You Ever Think About Arthur’s Deleted Depression Arc From Season 4 Of Merlin Or Are You Normal

It wasn't meant to be.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS UNDERRATED TRIO??

the horrors persist but my friends write beautiful fanfic

@bubblo literally the conversation we were just having. Literally me with Otto.

I'm so happy his hopeless pining is overrr 😭

“who’s your favorite character?” my friend’s oc. “who’s your favorite character in canon?” my friend’s oc. “your favorite character can’t be your friend’s oc!” the posters on my walls and discord messages say otherwise. my wound has a heartbeat and only my friend’s oc can fix it. goodbye chat

I am tired. I will be there.

Next book to be scanned arrived!

for the @merlinmicrofic prompts Home, Desperate measures and "You wouldn't."

Merlin & Arthur, Gen, 3 x 100 words, Major character death, AO3 link

for @mightybog

A heavy soul, a hopeful man

Their world is in crisis. It aches for its saviour.

“Emrys,” the Disir call.

He despises them. He comes anyway. There's kinship in being the last of the old ones.

“It's time." One steps forward, in her hand a coin.

“What,” he scoffs, “is it my turn to suffer your judgment?”

“We offer a chance. The time of the Once and Future King is nigh. You know it, you yourself have assembled his court.”

It's true. He's found them, souls reborn. The knights. Guinevere.

She flicks the coin into the air. “His rest in Avalon is over. Bring him home.”

The coin spins and spins, reaches its zenith, plummets down.

“Heads or tails?” He remains silent. “That's right, there is no answer. It is both and neither, a mere matter of perspective.”

“Save your riddles.”

“Two sides of a coin, inseparable. One up, one down. It will take all your magic to bring him back, every last bit of you.”

A pause.

“I will die?”

A look of pity, unwanted. “We'll lend you strength. You have three months.”

Its days numbered, his heart beats faster, rebellious. Desperate times. There's no choice. He bends his knee and picks up the coin.

Arthur returned is his every joy. He teaches him about the new world, laughs at him trying to operate a microwave, watches him discover ice cream - looming catastrophe momentarily dismissed.

Blissful ignorance can't last; his magic's gone, he's fading. Confession - now or never.

“No, you wouldn't, please don't-”

“You will have the others. You know the way. You don't need me anymore.”

“I will always-”

“Don't. Please.”

The day dwindles. Miniscule waves disturb the third full moon's reflection on the inky black lake waters. Merlin sits by its shore, Arthur's arm around his shoulders, and, for the last time, waits.

We were robbed honestly

Imagine if you will a curse gone wrong-

We get the whole castle and town exploding into song, and a refrain and melody developing that echoes through the rest of the songs, maybe asking if things will ever return back to normal

There's an opera style back and forth between Uther and Gaius about the cause of the curse and whether it's dangerous, they don't resolve anything

Uther tasks Arthur with rooting out the cause, and it's a kind of call and answer, with Arthur following Uther's orders

We get Morgana, terrified her magic will be found out. Her song transforms into an "I want" song, maybe she wants fairness, maybe revenge, maybe power

The knights have a barbershop quartet thing going on and we love that for them

Merlin finds the cause, and maybe the curse is ultimately deadly although it seems innocuous enough. Maybe people are already starting to feel the ill effects. He needs help, but he just has to get someone to believe him. Cue his moment to sing, appealing to Arthur and the knights his voice turns out to be so sweet and heartbreaking (see Colin Morgan's work with PJ Harvey) and to his surprise everyone rallies around

We get a song with Merlin, Arthur, the knights and maybe others like Gwen and Gaius working together to fix the problem, the song builds to a crescendo and stops short the moment the spell is seemingly broken

It cuts to the next day and some normal speech indicates that their efforts worked. But Arthur hovers just outside this chambers because Merlin is cleaning inside and is singing as he works, his singing finally resolves the melody. Arthur laughs quietly and enters the room

The End

merlin should have had a musical episode

Why I Should Have a Dragon (a personal hypothetical philosophy in zine format)

Merlin: I won't say "I told you so." Merlin, 0.2 seconds later: I told you so.