Merlin's End

[bunn]

I've been watching the BBC's Merlin on and off, mostly on the grounds that it is Arthuriana and quite pretty.   The plots and characterisation seemed to get in a bit of a tangle from time to time, and sometimes you could only conclude that Monty Python was right about Camelot being a very silly place, but on the whole I enjoyed it.  

Comments

[carmarthen]

This is the first thing I've ever read that almost makes me want to watch the show.

Although I think I'd rather read the story about Sidhe running New Age shops, snickering at the humans all the while...

Why did people hate the finale? I've seen discontent, but no specifics.

[bunn]

I suspect you'd hate the costumes, they were very cod-medieval.. (in Merlin, not of the Sidhe. The Sidhe probably wear Fair Trade woolly jumpers in rainbow shades, with jeans to run their ironic New Age shops, I'm thinking).

I haven't done any very comprehensive survey, but I think there was a feeling that as it was Prophesied that Arthur would bring in a golden age where magic was legal, that should have happened (preferably Happily Ever After with Merlin), rather than just leaving a vague impression that magic would be legalised by Guinevere after his death.

There were quite a lot of loose ends that weren't really tied up much too, although I get the impression that which ends people think are particularly loose varies quite a lot depending on which of the characters they were most interested in. Oh, and they killed off Gwaine (I don't know what happened to his A) who was one of the prettier knights, in a bit of a minor subplot - I'm sure that annoyed some people.

[carmarthen]

I do not watch shows like Merlin for the costumes (someday I will finish BBC Robin Hood, which I also did not watch for the costumes, but more for the lolz). But I bounced off Merlin so hard I can't remember a thing about the episodes I did watch.

The Sidhe probably wear Fair Trade woolly jumpers in rainbow shades, with jeans to run their ironic New Age shops, I'm thinking

This sounds amazing.

I think I would be unhappy with any Arthurian adaptation that goes up to Camlann and then ends in Happily Ever After. I mean, I was okay with the ridiculous King Arthur movie because it tried (goofily) to historicize, so why not let Arthur and Gwen have a HEA? But if you keep the mythic elements, I feel like the tragedy is kind of inherent.

[bunn]

I was pleased they didn't give it a happy ending for the same reasons, but then, I'm familiar with too many different takes on the story to not expect that ending...

It's rather lovely that many people fell so hard for this version of the legend that they are heartbroken by the tragedy. Camlann *should* leave the audience heartbroken for the opportunities lost: they *should* feel like something important has been broken, I think. Suggests the writers were doing something right that they got that reaction.

[alitheapipkin]

I rather enjoyed it. I found the way they have failed to write Guen this series much more irritating than the ending.

I always thought Arthur's function was mainly to prettify things. Which is good, because although I like the young lad who plays him, I'm not convinced he's much of an actor...

[bunn]

Ooh, so harsh! He did a nice line in surprise, shading to alarm, shading to ouch-i-am-dying-oh-well in the last episode. :-D

They didn't seem to know quite what to do with Guinevere a lot of the time, but I thought it was quite nice that she did get to be queen in her own right.

[ningloreth]

Colin Morgan is always excellent, but I thought Bradley James did a pretty good job of showing the range of Arthur's emotions in the final episode.

...compared with Arthur, Merlin is shown as cleverer, mostly better informed, and with a better understanding of ordinary people, so you kind of wonder what there would have been left for Arthur to do...

The writers of the original Star Trek solved a similar problem -- Spock's being so much more competent than Kirk -- by putting them in situations where only Kirk's good ol' American values could save the day. But that approach wouldn't be credible these days! I did like the way Merlin kept forgetting that he could use his magic openly, and Arthur had to remind him.

...plots ... seemed to get in a bit of a tangle from time to time...The 'updating' of the various strands of the legend always seemed a bit random to me

[bunn]

I think if they'd made Merlin a bit different, they could have got away with having him be very powerful - if he had struggled with politics, or been more innately tactless, they could have built up to a Camelot where Arthur and Guinevere did the politics.

But given where they had got to by the start of the fifth series, I can see why they would want to stick with Merlin being secret as long as they could.

[sally_maria]

I can't speak for all Merlin/Arthur fans, but for most of the people I know it wasn't the tragic ending that we felt cheated by, but the lack of the prophesied Golden age, the return of magic to the kingdom, and the public acknowledgement of Merlin and his destined position as Arthur's trusted advisor.

It could have ended then, without actually changing the end of the legend, just leaving it as a potential threat for the future, or we could have had the tragedy, but, as in the original, *after* Arthur and Merlin had become the glorious figures of legend we were waiting for.

(I not sure how 'once and future' king is actually incompatible with Arthur dying peacefully in his bed at an advanced age, though it's not the lack of that I felt cheated by.)

[ningloreth]

Golden Age...

But couldn't that happen in the future?

[lindahoyland]

The end infuriated me as the whole premise of the series seemed to be about Merlin and Arthur establishing Albion and his great destiny. It would have worked it Arthur's death had been 20-30 years into the future as legend says he had a long glorious reign before Mordred killed him.

[sally_maria]

Yes, exactly.

That's what bothered me the most about the way the story was portrayed, not just in the last episode, but for the last couple of seasons.

[sally_maria]

I'm glad you enjoyed the last couple of episodes - as I said elsewhere, when I was tl;dr-ing all over your comments, all of the Merlin fans I know loved the last episode as it was, even though there's still a lot of random crying going on. It was the longer sweep of the story we objected to

[bunn]

I think it's partly that Arthur didn't really seem to grow into a great king, but also that they set up Merlin early to be so amazing that it's difficult to come up with any convincing form of opposition

[sally_maria]

Yes, I can definitely see what you mean

[bunn]

Merlin was very young then though - I think maybe they didn't leave him space to grow into that wasn't the space that Arthur needed to develop.

Of course, what this alternative version with a political/military Arthur and a slightly-naive but powerful Merlin needs is a really serious and convincing enemy. I favour Rowena on a big white Saxon dragon leading an army of 7-foot Saxons armed with seaxes. (Aithusa really never lived up to his promise, I thought, and Kilgharrah was quite simply *the wrong colour*)