fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2405 ]

[ SECRET POST #2405 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2405 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 099 secrets from Secret Submission Post #344.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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04. http://oi39.tinypic.com/2llzj1h.jpg

Because Thomas Mallory said he was, that is why.

I... can certainly see that position.

You can also make the argument that a interregnum/prolonged civil war would have -- overall -- caused more pain and suffering, for everyone.

As for why he's the hero, though, that's easy -- it's his show. They wrote it about him. You want to ask why other people don't have a problem with him being the hero.

Maybe he's not the hero, just the protagonist.

This.

The show has no hero. There's no overarching evil to fight the way there is in LOTR or Harry Potter. It's a show about two young people trying to sort out their shit and very often mucking that up. Yes, there are battles to fight throughout the series and they're more or less won, but at heart, it's a show about living life and making do with the crap that the universe sends your way.

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(Anonymous) - 2013-08-03 21:20 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2013-08-03 21:51 (UTC) - Expand

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wldcatsprstr_14 - 2013-08-03 21:55 (UTC) - Expand

It's too bad the writers didn't pull that off intentionally.

I think the show suffered from weak plots when it came to Merlin not discussing his magic. If he hadn't held so much back from Arthur, Arthur would have made a better king and have fought for magic users. The writers just liked their angst and Merlin suffered for it.

Pretty much, yea. I did like the final episode (I'm realize I'm one of the few, lol) but it was fucking ridiculous how long they held Merlin's secret. It would've been great if the series showed Arthur's reaction and then explored how he changed as a person, ruler, and friend.

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elaminator - 2013-08-04 00:19 (UTC) - Expand

This secret makes me nervous because I'm about to try this show and I didn't exactly have high hopes for it to begin with.

It's okay. It gets dark in the end but what show doesn't? Just enjoy it for the silliness and go for the ride.

My opinion?

It's a good show. The early seasons are better than the later ones, and if you look too deeply you'll see the flaws that the fandom has often pointed out. Nevertheless, it is great entertainment that has both fun and serious moments, interesting characters, and a story that hooks you in.

Go for it. And if you start lagging, just search out the cast video diaries from the first couple of series, I promise that'll work a treat. Maybe just watch them anyway.

The cast chemistry is excellent. The first season is campy fun. The rest, well..

Low expectations are good! You might end up enjoying it as long as you know it keeps getting worse.

[Picture is Merlin, from the TV show of the same name. He is a young man with pale olive skin and short dark hair. He is wearing dark orange-red clothes and holding a sword, letting it rest against a shoulder. He is inside a castle and looking down to the floor, somber.]

I marathoned this entire show over the last two weeks. I walked away thinking he was a traitor to his people who spent a decade protecting an oppressive regime and being slavishly devoted to two below-average kings.

He was the hero, why exactly?

I like him but I got the same thing.

I'm not a Morgana fan (because of how she was written after her conversion to the dark side as a cackling, idiotic, ineffectual caricature) but it's weird how her POV should technically be the more modernly sympathetic POV but she's the villain and Merlin, who spent his time aiding a despot (Uther), a well-meaning but ultimately ineffectual king (because Arthur changed, like, nothing regarding the genocide of druids), was the hero. Weird.

I get that they wanted to make Merlin conflicted and all that, which they did (sometimes to good effect), but when you got to the end, you were kind of like, "Yeah but...Arthur ruled for like seven seconds and did nothing and Merlin was the guy who facilitated it? Why's it called Merlin?"

Technically, Gwen did all the great Camelot, Kingdom of Awesome, shit so it's even weirder because it's like the series revolves around Merlin and how he interferes, gets Arthur killed with his interference, and in a round-about way establishes Kingdom of Awesome because he kind of managed to get Arthur out of the way for Gwen to rock it.

No offense, Merlin fans. Your show is fun and I do like the characters. It was really sad when Arthur died.

Exactly. Neither Arthur nor Merlin felt like heroes by the end. All that "great destiny" the dragon kept going on about never actually came to fruition.

I didn't feel anything when Arthur died. And I'd loved him in the first couple seasons.

how he interferes, gets Arthur killed with his interference, and in a round-about way establishes Kingdom of Awesome because he kind of managed to get Arthur out of the way for Gwen to rock it.

Yeah. None of the stuff the Dragon said was true, which if they'd MENTIONED THAT and established it, could have been really interesting in the potential, but it was just a hot mess.

Then arthur and merlin where the red herring with gwen as the real hero

This is pretty much how I saw it the end too. It would be left up to Gwen to bring in an era of peace. Which, good for Gwen I guess, but didn't make much sense for everything the show was building up.

Merlin never did anything to help others with magic. It would have made more sense for Merlin to have been the one that died and Arthur would change the rules surrounding magic after learning of everything Merlin did for him.

If they didn't write in Morgana killing innocent people just to prove that she's a 'bad guy now' I would have been rooting for her 100%.

Re: Spoilers

(Anonymous) - 2013-08-04 09:20 (UTC) - Expand

This post made me realize that Gwen was the only character who got anything even CLOSE to a satisfying arc.

merlins oneofthose show where i see canon mostly as a jumping off point for fic

Which there is a lot of good ones

The writers really didnt know how tolet a gimmick go tho. I coulda wrote 5 ways merlins magic was revealed for pretty much every ep

"Merlin" had this really disturbing theme in which any magic-user who opposed the oppressive regime they lived under was automatically characterized as an evil psychopath, whilst Merlin was one of the "good guys" for ... er ... debasing himself for ten years as a mistreated servant who got absolutely nothing out of it?

All the "good" druids were pacifists who were presumably twiddling their thumbs in the forest just waiting for the prophesied Emrys to save them from being a persecuted minority (bad call - he never did) and the ones who actually got tired of waiting and tried to DO something about their situation fell into the "psychopath" category, even though the likes of Ruadan and Kara (KARAAAA!) actually had damn good reasons to fight Arthur's regime and were doing a lot more for their people than Merlin ever did.

Urgh, I hated these writers for their gross morality. They tried to cover in the end by having Merlin re-define his destiny not as bringing magic back to the land but as being nothing but Arthur's servant who was happy to serve the man who forced him to deny his abilities and live in secret for fear of being executed. Personally I'd rather die like Kara than live like Merlin. At least she had some fucking dignity.

because the show wasn't that well-written

Yeah it's a really godawful show. Poorly written, morally screwed up, and generally bad.

And I say this as a massive fangirl. :P

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