Shipping Meme: Day 14
Day 14: Couple you liked even though you knew it would end up badly
Well, Anakin/Padmé is the ultimate obvious choice here - hell, the first thing we ever knew about it is that it ended badly - so I'll discuss another one, one of my more recent favorite ships that I don't feel like I get to gush on nearly enough: Arthur/Gwen, from BBC's Merlin.
(Incidentally, I've always preferred versions of the Arthur legend where Arthur and Guinevere are a genuine love match, as opposed to the love triangle/Lancelot adultery angle. Finding a version without some form of the latter is slim pickings. Even in one decent version I managed to find, Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner novel trilogy, where the Arthur/Guinevere story is at the forefront, Arthur himself is a total man-whore. While Lancelot does pop up in Merlin, he's thankfully little more than a footnote to the overall A/G tale.)
While it's a given in any Arthur story that Guinevere is Arthur's Queen, what's perhaps even more given is that he dies at the end. I'd originally had some hope early on that Merlin, being by and large a fairly light-hearted take on Arthuriana and set when all the characters were still fairly young, would end well before the point in the legend where Arthur had to die. Or they would have some "twist" on the whole death thing, like they did with nearly every other aspect of the legend. Well, you can see how that turned out.
But even knowing that they end in tragedy, I couldn't help but fall for Arthur/Gwen: I instantly loved the role/class-switching from the usual, with Arthur the born royalty and Guinevere the peasant. It meant that, unlike so many other post-Lancelot versions of Arthuriana, Arthur and Guinevere would have to genuinely fall in love, not have an arranged marriage for someone's political gain. Throw in the classist/elitist figure of Uther Pendragon blocking the way, and it becomes a star-crossed love story too.
Gwen's character - as well as Merlin's - ends up being a catalyst for the evolution of Arthur's character from entitled prat to compassionate ruler, the antithesis of his father. (Well, he never completely loses the prat part, but it does become significantly tempered.) Something about his presence inspires her to stand up, cast off her meek persona and speak out; likewise, something about her presence compels him to listen and take heart. She has faith in the man/ruler he can be, and he strives toward that. They make each other better people, and I absolutely love when a love story does that, romantic or otherwise. Merlin could be inconsistent or clumsy (and how) at times, but by and large I enjoyed their handling of A/G's courtship.
And, my shallower reasoning: Arthur's pretty hot, and the way he always stresses the final syllable of "Guine-vere" should make almost any girl turn to goo. And lord, their chemistry. Even in a kiddie show, I still found myself swooning over moments like this:
They overcome their various roadblocks - Uther, Lancelot, Morgana, etc. - and appear to have a happy marriage, but of course brief. Merlin ends up being no exception to the "Arthur dies" rule (WAAAAAAAAAHHHH), having Arthur meet his end with Mordred while still in the prime of his life. Most versions of the legend leave A/G childless, but not all, so in my headcanon, Gwen was pregnant when Arthur died. There's nothing to confirm she wasn't (in fact we even see A/G share a bed in their final moments together), and it's just about the only way I can handle the outcome! ;) Or maybe reincarnation in the modern day, as the final shot of the show seemed to indicate might be possible. That said, baby or no, I do kind of love that Gwen was able to rule and continue Arthur's legacy, and wasn't cast out to live out her days as a nun like in so many versions of the legend. It's a bittersweet ending at best.
Well, Anakin/Padmé is the ultimate obvious choice here - hell, the first thing we ever knew about it is that it ended badly - so I'll discuss another one, one of my more recent favorite ships that I don't feel like I get to gush on nearly enough: Arthur/Gwen, from BBC's Merlin.
(Incidentally, I've always preferred versions of the Arthur legend where Arthur and Guinevere are a genuine love match, as opposed to the love triangle/Lancelot adultery angle. Finding a version without some form of the latter is slim pickings. Even in one decent version I managed to find, Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner novel trilogy, where the Arthur/Guinevere story is at the forefront, Arthur himself is a total man-whore. While Lancelot does pop up in Merlin, he's thankfully little more than a footnote to the overall A/G tale.)
While it's a given in any Arthur story that Guinevere is Arthur's Queen, what's perhaps even more given is that he dies at the end. I'd originally had some hope early on that Merlin, being by and large a fairly light-hearted take on Arthuriana and set when all the characters were still fairly young, would end well before the point in the legend where Arthur had to die. Or they would have some "twist" on the whole death thing, like they did with nearly every other aspect of the legend. Well, you can see how that turned out.
But even knowing that they end in tragedy, I couldn't help but fall for Arthur/Gwen: I instantly loved the role/class-switching from the usual, with Arthur the born royalty and Guinevere the peasant. It meant that, unlike so many other post-Lancelot versions of Arthuriana, Arthur and Guinevere would have to genuinely fall in love, not have an arranged marriage for someone's political gain. Throw in the classist/elitist figure of Uther Pendragon blocking the way, and it becomes a star-crossed love story too.
Gwen's character - as well as Merlin's - ends up being a catalyst for the evolution of Arthur's character from entitled prat to compassionate ruler, the antithesis of his father. (Well, he never completely loses the prat part, but it does become significantly tempered.) Something about his presence inspires her to stand up, cast off her meek persona and speak out; likewise, something about her presence compels him to listen and take heart. She has faith in the man/ruler he can be, and he strives toward that. They make each other better people, and I absolutely love when a love story does that, romantic or otherwise. Merlin could be inconsistent or clumsy (and how) at times, but by and large I enjoyed their handling of A/G's courtship.
And, my shallower reasoning: Arthur's pretty hot, and the way he always stresses the final syllable of "Guine-vere" should make almost any girl turn to goo. And lord, their chemistry. Even in a kiddie show, I still found myself swooning over moments like this:
They overcome their various roadblocks - Uther, Lancelot, Morgana, etc. - and appear to have a happy marriage, but of course brief. Merlin ends up being no exception to the "Arthur dies" rule (WAAAAAAAAAHHHH), having Arthur meet his end with Mordred while still in the prime of his life. Most versions of the legend leave A/G childless, but not all, so in my headcanon, Gwen was pregnant when Arthur died. There's nothing to confirm she wasn't (in fact we even see A/G share a bed in their final moments together), and it's just about the only way I can handle the outcome! ;) Or maybe reincarnation in the modern day, as the final shot of the show seemed to indicate might be possible. That said, baby or no, I do kind of love that Gwen was able to rule and continue Arthur's legacy, and wasn't cast out to live out her days as a nun like in so many versions of the legend. It's a bittersweet ending at best.