#merlin bbc meta

[longlivechips]

My favorite Merlin head cannon is that Arthur knew Merlin had a secret that they didn't talk about because it would get him in trouble with the law

but he always just assumed the secret was Merlin that preferred men.

feat: this scene

[regulusrules]

I was minding my own goddamn business only to suddenly remember this scene exists

I don't know how to explain it, but it's addressing something so visceral in me.

Like. Did anyone ever expand on how Arthur literally didn't even blink before getting up to save Merlin from the onslaught he would have faced for his outrage? He just got up immediately and took Merlin away, held and handled his anger, and even gave him the respite (visiting Gaius) that he needed.

Wtf. Like boy no you're not supposed to be this fucking in sync with your manservant's reactions. But it's as if he predicted it even, because he saw in Merlin the exact same reaction he wanted to do, but had the tact not to because he grew up with boundaries. So he goes on to save his boy instead.

Sick of how much these two loved each other

(recs)

[thefabledpheasant]

During this sequence that’s supposed to feel victorious and like, “yeah things aren’t perfect, but the good guys won today!” Merlin watches Guinevere and Arthur hug intimately and you know what? He looks sad.

He looks like he wishes he could touch Arthur so freely and affectionately. He looks like he’s desperate to be seen for everything he is and everything he’s done for him. He looks like he’s accepting he’ll never be with Arthur like that and it’s breaking his heart.

That man is deeply in love and he can’t do anything about it. He is happy for them because he just wants them to be happy, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like a dagger in his heart.

It reminds me of that quote from Sherlock, “you look sad when you think he can’t see you”

[mediacircuspod]

The writing on the Adventures of Merlin astounds me constantly. Like. A goblin possesses Gaius and licks gold. Fart jokes are treated as relevant comedy. We’re supposed to believe that no one sees Merlin do magic in broad daylight, everyday, when we literally see his eyes flash and a sound effect plays. But then.

But then Uther dies on Arthur’s birthday.

You might not get it yet. You might not know why that’s insane. I’ll tell you. The significance of that event is that Igraine died in childbirth. Arthur’s birthday is already a reminder of his dead mother. A woman who died for his birth. And now his father dies, signifying Arthur’s ascent to King.

A rebirth. Once again forged in the blood of his kin, Arthur Pendragon is borne of death.

A day that has forever been bloodied is now drowning in red, and it has been and will always be treated as a celebration.

What were they on???? That they could waffle between some of the cringiest takes I’ve ever seen, and some of the most poignant symbols in modern storytelling. I simply don’t understand.

[asha-mage]

Listen I am SO mentally well about them (he lied).

5.05 The Disir

[fanfic-thesis]

Day 2 Fanfic Bachelor's Thesis

Got sidtracked by the sidequest "I already started my master's degree". Cannot recommend.

But got the first participants for my research \o/ (Still need a few more. Feel free to look at my pinned post, if you write fanfics about BBCs Merlin.)

Also lost some sleep because somehow the middle of the night seemed like the best time to start the necessary data analysis for my BA. No better time to get some numbers from AO3 than midnight :)

[queerofthedagger]

the point is that arthur starts out as very potentially similar to uther even though there is already kindness in his heart, and then develops to grow further and further away from him, while morgana starts out as very potentially different from uther even though there is already ruthlessness in her heart, and then develops to grow more and more like him. in this essay i will --

[dandelionjack]

big fan of this shot. merlin lying face down at the centre of a spiral — the spiral of all his responsibilities swirling around him. magic tomes on one side, chores on the other, arthur somewhere in the distance. he’s doing it all. trapped in the labyrinth of fate because the prophecy decreed it. and someday he’ll be Great but it feels so far away

[quotidian-oblivion]

May I just say... Colin Morgan's background stage business is impeccable. There are so many actors who just stand there watching or aimlessly shuffle around, but I've noticed that when Colin Morgan is in-character, he is in-character.

I haven't watched him in anything other than Merlin, but when he's not the focus of the camera, he's still doing things just as Merlin does. Like, trying not to laugh during the feast when Elena was visiting and displaying poor table manners, actually looking deep in-thought and mouthing the name 'Alice' when Gaius was talking to him about her, glaring at Gwen from the bedpost when she was enchanted and was monologuing about who could have possibly poisoned Arthur, polishing or doing a chore or keeping his head down when Uther's talking to Arthur but still watching them with a keen eye-

and so many more instances! His background stage business is just amazing.

[theroundbartable]

Something I really love about Merthur is that Arthur, no matter which season or episode, he's the most comfortable around Merlin. And yet, he always seems a little - tense.

Like, he will confide in Merlin and even though Merlin is the only person he trusts, his reactions around him are always the most extreme, the most emotional.

His father says Gaius has to die? Arthur is repressing his emotions, there is nothing he can do (until Gwen talks to him.).

Several episodes later, Arthur condemns Gaius as a traitor himself. But telling Merlin? Impossible. Merlin's reaction, worse than Arthur anticipated. Arthur gets loud, forbids Merlin to speak.

And it's always like that. Arthur is so resigned with Uther, but with Merlin, he's like - everything he does stands and falls with Merlin's opinion. He gets upset or sad or angry or overjoyed.

Agravaine tells him to kill a guy? Arthur first keeps a mask up. But after everything, Arthur is the most tense around Merlin. The most lost, the most wounded.

Even when they laugh and joke, there seem to be these moments when Arthur just halts and looks at Merlin a second too long, smile glued to his face until reality sets back in and he claps Merlin on the shoulder and leaves. It always feels like there is something between them, something that's always keeping them apart. And they can both feel it. The only difference is that Merlin knows what it is.

Not like a coin, like too magnets whose south poles are directed towards each other.

And it's only in that final episode when that tension finally breaks and Merlin's pole turns upside down. And suddenly, even though it's sort of tense between them, the distance is no longer that untangible weird something that almost feels massive to bridge. It's gone. The distance is a choice, one solidified by Arthur's wish not to see Merlin right away. But now they are slowly glueing together, closer than ever, snapped into place and it's so raw and so new and that weird tension is just gone.

And I just... i just love that.

[itbelikethatsmetimes]

I'll never forgive BBC Merlin for the dragon going "For everything you've worked towards has come to pass" in the last episode. Because it hasn't! Magic is still illegal! The kingdoms are far from united! The glorious age of Albion or whatever was like, a blip in time at most!

I would have vastly preferred it if they'd just leaned into the tragedy of it all. When Merlin asks: "I failed?", I wish the answer was "Yes", because he chose Arthur over magic time and time again, because he was so desperate to keep him alive he brought about his death, because love lead them to ruin!! Give me that sweet sweet tragedy!!

[longlivechips]

Obsessed with Merlin's reputation in Camelot.

This guy just shows up one day and gets handed one of the most sought after jobs in the castle and then proceeds to be absolutely terrible at it for 10 years.

He goes missing for hours and days at a time, he even has a whole ass nother job.

Arthur takes this guy EVERYWHERE and he doesn't even fight anyone. Doesn't even have a helmet on poor sap.

They are marching off to war and the only two people riding horseback besides Arthur are Merlin and Leon!!

We say it a lot but. Merlin gets mistress treatment AF.

[regulusrules]

It’s 2025 and it’s high time we start writing more unapologetic merlin in magic reveals because that boy deserved kingdoms on their KNEES for him

[thefabledpheasant]

These are the tiny moments I love. It’s the way Arthur’s eyes don’t leave Merlin after he looks away. Not only do they not leave him, but you can literally see his eyes flick around Merlin’s face.

It’s a moment just for Arthur. To observe and appreciate his friend up close. He even does a little gulp as he’s taking in his side profile, his cheekbones, his chin. His Merlin.

Arthur loves Merlin. He was destined to.

[thenerdyalien]

The real tragedy of bbc merlin

No matter how many years have passed since the finale, sometimes I still get choked up thinking about Merlin's devotion to Arthur and how cruel destiny really was to him. Because yes, Arthur's death was tragic, but for me Merlin's prophecised destiny was always the real tragedy of the show.

Like imagine being told that your whole purpose in life, your destiny, is another person, and not only that but someone you don't particularly like at first (a prat, you may say). And it's clear that he often feels trapped by this, even going as far as comparing his destiny with Arthur to a marriage (yes, that happens in not only one but two scenes, though one of them was deleted), an arrangement he had no say in but that has dictated his whole life. But the worst part is that he starts growing fond of him, he starts falling in love with the man he is inside, the real Arthur, not the facade he puts on for others. And suddenly it's not about destiny for Merlin anymore, it's about Arthur. He puts Arthur above everything. His kind, his beliefs, himself. He shuts himself off, he becomes a shell of the boy he used to be. Arthur's well-being is everything to him and nothing else matters. That's why he chooses Arthur over magic in the Disir, that's why he never told him the truth about his mother, that's why he was ready to die without ever letting Arthur know about his secret...because he would rather jump into the flames than to ever put Arthur in that position. And then imagine finding out that in the end, it was all a cruel joke, that the man you had come to love with all your being would be ripped from you anyway, no matter how dutifully you fulfilled your destiny, no matter how much you had given away for him. Because it turned out that your destiny was never Arthur, it was tragedy, it was martyrdom, it was giving away your body and soul for a future that will never come, a golden age that you'll never get to see.

That's why we're all still here 12 years later, because the bbc unintentionally wrote the most devastating tragedy of the century under the disguise of a silly family show.

[a-random-fandom-friend]

Sometime going into a trending tag is very funny. "If the two male leads of this tv show from the 2000s/early 2010s don't canonically end up together, I don't know what I will do with myself !"

I don't know how to explain to you that before, like, 2017, This Did Not Happen. There were straight couple, and next to them were Ambigusly Close Men (Often With Female Love Interests), and you considered yourself lucky if in the finale they weren't in straight relationships. There were hints. There were gay actors, there were jokey "ahah let's not talk about New Year Party!", there were people being homophobic to them. But it was known that they Would Not End Up Together.

Please manage your expectations.