Gawain Theory [4KOTA SPOILERS]
(Thanks to @window-weather, @demonprincezeldris, and @milee-na
Okay, I'm going to be real here, I absolutely despise 4KOTA. And if there was anything more annoying than the series itself, it was all of the discourse about Gawain, the 4th Knight, who was revealed to be a woman and a carrier of Sunshine, Escanor's power. But LISTEN.
I thought the whole argument was stupid, and it felt immensely illogical that Gawain was somehow Escanor and Merlin's child, and even worse, Merlin and Arthur's, because the biggest thing that threw all of the theories off (other than Merthur, which isn't even a consideration since their relationship is mother and son, not lovers), and it was that Gawain is blood related to Arthur.
Upon further thinking, I realized,
maybe those people were onto something. However, there is one thing they haven't considered that I think might be true that no one has really thought about.
What if Escanor and Arthur are related?
We hardly know anything about Escanor's family, and we know 0 things about Arthur's, ofc aside from Kay if you read the manga, who's his brother. Be mindful that Escanor's family is royal, and Arthur, destined to be king of Camelot, was born royal too. They also have similar hair colors, which is essentially what made me think about this theory before I realized how much it made sense.
Arthur is probably the only ruler we know in the entire series who became a King by being prophecized to be instead of being an heir or marrying into a family. And essentially what attracted Merlin to Arthur was that he was the child of prophecy meant to carry the Holy Sword Excalibur.
Escanor never developed powers on his own, but neither did Arthur, even after he wielded Excalibur. It doesn't make sense for fate to choose people to have powers they were never meant to handle, but what if fate made a mistake?
Escanor was given Sunshine at birth, blessed with it for no specific reason, but it made him miserable, completely ruined his life. During the Demon King arcs, Mael, who was the original holder of Sunshine, continuously warns Escanor that Sunshine was going to kill him if he overuses it, and by the end of the Demon King Zeldris arc, Sunshine is inevitably what kills him, almost as if he wasn't supposed to have it.
Arthur was born to be the next wielder of the Holy Sword Excalibur, and he trains his entire life to be able to hold it. He becomes the King of Camelot before series events, but somehow, even though he was the Child of Prophecy, he never developed any magical power, and by the time he finally unsheathes Excalibur, he naturally knows how to use it and kicks ass, but he loses the battle because the Holy sword rejected him because his body wasn't ready for it, almost as if he was missing something imperative to him being able to use it.
I was thinking, what if that thing that Arthur was missing was Sunshine? What if Arthur was originally supposed to be the one to have Sunshine, but it was given to the family one generation too early? Fate mistook the child it was supposed to give Sunshine to?
My theory is that before Arthur was born into the family, they Escanor was born, and they were gifted Sunshine by mistake because whatever decided that Escanor would get Sunshine thought that he was Arthur, the one to hold Excalibur. Obviously the family didn't know that, and because Escanor couldn't control the power that was never meant to be his, it caused everything that happened in his backstory. Then, years later, the real child of prophecy, Arthur, is born. Arthur is adopted by his royal parents (who we never get to see, isn't that suspicious), so perhaps Arthur was born to a relative of Escanor's parents, but they didn't want him, so Escanor's parents adopted him (or something idfk). We already know Arthur's treatment with his family wasn't very good, otherwise he never would've ended up with Merlin. Perhaps the reasoning was because they knew he was a child of prophecy, and we already know what happened with their last kid that was "blessed".
That's how Gawain can both connect to Escanor with Sunshine--it's finally passed down to the right person (or not, maybe it is still supposed to be Arthur's but it keeps somehow dancing around him), and how Escanor connects to Arthur, who could be cousins to adoptive brothers--because in Arthurian Legend, from what I heard, Arthur's nephew is the one who kills him. Not only is Gawain perfect for the job, but it also makes sense sine everyone thought Gawain would be a man (also, I know Arthur's nephew isn't named Gawain, but Meliodas's brother's name in the original isn't Zeldris, but in the show he he only has one brother, who isn't named Marcus, so it isn't unlikely that role/name changes would happen more than just once).
Here's how Merlin comes into the picture.
From what I've been told, Gawain is able to use Absolute Cancel, which isn't just a Merlin thing, but a mage thing, however the only living and relevant character we know that can use Absolute Cancel is Merlin. Isn't it strange that Gawain, who is blood related to Arthur, is a holder of sunshine, has a sword named Litta (sounds familiar, doesn't it?), and just so happens to also be a mage? That means that in some way, she has to have some relation to Escanor, to Arthur, and in some way, just possibly, to Merlin. I believe that if anything, Merlin kissing Escanor was more than she let on--what if Merlin kissed Escanor as a way to retain DNA? DNA to maybe make someone who can carry out Escanor's legacy, and someone who was intended to be passed down Sunshine? We already know Merlin likes to tamper with fate, and Merlin isn't the kind of person to stand back and do absolutely nothing without any kinds of real intentions. That would make Gawain the semi-biological child of Escanor and Merlin, Escanor a cousin or brother of Arthur, and Arthur an uncle to Gawain.
What are you guys' thoughts on this?