Merlin 3x01

[such_heights]

WAIT. HOLD UP. DID SHIT ACTUALLY JUST GET REAL? OMFG. If this is the START of the season, then there might be an ARC and DEVELOPMENT and, okay, now I'm a lot more excited.

MORGANA AND MORGAUSE, HOW ARE YOU SO FABULOUS? *waves Team Evil flag* Oh man, they're so awesome I can't even.

And here's the problem. I was yelling at the screen when Morgause was uncharacteristically stupid and left Merlin to die rather than finishing the job. I'm sorry, I am, I used to love Merlin so much, but his levels of skeevy collaboration are getting too much for me, I can't deal any more. And the show persists in making Arthur look like an idiot, and it's all very frustrating.

On the upside, Gwen and Morgana had some scenes together and even interacted! The downside being that it BROKE. MY. HEART. D: D: D: Giiiirls just get back together already, gah. (And dear rlist, please to be writing me lots of fix-it fic, okay? Okay.)

I'm happy to tune in every week for the Morgana and Morgause Take Over The World show, because hell yes, but dammit, I miss my other shows.

(AND GWEN HAD BETTER GET SOME KICKASS PLOTS LATER IN THE SERIES, OR THERE'LL BE TROUBLE.)

Comments

[mara-202.livejournal.com]

MORGANA AND MORGAUSE ARE SO AWESOME.

I'm sorry, I am, I used to love Merlin so much, but his levels of skeevy collaboration are getting too much for me, I can't deal any more. And the show persists in making Arthur look like an idiot, and it's all very frustrating.
I've decided just to ignore stuff like that and just focus on the pretty, haha. (And kickass!evil!Morgana. She's made of win.) I do really want Arthur to find out about Merlin's magic, though. It's getting ridiculous. It's just like this one (hilarious) ficlet at the Magic Reveal Meme (which I can't find...) where Merlin keeps doing really obvious magic, and Arthur keeps going "Gee, that was one very lucky earthquake!' even when Merlin actually tries to tell him he has magic, haha.

YES to the Morgana and Morgause Take Over the World show!

[mara-202.livejournal.com]

Ah, found it (http://thisissirius.livejournal.com/482675.html?thread=7083123#t7083123)!

[such_heights]

Focusing on the pretty is a totally legit response! And hahaha, thanks for the link, that sounds like a fic I need to read. :D

[mara-202.livejournal.com]

Your icon! ♥ I have the wallpaper version on my laptop. So funny, people keep going 'Awww, that's so cute! Who are they?' when they see it.

[such_heights]

I love it so! Also, omg sorry if that comment reached your inbox like three times, apparently my internet is being a little special.

[miarrow]

I need icons from this episode, so much touching, so much pretty.

I actually was all, "Seriously, Morgause? You just proved you were smarter than that and now you're leaving Merlin for a James Bond type death?" But factoring in that she doesn't know about his magic (and even if she did, pretty good restraints) that was a pretty personal and very good death type trap. She really wanted him to suffer. I was kind of worried for our boy there.

ARC AND DEVELOPMENT, I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Things like this were too much to hope for. Like Morgana KNOWING Merlin was there, I never thought that would happen, because the show does shit like that all the time.

[such_heights]

SO pretty omg. And Morgana looked so fabulous the whole time, eeee.

Yeah, and especially considering that Merlin only got out of it by being a freaking Dragonlord I figure it doesn't make Morgause look like too much of an idiot, but still.

I'm pretty intrigued to see where things are going to go from here!

[tavella]

I'm sorry, I am, I used to love Merlin so much, but his levels of skeevy collaboration are getting too much for me, I can't deal any more.

Yeah, I just... I've never seen a show that actually sides with the murderers so much. I love the fantasy and the swords and horses, and Merlin and Arthur are great when they are on the own, but then they have Merlin killing people to save mass-murderer Uther, and seem to expect us to be cheering him on. And I just go *buh*.

[such_heights]

Right, exactly. And I know it's all for Arthur's sake, but I really don't think Merlin's doing Arthur any favours at this point.

[shaggydogstail]

MORGANA KICKED ASS AND MORGAUSE KEPT CALLING HER "SISTER" AND OMG OMG *FLAILS* I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!

Can they kidnap Gwen next pls? Team Ladiez* needs her.

_{*Because I am not convinced our girls really deserve to be called evil, whatever Pious Gius or the Slash Dragon of the Patriarchy say}.

[such_heights]

I KNOW OMG. Why is this show called 'Merlin' again?

Slash Dragon of the Patriarchy

*sporfle* A+ would lol again.

[builtofsorrow]

I choose to believe that Arthur totally knows, but he acts stupid and mocks Merlin for you know, not fighting when he has neither training nor a sword (-sniggers-) so that the other knights don't catch on, because seriously. How can anyone be that stupid??

More importantly, MORGANA AND MORGAUSE AND GWEN hearts in my EYES.

[such_heights]

I KNOW. I'm a big fan of the Arthur Secretly Knows theory, because it would be awesome.

[fizzyblogic]

YES, THIS, ALL OF THIS. I was thinking "What? As if she'd just leave him there to die rather than killing him right there!", but it was so there was a loophole for him to escape. It'd be a pretty short season otherwise, I guess.

(The title of the show should totally be changed to Morgana & Morgause.)

[such_heights]

Hahaha, yeah, I *guess* they can't kill Merlin in the first episode. Though if it were to make way for the Morgana and Morgause show, I would maybe be okay with that! (Sorry Merlin.)

[copracat]

Oh Morgana, your awesomeness makes my day. I want her and Morgause to win. Is that wrong?

[such_heights]

If that's wrong, I don't want to be right!

[gorgeousnerd]

I WAS TOO BUSY SLASHING MORGANA/MORGAUSE TO SEE ANYTHING IN THIS EPISODE OMG. NOW GWEN JUST NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED AND I'LL BE HAPPY.

But yes, even though SHIT APPEARS TO BE GETTING REAL, there are certain levels of ridiculous that the show insists of maintaining. The supposedly cutesy interactions between Merlin and Arthur? Sheesh.

[such_heights]

PRETTY MUCH. Make it happen, show!

[ontology]

DAMMIT. I just really want the show where Merlin FRAKKING TOLD MORGANA ABOUT HIS MAGIC and she wasn't all alone and forsaken by the people who should have helped her and Gwen and Merlin and Morgana plot stuff together and try to figure out how to convince Arthur that his father is kind of not okay BECAUSE HELLO. This episode totally reinforced that a) Uther is a really bad person, b) who killed children because he thought they had magic. CHILDREN. HE DROWNED THEM. And yet the persecuted people who want to kick him off the throne are the bad guys? I DON'T EVEN. Also WOW MORGANA IS UPSET THAT MERLIN TRIED TO POISON HER WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED. NO WONDER SHE DIDN'T SEEM TO MIND HIM GETTING KILLED. GOOD GOD.

...I just really want the awesome show that is lurking underneath this one to happen. :( (And I am having to try really hard to keep my Awesome Magical Girls story I haven't done much work on be, you know, the good version of this. BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL KNOW. :P)

Also if the finale involves Morgana and Morgause and Gwen persuading Merlin that there is no good reason for him and Arthur not to be on their side and depose Uther, I will bake the entire writing team THREE CAKES.

(uh, thank you for letting me vent my emotions on your journal. >.>)

[lefaym]

...I just really want the awesome show that is lurking underneath this one to happen.

YES. That's EXACTLY the right way of putting it.

[aoftheis]

...I just really want the awesome show that is lurking underneath this one to happen.
OH GOD YES. I feel like we got glimpses of that show at the end of season one, and that was why I fell in love with it! And then ever since it's just been ... well, I don't even know. /o\

Jo, watching Merlin makes me feel like my childhood dreams and memories of happy YA fantasy are being ruined, sometimes. *cries*

[tavella]

...I just really want the awesome show that is lurking underneath this one to happen.

I'd even be satisfied if they acknowledged the show they were actually writing. Where the sins of the older generation destroy the younger, where Arthur ensures that Mordred will justly seek revenge, by blindly following his father's orders and killing the innocent. Where Gaius' poisonous words lead to Merlin following him down the fatal path of collaboration and lies. Where they turn Morgana from a potential powerful ally to a deadly enemy with lies and drugs.

Instead we get "Yay! Merlin has wisely learned one should slaughter small children! Aw, isn't Uther such a woobie? Don't you feel so sorry for him, isn't Morgana so evil for giving him visions of the children he murdered? Yay, Arthur has been once again enmeshed in lies and kept killing the innocent for his father! Let's have a smug little Gaius moment to emphasize how great and necessary this is!"

[aoftheis]

*jumps in*

YES! The show gets progressively darker each season, and I keep hoping that they will actually go here, and problematise the behaviour of Uther and Gaius, in particular. But it seems like the writers don't actually want to recognise that it's problematic: for them, it's like Bad Stuff That Good Guys Did In The Past, Which Made Morgana Evil, Oops. And then there's this issue of Good vs. Evil not defined by any sort of actions or choices, but by dint of some sort of divine right of destiny, which is basically privilege. WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING THE CHILDREN, SHOW, GODDAMMIT.

[such_heights]

THIS, ALL OF IT OMG. Vent away!

[lefaym]

Yeah, I'm totally rooting for Team Evil too -- but I was disappointed with the lack of subtlety with which they were portrayed. I want to see more of the very real ethical reasons that they have for opposing Uther's regime.

I have some plans for Gwen/Moragana fic... but it probably won't be fix-it-ish.

[such_heights]

I want to see more of the very real ethical reasons that they have for opposing Uther's regime.

Yes, absolutely - very occasionally the show knows that things are kind of morally complicated, but mostly it seems to forget.

[aoftheis]

Morgana and Morgause are RIDICULOUSLY FUCKING HOT together. I'm not so fond of the "evil smiles when no one's looking," but I can't say I'm unfond of Morgana skulking around the castle at all hours and Morgause wearing armour and the constant smouldering looks between the two of them, so, um. ;)

But oh, Gwen and Morgana! D: D: D: My heart, it is completely and utterly broken.

Somehow, I don't think the writers' team wants us to be rooting entirely for Team Evil and hoping that Gaius dies. And yet that is what seems to be happening here. *cue rant about all of the consent and gender issues in Merlin*

[such_heights]

Hahaha, pretty much! STOP HAVING SO MUCH CHEMISTRY, SISTERS. By which I mean, don't. *g*

I would enjoy that rant! Because argh, this show is so frustrating even though it has so many things that I love too.

[eumelkeks]

What really bothered me was the perspective. We know that Uther is rather flexible when it comes to morals and justice. He killed Gwen's father and numerous other innocent people. We know that Gaius isn't above deception, either. He's very much okay with Morgana losing her mind. Let's just not tell her that she's magic, a woman cannot deal, Merlin! And now Merlin topped all this hypocrisy by poisoning Morgana instead of confiding in her. I'm pretty sure that Morgana would have sacrificed herself if she had know what was at stake. Ugh.

Yet, and here is where the perspective comes in, we're supposed to see Morgana and Morgause as evil. And now they're doing evil things! Killing people for no reason, too. I just don't get it. Why would we get all this build-up about Uther being a really horrible king who, frankly, deserves to die, only to get EVILSMIRK!Morgana who's beyond principles and justice. Why? Why is she suddenly okay with these things? Because she subscribed to Evil Monthly? I just don't understand.

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

I'M NOT LOOKING, I'M NOT LOOKING BUT I DIDN'T KNOW MERLIN SEASON 3 HAD STARTED, OH DEAR GOD!

Dude when does it show on BBC America... grrr, I'm trying to NOT be a dirty downloader!

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

I have a theory over at my journal re Morgause leaving Merlin to die instead of just killing him....I think it's another one of her deliberate and elaborate gambits, not uncharacteristically stupid but clever and in character. We'll see...