Hear me out I enjoy this 'Gwaine calls Arthur princess and is loyal to Merlin first' fanfic thing just as much as everyone else but please can we not forget what canon Gwaine is really like?
Gwaine does call Arthur princess once and likes to tease him but that is before he becomes his knight. His attitude towards him changes radically from this moment on:
As Arthur knights him, his carefree demeanour shifts abruptly. Look how serious he is, how solemn. He even closes his eyes, barely containing his emotions. This is Gwaine accepting the knighthood he had never wanted because it was being given to him by a man who didn't know he was actually a noble. With this gesture Arthur was giving him something he had always been looking for: a purpose, a meaning to his life. And he finally finds it in serving and protecting that man who believed in equality above all things and who had found Gwaine, a supposedly nobody, worthy of bestowing upon him the greatest honour he was capable of.
In that moment Arthur gave him a home, a family and something to fight for.
And in exchange Gwaine took his oath of allegiance to heart and became fiercely loyal and protective of Arthur.
This is his reaction when Dragoon threatens his king's life:
This is how he responds when Merlin asks him to look after Arthur because he fears that he may be in danger:
In the Disir's cave, of all the people present, it is Gwaine who gets super angry and jumps in front of Arthur the moment the Disir start attackig him.
And when Arthur is poisoned and Gaius tells them that it's deadly, there he is, on the front line, clutching his chest, utterly devastated.
So, yes, of course Merlin was Gwaine's first friend, of course he'd always remain loyal to him no matter what. But he loved and respected Arthur just the same.
And the fact that he dies thinking he has failed him will haunt me until the day I die.
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