#please tag them with merlin seasonxepisode

[pippin-katz]

Ooooo I’m in the minority for picking “Merlin with Arthur”

Lemme explain my reasoning:

Arthur definitely fell in love with Merlin right before or during 1x04 because duh, did you watch the episode?

But I think Merlin fell in love faster because he was already showing love signs by 1x02. The way he smiles when Arthur says he believes him is precious.

He seems a combination of surprised, impressed, and affectionate; he probably expected Arthur to brush him off but he didn’t. I think it’s the first time Merlin sees the “good person” in him; the prince who has no reason to listen to him or hold his words at any value actually believes him.

Merlin is also already willing to risk exposing himself to save Arthur. He tries his hardest to convince him not to fight, even after Arthur yelled at him, because he believes he’ll die.

Then he spends the entire night learning that spell, literally not sleeping. Once he gets it, he sprints down to the dueling pitch and uses it.

Boy if you don't put your damn hand down. You weren't pointing at the dog when you successfully casted the first time, you had your eyes freaking closed!!

Literally anyone could've seen this shit, and he would've been screwed.

I do think that Arthur started falling in love here too, but was far too busy with his daddy issues to truly fall in love until 1x04. I think these GIFs kinda sum it up pretty well:

Merlin insults a fucking knight right in front of him:

Arthur genuinely fucking laughs despite that pretty much being a crime:

Merlin sees him laugh and smiles, which makes Arthur immediately go back to "prince talking to peasant" mode:

Everything about Arthur's body and facial language in the last GIF screams: "Shit, he caught me laughing at him and he's smiling at me, quick, pretend like you don't care."

And I am serious about him being busy with daddy issues this episode. Uther pretty much called his own son a liar and a coward in front of the royal court. Arthur's definitely hurt and upset by it, because his own father didn't trust him, and actually believed that he would make up an accusation of magic to get out of a duel.

I think they were definitely both in love by The Poisoned Chalice. That whole episode makes so damn sense when you try to ignore all the implications.

Merlin drinks what he knows is poison just to stop Arthur from drinking it. I honestly don't know what his plan was, because he knew he was going to either get sick or literally die from whatever kind of poison was in there. Did expect Gaius to be able to cure him? Or did he straight up not care if he died, just because Arthur lived? Given that he tells Arthur to leave the flower behind when he's in the cave, I'm thinking it was the latter.

Arthur goes on a suicide mission by himself to get the cure. When he finds out from Gaius that the only way to save Merlin is to get the flower, he immediately chooses to do it, but I think what's interesting is the scene after this where he's arguing with Uther about it. He says "Let me take some men", implying that he wasn't going to go alone. Having knights with him pretty much would've guaranteed he would survive, but obviously Uther says no. He decides to go anyway, and by himself.

What was his plan? Go and get the flower or die trying? And he would have died if Merlin hadn't been able to help him with his magic! Despite being that close to dying himself, he still gets the flower before escaping.

This is the kind of dedication to another person that is used in canon couples of every genre. They haven't known each other that long at this point. At the most generous estimate, maybe a month. Episode two takes place the day after the first because it's Merlin's first day as his servant. Between episodes two and four, it's probably been a few weeks. That is not a long time to know someone, and yet these two are legitimately okay with risking their lives for one another.

This post ended up going for way longer than I meant it to. To summarize: Merlin fell first, Arthur fell harder. Thank you for reading!