#this is a morgana ep i guess

[diver5ion]

I spent the night in the dungeon.

[lonesomedotmp3]

and i don't care what you've heard, 'cause there's one six letter word...

[amulet-or-not]

see my thing about wizards is the time travel stuff. as in what type of time travel it actually is. merlin keeps going on about changes to the timeline and all that stuff, but I reckon it's actually a closed loop tbh. as in, by being in the past, douxie, claire and jim (and I guess steve too despite being used as nothing but comic relief) are making history happen as it has always happened. as in, fate is unchangeable and destiny will happen whether they like it or not.

bc morgana lost her arm in the ep I just watched, and I swear she said something in a trollhunters episode about merlin using her arm to make the amulet. so that was always going to happen anyway.

and archie also said to douxie that if he keeps doing all these spells on his past self then he's going to end up losing his memory - and present day douxie clearly has no memory of any of this, hence why the actions they're taking now are not changing the future, but only causing what was going to happen anyway.

idk I just get the feeling that all of these events that are happening are all part of the fate of the future that has already happened anyway

[charity-angel]

So, this is mostly because I need to vent about something, but...

This time on Ahsoka:

- never thought Huyang would end up as my favourite. I love his bitching about them not doing as they were told. Ahsoka is getting it in the montrals ALL THE WAY to Ezra. She'll never hear the last of it. And neither will Sabine, when they rescue her. And him with Jacen - that is going to be an epic relationship when the kid starts training. (Huyang as the new Yoda - grandmaster to all, all the sass, less of the outright lunacy.)

- ANAKIN! okay, yeah, so technically he appeared last week, but that was so much fun. Hayden looked like he was having an absolute BALL. And we got to see him playing Clone Wars Anakin, who is far superior to the angst ridden movie version. And, as bonuses -

* bb Ahsoka. Who, very interestingly, was wearing entirely the wrong outfit for it being "one of their first missions". I wonder why that might be? A touch inappropriate for a real-life child to wear? Hmm?

* REX! Rex in armour, and a single line, but I feel it bears saying again. REX!!! (I so wanted him to lift his bucket, and be Daniel Logan under there. Still time I suppose - I reckon Skyguy is going to appear again.)

* Did anyone else look out for familiar armour? Like, as soon as the first clone appeared?

And now, the point I forewarned you about. And anyone who actually pays attention to my rants about appropriate tagging will probably have guessed:

- why does it have to be BLOODY PURGILL??? That's rhetorical - I know why. I realised after the first 2 eps they were going to appear. That was, after months of telling my family I was really looking forward to Ahsoka, and then trying to tell them about her without their eyes glazing over, my brother asked me what I thought (no one else had watched yet), and I realised. Purgill. Blasted purgill in all their tentacley glory.

I just don't watch when they're on screen. I probably miss some things because of that but, just, nope. They were bad enough in Rebels, and I can usually cope with animated.

(Not always. Not a fan of Morgana in Little Mermaid 2, and I noped out of Finding Dory when I saw the poster. Apparently she's sweet, but no. Ursula, otoh, is almost entirely fine, despite the fact she's probably the cause. Octopus baddie, THAT scene, on a big screen at age 4? Yeah, it's probably her. I can never watch Blue Planet. Can't even deal with cuttlefish. Yeesh.)

And, just so I'm not leaving this on a negative, or my own personal weirdness, I'm pretty sure there are other people in the World Between the Worlds who might want to say hi to Ahsoka (and Ezra). Just sayin'...

[lesbicosmos]

bbc merlin liveblog - s1 ep4: the poisoned chalice

apologies for the inevitable length of this post, this ep is one of my favs

why does like everyone in this show have blue eyes?? merlin, arthur, morgana (ish, katie has heterochromia), nimueh, literally almost everyone has blue eyes

merlin is me whenever and i see a pretty woman, just almost cease functioning

arthur making merlin wear that outfit and that fucking hat is probably one of the funniest parts of the show

"she's pretty isn't she?" gwen see a woman and not immediately call her pretty challenge (she failed)

MORGANA WITH THE PURPLE DRESS AND THE BLUE SLEEVES ABDBRBSHDBS

damn merlin rly seems intent on sacrificing himself for arthur, and this early on aswell

merlin claims the drinks poisoned and arthurs all "oh merlin shut up ur so dumb" but then merlin drinks it and is poisoned and now it's all "ill go get this incredibly rare flower even if it's a suicide mission im not letting merlin die" what do u have to say abt that arthur 🤨

s1 morgana was so sweet i miss her

"you're not leaving this castle tonight." and he took that as a challenge

"sometimes you've got to do what you think is right and damn the consequences" one of my favourite quotes she's so iconic

honestly if morgana told me to do anything id just do it immediately no matter what-

OH MY GOD ITS MAGIC AGAIN WHO WOULDVE GUESSED /S

morgana going against uther from the very beginning i love her

the fact there are multiple instances throughout the show of merlin and arthur saying each others names in their sleep...actual soulmates im telling you

why is there a dinosaur in the forest i know mythical creatures exist in this but that is a whole dinosaur

there was no need for that awesome sword twirl but arthur did it anyway bc he's a dramatic bitch (and we love him for it)

"everyone in this show is so dumb they'll literally do anything if a pretty woman told them to" i say as if i wouldn't do exactly the same thing

arthurs actually deaf how did he not hear nimueh doing magic til she was literally yelling the incantations

that shot of arthur just hanging onto the rocks in the dark shouldn't be as funny as it is

m a g i c o r b o f l i g h t

can arthur hear merlin talking to him through the orb orrrr

attack of the shitty cgi spiders

god this is so gay it's literally a knight in shining armour/damsel in distress plotline

THE SHEER PAIN AND HEARTBREAK ON ARTHUR'S FACE WHEN UTHER CRUSHES THE FLOWER IM GONNA CRY

four episodes in and literally everyone is willing to risk their lives for merlin...so true

yknow we call him dumb so often but arthurs actually so smart when he needs to be

"i need some fresh water" is just gaius speak for "i need you to fuck off so i can do some illegal shit rn"

god gaius's facial expressions are gold 😭😭

"his heart has stopped" as if anyone's gonna believe that this is episode four and he's the titular character 😭

the first thing merlin does after waking up from lethal poison being sassing gaius is so true

the way arthur looks at merlin throughout that last scene, that's such an "im in love with you and im so relieved you're okay" look

the prolonged eye contact i cannot they're so gay

[dreamgirledward]

MERLINNNNNNN for the ask meme

HI ERIN THIS IS SO LATE LMAOOO but ILY

Give me a TV series and I’ll tell you:

Favourite character: hardest to answer. literally how do you choose. merlin. arthur. gwaine. morgana. dont make me choose oh my god

Funniest character: deadass?? queen catrina aka the TROLL. sarah parish how do you have the best comedic timing ever. but also merlin he was bitchy from the get-go and that's what reeled me in tbh

Best-looking character: again. literally impossible. everyone is hot in this show. princess mithian!!! morgana!!! gwen!!! merlin!!! arthur!!! lancelot!!! PRINCESS MITHIAN !!!!!!

3 favourite ships: merthur, merwaine (literally makes me SAD), and merlin and mithian ohhh my god

Least favourite character: I LITERALLY DONT KNOW. maybe agravaine bc he's easy to get sick of LMFAO tho nathaniel parker is so funny in the bloopers it's hard to actually hate him (forgot to add this and had to edit the post 😭)

Least favourite ship: mordred and that girl he was in love with bc it felt forced and also she was kind of annoying LMAOOOOO but alex was slaying that whole ep so i cant even be that mad about it

Reason why I watch it: how the fuck am i supposed to answer this. it's comforting and gut-wrenching all at the same time i guess. ive been obsessed with the arhurian legends since i was a kid too.

Why I started watching it: i honestly have no idea. being chronically online way too young. i saw people talk about it (here) and got curious and the rest was history and now every christmas eve im overcome with immeasurable sadness when i remember what happened dec 24 2012 <3

[crowned-clown-rising]

A young girl watches BBC Merlin for the first time in 2022 and shares her thoughts for your entertainment.

This time season 3

Enjoy watching me lose my sanity I guess.

Season 1 | Season 2

• This show in never going to let me know peace ever again, is it?

• I kind of want to see Merlin snap back at Arthur more, because if he doesn't the servant-master trope becomes a nono for me. Like, if they fuck with each other, it sort of brings them to the same level, but if it's only Arthur treating Merling like shit, well... idk doesn't sit right

• Morgana my baby look at you how much you've grown. Yes honey play them all slayy

• About her reunions... 1) this Morgwen divorce is really feeling like a slap in the face they were sO CLOSE AND :c 2) How was Merlin so gullible lol xd 3) Arthur's... I'm really sad for them. I really feel bad for Arthur when he finds out and ugh tHEY COULD HAVE BEEN GREAT TOGETHER

• Is that Lucifer

• Wasn't Morgana super good with the sword how is Merlin even facing her with it?

• The goblin episode is the best one so far I'm laughing sO MUCH. Morgana thinking that Gaius knows about her secret and that Merlin stole her bracelet and in reality it's just a random goblin messing around and slapping the king's head after making him bald.

• OMG I JUST NOTICED HAHAHA in the throne room there is a shield hanged and said shield is one that belongs to my homeplace, Castilla y León, in Spain. And his fact it's even better when you know that in my hometown there is a pub called Camelot

• Is that the woman from Balto AND the herbalist teacher from Harry Potter

• Morgana using Gwen and putting her at risk to kill Arthur just broke my heart. I cannot- Not them. They were in love, your honor 😭

• Arthur: I have to do this alone. No help.

Merlin: Sorry I couldn't hear you. My ears suddenly fell off. Anyway I'm going to check every tabern in this realm in search for even more unrequested help. Ok I just miss Gwaine.

• Why doesn't Merlin tell Gwaine about his magic. He would keep the secret even just out of spite lol and probably high five the boy.

• This is not fair I already love Gwaine so fucking much 🤡 I really hate it here.

• Gwaine bi king??? How can I not stan.

• I need you guys to tell me the exact episode I need to skip so that Gwaine simply stops appearing in scenes and there is no other reason for it, we'll just say he went explore something.

• Is that the timelord from Doctor who

• Is that Queen Victoria from Doctor who

• I can't help it I'm pretty sad that Arthur not only has no idea of everything Merlin does, but he instead thinks he was doing something completely false and irresponsible and– like going to get drunk the day Gwen is getting burnt at the stake. It's SO SAD BC I WOULD BE SO DISSAPPOINTED AT MERLIN FOR NOT HELPING OUT AND Merlin must feel SO bad for not beeing seen and auhdfjalf

• Listen you don't understand just how much I wish Morgana had left Gwen out of their plots. It doesn't even make sense, she loved her so much and Gwen did nothing to her how could she be so eager to see her dead?? I hate it here. Imagine if Morgana was conflicted bc of Gwen? like, she would pursue her path but would try at least not to hurt Gwen, doesn't that make much more sense??

• Arthur and Gwen don't make my little heart flick as much, but they are pretty cute I have to admit it. And Merlin honestly seems happy that the people he loves are happy together.

• Is that Dudley Dursley

• This ep before the finale make me feel good about Merlin and Arthur. Not as a couple, but in reflection of character development and all. And they are awarded by their choices like yes finally.

• Unrelated but the 4 second scene where Merlin is doing chores for Arthur and Arthur is just there vibing and asking for advise/ranting gives such a homey comfy ambient between them that it's so sweet.

• I'm so grateful for Lance to know about Merlin's powers. Like yes finally an ally and a friend who sees him and can confide in 😭🥺 I just wish Gwaine knew too. That man is everything but a snitch.

• Gwaine con el uniforme de caballero guApooo El barrio entero para tii la reina del martes santoo el niño de nUestroS OjoS!

[weakforarwen]

Lancelot and Guinevere

Unsurprisingly, I have a lot to say about this episode, so I’ll just start with Arthur. 

The episode opens with Gwen and Morgana departing Camelot and Arthur seeing them off. He and Gwen exchange some charged looks, and Arthur watches Gwen leave with heaviness and longing; Gwen glaces back at Arthur with a similar expression. Clearly, they’re pining for each other still. When Arthur realizes something must’ve happened to Gwen and Morgana, he sets off to track them. He finds Morgana alone and immediately inquires: “Where’s Guinevere?”. Morgana’s well-being is not the priority to him, Gwen’s is. In such a short period of time, he’s grown to care for her a lot. Uther naturally couldn’t care less about Gwen, so Arthur is forced to disobey him and search for Gwen himself.

I find that this episode parallels The Dark Tower in many ways. First of all, Arthur won’t rest until he finds Gwen. Merlin was falling asleep on his horse, but Arthur wouldn’t waste a second resting; he needed to find Gwen. He tells Merlin that he doesn’t know what he’ll do if something happens to Gwen, echoing his words in season 5: “I lost Guinevere once before.”. Arthur feels lost without Gwen, this is a recurring theme in the series. Another parallel is that Arthur endangers himself and Merlin by taking a short-cut that could take a day off their journey but also get them killed. In this episode, Arthur and Merlin travel through the Tunnels of Andor which are infested with “giant baby rats”, and in, The Dark Tower, they traverse the Impenetrable Forest. 

The season’s just begun but Arthur’s feelings for Gwen are already very strong. He thinks of her all the time, cares more for her than anyone else, doesn’t know what he’ll do if he loses her. He knows they can’t be together because Uther won’t allow it; that he’s already thinking of marriage surprises even Merlin. But Arthur doesn’t want to ask Gwen to wait for him, and it’s a bit cruel and ironic that she couldn’t even wait the entire episode before finding someone else. Arthur’s feelings for Gwen are not reciprocated with the same intensity yet and that’s okay, I don’t think any less of Gwen. It just sucks for Arthur. It’s sad when he finds Gwen and sees her so attached to Lancelot. It’s also sad that Lancelot leaves and he watches Gwen cry for him. However, the look Arthur gives Gwen when she’s safely returned to Camelot and being embraced by Morgana is one of acceptance and understanding, as well as longing and pain. Arthur gets that they can’t be together and that Gwen’s allowed to like someone else. He’s not a jealous person and that’s one of his best traits. He always treated Lancelot fairly, even when he returned in season 3. This episode’s no exception. 

I find it cute that the episode ends with Arthur smiling at an old couple walking arm in arm. He’s a romantic, but he’s not bitter about Gwen. Arthur’s a very strong and optimistic person, I like that quite a lot about him.

Before delving into the whole Lancelot and Guinevere side of Lancelot and Guinevere, I want to point out how badass Morgan and Gwen are this episode. Morgana cleverly comes up with a plan to escape from the mercenaries and she and Gwen execute it so well: while Morgana distracted her kidnappers with her body, Gwen stole a sword; she then passed it to Morgana who took down a man with an elbow to the face before taking down another with the sword. That was very badass. I also admire how Morgana fought for Gwen; she confronted both Uther and Arthur. Gwen, for her part, was so strong to face off her kidnappers and tell them off like they’re Arthur.

Now, on to the most important bit, I guess. When Gwen first speaks to Lancelot, she’s not that happy to see him - as in, it doesn’t look like she has feelings for him. She’s hesitant to touch him, and when he asks if she thought of him at all, she simply says she never thought she’d see him again. It’s a long way from being a romantic reunion but things escalate as the episode progresses. It’s very typical of Gwen to attach herself to anyone in need of rescuing. When Lancelot is ready to give up his life because he believes there’s nothing worth living for, and because he believes he’s lost himself and his honor, Gwen gives him hope. She tells him he’s everything that’s good in the world. That’s when her feelings for him clearly intensify. She tells Lancelot she didn’t think she could feel that way about anyone, with a somewhat confused look on her face, like she wasn’t expecting to feel that way. Her wording is a bit ambiguous to me. Is she saying she never expected to like someone that much, or does she mean she didn’t know anyone could be as good and noble as Lancelot? I think it’s a bit of both. Seeing Lancelot, someone so good and admirable, doubt himself, revived her past feelings for him. I think the intimacy of that moment, the fact that she thinks she’s going to die, the fact that Lancelot’s her lifeline in that dungeon, created a tense, emotional atmosphere that clouded Gwen’s judgement in some way. It doesn’t make sense for her to feel so strongly about someone she’s met only twice, but it makes more sense if he’s the ideal man, available, willing to die for her, and her only companion and savior. 

When Lancelot attempts to escape with Gwen, I’m reminded of The Castle of Fyrien. Lancelot, like Arthur, tells Gwen to run and not look back. Gwen kisses Lancelot and tells him she’ll never forget what she felt for him. I find that a tad dramatic, but she was probably overwhelmed with gratitude and he was going to die. One of my biggest issues with this episode is that the romance doesn’t feel organic. Things escalate too quickly. I related so hard to Hangist in that regard. He mocked Lancelot’s dramatic last words, something along the lines of him dying happy knowing Gwen’s okay since “She is worth more to me that you will ever understand.”, and tells him “You thought she got away. No. You failed her. And that must hurt you more than I will ever understand.”, lmao. I actually really liked his character. The actor did a great job. 

Lancelot is too one-dimensional. His only traits are being noble of heart and hating himself. There’s nothing else to him. He’ll die for anyone without even trying to save himself first because he thinks dying for a good person will prove he’s noble. It’s not enough to save someone, he needs to die for a great cause in order to prove his worth to himself. I understand he hates himself, but his total lack of pride and self-respect is bizarre. I guess he does have a pride, and that’s why he’s always giving up on opportunities he doesn’t believe he’s earned. But for someone to be so consistent and single-minded is absurd. He’s one of the least tridimensional characters on the show. Even Percival feels realer, and he doesn’t get many lines. Lancelot has three episodes named after him, and a huge, heroic death in the season 4 opener, yet he’s so hollow, just a sketch of a man, the perfect fairytale hero. 

What really bothers me about the episode is the ending (and also hearing Gwen and Arthur’s theme song during Lancelot and Gwen’s kiss). Why would Lancelot leave like that? Was he afraid that Gwen would choose Arthur? Was he afraid that she’d choose him and a great man like Arthur would suffer? Was he afraid of Gwen being caught between two men and wanted to spare her the pain? Was he afraid of Gwen choosing him because of her promise to him, while Arthur was the better man for her? Lancelot doesn’t believe he can or should “compete” with Arthur because he’s not noble like him..Whatever his reasons, him leaving was anticlimactic. It made Lancelot, once again, a boring and unrealistic character. 

The writers are cowards. They wanted to write Lancelot and Gwen’s affair into their story, but also wanted Gwen and Arthur to be the main ship. They didn’t want to make Gwen a cheater, so they made Gwen cheat in Lancelot Du Lac without her actually cheating. Similarly, in this episode, Gwen kisses Lancelot after kissing Arthur but Lancelot leaves before things get messy. The writers want a love triangle, but they don’t want to commit to it. They bring in Lancelot to stir some drama and then bail. It’s very poor writing. It’s unfair to Lancelot and Gwen, who never had a chance to explore their feelings and see what kind of future they could’ve shared, and it’s unfair to Gwen and Arthur because it makes Arthur seem like the second choice, the replacement Lancelot. 

If the writers wanted a love triangle, they should’ve let it resolve itself naturally. For example, Lancelot could’ve stuck around for a few episodes. Gwen could be with him freely and Lancelot had everything she admired in a person, so they could’ve dated. Perhaps it would’ve worked out, perhaps not. After all, Gwen is optimistic and strong, a fighter who cares for Camelot above everything else, while Lancelot is restless, unconfident, noble yet aimless, always one foot out the door. It’s hard to imagine someone so bright, hopeful, and self-assured as Gwen could last long with someone as uncertain of himself as Lancelot before being drawn to someone who shared her world view, such as Arthur. 

Gwen gives both Lancelot and Arthur hope. Her words of encouragement to Lancelot in this episode are similar to her words to Arthur on many occasions. Arthur has plenty of moments of doubt, and Gwen is there to remind him that he has a good heart and should follow it. At the same time, Arthur gives Gwen hope for the future; a future with a good ruler who the people respect. But Lancelot’s gentle and noble character give Gwen hope for humankind as well. 

Both Arthur and Lancelot give Gwen hope, but only Arthur’s hope feeds her own. Gwen believes in Arthur with her whole heart and that belief inspires and gives Arthur strength when he needs it; but Arthur repays her by giving hope to the people of Camelot, which include Gwen. 

For example, in The Coming of Arthur Part 2, Gwen tells Arthur that he gave Gwen, Merlin, Gaius and the Knights hope when they had none, and that, plus knowing Gwen was alive and he could come back to her, gave Arthur confidence that he could fight Morgana and win. 

The hope and strength Gwen gives Arthur are matched by the hope and strength Arthur gives Gwen, for there is nothing Gwen loves more than Camelot. Gwen’s biggest wish is to see Camelot thrive and become a just and fair kingdom, one where the people respect their sovereign. It’s Arthur who will make that happen for her, so Gwen takes it upon herself to make Arthur believe it. There’s a give and take to their dynamic that is absent from her dynamic with Lancelot.

I believe that, had Lancelot stuck around and dated Gwen, her feelings for Arthur could’ve prevailed over her feelings for Lancelot; so Gwen, Lancelot, and Arthur deserved a chance for Gwen to choose who she wanted and to understand her feelings for both men. Arthur deserved to know that Gwen chose him because she wanted to and not because Lancelot left her with no choice (this reasoning is faulty because Gwen could’ve not chosen Arthur at all and because we don’t know if Lancelot and Gwen would’ve lasted in the long-run), and Lancelot also deserved to be with Gwen to see if he could find what he was looking for with her. Moreover, Gwen deserved to choose who she wanted and not have that choice robbed from her. 

Lancelot deserved to be more than a plot device. With the way the love triangle was resolved in both this episode and Lancelot Du Lac, all three characters and both pairings lost out. There was no reason for it to happen like this; it was just poor writing and cowardice on the writers’ parts.

Lastly, about Gwen, I don’t like how she’s often written with Arthur and Lancelot, like she only exists to give them strength. I love Gwen and I believe her role as Arthur’s cheerleader is important, but I also want her to be more than some guy’s love interest. This entire episode she proved how badass and strong she was, but her scenes with Lancelot were all about Lancelot (and later Arthur). 

Another quibble I had was with her reaction to Lancelot leaving. Why did she cry so hard? She’s not the type to openly cry so it felt out of character, like she only cried so Arthur could watch and mope. I know Gwen had her first life and death experience in this episode and spent days with only Lancelot for company. Her entire world narrowed down to Lancelot, so she felt an intense connection with him. Even when they escaped Hangist, Gwen stuck to his side. I get why she’d be emotional about him leaving her - she was disappointed in him and grieved what they could’ve shared. But I wonder if her emotional reaction didn’t stem from guilt? Just like Lancelot’s death, Lancelot leaving was due to her. Lancelot saw that Arthur had feelings for Gwen, and being “noble” like he was, he didn’t want to come between them. Perhaps Gwen felt both abandoned and guilty, but that still doesn’t explain why she burst into tears. Was the stress catching up to her? She rarely cried for so little.

I also don’t understand Gwen’s feelings for Arthur. She did have feelings for him based on the looks she gave him in the beginning of the episode and her anger when Arthur said he only rescued her for Morgana. The way Arthur looked at her then told her plainly he’d done it for her and her alone, so Gwen knew Arthur had lied and was offended by it. Hence, Gwen’s feelings for Arthur didn’t entirely fade with Lancelot’s appearance as much as they were overwhelmed by her feelings for Lancelot and the experience they’d shared; after all, her feelings for Arthur were also the result of a few days spent together and the intimacy of sharing a home. Two episodes later, though, in The Beauty and the Beast Part 2, Gwen’s once again encouraging Arthur to follow his heart and the two share a moment. I imagine that after sleeping it off and processing her trauma, she felt better about her situation with Lancelot, so her feelings for Arthur - the attraction, the subtle connection between them, the greatness she saw in him, the way he always surprised her - gained force again. 

I have a love/hate relationship with the episode. I like the Arthur bits, I like Merlin being a good friend to Arthur and Gwen (he was especially sweet to Arthur and gentle with Gwen), I like Gwen being a badass, I even like Lancelot and Gwen, but I hate how they resolved the love triangle. It was cowardly and dissatisfying to fans of either ship. 

[scottishstoner]

Morgana: so you know who Emrys is?

Old bald Scottish guy with the staff (I’m sorry I forgot his name): indeed I do

*walks over to Merlin, bends down beside him*

Old guy: not only do I know who Emrys is, I know exactly where he is

Morgana: THEN TELL ME

Me:

[forbearnan]

*thinks about the fact that merlin is supposed to be like 17-18 in the first season*

[nextstopparis]

It’s always a little weird to me that Elyan not coming home when his father died was such a big deal because Gwen said that she had no idea where he was for four years and Elyan himself could have been dead so I’m just not sure how he would have known. Like the Merlin writers made it seem like he obviously did know but like who sent word to him and how? How was he keeping track of goings-on in Camelot? Is there a biweekly newsletter he had sent to his house? Was there a headline that week of Local Blacksmith Tom Killed? Then again they made it sound like Elyan had a nomad kind of lifestyle but also started the ep with him referencing his forge implying that he is a blacksmith. So maybe I’m just not supposed to think about it so hard.

WAIT???? YOURE RIGHT??? at first i was thinking that. you know. maybe gwen asks him where he's been in like. a "why have you not been here" sort of way, instead of a "i literally dont know what happened to you in those four years" you know, meaning maybe she just told him of their father, bc i havent watched the ep in a while and i only remembered:

GWEN: Where have you been, Elyan?

ELYAN: Here and there.

but?? thats not it??? because its followed right by this, which i just? completely forgot about??:

GWEN: It's been four years since you left and not so much as a word. You could've been dead for all I knew.

SO SHE REALLY HAD NO IDEA WHERE HE WAS TO SEND HIM A LETTER ABT THEIR DAD?? but then that kind of makes me wonder bc like. bc cenred found elyan with MORGANA'S help??? like -

MORGAUSE: You found him then.

CENRED: It was easy. He was exactly where Morgana said he'd be.

so???? like why did MORGANA know and not gwen??? id have thought that morgana only knew BC of how close she was with gwen but?? ig not??

id say maybe she knew bc like. maybe morgana used her position to sort of ask around... but technically cenred could do that too? so why go through morgana of all ppl? i mean he is king... BUT also. i guess if elyan's forge was in camelot's lands, then cenred couldn't use his position the way she could without risking a war with camelot that he was not yet ready for?? though even this doesn't really hold bc if he was all that concerned, well... he had no trouble sending men in camelot to KIDNAP GWEN AND ELYAN?? which is a big no no bc if even ONE "official" (? idk the word) person is caught in the other kingdom its an act of war so??? (unless he employed bandits, i guess) but then lets say that like. he was concerned for the war enough to not be comfortable snooping/looking for a single person. that sort of also means that morgana couldn't have inquired after elyan using whatever resources she had as Kings Ward (TM), bc this needed to be a hush hush thing, you know. and surely morgana asking the whereabouts of a very specific "commoner" would... er.... get back to someone?? definitely uther??? definitely arthur??? perhaps even gwen, bc of castle gossip and stuff??

which, actually, leads me to wonder why gwen didn't question how cenred knew where to find him?? like she knew for a fact that they targeted her because of her relationship with arthur:

GWEN: What I don't understand is how they knew.

and this, at least, i was expecting to be followed up by how they knew where elyan was and stuff. but then,,, its not...

MERLIN: About? [...] Arthur's feelings for you.

and so it's this that sort of solidifies the fact that it was morgana's fault, for merlin. bc ofc morgana knows about arthur's feelings and ofc she is going to exploit them in a way that will lead to camelots demise and so on. and at first i was thinking well, maybe gwen thinks they just got lucky or something, stumbling in elyans forge bc of a stroke of luck or whatever... but then...

GWEN: He's just one of those people who never settled down, never thinks about the future, just follows his heart wherever it leads him.

ARTHUR: It doesn't sound so bad.

GWEN: It wouldn't be, except he always manages to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

ARTHUR: Well, I don't think it's his fault this time.

GWEN: No.

so then. she knows that he moves around a lot ("wherever his heart leads him"/"never settled down") and that they were basically LOOKING FOR HIM (not his fault he's in the wrong place etc.) so.... like??? idk if it's just me who would be curious how this FOREIGN KING knows the whereabouts of my brother more than me????? like ok. arthurs feelings for her but also. elyan????

at first, part of me was thinking maybe like. morgana just knew where elyan was bc maybe she... you know.. helped him leave and make a life for himself four years ago? like elyan would've obviously needed money on his journey to all these diff. places until settling down with the forge, and maybe morgana provided that for him at first, because obviously her and gwen where very close once, and she seemed fond of tom so. maybe she was just good friends with the family and helped elyan for the first bit of his journey until he got the forge and stuff. which would also answer the question of how he knew about tom, bc maybe morgana sent him a letter, or whatever? unfortunately (fortunately?) bc i dont think there were any headlines or newsletters abt ppls deaths lol.

so like. basically, maybe morgana had been in touch with him up until a certain point. until he was settled with the forge at least/until she went Evil. but like. this theory sort of falls through bc then two things are possible:

either gwen knew about this correspondence, or she didn't. im more inclined to say she didn't know because 1) she would've known where he was if she'd just asked morgana, which i think she wouldve (unless morgana didn't tell her for some reason) and 2) if she knew that MORGANA was the only person who both knew where elyan was, and definitely at least had SOME suspicions about arthur's feelings for her.... she would've figured out morgana's betrayal in 0.2 seconds (i mean. COME ON. she figured it out from a LOOK bc she knows morgana so well. having all this info.. she def would have put it together).

so then it makes me think that gwen wouldn't know. but that STILL doesn't make sense because. morgana and elyan had NO INTERACTIONS. nothing!!! not a passing comment to each other!!! nothing at all!!! there was the s4 finale where she tortured him but... that had no sentimental undertones to it at all. not like arthur's "i thought we were friends" or gwen's "why do you hate me so much" which one might expect if she HAD been close with elyan/had been his help during the time he'd set off on his own, you know? (although, this could just be neglect on the writers part).

not to mention the fact that this conversation happened:

ELYAN: Prince Arthur of Camelot? [...] Why would he want to help you?

GWEN: Why shouldn't he?

ELYAN: 'Cause he's a prince, and you're a servant.

which makes it feel like elyan can't fathom someone from nobility wanting to help them?? which would be weird bc like. morgana's the king's ward, she's a princess, so if she'd been helping him then it feels like he wouldnt be that shocked by arthur helping gwen?? but i guess the situations are different, since arthur's like. risking his life? whereas morgana wouldve just been financially aiding him. also, morgana wouldve been a family friend sort of, less an employer, and so he wouldnt have had the distance with her that he did with arthur, making her help more believable than arthurs???

my best bet is still the last point, w morgana and elyan being friends early on and gwen not knowing about how morgana was helping him, though. but again. there are just too many things that dont add up there either (like. would pres1&s1&2!morgana really do that to gwen behind her back?).... omg i--

I KEEP DOING THIS I MAKE LONG ASS POSTS JUST TO SAY I DONT KNOW HBHJJHKJ IM SO SORRY ANON,,,, MAYBE SOMEONE ELSE HAS A BETTER THEORY???

[mursduckproblems]

Drake being Magica’s son would be very funny if he meets Morgana lol

Yes, totally! Though if we're going by DWD91 rules for magic, magic requires a lot of study and practice, (in Hot Spells they equate it to science, you have to do calculations and preparation and lots of research. Morgana even is doing a presentation based on a bunch of research she did in that ep), so it's not like Drake would be great at magic or anything.

I think with being Magica's lost son, it's a situation more similar to the comics (she and Scrooge have more of a rivalry and are on better terms than in DT17 where it's a life-revenge-pledge thing). I also think it would be a situation where she never meant to lose him, but in Scrooge defeating her and sealing her in the dime, of course she lost all her riches, and her egg, safely alone at home, would be taken away. Having already lost Poe by the time she has him, losing the egg would be the final straw as well, and she gives up on family because they're always taken away from her.

So of course Drake would grow up and have no knowledge of the fact that his mother is a sorceress and his father is the richest duck in the world -- in a way they're not really his parents anyway because he never considers them to be his parents. Which is probably for the better, because I think Magica lost a bit of her sanity and became consumed by revenge with all that time spent trapped in the dime. (As we see that she is Not Great to Lena at all, and Lena goes and gets her own family with the Sabrewings anyway.) However, being a lost Magica and Scrooge kid would explain his affinity for slinking through the shadows, using smoke bombs and theatrics, his long winded speeches, building a grand secret lair, and working under the cover of night! And we know Darkwing also has an affinity for getting mixed up in magical mishaps. I don’t see why a modern Drake would be any different.

I would LOVE TO SEE A NEW MORGANA THOUGH. If she's a duck I guess she'd be green since we have this magical-ducks-are-green thing going in DT17, but she could also be a raven or an Ibis bird, definitely some sort of bird closely linked to magic. I do like the idea if she's not green of her being red, dark grey, or black.

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck: Just Us Justice Ducks

This is it. 7 reviews, 10 episodes, 2 teams,  7 brave heroes, 13 villians but only 5 of which are relevant here. All leading to this. One big final review of one of the most loved, most important and most awesome Darkwing Duck episodes, the ONLY two parter outside of the pilot in the show’s long history. If your just joining us, as hinted at in the opening sentence i’ve been doing reviews of every episode of darkwing duck featuring the first apperances of the Justice Ducks and Fearsome Five. The only exception was Megavolt, but I ended up doing Negaduck instead, so I could cover both Megs and the original version of Negsy in one fell swoop (A great idea and comission from longtime supporter of the blog WeirdKev27). All so I could give this the build up  it deserved and get the background I didn’t have years ago when I wanted to watch this, wanted to see all of the first apperances first.. then just didn’t get around to it, not even finding out the episode order is an utter nightmare.  While i’ve given out about this before, allow me to do so again: Due to prioritzing what got done first over proper order, ALL of the justice ducks first appearances eps were aired after this and while Morgana at least got an episode before this, it was her second appearance. Same with LIquidator and Quackerjack though like Morgana, Quackerjack still got an episode or two before this one. So yeah as a result to most kids it was a bunch of heroes just introduced, up against two new villians and 3 old faviorites. You kinda see the problem. It’s why I watched it in chronlogical order: to have this be a gathering of established heroes against darking’s worst foes... and the debut of the worst of THE worst, the true Negaduck at long last. So with the proper build this deserves and not much else to say, let’s look at this two parter and see if all my effort was worth it and if the hype is real. Let’s, get, dangerous under the cut

We open in St. Canard in Darkwing Duck’s secret HQ over the bridge, where he’s getting ready to go out with Morgana and does... things to his hair. 

Excellently terrible hair do.. seriously I love a good pompadour as much as the next person, probably unheathily more than the next person, but this isa bit much and adding a curl to it is just.. 

I mean Superman’s hair looked better at this point, and for those wondering “Wait superman usually has a pretty good look”.. welll. 

Yeah.. post-ressurection.. he had a mullet. Look there are only 4 people in the world who can pull of a mullet: Brock Sampson, Patrick Swayze (God Rest his soul), Hank Venture and Daniel Cooksy as a teenager. And he ALSO put a curl in it and it still looked okay because that’s one of this things along with being selfless, and idiots calling him bland for you know, being a kind hearted symbol of humanity at it’s best. But man the mullet was just not for you bud. 

Morgana naturally tries to change it while Gosalyn watches and...

Yeah as you can probably guess a LOT has happened.. and all off screen. Morgana is not only fully on the side of good apparently, but she and Darkwing have gone from simply flirting with one another to dating AND Gosalyn has met her and they fought the astro mummies together.. no wait that was the Caballleros yesterday.. but still eveyrthing else is PRETTY important stuff and even with the messed up episode order the kind of thing you’d ASSUME an episode would be made about. I mean this is her meeting darkwing’s kid for fuck’s sake. That’s a big step in any relationship let alone one just starting out. And trust me, I didn’t miss anything: every other morgana ep seems to have them already in a steady relaionship. I DO think it’s stuff like this why some fans aren’t crazy about this relationship. Me I think he’s honestly too good for her. 

But before they can go out for whatever vauge date they were going to have the power goes out and DW notices it’s megavolt and prepares to go after him only for Morgana to question him about their date. 

Morgana.. sweetie.. the entire city is blacked out. Nowhere will be open.  But Gosalyn offers an alternative, Morgana go along with him and while both are reluctant they go with it. So Darkwing confronts Megavolt... and soon finds a bunch of chattering teeth. Yup, it’s Quackerjack as the two have teamed up, and together easily defeat Darkwing, putting him in an electric chair. The two also really get along which makes sense: Both have similar personalities, being kinda nuts indivdiuals with a singular obession , which compliment each other as toys often need electric power after all. THey strap darkwing into an electric chair, that got dark fast and he begs morgana to save him.. only for her to accidently turn him into jello. I mean.. they say pudding but.. their diffrent things. Just because world famous sexual predator Bill Cosby promoted BOTH for the jell-o brand doesn’t mean Jello is magically pudding. If he could magically make one thing 

Point is Darkwing is jello, the villians mock him then set up some kind of device and head off.. while also mentioning a mysterious boss. I wonder who it could be. 

Nah.. too obvious. Darkwing is humilated and of course blames. morgana.. for saving his life.. as while the jello humilated him he’s also you know not dead. 

Anyways Darkwing storms off while Morgana worries he likes her. Morg.. the guy got pissy because you saved his life the wrong way with some bad aim. And before that clearly just wanted you there as a trophy to impress you instead of because he valued you in any way but your looks, because let’s face it he’s shown no intrest so far in any way that isn’t superficial and neither have you in him. You both need to actually try to deepen this or end it.  Anyways enough me ranting at 90′s cartoon characters, it’s time for our next Justice Duck to enter the episode as Stegmutt is selling hot dogs now, but no one stops because they just.. run in terror. Poor guy, good thing he’s too oblivoius to notice. Maybe Dr. Fossil had a point.  Back to the plot and it turns out the next phase in the Fearsome Five’s plan is to take out the police... okay so wait are they the bad guys or not? Questions for later. Point is we get a nice mismatch as Bushroot’s timidity contrasts perfectly with Liquidator’s showman ship and he drowns them out. Darkwing prepares to attack, but gets interrupted by Stegmutt, refuses his help.. and we get the best and most iconic gag of the episodes: Darkwing makes a joke about playing pretend.. and senseing Stegmutt is a dummy have him pretend to “put out the darkwing”.. which equates to pulling a Droopy while saying “put out the darkwing”. So the two villians finsih their job and high five and this is one of the most charming parts of this 2 parter: the camradere between the five minus negaduck. The other four just.. easily bond and enjoy each ohters company, only fighting ONCE, and then being on the same page after that. 

It’s also what makes them so deadly: the go too for ANY superhero team in any medium is to simply get the vilians to fight each other as most vilian teams are built on REALLY shaky ground, a mixture of egos and ambitions that unlike with most superhero teams, can’t really be overcome with the greater good.. because their only in it for what they want. The thing that keeps any of these groups together longterm.. is camradere. I’ts why the Flash’s Rogue’s gallery is easily one of the most dangerous; while there are outliers like the reverse flash, most of them are part of the rouges, and ascribe to their rules and morals.. and thus the camradre and support that comes with it. One guy with a cold gun or a super flamethrower or a weather wand or mirror powers.. is pretty damn tough. All four and more together, willing to bail one another out, having their own tailor and weapons hookups. The four remind me of that: a bunch of guys who have the common goal of beating darkwing but likely just.. hang out when not trying to do crimes. Well except negaduck, hence the four thing. By not being able to just easily turn them on one another, it means you HAVE to take them all at once. Even if you got rid of negaduck as both the comics and the 2017 reboot have shown.. you still have 4 immensley powerful, quackerjack included, supervillians who easily can work together instead of a bunch of angry assholes who tend to work better one at a time and just with a united goal. Point is Darkwing Duck is Darkwing Fucked.  Darkwing once again refuses help and yells at Stegmutt, because he’s been evne douchier than usual, and then makes the mistake of yelling at Neptunia, who promptly has her octopus friend throw him into the distance because .. well he deserves it. So while Darkwing patches up that wound to his pride and his spleen, we finally meet our vilians new boss: NEGADUCK. And... they do not explain why a guy who looks exactly like drake is here, if he has any relation to the other negaduck he was inspired by, or why any of them would trust him. This would bother me more.. if A) it wasn’t too much of a stretch for darkwing to have foes we hadn’t seen given the whole casefiles thing and B).. well okay this isn’t really a logical opinon but since when have that stopped me. 

There’s a damn good reason that Negsy has one of the biggest episode counts of Darkwings villians. The guy is just.. the perfect foil to Darkwing, the Joker to his batman, the reverse flash to his flash, the green goblin to his spider-man, the sabertooth to his wolverine. He’s Drake’s equal and opposite number. While Drake can’t take two steps as Darkwing without wanting some attention, Negsy is happy to avoid having any until the moment strikes. While Drake wants attention as much as he wants to do the right thing, Negsy just simply loves doing what he’s doing. To quote the Spies are Forever song “Somebody’s Gotta Do it” “Can’t you see.. how much I enjoy this, i’d never avoid this, cause buddy i’m a diffrent breed. This is my calling, and though it’s appaling, I love making people bleed.” 

He just LOVES being evil. He’s as comically devoted to being a bad guy as Darkwing is to being a good one. He loves the idea of being able to shoot a bunny, he revels in his villiany and he loves every second. But as I said unlike darkwing he dosen’t let his flaws get in the way of his villiany as much. He still does on occasion, he’s still a version of Darkwing after all, but he has his eyes far more on the prize and is far less prone to distraction. He dosen’t care about toy deals or infamy.. he just wants to watch the world burn and laugh manically over the flames. While his obessions CAN be used against him.. as this episode shows it only lasts for a bout a second and he’s usually ready for it. He’s a Drake with no morals, no connections and few drawbacks. And he’s also every bit as clever, with him winning for most of the two parter. And not because the plot needs him too.. he’s simply THAT good at planning, with his plan here being geninely clever. I’m REALLLY hoping for Frank to lead the reboot because combining ALL of this with his reboot backstory will be divine if he gets to. Negaduck was very much worth the hype. 

So his next plan, itself clever.. is to dress up as Darkwing and inflitrate SHUSH, taking out the next possibly thing that could stop them. And he does so easily, even while Darkwing is there and to show off just how friggin awesome he is predicts what Drake will say. The only thing that trips him up is drake hilarious pointing out a cute bunny, because he and the other Negsy apparently share the same burning hatred, causing him to get out his shotgun. And can I just say how wonderful it is he can use a shotgun?  That’d never pass nowadays, which isn’t the worst thing but i do question why VILLIANS can’t be shown being reckless with fire arms. Their the bad guys, kids aren’t going to see it as a good thing. And they still equate laser guns with guns. They aren’t going to trivilaize gun violence because of Darkwing Duck or Looney Tunes. 

Even being found out Negaduck still acomplishes his goal and floods thing. So now both the cops and shush are down, and things aren’t looking great. Darkwing’s still determined he can do this himself and beat them.. but it’s transparent that not only he CAN’T and won’t admit he’s outnumbered but freely admits he just wants the biggest win of his career by taking them all out 4 to 1. Probablem is.. he’s not spider-man and this isn’t the sinister six. As I said he’s not fighting a villian group whose egos clash so badly , at least whent hey first formed, they have to take turns or in later iterations have some member blackmailed in> Their working in concert. He needs help but as we’ve seen multiple times now Darkwing just can’t accept it. He has to be in the limelight and while he does have to relearn the lesson .. it works better here as personality flaws aren’t the kind of thing that fixes itself overnight. Sometimes never. It feels less like it does sometimes in cartoons, where the character just.. never fucking learns, and more like Darkwing has learned it.. he’s just so very human and thus can’t resist sliding black. Less peter griffin more bojack horseman is what i’m saying. I mean there are still bits of just poor writing, but for the most part his ego is like most of his enimies: he just can’t get it to stay beat. 

So it won’t suprise you that when the national guard and gizmoduck are called he’s not happy. You may recall when I reviewed “Tiff of the Titans” I REALLY hated this verison of Gizmoduck. He was concited as Darkwing but treated like he wasn’t, treating the daring duck of mystery like a criminal for stupid reasons and was generally pretty useless and obnoxious. The fact that hamilton camps gizmoduck voice sounds not like a 20-30 something like Fenton is but like Grandpa Simpson mixed with a dash of dudley doo right dosen’t help. 

It’s not lost on me that Dan Castellaneta’s character is NOT the one that sounds like Abe Simpson either. But while that problem is still around... the rest of them.. aren’t. Gizmoduck’s character development actually stuck from last time, so rather than be a dick to darkwing he’s warm, friendly and happy to accept his help when Darkwing shows up, thinking his old “Buddy” is just volunteering to help instead of screaming at him for doing his job. Not only that but while he still has elements of a standard superman type “Cape” hero parody... their more toned down and actually funny with him giving giant speeches, and that being useda gainst him and being over the top.. but still being the noble, big hearted hero you’d expect from the roll, just wanting to do good not for the Glory he gets anyway, but because people need him. In short.. he’s 100% better thsi go round. Well okay 80.. he still sounds like this. 

Gos also brings Morgana along, because apparently she forgot the entire episode where her father was so obssed with being noticed he tried to upstage his 10-12 year old daughter... and you know the hundred other times Drake put his ego over his job. 

So he naturally wants to shoo her while Gizmo. .warmly welcomes the help because he recognizes that people are counting on them not counting on him.  Just then the villians make their move and activate the electro slave device from earlier which.. does nothing like that’d sound like and just creates a giant electrical wall, cutting off ST. Canard and bringing the plan full circle: The villains have now cut off the town and taken out almost anything that could oppose them. And despite you know everything Darking only gets more pissy when Stegmutt and Neptunia show up., Stegmutt because he still wants to return Darkwing’s change as Darkwing bought a hot dog from him and Stegmutt’s also a really sweet guy and Neptuina because well... .the ocean’s her thing and a bunch of bad guys just put a giant line through it she’s now on the other side of. Gizmo suggests the obvious: It’s a day unlike any other when a threat no one duck, or fish or dino duck, can face alone. It’s time to assemble! And Gos is more than excited about the idea, suggesting the name Justice Ducks which.. is honestly fairly weak in my opinon. Not BAD but very clearly just “Justice League” with Ducks in it. Given how good the series is at names, you think they’d of taken more than five minutes on this one. Maybe it was disney mandate I dunno.  But the concept itself.. is brilliant and I wish it came back in other epiosdes; Taking a bunch of other heroic characters in a setting and making them into a team is always a great idea, it’s why the tmnt unvierses have been using the mutanimals more and more lately, and they do ballance each other out nicely. You have a nice contrast of powers: while multiple have super strength, stegmutt is your bruiser, Gizmo is the tech guy, darkwing’s the strategy, morgana handles magic and Neptuina can swim in anything and is super strong and agile outside and inside water, so as long as she can keep hydrated, she’s useful> Which by the way has ALWAYS been the case for aquaman.. except the superfriends version. 

He really does suck and ruined it for the rest of them till Jason Mamoa and his mighty abs, coupled with Geoff Johns run on the charcter that served as the foundation for that movie, finally rescued the character from a fucking decades old cartoon’s smear campagin.  They have the makings of a great team.. it’s just Darkwing dosen’t want a team and screams at everyone to get out and that he dosen’t need them.. I mean he does try to be softer on Morgana but.. he’s still a dick and she really should dump him. Seriously, their attraction is superficial, at this point at least we’ll see in Feburary if it gets any bettter, he dosen’t respect her as a person, and now he’s having to restrain himself at yelling at her.. for HELPING HIM. When he clearly needs it. Holy shit... I was not prepared for that amount of douche. And this would sink the two parter.. were this not clever setup for one hell of a downfall and not a key part of his character. Like has been said: Ego is a massive part of him, and as Tad Stones has put it his real arch enemy. It’s been the basis for several episodes and as we saw in the pilot was his motivation for getting into crimefighting in the first place. He means well and clearly has a heart.. but this is just as much about thwarting evil as it is the attention. And here it’s used perfectly as in the reverse of the gizmoduck episode, where he wanted attention but for fully understandable reasons and judged Gizmo more on stealing his thunder, which while petty i’ll admit is a bit fair given Gizmo did NOTHING in St. Canard but got the key of the city while Darwing had saved it multiple times at this point. 

Here he’s being petty and selfish.. and he has no good reason. It’s just his own ego wanting the credit for everything when it’s not what he or the city needs. Honestly this feels like an ahead of it’s time parody of how Batman would be written when written poorly sometimes in the years after this episode:  a massive dick who thinks he knows better than everybody else and everything else should be entrusted to him because he’s the goddamn batman, the kind who throws people out as potential parts of his family for petty shit and acts like a controlling ass and okay maybe this is spiralling a bit. But the refusal to see any other way is right? Yeah that defintelyf its darkwing like a glove and eveyrone leaves either bummed or pissed at him. And the most pissed? Launchpad who while agreeing to it, his face and tone clearly mean he’s disapointed in his buddy for acting like this when now is REALLY not the time. 

And I wish.. we got more on this because Launchpad disappears till the ending scene after this. No really. Despite being Darkwing’s best friend and sidekick and despite warranting a spot on the justice ducks and despite having every reason to pitch in. he just vanishes. I mean Ducktales may of gone overboard in not having him around since Let’s Get Dangerous, but at least that’s a valid reason: he has another family, he’s really busy and Scrooge has another talented pilot to do the job for him. Granted he’s clearly still doing it offscreen at times but he was both a major part of an hourlong and will be part of any possible spinoff. And hell even back in season 1 when the character ballance was at it’s worst... Donald and Beakly at least HAD reasons for not being in a whole lot of episodes: Donald HATED his uncle, HATED adventure, and HATED the fact his kids were following in their mothers footsteps as he only saw death at the end of it. While they SHOULD have found ways to include him more and his exclusion was pretty bad... he at least had a reason. Here launchpad just has to go now his home planet needs him. And he’s not the only one Gosalyn gets more, she’s worried about darkwing, we’ll get to why in a second and wants to go but Gizmoduck refuses.. and then ALSO vanishes. Which makes even less sense as when has Gosalyn EVER listned to an authority figure? Especially when her dad might be dead? It’s just grossly out of character for her to agree to sit things out and not just tag along with steggmutt anyway once gizmo can’t stop her. I do get this is about the justice ducks but there’s no reason to neglect the other main characters. At least have Negsy capture them too or something. Cripes. 

So yeah the “thinking he’s dead part”. Darkwing sets out to find the five’s lair and misses the big honking flag Negaduck set up, but finds a crumb, puts two and two together and finds them.. as Negaduck planned. Down to the crumb thing as, in my faviorite line of the episode, he planned on Darkwing missing the flag and focusing on the flimisiit clue instead. Naturally they kick his ass, EASILY, and throw him out a window to his death and in classic bond villian fashion don’t check for proof of death. Krakoa would be ashamed. So part one ends with darkwing duck getting thrown to his possible death...

Only for part 2 to pick up with him landing in a trash truck before exiting. And this.. is what makes the ego parts tolerable.. Darkwing.. earnestly reflects, depressed he let his own ego get in the way of things and shoo off his only hope, and thus let the villians take over the city, with Bushroot’s plants harassing people, quackerjacks teeth running the police, and Megavolt having taken the power company and using it to shake down locals and Liquidator flooding part of the city for a plan we’ll get to in a moment. He’s at his lowest point and tht’s while it work: his hubris DOSEN’T get unpunished, he’s fully sorry for it and while he dosen’t out and out apologize to them, he’s not only genuinely contrite but does work well with them and evenly when he finally does get back to them.. but we’ve got a bit to go before that.  So with Darkwing missing Gizmo takes over as big good and not bein ga prick eagerly takes the others help Neptuina nopes out of helping, which fits her personality, so with only three left because he dosen’t consider children useful  which shame on you. I mean i’ts responsible from a real world standpoint but not from a cartoon show standpoint. But anyways they split up gang: Gizmo will go take the power plant back, Morgana will try and use her spells to find the lair and Stegmutt will find darkwing. I do like despite how they neglect Gosalyn that her friendship with Stegmutt was remembered and used as a plot point here. 

So we then get to a rather repttitive part of the two parter. It’s not lacking in good gags or character moments but it’s basically the same scene repeated 4 times just with a diffrent scenario and gag for each of the justice ducks and the fearsome five member they encounter. They do their respective schicks the hero is defeated.. this is 5 or so minutes of a 20+ minute episode. Not TERRIBLE stuff, iv’e seen worse repttition, but not terribly intresting compared to the rest of the four parter.  So, Neptuina encounters Liquidator, whose scheme is selling rafts to people to not drown in exhange for a millioin dollars.. or whatever they have he’s not picky, and they fight but Liqui ultimately wins, Gizmoduck, in the best of the four sequences, swoops in to stop Megavolt and not only lands on his foot.. but spends so long speechifiing Mega gets him from behind, phrasing. Stegmutt hilariously tries disgusing himself with Groucho glasses and is bested by Quackerjack, and Morgana finds the lair but gets taken out by bushroot, though her pet spider archie escapes to go warn the others. 

So after all that Archie makes it back to darkwing’s hq.. only for launchpad to squish him. “ew a bug!”.. just a great quick laugh. Thankfuly he’s more resilent than the average spider and is fine once Gosalyn scrapes him off and they now know the five are in trouble. Also I was wrong Launchpad does return.. for this one scene. And neither get into action once Darkwing returns and after an overly long bit of him deflecting blame to the point I was screaming. 

That being said it is nice when once Darkwing is aware of the situation he gloats a little.. but still goes to save them without any hint of caring about doing it all himself. He learned his lesson.  So at the Lair of the five, Negsy shows what a sadsitc bastard he is, another great side of him.. from a writing standpoint at least. It shows that like darkwing despite a comedic exterior.. he’s VERY dangerous. And he’s set up speciic tourtures for each of the five he has: He’s hooked up Gizmoducks armor to a device that lets him control it’s power flow, so right now it’s entirely drained.. but he can overload it and electrocute him to death when he flips THE SWITCH. Neptuina is stuck under a heat lamp and will fry when he hits THE SWITCH. Stegmutt is stuck in a weightless enviorment that will also loose air when he hits THE SWITCH and morgana is in a chair that will crush her tod eath when he hits.. THE SWITCH... he really loves THE SWITCH and props to him. A lesser villian would’ve had all the traps have a diffrent trigger which while making it harder on any rescuers is just a time waster asking for the heroes he hasn’t gotten to yet to break free. And while it is based in his sadism he still fully intends to watch the deaths personally. Seriously he’s got all his bases covered.. and would’ve won.. if it wasn’t for the rest of the five.  The rest of the five are fighting over territoiry: Buddies they may be but they all want the pie. Negaduck, in his most badass scene shuts them up by pulling out his signture chainsaw for hte first time and scaring the crap out of htem, then using it to carve up the model of the city: They each get a quarter.. and he gets all the loot. Which they dont’ like but agree to to not die today. Though really... what’s the value of that? They have a full city held hostage, control over a quarter each, and no real way to SPEND the loot without letting someone else, say scrooge mcduck, in to stop them. Just give him the money and let him sit on it Smaug style. You get a quarter of a new york sized city to yourself to live out your dreams. I’d love that... maybe nto become a supervillian for that but still, point is you have carte blanche jsut take the W.  Darkwing meanwhile uses Nega’s scheme against him and plans to be delivering skulls, after flowers only piss nega off, and then knocks the guy out.. though his attempt at playing Nega fails as the Four have wisely decided that since they outnumber him and a four way split of the loot is better than none of it, to kill him. Nega.. is not pleased and just wants them to attack him, and they do, and it seems darkwing’s going to have a front row seat for THE SWITCH. But Darkwing recovers, and we get a great tug of war between him and negsy as the switch is turnd on and off on and off till Darkwing finally wins, and then frees Morgana and apologizes and has her free Gizmo, and so on and so on. So our team is reunited, Darkwing’s finally ready to lead and thus we get our battle cries “Justice Ducks, ASSEMBLE!” “Fearsome Five, GET OVER HERE!” And the two face off

And the battle.. is fantastic. Easily the series best so far as everyone gets a moment to shine. Neptuina takes out both Liquidator and Megavolt, this time beating liquidator by creating a whirlpool inside him and turning him into a watery tornado and crashing him into megavolt before he can get stegmutt. Gizmoduck beats Quackerjack handily by using a drill on the teeth, great gag then giving Jacky some ansteic.. a boxing glove to the face. And Stegmutt takes on bushroot and when unsure of what to do.. we get a truly wonderous callback as Stegmutt.. honestly dosen’t know what to do.. so Darkwing gets some payback and tells him to “put out the bushroot, put out the bushroot” you can guess what happens next

Or if you want the more recent versoin

Point is three down two to go, and we get a call back to the pudding thing with Morgana trying to hit liquidator.. before Darkwing in a show of how much of a team player he is now, offers his help, simply having Morg teleport some instant pudding mix over the guy... I mean at least it’s brown this time even if i’ts still  in a jello mold. And to finish it off he and gizmo awesomely use a mixer on both sides. So our heroes have triumphed.. almost. Negs has the controls for the barrier and runs out planning to destroy st canard if they refuse.. then being Negaduck decides fuck it i’ll do it anyway... but Darkwing stops him and we get a slapstick beatdown as DW uses an anvil a pie and other classics and utterly curbstomps his nemissi in an wesome scne. The day is saved, the generator shut down and the city freed.  So we wrap up with the Justice Ducks celebrating.. with Gos and Launchpad. I have an inlking how that conversation went. 

Darkwing relcutnatnly is forced to eat his own words and admit he both enjoys the team and needed their help, before heading off on that Date with Morgana.. though Gizmoduck tries to make it a group thing. Dude no one likes a third wheel.. not even when i’ts ninja brian. So Darkwing uses the iris out to escape, but Stegmutt does try and give that quarter back first, with Darkwing, in a genuinely sweet moment, telling him to keep it and then going off, having earned his happy ending and grown as a person.  Final Thoughts: This episode was WORTH the build up I gave it. It turns out I really didnt’ need most of the intro epsidoes, as while it enhances the villians the heroes are all given decent enough introductions apart from morgana so tht even without the context of how darkwing knows these people it still works. It’s a thrilling, tightly paced for the most part, hilarious and wonderful two parter that ties a huge chunk of the show together into one hour long masterpice. I had my issues of course and i’ve stated them: Gosalyn and Launchpad doing nothing, the pacing towards the middle of part 2.. but otherwise.. it’s perfect. It’ has a great character arc for darkwing on top of everything, once again having his ego bite him in the ass but in a unique enough way it dosen’t feel like a retread of the pilot, and having him genuinely feel bad about it and grow. a bit smug when he learns he has to rescue them sure but he’s never smug to the heroes themselves. And ironically.. he gets his big moment. While he dosen’t beat the five himself he still infliatrated their hq, beat up their leader, saved his friends and then beat negaduck all by himself AGAIN. It may of not been the big moment he wanted.. but it’s the one he needed.  As for the road to the justice ducks itself.. it was a fun ride. Only one honestly two bad episodes; Tiff otf the Titans and Paint Misbehavin and even those had their moments, paticuarlly Misbehavin’s art sequences. The rest of the episodes ranged from alright to standout and overall it was a hell of a time.. so i’m going to rank all the ones i covered leading up to this review. Just Us Justice Ducks (Both Parts) Negaduck Beauty and the Beat Dry Hard Jurassic Jumble Ghoul of My Dreams Something Fishy Fungus Amongus Whiffle While You Work Paint Misbehavin Tiff of the Titans And i’m proud to say this is the first ongoing project on the blog, the first story arc or what have you, i’ve completed. While I DID do a four parter of catch as cash can, this is the first one i’ve done over several months that i’ve completed and i’m proud of it. Does this mean i’m done with Darkwing?

Next week we’ll be wrapping up some more unfinished buisness with another Darkwing Double Feature, this time covering the short career of Quiverwing Quack and in Feburary, and the reason I spent so much time catching up, we’ll be seeing both Morgana and Negaduck again just in time for Valentine’s day. After that?

We’ll just have to see won’t we? So until there’s another rainbow, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

[latinozevran-archive]

throwing these ugly british men at me left n right they give me latino lancelot for one ep then they snatch him away and now imdb says i will only see him 5 more times all because they said we will make a story about king arthur but with family values so gwen cant cheat which is pathetic u see my takes on this show have evolved so much in a decade i value different things these days though i still have the same morgana opinions as 10 y/o me bc i knew what was what side note lancelots actor without his hair is so deeply just some guy its frightening xie lian looking at yin yu vibes fr i dont know him i dont care about him he is not sexy and u know maybe his being sexy is really just context specific i would love to be just some latino guy but in england it elevates u to latin king status so easily um all the more power to him tho i guess idk anyways rate my success on a scale of 1-10 at making this incomprehensible so people miss the part where im rewatching bbc merlin in 2021

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

Quick “Cursed” opinions (no spoilers)

I am still at episode 8, but here’s my opinion up to now if you are wondering if you should watch this show

THE SHOW

Beautiful scenes, very beautiful colors, but horrible transitions that really look out of place 

Generally good actors

Speed-movement. There was no map, no idea where the characters were. Every character could be at any place AT ANY TIME... literally no sense of time or travelling

The fey were supposed to have magic but showed no magic, clearly all the budget has been used for other things

THE ARTHURIAN PART

I was very annoyed at the continuous way the show introduced arthurian characters. Every character but Nimue, Merlin and Arthur was introduced by a name switcheroo, with “Here’s character A... ACTUALLY their REAL name is B!” which was very repetitive

Very interesting concept for the Sword, definitely my favorite part of the show overall

Forget everything you know about Arthur’s family, otherwise you’ll get even more confused (I still have no idea how it is supposed to be in the show)

Some characters were just named dropped, but generally the show doesn’t overuse arthurian names for secondary characters

MORGANA is a gift, we were blessed! Interesting story acr

Every arthurian character has a defined story arc (Arthur has honor, Nimue has acceptance, Morgana has her spoilery arc etc.), but some were better than others (Nimue was a very bland protagonist, in my opinion, and Merlin ended up being a bit useless and being in the show just because he was there at the beginning)

Also, we are told Merlin is so smart, but the show doesn’t show it to us

THE PLOT

The plot revolves around the Sword but the show is too slow in introducing it, and starts veeeery boringly, but picks up by ep ~4

The sword was, in my opinion, the most interesting part of the show and I wished they had spent a little more time showing its backstory

The show is set in a Christian vs Paganism kind of world, but they never use any actual gods? And they are very vague about the whole Pagan thing, which reminded me, annoyingly, of Merlin BBC

Nimue’s journey of self acceptance is... a bit slow, but at least it is good when she can interact with characters like Kaze, Pym and, of course, Morgana

The plot ends up murky in some parts, especially because of the zero attention the show gives to politics. We never fully know what are the relationships between the factions (Uther’s kingdom? how big is it? Are the Red Paladins in only one Fort, do they have multiple forts, are they from Rome? How do they work? Why do they hate the Fay? Are they a faction of the Church? Are the Fey just people who have another religion? Do they all have magic? Is Ector a vassal? Independent kingdom? How come Uther lets the Paladins in his kingdom?) so I was very confused about the power dynamics between Uther - Paladins - Fey, and that is really my main point of complain with the show

The romance subplot is... there... I guess. Arthur and Nimue gave me zero chemistry (personal opinion). When together, the character development/analysis/plot stopped to let the romance goes... which ended up with both characters more interesting when interacting with other characters, as usually they were able to talk about plot-stuff and further their own character development. 

[robocracker]

wait, so has arthur just... forgotten about mordred being a druid? or does he think not all druids have magic? everyone keeps telling mordred that if arthur knew he was a druid then he’d have him executed, but arthur literally saved mordred’s life taking him back to the druids. surely he already knows??