Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Five/@comment-5102537-20140426100805/@comment-24456706-20140427050117

Issy5209, your assessment of this episode was superb!

I don't know that I'll be able to add anything constructive here... I've been keeping up with the discussion of the previous few episodes, and am finding it increasingly difficult to conjure up some analysis that doesn't parrot what I've already mentioned elsewhere (or what others have already so aptly phrased). Most of the problems I noted with this episode recur throughout the entirety of this series, and I know they've been discussed before on other forums. I mean, I could mention how disappointing it was not to have been given any greater understanding of the Old Religion/New Religion differences, given how important one of them (or both of them?) was in terms of securing a resolution to this "evil Gwen" arc... but we've been there, done that!

The "women in Camelot" discussion is an interesting one, and I'll need to gather my thoughts more before I can adequately post anything about it: right off the top of my head, though, it always disappointed me that the show didn't feature more regular female characters. (Surely Gwen and Morgana aren't the only two women to appear in the Arthurian legends?) And the fact that their characters were always assassinated in one way or another before long --- first Morgana, with her raging psychopathy, and then Gwen, who lost all substance when she became Queen, it seems --- was hugely ridiculous. I don't know if this is something akin to Steven Moffat misogyny, but this series didn't do women a great deal of justice.