More on Merlin

[hils]

Evie! I didn't know she was in it! I mean she only lasted one episode but it made me happy. Especially the scene with her and Tony. Wonder if we can get Tony on Torchwood. Maybe in an episode with James ;)

I think what bugged me mostly was the messing up of the ages of everyone. Now, correct me if I'm wrong (it's been several years since I studied Arthurian Legends at uni) but wasn't Merlin an old man when he met Arthur as a boy? And what's with Guinevere (call me Gwen) being Morgana's maidservant?

It's all a bit silly, but not as silly as Robin Hood.

It's very slashy at least and that goes a long was in its favour. LOL!

Comments

[silvercobwebs.livejournal.com]

I recently finished reading 'The Once and Future King', and my knowledge on Malory et al is limited to say the least, but yes - Merlin is an old man when he meets Arthur (and in O&FC, he ages backwards and has a backwards memory *g*). Arthur is a sweet, kind, dull child who's brought up by Sir Ector, has never met Uther Pendragon, and Sir Kay is the ass. And there's more, but I forbear...
So basically? The TV show's canon is all wrong (Merlin/Gwen? Noooo!). But damn it's really kinda pretty. / shallow

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

Merlin had been the one in most legends who engineered the birth of Arthur and his fostering with Kay as well as his education.

Morgana as Uther's ward rather than step-daughter and Arthur's half-sister? What was with that 20th century gown she was wearing? Falling afoul of the BBC's lack of being able to spend money on costumes or spending it all on 'The Tudors'.

Gwen being a maid servant (of mixed race??) of Morgana's rather than a Welsh princess and making eyes at Merlin. Hello Lancelot!

Plus, what's with all the telekinesis on the part of Harry Potter Merlin?

It was less pants than I expected and liked the story of the visiting witch. That felt very much in the spirit of Arthurian legend. I just wish they hadn't messed with the basics so much.

[hils.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much my opinion

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

It was pants. As expected.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Pants in a pretty way though

[cheerful-earl.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what show this is (except apparently it's called Merlin) but I think I need to watch it. UST between Arthur and Merlin? That's bizarre enough to catch my interest.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hehe! It just aired on the BBC last night so I'm sure it'll be available for download by now

[notsowise-sage.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, they haven't set out to remake the authorian legend - it's more like Arthurian legend inspired characters, with borrowed names.

It's not meant to be historically accurate (which is good because it would be so far out of it's time to be unbelievable), it's not mythologically accurate (again time, but also relationships, the pendragon history etc, is all wrong), and it's not meant to be accurate to the romantic/French incarnations of the Arthurian tale - partly because they're largely a pile of wank (especially the French bullshit).

If you take it as a random story that borrows from Arthurian legend - it fucking rocks :D. It's silly, cheesey, fun, action packed, clever (in many ways), and well fun.

I set myself out the task of not dissecting this program - because the BBC said this was how it was going to be. I appreciate that. We've had one film in recent times (with Clive Owen as Arthur), which claimed to be the "truth", but was in fact factually a pile of horse shit (but a bloody good film, once I'd reconciled my disgust at the "truth" statement), and The Last Legion (with Colin Firth as Aurelius), which again made serious perversions of fact and fiction (though it didn't claim truth - as far as I recall, so got plus points for that and for the period (though not the weaponry and armour that would be 300 years out of date).

I like Merlin because it doesn't pretend to be based on any of the types of Arthurian story (the early legends, the romantic/french, or the more recent fetish for attempted ivory tower versions), it's not ripping off other films such as Excalibur (which so many do badly - yet Excelibur is brilliant for knowing what it's set on). Merlin just is.

I can't wait to see what they do with Morgana - she's listed as a Hero, so I'm guessing they won't have her become a villain for a couple of seasons - but hot sexy female villains, are well, hot! :D

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Yeah, I think I can suspend my disbelief enough to carry on watching it. Mostly for Merlin/Arthur though ;)

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Heee - I liked it. Completely devoid of Arthurian facts, but it's a legend anyway so who cares??

It was better than Robin Hood which I couldn't stand and didn't get past one episode.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, definitely better than Robin Hood

[blisstasteful.livejournal.com]

I thought it was absolutely ludicrous, and yet I loved it! I'll happily forgive the slaughter of legends I love in exchange for Arthur/Merlin.

I ship them so hard already!

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hee!! Me too!

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

If I'm lucky it will never show up here and I won't have to consider watching it :-)
But I do have some beef with this new trend. Series loosely based on the Tudor dynasty, series loosely based on Arthurian legend, all that is fine, but why call them Tudor and Merlin? Taking inspiration like that happens all the time (in a way the whole Stargate series is an alternative take on mythology). But one would let them stand on their own and leave it to those interested to see the parallells.
For me, that's such a cheesy marketing plot that it takes away my interest at once. Hey, wanna watch a show about Merlin and Arthur - except it's not about them, we just call them that to make more people watch.
If the writing and acting is good, it should not be necessary to name it after something it has very little to do with. And of course a lot of people who haven't read this stuff will start to think its accurate, no matter what the producer put in small print.
Ok, rant over for this morning...

[hils.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is my one concern, that people will think this is a true version of the legend

But then there was that awful film with Clive Owen too so I guess there's no escaping it really

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

One can escape by refusing to watch stuff where people don't have enough imagination to find names for their original characters ;-)
I didn't see the movie either. Lots of eye-candy of course, but when I heard producer cited that the most important thing about the fight scenes was showing Keeras stomach, that was it for me.