User blog:Adelina Le Morte March/Freya or Sefa?

So I don't know about the rest of you, but I have personally really warmed up to the episode The Hollow Queen. At first, much as I enjoyed it, I, a bit spoiledly, was a little sore it wasn't "quite as good" as The Dark Tower. However, thinking it over, I changed my mind. In fact, all things considered, even writing-wise, while it didn't have the same "dark fairytale" feel, The Hollow Queen was actually a little BETTER than The Dark Tower.

So, to get to the point of this blog, among all the GREAT acting done by Colin in The Hollow Queen (let's just admit it; no one does poisoned like he does poisoned!), one scene stood out to me. The bit that I guess was supposed to be funny where Arthur asks Merlin about "his girl" because Gwen said he was out meeting some random girl and that's why Arthur and Gaius couldn't find him. While the air of the scene was overall humourous, Merlin's, "I don't have one," reaction was sort of, well, sad...

Naturally, being the over-the-top Freylin shipper I am (hey, I know not everything in the show relates back to Freya/Merlin, but sometimes my brain refuses to register this fact is all!), I right away thought, "I think somebody's thinking about Freya..." In fact, I was hoping, as a cover story, Merlin would even use her name when Arthur said, "Tell us about her," because if we can't have a Freya cameo before the show ends, a mention really wouldn't be too much to ask for! Alas, it didn't happen.

BUT, come to find out, it wasn't just MY Freylin-centered brain that thought he was thinking of Freya! Looking on fanfiction.net, I found a fanfic (which I favorited, of course!) in which someone re-wrote that scene strictly from Merlin's POV and how he was thinking of Freya, and in the fic, he DID in fact talk about her as his cover story to Arthur!

A little while later, however, I stumbled across, on some fansite, a picture of Merlin and Sefa standing together and one of the comments actually said that supposedly Colin and Sophie BOTH agreed, when talking about the subtext (between the lines) of the script, that Merlin and Sefa were totally in a relationship before the start of season five.

Personally, I don't know if it was my Freylin blinders keeping me from seeing it, but when I watched Arthur's Bane, I seriously only took it as they were good friends that flirted a little. Because, frankly, Merlin didn't act all that different towards her as he did to Gwen in season 1. No, I'll give it a little more than that, cuz he DID seem to like her a little, whereas he was completely obvious to Gwen's crush, even after she kissed him when she thought he was dead. His manner around Sefa was quite a bit like season 1 Merlin's reaction to Nimueh/Cara, but slightly less boyish and more mature.

But, hey, there's a THREE YEAR time gap between season 4 and season 5, more than enough time for Merlin to have gotten into relationship with Sefa. BUT she did strike me as fairly new to Gwen's service, so I think it's fair to assume she wasn't there for the WHOLE three years.

Also, maybe he's starting to get over Freya a little bit. Given, he didn't seem even REMOTELY over her when he saw her face in the Avalon-water puddle in season 3, but going by the show's timeline, even THAT would have been what, five years ago? And their actual relationship from season 2 even LONGER ago. So yeah, that is time he could of moved on in, but all the same, it hasn't struck me, as of yet, that Sefa was someone he was willing to move on with.

A number of fans, before Kara's character was announced as Mordred's love interest were actually shipping Sefa/Mordred, despite the fact that they had no scenes together (I admit, I was starting to like this pairing quite a lot after reading a fanfic about them, but I'm not letting myself get too attached, since I know it's not going to happen). It just struck me as odd that, even a subtext relationship didn't register with MOST of the fans. More people were shipping Merlin/Mithian than Merlin/Sefa! And don't even get me started on the number of Mergana fics and what not STILL coming strong despite the fact that she was really cruel to him this season.

Still, if you re-think the scene in The Hollow Queen from a Merlin/Sefa standpoint, I guess it would be a similar reaction to if he was thinking of Freya. I mean, he lost Freya in death, and then she came back to life but it doesn't seem like he can visit her as Merlin of the legends often does The Lady of the Lake, for whatever reason, but Sefa BETRAYED ARTHUR. If Merlin actually had feelings for Sefa and then had to stop liking her because she was a traitor, that would have been rough on him. I can totally see that. Still, I think if that's what the writers/actors were going for, they REALLY could have done a better job getting this across. Leaving that ambigous scene from The Hollow Queen out of it, in fact, there is no sign that Merlin reacted to Sefa's absence from Camelot AT ALL. Whereas we ALL saw him upset when Freya died, cleaning boots all sad-like when Arthur walked in. And he was VERY excited when he saw her in that puddle and she told him it was really her. Not to mention his reaction to seeing just her ARM. Merlin NEVER smiles quite that big in season five (and only in season four when Aithusa hatches!).

So my question is this, do you think Merlin was thinking of Sefa or Freya when Arthur asked about "his girl"? Both? Neither?

Also, do you think there's a chance that instead of bringing Freya back, Sefa and Merlin could be reunited and recongiled? (I hope not, but that's just me.) At the end of the show?

Personally, Sefa, as much as I like her, seems more like the kind of sweet but weak-minded girl who would eventually trap Merlin, IF they ever got into a relationship and she learned magic from him or whatever, in a glass tower, crystal cave, or oak tree. I don't think she'd do it 100% willingly, but I think she would. But I would be a bit "meh" if the show had her do so, because that's still really edging her too much into Freya's role. Morgana would be okay, though, since in the legends she sometimes trapped Merlin.

What do you all think?