Since my last modern au idea was a hit, here's another one!
In this au, old man Merlin's still waiting on Arthur by the shore of Avalon, even in the 21st century. He's mostly isolated, but occasionally ventures out into the nearby town to buy groceries and chat with some of the locals.
It's on one of these trips that he hears something he wasn't expecting to: apparently the BBC is making a show about him and Arthur, and the first season has been pretty popular.
Intrigued by this, Merlin does some digging (and watches the first season of the show), and he finds out that the BBC are casting for some minor characters to add for the second season. And, seeing as how Arthur probably isn't waking up any time soon, Merlin decides to brush off his old shapeshifting skills and audition for the show, figuring that he'd get a good laugh out of it at the very least.
Sure enough, the casting directors loved his audition, and he was added into the show as a minor character with a few guest appearances throughout the season. And his name?
Leon.
(And Merlin then convinced that directors to not kill off his character under any circumstances, just for the fun of it.)
Washing machine…. Have you put Merthur in a washing machine? Might you put them in a washing machine?? /lh /nf
Well, I couldn't fit them both in there, so here's Arthur on spin cycle! Enjoy!
Bodyless voice: THIS IS THE THRONE OF DIVINE JUDGMENT. IF YOU WISH TO LIVE, YOU MUST BE JUDGED. SIT UPON MY THRONE AND I SHALL DECIDE YOUR FATE!!!
Arthur: *sits*
Bodyless voice: AH, THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. *lists Arthur's deeds and failures* AS SUCH, I DECREE THAT YOU OFFER ME A SACRIFICE. DO PENANCE, YOUNG PENDRAGON. EMPTY YOUR VAULTS AND MAKE ME A STATUE
Arthur, appalled: but that's tax money. I need that for the people!
Bodyless voice: IT IS MY DECREE. WHO IS NEXT.
Arthur: I'm not done with you. Merlin, you go.
Merlin: do I have to?
Arthur: just- do it. You're talking to a god, you idiot! Everyone here needs to be judged.
Merlin: ... Okay. *Sits*
Bodyless voice: OH... OH NO.
Merlin: what
Bodyless voice: I DID NOT- I MEANT NO OFFENCE, YOUR HIGHNESS. EMRYS, MY LORD, I AM SO SORRY. OF COURSE I DON'T NEED THAT STATUE. PLEASE FORGIVE ME! *Keeps brabbling on his apology*
Arthur: what the fuck is happening. Merlin, what the hell did you do?
Merlin: ... You're talking to a god, you prat!
Fancy!!
Yup, insulting Arthur or making Arthur sad in front of Merlin is Camelot's equivalent to setting off ye olde nuclear warhead! It never ends well.
Someone: *insults Arthur*
Merlin:
Holding this so close to my heart! This is awesome!!
Merlin & Arthur | Somebody to Die For by @imagine-dragonlords
I am so ridiculously proud of this and it took EVERYTHING in me to make it, I hope you all enjoy! ❤️
👀
My angst senses are tingling! This is such a cool role reversal idea!!
foaming at the mouth at evil arthur because of that one fanart sebehdndbgs obsessed:
morgana and arthur swap roles. Morgana ruled as queen with gwen at her side to honor uther’s legacy and arthur doing absolutely everything to tear the kingdom apart.
arthur went rogue for all the hypocrisy and lies of uther reign. He was furious about his mother, the final straw when he saw just how much his other half sacrificed himself for him and then when he saw his father driving excalibur into his heart.
Morgana keeping everything in order so the kingdom wont fall apart in the lost of their two kings. because this will be the kingdom that brings the golden age.
arthur despises it. Every single person who spouts about destiny and prophecies. a child cruelly treated just because he’s the one who’ll bring arthur’s end. His heart ache. He made an oath to bring ruin to camelot with excalibur on his side.
This is a good point. Arthur, either willingly or subconsciously, always has a simplified (and somewhat idealized) version of Merlin in his head, which lets him treat Merlin without respect up until he actually needs Merlin's wisdom and guidance, but then he immediately reverts back to treating Merlin as he always has.
While I was watching the show for the first time, I thought Arthur treated Merlin like an emotional support teddy bear. The teddy bear is soft and comforting and keeps the nightmares away, and Arthur takes Merlin with him everywhere, even where he isn't needed, as a child with a favorite teddy bear might. But that teddy bear, in Arthur's eyes, is only an object, only there to comfort its owner, so why would he care about the teddy bear's wants or needs? It doesn't have any anyways!
This is why Arthur drags Merlin everywhere with him, regardless of what Merlin himself wants. And, like a favorite teddy bear, Merlin gets dirty, torn up, and damaged from the job of being there for Arthur, but Arthur never notices, too stuck focusing on what Merlin should do for him to see Merlin's current state.
Merlin is kind of like a dog to Arthur. I mean this in all of the good and all of the bad ways.
Hello everyone! After seeing the overwhelming support for my last au idea, where Merlin is reincarnated and is captured by a maybe-undead Arthur while exploring the ruins of Camelot, I've decided that I'll do a continuation of that prompt and (hopefully) have it posted tonight!
I've still got another au idea that I want to post after this continuation, but I'm conflicted as to which idea to post after that (since I have about 15 half-finished prompts sitting in my drafts).
So, I figured that I should let you guys vote on it! I'll probably post all of them eventually, but this will help me determine which ones I should post first!
I'm keeping them vague as to not spoil anything, but I think all of them are pretty good au ideas! I'm looking forward to seeing what you all choose!
Hello everyone! Here's a quick Merlin au idea that I might flesh out later:
We know from the show that Merlin is "magic itself", so what if all magic had a form of consciousness or spirit as Emrys? In this au, Emrys has always existed as magic's consciousness and allows magic users to harness his power, but he lacks any physical form on account of being a spirit.
However, when Uther declares war on magic and starts the purge, Emrys knew that he had to act to stop Uther. So, he decides to make a vessel so that he can directly act in the physical world, instead of having to rely on the power of his followers.
Emrys's plan was to intertwine his soul with the newborn vessel's, which would allow him to become one with the vessel and keep his memories, powers, and spirit intact. But, something went wrong while Emrys was attaching himself to the vessel, and now Emrys was stuck in a mortal form without any of his memories as a spirit. And thus, Merlin was born.
Everything after that would go pretty much the same as canon up until the last season. As the golden age neared and Morgana grew stronger, the part of Emrys's spirit that resided outside of Merlin grew more and more insistent. What was left of Emrys's spirit knew that Merlin needed to regain his memories as Emrys and reunite with their spirit to achieve his true potential, but it seemed like nothing was working!
So, Emrys tried everything to get through to Merlin, but Merlin was too preoccupied with trying to keep Arthur alive to notice any of Emrys's subliminal messages.
After a while, Emrys tried reaching out to the Druids and even the Catha to see if they could perform a ritual to unlock Emrys's memories and spirit from within Merlin. Merlin eventually figures out the truth and readily agrees to the ritual, taking any power that he can get if it means that he can protect Arthur better.
However, Arthur and the knights catch wind of this and are horrified. To them, it looks like magic itself is trying to possess Merlin!
This all culminates with Arthur and the knights being too late to stop the ritual. They watch on in horror as Merlin's eyes are permanently stained gold, and his expression holds an uncharacteristic grimness.
Arthur knows, down to his core, that what he's looking at isn't Merlin, but rather magic itself wearing his best friend's skin and controlling his like a puppet. With tears in his eyes, Arthur turns his blade on what was once Merlin, knowing that Merlin himself wouldn't have wanted magic to lay waste to the world while wearing his face.
But Emrys just rolls his eyes at Arthur dramatics. Honestly, his memories of existing as an incorporeal spirit for millennia were kind of boring anyways.
TL;DR:
Merlin gets a cool powerup, while Arthur thinks that he has to kill his best friend, who is possessed by the closest thing Camelot has to a devil: magic itself. Heartbreaking angst (from Arthur's POV) and mild irritation (from Merlin's POV) ensue!
Thank you @rays-of-gold and everyone who got me to 10000 reblogs!
Holy crap 10,000's a lot of reblogs! Thank you all so, so much!!
I think this might be the best post of mine to reach this milestone with lol! It really sums up the entire vibe of this blog!
Thank you all so much, virtual hugs for all of you!!!
Now they get to be on a hot dog roller together! :)
A great selection of my incoherent thoughts!AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticNeutral01/pseuds/ChaoticNeutral01
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