every gifset of 1.01 is either ‘how long have you been training to be a prat’ or ‘i could take you apart with less than that’ and all i want is a gif of the first part!!!!!! when merlin sees some random armored dude hassling a stranger! when merlin interposes himself into that altercation! when merlin puts his foot down on the shield and goes ‘hey,’ because his reflex is to resolve things amicably if possible, but his voice still carries a firm undercurrent of ‘this is over now,’ because he might be willing to extend a hand in friendship, but he’s also not kidding around.
i think it’s relevant to remember that even though merlin doesn’t know arthur is a prince, he’s still perfectly aware that arthur occupies a position way above his own social class. arthur has armor (expensive) and two swords (expensive!!!) and throwing knives (expensive!), and a bunch of similarly-armored pals, not to mention a servant (not even in the realm of vaguest possibility for people like merlin). merlin knows arthur has power, and yet he still inserts himself into that situation, even though custom says it’s unthinkable for him to tell people like arthur what to do.
merlin knows how how much trouble he might get into, and he doesn’t care. he sees some rich dude using his power to mess around with a regular person, and he gets involved. and of course, because he’s merlin, his first instinct is an affable, gentle-but-firm correction - “you’ve had your fun, my friend” - but he also switches over to fistfight mode immediately, once it becomes clear that arthur isn’t interested in listening to amicable nudges. merlin is the one who throws the first punch! he’s ready to get into a street brawl with some noble he’s never seen before in his life! in a foreign country! he’s been in camelot for less than a day and he’s immediately ready to throw down with a stranger who he knows has more power than him, and he’s just as ready to throw down with the same stranger even after being tossed in prison for it once and figuring out that said stranger is actually royalty.
i appreciate how consistent that is with merlin’s background. the merlin we meet in this episode is as close to pre-camelot merlin as we ever get, and pre-camelot merlin is a peasant farmer from an extremely rural “outlying region” of a kingdom with which Camelot is frequently at war, where the royalty isn’t remotely interested in protecting the community’s welfare and thus hasn’t earned any of the community’s respect. his best friend is a guy who, you may remember, despite also being a peasant farmer with zero power and zero money, took one unimpressed look at prince arthur pendragon and said, “and who the fuck are you supposed to be?”
that’s merlin’s frame of reference. that’s where he comes from. merlin didn’t grow up respecting wealth and power, and he is not intimidated by arthur pendragon asking him ‘do you know how to walk on your knees’ - if anything, it just pisses him off. prior to that, he’d engaged in this whole situation with a mild incredulousness, like it was sort of amusing, but when arthur keeps pushing even after merlin tries to walk away - well, bullies get what they get, noble or not.
pre-camelot merlin is punchy, and he takes that punchiness with him right up to the gates of the castle. how could he not, given the place he comes from and the people he left behind? he and will are two peas in a pod in that way, in that neither of them are afraid to run their mouths and neither of them can be cowed by power or privilege. merlin, even though he knows this is a situation where he’s kinda pushing his luck, can’t just keep his mouth shut when he sees something that isn’t right, and he is, at this point in the story, 100% ready to throw down over it, when his polite corrections are ignored.
that’s who merlin is when we meet him. he only learns how to tone this down out of necessity, because he has to keep a lid on it to stay safe.
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