Memoriii @moriiixiii - Tumblr Blog

Arthur's pov in the merlin books killing me softly 😭 (sorry for the sideways pics 😅)

ID: three screenshots taken from a bbc Merlin book. The first picture reads this: “whereas most servants would just bite their lip and knuckle down, Merlin was constantly challenging him, constantly forcing him to re-evaluate himself and his opinions.

He should be finding it annoying, possibly even dis-courteous, but instead Arthur found Merlin's frank openness almost refreshing. He had been competing in the championships for many years now, and never once in that time had any of his servants ever wished him good luck, let alone one who wouldn't say it unless he really meant it.

It was surprising how much it heartened him.”

The second picture’s first sentence is cut off, but it reads this: “been conspicuous by his absence in the preparation area, but then that was hardly surprising. He had not treated his servant well, he knew that now. Merlin had been nothing but loyal, had done nothing other than try his best to warn his master of the danger that Valiant posed. More than anything Arthur wished that he had the opportunity to put that right. Too late now.”

The third and final screenshot reads this: “Arthur could see Morgana watching with frightened eyes, Gwen at her side. He was glad that she had Guinevere. She was a good servant, a good friend; she would see Morgana through the dark times ahead.

Arthur searched the crowd for Merlin.”

End ID.

quiddling

a traitor in camelot? who could it be? 🤨🤨🤨

chelseabeecreates

Uhh this has been in my drafts for EIGHT YEARS

From the 2016 Coinelot Merthur Art Calendar, so if you were lucky enough to snag it way back then, you’ve already seen this! It was the art for August, so at least I’m posting in the right month? 😅

Tell me it's a common opinion to think that Merlin is just as handsome as Arthur, because Colin Morgan looks so phenomenal in his other works! Anyways here's Merlin to go with the Arthur drawing from my last post lol. I sort of gave up halfway in rendering the clothes so don't mind that detail please 🫣 Hope y'all like it!

#fanart #digital art #merthur #merlin fanart #bbc merlin #merlin emrys #colin morgan

andrewjosephminyardsbitch

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I'M SCREAMINGGGGGG

Looks like I've found myself fixated on Merlin and crushing on Arthur Pendragon lol. I'm still a bit scared to watch the series because I know it's gonna break me 🙃 but I'll do it for Merthur!

#fanart #bbc merlin #merlin fanart #arthur pendragon #bradley james #bbc merlin fanart #merthur

cabbageheadss

"in sibbe gereste"

MERTHUR WEEK 2023 | DAY 3: Favourite quote said between/ about them + yellow ↳ @merthurweek2023

amariram

Do you ever stop and think about how lonely must Arthur have felt before meeting Merlin?

He had no one he could really call friend for years and then BAM one day he meets this strange, cocky, peasant boy who just calls him names regardless of his rank and like in just one day he gains a loyal servant, a best friend, a soulmate, the other side of his coin, his savior, his first true supporter and the love of his life.

Damn, the love he must feel for Merlin.

reggieslocket

idk what this is

loustat-0

There are so many occasions that Arthur gives Merlin genuine love eyes that I am too lazy to get all of them but here goes the top ones 😭

hestzhyen

An Extremely Subjective HakuHiro Romantic Trope Breakdown

Greetings, void. This arc is rough and the brainworms won't let me write my own hurt/comfort fan fiction- they demand half-baked analysis instead of lovemaking. So have the closest thing that passes for fluff from yours truly.

In essence, this is just a list of the explicitly romantic tropes I love applying to HakuHiro with varying degrees of gushing ship babble as justification. Some are definitely skewed hard towards headcanon but there's always at least a tenuous connection to something that's demonstrated in the work itself. Proceed if this kind of brain rot sounds like your jam! Otherwise just please let me die from cringe in peace.

Battle Couple

Offense and support working in perfect harmony.

So this is just one of my personal favourites, but Chihiro and Hakuri definitely have strong vibes for this trope. They fought together in an absolutely stunning display of mutual trust and understanding in the Rakuzaichi Arc. Seriously, these guys pulled off some truly spine-tingly good moves to take down Kyora despite Hakuri only just awakening to his powers the very same day.

They demonstrated this again in the train fight protecting Uruha- Hakuri and Chihiro only need the bare minimum of communication between them to fight in style. I look forward to more chances for them to show off their teamwork! If they end up fighting back-to-back in canon I'll probably just straight up ascend to fudanshi heaven on the spot. I LOVE BATTLE COUPLES.

Love at First Sight/Rescue Romance

"This is the kind of man I need in my life."

Love at First Sight is pretty self-explanatory: person A sees person B and immediately falls head over heels. It's easy to slap that on Hakuri in his introduction chapter- he's only missing an invitation to get to know each other over some coffee when they finally meet up, really. Unless asking someone to help you kill your family is the Kagurabachi universe's equivalent...?

As for Rescue Romance, it's another very simple scenario: person A is saved by person B, which causes them to fall in love. Chihiro saves Hakuri with the other random people at the site of Sojo's massacre attempt, and Hakuri... yeah. You get it.

I think there's a better trope to associate to this later on in the list, but Love at First Sight and Rescue Romance are still apt and very funny tropes to apply towards Hakuri's first impression of Chihiro. The way he waxed poetic over the mystery samurai who saved and inspired him had me in stitches. Seriously, my oldest notes on Hakuri from that chapter are mostly just laughing about him being really passionate about Chihiro for someone who's not intended to be a love interest! Go get 'im, Hakuri. He needs you in his life just as much as you need him in yours.

There's also something to be said from Chihro's side, though...

You bet your sweet Bippy Chihiro's solution to this also ties into his feelings about Hakuri.

Chihiro has expressed that Hakuri saved him twice so far (as of chapter 64). He's guilty as hell over it but he's putting those feelings to good use to become stronger. He's going to become the person Hakuri said he needed, and who he already thinks Chihiro is- but more on that later. Still, improving yourself to meet the measure someone else has of you is pretty romantic, isn't it? Especially so they stop getting hurt for your sake!

Mindlink Mates

Don't need to hear each other at all if you just "get" them.

This is something I like to apply as a Fanon concept based on what happens in canon. Hakuri and Chihiro aren't literally linked mind-to-mind via telepathy, but both of them have a deep understanding of what the other's thinking and feeling at any given moment. I really like the concept that they understand everything about each other on an instinctual level. It's mostly fueled by the Aun concepts that have been associated to them, which I'll get into during a later section. But yeah. Hakuri and Chihiro being borderline telepathic in how they can sense the other's status. That's crack cocaine to me and it's not too far removed from canon so I'm running with it.

I also really like the idea of their strong emotions and desires bouncing off of and amplifying each other's, but I don't know if there's a specific trope for that, so it gets placed here at the end of this tangentially related section. Also not something far removed from canon given how they both fuel each other's self-destructive savior tendencies because they feel the same way!

Moe Couplet

They're so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute

A Moe Couplet is essentially a pair of characters that enhance each other's cute traits. Separate, they are perfectly fine individuals with their own appeal. Together, they are adorable and capable of some tooth-rottingly sweet moments. This trope isn't typically associated with romantic duos in stuff aimed at general audiences, but it's common in BL as the basis for "fluff" works and wholesome pairings.

This is probably the biggest stretch to apply towards canon on the list, honestly. We haven't seen that much moe moe action from Hakuri and Chihiro- they're kind of busy fighting for their lives or hurting themselves to save others most of the time. But the few moments we get send me straight into cuteness agression-induced brain rot every time I think of them.

Most of this trope label for HakuHiro comes from little details. Like Chihiro often being shown reassuring Hakuri, and Hakuri getting some of the sweetest smiles out of him in return. Hakuri brings out Chihiro's soft side when Char's not around to do so and Chihiro helps Hakuri be his absolute silliest. These guys are are so good to each other! They melt the ice around my cold, dead heart into a slurry of hnnngh and incoherent shipper screeching.

What's it actually based on though? Well, I thought I was just doing normal delusional fudanshi things by thinking Hakuri is extra cute when he's around Chihiro and vice versa. But then Hokazono-sensei threw me a bone in an interview by saying he intended for Hakuri to "bring out Chihiro's personality and add some cuteness". And I. Just. I exploded into confetti on the spot. MOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

One True Love

This ship is not merely an OTP to me, if you haven't noticed.

Note: "ai" is not inherently romantic despite it being the end-goal of pretty much every romance novel out there. It's for deep, profound affection felt for someone- friends, family, even pets. It's rare and not commonly said aloud outside of the climax of a love story is all!

This is mostly tied to Hakuri's experience with love growing up and how he can find out what 愛 [ai, purest and deepest love], really means.

Hakuri probably has no fucking clue what love of any kind is really supposed to look or feel like, much less the ultimate form of it. His father threw ai around as something to manipulate his children into serving the family tradition. Soya used it as an excuse to torture him. This was deliberately done to contrast with the love that Chihiro knew growing up- true ai between father and son, which was cruelly ripped away from him.

So let Chihiro teach Hakuri, and Hakuri provide in return. They're already each other's perfect partners anyway so just put a romantic spin on it!

Hakuri finding unconditional love he doesn't fear in Chihiro and Chihiro finding the same in Hakuri once more. Neither of them ever needing to fall in love again because they slot together so perfectly to fill the gaps in each other's hearts. Oh I'm gonna die...

Opposites Attract

If not meant to be canon, why colour coded as opposite compliments? :thonk:

This is the trope that activates a primitive part of my brain that overrides all thoughts with eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee noises when it comes to HakuHiro. Hakuri and Chihiro are true opposites that are perfectly balanced to contrast and compliment each other, resulting in a duo greater than the sum of it's parts.

Hokazono-sensei made his intentions about Hakuri and Chihiro extremely clear by going so far as to colour code them for us. This is the protagonist and his foil/deuteragonist guy who is Important as Fuck. The level of detail in designing and writing them reads like he took this trope extremely seriously and said "let's save the Hero + Lancer coding for Hiyuki instead". 'Cause as much as I love her, Hiyuki's got nothing on Hakuri when it comes to this trope. Her thing is closer to being the same person as Chihiro with the opposite frame of mind and mode of expression- it's Hakuri and Chihiro who are the true manifestation of Opposites Attract down to the tiniest details. I'm ready to die on this hill so come at me and put me out of my misery.

I mean just look at these guys:

Chihiro: black and red, stoic, reserved, serious and polite, slim and straight profile.

Hakuri: white and blue, emotive, outgoing, silly and casual, loose and boxy profile.

They invert the same ways under pressure; Chihiro stresses and falters while Hakuri focuses and buckles down. Their fucking backstories are in on it too: they both lost their father's love but under distinctly opposite circumstances. Even the love they received was contrasted since Kunishige was a perfectly wholesome dad while Kyoura used love in an abusively manipulative way! And that laid the foundation for the premise of the Rakuzaichi arc- Hakuri wants to destroy his family's legacy while Chihiro still wants to do right by his. It would take a whole 'nother post to list everything between them because every single detail about one is carefully crafted to be present in the other in order to complete their characters. It's absolutely insane and it's what really sold me on the ship.

The level of care put into writing Hakuri and Chihiro as opposites who complete each other is out of this fucking world. I'll feel sorry for whatever girl gets assigned to be a mandatory heterosexual love interest for either of them because there's just no way to compete when two people are written to be so thoroughly intertwined with each other.

(To clarify just in case: I don't think Chiyuki is a bad ship. I'm not trying to trash it and say HakuHiro's better or more legitimate somehow. I just have an issue with shounen romance in general because the girls don't get nearly as much narrative effort to make them compelling companions to the MC compared to the "best friends" and Kagurabachi is doing nothing new in that regard so far. Hokazono-sensei can actually make a bigger impact by refusing to tease Chihiro and Hiyuki at all instead of going down the tired old path of obligated sub-par heterosexual ship tease/romance IMO.)

The Power of Love

Nice Heroic Second Wind you got after thinking about Chihiro there, Hakuri.

So this is definitely skewed towards pure delusion on my part, but that's what we're all here for anyway. Power of Friendship? Never heard of it.

Basically, person A uses their love for person B to power up and overcome the hardship they're facing. In this case, I'm interpreting Hakuri's tendency to think of Chihiro when he's in dire straits as romantic!

Hakuri comes in clutch a lot and his feelings abut Chihiro are the reason he can do it. The memory of his samurai refusing to yield gives Hakuri the strength to keep standing and finally put Soya down in chapter 36. He does it again in a sadder way in Chapter 58 when he thinks of Chihiro and musters the last of his strength to summon him too late to save Uruha. I have no doubt that he'll have more of these moments as the series goes on, too. Chihiro is kind of hope incarnate to Hakuri.

Chihiro's drawn strength from his feelings for Hakuri too, but not in a pinch kind of way like the Power of Love trope typically implies. I'm just waiting for the day when it's his turn to use memories of Hakuri to keep standing (never gonna happen)!

Chapter 64 update- Chihiro had his own moment! And oh boy is it amazing.

"That's you!!"

He thinks back to Hakuri saying he needs a Samurai in his life, and combined with the guilt he feels over Hakuri's current bed-ridden status, powers up so he can be the person Hakuri said he needed. Chihiro wants to get stronger so Hakuri doesn't have to risk his life and health for him ever again. He's going to become Hakuri's samurai. Holy shit. This is canon! Let all the doubts surrounding how Chihiro feels about Hakuri be dispelled- he cares a hell of a lot.

Ship Tease

Putting this here for lack of a better term, but there's a running gag about Hakuri and Chihiro's relationship that's been escalating in intensity since the early parts of the Rakuzaichi arc. It only comes across in bits and pieces in English compared to Japanese, sadly, but I'll do my best to explain it.

Basically, I'm interpreting the jokes about Hakuri acting like a dog as deliberate ship tease for the lols from the author.

"Paw. Shake. Good boy."

It starts in chapter 28 with Hakuri dropping everything he's doing to run over to Chihiro when his name is called. It's really cute and funny and not something that can get lost in translation- Chihiro calls, and Hakuri comes. Just like a loyal dog to it's master.

It's set aside for a while until the Sword Bearer Assassination Arc starts up and Hiyuki drops this banger during the trial in chapter 46:

"But where he [Hakuri] stands is a big pain in the butt. He's not the one calling the shots." - official TL

Of note is the term Hiyuki used to say that Chihiro's the one in charge: 舵取り [kajitori]. The normal meaning for it is "steering a boat" or "helmsman" with the secondary being leader/director, so it's not like the English TL messed up. Same meaning different wording. What's lost is the subtext: 舵取り as Hiyuki's using it can also imply that Chihiro's in charge of Hakuri like the owner of a dangerous guard dog would be lmao. Hakuri kind of earned that jab after threatening to leave her in the storehouse to die if she hurt Chihiro, though.

And then there's this completely unnecessary scene from Ch. 50...

"Who's this? This little squirt smells like Chihiro, but he's not Chihiro."- official TL

The TL again isn't bad here but it really downplays just how fucking weird Samura is (which downgrades the rocket propellant to mere ship fuel). Samura's phrasing about Hakuri smelling like Chihiro was so batshit insane in Japanese that fellow JP shippers felt compelled to reach out to the rest of us in English to let us know, which is almost completely unheard of.

Basically, Samura wasn't saying that Hakuri merely smelled like Chihiro. He actually said that Hakuri was wearing Chihiro's scent by using 纏う, conjugated and written as まとって (matotte)- completely enveloped in it to the point of smelling identical to him. A native JP reader (in the link above) said that in their interpretation, the phrase "香りをまとって [kaori o matotte], wrapped up in/wearing a scent" isn't really used for friends smelling like each other, but more for lovers, family members, or dogs and their owners in the sense that being so physically close all the time causes their scents to rub off on each other. Hmm.

It's not a normal term used to describe smelling like someone in the first place. When Samura meets younger Chihiro in the flashback and says he "reeks of Rokuhira", he just emphasizes the typical word for "smell/scent" (香り [kaori]) in quotation marks in the Japanese version: [六平の"香り"濃い...ッ!!] and uses 濃い [koi, concentrated/thick] like someone normally would to describe it as "reeking". So for some reason we just had to know that Hakuri smelled like Chihiro in the way dog or a lover would, huh... so much so that Samura thought he actually was Chihiro... (I can't get over this, it sends my sides into orbit every fucking time).

So yeah. That's some top-tier ship tease if I do say so myself. What that dog doin'? What did they get up to on the train before meeting with Uruha? That's for us to decide!

Soulmates

It's not exactly hard to see that Hakuri and Chihiro have a bit more going on between them than standard friendship or brotherhood, even for a shounen series. Even some dudebros acknowledged this before the fandom gave over to homophobic trash anyway.

It all stems from Hakuri invoking one of the most potent romantic tropes there is as soon as they meet:

"That day, a samurai lit my helpless existence on fire."

Jesus Christ Hakuri, that's some passion!

I think the "soulmates" trope is the most fitting description of what's going on between Hakuri and Chihiro from the very first time they meet. I'll even go so far to say that it actually has a pretty damn good case for being canon in a platonic sense!

For the uninitiated (like I was), the soulmates trope is invoked when two characters feel a strong and immediate connection upon first meeting each other. It can be one-sided or even completely rejected by both at the start, but they will always find their way to each other since they are fated to be. The whole world falls into kilter when they get together even if they were perfectly functional people on their own before. HakuHiro is this trope to a fucking T in my mind. Absolutely flawless execution, 10/10 no notes.

Hakuri's part is obvious- he sees Chihiro and decides he must have this amazing person in his life no matter what. He feels the pull of destiny and answers the call with an overabundance of enthusiasm.

Chihiro's part is more subtle. He does the one-sided rejection thing at the start by running away, but fate pulls them together via circumstance and he takes Hakuri back with him. And somehow, for some reason, Hakuri is the first person he opens up about his genuine feelings to in a surprisingly raw way:

"If I don't do something, and a sacred blade takes the lives of innocent people... I wouldn't be able to bear that..."

He met the guy minutes ago, tried to run away from him, then decided to bear his heart to him in the elevator. Chihiro's a natural stoic who doesn't show much of what he's feeling and generally keeps thoughts like this to himself. But Hakuri brings out this softer, more vulnerable side to him that no other character has before. Then as the arc progresses, Chihiro comes to rely on Hakuri more and more until it's crazy to think that he ever ran away in the first place. It's like they were always meant to find and save each other.

I'm not looking too hard at this with shipping goggles strapped to my face. We get confirmation that this is what's going on with them via The Word of God Himself:

From the Volume 4 description: 一方、兄からの愛と暴力によって地に伏した伯理。今際の際に脳裏を過ったのは、ある少女との日々だった。極限の中、二人の少年の魂が呼応する。

"Meanwhile, Hakuri is struck down by his brother's love and violence. On the brink of death, he remembers the days he spent with a certain girl. In the midst of this extreme tension, the souls of both boys resonate with each other."

The last sentence is basically more total harmony/Aun imagery for Hakuri and Chihiro. 呼 (ko) means to call and 応 (ou) means to respond. Together, 呼応 means to act in concert. So Hakuri and Chihiro's souls call out and respond to each other in perfect sync when they're in dire straits. It's canon!

If that's not enough, then there's also the Aun imagery. It was left out of the EN Chapter 38 colour page as usual (never gonna forgive the EN version for removing the text), but basically the author used deliberate religious imagery to tell us that Chihiro and Hakuri have an inherently harmonious relationship. A and Un, in perfect sync- whatever one starts, the other will finish. The beginning and end of all things. A perfect pair.

They demonstrate this lethal effectiveness by working in tandem during the storehouse fight, with Chihiro only needing to yell Hakuri's name for Hakuri to perfectly interpret everything he's thinking and execute on it flawlessly. It's absolutely insane stuff even if we disregard Hakuri only woke up to his power less than an hour ago in-universe isn't it?! And they repeated the stunt the next day while protecting Uruha, so it wasn't just a one-off for a cool moment. It's core to their dynamic for their souls to resonate in total harmony!

And just to top it off, we got a funny little gag of Chihiro and Hakuri passing out and waking up at the same time side-by-side after the auction, totally in sync.

All of this within a week of meeting each other.

Some actual romantic soulmate couples don't get this much effort put into coding their relationship, just saying. I also don't think people would be so quick to jump on the sibling interpretation after Shiba's "What are ya, twins?" joke if Hakuri and Chihiro were a heterosexual ship option, just sayin'.

Unknowingly in Love

No sad pictures of dead Kunishige in this post!

This is another one that's far closer to fanon than canon. It banks on the fact that both of them grew up isolated and, quite frankly, probably poorly socialized compared to the rest of the world.

Chihiro lived with just his dad in a remote mountain home and only occasionally visited the town nearby with Shiba. No friends, no school even. Hakuri lived on the secluded Sazanami estate surrounded by his family and saw some of the outside world, but likely only the criminal elements of it. Plus there's the whole growing up only knowing love as something abusive and manipulative thing; even his parent's marriage was strongly implied to be arranged and joyless. Neither of these guys have anything decent in their personal lives to reference from!

So in my mind, while Hakuri and Chihiro have certainly heard of romantic love and thought about it themselves, they wouldn't really have an idea of what it feels or looks like to them. Couple that with being each other's first friends ever and you've got some extremely potent fluff (or angst) about them being unaware that what they're feeling isn't platonic.

You Are Worth Hell

I will follow you into the dark.

And to round things off, one of my favourite romance tropes ever! But it's not canon at all- YET.

You see, Hakuri and Chihiro are constantly pulling each other forward. When one stumbles, the other's there with a helping hand. But what happens when one descends into hell like Chihiro says he's doing this very arc? Will the other try to throw them a lifeline and hope for the best?

Nay! The other will stay by their side out of love.

This trope can veer too close to toxic situationship scenarios for comfort, it's true. Characters staying to "save" someone or letting themself get dragged down at their own expense is not healthy at all. But the core sentiment of this trope is that anything is bearable if you're with the one you love. The emphasis isn't on the mutual suffering but rather the comfort of being together despite it all.

My personal interpretation of the relationship between Hakuri and Chihiro is that one was born in hell (Hakuri) and the other has condemned himself to it (Chihiro). Hakuri's trying to rise up while Chihiro has consigned himself to sink further into the darkness. They met at at a crossroads on their respective journeys and are walking together for a while. And when Chihiro takes a turn to keep going further down, I think Hakuri will stop him from going too far. Hakuri will be the light in the gloom until the mission's over. Then they'll figure out if they can make it back up or not. And if they can't? Well, he was already at rock bottom before Chihiro came into his life. It's worth it to stay in hell at his side and face everything together.

So I think this can apply very well to HakuHiro as the current arc progresses. Hakuri choosing to stay as a partner to provide support rather than trying to save Chihiro at his own expense would be huge character growth for him. And Chihiro accepting Hakuri's gesture would be growth for him too- he doesn't have to do this alone. There's no truly Bad End for their stories if they are walking side-by-side to face the hardships together until the end.

That's it. If you got through all this, thanks. Yap at me about tropes I missed! I love hearing the myriad ways other people interpret this ship. Unless you think fixed left-right boring seme/uke stereotype ChiHaku is the only valid interpretation, in which case we can never be friends. Sorry not sorry.

camelotsheart

4x12 and 4x13 is so fascinating to look at from a merthur perspective because I consider it a commentary on the concept of a Merlin and Arthur who tries to abandon their destiny.

At that point, Arthur is at his absolute low. He feels like he’s been betrayed by people he once loved, he feels like he’s disappointed the kingdom that he puts has put his heart and soul into building. Arthur only ever wanted to become king because he loved the people of Camelot and thought they loved him (and they do). So when he thinks they don’t want him anymore, when he feels like his dedication to his kingdom only resulted in betrayal, he releases his position.

And up till that point, Merlin is the only person who hasn’t disappointed him. We talk about how beautiful Arthur’s vulnerability is when he says “you’re the only friend I have and I don’t want to lose you” - but that’s not true. He does have friends other than Merlin. The people of Camelot love him. But at that time it feels like Merlin is the only one who does.

And it’s fascinating to notice that the thing which in the end sets Arthur off is the fact that Tristan berates him for not being kingly because he 1) saves a servant and 2) is willing to get his hands dirty by collecting firewood. Arthur is frustrated because he’s being criticised for showing care to the only person he truly cares about at that point. And the part of getting his hands dirty reminds me a lot of what he said in 3x10.

ARTHUR: Sometimes I dream of leaving Camelot… Somewhere were nobody knew who I was… I’d get some land and become a farmer.

GWEN: I can hardly see you toiling away in the fields all day.

ARTHUR: Obviously, I’d take Merlin with me. He can do all the hard work.

How I see this parallel is as follows: Arthur gives up Camelot - the thing that has only brought him hurt - and turns to his dreams of escapism as a farmer, which includes a life with Merlin as the only person he truly cares about at that time. And from what I see, this parallel is further explored in the form of Tristan and Isolde, because they are basically a metaphor for a Merlin and Arthur who have given up on their destiny to live their own lives.

Tristan and Isolde showed how even if Merlin and Arthur decided to leave, they could never have escaped their destiny because they care too much about others.

Arthur “cares about his people more than he cares about himself”, and nothing needs to be said about Merlin’s love for people. Even if they had both “promised not to involve [themselves] in other people’s wars”, like Tristan and Isolde had, their conscience would eventually catch up to them. Just as Tristan and Isolde ended up fighting alongside Arthur because they came to believe in him.

Tristan is very protective of Isolde, and Isolde knows this; she’s the one that convinces Tristan to trust Merlin and Arthur even when Tristan has a hatred for royalty because they never helped when his whole village was killed. Isolde is the only person that Tristan truly cares about, and it takes a lot for him to even start trusting Arthur. He is desperate in trying to protect Isolde, and even though he initially succeeds in saving her, his fears come true. Isolde dies before they can ever achieve their dreams of buying a piece of land and settling down.

And Arthur, too, never achieves his dreams. At least the one that involved a quiet life on a farm. But what he does achieve is building a life with Merlin. Or more exactly, building a kingdom.

The thing is, Arthur didn’t really regain his confidence when he pulled Excalibur from the stone. That night, he was still walking around with an introspective mood, as if perplexed why the sword thought him worthy. But the morning after Merlin tells him that he believes Arthur will unite Albion and create the greatest kingdom the world has ever known, Arthur jokes to Merlin “I thought you had faith in me”, which is beautiful because that transition is almost saying that Arthur found his worth through Merlin’s constant unyielding belief in him.

And from that point on, particularly in season 5, Arthur always looks to Merlin when he wants to decide how to govern his kingdom. He does this during his final confrontation with Odin, he does this when he asks “is that what you’d want?” and “what should we do?” when discussing the returning of magic to camelot in 5x05, he does this when he goes up against the ghost of his father, he does this when deciding what to do with Mordred and Kara. Continuously, Arthur asks to Merlin - Is this the kingdom you want?

Why? Because Arthur decided that the only way he could repay Merlin’s loyalty to him was to bring about the kingdom Merlin dreamed of. The kingdom Merlin believed Arthur would build.

Arthur retook his kingship for Merlin.

Arthur built Camelot for Merlin.

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