Arthur saying that he 'tells all his knights' that 'no man is worth your tears' makes it sound like knights frequently show up to training distraught that their boyfriends dumped them the night before and Arthur is getting tired of this getting in the way of their swordplay practice
I will genuinely never let go of that fact that Arthur never found out Balinor was Merlin’s father. fuck the magic, that’s the secret that haunts me the most.
I wish Arthur found out early on, maybe if Merlin snapped after ‘no man is worth your tears.’ And Merlin swears that he did not inherit Balinor’s dragonlord powers (Arthur does not know they are passed father to son) and Arthur believes him.
and then YEARS later Arthur is bleeding out in the finale and Merlin calls Kilgharrah and Arthur is like wait. hold the fuck up. you said you were not a dragonlord
and Merlin’s standing there with the blood of hundreds on his hands, his last remaining sanity hanging by a thread like my brother in christ you cannot actually believe that’s where i drew the line about lying
