#although you know what maybe he just said that because Julian wasn't along this time lmao

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Garak in "Second Skin": I will NEVER sacrifice myself for you people I will ALWAYS selfishly save my own life that is a PROMISE

Garak in "The Search, Part II", three episodes earlier: [sacrifices himself for these people even when he could have selfishly saved his own life]

[robotslenderman]

I don't understand Julian Sim one bit. I mean, I get that his goal was to coexist with humans openly while vampires officially rule over them (I believe?) but his whole involvement in the story... is so confusing. Why did he appar after 10 years to the courier? Was the Courier unbeknownst to the MC themselves a secret spy planted by Julian to spy on Lettow? What exactly is his involvement witht he SI? Why is he so "attached" to the Courier? Why are we a successful experiment while Z wasn't?

Honestly there are a few things about VTMNR that I’ve noticed that don’t have clear cut answers. Like... why the video of Jasper’s death got sent to Lettow at all. Who extracted it from Jasper’s webcam, and who sent it to Lettow? (I believe Julian -- obfuscate doesn’t work on cameras, so if he was invisible to the camera or just a blur then someone obviously doctored it, and we know he can do that -- but that’s another discussion for another day.)

And also, why send him a goddamn snuff film of two of his friends instead of just going “yo, Jasper’s dead”?

But here’s my best answers to your questions. Mind, unless I say otherwise this is all speculation. Nobody really knows except Kyle Marquis himself, and he didn’t really explain any of this.

Why did he appear to the Courier after 10 years?

He did have a specific thing in mind for the Courier -- in the conversation in Aila’s warehouse at the end, Julian said he needed someone who’d committed diablerie for his plans. Why, exactly, is never explained. This is why he manipulated you into diablerising Aila -- he made the plans to diablerise her, then appeared to “lose his nerve”, but in reality he meant for you to do it all along.

Given how taboo diablerie is, it would be really hard to find a diablerist, let alone one that wouldn’t flip out and try to destroy you on sight for knowing their secret. So what does he do? He reaches out to the only diablerist he knows whom he already has rapport with.

Z is, if you think about it, probably a diablerist themself, given that they were used as an experiment. But the Courier? Julian was close to them once. In all four backstories you can have with Julian, you were at least good friends -- in three out of four of them, you were very close (more on this later). It’s totally natural to reach out to someone you were once close to when you need help, especially if that person fits the bill in what you need.

Was the Courier secretly spying on Lettow for Julian?

I honestly don’t think so, because Julian took up residence in the shadow spaces and didn’t need the Courier to be an extra spy. He could just hang out there personally, not to mention he had a whole bunch of people in there with him. I don’t think he needed the Courier at all for this kind of thing -- just his Masquerade-busting stuff with the serum and the diablerie.

What exactly is his involvement with the SI?

I don’t think he was involved with the SI any more than any random power player in the area (maybe a spy in the SI here, a ghoul on the inside there -- typical stuff), but I do think he is 100% responsible for the SI swarming the southwest.

This is never explicitly stated or even really hinted at in canon, but if you think about things logically I 100% believe that this is the only conclusion you can come to.

Think about it. Lettow is technophobic and is one of the very few Princes left that is absolutely paranoid about the internet and phones. There are huge cities where Kindred openly talk about their condition on the phones and over text, but it’s Tucson, where they barely use phones except in emergencies and rely heavily on couriers, that the SI come down on?

Well. Which character do we know who constantly drops SI trigger words in conversations, compromises our phones, and has to constantly give us new ones?

Julian.

He flaunts the Masquerade even worse than the smartphone-using vamps in the big cities. He does not give a shit about the Masquerade (well he does, because it’s his work, but you know what I mean).

This is the only possible reason that a Prince as paranoid as Lettow regarding technology and the SI could have such a fucking ENORMOUS problem with the SI. The only one. Lettow should be dealing with way less vamp hunters than every other Prince in the country, but instead they’re swarming Tucson and Dallas is a war zone. Sure, Dallas isn’t in his domain -- but we know Julian is also active there because his ghoul is stationed there.

We also know that Julian has been all over the southwest because he shows up a lot in your sidequests, and because he went and killed off Jasper, who was (IIRC) in New Mexico at the time of his destruction.

Why is he so attached to the Courier?

There’s 4 backstories you can have with Julian:

He’s your sire (Banu Haqim)

He’s your adopted sire (Gangrel, possibly Caitiff? I can’t remember)

He’s your ex*

He’s a former friend you bonded with over the course of working for the Camarilla before you became a Courier

(* In your first meeting with him, Julian reminisces about your work for the Camarilla in the desert and says “wasn’t it romantic?” and one of the responses -- “you made our relationship up and tried to sell it as a novel” -- implies that all the other responses acknowledge a romantic history.)

In all of those you’d be on really good terms with him, but in three of them you’d have been really close to him. Especially if you’re his childe (adopted or not) and you were romantically involved with him.

Basically... ex and/or childe? He’d be more attached to you than he would anyone else.

He does have weirdass ways of showing it, but I also believe strongly he’s neurodivergent (again, not a subject for this post) and his actions are very in line with the behaviour of someone who is neurodivergent and also attached to somebody. He looks like he doesn’t give a shit to a neurotypical, but if he has ADHD as I really believe he does, then the ways he shows it are totally in line with that because of Reasons I won’t go into here.

Why are we a successful experiment while Z wasn’t?

All I can say is that he fiddled with his methods and they worked this time. That’s how experiments work -- you mess with things until something sticks. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re special, it just means that something he tried worked this time around.

But sometimes it can be other factors, too. Maybe it works this time because the Courier is a certain clan. Maybe it works this time because you diablerised a certain person. Maybe it works because of both of these things and whatever Julian fiddled with between Z’s experiment and yours.

Science is never clear cut because there’s so many factors involved. It’s why scientific experiments use such a wide pool of test subjects, because it’s impossible to tell with just one success -- is it a fluke? What factor actually caused this result?

It’s impossible to tell for sure why it was successful this time because the Courier is a sample size of n=1, and it is Bad Science to draw conclusions based on a sample size that small.

What’s his deal?

To sum up the above -- Julian wants to pull Shenanigans, and he wants you involved in them because 1) you fit the bill of the kind of person he needs on his side due to your diablerie of an elder, although the reasons why the diablerie was necessary were never explained, and 2) he was close to you once, or at the very least, on very good terms with, and therefore you had a certain rapport with him that he lacked with others.

SO YEAH THAT’S THE THING.

[coinofstone]

2x11 The Witch's Quickening

Hey Arthur, remember last time you were on a manhunt in Camelot and it led you to Morgana's chambers, and she talked you out of searching them and later admitted that she'd been hiding a fugitive in there? Have you learned NOTHING

And Merlin too, he doesn't like, double back and confront Morgana or suggest Arthur do that?

Why is Arthur yelling at Merlin so much in this? Who wrote this episode.

::Coin watch the show instead of playing on her phone challenge::

Morgana being manipulated by a nine year old

Why is Arthur insulting the food as if Merlin cooked it himself? Every other meal he brings up is from the palace kitchens but on this occasion Merlin cooked himself? Ok.

Even the fkin dragon is OOC in this ep

Morgana is so much more intelligent than this.

Gaius needs to bring this to Uther in the throne room like a member of the public? He couldn't get a private audience with the king? Ok.

I really don't remember this episode being so terrible, maybe I'm in a bad mood.

You know, not for nothing, but from Mordred's perspective Merlin is being an absolute dick, not only siding with the oppressor but actively working to sabotage their plans and hurt their people. As we, the audience, are privy to the reasons behind this, WE don't necessarily questions Merlin's actions, WE know he's after the crystal because he's trying to prevent Mordred and Morgana from teaming up and bringing harm to Arthur - that's all good and well but like... Merlin could never bring himself to kill Mordred because he's just a boy, but yet he's allowed the boy to go off and become somewhat radicalized (I say 'somewhat' because honestly, it's not all that radical to plot to overthrow the king that has been waging a genocidal war against your people for twenty fucking years) without ever trying to bring him into the fold. If Merlin had explained his and Arthur's destinies to the boy, made an argument for waiting out Uther's reign in the hope that Arthur's reign will bring peace and magic back to Camelot, but which may not happen if he sees his father killed by sorcerers, and explained his reasons for hiding who he is from Morgana, regardless of Mordred's ultimate destiny to be Arthur's doom, Merlin would've at least had a shot at cultivating an alliance or at very least an understanding between them. Instead, all Mordred sees is this supremely powerful sorcerer who isn't even a druid, serving the very people that would bring an end to their entire race if they could. Although, it seems as tho Mordred has forgotten who exactly snuck him out of the castle and back to the druid camp in three first place. Makes you wonder if Morgana never explained to him that she was believed to have been kidnapped when they found her with the druids last time, and that she went along with that lie for her own safety.

Tl;dr: communication is important kids!

Do I even need to point out how much sense Morgana's little tiff with Uther did not make? Or her sudden distrust of Gwen? If anything she should think Gwen would be an ally considering a) her father was killed by Uther, as an innocent victim of Uther's war on magic, b) Gwen was party to Morgana's previous involvement in aiding and abetting a druid fugitive, c) Gwen L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y sacrificed herself to save Morgana from Hengist's men, the is zero reason to question Guinevere's loyalty to Morgana, and d) Gwen has never said a WORD against sorcery or hinted at any kind of prejudice against druids or anyone with magic.

I looked up the writing credit for this, it's Jake Michie who is also credited with some fantastic episodes like Lancelot, Beauty and the beast, and the Lamia to name a few. It was directed by Alice Troughton who has also done some good eps, including other eps written by Jake Michie, so like I really don't understand what went wrong here.

Oh God there's a commentary track on this episode. I don't wannnnnaaaaaa but maybe I'll learn something, like why it turned out the way it did.

Commentary by Julian Murphy, Alice Troughton, and Katie. I do not have high hopes.

Katie right off the bat explaining shit that's important to note, God I love her on these tracks. Apparently, this was one of the last things to be shot (Merlin films everything out of order and films several episodes concurrently, depending on filming location.) and it was being shot while three other episodes were being wrapped up - so they had FOUR episodes filming concurrently and a lot of THIS episode was directed by Julian Murphy, and Jeremy shot some of it as well. This COULD explain a lot of the inconsistency, but I question how much since Julian seems to be involved in filming lots of scenes in lots of episodes. But I guess it's possible that just that on top of the rush to finish and the pressure of so many spinning plates in the air right at the end. They've just said that for this episode they had the least amount of days to shoot it out of all the episodes they've done, which is partly why they had so much going at once. It's as good a reason as any to explain it being so off, but I don't really see that explaining the wildly off characterization.

Katie going on the whole thing about Alvarr-as-revolutionary and Alice picks up on Morgana's sort of desire to be in that position and they're having a quite meaningful discussion then Julian:I think she just thinks he's hot 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Katie says the script changed a lot even as it was filming, and that things were being changed as it was filmed so I'm kind of thinking for whatever reason this entire thing was a mess and that's why it came across looking so disjointed to me.

At least Julian realize the soup scene was terrible.

Idk why they're ganging up on Katie over the chemistry between her and Alvarr. She says she wasn't playing it that way and that she wasn't feeling it and they're just like "yea uh huh sure."

They're talking about having two units filming like a few feet away from each other in the forest, while there is another two units going in France.

Julian says they had added Alvarr's girlfriend in because they wanted to dramatize his charisma and calculation... but it's not manipulation - ?????????? Someone get the man a dictionary. 'We added a random blonde in four him to kiss so that the audience knows he's got a girl already, who sees him working his charm on Morgana and comments on it 'you played her well', but Alvarr isn't actually manipulative' ??????????

They've just pointed out two entire significant beats within a sequence that was constructed on set and off script. Arthur's confrontation with Alvarr in the forest and Merlin's slow motion tracking the crystal to show its got a powerful draw. The more they describe the specifics of filming the more it sounds like an utter disaster which kind of makes me feel bad for being so harsh on the episode.

I keep having to rewind to focus on what they're saying and I feel like I've been watching this episode for about 4 hours.

Awkward bit of prop-exposure there. Trying to work out what LK could even stand for.

Idk everyone's really happy with this scene between Morgana and Uther and I'm still sitting here thinking the dialogue was utterly ridiculous.

They talked about changing that final scene, where Uther clearly knows/suspects it was Morgana who helped Alvarr escape, so that it doesn't prematurely push the story too far ahead. They cut a look Morgana gives Merlin which, rightfully so, because it would've been too much too soon. The ending to this episode still feels wholly unsatisfying to me. I understand the little tag with the dragon yelling for Merlin to release him, I don't mean that, but the ending to the main story where Alvarr just escapes and Uther not only accepts that but also accepts that Morgana must've helped him. Overall Uther's been entirely sort of neutered throughout this episode, which I understand that partially has to do with it being Morgana, but like, in previous episodes when she's been so defiant against him, he's had her by the throat and locked her in a dungeon overnight. So I just doubt understand him being so subdued here, especially since he directly threatened her when he found pr Mordred escaped, and now another druid's escaped and he essentially knows she was involved given how she spoke to him, yet he doesn't do anything? Just wildly inconsistent behavior.

Anyway apologies for overanalyzing this episode, I realize I tore it apart pretty thoroughly during the commentary and the post became quite long. I wish there was a way to add a cut on mobile but there isn't. I'll have the S2 finale post up in a few hours - I might hold off on posting until I've watched the extras, I didn't do that for S1 but then I felt the extras didn't quite warrant a whole post on their own, so I might just tack on any thoughts I have to the 2x12 post. We'll see.