So if you think being a Merthur shipper who dislikes Arwen is racist, am I allowed to think that Arwen shippers who dislike Merthur are homophobic?
literally how can you be homophobic against something that isn’t canonically gay...
(also like... homophobia is hatred and oppression of gay people. merlin and arthur aren’t gay characters. you can head canon them as gay, but that’s your opinion, it’s not reality)
merthur isn’t real. it’s literally a semi-abusive friendship dynamic shippers delusionally inflated into something more, because tumblr has this bizarre eternal hard-on for white male slash ships. merlin showrunners teased and baited it because they knew that merthurs were the most vocal fans, esp on social media (most vocal ≠ majority tho), so as the seasons went on they intentionally added scenes those fans could read into, to keep them watching and bringing in the views.
merthur isn’t canon, it never would’ve been canon. gwen is the love of arthur’s life, bradley even said it himself (don’t even get me started on the continuous saga of bradley james expressing how uncomfortable he is with merthur and those fans literally ignoring it and continuing to push their own shipping agenda regardless of the fact one of the show’s main actors was like, please stop)
merthur fans were baited, because merthur was a joke to the cast and crew. because they knew it was ridiculous. because they knew it would never happen. if merthur fans want to keep shipping their made up fantasy ship that’s cool, just don’t expect me to be super chill about it when the merthur fandom spent years harassing and badmouthing angel coulby/guinevere because she wasn’t the quintessential white blonde people usually picture that character as.
merthur isn’t real. there’s no romance between the characters, there never was. i’d be more sympathetic if the merthur fandom acknowledged their history of internalized racism, but surprise surprise, they never do. they refuse to look at the history of how POC female characters are treated, especially in fantasy shows. they refuse to acknowledge the years of harassment, of vocal abuse, towards one of the main 4 actors/characters on the show.
if you want to read into two white male characters simply looking at each other, be my guest. but i’d ask that one explores why they have such vitriol towards a couple like arthur/gwen, who really have such a pure and sweet love story. the characters obviously have chemistry, or else they wouldn’t have been cast. they’re the central love story of the show. that’s just a fact, it’s what the show runners planned, what they intended. it shouldn’t have come as a surprise- it’s king arthur and guinevere. no one watches romeo and juliet wondering if they’re going to end up together or not. their pairing is intentional.
so why such negative sentiment, almost all of which is from merthur fans? it you don’t like arwen, why is the hatred focused on gwen, a female POC? why not arthur?
*free real estate guy from vine voice* it’s internalized racism
