Merlin: 5.13 Commentary
I hadn’t quite intended on commenting on Julian Murphy’s eye-popping commentary on 5:13 because…well I thought it pretty much spoke eloquently for itself. But I reckoned of course without the formidable powers of denial and provocation within the Merlin fandom. And the nagging powers of gatepromise :P So here I am again, dander up once more
Frankly, some of ( Read more... )
Wasn't there a young warlock once who yearned the return of magic? Who told every one of his kin that one day a certain King would change the law and they'd all be free? Wasn't his magic supposed to help do that? And... what did happen after all? "Magic has no place in Camelot". Not unless it's for Arthur. Arthur, Arthur, Arthur. Arthur who did NOTHING for magic after all. Arthur who actually did nothing grand to begin with, four years of ruling are hardly grand.
Blind devotion? Obsession with destiny? Love?? All I know is that Merlin worked himself into a corner and brought the end himself. And that is NOT the Merlin we saw in series 1 and 2. And serving a man who is not actually great, suppressing your own nature and betraying your kin is... something to really wonder about to put it mildly.
But hey, they loved each other, Merlin and Arthur. In a romantic way. So... what? Am I supposed to bask in that light? It is enough to excuse all? Am I supposed to grab that and say thank you? I think that is what Murphy wanted, to digress fans. He offered the succulent steak, the denied bone, and fans grabbed it like a man in the desert grabs a glass of water. Cheap trick (not bait). And it worked. Fans are delighted that the (b)romance is confirmed, they deal with that, the travesty of the botched reveal (which almost didn't happen!!!!!!!) and f***ed up premise forgotten. They loved each other. Yaaaaaay.....
Ah... 1x10,"The Moment of Truth"
Merlin: I trust Arthur with my life.
Will: Is that so? So he knows your secret, then? Face it, Merlin, you're living a lie, just like you were here. You're Arthur's servant, nothing more. Otherwise you'd tell him the truth.
And servant he remained, living in a lie, until the very end. The VERY very end, when it mattered little after all.
But hey, they *loved* each other. Confirmed. Bless.
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In S5 though they seemed to hone Merlin down to ARTHUR, the man he loved - nothing else came close, not Camelot, not Gwen, not the crown and not, in the end, magic. He'd stopped being about destiny and greatness and he'd become about his human love for Arthur. In 5.13 I think we saw very clearly too that it was returned and JMs commentary confirmed it which is one reason I appreciated it - though TBH I always saw that mutual love between M and A as the strongest thing in the show even as the writers shoved in the endless 'Arthur is uniquely horrible to Merlin while being lovely to everyone else' scenes which were never explained once Arthur stopped being a prat in general.
Yes Merlin lived a lie to near the end and if we'd had another season I think its clear he'd have lived a lie for another 13 eps because the reveal was always going to be the last gasp. They couldn't deal with anything else - they didn't seem to have the imagination. But STILL, when they finally allowed the show to return to the honesty it had in its first season, when they finally cut the crap, watching 5.13 I could remember why I fell in love with it. And yes that raises all the issues of what a huge, horrible, obscene waste it was, when they were always capable of so much more - as 5.13 sort of proved to me - if only they hadnt' been such cowards.
But I expected nothing and I got 5.13, and Im personally grateful for that.
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