Merlin 4.09 - Lancelot du Lac

[corilannam]

So I'm finally watching last week's Merlin. Yes, last week's.

A few notes as I watch on

1) I love Arthur's explanation of why he wants Gwen to be his queen. Very practical and unromantic - fits very nicely with my head canon about their relationship. Also loved that he didn't even let Agravaine say a word against it.

2) Morgana is such a frigging moron. I can't even stand it anymore. GWEN IS NOT YOUR COMPETITION. ARTHUR IS YOUR COMPETITION. STOP WITH THE MISOGYNISTIC HATE BONER.

3) "It's not your sword I require." That would have been a much better line if she'd said, "It's not *that* sword I require."

4) Awwww, what a sweet proposal. Also, Merlin of all people should appreciate the romantic value of sweaty men running around hitting each other.

5) My God, Santiago Cabrera is delicious in black. But seriously, they can't even give Lancelot his own room after all the big speeches about his heroism? The only explanation is that Merlin wanted him in his own bed.

6) LOL at Merlin just whipping out "The Art of Necromancy"

7) Angel Coulby is wonderful in this episode. She's very hot while bespelled -- too bad she doesn't look that into Arthur when she's not. I feel so bad for Gwen - she has no clue why any of this happened and can only blame herself. Not even Merlin knows she was enchanted (which makes it doubly sweet that Merlin spoke up for her anyway).

8) Oh, Arthur. Oh, ow ow ow. Oh wow, the banishment scene. Oh man. So painful, but kind of magnificent.

9) Fuck you, Elyan. Can't even say good-bye to your sister or help her or get her a damn horse for her wagon.

10) I actually kind of like this as a resolution to the love triangle. What I really wanted was to see Gwen choose Arthur with her own heart, and I was worried that this spell would essentially take that choice away from her. But she did make that choice, we just didn't get to see the moment of it. I'm okay with that, and I'm okay with Lancelot being out of the picture from now on (though I will miss Santiago's hot ass). But as I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of the adultery angle of the legend, so this works for me.



Okay, on to this week's....

Comments

[lolafeist.livejournal.com]

I wish I could watch the next one with you. Whee have fun.

[corilannam.livejournal.com]

It was great! Actually, I liked both episodes quite a bit.

[lolafeist.livejournal.com]

I am definitely watching 4.10 again. I loved it. I liked 4.09 but it made me ridiculously sad so I couldn't do a rewatch.

[destina.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, Merlin didn't exactly jump to and get a horse for Gwen, either. *g* It's a rough thing, having sworn fealty to a king. Makes things very awkward. Also makes it hard to get horses, apparently.

[corilannam.livejournal.com]

LOL! Okay, okay, so I'm just kvetching about the horse thing. But I would have liked to have Merlin see Elyan there speaking to Gwen or something. Or have Elyan say something to Merlin about how he feels he has to support Arthur even though it's hard to see this happen to his sister. I dunno. It's just one of those little connecting character bits that the show has never done, but I really wish they would. *g*

[stellarmeadow.livejournal.com]

Maybe Elyan came in the middle of the night, so no one would know, since he wasn't supposed to?

[corilannam.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but I don't like that much better. Have some balls and go help your sister pack, dude. Arthur would respect that. And it's not like anyone but Merlin was around when she was leaving at the break of dawn anyway.

[stellarmeadow.livejournal.com]

They tend to forget he's Gwen's sister anyway--hell, I forgot about him completely--I think it was 2-3 eps into the series before I stopped going, "Who's that guy?" and remembered. So they're not doing much of a good job connecting the two of them unless they need to for plot purposes in an ep.

[corilannam.livejournal.com]

This has been a big complaint of mine (and a lot of other people) for a long time. He was nowhere to be found the last time Gwen was getting banished, too -- and he wasn't a knight, then, so he doesn't even have political cowardice as an excuse. They really haven't interacted at all this season, other than when Elyan was wounded in 4.08.

Like I said to someone else below, I think it's a symptom of a greater writing problem, which is that they have never treated Gwen like a primary character whose thoughts, feelings, and reactions need to be shown on screen.

[stellarmeadow.livejournal.com]

Well, they do seem to be very much the type of writers to rely on what is expedient for what they need in the episode and not worry so much about continuity. They've been doing a somewhat better job of it in certain areas this season, I think, which only serves to highlight it when they don't, unfortunately.

[lukita.livejournal.com]

Morgana thinking Gwen as her competition just makes me thinks Arthur/Morgana, which is a big DNW for me. I tend to skip over that part of the legend.

Dood, Lance bunking with Merlin totally makes my Merlin/Lancelot fangirl happy! I also kept expecting Merlin to tell Arthur that Lancelot is a fake somewhat along the line of:

"I don't know who or what it is, but that's not Lancelot we knew."

"Why do you say that Merlin?"

"Because he'd forgotten about me."

Then we get a bunch of funny faces as Arthur thinks Merlin/Lancelot thoughts and possibly gets jealous.

I want Lancelot to come back, they can still bring him back using the du Lac part of the legend.

[corilannam.livejournal.com]

I see no reason why he couldn't come back again! And obviously it's going to be awkward to have him around for a while, so he'll just have to bunk with Merlin again!

[chicaintcheap.livejournal.com]

But she did make that choice, we just didn't get to see the moment of it.

what do you mean? :o My biggest problem with the episode was that part exactly - like, the writers were too lazy to write a decent storyline where Gwen actually falls for Lancelot and becomes less-than-perfect for long enough to get back together with him. Instead, they had to resort to a magical roofie D:

[corilannam.livejournal.com]

I meant that she made her choice a long time ago, either while Lancelot was away, or shortly after he came back to become a knight. I do actually object to not getting to see this on screen (unless it happened in the G/L ep I skipped last season), since it's a pretty key point in the whole Arthurian story. But then, they've never really treated Gwen like a real character with decision-making power anyway.

It would have been nice to see a more extended take on the triangle, just to see Arthur have to actually work to win her. I'm guessing they couldn't get Santiago Cabrera for that many episodes, but still, it seems like they could have managed something. That would have made the magical roofie more interesting (and made everyone's belief in Gwen's behavior more believable).

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

I both liked and loathed 04.09. The storyline was interesting and I loved Santiago's take on zombie!Lance. I can even accept it as a manipulation of reality by Morgana but Gwen's enchantment was a cop-out. I'd have rather that she chose or was forced to choose or was caught making a mistake of something she chose than enchantment. Ugh.

[alba17.livejournal.com]

I agree. I just finished watching this episode and I thought that was really lame, that they made Gwen have feelings toward Lancelot only because she was enchanted. Disappointing. They're so afraid of shades of grey on this show.