New Headcanon: Lancelot Gave Merlin The Purple Shirt Because When He Became A Knight He Could Afford

Arthur can’t look Merlin in the eyes, whenever he tells him to leave:

He just can’t.

You know what, really angst gravity falls material/headcannon I have!

Just imagine young Bill is telling his parents about the shining small lights he sees. Only for his parents to look at their son with concern, but his parents just chalk it up to just be his wild imagination.

Now, as years go by, as Bill gets older, he is growing more and more angry. Saying stuff like, "There are lights in the sky! Look, one fell, quick make a wish!"

Now Bill is too old for this type of stuff, so his parents grow more concerned and realize they can no longer just go with, "it just his wild imagination!" So they take him to the doctor and get Bill medicine.

Not knowing this just pushed Bill off the edge some more......

Now, the day came... now Euclid and Scalece could only watch as their son slowly destroyed their home. But as they slowly met their demise, they looked up to tiny lights in the sky... but as the dimension fabric started to destroy itself even faster, Euclid and Scalece looked at each other one last time. Then, they looked at the sky again.

3 perfect stars, but as the two big stars started to fall, they both said their first and last wish.

Now, all that is left behind of them and that night. Is their most prize possessions. Their bow, top hat, and most of all, their son.....

Why did you do it?

Why did you do it?

Why did you do it?

Why did you do it?

Valentino is a pedophile

Or at least heavily coded to be one.

This post will focus on many triggering topics, such as the cultural glorification of pimps, the normalization of pedophilia within media, the glorification of sexual assault and abuse, child sexual exploitation, exploitation on the sets of hollywood, the book lolita and the 1997 films, blaxploitation, sex work and adjacent topics.

Before I start, I'd like to direct you to this video. It goes into depth on the film adaptations of Lolita and the directors behind said adaptations:

What is a pimp? A pimp is someone who predates on young and/or vulnerable people, offering security (whether it be physical, financial or emotional) in return for sexual favors and exploitation. Pimps are involved in the sex and human trafficking rings. Pimps are often found to be pedophiles and predate on specifically under developed and/or low socioeconomic communities and their vulnerable members (including children). This includes poc, queer, disabled, and any other type of minority that may feel the need to seek supports not provided by the government/society.

What is blaxploitation? Blaxploitation is the exploitation of Black, primarily American issues and culture, often through the lenses of white directors in media. This media was made to relate to African American Urban communities in the Americas during the 1970's. Although "exploitation" is clearly within the word, Black actors did have some say in the characters they play, making this topic ambiguous among the communities that these films were directed towards.

What is Lolita? Lolita is originally a book made by Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita's intentions were to show the true nature of pedophiles through the lense of a pedophile themselves. The protagonist is clearly bias and truly disgusting, though this is purposeful. Vladimir made this book as a way to explore this condition and criticize the sexualization of young girls. It was within his wishes to NEVER HAVE A GIRL PORTRAYED ON THE COVER OF HIS BOOK, as he understood how society treats young girls. This wish was ignored. Vladimir was approached many times by film companies wishing to adapt his novel, he turned them down multiple times, until he simply gave in, and the first Lolita film was made.

What were the lolita films? There has been multiple Lolita films over the years, see the linked video for more context. For this discussion I'll be focusing on the Stanely Kurbik's and Adrian Lyne's films from 1962 and 1997. These films had a large impact on how the media views young women and were a large part in normalizing sexual misconduct to young girls and women on the sets of movies and shows. These movies prioritize the sexual gratification of Humbert over the psychological horror that is a Middle aged man gaining the trust of a mother to groom and abuse her child. Almost villainizing Dolores as a "temptress" or "nymphette". Terrifying enough, on the sets of these films, the YOUNG TEEN GIRLS were preyed upon and abused in ways that Humbert himself would have to Dolores.

How does this all relate to the portrayal of Valentino?

Valentino is a pimp, duh, so all of the social connotations of a pimp related to him.

Valentino is specifically based on the blaxploitation stereotype of a pimp. This is a issue as its a racist stereotype.

How is Lolita involved in this? Charact design is an important feature of story telling. Lolita's iconic imagery of Heart shaped glasses appears in Valentinos own design, this paired with the context that majority of pimps are indeed Pedophiles and prey on young people leads to a disgusting revelation.

He's a Villian, why should we care?

Currently the romanticization of pimps are at a all time high, and not only in the Helluvaverse fandom. See source two for more information. But to keep on topic we'll be focusing on Hazbin hotel and its fandom.

The overall lack of seriousness around the character and mishandling of his general characterization of being a pimp and abuser is laughable. Hazbin hotel has the issue of not treating their villians with any sort of seriousness, and this paired with their inability to take sexual assault, exploitation and harassment seriously has lead to a lot of fans sharing the inability to treat these real life events with the empathy and seriousness they deserve.

This is seen in two trends within the fandom:

First Raph, Raph is a storyboard artist and a close friend to Viv. Raph is the vocal center of all fans of Val, and all fans of Val tend to follow in their lead. Raph has sexually harassed a minor, sexually roleplays in all age/family friendly conventions as angel dust, getting abused by Valentino. But what's most concerning is that there's speak of Raph seeking out a real Pimp to be under. This is not safe, and not behavior they should be proud of or modelling to their audience of unstable and vulnerable people.

Second is this stupid trend the fans of Val have made

Just... just look at the text and wording... I literally cannot-

The merch store for this show also turns the act of pimping into something to be proud of. This is something I'd see in a Andrew Tate store...

Viv often also promotes the romanticization of abuse within fandom along side general rape culture. This along side sending harassment to Limus for getting a sign with their critical video of Angel dusts portrayal over protecting her old VA, Michael Kovach from sexual harassment and assault from a Valentino cosplayer is INSANE.

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Wha- proshippers do realize that morality and representation still matter when they write fanfiction..... right?

That's the thing about proshippers. They claim that they just "like" a villain. But will then defend and fetishize them for their actions.

This along side the VA for Valentino seconding all of this behavior and promoting the show to literal CHILDREN is a genuine threat to any vulnerable person who interacts with the show or fandom.

Sources referenced: 1. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=dignity 2. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/05/pimps-use-instagram-to-glorify-sexual-violence-and-abuse-investigation-finds 3. https://www.womenslaw.org/about-abuse/forms-abuse/sexual-abuse-and-exploitation/forced-prostitution/basic-info-and-0 4. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/883/ 5. https://goldenglobes.com/articles/golden-age-blaxploitation-black-stars-black-audiences/ 6. https://www.britannica.com/art/blaxploitation-movie https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/0803/080398.opin.opin.2.html

Typical trope of the woman being better at archery than the man but the woman is Merlin and the man is Arthur (and the Knights).

It’s probably a bet or Gwaine trying to flirt with Merlin, or maybe Leon worries about his safety to the point he makes him, but one of the Knights offer to teach Merlin to shoot. They figure he’ll be safe as you normally need some distance to shoot and doesn’t require too much strength. (in the instance of Knights, they tend to not realise that a bow string is very taught and hard to pull if you want to shoot well as they are already sturdy in muscle.)

Gwaine goes to hold onto Merlin’s me show him a proper form but Merlin just scoffs and shoos him away.

Arthur finds it hilarious that Merlin is so confident as he thinks it will be funny to watch him embarrass himself, until he watched Merlin pull the bow with more ease than even the most trained archer.

Cue them watching Merlin shoot every target with as close to perfection as one can get (without controlling the wind).

Putting the bow down and blushing despite his prideful grin, Merlin just shrugs at them as if he didn’t just blow all their minds, “We had survive somehow in the village.”

Gwaine cackles with glee while Leon debates for illy picking up Arthur’s jaw.

constantly thinking about that post that was like “if Lance and Gwaine had gotten more screen time together Gwaine would’ve had an intense one sided rivalry with him” because i think it would be so funny

Aithusa *in her mind, holding a rabbit she caught*:I can kill you here or I can prolong your pain...

Kilgarrah *who can hear her thoughts*: Girl, what??

Aithusa *who watched Morgana torture her enemies*: Oh, mommy hunts for nutrition, just like I do :)

Aithusa clearly thinks Morgana ate her enemies.

The general idea of this story was that Merlin came of age and as a tradition of his kingdom at that age, all the rulers of neighboring countries would send their prince/princess to ask for the hand of Merlin. Because the rulers of the kingdom of Merlin are dragonlords and sorcerers, and therefore the neighboring countries want this alliance.

Since the kingdom of Camelot is against magic, nobody expected Prince Arthur to show up, but he did.

Alone.

Balinor is suspicious, Hunith is supportive, and Merlin doesn’t want to marry.

Chaos begins. 😂

This was supposed to be for an event but the writer dropped out so I’ll post it like this 😌

My other Merlin art

Warning, there will be talks of spoilers of season 2 because I will be mentioning the leaks:

Every time viv says something is going to be the greatest thing she ever made or loves, it ends up being... how to put it lightly... really, REALLY rushed or bad.

Like I'm seeing the different ways on how the season will be rushed. Due to the leaks, we know that Alastor will be kidnapped by Vox at some point, so I totally see Viv and the writers rushing to get to that plot faster.

So the less interesting plot points are left in the dust until Viv and the writers remember about it and quickly have to include it in some way.

men in Camelot will see Merlin and be like “is anyone else gonna lay down their life for this guy in the sluttiest way possible?” and not wait for an answer

MERLIN REWATCH ✦ 1.05 Lancelot