User blog:LokiIsAwesome/Agravaine and a few other Series 4 characters...

Okay, it's no secret at all that everyone hates Agravaine aka Agrapain. But I am going to explain how he was a negativity to the story. We all hated Uther, but his character had depth and was very original! And ultimately very entertaining! Agravaine... we basically got tired of him just being a repetetive element to which Morgana was in Series 3... Anyway, I am going to list how he sucked.

Why the producers introduced 'Agravaine'
To be honest, I cannot think of a reason why they introduced Agravaine into the story other than the fact that Nathaniel Parker is a good actor. They probably wanted him in just so Nathaniel could portray him. Another reason why they would introduce him would be because they initially planned on killing off Uther at the start of the series, so they would need another character to fill the shoes of being a sinister influence to Arthur. However I keep going back to the fact that this is nothing but repetetiveness and unoriginality. Why not think of a new and original character rather than introcuding a mixture between Morgana in Series 3 and Uther.

'Agravaine' was there for no reason
It makes me super mad when villains are villains for no reason. In other literature and stories we have seen some wonderful villains like Voldemort, Saruman, Lex Luthor, Darth Vader, Loki, Aaron the Moor; etc. Why were they so good? Because they each had reasons to be the villains they were in their universe. Unlike Agravaine who was just helping Morgana for no reason at all!

'Agravaine' is supposed to be a knight!!??
In the legends, Sir Agravain was a loyal knight of Arthur and his legendary round table. And they totally screwered the traditional 'Sir Agravain' over by introducing (they in fact did not introduce him even, he was an assumed character after the infamous 'time jump') a silly and nonsensical smirking uncle who served absolutely NO purpose to the overall story.

'Agravaine' stole screen time from the knights
If you were complaining about the lack of screen time Gwaine was given, or the lack of exploration Percival was given, it was all because Arthur was too busy being fooled by his silly smirking uncle! To think that Arthur could have been having conversations with Gwaine, Percival, Leon or Elyan and exploring their far more intersting characteristics really kills me! The thought of what could have been really really kills me! A main reason why I liked the episode, A Herald of the New Age because Agravaine was hardly involved!

'Agravaine' was holding Arthur back
Arthur is destined to unite the lands of Albion while forming the legendary knights of the round table while eventually being killed by Mordred. Arthur didn't do one of those things! Why? Because Agravaine stopped him from doing it, example, he could have asked Agravaine this, "Agravaine, you are the best uncle ever, I know you'll never betray me so I have a question, should we unite the kingdoms... forming Albion?" and then of course Agravaine smirks and says, "No Arthur, it doesn't suit Morgana which wouldn't suit me".

'Agravaine' did not have any layers
To have a story you need characters, to have a good story you need to be interested in the characters you are writing about. And to be interested in characters they need to have depth and layers. Agravaine did not have and depth and no layers! He just had one objective: be an evil spy for Morgana and hate Arthur and any one else affiliated with him! He did show one week of hate towards Uther but that was in a small scene! That sort of stuff needed to occur throughout the series! We didn't even get one single reference to his brother Tristan de Bois! Nor was his own surname mentioned!

'Agravaine' wasn't even introduced!
One good thing about characters, is seeing the other characters' reactions when they first see them. And for Agravaine, the first time we saw him was months after the other characters first saw him. A good example of lazy writing! And they constantly mentioned to unseen events in the infamous time jump which also drove me insane!

'Agravaine' has not ultimately contributed
We are going to see some amazing things happen in Series 5, some amazing things! But has Agravaine contributed to any of this? No, he hasn't, everything he has done has mainly failed and he has not left any sort of mark on the story unlike other deceased characters such as: Uther, Lancelot and Morgause. Alvarr achieved more in his single episode than Agravaine did in the entire season he was in!

'Agravaine' was preventing other characters from returning
There were some amazing characters we saw in Series 1, 2 and 3 to which weren't even given a cameo in Series 4! Before Series 4 I was expecting Alvarr to return! Odin to return! And Mordred to be mentioned... But the series was too focused on Agravaine to bother re-introducing those characters in another one episode appearance or perhaps more...

'Agravaine' was only there to be an element of 'darkness'
The producers have clearly stated in Behind the Scenes videos and have implied in other merchandise and in the episodes that Agravaine made Series 4 a lot more 'dark'. Um... hullo! Characters are made because of how interesting the characters are not just to change the style of the story. The characters are what makes any story good! These days they cannot rely on special effects or feeling because the film and television industry has developed so much! The writers need to be interested in the character not how the character will impact on the feeling of the story... And to be honest, I think Series 4 did a pretty pathetic job at expressing it's so called 'darkness' because they simply tried to hard. Stories naturally become dark as it end approaches.

'Agravaine' was none more than a puppet to Morgana
Everything Agravaine did was for Morgana, I'm not sure whether if it was driven by love, but if it was... yuck! But Agravaine served no purpose to himself! Everything he did was devoted to Morgana.

The Cailleach
She randomly brought up in a conversation upon the veil to the spirit world being opened, Emrys... I mean, what does he have to do with something relating to the Dorocha? Like Agravaine, she was only there to make the story 'dark', her character served absolutely no purpose other than creating an indirect diversion for Merlin so Lancelot could sneak into the veil... honestly if you think about it, it sounds SOOO pathetic!

The Lamia
The Lamia was pointless, not question. She didn't have any reason to be a villain, just there to make Seris 4 more 'dark'. And the so called 'darkness' that occured around her was those awkward conversations with her and the knights... I mean, come on! Darkness is blood, horror, tension.

Lancelot's Shade
All Lancelot's shade did was screw the good Lancelot's reputation over! Now that Lancelot isn't going to come back he cannot redeem the horrors his shade caused! It's absolutely sickening knowing that the most 'loyal and bravest of them all' would be remembered by Arthur and his clan as a sick person who backstabbed his friend the night before the wedding.

Conclusion
I wouldn't have minded if Agravaine only appeared in an episode or two but having to deal with him in 13 episodes really did suck! Merlin needs to step up with it's so called 'darkness' and QUIT HAVING THE GODDAMN ENEMY WITHIN THE WALLS!!!!!!!! If Mordred is at Arthur's side at the start of Series 5 I will literally break by tv screen by throwing the remote at it and never ever watch Merlin again!

Series 4, in my humble opinion, was the worst series we have seen in Merlin. It's pathetic attempts at 'darkness', it's lazy written... infamous 'time jumps' and it's repetetiveness drove me insane!

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment below... I know many of you will disagree that Series 4 sucked, but I know you will all agree that Agravaine was sh*t ;)