Arthur died in Merlin’s arms. His last speech was cradled in Merlin’s arms and his last words were, “thank you” because despite only finding out that Merlin had magic he saw his friend, he saw the man who had protected him for all those years and it had to be Merlin who held him at his final moments.
I can’t stop crying.
J: “Thank you. That’s been Katie McGrath and Julian Murphy, destroying Merlin… (Katie laughs) sorry, um — shattering everyone’s myths about the show, in one commentary…”
K: “Oh, I think, I don’t know if they shattered them, I think you maybe just confirmed what a lot of people thought.”
J: “Yeah… yeah, probably.”
— Julian Murphy and Katie McGrath, Merlin 5x13 commentary
Friendly reminder to the Merthur fandom
After the ultimate battle with Morgana and after being stabbed by Mordred, which must have been quite a shock, Arthur wakes up in the middle of nowhere with Merlin by his side. Contrary to what you logically would believe, his first thought isn’t “where am I?”, “what is Merlin doing here?”, “where’s Guinevere?” or “how did the war end?”. The first thing he says when he wakes is “Merlin. Where have you been?”.
Obviously he still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Merlin wasn’t (that he was aware of) by his side in the battle. That is a bigger shock to him than the fact that the final battle has occurred, that he was stabbed by Mordred, that he’s still alive despite being stabbed by Mordred or the fact that Merlin has found him after all that. And instead of asking anything you would rationally assume that the king of Camelot would want to know, like for example how the battle ended or where his queen is, the first thing that Arthur wants to know is where Merlin has been.
Merthur is, and always was, the one true pairing of that show and this is proof enough that Merthur is true.
