Great review. I found myself nodding along as I read, however at the end concluded with a different feeling regarding Merlin's part. I can't bring myself to hate Merlin yet; first and foremost, Colin's performance saved it for me, delivering some irritating lines with hidden depth, convincing enough about how there's more to it. As for the character as was written, it's as you said.
You know, the moment I'm officially besotted with his character is when he poisoned Morgana. He became layered then, made a choice and live with consequences, full of regrets and emotional conflicts. S5 sounds like there will be plenty of that if Mordred is kept in such positive light, and I'm interested. Truthfully, Merlin's obsession with either Arthur or his destiny with Arthur, Merlin being vicious, treading fine line of moral ambiguity, losing sight of other things etc.... all of which I'm actually happy to see happen to him. For one thing, they paint him as fallible as any human (before becoming a legendary figure), and how he went from S1's naivety, purity to this makes sense, however saddening it is. S5 follows Merlin's "development" (word used loosely) from S4, so if instead we got a well-adjusted Merlin who has matured during the 3 years that we didn't see, then I would be angry. I would rather watch a character fall to such low and get up again, instead of, say, Gwen, who is her own person now, but the journey there is non-existent, for me at this point she's simply redundant.
Merlin reminds me of SPN's Castiel who rises and falls for pretty much the same reason and his character is the one that went to places the most when looking back from end point. Merlin's is still getting there, and I will still care enough to see which whill it be for him. So, angry, no. Fearing that this might in-fact be end-point for his character, yes, because let's face it, his current phase has been lasting too long and we'd be lucky enough if a development happens somewhere in the next 11 eps, to say nothing of how it would be executed.
You know, the moment I'm officially besotted with his character is when he poisoned Morgana. He became layered then, made a choice and live with consequences, full of regrets and emotional conflicts. S5 sounds like there will be plenty of that if Mordred is kept in such positive light, and I'm interested. Truthfully, Merlin's obsession with either Arthur or his destiny with Arthur, Merlin being vicious, treading fine line of moral ambiguity, losing sight of other things etc.... all of which I'm actually happy to see happen to him. For one thing, they paint him as fallible as any human (before becoming a legendary figure), and how he went from S1's naivety, purity to this makes sense, however saddening it is. S5 follows Merlin's "development" (word used loosely) from S4, so if instead we got a well-adjusted Merlin who has matured during the 3 years that we didn't see, then I would be angry. I would rather watch a character fall to such low and get up again, instead of, say, Gwen, who is her own person now, but the journey there is non-existent, for me at this point she's simply redundant.
Merlin reminds me of SPN's Castiel who rises and falls for pretty much the same reason and his character is the one that went to places the most when looking back from end point. Merlin's is still getting there, and I will still care enough to see which whill it be for him. So, angry, no. Fearing that this might in-fact be end-point for his character, yes, because let's face it, his current phase has been lasting too long and we'd be lucky enough if a development happens somewhere in the next 11 eps, to say nothing of how it would be executed.
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