I know we as the audience can see the devotion and love Merlin and Arthur have for each other, but do you honestly think everyone else knew it to the extent we do like Gwen and the knights? Sure they knew they cared, but merlin and Arthur go beyond just caring.
I absolutely do. In fact, Merlin and Arthur’s mutual devotion and affection for each other is the driving force of A Servant of Two Masters because Morgana uses it as a weapon:
She even says that she won’t kill Merlin because that would be too easy and what exactly is worse than death for Merlin? Having him, of all people, be the one to murder Arthur and what’s more is that she says everything that makes him Merlin will be gone, which means she knows that his devotion to Arthur is a fundamental aspect of who he is as a person
On the flipside of that, Gwen sees Arthur become so agitated without Merlin
that she chases after him out of palace when he’s on his way to find Merlin again and sees just how indignant he is at even the possibility of not finding him
Furthermore, she already voiced Merlin’s affection for Arthur before Merlin could even vocalize it
Much like how Merlin’s mother vocalizes Arthur’s feelings for Merlin basically responding to Merlin’s constant “it’s not like that” with, bitch, are you dumb?
I’ve spoken about the importance of this scene in 3x08 before but to rehash, I find it telling
because Gwaine looks at Arthur indignant and exasperated at his lack of thank you and he looks to Merlin to share in his exasperation but all he sees is that goofy grin on Merlin’s face and, I know the quality is terrible so sorry about that, but Merlin really has this affectionate, soft, warm grin at Arthur even when he’s not being particularly gracious, Gwaine sees that and then smiles to himself because he can see how much Merlin loves Arthur.
Uther consistently tells Arthur that he too intense an attachment to Merlin
to the point, as I also mentioned before, that I actually found this scene really telling
because it’s clearly a personal/intimate moment between Merlin and Arthur? Like if it was just Arthur berating his servant then he wouldn’t feel embarrassed in front of Uther because that’s what princes to do to servants but it was clearly him having fun with Merlin, blurring lines with Merlin so he’s like ………………
The knights absolutely saw these reactions in their 4x02 reunion
Because peripheral vision! And I headcanon that they want to give Arthur the courtesy of pretending not to see just how much he cares for Merlin
Gaius knows why Merlin is muttering Arthur’s name (or has some idea) but Gwen doesn’t
and speaking of Gaius, he had to have seen throughout the seasons that Merlin saw Arthur as way more than a charge. Next to seeing the emotional toll that Arthur potentially dying had on Merlin
he confided in Gaius just how much Arthur not knowing that he has magic hurt him, not because he wanted credit, but because he wanted his full heart
and even when he complains about Arthur only seeing him as an idiot, I believe it’s clear that he wants the respect of a man he himself respects and it hurts him that he sometimes thinks he doesn’t have that respect.
Arthur leaves his men to sit next to Merlin and talk to him
I mean, even when everyone talks about how much they complain each other, it’s as if all they do is talk about how much they can’t stand each other and they bicker with each other around the others all the time like a screwball romantic comedy
but then they’re consistently risking their lives for one another and they’re always around each other — there are other servants in the palace and it’s been proven that Arthur can replace Merlin and it’s also been proven that Merlin can leave, neither do.
The two people next to Arthur are Gwen and Merlin and let’s think about that, let’s think about how on one side, there’s Gwen, the woman that Arthur loves, his future wife, the future Queen of Camelot, which is pretty much proven with this scene at this point, and on the other side is Merlin, how respected and loved and important and significant to Arthur must Merlin be to be seated next to him?
Everyone ABSOLUTELY knew.
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