#i'm not saying Merlin IS canonically gay

[theroundbartable]

I love that every time Merlin is caught with expensive garments or Jewels, the first instinct for everyone in the castle is to assume he's secretely crossdressing.

Like ... That shit is expensive. He's a servant. He doesn't get paid THAT well. He could have been stealing things.

Meanwhile everyone in Camelot:

Nah, he's gay, he can't do math.

[achillesuwu]

Here I made a little post that explain how to allow gift (and other thing!)

It’s always ok to ask me how to do things on ao3 ! Ask at anytime I’m always happy to help ! Do you mean tagging thing like so ?

If so you just need to write them and click on either ‘enter’ or put a ‘comma’. I made a little video for you : https://www.tumblr.com/achillesuwu/768927157922742272/just-a-video-to-explain-things-to-a-friend-if

If they don’t automatically get in the tag list you can simply write it in the case :

I post your fic (or put it in the daft!) and it will be in the tag !

I recommend writing them down on a note app so it’s easier to remove everything if you see you made a mistake ! Just separate tag by comma like so : bottom arthur pendragon (Merlin), and he has pretty golden chains around his neck, and because Merlin is crow coded, it calms down his cartoon villain self

And copy-past them !

And you will get that ^^ (the bottom Arthur disappeared because it was already in my tag)

Good evening everybody, fancy some Arthur in chains ? 🫶😌

Au where Santa! Merlin is a cartoon villain and want to keep the kingdom into a eternal Christmas’ day and Arthur has to become his warrpize 😔

Councilman 1 : Sire, you don’t have to do this there is another sol—

Arthur : Oh but I must, woe is me 😔 *has already packed his bag to get stuffed by that weird sexy man*

More background story on me and @gd-dollopole going insane here as well as in the tags

Alternative versions :

Also I draw like shit alone so I used Mignon Ep 12 as a model !

[relativelydimensional]

bestie what are some of your merthur fic recs

Omg who me? stooppp <3

Okay so I used to read a LOT of merthur fics back around 2011-2013 and have only recently hopped back on the bandwagon so this will be a mix of some oldies i've revisited and some newer fics that have made me insane :))))

0. this one goes without saying but The Student Prince is seriously one of the best fics in any fandom i've ever read to this day. I relisten to the podfic every single year and it SLAPS every time. If you haven't listened/read recently this is obviously my #1 rec hahahha

Okay onto some actual recs

1. Tired by spqr

King Arthur gets enchanted and keeps having dreams about his court sorcerer merlin :))))) He obviously doesn't say this to Merlin, but Merlin notices he's not been sleeping and Arthur comes clean about having 'nightmares.' When Merlin tries to figure out a counterspell, he accidentally casts it on himself and ohh nooo they're both having sexy dreams about each other but also have to act normal in real life ITS SO YUM. This fic was surprisingly soft, like yes they are having some full on dreams but also the bits that made me extra insane were just the little soft moments between non-dream merthur 🥺

This was a school holidays read and i remember reading this in the staff room of the elementary school i was working at trying so hard not to SCREAM. At one point i had to go on a spirited walk around the building just to get my energy out because it was JUICY.

If you like: canon era fics, court sorcerer merlin, the intimacy of domesticity, arthur with a beard and merthur being so in love but also fucking clueless about it this the fic for you <3

2. But It's a Good Refrain by lady_ragnell

Merlin runs a relationship advice/matchmaking service radio show and Arthur's ex calls in and rips into him on air. Arthur calls in to defend himself and he and Merlin butt heads. An oldie but such a goodie. I love this one because the characterisation feels very natural. Plus i loooove arthur POV fics. Merthur are so sweet in this one and i love love love the dynamic of their respective friendship groups merging. It also features the fandom favourite m/f crack ship that is elena and gwaine which im always here for.

If you like: silly modern AU friend group nonsense, Arthur POV fics, snarky Morgana, and a fic writer who understands the sheer power merlin emrys' 🥺 face would have over not only Arthur but literally ANYONE who looks at him, this is the fic for you.

3. Second Chances by DragonDucks

This is a canondivergence/fix-it fic set immediately after Arthur dies in 5x13. In this version Arthur tells Merlin he loves him with his dying breath and Merlin's magic sort of implodes sending him back in time to 1x1. So it's like sad s5 Merlin getting a second chance to save Arthur in the body of tiny baby s1 merlin.

I'm gonna be honest i'm still reading this one but it has me kicking and screaming!!!! Most of the dialogue is repurposed from the show which makes it extra juicy to me and its just delicious i love it so much. The POV switches between S5 mourning merlin and S1 gay panic arthur and its soooooo good i'm loving it so far. Some of the side characterisation is a little weird but Merthur are PERFECT. It NAILS that yummy introverted Arthur and fond Merlin characterisation.

If you like: canon era fix it fics, time travel, Arthur pendragon falling in love with merlin bit by bit and actually having space and time to grow as a person, and merlin emrys being like no everyone shut up about my destiny i just wanna have a good time with my boyfriend, this is the fic for you.

4. All is Semblative by Whitefox

I just fucking love crossdressing fics okay 😇. This is cinderella meets Merthur. Uther is throwing a ball to find Arthur a bride and servants aren't allowed. Out of spite (and, lets be real, also jealousy) Merlin tries to disguise himself to sneak in and ends up accidentally turning himself into a princess. Arthur hits it off with a weird but beautiful mystery princess who turns out to be his manservant he's been in love with this whole time. Simples.

If you like: Prince Arthur knowing about merlin's magic and being cool with it, fairytale AUs, accidental genderbending (but still canonically mlm merthur), and arthur pendragon singlehandedly embodying demisexual panic this is the fic for you.

5/6. As Long As We Have We AND No Matter How Far Away You Roam by lady_ragnell

Lady Ragnell again because I looove the way they do modern day Arthur. and i've been going through their stuff. These are both super cute christmas fics (I know its a little early but I couldn't help myself). In the first one, Uther has just died (rip uther you will not be missed) and Arthur accidentally collects lonely friends to spend christmas with him in the empty house. At the same time he befriends Merlin, the owner of his local bookstore, and merlin brings his own group of strays to Arthur's christmas...and obviously everyone gets along super well and merthur fall in love. The second one is a fake dating. T get his parents off his back, Arthur lies to Uther and Igraine that he and merlin have been together for years and Merlin (plus his mum and his sister Freya) has to play along one christmas..and obviously everyone gets along....and obviously everyone gets along super well and merthur fall in love.

If you like: found family, cute christmas fics and fluffy merthur these fics are the ones for you!

Also pls if anyone has any canon era secret dating merthur fics i beg of you please send them my way 🥺

[nimrism]

1

2

3

And

4

*rubbing my hands together in glee* ONTO THE QUESTIONS

1. Favorite canon ship?

will the fandom hate me if i say i wasn't a fan of ANY of the canon ships,,,,, i just feel like there was hardly any chemistry whenever they decided to give a character a love interest on this show,,, it's like they tried so hard to make it as straight as possible so it backfired and turned gay sjdjdk. i'm also not a fan of love triangles (when they involve men) so the arthur/gwen/lancelot thing just made me uncomfy but SEPARATELY arwen and gwencelot make sense i guess! merlin and freya were also sweet but i never quite read it as romantic or at least i wasn't entirely convinced to ship it idk idk (can you tell i don't like straight people)

2. Favorite non-canon ship?

MORGWEN MORGWEN MORGWEN I'M SOOOOO NORMAL ABOUT THEM TRUST ME *eye twitching* in all seriousness though i love morgwen so so much it's probably unhealthy. i'll gloss over the entire plot of the show and pick out the morgwen scenes i like cause i'm SO sane. aside from morgwen i adore merthur, and i'm also very intrigued whenever someone mentions morgana/mithian there's a lot of potential there i feel.

3. Villain you think deserved a second chance?

does morgana count as a villain? i guess? she deserves all the chances cause i can't even see her mistakes in fact i'm blind in my left eye. other than morgana i think morgause and nimueh should've been given a chance to declare their cause and let ME decide if they're bad or not (they're not) since the show makes them so cartoonishly evil, leaving no room for the audience to think for themselves.

4. Villain you think should be burned at the pyre?

agravaine and edwin. full stop. no further discussion needed. both are CREEPS and edwin is just a weirdo for making a beetle climb into morgana's ear like what is bro doing. and yeah agravaine is self-explanatory like that man needed to be executed long before he died on the show even his FACE makes me uncomfortable. i'm sure there are other villains who deserve burning at the stake too but these are my least favorite ones.

[kitkatopinions]

rwde below the keep reading

Blake and Yang's 'confirmation' is like this

And it's like this

Except in this case, Blake and Yang's 'confirmation' also looks like this

And like this

If someone says something along the lines of "But Mal and Evie weren't confirmed as queer" or "Merlin and Arthur weren't confirmed as queer" or "Clover and Qrow were never confirmed as queer" then yeah, that's the whole point. I have spent too much time seeing rabid rw/by fans attacking anyone who says that Qrow and Clover were so much as coded as queer while the rw/by writers say it was never intended to be read as queer to just go 'tralalala sure Blake was described as straight in 2019 and sure Yang was written to say Blake was like her sister in November of 2022 but the bigoted company reported to have recently told a queer employee asking for more rep 'we've done enough for the queer community' and Miles Luna the misogynistic biphobe who said he wished he'd buried a gay in volume five prove that they're going to canonize Blake and Yang by tweeting a moment that happened in the show JUST LIKE THEY DID WITH FAIRGAME." Like motherfucker, if I said 'Blake and Yang will be canon this season' and then Blake fucking died or something before it got confirmed and I said 'that was bury your gays' I'd be ruthlessly attacked for saying Blake was ever queer coded in the first place.

And no, I'm not saying this to 'disappoint' fans of the ship, I'm saying this as a queer woman to vent about how fucking disappointing this is to me.

[sun-ni-day]

Five Ships & Five Fandoms

Tagged by @eevylynn (obvsly I have shitton of them, so imma go with most recent ones i'm currently fixated on; order is random, not ranking)

Clark/Lois/Oliver/Chloe of Smallville: the more I rewatch, the more I see how perfectly that poly-relationship would fit into narrative.

Buck/Tommy of 9-1-1: Buck coming out as bi and falling in love with a man for the first time is a thing of pure beauty. And what a man!

Tarlos (TK+Carlos) of 9-1-1 Lonestar: canon gay ship between main characters on a procedural show and it's absolutely perfectly written? It's more likely than you think. Insane chemistry, complex love story development, no cliches... Just chef's kiss! (Bonus: playing a gay character (TK) and befriending his openly gay co-star (Carlos) encouraged Ronen to come out as bisexual).

Merthur (Merlin+Arthur) of Merlin: oh yes, I do love to torture myself, thanks for asking. Still, worth it. And Arthur will be back, OK? So says the prophesy!

Clois of Superman and Lois: parents-of-teenagers stage of their love story have never been shown on screen before - and it's beyond our wildest dreams. Chemistry is absolutely perfect, two people who've been together for almost two decades, know each other inside and out, trust each other completely, love fiercely and tenderly, no doubting your partner, no jealousy, no unnecessary relationship drama - AND on top of all that love their children and struggle with all the same things most parents do, same fears and doubts and mistakes... Perfect writing, stellar execution by actors, all around an absolute delight!

tagging @startrekmemequeen @massharp1971 @jennie-may @frostysfrenzy @fighting-naturalist

[littlemissmoony8]

Because it's lesbian visibility week, I'd like to share some of my marauders era girls' head-canons (because yes most of them are sapphics, argue with a wall):

Lily was every girl's queer awakening, I'm sorry, but that woman was the hottest person in the entire castle, you can't prove me wrong, she was smart, sweet, kind to others, hot as hell AND if all of that wasn't enough, a bad bitch.

Marlene has flirted with every single one of the girls in Hogwarts and no, the teachers don't get behind, just imagine Minnie's face when Marls was trying to flirt with her.

Mary made the entire Gryffindor tower try to impress her so she'd say yes to a date on Valentine's Day, only to just have said date with her girlfriend (aka Lily Mother Fucking Evans), the power this woman holds in her little finger is too much for our world, period.

Dorcas, our badass queen was the best beater Hogwarts ever had, has and will have, and, as Merlin said, she could take you apart with less than one blow, iykyk.

Sybille had the biggest crystal collection out there, and don't even think of trying to steal one of her crystals, she remembers every single one of them, even the smallest of them all; talk about photographic memory. Also, Pandora came in second place, but nowhere near this woman's passion for crystals.

And speaking of my wife, Pandora was always first in potions and she invented quite some of those for her own mysterious purposes sight isn't she just dreamy?

Next one in the list is our lovely Emmeline Vance, she was so gay for Hestia Jones and don't get me started on the Slytherin x Hufflepuff dynamic this two had. So, Emmeline was the youngest player to become quidditch captain, my girl was in third year and bossing seven years around, please, a little clapping for her.

Now her gf, Hestia knew how to cook, but cook with all capitals, her recipes were top tier, she even helped out the elves when making the food, such a good soul.

Alice Fortescue, my girl was strong as a rock, she had really powerful magic and an outstanding control of her spells, no shit she became an auror.

Last but not least, Narcissa, this girl did everything she wanted and just blamed the consequences on someone else, because, how could such an angel like Narcissa Black do a thing such as burning a table down to ashes just because she was bored? Yeah no, it had to be some newly arrived Gryffindor troublemaker (aka Sirius).

[purpleandstarlight]

I am planning and somewhat writing a BBC Merlin rewrite where:

-Merlin and Arthur are both women. Merlin is a lesbian and Arthur (here named Arthelia) is bi. Merthur endgame even though it's slow burn af.

-Artheria is very much raised in a "manly" way bc Uther wanted a son but got a daughter and with his wife dead and no intention to remarry that's what he went with. She grew up having to prove herself to the men in her life (The knights, Uther himself) and WILL skin alive anyone who tries to say men are stronger than her just because she's a woman, but internalized misogyny exists because of how Uther raised her + the companies she keeps being usually men. She goes very "I'm not like other girls" at times, but she has character development for that too dw.

-Morgana is good cause I loved early serie Morgana. She's also a huge lesbian and spends some time being in love with Gwen (i ship them) but seeing as i LOVE SingleButHappy!Morgana and Lancelot and Gwen are cute together, Gwen is straight so they aren't endgame. Morgana doesn't stay unhappy for too long tho, and they stay very close best friends!!

-A lot of the early-serie flirting between the four main characters doesn't exist here. Morgana and Artheria are only siblings coded and there isn't anyone implying otherwise in court either. Merlin sees Gwen like a sister and so does she. Morgana and Merlin befriend eachother instantly when Merlin goes to deliver the sleeping potion, and bond over hating Artheria (and later on in the story also over being lesbians and having magic), but they never see eachother in a romantic way, even if Merlin does notice how attractive Morgana is very early on. Since we're on the topic, Artheria never crushes on Gwen either, because i don't really see much chemistry between them in canon tbh.

-Gwaine is bi. Flirting is a bit of a way to befriend others for him (and if he scores in the mean time, he's not complaining) plus Merlin is really nice and pretty, so he flirts with her once and immediately notices she's uncomfortable with it so he apologises and says he will stop, but the conversation leads to him coming out to her as being both into men and women, so she happily tells him she's gay too, and now that Merlin knows he knows and that he has no intention of having anything other than friendship, Merlin lets him flirt with her as their inside joke. It's funny to them. It's less funny to Arthelia who doesn't know Merlin's into women and therefore becomes jealous of any man trying anything with her lmao. Also even when Arthelia and Gwain become friends, he never flirts with her, even as a joke. That's just the relationship they have, no hate from Gwaine.

- I haven't really rewatched the serie in ages. Only funny moment compilations and crack videos. I am listening to a Merlin rewatch podcast thought, so I will just use the way they recap the episodes as my basis for each episode rewrite, and just write them my own way like i immagine them with my version of the characters.

-Arthelia and Merlin do share one (1) kiss kinda early on but they don't enter a relationship for a long time. Its based on that one time Gwen had to kiss Arthur to break a love spell? Expect it says "A kiss from a soulmate" Instead of "A kiss of your one true love" because a one shot i haven't read yet had this change and i felt like it was a good way to change the plot and give more romantic development even early on without putting them in a relationship in this series rewrite! Because the idea this gave me is:

Arthelia is about to do something stupid bc of the love spell, and Merlin is still trying to make her reason, but in vain. In a rush of panic to save her, her mind goes "Wait i could be a soulmate. We are destined and two sides of the same coin and blahblahblah!! It doesn't have to be romantic!" So she kisses her fully expecting it not to work but it does. Merlin is (pretends to be) unbothered by the kiss bc "It wasn't romantic!! It's just that we have a connected destiny!!!" and Arthelia doesn't remember the kiss clearly bc the memories of the time she was under the spell are hazy, but she does gain them back in her sleep sometimes. Especially the kiss - she keeps dreaming it, but just doesn't know if she should believe it and doesn't ask Merlin abt it.

-In the future, once Merlin and Morgana come out as sorceress to Arthelia, she works to make magic legal and then puts them in the position of Court Sorceress. They share the position so they can cut the work in half and Merlin can keep helping Gaius (+ When Arthelia goes out of the castle, Merlin can follow her to keep her safe without them worrying about leaving the castle without a Court Sorceress).

-Mordred is good. Merlin still is quite distrustful of him when they meet again once he's grown up because of what the dragon said, but she trusted Morgana not to do anything bad despite the dragon's words in the past, and Arthelia herself decides to trust him once Merlin warns her of what the dragon said, so she tries to be more chill and then finally warms up to him a bit more with time, though their interactions are still a bit awkward sometimes and Merlin never 100% leaves the matter completely out of her head.

[moku-youbi]

I promised my thoughts on this once I had them ordered, so here goes. I'll also say it's not like I'm the only one with the thought--just scanning the notes, I see others touching on it, but there are a few big things at work here.

First thing is the chemistry between the actors. This isn't just queer ships, there's a reason Scully/Mulder is way more compelling than a lot of other het ships--the chemistry between Anderson and Duchovny fucking crackles. And it's true of a lot of queerbait ships, too. The two actors in question have way more chemistry with one another than with any of the potential love interests the show tries to throw at us. I don't care how compelling the writing is, or how great the love interest's actor/character is, if they don't have that chemistry, it just doesn't work.

It's fair to note that a lot of queerbait ships didn't necessarily start out with those intentions. Just look at *the* tumblr queerbait ship Destiel, where Castiel was originally only supposed to be a in a few episodes then killed off. Misha was incredibly well received, and he and Jensen had amazing chemistry, so they decided to keep him around. And even if the writers might have put little winks and nods in as throw aways early on in some instances (Merlin/Arthur, for example) as *jokes* again the chemistry of the actors and the fans' reactions to it fanned the queerbaiting flames. (On the flip side, you have an example like Hannigram, which was never supposed to be canon, Fuller even saying that as a gay man, he was never *going* to go there, because he worried about the implications of violence in gay relationships, but the chemistry between Mads and Hugh, and the story, just led things in that direction organically).

There's a reason queer male ships are more popular, just down to the fact that there are more male characters in general, and more opportunity for those instances of chemistry between two actors, but all the stuff about chemistry goes for femslash, too. And it's why so many het ships *aren't* compelling, because it's taken for granted that attractive man + attractive woman = couple. But two beautiful people don't necessarily have that chemistry. And canon gay ships tend to suffer from the same problem. The ship isn't borne organically of two people with this sizzling chemistry meeting and building off that. Instead, they're just doing attractive man + attractive man = couple.

The second point sort of branches off from there, with the whole organic relationship development versus shoving two characters together being the narrative. These queerbait relationships are often between two major characters, which means they have a tonne of screentime together, giving the relationship space to develop alongside the story. There's the build up of tension, there's the longing, the poignant scenes. And even if they try to argue otherwise, the writers *are* doing this intentionally. They are using well-known literary techniques to create the subtext intended to show the characters are queer and in love, without explicitly saying so. They are intentionally telling a queer love story, and then fucking gaslighting fans by saying they're reading into something that isn't there. But the fact remains, these stories have taken years and years to develop these romances.

With canon queer romances, a lot of them are not the focus of the story, or even between at least one main character. Even if one of the main characters is queer, the screen time they have with their romantic interest is much less than that between any het couples. They also often either start the show already in a relationship, or get into a relationship very early on, and remain in that relationship the entire series. Now look. On the one hand, I get the concerns about stereotyping queer men as being promiscuous, and so they try to avoid those accusations by just dodging it altogether by having them be in a stable, healthy, happy relationship. And that's *great.* Of course I wanna see that. But queer people, just like het people, have all kinds of personalities, all kinds of desires, all kinds of relationships, and we want to see those explored. There's nothing wrong with the Raymond/Kevin relationships out there, with married, middle-aged queers who are perfect for each other, but we want more representation!

Part of what makes ships compelling is the longing that comes with a slowburn. Look at the most popular het ships in television history -- Mulder/Scully, Lois/Clark, Fran/Mr. Sheffield, Bones/Booth, Castle/Beckett, Jim/Pam -- by and large, they didn't give in to viewer demand until after seasons of build up, and often times the show declined after they did, because tv writers just often did *not* do a good job of writing the romantic relationships in a satisfying way. Even with shows that tried to shove a pairing down the viewers from the throats end up changing that based on viewer response (Joey ending up with Pacey instead of Dawson; Monica/Chandler being way more popular and better done than Ross/Rachel which was considered obnoxious by a lot of views with the whole nice guy bs; Spuffy being way more popular than Buffy/Angel in fandom).

Meanwhile, shows that *do* let us know what the endgame relationship is at the beginning and manage to pull it off in a satisfying way (thinking of things like Brooklyn 99, the Good Place, Grey's Anatomy), manage to do it by building on the initial chemistry of the actors throughout the story to deepen the connection between them. Think of queer relationships that are established early on, but are still satisfying (Ian/Mickey, Villanelle, or Cosima/Delphine, Brittany/Santana, Piper/Alex, Nomi/Amanita and Lito/Hernando) or even instances where one character maybe isn't even introduced until later in the show, but who from that point have an organic connection and development (Leslie/Ben, or in a rare queer example, David/Patrick) -- yes, the actors have insane chemistry, but also the narrative puts hurdles in the way of their relationship that give them opportunities to grow and deepen their connection.

The thing is, there are plenty of het relationships in television that were never planned, but the writers were bored and wanted to mix things up and had two attractive actors, or realised that the narrative had unfolded in a way that the characters actually are perfect together, but that is still SO. FUCKING. RARE with queer couples. A character's queerness is baked into the narrative, the way a character's hetness never is, which means queer relationships are treated inherently unfairly. We want the queer stories that unfold naturally AND we want the writers to follow through on the stories they HAVE told and give us the queer relationships they've spent seasons writing, just like they do with the slowburn, will they/won't they het relationships.

give an audience a canon gay ship and they will be entertained for one season. queerbait them and you entertain them for a lifetime.

[laughing-drawing-aces]

I also forgot to mention in that ask about the ships that this isn't a case of the fandom ignoring the canonical romantic interest in favor of making it gay - Steve and Eddie have no canonical love interests. (I know that Chrissy is supposed to be Eddie's but I did not see that at all. Also Chrissy is dead. And technically Steve has Nancy in season 4 but she's canonically still in a relationship and we do not like cheating in this household.) And like it bugs me so much when people say obviously these two people belong together, or have to interact in this way and you're wrong if you think otherwise and it bugs me so much. (An example of this for me is Merthur. I just can't get behind the ship because of Merlin is Arthur's servant and I saw them as brothers in the show rather than romantically interested in each other. But I don't mind other people shipping it right until, they tell me I have to ship it )

Okay lol so I will answer this ask last for tonight and then get to the other two major asks tomorrow - I'm just getting really tired and my brain isn't working that well lol. YES THIS!!! Like it isn't the case with that which I may have brought up about that trope in fandoms in my answer and idk how well I worded it. But anyway yeah steve and eddie are in no way a romantic pair in season 4 (and same I really don't see how chrissy is supposed to be Eddie's because I also just genuinely like how eddie was just trying to do a nice thing for chrissy - honestly i see them as a more "they could have been friends" had chrissy not died but yeah. also yes about that point of we do not like cheating in this household) OH MY GOD YOU LOVE THE SHOW MERLIN?!! i feel like i definitely knew this but also yay i love that but also agreed about the merthur points. ngl i never really shipped them - but anyway you're so right about them having other romantic relationships and i also see them as brothers and how merlin is arthur's servant. but like you said i also don't mind people shipping it until they tell me i have to ship it - honestly the way people have act so entitled with telling others what to ship just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes me not want to personally ship it

[donttouchtheneednoggle]

ok i’m getting emotional about the first scene in 5x06 aka the last scene of the series didn’t you know but how literally all of them pitch in to compliment el:

Leon: I think that he'd be proud.

Gwen: Particularly of Elyan.

Elyan: Me?

Gwen: Not because you're a knight, but because of the man you've become.

Elyan: I don't think so.

Percival: She's right.

Gwaine: Absolutely. You're outstanding

and then of course it devolves into jokes about elyan being straight because this is gwaine they literally can’t not be an asshole to each other but it’s just 🥺🥺🥺

[rollercoasterwords]

look i am all for increased representation when it comes to canon queer characters and i love that there are so many more books and shows and movies now that feature queer characters and depict queer experiences. however. i truly do not know if anything will ever compare to the high of that very specific brand of early-mid 2000s queerbaiting that was the bastard lovechild of misogyny + homophobia. i'm talking like sherlock merlin supernatural...fucking...lotr....like back when these big shows + movies were too misogynistic to have any fleshed-out female characters, and so every intense emotional bond portrayed was between two men and unintentionally became so homoerotically charged that u were basically just watching extended scenes of two dudes eye-fucking each other, except you knew nothing was ever going to happen bc it wasn't cool to like gay people yet + so the most u could ever hope to see onscreen was like. a really intense hug. and even that was so sexually charged that it basically felt like u were seeing them fuck raw + nasty, and yet the creators + the actors + the whole fucking world would gaslight u + be like why can't u just let two men be friends if u even dared 2 suggest that watching these guys gaze longingly at each other every time they think the other's not looking + tremble with forcibly suppressed lust when their hands so much as brush made u insane. god it was like being edged. like yes queerbaiting is bad but it's bad in the same way that cigarettes are bad which is to say that i think i should be allowed to indulge in a little carcinogenic hedonism every once in a while. as a treat.

[cereswyn]

I really really want to know what people that didn't watch the show would think they are to each other. Because before I watched BBC Merlin this year i discovered that Arthur was married, and I was shocked. I don't know what I expected, because it's in the legend that he's married to Gwen. But I really thought that Merlin and Arthur was the only relationship in the show.

And when I'm telling you when I’ve seen all this moments they have in the show I was shocked that it's really THAT GAY how everyone was saying it is! And I am so glad I have finally watched Merlin IN THE YEAR OF 2024!!!

But the consequences are really brutal. The concept of Merlin waiting so long for the other half of his soul, his only one true love is actually making me cry. I am such an empath, but I cannot in my life fathom how you could bear it. THE PAIN.

I’m so happy that there's so many amazing fics out there. I was reading «And like the cycle of the year we begin again» and watching Merlin at the same time. And I'm so glad I did that! This fic is truly the most amazing thing I've read, THE WORK OF ART!

Anyway, the ending of Merlin is really sad, BUT, the open ending that Merlin is waiting for Arthur and they would reunite in the future, and they could love each other openly and freely. That Merlin would teach Arthur how to live in the modern world, and Arthur would teach Merlin how to LIVE. IS SO BEAUTIFUL.

I'm actually kinda glad that in canon they didn't kiss or were together. BECAUSE IF THEY DID it would be so much more sad and tragic. But here, in the open ending, we could imagine their life after Arthur's return and it's so beautiful!

[stormblessed95]

What is Queerbaiting?

I had a good conversation about this with @ejassy the other day and figured I'd just make a post about it in case anyone else wanted to either share their own thoughts too or were just confused over what people mean when they say queerbaiting. Which CAN get confusing, especially when it gets used incorrectly ALOT.

So in short simple terms, for queerbaiting and its similar phrases?

Queer subtext: I normally think of this in 2 ways. The first being unintentionally gay. This was clearly not the intention of the writer ever, but the gay ships were just accidentally too full of chemistry and the ship shipped itself by accident even though the characters aren't "canon" gay (think batman and joker. Or Lord of the rings or Elsa from Frozen. Or like a good portion of misogynistic anime writers who can't write a female character that isn't flat AF lol)

The second being where it can also be defined as INTENTIONALLY gay. Where instead of it being something that just happened, it was written like this pn purpose and with full intention of being queer and is in its own way, good queer representation, even if the queer relationship isn't ever technically confirmed, or only confirmed "off screen" by the writers. This is subtext and its sometimes left only as subtext because the romance is only a subplot or because of censorship. (Think Legend of Korra or Think Merthur from Merlin bbc.)

Queercoding: acting queer or leaning into queer themes/subtext but not explicity queer for any number of reasons, including censorship for fictional universes or just being closeted. Basically there is enough subtext available for the audience to read them as queer regardless of if their sexuality is never confirmed either way. (Again, think Elsa. Or Jo March from Little Women, or think Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby. Think of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji from The Untamed, the show not the web novel verison lol. Think Xena: Warrior Princess)

Queerbaiting: obviously leaning into and promoting queer subtext and queer themes to keep gay fans on the hook and invested in your media with zero intentions of follow through. Almost at times even turning it into like a joke or just making it very obvious that the character was never actually queer. This was a term coined by queer theorist academics in the 1990s and didn't actually exist before then. This is not a term that can apply to real people. Real people can't queerbait. With very few exceptions to that "rule." Which I will discuss some of those possible exceptions in a bit. (Think Destial from supernatural, or Johnlock from Sherlock, or think Supercorp, Lena and Kara, from Supergirl. Or think Sam and Bucky from MCU, Bechloe from Pitch Perfect or Sterek from Teen Wolf. If anyone doesnt know why these would fall under a more queerbaiting label and dont already know, please feel free to ask for sure)

There are some good sources out there that go into much more detail about what queerbaiting is, how it's been misused and more too as well if you have the time to watch them. This video was recommended from @guacamoli-avocadorado here. It is a great intro to the term and how it is used/should be used broken down in an easy to understand way. And it gives a bunch more examples like I shared above, etc.

And this one is longer but a really good and interesting dialogue about the topic. They take the definition of queerbaiting and expands upon it greatly as well as gives a very through dive down the history of queerness and queer subtext through film and media. This one was recommended by @chikooritajjk

Now, real people cannot queer bait. It's impossible UNLESS they have CONFIRMED their sexuality as "straight" and will sometimes "play gay," for an audience. And not just a straight actor playing a gay one, but doing something that is intentionally queer but backtracking and being like "well I mean, I'm straight so I didn't mean it." And doing so repeatedly and/or even making light of it or joking about it. Or even just being plain homophobic about it. Unless you are talking about the actions they take to promote their "brand" in an effort to profit off queer fans on purpose, while continuing to make it clear its not "that serious," then you could make an argument that that person is queerbaiting. Which, for clarification, two people of the same sex simply interacting together, even with lots of general affection, cannot be classified as queerbaiting ever. Especially because a person doesn't have to be "out" to act on their queerness. Our queerness is our own. No one gets to demand someone to give answers about their sexuality to confirm queerness or not before the public "decides" to keep trying to bully an answer out of them or not. You don't get to take self expression and someone else's comfort away from them for your own comfort in labels that don't belong to you anyway. The thing is, no one owes anyone any explanations about how they present themselves or what their sexuality is. You can't forcibly out people. "I think you are gay, therefore I'm owed an explanation and if you don't give me one, it means you are just queerbaiting" is WRONG. It's an umbrella media term, not a bullying tactic. This applys to everyone, random people off the street, actors, musicians, authors who write/engage in queer literature, public speakers, influencers, etc...

There are some of kpop idol groups (or other celebrities in general) that could be classified as queerbaiting. Because they use queerness to build and promote their "brand" while otherwise never doing anything about it (even as an ally) and/or even being lowkey homophobic about it all or just continuing to make sure the audience knows they "arent actually gay." Or they use queerness in a way that fetishizies it, again without actually meaning it in any way. That's a whole seperate issue, and it could in ways be considered queerbaiting. Or it could more likely dig further into the issue of inauthenic queer fetishization used as a shock value for an audience to be used as sexual fantasies for their STRAIGHT audience, rather than to draw in a queer audience who are more looking for the possible authenticity of queerness or allyship in the celebrities/idols they are building these parasocial relationships with. Because again, unless you know what this person's sexuality is, how are you sure they aren't just exploring/or expressing their own queerness and aren't labeling it or are closeted for whatever their reasons may be, including just not being ready to come out yet.

It is a fine line to walk, and there will probably be times in the "real life" instances above where you will have to use your own critical thinking skills to decide how you feel about things, etc. But for the most part, real people can't really queerbait. But hopefully this helps anyone who was/is confused. There are also a lot more resources out there if you wanted to continue looking into it. This is just what I know about it all myself too, if anyone has anything to add, they are free to do so. 💜

[kitkatopinions]

Fuming cause I’m so fucking annoyed that queer rwby fans are going to just eat up Bmblbee when it becomes cannon ignoring the several years it took, the harmful stereotypes that came before it, and try to put it on par with shows like SU or ToH while RT/Crwby didn’t struggle or have to drag their feet for nearly as long as they did

Yeah, not to rain on anyone's parade because I'm honestly in the camp of 'people (especially queer people) being excited about a queer ship being canon is one hundred percent valid and understandable even if the company and/or show is bad and bigoted and even if the meta surrounding the ship paints a bad picture and even if I personally dislike the ship,' but like.... It's so weird.

I don't have ANYTHING against people that like Blake and Yang as a ship, are excited when they see content surrounding it, will celebrate if they get together, or post gifs of every 'bees moment' that makes it on screen. As someone who has freaked out over characters I ship standing close to each other or looking at each other too long and is currently still hoping that Merlin might come back some day and might confirm Merlin and Arthur as a ship more than a decade after the show ended, I truly truly get it. But at the same time, some of the bees fans... Are really pissing me off. Because some of them are not just excited about the fact that their ship will likely get confirmed in a month, they're also praising RWBY and RT for being 'progressive' when they're behind the curve of queer representation with no censoring (unlike things like Adventure Time, which took about ten years to confirm Marceline and Bubblegum I think.) Not only are people like 'omg bees kiss this season maybe?' they're also sitting there yelling at other queer people for saying they're unsatisfied with RWBY's lackluster attempt. Not only are people hyping themselves up over a ship they've waited years for, but they're also completely dismissing and forgetting RT's huge and recent controversy including massive homophobia and transphobia to do so, and getting angry when other people say that the company and the show (partially created by and written by Miles Luna a former RT higher up with a history of misogyny and sexualizing and fetishizing a bi-woman) might be intending to use Blake and Yang as a ship to get in the fans good graces again and try to smooth things over.

Also, people were pre-emptively celebrating the definitely-gonna-happen confirmation that Blake and Yang were queer before the end of volume five, and before the start of volume six, and before the end of volume six, and before the start of volume seven, and before the end of volume seven, and before the start of volume eight, and before the end of volume eight, and now again before the start of volume nine. And I think it's going to happen in volume nine, I really do (though tbh the trailers and the plugging have made me a bit more hesitant because it seems like they're again being like 'look guys they've both got their eyes closed in seemingly the same plaaaaace isn't that making you think they might kissssss,') I think they'd be stupid to not confirm it, it seems like the only logical thing. But I thought the same thing about the bees reunion in volume eight and then fans freaked the heck out claiming that a cheek-caress was canon confirmation and now we're back to people sending hate anons being like "We're all gonna laugh at you bees doubters when they kiss in volume nine." It feels like Disney introducing their seventh first gay character except with less confirmation. Idk, it's a lot.

But yeah, the thing is, some bumblebee fans just have to realize that nobody (especially not queer people) has to like or be excited for their ship, nobody has to (or tbh should be) congratulating the writers for doing the bare minimum of including at least one actually confirmed queer main character after ten years of no queer main character, and after having promised queer characters since volume two, which was filled to the brim with heteronormativity, and after Arryn Zech called Blake straight as late as 2019, and after the RWBY Arrowfell writers had Yang refer to Blake as like a sister to her less than a year ago, and after a massive controversy involving massive queerphobia, and tbh tons more. We don't have to respect the company or the show for their 'slowburn' when they were trying to sell pride-month shirts with all four main characters despite the fact that at the time not a single one of them had any line of dialogue confirming they were queer, and they still don't.

Blake and Yang will likely be confirmed as queer in the next season this year, and despite the fact that many critics of the show have been actively pushing for that, we're likely going to get told 'I told you so' and have a bunch of people gloating at us and calling us (the majority of us living real queer people,) homophobes for not jumping and down with joy that this web cartoon from a bigoted company with sketchy at best content finally did the bare minimum after ten years with no censorship. And meanwhile Miles fucking Luna with his Ruby-Rose-At-Sixteen body pillow and his 'funny' story about getting turned on by watching his ex make out with another girl and his former position as head of animation in the same company that treated the voice actress of one of four queer side characters horribly for years and years... He'll probably get praised to the skies for being such a trailblazing cool progressive guy despite the fact that he and the other writers are the ones who took ten years in the fucking first place, when Yang could've been confirmed as interested in girls since episode two of this show. It's annoying, to be honest. It gets my goat.

[theroundbartable]

Ok, this post has grown in a strange direction now.

I've read in the tags of another reblog that my misconception is actually a very ace thing to do, so that's validating, I guess.

I'll try to map out my thoughts. I've been at this for 2+ hours and keep running into dead ends, so please try to understand that this is very hard for me to elaborate XD

First of all, I never meant 'Uther finds Merlin attractive' as something personal, but only as in 'if I were my son'. Uther doesn't find Merlin attractive for himself. But he can still tell he's attractive. Does that make sense? (Perhaps that's the ace thing.)

Like, I compared OPs post to the scene when Arthur and Gwen are caught making out by Uther and Uther says to him: 'I was young once. I understand the appeal of serving girls.' which then ends with 'of course I can't allow it to continue.'

I made the same leap there, assuming that Uther considered that to Arthur, Gwen is attractive and romantically available. Like, he isn't attracted TO her, but he understands the appeal.

I personally understand people best when I put myself in their shoes. Especially when someone claims someone as attractive, I tend to have to reevaluate how I see them. Of course, Uther wouldn't ever go as far as I, otherwise the genocide would not have been possible, but still. When he said 'I understand-' I assumed he was doing that to some degree. Reevaluating Merlin and questioning if Arthur went mad or something.

Uther is the kind of father who controls who his son is with. He denied him Gwen and Sophia, and to some degree Vivienne.

In all these cases, they were a danger to Uther. In all these cases, Uther saw a danger because Arthur was romantically involved, therefore being blind to reason and inclined to marriage (or potentially children).

In OPs post, Uther can't fathom why Arthur would like Merlin's personality. This implies that Uther doesn't see a romantic, and perhaps not even a platonic appeal in Merlin's character. He can't understand why Arthur would like that. Because, and here I'm leaping again, Uther wouldn't like that himself (if he were Arthur and young and gay, lol). Therefore, he assumed that Merlin wasn't a danger, wasn't a marriage prospect to Arthur, and wasn't romantically involved. I concluded that Uther assumed Arthur's and Merlin's relationship to be exclusively sexual.

If Uther could see and understand and accept the sexual nature of Merlin's and Arthur's relationship, so my thoughts, he would have had to relate in some way. At least, he must have spared the whole thing a thought. Otherwise his controlling personality wouldn't have allowed Arthur to keep Merlin that long or think Arthur was enchanted or sick, if he's appalled by Arthur's romantic interest in Merlin but not the sexual.

I hope this makes any sense. I understand now what a thin line I've been walking with that thought process, and I think I get why you're confused. There is, of course, my personal background to consider and that I took OPs post perhaps a little too close to canon, but yeah. This is where my mind went when I made that post.

I honestly believe that Uther simply assumed very early on that Arthur and Merlin were fucking, and would in fact have been shocked and appalled to learn that they weren't.

Like, wait, you're telling me my son takes that bizarre peasant boy around everywhere and lets him get away with whatever he wants and protects him against even me because he just... likes him that much? As a person?

Disgusting.