#liz's merlin stuff
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Photo
i got the merlin dvd box set for xmas so i’m working my way through the commentaries with @dellesayah and i couldn’t help but notice a few repeating patterns
#bbc merlin#merlin blogging#liz's merlin stuff#liz makes stuff#i guess#sorry if this posts twice#i tried to schedule it for noon today and instead of posting it fucking vanished so#who knows when or if we'll ever see version 1 again#i'd like to state for the record that we watched one (1) commentary w/ only directors and no actors and then decided to never do that again#i've never heard anyone complain so much in my life and i live with myself 24/7
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
we were robbed: the morgana & arthur edition
i have a well-worded and very-thought-out meta about this brewing in me but i don’t have time for all that so have this instead (spoilers obviously):
arthur & morgana didn’t know they were brother and sister but in actuality they would have GROWN UP like brother and sister because (though we don’t have any ages) it’s implied that morgana came to uther quite young
season 1 has them acting all flirty with a touch of antagonism but if they had had their shit together from the start there would have been nothing but (somewhat loving) antagonism from the get-go
a nice thing to have done would have been for someone to suggest arthur/morgana and for them both to look genuinely disgusted (”he’s like my BROTHER”/”she’s like my SISTER”) instead of “i’m pretending to be disgusted but secretly i’d hit it” because it would have been really funny come season 3 when the reveal came thru
here’s the thing about siblings, particularly when there are only just the two of you and you’re very close in age: siblings know you better than anyone. if you grow up with someone they have been witness to all of your weird obsessions and awkward phases and stupid crushes and bad ideas. they are often the only playmate of your age and so you spend 100% of your time together whether you like it or not. you learn to tolerate them and vice versa. you know what will make them happy. you know what will piss them off. there is no one you hate more than your sibling. there is no one you love more than your sibling. no one else on earth can make you so angry or so happy. they are your partner in crime and/or the one framing you for murder. they will help you bury a body and mock you mercilessly for it for the rest of time. siblings are your life companion until one of you becomes an adult. in a perfect world, nobody would have ever, ever, EVER understood arthur and morgana as well as they understood each other - absolutely no one else on earth can comprehend what it’s like to grow up where you grew up with the parents that you had except someone who did it with you
AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED FOR ARTHUR AND MORGANA
imagine a canon where when morgana says in season 1 that SHE ALONE can convince arthur to defy their father and get him to do (whatever dumb thing - kill the afanc, find the morteus flower, etc) it’s not because of her Womanly Wiles it’s because she grew up with this IDIOT and she knows him better than he knows himself
imagine a canon where arthur and morgana’s relationship more closely resembles merlin and arthur’s just for the SHEER AMOUNT of insults traded - and morgana hardly has to mind her tongue the way merlin sometimes does because she and arthur are nearly of equal station
shooting each other rude looks behind uther’s back at dinner, absolutely roasting people at court under their breath, roasting each OTHER under their breath, scheming to get away with mad plots right under uther’s nose, tattling on each other when one of them was holding a grudge, alternatively arch-enemies and thick as thieves, that’s SIBLINGHOOD, babey. like this except if morgana wasn’t lying
you know what i think? if morgana and arthur had been written as proper siblings, arthur would have been one of the first people morgana confessed the truth about her magic to. yes sometimes it’s hard to tell people close to you about that shit, but we didn’t see morgana so much as CONSIDER telling arthur the truth in canon. arthur, as morgana’s adoptive-not-adoptive brother, would be one of the most important people in her life (and vice versa). if magic = gay, there’s no way she wouldn’t asking probing questions such as “so hypothetically if you found out someone you loved had magic what would you do” (more subtle than that because she’s not merlin but you get the idea - that’s what the gays do with our straight siblings. we test for homophobia.)
like if arthur had come for her when he thought the druids kidnapped her because he was actually as distraught and worried as uther was and she, instead of freaking out and fleeing, begged him to cover for her because she wanted to stay - THAT’S WHAT SIBLINGS DO. they ask impossibly hard shit of each other and then they owe one another favors for the rest of their lives. morgana and arthur should have been RIDE OR DIE for each other. that arthur would have fucking covered for her or at least been really torn about it and really fucked up that he didn’t, if he chose not to
i would have loved to see arthur struggle more with the fact that was not only morgana his biological sister but she was magical - and yeah he didn’t find out until morgana had turned ~evil~ but THAT IS WHAT WE WERE ROBBED OF
as a matter of fact arthur only gets about 5 total minutes of screentime in the same frame as morgana AT BEST! after she pulls off the sister & magic reveals but in every bit of it he is fucking HEARTBROKEN. arthur’s more fucked up about morgana than merlin is and it’s merlin’s stupid fault she went darkside to begin with
look at the tears in her eyes. he’s so sad to see her like this. he calls her MY LADY even when she’s trying to murder them all. arthur grew up with morgana. arthur must have loved her SO MUCH. she would without a doubt be someone he considered his immediate family. there’s a million and one fanfics about arthur changing his mind about magic after he discovers someone he loves (merlin) would be killed for having it, but almost none of them deal with how arthur would take the revelation that morgana, his sister in all but name (at least until he finds out she’s actually his biological sister too), has magic, and would have to be put to death according to the law
like. ok. he sent merlin out of town when merlin was facing execution over something as simple as STEALING in 2.06, he helped mordred escape the chopping block in 1.08, he pled gwen’s case in 1.03 when he thought she was a sorceress for real, do we really think he wouldn’t have fought for morgana?
moving on: morgana died nearly right in front of arthur and we get 0 emotional reaction from him - typical. granted he was also dying, but a word exchanged about how the pendragon line ended with the two of them on the same day would not have gone amiss.
think of the PARALLELS - they both died from a sword forged in a dragon’s breath, when their father was the one who drove the dragons to extinction
LIKE: morgana wanting arthur to lift the ban on magic SO BADLY yet being the reason arthur remains convinced he can’t - because he watched his bright sweet compassionate and brave sister become someone cold and ruthless - watched her pain morph her into someone not unlike uther, who also used his pain as an excuse to kill people
arthur wanting morgana to stop her crusade EQUALLY badly but HE’S the reason she remains convinced she can’t do that EITHER because he still won’t lift the fucking ban
(AND LET US NEVER FORGET THAT THEY BOTH HAVE THAT FIREBRAND PENDRAGON RAGE - when arthur gets mad he gets GOOD and mad - both of them tried to kill uther, both of them at one point attempted to or actually did disown him once they were able to fully comprehend the extent of his crimes)
their reconciliation could have been so good. morgana insisting that magic didn’t make her this way, people did - people like arthur and uther. as good as arthur’s moment at the druid shrine in 4.10 was, that same moment and emotion should have gone to morgana in late season 4 or 5 (preferably while she was beating his face in with him making no effort to stop her winter soldier style lmao)
man ok arthur and merlin’s grand tragic not-quite-romance was good and fucked up and i love it to death, but SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS are so fucking powerful. they’re messy and difficult but most of all they’re ENDURING because you just can’t pick your family
and they had such a good character and good relationship RIGHT THERE with morgana and they WASTED all of their potential
thats ALL IM SAYING. ok. thank u and goodnight
#personal#merlin blogging#bbc merlin#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#i guess is gonna have to be a tag i use#long post#sorry for the amanda palmer song but like#they say u can catch it but sometimes ur born with it HELLO that's magic babey#liz makes stuff
264 notes
·
View notes
Text
concept: a merlin fanvid done in the same style as the one to luv deluxe by cinnamon chasers (warnings for violence drug use & nsfw) in which merlin tries over and over to figure out the way for arthur to not die in the end and if you like sad endings it turns out arthur dies in all of them and if you like happy endings he figures it out in the end
#personal#merlin blogging#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#i guess#bbc merlin#i have been thinking about this nonstop for 3 days straight#this is like in my top 10 favorite songs ever#and i like the concept of the music video So Much even tho i think the execution was a little sexist#maybe a lot sexist#liz makes stuff
1 note
·
View note
Note
I’m considering rewatching Merlin but I don’t think I even got all the way through the first time so I guess my question is- is it worth it?
HELLO sorry i took so long to answer u i didnt see this til i was on my way to bed last night!! i hope it’s ok to answer in public (pls let me know if not)
SHORT ANSWER: yes! if you liked the series enough to give it a go once & ur feeling the tug to re-experience nostalgia or finish it why deprive yourself of potentially having a good time? if nothing else, a refresher on the show is enough to enable the READING OF FANFIC, and truly i think merlin has some of the best fanfic out there…it’s one of those things that still has an actual fandom (even if it is less active than it was in say 2012) years after the thing has been finished and moved on from, and dedication like this almost always results in a good place to sort of exist mentally with a thing, if that makes any fucking sense at all?? (for comparison see: detroit become human, which i do love, but was everywhere for like 4 months and then fucking vanished.) u can always just tap out again if it’s not doing anything for you!!
LONG ANSWER: if what you’re actually asking is “is this thing good enough to be worth getting invested emotionally in, maybe even possibly enough to make it to the end” i would also still say yes
while I, Personally, had issues with the ultimate direction of the ending, especially the last season, i’d say the journey getting there is well worth it - especially if you’re able to binge and skip over the bad arcs (some of the bullshit they put gwen through…) you don’t like more quickly. like, for example, season 4 is not a well-written season, but half of my favorite episodes are from there? i HATED most of season 5, but my second favorite episode is in it? there’s a lot of cool stuff hidden in the junk & if the show is ur kinda thing i think it’s definitely worth FINDING all that cool stuff & just mentally tossing out the garbage
PLUS whatever i felt about the finale, it’s worth it to finally see…how can i say this without spoilers…a very long awaited resolution. i only spent about a 3-4 weeks bingeing merlin and i was dying for it by the time i got there so anyone who had started it YEARS ago definitely owes it to themselves to at least watch the finale even if they don’t properly get to the end going through it episode by episode (kind of like every spn fan owes it to themselves to watch mary’s coming back from the dead arc.)
so yes ABSOLUTELY you should give merlin another shot, i think it’s such a good time, and what the show doesn’t do properly FANFIC WILL so there’s always that too
#liz answers asks#plsdontfightme#personal#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#merlin blogging#love ur icon btw
1 note
·
View note
Text
top 10 merlin episodes a list by me
2.08 The Sins of the Father - this is the pinnacle of this whole entire show. this episode changed me as a human person. i went from “arthur sucks” to “WE STAN” so fast i got whiplash. watching arthur snap and try to kill his own father once he FINALLY understood who uther really was made me love him forever. here’s a whole-ass post i made about this episode & here’s a nice little screencap set that i love
5.03 The Death Song of Uther Pendragon - if there is anything on god’s green earth as excellent as watching arthur try to kill his father it’s watching his father try to kill HIM, first with criticism, and then literally. screamed thru this entire episode especially when merlin DID THAT! daddy issues literally haunting poor arthur...what more could u ask for?? here’s a whole-ass post for this one too
4.10 A Herald of the New Age - we got to see SO MUCH DEPTH from my boy arthur here...we got to tackle the true fallout of the crimes the pendragon monarchy has committed...this episode got very “fullmetal alchemist” near the end (tackling war & genocide) & i’m into it. wouldn’t you know it, there’s a post for this one too
5.12/5.13 The Diamond of the Day - i have mixed feelings about season 5 and the finale overall but there’s no way i can’t include this when arthur and merlin finally got to have an honest conversation. bonus: that shit with merlin being magic itself really almost made me lose it. yes, there is a post - there is also a second post
4.12/4.13 The Sword in the Stone - not ONLY am i a total nerd for sword-in-stone imagery but this episode also contains merlin DOING THAT!! every time he gets to be a badass my heart soars. two posts for this one too. i actually didn’t like the first half of this two-partner as much because of the Very Creepy Spell but yk whatever whatever
2.13 The Last Dragonlord - each and every thing involving arthur’s mom or merlin’s dad mcmurders me dead. i almost wept during this episode. i don’t have a post for it but that’s because i don’t think i can ever watch it again. merlin having to pretend he wasn’t crying when he was crying ENDED me - it’s so unfair he can help arthur bear his pain but not the other way around. HE DESERVES TO GO THROUGH THE ORDEAL OF BEING KNOWN TOO :(
4.01/4.02 The Darkest Hour - arthur and merlin spend this entire episode 1. scared shitless 2. ADMITTING WITH NO IRONY THAT THEY ARE SCARED SHITLESS 3. trying to die for one another 4. shit talking one another to keep their morale up. in addition i think these episodes had the scariest motw in the entire series, PLUS i am always grateful for an uptick in lancehot content. good all the way around. yes there’s a post
3.11 The Sorcerer's Shadow - it’s so funny that right before i watched this one (like LITERALLY the night before) i was complaining about merlin as a character, how i didn’t understand his motives, why he would repeatedly risk his own life to save someone like uther, and then the very next day i was given this. i have a few mixed feelings about the execution of it but overall this episode was the mini-version of merlin’s “arthur trying to kill his own dad” moment for me...i felt like for the first time i really understood who he was through and through. there is a very long post for this one
1.04 The Poisoned Chalice - i don’t have a post for this one but like what else can POSSIBLY be said about this episode...i said once “if you’re interested in merlin try the first four eps” because this is where it gets good. FOUR EPISODES IN and they’re ready to die for each other...this is also the first time arthur stands up to his father and does something selfless...the first time he sees magic used for good...it’s where we start to get to know who he really is without uther’s influence, what kind of show this is going to be, what we can expect from the antagonists (especially uther), and it even hints at the larger mystery surrounding the history of what started the purge and why uther hates magic and nimueh in particular SO much...this episode is SO IMPORTANT and actually it was being told the basic plot of this episode that swayed me into giving merlin a go to begin with so without this episode? i would not be writing this post.
4.06 A Servant of Two Masters - while i would have rather seen this concept (brainwashed merlin tries to assassinate arthur) played for high drama instead of hijinks (what can i say, i have a weakness for brainwashed assassins...), the hijinks were PRETTY GOOD and the parts that WERE dramatic were also quite good AND it was merlin and arthur’s FIRST AND ONLY HUG. there’s really nothing not to love. i do have a post about this one too
HONORABLE MENTIONS INCLUDE: 1.10 (arthur going back to ealdor to defend it from bandits and feeling human empathy), 1.11 (arthur learning humility via murdering a unicorn and also nearly dying for merlin), 3.04 (introduction of gwaine), 3.12/3.13 (gwaine content, ROUND TABLE KNIGHTS ASSEMBLE), 4.03 (uther’s death AT LAST oh babey), 5.01/5.02 (arthur spends the entirety of two episodes running around in the snow looking nice and having an absolute BLAST on his suicide mission to rescue his captured/enslaved men)
#personal#merlin blogging#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#my fever broke for a little while so i got up to eat cereal and type this post#im going back 2 bed#i'll have you know it took me DAYS to make this list. like a single day#trying to weed them out was like picking children#my initial list started at like...17 or 18 so almost half got the cut#it was agonizing#1.10 and 3.13 really are some of my favorites.#liz makes stuff
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
before i go to bed i would also like to say that the shit w/ merlin losing and then regaining his magic is like...one of my favorite tropes ever, firstly, and secondly, THAT THEY INVOLVED BALINOR, which will never fail to make me emo, i was a Mess, i nearly lost it right there
but look. merlin’s joy at being able to summon the butterfly and that speech about “you are more than a son of your father you are a son of the earth and the sky and the sea you are magic itself & you cannot lose what you are” - as far as “magic is a metaphor for queer” goes there has certainly been more blatant and and deft comparisons but to my memory that was the first time a “good” character in the show described magic as something beautiful and special without adding the caveat that it has to be feared sometimes/when used the wrong way/when used by the wrong people
it’s such a silly thing to get emotional over but it’s such a nice little celebration of who merlin is and that idea of like “you can’t change who you are for better or worse even if you want to because of other people...the core of you is gonna be rock solid no matter what & no one can take that away from you” when you apply the metaphor to that it’s just. good. ok goodnight
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
okay i’ve had a good cry and a couple of hours to Process so here’s how i feel about the ending of merlin. spoiler cut i guess for the three people who still don’t know what happens
i still think that destiny shit is stupid. i think it’s a bad and lazy plot device contrived simply to explain away all plot problems
i still also think the tone shift went way too far. this show had a farting troll in it and then suddenly it does THIS? believe me i did love a BIT more seriousness but i did not expect an unhappy ending, i don’t think anyone who began watching during s1 could have expected that to happen. it feels cheap, like they tricked me
i’m also anti character death, especially pointless character deaths. every so often i do agree with one but they’re few and far between. la noire, fullmetal alchemist, mirror’s edge all had character deaths i was OK with - if it’s for a purpose and it MEANS something then i’m not entirely unreasonable about it
gwaine’s death, for example,was entirely pointless, and held no meaning or satisfaction. same for morgana’s. same for elyan’s if we want to rewind a little
...............i have very mixed feelings about arthur’s.
it was like, technically really well done. he spent the ENTIRE episode dying, which i was not expecting. he and merlin got that WHOLE TIME to hash it out. it wasn’t enough time by far, there should have been an entire season, but it was so much more than i was expecting. the struggle to get him some help, the FEELINGS they both had, everything was very organic and real (too real...) and they kind of knocked it out of the park in that respect
technically speaking as far as magic reveals go it was very clever to have arthur injured during it because then he was forced to stop and listen and observe instead of just acting rashly. i’m dead ass writing a fanfic with that premise that i have to take another long look at now because i don’t want to rip off canon. like, i agree with that choice. there are only a few other ways i think that would be just as good
that said, i think arthur died for no good reason really except someone decided that they needed this tone shift or whatever
they just didn’t have time to wrap up this ending. imagine if we had cut the four episodes of mind-controlled gwen, we could have had time to do anything
morgana died without a hint of compassion or catharsis, we never saw magic returning to albion or literally anything that happened to ANYONE after arthur died - there was absolutely no epilogue whatsoever except a brief speech from the dragon
and speaking of, he should have died too, because it’s stupid that merlin didn’t just CALL HIM FOR A RIDE - so much bullshit had to go wrong for arthur to die it was LITERALLY unbelievable
i think of season 5 in teen wolf - they wanted to make the villain look smart because he was able to infiltrate their friend group and turn them against one another, but the writers couldn’t make it believable, so instead the main cast just all wound up looking like they were being extra stupid for no reason
this is the same feeling i have with season 5 of merlin. merlin and arthur repeatedly make terrible choices in order to bring about the events that lead to arthur’s death but i only really BELIEVE in those choices like 50% of the time at best. it’s like the writers have gone out of their way to really make them both look extra stupid in order to punish them (and their audience by extension), and i don’t understand WHY
why is it that when arthur’s destiny is to die he does but when it’s to restore magic he doesn’t? are we supposed to believe old man merlin (and HOW is this dude immortal) is STILL waiting for arthur to come back and show us diagon alley is real??
GEE, IF WE HAD MORE TIME FOR AN EPILOGUE MAYBE SOME OF THOSE QUESTIONS COULD BE ANSWERED
i just...this started out as such a happy little show...sure, a lot of shows change tone over time, but it’s usually MUCH more gradual than this
if arthur had died to bring magic back as he was destined to do, i would have accepted it. if he had died for LITERALLY REASON AT ALL besides to punish his and merlin’s choices i might have accepted it
there just wasn’t enough time to make it make sense. and yeah some of that was bc they got canceled but like they had an entire season to work with. if they had stopped torturing gwen for five minutes arthur and merlin could have spent that whole season getting to truly know each other for the first time and it might have made arthur want to fight for magic and it made have made his death meaningful
but as it stands it was just...meaningless suffering. there was nothing gained in return. it was not a satisfying ending because we didn’t even get to SEE a real ending for anyone but arthur
it was a very good death, which i guess is what he always wanted. it just.......wasn’t good enough :/
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
i have some final thots before bed...
(big merlin spoilers)
firstly, in what is a very sad coincidence, both of arthur’s parents died on his birthday. his mom died the day he was born and his dad totally got shanked when he turned 26. technically he didn’t actually go until a few days later But Still. my boy has birthday baggage
secondly, after uther dies, arthur says “i lost both of my parents to magic.” now, before 2.08, he said “it was my birth that caused your death” to the woman he thought was his mother, which means he thought she died as a result of childbirth. now, she went on to tell him that it was actually UTHER who caused her death (seeing as arthur was born of magic, which requires a life for a life), but at the END of the episode, when arthur was trying to carve uther a new orifice, everyone LIED to him to make him stop. arthur ostensibly went back to believing what he had before...until season 4, where he drops that line - “i lost both my parents to magic.”
that leaves 2 possibilities: 1. someone told him the truth later, offscreen 2. arthur worked it out on his own
1 is possible because arthur’s stupid and his uncle could have gone over it since i think half of the reason his uncle is working against him is revenge for ygraine but 2 isn’t out of the question either because like..... arthur demanded uther’s word that he didn’t use magic to kill his mother, and uther wouldn’t give it. he said only that he swore he loved her and would never want to hurt her - because, i think, he is guilty, even if he didn’t realize what the true cost of arthur’s birth would be - but i think arthur HAD to have put that together too - that uther did sacrifice ygraine’s life, just...unknowingly. you can even excuse merlin’s words that way - arthur might believe merlin believed he was telling the truth, and was in fact mistaken
so arthur worked it out, and he dropped his blade because he couldnt shank his own dad but then im sure he had to go on to stew about all that nonsense quite a lot and in total isolation because u can’t bring this up especially when your dad just stares out the window all day yk
anyway, in my heart he’s known ALL ALONG how his mom died ever since 2.08 and that’s that
#personal#merlin blogging#all that hard thinking about that shitty subject all by himself...my poor boy!!!!!#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#liz makes stuff
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
ON THE SUBJECT of the s4 finale (major spoilers ahead)
i DID like:
arthur getting mortally wounded again. partially bc i was still angry at him, partially because it’s always good fun to see him staggering around half-dead and fueled only by determination
merlin shooting a crossbow was great. it’s so nice to see him non-magically hold his own in a fight
gwaine “singing for his supper” was pretty badass. i love that fella
i feel a way about arthur observing that everyone in his life betrays him sooner or later. under one hand: bad time for a pity party, bud, and since i was mad at him at the time i felt merlin’s subsequent ep talk/praise was a bit unwarranted. under the other hand it’s like...really fucked up actually that a lot of people DO lie to arthur (going back to 2.08) in particular because of his station or because of things uther has done - in a way, even merlin lying to arthur is a result of uther’s choices. arthur’s not a bad person, most of the time, unless the writers want to torture gwen, but he’s surrounded by quite a lot of bad people and uther’s genocide is partially arthur;s legacy too whether he likes it or not because it was arthur’s birth that triggered it. it’s just fucking sad to me that he can’t seem to fight his way out of the ugliness he came from and was born into
MERLIN CALLING DOWN A MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON TO AMITE AN ARMY FOR DARING TO FUCK WITH HIS LIL HOMETOWN...BABE...WHAT A BADASS. HE CAN COMMAND A DRAGON
in fact love merlin getting to be a badass so much i put up with his old man merlin guise for it but JESUS FUCK that was so much more than i ever expected. he DECIMATED an ARMY with a few words! if merlin had half a mind to be evil he’d be fucking unstoppable and instead he uses his powers to polish armor and heal battle wounds
arthur’s very long look after merlin leaves to go “create a diversion” aka perform more badass sorcery without having to worry about being seen
I WAS SOOO HAPPY TO SEE AGRAVAINE DIE LIKE FUCK YOU DUDE LOL
oh man. you could see it on his face. a very long pause where merlin’s counting up his enemies, calculating his move, pros vs cons, can he take them all out at once, will there be survivors enough to tell his secret
i realized what he was gonna do about a split second before he actually did it and i YELLED OUT LOUD and spent the entire section laughing like a maniac
he fucked them all up without moving a muscle. he just stood there and his eyes glowed and he toppled nearly a dozen men. i. was. LOSING IT
merlin really is the bravest character on this whole show. when arthur thought he was gonna die he was bugging but merlin faced down both morgana and an army without one little bit of fear. totally cool and calm. i LOVE this, who he is, when he’s really pressed down to the wire, and lets himself be seen. he’s grown up so much and he’s so GOOD
doubly impressive: agravaine is so SHOCKED by what merlin truly is he’s delighted and laughing and impressed, in spite of the fact that merlin just killed maybe a hundred of his soldiers and is about to kill him too. it’s a bruce wayne/batman situation. i know i complained about merlin keeping it too close to the vest before but now i’m actually impressed with how his cover is SO good his enemies are delighted to find out his secret
arthur taking time out of his escape to go back and look for merlin and merlin REALIZING WHAT HE’D DONE and arthur going “you’re my only friend”
THEY ARE FRIENDS! NONE OF THIS “WE COULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS” THEY ARE FRIENDS
THE SWORD IN THE STONE THING look i can’t believe after all arthur angsted about being lied to merlin would then lie more to him but OH MY GOD no matter how they did it i was always going to love it. i died. arthur went full legend of zelda
and like. ok. merlin tells this whole dumb story and arthur argues with him the entire time and THEN merlin finally goes “are you calling gaius a LIAR?” and arthur says “no im just calling YOU an idiot” and merlin says “oh yeah? what’s that then?” and arthur stops dead in his tracks and gives that sword the llllooongest look and the muted piano comes in and sldkfgjhlsdfkjhlsdjfghsldfjgh
the timing. the drama. the cinnamon topography. i hate the word epic but it was epic. i’m such a fan for swords in stones. i’m so glad they gave it some nice fanfare
i do also feel human emotion about merlin’s like...faith in arthur. somehow all of merlin’s onetime flaws have become good character traits for him - him saving uther seems like weakness and then strength, him keeping his secrets close seems cold and then clever, and now his belief in arthur, which at first seemed blind faith but has since sort of matured into true devotion...arthur doesn’t always deserve it but since it’s coming from someone so WISE the more merlin says it the more i believe it. in season 1 it’s like “someday arthur will be a great king” and you’re like “yeah whatever” but NOW it’s like “holy shit he really might be” and it’s nice that arthur can believe merlin even when he doesn’t believe in himself
merlin’s one-man mission to sneak into the castle in the middle of the night as old man merlin just to sabotage morgana’s magic was like...also really badass tbh. he REALLY used that braincell
GWEN WITH A SWORD
the knights reunion: “elyan! oh thank god! are you alright?!” “well, i have been locked up with gwaine for a week”
merlin is SUCH A BADASS him blocking morgana’s magic ON THE SLY with ALL THOSE PEOPLE LOOKING god god god
GWEN IS QUEEN NOW AND GOOD FOR HER! i really hated their breakup and reconciliation but whatever she looked so good in her dress it’s everything she deserves
i did NOT like:
that will-bending, make-someone-compliant spell. that is skeevy as shit and i hate that they introduced something like that into canon. angry as i was with arthur it made my skin crawl the entire time. especially unfun when they played it for laughs...like...the amount of agency lost...it’s not funny. any normal person should feel terrible about doing something like that
furthermore, arthur even in his right mind having to pretend to be stupid is like...what? this is the season finale. this is NOT the time for hijinks
WHY are we still torturing people LEAVE elyan alone
you know? fuck morgana. like. it’s not her fault. the writers dropped the ball. i understand that & will always be angry on her behalf about it. but between this and turning gwen into a deer to be SHOT at...i’m like. really done having sympathy for her character or rooting for her to succeed. i don’t like that feeling but there it is
HOW did gwen not see merlin using magic to save her also WHY is she forced to see morgana who has hurt her more than anyone
speaking of gwen, they did not have time to do That Plot and reconcile arthur and gwen all at the same time. it was SO badly paced. i’m not talking about the gwne thing bc i will black out from rage but wow
don’t like tristan and isolde mostly because he looks WAY OLDER than her. although i did soften up a little when she was like dying and she was just lying in his arms and all she wanted was for him to hold her.........That’s Sad. i did feel human emotion
#personal#merlin blogging#only one season left...im afraid#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#liz makes stuff
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
i have deep and conflicting thots about the gilli episode (3.11)
they’re long (they’re LONG!!!) so here’s a cut. you’re welcome
good things:
this is the ANTITHESIS to everything i was complaining about last night. this is what i was CRAVING. this show did me so good (and yet, so bad - more on that in a sec)
there was a touch of outside pov here (my weakness) since we got to see who merlin was from gilli’s point of view
and when i say we got to see who merlin was i mean we really for real got to SEE WHO HE WAS oh babey
something gilli said in this episode was that merlin has been pretending so long he forgot who he was and i think similarly he pretends so well that we the audience (me anyway) also kind of forget who he is because we see it SO rarely
but we saw it here! in this episode merlin was SMART?? those aren’t two words i’d normally use in the same sentence without sticking a “is not” between them but he WAS - he cottoned on right away that gilli was using magic, he confronted him immediately and in a way that didn’t invoke hostility (and what a nice little flip, what a TREAT to see someone else freaking out and covering their ass while merlin is keeping his cool), (some of) his normal little jabs at arthur were a tad wryer/slyer on the delivery, and he figured out, ON HIS OWN, how to save both gilli and uther, and used his magic in front of ALL THOSE PEOPLE without getting caught
and speaking of that, merlin being like “he’s braver than me, using magic in front of all those people” and gaisu going “brave or stupid” like... ok, at first my reaction was: come on, merlin uses magic in front of people ALL THE TIME...but when i think about it, my very own self was complaining just yesterday that he was keeping his shit buttoned up way too tightly. and i did notice merlin himself waiting until backs were turned more often, incantating aloud less often...he ACTUALLY HAS gotten less stupid, JUST a smidgen. i didn’t even realize
merlin seemed more grown-up and serious in this episode than he has in the entire series. maybe it’s the fact that he had someone younger and dumber to play off of (and i don’t think gilli was a strong enough character to carry an episode, but maybe it was enough to give us an excuse to develop merlin so much) but he did in fact seem WISE, and he seemed TIRED, which is a thing grownups usually are... the way he talked to the other characters seemed different too - he spoke to the dragon as an equal (last dragon & last dragonlord), not as some dumbass in over his head asking for help (very nice also that he didn’t go to gaius for advice but someone more on “his level”). he gave arthur clear and frank advice on how to go about fighting his dad, he STUCK UP FOR GILLI AGAINST GAIUS (backbone! compassion!) and then STUCK UP FOR HIMSELF against gilli!!!!!
(i like a slightly more serious merlin because while quirky dumbass country hick merlin IS charming and endearing that charm can only carry him so far without more meat involved, especially after some of the terrible things we’ve seen him suffer through and all the experiences he’s had to grow and change)
i have mixed feelings about merlin showing his magic to this particular person at this particular time, but i do also like that he was willing to open up about WHO HE IS if it could potentially save a life. that shows backbone. and it shows integrity. two things i was sorely missing from merlin before now
speaking of merlin’s integrity, we finally got to cover why he keeps saving uther, who he should hate and despise and want dead, which i have been DYING for
merlin and gilli have a sort of professor x/magneto stance about uther, by which i mean one of them argues that they should change things from within the system to court goodwill and avoid violence because acting violently would just make their detractors’ point for them, and the other argues that the system should be destroyed entirely through any means necessary because violence is the only language the oppressor understands
on a rewatch what really stands out to me is merlin chastising gilli at the end by saying “you’re better than that.” it makes me think of season 1 when merlin had the chance to let morgana’s allies assassinate uther and he asks gwen what he should do - gwen, who also has every reason to hate and despise uther, tells merlin that to allow him to die through inaction would be just as bad as murdering him directly, and that that would make merlin as bad uther is
i don’t want to give the people who fucked morgana over so thoroughly too much credit but it makes me wonder if that wasn’t when merlin decided that he was going to be the bigger man
he says it himself in this episode, near tears - it is LONELY, being what he is, and doing what he does. he could kill a man with a thought and he spends all his time mucking stables and polishing armor and when he gets a break from that it’s to save someone’s life without endangering his own. it is dangerous, tireless work for which he believes he will NEVER get any thanks. and what i was so frustrated about before was not understanding WHY - did he care THAT much about arthur’s feelings, that he couldn’t stand to watch arthur lose a father? was he just THAT afraid of uther and what uther would do to him if he found out?
but i get it now - it’s because he CHOOSES to. not to protect arthur or to protect himself but because he wholly believes that he’s playing the long game and he’s on the correct path to seeing a future where what he is is no longer outlawed - god, his FACE when he says “when that day arrives, we WILL be free”
again not to overcredit the writers bc i DON’T think they were smart enough to do this on purpose but like in my heart he decided all the way back in season 1 that he wasn’t going to take the easy way out and just let uther die because THAT’S NOT WHAT MAGIC IS FOR. he’s stronger than everyone else around him and HE CHOOSES to keep his head down and wait it out because in his OWN WORDS “magic is not meant to bring you glory.” even gilli agrees - when used for personal gain, it is very easy for the power of the magic to corrupt. i thought merlin was weak, to have saved uther’s life so many times - but to resist that kind of temptation and corruption over and over, he’s actually the opposite. he doesn’t try so hard to protect the monarchy because he lacks self-respect or integrity, he protects the monarchy BECAUSE OF his self-respect and integrity. all along, he’s been fighting for a better future too - just in his way, not the way gilli or morgana would
and speaking of morgana...here’s the bad:
i. am. LIVID!!!!!
that merlin would tell this boy he BARELY KNOWS his secret in order to maybe possibly save this kid’s life and NOT TELL MORGANA in her worst hour of need when she most needed a friend
merlin got a whole lot more respect from me today but the fact remains that he’s a LYING LIAR WHO LIES and he has tried to kill morgana two and a half times (the poison, the bump on the head, knocking her off her horse) and as of the end of season 3 also MURDERED HER SISTER THAT IS APPARENTLY ALSO LOWKEY HER GIRLFRIEND (i know)
which really clashes with his whole deal that i just described above, of using his magic for good and not evil purposes, for trying to win over hearts instead of win battles. and it’s funny that it’s ONLY morgana that merlin acts out of character for...i think it’s because! and this is a crazy concept! the writers hate morgana!
morgana in season 1 and most of season 2 was a kind and loving person. she was a true ally to gwen and often used her status as the king’s ward to stand up for gwen when gwen was in trouble. the first time she tried to have uther killed it was because of what happened to gwen’s father. she was more than capable of feeling love and knowing right from wrong and doing what she believed was right at any cost as evidenced by her helping to sneak the little druid kid out of the castle at risk to herself
morgana in season 3 does nothing but smirk evilly. and while it’s a good look on her and she’s MORE than valid in wanting to fuck up merlin and uther and maybe even arthur too from a certain viewpoint her aggression against gwen is ENTIRELY unwarranted
even trying my BEST to be sympathetic towards her and remember what she’s gone through and that her bad characterization is the fault of the writers and not morgana herself it is VERY hard not to hate her when you see her delighting in gwen’s misery and watching her PANIC about gwen’s future as the queen was FAR more satisfying than it should have been because i was then delighting in MORGANA’S misery and that is NOT a feeling im comfy with
in fact! im furious! the fact that this gilli kid got a more sympathetic portrayal than morgana ever will makes me SEE RED!!! imagine if the professor x/magneto vibe had been played out with merlin and morgana throughout the entirety of season 3! imagine morgana still had feelings other than ~edgy evulz~ and kept trying to kill uther BECAUSE SHE BELIEVED IT WAS RIGHT but had no quarrel with people like gwen who had always loved her! imagine her being conflicted when there was every chance that gwen would die during the takeover! imagine how her feelings could have become even more complicated when she found out she had living family - a father and brother, one of whom she is plotting to kill! imagine her NOT wanting harm to come to gwen or arthur and trying to persuade them to her side with good yet flawed arguments! imagine uther having to face the fact that the daughter he dotes on is also the thing he hates! people talk about arthur’s conflict if he realizes merlin is magic, but he’s known merlin a lot less time than he’s known morgana and merlin’s not his sister, imagine arthur had to deal with that conflict of interests! we could have HAD IT ALL in season 3 and instead season 3 MOSTLY SUCKS
what if morgana had remembered how fucked up arthur was about learning about the true circumstances of his birth? what if she had persuaded him that uther’s stance against magic was wrong? what if she knew merlin had magic but she hated him so she blackmailed him with it? he could have told her and then spent the ENTIRETY of season 3 shitting himself about it and it would have TOTALLY JUSTIFIED how shifty he got later after gaius taught him how to lie.what if he had SEEN what choosing to hurt other people had wrought in morgana and truly felt remorse and it informed his character for the rest of the show and that’s why he’s always choosing the moral high ground! there were SO MANY possibilities that could have opened up by having morgana be even just a little bit 3-dimensional!!!
which brings me to my next complaint: as good as this episode was, as much as i loved it, as glad as i am to finally understand merlin or at the very least have an interpretation of him i’m happy with, i should not have had to wait ALL SEASON to get there. i know what kind of show this is but they could have slipped some of this stuff in WAY EARLIER so i didn’t have to spent the entirety of season 3 and quite a lot of season 2 thinking merlin was just some spineless fuckup
also i will say it again, gilli was NOT strong enough to have carried this episode. the work on merlin’s character was INCREDIBLE and it was fun enough to see gilli mirror who he was in early season 1 but imagine how much better it could have been if he’d gotten to play off of someone like morgana - gilli’s a one-off character, and he has to tell us about his history and struggles, but morgana’s struggle is something we’ve witnessed firsthand. when she makes her own arguments about how hard it is to be magic under uther’s rule it comes from a place of deep pain that could have and should have resonated with merlin just as deeply as gilli’s.
morgana works MUCH better as a foil to merlin because all the way back in season 1 when they were both angry on gwen’s behalf and both wanted uther to pay for what he’d done so that no more innocent people would die it was MORGANA who chose the magneto route and merlin who decided to go professor x. they had the potential to make something REALLY COOL out of that AND THEY DIDN’T and what makes me so mad about this episode is that the sheer CONCEPT of this was good enough to have carried the entire season and yet they crammed it into a single 45-minute block
here end my thots i guess, in conclusion morgana deserved better
#personal#merlin blogging#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#despite my very big problems with how this was executed#i did love it quite a bit#very good timing that just last night i was complaining about merlin the character#that i didn't see enough meat to him#and then today i am given THIS#watching merlin live must have been like torture#but i've finally got my angle to him#maybe it's not the correct one or the one most people would prefer#but it's the one i like & can get behind#that speech at the end...#his very own mini-2.08 moment#i don't expect any character consistency or anything i don't expect it to hold#but still.#liz makes stuff
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
(merlin spoilers thru s3 in this post)
ok but actually the thing is not that i dislike merlin. i feel sympathy for him & his position and i’m so mad on his behalf that he doesn’t get to share who he is with other people. but like for the same reasons previously outlined re: why i have a problem with gaius (not that i dislike him but...come on), merlin, who is emulating gaius, also sometimes trips me up in those same ways
lies a lot and i mean a LOT. some of this is understandable and actually very tragic because lying is the only way to not die but jesus christ dude. this was slow coming because in season 1 he confessed to sorcery to save gwen’s life but in season 2 he wouldn’t confide in morgana even tho she was like him and needed his help
willing to do evil for the sake of the greater good. this was slow coming too bc in season 1 he let the druid kid walk despite being told it would come back to bite him but later in season 2 when he was told morgana would fuck him up he went out of his way to do her harm (why is it always morgana he changes for...jesus)
and neither of these are semi-harmless flaws like arthur being a bossy jerk or whatever, that’s like...yikes, dude
personal morals ????? his morals are “protect arthur” and “don’t tell anyone about my magic” and “don’t let the people closest to me and/or arthur come to harm” - that’s not bad, necessarily, but there’s not as much overt kindness or excitement in him as there used to be, he doesn’t take a strong anti-uther or even pro-magic stance despite being a magic user himself - he’s justifiably concerned with his own (and arthur’s) safety, but to me it comes across almost as a lack of conviction and in the very worst moments (when he chooses not to confide in morgana when it would cost him so little and do so much good) as outright cowardice
like, ok, all the fucking times he’s saved uther’s life - UTHER, who is responsible for the death of the dragon lords, the near-extinction of magic users in general, the banishment (and subsequent death) of merlin’s own father (which basically costs merlin a normal childhood that can never be gotten back) - we never really see him struggle with being tempted to let uther die, even though they said IN CANON that merlin’s life would be easier and safer. and on that matter WHY does he keep saving uther’s life?? for arthur? just because? how is it he can bring himself to poison morgana but he can’t let uther come to even a little harm? like i get it in 2.08 he didn’t want arthur to have that on his shoulders but what about the other times? why not just let arthur become the king he’s supposed to be, one who’s hopefully less horrible??
he just doesn’t...stick up for himself, like in season 1 when i dislike arthur for constantly bullying merlin i also was a little :/ at merlin for never showing not even one ounce of self-respect - now he looks after his own ass but it’s still not...you know?? four episodes in he was ready to die for arthur who had done nothing but give him grief thus far. and i like 1.04 a lot but...come on
also, we almost never get to see merlin be a badass. gwaine and lancelot and arthur get these cool swordfighting scenes, morgana gets magic and trickery, but merlin’s magic is usually done on the sly, which doesn’t really fit his air-for-brains personality. i know there’s a badass IN there, and they keep telling us his magic is strong, but we never get to SEE it be strong because he’s always HIDING it, so like :/
i just don’t think we see enough of his inner struggle...his life is horribly lonely and unsafe because of camelot’s monarchy and he still devotes himself entirely to protecting them when uther would have him executed without so much as a batted eyelash. WHY does he do that!!!!!
in conclusion i do like & sympathize with merlin quite a bit (i know this list makes it sound like i don’t) but i don’t think i can love him unless he gets around to showing some spine one of these days and it’s really!!! frustrating me!!!!!
#personal#merlin blogging#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#sorry this is so long merlin the character isn't quite clicking with me and even after all this i'm still not sure i put my finger on Why#but it's driving me nuts#i like when he does that thing where he gets all knowing and even arthur's like damn thats deep or wise or whatever#it indicates Depth#i want to see more of it#he has so much on his shoulders!!! show us how tired he is once in awhile!!!!!#granted this show has a few problems with emotional consistency across the board and no character is exempt#i could write an essay on how terrible it was to have arthur back to hijinks immediately after 2.08#but merlin is...the title character...#maybe he just needs to give other people more shit#he gives gwaine shit CONSTANTLY it's a good time#this is gonna sound weird but i just don't always feel the weight of his experiences the way i can with arthur and gwen and morgana#i do sometimes...but not often enough i don't think#i am told he gets better later so im waiting it out...im waiting it out#liz makes stuff
4 notes
·
View notes
Photo
BBC Merlin | 2.08 Sins of the Father vs. 2.11 The Witch’s Quickening
#personal#merlin blogging#bbc merlin#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#kinda#i can't make gifs so i'm making netflix screencaps.#a guide on how to go completely unhinged on your genocidal dad by arthur and morgana xx#i'm going FERAL#can i get a HELL YEAH#liz makes stuff
230 notes
·
View notes
Text
also i love the way that both morgana and arthur fucking SNAPPED when they figured out really for real what a bad person uther is. like you see it a little in 2.08 with merlin, he’s horrified to learn that uther’s a hypocrite, but merlin doesn’t SNAP. both arthur and morgana became COMPLETELY UNHINGED and i support them SO MUCH
#personal#merlin blogging#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#i really wish arthur could have stayed unhinged longer than the best 9 minutes of my life#but like...worm#there's something really. good. satisfying#about the fact that the knowing itself is what drives them to almost literal insanity#like to really understand what uther is and what he's done and will continue to do and to also have that person be your father#and half of your own fucking dna#it's such a huge thing to comprehend. like knowing the size of the universe#those videos where they like show you the earth and then jupiter and then the sun and the galaxy and zoom out and out and out#until earth is nothing anymore and you're dizzy under the sheer enormity#and that same stuff is running through your veins#i think it literally just...broke him for 9 whole minutes there#literally his brain just snapped#liz makes stuff
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
also i have about 600 feelings about the issue of “merlin if you really loved and trusted arthur and thought he loved and trusted you in return you’d tell him you had magic” vs “merlin if you breathe a single word about your magic to anyone at all you will be executed on the spot”
LIKE how horrible it is for merlin that he can’t trust ANYONE even people who seem SO safe because even if they would have his back the more people who know the more dangerous it is for him and knowing puts them in danger too
PLUS the fact that when arthur is doing his daddy’s dirty work he gets so cold and scary and turns off his empathy and he’s willing to let people he truly feels don’t deserve to die die anyway and he ISN’T someone merlin can trust ever because he’ll always be beholden to what his father wants before all things
and like who wouldnt feel hurt and angry about being lied to about something that big but lying is the ONLY THING merlin can do even though he HATES IT and he wants to trust arthur but he CANT and aksdsldkfjghlsdkfjghsldfjg
#personal#merlin blogging#liz's meta#liz's merlin stuff#all the arthur finds out fics are like...it all turns out ok in the end!#granted ive only read a few bc im trying not to spoil myself too badly but#no! it wouldnt be okay! arthur is dangerous! he's indoctrinated!#i identify very strongly with the closeted hick magician yes i do#like. ok#i have this...extremely vivid memory#of my high school english teacher who was just the sweetest old lady#who had given me a discount in her husbands computer shop who'd helped me with extra credit who stopped the other kids from bullying me#she used to talk about religion a lot in class (illegal i know but she did)#and on the subject of whether or not dr. frankenstein goes to heaven or hell her answer was#a very sweet and satisfied smile as she said he'd go to hell#i can't describe in words how thoroughly this normally kind woman's eyes just went dead#and that's like. the MOMENT i realized i would never ever be able to trust anyone in this town no matter how kind they were#not to turn on me if they knew i was queer#also cemented my atheist status for life lol#but like that ugly feeling of paranoia...ouch ouch ouch oh babey thats some good shit#i dont know how it happens yet and ill kill anyone who tells me but like just IMAGINE#that arthur could one day take a good long look at himself through merlin's eyes and see that he looks like a monster and that even then#merlin doesn't leave him#LIIIKE COME ON#liz makes stuff
15 notes
·
View notes