Some thoughts about the Merlin S3 premier...

[lady_moriel]

...because I already wrote them up at ridiculous length on Tumblr and, you know, might as well re-post for discussion (if...anyone is still reading this and wants to discuss?).


Good opening to a new season, to the extent that it promises lots of shenanigans? Sure. Actually satisfying after S2? …not so much. Because, I mean…evil people who are evil BECAUSE I SAID SO, OKAY, even though previously they just seemed like fairly normal people who happened to want Uther dethroned? Previously “good” characters pretty much spontaneously going “evil” in ways that have to hit you over the head with how evil they are now because otherwise it doesn’t really make sense? ALL THE SMIRKING? OH MY GOSH, SHOW, WE GET IT. WE SAW IT COMING, OKAY, WE’RE NOT AS DUMB AS YOU THINK WE ARE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO REMIND US “HEY GUYS MORGANA IS EVIL REMEMBER” EVERY THIRTY SECONDS.

So: list time!

Things that could happen in Merlin S3 that would make me happy:

• Merlin tells somebody about his magic, and by “somebody” I mean “someone in the main cast who does not conveniently forget or get killed immediately afterward”. Please. To be fair, I’ve been hoping for this pretty much since…I don’t know, mid-S1, probably.
• Even better: for whatever reason, Merlin tells Morgana (you know, even if it might have HELPED A LOT OF THINGS if he’d told her earlier), leading to an actual conversation about how, you know, Merlin is always in danger because of his secret but he’s chosen to side with Uther and Arthur anyway. Because…whatever exactly his reason is.
• For this or some other reason, Morgana decides to rethink her life choices. Look, I can dream, okay?
• If Morgause & Co. continue to be evil for the sake of the plot, we get some ACTUAL GOOD REASONS why they’re evil. No, I don’t mean “Well, Uther screwed them over and now they want revenge”. That’s a motivation for their actions. That doesn’t automatically make them evil. I remain unconvinced that Uther’s the best monarch anyway, considering the massive amounts of stupid he gets away with.
• On a similar note, Uther somehow gets his damn mind opened. Like, I don’t know, maybe by discovering that Morgana, who he clearly still loves, his magic and is working against him now. That would make a person think, wouldn’t it? …right? Sorry, I forgot, we don’t do that on this show.
• But come on. Uther hates magic because he thinks it killed his wife. Except it didn’t. Which I’m fairly sure he knows by now, on some level. So at this point, the driving force behind an awful lot that happens is Uther’s stubborn, willful, knowing refusal to admit his own mistakes and take back a policy that has clearly caused way more harm than good. That’s a quality we want in a king, all right!
• Merlin saves Arthur’s life in some really obvious way that can’t be ignored or overlooked, whether or not it reveals his magic, and Arthur stops being quite as much of an asshole. …haven’t we done this already, though? Multiple times? And Arthur still thinks Merlin is useless and thought it was hilarious that Merlin claimed to have repeatedly saved his life? *sigh* 
• Anything, anything at all, that has Team Evil saying, “Okay, here’s why we’re so determined to bring Uther down, at any cost, not just because we’re OMGSOEVIL purely for the sake of being OMGSOEVIL.” You know how much more interesting and layered this would be if, I don’t know, the villains were acknowledged to be people with motives who have reasons for doing these things and maybe we could try TALKING TO THEM AND WORKING SOMETHING OUT instead of everyone trying to kill each other? I’m down with battles and climactic standoffs! Really! But wouldn’t it be sensible to try something besides “ZOMG SORCERY WIPE THEM OUT oh crap they survived and now they have a very good reason to come after me OKAY REALLY WIPE THEM OUT THIS TIME”? Because, I mean…we’ve seen how well that works.
• Team Evil meets up with Team Good and they come to an agreement that you know what, Uther is just not good for Camelot anymore (because I’m still really not convinced he is), but there are better ways to get him to step down than, y’know, evil ones. Hey look at that, motives we can understand and reasonable people taking reasonable means to achieve their goals!
• Morgana and Merlin actually talk, no lies, no threats, no attempts to kill each other, and have some stuff out. They were friends once-surely that’s enough for an actual conversation.
• Morgana does some actual thinking, because again, ENOUGH WITH THE CARDBOARD EVIL PEOPLE. If she’s going to be evil, she should own her decisions, and she should know what they are and consciously make them, and we should get to see that. And since she did grow up with and once love these people she’s now trying to destroy, she needs to deal with that too. Because come on, show, people don’t go evil overnight. They make choices. Deliberate ones, usually. They choose power or revenge or whatever over their friends and family, but that doesn’t mean the choices are easy. Morgana’s still the same person we met in S1; people don’t have switches in their heads that can be flipped between good and evil. If she’s going to kill her friends, especially now that she’s back with them, seeing their faces again, she should have at least a little bit of a struggle with that.
• And, you know, if she has that struggle and starts doubting what she’s doing, and decides, no, taking down Uther is the right thing to do regardless of the cost…fine. But she needs to actually make that decision and have actual reasons for doing it.

Things that will probably happen in Merlin S3:

• None of the above.

Show, I still love you--despite my better judgment, half the time--but I don't think even Heroes depended this much on Idiot Balls and assumed so hard that viewers are morons.