🍑 💜 💙

I just think th- [gunshot]

I love season 3 Will so much because he knew Hannibal wanted to fuck him so bad and he used that to his advantage except he underestimated how badly he wants Hannibal to fuck him bro almost popped a vein at the mention of another dude’s name, like calm down he ain’t getting any in maximum security prison and also remember how you have a wife and a kid at home?

since nobody asked for my opinion, i’m 100% gonna give it: ttpd is the most unhinged taylor swift album we’ve gotten in years, and i understand it’s not the lyrical masterpiece of folklore, some songs on evermore, red, or speak now, but it’s 100% giving depressed emo sad 2014 tumblr era girl that bought into her own misery and thought her little poems were tortured poetry. i have beef with that but mostly because the true emotional torture i experienced was terribly verbalized by me because i couldn’t bring myself to relive all my thoughts and their cringeiness and the crippling possibility that my life was not/did not have to be as painful as the people around me were making it or as i was making it.

but anyway as someone who also wrote/writes cringey stuff and never had the guts to publish it, i give her props for publishing. sometimes you gotta put out the shitty drafts to grow from it. kinda like the lifespan of a pen.

you start off strong, you keep going, pen keeps penning, until eventually the ink starts running out and your writing looks like shit, all letters imprinted into the paper with no modicum of what it was once, and then you throw out the pen and start again. taylor just missed the step where you throw out the pen and paper the moment you realize the pen is running out and the gradually inkless writing is ruining the rest of the work, so you throw out those last few pages, get a new pen, and start again.

and that’s okay. not everything i wrote/write is a masterpiece, and occasionally you need to air out the lack of masterpieces to progress. everyone’s like, “a truly great lyricist has consistency,” nah a truly great lyricist isn’t afraid of criticism, scrutiny, gets themselves a good proofreader that doesn’t drink the kool aid before they publish it, and then decides not to publish because they realize that not everything they write is great

so is she great? Yes and no. she’s got skills, she’s merged pop music with a good lyricism, but to me she wades an interesting balance of self awareness. when she gets it right, she’s on top of the world. when she gets it wrong, she gets it wrong. after all this debate, i wonder if the only criticism and scrutiny she can get is from the public, but also rails at how little it knows about her, mostly because of the clear brand her team has created. i’m still side eyeing the clear muse *cough* not joe alwyn *cough*

But also: the second half of the album all sounds the same to me, huge skip. However best believe i will be using down bad, fortnight, my boy only breaks his favorite toys, the tortured poets department, guilty as sin, but daddy i love him, florida, who’s afraid of little old me, i can do it with a broken heart, the alchemy, and clara bow to write all the fanfics i’ll never publish. merlin i’m looking at you

my boy only breaks his favorite toys is so merlin and arthur coded it has me screaming

and also

who’s afraid of little old me is 100% merlin, i need a fan edit of merlin to that song. stat.

Who would you say is the Chosen One in BBC Merlin?

In Arthurian mythology itself, I'd say Arthur, as he's destined to be the Once and Future King, pull Excalibur out of the Stone etc. But in the BBC show, the focus is much more on Merlin and the crushing weight of his destiny under which he's crumbling, the choices and sacrifices he has to make. It is because of him that Arthur can become the king he is destined to be. For me, the Chosen One is the one who is predestined to do certain things, to do something heroic in order to achieve something, and the important thing is that he's the only one who can bring about whatever he's supposed to bring about. In my opinion, that would be Merlin here, not Arthur, since Arthur is more passive whereas Merlin is constantly working to fulfill his destiny and make the future he is supposed to bring come to pass. It's also important to note that Arthur doesn't KNOW that he has a destiny, which a Chosen One would.

So I'm wondering, in terms of the 'Chosen One', who would you say it is?

AHHHH

Something something if Merlin is the bravest man Arthur (bravery himself) ever met, then Arthur is Merlin's most magical person.

Merlin edit: The Last Goodbye (The Hobbits) Or: BBC Merlin in reverse

Dedicated to @kingdowager​ Thank you to @nextstopparis​ who’s edit inspired the first scene of this video.

a snippet from the merthur fic I'm writing

“I can’t,” he whispered, voice breaking over the syllables like waves on a rocky shore. “I’m not sure I can keep him alive if I let go.” Gaius felt a sharp intake of breath as wide, golden eyes met his. This was much worse than he had feared. 

“You must,” he pleaded, “set him down, hold onto him if contact is needed, but I cannot work if I cannot see the damage.” The words, at last, seemed to convince Merlin into action. He took short, unsteady steps to the table, and laid his King down without letting go entirely. Arthur’s gloves had been removed, at some point, and Merlin’s first clenched around limp fingers like a prayer. At once, Gaius began ordering the guard to help remove his King’s armor, cutting his shirt off entirely so as to not disturb whatever fragile stasis Merlin had upheld this long. “What happened, my dear boy?”

“Camlann was worse than I imagined.” His voice was still shaky, but seemed to steady itself as he regaled the battle. Gaius took his tale in stride, nodding along in encouragement as he cleaned Arthur’s skin enough to see the wound’s extent. He took the story in as graciously as he was able, barely pausing as Merlin recounted laying waste to Morgana’s army, and the lady herself, with lightning. His apprentice spoke of a sea of bodies, of barely arriving in time to be of any use at all, of being too late to help Arthur when he was most needed. “They’re dead,” the words shattered over thin air as Merlin spoke them, seeming to finally run out of whatever strength he had pulled out of himself. 

“This wound should have killed Arthur,” Gaius whispered, feeling every year of his life in contrast to his young King. He had birthed the boy, now man, had held his squalling, naked body as Uther mourned his wife. The only thought which seemed to rise above the cacophony in his head was a prayer, to anyone who should listen, that his old hands would not carry Arthur into death as they had life. “Merlin, what exactly have you done to keep him breathing?”

thanks to @star-rie for the prompt which inspired this its gonna be a massive fic probably broken into a few chapters. I'll try to post updates as I can but I prefer to wait until a fic is finished to upload the entire thing <3

also, ygraine lived in a world that still accepted magic and from what we can infer, may have seen its use through gaius or nimueh. If you think about it like that, ygraine’s sigil represents what arthur’s life could have been like if ygraine had lived. it provides a sense of closure and an iron clad argument against uther’s own pov and doctrine. for uther, magic killed ygraine, not his own wants or desires or needs or mistakes or misunderstandings. he blames the tool wielded by himself and nimueh, not himself for not accepting the truth. additionally, i think if we go by actor’s ages, morgana is older than arthur. can you imagine uther “genocide” pendragon and his guilt complex? he had a child with another woman, a child he could not claim as his heir without losing serious face, all while his own wife remained barren and his kingdom’s future unsure. he desperately wanted a child for his own legacy!

anyway back to my point, arthur giving merlin that sigil is arthur refuting uther’s narrative of his birth and welcoming magic back into his life and story. arthur was born from magic. magic gave him life, and now he gives a remnant of his life and family to magic itself.

Has the sigil been beaten to death? Yes. Am I going to write a small essay about it anyway? Also yes.

The sigil is such a monumental piece of the story, guys. No matter who you ship, Arthur giving Merlin his mother’s sigil is outrageously important to the validation of their relationship and to Arthur’s character growth, AND a view into his evolving perception of his traitorous family, which is probably why they were cut bc why would we want THAT. I will explain.

Arthur resists verbalizing his friendship with Merlin so much, but he says a lot more with his actions - sacrificing himself for Merlin time and again, confiding in him, keeping him close even though he’s not really supposed to. The sigil is a tangible piece of himself that he gives to Merlin, inviting him into his family and reminding him, even if he can’t quite do it with words, how close they really are.

But his FAMILY. I think that Arthur’s perception of his family is really starting to shift here. He doesn’t give Merlin something that makes him a Pendragon. He doesn’t give him his father’s ring or a dagger encrusted with the symbol of the dragon. He gives him his MOTHER’S sigil, the symbol of the bird, which is of course very symbolic of the relationship between Uther and Ygraine vs. Arthur and Merlin, but it also means that Arthur doesn’t want to associate Merlin with the side of the family that connects via his father - Uther and Morgana, ruthless and hard and traitorous. Arthur didn’t know that Agravaine had betrayed him yet. He wants Merlin to be family, but I think he wants to try everything he can to associate Merlin with the soft bits of his family history - the memory of a kind, gentle mother and a loyal uncle. This, to me, suggests that Arthur is really feeling his own departure from his father’s ways and trying to find a part of himself that was maybe like his mother instead. That would have been important if Merlin had told him about his magic earlier, because Arthur maybe wouldn’t have wanted to react as his father would have.

I just think keeping the scene in would have changed everything about the show from that point on. WHICH IS WHY IT IS CANON IN MY HEAD.

The power of gay and neurodivergence will not let the Merlin fandom die.

Gay in this case is a gender neutral term. And includes Bi people because I said so and I am making this post.

No I do not accept critique.

hi i just started watching that 911 show in the background while working thinking it would be a basic cop show/procedural drama i could play for white noise to boost my productivity like i did with all six seasons of SWAT (shout out to shemar moore’s overly passionate pecs and BECAUSE SWAT IS FAMILY speeches and that one ryan and shane cameo for getting me through my job onboarding months ago) and avoid the attention issues i get with british legal and cop dramas (shout out to the current loml rupert penry jones on silk and whitechapel, his roles as clive reader and di chandler are iconic)

and like yes. 911 is exactly that. so cringey. so feel warm-y and trite in the worst ways possible, filled with random monologues, oddly paced and placed one-liners, random quote intros that desperately try to replicate the word bangers of criminal minds, unnecessary flashbacks interspersed in the worst episode arcs ever and completely destroying the suspense, and with the weirdest combination of over-acting and under-acting in the entire fucking world that i have ever seen, and some entire scenes i just cannot stand to watch but do anyway because of how unrealistic and ridiculous they are but oh my god when this show hits its high points, it hits them

i need angela bassett’s athena grant to come and railroad my life. i want her to point her finger in my face and threaten to cuff me to my bed like she did that boyfriend in that season one episode (and yes THAT HAPPENED THANK GOD THE BUCK CENTRIC SEXY SCENES DID NOT LAST AS LONG AS SOME OTHER SHOWS COUGH SWAT COUGH BUT WHY NO MORE ATHENA?) you my friends have not lived until you’ve seen her on the other end of a huge tv screen raising her eyebrow and acting like she’s about to beat you up with nothing more than her commanding tone.

and also like all the other fucking characters.

i watched this show hoping to have inane drama and dialogue watching over me while i send emails and plan. i did not watch this show to bite my nails over maddie buckley’s psycho ex husband storyline, nor to swoon over the romance between to her and chimney (howard han i would die for you, your bg episode was so sad but so beautiful and if you had died i wouldve been so sad, yours were the flashbacks that won me over), nor to fangirl over ROBERT FUCKING NASH AND HIS GUILT COMPLEX (I LOVE YOU BOBBY), or to have my heart grow three sizes with the fucking tsunami episode

like you guys, i was on the edge of my seat, eating my dinner and actually wondering if they were about to kill off christopher diaz and break my heart and buck’s heart and ruin everything and like they didnt but now evan buckley’s character growth is such an inspiration and i just dont want him to fuck it up by trying to go back to work early and ahhhhhhhhhhh this was supposed to be a casual watch but now im writing this so im gonna have to find something else or worse go back to watching silk or whitechapel in the bg and be enraptured by rupert

anyone else fully headcanon that arthur totally believed merlin was in love with him for the entire end of season 4 and all of season 5?

no?

just me?

because like yes merthur vibes were given in the first 4 seasons but the amount of devotion merlin shows to arthur in these episodes and the way arthur looks at him. ugh i need to make a post about it.

also if arthur ever had half a brain and the cunningness of his father, he would totally use and abuse merlin’s power to conquer all the kingdoms and like what could merlin do but follow because love, but that’s an au for another time i guess

sometimes i just think merlin the show would’ve been so much better if it really clung to the whole re-interpretation of the legend and gave us merlin/arthur and gwen/lancelot or like gwen/morgana instead of being such cowards and depriving us of every happiness

like imagine a fairytale ending where nothing ever goes wrong because merlin confesses to arthur his magic and his love, and then gwen saves herself from the heartbreak of arthur “emotionally traumatized by his father uther “genocide” pendragon” pendragon, and morgana becomes morgana“princess supreme anti hero evil smirk badass sexy queen who should step on all of us and go on magical adventueres” pendragon

like gives us depth, bbc, instead of giving us nothing

note to self, catch up on all my other mentions, but until then…

last song: dope by BTS

color: red

watching: whitechapel

spice/sweet/savor: 100% sweet (except in boba)

relationship status: focusing on myself

obsession: castles crumbling by taylor swift and all the fandoms i can apply it to

okay let’s see

@tansyuduri @emrysthegoodwitch @tiny-and-witchy @thisisjustmefangirling @a-star-is-here

Nine people i'd like to get to know better:

Tagged by: @bell-of-indecision, thank you so much for tagging me <3

Last Song: Gmfu by Odetari,6arelyhuman

Favourite colour: Dark red, violet, pink

Currently watching: Death note, ep6

Spicy/Savoury/Sweet: Spicy

Relationship status: Single

Current Obsession: Mbti types and cognitive functions.

Tagging: @somin-yin @a-cloud-for-dreams @axepen @hinsaa-paramo-dharma @basic-bitch-alkali @rhysaka @blackknight-100 @squishywizardd @reykalot

Started watching the James Somerton apology video, and like first of all: I am sorry that the original exposé videos blew up so much that he got death threats from chronically online people who need to touch grass and I am sorry for the emotional turmoil caused by having hordes of people come out for you.

However, why is this video 40 minutes long and going over what sounds like excuses? All the world needed, all that should have been said is: Yes, I plagiarized. Yes, that was wrong of me. Yes, I am taking full responsibility for my actions and acknowledging that the backlash, while at times extreme, did come from a valid place and did address actions I knowingly committed. I violated the intellectual property of other people and took advantage of the hard work they devoted to their content. Because of these actions, intentionally or not, poverty or not, head injury or not, desperate or not, adhd or not, I used my platform and visibility to exploit their content without giving them credit and allowing them to reap the benefits of the success their work afforded me, often at the expense of the success they should have received.

I understand the stress and personal issues he experienced, and how these can have unintentional consequences, but like—that doesn’t change what the real issue the plagiarism controversy originally brought up. It only adds context and attempts to subvert what should have been the highlight of this video: the actual and deliberate/seemingly deliberate plagiarism which he used to build his brand and which as a content creator and as a part of the content he created, means he created.

nah but like imagine arthur finding out about merlin’s immortality after an attempt by agravaine to kill him

Merlin, during a council meeting discussing a traitor: I think it’s Agravaine.

Arthur: You’ll need more solid evidence.

Merlin: HE KILELD ME! I CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD!