#merlin lives au

[magicomens]

Someone's finally connecting the dots

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[justaz]

merlin (immortal) giving arthur (pendragon) the only blade that could kill him

[kissme-withyour-cherrylipstick]

Moment of Truth AU where Will lives and Arthur can't do anything about him being a sorcerer because Ealdor isn't in Camelot, but the people of Ealdor absolutely can do something about it so they try to burn him on the funeral pyre for sorcery. Arthur has conflicting feelings about it because Will is Merlin's best friend and he saved Arthur's life after all. What was so bad about what he did? He saved everyone and now they're going to kill him for it. So Merlin and Arthur save him, but he can no longer stay in Ealdor, so he goes with them to Camelot. He gets a job in the tavern. He flirts with Gwen (everyone flirts with Gwen). He pulls pranks with Merlin. He's out as a sorcerer to Arthur and Merlin is still hiding, so Merlin has to do some magic ventriloquism to keep up the charade. Will is having a great time, but it gets old for Merlin really fast so they do some shenanigans and oh no! Will's magic got transferred to Merlin! They ask Gaius (who is in on it because of course he is) for help and he assures them there's nothing that can be done. Arthur tells Merlin he has to be very careful and not let the magic corrupt him, but that he is okay with him being a sorcerer. For now. Until they figure out how to reverse the spell. And that's how Merlin came out to Arthur as a sorcerer.

[pyjamacryptid]

little girl, a patient: can I have a lollipop

doctor merlin in the 21st century: can you have— I have created butterflies from nothing and horses from smoke. I have seen empires rise, fall, crumble, and start from nothing but a fish in a poor man’s hand. I’ve fought witches and failed them too. I’ve laid waste to armies and blessed nations of people with health that will never make up for it. I have pantsed Kings and kissed Queens. I have stood upon the precipice of this world and called forth the ocean only for time to swallow me whole and spit me back out. And I would do it all again if I could grant you, dear Matilda, a lollipop.

little girl: strawberry?

merlin: say no more, Tilda, this should clear up the taste of that cold medicine right away

[takingasterix]

@lil-gremlin-things requested a Merlin Stardew Valley AU, and I am happy to supply! :) Thanks so much for the super fun request!

[sepezzz]

merlin fanart?????? in 2023????????

more context for these in the tags

[aetherdecember]

Look, I love BBC Merlin and how they told the lore, but I’m a sucker for the relationship between Arthur and Mordred in the mythology. Specifically, I love how Mary Stewart (author of The Arthurian Saga**) and Nancy Springer (author of I Am Mordred**) wrote about the father/son relationship between them. So naturally, my brain has been conjuring up how I can include that in my Flipping the Coin au.

Since the main premise is Merlin died/Arthur lives, and now Arthur is the one waiting for Merlin to come back, things would stay consistent with canon up to the last episode (when Merlin flips the coin of their destiny and sacrifices himself so Arthur can live and thus stop Camlann from happening altogether). Which is where this idea will start:

Gwen is barren. She and Arthur never have kids. Eventually, everyone Arthur knows and loves dies. He can’t rule Camelot forever, and after Gwen’s death, he no longer wants to, so he fakes his death and wanders off figure out why he’s still here. He never gets an answer for that. Arthur spends the next millennium waiting. He keeps living. He meets people, experiences things he’d never experienced before, and learns things he’d never dreamed of learning. He can’t stay anywhere long, or else suspicions will rise, but he gets to see the world change, how technology advances, and witness humans continuing to be humans. When war breaks out, he joins the battle. It’s familiar. The rush of adrenaline is the same whether he’s wielding a sword or a gun. Only, he can’t see the enemy’s face anymore.

Peace comes again. At some point, he sleeps with a woman, and she happens to become pregnant. Bisexual disaster that he is, he’s had all sorts of partners from both sexes, but has never had this happen, even before the advent of reliable birth control. Later, he’ll learn her name is Morgause. She doesn’t look like the Morgause he knew before, nor does she act like her, but her name haunts him. After the baby is born, she gives him to Arthur, says she has no intentions of being a mother, and leaves. The last thing she had said to him was the baby’s name.

Mordred.

That night, Arthur holds Mordred and weeps.

There is irony in his son being named Mordred. First, in that the legends surrounding him, Merlin, Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table, and all of it, had long ago decided Mordred was his son. And two, in a retelling of that legend, it had aptly phrased what he sensed was happening now. Granted, he isn’t a sorcerer, he doesn’t have magic, so he can’t support his feeling with anything other than he’d been around a long time and knew to his very core that it was true. Mordred’s birth is a signal of the beginning of the end.

Fatherhood brings him a new sense of purpose. Gone are the days of loneliness and drudgery. Every day with Mordred brings a new light into his life. Each smile is a miracle. Seeing Mordred experience things for the first time brings a new appreciation. Being there to watch him grow makes time fly like it never has before. But Arthur is afraid. He doesn’t want to be his father. He doesn’t know how to be a father, or what the right way to do it is. In all the years he’s been on the Earth, he’s never known a man who could concretely say, “This is the way to raise a son,” and actually reap the fruits of their efforts. Too frequently, he’d seen sons grow outside of the visions their fathers molded for them and receive only disappointment and disdain in return. So he was afraid, because he too had been that son.

*cue a series of fluffy father/son one shots of Arthur raising Mordred until Merlin comes back, takes one look, and is is like WTF????? No, I won’t have Mordred for a step son >:(*

**Mary Stewart and Nancy Springer have several other works, not just the stories I mentioned. The ones mentioned are the ones I’m pulling inspiration from ^^

Additional notes below the break:

Guinevere’s barrenness is not a headcanon I typically subscribe to for BBC Merlin. My headcanon is that after Arthur’s death, Gwen gives birth, and their child eventually succeeds her as ruler.

I’ve always seen Mordred’s appearance as the harbinger of Arthur’s downfall. Thus, the reason for the plot bunnies in my brain going crazy with this idea of how I could bring him in, still remain mostly canon compliant with BBC Merlin, and build off some of my favorite parts of the lore. (Mandatory disclaimer: for BBC Merlin, I don’t headcanon Mordred as Arthur’s son. But for the mythology, I do wholeheartedly support that canon.)

Arthur’s choice to participate and live once Camelot is gone is a decision to contrast my headcanon of how Merlin handled it. I don’t think Merlin thrived. I think he stayed busy, and tried to remain hopeful, but I think he was anxiously consumed with the anticipation of wondering when Arthur would come back. In this au, Arthur may or may not know that Merlin is supposed to come back (I’m still working on that detail), but he’s always been around others. I think he would seek camaraderie, and companionship, and that he would connect with others but only to a superficial level. I don’t think he’d exist in a void of loneliness. Plus, he doesn’t have the guilt of knowing he failed because the pressure from the prophecy is very one sided *coughcough*causemerlinnevertoldhim*coughcough*

Anyways, that’s enough rambling from me about this. I’ll probably share some snippets of writing next because there are some fantastic scenes coming together in the draft so stay tuned! ;D

[trainerdelaney]

The FBI agents in charge of monitoring my browsing history

Agent 1: "How's she doing? You know, mentally?"

Agent 2: "She's done nothing the past three weeks but read BBC Merlin 'fix-it' fanfics."

Agent: "Oh no"

[fluffypotatey]

I said once and I'll say it again, I don't really think late season merlin is a villain, but I do think season 1 and pre canon merlin would think his future self is a villain

agreed, anon, s1 merlin would be horrified at the decision and choices he made by s4-5

but yeah merlin isn’t a “villain” by s5. he falls into more of a gray area in my opinion. like, he is still a hero to me but just with a narrower view on his priorities and 10 years of dealing with your classic episodic enemies who want to kill Arthur

[raviraaa]

[pollyna]

au in which Goose is a Navy surgeon, Mav flies with Merlin and the pair Iceman and Slider is infamous because of Iceman abilities but for all the scandal Slider takes with him, dating so openly another man's wife.

Or how Mav gets to know Goose after the first night at the O-Club because his wife runs all the way to the tall man drinking beer and laughing at something the Iceman said, before kissing him in front of everyone.

[somnas-writes]

Merlin au where all the sorcerers are friends

[achillesuwu]

Hey but what if Arthur is waiting for the people's he hold dear in the after life 👀

At first he just asks to the newly death people how Camelot is doing, what is happening, etc. Then he began to see people that he knew, knights and nobles at first, (he lied the first "person" he recognised that die after him was that damned Dragon and he is going to have words with Merlin—), Gaius, Hunith,... 40 years after his death he saw his queen again too.

He also see people he doesn't know but cherish anyways : his wife's new husband, their children, his knights' children, their children's children,...

And yet, he does not see Merlin. He does not wish that he dies but it has been 150 years surely Sorcerer can not live that long?

Slowly but surely, Merlin began to loose his connection to Camelot's children. He began to travel, he began to leave and Arthur becomes afraid. Arthur does not know where he will go, Arthur is losing his track. Arthur is dead and Merlin is alive. All he can do is asks, asks and asks again.

Until one day, one day, no one can answers him anymore and so he waits...

[pricilla-omnia-et-nihil]

Arthur's Merlin -Let is Dare (fanfic on ao3)

[justaz]

okay but have we considered morgana x freya?? two women who believed themselves to be monsters, hunted by the same man and his loyal followers, cursed, doomed to death the moment someone finds them out, alone. they wish for freedom, somewhere where they can be themselves, where they dont have to hide, where they can embrace their power and who they are without fear or without harming anyone.

[ask-elland-n-will]

11. What are your boys' fears?

[Elland's — death/serious injury to his loved ones; William's — being in pain/sick.

Elland's comes from how protective he is: making his family happy is a self-imposed goal of his, a reason to live. It doesn't mean he wouldn't let Cyrus make mistakes or that he will babysit William. But he is much rather be the one getting hurt instead.

William's is easier: poor lad is just horrified of physical pain. He has poor health as it is, got sick often as a child. Not to mention his legs injury that left him bedridden for a while (even with magic and potions, it was partially in his head, being in pain and depressed cause he couldn't compete, fearing he'd be in pain for the rest of his life — psychosomatic stuff.) He is fine now, none of that, it's been years, he is a sunshine and does not get stuck in the bad places for long. But he can't compete anymore because after a rigorous exercise his knees started aching again when Will tried getting back into it, and Will switched into Quidditch. Climbing stairs is not easy, and he cannot allow himself to run. But walking is fine.

He just hopes he'll never go through anything like that again. No pain, thank you! He had enough of that to last him a lifetime.]