Aithusa again
Still no news about whether my dad's coming out of hospital today or not so to distract myself I rewatched Merlin.
This episode is All About Merlin. We're in his pov almost all the time apart from when we're in Julius Borden's. Gwen and Morgana are entirely absent and Arthur, who has had a strong pov role in the three preceding episodes, is here seen as either comic relief or an almost antagonist. Even the knights, who Merlin has always seemed to get on with well, appear to be playing a rather cruel joke on him, though it turns out it actually wasn't. I saw several critics call this episode filler but I don't think it is, partly because of the ending and partly because it does show Merlin's rather conflicted feelings about Camelot. He is even perfectly prepared at one point to let Julius Borden kill two of the guards whilst involved in a theft from the treasury. Julius Borden himself could almost be Merlin if his life had followed a different path. Julius is a former student of Gaius who left Camelot because he couldn't live under Uther's rule, the implication being because he had magic. He's prepared to risk everything to get to the one remaining dragon's egg and so is Merlin, though as it transpires for totally different reasons. Julius is a path Merlin could have taken if he had given in to despair and ignored his prophesied destiny, but unlike Julius Merlin doesn't want power or wealth he just wants dragons to be free.
Merlin again ignores Gaius's advice but this time acknowledges that he acted rashly. It's not altogether clear whether Gaius is right to counsel caution this time, but as the person who had to deal with the citizens of Camelot injured and killed by Kilgarrah it's understandable that he at least partially shares Arthur's attitude towards dragons. He also makes it clear that he doesn't want the "old ways" to come back and believes in the future that Arthur will bring. I'm not sure Gaius has ever made such an unequivocal statement of his position before. One of the things I really like about Gaius and Merlin's relationship is that however much they might disagree they can never stay angry with each other for long. The unspoken way in which Gaius caught Merlin out lying to him about the dragon egg was a lovely illustration of that.
Merlin gives in to Kilgarrah's pleas to save the egg partly because he believes it's the right thing to do but mostly because Kilgarrah hits his weak spot with the mentions of his father. I do hope the wily old dragon teaches baby Aithusa to eat sheep rather than people!
One thing this episode underlined is the contrast between Merlin's apparently lowly position as a servant who has to cook for Arthur and the knights and his real power as a Dragon Lord. It totally fooled Julius Borden and it probably protects Merlin more than he realises.
After the angst of the beginning of the series it was a bit of a relief to watch an episode where things went right for Merlin with the birth of Aithusa promising hope for the future, which he badly needed at this point. The baby dragon was quite adorable and the name meaning the "light of the sun" brought to mind the beautiful scene last episode with Arthur outlined by the rising sun.
I'm sure I've forgotten most of what I meant to say but it was nice to see the druids again and good continuity that their leader is still Isildir. Their advice was very useful but it's a shame Merlin hadn't watched any Indiana Jones films :)
I know the original story of Merlin has a white dragon symbolising the Saxons but I think in this context the dragon had to be white so I'm not surprised they went with that rather than a red dragon.
The amount of fan service this time round was somewhere off the graph with shirtless!Arthur, topless!Arthur and wet!Arthur. Colin Morgan was looking absolutely gorgeous as well and I adore his Dragon Lord voice. I loved the way both actors managed to pull off the comedy scenes which relied almost entirely on their acting to make them believable. The fact that Arthur is only "slightly" worried about Merlin after the woodworm stunt boggles the mind *g*.
This probably wasn't as strong an episode as the first three but I enjoyed it enormously, the change of tone worked well and some happiness for Merlin was badly needed. Also BABY DRAGON!
This episode is All About Merlin. We're in his pov almost all the time apart from when we're in Julius Borden's. Gwen and Morgana are entirely absent and Arthur, who has had a strong pov role in the three preceding episodes, is here seen as either comic relief or an almost antagonist. Even the knights, who Merlin has always seemed to get on with well, appear to be playing a rather cruel joke on him, though it turns out it actually wasn't. I saw several critics call this episode filler but I don't think it is, partly because of the ending and partly because it does show Merlin's rather conflicted feelings about Camelot. He is even perfectly prepared at one point to let Julius Borden kill two of the guards whilst involved in a theft from the treasury. Julius Borden himself could almost be Merlin if his life had followed a different path. Julius is a former student of Gaius who left Camelot because he couldn't live under Uther's rule, the implication being because he had magic. He's prepared to risk everything to get to the one remaining dragon's egg and so is Merlin, though as it transpires for totally different reasons. Julius is a path Merlin could have taken if he had given in to despair and ignored his prophesied destiny, but unlike Julius Merlin doesn't want power or wealth he just wants dragons to be free.
Merlin again ignores Gaius's advice but this time acknowledges that he acted rashly. It's not altogether clear whether Gaius is right to counsel caution this time, but as the person who had to deal with the citizens of Camelot injured and killed by Kilgarrah it's understandable that he at least partially shares Arthur's attitude towards dragons. He also makes it clear that he doesn't want the "old ways" to come back and believes in the future that Arthur will bring. I'm not sure Gaius has ever made such an unequivocal statement of his position before. One of the things I really like about Gaius and Merlin's relationship is that however much they might disagree they can never stay angry with each other for long. The unspoken way in which Gaius caught Merlin out lying to him about the dragon egg was a lovely illustration of that.
Merlin gives in to Kilgarrah's pleas to save the egg partly because he believes it's the right thing to do but mostly because Kilgarrah hits his weak spot with the mentions of his father. I do hope the wily old dragon teaches baby Aithusa to eat sheep rather than people!
One thing this episode underlined is the contrast between Merlin's apparently lowly position as a servant who has to cook for Arthur and the knights and his real power as a Dragon Lord. It totally fooled Julius Borden and it probably protects Merlin more than he realises.
After the angst of the beginning of the series it was a bit of a relief to watch an episode where things went right for Merlin with the birth of Aithusa promising hope for the future, which he badly needed at this point. The baby dragon was quite adorable and the name meaning the "light of the sun" brought to mind the beautiful scene last episode with Arthur outlined by the rising sun.
I'm sure I've forgotten most of what I meant to say but it was nice to see the druids again and good continuity that their leader is still Isildir. Their advice was very useful but it's a shame Merlin hadn't watched any Indiana Jones films :)
I know the original story of Merlin has a white dragon symbolising the Saxons but I think in this context the dragon had to be white so I'm not surprised they went with that rather than a red dragon.
The amount of fan service this time round was somewhere off the graph with shirtless!Arthur, topless!Arthur and wet!Arthur. Colin Morgan was looking absolutely gorgeous as well and I adore his Dragon Lord voice. I loved the way both actors managed to pull off the comedy scenes which relied almost entirely on their acting to make them believable. The fact that Arthur is only "slightly" worried about Merlin after the woodworm stunt boggles the mind *g*.
This probably wasn't as strong an episode as the first three but I enjoyed it enormously, the change of tone worked well and some happiness for Merlin was badly needed. Also BABY DRAGON!