#Merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature series#
Series 3 was not so different from series 2, and some fans were disapointed and sick of Arthur "bullying" Merlin. (See Category:Merlin Fests and Challenges) That was also the time when the fandom really got into enjoying and celebrating itself in several small fests and challenges, often taking place in form of a meme in someone's journal. By spring 2010 the merlinxarthur community had more than 5,000 members and Paperlegends, the new Merlin Big Bang, was even more successfull than its predecessor, producing new Fandom Classics such as Light of Arthur, Not In This Land Alone, The Tournament of All Magicks, The Sorcerer and the King and Steam. The changes in series 2 meant that the fandom stopped drawing so heavily from other slash fandoms but it continued to suck in more and more people who were new to Livejournal and fandom in general or came from other parts of fandom such as FF.net, youtube and deviantART. It didn't hurt that series 2 offered many scenes that were perfect for taking them out of context and eye candy to boot. Especially striking this trend is visible in vids where complex constructed realities rewrote the canon in a way that was more compatible with the fannish interpretation. There was more angst and h/c and the fanfic got darker, but other than that the fandom kept to the series 1 version of the characters. When the Merlin/Arthur romance in fanworks was strongly based on canon in series 1, series 2 made the fandom excel in writing against or around canon and ignoring anything that could work as a roadblock to the Merlin/Arthur OTP. The more the show moved away from focusing on the friendship between Merlin and Arthur, the more the fandom compensated by focusing more on AUs, reincarnation and Bradley/Colin RPS instead. The dragon was evil and not to be trusted, Arthur's character development was forgotten and most of the Merlin/Arthur scenes were suddenly comic relief instead of intense emotional connection, and all of Merlin's lies meant that the only one left he could really talk to was Gaius. Series 2 brought to some extent a reboot of the pairing dynamic. Established authors wrote some of the early classics and many newer authors established themselves. There were the Merlin/Arthur Fanfic Awards and a Merlin Big Bang that produced mostly Merlin/Arthur results went live in August 2009. Even more people joined after series 1 had finished and the time between winter 2008 and summer 2009 was incredibly active with a lot of fannish creative output, mostly in fic, vids and art. By the end of November the Livejournal community merlinxarthur had already more than a thousand members. It drew heavily from the established slash fandoms, especially SGA, which was the blueprint for essential parts of the Merlin fandom infrastructure. In those early weeks and months the Merlin/Arthur slash fandom grew incredibly fast. The painting shows a handfasting scene where Merlin and Arthur commit to each other for all of eternity. This is an illustration for the Paperlegends novel Light of Arthur. " The Ceremony" (2010) by itzcoatl, a deviantArt artist.
![merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature](https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/untitled-2_32.jpg)
The article misidentified the mostly female audience as gay men but showed that TPTB were acknowledging the homoerotic subtext: When the actors of Merlin appeared at the Expo in London to meet their fans for the first time (the same day episode 6 aired), the very first question from the audience was: "Is there a secret love relationship between Merlin and Arthur?" The Daily Star later brought an article about it with the headline Campalot And The Court of Queen Arthur. In episode 4 ( The Poisoned Chalice) they were already willing to die for each other, Merlin drank poison to save Arthur and Arthur risked everything to save Merlin’s life.
![merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature](https://w7w5t4b3.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Merlin-finale-Colin-Morgan.jpg)
By the second episode Merlin dressed and undressed Arthur, made his bed (first seen in episode 7, The Gates of Avalon), washed his clothes, brought him his meals, polished his weapons, and they bickered like a married couple.
![merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature merlin season 5 episode 1 light creature](https://scifichicks.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/501-table.jpg)
When Merlin saved Arthur’s life for the first time and became Arthur’s manservant, their relationship gained domestic qualities that are usually a slasher's dream come true. The dialogue added to the subtext because it was suggestive and the Slash Dragon promised Merlin and Arthur a great destiny together. There were sparks between Merlin and Arthur right from the beginning and many fans saw their dynamic in the first series as the same type of romance that is often featured in classic love stories when characters who appear to strongly dislike each other at first turn out to be strongly attracted after all. Shortly after the first episode aired in September 2008, Livejournal exploded with Merlin entries and the squee about the slashy subtext was loud and clear. Merlin/Arthur is the most common pairing in Merlin fandom. This fanart was a runner-up in the category Best Romantic Situation at the Merlin Slash Awards.