Analysis of Merlin 210: Sweet Dreams
Okay, so, I'm seeing a lot of love and a lot of hate for this episode, mostly on random levels of spaz. People with serious personal investment in the show hated the ep, people sitting back for comedy loved it. I've got issues with both.
And, I give up all together on the linear reviewing. Character by character is much easier. ^_^
Vivienne - The Catalyst
1.) Flatter Than Year Old Soda: Yes, she's one-dimensional as they come, ditzy, bitchy, ect. - that's kinda the point. Get us to not like her, solely for the effect of comedy. And so we find it funny, first and foremost, at the end when she's left under the enchantment - it's her dues for being such a bitch to everyone. There's a reason the writers made sure we hated her within five lines.
2.) Innocent: Anyone else notice that "uuhh..." look on her face when daddy called her innocent? And how she's seen her father run at someone with a knife, before, due to them being affectionate towards her? Hey, it's gotta come from somewhere.
(Side note - any other Americans, during that scene, get a mental image of those students victims of abstinence-only education who have anal sex and say they're virgins because they haven't had anything up their vagina? Or was that just me?)
Gwen - If You Morons Will Try Watching The Show Without Slash Goggle For Just a Moment...
1.) I Hate To Break It To You, But They're All Straight: Yup, that's right - as much as we love to slash them incessantly and the actors themselves don't mind adding in the undertones, or at least not actively acting the undertones away, their characters are all straight. Stop hating on Gwen just for stealing Arthur away from Merlin - she's not. Merlin had Freya (more on that later), and Arthur wants her. That's canon. Get over it.
ETA: Look, I love slash just as much as the next person. Hell, I've published over 64,000 words in Arthur/Merlin slash, and I've probably written about twice as much grand total. But thing about fanfiction is that it is all about what the show doesn't do. And this is namely slash, because this is still a children's show, and the majority of The People are stuck-up idiots who think homosexuality need to be reserved for grown-ups. Why, I do not know - I've told my 8-year-old little brother all about it and he's just fine. But, sadly, we are not the majority. We'll just have to wait for the world to come to its senses, but until then - canon = straight.
2.) What Happened To Lancelot?: - He left, remember? Look, I'm not sure if you noticed, but apart from a brief conversation with Merlin or two, she's not actually talking about any of this with anyone - we're left to infer things from her actions and Angel's acting. For all we know, she is thinking about Lancelot - probably while being stood up by Arthur. However, Lancelot left her, and right now, she can't depend on him to come back - she has every right and reason to focus on Arthur.
3.) I Don't Buy Any of It: Again, take off the slash goggles and the romance won't seem as forced. At the beginning, after escaping Vivienne, Arthur actually slumps against a wall by her - relaxing big time, in front of a servant. He trusts her. And for a moment before it becomes awkward, there, it is relaxed - they're laughing and joking together, carefree as guy and girl, not Prince and Maidservant. This matters. Then, of course, they remember who they're with and the unanswered kiss thing. Believe me, when you're dealing with someone who you expressed romantic interest in but aren't quite sure where they stand with you, it's awkward as hell. That's the story of a quarter of my middle school career for you, right there.
The rest of it looks weird because Arthur's enchanted, and kiss is definitely weird because of the whole magic fucking with Arthur's brains bit. But afterwards, Arthur goes through and apologizes to her on his own with the flower. Which leads to...
4.) Gwen's Reaction to Arthur's Apology: She basically tells Arthur she'll never be queen and that it's best if they don't bother. Now, we all know she's going to be queen, one day, anyway, as Arthur's king and changes the rules or something. But, this sets the precedent for her thought process which will likely result in her cheating on Arthur with Lancelot.
To be honest, this entire romance was actually well planned out. A long time ago, Arthur and Gwen both being nobles in a probably-arranged marriage and still being faithful to each other/loving each other would have worked as a good storyline. But today, even little kids get the lack of love in arranged marriages and will probably figures, when Lance comes in, "Oh, Arthur doesn't mind, they don't love each other!". So, they make her a maid - the only way she'll get married to Arthur is by love, not politics.
But now, as much as she loves Arthur, he's shown that he's not the best person to rely on. That even if he loves her, she may be left out or behind. And left waiting for Lancelot. Not to mention this episode is a big shift in her character - we see her being hurt, emotionally, in a way that she hasn't remotely felt since her rescue from Hengist. This is a big maturation in her character. Not to mention we also see hints at her being more romantically aggressive towards the end in the way she kissed Arthur.
All this is a set up of her marrying Arthur and becoming Queen for love...and still cheating on him. This hints at her cheating on him with Lancelot because she's left unsatisfied. And as flightly and unreliable as Lancelot, he's truly chivalrous and he's passionate. You can work out the disastrous combination here for yourselves.
Uther - Yes, This Is Actually Important
Okay, three things I want to bring up in here.
1.) Why, Yes, This Is a Touch of Redemption: We see the realer Uther. So far, he's been a largely one-dimensional character, a ruthless tyrant. But he's been described as respected by the people - not just feared by them. Why? Perhaps it's because outside of his paranoia, he's a good king. Even in legends, Arthur didn't build Camelot from scratch - it already had an excellent foundation to be a great kingdom and that was laid down by Uther. Here, we see him making the efforts to invite the other kings over for peace talks. Quite frankly, Uther would benefit from war, personally, as he appears to have an excellent army and could easy win wars. He could justifiably charge higher taxes, and make a bigger name for himself, and have damn good reason and inspiration to keep his army in top shape, which is rarely anything but great for a king, to look good and intimidate and be ready to conquer in an instant.
But instead, he makes peace. Why? Because war would hurt his people around him. He knows this and cares. Remember how even while yelling at Arthur about sorcery during the unicorn episode, Uther was going around trying to feed as many people as possible? How he was willing to die for his son in Excalibur? And how he let Gaius speak up about his paranoia on magic at the end of The Witchfinder? Uther isn't going to be The Great King Arthur will be. But he is still a fairly good king. As much as Arthur learned some nobility and justice indirectly from Merlin and all the trouble he's caused, he was already somewhat noble beforehand - he had to have learned that from somewhere.
2.) Trickler and Why He Wasn't Called Out: First off, Uther's got the other kings to contend with. They are of equal rank to him, which means that Uther's power is suddenly severely limited. Second of all, Trickler is part of Alined's royal party, and seems was brought as a type of gift by Alined himself for the court's entertainment. To accuse Trickler of magic would be to offend Alined, and these are peace talks - offense is best avoided (which is exactly why Alined goes through such lengths to cause it). Thirdly, the lines between magic and science are blurred quite dramatically back then (how Gaius likely got away with using bits of magic here and there - for all Uther knows, it's just a miracle of science). As far as Uther is concerned, Trickler is a terrible servant and yet a very good jester. Uther may or may not have suspected the man of magic - but it was only a suspicion, there was much more at stake, and the man was only 'conjuring butterflies', and quite frankly, even Uther probably knows just how badly this could go.
3.) "What Happened To Him?": Believe it or not, this is important, too. Previously, he didn't notice Merlin at all, except when he supposedly did something stupid to cover for Arthur. To him, Merlin was just the city idiot. His views on Merlin are directly related to his views on Arthur - he first met Merlin when Merlin saved Arthur's life. The next time he walked with Merlin on a personal basis, it was to tell Merlin to take care of Arthur for him as he went off to face his death not knowing he had Excalibur. The next time was at the end of Sins of the Father - he thanks Merlin for talking Arthur down and saving his sanity, essentially, and helping fight against magic (which is major brownie points in Uther's book). And even he could probably see that as much as Merlin is a terrible manservant, he's loyal to Arthur and is excellent at his job when the stakes break the ceiling and everything really counts.
So it really shows just how much his views have changed that when Arthur's weirdness starts to get really out of proportion, he doesn't ask Arthur, himself, or the air, or god - the first thing he does is ask Merlin, "What happened to him?". And he doesn't seem to think of Merlin as an idiot when Merlin shrugs and gives him the "I don't know" look. And they actually share a brief exasperated look when Arthur's doe-eyes factor goes up again, before he storms out.
In other words? He's noticing Merlin. And not just as Arthur's idiot, or even just Arthur's manservant. Merlin is someone that can be trusted. Servants would usually have to stay with someone much longer before they can achieve such levels of trust and informality from their masters.
And something on servants as a whole: I doubt Arthur and Merlin's relationship was truly that unique in whole - I suspect only the speed at which it reached there is remarkable, but if someone is dressing, feeding, and cleaning up after you and taking care of you for long periods of time, it's hard for anyone to remain completely detached. Part of the reason that being a high noble's servant can be such an honor is that after a while, you have a very powerful person's trust in you, and that can give you a lot of power in turn. Remember how Hunith, a peasant from another kingdom, managed to gain an individual audience with the king (as in, there were no other peasants waiting in line right behind her for the king's help)? It was because her son was the prince's servant.
All this plays together dramatically - think of just how much everything is going to impact more if/when Merlin's magic is discovered. After all, not only did Arthur trust Merlin, Uther trusted Merlin - with Arthur. He's trusting this by with his son's wellbeing, and the Heir to the Throne's life.
Arthur and Merlin - Believe It or Not, They Weren't All That Important
1.) Dude, they're the main characters!: Yes, I know. That doesn't mean they get all the limelight.
2.) How Is This Not About Arthur?: There was little development in his character, here. It was comedy, it was fun, and it moved his romance with Gwen forward a touch (which I already explained above), but otherwise, this was to make us feel better after last week's episode.
3.) Well...Okay, I Lied: There was one thing important - what he did in the arena, of not killing Olaf. He a.) shows how he's stopped letting his pride get the better of him (showed a few episodes ago), b.) demonstrated some good political skill, and c.) established a strong relationship with Olaf's kingdom - after all, he spared the man's life.
4.) Merlin: Actually seems to be having the time of his life, up until he realizes Arthur's enchanted. Interesting, though, that he never finds out who did it.
And All The Rest - "Oh, god, not over yet?" Nope
1.) Trickler: Some people have been upset at the villain acting gay. I feel the need to point out at the end of it, he did everything right and exactly what he was told, and he still got punished, anyway. We pitied him in the end. Didn't you?
2.) I'm Sick of True Love's Kiss: Yes, but see, the kids who are the main target of the show are not. Besides which, this was about Gwen, and her relationship to Arthur. And it brought back the popular idea that love is the most power force in the universe. Ring a bell, anyone?
3.) Morgana: I gave the Lady her own post in the form of the trailer discussion.
And To Wrap It All Up With a Nice Pretty Bow...
Overall, this episode wasn't meant to be serious. It was comedy, intended to be a break from all the angst of the last few episodes, and give us an advancement closer to the original legends in the form of Gwen and Arthur's relationship. Considering how much of a sweet girl Gwen is, this was a great way to show how she ends up being able to cheat on Arthur. Otherwise, it was also a fun way to see how close Merlin is to Arthur.
And, discussion on the trailer for 211: The Witch's Quickening.
Encontralo aqui
And, I give up all together on the linear reviewing. Character by character is much easier. ^_^
Vivienne - The Catalyst
1.) Flatter Than Year Old Soda: Yes, she's one-dimensional as they come, ditzy, bitchy, ect. - that's kinda the point. Get us to not like her, solely for the effect of comedy. And so we find it funny, first and foremost, at the end when she's left under the enchantment - it's her dues for being such a bitch to everyone. There's a reason the writers made sure we hated her within five lines.
2.) Innocent: Anyone else notice that "uuhh..." look on her face when daddy called her innocent? And how she's seen her father run at someone with a knife, before, due to them being affectionate towards her? Hey, it's gotta come from somewhere.
(Side note - any other Americans, during that scene, get a mental image of those students victims of abstinence-only education who have anal sex and say they're virgins because they haven't had anything up their vagina? Or was that just me?)
Gwen - If You Morons Will Try Watching The Show Without Slash Goggle For Just a Moment...
1.) I Hate To Break It To You, But They're All Straight: Yup, that's right - as much as we love to slash them incessantly and the actors themselves don't mind adding in the undertones, or at least not actively acting the undertones away, their characters are all straight. Stop hating on Gwen just for stealing Arthur away from Merlin - she's not. Merlin had Freya (more on that later), and Arthur wants her. That's canon. Get over it.
ETA: Look, I love slash just as much as the next person. Hell, I've published over 64,000 words in Arthur/Merlin slash, and I've probably written about twice as much grand total. But thing about fanfiction is that it is all about what the show doesn't do. And this is namely slash, because this is still a children's show, and the majority of The People are stuck-up idiots who think homosexuality need to be reserved for grown-ups. Why, I do not know - I've told my 8-year-old little brother all about it and he's just fine. But, sadly, we are not the majority. We'll just have to wait for the world to come to its senses, but until then - canon = straight.
2.) What Happened To Lancelot?: - He left, remember? Look, I'm not sure if you noticed, but apart from a brief conversation with Merlin or two, she's not actually talking about any of this with anyone - we're left to infer things from her actions and Angel's acting. For all we know, she is thinking about Lancelot - probably while being stood up by Arthur. However, Lancelot left her, and right now, she can't depend on him to come back - she has every right and reason to focus on Arthur.
3.) I Don't Buy Any of It: Again, take off the slash goggles and the romance won't seem as forced. At the beginning, after escaping Vivienne, Arthur actually slumps against a wall by her - relaxing big time, in front of a servant. He trusts her. And for a moment before it becomes awkward, there, it is relaxed - they're laughing and joking together, carefree as guy and girl, not Prince and Maidservant. This matters. Then, of course, they remember who they're with and the unanswered kiss thing. Believe me, when you're dealing with someone who you expressed romantic interest in but aren't quite sure where they stand with you, it's awkward as hell. That's the story of a quarter of my middle school career for you, right there.
The rest of it looks weird because Arthur's enchanted, and kiss is definitely weird because of the whole magic fucking with Arthur's brains bit. But afterwards, Arthur goes through and apologizes to her on his own with the flower. Which leads to...
4.) Gwen's Reaction to Arthur's Apology: She basically tells Arthur she'll never be queen and that it's best if they don't bother. Now, we all know she's going to be queen, one day, anyway, as Arthur's king and changes the rules or something. But, this sets the precedent for her thought process which will likely result in her cheating on Arthur with Lancelot.
To be honest, this entire romance was actually well planned out. A long time ago, Arthur and Gwen both being nobles in a probably-arranged marriage and still being faithful to each other/loving each other would have worked as a good storyline. But today, even little kids get the lack of love in arranged marriages and will probably figures, when Lance comes in, "Oh, Arthur doesn't mind, they don't love each other!". So, they make her a maid - the only way she'll get married to Arthur is by love, not politics.
But now, as much as she loves Arthur, he's shown that he's not the best person to rely on. That even if he loves her, she may be left out or behind. And left waiting for Lancelot. Not to mention this episode is a big shift in her character - we see her being hurt, emotionally, in a way that she hasn't remotely felt since her rescue from Hengist. This is a big maturation in her character. Not to mention we also see hints at her being more romantically aggressive towards the end in the way she kissed Arthur.
All this is a set up of her marrying Arthur and becoming Queen for love...and still cheating on him. This hints at her cheating on him with Lancelot because she's left unsatisfied. And as flightly and unreliable as Lancelot, he's truly chivalrous and he's passionate. You can work out the disastrous combination here for yourselves.
Uther - Yes, This Is Actually Important
Okay, three things I want to bring up in here.
1.) Why, Yes, This Is a Touch of Redemption: We see the realer Uther. So far, he's been a largely one-dimensional character, a ruthless tyrant. But he's been described as respected by the people - not just feared by them. Why? Perhaps it's because outside of his paranoia, he's a good king. Even in legends, Arthur didn't build Camelot from scratch - it already had an excellent foundation to be a great kingdom and that was laid down by Uther. Here, we see him making the efforts to invite the other kings over for peace talks. Quite frankly, Uther would benefit from war, personally, as he appears to have an excellent army and could easy win wars. He could justifiably charge higher taxes, and make a bigger name for himself, and have damn good reason and inspiration to keep his army in top shape, which is rarely anything but great for a king, to look good and intimidate and be ready to conquer in an instant.
But instead, he makes peace. Why? Because war would hurt his people around him. He knows this and cares. Remember how even while yelling at Arthur about sorcery during the unicorn episode, Uther was going around trying to feed as many people as possible? How he was willing to die for his son in Excalibur? And how he let Gaius speak up about his paranoia on magic at the end of The Witchfinder? Uther isn't going to be The Great King Arthur will be. But he is still a fairly good king. As much as Arthur learned some nobility and justice indirectly from Merlin and all the trouble he's caused, he was already somewhat noble beforehand - he had to have learned that from somewhere.
2.) Trickler and Why He Wasn't Called Out: First off, Uther's got the other kings to contend with. They are of equal rank to him, which means that Uther's power is suddenly severely limited. Second of all, Trickler is part of Alined's royal party, and seems was brought as a type of gift by Alined himself for the court's entertainment. To accuse Trickler of magic would be to offend Alined, and these are peace talks - offense is best avoided (which is exactly why Alined goes through such lengths to cause it). Thirdly, the lines between magic and science are blurred quite dramatically back then (how Gaius likely got away with using bits of magic here and there - for all Uther knows, it's just a miracle of science). As far as Uther is concerned, Trickler is a terrible servant and yet a very good jester. Uther may or may not have suspected the man of magic - but it was only a suspicion, there was much more at stake, and the man was only 'conjuring butterflies', and quite frankly, even Uther probably knows just how badly this could go.
3.) "What Happened To Him?": Believe it or not, this is important, too. Previously, he didn't notice Merlin at all, except when he supposedly did something stupid to cover for Arthur. To him, Merlin was just the city idiot. His views on Merlin are directly related to his views on Arthur - he first met Merlin when Merlin saved Arthur's life. The next time he walked with Merlin on a personal basis, it was to tell Merlin to take care of Arthur for him as he went off to face his death not knowing he had Excalibur. The next time was at the end of Sins of the Father - he thanks Merlin for talking Arthur down and saving his sanity, essentially, and helping fight against magic (which is major brownie points in Uther's book). And even he could probably see that as much as Merlin is a terrible manservant, he's loyal to Arthur and is excellent at his job when the stakes break the ceiling and everything really counts.
So it really shows just how much his views have changed that when Arthur's weirdness starts to get really out of proportion, he doesn't ask Arthur, himself, or the air, or god - the first thing he does is ask Merlin, "What happened to him?". And he doesn't seem to think of Merlin as an idiot when Merlin shrugs and gives him the "I don't know" look. And they actually share a brief exasperated look when Arthur's doe-eyes factor goes up again, before he storms out.
In other words? He's noticing Merlin. And not just as Arthur's idiot, or even just Arthur's manservant. Merlin is someone that can be trusted. Servants would usually have to stay with someone much longer before they can achieve such levels of trust and informality from their masters.
And something on servants as a whole: I doubt Arthur and Merlin's relationship was truly that unique in whole - I suspect only the speed at which it reached there is remarkable, but if someone is dressing, feeding, and cleaning up after you and taking care of you for long periods of time, it's hard for anyone to remain completely detached. Part of the reason that being a high noble's servant can be such an honor is that after a while, you have a very powerful person's trust in you, and that can give you a lot of power in turn. Remember how Hunith, a peasant from another kingdom, managed to gain an individual audience with the king (as in, there were no other peasants waiting in line right behind her for the king's help)? It was because her son was the prince's servant.
All this plays together dramatically - think of just how much everything is going to impact more if/when Merlin's magic is discovered. After all, not only did Arthur trust Merlin, Uther trusted Merlin - with Arthur. He's trusting this by with his son's wellbeing, and the Heir to the Throne's life.
Arthur and Merlin - Believe It or Not, They Weren't All That Important
1.) Dude, they're the main characters!: Yes, I know. That doesn't mean they get all the limelight.
2.) How Is This Not About Arthur?: There was little development in his character, here. It was comedy, it was fun, and it moved his romance with Gwen forward a touch (which I already explained above), but otherwise, this was to make us feel better after last week's episode.
3.) Well...Okay, I Lied: There was one thing important - what he did in the arena, of not killing Olaf. He a.) shows how he's stopped letting his pride get the better of him (showed a few episodes ago), b.) demonstrated some good political skill, and c.) established a strong relationship with Olaf's kingdom - after all, he spared the man's life.
4.) Merlin: Actually seems to be having the time of his life, up until he realizes Arthur's enchanted. Interesting, though, that he never finds out who did it.
And All The Rest - "Oh, god, not over yet?" Nope
1.) Trickler: Some people have been upset at the villain acting gay. I feel the need to point out at the end of it, he did everything right and exactly what he was told, and he still got punished, anyway. We pitied him in the end. Didn't you?
2.) I'm Sick of True Love's Kiss: Yes, but see, the kids who are the main target of the show are not. Besides which, this was about Gwen, and her relationship to Arthur. And it brought back the popular idea that love is the most power force in the universe. Ring a bell, anyone?
3.) Morgana: I gave the Lady her own post in the form of the trailer discussion.
And To Wrap It All Up With a Nice Pretty Bow...
Overall, this episode wasn't meant to be serious. It was comedy, intended to be a break from all the angst of the last few episodes, and give us an advancement closer to the original legends in the form of Gwen and Arthur's relationship. Considering how much of a sweet girl Gwen is, this was a great way to show how she ends up being able to cheat on Arthur. Otherwise, it was also a fun way to see how close Merlin is to Arthur.
And, discussion on the trailer for 211: The Witch's Quickening.
Encontralo aqui