#bbcm takes

[sapphickittykatherine]

trying to determine whether merlin preferred lancelot or gwaine: broke

acknowledging that merlin loved them equally and they were his bitches, in whichever way you choose to interpret that: woke

[sapphickittykatherine]

i'm sorry but when someone comes out here and implies that lancelot was in unrequited love with anyone i just have to laugh. do you seriously think that everyone in this cursed show wasn't head over heels for him? don't answer that.

[sapphickittykatherine]

gwencelot is an absolute fucking serve of a ship and so i will forever be tired of ppl using it as a means to discredit arwen and using it to pair the spares, and making me the slightest bit bitter regarding it in the process 😶 gwen loved lance, gwen loved arthur, arthur loved gwen, and - you know what??? - arthur loved lance as well! ot3 die mad

[sapphickittykatherine]

i don't like 4x09 because i can't stand to watch lancelot's and gwen's reputations be destroyed, but i hold it in high regard on the basis of being a rare occasion where morgana's plan actually works. the damage doesn't last long, but it's still something.

merlin has a strong comedic element so it can be fun to watch the villains come up with incredibly convoluted plans, and merlin and co fumble to thwart them, but at its core (especially in the later seasons) it's a very dark show. but studios are so afraid of allowing their villains to win/their heroes to lose even small battles that their antagonists gradually lose their teeth, and it's so frustrating to watch. ofc morgana has arthur killed in the end lmao and has a lasting impact on the show but she still suffers from this. so 4x09 makes a nice change.

[sapphickittykatherine]

this is all just my personal view ofc, and i have been known to be wrong about things but, looking for a merwaincelot fic that gets their dynamic right is like searching for a needle in a haystack 😭😭😭 why does no one get them like i do?? being so incredibly intelligent is lonely fr :/ gwaine and lance trying to seduce merlin to join their relationship or have a threesome with them is incorrect. i am deeply sorry. the positions are the wrong way around. gwaine and merlin are far more likely to be fwb or dating (in a way that involves sex) than gwaine and lance 😶 merlin is not a shy, oblivious little bby - he's an unhinged feral wilddeoren (rat) boy - but you know who is??? lance! they try their hardest to seduce him and he either doesn't notice or thinks there's no way they'd flirt with him and he must be mistaken so he ignores it. merlin and gwaine are dropping terribly unsubtle hints that they both like him romantically left and right, but the man manages to misread them somehow. lance is repressed and shy and has cripplingly low self-esteem and merlin and gwaine would eat him alive, sorry :/ he would be the shy one being backed into a corner unexpectedly by two men with nefarious motives, not merlin! he is utterly unaware of how attractive he is bc he hates himself. to be fair, merlin kinda hates himself too, as does gwaine, but not in the same way. they're a sad trio okay but lance is pathetic and a subby little bitch and would never initiate i don't make the rules

[sapphickittykatherine]

i just wanna talk for a sec about arthur. disclaimer: i adore him. he's my blorbo boy. however, he definitely does get prince privilege with regards to both the narrative voice of the show and the fandom. i'd like to point to this post as a jumping-off point:

if you're anything like me, you might need cw: lancelot slander

ofc my bias towards lancelot has affected my view of this in absolutely no way whatsoever lmao

i understand that arthur was raised by a power-hungry tyrant - although, one who was said to care for his kingdom even before his own son... - and that being brought up with privilege goes to someone's head. this is why i excuse his dickishness in early seasons. he's going to grow! that's what merlin is there for! by season 5, however, when he has not only not grown but actually gotten worse, you have to question why everyone - including merlin - still praises him so much. he still oppresses magic. he still upholds the inequality of the monarchy. (another disclaimer: i adore fictional stories about monarchs and royalty etc. nothing wrong with liking them!) yet still, people praise him for the absolute barest of minimums. this man will be like, "yeah i don't think we should leave our citizens to die actually :)" and everyone will act like this is some incredibly brave moral stance. "we shouldn't tax our citizens to the point that they starve, or execute innocent people without a fair trial. probably." and the crowd goes wild!

basically every character who isn't a stuck-up noble with their head in the stratosphere thinks this. yet arthur is the one who gets praised for it. why? because he has the power to actually do something about it? the guy actually fights alongside his knights rather than hiding in his castle, which makes him better than the other knights. bc logic. "he's such a great guy!" he's bordering on a mediocre guy with bare-minimum moral stances. and that's okay! he's allowed to be a stuck-up royal prat! he's a medieval prince with a tyrant father, for goodness' sake! but this worship of him - not just by characters, but also members of the fandom - is weird tbh.

how the aforementioned post ties in to all this exactly: lancelot. there is a reason, dear pinterest user, that lancelot is the bravest and most noble of them all, rather than arthur. arthur fights to defend his kingdom, first and foremost. he is the crown prince, and later the kin. if not for the seemingly infinite supply of knights and citizens of camelot, thanks to this being a show, he would have no kingdom to rule if he let everyone die and all structures be destroyed! he wants peace among the kingdoms - great. again, a highly bare-minimum stance, though. you remember when uther signed a peace treaty with a bunch of other kingdoms, even though another king was mad he couldn't get rich off war if that happened? uther the pure-hearted. on the other hand, people like lancelot are just commoners. he wants to risk his life not because he's defending the kingdom over which he presides, but because he doesn't want a bunch of people who, honestly, have very little to do with him, suffer or die like he saw happen to the people in his village. "arthur risks his life for his friends!" the guy has, like, three. i should hope so. not to mention lancelot does the same 💀 for arthur (1x05), for gwen (2x04), for merlin (4x02).

lancelot is literally just one example. if you don't want to, it's chill - it's literally just a work of fiction lol - but maybe try to assess arthur sans privilege. even once. do i think that arthur is better than uther and other tyrants? obviously! do i think that's a particularly high bar? ...

he's a dick with a heart of... bronze. maybe. good for him.

[sapphickittykatherine]

⚠️ somewhat nsfw

okay i have an Agenda™ fr so i'm biased but. ppl talking about how arthur loves it when people can beat him, physically or verbally - merlin, gwen, lancelot - then saying that this means he's a sub or a bottom? just. like. you've got a point. you're so right but also so wrong. merlin would probably dom the hell out of his royal ass, because merlin is absolutely fucking insane (which is, of course, the defining trait of a dom 🤡), but gwen and lance? nah... they out-sub him tbh. i think arthur loves the idea that someone could beat him in some respect. that lance can best him in a fight and gwen will put him in his place if necessary. he loves that they can, but... won't? they'll hand over control despite that. they'll let him take care of them despite the fact that they aren't weak at all. the man is surrounded by deferential, obsequious people, and has been all his life. he literally entered a tournament anonymously so no one would go easy on him. people like merlin, gwen, and lance are a much-needed breath of fresh air. but... that doesn't make him a sub. if anything, the man's got a thing for brats (*cough* merlin *cough*) and strong ppl relinquishing control. like damn i love me a bit of merlin domming the hell out of arthur but. brat!merlin? a serve. and gwen and lance? absolute babies. badasses, but babies nonetheless. not a chance. also it's worth mentioning that frenemies with benefits arwaine would switch bc. they just would.

idk someone with dark hair topping someone with light hair just feels wrong to me now. i have been conditioned by yaoi manga 😔

[sapphickittykatherine]

i'm sure this has been discussed a million times before, but can we talk about how terrifying 4x08 is, for a second? being trapped all alone with a bunch of men - trained warriors, no less - who won't listen to reason, with nowhere else to go but with them. being faced with their anger and threats if you attempt to stop them from riding to their dooms. men that you care for. ;_;