#ppl have spent so long calling non-canon ships ‘subtext’ that they’re completely rewritten the meaning of the word subtext

[sneakyboymerlin]

Since we’re all in agreement now that Gwaine is (sub)textually in L word (lesbians) with Merlin, can we stop no-homo-ing them in every fic 😭 if I have to see “Gwaine did all that because Merlin is like a brother to him” one more time I’m gonna create a zombifying parasite that takes humans as hosts and then also they ship merwaine because of the parasite and there is peace on earth. worm

[bisclavret]

#once saw someone call gwaine ‘the straight one’ as if he hasn’t been ‘the gay one’ for a thousand years #having a thought. hang on #ppl have spent so long calling non-canon ships ‘subtext’ that they’re completely rewritten the meaning of the word subtext #so that when something is actual present cohesive subtext that immediately comes across as Weak Evidence#instead of a message that is simply… indirectly expressed #huh…

i don't particularly care what people write in their fics but i deeply agree with what you're saying and i think everyone would benefit from learning to separate the idea of queerbaiting (writing a gay-coded dynamic that seems like it's gonna lead somewhere so gay people will watch your show only to never let it lead anywhere), homophobic jokes/tropes at the expense of gay-coded characters, subtext and heavy gay-coding that can be recontextualized/dismissed/applied to other motives such as duty and magic, and the sort of writing that is almost entirely text but is subtle enough to get past censorship.

bbc merlin is unique in that it contains all of this and more and it applies to almost every character, but when it comes to gwaine you can eliminate queerbaiting pretty quickly as i don't think anyone deluded themselves that it would happen while watching the show the way merthur fans did (and i don't blame them! queerbaiting used to be an artform or whatever that one post said), and you can also eliminate any other motives gwaine could've had for loving and sticking by merlin (duty or magic) since he never outright found out about 99% of the magic plot and openly told merlin he isn't doing anything out of a sense of duty, just for his company and affection.

that leaves us with the gay/homophobic jokes, which i do think have been done at both gwaine and merlin's expense, gay-coding, which applies to almost the entire cast (but is the least metaphorical and most explicit in gwaine's case since, again, with him there's no duty or magic to serve as a metaphor or excuse), and the sort of writing that is not quite subtext but rather the sort of subtle, layered text that people writing about homosexual attraction have been using to get past censors since censors have existed.

the way gwaine and his affection for merlin are written are less reminiscent of "baiting" or "excusable" subtext and more reminiscent of dynamics like will and hannibal or marceline and bubblegum (before the networks relented) or the guys from the untamed (from what i understand) in that there is no other viable explanation for how the characters behave around one another, but they can't quite act on it or the episode just won't be allowed to air. and so instead the writers give them actions and dialogue that function as declarations of desire and love that may be a bit more roundabout than an outright "i love you" or physical touch, but still symbolize exactly those things on every single other narrative level. and this is how gwaine has been written from the moment he met merlin 14 years ago.

tl;dr it's not that serious but let's all be so fr for five seconds. gwaine, as the character that exists on the show we all watched, is not straight or a brother or mentor figure to merlin. he canonically adores merlin for pretty well spelled-out reasons that boil down to him being in love and unable to act on it due to the nature of the show/tv network. you can change that in your fic if you'd like, but it would be like changing something crucial about another character, such as taking away arthur's daddy issues or not giving lancelot a martyr complex. being bisexual and in love with the protagonist is a core part of who gwaine is, and if you take that away you have changed his character pretty drastically and you better have a good reason for keeping him in the story.

Since we’re all in agreement now that Gwaine is (sub)textually in L word (lesbians) with Merlin, can we stop no-homo-ing them in every fic 😭 if I have to see “Gwaine did all that because Merlin is like a brother to him” one more time I’m gonna create a zombifying parasite that takes humans as hosts and then also they ship merwaine because of the parasite and there is peace on earth. worm