it also kind of seems like Nadia takes a liking to Kiki? (I’m mostly assuming because Nadia later invites Kiki to that pre-wedding event.) They talk a little bit about Nadia and Ahmed, and Kiki’s like, “I want to go to a Muslim wedding so fucking bad, Amira, please!” It’s like… At the moment Amira is the only single female friend Kiki has, but Kiki’s just like, can’t you just get married now though.

Amira’s like NO WEDDINGS, Australia first. And tension falls around the table again, because of course, Nadia didn’t know about this, but Kiki knew about it, so like… It’s just another way in which Amira has become a different person as far as Nadia is concerned.

Let us now talk about Kiki. Like I said, I really loved this clip. In general I love Skams clips where the dynamic feels so lived in and nuanced and multifaceted. This is the first time we see Nadia in the flesh, but we get so much information just from looks and tone of voice. Nadia’s actress and Tua El-Fawwal just rock this scene.

When it aired I took Kiki’s words at face value. Like, this was the way the writers had decided to resolve Kiki being a racist in earlier seasons, and I accepted it. It wasn’t until later that I read criticism of the scene and thought about it a bit more.

In Skam, Isak apologizes to Eva in three separate scenes. In s1, episode 10, she says to Eva, “I fucked up,” “[if I had known Iben was a psycho] then of course I wouldn’t have done it.” In episode 11, “I know it might be hard to believe, but I never wanted to hurt you. It just turned out that way. I’m sorry.” And in s3, “I just want to say sorry for that stuff last year. When I was ruining things for you and Jonas.” Like. You can say that Isak only said sorry because he got caught (though I personally believe he was genuine every time, if not entirely truthful), but the point is that Julie Andem thought it necessary, in order for Isak to remain a likable character, that he apologized three times.

The girl squad never apologized to Sana, they just showed up with the Los Losers van one day.

And while Druck also thought it was necessary for Matteo to be full of self-loathing over what he did to Hanna, they didn’t think Kiki needed to apologize on screen.

One of my least favorite Skams characters is Basile Savary, because he was a total creep to the point that, during s3, Skam France had to release a damage control text out of Lucas L’s POV because people were worried that he might have done something to Daphné while she was drunk. Basile was a creep who respected no boundaries (including dry humping Daphné against her will on social media, which played off as a joke!) until one day he wasn’t and became the perfect boyfriend. No arc where he learned to be a doper person, Skam France said, no we are not going to examine how nerds get away with being gross creeps.

And as much as I would like to say otherwise, Druck did the same with Kiki. Kiki was one of the most overtly racist Vildes in s1, was still making offensive comments about Amira’s and Sam’s hair in s2, and then… Season 4 rolls around and Kiki just says, “oh yeah I was a dick before but now I know Amira is a great Muslim.” Like… At least it didn’t happen from one day to the next, but no, there wasn’t an arc where Kiki is taken to task for her racism, nor a scene where Kiki apologizes to Amira.

This is an issue specifically because Amira’s season hinges on the Kiki/Amira friendship, like they pretty much got rid of most other conflicts or didn’t explore them fully, choosing instead to focus on this dynamic.

And I don’t think it was because Lea and Tua are such good friends irl (which they are! Lea even attended Tua’s engagement party! I love them!), because like, Tua is also good friends with Carl (Stefan) and we never got an Amira/Stefan scene, did we? I think it was simply that this season was too packed with people of color, and either funk or the writers needed a white character to anchor the season.

I still love Kiki and Amira obviously, I ship them (in fanon) and I love their scenes, because I love Lea and Tua and their friendship, and their characters. All I wanted from s4 of Skam was Vilde supporting Sana in the way Sana had supported Vilde for three seasons, and Druck gave me that. But here’s one thing where the writers dropped the ball, and it’s a massive mistake because the emotional core of the season is this friendship.

This also made me think about how the change of writers resulted in character arcs being dropped left and right. Now that two writing collectives are about to pick up Druck’s next gen, I think there’s an idea that the change in writers in the first four seasons wasn’t noticeable, but honestly… It kind of was. I would argue that a lot of the things that were set up in s1 and s2 got dropped and didn’t go anywhere. To wit:

Hanna’s arc in s1 is trashed in s4. Jonas is set up with a redemption arc in s2 that isn’t explored past that season. The Winterberg of s2 has nothing to do with the s4 ship. Kiki is still being racist in s2 and a shining example of allyship in s4. The little depth that Sam had in s1 and s2 gets dropped. Amira’s delivery job… Enough said. The one character whose character arc through the seasons was done justice I would argue is Matteo. He gets a shift in characterization after s1 to make the storyline with David make more sense (more on this if I ever write Matteo’s season meta), and retains that characterization to the end. Of the minor characters, Carlos and Abdi also come out well. David gets introduced in s3 when Q3 took over the writing, so he wasn’t affected.

Anyway, this clip totally revitalized the season.

CLIP 6: Amira praying, that’s it, that’s the clip

Mohammed is at the door waiting for Amira, and when Amira asks him if Sam is already there, he says he’s not here because of Sam. And I’m like, does he mean that literally? Like Amira could’ve assumed Sam invited him to this party, but Mohammed did meet the squads last episode. Maybe he asked Jonas if Amira was coming or got himself invited some other way.

Amira’s like sure, and gets inside. And Mohammed looks at her in such a way that even I need to fan myself a little tbh.

Hanna compliments David’s design, and Matteo’s like yeah, David is great, but I’d rather shit on Stefan. Idk, I feel like the Matteo in my mind would want to hype David up a little more before moving onto shitting on Stefan, but it’s a small quibble.

Amira goes to help Sam in the kitchen, and they both have some trouble making German food. I can’t tell if it’s because they’re generally bad at cooking or this is a commentary on white people’s palates. Or Abdi’s palate since he’s still going on about hollandaise sauce.

Oh, Sam explains that she told Mohammed about the party and he got on board. So he is there because of Sam, kinda.

They also talk about Mohammed having the coolest insta (pro: Mohammed has at least one topless pic, con: Mohammed has a pic wearing flip flops with socks), and how Abdi doesn’t compare because he doesn’t have an insta (yet). I mean… Damn, Sam. You can’t argue with logic like that.

But Sam calls Amira out on being weird lately. Again, I really wish this conversation didn’t rely so much on subtext, so it could be properly developed. Also, a new version of Snow’s Informer is playing in the background during this conversation and I can’t help but love the mood whiplash of it all.

Then something confusing happens when Jonas introduces the music act and says they come from Lebanon and traveled to Germany by train and then the lead singer says they’re from Berlin. They’re called Feedback and I tried googling them to find out what that’s all about, but with that name I didn’t get any results about them.

At least this is the kind of band that would play at an event like this, like they seem good enough to do a performance, but not big enough that there’s no believable way Jonas could book them.

Amira and Mohammed have a ~Moment~ when the audio switches to the version of Sand performed by Lary, and the sexual tension is so overwhelming for Amira that she immediately leaves to get some praying done, in the privacy of the venue’s backroom.

This scene is so iconic and beautiful. That shot of Amira being lit from above, looking up with her hands held before her? Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, etc. The kind of sequence that needs both a Muslim performer and behind the scenes respect for said Muslim performer.

Amira overhears some argument as she’s folding the carpet she was using, and then she sees that Mohammed was blocking the door, so that she could pray in peace. Can we get a #notallmen here? Thanks. Again, Mohammed just finds little ways in which he can help and support Amira without being intrusive.

Mohammed compliments Amira’s friends for trying to help refugees (although sea rescue is more about migrants in general, rather than refugees). I think something that is lost in translation is that German is obviously not Mohammed’s first language, so I think this scene is more significant and subtext-laden for German speakers.

Amira is probably still smarting from her earlier run in with the racist biker, so she (who’s always said she wants to be Chancellor) says that Jonas will probably become Chancellor one day. Mohammed says no! Amira should be Chancellor, but Amira doesn’t think anyone wants that. 🙁 But Mohammed says he does, and he says “we” need someone who fights for “us” (which Amira probably interprets as “us Muslims,” but Mohammed might mean more like, “us refugees”).

Also, Mohammed thinks that Amira was trying to matchmake him with Sam, which we know it was more like the opposite, but it’s very in line for Mohammed to think Amira was trying to get rid of him.

Then Mohammed asks Amira for her phone and is all, “don’t you trust me?” and Amira’s like, “no,” which is hilarious. After a while, Amira wants her phone back and Mohammed notices Amira accidentally cut herself with the knife earlier. He puts a cute bandaid on it, and they have yet another Moment. They’re so into each other that Amira goes, “omg I love this song! Let’s go in!” But Mohammed is now sure his feelings are requited.

Social media

Kiki slept at the new apartment even though it’s falling apart, a sign that that she can’t stand being at her mom’s house. Later, Zoe texts her and Kiki says she’ll be available whenever Zoe needs her, but she also just… doesn’t want to live at her mom’s.

Matteo and David (but really just Lukas) attended the Berlin CSD (Pride) march.

Mia posts a pic of a cortado coffee, and I totally believe this was taken in Madrid. 👌

Carlos missed the Abiball because he failed his History resit, then he missed Jonas’ birthday because he was sick, and this week he’s visiting Brandenburg with Kiki, and what I’m getting from all this is that maybe Carlos’ actor had other commitments during this time lol.

Amira and Mohammed both post pics acknowledging their Moment under the lights/with the bandaid, showing Amira is getting more emotionally committed to this relationship.

Final thoughts

While I did have some issues with this episode, it was much more solid overall than episode 2. Nadia’s actress really delivered in her intro clip and I wish they’d explored that dynamic a bit more, but the character kind of takes a backseat after this. Although I don’t feel like Amira and Mohammed have a motif or object that they keep revisiting (like Jonas and Hanna with Hanna’s nose, or Mia and Alex with Hotel Hardenberg, or David and Matteo with the sandwiches*), I like their dynamic where Mohammed is supportive of Amira’s endeavors, which this episode solidifies. I also really love the significance of Amira getting to complete her prayer thanks to Mohammed. In Skam, Sana gets constantly interrupted until later in the season, where she gets to pray for all her friends.

[* I thought about this a bit more, and I think one motif Mohammed and Amira share is music, and singing to each other.]

I discussed this episode with Michi, and we came to the conclusion that the root conflict between Amira and Nadia is that Amira feels like that, to be with a man, is to compromise yourself and your principles. Nadia didn’t use to be the person who’d be the first to marry, or who’d go on a honeymoon to Dubai, and Amira sees that chance as Nadia losing sight of her ideals. But, in the last clip, Mohammed’s actions allow Amira to be who she fully is, and to finish her prayer. So the idea is planted, that Amira wouldn’t necessarily have to compromise her principles if she got into a relationship. Of course, Mohammed is probably one of the people who’d most compromise Amira’s ideals if she were to date him, but we’re not at that point yet.

#druck #about druck

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msbeccieboo · 5 years ago

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Arrow 8x01 Brain Dump

So that was....awesome! I’m in shock! Obviously there was a gaping chasm where our precious cupcake used to be, but that’s gonna be the new normal for this last run, so I’m gonna try to not dwell on that too much in these last few reviews. And apparently these aren’t getting any shorter, even without Felicity...

Oliver Jonas Queen: Paragon and bestest hero everrrr (suck it, Larry)

Our beautiful boy 😭😭😭 kicking the episode off with stunning recreations of the very beginnings of the show, first on Lian Yu, then returning to Moira was just *chef kiss*.

That Oliver is now able to relive these moments, really feeling the feelings and speaking the words that he was previously too broken to, upon his real return from the island, and expressing them to both himself and to those people he can no longer see in his reality, is just heart-breaking and tear-inducing and beautiful and satisfying and all of the feelings. He worked his arse of to get here and to experience it and he fucking well deserves it. Ugh I just made myself cry haha.

More under the cut...

Stephen’s acting was a beautiful thing to watch in this episode. Oliver’s scenes with all the returning guests were just so perfect; his emotions over seeing Tommy and Moira again 😭, then not-Felicity 😍💔 then Adrian 😂 were all perfect. The scene where he was trying to seek advice or validation from Moira over leaving his family for this mission (even though he couldn’t reveal why) was just heart-breaking. Then when he breaks down (along with us!) and tells Moira he’s sorry, it’s almost like he’s doubly apologising; to Moira for not better understanding her, now that he is a parent himself, and to Felicity, William and Mia, for having to leave them behind.

It was so sad seeing Oliver doubting himself throughout the episode. He tells Diggle that Earth 2 has so many more people alive without him having been there, and then when Moira astutely observes that he is a better man now than before he went on the Gambit, he replies he’s not so sure. How can he still not see this yet?? He’s clearly been away from Felicity for too long! By the end of the episode he seems to be making some headway, at least in realising that he doesn’t need to face this crisis alone, when he delivers an EPIC SPEECH to Tommy “because were only as good as the people in our lives. Every one of those losses brings with it a choice between darkness and light. Make the right choice.” YES MY BOY!!! I’m totally here for this whole season of Oliver going to other Earths, realising how awesome he is, then imparting this wisdom on everyone by delivering rousing speeches!! The Monitor said it himself in his voice-over, referring to Oliver “the highest [form of heroes] belong to those known as the paragons and they are the only hope of all creation.” YAAAASSSSS!!!! SUCK BALLS LARRY AND LARA!!!

Felicity/Olicity

Just because she’s not there, doesn’t mean she’ll be forgotten! I’m honestly so pleased that the show isn’t going to pretend Felicity doesn’t exist just because Emily left. Her absence is palpable, so the mentions and nods to her character throughout the episode (and the rest of the season, it seems) are very much welcomed!

The fake-out Felicity scene was beautifully done! From Oliver’s initially excited face and “it’s supposed to be red” 😭😭, his “good for her” when he found out that E2 Felicity is a badass mogul, to the OLICITY LOVE FERN on not-Felicity’s desk!!! Perfection!!

Source: eloquence-of-felicities

Ugh and the scene with Oliver staring lovingly at Felicity and Mia’s photo...HFDSKGHFKJGHDSFKS NOT OK!!! 😭😭😭😭

Source: olicitygifs

Diggle

The Diggle ‘reveal’ was nostalgic perfection:

My live reaction 😂😂

Can I just say that I loved that he’d spoken with Felicity about Oliver, and gone after him. OTA for life!! I’d hoped that that would be the case, but you never can tell with these writers in recent seasons 😬 Dig is a master at advice-giving, and getting Oliver to see the big picture. Oliver needs a friend in this endeavour, and neither Felicity nor Dig would have him doing it alone. Dig’s purpose throughout the whole episode was pretty much to tell Oliver that he’s not alone, his death is not necessarily unavoidable, that he NEEDS TO ACCEPT FRACKING HELP (”that’s the thing about being brothers; you never, ever have to ask”😭😭), and that the whole reason that E2 has gone to crap was because Oliver was not there to protect it!

In John Thomas Diggle we stan.

FTA

Our FTA babies were back, and in the lair!! AHKASFHDSDAKF!!! I loved the power struggle, with the team trying to find the right dynamic, before finally deciding to just make the Olicity baby the leader (duh), or moreover, Mia demanding that things be done her way from now on (apples, falling, tree?).

Source: oliverxfelicity

William’s little comedic moments just popped.

Source: olicitygifs

And then his delivery of a Felicity-worthy pep-talk to Mia had me falling infinitesimally more in love with him. This is the spin-off team we need to see!!

We finally met JJ Diggle who appears to be irredeemably (not likely) evil, and very handsome to boot, leading the Deathstroke Crew (baby Sara would have NEVER 😒😒). I was hoping for some Old Man Diggle, but alas we were not so lucky this week. Much as I actually LOVE the flash-forwards, I did feel like they were a little shoehorned in in this episode. There was so much to unpack in the present story, that I kind of just wanted that to continue?

Special Guests

From Moira’s first words I was crying.

Susanna Thompson continues to be outstanding as Moira, I love her! E2 Moira married Malcolm Merlyn, meaning we got John Barrowman back 😍😍, in a non-evil role (YAAASSSS!). Although there was no mention of Robert, given that we know on this Earth he returned from Lian Yu, and was later unmasked as the Green Arrow?? Anyway, this new Queen-Merlyn union officially made Oliver and Tommy brothers 😭😭 Oh btw.....TOOOOOMMMYYYYYYY!!!!!!!! AGSHAGFKJSAGFJKAG!!! Back, alive and kicking (literally) and gorgeous as ever. Ugh I just adore my Merlyn men 😍😍😍😍

Source: feilcityqueen

Tommy turning out to be the Dark Archer on this earth is all we had ever wanted to see!! Evil!Tommy is a thing of beautiful fanfiction dreams!! (I also lolled at the OTT, campy, cowering Malcolm, as Oliver realised it wasn’t him!) Not to mention this scene, that re-lit our Toliver flames in the most perfect way 🔥🔥

This moment was so good that I can just about forgive Oliver’s historically inaccurate non-shirtless state 😒😒 (strike 1)

In trying to track down the dwarf star shizzle at Queen-Merlyn Enterprises👀 , Oliver stumbles across the E2 GA who turns out to be ADRIAN CHASE!! YAAASSSS!!!! It was great to have him back, in the growly S1 Oliver-esque fashion! E2 GA also enjoys the salmon ladder....Stephen really played us all when he told us that we’d see the salmon ladder in episode 1 😡😡 (strike 2 Steve, you’re on your last warning!) I loved Oliver’s little inside joke with himself when he said to Adrian “maybe I’m just 10 steps ahead of you” lolololol!!

Thea OD’d on Vertigo and passed away on E2, which was sad, but meaningful, as it spear-headed Tommy’s war on The Glades, much like Rebecca’s murder did for Malcolm on Earth 1. (Psst, it’s ok though, our Speedy’s back in a few weeks).

Superfluous Cast

Rene and Dinah remain disloyal rats on this Earth, and with no Oliver to mentor them, they turn out evil as well as incompetent and we got to see them taken into custody at the end of the episode...wah-wah-wahhh!! I would definitely be happy with this nice small amount of relevance/screen time for them moving forwards, please and thank you. Let’s let our boys shine for the last few outings!

Black Siren’s presence in the episode was thankfully small, and although she was saved in the end, presumably to go on to help Oliver and Dig (she kinda owes them now), I’m hoping that we continue with this minimal exposure, because, as much as I enjoyed her last season, with no Felicity to make her likeable, I’m not feeling her. I also laughed for a disproportionately long amount of time that her ‘iconic’ Pretty Bird moment that we all heard about beforehand came from Adrian, not her ‘Ollie’ 😂😂

That ending

Following on from the press previews and interviews leading up to the episode, there were comments along the lines of Oliver suffering a devastating loss, and that the Arrowverse would never be the same etc etc, regarding the end of the episode. Well...I have to say I just wasn’t as ‘shooketh’ or as moved by the ending as the previews implied I would be 😬 I mean of course the ending was awful; a whole Earth was erased, and Oliver having to see Moira/Tommy die at the end (especially after managing to redeem Tommy) must have been devastating for him in the moment, but the thing is, I’m not all that invested in Earth 2, so the magnitude of it didn’t really affect me that much. Maybe I’m just a cold-hearted bitch my heart has simply been irrevocably broken by 7x22. Anyway, I’m sure Oliver will be back and fighting fit again next week 😂

When MG, Beth and even Stephen had been throwing around the dreaded term ‘love letter to the fans’ I was more than scared about this season 😬 but the episode really did play out that way in my eyes, something I’m hoping that they are able to continue over the few remaining episodes. So yes, I lost my shit and (begrudgingly) loved this episode 😂😂 It was easier to deal with the lack of Felicity when they had thrown the (brand new, super high-spec) kitchen sink of guest stars at the episode. So it will be interesting to see how we fare over the next few episodes, where the guest stars won’t be such scene-stealers.

Thank you to the amazing gif-makers 💗💗💗 It’s so wonderful to see beautiful new scenes again! Any uncredited gifs are mine.

#Arrow 8x01 #Arrow #Oliver Queen #Olicity #John Diggle #Tommy Merlyn #Arrow Season 8 #Arrow spoilers #beccie's brain

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myfanfictiongarden · 6 years ago

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The fact that the season 3 finale Miraculous Queen is supposed to make the audience cry just like the ML crew did makes me wonder what we are about to get... especially when there already exists an episode that apparently had everything you wished for (and never thought coming). An episode that pretty much changed everything. I’m talking about Queen’s Battle: Queen Wasp. After re-watching it I stand by the opinion that this was one of the greatest things to happen.

(Now bear with me, this is gonna be a looong post, but you will see why)

Time for a quick recap!

We first see Gabriel talking to Emille (!!!) making it already the second time- first was in Style Queen- we see her in person. In the very end of Gorizilla we were shown some odd place that was apparently under the Agreste mansion, but now we know this is the place where Emille is, APPARENTLY IN SOME MAGICAL SLEEP!!! freaking talk about shocking opening. And to make it more gutt wrenching Gabriel decides (after the events of Style Queen) that he won’t risk endangering their son’s life and takes off his Miraculous, and GIVES UP THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE AND LEAVES FOR HIS OFFICE COMPLETELY BROKEN

do I even have to talk about this scene? never thought an simple hug would ever mess up so much

while it was wonderful to see Marinette enjoy having her design be in the spotlight

the next unexpected thing is even greater as we see Gabriel suddenly appeared on the scene, slowly going towards an completely surprised Adrien AND THEN THEY HUG! all the people around are forgotten and ADRIEN IS JUST SO HAPPY

Nadia Chamack mentions Gabriel hasn’t had any appearances in the public for over a year ever since his wife disappeared (makes you wonder what the public thinks has happened, I mean they both are known public figures)

it is interesting seeing Gabriel interact with other people as we see he and Audrey are well aquatinted

You may not like Gabriel and his parenting, but Audrey makes him look like parent-of-the-year, and you start to realize in just what an position Chloe spend her childhood

I can’t blame Chloe for doing the stupidest and most dangerous thing because we now know she has been ignored and called “un-special” by her mother probably more then once

For everybody wondering why Gabriel decided to go back to villain-business that quickly: a spoiled girl he knows well just presented a Miraculous in front of him, a Miraculous he did not know was in Paris, and not only could he use an unloved and spoiled girl (with a Miraculous) as an powerful victim, this all also meant there must somewhere be a place with even more Miraculous to grab nearby WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY (This car drive must have been awkward with both of them actually waiting to go in action, but both of them are so collected, you see they are father and son. )Also, the first thing Adrien does is say how he hopes Chloe won’t do anything rushingly as he does know her well and truly is concerned

Chloe going to arrange an train accident and calling the reporters to come and broadcast her saving people is the lowest Chloe has ever done, and you know this is going to be an turning point

Getting bashed like that in front of cameras and by her own mother (who is a world famous fashion critic) could only further Chloe’s despair

And here comes Hawkmoth, offering her a way to prove herself and she accepts because she doesn’t see another way

And now one of my favorite scenes in this show. Queen Wasp is defeated and Chloe is standing there with the Bee Miraculous in her hand begging Ladybug to give her a second chance while at the same time Audrey repeats to the reporters what a waste of time her daughter is, but Ladybug and Chat Noir do offer her a second chance, a chance to stand by her mistakes and like a real hero learn from it. Chloe not only gives her Miraculous willingly back, she also apologizes and by it truly becomes closer a hero. (do I smell a possible redemption for Hawkmoth?)

Marinette too grows by deciding to help Chloe confront her mother

This scene. Chloe needs so much courage to ask this simple question, and you see the toil she takes up. „Why don’t you love me, mother?” THAT WAS FREAKING SAD! (especially as we see that her mother is not capable to love her the way Chloe needs her to, the only thing they bond over is how bossy they both are)

We then cut to Gabriel once again talking to Emille about how Ladybug made a mistake he can use in the future and how soon they’ll be together once more. (idk the right wording, but I’m sure he calls her “my love”) Back in the office Nathalie appears and asks him what about his decision to stop being HM, to which he responds that he can’t stop as he misses her (Emille) too much.

Now, while Nathalie at first nodes in understanding after exiting the room there is a huge change in her. She leans on the closed door nearly out of breath, her whole usually emotionless manner gone, AND THE LINES ON THE DOOR BEHIND HER LOOK LIKE A PEACOCK TAIL!

foreshadowing at it’s best

The episode ends with Marinette reflecting on how she won’t leave Paris any time soon as her heart hangs too much on it. So, why did I do that long a recap? To talk about the following things:

1.) there is a huge focus on Chloé for a reason. In s1 she starts off as a spoiled, rich and bossy girl that you dislike the moment she first appears on screen, and yet ever since Antibug (where she is genuinely happy that Sabrina is her friend again) there have been hints that she may have a hidden good side to her. And season 2 follows that path further with Despair Bear where she seriously re-thinks her behavior (true, it’s only because Adrien says they can’t be friends if she continues to be so mean to everyone, but it is a beginning), Zombiezou has her apologize the first time ever (she not only apologized to Mmd. Bustier but also prevented Ladybug to be “kissed”), and then there is this three episodes of Queens Battle which all further her development. She tries to save Adrien from Style Queen while at the same time helping Ladybug to defeat her, she then hits the lowest after being ignored by her own mother and scolded by the hero she looks up to only to face the consequences and make the first steps in becoming a hero by giving her Miraculous back- despite her mother still calling her waste of time, and finally while fighting Maledictator she admits of feeling useless and unloved only to be assured by Ladybug that no one is useless and that even she can have a purpose. Chloé fell into the spoiled brat role because her mother ignores her and her father spoils her, and being a brat is the easiest thing to do. But she also genuinely wants to change- even though she still doesn’t know how to actually do it. The difference between her and Lila is the fact that Chloé is mean because she doesn’t know better while Lila choose to be manipulating even though she could be nice. And since Lila’s role started to grow in s3 and we were able to see how far she is capable of going, while at the same time Chloé has been on a redemption arc fore some while, I’m sure the season 3 finale will have them somehow clash together, there simply has to be a moment where at its peak Chloé will truly embrace the good while Lila will further cling to the darkness.

2.) the big elephant in the room ever since this episode has aired was the role of Nathalie and the nature of her feelings towards her employer, and since Stormy Weather 2 in s3 it has been confirmed: she fell in love with Gabriel Agreste. Now, SW2 did paint the picture in the most sensitive manner possible (we listen to her thoughts as she explains how her job has turned out to be different then what she thought, how she likes Adrien and felt sad watching Emille’s state getting worse and how her affections towards Gabriel have grown due to his commitment towards his family) but that did not change the possibility of drama that was opened since Queen Wasp. During all of season 1 she has been a minor character, a side character you did not pay much attention to, appearing once in a while, acting rather cold and distant, apparently very job oriented and as it seemed not important to the plot. Since this episode however (and her growing part in s3) she seems to be integral to the plot. While it was odd that as a personal assistant she wouldn’t notice her boss doing villain business, ep1 of season 2 The Collector proved she was very well aware of his activities. Not only that, Style Queen has her “actively” help create the titular villain. Not only that, Queen Wasp has her show so much emotions like never before which- even being a most simple hug- bears so much weight. And not only that, but in the season finale we see that she was truly actively included into all of Hawkmoth’s planing, goes to willingly be akumatized and when HM becomes cornered by the heroes has her take the Peacock Miraculous and turn into Mayura. Now, ep 5 The Pupeteer of s3 hasn’t aired yet so it’s unclear for us what happened that she took again up the role of Mayura (remember, using the Miraculous makes the user ill and Gabriel was more then reluctant on anybody ever using it again) but what ever it was must be essential as by now she isn’t an assistant on the sidelines but an active enforcer. I have absolutely no idea what they have planed for her but the fact that she was named to be Hawkmoth’s “boss” in season 3 makes you wonder.

3.) Emille is the key to freaking EVERYTHING. No kidding. Where ever you turn she seems to be connected to it and actually is the reason why we have Hawkmoth in the first place. Isn’t it kinda weird (even in this universe) that a fashion designer and an actress decided to make ancient-magic their hobby? From what Gabriel and Adrien let slip she seems to be the nicest person to have ever walked earth. And yet she seems to have been fully aware of Gabriel going Darth if something ever happened to her and actually helped create a plan how to do it (a plan is mentioned in Heroes Day 1)????!!!!! Maybe learning what happened to her may not be the most emotional part of Miraculous Queen and yet when it happens it will be the most important one.

4.) Adrien learning Hawkmoth’s identity (possibly?) idk about this, it may still be too early if they have more seasons planed, but him learning that his father is the villain he fights and that his missing mother is actually kept in magic-sleep under the house would shock him for sure. Or maybe there is no need for a full reveal, the show could possibly just throw hints in his way and make him suspect what happened to his mother... that would be most interesting indeed.

Conclusion: there is some drama coming up. Serious drama.

#my thoughts #lets talk about #miraculous ladybug #queen wasp #queens battle #miraculous queen #theory time #tv shows #things i like

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steve0discusses · 6 years ago

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Yugioh S3 Ep 9: So Tristan Died

Been resisting that springtime urge to buy a house plant and watch it slowly die while everyone else on my timeline posts beautiful terrariums and wallscapes. I have murdered nearly every plant I own, I have no idea why, I have killed several cacti. But I just found out about logees.com and y’all. Have you seen a rock fig? I want it so bad.

So, instead of wasting my money, I will write here and...not click buy on that rock fig. That beautiful beautiful rock shaped plant. That incredible and glorious miniature Deku Tree.

Also, this week Tumblr said that they’re extending the post limit size for text posts and like...there was a text post limit? Y’all I assumed these posts were hella long, (and in fact way, way, way too long) but like, I never capped a text post limit so...I guess I do all right.

So, switching over to Yugioh, we’re back with the Tristan-Duke-Serenity trio, who are still fighting over Serenity, the world’s most oblivious child. I haven’t gone over too much what their high and low points have been over these past like 5ish episodes but here’s what they’ve been up to, a refresher course of what they’ve been doing since Tristan drowned a Rhinoceros turtle in the lake.

1.) Serenity sneezed once and the Tristan and Duke had a big fight over who gave Serenity a cold

2.)

Sorry that’s all they’ve done. I really thought this would be a list when I started.

It’s been so boring that Serenity has decided this has been the best part of her tourney vacation (she is not wrong). And I just realized--she went to great lengths to get her eyes fixed and now she’s trapped in the VR zone and she doesn’t even need eyes to be here. Hell, if she gets trapped here, she’ll never need eyes again, she’ll have permanent perfect vision 24/7. We keep finding new alternatives instead of spending millions of dollars on Serenity’s eyes and the show kind of glazes over it.

Anyways, we learn a lot about Serenity this episode, mainly that Serenity is a little bit of a space cadet.

(Every episode Duke’s necklace is a little bit more simplified and today it is...almost just a cross. I look forward to seeing what necklace’s final form will be.)

Duke is supposed to be the antagonist of the three, but it really comes off that Tristan and Serenity have goldfish memories and somehow do not recall being launched down a hyperspace tube by five insane computer ghosts trying to consume their bodies. Most people would not forget that happening so like...it’s kinda hard not to side with Duke. Weird that the guy with such ridiculous hair is actually the most level headed person here.

And honestly, if Yugi had been speaking, then Joey and Serenity would have sobered up. Kind of a bummer that Duke doesn’t have the card cred, although Tristan was there when Duke beat Joey.

Like this episode was somewhat frustrating because Duke Devlin really is supposed to be incredibly good at cards, a kid who has only been beaten by the Pharaoh himself, and Tristan and Serenity sort of don’t believe him for some reason. Duke owns a version of the game they are playing. Like, he has ownership over Dungeon Dice and they don’t...care? It’s really weird, but it’s not like Duke has really done anything for an entire season so maybe he deserved this?

But considering that he’s been running for his life/kidnapped since they met up again 2 days ago during Kaiba’s tourney, maybe Duke just has no choice but to hang out with these people who do not respect him at all.

(read more under the cut)

Also, they’re still keeping it a secret that Duke beat Joey because...they’re still lying out of their ass for Serenity’s self esteem. It’s Season 3 and we’re still very concerned that Serenity cannot handle the truth. This girl was in a hospital for weeks and completely blind, I’m pretty sure if anyone can handle hard truths, it’s this girl. But, she’s very pretty, so better not spook her.

I am impressed that this random throwaway plot point from the beginning of S2 has come back to haunt us.

It checks out. This was about as much credentials that Joey had when he joined Pegasus’ tourney. I mean, Joey trained with Grandpa but Grandpa full on died in the middle of their training so...Tristan should have been fine this episode, he’s been interning with card people for like...years.

Anyways, this is where everyone else is.

And Noah decides to try his carrot-under-a-box trick that has so far worked on literally every child he has tried it on.

These kids cannot resist a door to save their lives--and that’s really the whole thing. If they resist the door, then boom, their lives are saved. But nah. Gotta open every door. So they enter, and behind this door is, you guessed it--their favorite place, the ever recurring supervillain of all of Yugioh,

Wow.

Anyways, the fourth of the Big 5 is here and he is a robot that’s gonna do some Russian ballet to the Nutcracker Suite.

Finally, someone who’s strong enough to safely do the ballet alongside Tea.

*I did not watch Gundam, I spent my Torrent days watching Cowboy Bebop and Love Hina and I remember none of it.*

Speaking of, Love Hina--that one probably didn’t age well, didn’t it?

Tristan just digging his own grave for no reason is basically the rest of this episode. Duke Devlin was their out. Duke Devlin has been primed to die for like a full season but then Tristan had to go and fight a giant robot like an idiot. Which is not a sentence I thought I’d be typing about Yugioh, the show about a haunted card game.

PS, I just remembered something. One sec, let me dig this up, something I wrote in S1 that at the time, when everything was about magic and soul snatching, seemed so outlandish that it would never actually happen.

I can’t believe that I predicted myself but at the same time was still just so wrong, because not only do they already have Gundams, they also are card playing Gundams.

This giant VR Gundam could just step on them, right? Like just step on them? I get that would be against Noah’s set of rules but like...

...just a little step.

And what’s even more nuts about this show, is that some things I knew going in, some things you can’t escape just living here on the internet, like Yugi being strapped to a saw at some point (I just didn’t realize it would be from...a clown and would have *such freakin large blades attached*, it was very sudden) and them dueling from the backs of motorcycles (which apparently isn’t even this show. Apparently dueling motorcycles is a spinoff and y’all...kind of disappointed by that). But Gundams? This universe is so zany that Gundams just went completely under the radar.

*this robot casually wearing a jumbo duel disc*

Faced with the reality of none of his friends ever take him seriously, Duke decides to find a weird compromise and asks for double duel. Thing is, this robot also can’t take Duke seriously, and so this super backfires.

Would it in fact simplify everyone’s dating life if we had a 1 in 3 situation? I mean it’s already a mess because we have two 3 in 1′s, but we could balance that right out with a 1 in 3. Then the math will be correct. Balance will be achieved.

And that was how Disaster Serenity sort of stumbled her way onto a dueling platform and killed her brother’s 2nd (3rd) best friend (4th if you count Joey’s rivalry with Kaiba).

Tristan, who’s job as a volunteer janitor is to clean up messes, could not clean up after this Wheeler hot mess.

This is a card now? OK. I see you, product placement. I see why you made Duke Devlin pick up a deck again. Just for this product. That’s fine. At least we did something with Duke Devlin. But we could have maybe used him at any point outside of dungeon dice monsters, ya? Like any point?

Anyway, Serenity explains that if they tell her exactly what to do, they will be fine, so the robot catches wind of this and does this move

Of course. Of course the abandoned warehouse is now full of lava.

Serenity doesn’t even know the rules since she was actually blind until yesterday. She recalls faintly that on the train Tristan told her the rules, and that there were stars on the card that line up with power or whatever. So she looks down at the card and goes “Ah! there are little stars on here!” she plays it, and she realizes that no one has ever told her that sometimes they are placed sideways. Basically Serenity playing this episode as a recently not blind woman would be like me playing cards as someone who fast forwards through all the shuffling.

It’s hard to say if it’s Serenity who caused all this or Tristan who didn’t just let Duke do his one job. Either way, Tristan will absolutely find a way to blame this on Duke until about the point Tristan dies. Between Tristan refusing to play ball with Duke Devlin who is actually a card expert and Serenity playing all of her cards the wrong direction, I’m fully ready for Tristan to die by the end of this episode. Boy had a million chances to just chill and let Duke do his thing so ya, kill him.

Anyways, here’s a desert brought to you by yellow ochre. A LOT of yellow ochre.

Was this also a background for an 80′s space anime?

At some point Nezbitt sat in a boat and watched Kaiba launch what appears to be nuclear missiles at a missile factory. Kaiba did say he needed to throw out the old and start over so like...do Marie Kondo the way you need to do that Marie Kondo thing, Kaiba. This clearly did not bring you joy.

Anyway, lets skip to the good stuff. That’s right this boy: dead because he couldn’t not.

As you all know, I’ve been looking forward to Duke Devlin dying for such a long time now. I’ve been waiting here, tapping my fingers delicately together all Mr Burns-style expecting that the only way they could possibly find a use for Duke Devlin--since they refuse to give him any cards--would be to die.

But guys. I forgot about Tristan.

(bro wants to point out that right above the dungeon dice card was the revive card that would have come in handy right about now.)

Truly unexpected, standing in between Serenity and Duke, the most killable of the Yugioh franchise, Tristan freakin died.

But most importantly, we’re getting very close to death 169 (nice). We skipped 69 proper (a shame) because *somebody* had to kill just a chunk of people at once, Kaiba. So...who’s it gonna be? Probably the Big 5 member who’s cosplaying around as a Sexy Fish? chances are good.

Anyway, if you just got here, we’re in Season 3, if you would like to start at the beginning in S1, click here to read my so many recaps of this show. I cannot believe how much Yugioh content is in this Yugioh show.

#Yugioh #yugioh recap #photo recap #S3 Ep9 #Serenity Wheeler #Duke Devlin #Tristan Taylor #Kaiba was there for like a second

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capmerthur · 6 years ago

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THE BODY SWAP

Summary:

It’s all in the title :) Somewhere end S1 (after Labyrinth, but pre Morte). In a land of myth, and a time of magic, Arthur awakes inside Merlin’s body (and no, not in that way). Alternating Merthur POV, bonus Gaius, bit of George.

(PREVIOUS CHAPTERS UNDER THE CUT... )

III. DISABLED (MERLIN POV)

But soon, Merlin is terrified.

And not because of the puzzling body swap.

*HE HAS NO MAGIC!?*

(Not that Merlin knows of any spell to reverse their current situation at once, mind you; so he doesn't actually try anything about it. But Merlin simply knows: there is nothing but blood running through his veins now - no vigorous warmth, no energic flow; there is simply nothing singing under his placid flesh, as he focuses on it.)

He cannot help but wish he's wrong though, and desperately tries to move a quill on Arthur's desk behind Arthur's back - the simplest of things, really; yet he fails, indeed...

His magic is tied to his body. Not to his mind.

No, no, no, no, nooooooooooo.

So. Merlin is, to his core, *terrified* - as he has never been. Not only because he feels more powerless and utterly helpless than he has ever felt - and worse, unable to protect Arthur! But also because the longer Arthur stays in his body, the more chances he has to find out that he has magic!? (And even though Merlin has nearly told Arthur, once? He is still not ready for him to know right now... Will after all didn't lie to protect Merlin's secret on his deathbed for Merlin to take chances with his life so soon after...)

Merlin though decides to push his panic aside for the moment: he simply MUST focus. No matter which sorcerer has this week decided to deal with the Pendragon line once and for all, Arthur's life is undoubtedly in the balance; and that's dearer to Merlin than all the magic in the world - included his own.

Because Merlin's life *has* tilted, on that rocky beach by The Great Seas of Meredor.

Merlin's earnest readiness to lay his life down to save Arthur's had been instinctive, beyond doubt visceral; and the concrete force of the impulse had surprised him. Because it hadn't been related to his first supposed then anyway indeed wished upon destiny. It had merely been a reflex, a spontaneous reaction: what he had wanted to do; more than what he ought to do. And Merlin had realized right then that he had, somehow, but undeniably, actually come to *LOVE* Arthur?

It shouldn't have been such a shocking revelation though. Sure, Arthur could be a spoiled, royal prat; an irritating, pompous ass; an arrogant, moronic bully - to list but the top of the iceberg of his massive shortcomings, and without even mentioning the complete dollophead he could sometimes be. But Arthur could also be truly brave, honest, and kind; willing not only to trust but also to actually defend the words of mere servants, ready to defy his father's orders in order to save a child's life, and volunteering to help a village not even belonging to his Kingdom, to note only a few examples. Also: at some point, Merlin had realized how what could at first appear as near manhandling tactility was in fact just Arthur's disguised way to show (or ask?) affection (because one probably just doesn't walk around asking for cuddles while growing up between Uther's judging cold glares and Morgana's sharp witty tongue; and the physical playfulness of the knights training must have seemed like the only way to go...). And last but not least: Ealdor owed Arthur its renewed safety. And Merlin owed Arthur his life - if Arthur hadn't gone looking for a Mortaeus flower... So, in short: of course Merlin had gotten fond of the man. Notwithstanding how so annoyingly beautiful he always was (for the record on that particular subject: Gwen is so adorably beautiful, and Morgana so petrifyingly beautiful).

But, as Arthur - bound to be King one day Arthur - hadn't even hesitate before choosing to sacrifice himself in order to fix his error instead of using the (even offered) life of a simple servant? Well... There is a difference still between having the conviction that Arthur is a good man ready to fight for the greater good, even knowing it could be his death; and knowing as a FACT that Arthur *is* ready to die for the greater good, even knowing it *will* be his death. And you bet having been proven *exactly* how pure of heart Arthur intrinsically is has only cemented that burgeoning love deeper into Merlin's heart - simply; truly; and maybe irrevocably. Merlin would now willingly die a thousands deaths to save his Prince.

(Feel free to shout with me about 1.11 because *MAJOR FEELS*!)

(And then hug me as I shamelessly cry because this is still NOTHING next to what's to come - aka Arthur becoming ACHINGLY beautiful, as Merlin turns ready to KILL a thousands times to save his King, blackening his own heart in the process and thinking himself then unworthy of Arthur's love because Arthur is just so BRIGHT; but wishing for it nonetheless?)

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS UNDER THE CUT:

I. AWAKING (ARTHUR POV)

Arthur awakes; lying on his back - unusual - and rolls over automatically.

He surprisingly falls, down, hard; and jerks fully awake now - on the floor, near a so very tiny bed, tangled in an unknown blanket (harsher than his standards, even while on errands, he can't help but notice).

In disbelief, he eyes his surroundings...

Where is he? Has he been abducted?

Think, he admonishes himself - trying to clear his mind; to remember what must have happened, to guess who has dared to commit such an act, and, most important of all right now: Find a way out.

His eyes then suddenly meet Merlin's, and relief surges through him somehow - before his anxiety returns; and double: because poor faithful, loyal Merlin has obviously been taken too; and it's Arthur's fault - he must have failed to save them both from being taken, even though he cannot remember anything...

Except when Arthur reaches out to Merlin, he realizes with fright but indeniable certainty that Merlin is in fact a reflection in a mirror; and worse: *HIS* reflection!?

It his NOT his hand indeed that is stretching out in front of him; NOT his clothes on his person; and definitely NOT his own hair falling upon his eyes, as he notices the black strings in his vision range...

Arthur is dumbstruck. He sees Merlin's mouth shaping a silent O, and he sees the dread in Merlin's eyes... except they ARE - he feels - *his* mouth, and *his* eyes; and everything is just plainly wrong, and plainly impossible - but undeniably REAL.

He is... Merlin? Or better said, *inside* Merlin? How can such a thing have even come to be?

Sorcery, Arthur understands with horror: Camelot is under attack!

But now armed with the knowledge of his predicament, Arthur realises he is actually in Merlin's bedroom. He's been in here before, once; and he recognises it all now.

So. Not abducted. All things considered, that still counts as something, right...

And, as it surely doesn't feel as if Merlin is still somewhere in his own head too while Arthur is inside of it, well... Maybe? Logically? Merlin might then be in return inside his own body?

Arthur suddenly finds himself praying for this to be true. It would be for the best, if Merlin was in his body - if they were the only ones concerned by this unnatural situation; because what if *everyone* was awaking inside someone else's body this morning? That would be... precarious - the general panic leaving Camelot completely vulnerable to whoever must have plotted this? The worst though would be if the one responsible for this was right now in control of his body, and acting as Crown Prince to do, well, evil deeds... So yes, you bet Arthur truly wants to find Merlin to be the one inside his own body when he finally finds it.

Arthur jumps on his feet, ready for action. Luckily (even though Arthur feels a bit guilty, as he notices his armour in pristine state against the opposite wall - apparently Merlin has been polishing it late into the night then) Merlin hasn't bothered to undress before falling asleep.

So. First thing first: he has to go to his chamber.

Picking some weapon on the way for good measure, you bet ...

/ / /

Simply walking the few paces to open the door though turns out to be a challenge. His limbs are too long, and dangly; it feels like he has two left feet, and he has to try thrice before actually getting a grip on the handle - because he isn't used to this body, of course - but maybe it is truly NOT Merlin's fault if he falls over his own feet that often after all...

Gaius is already out - hopefully looking for herbs and not wandering out of his mind... Arthur would have preferred to be able to test right away his theories about how many people were affected by the damn body change; but unfortunately, it would have to wait some more.

The corridors are empty too, except for a stray black cat who walks at his side a full minute, which has Arthur questioning himself about asking to the cat if he *is* Merlin - because Merlin HAS to be somewhere, right, as he obviously isn't where he should be to start with; but then the cat takes another turn... Arthur feels stupid for worrying so much about his silly manservant - but he cannot deny that he definitely will worry less only after having indeed finally found said silly manservant.

Arthur relaxes slighthly though when he enters the kitchen: people are working as usual, apparently not in shock, apparently in their right bodies. He picks up the first tray he finds, along with an extra knife that he hides in his pocket for good measure.

He tries to put on a confident grin as he walks (with the most assurance he can muster in this awkward-feeling body) towards the guards at his bedroom's door - and can only hope it will look the same as usual to them. They let him pass without trouble, and Arthur isn't sure it's a good thing. On the one hand, he *doesn't* doubt Merlin - he simply, intrinsically doesn't; and would never want him to feel like he did if his guards were to search him whenever he was about to enter his chamber. On the other hand... well, it isn't Merlin right now entering his chamber, with knifes at the ready... This time, it's only him; but what if it happens again, and if the one then inside Merlin's body has ill intentions...

Deciding not to dwell on this for the time being, Arthur opens the inside door to his bedroom, hoping to find Merlin doing whatever Merlin always does, but preparing for a fight, if need be...

II. AWAKING (MERLIN POV)

Merlin awakes as if in a cocoon; literally. He is surrounded by softness, flush, warmth; he cannot remember ever feeling so comfortable - and the world can wait for just another few seconds before he opens his eyes, right... Merlin wriggles, shifting on his back, sighing softly as he nestles some more into the cushions...

When Merlin awakes for the second time - culpability sinking in as he realizes he has overslept - his eyes open to a Pendragon red canopy he would recognize even among hundreds. Merlin freezes: what the hell is he doing, sleeping IN ARTHUR'S BED?!

Merlin sits upright at once - blankets falling all around him to reveal that he wears ARTHUR'S NIGHTGOWN too ?!

Whaaaaaaaat?!

This... just DOESN'T make any sense. The last thing he can remind is sitting on his own bed, polishing the last bit of Arthur's armour before letting himself fall down to sleep (*AN). He surely doesn't recall walking to Arthur's chamber, and even less...

Oh my... What is Arthur going to think? And come to think of it - true panic now creeping down on Merlin at that thought: *WHERE* is Arthur to start with?

His attention is drawn out right then by Arthur calling out his name (Merlin feels relief, no matter his current embarrassing situation) - in one of those thousands yet unmistakably always Arthurian ways to say his name: a myriad of moods and meanings in those simple two syllables - the voice sounding odd though this morning (is Arthur sick?), and tensed (well, he just found his manservant in *his* bed, that might explain it!).

Merlin turns to face his sovereign, trying to feel less self conscious because he mustn't look guilty, while wishing for inspiration, and buying time until it hits: "There is actually a perfectly valid explan-"

But it is NOT Arthur he sees: it is... himself? His breath catches as 'utter confusion' gets a new meaning, you bet...

At the same moment, Merlin notices suddenly just how *not his* his voice just sounded, and how he's wearing a very particular ring around one finger of what's NOT his hand, and how *blond* hair is falling upon his eyes... And still nothing makes sense; but at least it *does* explain how he awoke in Arthur's bed in Arthur's clothes: he *is* Arthur?; and... Arthur... is him? MUST be him. He has been calling him right the right way, right?!

"Arthur?" Merlin barely dares to breathe out, both in wonder and in plea (because Arthur CANNOT be gone - the fear and pain and simple *impossibility* of such a concept slicing through Merlin's mind like a knife).

There is a bright smile then appearing on his face - a smile that doesn't entirely look like his own though - "Yes, Merlin. It's me," followed by a relieved sigh: "And it's you". And, despite the shock about them having apparently switched bodies (?!?!), Merlin can't help but feel warm all over - because Arthur (and yes, it is so clearly Arthur, even in HIS body!) has apparently been worried about him.

(*AN) Headcanon time :

Merlin uses magic to clean Arthur's armour in the beginning, indeed. And he still uses magic for most of the chores, as much as he can, of course (washing clothes, mending clothes, emptying chamber pots, sweeping fireplaces, preparing baths, refreshing beds, cleaning floors, cleaning everything, really (except for mucking the stables, because there are always others around, grrrr). But he quickly grows nearly *maniac* about Arthur's food (picking at it as a way to make sure it's not poisoned etc...) and about Arthur's armour: it's one of Arthur's protections - so you bet Merlin definitely cleans and polishes and repairs and oils the leather ligaments that hold it together and EVERYTHING the hell out of it, with extra ardor and fervor, with his own two hands, all the while continuously trying to put on it any protecting spells he ever finds, and repeating those over and over at each occasion...

Also: I know mirrors were not so advanced at the time… But Merlin has an enhanced one, after all he has magic right… And on a side note, I’m never going to be over Arthur’s priority-thinking (I’m in trouble = CAMELOT IS UNDER ATTACK (babyyyy let me hold you - being Camelot Prince/King is NOT your only worth) and Merlin’s priority-thinking (what the hell is happening = WHERE THE HELL IS ARTHUR (babyyyy let me hold you - your devotion to The (brave, kind, admirable (shut up Merlin)) Prat doesn’t have to mean that you always must come second (and a bit self-preservation cannot be harmful)) *SIGH* I just love those two idiots so much !!!

#merlin #bbc merlin #merthur #merthur fic #merlin fic #bbcmerlin #the once and future fic #the body swap #fanfic #fic #text #my own two spells

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fyeahwynonnaearp · 7 years ago

Text

What Just Happened?!?: No Future in the Past (S2E08)

TACOS ARE TASTY! TACOS ARE TASTY! Holy freakin’ balls. My emotions. My feelings. Holy shitballs the angst. Holy backstory.

New-ish Character(s)

By that I mean now we know concrete things about them.

Father Juan Carlo, curiously called Padre by others but he refers to himself as Father: Owns a chop shop, he’s who you call if you need your car towed, and the Chief of the Volunteer Fire brigade.

Robert Svane: A friend of Wyatt Earp who delivered messages between estranged BFFs Doc and Wyatt.

Sheriff Clootie: A madman, the unhinged Sheriff of Purgatory with three wives and fathered Constance Clootie’s two demon sons that were killed by Wyatt Earp. Oh. He was the one who cursed Wyatt.

Monster(s) of the Week

It’s apparently my feelings because it has been utterly destroyed by this episode and I’m not sure I have made my peace.

Final Thoughts (before I get into it, because oh boy! do I get into it.Some spoilers? IDK at this point I think everyone knows what went on, in general)

Holy storyline and so much information! I watched it live. Watched it again immediately after. Watched it a day later. And then I watched it again and took notes. So much notes that I felt like I was in a vision quest back to my Organic Chemistry class.

This episode gave us a concrete How the Earp Curse Began 101. In Season 1, they did say how and why, but as with Wynonna Earp, things move quickly and people may have missed it. It’s interesting to point out that there may be episode parallels between the seasons. For instance, S1E07 and S2E07 are both major Wynaught episodes; S1E08 and S2E08 are both Wynonna learning more about Earp history (S1E08 she learned Ward wasn’t exactly the heroic Earp heir and S2E08 she learns about the origins of the curse); S1E09 and S2E09 are both written by Alexandra Zarowny (AKA Wayhaught Whisperer) so I think we’re gonna have a major Wayhaught moment this Friday. Of course, it could all be nothing. But, it could be something.

Anyways, what I found interesting in this episode was how it showed us different sides of characters. How the paragon of all things good and moral and just can actually fuck up because she’s only human and can make mistakes. Or, how the evil demon who let’s be honest seduced a young girl in captivity and called it love was once a good man, meek but loyal to his friend. Is it a thing that it’s these two characters? Maybe. And if you follow that road you can come up with so many theories and speculation that it’ll be hard to climb out of the rabbit hole. Did that happen to me? LMFAO OF COURSE! It really is probably nothing and just a coincidence (I suppose we’ll see by the end of the season, I hope).

Continue reading for...well, hopefully, at this point you know what you’re gonna get if you usually read these “What Just Happened” posts. Why do I have no picture? I got lazy. Again.

10 Things That Happened

1. Willa Earp: The bitchiest bitch there is, the bitchiest bitch there was, and the bitchiest bitch there ever will be. And not in the sassy, fierce bitch way. It comes to no surprise that in S1 reaction vids, whenever Willa comes on many shouts of “Willa, you bitch!” are heard. This flashback to a young Waverly just shows the hatred Willa had towards the youngest Earp. Keep in mind: Willa is 8/9 years older than Waverly. When she threw Mr. Rabbit on the pond/lake so that Waverly will fall through the ice, Willa was old enough and capable of understanding death.

2. “God, I tried so hard, but nobody ever celebrated my birthday, or ordered copies of my school photos, noticed my report cards.” It’s safe to say Waverly was a sad child. Remember her family portrait drawing from S1, where every one was smiling except for her? Now, maybe I’m thinking too much, but something does NOT add up with this statement, unless things are so dark in the Wynonna Earp Universe that even Gus and Curtis neglected Waverly.

Waverly was 4 when Mama Earp (Wendy Rossie) left (Wynonna 10 and Willa 13). This was around the time Bobo persuaded Waverly to bury the talisman that allowed Revenants to set foot on the Earp homestead. She buried the talisman because she thought “..it would stop Mom and Dad from fighting” (S1E02).

Waverly was 6 when the homestead was attacked and Ward was killed and Willa was taken (Wynonna 12 and Willa 15).

Presumably Wynonna was institutionalized or sent to a foster home soon after, but Waverly would have spent the majority of her childhood and schooling years with the McCready’s, who took her in (I think Gus is Mama Earp’s sister? Was that my headcanon/read it in a fic? Or is that actual canon fact?). Wynonna would have been in and out of her life.

Am I missing something? Yes, I understand that Ward largely neglected Waverly, but it seems that Willa was the direct source of Waverly’s horrible childhood with the Earps (See: Willa tried to fucking murder her!!). Which then should shift the focus to Curtis and Gus McCready. They were the ones who, basically, raised Waverly. As any psychologists and others who work in the medical field will tell you, children are resilient. I understand that Waverly had a traumatic childhood. However, why didn’t her sense of abandonment and neglect (for the lack of a better term/I can’t find words) ‘go away’ after leaving a toxic environment and joining the McCready Family, a presumably healthy and nurturing environment? Is there something more with Gus and Curtis we don’t know about? I mean, obviously, because CURTIS KNEW ABOUT THE STONE WITCH’S SONS!!!! HE WAS THE KEEPER OF THE BONES! HE HAD THE SKULL! WHY?!? ANDRAS, ARE YOU GOING TO TALK ABOUT THIS?!?

3. “Mama used to call you her angel.”/”What is my angel’s name?”. Hello, if you regularly read “What Just Happened?!?”, then you know that I’m one of the few(?) who don’t think Waverly is the half-revenant child rumored to exist and I don’t think Bobo is Waverly’s father. The scientist in me is screaming “OCCAM’S RAZOR”. But the writer in me who never really finishes a story because of always thinking of storylines is saying “It’s too convenient. Too many so-called hints. It’s not a big enough surprise or plot twist”. But, let’s talk about this anyways...

First, let’s go back to that magical treehouse in S1, before Bobo tells Waverly she wasn’t an Earp: “I used to watch you girls, and I’d wonder how a man like Ward Earp ended with so much goodness. And then there was the baby. And I used to think about saving her too.” We now know that back when Bobo was Robert Svane, he held on to the idea of “I am a good man” very strongly. He also seemed to be very religious, believed in guardian angels, and was praying while dying. He was loyal to Wyatt Earp; like Ride or Die-level of loyal, so loyal that he rode with Wyatt and died for (or because of) Wyatt. During this scene, I thought it was interesting (Read: weird) that Bobo says “the baby” and “saving her” even though he was talking to Waverly. Is there some reason why he didn’t just address her directly? Why didn’t Bobo say “And then there was you” and “I used to think about saving you too”.

Second, again in S1E02, Bobo tells a young Waverly “...it had to be an Earp” to bury the talisman. This could be true. Or, it could be a lie he told to explain why he couldn’t be the one to bury it (because he can’t step foot on Earp land).

Third, if Bobo did father Waverly and knew about it, would he really have left her with Ward Earp? Or, wouldn’t he have just taken Waverly after Ward’s death and hid her away like he hid Willa?

4. Father Juan Carlo: It is my burden. My curse. To survive and witness. Never to decide. We finally learn about JC! He was the one who originally trapped The Widows in the crate. In addition, he was one of the seal keepers and has ties to the origins of the Earp Curse. A priest in Purgatory, he was the one who sent a message to Wyatt (and Doc afterwards?) about Sheriff Clootie.

Since JC’s appearance, the Earpers thought he was an angel or a watcher. It’s interesting to find out that he was a man of the cloth. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this episode was the first in which God and religion sort of played a role, or had some type of importance. With JC’s death, there is no more symbolic figure to represent the antithesis of demons (even if JC couldn’t necessarily act in any way). Someone now will fill this role, but who? There are some speculation floating around about angel!Waverly (did it replace the angel!Nicole specs?). One (somewhat major? IDK) reason why I don’t believe Waverly is at all supernatural is based on what Dominique said during an interview at SDCC2017: “Waverly is the muggle you root for”. I also think, story-wise, keeping Waverly human is important in regards to highlighting how strong and capable she is and how, if things were different, she would have been the perfect Earp heir. Waverly made the demon possessing her exhausted! If she was supernatural, the thought automatically becomes “Oh. She fought off Mictian/Mikshun/The Goo because she’s (whatever)”. It is more amazing that human, adorable psycho Waverly was able to fight the possession due to her own strength and goodness and will.

“Juan Carlo thinks Wynonna’s special”

I think this came up a few times in the past. We know JC had to tell/suggest the Order to work with Wynonna. Ewan replies along the lines of not wanting to babysit another Earp heir. Plus, why Wynonna? Why now, to interfere and have the heir go through a vision quest to see the past? How is Wynonna different from previous Earp heirs?

Juan Carlo: I was granted immortality like your friend, Doc, along with a few other perks. And some burdens...I’m not allowed to interfere...But, at this point, I’m no longer afraid of the consequences.

What exactly were the consequences? It couldn’t just be death, because--that’s boring. We do find out that he has a fatal case of gangrene. I think JC definitely knew Constance was dead and that either way he will die because his disease returned(?) and immortality is off the table.

5. Ewan and the Order: Wynonna, the seals, these aren’t our fight. The Order has been tasked to protect the Ghost River Triangle from demons. Period. It’s not the first time we wondered, then where the hell have you guys been?!? So far, all we know is they hunted and killed everyone who was possessed/infected by Mictian/Mikshun. With their connection to JC, it seems that their purpose is to protect the Triangle from demons trying to get in. They are completely separated from the Earp curse and Clootie demon. So, who formed the Order and who gave them the task and are they completely human?

Ewan: Any word from Black Badge lately?

How did Ewan know about Black Badge? Did he know it’s gone from the Triangle/Purgatory and was taunting Dolls? Is there a connection between BBD and the Order?

6. Doc Holliday, Robert Svane, and Wyatt Earp. The original (love) triangle. The (original) Ghost River Triangle ship.

Doc: I have made my peace with Wyatt. Now you can go to Hell. Robert: For Wyatt, I would. I would ride to Hell and back for him if need be. Used to be you would too.

Let me just get this out of the way, Wyatt Earp definitely is the reason why Doc and Robert became the 170-something year old gunslinger and sociopathic revenant in a fuzzy coat we all know. Doc may have been suffering from tuberculosis since he was 14-years-old and may have made a deal with Clootie (which something about it confused me which I will get into later) to prolong his life, but he was put in a well because Wyatt killed Constance’s sons. Robert was shot by Peacemaker because he was traveling with Wyatt and was used as a human shield by Sheriff Clootie and being Ride or Die (in his case Ride and Die), he sacrificed himself, letting Wyatt shoot through him. However, he didn’t know that just condemned him to Hell because of the curse put on Wyatt.

Wyatt Earp, the problematic BFF.

7. Robert Svane and Wynonna Earp. What is their connection?

Wynonna: How can you see me? Robert: I suppose because I’m dying. Though I’ve caught glimpses of you my entire life.

Words (and hallucinations) of a dying man? I don’t think so. Robert does acknowledge that maybe it’s a dying thing, but that does not explain why he has seen Wynonna, or glimpses of her, his entire life. Does this mean Wynonna does more vision quests? If so, then why would it bring her back to Robert?

8. Vision Quest: I have ears, let me hear. I have eyes, let me see. I claim my birthright, I claim my history. A glimpse of the past. Cool. Cool cool cool. But did Wynonna’s actions affect the timeline?!? From what JC said and from the words of the ritual, she was there merely to observe and watch. But when Robert and Wynonna were both dying, they were able to interact and physically touch. Did Wynonna affect the timeline in anyway through the vision quest? It is possible.

**In the vision quest/past, Robert rang the bell; the bell rang in the past and in the present.**

VISION QUEST DID EFFECT TIMELINE: In the cold open of this episode, Wynonna asks Waverly who pulled her out of the ice and the answer was “You did”. But Wynonna has no recollection of it happening and Waverly, to me, looked confused as to why Wynonna even asked. Now maybe my theoretical physics is rusty (Read: non-existent) and my understanding of time-space continuum is through various sci-fi media and Hermione’s Time Turner, but I think Wynonna doesn’t remember because in the past she might have been the one to pull Waverly out but it will not be her past. Confused? I think I confused myself too.

Time, as we’ve seen, is a tricky thing when you’re the Earp Heir and when wielding Peacemaker (Remember Hypnos?), which itself is a tricky maybe sentient big-ass gun.

Perhaps, pre-vision quest, Waverly really was pulled out of the ice by Wynonna; Wynonna still haven’t told Robert the whole “Waverly” thing. However, because Peacemaker and its relationship with time and how it affects the Heir tends to get screwed up (Hello accelerated pregnancy!), Wynonna experienced/remembers her past as it happened post-vision quest. That may explain why Waverly suddenly/finally remembers it was Bobo who pulled her out when she revisits the pond/lake at the end of the episode (or was that only revealed to the audience?). Would this then change the dynamic between Bobo and Wynonna, now that he’s back? Because he really should now have realized that his ‘guardian angel’ was Wynonna (why didn’t he in S1 and he really wanted Wynonna dead or maybe this is a new thing cuz because Andras & Co. basically scrapped their original S2?)

Or is this just the crackiest of all crack speculations? Because I’m cool with that.

VISION QUEST DID NOT EFFECT TIMELINE: Meaning nothing changed and Waverly just how the fuck did she know?! that it was directly because of Wynonna that Bobo saved her from the water. This just brings a whole other set of problems and gets dark and gloomy when you stop and think about it.

Wynonna gives Bobo the name “Waverly” as his angel. That means Bobo was able to befriend and pose as Waverly’s imaginary friend because he knew her name. Bobo was able to trick young Waverly into burying the talisman so that The Seven could come and attack the homestead causing Wynonna to accidentally shoot and kill Ward while Willa is taken as insurance. Bobo was then able to basically groom Willa, attempt to cross the barrier, Willa opening the gate, causing other demons to enter including Mictian/Mikshun, etc.

In short, by giving Bobo Waverly’s name, yes it may have saved the youngest Earp when she fell into the ice, but it lead to the series of events which ultimately brought all these things to happen; meaning, Wynonna may have manufactured her own destiny/fate like a super intense, accidental self-fulfilling prophecy. And I don’t think Wynonna even thought about the consequences of giving Waverly’s name, all she heard was Robert’s promise of never hurting his angel.

Isn’t that really fucking sad?

9. The Wedding Ring & Doc and his immortality (my confusion).

Throughout S1, Doc’s overarching story is his thirst for revenge against the Stone Witch, Constance Clootie: She pushed him, leaving him stuck, alive forever at the bottom of a well because his best friend Wyatt Earp killed her two sons. But, at some points during S1 and S2, Doc mentions making a ‘deal with the devil’. Assuming, the deal he made was with Constance to cure him of his tuberculosis, which is also why he and Wyatt had a falling out. But he also sometimes says he was cursed ‘to live and live and live’. Yet, in this episode we find out what makes his ring special.

Constance Clootie: The ring you want? The one that heals the dying and delays death interminably is also my seal.

Getting the fact that the ring is a seal out of the way, it apparently heals and pretty much gives immortality. Which begs the question, did Doc’s initial deal with Constance just gave him his health and then was just cursed with immortality?

Also, Constance told Juan Carlo and Robert “Hide your seal on a holy site and they’ll keep [Sheriff Clootie] locked away forever”, but she kept hers on Doc. In a well. That well was not a holy site. And Doc has since been moving around, sure he sort of lives in Shorty’s (a holy site), but still. Is it a plot hole or just a ‘the wedding ring is special okay? leave it alone’ thing?

10. “Once you look, you can’t unsee the result”, or the that seems like such a specific and purposeful statement and I’d like the Nicole Haught backstory for context please, AKA Wayhaught angst. Nicole, you done fucked up. I’m sure you’ve read others’ posts about it, so I won’t go on and on. Basically, Nicole Haught messed up. Perhaps she was overeager and so sure that Waverly is of course biologically an Earp and that sociopathic revenant is screwing with her, see I knew the results would be--oh shit. Was she wrong to open the mail? Yes. Did she mean to keep the results from Waverly? Of course not. She brought it with her. She planned to give it Waverly. But when she saw how Waverly is struggling to distract herself and could see how much the result would destroy her? Well, here’s when she acted like the majority of hetero-, male love interests and did something wrong to protect the one they love. Also, this show is full of people deciding for someone else in the name of protection and love. This is a theme throughout every relationship (friendship, familial, romantic, etc) in Wynonna Earp. But, I think this trope/pattern will disappear when everyone is on the same page and when they all work on their communication skills.

Nicole: Like it or not you guys are all kind of in this together...You Earps are a party that’s tough to crash. It’s hard not to feel like an outsider, even for me...All I’m saying is I remember what it feels like to be new.

I know. I am guilty of saying that Nicole was jealous of Rosita. But I don’t think Nicole was jealous in a sense that “Oh, is Waverly interested in her romantically?”. Nicole was jealous of how easy it was for Rosita to get along with Waverly and essentially, become one of the gang/part of Team Earp. It is clear that she still struggles with belonging, being included. Yes, she’s in a relationship with Waverly. But while Nicole wants to be (well) all in, I think Waverly wants to keep Nicole separate, not just for protection (initially with the whole BBD un-deputizing), but because Waverly wants something that’s just hers and relatively untainted by the Earp curse and all that it entails.

It also didn’t help when Rosita said, “...it’ll show Wynonna that we’re here for her, right?” Because with Rosita’s connection with Doc, she is a part of that we. In contrast to when Nicole talks about Wynonna’s pregnancy, “...you guys are all kind of in this together”. She acknowledges that she has no part to play and when she did ‘mommy-sit’ in the last episode, Waverly called her asking for “a favor”. With Wynonna’s pregnancy now being a huge aspect of the group dynamics and ties them all together, Nicole is again in the periphery. Hopefully she becomes more and more integrated within the group, separate from the title of “Waverly’s girlfriend”. I do think it will happen because Kat mentions many in SDCC2017 interviews that the baby brings everyone together and changes their perspective on what’s truly important.

Discussion & (hopefully not-problematic) Discourse

1. “OMG. Rosita & Waverly are definitely gonna fuck. Waverly is gonna cheat on Nicole. What is their ship name gon--”. Hello. Please calm down. Pause. I get it. Hot people are hot together BUT---

Now, as you may or may not notice this, I like to keep this blog hate-free and as problem-free as possible. Ship who you want! You’re into Earpcest? You do you, just know that I am slightly judging you, but hey! I’m not gonna kink-shame. You ship Rosita and Waverly and their ship name is pretty: Roserly. Well, it is a pretty ship name. You low-key ship Wynonna and Nicole? Sure! Why not? That has angst-fest written all over it (haha! Wynaught? Why not? Get it. Do you get it? Do you--I’m guessing you do). While yes, I do have a bias towards Wayhaught (if you read my tags, you’ll know they’re my OTP of all OTPs), saying Waverly will cheat on Nicole and fuck Rosita is out-of-character and wouldn’t add anything to the storyline. Wayhaught is shaping up to be actual!relationship with problems that adding a third person (with her own relationship issues to deal with) would make the narrative/storytelling seem “drama for the sake of drama”.

Waverly would never cheat. Waverly and Champ were together for a long time and it’s canon that he was an unfaithful boyfriend. You’re telling me that Waverly Earp, voted the “Nicest Person” in Purgatory, would cheat on Nicole Haught based on attraction/Rosita is hot? Meanwhile, Waverly Earp, who had immediate attraction-at-first-dimpled-smile with Nicole Haught, waited (at least) a few months before breaking up with her longtime cheating-douchebag of a boyfriend. And then, she didn’t even jump Nicole the moment after breaking up with Champ. Plus, Waverly did say, “Rosie’s so much fun. I’m really happy for her and Doc”. This is my plea: Please Let Waverly Have A Friend 2K17-18. Chrissy probably decided to leave after the whole poisoning thing and kidnapping Waverly debacle. I want Waverly to have a friend.

There’s such thing as too many love triangles. There are people who say “Oh. But Emily Andras and love triangles and Lost Girl”. You’re using a previous show as an example as to why a show runner would put love triangles. You get a love triangle. You’re in a love triangle! NO! PLEASE DEAR GOD NO! If anything, that would be why a show runner would be against having a love triangle. Case and point: In an interview, Emily Andras mentioned being against the old love triangle thing, because she has already done it in Lost Girl. But Wynonna and Dolls and Doc! you say...if you think Wyndolliday is a conventional, same old love triangle then please, you must go back and rewatch Lost Girl or think back to the horrible days of Team Jacob/Team Edward. In Wyndolliday, there’s a lack of “I hate you because we love the same girl”. Each man respects the other’s relationship with Wynonna and have an agreement to continue supporting her and to be there for her. This is why there are whispers of “Stop being a coward Andras and just have a polyamorous relationship”.

Haha! They’re fighting. Wayhaught is going to break up and Waverly is gonna fuck Rosita. Ok. If you think relationships are all heart-eyes and make outs and snuggling, what Disney Happily Ever After did you step out of? Really. I want to know because life is hard and I want my three wishes from a genie and spontaneously break out into song, complete with back-up singers and dancers.

Relationships are a lot of work. Why do you think the divorce rate is 50% and climbing? There will be fights and disagreements and arguments...and that’s just how two people, who decide to share their lives with each other (in any capacity), will be able to grow and mature. And for the love of all things holy and unholy, please stop saying Nicole Haught is toxic!!! We do terrible things for people we love. Nicole’s character is defined by the need to protect and yes! she has a bit of a hero-complex. But doing terrible things for people we love is not the same as doing terrible things TO people we love. By saying Nicole is toxic, I think it’s belittling and diminishing the actions of actual abusers (am I making sense?). By saying abusive relationship! and toxic!, it chips away what an abusive relationship and being toxic means. Calling relationships that are not abusive abusive and calling non-toxic characters/people toxic, it starts to make the words abusive and toxic meaningless and that’s NOT something that should happen. Did that make sense? Or, am I just opening up myself to hate?

PS. I personally think that if Wayhaught break-up, Nicole will be the one to have a relationship with Rosita, not Waverly (if Rosita is not heterosexual). Based on this episode, Nicole admitted to feeling left out and this seems to be something that she continues to struggle with. If anything, feeling like outsiders is something Rosita and Nicole would bond over and could become a foundation for a relationship (whether it be a friendship or more). Speaking of friendship, as much as I love the Wynaught BrOTP, I want to see a Rosita and Nicole friendship because I want to see who Nicole is outside of the Earp “Inner Circle”. I want to see Rosita and Nicole drinking and complaining about Wynonna. Do I want to see this because I just want it to be a catalyst to jealous!Waverly? Kind of...YES! Okay?! Why do I want to see jealous Waverly? Because if Waverly was ready to blow someone’s head off with a shotgun for almost sleeping with her chronic-cheater boyfriend, what would she do to someone flirting with Nicole? How would she act?

2. Speaking of the youngest Earp; Waverly “I really should have a therapist because I have major abandonment issues, haven’t you noticed?” Earp. At 4, her mother left without any explanation. At 6, she is witness to one sister shooting and killing their dad and the other sister taken, believed dead. Prior, her father never remembered her birthday and she wasn’t included in the height chart and her oldest sibling tried to murder her, repeatedly. She then lived with the McCready’s but her remaining sister is not a constant presence. Even leaving her at age 18 to go travel the world, while she’s stays in Purgatory. Her high school boyfriend constantly cheats on her. Her Uncle Curtis who raised her and basically was her father dies when she’s 21 and the man who gave her a job and was like family also dies.

I need Waverly to talk to somebody. Please. Because I need her to be okay.

3. The sadistic part of me wants Waverly to be an Earp, biologically. Unless it has been definitively stated, which it hasn’t, the question of Waverly’s lineage is still unanswered. To be honest, when Bobo told Waverly she wasn’t even an Earp, my reaction was “How the fuck would you know?”. Anyways, being biologically an Earp would go hand in hand with the show’s theme of Found Family.

Let’s be real. Sometimes, families just suck and are horrible to each other. No huge hidden family secrets. No conspiracies. Your family just happens to be the one you are born in and just because you share blood/DNA, it doesn’t mean you automatically care and love each other.

Thus, the reason for Ward being a neglectful father and Willa having so much anger and hatred towards Waverly would be...none; there is no reason. And how heartbreaking and awful would that be? Maybe it’s because Waverly looks very much like their mother and Ward couldn’t look at the youngest Earp without being reminded by his wife that left him. Maybe because Willa was jealous that Mama called Waverly ‘her angel’ while Daddy kept forcing her to practice her shooting...

While I do appreciate it if Waverly’s origin/lineage is that she’s adopted (because there’s not many adoption stories, that I know of), I just think there’s something honest and dark and real about being hated by the people that are supposed to love you unconditionally.

As usual, I’m open to discussion, thoughts, opinions, corrections, etc. I honestly didn’t do a good job editing, so there could be mistakes.

#what just happened #late again #is it still late if it's a usual occurrence?#wynonna earp

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tomeandflickcorner · 7 years ago

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OUAT Episode Analysis- The Garden of Forking Paths

So now we have the third episode of the new season. And I hate to admit it, but I’m having trouble figuring out the meaning of the episode title. I know it’s a reference to a poem, and I get the garden part was probably a reference to that community garden that Lucy loves so much, but what was the Forking Paths bit referring to? The tunnels beneath the garden? When I hear the phrase ‘forking paths,’ it makes me think of a person making a decision that leads to parallel lives. Like the Doctor Who episode ‘Turn Left,’ which showed how things would have turned out if Donna had decided to take a job her mother had selected for her instead of going to work for H.C. Clemmings. By not going to work for H.C. Clemmings, Donna never met the Doctor, and that ultimately led to a post-apocalyptic world. But I didn’t see anything like that in this episode. It was more of an episode of deciding if the end really did justify the means.

The episode starts off with showing what happened with Parallel Cinder when she showed up at the rendezvous point where she was supposed to meet Henry. Before Henry could show up, Parallel Cinder discovers she’d been followed by some of the royal guard, who believe that she murdered the prince. Parallel Cinder is saved by Tiana, who had also followed her from the ball. Tiana explains that she’s part of a secret resistance movement and that she attended the ball to spy on the prince. But with the prince dead, the resistance is now more determined than ever to bring Parallel Evil Stepmother down. Tiana invites Parallel Cinder to accompany her back to their camp, and she ultimately agrees. But not before leaving behind one of her glass slippers as a sign for Henry, to show him that she had been there.

In the morning, Tiana proceeds to show Parallel Cinder around the Freedom Fighter Camp, and introducing her to the other Freedom Fighters. They’re momentarily interrupted when Henry, Regina and Wish Killian appear on the scene. They managed to locate them after Regina finally got her locator spell to work. The trio decide to join forces with Tiana’s Resistance, so she fills them all in on how their Intel discovered Parallel Evil Stepmother has been smuggling all manner of magical artifacts into her home. But the most mysterious object was a strange coffin. Tiana asks Parallel Cinder if she’d ever seen this coffin, since she’d lived there, but Parallel Cinder says she doesn’t. However, you don’t need to have Emma’s superpower to tell that Parallel Cinder was hiding something.

Sure enough, Parallel Cinder sneaks off that night and breaks into Parallel Evil Stepmother’s mansion, quickly discovering the location of the magic coffin. But Parallel Evil Stepmother appears, revealing that she knew full well that Parallel Cinder would show up. It comes out that the coffin contains Anastasia, the other stepsister. We’re told that something happened to Anastasia when she was only 14. We currently don’t know what, but Parallel Cinder feels that she’s directly responsible for her stepsister’s current state. All I know is that I’m going to be one unhappy camper if this is going to turn out to be a rehash of how Snow blamed herself for what happened to Daniel. Because Snow didn’t deserve to be held responsible for that. Cora was the one who manipulated and took advantage of a little girl’s naivety and outlook on the importance of having a mother. Snow was just as much of a victim as Regina and Daniel was. So I’m REALLY hoping that Parallel Cinder isn’t blaming herself for Anastasia’s current state because of a similar reason.

Anyway, Parallel Evil Stepmother states that she has a way to revive Anastasia. All it would require was the Heart of the Truest Believer. In other words, she plans to sacrifice Henry. And it was while writing this that I noticed the possibly unintentional callback to the Neverland arc. Parallel Evil Stepmother proceeds to try and blackmail Parallel Cinder to do her dirty work for her by placing a spell on her gloves that would, I guess, enable her to remove Henry’s heart. She tells Parallel Cinder that if she doesn’t do as she’s told, then Parallel Evil Stepmother will make sure everyone else suffers.

Parallel Cinder returns to the Freedom Fighter Camp, visibly conflicted over what she has to do. Though, would she even have been able to remove Henry’s heart? I seem to remember that, at the end of the Neverland arc, Regina had placed a protective spell around his heart, which would ensure that no one could ever take his heart again. I suppose it’s possible, however, that the writers have forgotten about that plot point. After all, it’s been almost four years since that episode first aired. In the end, however, it doesn’t really matter, as Parallel Cinder decides she can’t harm Henry. They may have only just met, but Parallel Cinder already cares for him. Instead, she basically plans to pull a Huntsman by taking the heart of a carpenter Freedom Fighter and making Parallel Evil Stepmother think it’s Henry’s. Before she can go through with her bait-and-switch, Regina suddenly appears, announcing she’d noticed that Parallel Cinder had snuck out of the camp. Regina basically gives Parallel Cinder this whole speech about how she’d come to learn about how the end doesn’t justify the means, and ends up talking Parallel Cinder out of giving into Parallel Evil Stepmother’s demands. When morning comes, Regina gives Parallel Cinder another lecture about the importance of forgiving herself for whatever happened with Anastasia. I can’t quite remember exactly what was said, unfortunately. It’s times like this that I wish that foreverdeaming.org would post transcripts for this show again. They haven’t posted one since the end of the Patchwork arc. But either way, I guess this means that Regina is going to be filling Snow White’s role in this new adventure. I don’t fault people for taking issue with this. While I haven’t found a reason to dislike Regina in this season so far, it would have been nice to have actually SEEN her come to the realizations she apparently had instead of just being told that she has. She always was notorious for seemingly learning her lesson but then backsliding whenever something didn’t go her way. In the end, Parallel Cinder decides to stick around instead of imposing exile on herself, and she officially joins Tiana’s Freedom Fighters alongside Henry, Regina and Wisk Killian.

In the present-day storyline, we see the first official meeting of Henry, Roni/Regina and Rogers/Wish Killian’s resistance movement. They’ve determined that Victoria/Parallel Evil Stepmother has a new scheme involving buying building permits. It’s revealed that Victoria plans to pave over the Community Gardens, that flower field that Lucy loves, and put up expensive condos. Rogers, while doing surveillance for the resistance movement, witnesses Victoria slipping a cash-filled envelope to the head of the construction company. Obviously, this means that Victoria is paying off the construction company or something to that effect. Rogers later corners the businessman in a restaurant and arrests him for accepting bribes. But he later witnesses Weaver/Rumpelstiltskin releasing the businessman from jail. This angers Rogers, as Weaver has just let a criminal go free. But Weaver counters this, saying that he released the crooked businessman because of….reasons. Something to do with how the businessman had too strong of a connection to Victoria and that essentially gave him a ‘get out of jail’ card. Or maybe because Roger’s investigation of the businessman hadn’t been given an official stamp of approval. It was some sort of bureaucratic red tape crap. Either way, Rogers is visibly unhappy about how things turned out.

But the main focus of the episode is on Lucy and the Community Garden. Jacinda, knowing how much the gardens mean to her daughter, follows some advice from Roni/Regina and puts together a petition, believing that if she gets enough people to sign it, then it can overrule Victoria’s official decree to pave over the Community Garden. The response to the petition proves to be overwhelming, with people practically lining up to sign Jacinda’s position. But Victoria, proving she’s the worst, approaches Jacinda and bribes her into destroying the petition. She tells Jacinda that if she gives up on her crusade, then she and Lucy would be allowed to live together in one of the condos. The temptation of being allowed to be with her daughter again proves to be too much for Jacinda, who ends up burning the petition. Unfortunately, Lucy witnesses this and is devastated, announcing that if sacrificing the Community Garden is the price of them being together, then she’d rather remain separated.

Jacinda then spends a few minutes feeling miserable about how things turned out. But then Roni/Regina once again gives her a pep-talk, inspiring her to simply put together a second petition. With this act, Jacinda manages to redeem herself in Lucy’s eyes, and the Community Garden is saved.

Meanwhile, we get a related subplot with Henry. He spends the majority of this episode with Lucy, who is speculating that Victoria’s determination to pave over the Community Garden is because something is hidden beneath the garden, and that Victoria doesn’t want it to be found. In other words, we’re getting a huge callback to the S1 episode when Young Henry traveled down into the mines to find the proof that the curse over Storybrooke was real. They even have Lucy point out the parallel, which was great. All I know is that Emma’s going to have a field day when Henry tells her about this adventure. Henry finally has an idea of what he put her through during that ordeal.

Thankfully, we don’t quite get to the nail-biting point that we got with the S1 episode. Henry and Lucy don’t get trapped in the tunnels beneath the Community Garden the way Young Henry and Archie did. But while Young Henry hadn’t been able to locate Snow’s glass coffin, Lucy is able to find something- a shard of glass. Immediately, she speculates that this is a shard of the Glass Slipper, and that showing it to her mother will help her remember who she is. But after Jacinda is able to save the Community Garden with the second petition, Lucy decides that her mother doesn’t need the reminder of who she really is anymore. Instead, she chooses to let Henry hold onto the Glass Slipper Shard, telling him that it will hopefully help him remember that they’re his missing family. And that the story states it’s the Prince who has to use the Glass Slipper to find Cinderella. Unfortunately, after they part ways, Henry stumbles across a cemetery that contains tombstones for Lauren and Abigail Mills. So Henry’s probably thinking that these are the graves of his wife and daughter. Looks like its one step forward and two steps back for Henry at the moment. Though I wonder why this curse chose the names Abigail and Lauren. Is there a significance to those names?

In the final moments, we see Victoria bringing Anastasia’s coffin down to this secret underground chamber. It’s revealed, to no one’s shock, that Victoria DOES remember that she’s Parallel Evil Stepmother. We also see she has some woman I’m guessing is a witch chained up in this underground chamber. Is this the same witch who took Wish Killian’s daughter? That remains to be seen. But Victoria and The Witch have some sort of power-play going on. Even though Victoria is confident that she has The Witch as her prisoner, the Witch insists that she’s the one with the upper hand. Either way, we learn Victoria is still planning to resurrect Anastasia. But she now plans to use Lucy’s heart in the ritual instead of Henry’s.

So, we now have a motive for the main bad guy. And a clear deadline. Because Victoria is now clearly planning to sacrifice Lucy, which gives us some actual stakes. Congrats show. You’ve done your job at making Victoria a formable enemy we want to see defeated. And I really want to see Henry reunite with his real wife and daughter. But it looks like next episode will be a Rumpelstiltskin centric episode. Hopefully, that will be okay. I tend to be underwhelmed by those episodes. But who knows? Maybe this time, they’ll impress me.

(Click here to read more Episode Analyses)

#ouat episode analysis #ouat 7x03 #henry mills #parallel!ciinderella #jacinda #lucy mills #wish world! killian #detective rogers #regina mills #roni #tiana #victoria belfrey #parallel!evil stepmother #detective weaver #rumpelstitskin

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thisisevenharderthannamingablog · 8 years ago

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6.21/22 The Final Battle

Well, here we are. I can’t title this “the final write-up” because I still have to go back and finish six episodes in S2, but we’re certainly getting close.

My feelings about this show are large and complicated. My feelings about this finale are of overwhelming disappointment. Read on for large quantities of salt, like we’re talking “Visitors Guide to Hallstatt” here, maybe put on a helmet.

In the Enchanted Forest: Some but not all of the Storybrooke residents are returned to the Enchanted Forest castle, while others remain in the LWM. (???) They can watch events in Storybrooke through a mirror. Zelena arrives from Oz via magic hat (???) to let them know that there is another problem: the realms are disappearing. Additional refugees arrive, including Aladdin and Jasmine.

Regina is determined to find a magical solution, and poofs everyone to her own castle. Hook is just as determined not to wait on her efforts, and sneaks off on his own. Charming follows him to the beanstalk, which he plans to climb in order to look for a magic bean to get back to Emma. They essay the quest together, find a bean, and exit pursued by a random dragon (???).

Meanwhile, the other Regina shows up back at the castle, having abandoned the Wish World with Robin due to her being wanted for regicide there, and joins the effort.

In the other world, Emma burns the book. As the Enchanted Forest comes apart, the beanstalk sways. Hook falls off, and Charming rides the falling stalk down to the ground. Snow realizes that her husband is missing. She and Jasmine go to find him. They find Hook (unhurt somehow), and Snow stays to look for Charming while the other two take the bean back to the castle. She finds him, thinks he’s dead, and kisses him, which wakes him up somehow IDK.

The bean has already begun to wither, and Regina’s magic is insufficiently speedy to revive it in time to use it (??). Her evil half buys them time (??), sacrificing herself to hold back the oncoming destruction. Everyone else takes cover in the castle.

The erosion of the realms stops when there is only a small patch of Enchanted Forest remaining.

In the LWM:: Henry wakes up on the rooftop alone, and quickly finds that Storybrooke has been re-cursed. Fiona is his mother (???) , and Emma has been in an asylum for the past two years, ever since Henry ate that apple tart and poisoned himself in an effort to prove that magic was real. Neither the storybook nor the symbols that he wrote while in an Author trance are convincing. Fiona shows up to reinforce the fake reality in which they dwell and attempt to convince Emma to destroy the storybook as a final act of healing.

Fiona pays a visit to the pawnshop to visit Gold and Gideon and make sure their new story is in place -- that Belle ran off and abandoned them, and Fiona looks after them as best she can.

Meanwhile, Henry breaks Emma out, hoping to jog her memories with a trip to the site of her recent wedding. She does have flashes, but considers this part of her ongoing problem with reality. Henry determines to steal Emma’s car keys so they can leave town, but Fiona catches him and pushes down some stairs, breaking his arm. She uses this incident to convince Emma that the storybook needs to go, for Henry’s sake.

The worlds’ disintegration accelerates as the book burns.

Rumple asks Fiona to “reopen the investigation into Belle’s disappearance.” She offers him some hilariously bad Photoshops of Belle off seeing the world, blissfully alone.

Emma leaves for Boston (where, in the single least likely occurrence of the entire episode, her apartment is still there -- it’s not even dusty). She finds a version of the storybook that Henry made for her (when did he do that?).

Henry goes to Gold, who admits that he still has his memories because he did not entirely trust his mother, but also that he has no interest in being helpful; he just wants to find Belle. Henry borrows a mirror and a sword and goes down to the beach. He announces to anyone who might be watching via mirror that he’s going to fight the Black Fairy himself.

He’s all ready to do so when Emma shows up -- she came back! Even though she doesn’t remember anything, she read his story and she believes him.

Rumple concocts a potion and locates Belle, only to find that she’s agoraphobic in her new, cursed life. Fiona comes to the shop looking for her wand and reminds us that she has Gideon’s heart and can command him, because that will be important later. She uses the wand to translate the symbols Henry wrote in his trance, which are about the Final Battle. Rumple returns and confronts his mother, who promises to lift the curse from Belle and Gideon just a soon as she’s done with this fight.

Oh, and she’ll also have ultimate power by then, could even bring people back to life, if that was a thing he was interested in. He could have everything! But, no deal. He takes the wand. Fiona has one last trick, however; it’s still Gideon who’s going to kill Emma, carrying out Fiona’s final command to his heart, because “Darkness can’t snuff out the Light… only light can snuff out light.”

(What the everloving fuck? This plus that final line in the storybook is why it took my poor li’l English major ass a solid month to get around to rewatching this thematic dumpster fire.)

Anyway, Rumple goes ahead and kills her, with 20 minutes left to go in the episode.

(Wait, I thought killing people -- even bad people! -- was supposed to be BAD. Wasn’t that like half of S4.)

But this time it’s okay, I guess, because the curse breaks, and everyone gets their memories back. (So Snow and Charming could have just killed Regina’s no-magic ass in their flashback a few episodes ago and broken the curse themselves instead of letting Emma go through hell to save them. Good to know.) Everyone comes back from the Enchanted Forest as the sun sets. Gideon finds his sword, and Emma.

Belle finds Rumple, and on Henry’s direction, the two of them head to the mines in search of Gideon’s heart while Emma locks Gideon in the mayor’s office. Belle - and I can’t believe I am going to fucking type these words, give me a second - TWISTS HER ANKLE AND CAN’T GO ON because it’s not like her husband is the FUCKING DARK ONE AND COULD HEAL HER IN LESS TIME THAN IT TOOK TO TELL HIM TO GO ON WITHOUT HER.

But oh no, they had to give Rumple a tete a tete with his Enchanted Forest self telling him to just give it up, let the Final Battle go on, take all the power for himself teehee! This could have been a neat moment if it had been, oh, I dunno, built up in any way at all in the entire preceding season instead of just flung at us out of nowhere. Rumple decides to do the Right Thing, but his attempt to command Gideon to stop has no effect, because of… something the Black Fairy did, apparently.

Meanwhile up above, Gideon finds them again (natch). Regina gives a Hope Speech™. Emma fights Gideon but refuses to kill him, so he stabs her. There’s a lot of light. Emma appears to be dead until Henry kisses her.

For reasons I don’t understand at all, Gideon becomes an infant again. The storybook is finished. The Enchanted Forest is back where it was - Evil Queen included, and it looks like she and Robin are expecting. Snow and Charming get a farmhouse and a dog. Emma and Hook drive off in the bug to fight crime together. Regina gets to be queen of Storybrooke. Everyone gathers at Granny’s for a weird-ass homage to Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

(I have blocked every gifset that includes that scene that crosses my dash, because what the actual fuck.)

In sum, happy beginnings all around.

Also: In some wrapper scenes after an unspecified time jump, we meet a plucky young girl named Lucy and her fairy godmother, Tiger Lily. Lucy has a storybook and a sword and says she’s Henry’s daughter. Henry (now an adult and living in Seattle in our fade-out) has no memory of her. A grave new threat has overcome the Enchanted Forest and their family.

I didn’t pay much attention to these, as I am not planning to watch the season.

Parallels: This episode consisted of (depressingly) little else but direct callbacks to other episodes -- which is not nearly as effective as parallelism, unfortunately.

Fiona = Regina, obviously

The now-magicless Zelena travels by magic hat (1.17); apparently in his years off-screen, Jefferson made a new one

Emma’s pullup scene is a reference to Terminator 2 (another sequel, see earlier this season)

Operation Cuckoo’s Nest is a twofer, as the entire “operation” business is now several layers deep in self-reference. Unfortunately.

Killian and Charming climb the beanstalk from 2.06

Her Handsome Hero makes an appearance in 6.21 and then again in 6.22, when Rumple uses it to find Belle.

Fiona giving Belle an agoraphobic personality is reasonably close to Regina having locked her up

Snow kissing Charming awake was a callback to, well, rather a lot of their scenes since the S6 curse.

Fiona’s final plan as she explained it to Rumple - no more laws of magic, bringing people back to life, making them love - was lifted wholly from the OUaTiW spinoff, where it made a hell of a lot more sense.

We got one last reference to the price of magic, although it’s hard to see any rhyme or reason to how that’s applied these days.

Henry kissing Emma reverses the S1 finale.

Six seasons’ worth of material, magic items, and emotion to draw from, and this random grab-bag is what they came up with.

On a cheerier note, Lucy means “light” which I feel is appropriate for Snow White’s great-granddaughter and the granddaughter of a Savior.

Wardrobe Department:

There was nothing new or interesting here.

In Hindsight: The villains on this show have gone steadily downhill in capability for the past few years. Regina enjoyed most of a decade as the tyrant of the Enchanted Forest, and 28 more years with Storybrooke in her iron grip before Emma broke the curse for which Regina had murdered her own father.

Rumple was the Dark One, holder of unmatched power, for centuries, came thisclose to living forever in a world specially designed for his happiness (S4).

Pan had absolute power in Neverland for centuries. Cora held sway in Wonderland for years, and got the better of Rumplestiltskin once (very nearly twice). Zelena ruled Oz for something like forty years, if my timeline is anywhere near correct.

Fiona lost her wand ten seconds after turning evil, and was defeated by a fairy who regularly gets herself nearly-dead and doesn’t even show up in the town’s magical ranking these days. She was imprisoned for centuries, sulking and plotting in the Dark Realm, before she made it to Storybrooke, where she spent a week romping around, finally cast her curse, her great work of villainy -- and it got broken and she got killed THE NEXT DAY.

What a loser.

I did a rare thing for me and asked Adam on Twitter what was up with this episode, given that most of it was clearly written for Regina, not the Black Fairy. I did not get an answer, and I suppose we’ll never know what caused this change in direction -- maybe it was as simple as the fact that JMo was leaving and Lana was staying next season, and they didn’t want to end the show. It seems inarguable to me, however, that this change was made, because absolutely nothing about Fiona’s actions makes sense in light of her character.

Fiona’s Dark Curse was (retconned to have been) intended to protect her son (Rumple) by taking all of the Enchanted Forest children to the Land Without Magic. Her later actions were fixated on Gideon as substitute for Rumple. The Dark Curse as enacted in the finale didn’t appear to have anything in particular to do with Rumple or with Gideon. They were both supposed to be cursed and oblivious, so how would that have been a happy ending for Fiona? Was she going to spend eternity watching their family from outside? Storybrooke under her curse had plenty of magic, too, ignoring what was supposed to have been the entire original point.

The new Dark Curse did end up having a lot to do with Emma, with whom Fiona had no relationship at all beyond the inescapably lame “you’re a Savior so I have to kill you” thing. It separated her from her family and drove a new wedge between her and Henry. Fiona had no reason at all to be interested in Henry -- but in this new world she adopted him? -- or in any of Emma’s family for their own sake -- but she made sure to send specifically them away, and no one else? She has literally never interacted with any of these characters, and it makes no sense that she would care about their whereabouts.

(And why for the love of Pete was Henry immune to the curse? I don’t think they ever addressed that. He wasn’t under the first one because he was brought to town later on, but there’s no obvious reason why he should have kept his real memories this time around.)

(While I’m at it, how in hell did she still have Gideon’s heart? She and Rumple were supposed to have been allies as of a couple episodes ago; there’s no way he would have made any deal without securing that.)

None of what Fiona did makes sense for the Black Fairy, but it would have been very much in keeping with Regina’s past actions. (Yes, even down to harming Henry. This is a woman who killed the thing she loved the most.) Even Fiona’s costuming was identical to Regina’s look in S1.

I’m too irritated by it to even really discuss Regina and Rumple’s ending for this season. Suffice to say that they got everything they ever wanted -- twice over in Regina’s case -- and I will never stop being bitter about it. What was even going on with Rumple here? Is being the Dark One irrelevant now? Because if he’s been 100% able to make good decisions this entire time, curse or no curse, and just couldn’t be arsed until this very moment, that blows up another enormous piece of show mythology.

Moving on before my blood pressure kills me.

In my opinion, most of this finale’s mess comes from chickening out with Regina. The rest of it falls out as a consequence of that decision. Having slotted the Black Fairy in for her at the last moment, having decided to make this a metaphorical battle and not a literal one, they had the problem of what do with all of the other characters. I suspect the decision went like “leaving them in Storybrooke would mean re-establishing their cursed identities for viewers who haven’t seen them in five seasons, and it would mean creating all new curse identities for some of them, so let’s just send them off to the EF and, um, they can do absolutely nothing useful there.” The Captain Charming scene was cute as far as it went, but it was also useless, and that dialog was flat-out terrible.

That entire half of the finale was pointless. Literally nothing was accomplished there that had any effect. In order to make all that nothing look like a very urgent something, the writers came up with this “Emma’s lack of belief will destroy all the lands” hack at what was obviously the last possible moment, and I say that because it is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION of the ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE SHOW.

We literally spent all of S1 and onward having it explained that what we think of as stories have objective existence in other worlds, that these people and these realms are real, with their own long and complicated history independent of our own; we only know of them because of the storybooks. Now all of the sudden they only exist if one particular person believes in them? What about the first 28 years of Emma’s life, when she didn’t believe in anything? What about the worlds she’s never been to, never interacted with? Stuff that happened before she was born? The history of the Authors, Mr Disney included? All of those other storybooks from the last hack job of a season finale?

The idea that the final battle is an internal one is fine in itself, but then what makes it final? Why was the Black Fairy involved at all? Why has it been six years and we’re still talking about whether Emma Swan believes in magic? Shouldn’t the “final” battle revolve around everything that has happened to her SINCE that moment, not take us back to just before it happened? What narrative purpose does isolating her from everyone except Henry - again! - serve?

It wasn’t even really a battle; the curse didn’t capitalize on any weakness in Emma’s character. We just rewound the tape to the S1 finale so she could make the exact same decision she made then -- to leave -- and then convince herself to come back sans apple tart-induced trauma? Was that supposed to be the big pivotal thing, that she came back on her own? Because that was pretty fucking drastically underplayed, and also pretty far from definitive. Emma could get her memories wiped tomorrow (and given this show, probably will), and we’d do the same thing all over again. The fact that they didn’t even feel a need to show her moment of deciding to act on screen says everything, I think.

And then we have the concluding fight, which defies explanation. One thing this show has generally done a good job with is parallelism, but here of all places it fell flat. Everything about the “climax” felt perfunctory at best. They introduced the vision of the fight with Gideon in 6.01, therefore they had to revisit it in the finale, even if it made no particular sense to do so (nothing about Gideon has made sense). This fight happened because a dead character who had no established reason for doing anything she did gave a pointless character an order that didn’t make any sense in the first place; Emma had to “die” purely because the writers said she would six months ago. As an action and as a scene, it accomplished nothing.

Having previously established that the sword was a real sword that would cut people, they hand-waved that and gave it a magical effect instead, allowing Emma to be struck down and then wakened by TLK. The TLK with Henry at the end of S1 was one of the most hard-fought-for scenes I have personally ever seen in any medium, with an entire season of loving development leading up to it; this one felt like a distant echo through a mile of aluminum ducting. Henry has barely even been in this season, hasn’t had a good episode for his character since 6.08. His relationship with Emma in particular has been on the back burner since “The Other Shoe.” The two of them didn’t even get a good spotlight in this episode what with all of the side action in the Enchanted Forest and with Rumple and so on. That kiss didn’t bring anything new to the story.

And so here we are, if not at the end of the story, at least at the end of a significant chapter.

Adam and Eddy wrote some of my all-time favorite episodes of this show, back in the day. At this point, I have to say that while they might make solid staff writers, they have no business running a show. They don’t care about consistency from one season or sometimes even one episode to the next, their creative toolbox appears limited in scope, their writing is self-indulgent, and they’re apparently not willing to follow through -- of their own accord -- on events that should have significant in-character consequences. The result is a finale that very nearly systematically trashes every piece of moral and magical world-building that was still standing after six seasons -- and which I feel comfortably certain will be ignored when the show goes into S7.

All of that said, I do want to end this on a positive note. I have over the past few years very much enjoyed the story of Emma Swan, the ugly duckling who thought she would never have a family, the lost princess who gave up on love, the hardass with her box of sentimental treasures -- the mother, daughter, sheriff, swordswoman, sorceress, leader, lover, and all of the other jackets she’s worn across the years, leather and otherwise, in the end a fully realized woman with a whole heart and a happy future ahead of her. That’s a story I will never get tired of, and for that I offer my gratitude.

To all of you reading this, I would like to say thank you as well, for the many hours of diverting conversation, for the moving and hilarious commentary, and for the friendships that have grown up from this unexpected ground. May your supplies of fic never run dry.

#b thinks about once upon a time #ouat #ouat 6x21 #ouat 6x22

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amisbro · 8 years ago

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Breaking down Broccoli’s Messages

(a.k.a. “The Method to the Madness”) Alright SO...since we are less than 2 weeks out for Uta no Prince-Sama’s 7th Anniversary I wanted to go and break down some things that I thought were interesting when it came to both Broccoli (The company that owns the rights to UtaPri) and also Sentai Filmworks who does the distribution here in the US What is going to follow is a rather detailed breakdown of when the series started airing to present and also certain other things that I have found of interest as...it would appear that this “UtaPri detective” might be close to cracking what is Broccoli’s code on June 24th! Ready... Set... GO!

Okay so where do we begin...let’s start on 2011 and 2013...specifically July 2nd of 2011 and then April 3rd of 2013. Now why are we going to use these dates in particular? Here’s why! Have you ever looked up the dates between when the (original) games for the PSP games came out in Japan and the release dates for the Seasons came out? Its really quite fascinating July 2nd, 2011 is when S1 of UtaPri came out and what is interesting about this is that not long after (August 11th of that same year) was the ORIGINAL Repeat that came out on the PSP...a game that I actually own for the system and have to finish at some point but I just haven’t gotten to it yet. At this time also in UtaPri land 3 games had already been released for PSP before the remake of the first one. In order they were The ORIGINAL Uta no Prince-Sama (June 24th, 2010) Amazing Aria (December 23rd, 2010) Sweet Serenade (February 10th, 2011) Now keep this in mind too: These three games released BEFORE S1...what was the reason? The obvious answer (and the very likely one is that they wanted to make sure that they had a lot of stuff to use for STARISH if they wanted to do a series...well they did a Season 1 and then at the “ambiguous” message of “See You Next Time” in the final title card it almost seemed cut and dry after the debut of STARISH in the Anime that they would get to a second series...a second series where the rules changed and we got to start “expansion” of the UtaPri world” BEFORE THAT! Broccoli wanted to make sure that the fans were introduced to new characters outside of the ones they already know (i.e. the STARISH boys, Saotome, Tsukimiya and Hyuuga) so two more games would come out before April 2, 2013 Debut (May 24, 2012...3 days before Maeno’s 30th birthday) All-Star (March 7th, 2013 and became notable for the first game you could date the QN boys) So keep this in mind because its at this point where e get ready also for the second series in April pf 2K13 and NOT ONLY do we meet the QUARTET NIGHT BUT...Shining starts to really show his cunning by subtly introducing a new unit that wanted to take on STARISH but at the time he simply called them “A trio of Amateurs” The Anime comes and we do meet QUARTET NIGHT but during the final 3-4 episodes of ML2K we find out that there is a “rival group” and I seriously hesitate to use that word but others do so let’s go with it for now. The trio, as we find out, is brought on by a competitive and twisted man named Raging Ootori and his son Eiichi is the leader. The group HEAVENS would be the pawns in a twisted match where the loser would be forced to disband. Its at this time you can ask the following question: Is this story going to end after two seasons? OR Do the producers and the people behind the scenes have a “bigger plan” for not just HEAVENS but also STARISH and QN? Well HEAVENS would lose as one would find out and...at the time you might not have been the biggest fan of that trio because Eii came on so strong that contact cement wanted him to chill out and Nagi (at the time) was a brat...I admit this wholeheartedly! The thing was they didn’t end the series with a message like “Thanks for watching” or the “STARISH FOREVER” message that we would see later in this unique setup...no they said “See you next time” which made things rather intriguing! What could broc be planning? Christmas day of 2013 we found out! 12/25/2013 an OVA which has only ever released in Japan called “Shining Star Xmas” was released and it was during the OVA that Reiji convinced the QUARTET NIGHT to work together again because of the inspiration he had gotten from their Juniors (remember that the plot of S2 was SUPPOSED to be that QN and STARISH were Senior/Juniors) and they decided to go and make more music and also take on STARISH. Now let’s pump the brakes because this is where Sentai comes in It was towards the end of 2013 that Sentai announced they had gotten the rights to release S1 and 2 of Uta no Prince-Sama in the US. S1 would release in January and S2 would be in August. I thought it was interesting that they did it this way but then again I am curious if that is a common practice or I’m just losing it! ANYWAYS So S1 and 2 get released here and other songs would come out for the series not Anime related up until about 2015 and during the lead up we would start to get a lot of little hints about the new season that was announced not the least of which would have STARISH doing “cross units” (I fail to see how they were to a degree but I’ll go with it) while the solo idol songs this time around would go TO...my boys of the QN! Fun fact time for this that might not have been in the know: The date of the OR release for season 3 AND the date of this past stage were the EXACT SAME DAY...take a guess which left a better taste in my mouth ANYWHO! So S3 happens with the two groups working to see who would get to appear as the rep for Shining Agency for the Triple S! Wait...what is this and why are they doing this? Alright politic time! So...in 2013 (so this back around S2) the IOC (International Olympic Committee) was selecting the host city for the games of 2020. The three countries that were up for it were Turkey, Spain and the eventual winner which would be Japan to see who would host the games. Japan won and for the past 4 years they have been getting ready for the games and its going to be interesting to see not just how it sets up but also who opens the games as there has been a poll for the public to see which group gets to perform the Opening Ceremony...this is kind of like what would become the storyline between STARISH and QN for at least the 3rd season except...well let’s talk about it During Season 3 a rift would begin to open between STARISH and QN and this was ESPECIALLY the case when they said they would take Haruka if they won (this is the same thing FYI that HEAVENS said or more specifically Eiichi...it was VERY INTERESTING to hear trust me). Now what made this also interesting was towards the end of the season and Reiji made a declaration that they would keep facing STARISH until they surpassed them! Now surely this “moving out of the dorms” couldn’t be game ref right? WRONG See Broc likes to drop things that happen in the GAME WORLD into the Anime...except I think when they leave in the game its under happier terms...I haven’t got that far in the TL yet! we SHOULD mention that the game “All Star After Secret” was released before this series came out. The date of the game was March 12th, 2015 and, to date, is the final PSP game that has been released in the series. the other 2 games on the PSP were both Rhythm Games that were called “Uta no Prince-Sama MUSIC” with (so far) the final game being released on the VITA om January 28th, 2015 NOW we get to have some fun! In the midst of all of this Broccoli DOES announced another Visual Novel game for UtaPri called “Dolce Vita” (Translation: The Sweet Life) which follows the 11 boys after ASAS. Also Broccoli announces a partnership with KLAB who is behind the series “Love Live” and NOW things get interesting because LL: School Idol Festival DOES I believe have an English release...hmm! Back to the Anime At the end of Series 3 HEAVENS reappears as a 7 member group and each member would be a counterpart to a particular member of STARISH (ex: Eiichi/Oto, Masa/Kira, Van/Ren etc.) and they performed HEAVENS GATE again...aight! At the end of the season two things are put up on the screen: “To be continued...” and “SEE YOU NEXT SEASON” Aight...this is interesting! It should also be noted that during the season that Sentai announced licensing S3 (Maji Love Revolutions) but it was interesting that even though they announced licensing it they didn’t release it...why? The answer doesn’t come until after the 2016 season and into this year when they announced that they WOULD release both of them...but about that 2016 season During S3 there were fans that speculated (both on here and facebook) that S3 was it for Utapri...now we forgot that STARISH saved HEAVENS from disbandment for a reason and that became apparent when we got to the end of “R” as the North American license calls it and now that might have come back to bite them. HEAVENS didn’t appear at 5th stage for the announcement but in January of 2016 it was announced that the season would air in October of 2016 which breaks the two year cycle for UtaPri! Up to this point they only did one season every 2 years and now they did this...interesting When Season 4 was announced (called “Legend Star”) what form it would take would be interesting...what we got was a duet season with STARISH and HEAVENS (a proper C-U if i can say that) and then the fun began! for the most part it was an interesting season...especially if you were on the HEAVENS side watching it to see how the boys of HEAVENS were represented. Most of the time they were okay with some genuine sweethearts in ther (hello Eiji, Shion and Van), one that was rough around the edges in Yamato, another that...depends how you want take him in Nagi, Kira was a saint and then Eii...the most controversial of the original trio! What became somewhat clear in HEAVENS is they wanted fans to try and accept them...I already had after a second viewing of S2 but for some it was trickier and I get that! What was interesting was to see if the situation with Eiichi would cause more fans to sympathize...or if they wanted to forever turn against HEAVENS Episodes 9-11 would become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds in an Anime as far as fandoms went. You were either looking for ways to prove (and you had plenty) that Eiichi meant well but he might have just gone a LITTLE TOO FAR and then you had the crew that wanted his head on stick even if there was more evidence that what he did wasn’t completely his fault! Now that not withstanding here is where it gets interesting and this deals in the end cards for the season First off on AniPlus’ facebook page they specifically stated this was the SEASON finale and not SERIES. They actually made that mistake with DRIFTERS when that was getting ready to wrap up and then had to retract it. Crunchyroll also promoted the final episode of YOI as the SERIES finale and who knows...the series MIGHT be over and the Movie is the last you get of it but the way of advertising the final episode towards the end of a few seasons...it was intersting Okay now let’s get really good! So the end cards...let’s recap how they did the end cards for S1-3 1000% - “See You Next Time” 2000% - Same Revolutions - To Be Continued/See You Next Season Legend Star - the “STARISH FOREVER” message and then the Message about the Animation Project Here is what I have found interesting so far For STARISH there have been 4 games where they were the sole focus (remember Debut was only when QN came in but they weren’t playable yet) AS/ASAS were so far the games when QN comes in as playable characters Nothing on HEAVENS...YET! NOW it gets good though After the finale if you went on the twitter for UtaPri they first wished the fans a Merry Christmas from Shining Agency BUT ALSO Raging Agency...I wonder why they also had a message about the new project on their twitter but they used three words that were key I think FROM NOW ON when you read that it almost sounds like both Agencies will be active right? I can jive! Now we get to NOT 5/27 of this year BUT 5/24 which was 3 days before the concert (and the now infamous debacle) It would seem that, when you get to breaking it down so far Broc has been strategic in WHEN they start expanding the UtaPri Universe and HOW they dod it right? There is a reason I bring this up According to the translation of the blog post which was put up three days before the concert it has some interesting wording towards the end “Please watch the development of this work that sets Uta no Prince-Sama Sports and Expansion of this world” Okay...WTF?! THIS POST was brought to my attention by my dear friend @shiningstarish (P.S. Nadie one of these days you have to tell me what that blog title means) and when I read the whole thing which, I will bookmark and if you want the WHOLE translation I will give it to you so you can break it down but I thought it was interesting “Sports”...alright are we getting a sports game in time for the Olympics or... Okay but then there is this “Expansion of this world” THIS...this is interesting Broccoli has NOT introduced a new group into the Game verse since the QN back in May of 2012! Its been over FIVE YEARS since the last “expansion” of the UtaPri universe (so this ends the argument of “milking the franchise” really) so it would stand to reason that the next thing to happen is that HEAVENS would come in to the game world in some way and then a game would come out for them...makes sense right? But hold up...something’s NOT...QUITE...RIGHT! Ahh I think I know what you might be thinking and you would be right See the STARISH and QN characters were given games FIRST and then seasons...HEAVENS went backwards! Here is the theory we can work with Broccoli WANTS to have a game done for HEAVENS...they wouldn’t have made that splash page for June 28th of 2015 with the HEAVENS 7 on a newspaper article if they didn’t AND they wouldn’t do the “White Day” even for them right? So if you read between the lines of the “UtaPri Masters” what can we take from this Broccoli is probably going to be announcing a HEAVENS game in the near future and more than likely it will be either at or around 7th Anniversary thus the “Expansion of this World” line But what about “Sports”? I got to thinking about this and I was thinking that MAYBE they don’t want to announce another rhythm game since they have “Shining Live” to come out BUT what about something in the realm of the “Olympics”? That’s a “Sports” theme right? Maybe part of the “Expansion” could also be that they include all 18 (or 22?) characters in the game and you do different athletic events (which could ALSO explain the episode with Yamato and Syo which was SPORTS THEMED)...am I on to something here?! again EVERYTHING that I just talked about and scoped out is PURE SPECULATION but if I am reading the tea leaves right then June 24th could be a VERY INTERESTING DAY!

#Amisbro #uta no prince sama #7th Anniversay theories #what do you guys think?

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seychermanium · 8 years ago

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Its 3:49 AM here and I thought: Linden Films obviously commited tons of failures when they had their hands on Arslan Senki, starting with the inconsistent, choppy animation, sometimes ugly color palettes and hideus CGI (and they even made this CGI the style of the videogame... Because it looks like anime). But they also decided to make the anime follow its way, killing what was a adaptation of Arakawa's adaptation of the story. The anime indeed starts quite slowly, even I had problems watching it, but once episode 4 arrived everything became interesting, honestly. Beyond the fact that this one is one of my favorite S1 episodes for obvious reasons, more than 2 Main characters was refreshing, and it felt like the story was actually beginning in that point. We had the prince of the kingdom that fell in the hands of the enemy, the most powerful former-Marzban in Pars, the FE avat—overly intelligent strategyst and his "slave", who is able to defend himself with a bow and a sword. How they tried to spy un Ecbatana was one of the most interesting things of the series, as it shown how far a fanatic-religious cult can destroy someone who doesn't share their religion back then (or sort of). Plus, I admit I want to know how the idea of dressing Elam as a girl came from and where the clothes and wig came from as well... But the second half was obviously taken from the novels, probably to save time or solve the problem with the pacing. But the biggest mistake was to make it a 25-episode long series, when a story like The Heroic Legend of Arslan needs way more time to develop. Indeed, the pacing is slow, but its mostly because the cast is amazingly gigantic and all the information we can have about the most important characters from another kingdoms will connect to either Arslan's past or present, or even future. Or even Pars' past, present and/or future. Each character does have a backstory, something to do in the story, a reason to help Arslan beyond the fact that he's the crown prince, but in 25 episodes we can't explore all of the content that Arslan Senki has to offer. It deserved to be a long-running anime, with stunning animation, amazing merch (most of the merch looks like it was designed by Narsus himself, Holy God its hideus), and more effort. I mean, the first season indeed was ambitious, respected the story as much as they could, openings and endings used still images, yet they looked beautiful; the OST was as epic as it gets and they indeed shared philosophical meaningful quotes and questions for the audience and other characters here and there, mostly through Arslan, Narsus and Gieve. But then season 2 came out and all that effort went to the trashcan. Fuujin Ranbu was horrible. 8 episodes of almost nothing, a bland OST compared to S1's OST, uglier animation and almost none character development. In 8 episodes, you can't do much if the story is as large as Arslan's, so this season was completely useless, as the Main story focused on how a badly-written Narsus fought against a betrayal. Shaghad had an amazing physical design, but he was so dumb it literally hurts. His plan yo kill Narsus was stupid as hell, and I honestly don't know if this is how Shaghad was written in the novels, but God I hated him. The ending of his fight with Narsus was also bad, as Narsus won just because Azrael came. It wasn't a fair win, honestly. And hell... A year of slave isn't enough for someone who wanted to kill one of your Friends. The side-story in Ecbatana was way more interesting than the Main story in Guilan. But I get why people dislike the anime. It doesn't have the best presentation, the first episodes are slow, and the Main character looks too cute to be true. It is also labeled as a shonen anime, which makes people believe its an action show, which its not really the case. Even if the series has amazing fighting scenes, its more focused on Pars' politics, moral themes, religious conflict and how Arslan is reaching matureness, how he wants to rule his kingdom. Also the character designs are a let down for people who doesn't even want to try to watch it. Arslan, Farangies and Narsus (how many problems does Narsus have with Linden Films' adaptation and everyone else!?) are heavily criticized by how they look. And here are my thoughts on that: >I think Arakawa designed Arslan as a fragile boy because of his personality. He's sensitive, fragile, innocent, full of questions and really really kind. He's a character that can be easily damaged, this is why Daryun is so overprotective towards him. But as the story goes on, we can see Arslan develop as a character, and as person. We all know the painter is his main guide with moral issues, such as freeing the slaves and how he should bring peace to Pars in general; the more personal problems are discussed with Daryun, when, for instance, he asked him if he is *SPOILER* the right King for Pars even if he's not the corresponding one *SPOILER*, and we slowly ser him approaching a personal view on things, and basically trying to become an adult and do things right; so, if Arakawa reaches the point where he becomes King, his design may also be more mature and manly. >Not just because Narsus looks like a pretty voy it means that's his whole character; someone would expect him to be the one with the fangirls, but Daryun is the ovary-destroyer in the gang. Not just because he's blonde, has purple-ish eyes, he's pale and has this sassy-ish calm voice (Namikawa Daisuke's work, not Chris Bevins'), it means he's just that: A pretty boy. His apparence didn't betrayed his character: He's still a wise, intelligent, smart, analytical character with his weakness on making and appreciating art; he's still a good person who wants to abolish slavery, who traits Elam like a "son" instead of his slave (yet he does most of what he should be able to do by himself) and has devotion to Denka and a bromance relationship with Daryun. I'm a fangirl of Narsus, and I can Tell you, I don't mind the design, the fact that he's intelligent, a good person and a -flawed- artist is what I love about him, not just his looks. >People say Farangies' clothed may kill her in battle, which is true. But also, Arslan and Daryun are the only ones who wear armor throughout the whole anime (without counting Étoile because they're not part of Team Arslan per se), following this logic, the painter, Elam, Alfarid, Jaswant and Gieve may also get killed. Yes, she's a Priestess, but this isn't the first time we see a Priestess in reveling clothes: Sophitia Alexandra is an example. She's supposed to be timid, and is a Priestess of Hephestus, yet in Soulcalibur IV she has a semi-transparent white skimpy dress. Also people say that this version of Farangies is "the worst" because she has reveling clothes, but having reveling clothes doesn't make her less beautiful, as well as having tons of clothing doesn't make a girl way more beautiful. Farangies has lovely mature facial features, and she's a lovely person too, serving as an elder sister for Alfarid and actually talking to her and clarifying her idea of what "being loved" is (most likely to attract Narsus, but we all know that will may not happen, they may be just "Friends" of some sort). So, again, appearence doesn't always mean character. Arslan Senki is a pretty average show, indeed. But its not bad at all. S1 tried to put something fresh in the table, and even if it isn't as well-known in the West, I can see why people can't really enjoy it as much as I or another people here did. I appreciate the story, the characters, the setting,the music, the messages... Arslan Senki is as beautiful as it gets. I personally see the phase of leaving teenager years and reaching matureness the most beautiful thing un life, as you can go back and either laugh or cringe at the things you did when you were younger. This phase being portrayed in the skin of a lovely MC as Arslan is one of the things that make the series si beautiful to me. Yet, Linden Films didn't did a good job on this, its worth checking both, anime and manga. People nowadays seem to be attracted to the generic, OP badass edgy protagonist with a beautiful woman behind him, this is why Arslan doesn't fit in today's standards. Also, its worth nothing that the story has existed since 1986, almost 31 years ago. So, Arslan used to be original, yet today we've seen most of the things Arslan has already, this may also make people think that this is a mish-mash of different ideas, but it isn't.

#Arslan Senki #Narsus #Farangies #farangis

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raywritesthings · 8 years ago

Note

Arrow and Harry Potter

Arrow

my all-time ultimate fave character: Laurel Lance

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: I hated Quentin at first, and I lot of stuff he did/does I still don’t like but I’ve grown to appreciate his complexity and his dynamics with Laurel and Oliver. Of course now that Laurel’s dead he has like nothing to do so it’s just stupid.

a character I used to like but now don’t: Felicity was cute s1...she got on my nerves pretty quickly after that, though. I hate what Diggle has become. Like just look at him s1 compared to now and it’s just sad. I miss when Diggle was his own character.

a character I’m indifferent about: Can I just say any of the new recruits? Like, I just don’t care about any of them. At all. I didn’t start the show for them, I started for GA and BC, why is this so hard for the showrunners to grasp? I’m also pretty indifferent towards Sara, no lie. She’s just kind of there and then not and then there again. She drifts into the story and out and doesn’t really seem to have all that lasting of an impact. I mean she can literally be plucked from the timeline because she’s apparently of little enough importance history won’t miss her. And it totally undermined the whole “journey” aspect of characters when we met her and she was just insta-badass straight out of her new s2 packaging, now with 100% more blonde, some reshooting required. Maybe if they’d bothered to show her training--but that would have required them to actually show a wlw relationship and not just the angsty post-breakup stage so that wasn’t gonna happen. Like I don’t necessarily hate her but I don’t like her much either. She’s just kind of meh to me.

a character who deserved better: DINAH. LAUREL. LANCE.

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: O/F, Oliver/Sara, and lowkey Nyssa/Sara - Nyssa was always so much more invested than Sara from her first appearance to her last. Like you got her going on and on about her “beloved” and then Sara’s flirting it up and kissing people throughout time and space, the heck am I supposed to do with that? Also I haven’t liked Thea/Roy ever since Roy ditched her after sleeping together and left no forwarding address. Dick move, dude.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Lauriver, dear god, the beauty and the tragedy will haunt me forever

a cute, low-key ship: I liked Oliver and McKenna, I won’t lie. Moira and Walter were tragic but precious. Also if Tommy had lived I could’ve seen him and Helena having an interesting thing don’t judge me.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: Non-canon but I’m gonna go Lauryssa. Also Constantine/Oliver.

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: O/F, when will these writers learn that ship destroyed both those characters

my favourite storyline/moment: I’m in that rare minority that loved s1 so much more than s2. S2′s where it started going wrong, the fridging women left and right, Slade’s shitty motivation for being bad--he’s a mercenary, for fuck’s sake, it does not need to be about a woman he loved and lost, it’s not complicated--retconning the flashbacks left and right, but s1 was so good. Also loved Laurel becoming BC though I never got why the writers needed to start her off at square one when they showed she could fight the previous two seasons.

a storyline that never should have been written: Basically the entire s4 plot. Magic and nukes are not GA’s thing. Also killing BC on a GA show is such bs. Real GA would have rather seen himself killed first.

my first thoughts on the show: Ok, this is interesting! The fight scenes are good, I want to see how these characters become more like their comic book counterparts.

my thoughts now: Well that sucked.

my all-time ultimate fave character: Oh man, how can you do this to me? TOO MANY, OKAY? I HAVE TOO MANY.

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: Dudley is so much more interesting after book 7. I like the idea that he finally started to realize that his parents and their abuse towards Harry was shit. I know JKR decided to not give Dudley a magic child in the epilogue, but I wish she had. It would have been so nice to see Dudley break the cycle of abuse in the Dursley family once and for all by loving and supporting his kid no matter what.

a character I used to like but now don’t: I don’t know if I dislike him necessarily but I definitely don’t like him the way I used to as a kid - okay, yeah, it’s Dumbledore. I mean he is soooo complex, and that’s a good thing. But a lot of the stuff he did? Not cool.

a character I’m indifferent about: Basically a lot of the OCs that masquerade in fics as barely-mentioned students. It’s fine if you wanna use them, but it’s weird to me when people start purporting their characterizations of them as fact if that makes sense? To that end, I’m also mostly indifferent about all the next gen kids with the exception of Teddy (there’s just a lot there to his character that would be so interesting to unpack - why was Cursed Child not about Teddy Lupin with a better plot gdi).

a character who deserved better: So many characters tbh. Ginny Weasley deserved better from both JKR and all y’all. JKR promised an awesome moment having to do with her being the seventh child of a seventh child (Arthur) and then never delivered. Fandom is shitty to her because she gets in the way of their ships (like especially H/HR and H/D shippers seem to love to demonize a teenage girl in their fics, just saying) and because they seem to think Hermione is enough female rep which is such bs. Ron also deserves soooooo much better from fandom. So, so much better. Hagrid deserved to have one of Harry’s kids named after him. Sirius Black just deserved a better life. Snape deserved not to be abused as a child. Harry deserved like basically everything better. The Weasleys deserved not to be poor - do you see where I’m coming from here???

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: A lot of the non-canon ones (H/HR - she’s like a SISTER to him, he LITERALLY SAYS; H/D - It’s implied in that bathroom fight scene Draco was about to use the CRUCIATUS CURSE like WTF also he’s just kinda shitty to Harry and his friends almost the entire series just saying). Obviously if you wanna write AUs where things are completely different, that’s up to you, but they’re just not for me.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Jily, Hinny, Romione

a cute, low-key ship: Deanmus is the gay/bi rep we deserved, not unhealthy and possibly one-sided Dumbledore/Grindelwald. I feel like in book 5 at least Luna might’ve had a thing for Ron which is kind of adorable. Although I also like Ginny/Luna. Also I lowkey think Harry might’ve had a crush on both Cho and Cedric at the same time. Teenage years suck.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: I mean Romione seems to be unpopular with a lot of fandom but I love it so sucks to suck

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: I’m pretty much ok on all the canon ships. I mean I wish JKR hadn’t tried to push this whole “Snape loved Lily” thing. More like “Snape was obsessed with Lily and never got over her”.

my favourite storyline/moment: ahhhhh I don’t know, maybe Ron coming back to save Harry and destroy the Horcrux.his insecurities? Such a great moment for his character, and his and Harry’s friendship. I also just love how Harry’s whole outlook on life completely brightened up in HBP during the time he was dating Ginny. It was so lovely to see him happy for once. And I love all of book three, it is my favorite. Also the Moody-is-really-Barty Jr. twist remains one of the greatest of All Time and the movies ruined it but I digress.

a storyline that never should have been written: Like I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been written, I just don’t like how Snape’s backstory has given rise to this idea that he did Nothing Wrong, Ever and it was Lily’s fault for ending the friendship that he turned to the Dark Side. Like fuck off, he was already there and it was not her job to be his “savior” when he sure as hell didn’t want saved. Also all the movies. Damn you, Kloves.

my first thoughts on the show books: This is such a great story and world! I love the characters and I can’t wait to see what happens next! (or something along those lines - I was young, okay?)

my thoughts now: While there’s certainly plenty of issues (lack of rep for many marginalized groups, for example) it still holds up as a really strong series. Must resist temptation to begin yet another reread.

#arrow #hp #emerson replies #ayotofu

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steve0discusses · 6 years ago

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Yugioh S3 Ep4: Pharaoh Kitsch

Ah, I just found out what happens when you put a quesadilla in an air fryer (it was still delicious but looked a lot like modern art) So now that nothing else can possibly surprise me today lets go over to Yugioh. Bear in mind, I am still sick as a dog and my brain only recently came out of a pretty intense fog so I think this recap makes sense but it might not. Which is on brand for this show so wtv.

Tea went to hell recently. She’s still kicking. But, unfortunately in hell.

Yugi’s still getting harassed by a swamp person who can’t stop talking about how good he is at Business.

I’ll be honest I’ve been on dates with guys professing to be Business experts (they’re not) where I basically wanted to lie on the ground exactly like this mid conversation in the middle of the damn restaurant.

So anyways, it’s this episode where Pharaoh decides to try something new. Mostly it’s because he had only a limited number of cards to choose from but also because it’s everyone’s favorite kitschy thing that I guess is back in fashion again that’s right it’s a rainbow.

This sounded like a joke on the show but I was just me talking to myself in this last blurb. *long, exasperated sigh*

(read more under the cut)

Anyways I just deleted about 4 or 5 different art rants (I’m pretty sure it was like 11 rants actually, I get pissssssed when I’m on Dayquil) where I pretty much snapped about trends, and it went way off topic. Apparently Dayquil me is just like up in arms about the neon 80′s pink rainbow unicorn trend that was super fun for a little while, but it’s been like 6 years and it’s *still here* and it’s like guys, while I was super down 6 years ago, now I am 30. Do any marketers out there even know how old millennials are supposed to be?

Anyway, before obsessive bad marketing happened and rainbows became a meme to comfort us in these hard times, rainbows used to be out of fashion when this episode aired in 2001. Just bear that in mind if you are a baby in the room and you think unicorn stuff everywhere is normal, it didn’t used to be. It used to be wearing multiple belts was normal and dying your bangs blonde and then parting them aloft and to the side, only allowing your freshly dyed hair to touch water maybe once a week. The cover “Mad World” just came out on the radio and we listened to it unironically. So Pharaoh using a rainbow was supposed to be a joke. Not like...a mundane thing we wouldn’t blink twice at in 2019 because rainbows are freakin everywhere.

And I should clarify that I’m referring to the the hyper cute Lisa Frank Revival. Not about how rainbows are a political symbol since the 90′s--that’s fine--that’s always been a thing, and I’m not docking the actual use of a rainbow both as a pride flag and as a Hawaiian license plate. I’m docking the market saturation of rainbows aimed at the five adults who can wear this stuff and still go to work somehow.

Anyway, a lot of Yugi’s duel is centered around Gansly making fun of his cute ass Kuriboh and saying it was too adorable to ever be effective so now I guess Pharaoh has decided to destroy the hell out of Gansly with a rainbow to get his revenge and to get his point across. Which is very Pharaoh of him despite the fact that this card is the opposite of Pharaoh’s entire emo/alt-rock aesthetic. Pharaoh just really needs to get in the last word always.

We get some more vignettes of what everyone else is up to and I gotta say they made a great use of Joey.

Photoreal penguin sure asked a lot out of me. My brother on the other hand who freakin loves penguins was like “THIS IS THE BEST.” and I was like “but how did the penguin pick up a ROPE?” and he was like “shshshshshhh don’t ruin penguin for me!”

I guess using it’s beak? Or maybe there’s little human fingers on one of it’s little flipper wings?

Anyways, the Kaibas have recovered from their orphanage/falling off of a cliff episode and are back to arguing in the way where Mokuba kind of lectures/begs his older brother and Kaiba goes “hhhrhhghghhhhh”

Mokuba is also just going off about whether or not Seto was a good parent. He’s not. Seto is a terrible parent, and I am shocked that Mokuba is still surprised by this. Seto is a freakin child, but hey I guess Seto is better than a war criminal?

Mokuba just expects a lot out of Seto Kaiba. Over the course of this show, it’s becoming apparent that Mokuba is slowly starting to see the cracks in his older brother, I’m just surprised at how long it’s taking Mokuba to figure out that his brother has not just cracks but is spilling out basically everywhere and getting everyone they know possibly killed in the process. Most likely Duke Devlin. Still shocked Duke Devlin is still alive.

Mokuba’s not quite there yet, he’s still holding out. He’s still trying to reason with this kid who is flying a blimp onto an island he once blew up like a James Bond villain so he can play a bunch of cards on it. Mokuba’s...pretty delusional, but I guess so are all Kaibas.

On the other side of town, Yugi decided he was kind of feeling bad about Pharaoh falling repeatedly on his own face. Which is also Yugi’s face. But also neither of their actual face since this is entirely in VR.

Nothing was even fired at Yugi’s direction. He didn’t even get a chance to like...reach for his cards. He was just like “Oh damn never mind oh damn.”

Like all the rest of these characters seem like they still function pretty good at like 400 HP but Yugi is just out at like 1200 it feels like. Shouldn’t it be you can play until you hit 0? Not like it matters since Yami would just take over anyway.

On the other side of town Tea is rewriting memories with characters who were absolutely not here for this moment in S1.

Could be that Tea has finally decided to recognize Duke and Serenity into the fold as much as Tristan, Joey and Yugi, or it could be that her memories are so freakin borked from S1 Pharaoh’s mind wipes, that she actually legitimately thinks both were there.

Funnily enough, she did not add Bakura to this memory. Whenever any other friend has had a vision where their buddies rallied them on, Bakura has always been included, but not this time. Nice. Maybe Tea is the only person who has figured out Bakura ≠ friend. Or maybe Bakura was just straight up written out of everyone’s memories when he died? Hell knows, the show still hasn’t talked about it. Bakura hella died, and no one has even talked about it. Of course no one is really next to each other at the moment so fine, I’ll let it pass.

Anyway, she decides to use this opportunity to prep for the upcoming Ironman challenge that I’m pretty sure she does once a year.

There she goes, on her way to probably save Mokuba’s ass with her own ass, yet again. Tea and her weird strength. I have no idea where she stores it. I have no idea where it comes from. But Tea is like some sort of primal force of nature and she rarely ever uses it.

And then..........this happened.

And then a purple horse with a scantily clad knight on it crosses this bridge to stab the fishman in the heart-it was a lot of unexpected stuff, guys. Again, completely normal for 2019. I could probably get a shirt with a rainbow and a unicorn with a knight on it from like...Target.

Oh My Oh My I just typed “unicorn on rainbow shirt target” into google and one of the first thing that popped up was a shirt with a chibi rainbow unicorn dabbing. My eyes. There were so many search results. Freakin dabbing. This particular shirt is clearly for children and not for 30′s but man I know like 6 people my age who probably already own this shirt.

Anyway, my apologies to all the fans of this fad, this is your time to shine, make the most of it, you are all valid and it is fine to love what you love. We all like different things. I’ll be here in my corner eagerly waiting for this fad to mercifully end so I can finally go back to the Tim Burton wannabe illustrator I used to be before I had to adapt to the hyper cute phase we’re in right now. I mean you have to humbly deal with the cards you’re given, and sometimes that means you have to draw some rainbows both in cards and also in actual drawings.

Doesn’t mean I have to like it.

So, when Noah realizes he can’t exactly beat Yugi with cards he reaches for this instead:

And guys, Yugi doesn’t even hesitate.

Like remember how Pharaoh walked straight into a creepy clown tent and shoved himself into a little tiny box in a dark room and got hellllla abducted in less than 2 minutes? It is SO EASY to abduct Yugi Muto. In fact, on seeing this magic door appear, Yugi even told Pharaoh “that’s a trap” and Pharaoh was like “that is a trap” and they both were like “I see no other options.”

When it’s like, Yugi, you are OUTSIDE. There’s no walls here--you could go literally anywhere else but the door.

But WTV, it’s Yugi logic.

#Yugioh #yugioh recap #photo recap #s3 ep4 #this was gonna go out like Sunday but I was way too sick and legit forgot #and also no joke I kept ranting about like weird ass stuff #because of the dayquil #so I had to come off the dayquil train before posting #so really making a backlog for when I get sick was pointless because I couldn't post it anyway lol #yugi muto #tea gardner #noah #seto kaiba #mokuba #rainbow kuriboh #I also meant to post this wednesday but I pressed the edit button instead of post #so apparently I still wasn't better yet from this flu that just won't freakin end #but third times the charm lets see if I actually get this from my draft folder into my blog

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capmerthur · 6 years ago

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THE BODY SWAP

It’s all in the title :) Somewhere end S1 (after 1.11 Labyrinth, but pre 1.13 Morte). In a land of myth, and a time of magic, Arthur awakes inside Merlin’s body (and no, not in that way). Alternating Merthur POV. Bonus Gaius. Mentions of Will and George.

Excerpt PART XI:

"You are now *literally* two sides of a coin - both at once in the same body. Maybe this was the intent of the prophecy all along. I can only hope you will not come to regret your choice, young warlock"

(PREVIOUS CHAPTERS UNDERS CHAPTER XI)

XI. DESTINIES ARE TROUBLESOME THINGS (MERLIN POV)

Merlin can't help but be on his guard. He has no idea, he realizes as he enters Kilgarrah's cave after having successfully put to sleep the guards in front of it (after a shortened dinner with Uther and Morgana), about how the Great Dragon will react to a stranger's presence in his lair.

But Merlin needs some guidance; and so, he calls out to him...

"Young warlock, what has happened to you?"

"You know it's me?"

"Of course. Even though I am surprised indeed by your current appearance."

"Arthur and I- Our bodies have been switched."

The Great Dragon straightens up.

"So this is Uther's heir's body?"

"Yes. And I need - we need - help. Do you have any idea about how to reverse such a spell?"

"I do not have such knowledge. I can only tell you what you already know; that there is some very powerful magic at work here. (pause, tilting his head) But maybe you are not supposed to reverse it to start with."

"Excuse me?"

"You are now *literally* two sides of a coin - both at once in the same body. Maybe this was the intent of the prophecy all along."

(helpless, shocked sigh) "No."

Merlin cannot believe his ears. But the idea is not only incongruous; it's also outright enraging, and simply *impossible*.

"No", Merlin repeats, firmly this time; a denial.

"You would throw away the opportunity to fulfill your destiny? You would carelessly discard the chance to bring forth the greatest time for Albion?"

Merlin doesn't even flinch under the Dragon's ire. *Arthur* is his destiny; and only Arthur. Albion's welfare is in Arthur's hands. And Arthur *will* be its greatest King; not Merlin. The notion only makes him sick. It's not even about a possible guilt at cheating Arthur's crown (which he doesn't want to start with). It's simply that Merlin wants - needs, and will not (and never) accept anything less - Arthur to be Arthur, intrinsically. Besides, Merlin knows the burden of pretending already; and he wouldn't wish for anyone, and certainly not for Arthur, to have to shoulder it too. How can Kilgarrah not realise any of it?

"This just cannot be the way. It only feels wrong."

"You should at least think about it, Merlin."

"It is all decided. I cannot and will not abide to the belief that this masquerade could ever be our true fate. And if you don't - can't or won't - help, we'll look for a solution on our own - no matter how long it might take."

They hold each other's gaze; and Merlin won't relent.

"I can only hope you will not come to regret your choice, young warlock", Kilgarrah finally says as he flies away.

Merlin is still fuming as he enters Arthur's chambers.

His fingers itch, longing to search through his spells book. He hasn't had yet the opportunity - between being a Prince taking most of his day, and Arthur being at his side when he had been off duty. Unfortunately, it will have to wait until tomorrow - it would look suspicious if he went out in the night.

So. He should rest. After all, a clear mind will be necessary in the morning, both for council and for finding a way to break the spell they're under, right?

Only looking at the bed though makes Merlin's entrails twitch in disgust. This is wrong indeed; and will never feel otherwise. And no matter how comfortable that bed is, Merlin now knows (he might grow understanding of Arthur's lack of will to leave it on some mornings from now on, huh), you bet he will never even contemplate sleeping in it.

Merlin makes his bed for the night on the floor, wondering if Arthur has been able to fall asleep yet.

Bear with me. The Dragonlord bond is an intrinsic link between souls, which is why it isn't affected by the body swap. Whereas magic inhabits everything it’s in, and is therefore by nature anchored in physicallity. It explains too somehow why magic in general can be learned/found, but that the Dragonlord bond can only be inherited. Oh well, it makes sense in my head, at least...

Also :( I've really hurt myself with Kilgarrah's last line :( Because of course Merlin *will* wonder about this, *for centuries*, later on (my heart:(). Anyone willing to hold me while I cry, pretty please?

(PREVIOUS CHAPTERS)

I. AWAKING (ARTHUR POV)

Arthur awakes; lying on his back - unusual - and rolls over automatically.

In disbelief, he eyes his surroundings…

Where is he? Has he been abducted?

Think, he admonishes himself - trying to clear his mind; to remember what must have happened, to guess who has dared to commit such an act, and, most important of all right now: Find a way out.

His eyes then suddenly meet Merlin’s, and relief surges through him somehow - Merlin is alive - before his anxiety returns; and double: because poor faithful, loyal Merlin has obviously been taken too; and it’s Arthur’s fault - he must have failed to save them both from being taken, even though he cannot remember anything…

Except when Arthur reaches out to Merlin for him to come closer (they need to share information and plan, but must be quiet as a mouse), he realizes with fright but indeniable certainty that Merlin is in fact a reflection in a mirror; and worse: *HIS* reflection!?

Arthur is dumbstruck. He sees Merlin’s mouth shaping a silent O, and he sees the dread in Merlin’s eyes… except they ARE - he feels - *his* mouth, and *his* eyes; and everything is just plainly wrong, and plainly impossible - but undeniably REAL.

He is… Merlin? Or better said, *inside* Merlin? How can such a thing have even come to be?

Sorcery, Arthur understands with horror: Camelot is under attack!

But now armed with the knowledge of his predicament, Arthur realizes he is actually in Merlin’s bedroom. He’s been in here before, once; and he recognizes it all now.

So. Not abducted. All things considered, that still counts as something, right…

And, as it surely doesn’t feel as if Merlin is still somewhere in his own head too while Arthur is inside of it, well… Maybe? Logically? Merlin might then be in return inside his own body?

Arthur suddenly finds himself praying for this to be true. It would be for the best, if Merlin was in his body - if they were the only ones concerned by this unnatural situation; because what if *everyone* was awaking inside someone else’s body this morning? That would be… precarious - the general panic leaving Camelot completely vulnerable to whoever must have plotted this? The worst though would be if the one responsible for this was right now in control of his body, and acting as Crown Prince to do, well, evil deeds… So yes, you bet Arthur truly wants to find Merlin to be the one inside his own body when he finally finds it.

So. First thing first: he has to go to his chamber.

Picking some weapon on the way for good measure, you bet …

Simply walking the few paces to open the door though turns out to be a challenge. His limbs are too long, and dangly; it feels like he has two left feet, and he has to try thrice before actually getting a grip on the handle - because he isn’t used to this body, of course - but maybe it is truly NOT Merlin’s fault if he trips over his own feet that often after all…

Gaius is already out - hopefully looking for herbs and not wandering out of his mind… Arthur would have preferred to be able to test right away his theories about how many people were affected by the damn body change; but unfortunately, it would have to wait some more.

The corridors are empty too, except for a stray black cat who walks at his side long enough for Arthur to start questioning himself about asking to the cat if he *is* Merlin - because Merlin HAS to be somewhere, right, as he obviously isn’t where he should be to start with; but then the cat takes another turn… Arthur feels stupid for worrying so much about his silly manservant - but he cannot deny that he definitely will worry less only after having indeed finally found said silly manservant.

He tries to put on a confident grin as he walks (with the most assurance he can muster in this awkward-feeling body) towards the guards at his bedroom’s door - and can only hope it will look the same as usual to them. They let him pass without trouble, and Arthur isn’t sure whether it’s a good thing. On the one hand, he *doesn’t* doubt Merlin - he simply, intrinsically doesn’t; and would never want him to feel like he did if his guards were to search him whenever he was about to enter his chamber. On the other hand… well, it isn’t Merlin right now entering his chamber, with knifes at the ready… This time, it’s only him; but what if it happens again, and if the one then inside Merlin’s body has ill intentions…

Deciding not to dwell on this for the time being, Arthur enters his bedroom - hoping to find Merlin doing whatever Merlin always does, but preparing for a fight, if need be…

II. AWAKING (MERLIN POV)

Merlin awakes as if in a cocoon; literally. He is surrounded by softness, flush, warmth; he cannot remember ever feeling so comfortable - and the world can wait for just another few seconds before he opens his eyes, right… Merlin wriggles, shifting on his back, sighing softly as he nestles some more into the cushions…

Merlin sits upright at once - blankets falling all around him to reveal that he wears ARTHUR’S NIGHTGOWN too ?!

Whaaaaaaaat?!

This… just DOESN’T make any sense. The last thing he can remind is sitting on his own bed, polishing the last bit of Arthur’s armour before letting himself fall down to sleep (*AN). He surely doesn’t recall walking to Arthur’s chamber, and even less…

Merlin’s mind is reeling as he shuffles out of bed as swiftly as he can. Oh my… What is Arthur going to think? And come to think of it - true panic now creeping down on Merlin at that thought: *WHERE* is Arthur to start with?

Merlin turns to face his sovereign, trying to feel less self conscious because he mustn’t look guilty, while wishing for inspiration, and buying time until it hits: “There is actually a perfectly valid explan-”

But it is NOT Arthur he sees: it is… himself? His breath catches as ‘utter confusion’ gets a new meaning, you bet…

At the same moment, Merlin notices suddenly just how *not his* his voice has just sounded, and how he’s wearing a very particular ring around one finger of what’s NOT his hand, and how *blond* hair is falling upon his eyes… And still nothing makes sense; but at least it *does* explain how he awoke in Arthur’s bed in Arthur’s clothes: he *is* Arthur?; and… Arthur… is him? MUST be him. He has been calling his name right the right way, right?!

“Arthur?” Merlin barely dares to breathe out, both in wonder and in plea (because Arthur CANNOT be gone - the fear and pain and simple *impossibility* of such a concept slicing through Merlin’s mind like a knife).

There is a bright smile then appearing on his face - a smile that doesn’t entirely look like his own though - “Yes, Merlin. It’s me,” followed by a relieved sigh: “And it’s you”. And, despite the shock about them having apparently switched bodies (?!?!), Merlin can’t help but feel warm all over - because Arthur (and yes, it is so clearly Arthur, even in HIS body!) has apparently been worried about him.

(*AN) Headcanon time :

Merlin uses magic to clean Arthur’s armour in the beginning, indeed. And he still uses magic for most of the chores, as much as he can, of course (washing clothes, mending clothes, emptying chamber pots, sweeping fireplaces, preparing baths, refreshing beds, cleaning floors, cleaning everything, really (except for mucking the stables, because there are always others around, grrrr). But he quickly grows nearly *maniac* about Arthur’s food (picking at it as a way to make sure it’s not poisoned etc…) and about Arthur’s armour: it’s one of Arthur’s protections - so you bet Merlin definitely cleans and polishes and repairs and oils the leather ligaments that hold it together and EVERYTHING the hell out of it, with extra ardor and fervor, with his own two hands, all the while continuously trying to put on it any protecting spells he ever finds, and repeating those over and over at each occasion… Also, mirrors were probably not so advanced at the time… But let’s say Merlin has an enhanced one, after all he has magic, right…

On a side note, I’m never going to be over Arthur’s priority-thinking (I’m in trouble = CAMELOT IS UNDER ATTACK (babyyyy let me hold you - being Camelot Prince/King is NOT your only worth) and Merlin’s priority-thinking (what the hell is happening = WHERE THE HELL IS ARTHUR (babyyyy let me hold you - your devotion to The (brave, kind, admirable (shut up Merlin)) Prat doesn’t have to mean that you always must come second (and a bit self-preservation cannot be harmful)) *SIGH* I just love those two idiots so much !!!

III. DISABLED (MERLIN POV)

But soon, Merlin is terrified.

And not because of the puzzling body swap.

*HE HAS NO MAGIC!?*

(Not that Merlin knows of any spell to reverse their current situation at once, mind you; so he doesn’t actually try anything about it. But Merlin simply knows: there is nothing but blood running through his veins now - no vigorous warmth, no energic flow; there is simply nothing singing under his placid flesh, as he focuses on it.)

He cannot help but wish he’s wrong though, and desperately tries to move a quill on Arthur’s desk behind Arthur’s back - the simplest of things, really; yet he fails, indeed…

His magic is tied to his body. Not to his mind.

No, no, no, no, nooooooooooo.

Merlin is, to his core, *terrified* - as he has never been. Not only because he feels more powerless and utterly helpless than he has ever felt - and worse, unable to protect Arthur! But also because the longer Arthur stays in his body, the more chances he has to find out that he has magic!? (And even though Merlin has nearly told Arthur, once? He is still not ready for him to know right now… Will after all didn’t lie to protect Merlin’s secret on his deathbed for Merlin to take chances with his life so soon after…)

Merlin though decides to push his panic aside for the moment: he simply MUST focus. No matter which sorcerer has this week decided to deal with the Pendragon line once and for all, Arthur’s life is undoubtedly in the balance; and that’s dearer to Merlin than all the magic in the world - included his own.

Because Merlin’s life *has* tilted, on that rocky beach by The Great Seas of Meredor.

Merlin’s earnest readiness to lay his life down to save Arthur’s had been instinctive, beyond doubt visceral; and the concrete force of the impulse had surprised him. Because it hadn’t been related to his first supposed then anyway indeed wished upon destiny. It had merely been a reflex, a spontaneous reaction: what he had wanted to do; more than what he ought to do. And Merlin had realized right then that he had, somehow, but undeniably, actually come to *LOVE* Arthur? He had known, for some time, that he liked him. And he had felt oddly pleased when Arthur had turned up at Ealdor - maybe Arthur liked him too? But if your first thought when someone is threatened is 'I’d rather die than see him die’? Well, there is a kind of selfishness, even in seflessness, that goes beyond 'liking’, right…

It shouldn’t have been such a shocking revelation though. Sure, Arthur could be a spoiled, royal prat; an irritating, pompous ass; an arrogant, moronic bully - to list but the top of the iceberg of his massive shortcomings, and without even mentioning the complete dollophead he could sometimes be. But Arthur could also be truly brave, honest, and kind; willing not only to trust but also to actually defend the words of mere servants, ready to defy his father’s orders in order to save a child’s life, and volunteering to help a village not even belonging to his Kingdom, to note only a few examples. Also: at some point, Merlin had realized how what could at first appear as near manhandling tactility was in fact just Arthur’s disguised way to show (or ask?) affection (because one probably just doesn’t walk around asking for cuddles while growing up between Uther’s judging cold glares and Morgana’s sharp witty tongue; and the physical occasional playfulness of the knights training must have seemed like the only way to go…). And last but not least: Merlin owed Arthur his life - if Arthur hadn’t gone looking for a Mortaeus flower… So, in short: of course Merlin had gotten fond of the man. For his own values; and not because he was meant to be the other side of his coin or something. And notwithstanding how so annoyingly beautiful he always was (for the record on that particular subject: Gwen is so adorably beautiful, and Morgana so petrifyingly beautiful).

But, as Arthur - bound to be King one day Arthur - hadn’t even hesitate before choosing to sacrifice himself, in order to fix what he had recognized to be his error, instead of using the (even offered) life of a simple servant? Well… There is a difference still between having the conviction that Arthur is a good man ready to fight for the greater good, even knowing it could be his death; and knowing as a FACT that Arthur *is* a good man ready to *die* for the greater good, even knowing it *will* be his death. And you bet having been proven *exactly* how pure of heart Arthur intrinsically is has only cemented that burgeoning love deeper into Merlin’s heart - simply; truly; and maybe irrevocably. Merlin would now willingly die a thousand deaths to save his Prince.

(Feel free to shout with me about 1.11 because *MAJOR FEELS*!)

(And then hug me as I shamelessly cry because this is still NOTHING next to what’s to come - aka Arthur becoming ACHINGLY beautiful, as Merlin turns ready to KILL a thousands times to save his King, blackening his own heart in the process and thinking himself then unworthy of Arthur’s love because Arthur is just so BRIGHT; but wishing for it nonetheless?)

IV. PLANNING (MERLIN POV)

Arthur, miraculously (even though understandably; because he must be shaken too, right), is unaware of Merlin’s internal crisis as he shares what he’s uncovered until now: “It seems to be just us. The kitcheners and the guards all seem to be themselves.”

“So. Whoever has done this is targetting you - personnally.”

“Nice to see your wits are still so very particularly sharp, Merlin. Is there any reason for the one behind all this to be targetting you?”

It is beyond odd to *hear* Arthur’s usual tone in his own voice; but Merlin still has the grace to sigh, before pushing his point further: “But why you?”

“Well, obviously *you*’ve forgotten, but I am Camelot’s Crown Prince, responsib-.”

“Which is exactly what’s bothering me!” Merlin can’t help but interject. “Why take on the Prince when you can take on the King?”

“Oh… Do you think… Could someone be… training on us, then? Before attacking-”

“I honestly have no idea. Maybe you got targetted indeed because you’re head of security. We shouldn’t rule anything out.”

Arthur brings his fist down on the table, determinedly: “Well, whatever the evil plan might be, we just cannot permit for it to work. We’ll have to find a way to stop this nonsense - no offense. In the meantime, we must act as if nothing unusual is going on. It might be for the time being our best chance at keeping Camelot safe - making whoever planned this think the spell didn’t work?”

Merlin can’t help but let out a helpless (yet realistic) sigh: “That’s… a lot; on both accounts.”

Arthur echoes with a helpless sigh of his own: “I know.”

But if they are to keep up pretenses, Merlin is going to need to be prepared: “So. What’s on your agenda for today - besides the monthly open pleas this morning and the daily training this afternoon?”

“Nothing particular. And there are no coming feasts nor abroad visits planned for the coming time, thankfully. (worried sigh) But there’s concil, tomorrow.”

“Well, let’s start at the beginning. I should do fine enough for the pleas. It’s mostly your father’s duty; your presence is required, of course, but mostly you’re to hear and listen…” Fear grips Merlin at once: “But it’s public; so it would be a great opportunity to try to murder you!” He MUST protect Arthur’s body: “Will you please go fetch your chainmail in my room?”

“No.”

The tone is definitive, and Merlin is torn between begging, or growing impatient - because Arthur can be so obtuse sometimes (now really isn’t the time for Arthur to be feeling indignation about being ordered around like a simple servant; even though he *is* one at the moment - not that Merlin would ever think he was one, of course - but what if Arthur thinks he does and enjoys the chance at some payback?): “Arthur, please (again?). It’s the expected type of errands of the body you momentarily (because it MUST be momentarily, right?) inhabit - I can’t - You’re the target. I need your chainmail. I have no fighting skills, nor any kind of skills really to protect yo-”

“I cannot be seen wandering the castle in my chainmail without reason, Merlin; it would attract attention”, Arthur interrupts in a somehow gentler tone; and Merlin realizes that Arthur hadn’t registered at first how Merlin’s concern was about him, more than himself - and is obviously humbled by the thought. “Court clothes are required, anyway. We’re not supposed to look threatening, nor threatened, when our subjects come to present their wishes,” Arthur pursues, killing any possible protest in the bud. “Besides, the guards will be present. So don’t worry too much about anything happening to us”, Arthur ends in a lower voice; as if the last part had been more a thought to reassure himself than a phrase meant to be uttered - and Merlin just has to savour that precious 'us’…

Merlin though isn’t reassured enough about his Prince’s safety: “Please (yes, that’s thrice; adamant much?) Sire, at least allow me to wear your thickest leather under your tunic” - willing his voice to make it sound like a not-to-be-denied demand more than a true question.

Arthur holds his gaze; and it actually feels like a blessing when he finally relents: “As you wish; but it won’t be comfortable against naked skin.”

“I’ll manage.” Merlin can’t help but fidget some before pursuing - asking Arthur to do what is and should be *his* work feeling not only weird but even wrong: “But I’ll need your help to tie it in the back?”

Arthur dimissively tousles his hair, grumbling: “I *know*, Merlin.” 'My clothes’ going unsaid.

Merlin can be relieved about one thing, at least: Arthur obviously isn’t piqued about doing a servant’s work…

Merlin picks out the largest fitting of Arthur’s clothes. He puts on the braies and trousers while still wearing the gown, respectfully tying the belt blindly around his waist. He puts on socks, and shoes. Then only does he take the gown off, and turns his back towards Arthur so that he may help with adjusting the leather’s straps.

A surprised but definitely pleased whisper (“Impressive, ain’t I?”) echoes in Merlin’s ears, as the Prat Prince seems apparently unable not to comment about his damn broad back, angling Merlin shortly that way and this way as if to assess it even better.

'Believe me, I know’, Merlin can’t refrain from thinking; feeling a blush coming over his face, and thankful that Arthur is too busy looking at his own back to notice any of it.

“I think I might even have outgrown Sir Leon - in width at least if not in height”, Arthur concludes proudly before finally starting to work the ties - leaving Merlin suddenly ashamed of his initial internal reprimand, and oddly upset. Of course Arthur would only wish to see in his physique the strength of a warrior. Of course his first thought, when finally able to actually see his own back, would be to compare it to his given models - the Knights; and most of all among them, to his own chosen model, Leon - both the noblest and strongest of them all, yet young enough to play the part of the older brother Arthur could look up to while growing up… No one has probably ever told him that he is beautiful, Merlin realizes sadly. But the fact that Arthur is so unaware only makes him even more beautiful in Merlin’s eyes…

Merlin forces himself to tease Arthur, hiding his turmoil under their usual banter: “Well, I could ask Gabriel to take measurements, if you so badly wish-”

“Shut up, Merlin”, accompanied by a rewarding hit in the back of his right shoulder, which Merlin gladly revels in, no matter the unusual fist size. This, no matter their predicament, feels normal.

And in that short moment of normalcy, when everything feels just right as Arthur ends tying the leather, Merlin notices something he hasn’t noticed before, when all he could feel was STRESS.

Oh no.

“Arthur?” Merlin can’t help but wince at the intimidated tone in his voice as he turns around; and Arthur is eyeing him now with furrowed eyebrows. “I think I need - I mean you need… to… have to go?”

Arthur makes a face - with his face; except it still looks somehow like a typical outraged Arthur face (damn, this is just too confusing…): “Merlin!”

“He! Do not look at me like this is my fault! It’s *YOUR* body! Maybe you shouldn’t have drun-”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have brought a full pitcher at dinner then!”

They eye each other, both unrelenting over who is at fault.

And Merlin can’t help but think that somehow he is, indeed, no matter what. Because there are levels in intimacy; and he IS definitely crossing a line. There is a difference between being around and trying to avoid his gaze when Arthur walks in and out of his bath, or applying Gaius’s healing balm to bruises on Arthur’s back because it’s a place Arthur can’t reach on his own, and, well… watching and touching Arthur’s *manhood*, even if only for urinating, technically ensuring no mess is done while doing it?

Arthur suddenly sighs though, and his voice sounds kinder as he offers: “This will surely happens a few times before we sort it all out, huh. To the both of us. So. How should we proceed?”

Merlin scratches his head, summoning some courage: “Do you want to… hold-”

“Your hand, Merlin!”, Arthur demonstrates, lifting the would-be-culprit in the air and wiggling its fingers for good measure; and that’s a 'No way’ if Merlin ever heard one…

“Would you rather it to be your hand-”

“It’s *your* hand right now!” Indeed. So. Another 'No way’.

But suddenly Merlin has a solution, of sort: “What if I… go sit into the stream? There’s a quiet spot not so far from the castle I found while collecting herbs for Gaius… If I hurry I still can make it back before the pleas.”

Arthur actually claps his hands, obviously relieved: “Sometimes, I swear, you are a genius.” He hurries over, handing Merlin his tunic and grabbing the Pendragon red doublet before marching out: “Let’s go!”

“You’re coming?” (hastening to put the tunic on and grabbing a towel before following)

“Well, as I just said, it’s bound to happen to me - you - so I might just as well tag along, and know where it is.”

Once out of potentially spying ears reach, they plan the day further.

“We HAVE to tell Gaius, at the least, about our situation: no one will contest his word if he says you’re not to train for a while - because honestly how am I supposed to spare with your Knights? They will notice right away that something isn’t right. And, well…”

Merlin hesitates, not wanting to incriminate Gaius in any way. As it turns out, he doesn’t have to:

“You’re right. Besides, Gaius has heard about a lot of… stuff, in all his years. I was planning to go around Jeffrey and look for the forbidden books, but I have no ideas how many volumes are hidden down here, nor where they even *are* to start with… If anyone we know might have even the slightest clue about how to fix our problem, it’s him; even if it’s only about finding an adequate book.”

Merlin nods, relieved: “So. After the pleas, I stage a fall, and we go to Gaius, who tells you’re not to train for the time being. That leaves the rest of the day free, both for looking up about our situation, and briefing me on what I should be aware of for tomorrow’s concil. Do you address things in an established order; who’s whose specialisms; what you discussed by the latest concils which might be brought up again tomorrow; and so on…”

“I’m supposed to make the battle plans, Merlin? But as far as plans go, I have to admit this isn’t a bad one. Except I’m not you; I do not trip on my feet twice a day. So. I’ll make you fall. That’s more plausible.”

“No way! You’ll end up in the stocks!” Merlin realizes how - no matter what he might have been thinking just a few months ago - he simply doesn’t want Arthur in the stocks. Ever. “Which is NOT where you should be spending your afternoon.” Merlin quickly amends; hiding his concern under logic’s sake, knowing it to be the best way to persuade Arthur anyway. “So. You fall. I try to help you. But we both fall. I’m clumsy, as ever; you’re noble, as always; everyone get to laugh at me, and praise you; and your father might skip punishing me for you getting hurt in the process, as you obviously didn’t want me hurt to start with?” (pause, before adding earnestly, yet fiercely, as Merlin isn’t able to tone back the surge of threat in his eyes at the mere idea of having anyone disrespecting Arthur in that way) “If he doesn’t though, I’ll stand guard next to you.”

“Would you?” Arthur seems surprised; but touched: “Well, who knows, maybe I’ll return the favor the next time.”

Merlin can’t refrain a whine: “The next time?”

“Even I can’t save you from my father’s wrath every time; it’s bound to happen, either from your two left foots or your snarky mouth.”

They can hear the water now, and Arthur accelerates towards it, as Merlin lags behind, unable not to smile:

“I guess I’m supposed to say 'thank you’?”

“I might have forgotten to mention I’ll probably throw something in your face myself at the last moment. Prince’s privilege and all that…” - Arthur even turns towards him, giving him one of his goofy faces to boot (Merlin didn’t know *his* face could do *that*, by the way).

Merlin just keeps on smiling anyway. He probably hasn’t felt that brightly, positively, ridiculously happy since “I’m rehiring you - because someone needs to muck out my stables”. Arthur has a particular way to express fondness, and Merlin wouldn’t change it for the world.

V. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MERLIN (ARTHUR POV)

Arthur is the first to reach the stream, and crouches down to test the water with his hand.

“It’s cold”, he warns, while Merlin walks in a straight line towards a tree with a low hanging branch and starts undressing - he does come here often, clearly.

Merlin shrugs: “Be grateful it’s not winter yet. Try bathing around Imbolc - that’s cold.” Merlin goes on; stating an afterthought while hanging his pants on the branch: “Still worth it though; everything here is just more… alive, you know. You don’t get that indoors.”

And Arthur has bathed on patrols enough to know that, honestly?: he prefers his warm baths. He can’t help but feel a smile on his face though at the words; they are so intrinsically Merlin.

Arthur had been struck, when they had met. No one had ever defied him, in any way. And it had stung; Arthur could admit. So. He had not been displeased at all when he had overmastered the fool and turned him over. The affront had been too public to be allowed to slide, and Arthur had decided he wouldn’t dwell a further thought about the goodhearted fool (Arthur knew terrorrizing people wasn’t right. He tended though to react badly whenever anyone acted cowardly (which was, well, all the time, around him); especially as he was actually *praised* for it somehow), but fool nonetheless, who should have known to mind his own business…

It had been nothing though in comparison to his surprise when their paths had crossed again. Arthur hadn’t been able NOT to taunt him - hoping, somehow… But the last thing Arthur had been actually expecting had been for Merlin to act *exactly the same*. Surely, now that he knew who he was, he would just scrabble around him as anyone else - not defy him again, knowing it would get him in chains again, right? Arthur had been *delighted* by Merlin’s untamable fire - the words, and then the look he had thrown at him while taking his jacket off? (Maybe Arthur had just been waiting all his life for someone to finally stand his ground to him, indeed…) Of course Arthur had let him go without punishment that second time - and any time since then (which was honestly difficult, as Merlin - always fighting for what was right more than for himself Merlin - frequently got riled up, be it in private OR IN PUBLIC, by literally anyone and anything).

Since he has been to Ealdor though, Arthur can’t help but see things under a new light.

Hunith is everything Arthur believes a loving mother to be. But there had been no father at home, nor any mention of one. (Arthur knows the sting of this kind of wound - missing a parent; and he had been saddened, as he had realized that Merlin bore such a wound too.) Arthur hadn’t dared to ask, but he had wondered: did Merlin ever got a father to start with; or had he been abandoned - intentionally or not? (Arthur knows how even an accident still feels akin to a betrayal in a child’s heart.) Which would be the worst anyway? But what if Merlin had been bullied through his childhood because of it? - children could be particularly malicious, when they intended to… Was it how Merlin had learned, the hard way, that fighting - both with his words and his fists - was the only way to end the pestering? And had decided it wouldn’t be only for his own sake, but for the sake of anyone who might ever need help? Was it what had brought Merlin close to Will - the fact that they both had lost their father? Was it the reason Will had wanted to learn magic to start with? (Arthur knows the near constant anger, too. As does Merlin, obviously.)

Arthur can’t help but feel grateful anew, somehow, and no matter what, still, that Merlin has had Will around: surely, no matter how bad the fights Merlin had jumped into, Will must have kept him safe - at least safe enough - *with his magic*. The thought had been unbidden the first time it had occured, and had definitely surprised Arthur; but he hadn’t been able to deny that it was what he truly felt indeed.

Because of course Arthur had come to care for Merlin. Isn’t it why he had gone to Ealdor to start with after all…

Merlin.

Definitely not an ordinary manservant. And probably not the champion manservant by any book (fast learner, and smart, and hard working, he was; but only about what *he* deemed important - hence for example his total disregard for any kind of storage? - but Arthur generally agreed with what Merlin deemed important or not anyway). But honestly the only manservant Arthur now could imagine ever having - or ever want to have.

Because Arthur likes Merlin as his manservant exactly just the way he is, and would now never wish for another - no matter (and specifically because of) how well-schooled and zealous to satisfy his every need (and whim) that hypothetic other might be… Arthur now sees what others might judge flaws as assets (Merlin’s clumsiness and chattiness are more endearing and uplifting than unefficient, especially as his opinions always sound reasonable; his sarcasm and insults are a sure way to keep Arthur’s head from ever getting inflated; and his challenging manners push Arthur to do and be better - from training with the knights to saving people’s lifes), and what others might judge insubordinate as being treated, for once, finally, as an equal, somehow (even though they both know and acknowledge they aren’t) - no matter whenever it comes out at Arthur’s expanse too, food getting shoved into his mouth and getting unceremoniously pulled out of bed included in their everyday banter, as Merlin can give just as much as he gets indeed. But that’s maybe what Arthur values the most: how Merlin’s respect feels earned and honest; neither forced by birthright or fear for repercussions, nor cajoling nor calculated.

Arthur has never had a private servant for longer than a year - his Father’s rule; but you bet Arthur is decided about keeping Merlin at his side when the year would end. He will have to strategize; he will need irrefutable arguments. But if he plays his cards well - and Merlin never ceases to hand him over cards to play - Arthur has no doubt that his Father will actually allow it: it’s in the best interest of the Kingdom after all.

Merlin.

A whirlwind. Always animated, always busy; never still, even when he’s doing nothing. But always so expressive - so easy to read - a fact Arthur has come not only to appreciate after decades around perpetually guarded scheming faces, but even to *trust*.

A chatty nature-loving poet with dangly limbs, gentle heart, and the brightest smile Arthur has ever seen - Arthur has come to know. Yet the sassiest mouth and the most unrelenting fighter Arthur has ever met; his utter lack of skills balanced by sheer defiance - Arthur has learned right from the start. (Merlin just never backs off, no matter the odds; which is very stupid, but also very brave.)

A confusing, clashing mess of contraries. But an admirable man, with a beautiful soul.

And you bet Arthur wouldn’t have him be any different.

Arthur shakes his head. Maybe - just like with his two left feet - it isn’t Merlin’s choice to be such a poet all the time. Arthur hasn’t been inside Merlin’s body for more than a few hours, and already he is turning into a maudlin bard himself, huh…

Arthur sighs; bringing himself back to the present - only to be struck by Merlin yet again.

Merlin has by now disrobed of everything except for the leather, which he has rolled up to his chest (logic; it would take too much time to tie it up all once more), and the tunic, which he now holds tightly in a bundle against his chest too, even if (and no doubt exactly because) it must get in his vision range as he enters the water. The lengths Merlin now goes again, simply to avoid to *see* - treating his body with the utmost respect, even when it is betraying him?

It should be insignificant, but the whole endeavour screams once more just how *devoted* Merlin always is, to him; and it is honestly dumbfounding.

He has been willing to die for me. And more than once.

The thought slices through Arthur’s mind; as usual charged with guilt, and heartbreaking, yet oddly sweet.

Arthur doesn’t understand: he has truly done very little to earn such high esteem - and that’s an euphemism. Getting the man in the stocks? Letting him drink poison destined for him? Having his only friend die?

But you bet Arthur cherishes it all the same. And he wants - oh, he WANTS - to be worthy of it. Not because it’s what he ought to do, repaying kindness with kindness, loyalty with loyalty; and definitely not because he owes Merlin a friend - you can’t replace a friend (even if Arthur never actually had a friend, he knows that it’s supposed to be a special, powerful, unique bond). Not even because Merlin does indeed makes him want to be a better man - even if that’s true, and definitely positive for the future of Camelot. But simply because HE. WANTS. TO. Arthur has realized by now how he is always tempted, whenever they are together: either to act silly in order to cause a smile; or to provoke Merlin until he bites. Both reactions feel peculiarly satisfying; spreading a pleasant warmth through his whole being - and Arthur just always has to smile…

So.

On impulse, Arthur disrobes Merlin’s lower half and enters the (indeed very cold) water while holding his tunic bundled up too, keeping his eyes stubbornly fixed on his own body sinking until the water reaches up to above its waist, as Merlin sits on his knees in the middle of the stream. And yes, the fact that Arthur has just chosen to abide by Merlin’s stubborn dedication on that matter, instead of letting his perpetual interest about literally everything run free, for once, (because yes, if he hadn’t witnessed Merlin’s commitment, Arthur might have taken a look at Merlin’s body, out of sheer curiosity; he wouldn’t though, not from now on…), is both a pledge and a self-serving whim.

Merlin, drawn by the sounds, turns to him with questioning eyebrows, and Arthur sheepishly drops on his knees next to him: “I thought it unfair to let you have all the fun on your own. Now, ready to scare the fish?”

Merlin howls with laughter. Arthur decides it’s definitely worth playing silly while freezing his ass off.

(Imbolc = 31 january)

Feel free to come and fangirl with me over 1.01 and then scream with me over 1.10 !

On a side note, I’m sorry but not sorry about that fish line? It was *totally* unplanned but then it just rolled out and I went 'yep, sure, arthur would, totally; it stays!’ ?

VI. THE PRINCE’S PART (ALTERNATE ARTHUR/MERLIN POV)

They get out; get dried; put their clothes back on. Merlin ties the towel to the branch, for future use.

Then, on their way back to the castle, Arthur asks Merlin about his agenda for the day.

Merlin gives him a look - like he’s unsure whether Arthur means it. Arthur gives him a look back - meaning he isn’t joking indeed.

Merlin smiles, eyes full of mirth: “Your chambers are a complete mess, your clothes need washing, your boots need cleaning, your dogs need exercising, your fireplace needs sweeping, your bed needs changing and, oh, *someone* needs to muck out your stables.” Merlin sobers up. “But we have more pressing matters at hand; so I think you can consider yourself free for the day.”

Arthur is taken aback. He recognizes his own words, of course. It’s both baffling and humbling - that Merlin can quote him, months later? and that Merlin has omitted one part and one part only in his old speech, because they both know his armour doesn’t need any repairing (the devotion Merlin shows those metal pieces echoing the devotion he shows to Arthur himself)? Arthur had first planned to give a playful thankful bow; but it would feel wrong.

“So. I’ll go bother Geoffrey. Try to get him to show me where the secret books are hidden. I’ll tell him Gaius has found a strange herb and wants to make sure it isn’t dangerous or something…”

Merlin has to give Arthur that: he is indeed insightful.

The mention of Gaius’s name though has Merlin slightly panicking again: Gaius doesn’t know yet about their current situation. What if he mentions 'something’ upon walking on Arthur thinking he is him? No. Merlin has to be there when they’ll get to see Gaius.

“Speaking about Gaius? Stay clear from his chambers. I doubt he’ll be as magnanimous as I am. He’ll do that thing with his eyebrow and have you pick herbs and brewing healing potions and concocting ointments before you even got a chance to tell him about our predicament - he’s really dedicated in my education as a physician, you know…”

“And I believe you rather enjoy it.”

“I do, indeed. I mean… It’s fascinating - do you know that the same stuff can cure you or kill you sometimes, depending on the dosis? Anyway, who wouldn’t want to know how to save lives?” Merlin can’t help but twitch. “I’m not sure I’m any good at it though…”

There is a flash of guilt in Merlin’s disheartened eyes, and Arthur realizes two things:

1) Merlin feels responsible for having been unable to save his friend Will. Which is understandable, because Merlin must have gathered by now some knowledge from Gaius’s lessons; but heartbreaking - because Arthur has seen enough arrow’s wounds to know that Will’s could never have healed - and perplexing - because Will has died to save *him*, not Merlin; so why would Merlin think the guilt was his to start with? and how come Arthur has never felt like Merlin might blame him for it either?

2) Merlin’s face is always *transparent* - a fact Arthur truly appreciates on Merlin’s face - but a fact that could turn out problematic, now that it’s on his own face…

“Let’s get back to my chambers. There is still something you should master better before the pleas.”

And that’s how Merlin finds himself positioned by Arthur in front of a mirror.

“What do you see, Merlin?” Arthur asks.

“Well, you?” Merlin feels he’s missing Arthur’s point, but he has no clue…

“Do you? Because I see my body, I see my clothes; but I do not see the Prince of Camelot - I’d like to think I play it better than that - and I must be, because my Father would not allow *this* I assure you - at least I hope or the kingdom is doomed.” Arthur ends on a sigh, shakes his head, and then turns commanding eyes back towards Merlin via the mirror. “Close your eyes, Merlin. Think of me. I mean, *picture* me; and more especially, picture me at any official activity you’ve served me through. See how I walk, how I stand, how I sit, how I move, how I look?”

Merlin does as asked, searching through his memories. After a while, he nods.

“Got it?”

“I think?”

“Then open your eyes, Merlin. What do you see?”

Merlin understands now. He can’t help but sigh helplessly. “Not the Prince of Camelot. Obviously. I’m sorry Arthur, I guess I’m just not… majestic enough to play you.”

“It’s not that hard, Merlin. Come on; I’ll explain. Ready?” Arthur grins at him via the mirror, exuding confidence - trust in him?; and Merlin would face (has faced) monsters to earn it indeed.

Merlin nods, their eyes still linked via the mirror.

“First thing first? You’re slouching.”

“Yes. (Merlin tries not to slouch; but is still not satisfied with the result) I think though the biggest problem is- There’s something wrong with your face.”

“Because you wear your heart on it, Merlin; and you mustn’t. Believe me, you do not want to be lectured for hours about this by my Father…”

Arthur moves away, and Merlin can’t see him anymore in the mirror. His voice is directing though, and Merlin focuses on the words to school his face.

“You’re a prince, so you *must* always look like one. No matter what you do, you must always, *always*, look confident. That’s the first strength of a kingdom - the strenghth of its ruler. That’s what keeps your people safe. So. Chin up, Merlin. Square your shoulders. Stand tall - stand *proud*.”

Merlin realizes the words are not Arthur’s; they’re Uther’s. He wonders how often indeed Arthur has heared those words - most probably often enough to give himself a internal pep talk before any official anything apparently…

“That’s better; but still not good enough. No matter how you feel inside must not show, Merlin. When you’re tired, hide it. When you’re sick, hide it. When you hurt, hide it. When you’re stressed, hide it. When you worry, hide it. When you doubt, hide it. When you’re bored, and even more when you disagree; hide it - it’s disrespectful; and we do not want wounded pride to fester, don’t we Merlin? When you’re afraid, definitely hide it. When you’re sad, hide it. And the trickiest part maybe: when you’re happy, hide it too - or risk whatever is making you happy to be taken away: weakening you is weakening the kingdom; and its enemies will never hesitate to bring you down, if you let them see even an inch of an opportunity.”

Merlin is shaken. He feels guilty, somehow. This is, certainly, too intimate. Merlin feels like he’s intruding. This feels even more trespassing than being in Arthur’s body. It’s like being forced in Arthur’s head, without his consent. It’s nauseating.

“Again, Merlin. Your eyes; focus. It’s a part; but it’s part of your job. So for the love of Camelot, Merlin, please try harder. Your people reckon on you to lead them and protect them; so it’s your duty to be a leader, and to be strong. Work hard; harder than anyone else. You *must* be an example, an inspiration. You must be admirable in everything, so that your people will follow you everywhere. But you must lead, Merlin; never follow. A ruler is alone - *must* be alone. Do not trust anyone; at least do not trust anyone more than anyone else, and surely not more than you trust yourself. Your own judgement must *never* be clouded.”

Merlin can’t help but turn towards Arthur at the words, both in disbelief and in ache… Because Merlin has grown up hiding, but he had never realized that Arthur had, too; and maybe even more than him. Arthur must not only always pretend and perpetually watch over his shoulder; he must pretend and watch over his shoulder *alone*. And Merlin can only imagine how hard that must have been, and be. Back at Ealdor, Merlin had (and still has) his loving mother, and he had Will. Even here, now, Merlin has Gaius. And somehow, yes: he has Arthur too, Merlin suddenly realizes; and then feels ashamed, because he can’t help but feel blessed - Arthur trusts him. Because Arthur is definitely less guarded around him, isn’t he? When it’s just the two of them; Arthur and Merlin? Arthur laughs, Arthur doubts, Arthur *shows*; maybe not everything - but that’s probably not possible as he is so trained - but something at least always shines through; even if it’s by putting his feet on his face… But Merlin knows now, how rare and precious it truly is. They can never be friends, maybe; but Arthur trusts him. That’s undeniable; and that’s everything, somehow.

“Do not look at me; look at the mirror, Merlin. Harden your eyes. Smile; always politely, even when you don’t want to smile at all; more genuinely, when it’s true - but never let it go up to your eyes. First thing about tomorrow too; as we’re at it. Hear everyone out. Listen with your full attention to everyone; whether you agree or not. Never decides right away; except if it’s necessary, in war time. Your decisions must be thought upon; never a spur of the moment. If something is unclear, do not let it show during concil. If you favor a position, do not let it show during concil. If you disagree, do not let it show during concil. You need further advice, or even only further information? Seek the appropriate person in private; ask man to man. They will see the honor in it if it’s positive, and be thankful you kept it private if it’s negative. Also. You must be ready to be impartial, Merlin; because you do not need to be kind, but you must always be fair. You may - and you will, unfortunately - make mistakes; but never ackowledge them. Fix them. If you can’t; repair as much damage as possible. Learn from your errors, in order to never make the same mistake again. But never apologize. Come on Merlin; I’m sure you can do it. You’re nearly there.”

More over, Merlin realizes the Arthur he gets to see nowadays - the true Arthur - has always been there already, even under the pretense of the moron. Kilgarrah is wrong. His destiny isn’t to change Arthur; because there is nothing to change. Arthur already has everything to be a great king, the greatest king, all on his own.

And so, Merlin is *angry*. He has now yet another reason to despise Uther, it seems - scarring his child on the inside in such a way. Of course Arthur always feels inadequate; of course Arthur feels lacking; of course the only bond Arthur values is the one with his fellow knights - ride to glory or death, together? It’s the only bond Uther has authorized him to authorize himself to ever have… But Merlin’s anger is a good thing, apparently - because whenever Merlin thinks about Uther, Arthur finds that he’s playing the Prince’s part better.

“There Merlin, you have it. See? Right there. Lock it; just like that. That’s good enough for anyone looking today; because believe me, someone *will* be looking, even if only my Father and not the one who switched us or anyone else with ill intentions - there is *always* *someone* looking, Merlin.”

Fine. Think about Uther; until the pleas are done. Merlin can do it; and he’ll gladly do it. He’ll probably gladly do anything; for Arthur. He can still have a cry or hit a wall afterwards, right…

Arthur needs a hug. I volunteer. Anyone with me? (besides Merlin, obviously…)

VII. DOOMED (ARTHUR POV)

With a last commanding yet encouraging nod, Arthur leaves Merlin by the Great Hall’s entrance and starts to make his way towards the Library.

He is stopped by Merlin’s name being called out twice - because he has failed to react right away; Arthur chastises himself. It is the headmaster recruiting hands: his Father wants his bath ready when the pleas end.

Arthur doesn’t want to bring Merlin in trouble, of course; so he takes on the ordered job - after all, how complicated can it be?

He is paired with a newcomer answering the name of George who looks up to him as if he holds the sun: the Prince’s manservant! Which isn’t that bad. Until he starts, seemingly embarrassed but curious all the same, to ask questions like “Is the Prince as terrible as they say?” or “Is it true he throws knives?” and such? Arthur tries to explain that the training field is, well, to train? He isn’t sure the message gets across though, as George only holds his eyes with a perplexed gaze…

Arthur can’t help but hope that Merlin at least understands that he’s not only training himself but also trying to get Merlin to know how to defend himself if not to attack whenever he comes at him with a mace or anything… He should maybe make his intentions clearer, apparently…

Anyway. After yet another round of carrying buckets full of cold or warmed-up water up and down and left and right, Arthur realises there is more to it than it looks; and the bath is only half full still…

And when they’re nearly done? His three coworkers and the headmasteer seem satisfied, but Arthur can’t help but think while bringing up the last two buckets that they achieved nothing more than a luke warm bath with a clean but no particular scent. Merlin’s baths are definitely of a superior category on both accounts, and Arthur doesn’t know if he should feel guilty and spoiled for regularly enjoying better baths than the king himself, or more amazed or worried about Merlin’s bath-preparing skills (is he even thinking about his safety? he wouldn’t actually carry boiling water up the stairs, would he?)

Arthur decides he should address the issue. And maybe take baths downstairs from now on just in case - a little backroom near the kitchen would be more practical than his chambers, wouldn’t it? When the space isn’t needed for banquets preparations and such of course…

Arthur misses the first step towards the second floor (it’s actually the eleventh time today that he misses a step - he still isn’t used to Merlin’s feet). This time though, his balance is too lost for him to compensate and he falls backwards, landing on his butt and ready to get soaked and hit by the water and buckets he has released when instinctively freeing his hands (one to help catch his fall; one to protect himself from the falling projectiles). Except nothing comes: no water, no hit - and no falling sound either. And when Arthur takes a look? The buckets and water are… floating above his head?

Arthur gasps in surprise, his mind going both blank and reeling…

Then only does Arthur finally get drenched and hit on the shoulder.

Arthur blinks. Twice.

What has just happened isn’t normal, at all. Only - only magic could make such a thing possible!

Arthur looks around, instinctively - scanning for a threat.

He is alone; the corridors are empty as far as he can see, and he hears no voices, nor steps.

Which is good, because no one is attacking him then.

Which is the worst though - because if there is no one around… then the only person responsible for what he has just witnessed must be - is - HIMSELF?!

Arthur gasps again; this time in panick.

His first instinct is denial. But he knows what he saw. And somehow, it just makes sense, doesn’t it?

It’s not the body of the Prince that whoever switched him and Merlin is after. It’s his mind…

Put him in the body of a servant, give him magic, and sooner or later (and most probably sooner) he is bound to die by his Father’s law. What is he supposed to say in his defense? That he IS the Prince, in another body which had been given an ounce of magic on the sole purpose of getting him executed? Who would ever believe him…

In the meantime, the schieming sorcerer must have judged that a servant in his body may be too delighted by the upgrade in status to be a threat to his plans and would gladly unknowingly collaborate, on top of being totally untrained and incompetent at any of his duties.

Then? One only has to kill the King, either by making him ‘ill’ or using the same trick again and - for sure - Camelot is doomed to get wiped out from the map by the first band of Saxons passing by (and most probably enticed to pass by very soon after its King’s death): its only true heir gone, and the supposed one obviously improper to defend it. All of it without casualties on the attacking side, and without anyone knowing how it all came to be, which means no one, even loyal to Camelot, would have a reason to stand against the new regime put in place.

Arthur is more afraid than he has ever been - and he has been in combat enough for that fact to mean something. He feels crushed; defeated, even before the battle - and honestly? He has never despised himself that much. No matter that he has never felt both so unprepared and so intrinsically useless - and not even able to trust himself: surrender is simply inexcusable. Camelot depends on it.

Besides, Arthur owes it to Merlin to fight, right. It’s after all Merlin’s body that’s to die along his spirit. Oh! The villainy, the cowardice in this attack! Use an innocent victim as a vessel to be sacrificed. Sorcerers definitely have no sense of honor indeed.

So. Arthur is angry now. A much more suited mindset, he decides - as long as he doesn’t allow it to blind him. And he won’t. Merlin’s body depends on it too.

Arthur takes a deep breath. He has been taught strategy even before he could talk, right? Time to make a plan of action.

First. He is not as alone as Camelot’s enemy has calculated him to be. He is, in fact, not alone at all. He has Merlin.

Loyal Merlin; not only willing but even devoted to getting back into his own servant body rather than happily playing the prince. Magic familiar and open-minded Merlin - which means Arthur has not only someone who won’t judge him nor fear him to confide in about his new endangering (and in so many ways) abilities, but also someone who might have some basic understanding of it; since he was Will’s friend? Heart-in-the-right-place Merlin: too kind, maybe (but he can at least get aware of it enough in order not to be lead only by it); but naturally just and fair Merlin. Brave, fierce, tenacious Merlin; too reckless though (but again: he can at least get aware of it enough in order not to be lead only by it). Ressourceful Merlin, fast-learning Merlin: he would master his body’s strength, eventually; and Leon would be here to lead the Knights in the meantime… Arthur takes an oath. Even if they fail to find a solution to their problem, Camelot won’t be left unprotected. Come what may; even the worst? Merlin *will* be ready to take his place. Having Merlin’s unique edges smoothed out feels wrong; but it just has to be for show, right?

Second. Well, there is no really second yet; at least not more than what they have already planned. They need to find some books - and pray that they will be useful. And Arthur will just have to be particularly attentive about not repeating the kind of blunder he just did with witnesses present.

Yes. Merlin. Books. Start at the beginning; and with luck, it might just work out in the end.

Arthur cleans up as best as he can, using and wringing his soaked tunic in the buckets, then runs to Merlin’s room for a set of dried clothes. Turning up to retake his place at 'Arthur’’s side while drenched would only draw unwanted attention…

So. Basically? Yep. This is a magic-reveal unreveal fic. But. I mean… It’s Arthur? Also: this fic (to me) is canon (fitting) - so it just can’t be a reveal fic. Bonus: it explains too why Arthur doesn’t get the courage-magic-strength trio hint later on. He thinks Merlin is magic; but only because there is some residual trace to sense from when his body had magic (aka this fic), not that he actually has magic still at the time… Arthur can be at the same time very aware yet very unaware, and he can be so very biased and decided to see things his way, no matter how circumvoluted, right? (Also, of course Arthur thinks in fact then that HE is magic in the trio: he was after all the one inside Merlin when his body had magic; and Merlin IS courage - Arthur has such a low self-esteem to start with…)

On a side note: Arthur would actually trust Merlin with Camelot (even despite his limits). If that doesn’t tell you all there is to tell then I don’t know how to express it. *SIGH* *GROSS SOBBING* (Gwen though is innately made to be Queen - but Arthur doesn’t know that yet. He isn’t wrong about Merlin though - for Arthur’s memory? Merlin would do his best to be a great King too, you bet…) *GROSS SOBBING AGAIN*

VIII. MERLIN’S CHAINMAIL (ARTHUR POV)

“Merlin! My boy! You’re soaked! Did you provoke Arthur again and end up under the well for it this time?”

Great. Gaius sounds half amused half concerned. Does actually *everyone* think him to be a brute?

Well; nevermind. Merlin knows better; for sure - and that’s what matters. Merlin is never backing away, Merlin is never really complaining nor saying no; Merlin just watches him with mirth in his challenging eyes: I dare you. Of course Arthur HAS TO then… It’s like… kind of a private wordless conversation only the two of them understand. But honestly? Arthur wouldn’t trespass Merlin’s limits - if anything, Arthur would probably even feel guilty, if Merlin ever made one known…

But then, Gaius is patting his shoulder, pushing him towards 'his’ room; and Arthur is stunned silent, as he can’t help but relish on the (for him unusual) affectionate paternalistic small gesture.

“Get changed. Get warmed up. You’ll tell me later. I haven’t heard the bell signaling the end of the pleas, it is already so late? I’ve just finished Sir Kay’s potion, and it should be drinken warm, as you know; so I’d better be on my way. We’ll prepare Uther’s draught and the balm for Little Kathleen’s knee when I’m back. Also, I’m afraid I’ve ruined my coat; if you could work your magic on it next time you’re mending Arthur’s clothes, I’d be very much obliged?”

And then Gaius is gone, and Arthur is still stunned, but now for another reason - it was but a polite turn of phrase, of course, and Arthur knows Merlin just isn’t capable of miracles, as proven by the state of some of his shirts - beyond mending; but Gaius would better not use some idioms that carelessly around the palace - who knows who might hear and takes things the wrong way… Arthur shakes his head as he hurries to change, feeling sorry for letting Gaius down, but not planning to stay around until Gaius comes back - he wouldn’t know anyway how to prepare his Father’s nor Kathleen’s medicine, right…

Arthur opens Merlin’s cupboard.

There are only two folded set of clothes (neckerchief included indeed), and Arthur just takes the one on top.

He’s about to close the door when his eyes fall on Merlin’s chainmail.

The first time Arthur had told Merlin that he had been assigned to lead some patrol, Merlin had right away asked:

“When do we leave?”

Arthur had been surprised, then had tilted his head, apprehending Merlin while explaining that coming along was to be Merlin’s choice; and not per se his duty as palace manservant. They usually asked for volunteers; there was extra coin to be earned and such.

Merlin had only repeated:

“Sire; when do we leave?”

Arthur had been surprised again, but definitely pleased:

“Tomorrow at first light.”

“I’d better start packing right away then. What do you need?”

After having listed their necessities, Arthur had mentioned that he would have a chainmail sent to Gaius’s for Merlin to wear. Merlin had countered that he had no wish for carrying extra weight around as it would only slow him down in his chores; and that he would rather wear his everyday clothes. Arthur had said it was folly to go unprotected - they would patrol the borders, and thiefs and saxons could fall on them - and Merlin had finally relented some and agreed to wear a chainmail he would self adapt as he wished above some clothing but under his tunic. Arthur had been suspicious when Merlin had turned up the next morning without even a cap showing out, and had actually moved his neckerchief aside to make sure Merlin was wearing metal under his tunic…

Without hesitation, Arthur takes the chainmail out too, deciding he should wear it under his clothes. After all, the longer Arthur might succeed in hiding his new abilities, the more chances there are that the one responsible for their troubles might choose to turn to more expeditive measures of his own. Killing a servant might go unnoticed for awhile, and would work just as well in case whoever had planned this got tired of waiting for Arthur to betray himself and get executed. Which means that Merlin’s body is just walking around as a mark waiting to get hit… and Arthur should do his best to protect it. Merlin’s chainmail is barely worth its name; but it does cover his chest, belly and back, at least.

Arthur makes it back to the Great Hall right on time for the end of the pleas. It was the moment they had planned to stage for Arthur’s injury; but Arthur discretly but authoritatively signals 'no’ with his head. It would be too risky; what if while falling he instinctively uses magic again - in front of the whole court? Merlin gives him a curious look but follows his cue anyway, thanksfully. There is still enough time to create an excuse before training; and they can still tell he fell even without witnesses anyway. It would have been a nice added touch at make-believe, but Gaius vouching for them should be enough on its own, right?

As they walk in silence back to Gaius’s quarters, Arthur feels Merlin’s eyes upon him, boring and questioning. So when they pass by his chambers, Arthur takes the opportunity for privacy. Once behind closed doors, Arthur leads them to the most private corner, as far from the door as possible. Then he takes a deep breath, and turns towards Merlin to explain… everything.

He hasn’t got the time to start though before Merlin hushes out, worry evident in his voice, pointing to Arthur’s side where a hint of metal is visible if you pay attention - and Merlin always pays attention, doesn’t he:

“Sire? Why are you wearing my chainmail?”

AN: It’s canon after all that Arthur doesn’t force Merlin to come along - he lets him leave before Camlann, right? But yes, this is just me giving some sense to the 'just let’s Merlin accompany us everywhere without any kind of protection’ unacceptable general policy. So. Merlin *has* some protection. We just don’t see it. Okay? And the few times he’s actually in armor on patrol, it’s because they need a decoy or something… Also, just so you know: Merlin of course thought that Arthur would probably think that he didn’t want to be seen in a chainmail because he didn’t want to look like a soldier in order not to seem a danger nor a target, but Merlin just couldn’t care: he HAD to be an unconspicuous nobody - it made it easier to protect Arthur with his magic if no one really paid attention to him. And to end with a cute note: whenever they ride out ? Arthur always checks that Merlin wears his chainmail - a fact Merlin can’t help but always secretly revel in…

IX. REVELATIONS (MERLIN POV)

Arthur looks anxious - which only makes Merlin worry more.

“I found out… why I was put into your body. I’m sorry, Merlin. I wear your chainmail because your body is in great danger; and it’s all because of me… again. ”

“Wha-”

Arthur cuts him with an imperative gesture from his hand, voice hushed - even though it echoes in Merlin’s ears like a shout:

“I have- I mean you have… Magic!”

Merlin’s breath catches; panick rising. Arthur knows! Arthur knows?

Arthur seems to read his struck expression though as simple denial.

“Yes, Merlin; you heard right! Magic! I saw water and wood floating above my head - floating, Merlin! - That’s the only way to explain it! But I have no idea how it gets triggered, I have no idea how to control any of it - I fell and it happened, I guess, instinctively? Now you understand why I couldn’t have us stage a fall… If people find out? *When* people find out? My Father will have me - YOU - beheaded!”

Merlin’s eyebrow furrow. He doesn’t understand. If Arthur knows he has magic? How come Arthur looks *contrite* instead of angry; afraid *for him* instead of afraid of him? Not that Merlin is complaining about the fact that Arthur obviously doesn’t wish to see him beheaded, of course; his evident worry is even heartwarming, in a way… but heartbreaking, too, as Merlin can’t help but feel that Arthur’s reaction must be induced by some reason that he doesn’t comprehend yet but that has little to do about him having magic at all…

Arthur then fully explains his theory about their attacker using his body to get to Camelot by erasing Arthur, then Uther, and marching against a Camelot lead by an unprepared servant playing Prince. Merlin is shocked, and shaken. Because indeed Arthur’s reaction isn’t about him having magic at all, but about Arthur feeling responsible for his body’s impending doom. But what hurts the most yet is the heavy guilt that settles upon Merlin’s chest - crushing, constricting, inescapable - as he realizes that in fact everything is his fault! Arthur’s thinking may be flawed on one account; but the rest of it makes sense, indeed. And so Merlin cannot deny that Arthur has been targeted and put into his own body because whoever did this actually knows that he has magic.

And so Merlin feels panick rising again, and even worse than before. It is already complicated enough for Merlin to hide his powers - and he has had practice at it since his birth. How could Arthur ever successfully hide them for long… And to think that *HE* might be the cause of Arthur’s death? It’s worse than anything; worse than everything. And it’s devastating. Merlin can’t hold Arthur’s gaze anymore.

Arthur probably thinks he is overwhelmed by the surprise of his body being a target though.

“And I’m sorry - again, Merlin - but I can’t go and hide at some random remote place until I’ve worked out how to subdue it at least, if not suppress it. There is no time. I can’t leave Camelot; not when it’s so endangered.”

Merlin feels like screaming: Arthur shouldn’t apologize; Arthur shouldn’t feel guilty - It’s all on him!

“It’s all right, Arthur. I know you’re right: we have to stay here. After all, our best shot to end this mess is to find guidance in some books; and our best shot to find said books is staying here.” (Also, you bet Merlin isn’t willing to leave Camelot either because he is going to consult with Kilgarrah… Merlin had planned to go to the Great Dragon at the first occasion right when he had realized they had switched bodies; but he now can’t help but wish for the night to come even sooner.)

Arthur looks surprised by Merlin’s easy acceptance as he lets out: “I was going to point that out too?”

Arthur seems to hesitate an instant, taking a deep breath; but then, probably finally enticed by the fact that they still are on the same page apparently, he hushes out words that Merlin had never imagined he would ever hear, even in his wildest dreams.

“Now that’s settled… Do you have any idea that might help me keep it in check? I mean… Back in Ealdor? Did your friend Will maybe ever share something with you that we could use? Anything?”

Merlin’s mouth falls open; but nothing comes out of it. He realizes just how surreal it must have been for Arthur to utter those words. But Arthur looks decided, as always. He means it. And that’s when Merlin realizes Arthur is in fact ready to *learn*. Arthur still doesn’t trust magic, and definitely doesn’t trust his magic now that he has some; he only sees it as a treacherous condition. But he is willing to face it outright, instead of wishing or pretending it isn’t even there to start with. And Merlin realizes that this isn’t only proof of Arthur’s mighty heart; but that it also might actually be their saving too, with some luck?

And so Merlin just HAS to take a chance. Anyway, Arthur *needs* him; and how could Merlin ever let him down to start with… Besides, what if it made Arthur realize that magic isn’t only to be feared; that magic can be good, too, actually?

“Maybe you shouldn’t learn how to keep it check, but how to have it *work*?”

Arthur opens his mouth now, either in shock or to retort - or both; so Merlin hurries to push his point.

“Hear me out, please. Even when we do find an helpful book? The spell we’re under must be very powerful - I mean, have you ever heard or thought this could even be possible? - so we might still require magic too in order to perform whatever will be mentioned in the book? So yes, your new abilities are supposed to be our doom; but maybe we can turn them to our advantage? You have MAGIC, Arthur. If you can control it and use it - on your terms? Maybe that’s just what we need to solve our problem?”

Merlin waits. And Arthur isn’t taking the opportunity to repel his idea. Silence goes on; and still, Arthur isn’t refusing. If anything, he looks… thoughtful, even if doubtful. But there’s resolve, too; and maybe, even, a spark of hope? So Merlin just takes the final plunge.

“As you said… I might have… some basic notions about it? It’s worth a try, Arthur. What do you say?”

Merlin’s heart is pounding so hard it’s going to break his chest for sure, as they hold gazes for a long time - Merlin silently pleading for Arthur to just trust him. Then Arthur gives him a firm nod.

“I say this is probably folly but we have to try, indeed. So. You train me? And I train you.”

Merlin tilts his head, unsure about the second part.

“There are things I want to teach you, Merlin”, Arthur explains; pleads even. “In case we stay stuck in each others body no matter what we try; in case your body should- I know it’s a lot to ask, especially as I apparently keep making your life a hell just by existing? But will you please let me prepare you to take my place, if necessary?”

Merlin’s breath is knocked out of him. Arthur would trust *him* with *Camelot*? But Merlin cannot even contemplate it. Arthur cannot be gone; musn’t be gone; will not be gone. Merlin’s voice is fierce as it simply refutes the prospect.

“Sire, it won’t come to-”

Arthur lays a hand on his shoulder.

“It would mean a lot to me.”

And what can Merlin do then, but promise - and mean it:

“Anything, Arthur.”

The hand leaves his shoulder, but Arthur’s eyes stay fixed on him.

“Thank you, Merlin.”

And Merlin takes another oath - this one to himself. They’ll work it out. They’ll make it work. They will.

They both feel guilty for endangering the other more than they are worried about themselves *heavy sigh*

X. TRAINING (MERLIN POV)

Gaius is working on finishing Uther’s draught when ‘Arthur’ surprisingly comes in without knocking.

“Sire? Do you need-”

Merlin hasn’t prepared a speech on their way (how do you announce this anyway?) So he just blurts it out, as Arthur comes in after him and takes place at his side.

“We need your help, Gaius. Our bodies have been switched. (pointing to himself) Merlin. (pointing to his body) Arthur. We awoke like this this morning.”

Gaius looks stunned - of course. Then, for the shortest of times, he looks unconvinced; but this is after all Camelot, where strange things always happen, indeed - and not only Arthur would most probably have better things to do than playing along with Merlin’s pranks; but also Merlin wouldn’t have the heart to make *such* a prank to start with - not to him. So Gaius looks concerned now, gaze jumping with worry between Merlin and Arthur, holding Merlin’s eyes with a question in his eyes - and Merlin knows what’s worrying him.

Merlin can only give Gaius though a fragile smile to assure him that he is all right along with an apologetic look in return. He isn’t sure Arthur would want anyone else knowing about the magic too, so he will have to wait for a private occasion to explain everything to Gaius. For now, he just sticks to the plan.

“Arthur is expected to train soon, and we thought you could give us a way out of it. No one should be aware that Arthur isn’t Arthur until we’ve fixed this.”

Gaius doesn’t even hesitate.

“Of course (nodding to Merlin). I’ll go and tell you injured your sword arm (nodding to Arthur).”

Gaius goes out, mentioning coming back later to make Little Kathleen’s balm. Once the door closes, Arthur says he wonders what Merlin has in mind for 'training’. So Merlin decides he should help them both at once.

Merlin looks around for something basic, and his eyes light up when they fall on two bowls - not only basic but also potentially useful, if it works? He sets them on the table in front of Arthur: one stays empty, the other one get filled with water.

“Here. Try to make the water move into the other bowl.”

Arthur looks at the bowls, then at Merlin; incredulous.

“I’m not sure- I mean, even if I make this work, how am I supposed to put ourselves back into our bodies that way? How can I perform whatever must be performed if I am out of the performing body?”

“This is just a beginning, Sire. This is just a way to have you… feel your magic? Find it, and use it as you wish, when you wish. But if you need a valid reason, I promise this will be useful too, when you’ve mastered it.”

Arthur seems perplexed. Merlin confides, voice low as if sharing a secret: “We won’t have to disturb the fish anymore?”

Arthur is apparently too stressed out to even smile, sadly. But he gives Merlin a satisfied nod. “I’d better start trying then, huh.” A helpless sigh follows though. “Any hint about how to feel it to start with? Where to find it?”

Merlin hesitates. Not only because he wonders how much he can tell without Arthur realizing he knows too much, but also because he struggles about how to put into words what he has always simply felt. He has never had to search for it; it had always just been there. But maybe he can describe it by telling what he doesn’t feel, since he’s in Arthur’s body?

“Don’t search for 'where’. It’s not in one place; it’s everywhere. Not only in your body; literally everywhere - earth, air, water, fire. Like a… warm… tingling… flow? When you’ve found it, try to concentrate on it, focus on it, in order to direct it towards what you want - with your hands, your eyes, your voice; whatever works?”

Arthur’s brow has only deepened from the explanation, and Merlin can’t help but sigh:

“I’m sorry. It’s gibberish. I don’t know how to explain-”

“What you can’t know”, Arthur cuts him with a wave of his hand. “Of course. I have to find it on my own. Thank you for trying, at least?”

And so Arthur goes to sit at the table, facing the two bowls, while Merlin starts on the balm for Little Kathleen’s knee (hopefully for the last time, as her recovery seems to be going well, thanksfully) - both to feel useful and to give Arthur some kind of privacy. His moving around though must be disturbing, because Arthur switches place, turning his back to him. But it gives Merlin the freedom to check over his shoulders from time to time without risking to meet Arthur’s eyes.

This isn’t working though, Merlin can tell, by the time he’s done preparing Little Kathleen’s balm (he waits for Gaius to check if he got all doses and ingredients right though before finishing; he has only done it once) and a sleeping draught (for the guards guarding Kilgharra’s tunnel) (Gaius has had him prepare Morgana’s draught several times already, and has explained how to up the doses while keeping it safe): Arthur looks nothing but tensed, when he would need to be relaxed in order to feel… Trying too hard is nothing but counterproductive.

That’s when Merlin realizes he’s been going at it the wrong way. Arthur is not him. Arthur is *Arthur*. And when Arthur is at an impasse and needs a clear head? He trains. Activity helps him focus. Exhaustion helps him forget. To find his inner ground, Arthur must be physically busy; not sitting hunched over a table looking at two bowls.

Merlin eyes again his surroundings: spoons should work. Gaius has them in lots of size, both wood and metal. Merlin bundles them all in his tunic, and calls for Arthur as he passes in front of him.

“Let’s try something else. You can work on the water later on.”

Arthur’s eyes follow him questioningly up the stairs. Merlin sets his collection down, then holds a spoon up.

“Try to stop it from falling to the ground.”

Merlin let the spoon fall. It hits the ground, of course; but Arthur surely looks now interested by the new challenge. Merlin smiles, and lets another spoon fall.

After five rounds, Arthur gets up and gathers the spoons before handing them over to a crouching Merlin, instead of having Merlin going down, and up, and down, and up… A few rounds later still, Arthur picks up a spoon he has missed on his way and calls out for Merlin to catch it instead of walking back. Merlin misses it though, and it lands on his arm. And that’s when Merlin thinks his new idea can even be perfectioned.

He takes the offending spoon off the ground and holds it at the ready, eyeing Arthur, waiting for him to understand. And Arthur does, of course.

“Merlin? Are you threatening me with a spoon?”

Merlin grins wolfishly. He throws, and Arthur easily dodges, laughing.

“How long have you been waiting for such an opportunity?”

“Forever?” Merlin lies, before throwing another spoon, which Arthur blocks with an upraised arm.

Merlin can’t help but scowl: “You’re supposed to make the spoon divert its course; not block it or move out of its way.”

Arthur has actually the decency to look apologetic: “I know. Sorry. Reflexes.” Then he smirks. “But please, indulge yourself and do go on.”

And Merlin does. And it’s glorious somehow, how they are suddenly both intent and carefree, spoons clattering everywhere on both sides as Arthur now throws the spoons back to Merlin too. Hits land on both sides too, as they both throw quicker and harder.

At some point, the door opens and a spoon hits… Gaius.

“Sorry”, Merlin lets out, hurrying down to check he hasn’t hurt Gaius.

Gaius looks at the both of them with incomprehension, but Arthur explains even before Merlin has even opened his mouth.

“We’re actually working on something, Gaius; not destroying your chambers. (the slightest hesitation - but if Gaius is to be their ally then Arthur has decided he should know, well, everything, it seems) I have been jinxed too, on top of the body swap. It appears I have been given… magic; to be my doom - and well… Merlin’s body end.”

Gaius looks sort of disapprovingly to Merlin at the M word, but his gaze softens somehow, even though it turns outright anxious, as Arthur further explains his theory about their attacker’s plan.

“So, now you know it all, Gaius. And we also need your help for something more than giving me an excuse not to train… We need… information. I thought… You and Geoffrey go way back, right? Maybe you could persuade him to lend you a few special books?”

Gaius nods, eyeing Merlin.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Arthur nods back.

“In the meanwhile, I have to understand how it works, in order to prevent anyone finding it out until we’ve found a way to lift the spells?”

“Of course. Just let me take what’s necessary and I’ll leave you to it.”

Merlin then shows Gaius his previous work (safely tucked away in his room after the first round of spoons throwing - and yes, it also gives Merlin the opportunity to silently let Gaius know where his book is hidden, so that he will be able to retrieve it later on and present it to them as coming from Geoffrey or something). Gaius proudly tells he got everything right and gathers it all into a bowl.

“I can finish the balm in the kitchens. I’ll be back to bandage your arm though later on, Merlin; our Prince is supposed to be injured, and our King will want to check on his son right when he comes back from today’s hunt and hears about it.”

They start again where they had left, but nothing magical ever happens still, and after some time, Arthur exclaims in annoyance: “Maybe you should use knifes?”

And Merlin understands the logic; but Merlin just… can’t. He counters with an idea of his own.

“Maybe I should tie you up on a chair so that you can’t dodge them anymore?”

And Arthur gives a shrug… then goes to sit.

Merlin finds some rope and tie Arthur’s legs and chest to the chair. He hesitates, then tie only Arthur’s left hand behind the chair.

“In case it helps if you aim”, he explains.

Then Merlin is facing Arthur again. The spoons hit; one at a time. But Arthur glares at them - never at Merlin; and so Merlin goes on.

And then… (they’ve been going at it for so long that Merlin has stopped counting rounds) a spoon finally *stops*, mid-air, before simply falling vertically to the ground instead of keeping its course.

Merlin’s mouth falls open as Arthur keeps looking at his hand in wonder.

“Did you see-”

“Yes!” Merlin can’t help but shout happily.

Arthur meets his eyes, looking even more resolute than before.

“Again.”

Arthur doesn’t stop lots of spoons (yet, hopefully); but he regularly stops or redirects one.

And then, Arthur looks at his hand, and then at him, both in wonder.

“It *is* warm!”

And that’s definitely progress in the right direction, if Arthur has *felt* it.

The look they share is actually hopeful, for the first time since this began.

After some time, Merlin decides they should take a pause. Arthur still has to prepare him for tomorrow concil too, right?

So Merlin starts asking about what he should know for the coming concil right while untying Arthur’s legs.

“Will was definitely lucky to count you as a friend.”

Merlin’s eyes jump to Arthur’s in surprise; not only from the compliment, but also from the repeat mention of Will. Before today, Arthur had never mentioned Will, since they had left Ealdor.

Arthur doesn’t notice. Or - more probably - Arthur notices but goes on anyway; he is nothing but brave after all.

“I never had a friend, but I believe friends are supposed to help each other out, right? And well, you’re good at helping out, is all. And I know I have little to no right to talk about him; but I think you should know that I’m grateful, and that he has my respect, Merlin.”

Merlin is utterly speechless. Arthur has finally found, it seems, a way to shut him up. And to get him teary-eyed to boot. Merlin lowers his eyes to the ground.

“I believe he was a kind man. I mean- He must have been, of course - I don’t see you befriending someone cruel or-… But even taking only my own judgment into account? I suppose he could have probably done more harm than a whirlwind. But he didn’t. He wanted to defend, more than to attack; there is nothing malicious in that. It’s unfair his kindness caused his end though. Sometimes, maybe, it’s necessary to be the first to strike; even if you can never know how actually well-founded that decision then is; and you have to live with it.”

Merlin feels guilty, again. And angry. Does Arthur have to remind him that Will’s death is his fault? For all his magic? Merlin is indeed nothing but *useless*, indeed. He works on finishing to untie Arthur as quickly as he can.

Arthur must have read the inwards directed angry shake of his head for something else though, as he lets out a somewhat apologizing sigh.

“I realize I’m very biased, Merlin; because if he had used his powers in a harmful way? I would probably have been the first to accuse him of being a monster. (pause) But he hasn’t. And I haven’t searched for any magical powers - yet here I am.”

Another sigh; nothing but helpless this time. So Merlin *has* to look up. He has failed Will. He won’t fail again. He won’t fail Arthur. Arthur’s gaze is lost inward though.

“Sire”, Merlin pleads, hunting Arthur’s eyes then locking onto them.

Arthur fidgets; Merlin can’t help but note the oddity and rarity.

“I just- I realize this is the strangest thought to have while we are yet again under a sorcerer’s threat, but… Maybe not everything is always as black or white as I’ve been told all my life? Maybe not everyone with magic is actually evil? … Will? Me? … Again, maybe I’m only very biased. Because who knows then how many might have been wrongly punished- (a heavy sigh; wondering and remorseful this time, as Arthur shakes his head, apparently thinking about his Father’s deeds as his own - as he has allowed them to come to pass without opposition for so long…) But I *have* to believe that it’s possible to have magic without being corrupted by it. I mean… What if it sticks? Even after…”

“Arthur”, Merlin starts again as Arthur’s voice falters - even though Merlin still has no exact idea about what he wants to say; at least not in what order. Arthur’s genuine regrets and palpable fear are boring a hole right through his heart; just as Arthur’s words about Will and about magic (it is a step in the right direction; no matter how small) spread warmth through it too. Merlin’s possible soothing or grateful words in return all feel just tangled and messy and worthless and not enough and-

Arthur clears his throat, then softly exhales as he finally looks away: “I don’t really know what I’m trying to say, Merlin. Except… I’m glad you’re here?”

Maybe Merlin has conveyed what he couldn’t put into words through his eyes after all…

And then Arthur stands up, and his voice is back to his usual, assured tone.

“Now. One problem at a time, right? About the concil tomorrow…”

And Merlin listens, you bet.

So yep, yet another 'I’m glad you’re here’ (MY HEART). And spoons just had to be involved, indeed (I’m weak, blame 5.03)

#merlin #merthur #bbc merlin #merthur fic #bbcmerlin #merlin fic #the body swap #the once and future fic #text #fanfic #fic #my own two spells

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