Merlin on the adhd spectrum!
(Annotations in future post, check reblogs. Also, I still have more info I couldn’t figure out how to fit in here)
emotional to the point where even the people who know what he’s going through are exasperated.
Arthur uses a specific way of comforting that is mostly seen with Merlin because he’s very emotionaly frail and Arthur knows this. Arthur can’t be all rough with him or else merlin will just feel worse. We only see Arthur like this with anyone else one to each morgana and some women in the 4th season.
Poor self esteem and thinks his only worth is his magic.
Bubbily one minute, depressed the next.
Sensitivity to things most find normal. I. E. Being punched in the arm. Arthur ment it to be a friendly gesture, but Merlin took it literally and as an insult. He looked genuinely offended. (rejection sensitivity dysphoria).
saying rude things to people without thinking, gets into fights by accident
Generally blurting weird things out at any given time
Throws himself in risky situations without thinking
Tries to meddle with destiny and always finds he has bit off much more than he can chew
Merlin was once shown a eating a bowl with way too many berries. This can happen because we get too excited with food and fall to realize we can’t eat that much.
listening to Arthur talk? Nah, how about staring at his lips like they are the most distracting thing in the world.
being in the middle of a conversation and fucking booking it out the door bc he just thought of something.
Time blindness, he’s late to everything. Hence this joke
Speaking of time blindness, Merlin seams to feel like he’s in a more nebulous version of time. Think quarantine mood but no quarantine in the first place. You can see this in how weird the time system is in the show. It’s messy and nondescript.
sticks to like 3 good spells and forgets some really useful ones that could be used in his adventures.
Forgets to do some of his chores.
Grieves weirdly because he seams to forget his loss even happened because the person is out of his life and only sometimes remembers them(Poor object prominence).
stims in a way that poeple who only do neurotypical stims call it out or think it’s weird. Usually comes out when Merlin is experiencing a lot of emotions at once.
Main Stims seam to be pacing and drumming his fingers
You can see the best examples of this scene and the one in the lady of lake where Merlin is pacing and humming. (1)I couldn’t find a video or gif set or anything for that. If y’all have one let me know
Explicitly shows to be more sensitive to smells and tastes. wears high quality clothing—we can tell bc of the expensively bright colors. All of this despite him growing up in a poor village. Merlin even ARRIVED in Camelot with these clothes(sensory processing disorder)
We can especially see Merlin’s sensitivity to bad smells in a scene in Lancelot and Gwenevere(2)
his sensitivity to tastes is explicit in The Coming of Arthur. Arthur is said to eat really anything, even things merlin would never even try to. Merlin is a poor peasant, but Arthur is a prince in a rich kingdom. (3, need help finding this one)
Trouble socializing and reading the room(think; making bad puns at the worst time possible).
Makes either creepily strong eye contact or none at all.
Shown to struggle with basic volume control in his voice, especially whispering. He cannot whisper at all.
Has some trouble understanding the big picture and others motivations sometimes. It may be too overwhelming for him
Merlin will learn something(mordred posibly killing arthur) and never let go. He grew to hate mordred even like 10 years later because Merlin was unwilling to budge.
Even after Arthur died, Merlin clung to him coming back for 1500+ years because he had become so used to serving him he could not move on. Merlin lived in the same place, waiting for the same person for a century and a half. He became inflexible to living any other way
