It's more the combination of elements that are unique than anything.
I'd actually been working on this review for a few days before the innocence angle hit. It started with, "Gee, Merlin is awful innocent." Then the next day, "And so it Arthur." Then a few days later, "That's what this whole episode is about, and this is what it's setting up."
I am wondering if the unconscious magic is going to result in Merlin going a bit dark at least for a time.
I'll be able to comment on that better when I've seen more. I'm still a few hours from watching Ep 5.
Seriously? all the versions I read tended more to concentrate on uniting the kingdom against the invading forces and bringing relative peace to warring peoples. in the UK, Arthur legend/story isn't the one known for fair treatment or asking for the fair treatment of the common people - that's squarely Robin hood's domain. Arthur is the adventure story with added knights hitting each other or going on quests for personal glory and pasted on doomed love stories if you go for the romanticised stuff.
The Arthurian Romance is given credit for being the first Great Story where the warriors are willing to fight for any person in need, not just for a few select nobles. It's not about class struggle and fair treatment of the common people. That, as you say, is Robin Hood. It's about need, merit, and conduct being more important than class. As Srah Scottydog points out two comments above yours, it had a great impact on British Socialism -- not just on her father but on people like William Morris as well.
...like you said, the romantic version. The quests (which i always read as personal glory, geases and being *told* to follow certain precepts) and Tristan and Isolde stuff. Which was welded on several centuries down the line.
The point of the story I know it as is uniting the land and then leading up to Camlann. The important thing was that he did it, which no-one managed to do again until the very late saxon period. Bugger all about need, merit and conduct.
:shrugs: Maybe the romantic stuff stayed elsewhere. You talk about Arthur in England these days, they *really* don't talk about idealism.
I suppose that depends on who you talk to. It goes in cycles. As in our country, there are those who benefit from promoting such ideals and those who don't.
I loved your analysis again. I especially appreciated the innocence/degrees-of-innocence/loss-of-innocence points. Also, very much like the description of the balance tipping between Uther and Arthur.
Random question: I am not sure I really get the point of the constant teasing viewer with how much or how little does Arthur know about Merlin unless there is going to be a future plot point of Arthur eventually having all the pieces to the puzzle or a revelation that Arthur has known for a long time about the magic. Or maybe it is all just a tease to keep us guessing.
He salutes Bayard with it (but not Uther whose livery he wears, is this a deliberate or unintentional insult?),
You noted yourself that Merlin doesn't really understand any of the court protocol. I interpreted this whole sequence completely differently. Merlin's salute to Bayard is an insult to Bayard: as though to say, 'you tried to kill Arthur, but I have stopped you.' Then when he turns to salute Arthur it is a fond good-bye.
Random question: I am not sure I really get the point of the constant teasing viewer with how much or how little does Arthur know about Merlin unless there is going to be a future plot point of Arthur eventually having all the pieces to the puzzle or a revelation that Arthur has known for a long time about the magic. Or maybe it is all just a tease to keep us guessing.
I think they are trying to illuminate an obscure corner of Arthur's character, his willingness to turn a blind eye to an infraction of the rules when he doesn't want to confront it. After all, this is what the mature Arthur will do when his wife has an affair with his champion.
Your insight is once again utterly amazing and as a History student and history/mythology geek in my spare time I have to just sit back and applaud.
This suggests that Merlin isn't fully human, but may be partially descended from a creature of pure or elemental magic. How much is Merlin a human being, and how much is he a being who thinks he is human? This is gold. I've been thinking exactly about the same thing and am now, more inclined to think that it is the latter. He is after all one of the Dragon's kin, as we later learn. It also makes me wonder more about Arthur's 'magically assisted' birth, as it can be something that binds him with Merlin is some sense too.
God. Thank you so much for that Russian history bit. My inner geek hugs you and worships you, and no, it did not really have as much to do with the gender of the favourite as one might think, though females were more easily disposed in that male-driven society...simply by being married off, if nothing else.
Anyhow. Thank you for being awesome. Mind if I friend you?
S'okay, I figured that one out in the first episode, between the glowing eye/glowing hide connection and the Dragon's laughing greeting of "You're kinda small for a hatchling." The latter screamed grandfather/uncle to me.
i don't know if the writers go into this yet but at this time there's a huge difference between the way justice is administered between "village justice" and "imperial justice". Basically capital punishment isn't used in villages. The worst penalty is exile, which is actually considered by many to be a fate worse than death. Punishments are negotiated with an aim towards restoring harmony, and most penalities, even for withcraft, are fines, bloodgetlt. Witches are under more threat from murder than from execution.
Under "imperial justice" there is capital punishment. The aim is on maintaining order, even at the expense of harmony within the people. This is what we see Uther doing, and Merlin isn't used to that.
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I'd actually been working on this review for a few days before the innocence angle hit. It started with, "Gee, Merlin is awful innocent." Then the next day, "And so it Arthur." Then a few days later, "That's what this whole episode is about, and this is what it's setting up."
I am wondering if the unconscious magic is going to result in Merlin going a bit dark at least for a time.
I'll be able to comment on that better when I've seen more. I'm still a few hours from watching Ep 5.
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Seriously? all the versions I read tended more to concentrate on uniting the kingdom against the invading forces and bringing relative peace to warring peoples. in the UK, Arthur legend/story isn't the one known for fair treatment or asking for the fair treatment of the common people - that's squarely Robin hood's domain. Arthur is the adventure story with added knights hitting each other or going on quests for personal glory and pasted on doomed love stories if you go for the romanticised stuff.
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The point of the story I know it as is uniting the land and then leading up to Camlann. The important thing was that he did it, which no-one managed to do again until the very late saxon period. Bugger all about need, merit and conduct.
:shrugs: Maybe the romantic stuff stayed elsewhere. You talk about Arthur in England these days, they *really* don't talk about idealism.
Reply
Reply
Random question: I am not sure I really get the point of the constant teasing viewer with how much or how little does Arthur know about Merlin unless there is going to be a future plot point of Arthur eventually having all the pieces to the puzzle or a revelation that Arthur has known for a long time about the magic. Or maybe it is all just a tease to keep us guessing.
He salutes Bayard with it (but not Uther whose livery he wears, is this a deliberate or unintentional insult?),
You noted yourself that Merlin doesn't really understand any of the court protocol. I interpreted this whole sequence completely differently. Merlin's salute to Bayard is an insult to Bayard: as though to say, 'you tried to kill Arthur, but I have stopped you.' Then when he turns to salute Arthur it is a fond good-bye.
Off to read the others.
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I think they are trying to illuminate an obscure corner of Arthur's character, his willingness to turn a blind eye to an infraction of the rules when he doesn't want to confront it. After all, this is what the mature Arthur will do when his wife has an affair with his champion.
Reply
This suggests that Merlin isn't fully human, but may be partially descended from a creature of pure or elemental magic. How much is Merlin a human being, and how much is he a being who thinks he is human?
This is gold. I've been thinking exactly about the same thing and am now, more inclined to think that it is the latter. He is after all one of the Dragon's kin, as we later learn. It also makes me wonder more about Arthur's 'magically assisted' birth, as it can be something that binds him with Merlin is some sense too.
God. Thank you so much for that Russian history bit. My inner geek hugs you and worships you, and no, it did not really have as much to do with the gender of the favourite as one might think, though females were more easily disposed in that male-driven society...simply by being married off, if nothing else.
Anyhow. Thank you for being awesome. Mind if I friend you?
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Under "imperial justice" there is capital punishment. The aim is on maintaining order, even at the expense of harmony within the people. This is what we see Uther doing, and Merlin isn't used to that.
The writers have published Merlin stories? Where?
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The writers have published Merlin stories? Where?
Ah, my bad, my bad, I meant the fanfiction writers. Sorry.
Although it would be great it the script writers wrote a novel or something.
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