Merlin: 5:13 The Diamond of the Day Part 2

[tanous]

I can honestly say that the last position I thought Id find myself in after 5.13 would be feeling defensive of it. Yet weirdly as I read forums and reviews pointing out its many flaws, or Arwen fans sniping that there was no goodbye with violins with specially imported backlit window and no kiss  cough I find myself almost bristling. Which is

Comments

[gatepromise]

OH MY FUCKING GOD.

If they can deliver an episode like that at the end, WHYWHYWHY have they given us such shit for the rest of this series and last half of series four???

Merlin & Arthur. That's what this show is about, that's why it's worked. I'm glad someone finally realized it.

Please...just hold me.

[sforthewicked]

I'm holding you... It was devastating to see that last scene of Arthur and Merlin. I'm still crying here.

[arwyn_t]

And I'm holding both of you. There there, sisters...

[reverie_indigo]

But there were only three things that happened: Camlann (6 minutes), reveal (about a minute) then 35 minutes of dragging Arthur around a forest with five largely repetitive lines of dialog and than a weak "Thank you." That's it. The "Just hold me" was pretty much the only reward we got for 5 years and 65 hours of viewing. Well, I guess it's really 36.4 hours because I doubt any of us watch it with commercials. But still.

The rest was filler. We never really knew the blonde, or if she had a relationship with Gwaine, so who cared about any of that? Then some Morgana mean to henchmen and searching around the forest, with Merlin wasting huge amounts of time talking to and hiding from.

Percival's implausible muscle moment was irrelevant, because it was too late to do anything.

The ending. No comment. None needed.

[tanous]

I think to be honest it depends what you watched for primarily.:) I entirely understand and share your frustration about the holes on the plot (as I mentioned int he review) and if you've read back on this journal you'll see Ive been ranting about the way the shows been going for one and a half seasons.:P But in the end this episode was so so much more than I ever thought it would be, knowing Camlann was coming and a reveal had to be packed in. Incredibly TPTB made the episode (at long last) about Merlin and Arthur and their love for each other; they stopped trying to hose down the chemistry and instead for this one last time, let it fly

[reverie_indigo]

I watched it for the same reason you did, but the suddenness of Arthur's transformation from someone who has treated Merlin like absolute crap from 4.7 to 5.12 into "I love you" caused the end to have less impact than it could have. Maybe that's a good thing, or I'd still be curled in a fetal position. It had a bit of "I'm about to die anyway so why not?" to it

[tanous]

As Ive said I cant argue with you about the plot holes or stupidities. But going into 513, I expected so much less than I got from it. Nothing in that ep was going to change what went before (though I think I see the Merlin/Arthur relationship as less appalling then you do? I think there was always huge feeling there). In the end I cant see what more they could have given in 5.13 to fans of Merlin and Arthur given they were going to end Arthur come what may. I'd gone through the stages of grieving and come to acceptance before the last ep began - all that remained was to see how they treated the relationship between Merlin and Arthur at the end and how they would leave it; with hope or without. The only thing that really pissed me off was the lazy-thinking last shot of Dragoon but ...

Given Arthur was going to die/end up in Avalon, what did you want or expect to see yourself?

[tanous]

Thats exactly what I thought as the closing titles ran. Huge sadness, joy and utter frustration - all the typical Merlin feels. :)