Hi Kriadydragon. i saw your rant ;) in fanfiction, and I totally agree with you. I thought it would be better to comment here though.
Actually, i still LOVE Merlin. Although I'd love to see a reveal, I also adore the 'Merlin with hidden talents/underappreciated' theme, even more. It lets Colin Morgan show those wonderful angsty crushing-destiny moments and I can't get enough of him. God he's a great actor! I am also worried that the post-reveal show would not have more than 3 or 4 episodes before boring me! I figure the shows creators probably feel the same and the post-reveal may be more like an epilogue, or next season if they get renewed.
Regarding episode 5, I think that Merlin really really had no choice. He 'knows' that Mordred is to be the death of Arthur but he needs Arthur alive to bring back magic and fulfil his own destiny. So he must have deduced that denying magic now would bring it back later in spite of the Disir. I think the tears and angst at that time were more because he knew he had to pass up the chance to let magic return 'now', and he also knew he was condemning Mordred to death.
Up to the point when they got the renewed choice from the Desir, I bet Merlin hoped that since the Disir may be able to influence destiny, they may also have been able to grant another way to get the happy ending, like with the unicorn curse. After all, Arthur's behaviour during the second visit would show them that he was in fact a just king AND that he was changing his attitude to at least respect magic if not embrace it. Without that hope I believe Merlin would have felt he had take Mordreds demise more actively into his own hands earlier on. The fact that he didn't help it along even shows that however bad things seem for Merlin, he's still trying to be 'good'. It's one thing to refuse magical healing and allow a natural death, but another to murder, after all.
I felt so sorry for Merlin during this episode and even worse when Mordred recovered anyway. Crushing destiny indeed!! I wonder how Merlin will deal with it in coming episodes.
One other thing though: I think Merlin's choice is the right one. If denying magic caused Mordred to live, doesn't that kind of equate to accepting magic and having Mordred die? So wouldn't that enrage Arthur like it did when his father died? Maybe he'd then have gone and obliterated the Disir sacred spot and it would be the purge all over. Or else maybe Mordred lives, but then we'd have had an Arthur who felt forced by sorcery rather than an Arthur who was allowed by sorcery to make his own decisions and was seemingly even given the 'gift' of a healed Mordred after. All things considered, even with Mordred alive I think Arthur is in a much better state to see the eventual good in magic due to rejecting it now. Time will tell I guess.
One last thing, if any of my arguments make any sense, feel free to weave them into your magical stories!!
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chiming
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Date: 2012-11-06 12:45 am (UTC)From:Actually, i still LOVE Merlin. Although I'd love to see a reveal, I also adore the 'Merlin with hidden talents/underappreciated' theme, even more. It lets Colin Morgan show those wonderful angsty crushing-destiny moments and I can't get enough of him. God he's a great actor! I am also worried that the post-reveal show would not have more than 3 or 4 episodes before boring me! I figure the shows creators probably feel the same and the post-reveal may be more like an epilogue, or next season if they get renewed.
Regarding episode 5, I think that Merlin really really had no choice. He 'knows' that Mordred is to be the death of Arthur but he needs Arthur alive to bring back magic and fulfil his own destiny. So he must have deduced that denying magic now would bring it back later in spite of the Disir. I think the tears and angst at that time were more because he knew he had to pass up the chance to let magic return 'now', and he also knew he was condemning Mordred to death.
Up to the point when they got the renewed choice from the Desir, I bet Merlin hoped that since the Disir may be able to influence destiny, they may also have been able to grant another way to get the happy ending, like with the unicorn curse. After all, Arthur's behaviour during the second visit would show them that he was in fact a just king AND that he was changing his attitude to at least respect magic if not embrace it. Without that hope I believe Merlin would have felt he had take Mordreds demise more actively into his own hands earlier on. The fact that he didn't help it along even shows that however bad things seem for Merlin, he's still trying to be 'good'. It's one thing to refuse magical healing and allow a natural death, but another to murder, after all.
I felt so sorry for Merlin during this episode and even worse when Mordred recovered anyway. Crushing destiny indeed!! I wonder how Merlin will deal with it in coming episodes.
One other thing though: I think Merlin's choice is the right one. If denying magic caused Mordred to live, doesn't that kind of equate to accepting magic and having Mordred die? So wouldn't that enrage Arthur like it did when his father died? Maybe he'd then have gone and obliterated the Disir sacred spot and it would be the purge all over. Or else maybe Mordred lives, but then we'd have had an Arthur who felt forced by sorcery rather than an Arthur who was allowed by sorcery to make his own decisions and was seemingly even given the 'gift' of a healed Mordred after. All things considered, even with Mordred alive I think Arthur is in a much better state to see the eventual good in magic due to rejecting it now. Time will tell I guess.
One last thing, if any of my arguments make any sense, feel free to weave them into your magical stories!!