The Seven Deadly Sins: Here’s Why Merlin & Arthur Are (Now) Evil!
As far as The Seven Deadly Sins manga and anime are concerned, it is a well-known fact that the whole series was very popular around the world, despite the fact that a lot of people criticized it for being one of the (best or worst, you pick the word) examples of fan-service in the world of anime. Still, the series has been popular enough to merit a sequel and in this article, we are going to discuss the fates and current status of two characters – Merlin and Arthur Pendragon – in the Four Knights of the Apocalypse manga, as we are going to reveal why the two of them are considered to be villains now.
Merlin and Arthur were initially protagonists, but something changed
As far as the characters of The Seven Deadly Sins go, Merlin was certainly one of the more popular ones due to a number of reasons (one being her relationship with the likewise popular Escanor). Arthur, on the other hand, while never becoming a major character in the original series, did leave a mark and is one of the most popular secondary characters from the original series without a doubt.
Merlin was a member of the original Sins and while her morals were always… fluid, so to say, it was clear that she was on the side of the heroes and that Meliodas and the others could count on her. Arthur’s contribution to the final phases of the Holy War was also not insignificant. But, both of them suffered losses – Merlin lost Escanor, while Arthur suffered the deaths of his people and the loss of Camelot (not as a building, but as a symbol of his people) – and after the war was over, the two of them decided to leave together so that Arthur could rebuild Camelot and that is where we left them when the original The Seven Deadly Sins series came to an end.
It is clear why we are talking about the two of them together, as it is more than obvious that they are functioning as a duo, which is why their seemingly villainous turn in the Four Knights of the Apocalypse manga is even more interesting. That is what we are going to talk about in the next section.
The series isn’t clear on whether both Arthur and Merlin are villains, as well as whether they are going to remain villains until the end
After a period when we did not know where they were and what happened to them, Arthur and Merlin reappeared in the Four Knights of the Apocalypse manga and we now have a pretty clear picture of their plans and intentions. Namely, it seems as if the two of them are now villains, with Arthur being the principal villain and Merlin his aide.
So, what happened? Well, sometime after the Holy War, Arthur became a host for Chaos and became the new King of Chaos. Merlin, while not possessed by Chaos, remained at his side and was there as Arthur committed all the atrocities. Of course, their plan to rebuild Camelot still remains, but now that he has the power of Chaos in his hands, Arthur is ready to destroy the world completely in order to (re)build an illusion that he had at some point in the past.
There is also the thing that the Merlin we’re seeing now is probably not the Merlin we know, but simply an illusion created by Arthur in his new, evil Camelot. Whatever happened to the real Merlin remains to be seen, as the series still has a lot of questions that need to be answered, but this is important to know if we want to understand their status completely.
And while it is clear that Arthur is the current main antagonist of the Four Knights of the Apocalypse manga, not many fans think that he is truly evil. They think that he has just been corrupted by Chaos and that he is still good deep inside; they also think that Arthur won’t end up being the main villain of the series in the end. As for Merlin, there is no evidence that this Merlin is actually related to the real one, and it has been implied that this one is simply an illusion. That is probably why she is by Arthur’s side and does not challenge his tyrannic decisions, but it could turn out that she is just playing a game to help him (since she is a powerful character) and the others, as we haven’t seen her being a villain in the same manner as we did in Arthur’s case.
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