Merlin 2x10 & Colin and Bradley's Road Trip

[such_heights]

Hello, all! I've still got exchange fic to finish, but I am more or less back nonetheless. And there is new canon to talk about, so. Spoilers ahead!

Well, that happened. From an objective standpoint, I enjoyed the Shakespearian farce of it all, Georgia Moffett continues to be delightful, and I did like the eventual resolution between Arthur and Gwen.

More personally, though? ARGH I COULD BARELY WATCH IT. Gwen! D: I hate that sort of crossed wires plot anyway, and I couldn't stand it playing out at Gwen's expense. And all Gwen's done this season, aside from being Merlin's awesome detective partner and having a couple of scenes with Morgana, is be a love interest. Which, :( Oh Gwen. I love you far more than the show ever will.

And if it's tough out there for a Gwen fan, it's even worse for a Morgana fan, or a Gwen/Morgana shipper, or an OT4 shipper. All of which I am. This season's trajectory makes me immeasurably sad, basically, especially given that so much of it is down to bad writing/the writers not giving a damn about two of their main characters.

eta: oh god, I almost forgot - wtf was with letting Vivienne stay enchanted? And played for laughs? NOT COOL. It was all 'let's punish the woman for her misdemeanours and it was fail./eta

*sigh* I miss my show. Also, I am full of trepidation for the next three episodes. Someone hold me! (Please please please don't kill Morgause, please please please don't make Morgana evil for no reason. Eep.)

And then I watched Bradley and Colin roadtripping around Wales and being adorable, and I felt better. Ahahaha, it was so great. Colin is a nerd and super organised! Bradley -- not so much! The fic writes itself, and I can't wait to read it.

Comments

[giandujakiss]

Yeah, I hated that they left her enchanted, too. That was really awful, and I hated that it was played as funny.

[such_heights]

Seriously. On the upside, fandom came to the rescue!

[gorgeousnerd]

This season's trajectory makes me immeasurably sad, basically, especially given that so much of it is down to bad writing/the writers not giving a damn about two of their main characters.

That's what's been bothering me about this season as well. I mean, there's a lot of interesting and fun they could do -- and that they set up in season one, even -- but the writers ignore most of the good they have and recycle stories. I enjoyed this episode despite everything that was squick-worthy, probably because I just love Gwen that much, but I'm really tired of being frustrated with this season.

(I heard a rumor that the reason Katie hasn't been around much was because she was filming something else during Merlin's production, and that she'll be around more in the next season. I hope that's true.)

[such_heights]

(Ooh, I don't know if she was filming the Queen series at the same time - I like that thought!)

Yeah - I loved getting to see Gwen more in this, but, well. Stop squandering your potential, show!

[sol_se]

I agree about Vivienne. That really squicked me out that she was left like that.

[such_heights]

Very much so, ew. I'm just going to read this fic a few more times until it blocks out the end of the actual episode.

[kel_reiley]

wtf was with letting Vivienne stay enchanted? And played for laughs? - yeah, i mean even if she was a horrible bitch before, that wasn't cool (i couldn't place the actress while watching, but NOW i know who she is! she did a fab job, even though the plot annoyed me)

And then I watched Bradley and Colin roadtripping around Wales and being adorable - what what? where is this?

[such_heights]

I know, Georgia Moffett was so different in this! It was the voice more than anything that made me believe it was the same person.

And if you haven't caught it yet, there was a one-off show called The Real Merlin and Arthur about Bradley and Colin wandering around Wales for a few days. It's available in the, er, usual places. *g*

[lorannah]

I... I just have so few words to say. There's not been an episode yet that I've loved, although Sins of the Father was very nearly there, and I'm already so frustrated with the theme of love that's been slapped on this series - the main arc is Gwen and Arthur falling in love, then we've had episodes pretty much about Gwen and Lancelot falling in love, Uther falling in love, Merlin falling in love and now Arthur falling in love.

I get that this is supposed to be a teen show but there is a huge range of other issues than love to deal with again and again. And when I look at the episodes I have liked this series (Nightmare Begins if I pretend the ending didn't happen, Witchfinder likewise, and SotF) have been the few not dealing with it. There were even a couple of the love episodes I might have liked with some changes like Lancelot's episode and I did really like Freya, but I'm overwhelmed by the whole theme already.

Which might be why I liked Vivienne so much, bitch or no, she was pretty much expressing my feelings with her 'ewww... love' approach, plus Georgia Moffat is all sorts of adorable. So yes, royally pissed off by them leaving her enchanted - it was bad enough when Shakespeare did that, you'd think they'd notice that people have been complaining about it for hundreds of years.

Gwen was also adorable this episode and Angel Coulby broke my heart a dozen times, but please give her more to do.

As for Morgana, I just have no words anymore, she and Merlin were absolutely tied for my favourites last season and I feel like I've spent most of this series banging my head against the wall. She's either not there at all or she's entirely unrecognisable. Last night, she didn't give a shit that Arthur was in a fight to the death after she spent most of the last series with that as one of her most terrifying nightmares and then she notices that Gwen is upset but doesn't actually seem to care - just a few episodes before Gwen was her greatest concern. I just don't get it.

I wonder if we're supposed to see this as progression for the last few episodes, sort of a build up from her finding out she has magic to the final episodes - but you know they really need to show us that progression, not just make her randomly ooc and presume we'll work it out. Plus, she found out she had magic and then that plots just been dropped until they need it again - I'd have been much more interested in seeing her development with magic. Grrr.... Grrr.... Grrr...

God knows what they'll do in the final episodes, but yes please with the not killing off Morgause. And generally, less randomly killing people would be great because on all these 'family' Saturday afternoon shows death seems to have gotten incredibly cheap. Shall we show how dangerous a monster is? Yep, lets just kill a few people. What shall we do with the villain/side character/ person we can't be bothered to deal with again? Let's just kill them. There are never even any consequences anymore. Which breaks my heart. I don't get that homosexuality is still this great taboo, whilst endless deaths that are treated as normal and unimportant is just fine.

*le sigh*

[lorannah]

Forgot to add that Colin and Bradley's road trip also made me incredibly squeeful - I love Wales and was particularly pleased to see Carmarthen mentioned, as my family come from that area, so I'm very down with thinking Merlin came from there. And it was awesome to see them at Caerleon, my brother lived there for a while and I adored the ampitheatre - it's inspired some of my nano. :D :D :D

I still love the cast so much, I'm just not so confident in the writers anymore.

[such_heights]

I completely agree with all of this. Alas. Why, show, why?

On the upside, I now seriously want to do that Welsh roadtrip myself! :D

[verasteine]

You and me both, babe. I was watching it and it was just going downhill, and my sister and I both went, huh? when Arthur/Gwen was treated as if this was always the way things were going... It was watching a trainwreck and I didn't like it at all.

Also, I had the exact same reaction to Vivien staying enchanted, along with the realisation that she was herself for about two scenes in the episodes and was a caricature even then, and I was seriously bored. Not good :(. Everyone just felt really OOC, including Morgana and Gwen, whom I really like, because hey, strong women! Grrr. Next week had better redeem the show.

[such_heights]

I hope so, but I'm scared! And yeah, Morgana's scene with Gwen in this one was just bizarre and completely disregarded all continuity. Ugh.

[copracat]

*hugs*

No, *clings*

[such_heights]

a;lkdjajs *doesn't let go* Please let it be okay!

[ontology]

alkhsgklhg THIS. Show, your ALLERGY TO CONTINUITY is breaking my heart. Seriously. Kids can handle continuity (and moral ambiguity!): see, for example, I don't know, HARRY POTTER. And because of the way the show is presented and the way it plays out and distracts me with funny character moments and suchlike, I often don't realise wholly that something is bothering me until the episode is over and suddenly I think WHAT THE FRAK WAS THAT WHY OMG.

Also, "We can't tell Uther that Arthur and Vivienne are enchanted, because it might start a war" WTF. Okay, maybe, but otherwise this clearly creepy, power-hungry, sneaky, magic-using king is going to keep doing creepy underhanded things and NOBODY WILL CALL HIM OUT ON IT OR STOP HIM, WTF. In a world with continuity, he would try something else and it would probably be more horrible, and who knows what he's doing in his own kingdom? (Fortunately for Camelot, continuity was banned along with magic, so this king will never be heard from again.)

OMG YES TO THE MORGANA SCENE WHAT WAS THAT. So weird and unsettling. Also I am fed up TO HERE with Camelot's stupid code of honour. "Have a problem? Solve it by FIGHTING TO THE DEATH." It is enough to make me think that an army of secret magic-wielding feminists are starting a Resistance to topple the current administration because they are horrified by tradition dragging all of their brothers and fathers and lovers and friends and FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS being pulled into this BEING KILLED OVER ARGUMENTS nonsense OMG TESTOSTERONE WHEN WILL IT END.

I just don't understand how this show can have these beautiful transcendent moments of emotion and rightness and then... turn into something that makes an unsettling lack of sense. And it is making me sad.

Please please please don't kill Morgause, please please please don't make Morgana evil for no reason.

Amen to that. Can we have some good old-fashioned moral ambiguity? There's so much that could be done here, with good thinky plotlines about power and loyalty and decisions and human relations, and I doubt that anything like that will happen. Also, Morgause = win, and I would so love to see a struggle between the ideologies of Uther and Arthur and Morgause in which no-one is completely in the wrong or completely in the right and it is not settled by killing anyone to death. D:

And now I have all of that rant out and can go back to life. I think. D:

(...damn it, now I want to write my Awesome Magical Girls story EVEN MORE.)

[such_heights]

AGREE. Oh, so much agree. WHY YOU DO THIS, SHOW? :(

It is enough to make me think that an army of secret magic-wielding feminists are starting a Resistance to topple the current administration because they are horrified by tradition dragging all of their brothers and fathers and lovers and friends and FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS being pulled into this BEING KILLED OVER ARGUMENTS nonsense OMG TESTOSTERONE WHEN WILL IT END.

FOR SERIOUS. But now I want that fic REALLY BADLY. Also, I am not going to stop pestering you about the Awesome Magical Girls story until it exists for me to read. Just so as you know. :D