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sezsoSo, most of my thoughts these days revolve around Merlin (the show, the character, the actor... I'm a little besotted), but recently I've been thinking about the portrayal of magic users in the show, and I came to a conclusion. It's REALLY not all that positive. Uther, while refreshingly complicated and dynamic (due in no small part to the FABULOUS Anthony Stewart Head), really seems to be more right about magic than Merlin is. Let's take a look at the facts.
First off: Merlin. He's the good guy! No complications there, right? Right... except he starts killing people in the first ep with no signs of remorse. True, they are all the bad guys, but the no remorse is a tad chilling if you think about it a little. Also, I firmly maintain that when he killed Nimueh in the finale, he wasn't doing it to trade her life for Gaius'; he was doing it for revenge. And both Uther and Nimueh are doing all THEIR killing for revenge, which is a slightly chilling comparison. Not that I blame him for any of this or love him any less, I just want to point out that he's not as pure and uncomplicated as he might seem at first glance.
Then there's Nimueh. Obviously she's been Damaged-by-Uther, but she was probably Unstable-to-Begin-With. I maintain this because her reaction to Uther becoming, in her eyes, a mass murderer, was to turn around and become one herself, without managing to see the horrible irony. You lose any right to sympathy when innocents start dying for something they don't even KNOW about (talking about the plague in the water here, but I'm sure that wasn't the first time something like that happened).
And how about Gaius? Ambiguous Gaius is WAY ambiguous. We know that he at least stood by and watched friends die at Uther's hands, but did he turn some of them in? Did he maybe fight some of them to protect Uther? I wouldn't doubt it. And yet, he's protecting Merlin, even used MAGIC to help save his life.
Morgana. She's not REALLY a magic user, not yet. But she will be, and the legends give her a lot of different paths. She's pretty ambiguous, and the show is playing her that way. She's fiercely loyal and protective, her temper is frightening, and she holds grudges. Not the greatest set of qualities to be combined in a single person. She's also been Damaged-by-Uther, which is NOT a great way to start, given what we've already seen from other people who have been Damaged-by-Uther.
Let's take a look at the eps now.
Episode 1:
The guy killed in the beginning and his mum. I've read a fanfiction where they were called Thomas and Mary Collins. And as we all know, Fanfiction is a Reliable Source of Information (haha), so that's what I'm going with till someone corrects me (or I rewatch the ep). Thomas might have been innocent. Might have been guilty of trying to kill someone. Or he might have been a farmer harmlessly trying to use magical pesticide. Mostly we don't know. Given how quickly and EASILY his mum turned to evil though, I wouldn't doubt that he wasn't all that good though. I believe that Nimueh probably had to learn how to go evil because she didn't start out that way.
But Mary was instantly capable of killing Lady Helen and cared very little about it. I think she probably wasn't all that good to start with, and that casts doubt on her son. So, given that information, is Uther wrong to have killed him? On the other hand, he probably couldn't have killed Mary because she was too powerful, and he WAS able to kill Thomas, so does that mean that he DIDN'T have magic or had very little? We don't know really. But if you don't know Merlin, and you don't hear Morgana's warning, do you still believe Uther is wrong to kill magic users? If you're a peasant, don't you want Mary to be caught and executed because you don't know what she's going to do with her magic, but you know (and you're right) she's going to hurt somebody? And if you DO hear Morgana's warning, don't you think to yourself that the magic users come here to kill us anyway so how are we MAKING enemies?
Episode 2:
Shield maker guy! Let's call him PDM for Plot Device Man. PDM mostly seems like a black market dealer who happens to deal with magic items. But he certainly isn't restricting himself to benevolent items, and he certainly doesn't care who gets his items or what they are going to do with them. He's equipping anybody who can pay with whatever they like and enabling them to hurt people. Not exactly a great depiction of a magic user either.
Episode 3:
Nimueh! Mass Murderess! Damaged-by-Uther, Unstable-to-Begin-With. Afanc! Evil magical creature who kills!
Episode 4:
Nimueh! Evil Magical Spiders! More Nimueh!
Episode 5:
Evil Griffon who avoids animals and enjoys people!
Episode 6:
Good old Edwin Muirden,. Damaged-by-Uther (and Gaius), but probably Unstable-to-Begin-With. He's a bit trickier than Nimueh because he did NOT resort to mass murder to achieve his goal. He went after Uther physically and Gaius mentally. I don't think he planned to let Morgana die but he was willing to do so, and threatened Merlin as well. However, murdering Uther is still murder, and he was willing to do anything to get his revenge. He goes down as a lesser evil than Nimueh, but still an evil.
Episode 7:
Sophia and Alfric. Loved each other dearly and their immortality. That's about it. You COULD make a case that that means they weren't pure evil, but I don't know. Even evil people love. I'm not inclined to be forgiving when you are going to sacrifice someone for your own personal gain or even someone else's gain (as Alfric was doing). The Sidhe they go see are perhaps the closest we have yet to non-evil magical beings. They DID kick Alfric out for killing someone. And I'm pretty sure that they don't go around killing people, it was just a magical deal. However, the fact that they HAVE deals like that doesn't put a lot of points in their favor. Also, they made Sophia pay for her father's mistake, which isn't exactly good behavior either. At best, I think the other Sidhe are ambiguous. And yet, they're the only time we've seen magic from anybody except Merlin that wasn't distinctly OMG BAD. So far, Uther isn't looking so crazy. NOT GOOD.
Episode 8:
On the one hand, I TOTALLY adored this episode. I fell out of my seat, nearly literally, when the boy's name was revealed at the end. On the other hand, I was completely devastated. Here, I though, here's some magic users who are GOOD. FINALLY. But no. He grows up to kill Uther. This is the first time Arthur stands against his father to save someone's life (an important moment for us, since we want him to keep Merlin alive) and it turns out Uther's right after all? I was terribly disappointed by that. If there were other good magic users I would be less so, but so far, there AREN'T.
I suppose the man with Mordred in the beginning almost counts. (What is he by the way? Father? Teacher? Brother? BFF?) Except... he's with Mordred and is potentially the reason Mordred grows up to kill Arthur. And the other druids are ALSO connected with Mordred which makes THEM ambiguous. These are the best examples because I'm still with Merlin on this. You can't kill someone for what they MIGHT do. But given the nature of this episode and the magic people in it, we still can't say that Uther's ban is completely wrong, especially given what we as the AUDIENCE know.
Episode 9:
Nimueh! I don't think Tristan counts. He was enchanted/conjured/whatever. I don't think that the actual man would have gone after anybody else, just Uther, exactly as he did in real life.
Episode 10:
No non Merlin magic in this ep.
Episode 11:
ALRIGHT! UNICORNS! Totally not evil! Even Arthur ends up thinking so! Except... they travel around with their own kingdom destroying curse... that affects people who had nothing to do with it... which is one of the problems that I have with Nimueh... damnit Anhora! Not to mention that Arthur really had no warning. Given the kind of upbringing he's had? (MAGIC IS BAD KILLIT KILLIT!) No wonder he doesn't view the unicorn with any particular value. This episode was fantastic and I love that Arthur worked WITH a sorcerer (sort of) because he had to, but he's not going to come out of this experience thinking that Uther is wrong, not REALLY. And I don't blame him.
Episode 12:
Would you believe I haven't seen this ep? I'm not quite sure how it happened, but now I'm stuck till my sister is ready for it because she insists on watching at least ONE ep with me for the first time. And I haven't even been all that spoiled for it, except that OMG Uther DOESN'T die???? *eye roll* Somehow, however, I doubt that there are any magical beings portrayed in a good light. (Also, if anybody actually reads this silly post, no spoilers on 12 please, I'll update this once I've seen it, which should be soon.)
Episode 13:
Nimueh! Questing Beast = OMG RUN AWAY KILLIT! Like the Griffon, only WORSE. And THEN. There's the dragon. OH. The dragon. It might by my irrational love for Merlin talking, but OH. I detest this beast. I know he's been Damaged-by-Uther. But Merlin TRUSTED him and believed in him and dragon stomped all over that. Dragon doesn't know everything, as evidenced by how angry he got when Uther handled Excalibur. But he DID know that Hunith was in danger. He should have told Merlin to be careful and not to trust Nimueh's bargains. He needs Merlin alive for his own interests, but did he have a use for Nimueh? Is that why he didn't say that Merlin could offer Nimueh's life? Merlin might have wrestled with that a bit, but I don't really think so. Even if all his kills for Arthur have been in the heat of the moment, he's never cared after either. He will do nearly anything for Arthur. But the Dragon wasn't out to help Merlin or Arthur. He was looking to help himself and didn't care who he sacrificed to get to his goals. I don't understand why fandom still loves him so much. The Great Slash Dragon and all that. I loved him too, but he hurt my Merlin. I won't be forgetting that in a hurry.
The case can be made that Uther's ban CAUSED most of these problems and that's true to a degree. But the show is just not giving us a lot of reasons for it to be overturned. It's certainly giving us reasons that the DEATH PENALTY for magic should be overturned. And it's giving us reasons that Arthur should make an exception for Merlin, should make Merlin his champion to protect his kingdom from magic. But it's not giving us any reasons why magic should be welcomed back. What I'm getting out of the show is that Uther has ruined magic users and turned them so fully to bitterness, it may be too late to go back.
I am really hoping that next season gives us some dryads or a nymph or SOMETHING that is good about magic, because I really don't want Uther's bitterness and anger to have ruined everything. I end up feeling depressed when I think too hard about it (just like when I think too much about the inevitable ending of Merlin, although I've more or less fixed that in my head, more on that next time).
Dunno if anybody will even read this, but I was writing it in my head and I decided that the only way to stop doing that was to actually sit down and WRITE it. So. Yes. Here's my two cents, or the Merlin equivalent!
GOD I love this show. -_-
Also: Holy crap, I wrote a short comment fic! It's been about 5 years since my last one! And I’m working on a full length one! o.O This show has truly taken over my brain.
First off: Merlin. He's the good guy! No complications there, right? Right... except he starts killing people in the first ep with no signs of remorse. True, they are all the bad guys, but the no remorse is a tad chilling if you think about it a little. Also, I firmly maintain that when he killed Nimueh in the finale, he wasn't doing it to trade her life for Gaius'; he was doing it for revenge. And both Uther and Nimueh are doing all THEIR killing for revenge, which is a slightly chilling comparison. Not that I blame him for any of this or love him any less, I just want to point out that he's not as pure and uncomplicated as he might seem at first glance.
Then there's Nimueh. Obviously she's been Damaged-by-Uther, but she was probably Unstable-to-Begin-With. I maintain this because her reaction to Uther becoming, in her eyes, a mass murderer, was to turn around and become one herself, without managing to see the horrible irony. You lose any right to sympathy when innocents start dying for something they don't even KNOW about (talking about the plague in the water here, but I'm sure that wasn't the first time something like that happened).
And how about Gaius? Ambiguous Gaius is WAY ambiguous. We know that he at least stood by and watched friends die at Uther's hands, but did he turn some of them in? Did he maybe fight some of them to protect Uther? I wouldn't doubt it. And yet, he's protecting Merlin, even used MAGIC to help save his life.
Morgana. She's not REALLY a magic user, not yet. But she will be, and the legends give her a lot of different paths. She's pretty ambiguous, and the show is playing her that way. She's fiercely loyal and protective, her temper is frightening, and she holds grudges. Not the greatest set of qualities to be combined in a single person. She's also been Damaged-by-Uther, which is NOT a great way to start, given what we've already seen from other people who have been Damaged-by-Uther.
Let's take a look at the eps now.
Episode 1:
The guy killed in the beginning and his mum. I've read a fanfiction where they were called Thomas and Mary Collins. And as we all know, Fanfiction is a Reliable Source of Information (haha), so that's what I'm going with till someone corrects me (or I rewatch the ep). Thomas might have been innocent. Might have been guilty of trying to kill someone. Or he might have been a farmer harmlessly trying to use magical pesticide. Mostly we don't know. Given how quickly and EASILY his mum turned to evil though, I wouldn't doubt that he wasn't all that good though. I believe that Nimueh probably had to learn how to go evil because she didn't start out that way.
But Mary was instantly capable of killing Lady Helen and cared very little about it. I think she probably wasn't all that good to start with, and that casts doubt on her son. So, given that information, is Uther wrong to have killed him? On the other hand, he probably couldn't have killed Mary because she was too powerful, and he WAS able to kill Thomas, so does that mean that he DIDN'T have magic or had very little? We don't know really. But if you don't know Merlin, and you don't hear Morgana's warning, do you still believe Uther is wrong to kill magic users? If you're a peasant, don't you want Mary to be caught and executed because you don't know what she's going to do with her magic, but you know (and you're right) she's going to hurt somebody? And if you DO hear Morgana's warning, don't you think to yourself that the magic users come here to kill us anyway so how are we MAKING enemies?
Episode 2:
Shield maker guy! Let's call him PDM for Plot Device Man. PDM mostly seems like a black market dealer who happens to deal with magic items. But he certainly isn't restricting himself to benevolent items, and he certainly doesn't care who gets his items or what they are going to do with them. He's equipping anybody who can pay with whatever they like and enabling them to hurt people. Not exactly a great depiction of a magic user either.
Episode 3:
Nimueh! Mass Murderess! Damaged-by-Uther, Unstable-to-Begin-With. Afanc! Evil magical creature who kills!
Episode 4:
Nimueh! Evil Magical Spiders! More Nimueh!
Episode 5:
Evil Griffon who avoids animals and enjoys people!
Episode 6:
Good old Edwin Muirden,. Damaged-by-Uther (and Gaius), but probably Unstable-to-Begin-With. He's a bit trickier than Nimueh because he did NOT resort to mass murder to achieve his goal. He went after Uther physically and Gaius mentally. I don't think he planned to let Morgana die but he was willing to do so, and threatened Merlin as well. However, murdering Uther is still murder, and he was willing to do anything to get his revenge. He goes down as a lesser evil than Nimueh, but still an evil.
Episode 7:
Sophia and Alfric. Loved each other dearly and their immortality. That's about it. You COULD make a case that that means they weren't pure evil, but I don't know. Even evil people love. I'm not inclined to be forgiving when you are going to sacrifice someone for your own personal gain or even someone else's gain (as Alfric was doing). The Sidhe they go see are perhaps the closest we have yet to non-evil magical beings. They DID kick Alfric out for killing someone. And I'm pretty sure that they don't go around killing people, it was just a magical deal. However, the fact that they HAVE deals like that doesn't put a lot of points in their favor. Also, they made Sophia pay for her father's mistake, which isn't exactly good behavior either. At best, I think the other Sidhe are ambiguous. And yet, they're the only time we've seen magic from anybody except Merlin that wasn't distinctly OMG BAD. So far, Uther isn't looking so crazy. NOT GOOD.
Episode 8:
On the one hand, I TOTALLY adored this episode. I fell out of my seat, nearly literally, when the boy's name was revealed at the end. On the other hand, I was completely devastated. Here, I though, here's some magic users who are GOOD. FINALLY. But no. He grows up to kill Uther. This is the first time Arthur stands against his father to save someone's life (an important moment for us, since we want him to keep Merlin alive) and it turns out Uther's right after all? I was terribly disappointed by that. If there were other good magic users I would be less so, but so far, there AREN'T.
I suppose the man with Mordred in the beginning almost counts. (What is he by the way? Father? Teacher? Brother? BFF?) Except... he's with Mordred and is potentially the reason Mordred grows up to kill Arthur. And the other druids are ALSO connected with Mordred which makes THEM ambiguous. These are the best examples because I'm still with Merlin on this. You can't kill someone for what they MIGHT do. But given the nature of this episode and the magic people in it, we still can't say that Uther's ban is completely wrong, especially given what we as the AUDIENCE know.
Episode 9:
Nimueh! I don't think Tristan counts. He was enchanted/conjured/whatever. I don't think that the actual man would have gone after anybody else, just Uther, exactly as he did in real life.
Episode 10:
No non Merlin magic in this ep.
Episode 11:
ALRIGHT! UNICORNS! Totally not evil! Even Arthur ends up thinking so! Except... they travel around with their own kingdom destroying curse... that affects people who had nothing to do with it... which is one of the problems that I have with Nimueh... damnit Anhora! Not to mention that Arthur really had no warning. Given the kind of upbringing he's had? (MAGIC IS BAD KILLIT KILLIT!) No wonder he doesn't view the unicorn with any particular value. This episode was fantastic and I love that Arthur worked WITH a sorcerer (sort of) because he had to, but he's not going to come out of this experience thinking that Uther is wrong, not REALLY. And I don't blame him.
Episode 12:
Would you believe I haven't seen this ep? I'm not quite sure how it happened, but now I'm stuck till my sister is ready for it because she insists on watching at least ONE ep with me for the first time. And I haven't even been all that spoiled for it, except that OMG Uther DOESN'T die???? *eye roll* Somehow, however, I doubt that there are any magical beings portrayed in a good light. (Also, if anybody actually reads this silly post, no spoilers on 12 please, I'll update this once I've seen it, which should be soon.)
Episode 13:
Nimueh! Questing Beast = OMG RUN AWAY KILLIT! Like the Griffon, only WORSE. And THEN. There's the dragon. OH. The dragon. It might by my irrational love for Merlin talking, but OH. I detest this beast. I know he's been Damaged-by-Uther. But Merlin TRUSTED him and believed in him and dragon stomped all over that. Dragon doesn't know everything, as evidenced by how angry he got when Uther handled Excalibur. But he DID know that Hunith was in danger. He should have told Merlin to be careful and not to trust Nimueh's bargains. He needs Merlin alive for his own interests, but did he have a use for Nimueh? Is that why he didn't say that Merlin could offer Nimueh's life? Merlin might have wrestled with that a bit, but I don't really think so. Even if all his kills for Arthur have been in the heat of the moment, he's never cared after either. He will do nearly anything for Arthur. But the Dragon wasn't out to help Merlin or Arthur. He was looking to help himself and didn't care who he sacrificed to get to his goals. I don't understand why fandom still loves him so much. The Great Slash Dragon and all that. I loved him too, but he hurt my Merlin. I won't be forgetting that in a hurry.
The case can be made that Uther's ban CAUSED most of these problems and that's true to a degree. But the show is just not giving us a lot of reasons for it to be overturned. It's certainly giving us reasons that the DEATH PENALTY for magic should be overturned. And it's giving us reasons that Arthur should make an exception for Merlin, should make Merlin his champion to protect his kingdom from magic. But it's not giving us any reasons why magic should be welcomed back. What I'm getting out of the show is that Uther has ruined magic users and turned them so fully to bitterness, it may be too late to go back.
I am really hoping that next season gives us some dryads or a nymph or SOMETHING that is good about magic, because I really don't want Uther's bitterness and anger to have ruined everything. I end up feeling depressed when I think too hard about it (just like when I think too much about the inevitable ending of Merlin, although I've more or less fixed that in my head, more on that next time).
Dunno if anybody will even read this, but I was writing it in my head and I decided that the only way to stop doing that was to actually sit down and WRITE it. So. Yes. Here's my two cents, or the Merlin equivalent!
GOD I love this show. -_-
Also: Holy crap, I wrote a short comment fic! It's been about 5 years since my last one! And I’m working on a full length one! o.O This show has truly taken over my brain.