Merlin: 5:09 With All My Heart

[tanous]

Merlin... the show that teaches its fans what Stockholm Syndrome is all about. This week my expectations were so low that I expected literally nothing, other than more slaps in the face to the fans who give a shit about Arthur and/or Merlin. I expected another ordeal of grandiose tries at fairytale moments, flowery gestures and gruesomely soppy

Comments

[tanoshi_ame]

Again, very spot on review. I feel the same. It's ridiculous how easy to... accept it just because how low expectation has become. As for the reveal, the length they go just to dodge it is frustrating, but as I said before, I want Gwen to have no part in it so in someway I'm glad. Can't imagine how horribly it could play out if Merlin decided to out himself because of True Love. Gross. Keep away, Gwen. My 'watch for Colin' mantra must have worked already. Keep up for the next 4 eps and I'm good. Trust Colin to make every of his scenes gold, and I love how without words he still makes it clear where Merlin stands on the relationship with each character. Though I also agree that Arthur, Gaius, Mordred and Morgana are pretty enjoyable this episode too. Actually, I always see more subtlety in Morgana than Gwen, but I'm glad it comes across again stronger this time. Gwen, well I normally don't make a point of it either, but yeah, boobs in your face, cannot not see. Also kind of sad that's about all I can remember from her

[englaroma]

"This is something that's bugged me for a while, this insistence form loads of people in fandom that Merlin and Gwen are BFFs when it's as clear as day they are not."

It really baffles me too - it's like saying that Merlin and Morgana are still friends. The moment someone becomes a threat to Arthur, Merlin considers them his enemy, it's been made pretty clear. I have no doubt that if Freya had ever wanted to kill Arthur, he would have turned away from her too.

And let's not forget that this is the Gwen who had Merlin thrown in the dungeon and flaunted her superiority in front of him, safe in the assumption that Merlin wouldn't dare say a word to Arthur. (Which makes it even more disappointing that we didn't get to see the conversation that led up to Arthur and Merlin spying on Gwen.)

[tanoshi_ame]

"Will they finally get their first kiss?"
Pffff. Saw that one. Was stunned for a second that a "first kiss after marriage" notion might exist somewhere. Though that might as well be a first kiss after copulating, if we're talking continuity.

It's ridiculous how TPTB started to sell S5 as a story of 4 main characters when it was always about M/A before. Gwen is obviously irrelevant, has always been without Lancelot; Morgana whose story actually has an importance gets less screen time than Gwen so what are we supposed to think? Tch.

I choose to give Colin the credit for Merlin's very matter-of-fact approach to saving Gwen.I can definitely think like that. Sometimes what amazes me more than Colin's acting is how he interprets and internalizes these new characteristics for Merlin in the first place. These little things, like this instance, are all great material for fics, too bad most writers prefer to either ignore or take them in a horribly contorted way. I'm still waiting for a Merlin+Mordred fic that actually reflects the dynamic

[tanous]

Im fascinated by fandoms embrace of Mordred. If he's been played by Nat Parker and Alex had played Agravaine do you think the response would have been different? I do. ALl it takes is a cute young actor and suddenly allowances are made.

Do you think TPTB are selling it only now as 4 characters? Id say theyve had that idea for a long time though there are the two main ones. Morgana is easy to write for but Gwen? She is the blandest character you could have as Bradley tacitly acknowledged. She is essentially Teflon; no guilt no faults, no consequences. To hear that they came close to letting her actually kiss Lancelot/betray Arthur of her own free will and then they changed it to give her the Bracelet of Excuses - how infuriating is that? I assume the people who guided early S4 were going for a great SL and the Arwen fangirls who took it over decided to go for the kiddie version. I love that Bradley was pissed off about that and that he wanted her to be genuinely evil this year thus imploding the tyranny of the Disney romance and

[tanoshi_ame]

Yeah while I'm also guilty of embracing Mordred right from 5.02, when I looked around the fandom, actually astounded they also did but for a completely different reason. Granted this Mordred is not the same as Asa's but people can't just not take Asa!Mordred into consideration when debate the new one. And even if that's possible, I think the calculating gleams are still very visible in every ep he's in, when talking to Merlin. That's the interesting thing for me. But look around and people mostly coo at how innocent and cute he is. Huh.

I wonder of Angel kind of wanted that too.
Me too. I don't have an understanding of how she views or what she wants for the character, reading her interviews never tell me anything. Though I guess to sign up for the role in the first place, she must have expected to play that storyline as it was intended.

[zerda_vulpes]

I admit I’ve always loved Mordred’s character, straight from his first apparition as Asa and was a bit upset we didn’t get to see him more in the early seasons, so when he appeared as Alex, I was delighted. His portrayal is indeed different from Asa’s but I think too that we can see this calculating gleam in his glances and he is far from innocent (he did stab Morgana in the back

[tanoshi_ame]

They might see him as what should have been the perfect hero of the show, a sort of Merlin (hiding his magic, believing in Arthur) with perfect morals and that would be why they are turning on Merlin now for not being as Gary Stuish as (what they see in) Mordred.Can't disagree with you there, especially the Gary Stuish comment. It's exactly because we don't know where he stands at the moment that makes the automatically putting him above Merlin/Morgana by fans unnerve me so much. I think, because he's an unknown, fans can just assume all these better qualities about him, a bit like how S1 Merlin was popularly viewed/portrayed as a complete fluffball when he already had a bit of darkness and vengeance even then, only unaddressed. I think it's unfair that some fans make such judgement without considering the battering down that pushed both Merlin and Morgana off the track, nor the beauty in their failure. For now, what I know from interviews is that Mordred is ambitious; what I know from the eps: Not A Clue. But, for all that Mordred

[zerda_vulpes]

I’m totally with you on the parallel Mordred/Merlin from season 1, he was darker than popularly viewed (killing in cold blood!).
You’re right, it’s not that he cares more; I think it made me feel that way because he is often the one that reminds the audience that Merlin too, cares. And I guess there is the fact that he’s trying to bond with two sorcerers (Morgana, Merlin, btw does that show that he is ambitious that those two are the most powerful sorcerers in Albion?) whereas, in this season, Merlin hasn’t and is, in fact, hostile towards one (Mordred, which is understandable but which again proves that he puts Arthur above magic and since, as you said, Mordred is an unknown variable, we could imagine that he would have chosen magic over Arthur in ep5 would the choice have been his to made).
He’s not a better person to me either, but is certainly written to seem so…

there's one thing that both Merlin and Morgana have over him: loyalty
He seems pretty loyal to Arthur (for the moment at last), no?

[englaroma]

I think part of Mordred's appeal comes from the writers' insistence to make him say, over and over again, that Merlin can trust him. Which is a bit like the constant repetition of Arthur loving Gwen "more than anything" - only add a great screen chemistry between Colin and Alex, and the fans' desperate wish that Merlin have someone to confide in, someone to trust.

It's easy to ignore Mordred's background when everyone else in the show does, and not to question that his loyalty for Morgana didn't last long either.

[tanoshi_ame]

No, I don't consider that a true loyalty, at least not the scale of Merlin, who chooses Arthur from the start and betrays everything else, or Morgana, who's pretty loyal to the ones who she thinks as her own. Mordred was very quick to backstab her, regardless of reasons.

[calaerel]

I wonder if Angel kind of wanted that too

Sometimes I get the feeling that Angel tries to play Gwen as less than the perfect Mary Sue in true love that the script sets her up to be. 4x01/4x02 and 4x09 with the Queen comment all gave me vibes of Gwen trying to secure the best possible future for herself as opposed to actually being in love with Arthur. :/

[marvelpku]

The Arthur and Gwen romance is the gay beard for this show. Then you will understand how hard they need to work on that.

[tanous]

Haha - in a nutshell, yes it seem to be just that! :)

[tanous]

As Ive said above I dont understand the minds of the Arthur/Gwen stans either. Im prepared to believe that everything else in the show they presumably love as much as we do (magic, Merlin, persecution, Albion, Arthur as great king etc etc) has passed them by and all they've got out of it is Gwen and The Romance, but I'll never understand it. As Bee tends to say 'I'd love to know what they're smoking'. Ive seen infuriated, entitled demands all over for a kiss. Why?? To them yet another bland passionless Disney kiss is more important than the magic reveal, no Albion, Mordred's intentions, Camlann, Arthurs death or anything else the show was actually meant to be about. Mind you I also saw one peroson who was only interested in Morganas redemption and nothing else mattered. Colour me Bewildered

[merlenhiver]

Mind you pre season we were told (Capps or Murphy) we would have a trio this year of Merlin, Arthur and Gwen because 'Three is better than two' - now where else have we heard that?

Excuse me while I go vomit in a corner. That phrase almost made me want to punch the screen.