i do not hate merlin because he’s a victim. it’s that he becomes the gatekeeper of other people’s rage.
like—he looks at people who have been burned, betrayed, executed, ruined by the same crown he’s trying to protect… and he tells them no. he tells them to wait. to endure. to believe in a future that keeps getting deferred like a cruel joke.
“one day you’ll be free.”
but freedom doesn’t land in your lap just because you were patient enough. sometimes it never comes. sometimes all you get is more graves.
and merlin knows.he knows how the story ends. he knows arthur dies at mordred’s hand. he knows the “greater good” he’s building toward is stained before it even arrives.
so what does it mean, then, to deny other victims their anger? to stand between them and the only thing that feels like justice to them in that moment?
Let's not forget the little shit also betrays and tried to kill his own "friends" when it suits him IR Morgana. She trusted him and was a magical being but it wasn't good enough. The fuck poisoned her and she didn't even know she was enchanted with a sleeping curse.
He didn't even try to find another way but when it came to the magical woman he fell in love with there was another way, there was always another way for arthur and the king and Gaius and every fucking person except morgana.
