macklin celebrini has autism
No title available
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
occasionally subtle
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
blake kathryn
Origami Around
Keni
No title available
Monterey Bay Aquarium
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
Discoholic 🪩
NASA
roma★
titsay
@theartofmadeline
almost home
hello vonnie
if i look back, i am lost
Kaledo Art
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Nepal
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Sri Lanka
seen from Italy
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from Finland
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Denmark
seen from United States
seen from Philippines
seen from United States
@sable-nakahara
Commission for Sable-Nakahara. It was so nice to draw a happy Merlin surrounded by flowers, thank you so much for commissioning me!
My commissions are open, just send me a DM | Support me on PATREON | Give me a Ko-fi | My store
Okay I’ve seen this mentioned a couple times but
If I’m not mistaken (tumblr historians fact-check me) Merlin was just given a shit ton of jobs he absolutely would not have to do in a properly functioning castle.
Like
Arthur’s laundry? Laundresses.
Mucking out stables? Tacking horses? Stable Master and Stable Boys.
Scrubbing floors? Housemaids/Maidservants.
Delivering messages? Pages.
Sharpening weapons? Squires and Blacksmiths.
Taking care of Arthur’s wardrobe? Chamberlain.
Not even to mention that as the literal Prince’s Personal Servant he had wayyyy more power in the staff hierarchy than I think he ever realized.
Arthur just looked at this poor farmer-boy peasant who had never even seen a castle before in his life and decided to give him the work of 6 different people, just to be petty, correctly assuming he wouldn’t know any better, then proceeded to keep that up for like 10 years.
Merlin: *slams open Arthur’s door*
Arthur: Merlin? You alright there?
Merlin: I’ve just had a lovely conversation with Elizabeth, the Laundress
Arthur: *with fear* …Okay?
Merlin: You know what she said to me?
Arthur: Do I want to know?
Merlin: She said “Oh Merlin, I just don’t know why you insist on doing all that extra work for Arthur!”
Arthur: *eyes widen*
Merlin: When were you going to tell me what The Prince’s Manservant actually does???
Arthur: Uh… You see…. But you’re just so good at it all!
Merlin: *eyes glowing* You should run.
Arthur: *standing up* I should run.
Merthur in a nutshell
bitches be sucking farts there
Found the source of the infographic that explains how the results were obtained!
there’s sixteen Colorado counties that their most searched was “wolf furry”, plus thirty-odd counties (not counting either Arapahoe or any of the ones marked here as “Insufficient Data”) which may well have had plenty of searches for “wolf furry”, just fewer than for whatever they’re labeled here
and “skunk furry” searches in Arapahoe County outnumbered “wolf furry” searches in the entire state of Colorado
something tells me Skunks Georg
we did it, we created furry gerrymandering
River bed
this fandom is a prison
buried
We've established that the last two episodes of the show are hot garbage
But THIS scene in particular.
I have magic and I use it for you, only for you Arthur
I was born to serve you
Made me 𝘗𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 recoil. I hate it I hate so fucking much. It sucks in the show and it sucks when I see it in fanfics idk how people like it.
First of all,it is simply not true. No matter which way you slice it, Merlin has never used his magic just for arthur.
He used it to help Lancelot become a knight. Used it to make Little dragons out of flame. Used it to help with chores. Used it to heal Gwen's father. Used it to defend his village. Used it to bring Gaius back to life. Used it to become an old man so he could save Gwen. Used it to steal food off of Arthur's plate to give it to Freya. Used it to make Arthur trip into the mud after Arthur was rude to him. Used it to get a dragon's egg and hatch it. Used it to fight bandits that would have killed him and daegal. Used it to play with the smoke. Used it to create butterflies in the cave. Used it to see what was wrong with the villagers in the lamia episode. Used it to burn the bodies of his beloved friends.
Merlin uses his magic for 𝘏𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 plenty. And that's how it should be. Merlin's magic is a part of him. It is 𝘩𝘪𝘴. And his alone. It should be used primarily for his own sake and no one else's.
And two,I don't want to watch or read about Merlin scrambling to justify his existence through this. Especially in the last episode.
The whole fucking point of the show is that magic isn't evil and thus people should be able to use it freely. Merlin has never used his magic only for Arthur but even if he had,that doesn't somehow make other magic users lesser for not doing so.
It is horrible,. A magic reveal should have had Merlin with his head held high. With the Same confidence that dragoon and the dolam exhibited. "I am who I am,I am who I've been and I am who always will be" and "there is only evil in the hearts of men"
Merlin should have revealed his magic firm in the correct knowledge that there is 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 wrong with it. That he doesn't need to apologise to anyone nor justify its usage. It is Uther and his laws that are wrong. It is Arthur that is wrong.
Merlin's magic isn't something Arthur gave him purpose for. It's part of who he is. Long before Arthur, he used it to help people, to protect himself, to make life easier, to create beautiful things just because he could. He uses it out of compassion, curiosity, grief, anger, love, and sometimes pure pettiness. It's his.
So when the reveal finally happens, instead of "I have magic and I use it for you, only for you," I wanted something closer to: I have magic. I've always had magic. I've used it because it's right, because it's who I am, and yes, many times because I chose to save you.
Those are completely different statements.
The first turns Merlin's magic into something that only has value insofar as it serves Arthur. The second acknowledges that Arthur mattered immensely to Merlin without making Merlin's identity, morality, and right to exist contingent on Arthur's approval.
What frustrates me most is that the show itself had already laid the groundwork for something far richer. Merlin's relationship with his magic was never written as purely instrumental. It was existential. The first episode goes out of its way to establish that magic isn't merely a talent he possesses; it is the language through which he experiences the world. Before destiny ever enters the conversation, before Arthur becomes the axis around which the narrative revolves, Merlin is a boy asking one devastating question: "If I can't use magic, what have I got?"
Gaius scolds him for using magic frivolously, and Merlin immediately pushes back: "What is there to master? I could move objects like that before I could talk!" Magic isn't something Merlin learned. It isn't a weapon he picked up or a discipline he chose to study. It's as instinctive as speech, as breathing, as moving his own limbs. It's as innate as breathing. He has literally never existed without it. To tell Merlin to simply stop using magic is, from his perspective, absurd. It's asking him to amputate a part of himself because other people have decided it's unacceptable.
Gaius talks about discipline because Gaius has spent decades internalizing the fear that magic is dangerous unless carefully justified. Merlin, meanwhile, is bewildered by that framework. To him, using magic is no stranger than using his hands.
"If I can't use magic, what have I got? I'm just a nobody, and I always will be. If I can't use magic, I might as well die."
It's the first honest articulation of what living under Uther's regime has done to him. He has spent his entire life being told that the defining characteristic of his existence is worthy of execution. He's internalised enough of that hatred to wonder whether suppressing his magic would leave anything of him behind.
Notice, too, that Merlin doesn't ask Gaius how to become more useful. He doesn't ask whether he'll ever be powerful enough to save Camelot. He asks, "You don't know why I was born like this, do you?" That's a profoundly different question. He's searching for meaning, not employment. He wants to know why he exists this way. Why he was made different. Whether there is some explanation that makes his existence make sense.
And immediately after that comes the question that matters even more: "I'm not a monster, am I?"
That is the emotional heart of Merlin's arc.
Not "Will Arthur accept me?"
Not "Am I fulfilling my destiny?"
Simply: Am I something that deserves to live?
The tragedy is that the show understands exactly what question Merlin is asking, because Gaius answers it without hesitation. "Don't ever think that." He doesn't say, "You're useful." He doesn't say, "Your powers can help the kingdom." He doesn't even invoke destiny yet. He reassures Merlin's humanity before anything else. Before purpose comes dignity. Before destiny comes personhood.
But then the towards the end, of the episode, Gaius begins talking about Arthur. About destiny. About finding a use for Merlin's magic.
Gaius doesn't say, "Perhaps now you'll understand one part of what your magic can do." He says they've "finally found a use for it." That "finally" unintentionally suggests that Merlin's magic existed in a kind of moral limbo beforehand, waiting for a sufficiently noble purpose to validate it.
But identities are not validated through utility.
You don't become worthy because someone powerful benefits from your existence.
You were already worthy.
Arthur may give Merlin a cause worth fighting for. He may become the person Merlin chooses, again and again, to risk everything to protect. But Arthur does not retroactively bestow value upon Merlin's magic. He cannot, because that value was never his to give.
In fact, I think that's precisely what the first episode initially understands so well. Merlin's crisis isn't that he lacks purpose. It's that he fears his existence is inherently wrong. Those are entirely different anxieties. One asks, "What should I do?" The other asks, "Am I allowed to be?"
And the episode begins by answering the second question. Gaius looks Merlin in the eye and says, "Don't ever think that." For a brief moment, the show rejects Uther's worldview outright. Merlin isn't a monster. He never was. His magic isn't evidence of corruption. It's simply part of who he is.
Then the narrative pivots toward destiny, and from that point onward, Merlin's magic increasingly becomes something defined by what it accomplishes rather than what it is. Instead of continuing to explore what it means to be born magical in a kingdom that wants you dead, the show becomes preoccupied with what Merlin can do for Arthur.
That's not an inherently bad story. Merlin's devotion to Arthur is one of the most compelling parts of the series. But it should never eclipse the more fundamental truth that the first episode establishes: Merlin's magic belongs to Merlin before it belongs to the narrative.
Arthur is someone Merlin chooses to save.
He is not the reason Merlin deserves saving.
That's why the reveal should never have hinged on proving that Merlin "used his magic for Arthur all along." Of course he did. Arthur mattered enormously to him. He loved him. He believed in him. He built his life around protecting him.
But that is a testament to Merlin's character, not a justification for his magic.
The reveal should have been Merlin refusing to let those two things become conflated. It should have been him saying, in one way or another, that his magic has always been his own. That he has used it for countless reasons—for compassion, for survival, for curiosity, for anger, for joy, for love, and yes, very often for Arthur. Arthur occupies an immense place in that list, but he is still one reason among many, not the reason that makes all the others legitimate.
Because the moment Merlin has to frame his magic primarily as a service rendered to Arthur, the terms of the conversation are already wrong. He's no longer asking Arthur to confront his prejudice. He's asking Arthur to make an exception.
And an exception is not justice.
Justice would have been Arthur realizing that Merlin never needed to justify his magic in the first place.
The burden of explanation should never have rested on Merlin's shoulders. The revelation should have forced Arthur to reckon with the fact that the man he trusted most had been living proof, every single day, that everything Uther taught him about magic was false. Merlin didn't need to argue his innocence. His life had already done that. Arthur's task wasn't to decide whether Merlin was one of the "good ones." It was to confront the horrifying realization that the entire premise upon which Camelot's persecution had been built was a lie.
LARRY IS DOING HIS BEST AND YOU WILL PUT RESPECT ON HIS NAME GOD DAMN YOU
The Sword in the Stone
I do wonder how Arthur functioned and managed himself without Merlin. maybe an ordinary servant would put Arthur’s armor on and clean his room and laundry but Arthur would leave that servant behind anytime he went to battle. the way Arthur looks at Merlin with his yearning eyes and says “put the armor on me now merlin” because Merlin would mess it up everytime but Arthur likes the way Merlin would fuck it up. you don’t act like you can’t go to battle or leave the palace without your servant. Arthur has pleading and yearning eyes for Merlin 24/7 and everyone knows this!
You can say anything you want about Freylin but this scene is one of the most devastating scene in all of Merlin. The fact that he forced strength on himself to carry her all the way to the lake while crying just to show her a glimpse of her home and the future she wanted.
A bit of merthur bc why not
presented without comment
RIP Anthony Stewart Head (1954 - 2026)
no-dopamine baddies approaching every single list of tasks like "which of these things will cause the most amount of personal suffering to me if left undone"
guess who just read yet another list of "tools to combat decision paralysis" that was mostly reward-based and got mad
hey this is really insightful. do you have any advice about identifying the linchpin task? i mean obviously "think about it really hard" might be all there is to it. basically i think this concept is good and would welcome more commentary from you, if you have more to add
the trouble is that Thinking (or at least applying the Talking Brain to the task) is counterproductive here, because that's the voice going "we need to clean the kitchen, why aren't we cleaning the kitchen??" and in these circumstances, giving that sector of the mind more oversight won't help.
it is necessary instead to sit down and kinda try and quiet that voice, and then start with considering my physical needs, kinda mentally run through the maslow's pyramid from bottom to top as if I'm dealing with a little kid throwing a tantrum. like, did we sleep last night? have we had lunch? am I lonely? should I call my aunt? do I want to finish the book I've been reading? do I want to boil chicken bones today? what's bothering me? I'll then try out a couple of things that seem likely and while they may not be The Thing it's useful to build momentum anyways.
but like, if I give it space, the answer will float upwards into view and it's usually something I've been putting off for a long-ass time.
and it'll sound So Stupid to the Talking Mind, who has important tasks that it's trying to get done, but we're going to tell that voice that the kitchen will wait while we take down the Christmas tree, fold the laundry that's been in the basket for a week, sketch the idea, call my aunt, whatever it is, and inevitably the Linchpin Task will take about half an hour, and once it's done I can feel the weight lifted off my shoulders.
Linchpin Tasks are sometimes that it's time to deal with The Emotions At The Bottom Of The Pile, which is when a pile of stuff builds up to cover whatever is at the bottom being emotionally fraught. (letters, the shirt I wore the day my grandpa died, y'know, The Emotions)
I've gotten better at identifying when those piles are starting to accrete and dealing with them before they get bad, but like, you gotta be able to identify the pile of stuff your eyeballs keep slipping off because it feels too emotionally difficult to deal with right now, and like, learning to ignore the part of the mind that wants to assign task priority levels is a counter-intuitive way to get things done.
I hope this makes sense. basically, when it comes to doing stuff, do the thing that's most emotionally fraught first, especially if you can come up with a bunch of excuses to not do it.
image description: tags reading #I tend to go for "which of these tasks is the secret task my subconscious has decided is the linchpin of my productivity" #sometimes that task is not something that's actually urgent in a normal sense but if I don't do it first I will put myself in waiting mode #and like I don't want to be waiting on myself to do a thing that I'm specifically not doing because it's not important
