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Belated Reaction Post for Merlin 5x01
OK, I was going to be all objective and shit about this episode but, well, fuck that! I am going to be honest about this episode, warts and farts and slash and all.
If you are an Arwen shipper, you’ll probably want to skip this post!
First,there is a damn good reason people ship Arthur & Merlin and this episode is chock full of moments that illustrate why:
-Arthur is truly himself with Merlin and Merlin only. Thus his gripey face and less-than-regal grousing at Merlin in the beginning of the episode. ”Merlin, is there anything e you’re actually capable of doing?”-“Putting up with you!” He lets Merlin see him as he is, not who he pretends to be. Notice that as soon as Gwen shows up, he puts his mask back on and acts the perfect gentleman. He won’t be himself in front of anyone but Merlin.
-Arthur acts like a jealous boyfriend over Merlin. When Merlin spends a moment too long speaking to the pretty new maidservant, Arthur gets pissy and yells for Merlin like a baby bawling for its favourite toy!
-When riding out on campaign, Merlin rides beside Arthur instead of his second-in-command. Hmm…if Arthur really had so much contempt for Merlin then his servant wouldn’t be given ascendance over his most loyal knights.
-When Merlin disappears from his sight for a few minutes, Arthur tracks him down. (Note it was Arthur who found him in the cave with the newly dead seer.)
-Merlin sleeps next to Arthur when away from the castle.
-Arthur worries about Merlin’s feelings, even if he teases him about them. In Annis’s castle and then even more pointedly, later on by the pond, Arthur notices Merlin’s brooding and tries to fix it.
-The pond scene! The amount of UST here is insane. Arthur and Merlin’s continued eye-sex is so overt they really might as well just get on with the real thing cuz they aren’t fooling anyone (except maybe themselves). I swear if boning with your eyes was a valid sex act this show would require an NC-17 rating! I have to agree with the reviewer who said that the “gay subtext” in this show isn’t really subtext and that it’s “about as subtle as an orgy in an owl sanctuary.” Could the producers highlight the Merthur man-love any more? I think not.
Merlin doesn’t actually come right out and declare his undying love for Arthur in so many words but he might as well have here.
- Merlin is so worried about Arthur’s safety that he yells at him like afishwife! Arthur fully accepts it.
-“I swear I will protect you or die at your side.” = “I love you more than anything on earth. I’d gladly die for you and you alone.” ♥ And more eye-sex, yay!
- They go to sleep back to back but wake up with Merlin tucked under Arthur’s arm. So many feels here! Especially for the way Arthur is so soft about muffling Merlin’s mouth. Yeah, ahem. Yeah.
-Arthur’s tactical thinking goes right out the window when it comes to keeping Merlin safe. Instead of stepping back, letting Merlin spring the trap and then freeing him from it, Arthur throws himself on Merlin to try and save him! His brain seems to fall out his arse when Merlin is threatened. He totally loses his cool!
This brings me back to S4E2 when instead of using the torch he’s holding to fight off the dorocha heading for Merlin, he tosses the torch aside and throws himself on top of Merlin thereby leaving them both at the things’ mercy. Really, he’s so overprotective of Merlin that he’s hamstrung by the feeling.
-Boys are so cute sleeping smooshed together in the rope-trap.
-Arthur’s last request is for the bad-guys to let Merlin go. Merlin of course counters with the you’ll-have-to-kill-me-to-get-to-him declaration! ♥
(I did tell the Arwen shippers to stay away!)
Now, for the rest of my thoughts and feelings about this episode:
• I like the opening scenes of this epi, they echo the opening run Merlin does in S4 but with an ominous overtone that's a strangely endearing, obvious and clumsy foreshadowing of the tone of the coming series.
• Snowy landscapes and the people who live in the snow all dress in black…shameless rip-off of GoT, but I love it anyway :D
• Can they please, please at least give Perceval some sleeves in the snow ? Come on, yes, the man has lovely arms but you were planning on showing them off later on anyway. There is no way a sane man left home for the frozen North without packing something with SLEEVES!!
• Did anyone else notice that they finally put Gaius in the opening credits?
• I for one am quite fond of Morgana’s wolf-sled (yes, yes, even if she does look like she just rode in from Narnia) remember, it is a valid way of getting around in the snow…and wolf-dogs are cool. I have noticed though that for all her power, Morgana can’t seem to summon up a mirror and comb…
• Liam Cunningham! I wonder if he can’t help making the comparisons too…still, here he is as a bad-ass sorcerer…who doesn’t use magic. What’s up with that? According to Sefa he is a great sorcerer but we sure don't see it in action in this episode! (Also, I am assuming from his tattoo that he is yet another Druid gone bad.)
• A to M-“If it was you who’d disappeared I wouldn't bother.” *cough* Bullshit! *cough* We've seen Arthur try to run off pell-mell by himself into a mercenary riddled forest to look for Merlin when he disappeared. (Not to mention that he was prepared to abandon a quest to save all of Camelot in order to save just Merlin. When told he couldn't, he looked like he couldn't decide whether to shit or go blind!)
• Shamelessly shirtless!knights :D
• Creepy half-dead Druid in a cave mentions “the never-ending circle” of Arthur’s fate. While that definitely indicates reincarnation to me, it indicates it with a shitty codicil. Arthur is going to be stalked and killed by Mordred in every lifetime? Or is he just fated to die too soon every time he comes around? However, he also gives hope that this fate can be changed by Emrys so…yeah, classically ambiguous.
• Kilgharrah is here, yay! It’s nice that he’s there to confirm Merlin’s destined role as Arthur’s primary protector.
• I love Queen Annis but why she assumes Merlin is Arthur’s “Fool” is beyond me. Upon first meeting, Arthur clearly stated that Merlin was his servant and while he called him a “simple-minded fool” he didn’t say that Merlin was any sort of Jester. Also, why is she assuming that Merlin has so many failings? While I love what Merlin does in response to her request for entertainment (and I love that Colin really learned to juggle for this scene!), doesn’t it seem odd that Queen Annis would have so much information, however incorrect, about one of Arthur’s servants? I don’t know, that just struck me as very odd…unless Arthur runs his mouth about Merlin to his neighbor…and wouldn't that be telling?
• Sefa’s dad is a thoroughly ruthless bastard. If they dare make him grieve over his daughter’s death later on, I will be pissed cuz here, he is heartlessly throwing her down a deadly path without hesitation or so much as a pat on the head for her efforts. Echoes of Uther anyone? Similar parenting style…
• Someone want to tell me when Gwen became so pompous that she could no longer walk three steps to her own desk to gather her papers for a council meeting?
• Arthur sees Morgana and screams like a girl. WTF? ”Run!” Run??? Arthur??? I was hearing Monty Python’s King Arthur here, “Run away!” (and inevitably Sir Robin’s minstrels). This is not Merlin’s Arthur, sorry, this is just such a jarringly OOC thing for him to do. The enemy approaches and the warrior-king wants to leg it?
Also, why the hell aren’t Morgana and Ruadan using magic in the battle? Morgana just sits on her horse watching and Ruadan (who, according to his daughter, is a great sorcerer) just goes in fighting with his sword like any other man? Um…yeah, logic fail here!
• Merlin saves Arthur’s life, no surprise. Arthur’s dense reaction to it, not really surprising but infuriating. How many times does Merlin have to save his life for him to stop being incredulous about it?
Also, Merlin incants a spell while he is literally inches away from Arthur and the idiot still fails to notice the magic? How they hell am I supposed to swallow that without thinking Arthur is criminally stupid? Or alternatively, so willfully blind it’s insane?
I do love Merlin’s deep irritation with Arthur here though. Gritting his words out from between his tightly clenched teeth and mocking Arthur for failing to note his “many talents”.
• Percival & Gwaine sleeping side by side, shirtless on cold rock. OK, if I’m Gwaine? Homoerotic feels or not, I am using the large man-pillow next to me to get off that cold, hard rock!! Somehow I think the big softie would allow it. Perceval’s pin-up pose is just hilarious too. Hot but hilarious!
• Merlin & Arthur’s bickering on the way to Ismere! “Threatening a King is treason, Merlin.’ “How about threatening an ass!”
• Morgana searching for Arthur (and Merlin) and declaring she didn’t care how long it took to find them made me think: Didn’t Leon & Elyan make it back to Camelot awfully quickly? I mean, if they managed to get home so fast then why was the initial patrol out wandering in the snow for weeks? If it took a search party another few weeks to give up looking for Gwaine’s patrol then why were Elyan & Leon so sure that Arthur & Merlin had disappeared? Um…E&L seemed to give up that search pretty quick. Morgana’s still out looking when they’ve already given up and made it home!
• Queen Guinevere sentencing the serving girl to death! Yeah, I actually liked Gwen here. She girded her ovaries and did what needed to be done. She was clear-eyed, steely and unflinching and even her own brother was surprised. I liked it.
• Hysterical scene with A& M caught in the trap. All pressed together and wriggling :P~ Arthur drops the sword and Merlin cries, “That was your fault, that was your fault!” XD Arthur’s high-pitched squeals of frustration as he flails against the trap…love!
• FUCKING ALIENS IN MOTHER-FUCKING CAMELOT!! This was seven shades of wrong, here! I was torn between WTF?? and laughing my ass off! I have settled down some but I still keep muttering and shaking my head over it. The CGI was laughable too. Who did this scene? I mean, yes, I’m glad Gwaine was saved but really? Really?
• Mordred!! Yeah, I was excited to see the lil fucker. Alex V is a good fit, looks wise. He also got the creepy, soulless smile-with-empty-eyes thing Asa did down pat .
So, I was left with three major feels after this episode 1) FUCKING ALIENS IN CAMELOT!!! 2)Arthur is so in love with Merlin even though he's married (and well, we all know how Merlin feels, the sweet sappy, hopelessly gay-for-his-king man that he is) and 3)I got a bit of respect back for Gwen! Yay, Gwen! You sentence those traitorous teens to death!!
A few farts in church in this episode but overall, I really liked it :D
If you are an Arwen shipper, you’ll probably want to skip this post!
First,there is a damn good reason people ship Arthur & Merlin and this episode is chock full of moments that illustrate why:
-Arthur is truly himself with Merlin and Merlin only. Thus his gripey face and less-than-regal grousing at Merlin in the beginning of the episode. ”Merlin, is there anything e you’re actually capable of doing?”-“Putting up with you!” He lets Merlin see him as he is, not who he pretends to be. Notice that as soon as Gwen shows up, he puts his mask back on and acts the perfect gentleman. He won’t be himself in front of anyone but Merlin.
-Arthur acts like a jealous boyfriend over Merlin. When Merlin spends a moment too long speaking to the pretty new maidservant, Arthur gets pissy and yells for Merlin like a baby bawling for its favourite toy!
-When riding out on campaign, Merlin rides beside Arthur instead of his second-in-command. Hmm…if Arthur really had so much contempt for Merlin then his servant wouldn’t be given ascendance over his most loyal knights.
-When Merlin disappears from his sight for a few minutes, Arthur tracks him down. (Note it was Arthur who found him in the cave with the newly dead seer.)
-Merlin sleeps next to Arthur when away from the castle.
-Arthur worries about Merlin’s feelings, even if he teases him about them. In Annis’s castle and then even more pointedly, later on by the pond, Arthur notices Merlin’s brooding and tries to fix it.
-The pond scene! The amount of UST here is insane. Arthur and Merlin’s continued eye-sex is so overt they really might as well just get on with the real thing cuz they aren’t fooling anyone (except maybe themselves). I swear if boning with your eyes was a valid sex act this show would require an NC-17 rating! I have to agree with the reviewer who said that the “gay subtext” in this show isn’t really subtext and that it’s “about as subtle as an orgy in an owl sanctuary.” Could the producers highlight the Merthur man-love any more? I think not.
Merlin doesn’t actually come right out and declare his undying love for Arthur in so many words but he might as well have here.
- Merlin is so worried about Arthur’s safety that he yells at him like a
-“I swear I will protect you or die at your side.” = “I love you more than anything on earth. I’d gladly die for you and you alone.” ♥ And more eye-sex, yay!
- They go to sleep back to back but wake up with Merlin tucked under Arthur’s arm. So many feels here! Especially for the way Arthur is so soft about muffling Merlin’s mouth. Yeah, ahem. Yeah.
-Arthur’s tactical thinking goes right out the window when it comes to keeping Merlin safe. Instead of stepping back, letting Merlin spring the trap and then freeing him from it, Arthur throws himself on Merlin to try and save him! His brain seems to fall out his arse when Merlin is threatened. He totally loses his cool!
This brings me back to S4E2 when instead of using the torch he’s holding to fight off the dorocha heading for Merlin, he tosses the torch aside and throws himself on top of Merlin thereby leaving them both at the things’ mercy. Really, he’s so overprotective of Merlin that he’s hamstrung by the feeling.
-Boys are so cute sleeping smooshed together in the rope-trap.
-Arthur’s last request is for the bad-guys to let Merlin go. Merlin of course counters with the you’ll-have-to-kill-me-to-get-to-him declaration! ♥
(I did tell the Arwen shippers to stay away!)
Now, for the rest of my thoughts and feelings about this episode:
• I like the opening scenes of this epi, they echo the opening run Merlin does in S4 but with an ominous overtone that's a strangely endearing, obvious and clumsy foreshadowing of the tone of the coming series.
• Snowy landscapes and the people who live in the snow all dress in black…shameless rip-off of GoT, but I love it anyway :D
• Can they please, please at least give Perceval some sleeves in the snow ? Come on, yes, the man has lovely arms but you were planning on showing them off later on anyway. There is no way a sane man left home for the frozen North without packing something with SLEEVES!!
• Did anyone else notice that they finally put Gaius in the opening credits?
• I for one am quite fond of Morgana’s wolf-sled (yes, yes, even if she does look like she just rode in from Narnia) remember, it is a valid way of getting around in the snow…and wolf-dogs are cool. I have noticed though that for all her power, Morgana can’t seem to summon up a mirror and comb…
• Liam Cunningham! I wonder if he can’t help making the comparisons too…still, here he is as a bad-ass sorcerer…who doesn’t use magic. What’s up with that? According to Sefa he is a great sorcerer but we sure don't see it in action in this episode! (Also, I am assuming from his tattoo that he is yet another Druid gone bad.)
• A to M-“If it was you who’d disappeared I wouldn't bother.” *cough* Bullshit! *cough* We've seen Arthur try to run off pell-mell by himself into a mercenary riddled forest to look for Merlin when he disappeared. (Not to mention that he was prepared to abandon a quest to save all of Camelot in order to save just Merlin. When told he couldn't, he looked like he couldn't decide whether to shit or go blind!)
• Shamelessly shirtless!knights :D
• Creepy half-dead Druid in a cave mentions “the never-ending circle” of Arthur’s fate. While that definitely indicates reincarnation to me, it indicates it with a shitty codicil. Arthur is going to be stalked and killed by Mordred in every lifetime? Or is he just fated to die too soon every time he comes around? However, he also gives hope that this fate can be changed by Emrys so…yeah, classically ambiguous.
• Kilgharrah is here, yay! It’s nice that he’s there to confirm Merlin’s destined role as Arthur’s primary protector.
• I love Queen Annis but why she assumes Merlin is Arthur’s “Fool” is beyond me. Upon first meeting, Arthur clearly stated that Merlin was his servant and while he called him a “simple-minded fool” he didn’t say that Merlin was any sort of Jester. Also, why is she assuming that Merlin has so many failings? While I love what Merlin does in response to her request for entertainment (and I love that Colin really learned to juggle for this scene!), doesn’t it seem odd that Queen Annis would have so much information, however incorrect, about one of Arthur’s servants? I don’t know, that just struck me as very odd…unless Arthur runs his mouth about Merlin to his neighbor…and wouldn't that be telling?
• Sefa’s dad is a thoroughly ruthless bastard. If they dare make him grieve over his daughter’s death later on, I will be pissed cuz here, he is heartlessly throwing her down a deadly path without hesitation or so much as a pat on the head for her efforts. Echoes of Uther anyone? Similar parenting style…
• Someone want to tell me when Gwen became so pompous that she could no longer walk three steps to her own desk to gather her papers for a council meeting?
• Arthur sees Morgana and screams like a girl. WTF? ”Run!” Run??? Arthur??? I was hearing Monty Python’s King Arthur here, “Run away!” (and inevitably Sir Robin’s minstrels). This is not Merlin’s Arthur, sorry, this is just such a jarringly OOC thing for him to do. The enemy approaches and the warrior-king wants to leg it?
Also, why the hell aren’t Morgana and Ruadan using magic in the battle? Morgana just sits on her horse watching and Ruadan (who, according to his daughter, is a great sorcerer) just goes in fighting with his sword like any other man? Um…yeah, logic fail here!
• Merlin saves Arthur’s life, no surprise. Arthur’s dense reaction to it, not really surprising but infuriating. How many times does Merlin have to save his life for him to stop being incredulous about it?
Also, Merlin incants a spell while he is literally inches away from Arthur and the idiot still fails to notice the magic? How they hell am I supposed to swallow that without thinking Arthur is criminally stupid? Or alternatively, so willfully blind it’s insane?
I do love Merlin’s deep irritation with Arthur here though. Gritting his words out from between his tightly clenched teeth and mocking Arthur for failing to note his “many talents”.
• Percival & Gwaine sleeping side by side, shirtless on cold rock. OK, if I’m Gwaine? Homoerotic feels or not, I am using the large man-pillow next to me to get off that cold, hard rock!! Somehow I think the big softie would allow it. Perceval’s pin-up pose is just hilarious too. Hot but hilarious!
• Merlin & Arthur’s bickering on the way to Ismere! “Threatening a King is treason, Merlin.’ “How about threatening an ass!”
• Morgana searching for Arthur (and Merlin) and declaring she didn’t care how long it took to find them made me think: Didn’t Leon & Elyan make it back to Camelot awfully quickly? I mean, if they managed to get home so fast then why was the initial patrol out wandering in the snow for weeks? If it took a search party another few weeks to give up looking for Gwaine’s patrol then why were Elyan & Leon so sure that Arthur & Merlin had disappeared? Um…E&L seemed to give up that search pretty quick. Morgana’s still out looking when they’ve already given up and made it home!
• Queen Guinevere sentencing the serving girl to death! Yeah, I actually liked Gwen here. She girded her ovaries and did what needed to be done. She was clear-eyed, steely and unflinching and even her own brother was surprised. I liked it.
• Hysterical scene with A& M caught in the trap. All pressed together and wriggling :P~ Arthur drops the sword and Merlin cries, “That was your fault, that was your fault!” XD Arthur’s high-pitched squeals of frustration as he flails against the trap…love!
• FUCKING ALIENS IN MOTHER-FUCKING CAMELOT!! This was seven shades of wrong, here! I was torn between WTF?? and laughing my ass off! I have settled down some but I still keep muttering and shaking my head over it. The CGI was laughable too. Who did this scene? I mean, yes, I’m glad Gwaine was saved but really? Really?
• Mordred!! Yeah, I was excited to see the lil fucker. Alex V is a good fit, looks wise. He also got the creepy, soulless smile-with-empty-eyes thing Asa did down pat .
So, I was left with three major feels after this episode 1) FUCKING ALIENS IN CAMELOT!!! 2)Arthur is so in love with Merlin even though he's married (and well, we all know how Merlin feels, the sweet sappy, hopelessly gay-for-his-king man that he is) and 3)I got a bit of respect back for Gwen! Yay, Gwen! You sentence those traitorous teens to death!!
A few farts in church in this episode but overall, I really liked it :D
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Yeah, I couldn't believe Gwen in that moment. I was like...um...has she forgotten where she came from or what? However, she did do well later on by not being an oblivious tart and instead putting 1+1 together to make 2. When I first saw Sefa sneaking out of the castle, I too thought we were going to have an Agravain season. I was rolling my eyes and mentally yelling at the screen, "Oh come on guys! Can we have a little mystery? Do you have to reveal who the traitor is going to be in the first damn episode again?" So like you, I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
You are not the first person to mention Dr Who in regards to the aliens...
Thanks for the feedback, beb!
no subject