User blog comment:MerlinUSA/Merlin -- The Big Picture/@comment-5102537-20130120143649

Hello and welcome to this wiki.

I disagree with your points  (and my teenager-time sadly is long gone...). That's fine, people don't have to share the same opinions. The reason for such dividing opinins surely and most certainly is the fact that there are those who enjoyed the show and various characters before it went downhill - and then there are those who were satisfied with the bromance and loved to watch Merlin and Arthur having their adventures together, totally editing out that this show used to be more than just the Arthur and Merlin-bromance. Judging from all the opinions I've read about the show itself and the finale, most of the fans who liked it all, including the ending, were fans of either Merlin or the bromance. So much for  speculations about why people liked or disliked the finale and/or particular happenings on that show. I understand why you speculated that the Lurker below is a teenager for I often do it myself (as you can see above). And this brings me to what you wrote here:

"Merlin is not a family show. Over the past five seasons, thousands of people have died in it. Even the nicest character, Gwen, has murdered three people. Viewers have had more than two seasons' warning that the story arc was taking a more mature turn.  With all that happened throughout all five episodes, there was no possible way to give the story a Disneyland ending.  It was simply no longer possible. I'm baffled by people who say they didn't see this coming."

"Merlin" prides itself to be a family show, yet it wasn't a family show anymore when season three ended. I wrote a long blog about the fact that family is what destroyed everyone, which was a very questionable message. Yet, "Merlin" started as a family show and the result was that children watched it too. It was planned to make Arthur king at the end of the entire show which was changed when they killed Uther off. It was planned that Merlin has to protect Arthur until he claims the crown which was also changed when Arthur became king in the beginning of season four already. "The Wicked Day" was the ultimate epsiode that changed the entire direction and plot of the show, and all those children and young teens who had watched it until then suddenly found themselves watching a show that was a festival of suffering, misery and cruelty, torture and brutality, whether it was graphically shown with blood or not. Those who started to watch at the age of six, for example, were only nine to ten when season four changed everything. Naturally, those children wanted to continue watching and wanted to know how it all ends. Season four was suitable for children at the age of twelve but it was too harsh and cruel even for fifteen years olds, simply because all the failure, misery and hatred and revenge was the constant plotline. Why they changed it all and made it a show that actually wasn't suitable for minors anymore is not so hard to figure out. Nowadays, a lot of people think that TV shows can only survive when cruelty and brutality is demonstrated. However, it still called itself a family show - and as such they should have taken care of showing plots and a finale that was suitable instead of creating an illogical cruel drama about failure and misery.

"In the end the show became what it always was -- a love story between Arthur and Merlin.  The ending made it clear that their love had defeated their fates by making fate itself meaningless. "

No. This was what the final season and the finale was about but not the entire show. It started as a story about the young wizard protecting Arthur, Camelot and his fellow magic-users/sorceres. It was about Merlin trying to bring back magic to the land and about Arthur and Merlin in their younger years before they get famous, which means, before all those common legends about Arthur being king, uniting Albion, marrying Gwen etc.... The dragon emphazised several times that it was Merlin's fate to help Arthur uniting Albion. The sorcerer who showed Merlin the vision in the beginning of season five told Merlin that only he can break the circle of fate. The Fisher King told Merlin that Albion needs Merlin's help. Kilgharrah also told Merlin that his destiny was to keep Arthur alive until he becomes king in order to unite the lands of Albion. Then the story could begin, the famous Arthur uniting the lands of Albion and whatnot - all at the end of the last season and all off-screen. Instead they put everything about the legends within just two seasons, made a mockery of everything that was said and demonstrated before and changed the entire story into a mere bromance between Arthur and Merlin. It was never planned to show a love-story in the first three seasons which was obvious. They just made it that way in the finale, which was quite ridiculous.

Arthur didn't die knowing that Albion was safe. How could Albion be safe when Camelot didn't even fight side by side with its allies, when Albion wasn't united, when Gwen was alone, when countless sorcerers were still outthere, when other kingdoms surely would take advantage of a weakened Camelot after several wars and the final battel at Camlann? There was nothing safe, on the contrary.

"So legalizing magic was never the point of the show. The finale contained a strong message about love and fate, two themes that come up over and over through all five seasons. While magic is also a theme connecting every episode, the finale tells us that it wasn't the most important one."

Legalizing magic was the most important and only main plot during the first three seasons. As I wrote above, numerous conversations, storylines and hints left no doubt about it. They only subsequently changed that in the end. It's no wonder that a lot of viewers neither understand nor approve of it. What you wrote about the "mixed messages" throughout the seasons is exactly the reason why so many fans are disappointed and angry. The mixed messages came up due to plotholes and lazy writing.

If they wanted to make a show about a love-story only, whether a real one or a platonic one, they should have done it from the beginning but not change the entire story all of a sudden. With season four, a new show began. First a new show about cruelty and suffering, overlooking previous plotlines, dropping previous plotlines, changing characters. Then, with season five, the entire main plot changed especially with the last two epsiodes. Nothing was accomplished in the end, everything was rushed, the finale left a huge vaccum, no questions were answered, no goal was achieved. If it had always only been about Merlin being accepted by Arthur only, then it was even more shallow and flat than the last two seasons have already been. What poor soul Merlin must have been to forget about himself, his personal happiness, all those opressed people, the well-being of his friends and even opponents (and countless others), about what's right or wrong, about an important prophecy, his fate and destiny, and all that only because he wanted Arthur's love. No, that wasn't what "Merlin" used to be about. This would have been a cheap soap-opera.

Criticising the show is totally alright. Where else could people say what they didn't like if not on a site that deals with the show?