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

[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.