"Love Letter (Clouds)", Sarah Manguso

Mithian/Merlin/Arthur for @merlinrarepairfest Day 5

this scene in the hunter’s heart 4x11 is probably the source of merlins ff trope where nobles tries to win arthur through merlin and it’s so crazy to me that it’s canon

i love how mithian goes straight to merlin and ask him to give her a chance, because merlin, a servant, is arthur’s closest person

she could have chosen one of the knights, she could have chose gaius, could have chose aggravaine, but she chose a servant, a member outside of the royal court

do i need to say how much outsiders can see that merthur is probaby in love??

I need to talk for a second about Princess Mithian and her comment to Merlin: “One thing I’ve learned since being here is Arthur values your opinion above almost all others.”

When she said this, I was shocked. Not because I don’t agree (because of course I do), but because she’d been there such a short amount of time and honestly, Arthur isn’t very nice to Merlin in this episode. Especially in front of Mithian.

It’s not as if Mithian said, “I can tell he’s fond of you” or something like that. She specifically said he values his opinion the most. Out of everyone. A servant.

So it really makes me wish I could watch that episode from her perspective because what did she see? Was it all off camera? Did Arthur speak about Merlin whenever they were together with an absurd amount of affection? Did she watch the way he looked at him? How did she come to that conclusion?

More evidence that Arthur is extremely bad at hiding his affections for Merlin in front of everyone except Merlin.

merlin looking shocked she noticed, as if he hadn't been hanging about with a sour face and acting like a little bitch the entire time she was there

favorite merlin episodes: the hunter's heart

honestly merlin is arthur's biggest wingman ever he literally let himself get thrown in the stocks for arthur just so he can go on a date 😭

ok but magic reveal au where the stakes are as low as they were in the changeling. sensible? no. fits well in canon? not a chance. why then? because I think it would be funny.

anyway - say, it’s before 4x12. arthur has already known for a while and after lots of deliberation, came to the conclusion ages ago that he’d accept merlin and neither execute or banish him.

merlin doesn’t know this. he’s freaking the fuck out because he’s revealed himself like a half-wit and arthur’s got that neutral stone face on that reveals nothing and it’s never failed to set merlin on edge. arthur asks, because he has to, “have you ever used magic on me? against camelot?”

merlin: no! no i would nev—

merlin: well.

arthur: …..’well’? what does WeLl mean?!

merlin:

arthur, warningly: merlin

merlin: um. i may have… i needed a key to help a guy get a triskellion piece to complete another key to unlock the tomb of ashkanar to get the dragon egg and protect it because it’s the last dragon egg and I’m the last dragonlord and—

arthur: yes yes get to the important bit

merlin: keep in mind I was doing my sacred duty

arthur:

merlin:

merlin: i pantsed you in council

arthur: MERLIN

he takes it back. arthur thinks he’ll kill him after all

The lack of Arthur/mithian fics need to be addressed she literally flirted with him 30 seconds after meeting him and he forgot how to act is this not top tier shipping content?

she also says he’s loveable and gushes about how much she likes him what’s not to love.

and the “goodnight princess” moment yall can’t tell me he didn’t have a little crush on her.

Even though I see Merlin as bi, I couldn't resist just doing a gay silence thing here.

Like genuinely, these two clips just scream that Merlin is keeping his feelings for Arthur hidden so much that he can only scream internally when Mithian says Arthur's a loveable person, when Mordred challenges him by saying he would do the same for the woman he loves.

Because it's wild right, in that second clip. Mordred is risking it all, everything he has built in his life to save Kara, all the while Merlin has been risking everything for years to save Arthur - but especially in series 5, he is prepared to do anything (even give up a prime opportunity for magic to become legal again), much like Mordred is doing anything for Kara.

And that first clip too, it's like Mithian is trying to relate to Merlin through Arthur being loveable. And it's almost like Mithian is asking Merlin's permission to love Arthur. She asks him to give her a chance after saying this, like haha what?

It's these two clips that have me going, wow, Merlin is really sus here. So sus that it does seem like the intention is that he loves Arthur.

“Once again the balance is restored to nature.”

[...]

“What's that even supposed to mean?” Arthur asked, his voice rising dramatically in pitch.

“I have no idea!”

Merlin's allies are all swordsmen who's lives he's saved and viced versa. While Arthur's allies are women he almost married

Request an edit and help me get out of medical debt 💖

only 25 cents

I’m very curious to see the people’s favorite ship outside of the big one 🤭

the time skip between S4 & S5 robbed us of many things but one I would've loved to see is merlin going fully into anxious-event-planner mode for arthur and gwen's wedding

favorite merlin episodes: another sorrow

The Current and Future Pendragons

Fandom: BBC’s Merlin (canon divergence, post-canon) AU AU: The Royal Husbands (Aithusa Pendragon)

High King Arthur Pendragon and the royal family of Camelot.

AU in which a series of canon divergences lead to Arthur surviving the mortal wound inflicted him by Mordred at Camlann and, with the help of Merlin who then becomes his Prince Consort, bringing the golden age foretold by the prophecies.

———————————————————————————————

Manip planned few years ago, but started on the prompt of @tavernfest​. It's all @papysanzo's fault on Tumblr for reblogging the May round. Also @merthurotica​, but their post on my RSS feed turned up later.

———————————————————————————————

More about the AU under the cut and also at the AU edit. (More fanworks from this AU at the links above) (All rambles and how this manip was made under the cut. Please suffer with me.)

———————————————————————————————

Arthur Pendragon, king of Camelot and High King of Albion. He successfully reunited the lands as the prophecies said, and also brought back magic. Few years after the victory of Camlann he married Merlin, who has become prince consort and second ruler of the kingdom. But, since unfortunately Merlin might be many things, but a woman with a womb he's not, Arthur (with Merlin) had to find a way to conceive a heir while being married to a man. Cue in Mithian, crown princess of Nemeth, equally saddled with the duty to give the throne a heir but uninterested in finding a husband trustful enough to sit at her side without potentially become a danger to her right to the throne. Together, the three of them reach an agreement that satisfies them all and they've been tight-close since. Their peculiar settlement initially was met with confusion and diffidence, but Mithian earned herself the thrust of everyone, and eventually the title of Queen of Camelot, third in line after Merlin. Peter is the first born of this union and rightful heir to the throne of Camelot. He's a talented swordsman but he suffered through all his teen years because of the never-ending comparisons with his warrior father who is on another fighting level. With age he learned to accept that he'll never be a war king and nobody ever asked him to become one either. He isn't his father, his name isn't part of legends or prophecies; he wasn't born to unite Albion but to keep it united once the Age of the Once and Future King sees its dawn. He will be a good and fair king for the peaceful times of the golden age, and his duty will be to make sure all his father - and his father's husband - sacrifices won't be wasted, that what they built is preserved. Susan was conceived because Mithian wanted both a heir for her to entrust Nemeth and a daughter. She's stubborn and strong but also capable of great empathy and kindness, as her mother and the Pendragon women (when they not meet High Priestesses who manipulate them). She's a formidable archer. Handsome Caspian, the son of Gwaine and Lady Vivian, is courting her and she welcomes this game, but Susan is enjoying too much her freedom to settle for a marriage and a family of her own. She has time though. Aithusa is the cute, small thing of the family, although she's actually the oldest of the new Pendragon generation - not counting the centuries spent in the egg that make her older than the castle of Camelot itself. As per usual with the dragon race, Aithusa's growth is stunned by her remaining with her parents. Only by being left on their own to tend to themselves, a dragonling is forced to grow. Thus, despite she was hatched on the dawn of the golden age, before Arthur married Mithian, she's still a dragonling that can fit Arthur's shoulders - her second favorite spot after the sling she made Arthur wear for years under his shirt. She learned the human language and can talk with her half-dragon impaired siblings Peter and Susan, but her speech pattern still needs some work. She doesn't care though. She's not so eager to leave the nest.

———————————————————————————————

Aithusa, (officially the ward of the king, unofficially considered by anyone in the court his scales-covered, flame-breathing daughter) is actually the eldest, since she was the first to come to the family. So yes, she's the older sibling. Make of this knowledge what you want. She also is firm that Arthur is a dragon, just one kind that looks like humans. But he's totally dragon. And if he doesn't breath fire or doesn't understand the dragon language, is all Uther's fault who didn't teach him his dragon gifts. Since Arthur is clearly a dragon, while Mithian sadly isn't, Peter and Susan are to her half-dragons. She still claims that it's because of the half human blood in their veins that they are impaired and don't have any dragon skill.

There's a fanfic for Aithusa as the (still only) daughter of the royal husbands during Father's Day, if you're interested.

When the time comes, and Arthur retires to Avalon to sleep, Peter will ascend as new king of Camelot, whose court will be moved to the renovated Castle of the Old Kings (or a new castle - still have to decide on this). Susan will succeed to Mithian on the throne of Nemeth. Aithusa will inherit the nest itself, the castle of Camelot, to own and protect until Merlin will be ready to make use of it.

I decided that Caspian would be Gwaine's (and Vivian's) son out of looks alone, and out of a (wrong) belief that he was meant to be Susan's love in Narnia. I never watched the second movie, and by the time I finally read the books, I didn't want to change it. For the same reason, I don't have a woman for Peter. A potential daughter of Gwen and Lancelot wouldn't be bad, but not necessary. (The AU idea ends with Arthur's travel to Avalon for his sleep and a mention of Peter moving the court to another castle, to then a time skip focusing on Merlin, so I didn't really focus on Peter's or Susan's life.)

While I'm writing this I wondered if Merlin wouldn't want to have a child so to kickstart the dragonlords kind (although, unless Magic changes its rules, the child would never inherit the dragonlord powers, since Merlin doesn't die). It never occurred to me before. I'm not sure he'd feel like having children, if he already knew that he would be immortal and he would then be forced to see his children grow old and frail and then die. But who knows. He could have one or more with Mithian, especially once Arthur is gone to Avalon. In case, Edward Pensive is there for the picking. Also Lucy.

About the AU When Lancelot is sent sent back to the world of the livings after he sacrificed himself to close the Veil, Gwen realizes that, between the two boys she loves, a relationship with a knight of humble origins has better chances than the one with a king that comes with a throne and a heavy kingdom, and so she picks Lancelot over Arthur. Arthur, who has given his blessing to the couple, doesn't find the time nor interest to find himself a wife and he's still a golden bachelor by the time Camlann happens. Merlin manages to save him and they eventually acknowledge their feelings. The Court backs Arthur's wish to marry a male servant on the premise that Arthur will pick a woman to give the kingdom a heir. And here comes Mithian, who might be more interested in women, so Camelot and Nemeth can make an agreement that will make both households happy. Since Mithian is wonderful, and fondness between her and the Royal Couple of Camelot grows, she's eventually given the title of Queen of Camelot, third in line after the King and the Prince Consort. Arthur and Mithian will have two children, the first born a male who will inherit Camelot and the second a daughter that will inherit Nemeth.

———————————————————————————————

Tec stuffs (aka Behind The Manip) Both a challenge and a nightmare. The original picture is four people. I needed five. Now, onto the specific characters - in order of making. Mithian, who had to be moved to make space for Merlin, was surprisingly easy to make. I wished to delete the lions on the dress, and replace them with either the Pendragon dragon or the Nemeth bull, but it was too much even for me, so I gave up. Removing them altogether felt odd - the dress is black with little movement, and without the lions it felt just one blotch of black. Susan. I'm not satisfied. The actress picture was perfect in pose but it has something in colors/lights that makes it stand out and look a bit more fake. Whatever. Peter. It took me a while to find the picture that would fit the body. Initially I kept the original body's curly hair, for I didn't feel like William Moseley's hairstyle would acceptable in a Medieval setting. But then I changed my mind, and remade it. He might be a bit too stocky for my liking but the body is that and making him less bulkier is out of option. On the chest the costume featured a cross: I erased it to be replaced it with the Pendragon dragon in the same style. Quite proud of how that turned out. Can't say the same for the sword. Yes, Arthur's son has a name sword which is coincidentally the sword of Peter Pensive. But the change was a given. Merlin was one challenge. I planned to use another body for his (the same king from Vikings but with another costume) but the picture just didn't work out. The one I chose... featured the man from the knees above. Which meant reconstruction for legs (which meant stealing the legs from Arthur's base - coincidentally it's always the same character!)... and the cloak. That was the true challenge! Also. I like how it turned out, but it just irks me that Colin doesn't look in the camera. But that picture was perfect and the result is fine. It did take me some tinkering to place the circlet but all in all I'm satisfied in how prince Merlin turned out. Bonus point for my headcanon marriage ring that didn't look good (the manip is too small for decent rings renderings), but I managed to add another from a jewelry maker that does rings in a style very similar to Ygraine's canon ring. Be sure to visit their Etsy and die. Ygraine's sigil, that replace the medallion the original body was wearing, is a given as well. Too bad we don't have a decent prop pic of it. Now. Arthur. Bloody Arthur. Tinkering with the original body to change colors from blue to red was funny. The rest NOT. Replacing the original sword with Excalibur, which was mandatory, gave a mild result. Ygraine's ring is there but, given the small size, isn't looking good enough. And those were the easy things! Because then it came the time to place bearded Bradley. Now. We do have few nice bearded Bradley pics, courtesy of the man himself, but they were mostly too small to work with in this manip - and/or in poses that wouldn't fit the body. You might say: there's Vikings: Valhalla. No, my friend. I downloaded ALL the screencaps available and very few worked, and - given the costume the character wears, there was never a inch of Bradley's bearded neck. In the end I worked with one of the pics Bradley released on Instagram. A pic with a black background in which bear and hair blended in. And an hard shadow on the right side of the face. A nightmare to cut, a nightmare to fix. And then the crown. The crown comes from The Hollow Crown. It looks similar but it isn't the same refurbished prop (different decorations, slightly different proportions of the fleur-de-lis). Years ago, when I saw the pics, I decided this would be older!Arthur's crown, for it's more regal with its fake gems and golden coating. There wasn't a pic with the proper perspective, so I had to tweak it a bit. It doesn't look awful, mind me, but I feel something's off with how it's placed on Bradley's head. I can't tell what, though - I used one of Arthur's coronation pics as reference while working, but still I can't fix what's wrong. In hindsight I wonder if I should've used a crowned Arthur pic with the original crown and be done with it. And then Aithusa. We literally have two pics of her, unless you want to work with night/dark screencaps. I knew where I wanted to have her, no idea how to. Still not happy. Does she looks fake? Yes. But at this time I just gave up. Whatever. (Besides, the other options didn't work. Her standing promo pic at Arthur's feet? Her fore legs are in a different perspective. Her standing promo pic on Arthur's shoulders? There was enough space, her head would be cut out from the picture and there was no way to extend the base pic by 50px, that specific background is a bitch to work with).

———————————————————————————————

Credits

1. + 18. Vikings, season 4 promo pictures. ( farfarawaysite.com/section/vikings/gallery4/gallery21/gallery.htm ) 2. Janet Montgomery from Salem, season 1 promo picture. ( farfarawaysite.com/section/salem/gallery1/gallery14/gallery.htm ) 3. Anna Popplewell from Reign, season 1 promo picture. ( farfarawaysite.com/section/reign/gallery1/gallery1/gallery.htm ) 4. Vikings, season 2 promo picture. ( farfarawaysite.com/section/vikings/gallery2/gallery1/gallery.htm ) 5. Colin Morgan from We Hunt Together. ( farfarawaysite.com/merlin/actors/colin/filmtv3/gallery.htm ) 6. The Hollow Crown, season 1 - Henry V. ( farfarawaysite.com/section/hollow/gallery1/gallery3/gallery.htm ) 7. Merlin, deleted scene - screencap. (Merlin's Keep at Far Far Away) 8. Spinner ring by artisanlook on Etsy. ( etsy.com/listing/462981991/spinner-ring-ruby-ring-silver-band ) 9. William Moseley from Bonnie Paul's 'It Was Love, Now It's War' Music Video photoshoot. ( justjared.com/photo-gallery/2650927/william-moseley-bonnie-paul-it-was-love-now-its-war-01 ) 10 + 11. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian original prop (Peter’s sword and scabbard). ( uk.propstoreauction.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/78/lot/18159 ) 12. Merlin, original prop. (Merlin's Keep at Far Far Away) 13. Bradley James, photoshoot by Jose Palma (2021). ( instagram.com/p/CVvMc_AMC8m ) 14. Merlin, season 2 promo picture. (Merlin's Keep at Far Far Away) 15. The Hollow Crown, season 1 - Henry VI. ( farfarawaysite.com/section/hollow/gallery2/gallery2/gallery.htm ) 16. Bradley James from Vikings: Valhalla, 2x06 - screencap. ( kissthemgoodbye.net/PeriodDrama/index.php?cat=510 ) 17. Merlin, 4x11 - screencap. ( kissthemgoodbye.net/merlin/index.php ) 19 + 20. Merlin, creature picture. (Merlin's Keep at Far Far Away)

———————————————————————————————

Crossposted Livejournal: prue84.livejournal.com/97890.html Dreamwidth: prue84.dreamwidth.org/89442.html Deviantart: deviantart.com/prue84/art/The-Current-and-Future-Pendragons-964446326