Merlin - The Diamond of the Day Part One

[seravia]

The Diamond of the Day Part One (Season 5, Episode 12)

Let me direct your attention to this poem by Edwin Muir:

“O Merlin in your crystal cave
Deep in the diamond of the day,
Will there ever be a singer
Whose music will smooth away
The furrow drawn by Adam’s finger
Across the memory and the wave?
Or a runner who’ll outrun
Man’s long shadow driving on,
Break

Comments

[gempire]

Yay! Young Merlin in the final, I was starting to worry that we'd be stuck with Dragoon, which would be most unfair.

This episode was a brilliant lead in to the finale.

I know they could have done more with Merlin losing his magic, but they left it too late to explore it fully, if it had happened two episodes back then they would have had more room to explore it. Of course then it wouldn't have made sense that Morgana would disarm Merlin and then sit back and wait before attacking. I was just glad that Merlin thought of a way to help himself and that it worked, this episode and we weren't left with the cliff-hanger of whether Merlin would gt his power back.

One thing I didn't quite get, why didn't Merlin take a sword as well? I know he asked Gwaine to go with him because Merlin is not very skilled with a sword and there's no way he could defend himself against bandits on his own, but we've seen him use a sword. He even managed well against Morgana, so he's got some basic sword skills, it's not all magic. They still could have had vulnerable Merlin without his magic when the bandit knocks him down, but at least he wasn't leaving Gwaine do all the fighting. If it wasn't for the fact that Gwaine is a super wicked fighter, and doesn't mind getting in a few dirty moves now and then, I'd be really worried about him giving Merlin his sword and heading back through bandit country unarmed.

It was stupid for Morgana to choose to fight at night, unless she gave all her soldiers night vision. Maybe she's just hoping that having a larger number it doesn't matter if her side hack each other up in the process they're bound to take out the knights too. At first I thought she was sending Mordred around the back way with a few men to sneaky-sneaky-stabby-stabby. At least to take out the key players before the battle. And then she was pushing for battle in the dark. Yeah you'll catch your enemy off-guard, but you're also at a disadvantage.

There should be more knights, and what about regular soldiers?

Those niggles aside, this was a fairly solid episode. This is what Merlin should be, with strong performances all round and a natural cliff-hanger, not a forced one. It is such a shame it has to end and I only hope tomorrows episode will be something special to go out on.

Thanks for another great review and I hope you enjoy your time in Oxford.

[seravia]

I know. I'm so glad we're getting young Merlin in the finale. I would cry if we never got young Merlin again. I wish the producers just stuck with creating their own Arthurian legend canon rather than trying to squeeze their idea into the confines of the original. Let their Merlin shine for once!

These last couple episodes have been really good. Surprisingly so. If this was the quality they kept through the entire series, there's no way they would be ending the show after 5 seasons. The actors might actually want to stay.

As nervous as I was for Merlin in those thirty minutes he didn't have magic, they could've dragged it out longer. This is the kind of drama and suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Not their ridiculously drawn out evil!Gwen storyline. Seriously. Evil!Gwen got three episodes and magic-less Merlin got 30 minutes. Now if they'd switched the two around... maybe we'd have something to work with.

Merlin should've taken a sword, shouldn't he? It would certainly make sense. He even had a sword with him in Another's Sorrow when he went to save Arthur. It's not like Merlin to rely completely on someone else. He doesn't like feeling like a deadweight.

Morgana choosing to fight at night didn't hit me until my second watch through. We can see (obviously), so it didn't really register that, oh wait, fighting at night is a bad idea for both sides. But when I did realize it, I was like... why, Morgana, why? I guess I wouldn't be surprised if all she was thinking of was putting the Camelot soldiers at a disadvantage. It's not as if she cares about her own men.

I just don't understand why Camelot is /always/ at a disadvantage. They're clearly powerful. But power needs to be backed by a strong army. Otherwise, why would anyone listen to them? This strong army seems all but nonexistent. Obviously, I don't expect to know the names and faces of every soldier, but Morgana outnumbering them 5 to 1? What? Where did Morgana find all these men? Why couldn't Camelot? You'd think that an entire kingdom can at least /match/ Morgana's army.

I will join you in your hope that tomorrow's episode is something special. :)

[marvelpku]

Thanks for the review. The evil Gwen story which went no where and had no consequence was most dull and complete waste of time.