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Back in my SGA days, I used to despise woobie!Rodney stories. Now in my Merlin days, I despise Woobie!Arthur stories... and it's actually making me feel guilty for disliking Woobie!Rodney stuff!
Because what I didn't like about woobie!Rodney stories was A) how it often portrayed the rest of the characters as unfair, unforgiving, heartless jerks *cough*Trinity tags!*cough* and B) well, I was a Sheppard fan way more than a Rodney fan and C) I know many may disagree with me on this, but I always felt like people were writing Rodney as way more of a jerk than he actually was, and that the characters just stood there and took it because "that's just Rodney for you." So it was rather hard to feel sympathy for Rodney in fic when he wasn't doing much to earn that sympathy.
But woobie!Rodney was more a matter of personal taste, because while I wasn't a fan of it, I was still at least able to wrap part of my head around it. All the more so now that I'm part of the Merlin fandom, because Merlin is freakishly easy to woobify, and Arthur pretty easy to write as a jerk, because it's pretty much canon. And it's also why I've been having a much harder time with woobie!Arthur stories than with woobie!Rodney stories. It's just... really hard to feel sorry for Arthur at times when one moment he's being all angsty and needs Merlin to provide him with words of wisdom or comfort and the next minute Arthur is throwing a goblet at him. And I guess that, for me, I feel like Arthur doesn't deserve the angst and woobification when he has it pretty dang good compared to Merlin.
While Rodney has earned it, in a way. He may have started off as an emotionally-constipated jerk but he didn't stay that way. He opened up, started showing that he cared, even tried to offer comfort when needed. In other words, he became endearing.
But while Arthur did have his kind and caring moments, I feel they were fewer and farther between compared with Rodney's moments. There were also times when Arthur's treatment of Merlin bordered dangerously on being abusive (the show was rather good at not crossing that line, but they did seem to toe it from time to time). In fact - despite the fact that I'm not a fan of characters being portrayed in a negative light (unless they're the villain, of course) for the sake of fic and woobification - it is surprisingly easy to portray Arthur as going too far in how he treats Merlin, and having Arthur cross the line from playful-if-a-bit-rough banter into actual abuse. It's also part of the reason why I crave caring!Arthur stories so much, because Merlin goes through so much crap to protect the prince/king and all he gets for it is orders to muck out the stables and polish Arthur's armor. The poor boo needs comfort waaaay more than Arthur!
But please don't take this as me condemning woobie!Arthur and whumped Arthur fic, because I'm not. It's not that I think woobifying Arthur is impossible - it's not, considering how his father treats him and that the kingdom is always under some kind of threat. But woobie Arthur is just... really, really hard to wrap my head around (even in canon, because Arthur was always doubting himself, Merlin always had to boost his spirits, and there were times it got rather tiresome. Especially when not moments ago Arthur was throwing something at Merlin), and as a result I've become a lot more understanding of wobbie!Rodney.
Also, please don't take this as Arthur character bashing. It isn't, I promise. Because for all his throwing things at Merlin and calling Merlin names, the relationship was very much that of big brother and little brother, and both giving as good as they got. As I said, the show was very good at not letting Arthur cross the line into actual abuse. So while I wasn't always fond of how Arthur treated Merlin, it never reached a point where I ended up actually disliking Arthur. And while Arthur crossing the line is an interesting concept, I much prefer caring and protective Arthur myself.
Because what I didn't like about woobie!Rodney stories was A) how it often portrayed the rest of the characters as unfair, unforgiving, heartless jerks *cough*Trinity tags!*cough* and B) well, I was a Sheppard fan way more than a Rodney fan and C) I know many may disagree with me on this, but I always felt like people were writing Rodney as way more of a jerk than he actually was, and that the characters just stood there and took it because "that's just Rodney for you." So it was rather hard to feel sympathy for Rodney in fic when he wasn't doing much to earn that sympathy.
But woobie!Rodney was more a matter of personal taste, because while I wasn't a fan of it, I was still at least able to wrap part of my head around it. All the more so now that I'm part of the Merlin fandom, because Merlin is freakishly easy to woobify, and Arthur pretty easy to write as a jerk, because it's pretty much canon. And it's also why I've been having a much harder time with woobie!Arthur stories than with woobie!Rodney stories. It's just... really hard to feel sorry for Arthur at times when one moment he's being all angsty and needs Merlin to provide him with words of wisdom or comfort and the next minute Arthur is throwing a goblet at him. And I guess that, for me, I feel like Arthur doesn't deserve the angst and woobification when he has it pretty dang good compared to Merlin.
While Rodney has earned it, in a way. He may have started off as an emotionally-constipated jerk but he didn't stay that way. He opened up, started showing that he cared, even tried to offer comfort when needed. In other words, he became endearing.
But while Arthur did have his kind and caring moments, I feel they were fewer and farther between compared with Rodney's moments. There were also times when Arthur's treatment of Merlin bordered dangerously on being abusive (the show was rather good at not crossing that line, but they did seem to toe it from time to time). In fact - despite the fact that I'm not a fan of characters being portrayed in a negative light (unless they're the villain, of course) for the sake of fic and woobification - it is surprisingly easy to portray Arthur as going too far in how he treats Merlin, and having Arthur cross the line from playful-if-a-bit-rough banter into actual abuse. It's also part of the reason why I crave caring!Arthur stories so much, because Merlin goes through so much crap to protect the prince/king and all he gets for it is orders to muck out the stables and polish Arthur's armor. The poor boo needs comfort waaaay more than Arthur!
But please don't take this as me condemning woobie!Arthur and whumped Arthur fic, because I'm not. It's not that I think woobifying Arthur is impossible - it's not, considering how his father treats him and that the kingdom is always under some kind of threat. But woobie Arthur is just... really, really hard to wrap my head around (even in canon, because Arthur was always doubting himself, Merlin always had to boost his spirits, and there were times it got rather tiresome. Especially when not moments ago Arthur was throwing something at Merlin), and as a result I've become a lot more understanding of wobbie!Rodney.
Also, please don't take this as Arthur character bashing. It isn't, I promise. Because for all his throwing things at Merlin and calling Merlin names, the relationship was very much that of big brother and little brother, and both giving as good as they got. As I said, the show was very good at not letting Arthur cross the line into actual abuse. So while I wasn't always fond of how Arthur treated Merlin, it never reached a point where I ended up actually disliking Arthur. And while Arthur crossing the line is an interesting concept, I much prefer caring and protective Arthur myself.
