Cori Lannam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
corilannam) wrote2012-12-25 12:36 am
corilannam) wrote2012-12-25 12:36 am
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Merlin 5.13
Well. There it is. Everything I wanted and everything I didn't want for this series all jammed into one episode.
I am truly happy for those of you who are taking so much joy in this episode. There were moments that I liked. I wish I could say I was satisfied.
But I can't. I just can't.
I have loved Arthur Pendragon since the instant I first saw Bradley James's stupid, stupid face in episode 1.01. My favorite episodes in every season are the ones where Arthur got to grow and shine and choose his path and show what a glorious king he would someday be. How worthy he was to claim the destiny of the greatest sorcerer of all time to be his servant for nothing more than love.
I could have loved this episode, if Arthur had gotten to live at the end. If he had gotten to rule over his golden kingdom like he was meant to. If Merlin had defied destiny one last time to save him. If he'd gotten to thank and forgive Merlin when it wasn't already a moot point. If he'd gotten to actually give Merlin those days off instead of condemning him to centuries of loneliness and waiting.
So no. Fuck you, Johnny Capps. Fuck you, Julian Murphy. Fuck you for making me care so much about Arthur and Merlin's glorious destiny and then leaving it in ruins. Throwing me a few lines of conversation I read in fanfic back in 2009 doesn't fucking cut it, you assholes.
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Yeah, I loved, loved, loved these last two episodes with regard to story and with regard to Arthur and Merlin and, I think, I wouldn't be so disappointed if they had let Arthur live, despite that it was Camlann and we know he is supposed to die there. They've played other parts of the legend to suit their take. Or, there were other battles that Arthur fought. Why didn't they pick one of them?
Because even if these two episodes had everything I wanted to see, and had BALINOR, for crying out loud, I'm not certain, yet, that I can actually be satisfied that it was all for nothing. I'm just not sure that concentrating on the satisfying parts of their relationship and interaction is going to be enough to make up for the massive fail of their whole destiny thing. I'm quoting myself, now, cause I'm just too lazy to say it all again, differently.
"And while this series has always made me happiest when it was about the relationship between Arthur and Merlin, you cannot discount the idea of their greatness, together, and why they were legendary because that is also a point of the series and their awesome destiny and why we were watching the Arthurian version of Behind the Music in the first place. If this is how it went, yeah, not so much destiny and greatness because in this sequence of events, it's pretty much over before it even begins. I feel like the Dragon is backpedaling in the end, saying, "oh, yeah. About that destiny thing. You did get that it's really all about that 'future king' bit, right?" Except that we're not going to see that, either."
In this telling, it's really Gwen who was the ruler for the golden age. I think Angel Coulby did a good job and she made a great Queen in this series, except for that THREE EPISODE arc where she had been turned, but she's Not Arthur and not who I want to see forging a grand kingdom and repealing the laws on magic.