#yay got a spontanious ask about merthur

[tansyuduri]

Hi, do you mind if I ask, what do you think are Merlin and Arthurt’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic? Thanks if you want to answer....

Of course, I'll answer! I love answering questions! It's hard for me to put into words the answer to the first question. (For some reason these things are a LOT easier to express in fic) For Merlin it is devotion to the people closest to him. This is a man who will do almost anything for those he cares about. He will choose them EVERY TIME. He might struggle with it and choose something else might be more objectivly "right" and feel bad about it.

And some of his greatest struggles deciding what to do come from having to decide between what he is told might happen in teh future (AKA kid mordred and early morgana) and what to do now.

But usually he will choose the well being of the people he cares about (ESP ARTHUR) Especially if no one around him is in imidate danger (AKA Sins of the father magic statement) By season 5 this is at an extreme level and he has Arthur tunnel vision. The key thing here is this comes from a place of caring. It comes from him caring so much. Its his kindness and golden heart twisted by destiny, responsability, and some pretty horrible advice (That at least from one source is ALSO well-meaning) Hes basically told from day one that the entire responsibility for keeping Arthur safe is ALL on him. And he takes that to heart. For Arthur It's harder to pinpoint. But 99.9 percent of it is generational trauma from uther. From having a hard time expressing and processing emotions. (leading to lashing out) To the self-hate that spurs a lot of his acting out and trying to be more sure of himself. Hes a good person but doesn't always know how to express it right because he was not given the right tools. One thing I bring up in one of my fics is also that I'm pretty convinced at least subconsciously one of the reasons Arthur has such a hard time with magic is that IF it's good then in his view his very birth caused horrible things to happen to innocent people. He would self-blame. (Despite it being on uther) Despite this, he still asks himself questions about it being good. This is a bit rambly. Their best personality trait, for both of them as far as I am concerned are their hearts of gold. They are human but they are both such GOOD people. Now for their dynamics, I'm a sucker for banter so thats one thing. But I think what I like most about them both is that they can/could help heal each other. They are good for each other. Given time I think they would help each other heal from their trauma and the hardships they have faced. Just by being themselves. (I kinda live for that dynamic) We didn't get to see this as much from Arthur because so much was kept from him until the last episode. As someone who has deals with trauma a lot the idea of a pairing that can help heal each other and help each other be better is VERY appealing. We didn't get a chance to see the full extent of that in cannon though we do see a lot. One of the most important and meaningful parts of writing fanfic for me is being able to see them heal a bit, and help each other with that. (though a lot of Arthurs happens in the prequal fic to the one I am posting right now. Fair warning. The one I posting ATM mostly focuses on Merlin Trauma)