making it up as we go along

[inboots]

In case anyone would like to discuss Katie McGrath's SciFiChick.com Interview outside of a personal journal, here's an entry.

Relevant bit to the community is

Comments

[rei17]

This is my opinion:
http://rei17.livejournal.com/94531.html#cutid1

The funny thing? I actually DO like the sibling-aspect of their relationship.
I just totally absolutely dislike Arthur/Gwen. And I'm afraid they're going to neglect Arthur/Morgana completely in favor of Arthur/Gwen (and possibly some more Merlin/Morgana).

[honeymink]

I especially agree with the last part of your post. :(

[inboots]

Normally, I'd say backpedaling to the siblings scenario could maybe increase the chances of Arthur and Morgana sharing more screen time in relevant (plot-wise) ways. Because *all* of the romantic scenes on this show so far have been extremely awkward and tacked-on. It's obviously something on the backseat for the writers.

The problem is that the writing staff seems to not give much of a damn about developing any of Arthur's relationship with anyone not-Merlin beyond the necessary, so I'd be willing to bet some $$ that, yeah, there won't be much more Arthur-Morgana, just Merlin-Morgana and Arthur/Gwen.

[inboots]

I just don't want this Arthur/Gwen romance to overshadow all of Arthur's relationships with other characters

That's not possible simply because Arthur has barely any relationship with anyone other than Merlin. :D His interactions with his own father scarcely amount to more than 5 minutes. :D

But yeah, I think Arthur-Morgana is going to get a lot less than it got in season 1 and they'll shift the obligatory 2 SECS OF THROW AWAY ROMANCE TIEM to Arthur/Gwen.

They'll probably build Morgana as Merlin's foil, so the Morgana screen time should be spent between Merlin, Uther and Gwen.

[gnimaerd]

I'm generally very zen-like when it comes to shipping. I find it's not worth it to get worked up about stuff like this. If that's the way they're going to take the show, that's the way they're going to take the show and there's nothing we can do for it, save for writing more fanfic. I take comfort from two things

[heather]

1. Yeah, all I've been seeing about Arthur/Gwen is that Arthur's going to notice that she exists. Which is hardly a pastede-on romance in my book and bodes really well as far as I'm concerned, but then again I'm on board with the A/G -- as long as it's taken slowly. *shrug*

I find it hard to get worked up about this show - I'm sure Arthur and Morgana will keep having a similar dynamic to the latter half of the first season.

[gnimaerd]

yeah I think part of the reason I'm not TOO alarmed by this is that I'm not hugely bothered by Arthur/Gwen. I don't ship them, and I wouldn't care if we never saw their relationship develop on the show at all, but I'm not bothered if it DOES happen (and it's very clear at this stage that it IS going to happen, so hating that fact seems pretty pointless). As long as it doesn't overshadow Morgana and Arthur's relationship (not to mention Morgana and Gwen's), I'm not going to waist any energy disliking them. I wasn't particularly impressed by what we got by way of Gwen/Arthur interaction in the last few episodes of the first season (it felt spectacularly forced) but the Bradley James interview gave me a certain amount of reassurance that the writers are going to pace it properly

[heather]

there's plenty of room for us shippers to continue seeing the subtext, whether the writers WANT us to see sexual tension or not. (I mean, I highly doubt the writers INTENTIONALLY stick in all the subtext the Arthur/Merlin shippers love to read into the show - but that isn't stopping them, is it?)

For me that's exactly it. As long as Arthur and Morgana, and Morgana and Gwen, don't stop interacting, I'm good. Because the actors will keep bringing the subtext. And if Arthur/Gwen is done well, so much the better as far as I'm concerned. If they're going to be married I WANT them to get to know each other and interact.

But when it comes to shipping in general I've always been weird. Canon ... has never been an obstacle for me. :P

[tirra_lyrra]

Grouchy old cynic that I am, a line like the one highlighted above always makes me think that the producers didn't think Bradley and Katie had any chemistry, not that they decided it was more interesting to change direction. I have no idea if that's true, that's just how it reads to me.

And it's too bad, since I really don't want to see Arthur / Gwen. I find Gwen so far to be the least well-rounded of the four. I'm not interested in her at all, but I do think that's in part because she hasn't done anything interesting, yet. She's just been all . . . good. And sweet. And humbly, innocently, perfect. How dull. I hope season 2 will give her more to do.

Even if they give her more depth, (and if they keep the Lancelot triangle, that's one way to do it), I'll still always consider Arthur / Morgana my OTP. They're all wrong and all right all at once. I love a messy, complicated relationship. :D

[inboots]

Personally, I think a Morgana/Arthur/Gwen triangle would be a bitch to deal with and would take more time than I think the writers are willing to give to relationships not involving Merlin.

That and I think they just haven't got much of a clue what to do with anyone other than Merlin, Arthur and Uther, main characters in the ultimate storyarc of ARTHUR & MERLIN: SOULMATES DESTINED.

They know Arthur and Gwen have to end up married. They know Morgana has to go rogue. And that's it. How they're going to get there? TPTB are making it up as they go along.

Lucky for them, the bulk of the fans fully embraced ARTHUR & MERLIN: SOULMATES DESTINED and didn't care much for Morgana and Gwen and their respective romantic lives, so they can screw up these characters and backpedal all they want that they're safe.

[tirra_lyrra]

They know Arthur and Gwen have to end up married. They know Morgana has to go rogue. And that's it. How they're going to get there? TPTB are making it up as they go along.

Yes! This is just the thing I don't like about it, so far. They are treating Arthur/Gwen as a Arthurian plot point they must hit, somehow, and they have not done much to lay the foundation for it in the show. What they have done so far is, as gnimaerd says above, spectacularly forced.

didn't care much for Morgana and Gwen and their respective romantic livesTo be fair, I don't want to see Morgana and Gwen defined by their romantic interactions with Merlin and Arthur and Lancelot. But given the focus, as you point out, on Arthur and Merlin, I'm not sure how much time the writers will spend developing more than that for Gwen. Morgana will probably get a little more depth and development. She would have to, if she's going to believably go rogue

[inboots]

To be fair, I don't want to see Morgana and Gwen defined by their romantic interactions

Neither do I, but a considerable amount of both characters' screen time, especially earlier on, was devoted to somewhat obvious romantic interactions with Arthur and Merlin (and Lancelot). So pretending that those didn't happen is basically erasing around 1/4 or 1/6 of Gwen's and Morgana's screen time to date. Almost entire episodes at once, even. Like 1x02, 1x04 and 1x09.

I'm not sure how much time the writers will spend developing more than that for Gwen. Morgana will probably get a little more depth anid development. She would have to, if she's going to believably go rogue.

Gwen and Morgana are bff, so I'm sure they'll give Gwen a lot to do, plot wise, once Morgana starts her path downhill. And Morgana's my second favorite Arthurian Legend character of all time. Favorite on Merlin. And, ngl, I fear what might constitute "giving her depth" in this show.

[inboots]

If however, they're full steam ahead with this ridiculous sibling thing and forget everything that happened previously that was decidedly not so sibling-ish, I'll be pissed.

I think they will because, overall, nobody cares. :D The overwhelming majority of fandom swings slash. I think the most popular het pairing is Merlin/Morgana.

The only thing that saddens me about this is that they could have made them siblings from the get go and let Morgana have Igraine as her mother, too. Then the whole you-killed-(my)-father storyline with Uther would have been done properly and it would be AMAZE, as it usually is.

I understand that Arthur/Gwen is the route they've chosen.

To be fair, they didn't chose it, the legends did. Whether the marriage works and Arthur and Guinevere are happy varies, but... they usually get married! I think nobody was expecting Merlin to be any different

[sherrilina]

The only thing that saddens me about this is that they could have made them siblings from the get go and let Morgana have Igraine as her mother, too. Then the whole you-killed-(my)-father storyline with Uther would have been done properly and it would be AMAZE, as it usually is.

I know, I don't understand why the hell they did NOT make them siblings, if they're just going to go that route in the end anyway. In the beginning I hoped that they were actually siblings and that Uther was just hiding it, before I learned how old Morgana had been when she moved to Camelot.

They pretty much defeated the whole purpose of not making them siblings--ie to allow them to have something without it breaking the rules of a family show--by making this idiotic decision....