#watched the last few eps of s4 with my mom tonight and i'm just............ETERNALLY disappointed at the lost opportunities

[asterdeer]

this isnt hbo merlin because i do actually want a version of merlin that’s like, good and doesn’t just carry over the bad writing and add sex and darkly lit torture scenes and gritty ambivalent morality, but whatever:

arthur gets a character arc. his behavior towards merlin actually changes over the course of the show. when people talk about arthur being a Good King there’s actually a narrative behind it

gaius doesn’t turn into such a fucking square. around s3 he just starts going “you can’t do anything to save any magic-user ever and you have to let uther be a genocidal tyrant for unspecified reasons, morality or something??? we have to kill magic users who try to assassinate uther for drowning children.” in my version of merlin gaius is probably the one who kills uther as the oldest magic-user on record, the one closest to uther, the one who’s had to put up with his shit the longest. maybe he’s been working in camelot to try to mitigate the damage uther does? that’s sort of what it felt like in the beginning but honestly gaius is such a disappointment after a point. stop making merlin kill other magic-users, gaius. 

then again, maybe gwen gets to kill uther. he did kill her father for no reason.

then again, maybe morgana gets to kill uther--

everyone gets to kill uther! merlin s3 is actually just murder on the camelot express. everyone hides the assassination plot from arthur to make it look natural, so arthur can ascend to the throne peacefully. he never finds out.

HOWEVER, arthur finds out about merlin’s magic by the end of s2. this is crucial. arthur cannot go the whole entire godforsaken show without knowing that merlin has been using his magic to save his life every single damn episode. it’s disappointing and it stunts the centrality of their relationship. arthur HAS to know merlin as well as merlin knows arthur for this thing to work and it’s stag-ger-ing to me that the showrunners didn’t realize this.

merlin dates every one of the knights for at least an episode each. whether he’s aware that they’re dating is up to the writer’s discretion for that episode/arc.

maybe gwen works at the castle but not FOR morgana so the flirtations between her and morgana are not......QUITE as weird. maybe after the death of her father she leaves the palace and takes over the smithy?

she makes morgana a special knife to profess her Special Feelings. morgana doesn’t Get It, immediately uses the knife for Evil Purposes.

morgwen and merlancelot are the main romances. merthur is the special platonic soulmate situation it should have been. arwen is very sibling-coded, as is mergana. gwaine isn’t involved with any of them anymore but he’s still there.

i think we can probably do without kilgarrah.

the show actually picks a decade or at LEAST a century in british history to take inspiration from. i’d like to see good costumes in my hbo merlin. hats. spiral lacing and split overdress sleeves. shoes with pointy toes. strict sumptuary law adherence. i want no “””period typical””” racism or homophobia in my hbo merlin but gdi i DO want a shred of historical accuracy wrt: costuming

after uther’s assassination at the end of s3, arthur decriminalizes magic, but there’s still a lot of societal pushback. morgana becomes a vigilante for magic-user justice, kind of like maid marian in the bbc robin hood show, because this is merlin and no one cares about historical accuracy. she DOES go too far but it’s not treated like she’s turned into someone Worse Than Uther, and she never becomes a power-hungry tyrant who’d starve her people and their children to make them swear fealty to her. she’s the main antagonist of s4, and also introduces the final s5 BBEG, but she comes back at the end of s4 to fight said BBEG with the others because morgana deserves to be with her family in the end

i  cannot stress this enough: there is a beach episode in each season

the ouran high school host club “lightbulb” motif to show when all the main cast finds out about merlin’s magic.

gwen finds out about merlin’s magic in episode 1. she KNOWS. she, merlin, and gaius are the Library Squad when they need to access the lore on some monster or special magic thing.

gwaine finds out next. he immediately asks merlin to Commit Small Magical Crimes with him.

morgana is third. she and gwen are around when merlin has to save arthur’s ass with magic, and merlin thought he was being sneaky but he wasn’t. he and gwen try to deflect but morgana is SO excited that she has someone to talk to about having magic!!! she and merlin start discussing their magic use weekly.

lancelot is forth. he and merlin share their first kiss after merlin does pretty #aesthetic magic to impress him. It Works.

arthur is last. still earlier in the seasons!!! but he is still absolutely last to figure it out.

the Villain Of The Week characters are either 1) NOT always magic users trying to assassinate uther for his many canonically admitted war crimes or 2) sometimes they are magic users trying to assassinate uther, but merlin just stops them and convinces them that he and the gang are Working On It. 

morgana never wears this hideous fucking object

part 1 of a hypothetical 87-page list of things i’d do differently if i were showrunning bbc’s merlin but i’ll never spend this much effort on rehabilitating merlin ever again

shut up about hbo spn. hbo merlin