Merlin - Arthur's Bane

[seravia]

Word of caution.  One, this is full of spoilers.  Two, half of this will be me going "alsgrdbvinsd;vam" from the feels, and the other half will be... me crying.  Also over feels.  Maybe with some actual intelligent commentary interspersed.  So if you're looking for actual deep stuff, this is not the place to find it.

Comments

[shakka1]

LOL, I love your review. It makes me want to move to the UK so I will actually be able to watch the show and not have to wait unitl it´s out on dvd (or wait for the damned dubbed version on tv, which will be on in like 3 years or something).
Or maybe I should just replace my ancient laptop with a model that does not crash if you just remotely try to download the episode. *sobs*

[seravia]

Thanks. :)

I don't live in the UK either. I live in the US, but I just find the episodes online. Haha. People post them pretty quickly! Usually... about an hour after the episode's aired? I could never wait to watch the episodes until it airs here. I'd have to avoid tumblr for three months. :P Where do you live that you'd have to wait three years for the dubbed version?

[shakka1]

Germany. The dvds are out sooner, but on TV they just finished showing season 2 and season 3 is nowhere in sight.
But I managed to download it, finally! Was a bit painful to watch, all bumpy and I had to restart several times. But buying a new PC is definitely less complicated than moving to the UK. God bless the internet!

[seravia]

Oh wow. Yeah. We get the new Merlin season right after it finishes airing in the UK. It's nice, but I can't even wait that long. I couldn't imagine waiting longer.

Yay for finally downloading it! The internet is a wonderful thing.

[awkwardduckling]

I was surprised/relieved they didn't drag out the "whoooo is the traitor" business several episodes, but I thought Arthur looking panicked and shouting RUN seemed out of character. Overall, good, and a bit like a Bod commercial=P

[seravia]

I was pretty surprised they didn't drag it out too. With how long it took Arthur to figure out Agravaine was the traitor, I expected Sefa to last at least the entirety of Arthur's Bane.

You're right, that did seem out of character. Arthur always keeps a cool head.

[tanoshi_ame]

Lovely review. This is actually the first review I read that addresses some issues I have with Gwen. To be honest, I wasn't bothered by her scenes as much as I'd thought I would. Her scenes with Sefa are good, though isn't it a bit rushed sentencing Sefa to death right away? Wouldn't it make more sense to question her for any information at all? Sefa did seem repentant enough. Though either way I'm pretty okay with it. The strategy discussing scene, on the other hand.... I'm wholeheartedly agree with you. It's bad enough we didn't see the 3 years she went from servant to Queen, suddenly now she's outthinking every single man in the room, men who know battles and strategy all their life... That I cannot accept. In fact, I feel pretty insulted by it. Did the writers feel they had to bring down other characters in order to BAMF-up Gwen?

In this battle, I was genuinely afraid for Leon's life. Noooo! Immortal!Leon must not die!I laughed at this. So true, so true. XD

[seravia]

Thank you

[issy5209]

Great review, but I want to say one thing that everybody seems to be having an issue with (and it hasn't been addressed in the show - yet anyway)
The empty seat at the round table. Personally I'm not fussed that Merlin doesn't get a seat, but traditionally there is always an empty seat at the round table (in this case I would think to honour fallen heros, like Lancelot) called the Perilous Siege - those not worthy who sit on it die or disappear - it was created by Merlin.
and also... isn't Sefa a cats name?? (C for ...)

[seravia]

I understand why Merlin doesn't get a seat, but I just wish he did.

I didn't know about the empty seat thing. That's interesting. And it would make sense. So thank you for that. :)

[mshutts]

You know the scene with Gwen's suggestion where it was really bothering you that she was the only one who came up with it? I was thinking about it and have decided, what bothered me about it wasn't so much what Gwen said as Arthur's response

[seravia]

Yes! I think that's exactly what bothered me! I just couldn't put what was in my mind into words properly. Gwen's idea was perfectly simple, and it's ridiculous that Arthur wouldn't have thought of it. It's not so much that I have a problem with Gwen suggesting going around. The problem is that Arthur acted as thought this was a completely new idea to him.

Your suggestion for Arthur's response would've made me a lot happier too.

So thank you for putting into words what I couldn't!

[mshutts]

It does have the added benefit of making neither one of them look stupid. Gwen's just more inexperienced that's all.

And I don't care what the show tries to pull, I will never agree that Gwen is more experienced in politics, battle, or strategy than Arthur. 3 years is in no way to equal to a lifetime of training. For Arthur, this type of strategizing would have quite literally been child's play.

(That, added to the fact that Gwen isn't jaded enough to think that an ally wouldn't be willing to help them out, whereas I'm sure Arthur has seen it happen before during Uther's reign, is the perfect recipe for inexperienced!Gwen.)

[seravia]

At this point, Gwen is definitely not more experienced than Arthur in ruling a country. Arthur has been trained to be king all his life. Three years is nowhere near enough time to get to the same point. Not to say Gwen can't have good ideas at times. Maybe a fresh outlook just because she's inexperienced. But the scene in the episode? No way.