#Thirteen year old me was lowkey a MERTHUR supporter

[beercan1145]

Ok so, I’m rewatching Merlin and this show is...IDEK. For context, I watched the show during its ORIGINAL RUN which ended when I was thirteen. I missed a LOT of messages. So seeing it eight years later is already a trip and seeing it RIGHT NOW? Like, it’s...I just. There’s SO much going on. The way magic is outlawed and those who practice it are members of an oppressed class that is hunted and killed for something they were born with and can’t change. I mean, it’s just rife with symbolism and allegory that would require an extensive semiotic analysis to unpack (maybe several) and I think I lack both the will and intellect. But also it’s weird because the members of the oppressed class are constantly villainized for fighting back, and by like the third season it feels ridiculous that Merlin keeps trying to stop everyone from killing the tyrannical ruler and I can’t help but wonder why, when it’s like: at this point, Arthur was ready to take the throne and every day that Uther sits on it is another day that magicians are in danger. I liked “The Sorcerer’s Shadow” where his complicity in the continued oppression of his people was explored because he was confronted by this magician who calls him out, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. And, sure they give him this emotional conflict like once every few episodes, but it just rings hollow at a certain point. Like, let Uther die. Yes, Arthur will be sad for a while but is avoiding that worth people’s LIVES?

Also can we talk about how in The Coming of Arthur Part 1, Arthur holds a sword up to a Druid boys throat unprovoked and refuses to let him go until he has the cup of life and no one says he went too far? Merlin should’ve called that out more. Even though he tried to tell Arthur to chill in the moment, he says nothing when Arthur won’t listen. And everyone is just still going on about how great of a man he is and how he’ll make a great king. I think the fuck not. Also Morgana was shown to really care about the plight of magicians early on, and have a strong sense of justice, but they didn’t really give her that nuanced of a portrayal by the end. (I feel like I would need another post to talk about how they skipped steps in her descent to villainy in terms of characterization) The FIRST thing she should have done when she became Queen at the end of season 3 was unban magic. Like imagine if they had actually allowed her to be good for Camelot in some ways, complicating the ideas of this power struggle instead of her representing doom and gloom and showing that a magician couldn’t handle sitting on the throne, because they’d be driven mad with power and the hopes for revenge and domination or whatever. But I guess that wouldn’t have necessarily been satisfying because Arthur/Uther would have probably vetoed the shit out of that once they were back in power, and the idea that she could be good for magic didn’t fit the narrative of the show, even though that didn’t make sense. WAIT, AS I’M TYPING THIS I’M EXPERIENCING AN EPIPHANY. They (inadvertently, im guessing, but who knows?) were sending the message that having a supposed “ally” of an oppressed class in power would be more advantageous than actually having a member of that group in power. Like why the fuck was it prophesied that fucking ARTHUR (I’ll take daddy’s blunt instrument for $400) would be better for magic than Uther’s other heir who actually HAD magic? The fuck, why can’t the minorities represent their own interests?

Which brings me to the point that Morgana’s demonization could also relate to her being a woman, another difference between her and Arthur. From what I remember we have never seen a queen in her own right ruling on the show... honestly I’m not even sure we’ve actually seen a queen by marriage. (I mean, I know we get there EVENTUALLY, with ONE character, but what the heck) When I think about it, powerful women are often demonized on the show, which I know men are also their “enemies” sometimes, but when so much of the main cast is made of powerful men, many of whom we’re supposed to root for, even in indirect ways when they’re shown to be wrong (like Uther, we’re supposed to hope Merlin can save him every time because that’s our hero’s goal at the time) it’s like... there’s an imbalance. Come to think of it, I can’t think of a female magician who wasn’t villified/killed on the show... It was unclear to me whether Freya had any magic or was just cursed, but even if she was an example, she got killed... by ARTHUR, SHIT, I forgot that he struck the mortal blow. And Merlin harbored no resentment over that (I’M GONNA HAVE TO MAKE ANOTHER POST ABOUT THE SERVANTS’ LOYALTY AND HOW THEYRE SHOWN TO LOVE THEIR OPPRESSIVE RULERS) I have so much more to say but I don’t want this post to go on forever, so yeah that’s just some thoughts on Merlin (I’m on 3x13 as of this post)