#simpleton!arthur

I'm reading Tristram and Isoud (Tristan and Isolde) and yeah apparently King Arthur was enchanted by Lady Viviane (who is a fairy and the lady of the lake here) to forget who he was.

I think one of the reasons I sort of left the melrin fandom for a while was because of the simpleton!arthur episode and the response to it in particular. Like…as someone who already related to Arthur for his similar characistucs of someone with a neurodevelopmental condition, it really hurt to see him be drugged and put in a way where he is effectively *more* disabiled than usual. And not only that, but have Merlin be so unrelentingly cruel to Arthur when complaining about his past behavior to the point where it looked like Arthur was about to cry.

And then I look back ot the fandom response and see so many people saying things like “awww simpleton Arthur is sooo cute I jsut wish I could pet him and love him and keep him in a cute little cage!!“ I just didn’t feel…safe sometimes. The term simpleton in the medival context was used for those(typically lower class ppl) who were learning/intelligently disabled. Especially if hurt bc he acted disturbingly similar to when I, as someone who is disabled, acted when I accidentally took some meds I wasn’t supposed to. (Everything turned out fine I just felt really weird)

Like Arthur’s behavior was fucking spot on and to know that Arthur being infantalizalized and belittled for being in that state was purposely shown to impressionable children watching the show SUCKS. And I know that people who love Merlin and love simpleton Arthur probably don’t think about mentally disabled people in taht way, but I sometimes do feel sort of uneasy when it becomes pretty clearly fetishistic.

If plays into this nihilistic ablleist fantasy of “well since humanity is terrible at least I can bend this helpless retard to my will to be the perfect person!!” Sort of narrative. Like we are blank canvases or bits of clay made to be manipulated by someone else, to be another’s project. It hurts. There were millions of ways for Arthur to get an actually redemption arch, all of which would be much more satisfying than, what ever that was. And it didn’t even work anyway.

Well, folks. Inktober has come around again. I will

post Merlin-related Inktober drawings here.

I drew two for the Mindless prompt!

of course I much prefer my pencil sketch of this

My favourite cartoon bears (as drawn by Leendert Jan Vis) inspired me to do a merthur version of them for the #Bait prompt. Here we see them using fishing as an excuse

So, today's prompt is Freeze. I wanted to make Leendart's bears polar bears, so this is another homage to those cute bears. The dream is the big Freeze so that Merlin and Arthur may live together a loooong time.

I drew this one for the Ring prompt under my own name, but then I realized I wanted to share it with my Merlin friends instead, since there are tiny Merlins all over it, waiting for Arthur to ring them. Also, Mordred is such a saboteur!