A place for all things Merlin @mintedemrys - Tumblr Blog

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pangolin2b

mistressvera

Katie McGrath as Morgana Pendragon

MERLIN (2008) | 3.12 - The Coming of Arthur: Part One

sexy-people-contests-2026

I always forget there are maga people on tumblr, this doesn’t feel like a website you’d find them on, so to keep them away:

Reblog if your blog is a maga free zone because if it wasn’t clear enough fuck ice, fuck maga, fuck Trump, Fuck Rowling, and fuck all the other bigots I missed

gwemrys

as much as i like fic scenarios where gwaine flirts very blatantly and straighforwardly with merlin i think these 2 people would realistically find rituals far more intricate and sinister than that. yall i know we agree merlins got walls around him but we should talk more about gwaine, like i swear everyone underestimates that mans repression and avoidance. merwaine is about subtext. about saying one thing and meaning something else, or about not saying anything at all and the unsaid hanging in the air between them and making every interaction charged and never finding its way out into the open. far too many of you fail to grasp the inherent pathos of merwaine

raveninthedusk

I wonder for how long it stung Arthur when Morgana betrayed them all and Camelot. Did he ever lay awake at night thinking about it? Did he wonder at which point the sweet, feisty girl he grew up with became the treacherous woman he's fighting now? Did he cry? For how long did the thought of her sting?

Imagine having someone who grew up with you, kept you company in the lonely halls of your title and position. Maybe not always on equal ground, but still suffering the same as you. Imagine that person being someone you always argued with, but still being someone who protected you, who despaired at the thought of you hurt. And then that person becoming the one doing the hurting. All without you knowing precisely why.

I wonder if, had Arthur lived after Morgana died, he would've eventually found the will to forgive her.

mintedemrys

I mean... canon kinda gives us this answer.

The show's timeline runs approximately ten years (~1 year per season, ~1 year gap between seasons until the season 4-5 hiatus, which is three years). Arthur discovers Morgana's betrayal at the end of season 3, and yet, when they face each other in season 5, we see that Arthur still hasn't stopped mourning her, wondering what went wrong, etc.

That's about 5-6 years in canon, and Arthur isn't even close to reaching closure by the time he and Morgana both die. He mourns her the entire time, even as he's trying to protect his kingdom from her.

I don't think he ever would have gotten past it. I also don't think he ever could have forgiven her, not unless she gave up her revenge/hatred. I think he would've hated himself all the more for that, because what kind of a man can't forgive his own sister? That's not how he was raised. But Morgana cost him so much, and took so much from him, and betrayed him and their father, and I don't think he could've forgiven that, in the end.

I think he never stopped loving her, missing her, mourning her, but forgiveness was out of reach.

#arthur pendragon #morgana pendragon #bbc merlin #meta

iregreteverything19

allineedisonedream

They give me the sillys, I’m gonna combust.

I think this is the last post of them for a while. I finally got them out of my system, though I still have some ideas I want to finish someday.^^

wanderinginkpot

It's always struck me as odd when people talk about Arthur's death as some sort of narrative betrayal, when growing up watching the show I was always certain that Arthur dying was where it was going to end. Maybe it's because the show was originally intended for a British audience who presumably where going into the viewing with at least a cursory knowledge of Arthurian legend, but as someone who was a part of that audience it was always my interpretation that the show would end with Arthur dying, because if Arthur doesn't die then it's defeating the point of the Arthurian tale. Arthur always has to die, because otherwise he can never rise again, and the rising again is the crux of the myth. The return to Albion in its time of need.

For me, that knowledge was always a part of what made Merlin such a compelling story. From episode one, we know that this will end in tragedy. From the moment we are introduced to Morgana, we know that she will become a villain. From the moment we meet Mordred, we know that he is destined to kill Arthur. From the moment we meet Merlin, we know that whatever happens, he will end up alone. The entire story is haunted by this looming sense of inevitability, because the audience knows.

I've always thought that the most compelling tragedies are the ones where we know the ending and therefore know we can't prevent it. It's very Romeo and Juliet, in a way, and it's a huge part of why I love the show so much.

tiredandoptimistic

The thing that kills me about Merlin and Morgana's whole situation is that Merlin keeps trying to do the "fuck destiny, I'm gonna go help my friend" thing, and yet he can't. He insists on taking Morgana to the druids despite Gaius and Kilgharrah's advice, he protects Mordred from Uther's men even though he's been told that it will lead to Arthur's death, etc. He's willing to go against the prophecies to help people he cares about, and yet he still can't ignore those prophecies. He saves Mordred's life, but still treats the kid like a ticking time bomb every time he sees him. He's more honest with Morgana than Gaius is, but while he validates her feelings about her own magic he still refuses to tell her about his. While Merlin hopes that he can change things, he can't stop seeing Morgana and Mordred as potential threats who must be guarded against.

In "The Tears of Uther Pendragon," Merlin does the classic appeal to friendship when he faces Morgana, and begs her to trust him that overtaking Camelot is not the right way to get what she wants. He's asking her to make a huge leap of faith and to believe in their friendship (after he literally poisoned her) more than she believes in her sister's advice, but he doesn't believe in that friendship enough to admit to her that he's got magic too and explain why he thinks it's best for magic-users to wait for Arthur to assume the throne. And yeah he may have made the right call in that moment (revealing his magic might have persuaded Morgana to betray Morgause and return to Camelot, but it might also have just given her more resources with which to destroy him), but the point is that Merlin refuses to risk it. He wants to believe that his friend can still be reached, but he isn't willing to actually put anything on the line while trying to reach her (just in case the Dragon was right).

I dunno, it just adds to the tragedy of the situation that Merlin could have either fully unburdened himself to Morgana at the beginning and perhaps changed fate into something kinder, or he could have killed her and Mordred and thus eliminated the threat to Arthur's rule before it developed; but instead he played it safe until it was too late. He wants to challenge destiny for the sake of his friends, but he can't commit to it enough to make any difference because on some level he's still afraid that Morgana will turn out evil no matter what he does.

southfarthing

no I'm still not over this. "merlin, you are not a sorcerer... I would know," is literally the craziest thing arthur could have said in that situation. he's seeing a crying, visibly distressed merlin like this for the first time since he met him ten years ago, and nothing that merlin is saying seems to make any sense. so even though this earnestly miserable merlin is new to him (already proving that arthur does not know him as well as he thought), arthur tries to use logic of all things – a flawed logic that he knows merlin better than merlin knows himself – to calm him. merlin cannot be a sorcerer because arthur knows he isn't. don't worry merlin, don't be silly merlin, I would obviously know if that were the case, so everything is fine, you don't need to be upset! I would know. check and mate. outwitted you! back to the way things were before

a-classic-bj

@merthurmicrofic prompt: shadow (123 words)

Merthur Microfic Bingo: POV: third person / future tense

itsybitsybatsyspider

A light Light Study

irishyuri

the merlin cat returns

observaureium

there is not enough cheeky and forward lancelot in fics. he would tease the absolute hell out of merlin alongside doting on him you can't convince me otherwise

#we left him alone for a while and the guy became a cage fighter #<- prev #im losing it this is so true #mercelot