Merlin 5x02 Reaction
To sum up: what the fuck was that. o_o
As with last week, I liked some aspects but had some pretty major problems with the episode. Unlike last week said problems actually ruined the episode for me. So am I going to start with what I did like!
- I think I am sold on Alexander Vlahos as Mordred. He's getting the moral ambiguity right down - and hell, it's nice to see some acknowledged moral ambiguity in this show for once! Naturally it's the male villain that gets to be srsly ambiguous.
- It was good to see them doing something more interesting with Morgana - I didn't like what they did with her but at least it was different from the previous season openers - and yay more Aithusa! So far nothing to contradict my belief that she's a girl. And is it bad that I want fic where Morgana and Merlin bond over mutual parental feelings for Aithusa?
- More of Queen Gwen! I was a bit worried when I saw her subplot summed up in the synopsis as 'Gaius tries to talk Gwen out of the execution' but that lasted all of one scene before she shut him right down, so. Really glad the execution turned out to be a cunning plan. And it would have worked much better were the nights of Camelot more competent...
And now on to what I did not like, in more or less random order.
I think this episode really brought home for me why the time skips are such a bad idea, especially for Morgana's development. I mean, what we saw of her relationship with Aithusa was really touching and all, but apparently we don't get to see that relationship develop, because... no really, why? Why don't we see that? Why don't we see all the awesome things Arthur has supposedly done? Why the three year skip?
It works in the case of Mordred - keeping what he's been doing since we last saw him ambiguous is definitely in-keeping with his arc, as I said above he's all about ambiguity - but other than that it's just the writers lazily skipping over stuff again and it's annoying.
I'm particularly confused as to why Morgana and Aithusa were imprisoned together. That seems like a kind of huge bit of backstory to leave unexplained. Apparently there's interviews somewhere that clarify this? Or are they going to explain it later? Or are they going to just leave that bit of yet more gratuitous abuse unexplained? Plus a lot of people (like myself) didn't even understand what the imprisonment flashback was all about on first viewing and are now under the impression that Morgana has been abusing Aithusa. Or that Aithusa is the way she is because she was brought up by Morgana rather than her daddy Merlin. I can forgive these people to an extent because the way that played out was legit confusing!
Which brings me to my second point: how much more abuse can they heap on Morgana? Apparently this was intended to make her more sympathetic. Because you make villains sympathetic by having horrible things happen to them for no reason, not by, you know, properly examining their motivations. Morgana already has a tragic backstory, she doesn't need another one.
And oh but the things you could read in to the stabbing scene. I don't even want to think about it too hard so I shall just say 'penetration' and 'betrayal' and leave it at that. Ick.
Further to that: why did Mordred do that? By which I mean, why did he stab her? We've already seen many a time that flinging someone around with magic is a great way to incapacitate somebody (oh and one more point in this episode's favour: nice to see that get treated as a serious injury for once). Maybe he just didn't want to use magic in front of Arthur but a) Arthur should already know about his magic, that's quite a plot-hole they've dug for themselves there, b) Arthur was pretty out of it and we've also seen many a time that when Arthur becomes completely unaware of any magic being performed around him at the drop of a hat, and c) even if he wasn't able to use magic for some reason I am sure they could have found some way for him to stop her from killing Arthur than potentially fatally wounding her.
I spent the last five or ten minutes of the episode desperately waiting to see if Morgana was okay. I was half expecting Arthur or Mordred to go check, but no, they just swanned off and we got Merlin's manpain instead. All the manpain all the time!
That said, I don't have an issue with Mordred's decision to betray Morgana. It actually makes a lot of sense: while she obviously still has maternal feelings towards him, he doesn't seem to reciprocate. Right from the start it felt like she was just the latest person he was attaching himself to and him deciding to throw his bet in with Arthur instead in the name of self-preservation and a desire to conform - I got the impression he's sick of the whole magic deal by this point - was in-keeping with his character arc. Or at least that's how I'm reading it! And again: why does only the male villain get such a consistent arc, I don't even.
I wasn't dead keen on the way Sefa's plot was wrapped up. First of all, I dearly hope we see her again because that was such a lose end. And then her father. *deep breaths* He was using Sefa for his own ends, completely disregarding her feelings on the matter and putting her life in danger. He was nothing but cold to her. All in all it came across as yet another abusive relationship to me. And while on the one hand Sefa's feelings towards him felt very realistic, on the other hand I think the fact that he risked his life for her and eventually died for her is supposed to make us see him as ultimately noble. What. Oh and yet another implication that anyone who fights back against the anti-magic regime is in the wrong!
Which makes a nice segue to my next issue. I don't have a problem with the fact that the alien thing (don't know how to spell its name, not even going to try) did not support Morgana. It came across as a true neutral character to me and its desire to stay out of all human affairs makes sense. I also understand why it would sympathise with Gwaine and the other captives because they had been enslaved and used and I got the impression it had been similarly used in the past or at least was aware of the possibility. And I understand why it would want to repay Merlin for saving it from being used to fight a war it wants no part of. I'm good with all of that.
What I am not good with is yet another implication that Merlin's stance of collaboration is inherently correct. We've seen this so many times before: any magic user who we are supposed to like and agree with sides with Merlin. Like the torturer guy in the episode where Gaius was kidnapped (see how much attention I'm paying to episode titles now) who was completely redeemed for all the torturing he's done because he swore loyalty to Merlin.
This wouldn't bother me so much if Merlin was actually doing anything other than keeping Arthur alive. Seriously, when did we last see him give Arthur any proper advice? If it was a matter of 'peacefully taking down the system from the inside vs fighting back from the outside' and the show came down heavily on the side of the former I would probably be alright with it but as it is it's more 'collaborating and implicitly supporting the system vs fighting back at all' with a side of 'female magic bad, male magic good'. So this episode brought that rage back to the surface!
A couple of more petty points: I still don't get where the Northlands are. Back in S1 they mentioned some real medieval place names so I've been figuring that Albion's physical geography matched up to the British Isles but apparently there's a frozen wasteland within easy riding distance of Camelot? Does any part of the British Isles get that frosted over? Any part that could be close to somewhere as obviously temperate as Camelot? There is potentially a bit of fridge brilliance there given that the stories the Arthurian legends are descended from are actually set in the northern part of England but still. Apparently you can just wander from perpetually springlike Camelot to the frozen Northlands in a couple of days. Okay. I don't think that's how climate.
And you can get away with stuff like this in fantasy but only if you explain it! Why have they never made the geography of Albion clear? The only map we've ever been given did not make any logical sense. Is it a fantasy version of the British isles or a full-blown fantasy left-justified land mass or what? Why has it suddenly sprouted scary barbarian Saxons when back in S1 Camelot was allying itself with a Saxon kingdom (Mercia was a Saxon kingdom, y'all, it was the most powerful Saxon kingdom) that was just Camelot but dressed in blue? How does Mercia relate to these new Saxons? What stage are the Saxon incursions at? If this isn't the British isles, where do the Saxons come from?
To sum up, why is this show's worldbuilding so terrible?
And the pettiest of petty points: was Merlin not cold? I felt so sorry for him in his wee jacket out there in the snow! They couldn't even give him a proper coat? You're stretching credibility with that single outfit now.
Oh, well. At the very least they are clearly trying to make Morgana more sympathetic - and they ended on her rather than on Merlin's manpain or whatever - even if they're doing a botched job of it, and next week looks interesting.
Brief comment on the 'next time!' trailer: I was one of many people who had another character (or characters) in mind when I saw the 'dead character returning!' spoiler - I was hoping for either Nimueh or more likely Morgause - but I can deal with Uther coming back. I mean again, it would have more weight were it not for the time-skip, because while it's been three or four years for the characters since he died it's been nowhere near that long for us so this just feels too soon for me. Not going to complain about more Anthony Head, though!
The trailer in general looked like pretty stand ghost story fare so I guess this is the halloween episode? Doesn't sound like anything particularly original but it's a new genre for the show to delve into - they've done ghosts before but never a ghost story, per se. Apparently there's a long of Arthur/Merlin so maybe we will get to see some interaction there and if nothing else I have been promised a good Merlin/Uther scene!
I'm quite enjoying doing, like, semi-literate reviews rather than just squee posts, I think I shall keep it up. :)
This entry was originally posted at http://kathkin.dreamwidth.org/167870.html. Comment on this entry or there using OpenID.
comments/reply.
As with last week, I liked some aspects but had some pretty major problems with the episode. Unlike last week said problems actually ruined the episode for me. So am I going to start with what I did like!
- I think I am sold on Alexander Vlahos as Mordred. He's getting the moral ambiguity right down - and hell, it's nice to see some acknowledged moral ambiguity in this show for once! Naturally it's the male villain that gets to be srsly ambiguous.
- It was good to see them doing something more interesting with Morgana - I didn't like what they did with her but at least it was different from the previous season openers - and yay more Aithusa! So far nothing to contradict my belief that she's a girl. And is it bad that I want fic where Morgana and Merlin bond over mutual parental feelings for Aithusa?
- More of Queen Gwen! I was a bit worried when I saw her subplot summed up in the synopsis as 'Gaius tries to talk Gwen out of the execution' but that lasted all of one scene before she shut him right down, so. Really glad the execution turned out to be a cunning plan. And it would have worked much better were the nights of Camelot more competent...
And now on to what I did not like, in more or less random order.
I think this episode really brought home for me why the time skips are such a bad idea, especially for Morgana's development. I mean, what we saw of her relationship with Aithusa was really touching and all, but apparently we don't get to see that relationship develop, because... no really, why? Why don't we see that? Why don't we see all the awesome things Arthur has supposedly done? Why the three year skip?
It works in the case of Mordred - keeping what he's been doing since we last saw him ambiguous is definitely in-keeping with his arc, as I said above he's all about ambiguity - but other than that it's just the writers lazily skipping over stuff again and it's annoying.
I'm particularly confused as to why Morgana and Aithusa were imprisoned together. That seems like a kind of huge bit of backstory to leave unexplained. Apparently there's interviews somewhere that clarify this? Or are they going to explain it later? Or are they going to just leave that bit of yet more gratuitous abuse unexplained? Plus a lot of people (like myself) didn't even understand what the imprisonment flashback was all about on first viewing and are now under the impression that Morgana has been abusing Aithusa. Or that Aithusa is the way she is because she was brought up by Morgana rather than her daddy Merlin. I can forgive these people to an extent because the way that played out was legit confusing!
Which brings me to my second point: how much more abuse can they heap on Morgana? Apparently this was intended to make her more sympathetic. Because you make villains sympathetic by having horrible things happen to them for no reason, not by, you know, properly examining their motivations. Morgana already has a tragic backstory, she doesn't need another one.
And oh but the things you could read in to the stabbing scene. I don't even want to think about it too hard so I shall just say 'penetration' and 'betrayal' and leave it at that. Ick.
Further to that: why did Mordred do that? By which I mean, why did he stab her? We've already seen many a time that flinging someone around with magic is a great way to incapacitate somebody (oh and one more point in this episode's favour: nice to see that get treated as a serious injury for once). Maybe he just didn't want to use magic in front of Arthur but a) Arthur should already know about his magic, that's quite a plot-hole they've dug for themselves there, b) Arthur was pretty out of it and we've also seen many a time that when Arthur becomes completely unaware of any magic being performed around him at the drop of a hat, and c) even if he wasn't able to use magic for some reason I am sure they could have found some way for him to stop her from killing Arthur than potentially fatally wounding her.
I spent the last five or ten minutes of the episode desperately waiting to see if Morgana was okay. I was half expecting Arthur or Mordred to go check, but no, they just swanned off and we got Merlin's manpain instead. All the manpain all the time!
That said, I don't have an issue with Mordred's decision to betray Morgana. It actually makes a lot of sense: while she obviously still has maternal feelings towards him, he doesn't seem to reciprocate. Right from the start it felt like she was just the latest person he was attaching himself to and him deciding to throw his bet in with Arthur instead in the name of self-preservation and a desire to conform - I got the impression he's sick of the whole magic deal by this point - was in-keeping with his character arc. Or at least that's how I'm reading it! And again: why does only the male villain get such a consistent arc, I don't even.
I wasn't dead keen on the way Sefa's plot was wrapped up. First of all, I dearly hope we see her again because that was such a lose end. And then her father. *deep breaths* He was using Sefa for his own ends, completely disregarding her feelings on the matter and putting her life in danger. He was nothing but cold to her. All in all it came across as yet another abusive relationship to me. And while on the one hand Sefa's feelings towards him felt very realistic, on the other hand I think the fact that he risked his life for her and eventually died for her is supposed to make us see him as ultimately noble. What. Oh and yet another implication that anyone who fights back against the anti-magic regime is in the wrong!
Which makes a nice segue to my next issue. I don't have a problem with the fact that the alien thing (don't know how to spell its name, not even going to try) did not support Morgana. It came across as a true neutral character to me and its desire to stay out of all human affairs makes sense. I also understand why it would sympathise with Gwaine and the other captives because they had been enslaved and used and I got the impression it had been similarly used in the past or at least was aware of the possibility. And I understand why it would want to repay Merlin for saving it from being used to fight a war it wants no part of. I'm good with all of that.
What I am not good with is yet another implication that Merlin's stance of collaboration is inherently correct. We've seen this so many times before: any magic user who we are supposed to like and agree with sides with Merlin. Like the torturer guy in the episode where Gaius was kidnapped (see how much attention I'm paying to episode titles now) who was completely redeemed for all the torturing he's done because he swore loyalty to Merlin.
This wouldn't bother me so much if Merlin was actually doing anything other than keeping Arthur alive. Seriously, when did we last see him give Arthur any proper advice? If it was a matter of 'peacefully taking down the system from the inside vs fighting back from the outside' and the show came down heavily on the side of the former I would probably be alright with it but as it is it's more 'collaborating and implicitly supporting the system vs fighting back at all' with a side of 'female magic bad, male magic good'. So this episode brought that rage back to the surface!
A couple of more petty points: I still don't get where the Northlands are. Back in S1 they mentioned some real medieval place names so I've been figuring that Albion's physical geography matched up to the British Isles but apparently there's a frozen wasteland within easy riding distance of Camelot? Does any part of the British Isles get that frosted over? Any part that could be close to somewhere as obviously temperate as Camelot? There is potentially a bit of fridge brilliance there given that the stories the Arthurian legends are descended from are actually set in the northern part of England but still. Apparently you can just wander from perpetually springlike Camelot to the frozen Northlands in a couple of days. Okay. I don't think that's how climate.
And you can get away with stuff like this in fantasy but only if you explain it! Why have they never made the geography of Albion clear? The only map we've ever been given did not make any logical sense. Is it a fantasy version of the British isles or a full-blown fantasy left-justified land mass or what? Why has it suddenly sprouted scary barbarian Saxons when back in S1 Camelot was allying itself with a Saxon kingdom (Mercia was a Saxon kingdom, y'all, it was the most powerful Saxon kingdom) that was just Camelot but dressed in blue? How does Mercia relate to these new Saxons? What stage are the Saxon incursions at? If this isn't the British isles, where do the Saxons come from?
To sum up, why is this show's worldbuilding so terrible?
And the pettiest of petty points: was Merlin not cold? I felt so sorry for him in his wee jacket out there in the snow! They couldn't even give him a proper coat? You're stretching credibility with that single outfit now.
Oh, well. At the very least they are clearly trying to make Morgana more sympathetic - and they ended on her rather than on Merlin's manpain or whatever - even if they're doing a botched job of it, and next week looks interesting.
Brief comment on the 'next time!' trailer: I was one of many people who had another character (or characters) in mind when I saw the 'dead character returning!' spoiler - I was hoping for either Nimueh or more likely Morgause - but I can deal with Uther coming back. I mean again, it would have more weight were it not for the time-skip, because while it's been three or four years for the characters since he died it's been nowhere near that long for us so this just feels too soon for me. Not going to complain about more Anthony Head, though!
The trailer in general looked like pretty stand ghost story fare so I guess this is the halloween episode? Doesn't sound like anything particularly original but it's a new genre for the show to delve into - they've done ghosts before but never a ghost story, per se. Apparently there's a long of Arthur/Merlin so maybe we will get to see some interaction there and if nothing else I have been promised a good Merlin/Uther scene!
I'm quite enjoying doing, like, semi-literate reviews rather than just squee posts, I think I shall keep it up. :)
This entry was originally posted at http://kathkin.dreamwidth.org/167870.html. Comment on this entry or there using OpenID.
comments/reply.