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

[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.

I know what you mean about Merlin being over-powered - I have seen various fanfics tackling that over the years, but most of them were premised on the idea that Morgana wasn't the only other sorcerer in Albion, and that an Arthur who knew about Merlin's magic wouldn't want him to commit mass murder on his behalf (noble king and all that) so would make his battle plans accordingly. As I see it a large part of the problem is the lack of/inconsistent character growth that Arthur was given - going from spoilt brat with Daddy issues to noble king would have been a great progression, but he never seemed to quite get there. Possibly a modern problem with seeing a king as being an unreservedly good thing? I don't know.

It's no doubt a sad reflection on me as a Tolkien fan, but I'm afraid my first thought was Tony Stark and his shrapnel, rather than Frodo and the Morgul blade. Unfortunately, however powerful a sorcerer, Merlin doesn't seem to be good with arc reactors. :-)

That last scene was very popular - witness the couple of dozen stories continuing it on AO3 already, and a lot of people who've been writing re-incarnation stories over the years feeling vindicated. My head-canon is that Arthur is just about to get out of the lorry, but who knows...

[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:

Hengist: "So, Horsa, you are telling me this king Arthur has got a sorcerer that is the greatest ever to live?"
Horsa: "Yup"
Hengist: " And he's also the last Dragonlord?"
Horsa: "Yup"
Hengist:"And he's totally loyal to this king Arthur? We don't have a hope of getting him to fall for some gorgeous Saxon lady and coming over to our side?"
Horsa: "Yup"
Hengist: " And the druids are scared of his very name?"
Horsa: "Yup"
Hengist : "Fuck this for a game of soldiers, anyone fancy invading Gaul?"
Horsa: "Yup!"

It's not just that he's overpowered though, he's cleverer than Arthur, and nicer than Arthur, and less arrogant... If they wanted to do a magic reveal earlier, I think really they needed to set him up with more weaknesses or he is just too shiny to be true, somehow.

In my head, apocalyptic John Wyndham style End of the World type stuff is about to put an end to all the lorries, and Merlin is on his way to get Arthur to help deal with that somehow. But I am not sure of the details!

[sally_maria]

Yes, I can definitely see what you mean.

I can't help thinking though that as he was originally conceived he was a little too nice for politics, with no idea of warfare or sense of strategy - sure he could knock a few bad guys out, but he needed others, the Dragon, Gaius to tell him what needed to be done. The Arthur I was expecting this one to grow into had the political training, and the ability as a warrior and a general to be a worthy king, and to make best use of Merlin's abilities. If that was to scare off his enemies and make them become allies out of fear of Merlin, that would work, at least until you had treachery from within like Mordred. And after all, Merlin was only one man, however powerful, he couldn't have been everywhere - Arthur would have had something to offer other than just being a pretty face. ;-)

It's all speculation, I'm well aware. It's over, and from my point of view as someone who was invested in Merlin and Arthur's relationship the ending could have been a lot worse. I'm afraid I'm welcoming the chance to discuss it with someone that isn't just us crying on each others' shoulders, though there's been plenty of that.

[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*)

[sally_maria]

I would have loved that - quite apart from the character assassination issues, Morgana really wasn't a good enough villain to sustain 3 series, imo, and in any case, constantly resurrecting villains are fine for comic books and Doctor Who, but they don't really work in something like Merlin.

I'd really like to know where the writers thought they were going with Aithusa - he was supposed to be a good omen for the kingdom that Merlin and Arthur were going to build together, and then he randomly started working for Morgana... A white Saxon dragon would have been fine - as it was it just created confusion.