#and nobody can fathom how this is funny and no the explanation of the historical context is not helping

[aroaceleovaldez]

Jason, Reyna, and Nico have one billion in-jokes about Mediterranean history between the bronze age to the renaissance that they find absolutely hilarious and no one else understands in the slightest. i know this in my heart to be true.

[coinofstone]

SCENE 59

Three fucking seasons in a row it’s been “I’m going to watch the special features at the end and if there’s anything worth mentioning I’ll make a separate post. 

Three fucking seasons in a row there really hasn’t been anything separate-post-worthy in those special features. 

Today that’s changed. 

DID YOU ALL KNOW ABOUT THIS?! DID NOBODY TELL ME ON PURPOSE TO WITNESS MY RIDICULOUSLY OUTSIZED REACTION BECAUSE JOB WELL DONE

I am sitting at a computer with the air conditioner off to write this post. THAT IS A BIG DEAL. 

First of all, I managed to find the clips on youtube. For those that don’t know, here’s the deleted scene: https://youtu.be/8r5eui13EtY

Here’s the scene that was included in the episode: https://youtu.be/YleIpvDDexs

You only need the first minute or so in that second video. They condensed the crap out of the scene, cutting some dialog, playing it more of a tense-joking-adrenaline-mid-battle scene than the intimate, introspective moment it had been. Because there’s no captions in either video I’ve transcribed the relevant dialogue here. Keep in mind this is by-ear quick transcription and not guaranteed to be entirely accurate.

Deleted scene:

Arthur: All the things I’ve faced, I’ve never been worried about dying. 

Merlin: Don’t think you should now.

Arthur: Sometimes you do puzzle me. 

Merlin: You never fathomed me out?

Arthur: No. 

Merlin: Well... I always thought if things would’ve been different we’d have been good friends. 

Arthur: Yeah. 

Merlin: If you weren’t such an arrogant, pompous, dollop-head.

Arthur: ::laughs::

Merlin: That’s what you have to remember... things never turn out how you expect. You’ll see. We’ll defeat the Dorocha, we will. Together. 

Arthur: I appreciate that. 

Arthur: (holding sigil) This belonged to my mother. It bears her sigil. Here. (hands sigil to Merlin)

Merlin: Arthur, I can’t -

Arthur: Just-  Take it. 

MERLIN DOES’T KNOW HOW TO SAY THANK YOU!?!?! Moving on.

The version of this dialog that aired in the episode:

Arthur: All the things I’ve faced, I’ve never worried about dying.

Merlin: I don’t think you should now.

Arthur: Sometimes you puzzle me.

Merlin: You never fathomed me out?

Arthur: No.

Merlin: I always thought if things had’ve been different we’d have been good friends.

Arthur: Yeah.

Merlin: That’s if you hadn’t been such an arrogant, pompous, dollop-head.

Arthur: ::laughs::

Merlin: We’ll defeat the Dorocha. We will, Arthur. Together. 

Arthur: I appreciate that. Y’know, you’re a brave man, Merlin. ...between battles. 

Merlin: (laughs) You don’t know how many times I’ve saved your life!

Arthur: (laughs) If I ever become King, I’m gonna have you made court jester.

(they both laugh)

It’s important to look at the timing here - the deleted scene ran nearly 2 minutes long. The scene that aired ran just over one minute long. They REPLACED (not removed) three lines of dialog but the scene shortened by about 50 seconds overall - nearly half the run time. Speeding up the conversation the way they did takes it from genuine heartfelt moment to nervous battlefield banter - it virtually erases the weightiness of it. And obviously, removing the engagement sigil is a really significant change.  

Another thing is the atmosphere. In both scenes, it’s just the two of them alone. but the deleted scene is undeniably more intimate.The crackling of the fire is louder than the music, which is playing so softly it’s barely there. The music doesn’t kick in at all until 40 seconds in, before that it’s just the sound of the fire, which is a deliberate effect. The castle version has music that’s a lot more noticeable, it’s that variation of the Merlin theme (I’m terrible with music meta in general but I genuinely do not know the titles of the music so I apologize for that) which also feels like a very deliberate choice - it’s distracting from the moment. Just like the screeching Dorocha. It seems like they were actively trying to lighten that moment between the boys, which I can only figure had to be orders from on high.

Looking back at the episode it seems like the deleted scene was meant to be wedged between Merlin gathering firewood while Lancelot tells him to go back to Camelot before he gets hurt, and the Morgana scene. Or maybe after the Morgana scene but before the scene where they find the frozen bodies in the road. Either way, this was clearly timed for the overnight stop en route to the big castle ruins. There’s a certain amount of tension, due to the mission, but they aren’t in immanent danger. The conversation between Merlin and Arthur is more introspective than anything else. There’s long pauses, thoughtful glances. Whereas the aired scene, in my opinion, looks like it was shoehorned into that moment just before Merlin jumps in front of the Dorocha to save Arthur. If you watch it carefully, you can see that the little prelude scene between Merlin and Arthur, which was spliced with the knights coming to rescue to them, would just as seamlessly flow into the ending WITHOUT that specific conversation as written above. Now, I say ‘shoehorned’ and I absolutely do not know the filming schedule and nothing was specifically said about it in the commentary track, but what WAS said is that they ARE on set in that scene, not on location. That means they could’ve added that as a pick up at any point during filming. The cave in the deleted scene was almost certainly a set as well, but that scene wasn’t mentioned at all in the commentary, I went back to check and during the portion where I think the scene was meant to be aired, they were just talking about Game of Thrones. But this is still important, because in choosing to put the conversation in that moment, the result is, as I said above, a far ‘lighter’ moment, because they are in very real and very immanent danger, they cannot be all thoughtful and introspective, they’ve got to be full of adrenaline and nerves and gallows humor. I liked that little moment in the episode, but now that I know what was cut I feel cheated   😂  

I’ve seen some people say that they had to cut out the thing with the sigil because by medieval rules, possessing that sigil would make Merlin a member of the royal family. I’m sure it would, but I really doubt that’s why it was axed, especially since as we all know, this show is a total stickler for historical accuracy. The only reasonable explanation is that someone decided it was toooooooo gay, too in-your-face-obvious that there’s a romantic relationship there. I mean, Arthur proposed to Gwen with his mother’s ring, he gives Merlin his mother’s sigil after confessing he’s worried he might die on their mission? COME ON. (I know that’s not the only reasonable explanation please just let me rant in peace this is new information for me)

And while I’m here I’d like to share this with you all... because it is ahhhmazing. 

The deleted scenes didn't have captions which was VERY disappointing, but this was so funny I had to edit it out and throw some captions in there. I've also uploaded it to YouTube as well. And here, have a gif