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tesseractrave · 3 years

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Hey LOOK

That trollhunters movie was sooo bad like smh I was facepalming the whole movie.

Actually the whole series after Trollhunters was unnecessary and just...uhg.

Dont get me wrong, 3below and Wizards wasnt horrible. Just unnecessary.

Trollhunters was the gem. Beautiful story, nice armor(I'm a gal for armor. Why i watched it in the first place). Has three seasons that keep you rooted. And it ended. Ended nicely. Should've ended there...but it didnt.

3below only added another weirdness to Aradia. Served no real purpose but to add aliens. The bad guys played no part in the later seasons. It was just to add more character to the two weirdos that appeared in one or two episodes.

Wizards wasnt as useless. I guess it was a little necessary. Added a backstory to Merlin and Morgana, added a way to make Jim human again, and told the history of trolls themselves. And, again, it added more to character you see a few times in the first series. It wasnt actually that bad. Except for the introduction of the three elementals. Yay.

Which brings us to the movie. The biggest fuckup of them all. I may have missed it with some of the skipping I do, but why does the two elements want the world to end? Why do they want to start over? Why did so many characters have to perish in the most useless of ways. They just kept killing off characters for no other reason but to just...do it??!?! And dont get me started on the ending. Like Tobias could do any better? Like Tobias could prevent the apocalypse that was soon coming and Jim couldn't? Tobias is known for being cocky and flamboyant. Even more so than Jim....

I just dont understand the movie and I gave it a thumbs down for that reason. They tried but I think they may have tried s but too much

THANK you... I cannot stress enough how important Tales of Arcadia was to me.

My life revolves around stories, the art of storytelling is the most important thing in my life. It's why I become so passionate about certain topics and fandoms (that and ADHD). The way stories and situations work with the unique characters and their own branching backgrounds and relationships is so indescribably inspiring to me, especially the fact that it is real people who create all of them. Real people who either singlehandedly or work together to create these beautiful weaves of characters, emotions, relationships, and situations.

For some reason, Tales of Arcadia was my absolute favourite story. It wasn't even the best to me, but it was my highest priority in all the things I was passionate about. It was my saving grace at my low points. It brought so much comfort and joy to me, and despite my brain knowing it wasn't the greatest, my heart held it in such high regard.

I wanted to hate Trollhunters. Before I had known it even existed, my older brother (who I look up to the most) talked to my family about how he watched a few episodes, and he thought it was cringy and childish. I stood beside him as he showed me the first episode for the first time and made fun of it in front of me, all the while I just nodded and laughed at his comments. In my head, I could see where he was coming from, but as the days passed, I found myself wondering more and more about it. There were three seasons of this. What even happens in that time? What happens with the girl he liked, and the trolls, and the teacher?

So I caved. I sat down at my computer and remembered what my dad told me about how you couldn't truly judge a show until you've seen at least three episodes. I became hooked, and my ADHD was singing especially. I loved this. I loved everything about this, good and bad. I could see all the layers in the story and I saw how brilliantly this was created and how the story was told.

So I watched more, and more, and I watched 3Below, and I found myself actively anticipating Wizards to the point where I cried when the trailer came out. I cried incredibly hard, and I found myself saying to my family, "You guys, this is my favourite thing in the world!" I said it even to my brother, who I didn't care in the slightest about disappointing in this regard. When it came out, my mother sat down with me and watched it, saying that she knew how important it was to me, and she wanted to be a part of that and understand it so she could make me happier. My family's thing was Star Wars, I was raised on it, and I found myself holding it emotionally closer than even that. It was that unimaginably important to me. I had no way to truly explain why, other than the fact that I was just in absolute awe of the way these stories were told and connected and visualized. I was especially excited for the movie, and I cried when the trailer dropped for it, too. I even made my family watch it with me...

And then it came out. I had invited all of my friends and my boyfriend to come over and watch it with me, and I had bought snacks and sodas. I was giddy enough to sit outside and wait for them to arrive, and when they did, I turned off all the lights, and we all sat down and watched it together, piled onto my couch and giggling as I pressed play.

It was just... one thing after another. It felt like it was slipping through my fingers like sand. I was desperately emotionally grabbing at it and my little ADHD brain was screaming at the screen. All of the destruction of the characters' development, the deaths, and finally... the undoing of all of it. The whole story and franchise I had come to know and love was destroyed before my eyes in just 1 hour and 46 minutes. My friends and I were all blubbering messes from Toby's death and as the credits rolled, and I remember running to my mother in her office and crying into her shoulder for an unimaginably long time before all of my friends came in and hugged me. I was truly heartbroken, and it took me probably much too long to finally come out of the daze of shock I was in from that.

Rise of Titans literally and figuratively undid everything I held dear to my heart about this series. It genuinely hurts my little storyteller heart to even look at any content for Tales of Arcadia anymore. All the mistakes that were made, and all the missed opportunities, I could go on and on. It genuinely hurt me through one of my most vulnerable spots and my emotional connection to it.

I've just been trying to give it time, I guess... maybe I'll find a way to close my eyes and pretend Wizards was the end of Tales of Arcadia instead, or maybe I'll set it down in the dust and leave it as it is like a broken memory of something I used to love. All I know... is that I truly, utterly despise Rise of Titans.

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panharmonium · 4 years

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you know what?

no. absolutely not.

i already did part 1 of this post here. i’m back again with part 2, because unfortunately the awfulness factor doesn’t stop with arthur, and as much as i adore hunith generally, this entire sequence is a MESS.

and yes, i am aware that pretty much nobody else thinks so. every time i see this scene referenced in fandom, it is always framed as a fun, cutesy, sing-songy moment of “oooo, hunith ships merthur!” literally every time.

which, you know, like i always say about everything fandom-related - that’s fine. everybody is going to enjoy things differently; you do you, and keep on having fun! but here on my own blog, in my own space, i am gonna do me, and in this case ‘me’ involves yelling about how much i can’t stand that particular read, and how angry the end of 1.10 makes me.

disclaimer, to help folks curate their own fandom experiences: i am going to be Very Cranky for the rest of this post. if you love this particular scene in the way i just mentioned, you will probably want to scroll on by, because this piece of meta most likely won’t be your jam. as always, these are my personal thoughts and nobody is obligated to share them, so please do not hesitate to simply skip this post if we are on different wavelengths - instead, keep enjoying fandom in whatever way is most fun for you!

fair warning now given, off i go on a long, frustrated tirade.

i already wrote about the first half of this scene, where arthur decides that the appropriate thing to do at this particular moment is to give merlin a scolding about the evils of sorcery, despite the fact that the only reason arthur is even alive to deliver this lecture in the first place is because merlin’s ‘sorcerer’ best friend just DIED saving arthur’s life. but sure, you know what, let’s use said best friend’s funeral to chastise merlin about how “dangerous” sorcerers are. let’s just make that completely dickheaded decision.

and, moving on to the second half of this scene - here’s the thing. hunith overhears this entire conversation. she overhears arthur telling merlin off about sorcery, in front of the burning corpse of merlin’s best friend, who is, as far as arthur knows, the ‘sorcerer’ who died saving arthur’s life.

and yet, for some inexplicable reason, hunith still cannot get off the arthur pendragon train for two damn seconds.

she has known arthur for less than a week. by contrast, she has known will for his entire life. but the instant arthur walks away, hunith sidles up next to merlin and says, “you’d better be going” - like. okay, my god, can you try to hustle him away from his best friend’s in-progress funeral any faster????? how about we maybe give him a second? the pyre hasn’t even burnt down yet, and merlin hasn’t had a single second to himself since this sequence started. he’s had to stand there and listen to arthur insult the dude who everyone is supposed to be memorializing, and then hunith - who overheard the entire thing - zips right over and tries to chivvy merlin on his way. you’d better be going.

HELLO?! the pyre is still roaring. how about, instead of hassling merlin and hustling him offstage, everybody just sits down and waits for a minute. how about they all just leave merlin alone for three everloving seconds.

honestly, just - every time i think about this scene i get angrier.

i love hunith, and i know she’s well-intentioned. but everything she gives merlin in this scene is the exact opposite of what he needs. he doesn’t need to be hurried off the village green like there’s some reason he can’t stay there for the entirety of his friend’s funeral. he doesn’t need to be pushed into going back to camelot when he is clearly struggling with the idea of leaving ealdor again. and he absolutely does not need to be told how much someone else “needs” him right now, when he himself is the one who is having a fucking crisis and who needs someone to take care of him.

i cannot emphasize that last point enough. it is just - beyond upsetting to me that hunith literally watches arthur shitting on merlin’s dead best friend (and, by proxy, merlin himself, since merlin is the actual sorcerer) and she still somehow thinks the right thing to do is walk over and start telling merlin how great arthur is and how arthur “needs” him and how merlin “belongs at arthur’s side.”

i can’t stand that. it makes me so angry. it’s not right. it’s not fair. it’s damaging. it’s the same shitty messaging that destroys merlin’s life in later seasons, this idea that he exists for someone else’s sake, the complete disregard for what he himself might want at any given moment, for what he himself might need, for the reservations he might have about this plan that other people have formulated for his life.

he is UNCOMFORTABLE when she says these things to him! he doesn’t look at her; he shifts his gaze to arthur and the camelot squad with this grim, unconvinced expression on his face, and then he averts his eyes from her.

everything hunith tells merlin in this scene is the exact opposite of what he needs to hear. he does not need someone to tell him how badly his services are “needed” by a man who hates the person merlin truly is, not when the only friend who ever accepted merlin’s true self has just been killed. he does not need to be told that arthur, who is alive solely because will is dead and who only seconds ago expressed exactly zero gratitude for that sacrifice, is the person to whom merlin owes his undying loyalty. he does not need to be shuffled off to camelot as quickly as possible, as if it would be better for him to just rush forward and forget what happened here, as if what happened here didn’t matter.

because what happened here did matter, whether hunith and arthur find it convenient to acknowledge or not. i have to lay this out again, because what happened to merlin in ealdor is so much more important than anybody ever seems to realize - and i do understand that, i really do (because yes, it was just one episode for us) - but we have to look at it from merlin’s perspective, not the audience’s.

will wasn’t ‘one episode’ for merlin.

i can’t say this enough times. i cannot say this loudly enough.

merlin, at the beginning of this show, has only ever had ONE FRIEND.

most of us can’t even imagine something like that.

but try. TRY.

merlin has only ever had one friend. he’s only ever had one friend to love him. he only had one friend for the first two decades of his life. he’s only been in camelot for a couple of months; he’s only known these camelot people for a couple of months, and they don’t know his real self anyhow. and now his ONLY FRIEND, the person he’s known all his life, the only friend he ever had who knew him for who he truly was, was just violently cut down before his very eyes, whilst saving a guy who can legally have merlin murdered for just existing. and even though merlin and will spend the entirety of 1.10 having a painful, complicated argument, will still uses his last moments on earth to tell the biggest fucking whopper of his life, in order to shield merlin from harm, taking all of the danger and infamy and condemnation upon himself. he dies with a lie on his lips. he dies with merlin’s hand in his hair.

and all the while, merlin knows that this would not have happened if he had just been willing to use his magic in the first place, instead of letting his fear of discovery prompt him into allowing his neighbors to offer themselves up for the slaughter in his place.

the avalanching double-whammy of grief and guilt that merlin is suddenly slammed with at the end of this episode is almost incomprehensible in scale.

i’ve talked about this before, but again, i think it’s something we don’t generally remember: losing will is the first time merlin has ever experienced personal bereavement. and he doesn’t get to start out with a warm-up; he goes straight to the big leagues. this is not some trifling thing. this is a total implosion of merlin’s world as he knows it.

when we think about the mark this episode leaves on merlin’s life, i don’t think most of us consider the magnitude of this event deeply enough. losing will in this way is not some one-off thing that merlin just...gets over. this is the most earth-shattering thing that has ever happened to him, at this point in time. it is still one of the worst things that has ever happened to him, period, even years later. the guilt never goes away.

and the thing that’s unique about this particular trauma is that merlin has to manage it alone. there are other tragedies in his life where we witness him receiving support/comfort from others - freya, lancelot, balinor (though of course there are aspects to these miseries that merlin has to keep secret from other people, as well) - but with will, merlin has to do everything on his own. he can’t get one single moment of peace at will’s funeral. his own mother, the only person who knows what really happened, can’t help him without making everything about arthur. and merlin can’t tell anyone else what happened, not the truth of it, because doing so would squander the gift he’s been given - will’s lie is still protecting him, years later, from arthur and morgana both.

merlin, at the end of 1.10, is forced to navigate this grief completely alone, in the silent secrecy of his own heart. arthur is actively making it worse. hunith is out here singing arthur’s praises. and will is just like - he’s suddenly not part of the conversation anymore. he doesn’t even register on anyone’s radar.

it truly is...incredible, for me, to watch hunith overhear arthur being legitimately terrible to both merlin and the guy who just died saving merlin AND arthur’s lives, and then to see her come over and start talking about how merlin belongs at arthur’s side, how much merlin needs to be there for him, how they’re two sides of the same coin. meanwhile, the guy who literally just lied his life away to protect merlin’s secret and who NEVER made merlin feel like he had to hide who he was and who never had any problem with magic in the first place and never made merlin feel unsafe and never treated merlin like he was less of a human being just for existing -

- he’s just burning to ash there, and hunith doesn’t even acknowledge that, despite the fact that merlin is so visibly, intently, single-mindedly focused on that funeral pyre, and so clearly in distress and in pain and NEEDING somebody. all she can talk about is merlin’s responsibility to arthur.

the dissonance here is baffling. hunith has known will forever. she met arthur less than a week ago. she barely knows him, and what she does know is that he thinks magic-users are dangerous/evil. she saw him being a dick to her kid. she knows her son is having the worst day of his life. and she still doesn’t offer a single comforting word in reference to the person who just died protecting merlin’s secret, instead choosing to wax poetic about a man whose bigotry is what merlin needed protecting from in the first place.

that...is a hot mess. the merlin-hunith-will dynamic is one of the few things in this show that reflects less-than-stellarly on hunith’s character, however much i love her. and even though it all stems from an overwhelming desire to keep her son safe, it doesn’t make her choices any less damaging. she sends merlin away specifically because she finds out that will knows about his secret. she spends 1.10 analyzing and encouraging and dissecting merlin’s relationship with arthur, when merlin’s relationship with will is the one that desperately needs attention. she’s proven wrong about will’s trustworthiness in the most stunning, powerful way possible, and then she never even acknowledges him, instead choosing to laud the dude who literally forces merlin to live in fear of execution.

she’s merlin’s mother. she’s the only person in his life who knows anything about what will actually meant to him. she is his only possible resource as he tries to weather a kind of devastation that defies description.

and she, like arthur, just barrels right on ahead and makes everything about someone else.

the cinematography choices in this scene matter. whenever arthur or hunith tries to talk to merlin, the camera is placed on the opposite side of the fire from them, meaning the flames are always in the foreground of the frame. they are something we are required to see and look past before we can get to anything else in the scene. and in terms of directorial/acting decisions - merlin doesn’t take his eyes off the pyre until the end of his conversation with hunith. not once while talking to arthur does he look away from it.

the funeral pyre is always in the foreground of the shot, because it’s in the forefront of merlin’s mind. that is where his focus is right now. that is what is taking up all of his attention. that is what is edging into the frame, eating up our entire field of view. that is what he needs help with.

but he doesn’t get any such support. the entire sequence ends up revolving around arthur. will’s entire funeral is about arthur fucking pendragon. arthur inserts himself so he can talk to merlin about how evil magic is, and then hunith inserts herself so she can talk to merlin about how great arthur is. nobody ever stops to think that maybe merlin doesn’t want to talk to anybody right this second. merlin’s entire ‘farewell’ to the only true friend he ever had in his life is completely swallowed up by the prince of camelot, and if that isn’t a metaphor for the rest of merlin’s life, then i don’t know what is.

i know nobody needs to hear this, because very few people are invested in this kid at the same level of embarrassing detail as me, but here it is, anyway.

yes, will is prickly. he’s hard to get on with. he’s angry. he’s bitter and snappy and uncharitable, sometimes.

but you know what? he has every reason to be like that.

this kid has nobody. his own best friend’s mother - who has known him all his life - doesn’t trust him and doesn’t respect him. she is too afraid for her own son’s safety to give will any credit. she sends merlin away to camelot, the most violently anti-magic place in the world, because apparently, will knowing about merlin’s secret would be even more dangerous than uther pendragon’s genocidal reign.

think about how that would feel. to hear something like that about yourself. to be somebody who is already so goddamn alone in the world, and to have your only friend vanish without so much as a ‘see you later,’ and then to be made to feel, however indirectly, like this is somehow your fault, like you’re the liability, like you’re the untrustworthy element here. as if you, somehow, are more dangerous than a king who literally pays to have sorcerers trafficked to him in cages.

will has every right to be upset, all the time. he has every reason to be angry, and bitter, and hurt, all the time. to be thought so poorly of - to be held in such low esteem - when he hasn’t done anything wrong, when he hasn’t ever done anything to earn that kind of mistrust - and to have that same misplaced suspicion used to justify separating him from the only person in the world who gives a damn about him - if it were me, i would be constantly on the verge of screaming, all the time.

will has always been on merlin’s side, and he has never done anything to endanger him, and in the end he gives up everything to make sure merlin can stay safe and hidden and unhunted. he shouldn’t have needed to prove his goodness, his constancy, his worth; not when he’s already kept merlin’s secret for who knows how many years, but even after he does do so, it doesn’t even matter. arthur acknowledges him only to disparage sorcery. hunith passes him over completely in favor of praising arthur, with no acknowledgment of the misjudgment she made.

i have said before that merlin tends to befriend people who have nobody, people who’ve been left behind by the rest of the world, people who’ve been made to feel that they aren’t worthy of love. and will, merlin’s oldest friend, was the first of those many characters, and it is so heartbreaking to me that in this instance, the same kind of disinterested and careless attitude towards his worth that dogged him all his life is perpetuated and affirmed after his death. ‘people are used to ignoring him,’ merlin tells arthur, and merlin is right - even when will is dead and burning, arthur only sees sorcery. hunith, who we would expect to be more sympathetic, only sees arthur.

merlin is the only one who knows better. merlin has always known better, and he loves will so much, but he is the only one, apparently, and honestly, after will dies? nobody else even tries to understand.

to sum up:

hunith and arthur, for all that i love them, are both way out of line at the end of this episode.

the legacy of this experience, for merlin, is that he spends the rest of his life processing this particular trauma alone. and that is why i always, always have to keep will and ealdor in the back of my mind when i write for merlin in any capacity - because this event isn’t some simple stumbling block for him; it changes him forever. it teaches him what he can and can’t expect from the people around him, and it solidifies how irrelevant his own needs are when viewed in comparison with arthur’s, even to people who barely even KNOW arthur; people who are supposed to put merlin first over everything. it teaches merlin to bury his sorrow, and to wrestle with personal suffering in secret, because if things aren’t ultimately about arthur, then they aren’t important enough to be granted any significant amount of time for merlin to deal with. merlin’s own grief, even at his best friend’s funeral, takes too long to resolve. arthur walks away from the pyre, and it’s time for merlin to leave, too. you’d better be going.

bottom line: i don’t care if other people think this whole ‘ooo, everybody wants merlin to be with arthur’ thing is wonderful or beautiful or dreamily romantic. it isn’t. it’s ugly, and it’s cruel, and it stripped merlin of his present identity and his future potential, one stolen moment at a time.

#and that's what i have to say about that #so.#in case you all weren't already aware #will is a goddamn hero #and merlin misses him every day #the once and future slowburn #meta #no kings no masters

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notcorrect-persona5 · 4 years

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Ryuji for that character thing! If you haven't had him already

Ryuji!! I already know this is gonna be a long one.

Favorite thing about them

He has one of the biggest, kindest hearts in the Persona universe. Once he found out why Makoto was blackmailing them, he forgave her almost immediately. Despite not having a lot himself, he spends money feeding Yusuke (which I will talk about in my headcanons). He tries to befriend and include Mishima because he knows he doesn’t have any friends. He is always hyping up and complimenting the other phantom thieves (have you heard his dancing lines?)

Least favorite thing about them

I don’t like the number of times he is written OOC in the game, particularly when it comes to pervertedness. Before I go on, this isn’t me ignoring his flaws. Character flaws are extremely important. Without them, a character is no longer interesting or even likable. One of my favorite persona characters is Yosuke who doesn’t exactly have the cleanest mind, so I’m not saying Ryuji isn’t perverted because I don’t like it. I’m saying it because I honestly don’t think he is.

Yes, Ryuji likes girls, but he isn’t gross about it. The only times I can recall this behavior is in two anime cutscenes towards Ann for comedic relief (side note: he didn’t realize what the maid service actually was. He genuinely thought they were just ordering a cute maid to do housework). Ryuji has so much respect for Ann, and he knows what she’s been through. He would never ever do anything like that- no matter how close they are.

I think what happened is the writers didn’t write a character who could make those kinds of jokes (except maybe Ren who is a silent protagonist), so when they wanted to make one of those jokes they chose Ryuji because he’s “the best option.” Morgana is lowkey a feminist, and, you know, a cat, so it would be a little weird coming from him. And then there’s Yusuke who lectured two girls for asking to hangout. ATLUS knows how to write a “likable pervert.” We’ve seen it with Yosuke. They could have given this trait to Ryuji, and I would have been fine with it. The problem is, they didn’t, making those scenes awkward and uncomfortable.

Favorite line

“I can’t think and flex at the same time.”

brOTP

Ren Ren!! Based on his dialogue options to characters like Ann and Sumire, I think Ren finds the super cheerful and energetic personality a little overwhelming, yet Ryuji, who is the loudest and brightest sunshine child out there, doesn’t bother him, and if that’s not the sweetest thing-

OTP

RyuAnn is so cute. Normally I don’t like shipping characters who are just best friends, but I love them together.

nOTP

I don’t really have one. He’s kind of shippable with everyone. Like any ship I see with him I’m like “I don’t think it, but I can see it.”

Random headcanon

He buys Yusuke food and tries to keep Jagariko on him. A lot of the time when Yusuke talks about being hungry or not having money for food Ryuji offers to take him out to eat or pay. In a manga, he said he didn’t have any Jagariko on him implying he usually does.

This is a popular one, but I think he dyed his hair blond back in middle school when ann was considering dying her hair black. It doesn’t make sense for him to dye it as a way to embrace his new reputation as a delinquent. He hates that reputation so much. Yes, he accepted it, but I don’t think he wants to add any unnecessary fuel to the fire.

He and Yusuke are roommates in college!

Shiho, Ann, and Ryuji were a trio in middle school.

He has insomnia. There are so many times throughout the game when he mentions not sleeping for literal days.

There’s very little that Ryuji does that annoys Ren; however, I know Ryuji has taken Ren’s glasses off his face and put them on himself. It’s such a Ryuji thing to do.

The girl at the convenience store who gave the chocolate to Ryuji on Valentine’s Day? It wasn’t pity chocolate, and they date sometime during third year or after high school.

This is also a popular one, but I think the reason why he isn’t a very good dancer in Dancing is because of his leg injury. He usually does very basic dance moves with his feet, and his dances focus more on his hands.

He sees Mishima sitting alone at lunch their third year of high school, and forces him to sit with them.

Unpopular opinion

His whole “fame thing” wasn’t that bad. While I don’t think it’s a good mindset to have, he never did or said anything harmful as a result of it. He was just annoying. Ryuji has extremely low self-esteem. He has been beaten down his entire life, physically and emotionally. The only thing he thought he was good at was track, and that didn’t turn out well for him. Finally, he’s doing something incredible, but nobody knows about it. He’s proud of his work as a phantom thief, and he wants to tell people. He also wants people to recognize how awesome he is and give him some sort of validation. He doesn’t feel loved, and he thinks it’s his fault. Now he has something that he knows would make others like him. I don’t understand why he gets so much crap for it when in-game he recognized his that behavior was wrong, why it was wrong, apologized, and said he would work to be a better person.

Song I associate with them

Travel Song from Shrek The Musical lol. It’s literally the Hawaii trip. Shrek is Ann, and Ryuji is Donkey.

Favorite picture of him

Also this portrait. His smile makes me want to smile

#asks #not a quote #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #ren amamiya #ryuann #yusuke kitagawa #makoto niijima #yuuki mishima #the phantom thieves #akira kurusu

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jlaire15 · 4 years

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Ok, this is something that’s been bothering me for a while. I’m not about to say all this to criticize others opinions, this is just what’s on my mind.

The whole thing about Jim being turned back into a human doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. Especially the people who liked troll Jim more, or just didn’t see the reason to change him back. I’ll be honest, it didn’t at first to me either. I mean in trollhunters, Merlin literally said there’s no going back, and made this whole build up leading up to it in the bath tub scene. But if you really look at the whole thing, the whole trilogy (well at least trollhunters and wizards) it starts making sense the more you think of it.

In my opinion, the more I see people say “the purpose of the show was for troll Jim to stay troll Jim and finally be enough to defeat Gunmar”, it kinda frustrates me (again, no offence I swear). Cause in my own opinion, the show was never meant to turn him into a troll, it was to have Jim, not only be the first human trollhunter, but to be the first trollhunter to defeat Gunmar. With everything about Gunmar, we all knew he’d at some point defeat him, but the whole show was showing us his training and whole journey that would lead up to him being strong enough to do so.

Him becoming and being a troll, came up to be more of the main focus of the show in the last four episodes of the entire show. To me, it feels like by the middle to the end of season three when he was about to become a troll, they just said “ok, he’s still not strong enough, let’s just combine troll strength with his human strength, even though everything we’re gonna put him through in the show is supposed to make him strong enough by the end, as a human, to conquer Gunmar”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike troll Jim. The journey was unforgettable. But with everything else in the show (trollhunters), we notice one of Jim’s biggest fears is losing his humanity. Which was a crazy, but right sacrifice to make.

The one sad thing I noticed though was, Even though we didn’t see much of troll Jim, he only looked his happiest with Claire. Not gonna complain, I need my daily dosage of Jlaire everyday, but there’s not many times since Jim became a troll that he’d look as happy as Times he would in his human form. But I understand why he came back.

With every sacrifice he made, facing his biggest fear and purposely losing his humanity to save others, saving all of his friends by getting that huge death blast from Morgana, sacrificing his half troll form to be full troll to, again, protect others... I’m sure there’s more but I shouldn’t list more than the biggest ones. Doing all that and with the help of Claire’s magic, and finding his soul in the shadow realm, I can see how he earned it back.

I’ve also seen a lot of people saying things like “I wish Jim could’ve stayed a troll, he looked so much hotter”. Again, I don’t hate troll Jim, I’ve just tried looking as best I could in his head. Tryna put my feet in his shoes. Dude. He was living in a reality that was a fear of his. Which probably would’ve took some getting used to.

In the “a house divided” episode, Merlin literally said “the amulet chose you to become the first, human, trollhunter, but you were never destined to remain so”. That confuses me still. Instead of making history by having Jim be the first human trollhunter till someone else is chosen, Merlin decides to turn him into the form of what every other trollhunter was, within only the first few months of Jim being chosen.

I’ve seen some places also that people have said things like: “What was so special about Jim being human anyway? A lot of people want him back to his human form, there’s billions of people that are human on earth rn, that’s not special”. Yeah...there’s billions of people on the planet, and probably thousands of trolls underneath where those humans in this planet live too. But the special thing about Jim, is that he’s not like every other trollhunter that’s come to be. He’s the first, and only up to today’s date, HUMAN trollhunter. No other trollhunter ever up to this point has been a human. No one out of the billions of humans is. More than a few trolls have been trollhunters. But never human before. And that’s what makes Jim beyond special as a trollhunter.

Sorry, that was my long rant. Just my opinion, and wondering if anyone else thought anything someone had the same back.

#trollhunters #jim lake jr #toa wizards #claire nunez #wizards tales of arcadia #jlaire #trollhunters rise of the titans #rise of the titans

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thegreymoon · 4 years

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"Merlin not only loved Gwen at least as much as Arthur did, but was also far more loyal and consistent." - gentle reminder that Arthur thought Gwen betrayed him right before their wedding, whereas Merlin knew that Morgana had enchanted Lancelot. Also, Arthur needed to get married for the sake of Camelot. ps the Eira plot annoyed me too. As if Gwaine would be that stupid. Pfffft.

Hi, anon! I really have to stand by my opinion here.

When it comes to Arthur and Gwen, the whole shade!Lancelot mess isn’t even my biggest issue because, yes, as you said, she did cheat on him right before their wedding, and yes, she did so much damage to him as a king, and he never knew about the magic involved. However, even before that, he kept breaking up with her every two episodes because, first, oh, there is a princess-of-the-week that I must marry and oh, what will daddy think, and then, oh what will uncle Aggy think! Like... the early stuff is understandable, and Uther I get, he would have killed her if he knew, but season 4 Arthur was on so much bullshit long before shade!Lancelot.

The power imbalance between them was staggering. There she was, waiting for him with everything on the line (including her very life) while he wavered back and forth, and she would just quietly accept whenever he rejected her, and then just as quietly take him back when he apologized, usually after Merlin got on his ass about it. There are maybe two scenes where she loses her temper and ~speaks her mind~ in front of him (and both times it was about him saying please and thank you when somebody brings him lunch). It’s frustrating because these scenes are such red herrings that people use as evidence for how he ~respected~ her opinion and how she could speak freely around him, when, in truth, she was always so careful about what she said and how she said it, always so respectful and deferential of him, always waiting patiently for him to come around (which usually happened after Merlin slapped him upside the head). The difference in status between them never went away, even after they were married, whereas she was always herself with Merlin, and Merlin was the one who was constant and consistent throughout their entire relationship. There was never a moment when he wasn’t in her corner, including when she tried to kill both him and Arthur (and nearly succeeded) during her evil spree. In fact, during that time when Merlin was the one possessed, she caught on immediately because it was so out of character for him to be nasty and territorial towards her. They were never in competition with each other, the two of them were a team long before she and Arthur became one.

Then we get to season 5 and she is finally Queen, but Arthur is so distant! It is Merlin who remembers their anniversaries and the little gifts and signs of affection, not Arthur! Never Arthur! What Arthur does is put on a performance of being married when he has to, hides things from her and lies to her, while Merlin fills in the blanks. And then when Uther comes back as a ghost and tries to kill her, Arthur whines, “But how could he do that to me, when he knows how much I love her?” conveniently forgetting that this is the man who murdered her father and tried to have her burned at the stake TWICE for petty reasons. Also, let's not forget that after all the trauma Uther put her through, Arthur still had her nursing his evil senile arse (of all the servants in Camelot!!) because he never once thought to tell her that no, you don’t need to do that, you don’t have to constantly keep proving your loyalty and devotion over and over again at the expense of your own mental well-being!

Anyway, my point is, even without Lancelot in the mix, Arwen is such a bland and, dare I say it, messy pairing on its own. It works because ultimately, both Gwen and Arthur are super cute individually, therefore when things are good, they are also cute together. But without Merlin and all the effort he put into their relationship, I just don’t see their love lasting longer than a week. Merlin is the one who did all the emotional labour in that marriage, Gwen and Arthur just had candle-lit dinners and picnics together. Merlin was always in her corner, always checking in on her and if she’s OK (including through all the messes with Uther, while Arthur simply felt entitled to her just getting over it). Merlin was the one who always made sure that she knew that she is loved. Without Merwen, Arwen just does not work for me at all.

(Before somebody comes after me about this, yes, I think that Merthur was unbalanced, messy and unhealthy too, but that is a whole different rant for another time. The difference for me is that even though both Merwen and Arwen are lovely in their own right, neither can actually stand on its own. Merwen without Arthur makes no sense within the narrative when we consider how integral Arthur was to both their lives, and Arwen would have died an ugly death without Merlin involved at all stages of their relationship. Merthur has no such problems, Gwen or no Gwen, healthy or unhealthy, dark or loving, they are bound and fated and exist on a level above all else in that show.)

Also, ugh! This is where I agree! All the hate for that Gwaine plot and her-who-shall-not-be-named! No love! And I was doing such a great job of forgetting that ever happened too! 🤮

#merlin meta #merlin #arthur #gwen #arwen #merwen #merthur #merlin/arthur/gwen #gwaine #Anonymous

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weakforarwen · 2 years

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The Sorcerer’s Shadow

Another episode that made me ask “Do the writers actually know what they’re doing with the series?”. I thought people were evil, not magic. I thought people were corrupt, not magic. I was wrong. Apparently, magic corrupts too. Gilli is yet another example of the dangers of magic. He used magic for his own gain and not for good - whatever that means - so the power got to his head and he nearly ended up like Morgana. According to Merlin, who is the ultimate authority on magic, magic should be used to protect tyrants, not to kill them.

I don’t even know what to say about this episode. Were the writers aware of their mixed messaging surrounding magic? If they were clever or stupid, I can’t tell. The series is about Merlin, a sorcerer destined to help Arthur return magic to Camelot, so why is magic evil 90% of the time? Was the point of consistently showing only the dangers of magic to never give Arthur a good reason to doubt his father’s teachings and thus keep the ban on magic in place until the end of the series? Did the writers want Arthur to conquer his fears and overcome his prejudice by the goodness of his heart alone? Arthur had to show he really was the Once and Future King, the greatest King to ever live, by accepting magic without being given a good reason to? He had to accept magic simply because he was a compassionate and fair King who believed people, even sorcerers, were innocent until proven guilty? He was pure of heart, so he needed but one small example of magic being used for good to question his beliefs? Because Arthur choosing to see the good in magic when it had caused him so much pain proved his worth more than him accepting magic because he had good reasons to? Because Arthur was ultimately a symbol of hope, kindness, and mercy?

An issue with that logic is that Arthur saw innocent children get killed because they had magic but that wasn’t enough for him to question his father’s “legacy”.

Even ignoring this “detail”, Arthur still needed to be shown that magic was more complex than he knew. However, the only time magic was used for good in front of Arthur was when the Dolma saved Gwen. Where was the nuance surrounding the discussion of magic? The only people to use magic for good in the series were Merlin, and perhaps Gaius. Anyone else with real magical powers had bad intentions. Most magical creatures were evil and most magic users went evil. The only consistent messaging regarding magic was that it was dangerous and needed to be carefully monitored. That was the biggest reason to make it legal; so people like Gilli could be educated on the best use of magic.

Gilli’s father never used magic because he was afraid it would corrupt him. Gilli thought his father had been a coward, but after seeing how magic changed him, he realized his father had actually been strong. Gilli didn’t want to be ashamed of who he was, so he wanted to punish Uther and prove his worth. But he was wrong to do so because magic is supposed to be used for good, not vanity, and killing Uther wouldn’t have helped anyone because Arthur would’ve become more prejudiced against magic. What am I supposed to make of this? Why can’t magic be used for selfish reasons? If magic’s neither good nor bad, must it be used for good? Are people only supposed to do things for the good of others?

I really hated how black and white the episode was. The moral of the story is that magic should only be used for good (for whatever reason), and Gilli, not Merlin, was betraying their kind by using it for evil. Gilli learned that he should be scared of himself and of his magic, but that his time would one day come, when Uther died of natural causes and Arthur became King. Great.

On another note, this episode had way too much testosterone. Morgana had fun playing Uther; girl really tried everything method in the book to kill him, including death by an enlarged ego. It was funny and gross. Uther was so disgusting this episode, so arrogant and boastful. Morgana manipulated him so well. Men and their egos... Arthur was forced to pull a Merlin and swallow his pride to prevent his father from being humiliated in front of his people. Arthur lived one day in Merlin’s shoes and absolutely hated it. Unlike Merlin, however, his good deeds were acknowledged in the end.

This episode would’ve benefited from Gwen’s presence. Seeing her cute face would’ve cheered me up, and it would’ve made so much sense for her to watch Arthur fight in the tournament and be proud of him for letting his father win. Why wasn’t she there?

Everyone wants recognition, but only Merlin is strong enough to live without it. Essentially, he’s like a nun who’s renounced his pride, vanity, etc., which is why he’s the only one good enough to yield magic and not be corrupted by it. I’m really starting to think the creators of this show are Catholic.

Don’t mind me, I’m tired and this review is absolutely terrible.

Anyway, I was moved by Arthur throwing the match against Uther. Arthur will always swallow his pride for the greater good, and that is rather admirable. I was also moved by Merlin revealing his magic to Gilli, although, seeing Gilli, who almost went evil, change courses after Merlin showed him a “better” way had me asking myself why Merlin didn’t think to do that with Morgana...

#bbc merlin #merlin #morgana #gilli #arthur pendragon #uther #the sorcerer's shadow commentary #the sorcerer's shadow

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roostercrowedatmidnight · 4 years

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Morgana was in love with Gwen – an analysis of series 3 of Merlin

This is an analysis I wrote of why I think Morgana was in love with Gwen, and how it culminated in Morgana’s betrayal of Gwen and Arthur in series 3.

When Morgana comes back from her year away at the start of series 3, she quickly turns on the people she used to care about. It’s understandable that she feels hate towards Uther, who has threatened and physically harmed Morgana before, as well as continuously prosecuting Morgana’s people; Gaius, who gaslighted her and consistently drugged her in an attempt to hide her identity; and Merlin, who literally tried to murder her. However, the two people who didn’t directly wrong Morgana were Gwen and Arthur. Her hatred of Arthur could be linked to the fact that he often assists his father in hunting down and executing magic users. But it could also be for another reason.

Morgana doesn’t attempt to directly harm or kill Arthur and Gwen for the first half of series 3. While she is more distant with both of them, she doesn’t make any obvious acts of aggression towards either person. Morgana doesn’t actually attempt to hurt Gwen or Arthur until episode 7, ‘The Castle of Fyrien’. After that, she continues trying to cause them harm, especially after dreaming of Gwen marrying Arthur in episode 10 of series 3, ‘Queen of Hearts’. Maybe it’s because she didn’t have any good opportunities to kill Arthur in the first few episodes. Or maybe it’s because of the events of episode 6, ‘The Changeling’.

Unlike Merlin, Morgana is unaware of Arthur and Gwen’s feelings for each other in series 2. She doesn’t figure it out until ‘The Changeling’, when she notices Gwen and Arthur’s eye contact at dinner.

We all know that Morgana is a very good actor. She may not reveal much about how she feels in this scene, but you can tell she’s a little shook. You can see in her eyes that her braincell is firing up.

It’s after this episode that Morgana starts going hardcore on trying to kill Gwen and Arthur. She first harms Gwen to hurt and manipulate Arthur, and then later on does it because she knows Gwen will marry Arthur one day and become Queen. When discussing these things with Morgause, Morgana frames it as though she wants power, and Arthur and Gwen are both standing in her way. Morgause has strongly instilled in Morgana that ruling over Camelot just as brutally as Uther is the only way that Morgana can get revenge and free magical people from oppression. And while it’s true that Morgana hurts Gwen and Arthur to gain power, I think another reason why she does it is because she is in love with Gwen.

In Merlin, magic is a thinly veiled metaphor for being LGBTQ (at least in my opinion -- if you think it’s a metaphor for a different group facing oppression then I’m totally behind that idea as well). While they never canonically make any of the characters overtly LGBTQ (because TV writers are cowards), holding the secret of having magic can easily be paralleled with holding the secret of being queer, and Morgana’s discovery of her own magic in series 1 and 2 can be paralleled with her coming to terms with the fact that she’s queer. If we assume that these things are linked, then Morgana’s discovery and acceptance of her magic in series 1, 2 and 3 is happening at the same time as her realisation that she’s queer and has a crush on Gwen. When Morgana comes back at the beginning of series 3, though much has changed, I believe she still genuinely cares about Gwen. And then she finds out about Gwen and Arthur.

Morgana has noticed Gwen having crushes on people before. She could tell that Gwen liked Merlin, and I think she had an idea of Gwen’s feelings for Lancelot when he first arrived. Neither of these crushes seemed to bother Morgana very much. Lancelot arrived and then quickly departed, so Morgana probably thought Gwen’s feelings would be a fleeting thing. Morgana probably didn’t consider Merlin much of a threat either -- maybe she thought his and Gwen’s feelings would be short-lived. Morgana also wasn’t very close to Lancelot, nor was she super close to Merlin at the start of series 1. With Arthur, though, it’s personal; Arthur is one of the people Morgana trusts the most, and she probably knows that he is the sort of person who doesn’t bestow his affections lightly. To Morgana, Arthur’s feelings for Gwen, as well as Gwen’s feelings for Arthur, are a direct and deeply personal betrayal.

One of Uther’s and Morgana’s biggest weaknesses is their unwillingness to forgive and let go of the past. Arthur, unlike his sister and father, has a great capacity to move on from past wrongs and forgive others, as do Gwen and (sometimes) Merlin. Uther’s failure to move on from the mistakes of the past is the driving evil of the show, while Morgana’s determination to get revenge on the people who have wronged her is what makes her begin to lose her way as the show progresses. So when Morgana finds out about Arthur and Gwen, it is an unforgivable betrayal from the two people she once loved more than anyone else.

The one time Morgana offers forgiveness is in the series 3 finale. Near the end of ‘The Coming of Arthur: Part 1′, Morgana believes she is about to achieve her great victory. She is close to dethroning Uther, and Arthur is either dead already or walking towards certain death. Morgana’s ascension is no longer threatened, and with Arthur gone, neither is her relationship with Gwen.

Morgana could easily allow Gwen to die, since it’s possible that she still threatens Morgana’s future reign. Strategically speaking, Morgana doesn’t gain anything from offering Gwen safety. But she does it anyway -- in her own way, Morgana is offering Gwen once last chance to choose her over Arthur.

Yeah, Gwen’s lying, and understandably so: Morgause’s people are ruthless and her hold over Morgana dangerous, Merlin and Arthur are still Gwen’s friends and she wants to protect them, and if Gwen refuses Morgana’s offer she will definitely be killed. But Morgana doesn’t know Gwen is lying. Morgana is still suspicious - she is used to being lied to and betrayed - but she also truly hopes that Gwen is telling the truth.

When Morgana discovers that Gwen is still on Arthur’s side, Morgana feels betrayed once more. She no longer cares what happens to Gwen. It is only because of Morgause’s plan to enchant Gwen to find Arthur that Gwen lives.

So in summary, I think Morgana was in love with Gwen, and her inability to forgive is what made her turn so suddenly on Gwen and Arthur. Morgana has been betrayed by pretty much everyone in her life, either intentionally or unintentionally, and it leaves an emotional scar that Morgana never heals from.

This was very long, but whatever. Hope you enjoyed. Shout out to @cats-n-swords for our combined braincell leading to our initial realisation that Morgana hated Arthur so much because she was in love with Gwen.

#merlin analysis #morgana #morgana pendragon #gwen #guinevere #morgwen #merlin #queer #my post

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theinfamousdoctorf · 4 years

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HOT TAKE- So in the new version Darkwing Duck is an old TV show that Launchpad McQuack seems to be one of the few remaining fans of? The original DW is a washed up actor that gets the usual zero respect. His other biggest fan is an aspiring young actor who looks like him and is tapped to play him in a movie rather then the original actor. This drives the original insane [and he becomes Negaduck] But in this universe supervillians don't exist. [DEPRESSING] So the younger DW doesn't have anything to do except hang out with Launchpad and play hero to a city that has no crime. So they reintroduce/reboot Taurus Bolba. The villain of the original DW pilot and redo the whole first episode of the original tortuously trying to make it fit into the Ducktales canon. To the point where the giant laser now rips holes into other dimensions including fictional places and briefly lets some of the supervillians from the 'show' into the real world to make token cameos. I can SEE what they're doing here. "Hey remember that thing you loved that we will never ever really care about? [Like not even releasing all the shows on DVD Look up the ‘Hot Spells’ controversy.] We're going to reference it, fuck up the canon, and then take the piss out of it because fuck you. Fuck you for liking an atypical Disney character that had actual flaws, and personality. We're also going to get rid of his reformed criminal witch girlfriend who had a legitimate reason for being a thief. Morgana's specific reason for stealing things was to pay off her student loans. Because that's not relevant or anything. Oh yeah, and lets make fun of all the 'nerds' who liked it by having other characters take the piss out of Launchpad for watching the old show and trying to get others to watch it with him. I stopped expecting a sandwich a long time ago, I wouldn't even ask. But being given a single pepperoni to try and whet my interest is a bit insulting. I mean, I hate Disney as a company anyway. They're completely evil. At least I didn't give them any money to see what they were trying to tease me with. It's not horrible, it's just irritating. Being pandered to is obnoxious. Oh and they referenced one of the original episodes that actually tried to be creepy just to make fun of it. [Remember Paddywack? The spindly black and white clown in a Jack-in-the-box that fed on people's misery.] Fuck you. That was one of my favorite episodes. Along with ‘Twin Beaks’, ‘Fungus Amongus’ and ‘A Brush With Oblivion.’ And I'm not wishing for a better reboot. I was fine with it just remaining as it was. I'd rather something I love be left alone then made fun of. It just feels like desperately mining old content rather then taking a chance on making something new. The fact that it was slightly edgy was what made it unique. Sanding the bumps off is just... so DISNEY HAPPY ALL THE TIME THOUGHT CONTROL OWN ALL THE THINGS, MERCH ALL THE THINGS. And even the merch is LAZY. I recognize most of the pictures they’re using for T-shirts and shit as the same stock shots they used when the show was new.

In conclusion- I’m too busy writing, reading, cooking, gardening and making things for my Etsy shop to watch TV anyway.

#Darkwing duck #Darkwing reboot

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karel010 · 3 years

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A missed opportunity: William Dey on Supergirl

Disclaimer: this essay is entirely my own opinion. I do not claim to have any knowledge on how a tv show is being run. A character is not his actor and an actor is not his character. I do not recommend nor encourage hate to anyone, fictional or not. Everyone has his right to his own opinion. Also, spoilers for season 5 and 6.

Before I start, I have to say that I came into this fandom quite late. This was when the pandemic just started, Supergirl season 5 was still airing and I had no idea what kind of show it was. All I know was that Dr. Lexi Grey, Marley Rose and Morgana were on that show. So like most people getting bored being stuck at home, I started watching. It took me a couple of days to get through season 1 to 4 and in the mean time I found people of the fandom on Twitter and Tumblr. I was aware of how underwhelming season 5 was (at this point episode 15 was going to air), but I remember thinking “it can’t be worse than season 2, right?”

Oh boy, was I wrong.

Let’s start with the big elephant in the room: Kara’s love interests.

(Honestly this can be a whole essay by itself)

I actually liked that in season 4, Kara had no love interest and was flying solo for a while. She kind of been defined by guys (even with James in season 1) and finally there was a season where her love life wasn’t the centre of attention. Season 4 ends with Lena finally knowing that Supergirl and Kara are one and the same and so season 5 was set up. (Lena and Kara in season 5 is a whole different rant but that is for another time)

We first meet William Dey in episode 1 of season 5. Catco was bought by Andrea Rojas (Lena being the previous owner) and she brought in a new journalist to help build Catco the way Andrea wants. I have to admit that I did not mind William (and Andrea) in the beginning. I actually liked that Kara had some competition at her work and that her boss is not a friend, so she will be having a harder time slipping away to do Supergirl stuff. I mean, William was a huge ass but then again sometimes in life you will have to deal with those kind of people, especially at work. But then slowly they started to give him a story (too generous to call it that actually). As they gave him more screen time, he became worse and worse.

Apparently, William was this huge dick because he was actually undercover, investigating Andrea Rojas and her family because his friend went missing after dating her. Although in order to be undercover, don’t you have to work for someone? What was he going to do with that information? Anyway, he wanted to keep people at arms’ length. As far as I can remember (I didn’t bother rewatching) he didn’t really have any evidence supporting his theory that Andrea had something to do with his friend Russell’s disappearance, just that his friend didn’t like her family (we see that Andrea does care a lot for Russell and did anything she needed to make sure he was okay).

Then Crisis happened and William is still there for some reason? In this timeline, Andrea never met Russell, which means he never disappeared, which means William never had to go “undercover” to investigate Andrea. And this is were the writers made the terrible decision of keeping him on the show and made an even worse choice to try to pair him up with Kara.

William Dey had the potential to be a good character. Not a great one, but good enough.

Beside the choice the writers make, I think there were 2 other scenario’s that they could have gone with him:

Scenario 1: William leaves after Crisis

This would have been the best choice they could have made. By the time they started filming the episodes after Crisis, the show must have known how bad of a reception William got. It didn’t help that the actor did an interview for 5x04 where he hinted to Kara and William getting closer. Like I said before, William had no reason to be around anymore after his “original” reason for being at CatCo didn’t exist in this timeline. This would have been the perfect way to send this character away (I am aware that there a rumours that the actor got a contract to stay on the show for at least 2 seasons). His whole storyline of investigating Lex Luthor should have gone to Nia, who is also a journalist but I completely forgot because she actually doesn’t really do anything with it?

Scenario 2: William is a villain

As mentioned before, when I first met William, I thought he would be a problem for Kara (and maybe even Nia). I thought that this was a guy that would do anything to get the biggest story and doesn’t care if he comes across as a dick. Think of Spider-Man 3, where Peter had trouble with his job. This would have been a great opportunity for a storyline similar to that of Spider-Man 3, where Kara has conflict at work. They did it in the beginning, not sure which episode but Kara didn’t have time to write an article that Andrea had assigned her because she was busy being Supergirl and William used that to take over her article and write it. William could have been a great problem for Kara in her work place.

If they had to keep him around for after Crisis as well, they could have gone with the route that William was a member of Leviathan or even a hench of Lex Luthor. They could have made him friendly with the Superfriends, but only because he has alternative motives.

Honestly, there are so many ways they could have made William a better character and it’s obvious that this character only exists to be a “no homo” love interest for Kara and that the writers really don’t care beyond that point.

And then there is the actor that portrays the character.

I don’t know him personally and I can only judge on what he is willing to show through social media but man, does this guy need a lesson in PR. This fandom can already be very toxic with the different shipping wars going on. He really threw gas on a fire by that incident (even though he denies that he said it was towards certain shippers)

As an actor, you open yourself up to people forming an opinion on you. Doesn’t an actor get a job based off of someone’s opinion on whether you fit the show and the cast?

It is obvious that the actor is not experienced in being a series regular. He thinks that hate towards his character means that people hate him as well. Look, he is not the first actor on this show that gets hate. Chris Wood, Amy Jackson, Mehcad Brooks, Nicole Maines, Katie McGrath and even Melissa Benoist got/get their fair share of it. But they knew to never engage with it, since there is no point to it. Everybody will meet people who will like you and people who won’t. It’s literally a part of life.

If you came this far, thank you for reading! I really needed to vent about this since it’s been stuck in my head for a long time. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.

How would you have written William Dey if you had the chance? (And yes, he has to be part of season 5)

#supergirl #supergirl season 5 #supergirl s5 #supergirl season 6 #supergirl s6 #supergirl spoilers #kara danvers #andrea rojas #william dey #awful writing #no hate #all good fun #ranting #anti William Dey #not anti actor #superforced #super forced #anti wara #anti superdey

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kareofbears · 4 years

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persona 5 royal: my thoughts after finishing it five minutes ago

disclaimer: the only reason im writing this is because 1) i have a lot of thoughts and feelings that i need to write down and if i dont ill explode and 2) i want to be able to find this when p5s eventually drops so i can compare my thought processes. if you do not agree with what i’m going to say, that’s cool! just block me or ignore this post.

now for the sake of sanity, i’m going to try and narrow down this entire list into chunks because this’ll probably be very very long and very much about me just screaming about stuff that i liked, loved, and don’t like. i will be spoiling both the original persona 5 and persona 5 royal, obviously, so i hope you finished both!

1) Akechi

so yes. Goro Akechi. Everyone’s favorite murderer. I’m going to by spewing a lot of hot takes, and this is probably going to be the spiciest: i am in the most intense love-hate relationship with this brown haired antagonist because jesus christ is he a complicated son of a bitch. I know i’ve complained in the past about how much Atlus often struggles with utilizing a character well, but that does not at all relate to Akechi in any way, shape, or form.

I’ll say this now: He is a character I genuinely, truly hate, yet he is the one I want to hear from the most. He is someone who is a bad person (yes, he is a bad person) but whenever he comes on screen he makes me sit up, he makes me pay attention to him because that’s just the aura he exudes. He is a character who i would never, ever waste my time defending or justifying his actions, but every minute joker spends with him is a minute i want to stretch out as long as possible because he is just that good of a character. He is interesting, he is well defined, he is smart, he is clever, he is sassy, he’s a motherfucking asshole who’s never had a vibe check in my life and i still hate him. Goro Akechi is what Star Wars wanted Kylo Ren to be, and that allegory may not make sense to many people but it works for me so i’m saying it. It’s to the point where writing akechi in a fanfic makes me sweat because in my opinon capturing the essence of akechi is near impossible unless you know what you are talking about (i do not mean that in anyway to discourage people from writing him, im just saying that I am a coward because i will never be able to write a good akechi). Anyway, bottom line is: i despise him but my eyes are always glued to him at all times.

back to the main point-- Atlus absolutely nailed this character and every single addition they put in for Akechi. I’m so damn thrilled that you actually have confidant hangouts with him because every single time you talk to him, it services not only the plot, but it perfectly does what it is supposed to do: it makes you like him, but also leaves the player slightly unnerved. they do it so casually that I might have trouble explaining it, but bear with me: everytime you hangout with him, he always does or say something that unhinges you just a little bit, it leaves you asking ‘wait why?’ or ‘but how did you know that’ or ‘why are you saying that?’. akechi is constantly playing mind games with you. and not only that, adding backstory to akechi (moreso than in the original) is just fucking fantastic. he’s always been a fully fleshed out character but after playing royal, goro akechi actually exists in my mind, and i still hate him (but also i dont. but also i do. anyway)

2) the ending

just finished the game and this is the point where i am at odds with p5r for the first time. the ending to p5, in my opinion, was flawless; everything was perfect and had meaning. from the shot of akira being shown to not wearing glasses anymore because he no longer feels the need to wear a mask (character development: he was very unhappy at the beginning of the game and now he’s happy with his friends--i love it), to his friends being the one to drive him home (amazing, he left his home town and came to shibuya alone via transit, and one year later he’s now leaving with all of his best friends in a van they rented just so they could stay with him as long as they can--it’s perfect, i love it), and also all of them seeing how large and infinite the ocean is (because now there’s unlimited options for them because they all have a new perspective on life).

But....none of that is there in p5r. it feels impersonal. no one drops him off at his hometown, he was still wearing glasses, and there’s no grand metaphor about what they all achieved.

Now, i am not a (complete) moron. I know why they had to change it: it’s because of persona 5 scramble (i think). they wanted to set up a plot for the next game and i feel like thats the reason why persona 5 royal’s ending suffered for it: they were too focused on the next plot that they forgot to focus on the sentimental ending for p5r. don’t get me wrong, seeing akechi in the train station absolutely made me lose my shit and made me scream at one in the morning, but i think they lost the core meaning in doing the other stuff. i did not like the focus on maruki and kasumi (will be talking about them later), cause i feel like it took away from the ending, and i also didn’t like the fact that the whole joker outfit in the reflection thing (but i will be letting it slide since it was during the after credits anyway). So while i do love one (1) new aspect of the final cut scene, i still adore and stan the one from persona 5.

3) the entire last semester

i’ll be quick: the final palace? the best palace. fight me. it’s fantastic, it’s innovative, it’s interesting, and most of all, the palace ruler is actually the best one in the entire game and i know i wont be the only one to say this. maruki is not a villain: i know for a godamn fact that im not the only one to say that i almost agreed with his deal of allowing the reality (damn i almost agreed twice) because why wouldnt you?? it’s literally a perfect reality! the only reason i didnt agree is because i knew the game wouldnt want me to agree and would force me to have the bad ending! anyway, i love the last section so much. the palace design is interesting, the antagonist is brilliant (who doesn’t love a morally gray antagonist?), and finally, the payoff of kasumi happened and it made me silent for ten minutes. the entire reveal of her being sumire and kasumi being dead is just so genuinely shocking to me that it nearly broke my neck.

what actually broke my neck was the initial incident for the third semester. seeing everyone in this wild alternate reality made me so unsettled that i literally got a stomach ache. i saw morgana as a human and nearly passed out. shiho in the underground? wig. ryuji saying he’s on the national pedastal for running? literally my eyebrows just popped off my head. fucking WAKABA? FLATLINED. brilliantly executed and i love the initial akechi and akira buddy cop movie vibes in the beginning it was just so fun.

one huge part of the third semester for me though, was of course, akechi. seeing him completely throw away his ‘charming ace detective’ speil was the most refreshing and interesting and not to mention, hilarious part of the game. he does not give a fuck about anyone and he is not afraid to let you know. he is the biggest savage and the most insane person on the phantom thieves group. he’ll roast you, he’ll roast your boyfriend, he’ll roast fuckin anyone and it’s fantastic. not to mention his dialogue is killer: he says the most bat shit insults ever and my favorite example is when you go up to him near the end of the game, you know, to hangout with him and be a nice guy, he just does not hesitate to say ‘what, you came just to see me? just the sort of brainless sentimentality i’d expect from you.’ i LOVE IT because why the hell would he try to be nice? the jig is up, he’s got nothing to hide. and he owns it. atlus seriously nailed akechi in this last semester and it’s brilliant and i love it.

4) everything else

- one small thing that pissed me off in both games (but especially this one) is how many godamn fake out deaths there are. Morgana has one, Akira has one, Ryuji has one, Sojiro has one, Maruki has one, motherfucking Akechi has two. it just hurts me!

- sumire is an amazing character who has depth and she is lovely and my biggest complaint is that it feels like atlus shoved her in. like, she feels like a new addition to the game, you know what i mean? maybe its because ive played the original p5 first, but you know, it’s not a big deal. but i love her so much

- on the topic of sumire, i cant say that im completely super duper happy with how different she felt from the other thieves? im sure that’ll be explained in p5s but she just got so much screen time that it just truly made me confused?? maybe im just a horrible person, or that’s just a really hot take. but anyway, yeah maybe im bitter because i really wanted to see extra hangouts/school trips during royal, but didn’t really.

-baton pass? literally orgasmic. it made turn base battles so damn fun and the addition of darts and billiards made me foam at the mouth it was SO SMART AND INNOVATIVE AND I LOVE IT ATLUS I LOVE YOU ATLUS YOURE SO SMART SWEETIE

-small thing, but making spells like ‘dormina’ actually useful just made the game so much more fun and dungeon crawling became something i truly, genuinely looked forward to

-being able to give gifts to my bros? absolutely incredible. thank you. side note: seeing akechi happy from giving him a multi vitamin cracked me up. side side note: giving ryuji a fuck ton of weights and him just smiling made my heart so happy i love that boy so much

- ah this game just looked so GOOD! i thought the original looked good but they really went all out. im not kidding, the smallest details in everyday life or even just normal cut scenes were out of this world. especially stuff from the third semester its just OOF good JOB atlus i love you buddy

-ahhh thieves den! how can i forget? i love it. at first i was a bit iffy with it since it really felt like persona 5 (undoubtedly the biggest game atlus has created) was just jacking itself off. but as time goes on, it became a huge addition to the game and seeing characters’ insights and extra lines of dialogue became super duper interesting and a highlight of the game for me. and don’t even get me started on how much i love love love the photos they added of them hanging out! so lovely, a bunch of them made me tear up

- i know it’s literally impossible, but i feel like the game just forgot that akechi is a person who can wield multiple persona and i just wish that could’ve been messed around with during Palaces

- showtimes are so, so crazy and i get so embarassed whenever they play on my tv because they are just outlandish and unashamed but i love them so so much it just defines persona’s personality

-because i love ryuji: i prefer the final conversation you have with him aka ‘whaddya mean? you’re there’ but there’s still a lot of really tender and sweet moments like akira genuinely telling him that he’ll miss him, and also the fact that ryuji wants you both to send each other your times through the exercise watch so you can still race ahhhh i love him so much yall

so, overall, this game is better than the original p5 because of the extra content we get. if persona 5 was the perfect dinner, persona 5 royal is that same dinner and you get to enter the dessert buffet. it’s brilliant, it’s smart, it’s hilarious, it’s heartwarming, and it’s undoubtedly my favorite game of all time without exaggeration. while i do prefer the final cut scene (and final dialogues with some characters) in the original persona 5, in the overall experience, persona 5 royal is superior in my mind. i would willingly get amnesia to play this game again.

I didn’t get to cover everything, but this is definitely most of what i wanted to say. if you actually get to reading all the way to the end, thanks! it means a lot. i hope we can all enjoy persona and look forward to persona 5 scramble together :-)

#p5 #persona 5 #p5r #persona 5 royal #mine #such a long post but totally worth it

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panharmonium · 4 years

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Hey! Loving the Merlin takes on ur blog, and I wanted to ask—what are your opinions on Morgana? Haven’t seen a lot of talk abt her. I loved her, esp in season 1, which is also my fav season cuz after that I feel like things started to make less and less sense, lmao. I understand her descent into villainy (mostly, but why does she start to hate Gwen so quickly? feel like that could’ve been handled better) but I would’ve loved to see some solidarity between her and merlin!!!!!

hi there! :D

so, i LOVE morgana. most of what i’ve said about her has been in the tags of gifsets that are now scattered haphazardly around my blog; i don’t think there are larger pieces yet besides my finale round-up (urgh lol), and most of that is just a function of time - i can’t possibly write expansive tracts of meta about every single merlin thing i love, because i love the whole show; i’d never leave my computer again. i generally sit down to write long essays about whatever grabs my mind at a particular moment, even though there are a bazillion other things out there i love just as much. XD

but with morgana, i also feel like part of the reason i haven’t written much about her is because up until three and a half weeks ago (....oh my god, was it THREE AND A HALF WEEKs??? IT FEELS LIKE A YEAR) i hadn’t even finished the series yet, and the whole time i was watching this show i was sort of...waiting to see whether they would finally tie her arc together. i didn’t feel like i could say too much about what was happening with her, because my evaluation of her arc was going to depend on where the writers finally chose to take it and whether they brought it to the place i thought it needed to go.

and...they didn’t, obviously, which is what i sort of suspected would happen, though i was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt all the way up until the end, because i don’t believe they ever wrote themselves into a corner with her. there were things they could have handled with more depth, definitely, but i do not believe that they ever dug themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

i. what happened to you, morgana

essentially my opinion (just mine; nobody else is obligated to share it) of morgana is this: that the series ended before her arc was over.

to me, season 5 was the nadir in our characters’ journeys. they had reached their lowest point, their...“darkest hour,” to quote the show itself. and in many familiar storytelling formats (the ones that have the most in common with bbc merlin, at least), we take our characters to a moment where they hit rock bottom, where everything is going wrong and things seem hopeless, and then we light a spark under their butts that starts the process where they fight their way out of it. the nadir isn’t the endpoint of the curve; it’s the point where characters start climbing their long, slow way out of the pit. it’s what they have to overcome in order to earn their eventual triumphant ending.

to me, season 5 was that nadir, for morgana and everyone else. i never would have imagined season 5 to be the final season of the show, if i hadn’t known it was beforehand. i would have read season 5 as the show’s ‘empire strikes back’ moment. the episode that ends with our team losing, but with a whole other episode remaining where they can fight to Make It Right.

i view merlin bbc as tantamount to a cancelled tv show, to be honest. i know that’s not necessarily what happened (though it does feel pretty weird that they officially announced S5 would be the final season only four weeks before the finale was about to air?? very bizarre), but regardless of the actual behind-the-scenes-whatever, the fact of the matter is that for me, the series doesn’t end. it stops. and those two things are not the same.

this is particularly relevant to morgana because, as you said, there are aspects of her character arc that weren’t handled as deftly as they could have been, but if the show had brought morgana’s arc to the place where it felt like they were going in 5.09, they could have rescued so much of what came before.

to get into more detail -

i think the biggest issue with morgana’s arc for me isn’t so much what she does, it’s what we’re not shown as she does it.

i fully believe that morgana would eventually start working to ensure uther’s downfall. (obviously. she’s been presented as the voice of moral authority on this show since episode one, and there’s no reason to believe that she wouldn’t ultimately start rebelling against the king’s oppressive policies.) i believe that she would reject arthur, eventually. and i believe that she would reject gwen, too. but i don’t believe the show illustrates enough how painful this would be for her, or how conflicted it would make her feel.

and again, as i said, there are my own personal opinions, couched in...some personal experience with certain kinds of family conflict - but i do understand where morgana’s bitterness toward arthur and gwen comes from. arthur, for all that he’s “a better man than [his] father,” never fully breaks with uther the way morgana does. he has his own little rebellions, yes, but ultimately he always falls in line. he tolerates his father’s actions even if he doesn’t necessarily agree with them, and he continues to support uther even after uther is revealed to have lied about being morgana’s illegitimate father. and because of this tacit acceptance of uther’s poor behavior, arthur reaps benefits and privileges galore. morgana is cast out with nothing, whereas arthur, who didn’t even take a stand for justice, wants for nothing. arthur is sitting pretty on the throne of camelot because he continued to bestow his honor and respect upon a man who deserved neither of those things, because he chose the villain of the series over his sister, even knowing what uther did to her. and that’s gutting, for her. he betrayed her.

(and there are things to be said on arthur’s end of this, too, of course - morgana doesn’t ever confide in him; she doesn’t come to him for help or give him a chance to even be informed about what happened to her before she jumps into invading camelot and dethroning uther - so for arthur, her sudden turnaround comes as a total shock, and HE feels betrayed, like he has no choice but to fight her - i mean, it’s just a big mess.)

but i understand why she hates him. he continues to stand with a man who did demonstrable evil, despite the harm that was specifically done to morgana herself. and by shutting up and letting atrocities be committed in front of him, arthur escapes the harm that morgana suffers for speaking up. i understand why morgana is so bitter about it.

and gwen is a very similar situation - from morgana’s point of view, gwen is playing the arthur to arthur’s uther. gwen sides with arthur over morgana, despite knowing full well that arthur’s policies harm people with magic. gwen abandons morgana for her love interest, and for morgana that’s just like - “why would you do that? i was your friend before he ever cared about you, i loved you before he ever did - don’t you see the evil he’s perpetuating? don’t you care what he does to people like me?”

that’s why morgana tells merlin, “don’t think i don’t understand loyalty just because i’ve got no one left to be loyal to.” she feels like everybody who supposedly cared for her ultimately dumped her because her situation interfered with their comfortable, morally uncomplicated lives. they weren’t willing to acknowledge what was done to her, and they stuck by the man responsible for it, and it seems incomprehensible to her, that they would make that choice, when his misdeeds are known and out in the open. i can’t blame her for wanting to raze the city to the ground.

HOWEVER.

while i believe that all these things are completely plausible, i don’t believe that the series shows us appropriately how these things would be tearing morgana apart inside, underneath the rage and the armored front of ‘you brought this on yourself, so burn in hell, i don’t care.’

there are moments where the show gets it right. when morgana wakes up after uther dies and says that she felt his pain - it’s not presented as gloating; she’s - almost confused. uncertain. like she doesn’t know what she feels. when she confronts arthur at the end of season 4 (i thought we were friends/as did i) there’s real pain under the surface there. when they confront each other at the beginning of season 5, too (what happened to you, morgana/i grew up) - you can feel the undercurrent of something deeper there, too. and that moment with mordred in 5.09, when he appeals to her humanity (i hope one day you will find the love and compassion which used to fill your heart) - that is an amazing scene. the show absolutely nails that moment. morgana hesitates. you can see the grief and the - the conflict written all over her face. it’s perfect. it’s exactly the turn i would have expected morgana’s arc to be taking, at that time in the series.

but then the show just stopped. and without taking morgana’s arc further - without following it through all the way to its conclusion - there’s never any resolution to all the ways the show dropped the ball earlier. all the moments where morgana appears to be just...evil-smirking her way through her revenge, the way she suddenly seems to have no feelings for gwen whatsoever, the utterly lost opportunity that was the “enchanted gwen” arc (which could have been such a powerful exploration of their broken relationship) - all those could have eventually made sense and fit into a narrative where morgana’s conflicted feelings finally begin to escape the stranglehold in which she has them choked, where we start to see the pain of these destroyed relationships rising to the surface.

i can understand how morgana would just - shut off her feelings about these people. she had to close her heart to them - the alternative would have been too painful. but underneath - we know it wouldn’t be that easy. we know it eats at her. and it’s just - so incredibly frustrating that the series was starting to go there - the moment with mordred in 5.09 feels like the beginning of morgana’s big crisis of faith - and then the show just Stops.

so the thing about morgana for me is that, like you said, the show does drop the ball on illustrating her quick descent into evil-villain territory, and they especially drop the ball on her break with gwen, but all of it could have been salvaged, if they had committed to following her arc all the way through to its conclusion. instead they chose to kill her (and everybody else, lol) just as her deep-rooted internal conflicts were finally starting to rise to the surface.

ii. we can find another way/there is no other way (aka the merlin problem)

i’ll say right up front that anything i say here is, as always, just my personal interpretation of things. this is not necessarily the One True Way this show is meant to be understood; it’s just my own preferred read.

i have definitely seen some things in my brief foray into internet fandom that are sort of...piling on merlin for abandoning morgana or “gaslighting” her, most of which seem to be centered around the beginning of episode 2.03, which is weird to me, because the whole point of that episode is that merlin does help morgana, in the end - he’s the one who doesn’t gaslight her. he defies gaius and takes her to the druids, specifically so they can tell her yes, she does have magic. he tries to distract the attacking knights in order to enable morgana to escape with the druids permanently, like she wants. and when the attempt fails, and they’re brought back to camelot, he comes to morgana’s chambers specifically to check on her and to assure her that he won’t reveal her secret to anyone, and she’s grateful for this - she thanks him, she’s appreciative of everything he did for her, she feels comforted to know the truth and to know that someone else knows it, too. this episode ends with their relationship at a high point - it’s overwhelmingly positive, and it doesn’t take a nosedive until 1.12, when morgana gets in way over her head and merlin thinks she’s trying to murder them all. (and even in that episode, it’s worth it to note, merlin is still covering for her magic in front of arthur, giving her chances.)

(and obviously also, of course, the end of that particular situation gets Real Bad Real Fast, which could be a whole post in and of itself, so let’s stay focused on the earlier eps, for now.)

the criticism of merlin in those earlier episodes seems to stem solely from the fact that he doesn’t out himself to morgana, which i can understand - i mean, i like the idea of a ‘merlin+morgana secret magic squad’ AU as much as anyone - but i’ll be honest and say that nowadays, i’m not quite as willing to condemn him for it as i might have been on my first viewing.

i’m not willing to condemn him for it at all, actually.

(and again - as i said, these are my own opinions! everybody else is welcome to have different opinions! we all engage with media differently, and there isn’t a right or wrong way to approach this situation, just whichever way feels best to you.)

so, for me, i’m not interested anymore in telling merlin that he should have revealed himself to anyone, at that point in the story. it would be different if he had been like - continuing to tell morgana ‘oh, no, you don’t have magic, don’t be crazy,’ or if he had been pretending to hate magic like everyone else so he could blend in, but he doesn’t do that, at the end of the episode. he sends her to the druids. he chases after her when he realizes she's in danger. he openly acknowledges her magic, he supports her in having it, he makes sure she knows she has nothing to fear from him. by the end of 2.03, he’s gone to great lengths to help her; he’s already made certain that she knows he’s on her side and that she can trust him. she clearly knows that he accepts her and that he supports her - those are his responsibilities to her as a fellow human and as a friend, and those are exactly the responsibilities he makes sure to fulfill. she knows her secret is safe with him.

now - whether or not merlin feels safe enough to out himself, after making sure morgana knows he accepts and supports her, is his own business.

i think there are a number of reasons why it wouldn’t be fair for me to criticize merlin for continuing to conceal his secret, the first of which is something i already mentioned in another piece - that a marginalized person’s first responsibility is to their own safety, when forced into hiding under oppressive social conditions. merlin isn’t obligated to reveal himself for anybody. he’s not obligated to put himself in danger out of some kind of...responsibility to the community. (not at this point, anyway. it gets more complicated later, as merlin becomes more powerful, which i also address in that other piece, but that’s all in the future for him and not relevant at this moment.)

i think it would be easy for me to forget that merlin isn’t safe, in the early seasons. we’re so used to thinking of merlin as ‘the greatest sorcerer to ever walk the earth,’ because that’s what we keep being told he’s going to become, but again, that’s all so far in the future for him. merlin in the early seasons can do some things with his abilities, but not consistently, and not to the level where we can reasonably expect him to resist the entirety of camelot’s army, if they were to come for him. merlin is in real danger, and he’s not evil for being unwilling to share a secret about himself that would ensure his death, if it somehow got back to the wrong people.

second - i don’t think it would be fair for me to discount merlin’s personal history, either. merlin’s life didn’t start in camelot, and he hasn’t even been in camelot for all that long, comparatively, by the time we get to S2. season one takes place over a few months, starting in either spring or summer and ending in the fall (after the referenced harvest in 1.10/1.11, but before winter sets in). the weather is nice by time season 2 starts, so we can probably assume that S2 takes place once winter has passed (although, it’s technically possible that S2 takes place over the same autumn as S1, I guess...but it’s not made clear to us, timeline-wise.) either way, we just really have to remember that merlin’s stay in camelot by the time we reach 2.03 is still this blip compared to the rest of his life.

it would be very easy for me to say that merlin should have told morgana, that there’s no way she would ever have given him up - and i probably would have said that very thing, after the first time i watched the show - but like - nowadays, i really think i have to step back from that certainty and be a little more gentle. we say we “know” that morgana wouldn’t have willingly betrayed merlin’s secret at that point, and sure, i agree, that’s probably true - but does merlin know that?

of course not!

i think he hopes that. i think he would dearly like to believe that. i also think merlin grew up in a situation where he couldn’t fully trust even the people he’d known all his life, with two (vital!!!) exceptions, and he has been in camelot with a bunch of brand-new people for less than a year, and he can’t be certain of them, however much he wants to be. (and that’s not even considering the possibility of accidental betrayals, or coerced ones - remember, the witchfinder shows up in S2 also, as just one example.)

remember that exchange merlin has with freya, later this season?

“you can’t always trust people.”

“i know. that’s why i left home.”

merlin is not used to showing himself to people. he has been taught all his life to NEVER, EVER show himself to anybody. everyone in camelot who finds out about his magic finds out either by accident (like gaius or lancelot), or necessity (like freya and gilli - though gilli is interesting, because i think merlin’s decisions there are motivated precisely by the choices he didn’t make with morgana - which i’ll go into more later).

in twenty-odd years, merlin has only ever told one person about his magic. and even that generous assumption requires a little bit of inferencing for us to determine, though i think it’s likely enough, if not confirmable.

(i am, in case it’s unclear, referencing 1.10, when merlin is explaining to will why hunith sent him away to camelot: “when she found out you knew - she was so angry.” that, to me, has always been a signifier that merlin told will about his magic, as opposed to will finding out by coincidence. i know there are a lot of headcanons floating around out there about various...accidental situations that may have occurred which forced merlin to reveal his magic in front of will, and those are all obviously totally fun to play with, but after hearing this particular line - i never understood that to be the case, to be honest. we’ve seen hunith enough to have a pretty solid understanding of her character. she and merlin are always easy and gentle together, she’s so kind and calm and thoughtful - i can’t imagine that she wouldn’t have understood, if there had been some kind of accident that forced merlin’s hand. she’d be just as afraid for his future safety, of course, and she would have wished he’d told her right away, but she wouldn’t have been “so angry.”

...she might, however, have been “so angry” if she’d found out that merlin had specifically undermined every sacrifice she’d ever made to keep him safe/ignored every single one of her warnings/rejected every cautious thing she’d been telling him for his entire life and TOLD somebody about his magic when it wasn’t remotely necessary. that’s the only scenario i can imagine that would prompt merlin to say “she was SO angry” in that half-awed, half-intimidated tone, with that little headshake, like it was such a singular event, like it’s still formidable for him to remember.)

so anyway, that said - it’s too easy for me to say ‘he should have told morgana/gwaine/gwen etc; they would never have turned on him,’ as if it would have been such a simple thing for him to do, as if there were no dangers associated with their knowledge even if they would never have willingly given him up, as if he was refusing to do it because he didn’t want to, or because his fears were overblown, or because he was foolish for thinking they would ever hate him for his gifts. i think that really minimizes the reality of his struggle, and the danger of his situation. without the pressure of some crisis to force his hand, merlin has only ever willingly revealed himself to one person. that person is dead. that person died specifically ensuring that merlin could stay safe and hidden from the rest of the world, morgana included - merlin’s continued secrecy is a gift that was bought at an impossibly high price, and it’s not simple for him to contemplate squandering it, especially with no guarantee that things will turn out okay.

because there IS no guarantee that things will turn out okay! a lot of the “merlin should have told morgana” online talk centers around the idea that knowing about merlin’s magic would have kept morgana from feeling alone/betrayed, thus preventing her from turning to the “evil” methods she uses later, but again, i don’t think we actually know that at all. solidarity between merlin and morgana would have been a nice thing, definitely; i’d like to see that too, but i don’t think the fact that she and merlin are both magic-users would have guaranteed harmony between them. merlin and gilli are both magic-users, too, and merlin expects this to be enough to convince gilli to “see the light,” but the fact of the matter is that merlin and gilli just have very different ideas about what it means to do the right thing. merlin thinks it means biding his time and waiting for change to come from the top (because he’s been TOLD by greater powers that this is the right course of action, of course; let’s note again that merlin’s situation is extremely complicated) whereas gilli thinks that doing things merlin’s way makes merlin complicit with an unjust regime. gilli says ‘i shouldn’t haven’t to wait for someone else to give me my rights. i’m going to take them myself.’

the fact that merlin and gilli share a bond as magic-users doesn’t protect them from an ideological divide that puts them on different sides of the same struggle. i’m not sure that merlin and morgana wouldn’t have still ended up in the same situation, eventually, if merlin had chosen to out himself to her - but doing so would certainly have made him a thousand times more vulnerable to attack.

third - it’s also important to remember that if we’re going to hold merlin to this rigid ‘he should have told morgana everything/confided in her/trusted her at the expense of possibly his own life despite the fact that she exists at the completely opposite end of a rigid social hierarchy as him and he’s known her for less than a year’ then maybe we ought to raise the bar for morgana, as well. morgana is very clearly shown to trust and appreciate merlin at the end of 2.03, but by 2.11, when alvarr and mordred show up and convince her to steal the crystal of neahtid, she doesn’t hesitate or come to merlin at all, despite the fact that we never see him do anything to lose her trust between then and now. she never asks him for help, even when she’s uncertain about alvarr’s methods, and that leaves merlin in the dark, only privy to confusing images of her sneaking around and acting suspicious. and even with that, merlin doesn’t condemn her for what she does, the same way he doesn’t blame her when she tries to kill uther in 1.12 - he helps arthur retrieve the crystal, but he doesn’t give morgana up. and he doesn’t hold any kind of grudge, either - in the next episode, merlin doesn’t even suspect her, at first - he thinks it must be her magic protecting her; he doesn’t even consider the idea that she has anything to do with the illness, not until kilgharrah tells him.

and even after that, he STILL covers for her in front of arthur, and he gives her a chance to come clean to him - but she doesn’t take it.

i’m not condemning her for that - i get why she would be afraid to admit to such a big mess - she was in way over her head and didn’t know what to do. but if we’re going to cut morgana this much slack and accept her fears as a valid enough reason to block a potential moment of connection, then we have to accept that merlin’s fears were valid, too - morgana’s descent into “villainy” was not something we can pin solely on merlin’s already overburdened shoulders. the end of season 2 was not some kind of one-way failure.

in summary: merlin and morgana were trapped in an impossible situation. they were both victims of the same oppressive regime, and both of them had very real, very dangerous obstacles to letting themselves trust in and reach out to others, and i think pitting them against each other while forgetting who the real villain was is unfair to them both.

also, a brief postscript: circling back to the first section of this piece, where i talked about how season 5 just stopped before anyone’s arc was finished - merlin and morgana could have had so much more, if we’d gotten another season. their relationship is really in the pits, by season 5, but there is this deleted scene where arthur is reflecting on what happened to morgana and blaming himself, and merlin says arthur shouldn’t take the blame, that “there were others better placed to help morgana” (implicating, of course, himself) and that was SUCH a jumping off point for their story to have continued. merlin wanted to do better by her. he blamed himself for what happened to her. and morgana, for her part, was starting to question herself, as we saw during her confrontation with mordred in 5.09.

there were places for this relationship to go. it wasn’t a lost cause. but the writers decided that it made more sense to just...eliminate everybody at the exact moment when things were poised to possibly change.

the story wasn’t over at the end of season 5. but the show was, and i am always going to regret those many lost opportunities.

#the once and future slowburn #meta #replies #long post

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