Hello! So I tried to watch Merlin years ago with my husband, and I think we watched a handful of episodes before deciding it wasn't for us. But still. The show seems beloved by its fans. What aspects do you enjoy most about the show? What makes the pairing of Arthur and Merlin so compelling (particularly to shippers)? =)

i think a lot of it is nostalgia. especially for people my age. we grew up with that show, it was one of the few family shows on mainstream tv that you could just sit down and watch together. and you know i've loved it for long enough that i can admit it's a little cringey sometimes and kiddy often and dated both in the 2008 and medieval way, so a lot of it is the nostalgia of it. but also the deeper into the show you get, it really is a triumph of storytelling. i'm not really a hug fan of retellings but there's just something about taking such an integral myth and stripping away the legend to focus on the humanity at the centre of the stories. it's about the once and future king and his sorcerer forging their story, but more than that it's about how they were just kids with the weight of the world on their shoulders, how each of them thought they were carrying it alone, how much they loved each other. and as for specific aspects of the show, well, it's pretty groundbreaking to me because it's so morally grey. it's a doomed narrative from the very beginning, almost everyone knows how this story ends, but it doesn't stop you hoping and believing and hurting. it's a doomed narrative full of doomed characters all making flawed decisions to try and undoom themselves. it's one man with destiny biting at his heels falling in love with the other side of his coin and ignoring fate. it's kind of a corruption arc where the love becomes so much more important than anything else that merlin ends up denying so many opportunities for himself and his kind just to save the man he loves and sometimes just to make the man he loves happy. it's devotion taking a dangerous turn into ruthlessness. it's a fun family show slowly spiralling into a dark tragedy more befitting of a ya novel. it's love in all its flawed, messy complexities.