Bbc Merlin - Tumblr Posts
Merlin, who gives Arthur his neckerchief for good luck before a tournament (he pretends not to know what it means) claiming "I heard it somewhere that doing this could bring you good luck" (he enchanted it to bring Arthur luck during the tournament). Arthur, who is trying to keep a stoic expression as he takes Merlins neckerchief and ties it around his arm. He clears his throat and tells Merlin "I won't need luck," before muttering a soft thank you that Merlin barely hears. He turns around wand walks away, his face bright red as he makes his way towards the tournament.
at least they’ll be reunited when arthur dies
Arthur held Merlin in the aftermath of the battle of Camlan.
His idiot manservant had appeared out of nowhere and taken a blow meant for the king. A killing blow.
Merlin had been slain by Mordred, and in turn Mordred had been slain by Arthur.
“I did it…. I actually did it” Merlin whispered.
Arthur’s brows knit together in confusion. Merlin had sounded almost… happy?
With a closer look, he saw his friend wasn’t grimacing with pain, instead he was smiling the widest he had ever seen.
With that, Merlin gave a hearty sigh, and closed his eyes for the last time. He had conquered fate itself, and now he could finally rest.
he was a king! he didn’t even have to put up with anything merlin did
arthur truly thought of merlin as his best friend and it’s not appreciated enough. in the eyes of everyone else he was a kind person who was letting merlin get away with a lot .
arthur must have been so confused by merlin always talking about some sort of secret, disappearing for days, having a strange avoidance for a cracked old man, and randomly blurting lines about arthur’s fate at pressing moments like we don’t appreciate what this man put up with enough
and eventually once they get their shit together, merthur live a long and happy life till they’re old men, merlin never has to do the trick again and the whole village thinks this generational curse was defeated by gay love
I like the idea that Merlin, while waiting for Arthur to return he sets up a little flower shop. It’s right by the lake, and it developed because he stayed right by the lake for Arthur. People find Merlin alone by this lake while they’re traveling and he’s all sweat and nice to them making them love him and they decided to settle down there. More and more people stay there making a town around Merlin. Merlin is just the old guy with his nice little garden who’s always been there, nobody’s sure how long he’s been there. No one is rude enough to ask him.
As civilization advances and the government starts trying to register everyone Merlin has to find a way around it. He finds that the best way of doing this is to find a girl who he can trust with his secrets and has her move in to pretend to be his wife. He illusions a little kid running around his garden so he’s had a ‘child’ and once the kid is of legal age he fakes his death and turns himself young again to be a ‘new’ person.
He repeats this process for generations so he is legally a person. Everyone in the town thinks his ‘family’ is cursed because the fathers always dies in their 40s or 50s, on the son’s birthday to become a legal adult.
He keeps this up with his flower shop that has now grown quite big that he hires college students to help him. Until one day Arthur shows up in his bedroom and chaos ensues.
My typical experience with shows/games I like:
"Oh hey look, it's the show where my favorite character dies!"
"And there's the show where my favorite character dies!"
"Oh and that's also the show where my favorite character dies. He ends up fine though. But my other favorite character is already dead."
"And that one's the show where my favorite character is dead as well."
"That show killed off a character I liked well enough but it luckily wasn't my favorite this time."
"This show kills off every character except for two of my favorites, which could just be because one of them is immortal."
"The people in that show are always on the verge of dying but somehow make it out alive."
"In this show, everyone dies!"
And yes, all of these were written with a specific fandom in mind
Love the fact that Arthur met Merlin as an old man quite a few times, talked to him, got bonked on the head by him and had no idea he was Merlin while Gwen saw him once on a chaotic battlefield and was immediately like “Oh, he’s definitely Merlin.”
Bradley forgetting he’s on a “family show” for a second there 🤭
BBC Merlin in the first few seasons: Magical Disney™️ quests and monsters
BBC Merlin in later seasons: Merlin: I haven’t slept in eight days and also I know it’s morally wrong to kill a child but what if I had a very good reason
absolutely obsessed with the idea of the modern knights all packed into sir leon's soccer mom van
An early Morgana but with arthur’s sword and armour
NEVER forget when merlin was gone and arthur was pining and everyone was like oh shit oh god and thought the solution was to dress a random guy up like merlin and hope it would fix him
merlin au where merlin makes friendship bracelets for everyone he likes but plot twist he’s merlin and he likes everyone like come on he adopts ppl like 2 minutes into meeting them
like
obviously gwen has one - one of the first if not the first he made in camelot - yellow and purple
and gaius too but his is one merlin made when he was a kid - its really old so the colors are faded but its made of all the thread merlin could find and its kinda ugly but he loves it anyway cuz he’s a fucking sap
and then during some attack on camelot sir leon pulled him back because its his fucking job but merlins like <3 omg a new friend and leons like uhhhh but he never takes it off
lancelot leaves camelot with honor and a yellow bracelet and a new best friend <3
even the great dragon has one but its less of a bracelet and more of a ring
a bunch of the servants have one - almost everyone in the kitchen (they give merlin extra food so he’ll make one) the guards outside gaius’s door (which is lowkey why they never report the magic because they and merlin are besties)
morgana wears it with her ridiculously fine and expensive jewelry
sometimes visiting nobles leave with one
a bunch of shop owners have one
because merlin’s literally besties with everyone
but who doesn’t have one?
arthur
not because merlin doesn’t like him (though he’ll admit (only to himself) that perhaps he doesn’t want to be just friends with arthur) but because merlin simply doesn’t think he’d like one
on the other hand arthur’s seething with rage and jealously and when leon showed up with one arthur may have been a little more vicious in training
when one of the other knights gets one he gets vicious in training every training session since then
morgana knows and makes sure to flash her bracelet in front of his face
on the other hand merlin knows that arthur wouldnt like one but merlin still adores him so mayhaps he sews in a little pattern on the inside of arthur’s shirts that he’s mending where no one will notice but merlin will see him wear the shirt and think he’s wearing merlin’s friendship :)
yeah
Merlin's working on their camp while the knights trade stories.
Merlin is engrossed completely in his tasks, head down, scrubbing vigourously.
Percival is telling a story of a druidic god he once heard of. "He's said to be magic incarnate, hidden amoungst the humans, bearer of peace and justic for the new age."
"What's the god's name?" Elyan asks softly.
"Emrys." Percival answers.
"Yeah?" Merlin turns.
Everyone turns to face Merlin.
"Well? What did you want Percival? You said my name." Merlin responds impaitently, waving a horse's bridle.
He frowns, "I didn't say your name." A pause, everyone looks to one another, "I said Emrys."
Merlin pales, "Oh, I-er-maybe someone else, I must have, er actually now that you mention it I forgot to clean the er-clean the river, no I mean get water."
Merlin grabbed a few empty dishes and ran off.
"That was weird right?" Gwaine asks.
Lancelot shakes his head, "Best just leave him be."
"I never can figure out what is going through that idiot head of his," Arthur smiles.
MYSTERY, A.Pendragon
Arthur Pendragon x fem!!reader summary: A mysterious knight has arrived in Camelot, one that refuses to show their face. This knight defeats contender after contender until even Uther wants to know of their identity, but how will the kingdom react to their finest knights being defeated by a woman? tw!! swearing, violence, sexual innuendos, sexism. notes: before I begin- this is the first imagine I'm ever writing on Tumblr, I mostly post on Wattpad but decided that I'd write some small imagines here for characters that I am yet to write an entire book on or am not ever writing a full book on. I do the whole x reader thing sort of differently, I will only write from the female's perspective but even though the imagines say x reader I will make the reader's description how I see fit if that makes any sense? basically, the only x-reader part about it is that you can picture the other character's saying your name but the character won't be your description 😂 if it doesn't make any sense you'll see what I mean!!! :)) ps. apologies if Arthur doesn't seem in character enough :))
NO ONE KNEW WHERE THE MYSTERIOUS KNIGHT HAD APPEARED FROM. All that everyone knew was that there was a mysterious figure challenging all of the King's men. And every single knight had fallen to defeat under this mysterious figure's sword.
Yet another knight fell to his back, grunting in pain as the enigmatic pressed their foot harshly against the already defeated knight's chest. The man grits his teeth together in pain and lifted his eyes to look up at the covered head of his opponent.
The crowd let out a cheer, some even lept to their feet in entertainment. King Uther stared at this knight, clearly impressed as he clapped his hands together out of respect and congratulations for the mystery knight.
An hour later and Prince Arthur's servant, Merlin, ran through the halls in excitement, searching for his friend, y/n. Merlin had become a rather big fan of this obscure knight after he and his guardian, Gaius, had concluded that he wasn't using any type of sorcery to defeat his opponents.
"y/n!!"He called out as he pounded his fist against the wood of her front door. A distant 'hang on' is heard from behind the door before it's flung open to reveal one of Merlin's best friends.
y/n is a clumsy brunette with the darkest brown eyes that Merlin had ever laid eyes on. She was also one of the shyest people that he had met, she barely even spoke to him in the first few weeks of them first meeting. But after she broke out of her shell around him she never stopped speaking.
"Merlin!!"She exclaimed happily as he moved past her, entering her house with a big grin on his face. --"He did it again!!"Merlin exclaimed excitedly. y/n folded her arms in amusement, shutting her door as she spun to look at him.
"he?" she questioned and Merlin spun to face her with his hands in front of him. --"The mystery knight!!" he specified, --"you should have seen it, y/n!!"he ranted.
y/n smiled in amusement, tucking a shy strand of her brown hair behind her ear. Leaning shoulder first against a wall, she gladly listened to Merlin ramble on and on about this 'mysterious knight'.
Of course, y/n knew who this knight was. Herself. She found it rather exciting to finally use her skilful swordsman abilities and not worry about being ordered against it. For most of her life, whenever she tried to fight a man would tell her not to, because she was a woman with 'skin as thin as air and muscles the size of Uther's love for magic'.
She could never escape her shyness but when she was fighting, it was like the nerves disappeared completely and she was instead focused on her target and winning. And thus she decided to start fighting for real, never once showing her face when she challenged Arthur's knights.
"I still don't understand why you don't come down and watch him fight with me."Merlin's voice broke her from her thoughts. She simply smiled and shrugged her shoulders, chuckling awkwardly.
"Sword fights just aren't my thing, Mer."She lied, walking over to her kitchen to start preparing her dinner. --"I'm sure you wouldn't have even started going to them if you weren't Arthur's man-servant."She pointed out and he shook his head in denial.
"not true." he denied, --"Arthur was impressed with them."He spoke, capturing y/n's attention. She lifted her eyes forward but didn't turn her head, her stomach doing a flip as she smiled.
She and Arthur had a weird type of relationship. She wasn't sure whether to describe their dynamic as friends considering Arthur often differed between being hot and cold around her. Sometimes he would speak to her freely like they were on the same level, he would even have a laugh with her sometimes but then other times he would give her the cold shoulder.
Which hurt y/n. Like with Merlin, it had taken her a while to even speak words to him, longer than Merlin actually considering she felt intimidated under Arthur's royal authority. After a while, she finally felt comfortable enough to communicate with him, something that actually seemed to delight Arthur.
Perhaps it was because she addressed him like he was human and not like he was a walking title.
"Really?"She spoke, surprised. Arthur was never one to admit that he was impressed with anyone outside of his group of knights, especially to Merlin of all people.
"Uther too."Merlin continued, moving over to stand next to her in the kitchen part of her small house. She hummed in response, --"I bet the knight was pleased with such praise."She responded and Merlin shook his head with a pout.
"I wouldn't know. The knight always leaves the second he wins his challenge."He informs the brunette who had to fain surprise.
She opens her mouth to respond before there was a loud knock at her door and seconds later Gwen came bursting in, a nervous look on her face.
"Uther wants everyone gathered in the town square!"
----
y/n stood alongside Merlin, Gwen and Gaius as they looked up at a smiling Uther from his patio. y/n folded her clammy hands over her lap as Uther urged the crowd to quieten down.
Arthur stood a little bit behind his father, a stoic look on his face like usual. y/n caught his gaze only for a moment before glancing down at her feet.
"I wish to address the mystery knight who has defeated every Camelot knight thrown his way."Uther finally spoke after a few seconds of silence.
y/n lifted her head in surprise as the crowd remained silent. Not that Uther was expecting anyone to respond to him. He waited a couple of seconds before continuing.
"Very well. You wish to keep your identity a secret for the time being." he paused, surveying the crowd as he tried to guess who had been under the armour only mere hours ago.
"I wish to propose a challenge to you."Uther continued, y/n straightened her back unknowingly. --"Defeat a nobleman of my choosing and you will have a place amongst my knights." he paused for a second, --"no noble blood needed."
y/n was sceptical of that challenge reward. Uther had never abandoned the knight's code, never. Clearly, Merlin was sceptical too judging by the glance he gave to her.
"As for you're challenger, "Uther spoke again, demanding all of the whispered hushes in the crowd to cease. --"You will be duelling against my son..."
Her heart dropped to her stomach as Arthur took a step forward, Uther resting a hand on his son's back. --"Prince Arthur Pendragon." he announced as the crowd started to applaud this idea.
Merlin seemed to like this idea as he applauded along with the crowd. However, y/n looked as though she wanted to be sick. She didn't want to fight Arthur, but she was also never one to back down from a challenge.
"If you accept my challenge,"Uther spoke again and she lifted her gaze from Arthur to Uther. --"You'll duel tomorrow at noon."
y/n swallowed uneasily, gripping the fabric of her skirt anxiously. What was she going to do? she despised the idea of backing down from a challenge, especially one set by the king himself. But she would have to fight Arthur, one of the select few people in her life she actually cared for.
----
Later that night, y/n wiped down the dining table in the Camelot castle. y/n wasn't exactly a servant per se, she was a cleaner. Every night just before Uther retired to his chambers, she would clean down the thrones, dining room table, scrub and sweep the floor and replace the fresh bowl of fruit on the table.
She still hadn't decided if she was going to accept Uther's challenge. She wanted to prove to herself that she could go all the way but could she really willingly hurt Arthur? the same Arthur who complimented the flowerbeds outside of her house every time he passed.
"you missed a spot."
She paused her arm to glance over her shoulder, bowing her head a little when seeing Arthur leaning against the wall. Shaking her head with a smile, --"No I didn't, sire."She denied with a small laugh.
"Are you calling me a liar, y/n?"He demanded playfully, a grin on his face. She continued to clean as she shook her head, --"I would never, your highness."She responded, scoffing a laugh.
After wiping down the table, she glanced over at him. --"I assumed you would be training for your duel tomorrow morning."She spoke, he pursed his lips and shook his head.
"I've been training all night, thought I'd give myself a break."He responded, and she hummed with a nod. --"You're father must really believe in this mysterious knight to abandon the knight code."She said, picking up the bucket of water and moving over to the throne to wipe them down too.
Arthur only shook his head. --"I wish that was the case."He responded, and she glanced at him curiously. --"My father doesn't believe this knight can beat me, as far as he is concerned he isn't even breaking the knight code."He confided in y/n, a frown settled on his face.
"you disagree with him?"She pressed. Arthur merely scoffed, --"That the knight can't beat me? of course, I agree with that." he boasted arrogantly causing y/n to roll her eyes in amusement. --"But I don't agree with the knight code."He then continued, moving to lean against one of the thrones that y/n had just wiped down.
She raised her head and cleared her throat. He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before she gestured to the throne he was leaning against. --"I just wiped that down, sire."She reminded him and he raised his eyebrows and moved away from the throne so he was standing next to her.
"You don't agree with the knight's code?"She asked curiously and he shook his head. --"I believe if you fight with dignity and honour, it shouldn't matter what bloodline you belong to."He responded. She paused her actions to show him a soft smile.
"you're a good man, Arthur Pendragon."She informed him with a nod as she finished up her cleaning duties. Arthur felt his heart swell at her words, an adoring smile appearing on his features as he watched her drop her sponge into the bucket of soapy water.
"Perhaps you could throw that at Merlin, he was supposed to have had my bed made an hour ago," he commented and she let out a laugh, pressing a hand to her mouth in an instant, her face heating up.
"You love him, really."She simply told him with a laugh as she moved past him. Arthur made a face at her comment but didn't deny his platonic affection for his manservant.
"Will you be at the duel tomorrow?"He asked her, walking alongside her. She swallowed and shook her head, --"Don't think I could bear to see you lose, sire."She responded playfully and he shook his head with a smile on his face.
"I'm not going to lose."He informed her confidently, missing the sly smile on her face. As they passed the stairs, he pressed a hand to the wall and smiled over at her.
"Goodnight, y/n."
She returned his smile, her cheeks rosy. --"Goodnight, my lord."She bid him goodnight and then disappeared down the corridor.
Arthur didn't move for a second before disappearing up to his chambers.
----
Arthur stood in the arena, decked out in his armour. The prince had been waiting for his opponent for around 10 minutes. Uther was noticeably becoming impatient but his ego was way more demanding than his patience.
Merlin's knee bounced up and down nervously, starting to think that the knight had gotten cold feet at the thought of duelling the king's son.
I mean, this could all just be one big ploy to capture the knight and throw them in a cell for embarrassing the entire Camelot knighthood. The knight would have every right to be suspicious.
But just as all seemed lost and Uther was going to call for the duel to be cancelled, heavy exaggerated footsteps were heard and out walked the Knight themself.
The crowd let out a cheer at the sight of the knight. Arthur straightened his posture as he eyed the masked mystery.
y/n had been tossing and turning all night on her decision but ultimately decided to fight. She was going to prove Uther Pendragon wrong.
She unsheathed her sword with Arthur, the crowd letting out another cheer as the pair slowly bowed to one another. And thus the duel began.
y/n hadn't been entirely sure how she would act in a fight with Arthur so she just pictured that she wasn't fighting Arthur at all and she was simply fighting another random knight.
She blocked a swing from Arthur with her shield, spinning around and swinging her sword in his direction. As their swords clashed against one another for a further 3 minutes, y/n felt her respect for Arthur grow more and more.
Their swords blocked against one another as they both fought for dominance, Arthur's helmeted head getting close to hers. In the end, Arthur got the better of her and he struck her back, twisting her sword around with his so they were face to face again, fighting to shove the other to the ground.
But as his blue eyes gazed through the eye slit of her helmet, his eyes locked with hers and he squinted in confusion, recognising her dark orbs instantly.
"y/n?"He mumbled loud enough for her to hear and only her.
Her heart dropped and her eyes widened in surprise. He recognised her? but she had been so careful. Swallowing thickly, she shoved him back and swung her sword at him, which he blocked, their swords once again stuck together.
Now that Arthur knew who was under that helmet and shiny armour, he wanted to finish the match as soon as possible. He used their swords being connected to his advantage and thrust his sword down causing her to fall to the ground.
He then took a page out of her book and pressed his boot against the chest of her armour and pointed the sword at her neck.
Arthur had won.
The crowd erupted into cheers but Arthur didn't lift his head. He was too busy staring down at the woman beneath the metal.
Her heart sank with the knowledge that she had lost the duel. All she ever wanted was to prove to everyone and herself that she was worthy to fight with the knights of Camelot but she had failed.
After a couple of seconds, Arthur pulled his sword away from her neck to hold his hand out for her. Exhaling sharply, she fought the urge to groan at the growing pain happening in her left ribcage.
She took ahold of his hand and he helped her to her feet, his blue eyes staring incredulously into hers, a worried look on his face that didn't go missed by Merlin.
----
That evening, y/n lay in her bed with a frown. She had failed. All she had to do was win one more duel and maybe just maybe she would have gotten the respect she so desperately wanted.
After their duel had come to an end, y/n had wasted no time on giving Arthur a brief congratulatory pat on the back before leaving the arena and disappearing through the alleys to retreat back to her house.
She was surprised that Merlin hadn't come bursting to her door yet to talk about how the 'mystery knight' had lost his duel with Arthur. She assumed that Arthur would have told him that it had been her underneath the armour.
Then there was a knock at her door. She groaned in discomfort and lifted herself from her bed to walk over to her door, expecting to swing it open and find a worried Merlin.
But instead, she found Arthur who wasted no time barging past her.
She cursed silently, --"please, come in."She muttered sarcastically to herself, making sure that Arthur hadn't heard the way she spoke to him.
Closing the door, she turned to him, surprised to see the concerned look on his face. --"Why would you do that?"He snapped at her, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Regarding?"She tried and he shook his head. --"Don't you realise that if I hadn't realised it was you under the armour I could have killed you?!"He snapped at her.
Her shoulders fell with disappointment. --"I just-"She paused and swallowed, --"I just wanted to feel proud of myself for once."She told him.
Arthur only sighed and took a few steps forward, resting his hands on her cheeks to make sure she hadn't sustained any injuries during their duel. --"you should feel proud of yourself, y/n."He told her truthfully.
"You won, remember?"She muttered as he continued to look her over. --"Did I hurt you?" he asked her, ignoring her previous comment. She goes to shake her head but doesn't get the chance as Arthur's hand brushes over her left ribcage.
She let out a grunt, gritting her teeth together as she shook her head. --"No."She denied, only earning a glare from Arthur. --"I'll get Gaius."He goes to pass her and leave, a look of panic passed her face as she grabbed ahold of his arm, shaking her head.
"No!"She exclaimed, Arthur, turned to her with a confused look on his face. --"Have you told Merlin it was me?"She asked and he shook his head.
"I didn't get the chance to, he was too busy moping because you lost."He snorted, she swallowed and nodded her head. --"Could this just be our secret?"She asked him.
"If you go to Gaius surely Uther will find out it was me under the metal and I really don't want that."She told him, her voice shaking a little.
Arthur hesitated for a moment. --"Do you think you're rib is cracked?" he asked her seriously and she shook her head. --"You pack a mean blow, Pendragon but don't get cocky."She simply told him, --"It's merely bruised."
After a moment, he nodded and she released her hold on his arm. --"Thank you."She murmured. --"you're good in a duel."He responded and she shook her head.
"you won, remember?"She repeated the same phrase from earlier and he shook his head. --"I wouldn't have ended it as quick as I had if I hadn't noticed it was you."He told her, his gaze piercing against hers.
She raised an eyebrow. --"Are you telling me you might not have won if you hadn't noticed, sire?"She asked playfully and he scoffed taking a step closer to her.
"You're good, y/l/n, but don't get cocky."He repeated her words from earlier, leaning closer so that he could whisper his words tauntingly.
She didn't respond, their eyes flickering between one another's lips. Arthur seemed to think over his options for a moment before leaning in and closing the gap between the pair, his lips capturing hers.
And thus began the first of many kisses that the pair would share.
SCREAMS
Two sides of the same coin??
BBC Merlin somehow being both <\3
"This story is a tragedy because it didn't have to end this way."
vs
"This story is a tragedy because it was always going to end this way."