{ previous | The Triumph of Uther Pendragon by Araeph }

Thank you so much for this rec! It's the essay I've always wanted to write but never felt like actually organizing in such a clear, focused format, and I'm LOVING IT. (Also, the author actually knows things about the original Arthurian legends, which helps a lot.)

Some choice quotes, for anybody else wondering if it's worth the read:

"If Kilgharrah’s lessons to Merlin are don’t try to save people and don’t try to see goodness in them, Gaius’ lesson to Merlin is: if you try to press for progress in Camelot, you and everyone you love will get hurt."

"In Series 5, Arthur is King, Gwen is Queen, Morgana leads an army, and Merlin is…Arthur’s manservant. Arthur wears his crown, Gwen wears velvet and brocade, Morgana wears black clothes and enchanted jewelry, and Merlin…wears the exact same clothes he’s always worn. Arthur has the Round Table, Gwen rules at his side, Morgana has her own castle, and Merlin…leads nothing, despite all the Druids and Catha waiting for him to build the world he promised."

"As Series 3 progresses, we see this more and more—that Morgana has not merely changed, but been removed to make way for the version of the character that is safely in the evil camp." (my Morgana Conspiracy Theory is that Morgause used the same spell on Morgana that was used on Gwen in season 5, because that's the only in-universe explanation I can come up with that accounts for the total destruction of Morgana's values, ethics, loyalties, and personality in such a short time span.)

"Arthur’s story arc in Merlin is the equivalent of watching five years of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football and having it yanked away at the last minute. That is not a journey; it is a repetitive loop of eternal punishment à la Dante’s Inferno. Worse, the “football” that the creators snatch away is not just Arthur’s job, or his dream; it is his identity."

"The obvious follow-through to this would be to have Gwen take over her father’s forge after he dies, earning her bread by her blacksmithing. What if she were then approached by someone who heard her father was willing to help a sorcerer? What if Gwen came to see that she could use magic, not having been born with it, but able to see it as a tool to help people? What if, out of love for her work, she was drawn into a world she didn’t fully understand and thus had to develop on-screen in order to survive in it? The Arthurian Legend is rife with magical trinkets Gwen could have created. If the creators had had a few series’ patience with Gwen, she could even have forged Excalibur. What better way to modernize Gwen than to have this “woman of the people” create Arthur’s sword, having the land itself symbolically give the King the weapon needed to rule Camelot?" (holy shit I LOVE this idea)

"While there is so much concern about making Arthur King at just the right time, no one ever asks if Gwen is truly ready to be Queen—for what genuine answer to that question could the creators possibly have? And this lack of questioning of Gwen’s readiness is despite the fact that, according to the show’s timeline, Arthur only reigned for three years and Gwen will reign for the rest of her life!" (the author is probably harsher on Gwen's character than I would be, but I understand why--and I recognize that I'm kind of defensive over her at this point. I just wanted more for her to DO, dammit)

"It didn’t matter to the creators that their characters achieved nothing, because their sole intent was to sell an idea without ever having to deliver on it." (DAMNNNNN)

"Despite the in-show condemnation of everything Uther is, it is Uther whom the show really wants in charge."

Like the shows and ideas and characters are great, but the writing is pretty bad. Does that make sense? Do you have any advice on that? Thanks. (2/2)

My coping mechanism has always been reading fanfic of all kinds! Different writers have different gripes with the source material and will often focus on addressing those issues in their works. Not everyone will care about everything that's important to you, so finding works that are *chefs kiss* Good in the exact ways that hit you can be difficult, but it's sooooo worth it when you find them. I primarily read magic reveal AUs at first (it can happen in SO many ways that have wildly different effects on their relationship and the kingdom itself), but when I wanted to escape the high stakes and tension of canon, reading other kinds of AUs (modern, historical, sci fic, etc) let me have fun with the characters' personalities and relationship dynamics without worrying about executions or destiny. Most Merlin/Arthur (or even platonic Merlin & Arthur) AU fics maintain the power imbalance to some extent, but not to the extreme of king & servant, and a lot of them give Merlin enough attitude and agency to make the relationship itself feel pretty balanced. If you're not interested in Merlin/Arthur, you'll have a MUCH harder time finding gen fics or rare pair fics, unfortunately, but they're still out there! I can't speak to the quality of anything written past like 2014 or so, but I do have a fic rec page here.

The flip side of that would be to write your OWN fic to address the things that bother you, or to explore ideas and relationships you want to see more of.

But maybe fanfic isn't your kind of thing, or you don't feel like much of a writer, or you don't want to read before finishing the show in case you get more spoilers than you already have. Since I've stopped reading fanfic for this show in particular (but can't stop thinking about it!!!), I've been trying to engage with it WITHOUT just being bitter and negative all the time. There's a lot to love about the characters, world, and premise, even if it was poorly constructed overall. My method has been turning critical thoughts ("this was done badly") into constructive ones ("what would need to happen to make this work?"). Even though this doesn't change what happens in the show, and I'm still basically being critical, I'm trying to pull from the foundations that I liked and bring the rest of it up to the same level. I don't think you need to be a writer to do this, either, because you don't really need a solid plotline or dialogue or anything more concrete than "I didn't like this scene, so maybe it would be better if they'd used that time for more worldbuilding about that interesting idea from earlier instead of a bad joke." I usually do this on a larger scale since I'm not watching it episode by episode anymore, but I think it could help episodically, too.

But maybe that's still a little more work than you want to put in during a binge watch! The main idea is just to focus in on those things that you DO love about the show until they take up more space in your brain than the things that don't work for you. What did you really enjoy during that episode? What are you looking forward to? What made you laugh? What made you feel things? What did you want to see more of, or learn more about, because the idea/character was just so cool?

I mean...if those things bother you and you know what the ending is like, you know you're probably in for a world of hurt and frustration later on, so it's impressive that you chose to dive into the series anyway. (Unless you were spoiled after you already made the plunge and got invested, in which case, ouch, and congrats on not giving up on it at that point, either.) Like I said, what happens in the show isn't going to change no matter what, so you have to either just Turn Critical Brain Off while watching (which is really difficult!), or you have to direct Critical Brain's power into positive energy to make the most of your experience with the show. (Or you turn to fanworks where thousands of people have already done that part for you.)

Yeah, it’s frustrating how unbalanced their dynamic is set up to be from the beginning. If destiny has to be involved, I’m a fan of the idea that Arthur could also be told constantly that he needs his “other half” to succeed in life, and he and Camelot will be doomed without some mysterious sorcerer helping them. 

I mean, maybe it wouldn’t solve the problem, but at least Arthur would be struggling with destiny-related self-esteem issues at the same time?

it’s taking me forever to gestate this merlin rewrite of mine because i’m the type of person who wants to take as many aspects of the original source as possible for translation into another context but this damn show is full of inconsistencies and i’m always debating whether or not to simply do away with certain things in favor of fic universe-specific circumstances. it’s more organic but less recognizable.

OOF, I FEEL YA. Merlin canon feels like a lot of really interesting ideas that are never fully fleshed out or blended into a cohesive, understandable whole. I think the vagueness of it all actually helps the show in some ways? Like, since there’s so much we don’t know about that the characters just barely hint at occasionally, it makes the world feel really lived-in and expansive. It feels like there’s tons of history and culture that exists out in the world, just not where we can see it directly. 

But as a writer trying to work with what they gave us as much as possible while still doing new and interesting things that make sense with canon, it’s…..ugh. What are the rules??? What are the limitations??? How do magic users and magic interact with the world, with each other, with politics, with religion, with nature and all the creatures we’ve seen? How are we supposed to explore those relationships more in canon-realistic ways if we never get so much as a straight answer from Gaius about the way the world used to be before the Purge, let alone any flashbacks?

I don’t know if you’re looking for advice or just wanted to vent, but if you wanted to know what I think…Well the way I’d go about it is pretty intensive. I spent a while going through the transcripts episode by episode collecting information about certain subjects that I was interested in a while ago, and I never really finished that, but it was a great way to pick up on worldbuilding details that stood out to me in the context of the series (as opposed seeing info on the Merlin wiki, or straight up rewatching every episode). I copied & pasted relevant conversations into word documents dedicated to different topics (ex. “prophecies” or “pre-Purge Camelot”). I’d pick out as much explicit info from each snippet as I could, and then I tried to read between the lines. 

Like, any time Gaius speaks it’s kind of hard to parse, because on the one hand, he was ALIVE and a MAGIC USER before the Purge happened and therefore one of our best (and only) sources of that kind of information. But on the other hand, he rarely speaks without very carefully filtering himself in some way, since he’s constantly trying to justify Uther to Merlin, or protect Merlin and himself from Uther.

So are there any more inferences or conclusions we can draw about the world based on the context and subtext of what’s actually said? Do the logical inconsistencies make more sense when we consider where the information came from in the first place? Does information we took for granted suddenly seem less trustworthy based on who’s talking, or who they’re talking to? That kind of thing. 

If you have a solid idea of what kind of story you want your rewrite to be, I’d recommend honing in on what aspects of the series are most important to you to explore. Find as much canon info about those things as you can, and how they interact and work with each other. Use those aspects as your foundation to build off of. Make sure they make as much sense as possible and go from there to decide what should be cut, what needs to be explained, what can just kinda be glossed over, and what you need to make up completely. 

tldr; I totally get all the frustration that comes with the desire to be true to canon when canon is like that, but sometimes you just gotta make shit up and ditch what doesn’t work for you. Don’t let canon hold you back from telling the story you want to tell, the way you want to tell it.

(note: as always, this turned out longer than i intended and doesn’t directly answer your question, but i didn’t think a bullet point list of scenes would convey Arthur’s perspective or the way I see his thought process contributing to a magic reveal of this kind.)

assuming you’re asking because of this part of this post that’s going around again:

“The series gives Arthur everything he needs to ~solve the puzzle of Merlin,~ in moments like this where there’s so clearly something wrong, that doesn’t add up based on what he knows. In canon, he stays willfully blind to all of it, and he’s forgiven for ignoring what is, at times, literally waved in front of his face.”

i want to rephrase a little: Arthur is given a lot of clues throughout the series pointing towards Merlin’s secret that could have driven him to push a little harder or investigate a little more in general, OR possibly put a few things together towards the end of the series in high-pressure, emotionally charged situations like the Disir decision. 

when i talk about clues, i’m talking about all the little quirks and oddities and contradictions that surround Merlin as seen from Arthur’s perspective. on their own, they’re easy to dismiss. but they keep happening, and they keep piling up, and Arthur knows it’s strange. he keeps calling Merlin a mystery, a riddle, someone he never figured out. 

in canon, he doesn’t seem to try that hard. and i think a lot of people would say that means he just trusts merlin that much, or respects his privacy, or doesn’t care enough about his weird servant’s weird habits. and i think all of that is true, to an extent. that’s why i think it might take a super-charged situation like the Disir, where Merlin’s bizarre, deeply emotional reaction to such a serious moral/legal/social/political question matters, for all the strange things that Arthur had been ignoring to suddenly fall into place for him.

but honestly?? the first really big "clue” that came to mind is the showdown with Kilgharrah at the end of season 2. 

like, they’ve been told many times that the only way to defeat magical creatures is with magic— in this case, specifically dragonlord magic. which they don’t have! because the only one left died right after they found him! (and hey, wasn’t Merlin acting weird and quiet during that whole mission? but never mind the riddle of Merlin, there’s a dragon to slay—) 

but Arthur’s going to challenge the dragon, because it’s his duty as prince to protect his people. except, hold on, Merlin is insisting that he comes with him and the knights, even though there’s nothing he could do to help. 

the knights get roasted before they can do anything. arthur gets in one stab at the dragon’s side and gets knocked out. and then he wakes up and Merlin says they won, Arthur “dealt him a mortal blow,” but the dragon’s gone. did it fly off and succumb to its wounds elsewhere? did its body disintegrate? and wait, he only landed one blow, was that really enough to kill a massive dragon? whatever, who cares, they survived. what else could have happened, anyway?

i think something about it would feel off to him in a way he can’t pinpoint. the same feeling of wrongness, the sense that he’s missing something— that same feeling he’s had so often when it comes to magic. when it comes to Merlin. why does Merlin always seem to know so much? why is he always involved? where does a defenseless peasant get all that courage? 

and sometimes, after yet another victory over magic, Merlin seems to be smiling through tears, through heartbreak. what burdens could a simple-minded servant possibly carry, to produce those sudden moments of deep wisdom and stunning sincerity? 

also, Merlin keeps saying he’s “protecting” Arthur or that he “saved his life.” what’s that all about? Arthur’s the big strong knight who does all the saving and protecting, right? must be another one of Merlin’s jokes. or delusions. right?

all of these contradictions, inconsistencies, and oddities should add up to something if Arthur is paying any attention at all. at the very least, i think it would point to the idea that Merlin’s secrets are big, maybe even important enough to affect the kingdom. which WOULD warrant more in-depth thought and investigation than Arthur might have bothered with otherwise. like, is he really JUST a servant/peasant? or hey, wasn’t his best friend a goddamn sorcerer? what’s that all about?

Well, yeah. Everything they did with the show was intentional. Here’s an example:

Julian Murphy said in interviews that they had always planned on revealing Merlin’s magic to Arthur in the last episode of the entire series, because otherwise they would “lose” the show’s primary source of tension and comedy. He also said that they didn’t think people really cared about “when are we going to reveal the identity of the hero” because “there’s never really any need to and I’m not sure we feel the need to either.” He used the example of Lois Lane finding out that Clark Kent is Superman not really being an important thing.

Now I don’t know about you, but I watch a ton of shows / movies / stories (in many different genres) where characters have secret identities—including the delightful Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which plays with the Superman reveal in a lot of ways—and the “identity reveal” is always a HUGE DEAL, whether they’re being revealed to the world or just to their closest loved ones or their greatest enemies. 

And as powerful as the tension and drama can be when no one knows who’s who, the “reveal” breaks it in order to change the story in exciting ways, move the action forward, destroy and rebuild relationships, and create new opportunities for tension and drama so they’re not always relying on that same dynamic. 

So, yeah, having the magic reveal in the last episode was an intentional decision that the writers had reasons for setting up the way they did, but as far as I can tell, their reasons kinda sucked. 

At this point, I don’t really care about the writers’ “intentions” as much as I care about looking at the series as it is and asking, “what works well here? what doesn’t work / make sense? what would have made this a better story? how could we keep this as a tragedy while still fulfilling the promises laid out at the beginning of the series?” and so on. 

No, I don’t think they ever explained why/how that happened or what it means/entails or anything like that. 

I’ve read one theory about it that’s kinda depressing, which is that Merlin’s high magical ability is the result of the Purge killing off so many magical creatures and magic users. Like…there was so much free-floating magic that it ended up all concentrating into this one child, or something like that. It may have said something about Merlin being the magic/destiny/universe’s way of trying to balance everything out again.