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mask131 · 1 year ago

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Seasonal theme: Magical summer (ending)

This summer will be a season of wonders and enchantments, of spells and wizards - a magical summer!

Here is a list of beings, entities, objects and concepts you can check out if you want to add some magic to your summer:

In fiction (but isn’t fiction a myth-to-be?)

Shakespeare’s work greatly influenced the world’s vision of witches and wizards, be it through the Weird Sisters/Three Witches in Macbeth, or Prospero in The Tempest.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is one of the most famous pieces of “wizard fiction”. Starting out as a German poem by Goethe, adapted from a world-wide folktale, it then became a French “symphonic poem” in the hands of Paul Dukas. Disney then adapted this symphonic poem into a world-famous animated short in their movie Fantasia 2000, before re-adapting the poem into a completely unrelate teenage-urban fantasy movie in 2010. A urban fantasy movie not to be confused with another kid-friendly fantasy movie inspired by the poem of Goethe and sharing the same name (as well as plot elements, such as Arthurian sorcerers finding themselves in the present-day world). This time it is a British “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, released in 2001.

The depiction of Merlin in The Sword in the Stone, both the Disney movie of the 60s and the novel by T. H. White that inspired it, also had a great impact on the vision of the character in popular culture. Both works also contain a famous fictional witch in the person of Madame Mim. A warning, however: Madame Mim only appears in the first editions/first version of the novel, on which the Disney movie was based. In the 50s White rewrote his novel, and excluded the chapter of Madame Mim. Madame Mim in the novel is also very different from the character Disney made her out to be.

A last creation of Disney for this list: Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, the three good fairies (and actual heroes) of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.

The Wicked Witch of the West is one of the most famous depictions of a “wicked witch” in the mediatic landscape - and in fact, many witch depictions today are still inspired by her (most notably the green skin or the fact of being melted by water). I am of course here referring to the Wicked Witch as she appears in the MGM movie The Wizard of Oz - this Witch being a very different character from the Wicked Witch of the West appearing in the original novel by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Not that Baum did not create quite a lot of very famous witches: I can mention Mombi, the antagonist of the second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, or the Good Witch of the North and her counterpart Glinda the Good, the Sorceress of the South. These two are quite notorious as being the first “good witches” to ever appear in American literature.

In Tolkien’s Legendarium (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion): Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White and the Rings of Power - especially the One Ring. All became archetypes of the fantasy literature and unchallenged character-types (or artefact-types) in all future high fantasy/epic fantasy sagas. Plus - I almost forgot - the palantiri, the “seeing-stones”, Tolkien’s own spin on the classical “crystal ball”.

Other wizards of fantasy classics would include Belgarath the sorcerer and his daughter Polgara, from David Eddings’ (and his wife) The Belgariad, a duo purposefully designed to play fully while subverting in many ways the “Gandalf-type of character” ; as well as Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, the alien and otherwordly patron-warlocks of Fritz Leiber’s iconic heroic duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

The magic-users of sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld deserve an entire section of their own. Each one of them is a careful parody or caricature of the wizard or the witch as envisioned and imagined by fantasy literature, witch-hunters or New Age hippies, as well as a reconstruction of these same stereotypes and cliches, based on philosophical, humanist and scientific principles, making them as much realistic takes as bloody hilarious incarnation of the “witch” and “wizard” character types. For the wizards you have Rincewind (with the Luggage, of course), Mustrum Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons or the Unseen University (a wizard school long before Harry Potter existed). For the witches you have Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick or Tiffany Aching. And let’s not forget the gender-challenging Eskarina...

Speaking of Harry Potter - despite the controversies surrounding its creator, the Harry Potter book series, and the movie series that followed, is a franchise that cannot be ignored when considering the image and perception of witches, wizards and magic in fantasy. The titular character of Harry Potter deeply marked the minds - as much as his two friends/co-protagonists, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his nemesis Draco Malfoy, his mentor/school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the magic school of Hogswart itself, or the magical sport known as Quidditch.

However, while Harry Potter cannot be ignored, it also must not be forgotten that this franchise was the last of a long set of series depicting children trying to learn magic in a school for witches or wizards, such as Wizard’s Hall by Jane Yolen, The Circle of Magic by MacDonald and Doyle*, Anthony Horowitz’s Groosham Grange (plus its sequel “The Unholy Grail��), and of course Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch. Special mention for Neil Gaiman’s The Books of Magic, which do not feature a magic school, but are about a young British boy looking a lot like Harry Potter and training to become the greatest wizard of his era - and that despite being a story released seven years before Harry Potter. [* Again, to avoid confusion, this series is not the same as Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic, which ALSO deals with young wizards learning to control their powers - but this time was released in parallel to the Harry Potter series].

In a similar way, Harry Potter himself is the last of a long “bloodline” (inkline? Since they’re literary character) of fantasy series-protagonist that start out as young teenagers or kids, become sorcerer apprentice or wizards in training, and grow to be famous and heroic figures of the world of magic. Before Harry there was Pug, of the Riftwar Saga (later expanded into the Riftwar Cycle), and before Pug there was Ged from the Earthsea series.

While I do not usually include in those list too-recent works, because I brought up Harry Potter I am in the obligation to mention two big recent successes. On one side, the Japanese anime Mashle: Magic and Muscles, which is a very funny parody of the Harry Potter world, if it met the tropes and characters typical of recent seinen superhero mangas, such as One-Punch Man or My Hero Academia. On the other side, the American cartoon The Owl House, which gently mocks the problems inherent to the Harry Potter franchise, while offering its own alternate plotline about a teenager trying to learn magic in a world divided between “regular” humans and magical witches, only to be confronted with great evil powers beyond what she could imagine...

Two very different dreaded witches: on one side, The Lady from The Black Company, wife and former co-ruler of the dreaded sorcerous overlord The Dominator, and absolute mistress of the Ten Who Were Taken, vile wizards including some terrifying folks such as Soulcatcher, Shapeshifter, The Limper, The Howler or the Hanged Man... On the other, the witch-queen of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, one of the three Lilim sisters of a fairy-land beyond a certain Wall... She was reinvented as the witch Lamia in the movie adaptation of the novel. I will also throw in another dreaded female magical entity invented by Neil Gaiman: The Other Mother, from Coraline - who is, after all, at one point called a “beldam”...

Not a book, not a movie, but a card game! The card game Magic: The Gathering deserves a mention, being one of the first and most famous collectable strategy card games, long before Japan overtook with the world with Yu-Gi-Oh, Duel Master and co. The original concept for the game was that each player embodied a wizard fighting another wizard, eac card being a different spell/magical artefact/summoned entity, and each deck was a grimoire/spellbook. The most notorious part of the game is its color system: the Five Colors, representing the various elements and energies of the multiverse, gathered in five different forms of magic forces/divine powers/philosophico-social ideologies. The White of light, peace, law and order. The Black of death, rot, sacrifice, greed and selfishness. The Red of chaos, fury, impulses, emotions, freedom and war. The Blue of intellect, knowledge, logic, deceit, trickery and illusions. The Green of life, nature, evolution and tradition.

To continue on the topic of games. For tabletop roleplaying games - Warhammer, the most famous dark fantasy RPG, whose wizards are divided by the Winds of Magic, the different types of magic powers: Aqshy the Red Wind of Fire, Chamon the Yellow Wind of Metal, Hysh the White Wind of Light, Ulgu the Grey Wind of Shadow, Azyr the Blue Wind of Heavens, Ghur the Brown Wind of Beasts, Ghyran the Green Wind of Life, and Shyish the Purple Wind of Death. For online, virtual roleplaying game, World of Warcraft, the most famous fantasy MMORPG to this day, with its character class of the Mage (sometimes called Wizard), a spellcaster and conjurer who can specialize in three “types” of magic: Frost magic, Fire magic and Arcane magic. They are not to be confused with the other magic-using classes of the game, such as the Shamans (totemic mystics invoking the spirits of their ancestors and manipulating the four elements), the Warlocks (curse-wielding summoners and enslavers of demons), or the Druids (healers, spellcasters and shapeshifters taking their power from nature itself, and celestial bodies such as the sun and the moon).

A few fantasy series centered around magic I heard about positively but haven’t had time to check out myself. Diana Wynne Jones’ Magids duology, with on one side Deep Secret, and on the other The Merlin Conspiracy. Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap series (especially the first book, Magyk, which I heard the most about). And Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician Trilogy.

Being a huge Deltora Quest fan, I will mention as a magical artefact the Belt of Deltora and its seven magical gems.

We have spent so much time talking about witches... But what about witch hunters? I will name two famous examples here. On one side, Solomon Kane, hunter and slaughterer of all things evils, eldritch and unholy, one of the two famous creations of Robert E. Howard alongside Conan the Barbarian, and whose adventures (just like those of Conan) are technically part of the Cthulhu mythos. On the other side, the Wardstone Chronicles, a brilliant little dark fantasy series for young adults, about the seventh son of a seventh son in a fictional version of Renaissance England learning to become a “Spook”, aka a hunter of ghosts, witches, goblins, demons and other evil gods.

Of course, being French I have to sprinkle a few French references in this list. For the foolish, cartoonish-evil sorcerer of children fiction: the evil alchemist/sorcerer Gargamel, the recurring and iconic antagonist of the comic-book, then turned cartoon, then turned hybrid movies, The Smurfs. For an evil but glorious wicked lady of dark magic, Karaba the witch from Michel Ocelot’s most famous animated movie Kirikou and the Sorceress, inspired by a traditional folktale of West Africa. For your classic Gandalf-like fantasy wizard: Zétide, the elderly but powerful wizard who serves as one of the protagonist of the fantasy series La Malerune, initially created by Pierre Grimbert but completed by Michel Robert. For your young adult fantasy hero: Ewilan, from the teenage fantasy series The Quest of Ewilan, an ordinary young girl discovering herself to be the true daughter of powerful sorcerers of another world, another world she will need to save with her own hidden magical powers. And to add a final “French touch”, the witch of Malcombe and Eusaebius the mage, the two magic-users whose actions start the plot of one of France’s most famous comedies, Les Visiteurs.

The French television series Kaamelott deserves an entire section, with its hilarious cast caricaturing the Arthurian mythos from beginning to end - from an inept and incompetent Merlin, to an annoying Lady of the Lake whose ghostly apparitions make everyone believe Arthur is mad, passing by a Morgan le Fay who is tired of constantly having to drag heroes’ corpses back to Avalon. And let’s not forget Le Répurgateur, a cruel, fanatical and overzealous inquisitor and witch-hunter of the early Christian Rome, who however carries numerous modern-day values and norms against the Celtic traditions still honored at Camelot (such as polygamy or a very loose definition of “justice”).

ADDENDUM:

I forgot to put in two items on the first part of this list, so I will add them here as a final conclusion.

When talking about the fairytales of the brothers Grimm that popularized some witch archetypes (Little Snow-White, or Hansel and Gretel), I forgot to evoke The Frog King (wrongly remembered today as “The Frog Prince”), which was the fairytale from which derives the cliche/stereotype/trope of a witch or a fairy turning anyone that displeases them into a toad or a frog.

And of course, I forgot to mention the most “real” of all the magics... The stage magic. The magic tricks of the magician with the top hat and black-and-white wand. The parlor tricks, and stage illusions, and children’s entertainment, and the great magicians that practiced this art: Isaac Fawkes, Robert-Houdin, John Henry Anderson, Herrmann the Great, Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Fred Kaps, and many many more... Pulling rabbits out of hats, changing the numbers and figures of card games, cutting ladies into two, pulling flowers or handkerchiefs out of thin air, and all these sorts of things...

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choices-and-voices · 2 years ago

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Hii can you please explain the real ending of Arthur in the legend? I've heard from it but never really knew the full story :)

~~~ Updated 01/05/2023 after some further reading on my part, because apparently I’m obsessed with Arthurian legend now 😅 ~~~

Hi Anon! No problem, here’s a summary. Disclaimer that I originally made this post using just the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but I now can’t find the articles I originally referenced & I kept coming across contradictions to them in other articles, so I’ve decided to cross-check everything against CliffNotes & sections of original text. If anyone reads this and finds things that still need correcting, please lmk ☺️.

The legend of King Arthur is set in 5th-6th century Britain, although the details of the time & the geography are more fiction than fact. As with all folklore, it developed over hundreds of years through a mostly oral storytelling tradition, so there’s no one version of it. However, most of our modern adaptations are based on a book called Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur), written in the 1400s by an English knight named Sir Thomas Malory. Malory basically compiled as many pre-existing stories about Arthur as he could, and also tweaked them to suit his time period. He was the first person to add a lot of the themes of chivalry and brotherhood that are now considered central to the legend. (As a side-note, Malory also went to great lengths to link the legend to his homeland, which can make his descriptions of geography even more confusing. He frequently mentions England and reports that Arthur became King of England by pulling the sword from the stone, when actually, ‘England’ didn’t exist yet in Arthur’s time. Instead, the island of England/Scotland/Wales was divided into many independent kingdoms, like Camelot and Carmelide, and the only way to collectively refer to them was as ‘Britain’. In this post, I’m going to be mirroring Malory’s language, but it’s worth noting that when he says England, it’s more accurate to say Britain, and when he says that Arthur was the King of England, it’s more accurate to say that Arthur was a King of Camelot who began to unify Britain through his influence & may have been destined to eventually rule it all. In fact, Camelot is usually identified as being in modern-day Wales rather than modern-day England. I know that all of this is tangential, but it confused me a lot during my reading & I wanted to help clarify it for other people, so 😊).

Le Morte d’Arthur sets up Arthur & Guinevere’s relationship very differently to Choices. For a start, they get betrothed earlier in the story, before the Knights of the Round Table are established – in fact, the physical Round Table & the first hundred of its knights are an engagement gift from Guinevere’s father. Secondly, they do know each other a little before they get betrothed – they meet a few months prior, while Arthur is helping defend Carmelide from attack – and although Arthur getting married is a political decision driven by his advisors, his choice of Guinevere as his wife is inarguably a personal decision driven by love. According to Malory, Arthur loved Guinevere from first sight & refused to let Merlin suggest any other brides when the time came, instead sending him to Guinevere’s father to ask him for her hand. We never really learn if Guinevere returns Arthur’s feelings, but honestly, the point is kinda moot – and that’s because, in perhaps the most important difference from Choices, Malory’s Arthur walks into the relationship knowing that Guinevere will betray him. When Merlin suggests choosing another bride, he explicitly warns Arthur that Guinevere will fall in love & cheat with a future Knight of the Round Table named Lancelot, and Arthur puts that aside, marries her anyway, and befriends Lancelot anyway.

I could go on such a long rant here about how complicated Merlin’s characterisation is in Le Morte d’Arthur – even more so than in Choices – and about what the symbolism might be of him making that prophecy & of Arthur ignoring it. But there’s tons more background reading that I’d have to do about that, and it’s also not the point of this post. Suffice to say, I think we’re given enough clues that Arthur ignores the prophecy not because he doesn’t believe it, but because he loves Guinevere and later Lancelot so much that he’d ignore anything just to have them by his side. When the two of them do start their affair, it’s stated that Arthur suspects what’s happening but ‘[won’t] hear of it’ from other people, particularly because of how much he loves & trusts Lancelot. It is left up to the reader whether that means that a) Arthur is deliberately overlooking the affair to protect his wife & friend or b) Arthur is burying his head in the sand about the affair happening – most critical sources go with Option A, but I personally think that both are presented as equally plausible. A similar trend continues throughout the book, with Arthur making several ambiguous decisions that Malory never directly explains, instead leaving us to judge him for ourselves. It’s quite a cool literary technique for a character who lives under public scrutiny, and who has had his story told in so many different ways over the years.

Before I move on, it’s also worth noting that Malory’s Arthur is… not quite as saintly as in Choices, so it’s not inconceivable that he’d struggle to handle the affair gracefully. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still incomparably noble & brave, but he’s also a young man under a lot of pressure who’s prone to dichotomous thinking, bursts of impulsivity, and difficulty telling people ‘no’. He himself has a few affairs between meeting Guinevere and marrying her, including one with a woman whom he doesn’t know is his half-sister with whom he conceives a son, Mordred. Like in Choices, Merlin then prophesies that Mordred will be Arthur’s downfall – more specifically, he prophesies that a boy with Mordred’s birthday will be Arthur’s downfall – but unlike in Choices, Arthur actually endorses Merlin’s horrific plan to prevent that. All baby boys with Mordred’s birthday are exiled to sea in a ship, until Fate, in one of its inevitable twists, sinks the ship and has Mordred wash up on shore. He eventually ends up in Camelot as a Knight of the Round Table, where he plays a big role in everything falling apart.

(And before we move on to that, just one more aside: the half-sister with whom Arthur conceives Mordred is not Morgana, although modern adaptations of the story often conflate the two characters. Her name is Morgause, and she also has four other sons – Arthur’s half-nephews – who are Gawain, Gareth, Agravaine, and Gaheris. I mention them not just because of the nod to Choices, but because they’re also very important in what happens next).

The trouble starts when Lancelot & Guinevere get extremely obvious about their affair, to the point where it becomes common knowledge among the Knights of the Round Table. Most of them ignore it, but there are two – Mordred & Agravaine – who insist on formally bringing it to Arthur’s attention, thus obligating him to deal with it. Arthur initially refuses to do anything unless somebody catches Lancelot & Guinevere ‘in the act’, but Mordred & Agravaine then suggest a plan to achieve that – they ask Arthur to spend a night away from the palace in the hope that Guinevere will invite Lancelot to her chambers, where Mordred & Agravaine will lie in wait for him. And this is the point at which Arthur makes his second ambiguous decision. The facts: Arthur agrees to the plan, and even tells Mordred & Agravaine to take more knights on their stakeout as backup, because Lancelot is more than capable of killing them in a rage. The question: Why would Arthur say that? Is he genuinely still unsure about whether an affair is happening, and eager for his wife & friend to be investigated and captured at any cost? Or is he trying to dissuade Mordred & Agravaine with threats about Lancelot’s wrath, while also making sure that there are witnesses to whatever happens so that nothing gets too out of hand? There are a couple of subtleties in Malory’s writing that might imply Option B – for a start, the conversation about the plan goes back & forth for a while, with Arthur giving three separate warnings about Lancelot before Mordred & Agravaine literally tell him to shut up and let them deal with it. So it’s not hard to read some reluctance in Arthur’s voice, and to consider that maybe he’s grasping at straws trying to stop this disaster he’s been backed into. Secondly, Mordred & Agravaine are explicitly said to be very unsubtle about their plan, to the point where Lancelot’s supporters at the Round Table suspect it and try to warn him. So it’s possible that Arthur is counting on Lancelot & Guinevere recognising and avoiding the trap, meaning that the stakeout will come to nothing and the ‘rumours’ of an affair may actually be put to rest. That said, it’s not like Arthur tries to warn Lancelot or Guinevere himself – sure, he can’t be seen to do that in public, but you’d think that he’d be able to catch Guinevere in private at least. Instead, he goes out hunting, Guinevere summons Lancelot to her chambers, and Lancelot goes, ignoring his supporters’ advice. The two of them are together when Mordred & Agravaine’s 14-knight party starts banging on the door, and everything immediately goes to hell. Lancelot & Guinevere know that they’ll be put to death for treason and agree that Lancelot should escape while he can, so he can return and save Guinevere later. Lancelot does make a show of wanting to resolve things peacefully – he says he’ll voluntarily stand trial in the morning if the knights let him walk away – but by now, everyone is raring for blood. Lancelot ends up killing all the knights except Mordred, who runs off wounded, then escapes Camelot with his supporters in tow. He does offer to take Guinevere with him now that her captors are dead, but interestingly, she turns him down – she actually says that he’s done a lot of harm by killing Arthur’s knights, and she doesn’t want him stealing her as well unless Arthur goes through with her death sentence. This is probably the first sign of doubt that we see from Guinevere, and it’s a cool, subtle hint of what’s to come.

Of course, Arthur does go through with Guinevere’s death sentence, and for once Malory actually explains his reasoning. Arthur has founded his entire reign on principles of honour and equality – on the idea that no one, not even a royal, is above morality or the law. Guinevere has committed treason – has even contributed to the deaths of 13 knights �� and the punishment for treason is death, so Guinevere must die. What Malory does leave somewhat ambiguous is Arthur’s actual wishes for Guinevere & Lancelot. The facts: when Arthur first hears what’s happened from Mordred, he mainly expresses grief, both because Lancelot has torn the Round Table apart & because he now has no choice except to put Guinevere to death. He doesn’t express any anger until later, when Gawain tries to convince him to spare Guinevere in case her interactions with Lancelot have been misconstrued. At that point, Arthur says that Lancelot will have a ‘shameful death’ if he ever gets captured, and orders his knights to stand guard at Guinevere’s execution in case Lancelot attempts a rescue – even Gawain, who begs to be excused, and Gareth & Gaheris, who agree to be present but refuse to carry weapons. Now, it is possible that Arthur is doing all of this because he genuinely wants Guinevere & Lancelot dead. But there’s also another popular interpretation that actually, it’s all just for show – Arthur knows that Lancelot is going to rescue Guinevere, and by setting up a public execution with sympathetic guards, he’s maximising their chances of a successful escape while also ensuring he can’t be accused of letting them go. Essentially, he’s giving them a clean break away from Camelot, while also still trying to maintain the laws of the kingdom & his integrity as a king.

Of course, even if that is Arthur’s intention, this story is a tragedy & things can’t go according to plan. This time, the complicating factor is that Lancelot goes on a violent rampage while rescuing Guinevere, killing another 24 knights including the unarmed Gareth & Gaheris. When Arthur hears about this, he’s openly devastated, and I think it’s impossible to argue that he doesn’t have at least some anger for Lancelot from that point on. He does make an attempt to prevent further violence, asking his knights to shield Gawain from his brothers’ deaths so that he doesn’t swear a vow of vengeance, but when Gawain goes ahead with the vow Arthur is quick to offer support. He musters an army from across England and lays siege to Joyous Gard, where Lancelot has hunkered down with Guinevere, his original supporters, and an accumulated army of his own. What follows is an all-out civil war, and Arthur’s emotions are quickly torn from anger & righteousness to heartbreak & regret. There’s one particular scene burnt into my brain where he and Lancelot are duelling one-on-one, Lancelot refuses to kill him despite the fact that it would end the war, and Arthur just breaks down in tears, because he doesn’t want to be fighting anymore. Eventually, the Pope gets involved to bring about peace, and decrees that Lancelot & Guinevere be pardoned, that Guinevere be returned to Arthur, and that Lancelot be exiled to France. This leads to a tragic scene where Lancelot delivers Guinevere to Arthur before leaving England forever, and every single character cries except for one: Gawain. He refuses to retract his vow against Lancelot & insists on pursuing him to France with Arthur and his army, leaving England in the care of Mordred. Mordred, of course, has been out for trouble since the beginning, and this is the point at which he truly goes off the rails. He forges a letter saying that Arthur has died, gets himself officially coronated, tries to claim Guinevere as his wife (she refuses, fleeing to London & barricading herself in its Tower), and drums up discontent about Arthur’s past reign until public opinion is on his side. It helps that he also inherits most of Lancelot’s supporters, although a few of them do follow Lancelot to France.

When news of Mordred’s treason reaches Arthur & Gawain in France, they return to England to fight him. However, Gawain is already badly injured from repeatedly duelling Lancelot, who always refused to land the killing blow. On his deathbed, Gawain writes to Lancelot, granting him forgiveness and begging him to come to Arthur’s aid. And Lancelot does come, as fast as he can, but – he’s destined to arrive too late. On his final night alive, Arthur dreams of Gawain, who tells him that Lancelot will arrive in a month & that Arthur will die if he goes into battle before then. The next morning, Arthur meets Mordred on the battlefield to negotiate a month of ceasefire, but then a snake slithers out onto the field and a knight unthinkingly draws his sword to kill it, breaking the peace. Arthur rides into that battle knowing that he won’t come out alive, and watches in despair as all but one of his knights are also slain. Eventually, he sustains his mortal wound while killing Mordred. His only remaining knight, Sir Bedivere, tries to carry him to safety, but instead Arthur asks him to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake & to place Arthur in a boat being rowed by her attendants (including Morgana), who take him to their mystical isle of Avalon. In many versions of the legend, Arthur is said to still lie on Avalon under Morgana’s vigil, being healed from his wounds by a magical slumber from which he will eventually wake up immortal – a ‘once and future’ king. In Le Morte d’Arthur, that rumour does circulate, but Malory is ultimately clear about the fact that Arthur dies on Avalon, and is returned to a forest outside Camelot for a quiet burial. His throne is taken over by a distant half-nephew, his Order of the Round Table dies with its knights, and his dream of unity & honour across England dissolves. Guinevere, filled with grief & guilt, retreats from the world to join a convent, where Lancelot eventually finds her after his return. The two of them still love each other, but Guinevere refuses to renew their relationship, and Lancelot ends up joining a monastery himself as a way of honouring her & showing his remorse. When Guinevere gets sick a few years later, she prophesies that Lancelot will come to perform her funeral & to bury her beside Arthur, and sure enough Lancelot sees her death in a dream & rushes to her side. Six weeks later, he also dies of a broken heart, and is buried at Joyous Gard.

Whenever I revisit Le Morte d’Arthur, I’m always surprised by how subtle & complex a text it is, especially considering how long ago it was written. There are no clear heroes or villains; nobody is blameless in bringing about the tragedy, and yet nobody acts in a way we can’t sympathise with; nobody gets a happy ending at the expense of somebody else. But there is a general idea, reinforced over time by simpler adaptations, that Arthur is the member of the love triangle who suffers most. He loses not just his wife & his friend, but also his kingdom, his dream, and his life. Yes, he makes some questionable decisions along the way, but they’re all made for the sake of other people – he’s torn apart trying to simultaneously protect his loved ones, his country, and his ideals, whereas Lancelot & Guinevere precipitated everything by being publicly affectionate without any regard for the consequences. They also both get at least a chance at a future, while Arthur does not, and I think there’s a public sentiment that it’d be nice to see him end up happy for once. I’m personally really glad that Choices gives us that option, and it seems like some other readers feel the same way. Speaking of which, it’s also nice to see other readers interested in the original legend. Thank you so much for the ask 💕

#playchoices #choices: stories you play #guinevere #guinevere choices #asks #asked & answered #fandom essay #fandom essay guinevere #original post

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chacusha · 11 months ago

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The Once and Future King (1958) by T. H. White

Okay at last -- after maybe 4 or 5 years of reading this, I finally finished?! I suppose it's not that odd that this book took me so long to read given that it's kind of 4 novels in one, and this book was my bathroom reading book (meaning it had to be read in little pieces at a time). Only through dedication and perseverence did I manage to get through this one. And then I took like two months writing up this summary/review... /o\

The Once and Future King is a retelling of Arthurian legend. Somehow this book ended up in my possession (my guess is that it was bought at a book/garage sale or given to my family by someone or something like that, and then I've just been carrying it with me from house to house ever since). I think my interest in this book was probably sparked by a combination of watching Disney's The Sword in the Stone, which was based on the first book of Once and Future King with the same name, and also generally hearing people reference Merlin's whole "experiencing time backwards" mechanic (probably this book contains the most prominent instance of that mechanic in fiction, and some while back, I encountered some characters in fiction who experience time differently, who were probably inspired by this Merlin), and then also I had seen either all or part of the musical Camelot, which is also apparently partly based on this book, so all of those things made me think I should probably read this book...

Also, my background for Arthurian legends is very weak. While I've osmosed some very basic things about it from general culture, I've barely read anything considered semi-canonical and don't really know any of the major stories.

The first book is apparently the most famous one, "The Sword in the Stone," which features a young Arthur ("Wart") being tutored by Merlin who turns him into various animals, and ends with Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone and being declared king of Britain. The second and third books were apparently written while T. H. White was living in Ireland as a conscientious objector for World War II, something that is kind of relevant to maybe both the general ethos of The Once and Future King and maybe also relevant to the subject matter of the second book, "The Queen of Air and Darkness," which takes place in the remote Orkney isles of Scotland and has various Celtic culture things going on. The third book, "The Ill-made Knight" focuses on Lancelot and is kind of a character study of him, although features various quests, stories, duels, etc. including the quest for the Holy Grail. Finally, the last book is "The Candle in the Wind" and covers Mordred and the fall of Arthur's Camelot.

It was funny reading "The Sword in the Stone" and just kind of seeing why it appealed to Disney's animators. There's a whole episode in "The Sword in the Stone" that isn't in the movie at all, but it features these two middle-aged knights, Sir Grummore and King Pellinore, having the most slapstick/physical comedy fight imaginable. Even though this scene (in fact, neither of these characters) appears in the movie, you can absolutely imagine this fight playing out with characters probably similar in look and personality to King Stefan and King Hubert from Sleeping Beauty, or the king and grand duke from Cinderella. I'm so surprised it wasn't included.

By contrast, the squirrel episode was an invention of the movie, but there is an episode in the book somewhat similar in vibe, where Arthur is turned into a migrating goose and goes on a dreamlike very long migration with a flock, which includes a young female goose who is obviously kind of interested in him, in a way that goes over his head.

Despite being medieval, a lot of the episodes in "The Sword in the Stone" seem to reference some contemporary or near-contemporary British archetypes. For examples, the falcons and other birds of prey that Wart hangs out with one night I think are meant to represent the British military officer class, and they have a distinctive way of speaking. The omniscient narrator also puts in a lot of anachronistic commentary, such as saying "Several hundred years later, this place would like X, but in this time, it still looked like Y."

There's an episode where Wart gets turned into an ant and basically it's T. H. White's cynical criticism of pre-war and wartime propaganda (in this case, by the British government based on the language/tone used, but probably applies to all countries) and how certain governments and a constant background drone (ant signals standing in here for radio) preclude the capacity for free thought or disobedience. In particular, there's this bit about a lecture that gets broadcast to all ants:

A. We are more numerous than they are, therefore we have a right to their mash. B. They are more numerous than we are, therefore they are wickedly trying to steal our mash. C. We are a mighty race and have the natural right to subjugate their puny one. D. They are a mighty race and are unnaturally trying to subjugate our inoffensive one. E. We must attack them in self-defense. F. They are attacking us by defending themselves. G. If we do not attack them today, they will attack us tomorrow. H. In any case we are not attacking them at all. We are offering them incalculable benefits (p. 129).

Reading this, I immediately got a mental image of that "Our blessed homeland / Their barbarous wastes" meme:

Anyway, being a pacifist in the UK during WWII was probably not the right choice, but as someone who has lived through multiple bullshit imperialist wars that were justified just like this, with propagandistic journalists painting anyone who didn't full-tilt support said wars as being unpatriotic and motivated by hatred of the U.S., and whose arguments featured this level of hypocrisy... I feel for T. H. White. IDK, being a pacifist in any time is hard.

"The Sword in the Stone" also features an episode where Wart and Kay adventure with Robin Hood and his merry men, who in this book are depicted as remnants of an older Saxon regime rebelling against Norman invaders. In addition to knowing almost zero about Arthurian legend, I also know almost zero about Robin Hood mythos and British history, so I have no idea how normal or just a niche theory this depiction of Robin Hood is, or how normal it is to mix Robin Hood and Arthurian legends.

The second book, "The Queen of Air and Darkness," is the shortest and also the weakest, probably. It introduces some characters who eventually become key players, but here they are bored children, and is kind of a study of Morgause as a witch and terrible mom, with some further Pellinore-related slapstick. Not a particularly interesting book.

The third book focuses on Lancelot and his characterization here is interesting. It may sound odd, but Lancelot's characterization reminded me quite a bit of my partner: perfectionistic, depressed in a "convinced I am ugly, horrible, deeply flawed, etc." sort of way, and deeply religious in a vague way while also somewhat lapsed/detached from religion. I was a bit surprised at how Lancelot as a boy is very much depicted as having a strong crush on an older Arthur here (not explicitly so, but the feelings are depicted as very intense), even though Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot is a very classic OT3 so that's not exactly surprising. In general, I quite liked the way the relationship between Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot was portrayed, especially the way all three characters age and grey over time, and their relationship kind of matures with them. The book never quite goes full OT3 with the three, though, because Arthur and Guinevere, while they love each other, seem to largely lack the passion aspect of love in their relationship.

Between the second book with Arthur and this third book featuring Lancelot, this book contains a lot of knights being tricked or spelled into sleeping with a woman out of wedlock and there being a child born out of that union who is Important later on. I checked and all of these stories of female-on-male rape are pre-existing stories, so it's not a T. H. White invention but just there in the lore. I find it a bit weird how recurring an element it is. I wonder if it's because people wanted to insert into these myths an original child character who is special -- therefore has to be related to one of the major knights -- but they have to preserve the knight's own chastity/moral purity, so the only way to insert a child is to have the knight be faultless this way.

Quite a bit of Once and Future King reminded me of the writing in A Song of Ice and Fire; I'm guessing this book was a major source of inspiration for GRRM. First, there's the book's tendency to go into Random Very Detailed Digression About an Aspect of Medieval Living. The random digressions are more varied in O&FK (featuring topics like very specific lessons on hawking, armor, battlements, and so on), but the digressions on the heraldry spotted at a particular tournament or all the dishes served at this particular holiday feast will feel very familiar... Second, this book features several "trials by combat" -- I don't think they're called that exactly in this book but they have the same form which is that if someone makes an accusation against someone else where evidence is unable to decide the issue, each party can choose a champion, and the verity of the accusation is determined by the outcome of the battle. This is a very bizarre legal practice, but it's featured in both O&FK and ASOIAF.

Another part of the Random Very Detailed Digressions of O&FK is that there are a LOT of types of birds mentioned at various points in this book, especially marine birds. Sometimes I felt like I was just always looking up unfamiliar bird names and being kind of surprised that the English language has this many bird types named in it. It was to the point that I wondered if the author was a birdwatcher (especially a marine-bird-watcher) as a hobby.

Thieves -- it is true -- could be hanged for stealing goods to the value of one shilling -- for the codification of Justice was still weak and muddled -- but that was not so bad as it sounds, when you remember that for a shilling you could buy two geese, or four gallons of wine, or forty-eight loaves of bread -- a troublesome load for a thief in any case (p. 510).

This is from another long digression in the book talking about how Arthur's regime dramatically changed the ability of people to safely travel. But reading this, I immediately got a strong "Lex Luthor stole forty cakes" mental image. XD

Reading this book was quite difficult because almost every page, I needed to look up some word or term or translate some text. There's a lot of archaic words used, Latin or French terminology, medieval concepts, medieval texts, Biblical stories, etc. that I needed to look up in order to understand what was going on. I only really noticed how densely these unknown words were encountered when I started reading my next bathroom book and got like 30 or 40 pages without needing to look up anything and was just like "???" after the experience of reading O&FK. 8|

The depiction of Mordred here is a particular resentful, hot-headed youth who attaches themself to any populist or nationalist movement that provides some kind of voice for unhappiness, whether egalitarian (or at least using that language of elite/non-elite, haves/have nots, etc.) or right-wing ethnonationalist. He is in other words a proto-fascist. He is also depicted as representing a certain kind of modernity, where his group of friends at court are all about wearing ridiculous fashion but with a tinge of irony to them. This notion of fascists who always distance themselves from their words and actions with a layer of sardonic irony was apparently as familiar to T. H. White as it is to me (see: 4chan and alt-right outlets/provocateurs).

The last book features Arthur wondering at length where does war come from, which reads like maybe T. H. White's own musings and attempts to puzzle that out. Arthur/White wonders first whether it's warmongering leaders who manipulate their populations into war, or warmongering populations who propel warmongering leaders to power; nationalist ideologies as a somewhat self-propelling mechanism (a complicated "impulse") that seems to be driving war; histories/past wrongs that rationalize vengeance and an inability to forgive and forget leading to neverending cycles of retributive wars, each last one becoming the justification for the next; whether private property/possession/wealth or social disparity lead to coveting what other people have and people who use that class resentment as an opportunity to power grab or make money and improve their standing; whether war is born out of fear of the inability to control other people from harming you. Again, all thoughts that are unfortunately way too real right now and evergreen, speaking as a citizen of the world's preeminent empire, waging war on a dozen fronts or more, and given current events...

It's hard to summarize this book. It's Arthurian legend, but only focusing I think on certain characters and certain parts of the story (maybe; I don't know). It's a historical book, containing a lot of general information about what life and the culture of the late middle ages were. It's a political book featuring T. H. White writing about his feelings on legal systems and war. Each of the four books here has a very different vibe with some focusing on adventures, comedy/slapstick, complicated/doomed love relationships, family or character studies, villains, politics and legal systems, or what it means to be a good person and a virtuous Christian. Overall, the book was quite difficult and slow-going reading for me, but I enjoyed it and I'm glad to have read it.

#once and future king #t h white #book review #arthurian legend

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queen-rainy-love · 2 years ago

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Cookie of the Week: Prophet Cookie

This cookie of this week is...

Cookie name: Prophet Cookie

Pronouns: He/Him

Rarity: Epic

Position: Rear

Type: Support

Lore: His backstory is not really explained but it is known that he gives fortunes to other Cookies. He uses his Scroll of Prophecy to help guide his path (even if it’s wrong sometimes).

Personality: He has the standard calm personality that most wizard characters would have but with a hint of silliness. Think of Merlin from Disney’s Sword in the Stone.

Skills: Prophet has a unique skill, called Seven Prophecies, with multiple abilities. Once activated, it heals an ally and amplifies buffs. It also adds an extra skill effect, which is decided based on the symbol summoned. These are the prophecies and the seven are called Fire, Squid, Mango, Thunder, Water, Ice, and Nothing. It will vary.

Costumes: Prophet has no costumes in Kingdom.

Cookie Decor: Prophet has no Cookie Decor.

Thoughts: At first…I thought Prophet was just a run-of-the-mill Cookie. He did become special when he would give you a prize every three days. But then his skill… really did turn my opinion around. His skill, if leveled up and with the right toppings, can be a real power tank. And those fortunes…I almost wanted to cry at how sweet it is.

#cookie run kingdom #prophet cookie #cookie of the week

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sleepy-moron · 2 years ago

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Comicgayt

I think I’ve actually made a fairly solid connection between byler and one of the most iconic gay couples in marvel history, and I know I’m not the first person to make connections between Will and Billy Kaplan but this is a bit more in depth + some other interesting parallels and a little bit of memes……potential major plot spoilers for s5 if I’m right ahead tho

So I was checking some fan wikis to refresh my knowledge on Billy Kaplan because I am very confident that Will takes at least some inspiration from him (gay nerd with reality warping powers and a heavy association with magic+ it takes a while for people to realize just how fucking powerful he actually is) and the scarlet witch and I randomly had the idea that I should look into Teddy Altman (aka Hulkling aka Billy’s husband) to see if there were any significant parallels between him and Mike because I thought it would be interesting……and while there are a few other parallels that are pretty likely to just be coincidental…..there is a much bigger one that could be plausible as an intentional reference. I need to establish the direction I think Will’s story could go in season five first and then we can talk about the stuff that involves both pairs.

So Will is going to be targeted by Henry in some way, that much is obvious. It’s also a pretty reasonable assumption that Will can control/warp the upside down to some extent (although Will has no idea he can) and that’s why it is still stuck on the day Will vanished as a result of Will being unable to move past what happened to him. I brought up the scarlet witch earlier because she’s Billy’s mom but also because of the House of M storyline (aka literary what wandavision is based off of) from the comics. This involves someone (Wanda) with the ability to warp reality to create a perfect world for themselves to live in as a result of a breakdown and rewrites reality and the memories of everyone else around them to prevent people from destroying this new world.

While I don’t necessarily think Will is going to create a new reality on his own I do think he will be stuck in some version of a perfect world where he is either not responsible for its creation and thus is the only one who knows this illusion is an illusion, or is the one responsible and doesn’t know it which would mean another main character (Mike or El probably) to realize something is wrong and fix it, or Will consciously chooses to stay in the fake world and needs convincing to leave. This ties in with Billy as when it was discovered that his powers could reshape reality there was a conflict where multiple characters were unsure if Teddy was warped into being the ideal boyfriend or was straight up completely fabricated by Billy’s powers. Will’s idea of a perfect world would need to address him being in love with Mike, likely by him and Mike being together or having mutual feelings in the perfect world.

So that’s where I think the story could be going with Will next season, so now we can circle back around and talk about The big parallel: King Arthur and Merlin references. On the comic book side of things we have two boys (both of whom are gay) who are both massive nerds, one of which is secretly an alien prince that is basically destined to one day be king and pulls a special sword out of a stone on the request of a group of alien knights and is deemed by the knights to not be currently able to lead them because he is too loyal to his friends on earth to leave them behind or he wouldn’t be worthy of the sword. The other boy is a magician that unknowingly had reality warping powers (and is also a twin but that’s not super relevant here) a heavy association with wizards and is literally both married to the other boy and was also given the title of court magician a la Merlin by his husband. (Additionally Billy has been turned evil and in that state is referred to as demiurge which is a form of evil god responsible for the creation of the material world and a specific interpretation of this force is basically just what vecna is in canon)

In stranger things we also have two nerdy boys, one of which is Mike who is heavily compared to a paladin and a leader but is depicted wielding a sword and shield in the painting, and the shield literally has a crown symbol on it and has some other evidence suggesting he gets a sword in s5. He also is way too self sacrificing and protective of his friend to the point he literally would rather throw himself off a cliff then living with the guilt of being the reason his friends got hurt. The other boy is Will who is gay and in love with his best friend, has a load of twin imagery with El, is very likely to have been the reason the upside down is mirroring Hawkins and is frozen in time, and has heavy wizard theming with an emphasis on him and Mike being a team and who has been literally possessed by Vecna.

So given that it’s possible Will and Mike draw inspiration from both Billy and Teddy and also Arthur and Merlin this makes a specific poster very interesting in my opinion:

So we’ve all lost our minds over this image, and if we look at some comic covers of Billy and Teddy…….

This is a really fun coincidence but I just think it’s neat and I wanted to share it with you!

Ps: These two also had romantic subtext that fans picked up on way sooner then it was revealed in story as well…..it’s almost like byler might be romantic y’all/s

#byler tumblr #byler #stranger things 4 #stranger things #st5 predictions #gay mike wheeler #comicgayt #I’m actually pretty proud of this theory #the name is silly though it just made me laugh

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aikoiya · 1 year ago

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LoZxDnD - A Sorcerer In Hyrule

You know what'd be cool?

A DnD Sorcerer, in the middle of the last fight of his campaign, the big bad hits him with a Banishment spell as he's casting a spell of his own & the 2 combine & it sends him to a different Material Plane, one outside of the reality that he knows; Hyrule.

He's a Sorcerer, but his occupation is Teacher, specifically knowledgeable in the field of magic.

While he doesn't know nearly everything there is to know about the magic of his realm, he's a bit of a savant & knows at least a little bit about everything regardless of Class.

This includes Alchemy & Potions, Infusion, Runes, ect.

Problem, for whatever reason, he's unable to Plane Shift. After a bit, he realizes that it's due to this new world being on an entirely different magical vibration from himself.

This, however, results in him basically having to tap into Hyrule's magic & adapt it to his spells, then relearn everything he knew based on this different magic.

He's a bit miffed at this fact as he spent quite a long time perfecting his spellcraft, about 427 years out of a possible 1,000 in fact thank you very much! And while utterly fascinated with this new world, he & his companions were in the middle of a fight to save the world & he'd very much like to get back to that.

I see him being a middle aged elf fellow with a personality not dissimilar to Merlin from Disney's Sword & the Stone. A bit bumbling, but remarkably intelligent. Just brilliant with an intimate understanding of how magic works & a thirst for knowledge that was almost insatiable.

If multiclassed into Cleric, I see him worshiping Boccob, God of Magic, Arcane Knowledge, & Balance, I think.

Anyway, he'd definitely grumble for a while but once he realizes that there was no getting back before the fight in his plane ends, he'd sputter indignantly & say a few words like "poppycock," before buckling down into studying.

Like Merlin & even Ms. Frizzle to a degree, he'd frequently use his magic to help teach & would be considered quite eccentric.

Though, what'd be interesting would be how the Hyruleans would react to all his stories of a world that was forever fighting off some apocalypse or another.

Either way, he might be able to sense both Zelda & Link as having Divine Soul Sorcery potential. Though, I think he'd recognize Link more as a Paladin of the Ancients with "points" in Ranger.

I actually think he'd probably just sniff at Ganondorf in derision, eyes narrowed as he quickly clocks the almost Goliath-like man as the Warlock of some sort of Arch-Demon or fallen deity, but with the potential of a Divine Soul Sorcerer ironically. Which causes the man to shudder.

LoZ Wild Masterlist

#loz #legend of zelda #dnd #dungeons & dragons #dungeons and dragons #botw #totk #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom

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weakforarwen · 2 years ago

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In the earliest Welsh works of the legends, Guinevere was portrayed as a badass warrior queen/spellcaster and I remember Angel saying that she wanted to do more sword-fighting when she became Queen. But I think the whole point of Gwen's character arc is to demonstrate that you don't have to be a powerful sorcerer or a formidable warrior to make a difference in the world.

Wait, I read a fic where Gwen was a druid warrior queen! Was it based on early Arthurian Welsh works? Ah. Gwen as a badass warrior queen or spellcaster... now, how would Arthur have reacted to that?

Yes, Gwen should've done some sword-fighting! She briefly fought Morgana in the Sword in the Stone, so I like the idea of that being the catalyst that made her want to learn self-defense, especially after all she went through in season 4 in particular. If so many people wanted a servant dead, imagine a Queen.

I think we can kind of see the progression of her self-defense skills throughout the show. In The Moment of Truth, she fought alongside Morgana but I don't remember how much she got to wield a sword; in Lancelot and Guinevere, she used a sword to wack at a guy's legs; in The Castle of Fyrien, she used a fire poker to fend off an intruder in her home. Then, in season 4, she thrust her sword into Lamia though she looked comically scared; she ran away from Helios and Morgana; and, in Sword in the Stone, she hit someone in the back of the head with the hilt of her sword, and fought Morgana. I think the fight with Morgana showed her skills had slightly improved, but she still mostly used her sword as a knife and not for dueling haha.

We could've seen Arthur teach Gwen to sword-fight! We were robbed of so much...

I love that Gwen was a servant! The fact that she was supposed to be a white Lady and they cast a black servant has icky implications, but I wouldn't have wanted her to be a Lady at all. I don't like the nobility, and Gwen probably would've been one of those "generous" and "not like other nobles" nobles. I love that she was a commoner, and it was so important to Arthur's character and to the future of Camelot that she was. A Lady Queen, even one from a poorer family, doesn't have the same ring to it as a Servant Queen.

Gwen represented Camelot itself. She represented the people of Camelot. A warrior or sorcerer couldn't have spoken for the people of Camelot, and, honestly, there were enough formidable warriors and sorcerers on the show already. I like that Gwen was normal, because it showed servants could be smart, well-spoken, curious, wise, and had just as much to offer as nobles. At the same time, Gwen wasn't ashamed of being a servant. She wasn't a servant who wished to be a noble, like Lancelot who dreamed of being a Knight. She was proud of being a servant, because she knew her worth and that people like her were the backbone of Camelot.

Both Gwen and Merlin showed that an expensive education and titles couldn't buy intelligence, bravery, kindness, or curiosity; they were both as intelligent and strategic as Arthur - more so actually. Gwen proved to the people of Camelot, particularly after Arthur died and she became the sole ruler, that titles meant nothing and even without magic (Merlin), or good swordsmanship (Lancelot, Elyan) everyone had the potential to, as you said, make a difference.

I also like that there wasn't a real power imbalance between Arthur and Gwen. She was a servant and he the Prince/King, but Arthur was above everyone, so it didn't even matter that he had more power than Gwen. It certainly wasn't a boss and his assistant kind of story; Gwen was never Arthur's personal servant. It also wasn't a Cinderella type of story; Gwen had never dreamed of becoming Queen, or "winning" Arthur's affections, and no one congratulated her for doing so. Arthur and Gwen were just two people who'd fallen in love. From Gwen's side of things, the circumstances of their romance actually made it anti-romantic - as opposed to, for example, how Lancelot had come into her life in the first two seasons.

Anyway, that last bit was off-topic, but something I appreciated the writers for doing, or not doing. Thanks for the ask!

#ask #bbc merlin #gwen pendragon #bbc arwen #arthur pendragon #merlin #thanks for the ask!

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28onlythebrave · 4 years ago

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'The Wicked Powers' theory regarding the plot based on Arthurian legend

I was looking for some infos about twp and i found this:

I had completely forgotten about this info CC gave us and because I have recently studied the Arthurian legend, I decided to look more into it. I think one of the most interesting things about the Arthurian legend is the Sword In The Stone/Excalibur.

Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are in some versions said to be different, though in most incarnations they are the same. In Welsh, it is called Caledfwlch. It was forged at the Isle of Avalon.

In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthur's possession of Excalibur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, the first tale to mention the "sword in the stone", Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve. In this account, as foretold by Merlin, the act could not be performed except by "the true king," meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon. As Malory related in his most famous English-language version of the Arthurian tales, the 15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur: "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born." After many of the gathered nobles try and fail to complete Merlin's challenge, the teenage Arthur (who up to this point had believed himself to be son of Sir Ector, not Uther's son, and went there as Sir Kay's squire) does this feat effortlessly by accident and then repeats it publicly.

The identity of this sword as Excalibur is made explicit in the Prose Merlin, part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle of French romances (the Vulgate Cycle). In the Vulgate Mort Artu, when Arthur is at the brink of death he orders Griflet to throw the sword into the enchanted lake; after two failed attempts (as he felt such a great sword should not be thrown away), Griflet finally complies with the wounded king's request and a hand emerges from the lake to catch it. This tale becomes attached to Bedivere instead of Griflet in Malory and the English tradition. However, in the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently Malory, early in his reign Arthur breaks the Sword from the Stone while in combat against King Pellinore, and then is given Excalibur by a Lady of the Lake in exchange for a later boon for her (some time later, she arrives at Arthur's court to demand the head of Balin). Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte d'Arthur, naming both swords as Excalibur. In some tellings, Excalibur's scabbard was also said to have powers of its own, as any wounds received while wearing the scabbard would not bleed at all, thus preventing the death of the wearer. For this reason, Merlin chides Arthur for preferring the sword over the scabbard, saying that the latter was the greater treasure. In the later romance tradition, including Le Morte d'Arthur, the scabbard is stolen from Arthur by his half-sister Morgan le Fay in revenge for the death of her beloved Accolon during the Fake Excalibur plot and thrown into a lake, never to be found again. This act later enables the death of Arthur, deprived of magical protection, many years later in his final battle.

Now, do you see the connections there?

The sword

There are many important swords in tsc such as, Cortana, Heosphoros, Pheosphoros and The Mortal Sword.

Cortana is based on the legendary sword Curtana, attributed to Ogier the Dane and the legendary knight Tristan. The real sword, Curtana, also known as the "Sword of Mercy", is a ceremonial sword used at the coronation of British kings and queens and is one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Cortana is owned by Emma Carstairs.

Heosphoros is a family sword of the Morgensterns, Clary was in possession of it until she used it to kill Sebastian and the Heavenly Fire destroyed it. However, both Heosphoros and Pheosphoros (which was owned by Valentine and then Sebastian) still exist in Thule and Janus is in possession of both of them, in fact, Heosphoros was likely never even owned by the Clary Fairchild of that world, nor was it used on Sebastian. Janus took possession of the sword at one point and began to wield it, and then he took the sword and Sebastian's Phaesphoros with him to Ash’s world (aka the “real” world).

The Mortal Sword also known as the Soul-Sword, Maellartach, and Angel Blade, is the second of the Mortal Instruments given by Angel Raziel to Jonathan Shadowhunter. The Soul-Sword is primarily used to compel Nephilim to tell the truth, mostly during trials. Shadowhunters who wish to have their claims tested and proved may submit themselves to "trial by the Sword," during which a suitable judge, often a Silent Brother, sometimes the Consul or Inquisitor, wields the sword and places it in the hands of the deponent, where it adheres and cannot be removed until the judge wills it. Downworlders and mundanes cannot be compelled by the Soul-Sword, thus preventing the Sword from becoming used by the Shadowhunters as a general tool for interrogation.

The Sword can also have a dark purpose, if intended. Originally, the alliance of the Soul-Sword is seraphic, its power drawn from Angel Raziel himself. However, Valentine Morgenstern discovered an ancient spell to reverse the alliance from angelic to demonic, through a process called the Ritual of Infernal Conversion, where the Sword is seethed until red-hot and cooled four times in the blood of Downworld children: a child of Lilith, a child of the moon, a child of the night, and a child of the fey. With its demonic alliance, the Sword can be used to summon demons and allows its bearer to have control over them.

In September 2012, the Sword was used to question Annabel Blackthorn, who subsequently used it to kill Robert Lightwood and Livvy Blackthorn. It was shattered when Emma struck it with Cortana. Emma and Julian later acquired a version of the sword from Thule, claiming that the Iron Sisters had repaired it and used it to force Horace Dearborn to tell the truth about his involvement with the Unseelie Court and his schemes to gain the position of Consul.

I believe that in twp we will see more of Heosphoros and Pheosphoros in use, but I also think we’ll have a new enchanted weapon, one that will rapresent Excalibur. But if the sword is a parallel with Excalibur, then who is Arthur? In my opinion, the owner of this enchanted weapon will be Kit Herondale and let me tell you why. Arthur was a normal teenage boy who wasn’t aware of his lineage until he pulled the sword out of an anvil. We have three main characters in twp, Kit, Ty and Dru. Guess who is the only one who didn’t know he was a shadowhunter and wasn’t aware of his lineage? Kit. Also, the Arthurian legend is Welsh folklore. Which shadowhunter family is of Welsh orings? Yeah, the Herondales.

I assume The Mortal Sword will once again come in hand, except that this time it's a thule version of it. Also, the only other person who has an analogue arc to Kit's is Clary, and that's why I think the both of them will play a big role in the killing of Janus. Especially if you think about when Jace was once killed with the mortal sword by Valentine.

The lake

In a version of the legend where the sword of the stone and Excalibur are two different blades, Arthur breaks the sword of the stone and is given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake at the enchanted lake.

The correlation here is obvious, the enchanted lake in tsc is Lake Lyn, also known as the mortal mirror of mortal glass. Ingesting the lake's waters can be poisonous to Nephilim, but it has no effect on Downworlders. Faeries have been known to drink from the lake, saying that it gives them true vision; for the Nephilim, the water causes hallucinations and may even drive them to madness. Among the Fair Folk, the lake is known as the Lake of Dreams or Mirror of Dreams.

The Lady of the Lake is a name used by several fairy-like enchantresses in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. They play pivotal roles in many stories, including providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating Merlin, raising Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon. Different sorceresses known as the Lady of the Lake appear concurrently as separate characters in some versions of the legend since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, with the latter describing them as a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either Morgan or her sister.

The Lady resides in an enchanted realm, an otherworld the entry to which is disguised as an illusion of a lake. I think she may be in fact the Seelie Queen. It would make total sense for it to be her because of her correlation with Kit (the only known living descendant of the First Heir of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts), Ash Morgenstern (the son she had with Sebastian, who is half shadowhunter and half faerie) and Janus (whom she has an alliance with).

According to her backstory in the Vulgate Merlin, the Lady of the Lake was a daughter of the knight Dionas (Dyonas) and a niece of the Duke of Burgundy. She was born in Dionas' domain of Briosque in the forest Brocéliande. Which takes us to the next point.

The forest

Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly related to the Arthurian legend and the characters of Merlin, Morgan le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and some of the Knights of the Round Table.

Here too the correlation is obvious, the forest in Idris is called Brocelind. In September 2012, a portion, specifically the center, of the Brocelind Forest was blighted with dark magic by the forces of the Unseelie King, making the area a space where Nephilim runes and adamas-weapons would be ineffective. Making it, in fact, an echanted forest, like in the legend.

Soooo these were some of my thoughts, if you found something more please let me know cause I really like all of this lol.

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meiusoo-twistedtwst · 3 years ago

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[Twisted Wonderland Theory] What Are Sub-Bases? What Are The Characters Sub-Bases?

(Image from the Twisted Wonderland Wiki Fandom)

Request remake.

Characters can have lots of sub-bases. It really depends on their appearance, relationships with other characters, and maybe even some of the things they say. Here's the list I thought of (if a character isn't there it means I have no idea):

Riddle: Ariel because they both have red hair and get annoyed by the eels. (Flotsam and Jetsam for Ariel and Jade and Floyd for Riddle).

Trey: I think the King of Hearts is suitable. Although the King of Hearts looks more like Cater, personality and actions wise, both Trey and the king try to please the queen (Riddle/Queen of Hearts) but are not really doing anything truly good for them.

Cater: Cinderella because both have sisters. According to Cater's birthday card personal story, his sisters weren't mean to him like Anastasia and Drizella, but they didn't really take into account his feelings. Both look similar enough too.

Ace: Alice because both turned against the Queen (Riddle/Queen of Hearts).

Deuce: The Horned King from The Black Cauldron. The Horned King is searching for this cauldron, and Deuce can magically summon cauldrons whenever. Apparently, people say The Horned King wasn't super dramatic like other Disney villains. Similar to how Deuce is calm like Trey, but more serious and harder to approach.

Leona: Rapunzel, think of NRC as the tower Rapunzel spends pretty much her whole childhood in. Leona is the only student we know who hasn't graduated yet, but should have. Both have green eyes too.

Azul: The Genie because both are said to grant wishes. Azul also means blue, and the Genie is blue.

Jade: Jasmine because both are named after gems. Both are also deceiving in their own way.

Rook: Marry Poppins, evidence here: Twist Twst — [Twisted Wonderland Theory] Rook's Poem, the... (tumblr.com)

Idia and Ortho: Elsa and Anna, evidence here: Twist Twst — 🌙 TWST THEORY: Idia is Megara & Ortho is Hades 🌙 (tumblr.com)

Malleus and Lilia: Mother Gothel, evidence here: Twist Twst — [Twisted Wonderland Theory] Sam and Silver: The... (tumblr.com)

Silver: It could be Arthur, that boy from The Sword in the Stone that Merlin decides to teach magic to. Both learn magic from someone who isn't biologically related to them (I think Silver learned really basic magic from Lilia)and both can use swords. Rapunzel is also an option for Silver too, evidence is in the same post as the one for Malleus and Lilia.

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Done! Lots of changes to my posts will be happening.

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camxlots-retxrn · 3 years ago

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of all things magic, a cerulean haze

teen+, no archive warnings, arthur/merlin

When Arthur goes missing, Merlin goes on his own in search for him. He knows to look for things that the others simply do not and has things at his disposal that the others, again, simply do not.

. . .Magical things, of course.

In all his worry and power, he has no idea the missing king is being shown each thing that Merlin does with that power.

. . .Magical things, of course.

written for Quest Four: Canon, What Canon? from The Sorcerer’s Guild :)

read on ao3 here or continue below! <3

Warm winds carry birdsong through the forest of Camelot’s southeast border, though Arthur can only hear them distantly. He stands at the base of great mountains – the White Mountains, that is – which hinder the earth’s breaths. With the sun directly overhead in the midday heat, Arthur longs for the coolness of the absent winds, though he does not miss the sting of winter.

Arthur looks around the small meadow he stands in, quite a beautiful thing, really; tall grasses billow like waves in the few breezes that manage to stir, spring flowers sprout all around, punctating the evergreen of the forest with their yellows, purples, and blues. There is a faint dampness in the air from spring showers, but it eases into the shadows with the warmth of noon, though dew drops still cling onto leaves, petals, and grasses.

Growing up large rocks like a blanket are the flowers Arthur came for: tiny, closely-knit yellow flowers. They grow in small but dense clusters.

“Ah, there you are,” he remarks, approaching the golden sprouts and bending down to gather a bouquet.

Though he would deny it if asked, Arthur has come to gather these flowers on Merlin’s behalf – only not in the way castle rumors would imply, truly. He has merely noticed his servant had been quite preoccupied as of late. With what, the king isn’t sure; Arthur only hopes it isn’t the tavern, for the sake of his chambers’ cleanliness if nothing else.

So, when Arthur overheard Gaius talking with Merlin about a need for these flowers… whatever they had been called (Arthur has already forgotten), he decided to take it upon himself. Regardless, he has sparse other things to do for the day. (That isn’t entirely true, but it is what he will tell himself… along with anyone who may question him.)

Plucking several of the flowers, Arthur gathers them in a small bunch to put in his pocket while rustling leaves sound from behind him.

Before the blond can even glance, the being rushes at him from behind.

/|\

Dry, bleary eyes open slowly, the king stirring up with a confused expression before his latest memories return to him.

Starting upright, he is suddenly on guard as his now-alert eyes dart around his surroundings – a cave, well-lit by its mouth that opens not five meters from where he stands. This cave certainly isn’t the largest, but it is a beautiful thing, with a small waterfall somehow flowing softly at the cave’s furthest end, water cascading down the rear wall and falling into the smallest of streams that ends at a crevice in the floor. In the center of the room’s expanse sits a small fire, which is surrounded by various pots and what Arthur assumes to be cooking materials.

A woman kneels at the fire, hands tending to some sort of herbs that Arthur does not recognize. They look to be just younger than he, with long, chestnut hair and eyes that loom darkly, broad arms, and a pudging stomach – something that Arthur hasn’t seen in some time after the long winter Camelot has only just begun to heal from. He might find this to be nearly comforting had this person not likely been the one who abducted him.

Arthur instinctively reaches for his sword, something he always carries with him when outside the castle, only to find it missing from his waist.

“Who are you?” he orders.

There is no reply whilst the figure merely continues their chore.

“I demand you tell me where you’ve taken me!”

When his further implores are only met with silence, Arthur takes note of the woman’s passive nature and decides instead to escape, as it doesn’t seem to be terribly difficult. He makes motion for the opening of the cave.

Before he breaks not three steps, he hears the figure utter something and finds himself pulled back by an unseeing force, leaving him sitting back on the cool, damp stone floor where he’d awoken. “You use sorcery?” he accuses.

“Yes,” the figure, at last, speaks, looking to Arthur with a calm expression as they set aside their herbs. “Is that so profane?”

He huffs. “Magic is illegal in Camelot, punishable by death, and you practice it against the king,” he says plainly.

“We are not in Camelot,” the sorceress says simply. “And I would not say ‘against’ you. On you, certainly. . . but I’ve done you no harm.”

“None that I know of,” Arthur mumbles more so to himself. “Where have you taken me?”

“The Mountains of Asgorath.”

“In Gawant? You hold me captive in the kingdom of my allies.” Arthur moves to get up again only to find himself in the same position after more incantations are spoken. “Stop that!” he calls, meaning to feign warning but instead only bearing frustration.

“I’ve waited a long time for you, Arthur Pendragon,” the sorceress remarks. “You won’t be leaving until this is through.” They stand, moving towards Arthur.

The king gets to his feet quickly, standing at the ready. “Until what is through? What do you mean to do?” Arthur demands.

“You will find out soon enough, only know that I mean you no harm.”

Before Arthur can respond, the figure, standing across the fire from him, begins to perform a spell of sorts, using the herbs they have been preparing and Arthur previously thought harmless.

He makes a final attempt at getting out of the cave, knowing defending himself against a sorceress alone – weaponless, no less – is not wise. His sword may be somewhere outside, or even a sharp branch, perhaps.

Unsurprisingly, he is forced on the floor again. Arthur finds this time to be different, however, as now, when he tries to escape, he cannot seem to move very far – as though within an invisible sphere. When he tries to move not even a step in any direction, his muscles grow weak, as though walking through the thickest of jams. He tires himself trying to step out of the boundary, only to sit upon the chilled stone floor with exhaustion after some time.

“Who are you?” he queries dejectedly.

“Maelwys. Maelwys Lunned.”

“And you are a sorceress.”

Maelwys smiles. “I’m no lady, Pendragon.”

“Right,” Arthur says stiffly, oddly embarrassed despite the situation at hand. He almost apologizes before remembering the grievous circumstances he is in. “A sorcerer, then,” he corrects.

Maelwys’ smile does not fade. “Nor am I any man.” At Arthur’s confused expression, Maelwys continues. “Your concept and belief of the nature of things does not make it fact, may it be about this or magic or ample other matters.”

Arthur’s lack of understanding doesn’t fade, but he drops the conversation, allowing it to dissipate. He instead warns that his men – his knights – will find him.

“They will not,” Maelwys replies. “Another will.” They look towards a fair, clear crystal that rests beside the falling water at the rear of the cave. “I’m counting on it.”

“You possess the Crystal of Neahtid,” Arthur states, though it’s almost a question.

“I do not. The Crystal of Neahtid is not the only of its kind.”

Arthur’s mind grows dry of what to do. He can’t escape, though he hardly wants to carry conversation with his captor either. He decides to instead take more observation of his surroundings and said captor, and hopefully, make one lucky observation that may grant him escape. He does not know if he should make means to attack the figure who resides across the fire, considering they have abducted the king but have done him no real harm. Though, he ponders on their practice of what he knows little of and surmises they may still have harmed him without his knowledge. A poison of some sort, perhaps.

Arthur takes comfort in knowing, at the very least, that his people are safe, before realizing this is of no certainty.

“Do you mean harm to Camelot?” Arthur demands, his voice sharp. “Do you mean harm to my people?!”

Maelwys shakes their head. “No,” they say. “I mean harm to no one. I only wish to have my people free.”

“Camelot today homes no captives.”

“We might as well be prisoners with how carefully we must tread under the Pendragon crown and its allies.”

Arthur sighs. “Persecution of magic and its users have lessened under my ruling,” he says. “I mean no harm to those that hold the same regard for me and my people.”

“And yet its use remains banned.”

/|\

The day passes on. Arthur does his best to pay attention to time through the sun’s castings beyond the mouth of the cave; they show the time to be late morning. He recalls the mountains of Gawant lie southwest of Camelot and thinks of the mountains which he’d been standing at the base of, picking flowers just that morning.

Flowers for Merlin, which he finds remain crumpled in his pocket.

Arthur thinks of Merlin but quickly pushes the thoughts from his mind as his reign on them slips.

“It begins,” Maelwys suddenly says, drawing Arthur’s attention back. “The truth.”

Arthur turns to them, stuffing the flowers back into his pocket. He finds Maelwys bearing the crystal – if not of Neahtid, Arthur does not know what. They peer into it intently, and he notes that it now glows vibrantly with hues of cerulean. It’s larger than that of Neahtid, with a greater expanse across one side – the one that Maelwys looks into. They stand with the crystal and approach the sitting king.

“What are you doing?” he says, wishing he could move away from their looming form and the crystal itself.

Bearing no words, Maelwys lowers the crystal to be sat in front of Arthur, just within his reach at the edge of his invisible circle. He doesn’t look at it at first, eyes locked on the figure in front of him.

“It’s time you know,” Maelwys states, face hopeful.

“Know what?”

Maelwys only nods toward the crystal before returning to their spot across the crackling fire. Arthur reluctantly looks into the face of the glowing crystal, only to find an image of Merlin in Arthur’s own chambers. They are cleaned, Merlin having seemingly completed his morning chores as he paces back and forth in front of the desk. Arthur’s training clothes are laid out on the bed, untouched by his lack of training today, what with having been abducted. The blond wonders why Merlin is in his chambers, as he thought his servant had much to work on during the sun’s rise. Had he already noticed his king’s absence?

Merlin stops and tends tediously to the pot of flowers on Arthur’s desk, a kind gesture from Guinevere. She and Arthur had eased out of the heat of their closeness into something somehow warmer, though in a different way. Something comforting that didn’t bode sharing chambers or lying one another to bed, but instead spring picnics and talks of their futures, which were no longer entwined, though still close. He loved her dearly, and she, him, only differently now. Not as a wife, but a friend.

Lifting the flower pot, Merlin suddenly turns towards where the door would be, though it remains out of Arthur’s view. The king realizes why when one of his knights, Elyan, suddenly comes into view.

The two talk soundlessly, prompting Arthur to realize he can’t hear them through the crystal. He can presume, however, as Merlin drops the flowerpot, that Elyan has confirmed the king has been taken.

Always has been a bit dramatic, Arthur thinks fondly.

This warmth fades as Merlin makes his way through the castle halls and into his and Gaius’ chambers. He dashes up the steps to his room, tearing furiously through his belongings before coming up with a leather-bound book.

Merlin whips into its contents as Gaius approaches him curiously. Though Arthur doesn’t hear what is said, he sees the physician take on a grievous expression as Merlin speaks. Gaius’ eyes quickly fill with worry as Merlin gathers things into a bag. Arthur doesn’t recognize these things, and obscurity in the crystal’s view – as though there is an oil on its surface, almost – grants no ease of discerning them. He presumes them to be medical supplies.

Merlin, you idiot, stay home! Arthur thinks, wishing he could shout to Merlin through the crystal.

“What is this?” Arthur shouts instead to Maelwys, who now sits at the small creek with clothing in hand. “What are you going to do to him? Why do you show me this?”

Maelwys looks to Arthur for a moment but does not say anything. They return to their washing without a word.

Arthur shakes his head and returns to the crystal, seeing Merlin slung with a satchel and making his way out of the bustling castle. In the courtyard, he finds the knights and approaches them, speaking with Elyan once more, who makes motions directing Merlin southwest. The knight then gestures for the servant to join them in the search for Arthur, but Merlin points back towards the castle and steps away, shaking his head and granting Arthur relief.

That is until Merlin sneaks off to the stables to grab a horse of his own once the knights have taken their leave.

The servant leaves the city grounds, riding southwest, the same way his king had gone only hours earlier. Merlin finds the same grove Arthur had picked the flowers he can’t name in, and he feels his face heat up in embarrassment. He hopes Merlin takes no notice of the flowers and remains ignorant to his king gathering them on his behalf. How ridiculous, he realizes, to be concerned with such things in a situation like this.

Dismounting, Merlin steps into the flowers – pretty, standing amongst them, Arthur notes. He hasn’t a clue what his servant is doing, but the servant himself seems to. He walks about in the clearing before stopping suddenly, looking around intently. Arthur sees no indications of his capture – because of the crystal’s haze, surely – but Merlin apparently does, as he mounts his horse with a look of determination and eyes set on the southwestern edge of the clearing.

He rides further into the mountainous landscape, his horse galloping through woods with no beaten path. Arthur suddenly wonders how his captor had even gotten his unconscious body here by themselves, though he knows asking such a question would bode no real answers.

/|\

The shadows beyond the bounds of the cave grow longer as the day wanes into evening. Arthur watches as Merlin rides towards the setting sun, finally stopping to make camp for the night as his horse begins to slow with exhaustion.

“Why do you behave civilly towards me?” Arthur speaks up, breaking the silence that has filled the cave as Arthur viewed the crystal and Maelwys busied themself with sorting out a meal. At their puzzled expression, Arthur continues. “Your kind have been punished under my family’s ruling countless times, often wrongly so – yet you hold no grudge.” He keeps his eyes on Merlin while he speaks, before finally looking up to the figure that sits across the cave from him. “Why?”

“I do not know whether you are a moral man,” Maelwys says, walking towards Arthur with a shallow, wooden bowl in hand. “I only know that you have a false perspective that has prompted a hatred of an evil that does not exist. Hatred of an art that is neither good nor bad, but instead only is. I have no reason for harboring ill intent against a man who has been kept from the truth for far too long.”

“What is this truth you speak of?”

“You shall learn soon enough. For now, eat.”

Maelwys sets the bowl within Arthur’s reach, and he sees it to be filled with stew. He looks at it with doubt in his eyes, neglecting to touch the food. Instead, he returns his gaze to Merlin, who takes his belongings from the horse’s luggage before moving on to gather firewood.

“Watch closely, Pendragon,” Maelwys says from her side of the fire, spooning stew into her mouth.

Arthur looks to her, and then the crystal. He only sees Merlin gathering wood for fire, though, and looks to the person across from him, puzzled. Maelwys only nods towards the crystal.

The king watches on and picks up the crystal to look closer, wondering what he’s meant to be seeing. Merlin eventually forms the collected wood into a pile amongst kindling, then fetches his bedroll off of the horse and leads it to a nearby stream for a bit of water.

After feeding the horse, Merlin returns to the unlit fire. Arthur watches, waiting for Merlin to develop a flame with some of the smaller sticks and branches, but he makes no motion to.

Instead, he turns his gaze to the tent of wood, and it lights, a twin flame in each of his eyes as they flare with a color Arthur can’t identify through the crystal’s blue hue.

Arthur drops the crystal, looking for Maelwys frantically, only to find the cave empty. He had not noticed them slip out, he realizes, now calling out their name.

The figure in question steps into the cave’s mouth, looking at Arthur questioningly. “You disturb my time with the stars,” they say. “What for?”

Arthur stands. “What is this?” he cries. “What do you mean to do to me with this manipulation? To— To M— To my servant? Do you mean to hurt him?”

Maelwys shakes their head, finally looking something other than calm as they stand against the night sky. “No, I have told you already, I mean no harm,” they say. “What you see is but the truth.”

“No,” Arthur states, “Merlin is too good a man; he does not have magic. I would know.”

“What you say is true, he is too good a man – too loyal to you to push you to reason. But the man you know as Merlin is both a good man and magic itself.”

“Magic itself, what does that mean? Stop this!” Arthur calls. “You’ve. . . you’ve done something to this crystal. You lie; this cannot be true!”

Maelwys purses their lips. “Neither the Crystal of Colwyn nor its kin from the Crystal Cave can so easily be tampered with. Surely you know this, having possessed the Crystal of Neahtid?”

Arthur remains silent, gaze fixed on the dark sky beyond Maelwys’ shoulders.

“Magic users have waited long enough,” Maelwys continues. “Having watched you and your servant for a full moon, I know you are mistaken regarding magic, Arthur Pendragon, and will see reason no sooner if one does not interfere. I will not let my intentions be hindered by your ignorance. You will learn this with your own eyes.”

“If you bear such knowledge of this ‘truth’, why don’t you simply tell me yourself!”

“I have waited my entire life for the allowance of magic; my patience will not wane now,” Maelwys says.

Arthur bows his head, anger still present but draining. “It’s true you have waited long enough; you have waited far longer, really, and for that I am sorry,” he says solemnly. Genuinely.

The conference withers there, in the dim firelit cave as the sun’s time expires. Arthur sees his servant settle for rest in his bedroll, but finds he can do no such thing. His body trembles with worry while he observes the man he’d grown so fond of, more so than ever in the latter months. Though now thawed, the chill bite of winter had led him to find warmth in his and his servant’s late, firelit exchanges. Despite Arthur’s hopes, these exchanges sparsely went beyond converse, save the two men’s gazes landing on one another for a few moments too long – or perhaps, not long enough.

Arthur ponders the idea of the one he trusts most having lied to him from the beginning. If it is true, does Merlin truly think so lowly of his king? Of his friend? Though it stings, Arthur loaths himself for his friend would be right in doing so. Why hasn’t Arthur repealed the law? Has Merlin felt unsafe around Arthur for these many years?

No, Arthur has confidence in the smiles he shared with Merlin, the ones Merlin echoed back at him warmly, even in the cold, even in the rainy nights of miserable hunts as they settled their bedrolls closer together than any of the other knights. Surely the truest piece of what the two of them formed is genuine – that comfort that Arthur can’t help but indulge in, showing in the lingering stares and warm smiles and brushing hands that prompt rosing cheeks, creeping all the way up to the ears, in Merlin’s case.

Arthur looks to Merlin, who is drifting into sleep now. He knows as much by the way Merlin’s shoulders lose the tension they carry during the day’s waking hours. That’s what they always do when Merlin is at last asleep, even if it takes a long while for him to be. Arthur knows that.

He looks at Merlin, at his limp shoulders and unclasped hands and lidded eyes and parted lips. Arthur looks at Merlin’s lips, and he thinks to himself that they could never say an evil incantation or curse or anything of the sort.

Whether Merlin bears such power or not, Arthur feels the same. He only worries that favoring – that trust – is not shared.

/|\

“Why am I beginning to hear him?” Arthur queries the next morning.

The sun has risen, its expiration date mended once again. He still sits on the stone floor within the invisible force, having slept in its bounds only some short time earlier. Grasses and flowers dot these floors of the cave, though Arthur swears they were not there when the moon reigned the sky, nor yesterday’s sun. The small creek of falling water looks clearer now as well. Arthur thinks it almost crystallized, though it does still flow freely.

The fire long dwindled, having dimmed into nothingness during the night, still sits between him and Maelwys, who presses several picked flowers beside the falling water at the far end of the cave.

“As he grows nearer, the bond grows stronger,” Maelwys answers.

“How is that?”

“We reside far from Camelot, and viewing someone who is so distant comes with lack,” Maelwys replies. “As he nears, the crystal’s power to see what is occurring around him grows broader.”

“So, you are capable of giving real answers, then,” Arthur quips.

Maelwys only smiles lightly in response before returning to their flowers.

As the day goes on, Merlin merely treks on through the mountains with his horse, stopping now and then to determine where to go next. How he makes this decision, Arthur doesn’t know, but he has faith in his servant, as the man moves at a quick cadence.

He moves on and on through the landscape save a stop at a broad stream. Merlin walks his horse to the water’s edge for a swill, before kneeling down to get one for himself.

Cupping the water in his hands, he splashes it upon his face, running it through his unruly head of hair that had grown through the winter. He looks down, and Arthur can’t see his face, but he can see the slump in his shoulders. Not like the ease of them when he rests, but instead, a solemn drop of them.

When he looks up, Arthur sees water droplets beading down Merlin’s cheeks and thinks nothing of it – until Merlin weeps, putting his head in his hands as his shoulders shake.

Arthur feels something dark within him, clawing at his empty stomach and sore heart and heavy throat. He looks away, wishing Merlin, brave dollop head he is, would just go home, where Guinevere and Gaius are. Where chores and the flowers are. Where it’s safe.

He also wishes the crystal had just stayed silent. Wishes Merlin’s broken sob hadn’t filled the cave with such ease.

Arthur looks back as he hears Merlin speak, gaze risen to the sky, “If you are watching, you need to let him go. If you harm him—” His head dips for a moment before he takes a deep breath and looks back up. “If you harm him, you will not be pleased with what greets you when he is found, and I will find him.”

The servant gathers himself up so soon, Arthur is certain the man has practiced it countless times, and the ache in him does not ease. Merlin splashes his face with water once more and sits upright, looking out at the water.

“Does he—” Arthur begins, looking to Maelwys, finding that they had already been looking at him. “Does he know you have been watching him?”

“I did not think he could,” the sorcerer says, “but it seems to be so.”

Arthur returns his gaze back to where it had been, upon Merlin. Through the blue haze of the crystal, it nearly glissades through the cracks of his awareness, but he watches helplessly as the tip of a sword lowers itself warningly upon Merlin’s shoulder. Arthur tenses, his eyes wide with helpless panic, but takes note of Merlin’s calm nature, who bows his head. Almost with annoyance, it seems.

Arthur looks away from the crystal again, eyes fixing around the cave in search of Maelwys. When his gaze lands on them, he’s bothered to see how relaxed they are, even as he begs for their help.

With his supplications falling on deaf ears, he stops his pleas and turns his attention back to Merlin, who remains composed even as he kneels beside the water, a sword to his neck.

“Do not move, we only seek your belongings,” a voice from behind Merlin states.

“I can’t allow that,” Merlin says stiffly, his eyes fixed on the creek before him.

“Allow? You haven’t much allowance to grant,” replies the same voice, now amused – likely the swordsman, as the blade jars as the man chuckles.

“Do not make this difficult,” quips another.

Merlin continues with a steady voice, “You are clumsy.”

Arthur can see the men now, and his breath catches in his throat; there are eight of them. Perhaps Merlin could outwit a handful of bandits, but few could escape near ten. Certainly, no unarmed man.

The blond turns his focus to Maelwys once more, his appeals reprising. “Please, help him,” he says. “Do not drag him into this; he has done no wrong!”

“Emrys can handle himself.”

“Who—?” Arthur begins, before deciding it is not important. “He has no training!” he cries. “End this madness and help him!”

With no further words from Maelwys, Arthur turns to the crystal. He clutches it in his hands as he takes in the scene before him, praying desperately to the gods that Merlin complies with what the bandits want. That Merlin makes it out unharmed.

The man in question turns his eyes towards the shining blade on his shoulder, but he does not move except for the bringing of fingers to his neck. When he takes them away, they are darkened.

“Your lousy excuse for a swordsman nicked my neck,” Merlin says, almost teasing.

Arthur grimaces, thinking to himself, Why provoke them?

The mentioned swordsman sneers, straightening himself and edging the blade into Merlin’s form. “Watch your tongue, or it won’t just be a nick.”

Merlin laughs this time, and Arthur’s stomach twists. What are you doing, Merlin? he wonders desperately. Run!

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Merlin says, tone serious now. “Please, just let me be on my way. I bear nothing of value.”

The swordsman shakes his head. “Really?” he muses. “And I am to take your word?”

“Better than taking a life.”

“I disagree.” The man raises his sword, and Arthur closes his eyes.

“Really think you can hurt me with that, do you?”

Merlin, you utter idiot!

“I s’pose at least I’ve got one,” the swordsman replies, gesturing to Merlin’s empty hands.

Merlin’s face straightens at this, and he sighs, his gaze downcast before he stands himself up to at last face the eight of them.

“I have no need for one.”

Before Arthur can begin to wonder what the hell that means, Merlin’s eyes are turning something bright that he can’t quite pin through the blue haze of the crystal. The same brightness he’d held in those eyes when lighting the fire. He nods his head, and all eight men are soon soaring beyond the crystal’s view; Arthur hears their bodies hit the soft earth. Merlin approaches one, checking the man’s neck, presumably for a pulse. He is apparently satisfied with what he finds, as he just as soon hurries over to his horse.

“I have places to be,” Merlin says grimly with a burdened sigh.

“Stop these preposterous falsehoods!” Arthur exclaims to the sorcerer, standing upright in the limited space he has. “Merlin is no sorcerer! He won’t even swat the stable flies; he would not keep this from me. I demand you stop showing me these. . . these utter lies!” He moves against the confines of his space, pushing with all his valor against the invisible wall, though his muscles grow weaker the further he moves. His actions are in vain, as he eventually drops to the floor as he is overcome with exhaustion.

He goes on to suggest he be let go before his men who, unlike Merlin, are trained for this – and not incapacitated, as he is – find them.

Maelwys purses their lips, seemingly to hold in a laugh, and shakes their head. “Emrys, who I’m certain will be the one to find you, is far stronger than any of your men,” they say. “But I am hopeful he will not harm me when I show him my reasoning.”

Arthur grows upset at this claim, taking it as an accusation against Merlin.

But the sorcerer only raises their hand. “Calm yourself, Pendragon.” Suddenly, the Pendragon in question feels as though his body is being pulled down into slumber. Within a moment, everything goes dark, and he falls out of consciousness.

/|\

When Arthur wakes, he is unsurprisingly in the same position as he had been, his body growing quite sore now. The shadows outside have diminished in the mid-noon light. He looks around the cave for the sorcerer, only to see he is alone, save the flowers and grasses – which he’s sure there are more of now. The flowers bloom more vibrant and abundantly, and the water falls clearer than ever, sparkling even in the sparse light of the cave.

He looks to the crystal and sees Merlin walking along a cliff that is lined with treetops, higher in the mountains and closer to Arthur than ever. He calls out the man’s name, but it only bodes Maelwys returning into the cave.

“You wake,” they say simply before walking to the crystal and picking it up. “He is close.” And then the crystal is set aside, beside the water where it had been when Arthur arrived here.

“What are you doing?” he says as it is taken out of his reach. “I need to—”

“Emrys will be here soon. Very soon,” Maelwys replies. “Nevertheless, I thought you did not believe what you saw?”

“Well—" But Arthur does not continue, unsure of what words to speak, and Maelwys smiles modestly. “Why do you call him ‘Emrys’?” he asks instead after several moments in silence.

Maelwys sits in their spot across the fire from Arthur, though now they rest on a bed of grass instead of cold stone. “For that is his name,” they state.

“No, his name is Merlin,” Arthur replies, accentuating the man’s name in the way he invariably always has, and surely always will.

The sorcerer shakes their head. “That may be true, but that is only his mortal name. The Druid prophecies speak of him as Emrys.”

“And how might you know the Druid prophecies?” Arthur queries. “I was under the impression they were kept silent.”

Maelwys does not reply.

Arthur pauses for a moment but then looks at the sorcerer curiously. “You are a Druid?” he finally says with disbelief. “They are peaceful people, they would not condone abduction.”

That earns him a pointed look, but still no response. Instead, Maelwys goes outside. For what, Arthur could figure doubtlessly: to avoid the conversation at hand.

The minutes go on silently, and Arthur grows impatient. That is until the flowers and grasses and water of the cave flourish more than ever. Petals and vines climb up the walls before his eyes, and the water nearly emanates light of its own. Butterflies, grasshoppers, and ladybugs now dot about in the cave, seemingly coming from nowhere.

He looks to the mouth of the cave expectantly and feels as though he stares at it for many eons before he sees Merlin’s figure step into it. Merlin, who’s slung with a satchel of things Arthur doubts are purely medical, and whose eyes frantically look around the cave before landing on his king. He calls out Arthur’s name, and Arthur does likewise, attempting to stand up as Merlin runs to him, only to realize his legs remain weak.

Merlin stops short at the invisible wall holding Arthur inside. “It’s a spell,” Arthur explains breathlessly, but just then Merlin bears through it, as though walking through nothing but a bit of harmless rainfall.

“Are you harmed?” he asks frantically, kneeling before Arthur and putting hands on his arms and shoulders and face and everywhere he can check for wounds before resting them either side his king’s face. “Why can’t you stand?!”

Arthur puts his hands over Merlin’s, pulling them down from his face to hold them in his lap. “Merlin, I’m fine, only tired from trying to get through the spell,” he says. “They’re outside, they’ll be back soon. You must go.”

“No,” Merlin says definitively, shaking his head. “No, not without you. I am going to get you out.”

“How did you get through the spell?” the blond suddenly wonders.

“Must only work on you,” Merlin replies, gaze not meeting Arthur’s.

“Merlin,” Arthur addresses, and the man looks to him. “I know,” he says, voice quiet. Merlin looks at him questioningly, but before he can reply, Maelwys returns.

“Emrys, you have made it.”

Merlin’s face twists into something Arthur does not recognize before he turns to face the sorcerer – or Druid rather, Arthur now knows. “Let him go!” he says simply, and then there is a beat of silence.

“It is time he learns the truth. Magic is not evil, and you must be the one to show him as much.”

Arthur watches as the two figures only stare at one another, but their lips never form any words.

After several moments, the Druid speaks out: “It is only right we share these words out loud, Emrys; allow Arthur to hear.”

Merlin shakes his head quickly. “No,” he says with a shaky voice. “I will speak with you, but please, just do not make him see me as this. Let me take him from here.”

“Merlin,” a voice sounds from behind.

The man in question turns at the sound, looking with glossy eyes at a worried king.

“I know,” the king repeats.

“What?” Merlin says in a small voice. He whips around to face the Druid once more. “What did you do?!” he shouts accusingly, voice withering further with each moment.

Maelwys looks solemn. “I showed him the truth. Magic must be safely practiced; the king needs to understand that it is not inherently evil,” they say. “I knew he would see reason upon seeing whom he trusts most bearing magic.”

“The Druids do not pardon these actions, surely?” Arthur watches as Merlin’s figure turns towards the small waterfall, seemingly finally taking note of the crystal, cast aside at the back of the cave. “You steal from the Crystal Cave,” he says in a voice of thorns.

The Druid looks down, the well-meaning smile still on their lips fading. “It may be returned now. I only needed it impermanently.”

Merlin speaks something quiet as if to prevent Arthur from hearing it. Whatever it is that he says, the Druid before Merlin flinches back from their shaking smile. “My Lord, surely there is no need for that?”

Merlin shakes his head before going on, “You have been the one watching me? I could feel someone was, and when Arthur went missing, I was sure it was related.”

“I needed to see what was going on, if the persecution of magic was to end or if— if someone needed to interfere.” Maelwys pauses a moment, a visible lack of confidence as they choose their next words. “We have waited long enough!”

“People like you are part of the reason we must!” the brunet retorts. “How do you expect him to accept you when you spy on us? When you abduct and trap him? When you steal from the source of magic itself and are rejected even by your own?”

“But surely you want recognition for all that you have done to protect the kingdom? To protect him? Surely you want the crown to approve of magic just as much as I?” the Druid cries, and there is desperation in their voice.

“How is he to approve of magic when you use it against him like this? There are other ways to go about this!”

Merlin turns from the sorcerer to Arthur suddenly, before looking between the two indecisively.

Finally, as tears spill, he whips around to face the sorcerer with a raised hand. He holds it there, trembling as he hesitates.

“Merlin,” murmurs the king. Lifting his own, Arthur takes the hand that still remains at Merlin’s side. “They have not harmed me. They have done wrong, but as have I. There is no need for you to follow suit.”

“I know,” Merlin says. A beat of silence and Merlin reciprocates the hold Arthur has on his hand and lowers the other that had been lifted towards the Druid. His eyes remain locked on the Druid as he repeats, “I know.”

“You will leave these lands,” Merlin says after a moment of silence that feels like eons. “Don’t ask me to spare you twice.”

“I lie beyond the borders of Camelot,” Maelwys points out, “and I only wanted to help our people.”

“I understand,” Merlin speaks, his voice dismal, “but my caution stands.”

Arthur looks past Merlin to Maelwys as he speaks up, “I will see to it that the ban is lifted.” He looks aside, gathering himself before continuing. “I am truly sorry for how overdue it is.”

Maelwys nods, looking from one man to the other, and then Arthur blinks, and they are gone.

Merlin turns to Arthur jauntily, hands trembling as he returns them to either side of the man’s face. He looks in Arthur’s eyes, and Arthur returns the favor, before Merlin pushes himself into his king, arms thrown with abandon around the man’s neck.

Arthur stiffens, and Merlin quickly pulls away.

After a moment, Arthur wonders aloud, “Is this you?” He gestures to the abundant flowers and luminous water and diddling bugs.

Merlin doesn’t look away from Arthur as he speaks. “Yes.”

Arthur takes in a shaky breath at the admission, nodding to himself as he looks away from the brunet in front of him. They sit in silence for a long while, Merlin observing Arthur and Arthur doing anything but.

“Do you trust me?” Arthur finally queries, voice wavering as his eyes remain fixed on the trees beyond the mouth of the cave.

Merlin states as if this matter weaves the fabric of what they share, “I trust you with my life, Arthur.”

“But you didn’t share this with me.”

“The lying, the self-preservation. . . it is all I’ve ever known,” Merlin says. “I didn’t want you to get hurt, or to put you in that position, burden you with that conflict. If you legalized it, I would tell you; if you didn’t, I would not.”

Arthur finally turns to Merlin, and he does not look away. He thinks of the lingering gazes they shared that held for a bit too long, though, again, perhaps not long enough. He places a hand either side of Merlin’s neck, tracing his thumbs along the man’s rosy cheeks. Leaning forward, Arthur pauses, only a breath away.

“May I?” he puts forth.

Merlin nods and drifts into Arthur, opening to him and joining their mouths in a way they had each only thought of. They sit opposite one another, pulled together not only by Merlin’s arms but also by something beyond that, as though Merlin’s magic flourishes beyond anything it ever had as it, at last, unites with its reason of being.

When they part, though only enough to reclaim their lost breath, the pair notice the cave thrives with more life than it ever had before, a rainbow of butterflies cascading around the sorcerer. Arthur smiles at this and at said sorcerer’s blush – the one that always steals all the way up to his ears.

“Sorry,” Merlin mumbles, a sheepish smile at his lips as his gaze turns downcast, doubtlessly – and futilely – to avoid his blush being noticed.

Arthur wonders aloud as he looks at the beauty around him, “How could I not see it before?”

“You saw what you wanted to, I s’pose,” Merlin replies, looking at Arthur without realizing the rosiness still reigns strong on his face.

“Oh,” Arthur suddenly says with remembrance, reaching into his pocket. “I, uh. . . I got some of these for you.” He takes out the crumpled yellow flowers he’d plucked on Merlin’s behalf the morning before, now limp in his hand.

“You got flowers for me?”

It’s Arthur’s turn to flush, now. “I just heard Gaius telling you to fetch them, and I knew you were a bit busy, so—”

Arthur stops short as Merlin looks to the flowers, face still as pink, and places his hands over Arthur’s. His eyes glow in what Arthur can at last see is gold, and when he removes his hands, the flowers are upright again, spines tight with life.

Something warm is within Arthur as he takes Merlin’s hands back into his, something warmer than all the smiles and held gazes and firelit exchanges even put together ever emanated because he knows Merlin feels the same as he – trust, devotion, and appreciation, an amorousness weaved with magic that neither of them can quite place, but finally grant is between them.

thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed! if you have any thoughts or just liked what you read, I adore reading comments <3 /pos (no obligations of course, typing & forming thoughts can genuinely be tiring /gen)

some mutuals who I think had asked to be tagged (I can’t recall which of you bahaha) - @tcs-main @tireddruid & @oncefutureemrys

#VERY in-character for me to post this #literally twenty minutes before the fest is done BAHAHA #...it’s been a long week skfjksdb #anyway #august posts #august writes #bbc merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merthur #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #read on ao3 #quest four: canon what canon?#the sorcerers guild

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