Merlin Bbc - Blog Posts

You know what type of characters are my favorite? The ones that aren't just doomed by the narrative, but the narrative seems to have a personal vendetta against them.

I'm talking about characters who the narrative wants to fistfight to the death in a Denny's parking lot at 3am. Characters who get tied behind the narrative's truck and dragged through a minefield of angst and pain. Characters that the narrative will turn into a pathetic, sopping wet cat. Characters that the narrative will elbow slam into the floor from the top rope while they're down just for the fun of it.

I just love characters that don't pass the narrative's vibe check and get put through the horrors and come out the other side a different person because of it.

Submitted by ramblings-of-a-chaotic-neutral

BBC Merlin from Arthur and Merlin's perspectives, respectively.

it’s psychological horror to YOU. to me it’s a romcom

Back on my "Merlin is symbolized by butterflies in the finale, but specifically a species that feeds on corpses because his rebirth and the completion of his character arc are intrinsically tied to Arthur's death" bullshit.

Just for fun, here's a comparison between the purple emperor butterfly (a species that will feed on carrion) and Merlin's butterfly in the finale:

Now, am I reading too far into this? Absolutely. But will the symbolism haunt me for months anyways? Definitely.

So just a typical tuesday

Honestly devastating that we didn't see more instances of Merlin just throwing hands with people for Arthur. Like we got Cedric, but in most cases he uses his magic and like work with what you got buddy, but he's a country boy he's gonna know how to scrap whether or not he's good at it. It's a shame the writers didn't add another Cedric type of situation where Merlin just fucking loses it and starts fistfighting some bitches

I will always love the idea of Merlin using his powers to become Morgana's sleep paralysis demon (see: Dragoon & Morgana's interaction in "A Servant of Two Masters")! Could you imagine if Merlin decided to keep spooking Morgana as Dragoon? Just, this immortal warlock popping up to foil Morgana's plans when she least expects it. I love it lol!

incorrect merlin quotes #14

Behold! Dragoon the Great pondering his orb!

I wonder, what secrets of the universe is he peering into?

A silly short Merlin au inspired by that one post where Merlin is put on trial in the blorbo court:

An evil sorcerer manages to capture Arthur, Merlin, and the knights as revenge for what Camelot did to the druids. However, this sorcerer is a devout follower of the old gods, so he decides to put Arthur on trial for his crimes against magic to let the gods pass judgement on him. After all, Emrys would surely show no mercy towards the son of the tyrant who burned Emrys's temples and slaughtered his worshippers.

So the sorcerer performs the ritual to summon Emrys, who appears looking like an eldritch monstrosity. It's a good thing everyone's too distracted by the glowing, incomprehensible god in front of them to notice that Merlin's soul has just been forcefully yanked from his body.

Of course, Arthur and the knights are terrified. They're bound, weaponless, and their hindbrains are telling them to run away now! The sorcerer, meanwhile, is giddy. He welcomes Emrys and presents Arthur to him, inviting him to judge the son of the butcher king as he sees fit.

Merlin, at this point, is just pissed. Getting one's soul yanked out from you body isn't exactly a pleasant experience! And now this nuisance who just kidnapped all of them was demanding that he kill Arthur!

But Merlin decides to play along for a bit, just to make this sorcerer suffer for his idiotic choice in trying to kill Arthur. So, Merlin replies, "he is innocent."

The entire room falls silent. Everyone looks at him in shock, but perhaps no one looked as shocked as Arthur. The beat of silence passed quickly though, as the sorcerer starting yelling.

"What?! How can that be true? Lord Emrys, you surely must know of this man's crimes against magic, against your people! He must be punished!"

"I am the judge here, aren't I? I say that he is innocent. You, on the other hand, are not."

Emrys then wastes no time in striking the fool down with lightning. Honestly, who did he think he was, making such demands? Arthur was Emrys's favorite mortal, he could do no wrong in Emrys's eyes!

TL;DR:

Arthur gets put on trial for crimes against magic, but Merlin declares him innocent because Arthur is his favorite little guy!

Prompt 6: trial

A big thanks to @mortiscausa for this wonderful challenge, I had a lot of fun drawing with palette and seeing art from other artists! :D

In honor of Merlin reaching number one on trending today!

Update: holy shit we're at number 1!

Nobody:

The Merlin fandom on a random day in March:

Villain: Hears small boots stomping rapidly towards their location

Villain: Why do I hear boss music??

Arthur: Don't kill me, I'm married!

Villain of the week: Do you think I care?

Arthur: You misunderstood, that was a warning.

*Sound of small boots approaching quickly*

Brining this one back for funsies because I'm thinking about the finale again and the whole butterfly symbolism always fucks me up.

A random thought on the ending of Merlin (since it haunts me all the time): there are many species of butterflies that are known to feed on corpses for nutrients. Merlin's main symbol in the finale, the symbol of his own self-acceptance and reclaiming himself from the claws of destiny, was a bright blue butterfly, a symbol of death and rebirth.

The image of it is striking for me: Merlin, symbolized by the butterfly, finally accepting himself, only for those same butterflies to turn around and feed on Arthur's corpse while waiting for Arthur himself to be reborn.

I'm insane about this show, if you couldn't already tell.

Nobody:

The Merlin fandom on a random day in March:

Hello everyone! Here's a quick Merlin au idea that I might flesh out later:

We know from the show that Merlin is "magic itself", so what if all magic had a form of consciousness or spirit as Emrys? In this au, Emrys has always existed as magic's consciousness and allows magic users to harness his power, but he lacks any physical form on account of being a spirit.

However, when Uther declares war on magic and starts the purge, Emrys knew that he had to act to stop Uther. So, he decides to make a vessel so that he can directly act in the physical world, instead of having to rely on the power of his followers.

Emrys's plan was to intertwine his soul with the newborn vessel's, which would allow him to become one with the vessel and keep his memories, powers, and spirit intact. But, something went wrong while Emrys was attaching himself to the vessel, and now Emrys was stuck in a mortal form without any of his memories as a spirit. And thus, Merlin was born.

Everything after that would go pretty much the same as canon up until the last season. As the golden age neared and Morgana grew stronger, the part of Emrys's spirit that resided outside of Merlin grew more and more insistent. What was left of Emrys's spirit knew that Merlin needed to regain his memories as Emrys and reunite with their spirit to achieve his true potential, but it seemed like nothing was working!

So, Emrys tried everything to get through to Merlin, but Merlin was too preoccupied with trying to keep Arthur alive to notice any of Emrys's subliminal messages.

After a while, Emrys tried reaching out to the Druids and even the Catha to see if they could perform a ritual to unlock Emrys's memories and spirit from within Merlin. Merlin eventually figures out the truth and readily agrees to the ritual, taking any power that he can get if it means that he can protect Arthur better.

However, Arthur and the knights catch wind of this and are horrified. To them, it looks like magic itself is trying to possess Merlin!

This all culminates with Arthur and the knights being too late to stop the ritual. They watch on in horror as Merlin's eyes are permanently stained gold, and his expression holds an uncharacteristic grimness.

Arthur knows, down to his core, that what he's looking at isn't Merlin, but rather magic itself wearing his best friend's skin and controlling his like a puppet. With tears in his eyes, Arthur turns his blade on what was once Merlin, knowing that Merlin himself wouldn't have wanted magic to lay waste to the world while wearing his face.

But Emrys just rolls his eyes at Arthur dramatics. Honestly, his memories of existing as an incorporeal spirit for millennia were kind of boring anyways.

TL;DR:

Merlin gets a cool powerup, while Arthur thinks that he has to kill his best friend, who is possessed by the closest thing Camelot has to a devil: magic itself. Heartbreaking angst (from Arthur's POV) and mild irritation (from Merlin's POV) ensue!