User blog:Chawk1993/Arthur's Bane Part One review

This is my VERY review for Arthur's Bane: Part One. I know, its late because I like to wait to watch it with my family on Sunday nights on 10 which my dad and I dubbed 'Merlin Night'. Anyway, on with the review.

As much as I loved the episode there was one little thing to do with the CGI that looks really off. Being a film student, I have learned to pick up on the little details of what makes the CGI look real but the scene where Merlin talks to Kilgharrah about Arthur's Bane, just by looking at Kilgharrah, the CGI work looks really dodgy. For any filmmakers or animators on this wiki will probably agree with me that it looked really dodgy. I know the effects for this season are done in-house but they really screwed up on Kilgharrah. This comment will probably get backlash but most of you aren't doing the type of work I'm getting into. I know everyone else who reads this will have a different perspective on how the CGI is done on this epicially brilliant episode, I understand that but this is my view.

The next thing I wanted to comment on was the scene where Gwen sentences Sefa to 'death'. I think she did the right thing in sentencing Sefa. I know people have been bitching about how Gwen was too 'harsh' and that they no longer like Gwen as a character because of how tough she has become. I personally like the new side of Gwen. She's doing what she thinks is right. Many people find her annoying but to those loyal Gwen fans will agree with me what seeing her go from a shy awkward young maid to a highly respected and fearless Queen of Camelot is a great thing to see. In some shows you see characters that just don't develop until very late into the show's run but I think what the writers have done is absoultely brilliant. Each season Gwen has evolved into the Queen we now see who is not afraid to speak her mind. Though we are yet to see Gwen rule alongside Arthur, you really get to see her in action as a solo ruler when she is sentencing Sefa to 'death'.

You can practically see the cogs in her mind moving in a way that you can really see what Gwen has become in sense of being a Queen. She is a female version of Arthur so to speak. She also did a Morgana in sense of how she befriended Sefa like the way Morgana befriended her in Series 1 when Morgana was still good. Another thing is, I believe what Gwen did was the right thing. Unlike the Agravaine and Morgana traitor issue, Sefa didn't hate Camelot because she was treated kindly, while Morgana and Agravaine hated Camelot because of past events. Morgana will Uther's hatred of magic and lying to her about being her father and Merlin poisoning her, etc and Agravaine's hatred was mostly aimed at Arthur and Uther because of Ygraine's death in childbirth with Arthur and Tristan's death at Uther's hand. Sefa was forced to be spy by her father while Morgana and Agravaine were willing to be spies. Gwen certainly was quick to pick up that they had been betrayed and she was also quick to act while it took Arthur and Uther ages to act.

The Morgana scenes were brilliant but I was disappointed that she didn't use magic to kill a few people. I actually enjoy seeing her kill a few people whether it be in annoyance or just for the hell of it.

Now, I think everyone will waiting for my Mordred return thoughts. I actually thought it was fantastic in the way that Alexander did it. He must have studied Asa's previous episodes with the evil smirk which I actually cringed at in the end and his line 'Hello Arthur,' before it cut to black. I wanted to scream and say 'Oh come on! Play part 2!' which unfortunately I have to wait until this coming sunday to see. My dad said as the promo for part 2 was playing. "Who was that?" and myself, my sister and mother said 'Mordred.' He finally got it so all good. I was ready to cry when they showed the vision that Merlin sees of Mordred on the Saxon side finishing Arthur off. I, like most fans don't want that to happen but it could happen if Merlin doesn't stop it.

So overrall, brilliant episode. I love the whole Sefa betrayal thing. I think they should have lengthened the betrayal into the next part of the episode at least at the start of the episode but overrall brilliant. Can't wait for Part 2.