Oopppp here I go popping off about another Arthur Merlin scene that came up on my TikTok.
"I always thought you were the bravest man I ever met. I guess I was wrong"
Hey what an insane thing to say after you just got done belittling Merlin for getting you ready for battle and him telling you he's not coming. This is the shit I'm talking about when I say I have such a problem with Arthur. Because like wtf dude. You can clearly see that Merlin is scared and your only way of dealing with that is to guilt-trip the man????? What????
It just shows how Arthur has such a hard time looking outside of himself, even at the END of the fucking series. It's always 'what is this person going to do for me' not 'this person is clearly having a hard time, and we should discuss that so that I can make sure this person is ok'
Like at this moment Merlin is exactly what Arthur thinks he is, a powerless servant, and we as the audience know he's going on his own mission to help aid Arthur but Arthur doesn't, he just knows that this man that's been by his side for legit everything is finally drawing the line at what was the most terrifying fight they ever had waged. And instead of being understanding to that plight he calls Merlin a coward?????
Now I do think it comes from a place of projection. That Arthur is truly scared at that moment and is looking at this man saying, in everything but words, he is scared too but instead of facing that fear he's running from it like Arthur would like to. So Arthur lashes out in an almost 'I wish I could run too' kind of way but since I can't, I'm going to be mad that you can.
But well, that's how children handle emotions. Again this scene should have shown how much Arthur had grown into the well-meaning King of the people, but instead we get a scene where we are shown just how little Arthur had changed over the years.
Yes Arthur wants Merlin there and that's completely normal, fine with me even, but he should also be relieved that the servant that is always throwing himself into situations that would get him killed is finally choosing to sit back and let others handle it (Even if we as an audience know that he's not) like he is always asking him to do!
And we take that response and compare it to Gwaine's response when Merlin is legit cowering in the woods, terrified and screaming his name and completely powerless as a man tried to kill him with an axe, and we see Gwaine helping Merlin, not saying a word about his asking for someone else to handle the problem for him and just doing it. And yes that was a little more of a life and death situation but even afterwards when there was space to pick at him, he just asks if Merlin was ok and follows that up with a "No need to thank me Merlin. It was the least I could do" You all have to see that difference.
And these scenes happen pretty much back to back. Like it's the next time we see Merlin. So I have to believe the writers put them there so we could compare the two and see how a 'friendship' is supposed to react to something like that. (More points to my Gwaine and Arthur are foils of each other, but that's for another day)
I'm not saying that if Arthur wasn't in Gwaine's position, he wouldn't have saved Merlin, but you can't tell me he wouldn't have called Merlin an absolute coward for needing to be saved. And there lies the problem with Arthur for me. He is still Merlin's bully at the tail end of the series, he is still actively making every situation worse for Merlin with his words, and the writers let him get away with it and call it a quirk of their relationship. Meanwhile, Gwaine is there to help and aid Merlin and gets put on the back burner because of it.