Merlin and Arthur are Cas and Dean coded respectively. Agree or disagree?
Ok, so to delve deeper into the Arthur/Dean side of things because in some ways that strikes me as more controversial. They are VERY different people I’ll acknowledge, but I definitely see some similar threads. I think Arthur is who Dean COULD be if he:
1. Were a prince
2. Had heard John say he loved him/we’re proud of him like once every few years (cuz we do see that with Arthur)
3. Had gone to therapy, maybe? (not even joking)
Here’s why:
They both have a sense of duty instilled in them from a young age and their value as a person was connected to what they could achieve for other people. As a result they have a tendency to think that they aren’t good enough and feel like they need to keep proving their worth, even when it means putting their lives in mortal danger. But this where the therapy comes in because Arthur has way less self-hatred than Dean. So it’s like Arthur thinks he has to prove himself worthy of his title, but not of his very existence. Like no angel of death/reaper whatever would say “You wanna die” or “You don’t think you deserve to be saved” to Arthur and have it ring true the way it does with Dean.
And maybe because the ideas of Arthur’s value were externalized enough and connected to the abstract idea of prince hood instead of his very being, he’s less resentful about it than Dean. Like, Arthur feels like anyone who were in his position should do the things he does and he is just the person it falls to. He has a reason. When Dean asks “Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero?” he never really gets a satisfying answer. But Arthur has always had his. Because he is the prince. That allows him to keep his ideas of who he is as a person and what he does as a prince connected but distinct, whereas without some justification Dean just sees what he does as who he is. There’s no “If I were not a prince, it wouldn’t be like this” to fall back on.
Also because of Arthur having his answer whereas with Dean there wasn’t one, Arthur doesn’t hold his dad responsible for any pain or misery he may experience. There’s far less resentment there, because the way Arthur grew up was inevitable to a degree, once he was born a prince. With Dean, his life’s trajectory is the result of John’s actions as a bad parent. Arthur wouldn’t describe his father as an obsessed bastard, except... well he DID try to assassinate his father when he learned the truth about his birth, because he did feel Uther’s quest for vengeance against magic had ruined a lot of lives including his to some extent, wait actually, huh...more similarities there than I thought come to think of it. But still after Merlin convinces him that was a lie Arthur and Uther have a reconciliation and bond in a way that Dean and his father would NEVER. And even though Arthur always looks surprised when Uther expresses pride in him and thought that Uther cared more about Camelot than him, Uther DOES say nice things about/to him and is shown to worry for him. Uther wouldn’t say “At least he’ll die doing what he loves” about Arthur
Idek where I was going with this anymore, and my head is starting to hurt. But anyway, yeah. There’s definitely some similar threads running through their characters, but it’s almost like they represent two different experimental groups. (I mean not at all because there are few constants in terms of environment, but you get what I’m saying. In reality you’d need way more controls.)
