#escalin

Listen, I’m not denying Merlin is selfish but why does the whole fandom keep ignoring the fact that she genuinely loves knowledge to the point of obsession (stopping her own time so there would be no limit for her to continue exploring knowledge) and reduce her whole motive to just “being unable to handle a rejection”? Ok, she had a crush on Meliodas (puppy love typa thing let’s be honest) and since she also loves/cannot hate Elizabeth (and this proves she doesn’t have a love brain like y’all want her to), she chose to immerse herself in knowledge, a healthy coping mechanism if ya ask me. Then she found out about chaos and started looking into it. By the point the events in the manga happened, she had already invested 3000 years into uncovering chaos. Now imagine you start a passion project that grows way out of hand, and you have spent too many years to just quit and not get the results. This is what Merlin meant when she said “too late” in my opinion (partly this and partly that she wished she had had someone like Escanor 3000 years ago when she was so hungry for dedicated affection). Merlin is the sin of Gluttony for a reason. Greed is wanting more; gluttony is overconsuming, overindulgence to the point of self destruction. Her actions are always one part cold pragmatism and one part sentimental. It’s cold when she said Escanor was an intriguing test subject. But then she did an incredibly sentimental thing by giving him a kiss, scarring herself permanently as a memorial to him so Escanor is carved into her very skin and she would always remember him whilst people jeered at her for “wasting a pretty face”.

Now onto the next part that I think people are too hard on her for, just slow down and put yourself in Merlin’s shoes. So she helped this guy, and she looked like the only female figure who has ever shown him kindness. Wouldn’t Merlin think she might just be an alive version of Rosa to him? Escanor was probably aware of this, which is why he said “I have always loved you. And I know it's not only because you remind me so much of Rosa”. And seeing how many of y’all keep refusing that it’s Merlin who was with Escanor in chapter 192 but Rosa instead (which is dumb bc only Merlin has that mole and the Japanese text literally says “Merlin”) shows how real this concern is. I love Escalin and I think they should get married, but she is not inclined to return his feelings.

Yes, Escanor wrote many many many poems dedicated to her, and all of the words show how much he worshiped her. But this is bad, because then Merlin wouldn’t think he genuinely loves her (until his confession I reckon, you could see the surprise in her eyes when she realized just how forgiving his love is) and that he was probably mistaking savior worshiping for love. Just look at how Escanor described Merlin, sounds a bit too perfect and um well not exactly accurate:

Her being kind is debatable I guess since she was kinda always nice to him (which proves she did care about him btw)

But cheerful?? Does this mean Merlin smile more in front of Escanor?

It’s a shame really. I wonder what could have gone differently if Escanor had confessed his deep feelings for her sooner, maybe even back when they weren’t wanted criminals yet. Maybe he wouldn’t have become collateral damage to her plans. I hate how the anime portrayed their farewell kiss, the manga did it so much better. I’m not a big fan of how emotionless she is in the anime compared to the melancholy and the sinking realization that she couldn’t back down anymore. How her eyes looked so sad in the manga but the anime missed the mark completely.

Another harsh assumption is that Merlin tried to kill Elizabeth. No, she can teleport Elizabeth quick enough there won’t be a scrape. Reactivating her curse sounds extreme but even if Merlin hadn’t done it, Elizabeth would probably still encounter some near-death experience in purgatory and that would reactive her curse too (still don’t really get how this works as some said Merlin needs to have the power equivalent to a god to reactivate her curse? But personally I think Merlin managed to do it because the demon king isn’t dead yet). And also the curse required Meliodas to “watch” her die so technically since he wasn’t watching, Elizabeth wouldn’t die.

Anyway, Merlin is selfish and I still love her. God forbid a woman has hobbies (literally lol).

"Death doesn't discriminate, Between the sinners and the saints, It takes and it takes and it takes..."

If Only She Was...

If Only She Was Glutton(y) To...

If Only She Was Glutton(y) To Someone...

Is she…

Sitting on him????

At first I thought she was floating but nope, I’m pretty sure she’s sitting on Escanor