sophinisba | Merlin 3x02

I almost never do episode reaction posts even though I always look forward to other people's! Here, I will give one a try.

Aw, there were things about this episode that I liked a lot! Starting off with Merlin twitching in fear and pain and cold in the cave.

slightlytookish, are you with me? I thought, eh, hurt/comfort with Merlin/The Dragon wouldn't be as good as Merlin/Arthur, but better than no Merlin h/c at all, right?

But then it only lasted a few seconds and instead of Merlin shivering and getting hugged and wrapped up in blanket we got a bunch of smug Merlin and the Dragon shaking their heads over Morgana choosing the wrong path, and thank goodness Merlin is so morally superior. This whole attitude of the show doesn't bother me as much as it does a lot of my friends. I mean I don't mind Merlin being the main character or taking on faith that it's Arthur's destiny to become a great king, and I'm not rooting for Team Evil although I see the appeal (and the hotness). I am old-fashioned in my tastes in cheesy fantasy stories and I still love Merlin and want him to be happy. But damn, I hate it when the men (and male dragons) sit around and talk about how they're good and witches are evil. :(

So then I turned it off for a bit and went on the Internet to complain to my friend about having lost my Merlin squee and wanting to go back to season 1.

And then I watched the rest of the episode, and I enjoyed it a lot! Arthur throwing things at Merlin was stupid but whatever, the Arthur/Merlin cutesy scenes have annoyed me since forever so I can't hold it against the new season.

I liked a lot of the epicness of it! Gwen and Arthur had a nice scene (one one, but a lot better than anything she had last week). I enjoyed Arthur's daddy angst and loved that one scene with him and Merlin.

Even the fighting scenes kept my interest a lot better than fighting scenes usually do. I liked Arthur being so brave at the top of the barricade (it reminded me of Aslan telling somebody or other in Narnia that a good king has to be the first in battle and the last in defeat) and then Uther charging into the battle and Arthur having to leave in order to stop him. Yay, family drama!

Fighting skeletons...okay! At least they didn't look exactly like the dead fighters in LotR and PotC.

I thought the confrontation between Merlin and Morgana in the crypt was interesting and sexy. I mean, sure, he should have confessed that he has magic, but were any of us really expecting he would? Low expectations ftw - I was not disappointed! The only thing that really bugged me about that scene was that Merlin could hold his own against Morgana with a sword at all. She's been fighting since she was a girl, plus she's been learning from Morgause for a year, and Merlin's a peasant who never wins a sword fight except by cheating with magic.

Uther knows there was a traitor but thinks Morgana saved them. Okay, more intrigue! Morgana's Evil Smirk of Evil bothered me less in this episode than in the last one, I think because I was expecting to be annoyed (she was so one-note in the other one) and was instead surprised by how sexy she looks when she's confident.

So then I was about to go online and say "I ended up liking this episode after all! I have my squee back!"

And then they had to end it with another smug conversation - this time between Gaius and Merlin - about how we should feel sorry for Morgana. Ugh. Leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

(Thank goodness I bought some ginger cookies this afternoon. Yum!)

My spoilerphobia extends to not watching the preview of next week's episode, so please let's not talk about that!

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That last scene, while amusing since WOT MERLIN OWNS MORE THAN THREE SHIRTS WOT?, was really hard to swallow. As last season tried the same thing with Gaius and Merlin laughing over...what? WHAT WAS THERE TO LAUGH ABOUT SERIOUSLY? I don't get that ending at ALL. EVER. IN ANY CONSTRUCT THEY'VE GIVEN US.

When I first started watching the show Merlin and Gaius's friendship was my favorite ship. Then at the end of the first season I thought it was sort of cheating that they didn't let him die for real, because I think the show would be better if they'd let the kids grow up and have some things change. (Also if they could get rid of the Dragon, though I wouldn't kick off Uther because I still think he's hot). But the longer season 2 went on and the more of those smug chats they kept having at the end of the episodes the more strongly I felt, it's not just that the show needs to move on, it's that Gaius is not good for Merlin. He should be confiding in Morgana and Gwen and Arthur by now, not Gaius and the Dragon. Ugh.

Ravurian is of the opinion that Gaius is a corrupt, selfish, manipulative all-round Bad Egg, and I can totally grok that interpretation. I don't think he is a good influence on Merlin AT ALL, and I think his treatment of Morgana was utterly indefensible.

I liked

timeasmymeasure's comment about Gaius in this ep: He is confusing and quite possibly the most complex character on the show. Or maybe it's just a case of "I accidentally a complex character" by the writers since we know they are shit at continuity.

They've been doing that since last season, ending the episode on laughing. Horrible things happen, have Merlin + male laughing. They even laughed at Vivian's fate and I know the Witchhunter was a bad dude, but really did you need to laugh about it that hard? Family show, my rear end.

Yeah, the little scenes with Gaius comforting Merlin were fine when the show was silly and light, but at this point it's in such bad taste, and besides that just ridiculous that Merlin is continuing to trust and take moral guidance from this guy.

There were some nice shippy moments in this ep though. Including, I forgot to say in my post, Merlin/Uther.

Yeah, based on what we know about their respective ability with a sword, Merlin should have been dead after five seconds flat. I assume the producers have Merlin-sue insecurity issues about their protagonist being bested in any ways that involve phallic objects, hence the totally OOC swordfighting and and the way that beating Morgana involves cutting off her staff.

IAWTC.
Also, how should cutting off the staff in the middle even effect all of its ancient superpowerful magic? It looked to me like the business end with the fancy root was intact; just its mount was foreshortened. I thought Merlin would do something more dramatic than chop a stick in half.

That was dumb. I enjoyed the staff crushing thing and for that matter the swordfight looked kinda cool, but the continuity was so fucked up that it was just distracting.

Yes, the misogyny and sanctimoniousness are such a drag.
Though both Gaius and the dragon referenced some future bitter, undone Merlin.
It seems a bit soon to telegraph the end of Merlin, but I do hope Nimue somehow returns.

The dragon's comment at the start, that Merlin's willingness to see the goodness in others will be his undoing? That seemed a little over the top, even for this show. It would be nice to have the Dragon finally revealed as evil so we could stop listening to his stupid opinions about Morgana, but then I thought we'd taken care of that at the end of season 2. :/

I personally don't see the dragon as evil so much as Other. But I can see how he could be read as evil, too.
I think I'm just biased because the whole "flying on a dragon" thing was one of the highlights of the episode for me.

You're right, I agree with Other not evil. But he still needs to stop giving Merlin advice about women.

I'm a bit more bitter about men hating witches being the new theme of this show (and Merlin holding his own against Morgana in a swordfight, WHAT IN THE HELL?), but yes basically all this.

Yeah, it would be nice if there could just be shippiness and swashbuckling and shiny magic and not have it framed by discussions about how men are good and women are evil. :/

But damn, I hate it when the men (and male dragons) sit around and talk about how they're good and witches are evil.
OH GOD THE ISSUES! I really can't see how the writers expect us to look upon Morgana and Morgause as irredeemably evil with all the shit Uther's done, and the fact that Merlin is not only actively lying to Morgana, which really didn't help the tailspin, tried to KILL HER.
*shakes writers*

Also, Gaius bugs me on levels untold. Levels.

Edited 2010-09-19 23:12 (UTC)

Merlin 3x02

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