Headcanon That Geoffrey Of Monmouth Isn’t Actually A Thicc Sir, He Just Learned To Keep His Most Important

Hello everyone! You all remember how I said I was working on something special to celebrate some tumblr milestones? Well, my surprise project is finished!

To celebrate both reaching 500 (500! holy cow!) followers and my 100th post, I decided to challenge myself! So, I joined @merlin-fic-server's Tournament of Champions, a challenge for Merlin fic writers, fan artists, and podfic makers! The challenge for writers that I chose was to write a new 10k fic based on a randomly generated prompt in 24 hours.

I've never participated in anything like this before, but it felt nice to challenge myself! The result is a fic both fits with the usual themes of my stories (like characters getting put in ridiculous situations), but it's also different from anything I've ever written before, feeling a bit more grounded than my usual silly writing.

So, I'd like to thank you all! I never could have imagined that this blog would bring me and so many people so much joy, and I wouldn't have been inspired to challenge myself if it wasn't for you support! You all have been amazing to me, and I'm looking forward to sharing more of my unhinged ramblings with this fandom!

For now, I hope you all enjoy this little experiment of mine! I'll see you all next time! :D

Just occurred to me that from Arthur's perspective yes Merlin seems really brave and stupidly loyal but also like someone with a death wish. Not necessarily wanting to die in the straight forward sense but reckless with his wellbeing in a way similar to characters like Lockwood from Lockwood & Co. Arthur doesn't know Merlin has magic so he has no reason to think Merlin is anything other than a defenceless servant who is reckless with his life to a concerning amount.

I've seen discussion and fan fics exploring how it should have been obvious to Arthur that Merlin was in love with him because of how devoted to him he was in such a self sacrificing way but I think you can justify Arthur not assuming Merlin's behaviour was born out of love for him because from Arthur's perspective it seems far more likely that Merlin just doesn't value his own safety and life to a concerning level. He's always joking that Merlin has a mental affliction, doesn't question truly strange behaviour because oh that's just Merlin being Merlin he's an unstable weirdo. Arthur counting the days since he saw Merlin smile because gods forbid Merlin's reckless lack of care for his own life developed into something with more intent.

Basically I think Arthur believes Merlin is legit just mentally ill in some way. Because frankly without the contact of Merlin's magic and the prophecy his behaviour is really concerning (frankly even with context it's pretty concerning by the final few seasons, that boy is not okay) and because to Arthur that is a much more logical explanation for Merlin's behaviour than Merlin actually loving him (platonically or romantically, doesn't matter) because Arthur can't comprehend someone loving him like that.

Also makes his reaction to the magic reveal make some painful sense because he's never factored Merlin's love for him into his understanding of Merlin's behaviour so when the weird behaviour he'd assumed was a mental affliction seems to be revealed as just a lie to hide his magic Arthur has no basis of Merlin's devotion to him to fall back on and use to make sense of why Merlin would be loyal to him despite having magic.

Arthur doesn't see Merlin's self sacrifice as the result of love from him but as a result of lack of love for himself.

Ah damn, you figured it out!

This is actually what I look like when I write stories in which I put my favorite characters through lots of pain:

(Someone did tell me once that they imagined me IRL as a talking Kermit puppet telling stories, so this is apparently a common theme lol!)

... Now I kind of want to do a Merlin commentary as Kermit! 🤣

In Kermit voice: "Yeah Leon, I'm sure they're just reciting some poetry in there! You know, my buddy Aldric even wrote some poetry himself once! I think he called it something like Beowulf. Don't worry though, I don't think that there are any actual wolves in it."

Reblog this post to ask mutuals to tell you their weirdest theory about u

A trilling trilogy from three different posts of mine:

I consider this a great achievement! I guess as a safety warning, you cannot drink tea or eat yogurt while reading my posts. Apparently they're a choking hazard!

Update: holy shit we're at number 1!

Nobody:

The Merlin fandom on a random day in March:

Series 1 Trailer for @larluce's awesome Time Travel AU!

Merlin's arms strain with the effort of hauling Arthur, barely-conscious, towards the misty shores of Avalon. It takes little more than his presence to call the Sidhe forth from their sanctuary in the lake, but Arthur groans with both pain and shock as their winged blue forms fly out of the water.

"You must save him! I am willing to give up my own life, but he must live!"

Arthur weakly struggled in Merlin's supportive arms, protesting Merlin's plan now that it had become clear that Merlin was set on self-sacrifice.

Hovering above the gleaming surface if the lake, one Sidhe gave Merlin a sharp, almost menacing, grin.

"While we cannot take your life to exchange for his, Emrys, there is another sacrifice you can make that would save your king."

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Arthur gently places a young tree that's barely tall enough to brush against his knees into a prepared spot in the center of the royal gardens.

There are no tears on his face, for he ran out of those long ago.

"I hope you like the view from here, Merlin. I think you'll be able to see out over all of Camelot in a couple years."

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The knights watched as Arthur viciously pulls out the axes that had been stuck in the tree's trunk and had carved a large gouge in its base. Arthur whirled around at them, and many, including his closest companions on the round table, flinched back at his near-feral expression.

Arthur's eyes locked into the spy responsible for this.

"Anyone who so much as touches this tree pays for their transgression with their head."

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"So you can perform the spell, then?"

"We can, your majesty, but only with the proper materials. A blade bearing the lifeblood of 300 men and 3 dragon scales are not easy to come by."

Arthur leans forward from where he's sitting on his throne, his eyes wild in a way that disturbingly reminds the druid delegation of the look in Uther Pendragon's eyes as he hunted down every living creature with a hint of magic.

"Do not concern yourselves with that. I will gather these materials for you. Just make sure that you can perform the ritual successfully when the time comes."

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Two pairs of eyes, the owners of which both believed themselves to be dead moments before, blink open to the same sunny morning. An unforgettable morning that they had both lived through before, many years prior.

This was, after all, the morning that their destiny was set into motion.

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I hope you enjoyed this! I tried to write some scenes that are implied in larluce's au, but are never directly shown, so that you aren't spoiled for many scenes in the au!

Check out the time travel au here! (You should definitely go read it right now because it's awesome!!)

don’t mind me I’m just thinking about how crazy it would be to have a devoted servant who you trusted above all others and who was happy — honored, even — to spend their life kneeling at your feet like a loyal dog. and then one day it turns out that your servant is actually God, like capital-G God, making you not just God’s favorite, but the object of God’s worship: a holy figure to the literal divine.

These tags are some amazing angst ideas, OP! I'd also love to see more fics explore Merlin having a deep-seated fear of fire from the threat of the pyre hanging over his head for so many years.

merlin magic reveal fic where arthur asks “why didn’t you tell me?” and merlin says, mirthless smile and haunted eyes “all my dreams end in fire. fire and burning and dying”

reblog this if you're okay with booping spams please !!

Writer's block do be blocking. I've been trying to work on one chapter for a fic for days and still nothing 😭

Hopefully the muse will return to me soon! In the meanwhile, please enjoy this meme!