Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Four/@comment-5102537-20131103103427/@comment-5102537-20131105151224

Areanna123 wrote:

Did it bother any one else that Merlin was randomly saved, again? Plot Armor.

Not so much that he was saved but the fact that nobody wondered how he had survived the dorocha's touch. I found it quite interesting that Merlin's "future has been written since the dawn of time". He had to be saved, of course. However, I would have found it much more satisfying if Arthur and the knights had wanted to know how the hell he survived.

I think "The Darkest Hour" wasn't so bad but it lacked intelligent dialouges. It seemed to be more flat than the previous episodes, and like the finale of season three it was also very rushed. Something which the following episodes of the next two seasons kept doing.

Loved the scene at the river with the Vilia. Beautifully shot.

What you wrote about Gwen nursing Uther, Areanna - I had a big problem with it too. To me it was awful for both characters: Gwen had to take care of the man that had her father killed, not to mention that taking care of a catatonic person is a very tough and unpleasant job.

Then the very fact that a woman nursed a man at that time was quite astonishing and embarassing for both characters. It should have been a male nurse, actually. Uther was exposed to Gwen, a woman and the one of whom he probably thought hated him (even though she didn't). Uther was constantly reminded of Morgana that way since Gwen used to be her maid servant and best friend. This is something that surely contributed to his depressions, because due to Gwen's presence only, he probably wasn't able to not think of Morgana all the time. Being seen in his most vulnerable state by Gwen and having lost his privacy was a very indelicate situation.

Another indelicate thing was Gwen telling Arthur that she didn't do it for Uther but for Arthur - in front of Uther. She had better kept it to herself instead of saying this in front of Uther and telling it to his son who was worried and devastated. If she was bothered and disgusted by this she shouldn't have agreed in the first place. Despite her disapproval of Uther, she saw him now being destroyed and helpless which actually should have triggered a bit of empathy and compassion. Some things are better left unsaid and I think Gwen's callous remark was one of it. But then again... she was counting the days until Uther died, wasn't she? ;-)

OngardOdin, if I'm not mistaken, there was a scene that showed Morgause in the Spirit World which was never used. Rumours had it that a scene with her in the afterlife was originally planned but was never used in the episodes.

I've never figured the big plan's purpose of releasing the dorocha. What land or kingdom was Morgana supposed to rule when everyone was dead? I remember a scene from "Buffy" when the vampire Spike joined forces with Buffy in order to stop the destruction of the world. He said that the apocalypse wouldn't make sense since there wouldn't be all the things he and other demons/vampires needed and liked.

So what was Morgause and Morgana's plan? Ruling a destroyed land of dead people with the spirits of the dead flying around?

Arthur's attempt to sacrifice himself was exceptionally noble, yet another example of him almost leaving the kingdom without a ruler. Had he succeeded and being killed, Camelot would fall to Morgana as being next in line to the throne, and she wouldn't even have had to conquer it in that case. So was Morgana planning on Arthur sacrificing himself? I doubt that because she could never be sure and a hint in the episodes was totally missing.

Lancelot's death was a major letdown here. It was noble for his character to take Arthur's part and sacrificing himself but it was very disappointing and yet another one of all the characters that were being killed off in seasons four and five in the attempt to make the story more "mature". "More deaths = grown-up" has never worked me, neither has "more brutal and callous = more mature".

They could have let Lancelot leave Camelot instead of killing him off. He was the only really mature knight and one of the few characters with the necessary gravitas that was yet taken off the show. What a shame! This and many other things contributed to more childish and immature plots and character-behaviour. I felt sorry for Merlin that he lost a friend, a wise and kind friend who knew about his powers and would have been a great help to him, especially when later this ridiculous and childish "let's bully Merlin" started all of a sudden by all the other knights and Arthur. I wish Lancelot had stayed.

I don't know if I liked Uther's part here. On the one hand, it was very evident that his love for Morgana was so strong that it literally destroyed him, plus it was evident that he wouldn't have killed her for her magical powers (since he didn't but went broken instead). However, in regard to his upcoming death his suffering was not only quite sadistical (because he would never recover) but also really sad to see that the show destroyed this actual character conclusion by just one single episode when he returned in season five and was suddenly shown as an evil psycho. However, it was heartbreaking when he begged Arthur not to leave him and it showed that Arthur was the last one he still had after having lost Igraine and Morgana. In his mental condition he was reduced to basic emotions, and it wasn't rage or anger but the fear of being alone and being left by everyone. One can only assume what was going on in his mind, but it's very likely that he realised that he loved what he hated (Morgana = magic) and that he had sentenced those who were born with magic even though he himself brought a magical being into existence, thus being as "guilty" as others were. Additionally, Morgana was the living proof for the total corruption of magic, yet he still loved her even though it should have been impossible for him to love such an evil witch. He was proven right on one hand but also proven wrong on the other. He had trusted his worst enemy with his life, the life of his son and his entire kingdom. Surely, he must have realised that all the malicous attempts on his life and Camelot in the past were done by Morgana, including torturing him with the mandrake root and Cenred's attack. Hating magic meant hating Morgana, but he couldn't hate her and his entire world and what he had been believing for more than two decades came crushing down on him all at once. So his mind shut down. This had been a brilliant move if he had recovered someday, hadn't died and most of all if it hadn't been made a mockery of again when he returned as a psycho-ghost later in season five.

Morgana still didn't want to see that she was wrong about Uther when ignoring that his mental condition caused by her hatred was undoubtful proof for his love for her.

Morgause's death didn't hit me much, yet I thought that her fans will most likely be very disappointed. I also would have liked to get an answer about the mystery of Morgause, Vivienne, Morgana, Igraine, Uther - why she was smuggled out of Camelot as baby, how she could have known Igraine and all that was connected to it. Instead, with killing off Morgause they also killed off this plotline, ignored it completely and left all those things unanswered.

I couldn't feel any positive aspect about Arthur being regent Prince and Merlin and Gaius being so indifferent towards Uther. The banter between Merlin and Arthur also didn't interest me since it was always the same.

Agravaine was a totally wasted character. Where did he suddenly come from, why did he never tell Arthur about the circumstances of his birth when Arthur was a child, why was he plottig with Morgana, why did he hate Arthur and Uther so much? And much more. He could have been a fascinating contribution if they had given him more background.

Morgana never mentioned Morgause and didn't seem to be very sad about her death. I would have expected some sort of obvious grief.