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People rarely take Gwaine seriously, usually because they think he doesn't take anything seriously.
But that's—well, it's true about most things, and he pretends it's true for others. He figures that being underestimated works in his favor, generally speaking.
For one thing, if they don't think much of you, they don't expect much from you. You aren't a threat to them, so they'll lower their guard. Agree to fights they think they can win, then realize their mistake too late.
See, Gwaine doesn't flaunt all his skills, unlike some people he could mention. Hardly anybody knew that he was a decent cook, for instance, though accidentally burning his socks while trying to dry them by the knights' campfire that one time probably helped hide that tidbit from public knowledge.
In particular, nobody seemed to notice how much Gwaine had learned about magic in all his travels. Well, that was fine by him, since Camelot didn't take too kindly to that sort of expertise. It struck him as a bit backwards to have all those anti-magic policies when only the Court Physician knew a damn thing about magic or how to counter it, but Gwaine wasn't about to meddle in Gaius's territory.
Well...Gaius and Merlin's territory.
As it happened, Gwaine's magical know-about (no know-how, though he'd tried a spell or two back when he'd visited one of those kingdoms that wouldn't have him hanged for it) led him to a not-entirely-surprising revelation or two.
Merlin was a peculiar fellow, sure enough, but he probably seemed even stranger to people who hadn't seen all sorts of magic up close and personal like Gwaine had. Most people probably thought Merlin survived fights through sheer dumb luck, for instance. If anybody bothered to take a closer look, they might realize that no amount of luck could turn a sword hilt white-hot or blast a healthy branch off a tree and onto a man’s head.
Merlin’s methods weren’t all that subtle. All you had to do was pay attention, and Gwaine always kept an eye out for Merlin when things got rowdy. After all, Merlin always seemed to be in the thick of it when it came to harrowing quests and life-or-death battles, and he was the only one among them without a lick of combat training.
At least, not the conventional kind, as Gwaine had quickly discovered.
From there, it wasn’t so hard to guess why Merlin tended to be more stressed and harried than anybody else in Camelot. You almost always needed magic to beat magic, and guess which kingdom faced a new magical threat every other week?
Merlin’s “bumbling servant” act took Gwaine’s go on, underestimate me trick and turned it into a damn art form. It was no wonder Merlin had seen through him straight away, gotten right up to the core of him and said I know you like no one else in all his long years of travel.
Gwaine could only hope he knew Merlin that way, too.