#nix.bbcm

[astranix]

right so imagine this. merlin's magic is revealed at some point during one of the early seasons and he's imprisoned by uther. but arthur helps him escape and they make a promise to each other that they'll meet again, that once arthur is king, merlin will return to camelot.

so merlin leaves and he sort of discards his name, takes on emrys. and then he starts learning magic. genuinely learning magic. he learns from kilgharrah and the druids and the catha and the sidhe and he travels a lot etc. and he's merlin so of course he starts making a name for himself. like he helps people and he accidentally ends up creating a sort of army in the process. he helps a dying man, now his whole village wants to fight for emrys.

basically everyone starts talking about him, this sorcerer from the legends called emrys, who goes around doing literal fucking miracles... he becomes something like a mysterious... god-like figure. everyone knows about him, even in camelot. he's supposed to be the most powerful sorcerer ever to walk the earth, after all. uther thinks he's a threat. morgana, like in canon, gets to know that he's her doom or whatever and she's even more scared of him than before

(btw he probably also has an apprentice . called mordred)

fast forward a couple of years, morgana and morgause are waging war on camelot, uther's dying, arthur is crowned. and the ceremony is about to end and suddenly arthur hears a long live the king! from a voice that he recognizes SO well...

so merlin and arthur meet again and they catch up on everything, morgana and uther etc [cue the new knights and courtiers being absolutely APPALLED by the way merlin talks to the literal king] and then arthur, in passing, mentions emrys. and that emrys might actually be a bigger problem than morgana if he ever attacked camelot

and merlin is like: ....er. arthur. hey. hold up

and he tells arthur that HE'S emrys

and then they win the war against morgana etc and yeah. happily ever after

[astranix]

(s5e7) so i rewatched this episode and i was wondering:

what if arthur could hear everything

like what if arthur wasn't exactly out of it, he was sort of in a coma? and he could hear and feel everything around him but he couldn't speak or move at all... IMAGINE arthur getting to know about merlin's magic like this, with merlin desperate and trying to heal arthur with everything he has?? he gets imprisoned because of gwen and he breaks out and sneaks into his room and whatnot... imagine arthur just lying there, helpless to do anything, but knowing that merlin is out here doing all this for him

and then him waking up and merlin being exactly the same as always and not even hinting at what he's done ... yup mm i think it would be a great AU

edit: i ended up writing a fic so u can read it HERE

[astranix]

(x) i still can't believe they put this scene in and expected us not to think there's something between them ... i mean. arthur looks at a whole field of men and his eyes fall straight on merlin like this

[astranix]

i think it's pretty cool that gwaine is the only person that merlin actually ever asks for help from.

like when he's in the knights' room in s3 and gwaine asks him if he's okay, and he says no!! and then later in s5, when merlin actually calls for gwaine (colin morgan's acting in that scene is terrifyingly good btw which makes it even better)

ok granted that that's only because merlin can't use his magic in those situations and if he could, he wouldn't really need the help, but that's also not the point. the point is that merlin feels comfortable enough to ASK for it ... i just think it's neat. that merlin's barely met the man and he seems to trust him.

right from the very beginning.

no complications, no awkward half-hugs, no weirdly charged and ambiguously worded arguements, no sexual tension, no outer conflict ... just. u n me. we get along. we Get each other. we fight off dudes in a tavern. we polish boots together. we bitch about royalty together. u n me . strength and magic. we keep running into each other in every pub we visit and in every situation that seems out of control, we find each other. u help me, i help u. naturally, and without hesitation. ur there for me and im there too. if we really wanted to, we could love each other. we already do . but we like what we are so much that we don't feel the need to change anything at all. because we can't define something that's practically a part of us. we don't even know what it is but i would die for u. I'd kill for u . that sort of relationship <3

[astranix]

i love merthur but can u imagine if merlin loved morgana with that much devotion. if he was her friend over anyone else's, if it had been morgana for whom he would do anything at all. their destinies linked together, instead of merlin and arthur. magic and vision. all they needed even in canon was someone to watch their backs (merlin with his trust issues, and morgana with her ... many issues) and they could have. they could have had the world. they could have had it all

[astranix]

ARTHUR

Sometimes I dream of leaving Camelot.

GWEN

Really? Where would you go?

ARTHUR

I don't know. Somewhere where nobody knew who I was. I'd get some land and become a farmer.

[Gwen laughs.]

GWEN

I can hardly see you toiling away in the fields all day.

ARTHUR

Obviously I'd take Merlin with me; he can do all the hard work.

GWEN

I'm sure he'd love that.

(s3e10) THANK U SO MUCH FOR THIS ARTHUR PENDRAGON

(source) i don't know what to say but im sure u see where im going with this

[astranix]

i know morgana was driven to do everything she did because of her "anger and bitterness" but like... what was she so angry and bitter about. girl lived in a castle. so what if she got nightmares?? merlin didn't even get any sleep

[astranix]

ok but imagine hunith being a seer

first it would make so much more sense that she would send merlin to camelot!! because she's seen it happen already!! what if she's always known what her son is capable of.... what he's destined to be. imagine hunith seeing her baby's eyes glow gold for the first time and not even be very surprised. hunith sparing the time to teach merlin how to read and write because he will need it someday. teaching him what she knows about dragons because the night before, she'd seen him command them.

imagine little six year old merlin coming home upset because he has no friends and hunith comforting him and thinking of how merlin isn't meant for this tiny place anyway. and of the dream she'd had a night before, in which her son is laughing, standing next to who she knows is prince arthur. will hitting his growth spurt and teasing twelve year old merlin about his short height and hunith amusedly thinking of how merlin will grow taller than him soon enough...

hunith knitting merlin's scarves the color of camelot red

the constant dreams she gets about arthur and merlin, fighting side by side. exchanging looks. grinning. arthur ruffling merlin's hair. merlin rolling his eyes. them riding horseback together

imagine hunith sending merlin to camelot with not only hope in her heart but also a quiet sort of certainty that her boy will be alright. and THEN imagine her happiness when she's proved right and arthur comes to ealdor to help merlin....

[astranix]

always feel like we don't give enough importance to gwen finding out about merlin because it's overshadowed by arthur finding out. i think with everything that happened to gwen in s5 what with being, well, possessed and all, we sort of lose track of merlin and gwen's friendship and that's just so sad because they were so close!! they were so funny and cute together and gwen kissed merlin and it was never even awkward because they just loved each other so much!!! and they would literally die for each other and they made fun of arthur together and they gave each other swords and dresses!!!! like im sorry but they were girl besties

and when gwen was exiled, it was only merlin on her side and . and imagine gwen thinking about how merlin obviously couldn't tell arthur what with him being the prince and all, but why wouldn't he tell her

[astranix]

lancelot, gwen, merlin and arthur's dynamic would be so much easier to describe if i could just figure out who was jealous of whom

[astranix]

bbc merlin would have been better if merlin died instead of arthur

so that. yk. arthur would have to watch merlin die, so that he'd realise how much merlin meant to him. and then he would have to live without him. knowing everyday that merlin died to protect him, unlike merlin who would have to live everyday thinking that he failed to save arthur ... and arthur would be the one to grow and learn and like. improve as a person and a king. without merlin to guide him... so that arthur could have the time he needed to come to terms with everything... to fulfill his fucking destiny which merlin died for instead of the other pointless sort of way around

(this is assuming that merlin isn't immortal)

i mean. ofc it would have been great if nobody died but if somebody HAD to, then it was merlin who deserved to die young and heroic, and arthur who deserved the pain of waiting and regretting his choices and missing merlin

[astranix]

the most annoying thing about bbcm s3 is that i don't know where to look, morgana's eyes or merlin's cheekbones

[astranix]

MORGAUSE

You intrigue me, Merlin. Why does a lowly servant continue to risk everything for Arthur and for Camelot? You know the answer, but you're not telling me. Why? Come on. Time and again you put your life on the line. There must be a reason.

MERLIN

I believe in a fair and just land.

MORGAUSE

And you think Arthur will give you that?

MERLIN

I know it.

MORGAUSE

And then what? You think you'll be recognised, Merlin? Is that it? All this so, one day, you can be a serving boy to the King? No. There's something more. Something you're not telling me, isn't there?

(s3e1) ik now that morgause probably meant the whole emrys prophecy thing but the first time i saw this, i really thought morgause was outing merlin... i can practically hear the "you love arthur don't you????" in that last line

i mean. she could have been thinking it. anyone would be thinking it. we were thinking it

[astranix]

(s1e8 // s5e11) this was on purpose wasn't it.

can you imagine mordred sitting in the cell thinking about the last time he was imprisoned in camelot and that then it was arthur who had saved him but now it's arthur who's put him in....

can you imagine him remembering how merlin had been late and then mordred had called for him and finally he'd heard and come to help arthur and mordred out. what if he wants to call for emrys again but this time he doesn't because he's lost faith in him. because he truly doesn't think merlin will save him

and what if, still, even after everything, a tiny childish part of him -- that's in denial -- keeps praying that somehow, anyhow, kara will be okay, that emrys will save her or arthur will reconsider.... yeah and then he'll hear the . yeah.

[astranix]

are we not going to talk about how everybody is just so instantly in love with gwaine's fighting style like "there's only one person I know who can do that" ok merlin "nobody fights like you do" ur right arthur, ur right

[astranix]

say what u will but bbc merlin writers really knew how to write characters threatening people. i think those kind of scenes are littered everywhere in the show but my favorite ones are:

morgana (in s1e7)

"If anything happens to Arthur, I'll find you. However long it takes."

arthur (s3e12)

"Touch me again, you die."

merlin (in s4e13)

"Be careful."

arthur (in s5e4)

"Then you don't know my knights. They will hunt you. And they will find you. And they will not rest until they're done."

mordred (in s5e11)

"This time you've gone too far. You'll pay, Merlin."