Two more thoughts on "The Wicked Day"
1) Thanks to the wonderful hearthesea1, I’ve now seen the original script the BBC made available, and like everyone else I’m tremendously saddened that they cut so much of Gwen’s scripted screen time. Most of the scenes we missed show Gwen and Arthur as unofficial partners, caring for each other in quotidian but very real ways: her wishing him a happy birthday, him watching her with puppy dog eyes, her asking him where he went with Merlin and comforting him. (Though I cannot say I missed yet another scene of Arthur hitting Merlin upside the head).
But one loss really stands out. I cannot believe they cut the scene of Arthur & Gwen discussing magic, and whether the ban on it should be reversed.
Among other things, the original script shows Arthur isn’t motivated solely by the desperate desire to cure his father; he also has a lingering suspicion that his father’s ban-all-magic policy may be unjust. Which is entirely in character for the Arthur we’ve known since series 1, and provides more hope that his better instincts may yet triumph.
It also makes such sense for Arthur to debate his course of action with Gwen-not just because he won’t keep secrets from her, but because she is his future partner in the realm, and because these types of conversation about just ruling have always been part of their relationship. (As close as Merlin and Arthur are, they don’t talk policy the way Gwen and Arthur do, in large part Merlin avoids it as a fraught topic.)
At the same time, we see some of Gwen’s abiding characteristics-her caution and unwillingness to rush to judgment. Gwen doesn’t usually hesitate to tell Arthur exactly what she thinks, but she refrains from commenting overtly on his plan to use magic, because she doesn’t believe she’s sufficiently impartial.
Though she only alludes to her father’s death, Gwen suffered many losses because of magic; but she directly acknowledges her own prejudice. Gwen is more than just the rare good friend who listens to you when you’re upset rather than telling you what to do; she does her best to refrain from worsening an already fraught sitation with her own emotional bias.
There’s also the added subtext of Uther being Gwen’s enemy and the reason her father died, which may complicate her attitude to the plan; in the scene we did get, Gwen (like Merlin) clearly communicates concern that Arthur cannot simply accept Uther’s death as natural and inevitable.
In fact, she grows slowly more supportive and enthusiastic when Arthur speaks of the larger problem of whether magic-users have been unfairly treated-a general principle.
Throughout, we see Gwen’s characteristic caution-this is the character who committed herself to Arthur slowly and with a clear-eyed sense of the obstacles-and for the first time get some insight into Gwen’s own thoughts on magic-mistrust from her personal losses mitigated by her own strong sense of justice. We also see her and Arthur discussing and bonding over the deaths of Tom and Ygrain.
I would really have loved to see what the actors would have done with this.
2). I’ve said this elsewhere, but the phrase “the wicked day” comes from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (though Mary Stewart popularized it by using it as the title to her novel about Mordred, the coda to her trilogy about Merlin). He uses it to describe Arthur's final battle against Mordred, but the actual context is important.
At the end of the battle only Arthur, two of his knights, and Mordred are left alive, and Sir Lucan tells Arthur to just let Mordred go, because "if you leave off now this wicked day of destiny is past."
Arthur, of course, ignores him, fights Mordred, kills him, and receives his own death wound.
The reference for this particular episode is clear, because the BBC versions of both Arthur and Merlin make the same mistake of not leaving well enough alone. The "wicked day" isn't just about being destined to die (though it’s important that in Malory, Arthur is destined to die at his son's hand, like Uther, who falls to both his son and daughter in different ways); it's about the idea of the king creating his own death through his choices, right up to the minute before he breathes his last.
Which clearly applies to Uther here too. The best discussion I’ve seen of how Uther created his own death comes from selenak here.
But one loss really stands out. I cannot believe they cut the scene of Arthur & Gwen discussing magic, and whether the ban on it should be reversed.
Among other things, the original script shows Arthur isn’t motivated solely by the desperate desire to cure his father; he also has a lingering suspicion that his father’s ban-all-magic policy may be unjust. Which is entirely in character for the Arthur we’ve known since series 1, and provides more hope that his better instincts may yet triumph.
It also makes such sense for Arthur to debate his course of action with Gwen-not just because he won’t keep secrets from her, but because she is his future partner in the realm, and because these types of conversation about just ruling have always been part of their relationship. (As close as Merlin and Arthur are, they don’t talk policy the way Gwen and Arthur do, in large part Merlin avoids it as a fraught topic.)
At the same time, we see some of Gwen’s abiding characteristics-her caution and unwillingness to rush to judgment. Gwen doesn’t usually hesitate to tell Arthur exactly what she thinks, but she refrains from commenting overtly on his plan to use magic, because she doesn’t believe she’s sufficiently impartial.
Though she only alludes to her father’s death, Gwen suffered many losses because of magic; but she directly acknowledges her own prejudice. Gwen is more than just the rare good friend who listens to you when you’re upset rather than telling you what to do; she does her best to refrain from worsening an already fraught sitation with her own emotional bias.
There’s also the added subtext of Uther being Gwen’s enemy and the reason her father died, which may complicate her attitude to the plan; in the scene we did get, Gwen (like Merlin) clearly communicates concern that Arthur cannot simply accept Uther’s death as natural and inevitable.
In fact, she grows slowly more supportive and enthusiastic when Arthur speaks of the larger problem of whether magic-users have been unfairly treated-a general principle.
Throughout, we see Gwen’s characteristic caution-this is the character who committed herself to Arthur slowly and with a clear-eyed sense of the obstacles-and for the first time get some insight into Gwen’s own thoughts on magic-mistrust from her personal losses mitigated by her own strong sense of justice. We also see her and Arthur discussing and bonding over the deaths of Tom and Ygrain.
I would really have loved to see what the actors would have done with this.
2). I’ve said this elsewhere, but the phrase “the wicked day” comes from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (though Mary Stewart popularized it by using it as the title to her novel about Mordred, the coda to her trilogy about Merlin). He uses it to describe Arthur's final battle against Mordred, but the actual context is important.
At the end of the battle only Arthur, two of his knights, and Mordred are left alive, and Sir Lucan tells Arthur to just let Mordred go, because "if you leave off now this wicked day of destiny is past."
Arthur, of course, ignores him, fights Mordred, kills him, and receives his own death wound.
The reference for this particular episode is clear, because the BBC versions of both Arthur and Merlin make the same mistake of not leaving well enough alone. The "wicked day" isn't just about being destined to die (though it’s important that in Malory, Arthur is destined to die at his son's hand, like Uther, who falls to both his son and daughter in different ways); it's about the idea of the king creating his own death through his choices, right up to the minute before he breathes his last.
Which clearly applies to Uther here too. The best discussion I’ve seen of how Uther created his own death comes from selenak here.