*"Old friend" -- this phrase just never works, unless the people involved are at least Uther-age.

LET US DISCUSS THIS AT LENGTH. OK, here's how I see it, from inside Arthur's shoes. He has no friends of any type who have been with him for as long as Merlin has. Those enabling jerks from the pilot went away as fast as they appeared. His knights are not really his friends, and even if he considered them so, they're pretty new to his sphere of influence. Percy's been around like five episodes now. Gwaine, about eight? And so forth. (Those old knights were his father's people. They are not friends.) Gaius: teacher and doctor, not friend. Gwen and Arthur: definitely not friends these days, heh. Morgana, whom he's known longer than anyone else: traitorous bitch and definitely not a friend.

So...in Arthur's world, three years of close friendship with one person without that friendship changing significantly into something else isn't just old, it's ancient. And I loved that they acknowledged that explicitly.

HI, IT IS MINUTIAE SUNDAY. :D

Also, so agree re Lindsay Duncan. I love her so much.