Merlin 4x12 and 4x13 The Sword in the Stone

[zahrawithaz]

More accurately, an attempt to wrap-up some of the themes of Series 4. Which starts off cranky, but does not end there, and also owes an immense debt to conversations with the always brilliant selenak and meri_contrary.

Comments

[zahrawithaz]

Yes. At first I thought, Oh, this is a result of S4 & S5 being written as one long arc, but after thinking about it I concluded that it's more about the show having problems deciding whether Merlin or Arthur should be the focal point at any given time.

Wow, that is fascinatining! I would love to know what was cut. The sword in the stone scene was indeed beautiful, but it didn't make as much sense, resolution-wise, to me at least; I wonder if it was shorter if that would be less of an issue--as a viewer I wouldn't feel like it had to carry quite so much weight.

[ravenya03]

I have to say, I thought "The Sword in the Stone" was the weakest finale the show has ever done. The story was all over the place, there were about thirty plots that were never resolved, and the writer spectacularly misses the point of several key scenes

[zahrawithaz]

Hmm; that's an interesting question, comparing the finales. To be honest, I think "The Last Dragonlord" is weaker in some ways--it's much less of a finale than a character study for Merlin--but it doesn't matter so much, because there aren't the heightened expectations that this one had as the conclusion of a series-long arc. I know part of my problem, personally, was that I had very high expectations based on the S3 finale, which is still one of my favorite Merlin episodes ever

[ravenya03]

I guess my problem is that the whole thing just felt unresolved. Not just the Lancelot/Guinevere thing, but also Agravaine's death and the plot-thread with Excalibur (which still hasn't actually been identified as Excalibur on-screen) and Tristan and Isolde (the former dead and the latter disappeared), not to mention the plot with Morgana searching for Emrys disappearing after episode 7...it all just sort of fell flat.

I've seen the first episode of S5 and I enjoyed it well enough - though I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved that they're clearly not going to follow up on the likes of Lancelot/Agravaine/Tristan/Excalibur/etc.

[issy5209]

Thought provoking comments again

[earlyparade]

I completely agree with your point about the ending of Arthur's arc. While on the first watch I was mildly interested in the scene when he pulls the sword out of the stone, I realized later on it really didn't make any sense

[loriale]

This is great, as always