rivendellrose | (no subject) (Reply)

#13 - The One Where Arthur Dies (Almost): Not one of my favorite episodes, but only because I felt the actual plot was a bit weak. I mean, obviously Arthur isn’t going to die, right? And neither is Merlin. And Nimue is obviously playing the same trick with Merlin that she did with Uther, telling him that “a price must be paid,” and letting him assume that he can set the price, while in truth she herself is fully aware that the powers are going to pick something completely other than what they expect. She can swear all she want that she didn’t know the powers would pick Igraine or Merlin’s mother, but in this case at least I can definitely say she could have been more clear with Merlin about the fact that it wouldn’t necessarily pick him, and it might pick someone he cares deeply about. More importantly, the later scene with Gaius makes it clear that she can direct the powers to take one person over another, which throws into question her whole insistence that she didn’t know in the first place. Tangential: I suspect that what was actually going on with Uther and Igraine, and again with Merlin, was that she did indeed very much know what price the magic would take, and simply refused to tell either Uther or Merlin for her own reasons... and it bit her in the ass in both cases. Obviously Nimue is not a fast learner.

She’s also (in my opinion) obviously not permanently dead. If we’ve seen the last of her, I will be very shocked.

Hmm... kind of started at the end, there, didn’t I? Let’s go backwards.

The Questing Beast. Um. Someone’s read their T.H. White... and then promptly forgotten it? I’m actually unclear on whether the Questing Beast is in the original stories (and I’m too lazy to go get my Bulfinch’s Mythology right now to check...), but I’m pretty damned sure it wasn’t like this anyway, if it was. I don’t remember it being much of a fearsome beast in White, but that might not mean anything given how long it’s been since I’ve read it. Also, I think this is funny because two episodes ago, when they killed off Sir Pelinor early on in the Tristan episode, Kendra was going on about the Questing Beast and the real Pelinor and all that. She’s out of town and didn’t watch this episode with me, but I look forward to her reaction to this version of the Questing Beast - I imagine she’ll be quite horrified/amused.

Morgana’s dreams certainly are taking on quite a strong aspect, now... I felt very bad for her in the scene with her trying to convince Arthur not to go on the hunt. I was also very sad that her whole part in this episode consisted of waking up, screaming, and then looking haunted and dreary and saying that “it’s only just begun.”

I had a moment of total squee with Uther’s reaction to Arthur’s injury. As usual, Tony Head delivers a lovely, realistic performance that brings life and humanity to Uther. That’s enough of me fussing about him, but I really was very pleased. ;)

Gwen’s scenes while Arthur was ill were interesting... I think we’re meant to take from them that she’s in love with him, now, but I’m genuinely confused about when that happened. We get a little of it in #9, the one with Merlin’s mom, and again in #12, after her father was killed, but before that I don’t remember seeing anything but her in love with Merlin. Arthur teasing her when he woke up was... very him - he seems to react to strong emotion by teasing or making jokes about the situation, presumably because he’s not used to the big displays and is uncomfortable about them. It’s all rather cute and very teenage (okay, yes, I realize he’s supposed to be twenty (per Uther’s line about Tristan being dead for 20 years, and Tristan having died shortly after Arthur’s birth and his mother’s death), but he’s still very much a teenager in how he acts. And yet we see a very thoughtful look on his face after Gwen leaves - he’s starting to grow up a bit, I think.

Interestingly, Morgana seems not to spend any time with Arthur while he’s sick. Or, in fact, to spend any time doing anything other than having bad dreams and skulking in hallways. This disappoints me.

As usual, Merlin goes to the Dragon for advice.... and then proves that he really is the last person in the universe who didn’t realize that the Dragon’s advice served it, not him. It’s not your friend, Merlin - it’s a dragon. A dragon being held captive under the castle... what part of this situation made it unclear to you that it was acting for its own purposes? I really do love Merlin, but he’s a complete idiot.

And then again - he gets to the Isle of the Blessed, and meets Nimue... and he trusts her? What the hell is going through this boy’s head? I know he doesn’t know what happened with Uther and Igraine and Nimue way back when, but doesn’t it perhaps occur to him that trusting the evil sorceress lady who’s tried to kill both him and Arthur is perhaps not the brightest of ideas? I think we’re meant to believe that he’s so desperate that he’ll do anything, trust anyone, if it means that he can save Arthur, but really, it does make it a bit annoying when later he’s so shocked when things don’t turn out quite the way he expected. That said, he is, as usual, adorably earnest and enthusiastic and so very cute about everything, so I forgive him... but good lord. Get a clue, kiddo.

I had a feeling from the beginning that Gaius would end up taking the fall for Arthur, essentially on the basis that I couldn’t think of anyone else who could do it who was, in the context of the show, “expendable.” So I was really grateful to see that he didn’t actually die in the end! I still think of the actor only as “Doctor Constantine” from The Empty Child, but I really do like him very much, and I’ve loved seeing him in this show. Very grateful we’re not done with having him around yet. :)

In a nit-picky note... how far is it to the Isle of the Blessed, anyway? The directions given by the Dragon and the map that Gaius gives Merlin both indicate that it’s a long way, and we know it’s “past the white mountain,” which, in my book, makes it at least a few days’ ride. Am I wrong, here? So somehow we get Merlin going there and back again before Arthur dies... and then Gaius heading out, and Merlin following him, all before Merlin’s mother dies. These poisons and diseases and all do certainly seem to take a long time to kill a person!

On the whole, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this whole first season. We’ve seen a lot of characters with a lot of complicated personalities and traits, and nobody, at this point, strikes me as one-dimensional. This is good!

Quick Character Impressions, All Written Quite Late At Night, Please Forgive Me If I Ramble:

Merlin: Is an idiot, but he’s also a genius. Sweet, loyal, totally in love with Arthur... well honestly. ;) But he’s also an indecisive moron - which is part of his charm, but also one of the most tedious things about the show as it stands. I will be interested to see how he proposes to make his decisions in the future, now that he’s sworn he won’t go see the Dragon for advice anymore. I can't actually think of anything clever or useful to say about him, except that I really do love the little moron. Oh, and he's so totally in love with Arthur. Which is adorable. Every now and then we get a great moment of Gwen staring at him with this 'siiiiigh' kind of expression... and he's blissfully looking off in some other direction, totally oblivious and, most likely, thinking about Arthur. I don't know why, but to me this is just about the cutest thing ever. He's so clueless! He wants huggings and cookies, and... yeah. I'm going to have serious issues if this actor ever starts to actually look like he's passed the age of seventeen, because I have a niggling feeling he'll be exactly my type if he does (it's the dark hair, blue eyes, pale skin... the nose... the ears... thank you, Eccleston, for making big ears sexy. :P Anyway. He'll be a heart-breaker when he's, oh, about thirty. ;)

Morgana: Clever, brave, exceptionally moral... and yet totally amoral in pursuit of those morals. She’s got more of Uther in her than she’s willing to admit, and I’m not just saying that because I like both of them. Uther may be willing to kill people to get what he wants, or in revenge for the wrongs he feels have been paid to him, but Morgana is equally so, I think. I like her very much, I’m just pointing out... not all sweetness and light, there. I love it. The biggest question with her, I think, is how we’re going to get from Morgana as we see her right now to the Morgana we see later in the original story, who is very much against Arthur and his reign. I suspect whatever it is that happens will have something to do with Uther (all of this is assuming they actually follow the ‘canon’ story at all... because otherwise I haven’t got a hope in the world of guessing what they’ll do with her), and I suspect that she will, in time, go against Arthur because of her principles... but in a way in which we as the audience may be in a pretty hard way to say whether or not she’s wrong about it. If she doesn't know that she's a prophetess by now, she should certainly be realizing that early in the next series, so I'll be looking forward to that. Lovely, clever, sweet, tough, good with a sword... yeah, I could so easily see myself falling in love with this one. ;)

Gwen: Is probably the least morally ambiguous character in Camelot at this point... but, so far, that’s not bothering me. I was glad to see her recoil somewhat from Uther in this episode - she literally flinches from him and turns her face away as he walks by her, and the stupid bastard doesn't even notice because, like Merlin, she just barely registers as a blip in his mind - it shows that she’s human, that she hasn’t completely either forgiven or forgotten. I was worried they’d push her sweetness too far on that count. And now we know that she’s holding onto the idea of Arthur becoming king and redeeming Camelot... and apparently falling in love with him as that ideal. Very intriguing, that, particularly given she’s just a servant and a blacksmith’s daughter. Realistically, there’s no chance at all for this relationship... and Gwen totally knows that. I wonder what will happen in the future to make this more likely? My bet is that something will happen to make it possible for these two to start leaning toward getting together... and then, of course, Lancelot will show up again. (In which case we would actually get something of the real story! Gasp!)

Arthur: Probably ought to say something about the future king, hmm? I really thought I was going to hate Arthur, but they've done a fabulous job over the season of making him grow up in a believable and, in the end, very endearing way. He's still a prat, he's still a bit self-centered and jerkish, but every now and then he slips and shows a warm squishy side that proves he's just as much of a dumb puppy as Merlin is, and twice as desperate for people to like him. And, despite himself, he's proving to be an adorably loyal friend, as well as bound and determined to be a better king than his father, which is wonderful. We really can see the beginnings of a good leader in this guy, and I think it's fabulous to watch that develop. Preferably without him ever entirely losing that charming arrogance that he puts on whenever he feels like people are getting too close to him - it's so cute to watch him puff up like a kitten stalking dandelion fluff. ♥

...I just put a ♥ at the end of a sentence about a teenage boy character, people - and not just any teenage boy character, but one who, at the start of the season, was effectively a new James Potter. This is how good this show is - it's broken through my innate hatred and distrust of the popular, handsome, sporty teenage boy. Will wonders never cease.

Best to move on to the one character I walked in knowing I'd be stupid over, to make myself feel better about this uncharacteristic love for Arthur. ;)

Uther: Is eventually doomed, probably sometime next season. I suspect that we’ll get some juicy stuff before he dies, though, and I’m counting the revelation that Morgana has magical powers into that stuff. I’ll lay money, beer, dinners, what-have-you that, when it comes down to it, there’s no way Uther will be willing to execute Morgana. He loves her too much. He’ll be furious, don’t get me wrong, and I’m sure he’ll throw her in the dungeon, and he may very well say that he’s going to have her executed - he may even believe it himself, for a while. But he’ll find some loophole, or he’ll just plain let her go. She might get exiled, or she might kill him, or something else drastic that I’m not foreseeing might happen, but there’s no way in hell he’d really kill her. Just my humble opinion. Other than that, I can only say that I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Nimue, who is something of his personal nemesis, and also that I’m pretty sure he will at some point have to tell Arthur (or that Arthur will find out on his own somehow) about the magic involved in his origins. That’s gotta be important at some point in the nearish future.

Until then, though, I love him. He's a bastard, he's a bad person, he's a horrible, selfish, arrogant prat, and of course I'd hate him in real life, but... I love the bastard. I love how he's the only character in the whole show who actually thinks and acts like someone ought to in the Middle Ages. I love how angry he gets when people accuse him of something, and how obvious it is that he feels guilty about a lot of those things and just doesn't want to admit it, and so of course SHOUTING his refusal is the answer. I love how emotionally inept he is, because that's right for the character. I love how determined he is to keep his dirty little secrets, no matter what the cost, and that he appears to think getting out his sword is the answer to everything. I love him sitting alone in his great hall after Tristan first appeared, with his sword on the table, and how absolutely terrified he looked when the door opened, just for an instant before he saw Gaius. I love how frantic he gets when Arthur and Morgana are in trouble, and how he occasionally gives Merlin this sort of perplexed, surprised look, as though he's just remembered to notice that he exists. He's just so perfect for who and what he is - not at the most likable person in the world, mind you, but perfect for exactly what he's meant to be. He's such a beautifully complete, rounded, human, warty character, it just makes me happy every time he's on-screen.

...Okay, the fact that Tony Head's still just as gorgeous as he was ten years ago doesn't hurt a bit, either. ;) But, seriously, I just love to see a character fully realized for what he or she ought to be, and Uther is a beautiful example of that. He's a fascinating character, and I hope we have a lot more of him before he (necessarily, inevitably) bites it.

My mp3 player decided that while I was writing this last bit would be a good time to switch to one of the song's off Tony Head's CD, so... just be glad I'm not nattering about him even more than I've already done. Insane, yes, I know... anyway... Long story short, I can't wait til the next series comes out!