This idea is so dear to me! Because we see Arthur self-loathing so many times, both in relation to himself and his father's legacy, but it goes further beyond that.
There's a deleted scene from either "The Tears of Uther Pendragon" part one or two where Arthur is discussing Uther's descent into madness with Merlin. Arthur reveal's that Uther's father fell into a similar state later on in life, and Merlin "helpfully" points out that he learned from Gaius that those sorts of things tend to run in families. This leads to Arthur glaring at Merlin in anger at the accidental implication that Arthur himself would fall into a similar state of madness one day.
So, we can make a logical guess that Arthur, on some level, believes Pendragon blood to be cursed with madness and bloodlust. While it doesn't really come up again later in the series, we can assume that Morgana being revealed as Arthur's sister and becoming a tyrant only further solidifies this belief in Arthur.
To Arthur, he killed his own mother with his birth, having been born a murderer and trained form that day on to be the perfect warrior. To Arthur, he is damned by his own loyalty to slaughter as many people as it takes in the name of protecting his kingdom, and he's never known a single day in his life without blood on his hands.
And, on top of all of that, madness and tyranny runs through his blood, as evident from his father and half sister.
Arthur wants so very badly to be a good king, to be kind and protect his people, but he feels like he can never achieve that with all the lives he's taken and the evil that runs through his own blood. He could not carve out the part of himself he sees as rotten more than he could empty his own veins.
That's part of why Arthur is always so awed at Merlin's never-ending loyalty and kindness towards Arthur. Arthur sees himself as good for nothing except violence, and he does not know what to do with Merlin's soft care.
“something is rotten inside of me, i have to find it and cut it out” — house song; searows
A little Merlin angst for you all on this lovely day!
In the show, we never really see the "consequences" that Kilgharrah speaks of when Uther wields Excalibur instead of Arthur in season 1.
What if, by being the first person to be granted Excalibur by Emrys (even if it was accidentally), Uther was made the "Once and Future King" instead of Arthur? Uther, of course, never lifts the bans on magic, and the show goes on as normal. However, 1500 years later, as Merlin sits by the side of Avalon lake awaiting his king's return, it isn't Arthur who rises from the lake, but Uther.
I love this!
Merlin would start tentatively questioning Arthur about the knights tailing him, trying to see if Arthur truly does suspect about his magic, while Arthur gets red and flustered with embarrassment at Merlin's questioning. Merlin mistakes this flush for Arthur holding back his anger at Merlin's betrayal, so Merlin misunderstands and takes it as confirmation that Arthur knows about the magic and that he's on thin ice.
In response, Merlin starts pulling away from Arthur, hopefully giving him space to calm his temper, while Arthur is heartbroken seeing Merlin reject his affections after he started to treat Merlin like his queen.
I like the angst potential here!
merlin notices knights trailing after him while he dashes around the castle and then they follow him into town and they follow him out into the woods and arthur is being super weird about it and none of the knights at the round table are saying anything so oh fuck arthur definitely knows about merlin’s magic and is having him closely monitored bc he thinks merlin is dangerous omg its so obvious. whole time arthur is just in his chambers giggling, twirling his hair, and blushing as he writes in his diary journal that he found old rules that were used to keep his mother safe and he implemented them for his queen his beloved merlin to keep him safe
Hello everyone! First of all, thank you all so much for all of the support you've given my blog! I was a little nervous about posting on a new platform, and didn't even plan on posting very often, but your overwhelming support has led me to posting my unhinged ideas and ramblings for the world to enjoy! So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much! There have been multiple times over this past week that I almost started crying from all of the love you all have given my writing. Because of your support, I'm going to continue writing and posting my au ideas on here frequently!
And secondly, I've gotten a lot of questions about this, so I figured that I'd make it an announcement so everyone could see. These au prompts are free for anyone to write about if they're inspired by them! You have my permission to take any of my prompts and run wild with it! The primary reason why I'm posting them here is because I thought that they were good ideas, but I don't have the time to fully write all of them into fics. So, I figured that I would give them out here, so anyone could play around and write about them and make them into fics if they wanted to! Quite frankly, I'd be very honored to see people writing about my silly little ideas!
Lastly, I'll be going back and tagging my previous prompts with "#merlin prompts", and will be tagging all of my future prompts with it as well, to make navigating my blog a bit easier! That way, there'll be one place for you to find of all my prompts!
Again, thank you all so much for your love and support! I look forward to sharing more of my ramblings with you all! :D
EDIT: Also, I just set up an ask box in case anyone has any questions about my prompts!
With love,
Ramblings of a Chaotic Neutral
Aaand Merlin's now trending again for no apparent reason other than... well, the anniversary of you-know-what.
I love that it can be a random day in December, and the Merlin fandom collectively wakes up to make this happen:
Because we all miss our favorite himbo and his unhinged warlock!
Alright, looking at the results, it seems like most of you don't mind either way! For the sake of keeping everything all in one space, I think that, when I start posting my new project, I'll be posting it on this blog. I'll still keep everything organized by tags and in the masterpost!
I'll still be posting Merlin au's and fanfics of course, but I also want to branch out into mythology-inspired writing. I've always loved the classical myths and epics, and I have many ideas for stories based on them that I'd love to write and share with you all one day!
Thank you all for your continued support and love for my writing! It blows me away every time to see people enjoying my silly ideas so much, and it makes my day to bring you all some joy through my ramblings! :D
Hello everyone! Thank you all so much for all of the love you've given my latest au! I'm working on a continuation for the "Arthur misunderstands what a warlock is" au and will hopefully have it posted by tomorrow!
However, I have a question for everyone! I'm considering starting a new writing project based on Greek mythology (essentially a horror retelling of the Odyssey where mortal become less and less human every time they interact with the gods), and I'd love to share my work with you all! But, I'm conflicted on whether or not I should make a new blog for this project or not.
I know that most (probably all) of you are here for my Merlin content, and I want this blog to be enjoyable for everyone, so I want your thoughts!
I originally created this blog to share my silly Merlin au's and fanfics with you all, and I'm happy to keep it exclusive to that if you guys want that! However, I'm also happy to share all of my writing, Merlin-related or not, here!
I want this blog to be as fun as it can be for both you all and myself, so I value your feedback! Happy voting, and I'll be back soon with my au continuation post! :D
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
Hello everyone! I'm back with another au! Enjoy! :)
This au picks up at the battle of Camlann, where Morgana uses a spell to deactivate Merlin's aging spell. All of Camelot's forces look on in horror as the old sorcerer on the ridge turns out to be Merlin. Merlin himself looks devastated by this.
Morgana then begins goading Merlin by loudly revealing all his secrets to Arthur, Gwen, and all the knights on the battlefield, intending to make sure that he could never return to Camelot. She reveals that he is Emrys, all-powerful, magic incarnate, the son of the Triple Goddess, and a god of the Old Religion in human form. He is the the most feared creature in all of Camelot, and they never even knew it.
Merlin, enraged by this, viciously fights Morgana with his magic. Mordred abandons his goal of battling Arthur to rush over to Morgana's side, trying to defend her from Emrys's wrath.
Merlin, still carving a path of destruction and death through the battlefield, doesn't hesitate to strike Mordred down with lightning. While Morgana was too busy being stunned and horrified by what just happened, Merlin takes Mordred's fallen dragon-forged blade and runs Morgana through with it, ending her for good.
The remaining soldiers in Morgana's Saxon army, now decimated and seeing that their leader is dead, killed by a force far more powerful than she herself, turn around and flee, desperate to avoid being slaughtered at the hands of a god.
With the Saxons gone, the battlefield of Camlann goes quiet, with the only sounds being the quiet whistling of the wind blowing through the valley. Camelot's knights are frozen in fear and shock, looking at Arthur for guidance for what to do next.
However, Arthur himself is frozen still too, unable to tear his eyes away from Merlin, the man who he trusted more than anyone, who was never even a man to begin with. His manservant, who was secretly a god the entire time!
But Merlin has his back turned to Arthur, and is simply gazing out into the distance. He turns around though, and he meets Arthur's eyes for a split second, before vanishing into thin air.
A second later, Arthur could swear that he heard Merlin's voice whisper along with the wind, "I'm sorry."
Staring out across the now empty battlefield, Arthur had no choice but to shakily order the knights to pack up and return to Camelot. There was nothing left for them here.
They returned to camp and started the journey back to Camelot in silence, everyone's minds reeling from what had just happened. The sudden revelation of Merlin's true nature had left Arthur, Gwen, and the knights terrified and unsure of everything.
Once back in the safety of Camelot, Arthur has a huge breakdown, wondering how the hell he's even alive if the man he's bossed around for the past ten years was actually capable of brutally destroying an entire army with a wave of his hand the entire time. How had he survived if he had been humiliating a god every day for years, a god whose followers had been slaughtered by his hand!
Their return to Camelot had been stressful to say the least, all of them on edge despite their victory. Yes, Merlin Emrys had ensured their victory, but who knew what plans the god had for Camelot now that his true nature was revealed?! What revenge would he enact on the kingdom responsible for the purge?!
These thoughts haunted Arthur even as he returned to his chambers, changed himself into his nightclothes (and ignoring the fact that the god of magic had been dressing him for the past decade), and fell into a fitful sleep.
Arthur was shocked and terrified when, in the morning, he was awoken with a very familiar "Rise and shine, dollophead! You have a full schedule today!"
His heart stuttered with terror as his eyes shot open and beheld the sight of Merlin, smiling and looking as he always did, as if nothing had changed. His heart pounded with sudden fear as he leapt out of bed, scrambling for something, anything to defend himself with against the man who had once been his closest friend. But, Arthur's mind hissed at him, what good would any sword do against a god?! He was as good as dead already!
Merlin Emrys, to Arthur's shock, didn't even bat an eye at Arthur pulling a blade on him and set the tray full of breakfast on the table, completely unphased.
"Come on, we don't have time for this, Arthur! Just sit down and eat your breakfast while I pick out your clothes for the day."
Arthur's however, didn't move from his place against the wall. Did he really think Arthur was stupid enough to fall for something like that?
Well, Arthur's mind hissed again, you were stupid enough to mistake a god for an manservant for ten years.
Emrys simply rolled his eyes, his impatience now showing, and Arthur braced himself to be hit with the full force of divine wrath.
Something in the air shifted, and Arthur suddenly found himself sitting at the table without having moved a muscle, with the breakfast tray in front of him.
"There we go! Now, please hurry up and eat. I didn't even steal one of your sausages this time! So, for today, do you want to wear your training gambeson or your more formal set?"
Arthur said nothing in response, too busy staring, petrified by fear and bewildered beyond words, at the god of magic lay out his clothes for the day.
The rest of the day goes on like this, with Merlin pretending like everything's normal while Arthur, and everyone else in the castle, is completely terrified by Merlin's presence alone. But, they can't really make him to leave.
Knights who draw their swords at the sight of Merlin find that their blades turn to dust as soon as he looks at them. The servants who see him, who have no doubt heard the disturbing news about his true nature as Emrys, scream in terror and run away at the sight of him.
Even Guinevere, who was sitting on her throne next to Arthur when she saw Merlin out of the corner of her eye, holding a pitcher of watered down wine like it was an ordinary day, tensed up with fright, her hands gripping the arms of her throne and her breathing picking up as her mind replayed memories of Merlin, her dearest friend, raining death down upon Camlann.
Eventually, Arthur gathers enough courage to ask Merlin why he's still here, what he wants from Camelot, and what it will take to have him spare Arthur's people.
And Merlin's response is to simply smile and tell Arthur that he will not leave. He is Arthur's servant, and there's nothing Arthur can do about that other than accept it.
TL;DR:
Arthur, fearing for his entire kingdom: Please, Emrys, just tell me what you want! I'm sorry about treating you like a servant! I'll do anything, just please spare my people!
Merlin, doing laundry and desperate to avoid his life changing in any way: I'm :) your :) servant :)
A random thought for today: do you think Arthur wanted Merlin and Agravaine to get along so badly because they were both the last members of his mother's family? Merlin was technically made a du Bois when Arthur gave him his mother's sigil, which would have legally made Merlin and Agravaine family.
So, Arthur sees both Merlin and Agravaine as the last of his mother's family, so he wants them to like each other or at least get along, so that he can have one side of his family that isn't marred by blood and betrayal like the Pendragon line is with his father and sister. He might see this as a second chance of having a supportive family, so he wants Merlin and Agravaine to get along so they can be one big happy family together.
God I love all of the possibilities that the sigil opens up!
Next time rotate them like a rotisserie chicken
Ooh, that's a good idea! Hear me out though: rotating them on one of those gas station hot dog warmers. I'm talking one of these bad boys:
I might do either one if I have the time!
This entire situation has me in tears I'm laughing so hard! I love this concept!
I was thinking about that post that point out Merlin and Arthur could have children bacause Merlin can change into a woman but (hear me out) I think people are way to focused on the sex part of creating a child when we are talking about magic (yes I understand that they were more likely speaking out of horniness, gender exploration,… and that’s 100% valid and I’m not above it & I like gender exploration story BUT) because like it’s magic
It would be so fucking funny if in a not-together-yet-merthur au, Merlin try to make Arthur pregnant and it’s just Merlin sending ‘death’ glare at Arthur for hours, days, WEEKS on end. There is 0 sexy time, 0 seduction happening and even 0 pregnancy symptoms when it happens.
Just Merlin walking to Arthur like : I resolved your heir problem !!!! you are pregnant :D
Arthur : what did you drink now.
*3 months later*
Arthur, glowing : ??? ??? *glowing harder until a child materializes in his arms*
Arthur. : 😦
The baby : 😃
Arthur : ….MERLIN
Arthur is very affronted about the fact that Merlin ‘knocked him’ up before 1. Marrying him (how dare he and no he isn’t a poor maiden but he will still be mad about it) 2. Having sex for the first time (Arthur : if Gwaine learn about this and call me the Virgin Mary I swear to God—)
((As I said I’m not above it and yes they fuck nasty about it))
A great selection of my incoherent thoughts!AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticNeutral01/pseuds/ChaoticNeutral01
307 posts