Find your tribe in a Sea of Creativity
“It's beautiful out today, I wish you could take me upstate”
I’m envisioning Arthur by his desk but sat facing the window and Merlin stood next to him. It’s a slightly warm, yet still breezy summer day. It feels like a full day rather than the miserable winter ones that drag because it’s so dark. The day’s refreshing, the sun is bright and they’re looking out the window.
Gwen told Merlin about how on her date with Arthur she was taken aback because Arthur said he practically wanted to run away with Merlin. Get a bit of farmland and take Merlin with him. It shows how Arthur craves the freedom and lack of duty.
Merlin brought it up afterwards in a teasing manner and Arthur gets flustered and tells him to shut up. Merlin turns soft, yet serious for a moment and says he thinks it’s beautiful and he’d love to do something like that. Then starts the teasing manner again suddenly and says something stupid about responsibility and chores.
“To the little place you would tell me about, when you'd sense that I want to escape”
Ever since then, when Merlin can tell Arthur is tense or stressed or feeling insecure about not being enough or feeling insecure and thinking that he’s not being good enough for his people, Merlin will reassure him.
He’ll say what he usually says about being the greatest king Albion has ever known but he also brings up the farm and it evolves into a dream of a little house with a pond as well and other things.
Today is the kind of beautiful, warming day they imagine their haven would feel like every day. They’re both silently thinking of it in unison without saying anything.
“Texas is a landlocked state, it's a little bit far away from the water from the home that I've wanted to make”
Arthur suddenly speaks up and points a small area on the map on his desk. His ring is glinting and sun is filtering through his hair. Merlin thinks he looks so majestic.
Obviously it’s not actually Texas, but it’d be a small quiet area in the middle of nowhere. The water is referring to the pond in their shared daydream which is ‘the home’ Arthur has ‘wanted to make’.
“It's somehow in the city”
I imagine Arthur always wanted to know what it would be like to grow up around other people and be allowed to have friends and people who have things in common around him. I’d like to think he enjoys hearing stories of Ealdor and Merlin and Will growing up.
I don’t think it’d be a city. I think it’d be slightly isolated but within travel distance of a small town with few people.
“You make it there and you make it anywhere, anywhere”
Merlin’s devoted and undivided loyalty to Arthur. It shows how no matter where Arthur goes he believes Merlin would follow.
“But I've been anywhere and it's not what I want and I wanna be still with you”
Arthur believes it doesn’t matter actually matter where he goes because wherever he ends up the only thing that matters is Merlin by his side.
He knows he wouldn’t enjoy a peasant life long after growing with everything he could ever want,minus love and companionship which is why being with Merlin is so important to him. Because Merlin helps him experience what he didn’t have growing up.
“You keep your socks on in bed, keep our hearth warm”
I guess this is the domestic bliss of them living together, away from the rest of the world. It shows how Merlin cares for Arthur. It shows how Merlin is a warm person and protects Arthur from the cold.
“See the tree shadows lie in black the pools in the lawns”
It has a deeper meaning in the actual song. It’s describing life through poetry but in this case I’d like to think of it as Merlin and Arthur, yet again, envisioned their life away from reality.
“You're the breeze in my Austin nights”
It juxtaposes the “keep our hearth warm” line, yet it’s so beautiful. I think Austin is warm (i wouldn’t know, I’ve never been but I assume it is.) and it shows that Merlin in a refresher for Arthur when he’s caught up in the heat and responsibilities of life. Merlin is Arthur’s cold breeze in the blistering heat.
I’m thinking of writing this as a oneshot rather than an analysis. The song is called “Texas Reznikoff” By Mitski. 🫶🏼🫶🏼