Why do you think they arthur said to merlin I always thought you were the bravest man I ever me I guess I was wrong ,why did the writers do that to us , just to hurt us more I guess
I had mixed feelings about that moment if I’m going to be honest because on the one hand, I understand why the writers put it in because they wanted to emphasize Merlin’s burden in the penultimate episode, emphasize just how much Arthur doesn’t know and that Merlin is willing to risk Arthur’s favour, which is extremely important to him, to do his duty and it’s supposed to break the viewer’s hearts, it’s supposed to be unfair while I believe we were also supposed to see how betrayed Arthur felt because he doesn’t know any better and I get that
but at the same time, after years of Merlin always being with Arthur and risking his life with Arthur and/or for Arthur
going on quests with Arthur
not leaving Arthur even when he tells him to or showing up even when Arthur tells him not to
to the point that Arthur had come to have faith in Merlin always being there
and the devotion that Merlin expressly stated
and the one time he left Arthur’s side was because he had to take care of his mother and village
it simply did not make sense to me that Arthur wouldn’t know Merlin enough to know that if he’s not going to go with him then it would be for a very good reason because Arthur sees and hears this overwhelming devotion and Arthur also puts a lot of faith in Merlin
That him not being suspicious or thinking something was wrong or just knowing that Merlin HAD to go even if he didn’t know why, it was just an OOC Arthur moment for me.
This. It was so OOC for Arthur to say that. It’s obvious he didn’t really mean it, so it just sounded passive-aggressive, as if he wanted to hurt Merlin for not telling him what the matter really was. He had to know that Merlin had a good reason for not coming along and once again he was lied to, not trusted, and taken for a fool.
It’s almost as if this was a subconscious response to the magic reveal later, as if Arthur, on some level, knew what this was about. He thought Merlin was the bravest man but he wasn’t brave enough to tell his best friend the truth. Maybe he doesn’t yet know that this is about magic but he knows that Merlin is lying to him and lying is cowardice in his mind.
