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Merlin 4x06 review
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nenne , ragdoll and ariadneelda for the V-gifts!
-Who let the writers into the Merlin fanfic? Between what was essentially an extended love letter to Arthur/Merlin and all the Merlin/Morganna bondage fun, I kept expecting half the scenes to be followed by lots of NC-17 fun.
-Seriously though, I loved all the Arthur/Merlin moments in this. Merlin's ability to place Arthur's well-being above everything, including his own life (he manages to use magic to protect Arthur and not himself, and he keeps doing it even when gravely injured), but Arthur acknowledging their bond, without jokes, is much rarer. I'd crack a joke about the slash being turned up to 11 during their forest scene, but I was genuinely touched by Arthur's describing Merlin as brave and loyal, and with his subsequent obsession with getting Merlin back.
-I've given up on making sense of Morganna's motivation (though her line about everyone she might feel loyal to being gone made more sense than most of her rantings during the last few seasons), so I'm just going with the flow and enjoying her new antagonisticand hot dynamic with Merlin, and how smokin' they both looked in that scene. And trying not too hard to wonder why Merlin didn't just use magic to escape as soon as he felt better and instead let Morganna put the kind of phallic mind-control whammy on him.
-I felt kind of bad for George, The World's First Butler. Though I can see how his super-eficiency might creep Arthur out slightly after Merlin.
-Awww, Arthur ignoring Merlin being covered in mud and just going for the hug! Now that's love.
-Super Bitchy!Merlin was so entertaining, I kind of wished he could stick around for a while. Poor Gwaine seemed genuinely hurt by his unexpected rudeness (and after he was talking him up just two scenes prior), and his nasty attitude to Gwen was hilariously reminiscent to a jealous ex trying to mark their territory (and of course, both Gwen and Arthur “ooookay” reaction shots did nothing to dispel that impression). Not to mention that his breezy comments to Gaius about needing to be prepared for random murder were funny on a meta level too, because of Merlin's general lack of conflict about the body count he's built up over the years.
-Can we have more scenes with Leon geeking out about weapons? Because that was adorable.
-I loved how nobody took the idea of Merlin killing Arthur seriously, even with the whole traitor paranoia and oh yes, him telling Leon. Merlin could be going at Arthur with a sword in front of all the knights, and they'd be “LOL, that Merlin, he's such a comedian!”.
-Man, Merlin really sucks at this whole killing without magic thing. I can actually fanwank him not using this to the mind-control parasite doing exactly what Morganna said and sucking away all that Merlin is, including his magic. And apparently his basic equilibrium/spatial awareness, not that watching Merlin run into walls wasn't priceless.
-Yay, Gwen got to do stuff! I was happy enough with her bringing the leftover poison to Gaius and helping him figure things out, but her knocking Merlin over with the vase twice was AWESOME. As was her apologetic expression the first time contrasted with the matter-of-fact way she did it the second time. And good for her for getting a preview of the crown jewels, though I imagine that when she pictured the first time she saw full frontal Arthur, the scene probably didn't include Gaius and (and unconscious Merlin) in the room. Well, definitely not Gaius, at least.
-If they have to use Merlin's extremely unconvincing aged-up self, this is the way to do it. Him pawning the knights was both served as the obligatory comedy moment and reminded us of how powerful Merlin is under the bumbling exterior, and we actually got a proper Merlin/Morganna magic showdown.
-I appreciated how freaked out Morganna was seing “Emrys”, mostly because she doesn't get to have any emotions nowadays beyond “revengy” and “smirky”.
-And yay, judging by next week's preview, stuff that happened in this one won't be immediately forgotten and will have consequences. Seriously, what is this show I'm watching?
nenne , ragdoll and ariadneelda for the V-gifts!-Who let the writers into the Merlin fanfic? Between what was essentially an extended love letter to Arthur/Merlin and all the Merlin/Morganna bondage fun, I kept expecting half the scenes to be followed by lots of NC-17 fun.
-Seriously though, I loved all the Arthur/Merlin moments in this. Merlin's ability to place Arthur's well-being above everything, including his own life (he manages to use magic to protect Arthur and not himself, and he keeps doing it even when gravely injured), but Arthur acknowledging their bond, without jokes, is much rarer. I'd crack a joke about the slash being turned up to 11 during their forest scene, but I was genuinely touched by Arthur's describing Merlin as brave and loyal, and with his subsequent obsession with getting Merlin back.
-I've given up on making sense of Morganna's motivation (though her line about everyone she might feel loyal to being gone made more sense than most of her rantings during the last few seasons), so I'm just going with the flow and enjoying her new antagonistic
-I felt kind of bad for George, The World's First Butler. Though I can see how his super-eficiency might creep Arthur out slightly after Merlin.
-Awww, Arthur ignoring Merlin being covered in mud and just going for the hug! Now that's love.
-Super Bitchy!Merlin was so entertaining, I kind of wished he could stick around for a while. Poor Gwaine seemed genuinely hurt by his unexpected rudeness (and after he was talking him up just two scenes prior), and his nasty attitude to Gwen was hilariously reminiscent to a jealous ex trying to mark their territory (and of course, both Gwen and Arthur “ooookay” reaction shots did nothing to dispel that impression). Not to mention that his breezy comments to Gaius about needing to be prepared for random murder were funny on a meta level too, because of Merlin's general lack of conflict about the body count he's built up over the years.
-Can we have more scenes with Leon geeking out about weapons? Because that was adorable.
-I loved how nobody took the idea of Merlin killing Arthur seriously, even with the whole traitor paranoia and oh yes, him telling Leon. Merlin could be going at Arthur with a sword in front of all the knights, and they'd be “LOL, that Merlin, he's such a comedian!”.
-Man, Merlin really sucks at this whole killing without magic thing. I can actually fanwank him not using this to the mind-control parasite doing exactly what Morganna said and sucking away all that Merlin is, including his magic. And apparently his basic equilibrium/spatial awareness, not that watching Merlin run into walls wasn't priceless.
-Yay, Gwen got to do stuff! I was happy enough with her bringing the leftover poison to Gaius and helping him figure things out, but her knocking Merlin over with the vase twice was AWESOME. As was her apologetic expression the first time contrasted with the matter-of-fact way she did it the second time. And good for her for getting a preview of the crown jewels, though I imagine that when she pictured the first time she saw full frontal Arthur, the scene probably didn't include Gaius and (and unconscious Merlin) in the room. Well, definitely not Gaius, at least.
-If they have to use Merlin's extremely unconvincing aged-up self, this is the way to do it. Him pawning the knights was both served as the obligatory comedy moment and reminded us of how powerful Merlin is under the bumbling exterior, and we actually got a proper Merlin/Morganna magic showdown.
-I appreciated how freaked out Morganna was seing “Emrys”, mostly because she doesn't get to have any emotions nowadays beyond “revengy” and “smirky”.
-And yay, judging by next week's preview, stuff that happened in this one won't be immediately forgotten and will have consequences. Seriously, what is this show I'm watching?
no subject
I have not been disappointed or bored or anything else by this season of Merlin. The rest were a bit uneven, but this is something else!
no subject
I thought it made sense that Merlin hesitated to use magic in front of Morganna: unless he was certain of winning and killing her, he couldn't afford to have her know that he could do magic (or suspect that he is Emrys). We could see during the fight between Emrys and Morganna that they are pretty evenly matched (ie it might have been impossible for Merlin to win when he was in chains, and maybe he knew it). Anyway it makes sense to the story arc that they need Morganna to continue to live and be ignorant of Merlin's power.
no subject
OMG, Arthur's face when he admitted that he would 'probably' call Merlin a hero if he died. "I would totally be uncomfortable being forced to admit such a thing in public. But I would. But I'd rather not, so don't make me."
Rude!Merlin was amazing, I almost died laughing. Even though it was realy about the poison, I could not help but mentally insert some subtext into the conversation with Gwaine, about how Gwaine is not allowed to grabby with Arthur's things. (Even if he may have been allowed in the past...)
Leon/crossbow 4eva!!!
...though I imagine that when she pictured the first time she saw full frontal Arthur, the scene probably didn't include Gaius and (and unconscious Merlin) in the room. Well, definitely not Gaius, at least. And maybe in her head Merlin was a little less unconscious... The dearth of Arthur/Merlin/Gwen threesome fics makes me sadface. I know theres a few about, there should really be so very many.
I am loving aged up!Merlin. He's so fucking funny. Percival pokes him with his sword, and he just tells him off like he's a little kid. Merlin clearly has some underlying issues with being subordinate to everybody.
no subject
Gwaine makes everything sound subtexty/dirty. Trufax.
The dearth of Arthur/Merlin/Gwen threesome fics makes me sadface. I know theres a few about, there should really be so very many.
I KNOW, RIGHT? It's not like there's no subtext to support some OT3 good times!
Merlin definitely has authority issues-just look at how he talks to Arthur!