#merlin's son

[mother-merlin]

can you tell me what spells Dwyer currently has in his arsenel please and also in inate power

Of course!! 💜 Here you have it!

[justaz]

au where merlin doesn’t know balinor is his father and he and arthur are chilling in his cave and balinor mentions hunith and merlin Locks In as he subtly questions the random man and boom arthur and merlin are aware that the last dragonlord is his father.

[rivvyve]

Yes, they used Black Parade for the trailer. Yes, I know literally everyone on this site should have seen it for that reason alone. Yes. Dead Boy Detectives is worth the watch.

[myoonmii]

One thing that makes me love Merlin more is that he’s such an all around guy— like he’s just some silly little servant, he’s the worlds most powerful sorcerer, he’s done nothing wrong, he has done everything wrong, he’s so kind and sweet, he’s absolutely batshit insane, he wouldn’t hurt a fly, he will not hesitate to put you 6 feet under!

[chronicowboy]

we as a collective do Not talk about this line delivery nearly enough and for good fucking reason, i'll kill bradley james for this one line alone. he's just a little boy :'((

[cabbageheadss]

BBC MERLIN | 4x05: His Father's Son

[insanity-laughs-under-pressure]

Something we should acknowledge more as a Fandom is that Uther has never forgotten Merlin's name. I always read fics where he gets Merlin's name wrong but in canon he has that man's name engraved in his brain. You can't tell me Arthur doesn't bring Merlin up in almost every conversation.

[futurepastme]

SecretConsort!merlin

I had this fic idea before falling asleep, I don't know if anything like this already exists (probably). Be warned that I didn't revise this once.

First of all Arthur and Merlin absolutely love each other, but they start off as friends with benefits. Until one day Arthur can't handle anymore

“Say you're mine. Say you'll be mine and no one else's”

“I'll be yours as long as you're also mine”

And yeah, they go exclusive after that (they already were but now was official) and give them a few months or years, but eventually Merlin becomes Arthur's secret consort and they are officially official, mother's sigil and all, because like I said, they Love each other.

Anyways, eventually Uther finds out they are together and he gets tomato-red furious, and only calms down when Arthur agrees to marry for political reasons, whomever Uther chooses for him.

The thing is, Uther kind of learns to like them as a couple, not that they go all out and about telling the world, because is still supposed to be a secret, but Uther sees the sweet glances and the smiles, and most of all he sees how willingly they are to die for each other and it just sits right with him. Uther thinks Merlin makes a good consort for his son and is in no hurry to marry him off anymore.

But of course, nothing really stays the same, and the day comes where the only way Uther finds to keep peace with another kingdom is to marry Arrhur off to some other king's daughter, and he hates it because he knows and he approves of his relationship with the skinny boy that makes his son so happy.

And then comes the heartbreaking scene of Arthur telling Merlin the news and the even more heartbreaking scene before Arthur's wedding day

“I won't be able to be only yours anymore”

“Maybe not, but I'll always be yours”

And they cry through the night holding each other tightly as if the world were to end, because it just might.

And the next day, Uther can freaking see it 

They are both behaving, no one is causing a scene but from up close you can notice how bloodshot their eyes are. And he can see it in the way they refuse to make eye contact, he can see it as he sees Merlin silently crying as Arthur shows the crowd their future queen.

And Uther hates it.

And is not like the new princess is a horrible person but she just doesn't like Merlin, she doesn't want to share her husband. She makes Merlin leave Arthur's Chambers and forbids him to follow Arthur all day unnecessarily, but she knows she can't win.

Not when the King himself gives Merlin royal chambers on the same floor as theirs, and especially not when Arthur doesn't spend the night on his.

Arthur has duties, though. Husband duties. And he has to fulfill them and it kills Merlin.

And Uther can just watch helplessly as Merlin's gaze follows Arthur and his wife and he stays behind as the servant he is supposed to be and is so unfair because she doesn't even love Arthur 

And they keep growing apart but keep fighting for each other because they are fucking made to be together so they still try even if the best they can do for days is hold each other for a few minutes just breathing each other in because that's home and that's where they are meant to be

It continues for a while until one day comes where Arthur goes out without Merlin

And at the same time while he is away, his wife finds herself with child, and everyone's so happy and Merlin just has to leave for a while because he can't handle it

But again, things never go as planned and the knights return with Arthur's body, because something went wrong 

And you can honestly choose what it was, a curse, a spell, bandits, a boar, a mercenary, it doesn't matter because Arthur is dead now and Merlin wasn't there to save him

And now Uther has to deal not only with the death of his only son, and with his widow wife with child but he'll be the one to tell his consort and is so devastating 

Merlin's face turns from sad to haunting and it's like the world ended and Uther can see himself in him, he can see the death of his love weighting on Merlin the way it weighed on him, if not worse

Arthur's body stays inside the castle for two days before the burial so the people of the castle can say their goodbyes and no one has seen Merlin, they are not even sure he went to see Arthur 

And everyone is concerned about the poor widow all dressed in black, she is sad, sure, but the tears rolling from her eyes are just for show, Arthur was barely a friend, but he was good to her

Arthur's body is being prepared for removal, overseen by his family and close friends before the public ceremony took place, and that's when it happens 

Merlin just barges in and stops everything. 

He's spent two days working in it, and he just doesn't care anymore, as long as it works

And Uther once again just watches as this skinny boy fills the room with golden light, and he can't even care to do anything because honestly he would do everything for his love if he could 

And everyone watches as the light coming from Merlin starts being absorbed by Arthur through his chest and is so beautiful to watch

Arthur starts to sit up as Merlin lowers down and they just have a moment, a small second where they are both there and Merlin just rests his head against Arthur's 

“I would do it again. I would do it as many times as needed because I love you and you are my everything”

“Merlin?”

And then the light is gone, and so is Merlin 

And Uther watched as his widowed son holds his lover's body, just like he did over twenty years ago

[chasingwhitebunnies]

AU where Morgause and Cenred kidnap Hunith instead of Elyan in S3, knowing Arthur will do anything for Merlin

They don’t understand why this small village woman seems so calm, even amused by the situation. Does she not realise what danger she is in? Her son?

But then Merlin “I love my mum” No-Last-Name A.K.A. The Most Powerful Sorcerer Ever to Walk the Earth single handedly breaks down the castle walls and takes down their guards instantly because how dare they take his mum

Honestly, that’s the magic reveal we needed

[twistedshipper]

Gothic fiction is characterized by an environment of fear, the threat of supernatural events, and the intrusion of the past upon the present. . . . From the castles, dungeons, forests, and hidden passages of the Gothic novel genre emerged female Gothic. . . . Female Gothic narratives focus on such topics as a persecuted heroine fleeing from a villainous father and searching for an absent mother.

When the female Gothic coincides with the explained supernatural the natural cause of terror is not the supernatural, but female disability and societal horrors: rape, incest, and the threatening control of a male antagonist. Female Gothic novels also address women's discontent with patriarchal society, their difficult and unsatisfying maternal position, and their role within that society. Women's fears of entrapment in the domestic, their bodies, marriage, childbirth, or domestic abuse commonly appear in the genre.

After the characteristic Gothic Bildungsroman-like plot sequence, female Gothic allowed readers to grow from "adolescence to maturity" in the face of the realized impossibilities of the supernatural. As protagonists such as Adeline in The Romance of the Forest learn that their superstitious fantasies and terrors are replaced by natural cause and reasonable doubt, the reader may grasp the heroine's true position: "The heroine possesses the romantic temperament that perceives strangeness where others see none. Her sensibility, therefore, prevents her from knowing that her true plight is her condition, the disability of being female."

🌹 𝔐𝔬𝔯𝔤𝔞𝔫𝔞 & 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔢𝔪𝔞𝔩𝔢 𝔊𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔠🥀

[taliesin-the-bored]

A few things which are “canon” somewhere for people who are worried they’re stretching it too far

Arthur was killed by a giant cat. 

Arthur killed the cat.

Arthur didn’t fight the cat. Kay did.

Kay and Bedivere use salmon as taxis. 

Lucan is half giant, half lion. (This Lucan, Lucano in the original Italian, is evil and not related to Bedivere). 

King Arthur raided the land of the dead.

The human knight Caradoc Briefbras has three half siblings: a dog, a horse, and a pig.

A large portion of Arthur’s troops was killed a while before Camlann by his nephew’s attack ravens in self-defense. Arthur and said nephew were playing chess at the time and neither did much to stop it.

Merlin retired peacefully and went to live in the countryside with Taliesin.

Wherever Arthur walks, plants die. They don’t grow back for years.

Arthur had a spunky (half?) brother who died in battle after making a mysterious oath.

Dagonet is more or less able to run the kingdom when Arthur is gone. His biggest error is overspending on mercenaries.

Guinevere has an evil almost identical twin half-sister.

Hector beat up all the best knights except for Galahad while possessed by a demon.

Gawain plays tennis.

Gawain has used a chessboard as a weapon.

Near the start of his reign, Arthur left Lot in charge of the kingdom and went on a quest with a sassy parrot.

Gawain or Galahad succeeded Arthur as king. 

[justaz]

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

[lauravian]

S1E10: The Moment of Truth

Redrawing a screenshot from every episode of Merlin... (until I get bored of it)

[marcskywalker]

thinking again about how the first thing arthur said to his mother is an apology. he risked his life, literally put his head on a chopping board just for an opportunity to see her and apologize. I'm-

and his little "I cannot bear the thought that you died because of me" SJFGKJDSF he's been carrying that burden on his shoulder for so long I'm gonna go chew glass

do yáll think the reason he's always so eager to sacrifice his life for other people is cause he doesn't think he deserved to be alive in the first place??

[dreamspring]

controversial take perhaps but one thing i will say is that i do think it's strange that gaius doesn't die by s5. i honestly think he should have and it would have been a good character/plot development moment. by s5 he's basically irrelevant anyway and merlin doesn't even listen to him really so why is he there!! he's kind of outgrown his role in the show. and i'm not saying this cuz im a gaius hater (i am NOT!) but because it feels thematically strange that he's just around... doing nothing. lowkey. also i hate to be that person but i just Think that it would make merlin's s5 insanity (lowkey.) even more understandable if morgana had just straight up killed gaius when she kidnapped him or if he died some other way in late s4/early s5. he's lost everyone who has ever known abt his magic (except his mother ig) he's sooo alone he has no support. he has to make all these decisions on his own he doesn't want to lose the only people he has left and its hash tag tragedy. like if ur gonna go in that direction... kill gaius. they should have done it. for the plot.

[gldnstrngs]

its canon that ygraine haunts the narrative of the entire show and yet there we barely get to know about her and her story…

call me dramatic but i literally ache at the fact that arthur never really got to know his own mother despite the sacrifice she made for him. like, obviously he couldnt actually know her because she passed away giving birth to him, but we dont get to see him find out more about her

i think the only time we really see arthur speak about ygraine is in s2 ep8 before he meets her ghost; he admits that it pains uther to talk about her so i can see why arthur wouldnt know in the beginning of the series

but even then, i wish we couldve seen gaius or even morgana mention how arthur is similar to ygraine because of his kindness and resilence, or how she may have enjoyed swordplay like him

and then in s4, after uther died, it would’ve been the perfect chance to have arthur explore tintagel because he always knew about it but wasnt allowed to go there. then he couldve learned things about her like maybe she was interested in medicine or she would always read growing up— or how she was fond of magic

arthur would be forced to reconsider his entire worldview; he’d question everything uther taught him and eventually realize that magic was not inherently evil like he thought it was. it was something good and he saw that from the things ygraine read or wrote about

i’d like to think that merlin would admit to arthur how he lied to him in order to spare uther’s life, which would def be a point of contention for them but would eventually lead to arthur’s acceptance of magic because ultimately he is his mother’s son, not his father’s

also outside of that i just wish we knew more about ygraine like it was implied that she and nimueh were close friends so i wanted to know more about their story or even how uther conquered camelot like idk there’s just so much i NEED to know