Merlin's End
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.
( Full o' spoilers. )
( Full o' spoilers. )
...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.
From reading the various discussions, I think a lot of the disappointment came from slash fans, who wanted a happily ever after and either didn't already know how the legend ended or hoped it would be changed (and didn't understand the concept of a 'once and future king'), so felt cheated.
I agree it was nice seeing an aged Merlin in the present, still waiting for Arthur to come back. And I loved how the lorry flashed past him.
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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.
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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.)
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But couldn't that happen in the future?
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(Besides, Merlin looked like he was in the current modern day world - a royal Golden Age, with magic in the kingdom, now? I'm sure a good writer could make me believe it, but TPTB haven't exactly made it easy for them.)
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Not just "the old Heaven and the old Earth patched up to seem a little more secure. A few gained years in which men may sow their fields in reasonable hope of reaping the harvest", but the new heaven and the new earth at long last...
(Oh, Artos the Bear, you will always be my number 1 King Arthur, of all the Arthurs!)
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It still feels like a cheat, though - why was this Arthur so special? why does he get to be king again, when there were many others who did the same or more? The greatest king ever returning in the time of his country's greatest need is one thing, but in this case it seems rather random.
Oddly enough, I think this Arthur, or at least the fandom version of him, might be my Arthur, whereas my Merlin is definitely Mary Stewart's.
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And there I think is the centre of it: Arthur didn't succeed. Arthur tried, and failed, but still Arthur dreamed big, and that's why he is remembered, even if we've forgotten just what the dreams were... Which I suppose is why the series more or less (OK, it was very silly in places!) worked for me : I don't tend to think of glorious peace as an aspect of Arthuriana....
The other historical character who has similar resonance (for me) is Owain Glyn Dwr, and he too failed, and there are similar 'lies waiting in the hills until his people need him' legends around him too.
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To me, the fundamental Arthurian kingdom (the legendary one, as opposed to the more historical takes such as Sword at Sunset or the Crystal Cave) is one where he rules in peace, and his knights gallop around the countryside on quests rescuing fair maidens from evil enchanters, monsters and other knights under curses. Arthur may have already created the seeds of his own destruction, but he also sets an example of the perfect king, which is why we want him back. ;-)
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