thoughts on merlin. because I has them and also, Piper said she'd tell me hers here
Aka: P's Adventures in Coherency Are Hilarious. Btw, this was directly copy/pasted from tumblr, hopefully format won't be much of an issue.
I liked it a lot, actually. Bit slow again, with all the ‘look at the horse-riding’ shots, but I forgive them because they provided a sense of elapsed time, you know? more than the night-day-night transitions.
Overall I found it kind of spotty? Like, made up of small moments and in no way as epic as it should/could have been (tho, c’mon, you can’t kill Merlin or Arthur and we know Lance returns. Suspense, what is that?) Obvs the brook thing was a set up for Lance’s return (shimmery sword was gorgeous, tbh) so that scene had to stay I guess; the constant setting up of Gwaine as the comic relief was poorly handled, I think, something a bit more subtle would have done it better, but then again, target audience (actually I prefer smelly socks (I mean, boys will be boys and all that) to farts and poop jokes). The moments that worked tho, worked beautifully.
Agravaine being all two-face. Actually two-faced, was really nice, dude wants the throne for his ass, not Morgana’s and I can’t be convinced otherwise. His constant looming over people really brings home the message of danger, he completely invades Gwen’s personal space at every possible chance, looms over her in an exact mirror of how he does with Morgana (which is how I know he’s in it for himself) and Gwen, unlike Morgana, apparently, catches on immediately, although then fails to connect him with the attempt on her life, WHICH I AM BLAMING ON A POSSIBLE CONCUSSION.
ELYAN HAD LINES AND THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL AND HE WAS BEAUTIFUL AND THIS IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS.
GWEN. GWEN should forever be written about in all caps. She was magnificent and Angel rocked my world in every way available to her. HER MAJESTY, GWEN THE MAGNIFICENT is how she’ll be called. Angel Coulby, you are excellent and the best thing that's ever happened to this show. Gwen is such a HQIC here, while remaining perfectly aware of the delicate position she is in, Agravaine is no Arthur and she is overstepping her limits a bit, but these men know who she is (Arthur's whatever), who Gaius is and further, she has the power to do something about a wrong situation watch her fucking do it. Arthur risks his neck for Camelot and its people and so does Gwen. BOW DOWN TO YER BAMF ONCE AND FUTURE KING AND QUEEN, Y'ALL.
Morgana did not smirk once, even tho opportunities for it were abundant. I am proud. Also, her rage was not that Gwen would be on the throne, it was that Gwen the servant would be on the throne, which reminded me of zarawithaz’s meta about Morgana, Morgause and class rather neatly. I get the feeling that she’s kind of holding it together by a very fine thread, I dunno. It feels like she’s failing to notice just how threatening Agravaine actually comes across as, I get the constant feeling that there’s something about this liaison that’s frustrating to him, but then that may just be the weight of my own theories… don’t trust me on this one. I do, however, expect him to double-cross her at some point, what I’m not sure about is whether she’ll see it coming or not.
Arthur, whom is the one you asked about ::blushes:: was on form, with all his intense dedication and his being a leader who listens to his men and accepts their concern about his well-being, not as a sign of weakness but as sign of love and trust. I drew mental hearts over that moment. And his worry about Merlin, the compliment, HE COMPLIMENTED MERLIN IN A VERY DIRECT WAY, which only became a joke bcs Merlin made it into one. I don’t even care that they didn’t hug, THERE WERE COMPLIMENTS AND THIS IS ARTHUR WHO TAKES HIS GROWING STEP BY BABY STEP. Now, he did leave Gwen to grieve on her own, but in his defense, he had some grieving of his own to do, not to mention this brand new information that could potentially change the way he views Lancelot henceforth (I don’t think it will, but the possibility may occur to Arthur anyway, even if it doesn’t go anywhere), clearly there was more to his sacrifice than met the eye and now Arthur knows this, I don’t think he’ll hold it over the heads of either Gwen nor Lance, but it’s there now. As I see it, he left because, as you put it, it was the best thing to do under the circumstances and he too was overrun with emotions (he’s not very good at this, let’s not forget) which I think he had mostly managed up to that point, but then add to that Gwen’s guilt and the knowledge that Lance gave himself away not just for Camelot for for her and you have a perfect storm of confusion (also, he does have a tendency towards insecurity and this is something he has to deal with on his own), Gwen’s visibly more broken up after speaking up than she was when he came to her, so leaving her is a direct recognition of her own inability to cope atm and her need to find her own footing again before anything else can be done. This is where the shoulder squeeze/caress becomes important, I think, because he lets go of her hand but it’s not this brusque, betrayed motion, is a gentle shift of his stance and the transition from hand-holding (a shared moment) to a somewhat less intimate but equally sympathetic contact (I understand your pain, we are still in this together), so it’s not like he walked away from her in order to go sulk on how hard his life was and how nobody loves him, he leaves her but doesn’t abandon her. Does that make sense?
Fuck it, I’m copy/pasting this on my lj and calling it my review. Because it is. Clearly no even bullet points do it for me. I have forgotten what conciseness is and Merlin is to blame ::headdesk::
So, am I overestimating my abilities here? DO LET ME KNOW so I can stop making these things public.
I liked it a lot, actually. Bit slow again, with all the ‘look at the horse-riding’ shots, but I forgive them because they provided a sense of elapsed time, you know? more than the night-day-night transitions.
Overall I found it kind of spotty? Like, made up of small moments and in no way as epic as it should/could have been (tho, c’mon, you can’t kill Merlin or Arthur and we know Lance returns. Suspense, what is that?) Obvs the brook thing was a set up for Lance’s return (shimmery sword was gorgeous, tbh) so that scene had to stay I guess; the constant setting up of Gwaine as the comic relief was poorly handled, I think, something a bit more subtle would have done it better, but then again, target audience (actually I prefer smelly socks (I mean, boys will be boys and all that) to farts and poop jokes). The moments that worked tho, worked beautifully.
Agravaine being all two-face. Actually two-faced, was really nice, dude wants the throne for his ass, not Morgana’s and I can’t be convinced otherwise. His constant looming over people really brings home the message of danger, he completely invades Gwen’s personal space at every possible chance, looms over her in an exact mirror of how he does with Morgana (which is how I know he’s in it for himself) and Gwen, unlike Morgana, apparently, catches on immediately, although then fails to connect him with the attempt on her life, WHICH I AM BLAMING ON A POSSIBLE CONCUSSION.
ELYAN HAD LINES AND THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL AND HE WAS BEAUTIFUL AND THIS IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS.
GWEN. GWEN should forever be written about in all caps. She was magnificent and Angel rocked my world in every way available to her. HER MAJESTY, GWEN THE MAGNIFICENT is how she’ll be called. Angel Coulby, you are excellent and the best thing that's ever happened to this show. Gwen is such a HQIC here, while remaining perfectly aware of the delicate position she is in, Agravaine is no Arthur and she is overstepping her limits a bit, but these men know who she is (Arthur's whatever), who Gaius is and further, she has the power to do something about a wrong situation watch her fucking do it. Arthur risks his neck for Camelot and its people and so does Gwen. BOW DOWN TO YER BAMF ONCE AND FUTURE KING AND QUEEN, Y'ALL.
Morgana did not smirk once, even tho opportunities for it were abundant. I am proud. Also, her rage was not that Gwen would be on the throne, it was that Gwen the servant would be on the throne, which reminded me of zarawithaz’s meta about Morgana, Morgause and class rather neatly. I get the feeling that she’s kind of holding it together by a very fine thread, I dunno. It feels like she’s failing to notice just how threatening Agravaine actually comes across as, I get the constant feeling that there’s something about this liaison that’s frustrating to him, but then that may just be the weight of my own theories… don’t trust me on this one. I do, however, expect him to double-cross her at some point, what I’m not sure about is whether she’ll see it coming or not.
Arthur, whom is the one you asked about ::blushes:: was on form, with all his intense dedication and his being a leader who listens to his men and accepts their concern about his well-being, not as a sign of weakness but as sign of love and trust. I drew mental hearts over that moment. And his worry about Merlin, the compliment, HE COMPLIMENTED MERLIN IN A VERY DIRECT WAY, which only became a joke bcs Merlin made it into one. I don’t even care that they didn’t hug, THERE WERE COMPLIMENTS AND THIS IS ARTHUR WHO TAKES HIS GROWING STEP BY BABY STEP. Now, he did leave Gwen to grieve on her own, but in his defense, he had some grieving of his own to do, not to mention this brand new information that could potentially change the way he views Lancelot henceforth (I don’t think it will, but the possibility may occur to Arthur anyway, even if it doesn’t go anywhere), clearly there was more to his sacrifice than met the eye and now Arthur knows this, I don’t think he’ll hold it over the heads of either Gwen nor Lance, but it’s there now. As I see it, he left because, as you put it, it was the best thing to do under the circumstances and he too was overrun with emotions (he’s not very good at this, let’s not forget) which I think he had mostly managed up to that point, but then add to that Gwen’s guilt and the knowledge that Lance gave himself away not just for Camelot for for her and you have a perfect storm of confusion (also, he does have a tendency towards insecurity and this is something he has to deal with on his own), Gwen’s visibly more broken up after speaking up than she was when he came to her, so leaving her is a direct recognition of her own inability to cope atm and her need to find her own footing again before anything else can be done. This is where the shoulder squeeze/caress becomes important, I think, because he lets go of her hand but it’s not this brusque, betrayed motion, is a gentle shift of his stance and the transition from hand-holding (a shared moment) to a somewhat less intimate but equally sympathetic contact (I understand your pain, we are still in this together), so it’s not like he walked away from her in order to go sulk on how hard his life was and how nobody loves him, he leaves her but doesn’t abandon her. Does that make sense?
Fuck it, I’m copy/pasting this on my lj and calling it my review. Because it is. Clearly no even bullet points do it for me. I have forgotten what conciseness is and Merlin is to blame ::headdesk::
So, am I overestimating my abilities here? DO LET ME KNOW so I can stop making these things public.