Okay so in the show and in 90% of fics merlin is a chatter box and talks a lot about everything
BUT WHAT IF THIS WAS A DEFENCE MECHANISM FOR HIM LYING , growing up with strict parents like me you know early on that oversharing about stupid harmless things is always your way out . You overshare so much about everyday normal stuff so they think you always tell them everything so if anything happens you would definitely tell them but you DON’T you just give them the illusion of being an open book so they never suspect you
So merlin does just that ! He overshares to Arthur about every small thing that happened in his day , who said what about whom , to give Arthur the illusion of knowing everything about him . Thus the ‘i’d know’ in the magic reveal makes a bit more sense and hurt a lot more because merlin made Arthur think he was important enough for him that he’d share every small detail with him and that feeling was suddenly gone when Arthur found out he didn’t know the most important part of merlin’s identity.
