WOW. This was one intense episode.

( A summary of the Good, the Bad, and the Interesting )

By now everyone has probably seen the deleted scenes from the first four episodes of Merlin. A lot of what was cut was unnecssary exposition or repetition. But because I often comment on the show’s writing, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how the editing affects characterization.

( Deleted scenes thoughts, particularly on Morgana )

Gawain is one of my favorite characters from the Arthurian legends. He’s one of the oldest core characters, and I love his evolution over the ages.

( (A bit of meta about the character of Gawain in the Arthurian legends, and also some episode thoughts.) )

(Note: I wrote this after watching 2x11, and it may help to read my review of that episode. I've seen 2x12 since writing this, and I think it's still relevant, though the stakes are now much higher.)

I haven’t tackled class in Merlin very much so far; for me this was a deliberate decision. I don’t think an American is the best choice to analyze ( Read more... )

And now for something completely controversial.

I’ve written before about Morgana’s gender, and Gwen’s race and gender. The problem with that approach is that discussing only the race of people of color reinforces the idea that whiteness is somehow neutral and shouldn’t be mentioned or probed. And lot of the dynamics that play out around Morgana, ( Read more... )

 *Shout-out to the Love of My Life for this example.