Well, I'm about 6 months behind on my fic reading at this point, so I don't think you're particularly late. *g* And I am totally thrilled to hear your comments on Merlin - he was difficult to get across, since he's off screen for so much of it. I love that you mention Freya, since it was that episode that defined how I thought about Merlin for this story. That's where I really saw the conflict between his love and devotion to Arthur and his need for a purpose of his own and the fulfillment of that purpose in a more direct way than he can have with Arthur at the current time. It's really difficult for him to have these abilities and not be able to use them where they're needed. In the show, at least, he knows he's waiting for Arthur to be king, but in this kind of AU, he'd have to find another solution.
Your question about the G8 countries is a question I spent waaaaay too much time rewinding the movie and trying to puzzle out while I was writing this! The movie really avoids the issue, but I'll give you my theory. We know from the movie that there are 8 arks being built to save a total of 400,000 people. Most people are selected for traits (genetic or professional) that will help rebuild society, while others are able to buy tickets. We know that the Americans have their own ark. The Europeans are sharing another one, and the Russians/Chinese/Japanese share a third. Since only 3 arks were available due to the early onset of the apocalypse, we don't know what the intentions were for the other 5 arks. My guess would be that it was meant to be 1 for each G8 nation, with peoples from other nations being included based on genetics, etc. within each of the arks. I would also guess that a lot of nations got completely screwed in the planning process and probably didn't even know what was going to happen at all. The movie tries to dodge a lot of that by pretty much obliterating South America at the very beginning, then having Africa survive largely unscathed, which I guess is supposed to make it okay. South Asia is also not mentioned, which was one reason why I wanted to include Arthur encountering the planes from all over that region on his way to China.
I also wanted to include something where Arthur and Merlin work together to try to make sure that Africa and other non-G8 nations were represented in the planning, but by the time I thought of it, there was just no way to make it work in time (with the plot, relationship, and racial issues to work out). In any case, I like to think Arthur made sure to take care of the whole Commonwealth, at least, including the smaller nations.
And that's probably more than you ever wanted to know, so I'll stop now and just say thank you so much for the wonderful feedback! :-)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-08-10 03:31 pm (UTC)Your question about the G8 countries is a question I spent waaaaay too much time rewinding the movie and trying to puzzle out while I was writing this! The movie really avoids the issue, but I'll give you my theory. We know from the movie that there are 8 arks being built to save a total of 400,000 people. Most people are selected for traits (genetic or professional) that will help rebuild society, while others are able to buy tickets. We know that the Americans have their own ark. The Europeans are sharing another one, and the Russians/Chinese/Japanese share a third. Since only 3 arks were available due to the early onset of the apocalypse, we don't know what the intentions were for the other 5 arks. My guess would be that it was meant to be 1 for each G8 nation, with peoples from other nations being included based on genetics, etc. within each of the arks. I would also guess that a lot of nations got completely screwed in the planning process and probably didn't even know what was going to happen at all. The movie tries to dodge a lot of that by pretty much obliterating South America at the very beginning, then having Africa survive largely unscathed, which I guess is supposed to make it okay. South Asia is also not mentioned, which was one reason why I wanted to include Arthur encountering the planes from all over that region on his way to China.
I also wanted to include something where Arthur and Merlin work together to try to make sure that Africa and other non-G8 nations were represented in the planning, but by the time I thought of it, there was just no way to make it work in time (with the plot, relationship, and racial issues to work out). In any case, I like to think Arthur made sure to take care of the whole Commonwealth, at least, including the smaller nations.
And that's probably more than you ever wanted to know, so I'll stop now and just say thank you so much for the wonderful feedback! :-)