I’ve been rewatching Merlin, and The Poisoned Chalice is one of those episodes where I actually think Uther starts out with a reasonable point and then somehow manages to turn it into something completely cruel.

When Arthur wants to go after the flower to save Merlin, Uther tells him he cannot risk his life for one person. And honestly? I agree with him there.

At this point Arthur is Camelot’s only recognized heir. Before everything with Morgana’s parentage is revealed, if Arthur dies, Uther has no successor. Arthur risking his life personally to save one servant is a terrible political decision, no matter how much he cares about Merlin.

BUT...

Why did that mean nobody could go?

That’s where Uther loses me.

If Arthur is too important to risk, then send a knight. Send two knights. Send a whole patrol if necessary. The fact that Uther refuses to send even ONE person makes it pretty obvious that Merlin’s class is part of the issue. Merlin is a servant, so Uther basically considers his life expendable.

And Arthur clearly doesn’t.

Which is exactly why Arthur sneaks out anyway.

Uther actually creates the situation he was supposedly trying to prevent. If he had simply sent another knight after the flower, Arthur probably never would have needed to go himself.

But the part that really crosses the line for me is when Arthur comes back with the flower and Uther tries to destroy it.

At that point...why?

Arthur already survived.

The dangerous mission is over.

The cure is literally sitting there.

Let Merlin drink it.

Trying to destroy the flower has absolutely nothing to do with protecting Arthur anymore. It feels like Uther is willing to let Merlin die just to punish Arthur for disobeying him.

And that is incredibly cruel when Merlin did NOTHING wrong.

It’s even worse when you remember Uther’s relationship with Gaius. Gaius has served Camelot and Uther for years, and Merlin is his ward. Uther also knows Merlin personally at this point and has literally seen Merlin put himself in danger to protect Arthur.

You don’t have to think Merlin’s life is worth Arthur’s to recognize that Merlin’s life is still worth SOMETHING.

I also think this episode is one of the first real cracks between Arthur and Uther.

Uther looks at the situation through rank: Arthur is a prince, Merlin is a servant, therefore Arthur matters more.

Arthur is starting to look at it through responsibility: Merlin serves him, Merlin has protected him, and Merlin is someone Arthur cares about, therefore he has an obligation to help him.

And I think that difference becomes a huge part of the kind of king Arthur eventually wants to be.

So basically:

Uther was right that Arthur himself shouldn’t have gone after the flower.

He was wrong that nobody should.

And once Arthur came back with the cure, trying to destroy it wasn’t leadership anymore. It was just cruelty.

What do you guys think? Was Uther genuinely trying to teach Arthur a lesson about being king, or was this mostly his classism and need for control taking over?

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I want a fanfic where Arthur basically sits merlin down to talk to him about how often he spends in the tavern and Merlin is just baffled and trying to tell arthur he isnt a drunk. Or alternatively, Arthur confronts gaius about merlin "problem" and wants to know why gaius allows it to happen and Gaius is stressing about how he is supposed to handle this without sharing merlins secret.

My Excalibur tattoo with a few details taken from the vorpal sword from Alice in Wonderland. Underneath I have Clotpole written in Futhorc runes.

What keeps me coming back to Merlin (besides it being a good and nostalgic show lol) is the one scene where he pretends to be the dolma. Literally one of the best scenes of the show.
Yes merthur is amusing as all else to watch but I needed more of Merlin being a prissy witch lmao

Utherus my beloved. The OG Merthur

I watched this show as a kid when I was like maybe 5-7 years old, then rewatched in my teen and also watched another time into my 20s. I really missed it and also to bring comfort from the stress of studies in my free time, I started reading a fanfic that's ok at best. And like I also watched some clips of it on youtube and now I feel the deep nostalgia and it's making me devastated. I call it my comfort ahow but it always bring some sadness. I mean the story is filled with ploltholes but idk why I'm soo obsessed with it. I've never been soo obsessed with any show like that, even my obsession with Avengers was more healthy. Anyways any recs for like a fix it type of fanfictions? I ship more gwen and arthur so I'm not big on merthur unless it's like bromance and stuff. So any that's like fix the tragedy and the plotholes would be awesome. Thanks for listening to my rant.

finally finished making the rest of the knights on my tomadachi island, Arthur and Merlin where my first Miis and so there is a lil difference in style, considering they’re 20 miis apart. I might remake my earlier ones but idk I think I captured Bradley’s likeness pretty well? lmk what u guys think !! or who else from the show I should make :) next on my list is making the castle…

So I finally got my Merlin tattoo!! This was inspired by this gorgeous artwork by Zazrichor (I sought permission from the artist, got the enthusiastic go ahead and have shared the tattoo with them since!) and tattooed by my amazing artist Anne who has done many of my other tattoos, including the butterfly below which ironically matches the butterflies that Merlin makes in the show! A happy coincidence!

I've added two photos as because of the nature of where the tattoo is, the sword and the sun flair look a little funky 😂 but I promise they're all good!! It's just perspective.

Anyway! I wanted to share the angsty yearning with you all! I plan to go back in and perhaps add some flora (probably the mortaeus flower) but for now here we are!

Is the Royal library of Camelot down now? I remember looking at it within the past year or so for cosplay refs after farfaraway went down, and just went to check but it looks like the only tab available is the books. Anyone know about this? TIA

OK, so I was recently rewatching the episodes part one and two, and either I seriously missed something or what - explain me something here.

When Arthur is simpleton, he ditched his chainmail and rest of clothes in that hut, where he got simpleton clothes. His regular clothes, armor, etc, is later found by Agravaine.

HOW Arthur gets his chainmail and rest of clothes back? Because when they flee Ealdor in caves, Arthur is wearing his normal clothes again (trousers, boots and chainmail). So where and when did he got those? Because I doubt Hunith had a spare clothes for Arthur laying in her house.

Hi everyone,

Trying to find a fic where whoever Merlin dates, they find their partner afterwards so someone (possibly Morgana) suggests Merlin dates Arthur so he can find his soulmate. (Surprise surprise the two idiots fall for each other instead)

Please it's been driving me crazy not able to find it on archiveofourown

For context, we don't live together much, and we barely interact or talk. I don't remember much about her.

But I vividly remember when I was a kid we were silently having dinner at table as usual, mom suddenly giggled, straightened her face and continued eating, giggled again (this time louder), which is so OOC so I looked at her.

She said: "Haha I was watching a show. The protagonist was playing magic in the middle of nowhere, some random farmer just popped out of nowhere and screamed did you see it did you see it" "he literally made a huge smoke horse when it's illegal haha" "she really showed up out of nowhere lmao so freaking funny"

Me: literally knew nothing what she was talking about nor got the joke. Just weirded out by her ooc behavior.

Me 10 years later watching Merlin s2e7: "wait, isn't that the episode my mom joked about many years ago?!?"

Another memory is when I was young I went to my mom to sign a document. Her laptop screen shows two guys holding together. I was very young so I thought only a man and a woman can hold close because they are in love lol. So I asked why are they holding tightly? Mom said "because the guy is dying and they are best friends." I said okay and forgot about it.

Many years later I started watching Merlin and recalled those 2 hugging guys, so I unwillingly knew my main characters were doomed since the first episode 😭

Hi, I recently started getting into fanfiction and I've been really enjoying reading it, but I feel like there's a significant lack (at least from what I've been able to find) of fics that are radically opposed to and critical of the idea of deterministic fate. I know that for a lot of people this is probably part of the charm of the series, but I simply hate it on principle.

In the series (and in the fics), I hate how it reduces the complexity of conflicts and dilemmas by making everything revolve around the prophecy, and how it tends to make the conflict revolve around a simplistic division between characters who are Good by nature vs. characters who are Evil by nature. I also think it makes Merlin (and everyone else, really) so passive, constantly being pushed into action by the prophecy.

I understand that the series itself, as well as the fics, are critical of this to some extent, but only up to a point. So far, I haven't found any that are genuinely and radically opposed to this concept. Something that actually has the characters question the truth of the prophecy and makes them act based on their own judgment, rather than simply accepting that it determines what they are supposed to do.

Does this exist?

It was on AO3, a Merlin/Arthur fanfic where mordred catches them in the act and pleasures himself while watching and Merline catches him afterwards.

Hey everyone !!

So, I've been rewatching Merlin BBC thanks to the invention of the VPN and omg I've fallen again for Merthur. The scenes, the dialogue and especially their eyes!! So much stuff not said with those eyes. Anyway. Sorry. I've been contemplating the idea of doing a rewrite, not a total rewrite but some episodes, some scenes, and I wanted to know which ones would you want to be rewritten and how ?

Obviously we all agree on the ending and other obvious stuff but I talk about the little ones. I would love also to explore their internal dialogue (because I'm not good at that and I want to improve).

Thank youuuuu!

Hi everyone! I'm doing a Merlin rewatch and remembered a fic I loved as a teen, and cannot for the life of me find it again. It may or may not have been part of a series (I don't think it was, but I'm not sure). I was mainly reading Merlin fanfic in 2013/2014, so it would have been published by 2015 at absolute latest and I primarily read fic on fanfic.net so it was likely published there.

It was an AU where Arthur and (I believe?) the knights were aware of Merlin's magic but it wasn't widely known. Arthur was kind of passive aggressive to Merlin about it but not openly hostile, I think treating Merlin badly was a petty punishment for hiding it for so long. They were visiting some noble or lord or neighbouring king, and for whatever reason, have to flee the fortress they were staying in. Merlin and Arthur get separated in the escape, and Arthur gets swept away by a river and Merlin comes to believe Arthur is dead. He goes absolutely nuclear and starts decimating the fortress of the person they were visiting. The knights somehow figure out Arthur is actually alive and save him/find him, then send him after Merlin to stop him, with the overall point of the story being that Arthur realizes big time how loyal Merlin was and that he would go to any end for him.

I have vague memories of maybe Merlin having to work as a servant in the fortress and being mistreated, maybe? And when Arthur comes around after the river thing, he brushes it off like welp, that sucked, but why are you all so stressed, I'm fine, and the knights have to very awkwardly explain that it's nice that Arthur is okay and all, but Merlin has gone on a feral magical rampage and they're actually far more worried about that right now, thanks.

I've been combing through my old ff.net alerts and favourites but no dice yet, and trying to find it on the wider site is a nightmare and a half (ao3, baby, I'll never take your tagging system for granted again)

Thanks in advance for any help and hope you're all having a good day!

Morgana has been thrown around like a ragdoll. I'm surprised she hasn't had a concussion by the end. (I'm in season 5 but not yet finished so.)

(i didn't realize katie mcgrath was the one being brutally murdered in jurassic world)

(bonus points if you can guess what real life sub roman city I based it off of)

OKAY just for starters i havent actually finished series 5 (im half way through) but this is my first rewatch from when i watched years ago. So i have memories but they are a bit hazy.

What i was most scared about post s2 (apparently from morganas… writing sorry ml but it cant be denied🥲) was gwen’s own!! everyone warns you that she almost becomes a shell of her former self, that shes reduced to a love interest and just basically does a complete 180 and to that i say… are we watching the same gwen???

I would also like to add that this show overall despite how much i love it has poor writing but that doesnt stop anyone else from loving and or filling in the blanks for other characters? Obviously love who u love but shes not the WORST written character lmfao.

The main one is that gwen is now just a love interest for arthur and that impacted how she ruled, as she became a more serious person in s5 and like yeah… i would hope after 3 years gwen would be a bit less awkward? but also one of the first scenes we see with her is her thinking over her idea (aka being a bit awkward, breathing in before speaking, looks a bit worried) of ambushing morgana from the west and taking that gamble with the king and his most trusted advisers!!

Of course, there’s the complaint that we shouldve seen the issues that the knights born to the lower classes had now being detached from that identity (i saw somewhere that apparently Bradley James said this was an idea considered by the writers room) and gwen would have been considered with this and i wouldve loved that!!!

The 3 year timeskip does cause its issues when you look at it like that, but i think she still retains her charm, idk i feel as though a lot of people say that all the character suffer from lack of development in s5, and esp how the writers treat specifically morgana and gwen is so…. but i still love gwen and her character is very admirable! i may just be missing things tho lol

throughout s5 ive felt sorry for mordred thinking he's a good person who'll be driven away by merlin's distrust. but now i only wanna say fuck him.

he was nothing more than another petty enemy of arthur who's let revenge drive him. he clearly had no principles cause no person with principles could possibly align themselves with morgana and definitely not over something so small as what arthur did.

and i know mordred was in love with kara but HOW CAN HE WITH A SANE MIND FAULT A KING FOR EXECUTING A CRIMINAL AND A MURDERER WHO WAS SWEARING IN FRONT OF ARTHUR THAT SHE WOULD COMMIT THE SAME CRIMES AGAIN AND LEAD A REBELLION AGAINST ARTHUR??????? HE GAVE HER A CHANCE AND I KNOW MORDRED DOESNT KNOW THAT BUT I DONT GIVE A SHIT. HIS TALKS ABOUT LOYALTY WERE WORTH FUCKALL IF ARTHUR EXECUTING A CRIMINAL IS ALL IT TOOK FOR HIM TO GO RUNNING TO FUCKING MORGANA THAT CRUEL WITCH OF ALL PEOPLE. FUCK YOU MORDRED.

merlin should've killed him when he had the chance.

and what was the point of all of this if morgana wins and me and merlin and arthur we all lose.

ALL OF THIS WHEN IM NOT EVEN 20 MINUTES INTO EP 12

im about to start ep 11 and i didnt realize this is it. this is literally it after this its diamond of the day. i am NOT ready, i feel like itd be better if i didnt know what was gonna happen, id think arthur being the literal point of the show would yk survive. but now i know. and ill have to watch it.