the love that binds us

Title: sweet like honey AO3 username: kairennart (personaje) | @kairennart Rating: Mature Warnings: Choose Not To Use Warnings Medium/Word Count: Digital art Pairing/main characters: Lancelot/Arthur Pendragon Up to 10 tags: Shade Lancelot

Summary:

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60072397

Mordred for last year's MerlinZine

get yourself a main character whos two primary emotions are "little cunt" and "catatonic with grief"

Design a dragon using a famous artwork as your inspiration. 

saw this prompt and knew exactly what i had to do

so like, do you ever think about the similarities between Gwaine and Will (from Ealdor)? And their respective friendship with Merlin? Because, dude, I’ve been thinking about it all week.

These two would've been friends, I'm sure of it.

Gwaine makes the most iconic character introduction of the series, gets stabbed, continues to be a menace, and then he and Merlin bond over their fathers, and lack thereof.

Gwaine is cynical about nobility, especially Kings. As we know, his father was a knight who died in battle in Carleon’s name, and the King repaid his family with nothing.

Then you’ve got Will. Will - the most iconic man from Ealdor, which is a tall order when your mate’s Merlin, Mr “Greatest Sorcerer To Have Ever Walked The Earth” who is also from Ealdor. He greets Merlin like “your kind ain’t welcome here….. lol jk bring it in”, and then immediately squares up with Arthur, who’s kind - as far as Will is concerned - is definitely not welcome here.

Merlin reveals that Will’s issues with Arthur run deeper than how they first appear. Will, too, had a father that died in battle in service to, most likely, a King. The majority of it is inferred to the audience and we’re encouraged to make our own conclusions.

It’s very likely that Will and Gwaine share very similar backgrounds. I’m not sure that Will’s father was a knight, it’s more probable that he was a soldier of some kind and not of noble birth. Regardless of whatever rank he held, there’s overlap: a father was in service to a king, died in service to that king, that king left the family with nothing as thanks, and the son is left a cynic with no trust for people with fancy titles.

Another parallel is that in both 1x10 and 3x04, Will and Gwaine leave. For different reasons, of course. Will leaves because he refuses to fight for Arthur, a noble, and Gwaine leaves because he stood up to “nobles” bullying Merlin and was banished by Uther for it.

And then they both come back, to Merlin’s delight. Will comes back, risking his life, because it’s not about fighting for Arthur; it’s about fighting for Ealdor, his village, and to fight beside Merlin. Gwaine comes back, risking the consequences of his banishment, because he knew Arthur was in danger and Merlin likely would need some help.

But like, do you think Merlin, after Will’s death and since meeting Gwaine, sees these similarities between his two friends? Not just in experiences but personality? We only got one episode with Will, and we met him during a really desperate time, so the guy was probably stressed to the roots of his hair; and it was also after Merlin returned after moving away. So, Will - though happy to see him - was still cross after feeling abandoned. We didn’t get to see more of Will’s personality outside of that, but we know he was fiercely loyal, cynical, considered people’s lives worth more than material wealth or glory, outspoken and unafraid to tell a prince to fuck off, and one for banter (i.e. how he welcomed Merlin home).

Do you think Merlin saw Gwaine’s joking nature, his fierce loyalty, his criticisms of nobility and how he considered titles unimportant compared to who a person was on the inside, and thought of Will?

And, what if Merlin, late at night and lying in bed, thought that - if they’d ever gotten the chance to meet - Gwaine and Will would’ve been good friends.

…. anyway, that’s what’s plagued me for 6 days.

actually the cuck chair grants me a fantastic tactical vantage point. so

have you guys ever heard of fan fics? your faves are getting railed to death in there lol awesome

Merlin 5x03 The Death Song of Uther Pendragon

i've loved bbc gwaine for 13 slutty, slutty years but it wasn't until i watched eoin macken's depressing ass film (that he made with tom hopper and funded partly with donations from merlin fans 😭) called Leopard about generational trauma and gendered violence and uhhh severely messed up brothers with an oedipal complex? and a 5.7 imdb rating. the protagonist eoin plays is basically modern gwaine if he was appropriately half-dead from alcoholism and pub brawls and sick with worry over his brother percival i mean tom hopper. and the movie goes crazy with the symbolism. i'm talking the painting of ophelia floating on the water being a puzzle they work on together cutting to literal dead women floating in water leading up to the wildest mommy issues you've ever seen type symbolism. anyway it wasn't until THEN that i was like. oh i see. this guy eoin is not normal. about themes and narratives. and gwaine was his dream role of a lifetime like that's still his special guy so i just KNOW he overanalyzed him to hell and back he did all those microexpressions on purpose he took that shit SO seriously. and now i do too. now i, too, am. the gwaine overthinker.

blackout poetry

funniest image of all time i don’t know why. pov you are a terrible cgi creature from 2008