A Delay on This Week's Review and Some Thoughts About Next Week...
So here’s the deal: after the Christchurch earthquake, Telecom (our national phone network) decided to be generous and reward the entire city with a year’s worth of Broadband. That year has just expired, and I’m back on dial-up speed. I’m sure you can imagine what this feels like. I’ve gone from a convertible to a scooter. That has no wheels.
So I haven’t seen The Death Song of Uther Pendragon yet. By all accounts I wasn’t missing much: I had a look at some of the comments on various message boards and the general consensus seems to be that Anthony Head was wasted, the storyline was bland, and there was little Gwen/no Morgana.
(Incidentally, is anyone else mildly amused that after all that endless whinging and moaning from fandom about how Arthur/Gwen’s marriage would ruin the Sacred Bromance, there has yet to be any meaningful scene between husband and wife? That said, I’m not overly concerned that we won’t get any scenes between them: the beginning of every season is always Merlin/Arthur heavy, and Gwen usually gets more material toward the end).
I’ll get to the episode eventually, but for the moment I’m more intrigued/concerned for what’s coming up next week.
Yup, it’s the Princess Mithian episode. Apparently it’s called Another’s Sorrow, and I run the risk of sounding utterly over-dramatic when I say that this episode will probably make or break the season for me. I want meaningful Guinevere/Mithian interaction more than I can possibly say, so I’ve tossed my “no spoiler” policy out the window in order to gather up as much information as possible. Here are a couple of synopsises that turned up (spoilers):
With Princess Mithian (Janet Montgomery) as the perfect bait, Morgana conjures a deception so powerful that the whole of Camelot is taken in -- even Merlin himself. But as the storm clouds gather, will the young warlock see through the lies? Or will Morgana at long last fulfil her dreams of revenge?
(I’m gonna say: 1. yes 2. no. Just a hunch).
After Odin wrests control of Nemeth from King Rodor and his daughter Princess Mithian, Morgana uses Odin’s thirst for revenge in a plot to take back Camelot. Using an ageing spell, Morgana adopts the guise of Princess Mithian’s maid Hilda and then forces Mithian to return to Camelot to ask Arthur to rescue her father who is in hiding in the forests of Gedref. But unbeknown to the young king - who wants to see Odin pay for killing his father, it’s a deadly trap and Odin - who also wants revenge over the death of his son - is lying in wait with his army poised for attack? Can Merlin see through Morgana’s deception before it’s too late?
So...I’m cautiously optimistic about this. One the one hand, it sounds like yet another plot that hinges on Arthur being an idiot and Merlin doing life-saving magic from behind trees. There’s also going to be a lot of ground to cover, what with the introduction of King Rodor (turns out Mithian had a family after all!) and the reintroduction of King Odin (colour me astonished that they not only remembered this guy and his vendetta, but also brought back the actor last seen way back in season two). As well as this, there looks to be quite a lot of traipsing around the countryside and the usual quota of sword-fighting. This may also be the one where the Merlin/Gwen tension begins, as no doubt Gwen will recognise that this situation has TRAP written all over it, voice her concerns, and be duly ignored.
However, it’s clear that Mithian does get to Camelot, and is - for one scene at least - in the same room as Gwen. Just from that trailer, it would appear that Mithian, Morgana and Guinevere are left in Camelot whilst the boys go off on the rescue mission, which leaves us with the potential for a girl-focused subplot - particularly since the synopsis suggests that Mithian actually knows that Morgana is masquerading as her nursemaid. Does this mean Morgana will target Gwen in Arthur’s absence? And what will Mithian’s reaction to this be?
It’s hard to say what I want from any Gwen/Mithian interaction (beyond the fact that it just exists). But I do know what I DON’T want.
1. I don’t want Mithian to be a Woman Scorned, though I’m actually fairly hopeful that her motivation in this episode will be trying to save her father’s life, rather than revenging herself on Gwen for the whole Hunter’s Heart debacle.
2. I don’t want her to engage in any Character Shilling over Gwen. Now, I love Gwen to bits, but this trope drives me nuts even when it’s done to characters that I admire. To have Mithian start extolling Guinevere’s virtues (along the lines of “oh Arthur, I understand completely why you decided to pass me over for her sake”) would be vaguely insulting to both women. Guinevere doesn’t need to be shilled, and Mithian hardly seems like the sort of woman to do it.
3. I don’t want to see Guinevere as a Clingy Jealous Girl. If she starts glaring daggers over Arthur’s interaction with Mithian, I think I’ll break something. Yet in saying that, I wouldn’t mind so much if Gwen is a little insecure around Mithian, or if Mithian is a bit prickly toward Gwen (provided that they’re friends by the end of the episode). From a Watsonian perspective, that would be a perfectly reasonable reaction to each other, even though I generally despise it when two female characters are pitted against each other over a man. But let’s put it this way: a Kahlan/Anna (The Legend of the Seeker) rapport would be just fine, an Isabella/Kate (Robin Hood) one would be puke-worthy.
One last thing. When browsing through some of the promotional pictures for 5x04, a few of them struck me as immensely familiar. Where had I seen these pictures before...? And then it hit me.
Sick girl.
Sick girl.
Really sick girl.
Really sick girl.
Half-dead girl with added creeper.
Half-dead girl with added creeper.
Just sayin’. It would seem Merlin’s propensity for sickly, fragile, helpless heroines is set to continue.
So I haven’t seen The Death Song of Uther Pendragon yet. By all accounts I wasn’t missing much: I had a look at some of the comments on various message boards and the general consensus seems to be that Anthony Head was wasted, the storyline was bland, and there was little Gwen/no Morgana.
(Incidentally, is anyone else mildly amused that after all that endless whinging and moaning from fandom about how Arthur/Gwen’s marriage would ruin the Sacred Bromance, there has yet to be any meaningful scene between husband and wife? That said, I’m not overly concerned that we won’t get any scenes between them: the beginning of every season is always Merlin/Arthur heavy, and Gwen usually gets more material toward the end).
I’ll get to the episode eventually, but for the moment I’m more intrigued/concerned for what’s coming up next week.
Click to viewYup, it’s the Princess Mithian episode. Apparently it’s called Another’s Sorrow, and I run the risk of sounding utterly over-dramatic when I say that this episode will probably make or break the season for me. I want meaningful Guinevere/Mithian interaction more than I can possibly say, so I’ve tossed my “no spoiler” policy out the window in order to gather up as much information as possible. Here are a couple of synopsises that turned up (spoilers):
With Princess Mithian (Janet Montgomery) as the perfect bait, Morgana conjures a deception so powerful that the whole of Camelot is taken in -- even Merlin himself. But as the storm clouds gather, will the young warlock see through the lies? Or will Morgana at long last fulfil her dreams of revenge?
(I’m gonna say: 1. yes 2. no. Just a hunch).
After Odin wrests control of Nemeth from King Rodor and his daughter Princess Mithian, Morgana uses Odin’s thirst for revenge in a plot to take back Camelot. Using an ageing spell, Morgana adopts the guise of Princess Mithian’s maid Hilda and then forces Mithian to return to Camelot to ask Arthur to rescue her father who is in hiding in the forests of Gedref. But unbeknown to the young king - who wants to see Odin pay for killing his father, it’s a deadly trap and Odin - who also wants revenge over the death of his son - is lying in wait with his army poised for attack? Can Merlin see through Morgana’s deception before it’s too late?
So...I’m cautiously optimistic about this. One the one hand, it sounds like yet another plot that hinges on Arthur being an idiot and Merlin doing life-saving magic from behind trees. There’s also going to be a lot of ground to cover, what with the introduction of King Rodor (turns out Mithian had a family after all!) and the reintroduction of King Odin (colour me astonished that they not only remembered this guy and his vendetta, but also brought back the actor last seen way back in season two). As well as this, there looks to be quite a lot of traipsing around the countryside and the usual quota of sword-fighting. This may also be the one where the Merlin/Gwen tension begins, as no doubt Gwen will recognise that this situation has TRAP written all over it, voice her concerns, and be duly ignored.
However, it’s clear that Mithian does get to Camelot, and is - for one scene at least - in the same room as Gwen. Just from that trailer, it would appear that Mithian, Morgana and Guinevere are left in Camelot whilst the boys go off on the rescue mission, which leaves us with the potential for a girl-focused subplot - particularly since the synopsis suggests that Mithian actually knows that Morgana is masquerading as her nursemaid. Does this mean Morgana will target Gwen in Arthur’s absence? And what will Mithian’s reaction to this be?
It’s hard to say what I want from any Gwen/Mithian interaction (beyond the fact that it just exists). But I do know what I DON’T want.
1. I don’t want Mithian to be a Woman Scorned, though I’m actually fairly hopeful that her motivation in this episode will be trying to save her father’s life, rather than revenging herself on Gwen for the whole Hunter’s Heart debacle.
2. I don’t want her to engage in any Character Shilling over Gwen. Now, I love Gwen to bits, but this trope drives me nuts even when it’s done to characters that I admire. To have Mithian start extolling Guinevere’s virtues (along the lines of “oh Arthur, I understand completely why you decided to pass me over for her sake”) would be vaguely insulting to both women. Guinevere doesn’t need to be shilled, and Mithian hardly seems like the sort of woman to do it.
3. I don’t want to see Guinevere as a Clingy Jealous Girl. If she starts glaring daggers over Arthur’s interaction with Mithian, I think I’ll break something. Yet in saying that, I wouldn’t mind so much if Gwen is a little insecure around Mithian, or if Mithian is a bit prickly toward Gwen (provided that they’re friends by the end of the episode). From a Watsonian perspective, that would be a perfectly reasonable reaction to each other, even though I generally despise it when two female characters are pitted against each other over a man. But let’s put it this way: a Kahlan/Anna (The Legend of the Seeker) rapport would be just fine, an Isabella/Kate (Robin Hood) one would be puke-worthy.
One last thing. When browsing through some of the promotional pictures for 5x04, a few of them struck me as immensely familiar. Where had I seen these pictures before...? And then it hit me.
Sick girl.
Sick girl.
Really sick girl.
Really sick girl.
Half-dead girl with added creeper.
Half-dead girl with added creeper.
Just sayin’. It would seem Merlin’s propensity for sickly, fragile, helpless heroines is set to continue.