i 🩵 dark magicks

sorry for posting a tiktok i know that’s like bad etiquette on here or something but this edit is literally doing something to my brain… IMAGINE IF EVIL GWEN HAD BEEN GOOD. AUGH.

the thing that bothers me most about the whole exile arc isn’t even that arthur exiles gwen necessarily (though i maintain that the way it was done was still absolutely unnecessarily cruel) but it's more so the way that the narrative presents it. like the narrative framing the writers chose to go with is essentially that what he's doing is wrong because WE, the audience, know that she didn't actually cheat - therefore he’s overreacting about something she didn't do. instead of it being that a) regardless of whether she cheated or not it would STILL BE WRONG for him to exile her even if she did - because she’s a commoner without status and a single woman being thrown out of the only home she’s ever known without provisions or a place to go on the pain of death, and that he’s abusing his power without realising it. (like what happened to all that about class equality... ok!!). and also that b) regardless of whether she cheated she would still be sympathetic and that one mistake doesn't define you and that relationships are messy and people have flaws. idk it is just so ridiculous to me that she’s not allowed to make even one mistake before he exiles her after all that talk about how he would give up his kingdom for her. its a choice!

like ultimately regardless of whether she did it or not. how he responded was still wrong and it really bothers me that that ENTIRE arc (which did nothing but traumatise her!!!!) is made to about arthur and him deciding to take his mistake back and realising he regrets it. like SHE GETS EXILED and somehow the story is still only interested in arthur…. like truly what the fuck. they just put her through trauma and then discarded it all without ever giving it the space it needed to be processed either by her or the audience. it’s the way her pain and trauma are just sooo constantly sidelined by the show's narrative in order to better serve arthur and his 'character development' or whatever. im just so done !

someone replied to one of my posts with this and i am removing this from context but i just think gwen literally looks so so cute here im almost in tears about it… babygirl of all time…

and u know what... in contrast to merlins trauma which is much more evident in canon (like we get to SEE all the suffering he goes through for arthur) and acknowledged by the narrative. gwen suffers SO much and sacrifices so much for arthur's sake too but because it’s never acknowledged by the show to the same degree we’re just supposed to ignore it.

gonna be honest i dont think EYE am the one being insane here ok. just. can u imagine. marrying the guy who arrested you and your father on multiple occasions and then his father has your father murdered for absolutely no reason other than because he's an insane tyrant. and then you start falling in love with his son which is okay because you think he's way better than his terrible dad except then he talks about how much he cares and worries about his dad in front of you all the time and you're never supposed to feel uncomfortable about it ever. in fact you have to comfort him about it. and then you almost get banished because of his dad discovering youre in a relationship with him and half the episode is spent showing how unfair and terrible this is because youre a single woman with nowhere to go and now you're being exiled from the only home you've ever known. and then one season later your now fiancee does the exact same thing to you he exiles you for kissing your ex one time and then you have to take refuge in your friends hometown because you literally have nowhere else. because your fiancee didnt consider that before. checks notes. exiling you to nowhere on the pain of death!!!! a normal engagement thats like a breakup but yikes tough luck turns out he's the king so he's allowed to do that to you! this is the same guy who likes to pretend that he's above 'class' but apparently also doesnt understand the concept of it. also the narrative will act like he was kind of justified in doing this to you because his feelings got hurtsies :( with no consideration of the power dynamic involved. also the entire time he's king as well as after you get married he will spend considerable amounts of time talking about how much he idolises and hero worships the legacy of his dead insane father. the guy who literally murdered your father and also almost had you burned to death multiple times. and youre supposed to be okay with all of this btw

I LOVE THE SCENE IN THE DARKEST HOUR PT2 WHEN GWEN TELLS AGRAVAINE OFF SO SO MUCH!!! i love especially that when she addresses the room she says 'prince arthur taught me long ago that every citizen of camelot is important'. like augh!!!! the way that its literally the opposite way around. that it's SHE who taught HIM that but she has to change her words around because she knows that the court won't take her seriously unless her filters her points through his words!!!

the way that gwen takes care of uther when he's sick out of nothing but love for arthur despite her hatred of him for killing her father. the way she is able to put aside her hate because of the strength of her love. did it hurt when you fell from heaven girl!!!!

been thinking about what might have happened if morgana had told gwen about her magic in s1/2 before her turn - i’ve often heard people say that gwen would have sided with morgana and that it would have stopped her from turning evil. which i think is partially true but im honestly not convinced it would be that simple. i think gwen and morgana are somewhat character foils in a sense - gwen is selfless where morgana is selfish; gwen puts her morals before her feelings and morgana puts her feelings before her morals.

i think gwen would have sympathised with her and been on her side if she had told her, yes. that being said! if morgana had tried to kill uther, i can see gwen trying to stop her because of her nonviolent ideals. she says very explicitly that she believes killing uther would make her ‘just as bad as him’. while it’s not a sentiment i would personally agree with, her ideals are clearly very important to her. if morgana insisted on using violence (which i believe she would), i think they would have an ideological break and have become enemies regardless. only if she managed to talk morgana out of it would they be okay and morgana remain ‘good’. but i honestly don’t know if that would be the most likely outcome.

idk. it would have been an interesting plotline. gwen having to choose between morgana/magic users versus protecting uther who she hates but is against killing because of her principals. the ideological divide of nonviolence v political violence in the face of oppression. especially since gwen is not part of the oppressed class in this instance, but she IS in a much more vulnerable position than morgana class wise, so it could have thrown some nuance (which this show is allergic to!) into the mix. we could have had it all. they could have been so messy. but whatever!