#specifically from a character that falls from the 'respectable' category by his own metric of it

[obstinaterixatrix]

the thing is the metanarrative I'm interpreting from adding machine is 'cutting off empathy for others has been self-destructive for the main character' in like a specific way, uncritically buying into toxic socialization and being unwilling to challenge it is the reason he doesn't accept 'paradise', it's a constant rejection of growth and reinforcement of consistency. and I think empathy here is completely distinct from self-esteem or self-image, the main character clearly feels a lot of entitlement all the time but he doesn't connect to himself as a person (because he refuses to connect to other people in a meaningful way).

[panharmonium]

You know what would be lovely? If more fic would give me genuine Will&Merlin content. I fell back into this void lately, and realized that 9/10 times my boy Will gets shafted. (The ones that don't do that, though, are almost entirely excellent, to be fair). Let them be friends! Let them be queerplatonic lifepartners, if that's your jam! All this to say, I reread all your Will/Merlin content and I am very grateful for you and the other Pro-Will content creators. Thank you.

😍 So, occasionally in the past when I’ve written things about these two and said to myself, “hmmm this is pretty niche and I am the only one who’s ever going to read it,” I’ve encouraged myself by being like “ok but one day somebody just like me is going to go looking for fic about them, and, unlike me, they are going to find things to read, because I wrote a bunch of it.”  And now here’s this ask - what a nice thing to hear!  Thank you so much!  I am so glad you have enjoyed my stuff! <333

I too struggle with Will’s portrayal in most fic, so I hear you!  I’ve talked about it in more detail here and here, but it’s frustrating that Will’s ship tag with Merlin is 90% Merlin/Arthur fic, wherein Will is either a barely-mentioned ex/an antagonist/a current significant other who is (surprise!) not good enough and inevitably about to get dumped for Arthur, and even in gen fic he tends to just...only show up to be a sounding board for Merlin and Arthur’s budding romance.  Like...you can usually predict the exact scenes Will is going to have in fic where he shows up as Merlin’s friend, and they fall into the categories of a) “humorous” moments of him being aggressively heterosexual (where did this weird fanon idea that Will is Merlin’s inappropriate and/or sex-crazed friend come from?  there’s literally....ZERO canon indication of this) and then b) him being the person to whom Merlin periodically debriefs on how things with Arthur are progressing.  He’s just a character of convenience, most of the time.  In the genfics, his relationship with Merlin often doesn’t matter in its own right, and in the shipfics, it gets shafted.

And when I talk about fandom trends that I don’t personally care for, I always try to clarify that I’m not actually telling people they should write something different - this is fanfic; you can use Will for whatever, or not at all; go for it!  Nobody has an obligation to devote time to any character they’re not interested in; that would be silly.  I’m only talking about what I personally find satisfying.  And personally, I feel that Merlin’s relationship with Will is something that is important to him, and something that he has never considered to be secondary or less important than the relationships he built in Camelot.  So when it comes to whether or not I find a portrayal of Will satisfying, my metric is basically “do I feel like the author actually respects his relationship with Merlin as something that matters?  Do he and Merlin have a relationship that exists outside of Arthur Pendragon?  Is Will an actual character in his own right, or is he just there to serve a convenient purpose?”

In terms of shippy stuff specifically - I’ve only published gen fic about these two so far, but I too would love to see Will have more shipfic that actually belongs to him, particularly of the sort you mention (because that is the only way I envision Merlin as ever being involved in a “shippy” relationship, personally, at least when it comes to the canon version of himself).  The most important thing for me when it comes to Will and Merlin is their friendship, but I love them in any configuration, and it makes me a little batty that Will’s entire ship tag is basically Merlin/Arthur fic in disguise.  Like - Will is such a good person!  He is so devoted to Merlin’s well-being!  Every single thing he does in his brief canon appearance is done for Merlin’s sake, at his own expense, and I can’t understand why a character like that gets so snubbed in his own tag.  

So, given all that, it is super nice for me to hear from someone who is on a similar wavelength! :D  Thank you so much for this message, and feel free to drop into my askbox any time you need a Will & Merlin fix - messages about Will are my favorite thing to find when I log in, and I am literally ALWAYS ready to talk about these two. :)