Hm.

[selenak]

I.) Last night I was at the opera. This year, the Munich opera did the entire Ring and last night they showed the final part, the Götterdämmerung. Unfortunately, after the three previous productions were all well sung and imaginatively staged (the first production in which bringing masses of people who aren't in the script on stage actually worked

Comments

[jontinf]

Rubberglue led me to your post, and as strange as it may sound, I wanted to thank you for your refreshing and genuinely rare outlook on the show, particularly in terms of Morgana’s greater culpability in 4x09 and how fandom seems to implicitly erase it because she’s a female character. I remember seeing a Merlin confession once talking about the cruelty of Morgana’s actions, and the response was, “But this episode is about Arthur’s abuse of power.” I don’t understand why fandom can’t address both and at least put Merlin and Arthur’s actions into perspective. Especially Merlin's, who is the show’s POV character.

I definitely don’t think any character needs to be excused or immune from criticism, or that people shouldn’t be allowed to voice such concerns, but the level of group think and vitriol is ridiculous, and I honestly think a lot of the flaws of the storyline has to do with the inconsistency of the writing itself and its dependence on plot conveniences to have Merlin’s version of the story align with the legends, along with the fact that the writers wanted to up the tragedy to the maximum level, thus things are not resolved as quickly as other “enchantment” episodes. I also think that Lucy Watkins wrote a more intricately written screenplay than the follow ups in 4x10 to 4x13.

There’s been a lot of shaming going on in certain parts of the Gwen fandom condemning people for liking Arthur at all, supporting the Arthur/Gwen pairing (not only after 4x09 but retroactively in the entire series, thus voiding the validity of their entire relationship) and the show in general. It’s interesting how essentially shipping AG makes one sexist, but Morgana/Gwen is not problematic at all. I understand if someone feels uncomfortable shipping AG after 4x09, I’ve struggled with my feelings for the pairing as well toward the end of 4 due to what I consider a sloppy resolution. However, I have a tendency to call foul when people bash AG and AG shippers and yet can easily go on shipping other pairings with problems such as Morgana/Gwen.

It’s truly dampened my experience with the show, and I’ve also resorted to keeping my Merlin fan circle small, because I much rather discuss all the other aspects the show offers (that you discuss), such as the future of the storylines, Pendragon family dynamics, character relationships, Morgana’s characterization (Morgana is genuinely the character I find most interesting despite my frustration with her and her woobification in fandom) and the magic politics of Camelot.

Anyway! This is essentially my restating everything you said, and you and rubberglue addressed a lot of important things in the comments, so, um good post! :)

[selenak]

Thank you. Have you read zahrawithaz's Merlin meta? It's terrific, and excellent especially for Gwen's and Morgana's characters (she's another who finds Morgana fascinating but doesn't woobify her), proving that you can analyze the show and point out flaws while also loving the strengths, and she's wonderful at spotting visual and storytelling cues bringing in elements of the various myth versions.

[jontinf]

She's brilliant. Her insights and the information she brings to episodes are so interesting. Another wonderful meta writer like yourself. Thanks.