(no subject)

[srin]

Man I remember a time when I could watch scenes of Arthur and Merlin without breathing a sigh of relief if they actually managed to get to the end without Arthur either being a dick or making me cringe with his obliviousness. Good times, good times, too bad that doesn't seem likely to ever happen again.

Can we have Gwaine back please?

Going an entire episode without a single line - or even scene! - for Gwen OR Morgana is a new low, I think. I guess Alice took up all the allotted Screen Time For Girls? I mean, granted, Gwen wouldn't really have had anything to do here except maybe pat Arthur on the back while he made sad faces about his dad, but surely Morgana should have had some gleeful smirking to do over Uther's impending doom?

The hammer scene was both slightly better and rather worse than I anticipated - better because they seem to have cut a bit of Arthur actually going at Merlin with the hammer, and because Arthur expressed some amount of concern for Merlin's unhappiness, albeit in a rather caveman manner; worse because I was expecting some explanation for why Arthur decided Merlin needed to be his practice dummy, not the implication that this is a normal everyday occurrence that requires no comment. D:

Um, yeah. Wow. In series 1, we got Arthur coming to check on Merlin when he'd been ill and expressing genuine understanding when Merlin was upset about his mother being in danger. In series 2, we got Arthur sitting down on the floor next to Merlin, gently prodding him about his unhappiness, even acknowledging that it might be his fault. And in series 3, two years later, Arthur seems utterly baffled at the notion that a punch on the arm isn't a comforting gesture. I miss my prattish but also sweet and noble prince; this guy we're getting in most of series 3 is like a caricature of the frat boy who's blacked out so many times his brain isn't even trying any more.

Also, in series 1, we had Merlin standing up to Arthur when Arthur used an unarmed, unarmoured servant for target practice, and when Arthur insisted on 'training' with Merlin, Merlin got padding and armour and a weapon of his own. (Not that the weapon did him any good, but at least in theory it could've been a fair match.) Three years later, Merlin's the unarmed, unarmoured servant, and apparently Arthur is too cool to use practice dummies when he wants to beat the shit out of something. THIS IS NOT ARTHUR GROWING UP, SHOW. I hated the spear bit because of the depressing comparison to 1x01; I hated the shield bit because WTF, Arthur, there is no reason for you to demand that Merlin "pretend to be a seasoned warrior" when you've got a whole bunch of ACTUAL KNIGHTS sitting around who could actually benefit from that sort of "practice". But I think I hated the jousting bit the most because what the actual fuck, NO ONE uses human targets for jousting practice because that is so ridiculously, stupidly dangerous. Guys in full armour can die from jousting injuries, but somehow Arthur thinks it's cool to make Merlin just stand there in his normal clothes holding a tiny little ring above his head? If Arthur had fucked up and hit low Merlin would've been dead. Blah blah, I don't care how confident Arthur is in his abilities, he could still have gotten distracted by commotion in the town or had a bee fly into his face or anything and BANG, there's Merlin with his neck broken or his skull punched in.

I know, I know, we're not meant to take this stuff seriously, it's supposed to be all HAHA poor Merlin LOL, but I'm sorry, this is just too much.

Sigh.

Also, I have never said this before, but based on that preview I'm not sure I even want to bother watching the next episode, it looks nothing but depressing and infuriating. Time to go rewatch series 1, select bits of the latter half of series 2, and the Merlin/Gwaine clips from 3x04 and 3x08.