Merlin 4.09 Lancelot du Lac
Nov. 27th, 2011 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which there is amazing acting all around (seriously, it's such a shame this show will never get regarded as a contender in this category due to the "family show" label, because that leads to a lot of overlooked great performances), some bad and some good storytelling choices, and a torn reviewer.
Okay, complaints first, as is my habit in most cases so I can finish with praise.
1.) Using magic to push Gwen's old feelings for Lancelot to the point where she's ready to betray Arthur is, well, cheating. To wit, it's cheating Gwen out of an agenda. Also it's not necessary, because I thought her guilt over Lancelot's sacrificial death plus Arthur's earlier readiness to break up with her this year would have been enough to justify a weak moment, character wise, without magical push. It would have achieved the same result and would have been better storytelling. I don't likesex pollen love potion stories in general (with a very few exceptions), and here I dislike this element even more than usual.
2.) Major emotional continuity fail in not letting Elyan be there when Gwen leaves Camelot, especially since they had the actor for the episode.
3.) Questionable continuity fail in letting Morgana know about Gwen's old feelings for Lancelot in the first place. She was oblivious in Lancelot's debut episode and not around the two of them in Lancelot and Guinevere. This being said, Gwen and Morgana were still close enough in Lancelot and Guinevere for Gwen to have spoken to her about this after Lancelot left her, so I suppose I can buy it.
Now, on to the good stuff, starting with something I've seen critisized, to wit, Gwen's "I always wanted to be your queen" instead of "I always wanted to be your wife" in her last conversation with Arthur. Well, for me, this not only directly ties to Arthur opening this episode by teling Agrivaine he intends to marry Gwen by pointing out to him what a great queen Gwen will make (rather than "I love her omg can't live without her"), and what a great support and councillor she's been already, but to something that I regard as essential and to me very appealing about the Gwen/Arthur relationship. Yes, the conventional romantic ideal is "love the person, not the crown", but to me in recent years love that also includes the work the person in question does has become far more interesting and captivating than "who'll love me for myself alone, and not my golden hair", to misquote Yeats. Gwen has seen the potential of Arthur to become a good king before she fell in love with him, and that's part of why she fell in love with him; because Gwen cares about the fate of the kingdom, not just her own and her friends' fates, and this is why she'll make a good queen. Conversely, Arthur saw the value of Gwen's advise before he fell in love with her, and he's seen her potential as queen. Honestly, I find Arthur telling Agrivaine about Gwen being a great advisor and terrific future queen more romantic in terms of what I love about romance than Arthur making that declaration he'd be ready to run away with her last season (which was sweet but also very young and ill thought through). And far from finding it calculating or unromantic, I really love that Gwen wants to be his queen, not "just" wife. (Or mistress.) They've been working together to build the new Camelot ever since Gwen first went after Arthur in the woods of Ealdor and told him not to be a condescending prat to the (female) villagers, and Arthur listened. A quick detour: there is a scene in The Lion in Winter where Eleanor of Aquitaine talks to Alais, her husband's young mistress - and Eleanor's temporary foster daughter, and Alais says she knows Eleanor still loves Henry, "but when you look at him you also see provinces and castles, whereas I see only Henry". This is absolutely true, and why I ship Eleanor/Henry and not Henry/Alais. (In addition, to, err, all the power issues with the later.) No, I don't think Gwen thinks of Arthur as "just Arthur". (Merlin doesn't either, for that matter. He was sold on Arthur as potential king long before he came to care for him as a person as well.) Just as Arthur doesn't think of her as "just Gwen". The king and queen aspect, what the respective other can do for the kingdom and what they can do for the kingdom with each other, is there and important to them in their relationship, and I, for one, really am glad that this is so. Incidentally, I also think this is what will reconcile them.
Much as I am annoyed by the use of magic to push Gwen's old feelings for Lancelot to the surface again to begin with, I do like how they resolved it, that the episode doesn't end in Merlin discovering the bracelet and fixing everything. Instead, Gwen removes it on her own, nobody ever finds out there was a magical push, and we focus on the unmagical and very real emotional damage the whole event has left, which isn't fixed at the end but left exposed. As Gaius says, who resurrected Lancelot is beside the point. Gwen always was the one person who never lied to Arthur, and as Morgana says early in the episode, he trusted her completely. Given the fact everyone else Arthur cared for lied/lies, no matter their motives, it makes sense that the issue isn't a question of forgiveness, but the loss of that complete faith. (For Gwen, too. I think she was always clear on how she felt, and what she does. Having to cope with actions she can't explain to herself is horrible.) While I, as mentioned above, am incensed nobody thought of placing Elyan in Gwen's departure scene, I do like both Merlin being there and that he and Gwen actually don't talk and just look at each other, which fits with Merlin believing Gwen to have succumbed to her feelings for Lancelot but still being her friend. Plus, you know, wonderful facial acting on both parts. Though the highest acting laurels in this episode go to Bradley James for the Gwen and Arthur conversation in the throne room, from the moment he tells everyone else to leave to the moment she does. It's an outstanding performance that conveys Arthur's struggle to understand, hurt and resolve, and perversely I never shipped the two of them as hard as here, because as I said, the fact they see each other not as "just Gwen" or "just Arthur" but deal with the whole king and queen aspect of what just happened as well is what makes this feel as two adults dealing with each other, rather than two adolescents. (Also Arthur clearly has taken lessons from Claudio in how NOT to act when believing your fiancée cheated on you with another man on the night before your wedding. See, Claudio, this is how to deal with your pain without being a jerk about it. Starting with asking the lady in question, not in front of everyone but alone with her.) And of course the scene takes place in the throne room rather than in Gwen's house or Arthur's chambers. They're at this point losing each other as king and queen, not "just" as future husband and wife. And it's the point where Arthur does something that ensures he is at fault in this event as well: banishing Gwen (as opposed to calling the wedding off) is not just, even with the caveat that as future queen Gwen has stopped being a private person and the law Agrivaine invokes demands her death. (Two wrongs don't make a right; the law is wrong, but so is banishing Gwen.)
I do feel for poor Lancelot, resurrected as a Morgana-controlledzombie shade instead of keeping his noble sacrificial death, but the visual of Morgana going into the lake and him rising from it was gorgeous, and it's actually a clever way to come up with an explanation of his name in this 'verse. Also Merlin realising something was wrong by the fact Lancelot's interaction with him (not Arthur or Gwen) is off, then having it confirmed when Lancelot doesn't remember Merlin's magic is a good reminder of the friendship (and secret) they shared when real!Lancelot was around, and prepares the final moment of Merlin restores Lancelot's true self to him before sending him off, Freya-style, to a second death. Having Morgana acknowledge the sadness in Lancelot's face also was a way of keeping her more layered characterisation this season.
In conclusion: could have been done better (i.e. I wish they had the guts to let Gwen have her moment with Lancelot of her own free will and because of the guilt and the uncertainty based on Arthur's actions earlier this season, and there is no excuse for the lack of Elyan in her departure scene), but had enough I did approve of to make it a very compelling episode for me.
Okay, complaints first, as is my habit in most cases so I can finish with praise.
1.) Using magic to push Gwen's old feelings for Lancelot to the point where she's ready to betray Arthur is, well, cheating. To wit, it's cheating Gwen out of an agenda. Also it's not necessary, because I thought her guilt over Lancelot's sacrificial death plus Arthur's earlier readiness to break up with her this year would have been enough to justify a weak moment, character wise, without magical push. It would have achieved the same result and would have been better storytelling. I don't like
2.) Major emotional continuity fail in not letting Elyan be there when Gwen leaves Camelot, especially since they had the actor for the episode.
3.) Questionable continuity fail in letting Morgana know about Gwen's old feelings for Lancelot in the first place. She was oblivious in Lancelot's debut episode and not around the two of them in Lancelot and Guinevere. This being said, Gwen and Morgana were still close enough in Lancelot and Guinevere for Gwen to have spoken to her about this after Lancelot left her, so I suppose I can buy it.
Now, on to the good stuff, starting with something I've seen critisized, to wit, Gwen's "I always wanted to be your queen" instead of "I always wanted to be your wife" in her last conversation with Arthur. Well, for me, this not only directly ties to Arthur opening this episode by teling Agrivaine he intends to marry Gwen by pointing out to him what a great queen Gwen will make (rather than "I love her omg can't live without her"), and what a great support and councillor she's been already, but to something that I regard as essential and to me very appealing about the Gwen/Arthur relationship. Yes, the conventional romantic ideal is "love the person, not the crown", but to me in recent years love that also includes the work the person in question does has become far more interesting and captivating than "who'll love me for myself alone, and not my golden hair", to misquote Yeats. Gwen has seen the potential of Arthur to become a good king before she fell in love with him, and that's part of why she fell in love with him; because Gwen cares about the fate of the kingdom, not just her own and her friends' fates, and this is why she'll make a good queen. Conversely, Arthur saw the value of Gwen's advise before he fell in love with her, and he's seen her potential as queen. Honestly, I find Arthur telling Agrivaine about Gwen being a great advisor and terrific future queen more romantic in terms of what I love about romance than Arthur making that declaration he'd be ready to run away with her last season (which was sweet but also very young and ill thought through). And far from finding it calculating or unromantic, I really love that Gwen wants to be his queen, not "just" wife. (Or mistress.) They've been working together to build the new Camelot ever since Gwen first went after Arthur in the woods of Ealdor and told him not to be a condescending prat to the (female) villagers, and Arthur listened. A quick detour: there is a scene in The Lion in Winter where Eleanor of Aquitaine talks to Alais, her husband's young mistress - and Eleanor's temporary foster daughter, and Alais says she knows Eleanor still loves Henry, "but when you look at him you also see provinces and castles, whereas I see only Henry". This is absolutely true, and why I ship Eleanor/Henry and not Henry/Alais. (In addition, to, err, all the power issues with the later.) No, I don't think Gwen thinks of Arthur as "just Arthur". (Merlin doesn't either, for that matter. He was sold on Arthur as potential king long before he came to care for him as a person as well.) Just as Arthur doesn't think of her as "just Gwen". The king and queen aspect, what the respective other can do for the kingdom and what they can do for the kingdom with each other, is there and important to them in their relationship, and I, for one, really am glad that this is so. Incidentally, I also think this is what will reconcile them.
Much as I am annoyed by the use of magic to push Gwen's old feelings for Lancelot to the surface again to begin with, I do like how they resolved it, that the episode doesn't end in Merlin discovering the bracelet and fixing everything. Instead, Gwen removes it on her own, nobody ever finds out there was a magical push, and we focus on the unmagical and very real emotional damage the whole event has left, which isn't fixed at the end but left exposed. As Gaius says, who resurrected Lancelot is beside the point. Gwen always was the one person who never lied to Arthur, and as Morgana says early in the episode, he trusted her completely. Given the fact everyone else Arthur cared for lied/lies, no matter their motives, it makes sense that the issue isn't a question of forgiveness, but the loss of that complete faith. (For Gwen, too. I think she was always clear on how she felt, and what she does. Having to cope with actions she can't explain to herself is horrible.) While I, as mentioned above, am incensed nobody thought of placing Elyan in Gwen's departure scene, I do like both Merlin being there and that he and Gwen actually don't talk and just look at each other, which fits with Merlin believing Gwen to have succumbed to her feelings for Lancelot but still being her friend. Plus, you know, wonderful facial acting on both parts. Though the highest acting laurels in this episode go to Bradley James for the Gwen and Arthur conversation in the throne room, from the moment he tells everyone else to leave to the moment she does. It's an outstanding performance that conveys Arthur's struggle to understand, hurt and resolve, and perversely I never shipped the two of them as hard as here, because as I said, the fact they see each other not as "just Gwen" or "just Arthur" but deal with the whole king and queen aspect of what just happened as well is what makes this feel as two adults dealing with each other, rather than two adolescents. (Also Arthur clearly has taken lessons from Claudio in how NOT to act when believing your fiancée cheated on you with another man on the night before your wedding. See, Claudio, this is how to deal with your pain without being a jerk about it. Starting with asking the lady in question, not in front of everyone but alone with her.) And of course the scene takes place in the throne room rather than in Gwen's house or Arthur's chambers. They're at this point losing each other as king and queen, not "just" as future husband and wife. And it's the point where Arthur does something that ensures he is at fault in this event as well: banishing Gwen (as opposed to calling the wedding off) is not just, even with the caveat that as future queen Gwen has stopped being a private person and the law Agrivaine invokes demands her death. (Two wrongs don't make a right; the law is wrong, but so is banishing Gwen.)
I do feel for poor Lancelot, resurrected as a Morgana-controlled
In conclusion: could have been done better (i.e. I wish they had the guts to let Gwen have her moment with Lancelot of her own free will and because of the guilt and the uncertainty based on Arthur's actions earlier this season, and there is no excuse for the lack of Elyan in her departure scene), but had enough I did approve of to make it a very compelling episode for me.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-28 10:28 am (UTC)He hates Arthur and he cares for Morgana, but I don't think he's always happy with her methods.
I wonder if there will come a point when he deserts her.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-28 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-29 01:17 am (UTC)