writing. bollocks.
as a couple of people know, I started messing with an idea a few months ago that was along the lines of 'Girl!Merlin grows up in court due to Ygraine not having obviously died of magic thus it never got outlawed'. Figured out a few bits like status what with Balinor being a dragonlord - not noble, but respected position and powerful, so Merlin ends up as Morgana's handmaiden and has been since a young age. (the fact that she only has Gwen doing double duty as high-status maid & handmaiden is another of those 'dear lord, writers, RESEARCH' things) Of course, *immense* amounts of perceived UST when it comes to Merlin/Arthur by the rest of court due to male-female sniping with added relative intimacy naturally equalling shipping. To the point where everyone warns others away from the pair - Merlin because she's earmarked as the Prince's, and Arthur because everyone's heard the druid prophecy about Emrys. No bugger wants to get on the wrong side of either of those things. Also, Morgana.
So, anyway. It gets to about time of series 1, the attempts on Arthur's life start to ramp up a bit (different reasons than purge) so given that they're a lot magical, Uther assigns Merlin as a bodyguard, with added dumping Merlin in the knights so she works well within that unit too for patrol and battle times. Since Merlin's now moved into the adjoining room to Arthur's, cue even more presumption that she's his mistress.
Written the basic plot and so on, problem is now that I don't think it's in character any more. BOLLOCKS. Not to mention the issues thrown up by Merlin being raised in court which also means character issues and ARGH.
So, anyway. It gets to about time of series 1, the attempts on Arthur's life start to ramp up a bit (different reasons than purge) so given that they're a lot magical, Uther assigns Merlin as a bodyguard, with added dumping Merlin in the knights so she works well within that unit too for patrol and battle times. Since Merlin's now moved into the adjoining room to Arthur's, cue even more presumption that she's his mistress.
Written the basic plot and so on, problem is now that I don't think it's in character any more. BOLLOCKS. Not to mention the issues thrown up by Merlin being raised in court which also means character issues and ARGH.