In which I have feelings
Dec. 29th, 2012 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kylezyRight. So.
The Merlin finale.
I'm never going to forgive them for killing Arthur. I don't like that they went that way and I won't ever like it. It might have been one thing to have seen a golden age first. It might have been another to have been given some hope at the end, a ripple in the water when old Merlin walks past, even.
But what I was left with at the end (personally, I know other people feel different, and being told that he'll return ~someday is what I've been holding onto), was just extreme, extreme bitterness. Merlin fails. Some of it could even be argued as to being his fault in the first place. He went through ten years of heartbreak, of lies and secrecy, of death. For what? I L-O-V-E Arthur, but three-ish years of sorta peace do not a greatest-king-ever make. And then Merlin is left to wander the world alone for 1500+ years? Fuuuuck that. That's beautiful and tragic in its own right, but I wasn't watching for that show. Here's the thing about me - I don't watch movies about disasters or terminal illness because I hate being sad, I hate it, I'm sad enough in my real life, entertainment needs to be an escape for me. And this was the last thing I expected from a ridiculous, terribly written - albeit fun - family program.
Maybe that's my fault. You know what they say about assumptions. But have we not had that drilled into us from day one - Arthur will be the greatest King, Arthur will unite the lands, DESTINY DESTINY FATE GREATEST KINGDOM EVAHHH? And if the dragon was not, in fact, referring to this time around, then what was the point of ever warning Merlin about Mordred? Or Morgana?
I don't understand.
And I realise the folly of trying to make sense out of a show that cared about common sense and plot continuity about as much as I cared for Gaius.
But I'm just thoroughly, thoroughly heartbroken.
The positive just boils down to Colin Morgan and Bradley James, really, now doesn't it? I don't think they were perfect all the way through, and the fucking positions they had to lay in (not to mention Bradley being forced to stay in that armor) didn't help things. But the magic reveal scene was possibly the best acting I've seen them do together in the whole series? The way Merlin could barely get the words out. The way Arthur looks horrified and SICK at the realisation he has no idea who this person in front of him is, after all, but he can't go anywhere and he can't hit anything or scream, so he just has to look away and try to hold in his emotions, AHHHH. And then the slow build of him realising that, actually, he does know him - it's the same Merlin, the same one he's loved for a long time - he's just done a lot more for Arthur than Arthur ever realised.
And now I have to stop talking or I will cry again.
For the fourth day running.
Fiiiics:
Hold My Heart Until It Beats
Old Love, But In Shapes That Renew And Renew Forever
Let Your Heart Hold Fast
Forever Ago
The Merlin finale.
I'm never going to forgive them for killing Arthur. I don't like that they went that way and I won't ever like it. It might have been one thing to have seen a golden age first. It might have been another to have been given some hope at the end, a ripple in the water when old Merlin walks past, even.
But what I was left with at the end (personally, I know other people feel different, and being told that he'll return ~someday is what I've been holding onto), was just extreme, extreme bitterness. Merlin fails. Some of it could even be argued as to being his fault in the first place. He went through ten years of heartbreak, of lies and secrecy, of death. For what? I L-O-V-E Arthur, but three-ish years of sorta peace do not a greatest-king-ever make. And then Merlin is left to wander the world alone for 1500+ years? Fuuuuck that. That's beautiful and tragic in its own right, but I wasn't watching for that show. Here's the thing about me - I don't watch movies about disasters or terminal illness because I hate being sad, I hate it, I'm sad enough in my real life, entertainment needs to be an escape for me. And this was the last thing I expected from a ridiculous, terribly written - albeit fun - family program.
Maybe that's my fault. You know what they say about assumptions. But have we not had that drilled into us from day one - Arthur will be the greatest King, Arthur will unite the lands, DESTINY DESTINY FATE GREATEST KINGDOM EVAHHH? And if the dragon was not, in fact, referring to this time around, then what was the point of ever warning Merlin about Mordred? Or Morgana?
I don't understand.
And I realise the folly of trying to make sense out of a show that cared about common sense and plot continuity about as much as I cared for Gaius.
But I'm just thoroughly, thoroughly heartbroken.
The positive just boils down to Colin Morgan and Bradley James, really, now doesn't it? I don't think they were perfect all the way through, and the fucking positions they had to lay in (not to mention Bradley being forced to stay in that armor) didn't help things. But the magic reveal scene was possibly the best acting I've seen them do together in the whole series? The way Merlin could barely get the words out. The way Arthur looks horrified and SICK at the realisation he has no idea who this person in front of him is, after all, but he can't go anywhere and he can't hit anything or scream, so he just has to look away and try to hold in his emotions, AHHHH. And then the slow build of him realising that, actually, he does know him - it's the same Merlin, the same one he's loved for a long time - he's just done a lot more for Arthur than Arthur ever realised.
And now I have to stop talking or I will cry again.
For the fourth day running.
Fiiiics:
Hold My Heart Until It Beats
Old Love, But In Shapes That Renew And Renew Forever
Let Your Heart Hold Fast
Forever Ago
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-30 11:08 pm (UTC)I feel like a bad fan because I'd fallen largely out of the loop. But a lot of that was because my view of Merlin is still stuck in Season 1 (when we had hopes, when we dreamed of happier things).
I'd given up hoping that this time things would work out, that this was an exercise in re-writing myth, rather than just retelling it. But. It still sucked. I don't know. It's just another hollow little pit in my stomach. (I'm catching up on all my finales and everything is just a little bit raw.)
And I definitely agree with you and the poster below, what the fuck was this 3 years of prosperity bullshit. They totally shafted Arthur. They didn't even do him the courtesy of giving him a good 10 years of prosperity and being the greatest King ever. That's shit by all legendary standards. Lenin held the Soviet Union together, and made it work, for longer than Arthur was King. Three years of good leadership and prosperity do not a legendary king make. Come on. *generally pouts and feels vaguely dissatisfied*