#also. i'm crying bc here sherlock talks about trying not to lose himself

[eg515]

[words-writ-in-starlight]

hey do you want to sell the arthur movie to someone who loved bbc merlin, couldn't stand it after a while, and refused to watch the ending bc the death of camelot always angers me (and makes me cry a bit, usually, if I'm being totally honest, but mostly I get really annoyed) and I avoid it whenever I can?

Well first off, if you got far enough for watching the ending to even be an issue, you lasted longer than me, because...like, listen.  There’s only so far you can push Plot-Mandated Idiocy before I lose my patience with it and I burned out at the end of Season 3 (partway into Season 4?) with Merlin and its Plot-Mandated Idiocy on the part of Arthur and every other living human in Camelot.  I have Some Complaints about that show but the whole magic thing is first on the list.

BUT ANYWAY.

Legend of the Sword is amazing!  It is wonderful!  It is about the rise of Arthur to the throne and therefore does not actually deal with the fall of Camelot at all!

Here are some things that I think are major selling points!

The Premise

So, traditionally, Arthur is smuggled off to be raised as a nobleman’s foster son after the usurpation of Uther’s throne.  In LOTS, it presumes that Uther’s throne is usurped by his brother Vortigern (PSA: Mordred shows up in a wildly nontraditional fashion but like it really worked for me? especially since I hated Mordred in Merlin?), but Arthur’s escape with Ygraine is botched.  Uther and Ygraine are both killed trying to save their son, and Arthur is sent downriver alone as a very young child.  He winds up in Londinium, where he’s saved and raised by a group of prostitutes.  This means that instead of being raised as a foster son of a noble, Arthur grows up mostly on the streets, where he learns to fight and protect His People from Vortigern’s corrupt regime.  A lot of the plot is driven by Arthur’s need to help the women who helped him when he was younger, and that’s ultimately what pushes him out of Just Trying To Get On With It into picking up Excalibur and taking up arms against the usurper king.

Not gonna lie, I was dubious at first?  But like, FUCK, the plot works out phenomenally well, it's creative and gripping and in tune with itself, and all the characters are smart as a whip--which, after the Plot-Mandated Idiocy thing I talked about above, was an incredible relief.  The word ‘chivalry’ is never dropped, but the narrative is driven by this dictate that the strong use their power to defend and help and support or die trying, and that’s my shit.  This movie is King Arthur by way of Robin Hood, which is everything my deepest id could ever have craved.

The Soundtrack

Listen, LOTS is by Guy Ritchie (he of Man From UNCLE and the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies) so I can tell you a couple things.  First of all, the man knows his way around a goddamn montage, there’s a montage of Arthur growing up and I might actually need a separate post to talk about how magnificently efficient it is--about three minutes of montage gives you all the major points about how Arthur gains all his moral stances and combat/leadership abilities.

More to the point, though, the soundtrack is the most goddamn amazing shit I’ve listened to since maybe Fury Road?  Like, the Wonder Woman theme is magic, of course, but I love the soundtrack of LOTS so much I’m actually just listening to it on loop right now.  It’s all drums and bells and strings and heavy driving beats with just enough of an electronic thread to sound like folk music from a world very much not our own.  This music makes me want to go on a fucking quest, catch me stealing a horse and looking for a fucking dragon to slay.  Here is the main theme, if it doesn’t inspire the desire to go on a heroic quest I just can’t help you.

Arthur’s Character

Right, so, like...here is a controversial statement for you.  I am exhausted by the Hot Edgy Take of Arthur being a jackass.  I’m just.  I’m tired of it.  It hasn’t been Interesting And New for like minimum a thousand years.  I stuck it out in Merlin because...like...I guess I thought Arthur was going to improve?  And he does!  Like, he becomes a reasonably competent king!  But part of the thing that broke me on that show was that he wasn’t exactly Golden Age Of Camelot levels of generous/compassionate/wise.  Largely because of that Plot-Mandated Idiocy thing.  But he’s still kind of an arrogant, self-centered, spoiled asshole.

And I’m fucking sick of that take.

You know what I like?  Arthur who's confident in his abilities because he knows himself and his skills inside-out.  Arthur who has a sense of humor that hides a knife-edge of intelligence.  Arthur who knows that however good he is, the world is a big place and he needs to always strive to be better.  Arthur who would rather die than see someone who trusts him hurt, and who makes that clear.  Arthur who can go from fighting a war to saving a scared kid in a heartbeat.  Arthur who believes in quick and efficient reparations for a wrong done to someone under his care, but who isn’t too hotheaded to make an ally when he has the chance.

I like King Arthur to be clever and kind and ruthless and honorable and good, like, if your Arthur isn’t through and through a good man who knows that the people begging for coins are just as worthy of protection and good treatment as a king in his castle, I don’t want to hear about it.

And my guys.  LOTS delivers.

The Magic

Let me put it to you this way.  That $175mil budget for this movie?  It wasn’t exactly going into hot wings at the local KFC.  The magic is beautiful, and elaborate, and an excellent part of the world.  Nothing is really explained in depth, it’s just “Okay, here’s what’s happening, check the kaiju-sized war elephants and if you’re okay with that you’ll be fine so buckle up.”  And like...hell yeah I’m okay with kaiju-sized war elephants, sign me the fuck up.  I’m a big believer that either you have to explain everything or you have to just call it a flux capacitor and pretend that those words go together in the English language and hope that your audience catches up.  LOTS does a great job with their flux capacitor.  The Mage never explains what she’s doing or talks about how things work, she just sets up shop with some herbs and an asp and a really excellent cloak and starts getting shit done.

Excalibur is also really fantastic (like, listen, your magic sword should do some magic shit when wielded by its destined master) and they deal with something I’ve never actually seen before, which is the idea that it’s not the stone that’s enchanted but rather Excalibur itself.  So you could theoretically stick Excalibur into a reasonably large tree stump and the stump would petrify and only a Pendragon would be able to draw it.  And it’s cool as shit.  I was so disappointed with how little Excalibur appeared in Merlin (Plot-Mandated Idiocy strikes again I guess), so having a version of the Arthur story where the sword is fucking awesome made me very happy.

(Addendum: listen.  LISTEN.  I recognize that the council has made a decision about the Mage being Guinevere but the Mage is obviously Merlin.  Like.  Obviously.  She helped Uther woo Ygraine and forged Excalibur and knew the Lady of the Lake of old and now she has a king who’s not a king, a king who grew up in a brothel, and she’s exhausted by everything Arthur chooses to be, but...he’ll do.)

The Vibe

King Arthur should feel like King Arthur.  It should feel vaguely otherworldly.  It should boil over with magic.  It should have knights errant and loyal companions and clever courtiers.  It should have terrible wickedness and stubborn light and people who die for both.  It should have an Arthur whose knights love him, and who loves his people, and who never makes enemies when he can make friends.

And Legend of the Sword feels like King Arthur.