camelot: the high school years.
Watching Merlin and reading The Once and Future King simultaneously is breaking my brain. TOO MUCH CANONICAL UPHEAVAL GAH.
Merlin is pretty adorable. But I'm pretty consistently like OKAY WELL WHERE IS THIS GOING, FOLKS. I don't really think it's possible to argue writing logic in a show where one of the main characters is a TALKING DRAGON, but they pick out just enough details from the traditional Arthurian stories that I am all OH YES THE WRITERS MUST HAVE A PLAN FOR AN OVERARCHING PLOT...and then next episode it's totally forgotten. And then I spend all this time wondering how much of traditional canon is supposed to be in this canon and whether that means the show is headed in the same direction plot-wise and and will end in the same way and OKAY STOP DOING THIS TO YOURSELF, THERE IS A TALKING DRAGON.
Just...ack. I never know if I'm watching this assuming that the lightheartedness is deliberately supposed to contrast with an implied sad ending, or if like...this is alternate universe!Arthur where a non-tragic end for all is possible? Or if they'll just end the series on a hopeful note before the whole fall of Camelot thing and not really address it? I JUST DON'T KNOW, I CAN'T TELL IF I'M SUPPOSED TO CONSIDER THIS SHOW INHERENTLY TRAGIC OR INHERENTLY COMIC AND IT IS CONFUSING.
I like Arthur/Gwen enough that I'll overlook the complete lack of like...any kind of development or interaction between those two, THAT IS HOW CHARMING I THINK YOU KIDS ARE. (also, the first season seems to be going on this Gwen/Merlin and Arthur/Morgana road, yes? And then it is abruptly dropped? Am I...watching wrong?) This is one of the few versions where I like the incarnations of the Arther/Gwen relationship better than Gwen/Lancelot, though maybe that's because their Lancelot is so uninteresting I want to cry whenever he's onscreen. Oh man. No more, plz.
(I get that he appeals to a different side of Gwen than Arthur does, but it makes me irrationally irritated with her for FUTURE ACTS SHE HAS NOT YET COMMITTED AND MAYBE DOESN'T IN THIS CANON I DUNNO.)
Despite all those neurotic spasms, I've actually been enjoying this a lot. Colin Morgan, Bradley James, and Angel Coulby are so great in their roles. And Gaius and Uther emerged as really wonderful adult foils for their characters.
(random speculation: Uther ends up being Morgana's father? I only say that because in some versions of Arthur & Co. he is, and it would explain their...weird ward/guardian relationship. Although that makes a lot of Arthur and Morgana's season one interactions fairly creepy. Although OH MY GOD THERE IS NO WAY TO OUTDO MISTS OF AVALON ON THAT FRONT.)
Anyway. Yay Merlin.
Merlin is pretty adorable. But I'm pretty consistently like OKAY WELL WHERE IS THIS GOING, FOLKS. I don't really think it's possible to argue writing logic in a show where one of the main characters is a TALKING DRAGON, but they pick out just enough details from the traditional Arthurian stories that I am all OH YES THE WRITERS MUST HAVE A PLAN FOR AN OVERARCHING PLOT...and then next episode it's totally forgotten. And then I spend all this time wondering how much of traditional canon is supposed to be in this canon and whether that means the show is headed in the same direction plot-wise and and will end in the same way and OKAY STOP DOING THIS TO YOURSELF, THERE IS A TALKING DRAGON.
Just...ack. I never know if I'm watching this assuming that the lightheartedness is deliberately supposed to contrast with an implied sad ending, or if like...this is alternate universe!Arthur where a non-tragic end for all is possible? Or if they'll just end the series on a hopeful note before the whole fall of Camelot thing and not really address it? I JUST DON'T KNOW, I CAN'T TELL IF I'M SUPPOSED TO CONSIDER THIS SHOW INHERENTLY TRAGIC OR INHERENTLY COMIC AND IT IS CONFUSING.
I like Arthur/Gwen enough that I'll overlook the complete lack of like...any kind of development or interaction between those two, THAT IS HOW CHARMING I THINK YOU KIDS ARE. (also, the first season seems to be going on this Gwen/Merlin and Arthur/Morgana road, yes? And then it is abruptly dropped? Am I...watching wrong?) This is one of the few versions where I like the incarnations of the Arther/Gwen relationship better than Gwen/Lancelot, though maybe that's because their Lancelot is so uninteresting I want to cry whenever he's onscreen. Oh man. No more, plz.
(I get that he appeals to a different side of Gwen than Arthur does, but it makes me irrationally irritated with her for FUTURE ACTS SHE HAS NOT YET COMMITTED AND MAYBE DOESN'T IN THIS CANON I DUNNO.)
Despite all those neurotic spasms, I've actually been enjoying this a lot. Colin Morgan, Bradley James, and Angel Coulby are so great in their roles. And Gaius and Uther emerged as really wonderful adult foils for their characters.
(random speculation: Uther ends up being Morgana's father? I only say that because in some versions of Arthur & Co. he is, and it would explain their...weird ward/guardian relationship. Although that makes a lot of Arthur and Morgana's season one interactions fairly creepy. Although OH MY GOD THERE IS NO WAY TO OUTDO MISTS OF AVALON ON THAT FRONT.)
Anyway. Yay Merlin.