“Unlike most fans, I actually haven’t objected to the lack of magic reveal. In fact, I like it a lot because of what it does for Arthur’s character. It’s easy to be frustrated with him as a viewer, because why is he such a dick? Doesn’t he know how much Merlin does for him? But the answer, you have to remember, is no. We as viewers know everything that goes on. Arthur knows next to nothing. Purely from his point of view, Merlin should have been gone a long time ago. Without his magic, as we have recently seen, Merlin is fairly useless as anything except someone who tends to recklessly throw themselves in mortal peril a lot. When Arthur says that Merlin is the worst manservant of all time, he isn’t kidding. He really is the worst manservant of all time. And as a prince, Arthur really shouldn’t see Merlin as useful for anything other than serving him, and since Merlin’s bad at that, he should dismiss him. But he doesn’t. In fact, he does exactly the opposite of that — the more Merlin seems to suck at his job, the closer Arthur brings him in on a personal level or relies on his counsel. The more Merlin sasses Arthur, the more Arthur trusts him. Why? Because Arthur likes Merlin — not for his power or magic or usefulness, but because of who he is. And he needed time to do that, because the Arthur we first met would absolutely have used Merlin’s magic as a handy toy instead of ever bothering to get to know the person behind it. It’s the same function Merlin serves to Arthur as a friend. Both of them are extremely powerful and could easily have a friend who only likes them because of that, but instead both of them like each other in spite of their greatest assets. And frankly, if they didn’t like each other for reasons less superficial than “he’s a prince” or “he can make things blow up with a wave of his hand”, it would be a pretty shitty friendship and none of us would want to watch that.”
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Julia Hass, on Melin & Arthur’s friendship [x] (via sleuthingsheets)