User blog:KALegend./Thoughts on S5

I've already talked a bit about the finale, in my blog earlier this week, but I thought I might fill the time that I used to watch Merlin- *sniff* - with writing a blog of my thoughts on Series 5 as a whole- though I'll go through the main characters rather than episode by episode.

Merlin
Merlin has certainly matured this series. I think Colin Morgan has to be my favourite actor on the show, due to his brilliant acting skills. [Not just because of the cheekbones!] He has managed to portray Merlin slowly maturing and becoming wiser through the entirety of the show, but even more so during Series 5. Right from the beginning, Merlin is dealing with the pressure of Arthur's imminent death at Mordred's hand, and then, whilst having this knowledge, has to deal with Mordred being around Arthur a lot of the time, complete with sword! To be honest, I think Merlin has always been the character I have felt most sympathetic for, and so this series was really episode after episode of sobbing. Every time that Merlin had tears in his eyes, I could be counted on to be reaching for the tissues. He has, by far, been my favourite character this series, and though there have been moments where I have been rather annoyed at the fact that his attempts to save Arthur end up condemning him, I know that as it is fated, Merlin cannot really help it- which actually endears the character to me even more. Finally, his magic reveal was all I could have hoped for. Despite there having been earlier episodes where a reveal would have been perfect, this one worked well too. They even defended the late reveal, with Merlin telling Arthur 'I wouldn't have wanted to put you into that position', which extracted a giant 'Aww!' from me!

Arthur
Despite the obvious first impressions of a macho, manly king, I never fail to find Arthur a cute, cuddly character upon further inspection. This isn't a bad thing- the main reason behind this is the bromance situation between Merlin and Arthur, which is just by nature the cutest thing ever. I've always thought that Bradley James must have a hard time acting as if he doesn't know about Merlin's magic, whilst obviously knowing about the storyline of the show in real life. He does it as realistically as he can, but I did feel that throughout Series 5, it was only made harder for him by the writers, owing to the scenes where I can't believe Arthur was oblivious enough not to get even a little suspicious. In spite of this, Arthur was actually one of the characters I was the most satisfied with in terms of character development, portrayal and storyline. He didn't always make the right decisions, but he was shown to be making them on the basis of what he thought was right; and if it didn't work out, he took the blame upon himself, whether it was his to take or not. I also felt that his reaction to Merlin's magic was believable and heartfelt- ranging from disbelief, to anger, to bitterness, to thankfulness. So, in conclusion- there wasn't much to complain about on the part of Arthur!

Gwen
For me, I'm sorry to say that Gwen's character was one I didn't much like during Series 5. Series' 1-4, she was portrayed wonderfully by Angel Coulby as a feisty, courageous serving-girl, always seeking to do the right thing, and usually acting as the people's spokesperson. During Series 5, I think she lost some of this, due to being Queen, especially from 5x06 to 5x09. She fell into a more advisor-type role, and we only saw a few different dialogues for the most part: 'Don't worry, Arthur. You've made the right choice.', 'You're a good King, Arthur.', the occasional 'I hate all of my friends except you, Morgana!', 'I've no choice but to sentence you to death.', and then a couple of flirty dialogues thrown in. We did, however, finally see the courageous Gwen in the finale. This was too late for me, and I felt that she guessed Merlin's secret rather too conveniently close to Arthur's discovery.

Morgana
Morgana is a rather more difficult character to overview. I felt that until 'The Dark Tower', she didn't really impress. Though I thought that 4 episodes was an awful lot to dedicate to one plot, considering it was the last series, and that there are only 13 episodes, I did enjoy the return of the Morgana/Gwen relationship, which gave a lot of oppurtunities to compare with the earlier relationship between the two. I also liked the way in which she seemed to come closer and closer to the brink of insanity, which she finally succumbed to in the finale, ending up pretty similar to a wreck, blindly trying to fulfill her quest right to the very end, torturing Gwaine to death along the way [Grrrr!]. Morgana has always had a large fanbase, and I felt sorry for those fans in terms of her death. I think it worked, but due to the sheer number of Morgana fans, I think it was a bit too low-key, and could have worked better with a bit of redemption for Morgana.

Gwaine, Percival, Elyan and Leon
These Knights have consistently been the survivors; popping up here and there, providing a bit of comic relief along the way, which really did wonders combined with the dark nature of S4 and S5. Gwaine has always been a favourite character of mine, and so I was saddened by the lack of character development this series. He was often simply there only for comedy, which though needed, works better as a side rather than a main, and after having a kind of annoying relationship with Eira [obviously a spy!], ended up dying an unnecessary death, which though touching and sad, meant he never found out about Merlin either, which I had been looking forward to. The unfortunate high point of this wonderful character was: 'I dreamt I was eating cheese that tasted of apple pie.'. Percival, on the other hand, did have a couple of really nice moments, despite not featuring heavily this series- the high point having to be the breaking-rope situation in the finale, which was pretty cool to see. However, like with Gwaine, I was disappointed with the number of appearances- in Series 4, he had some really great scenes, such as in 'The Darkest Hour', and 'Lamia'. Elyan went far too quickly for my liking. Though, I guess, they had to make Gwen's betrayal all the more poignant in light of her brother's sacrifice, it was sad to see such a great character go. There's really not much to say about Elyan- he went too fast, and unfortunately, didn't get to see the action of the finale. Leon is probably my favourite knight of Series 5. He really took on a bigger role during Series 5, and was obviously the last knight we see before the end, proclaiming Arthur dead. Again, there's not much to say about Leon- but now for the reason that I don't actually have anything bad to say about him!

Gaius
Ah, Gaius. He has always been a brilliant character. Consistently wise, funny and, let's face it, adorable, I don't really have many complaints about him either. I do feel a bit sad that we don't know if Merlin came back to Camelot to see Gaius, which I think would have made a lovely ending, showing that life does go on. Whilst I actually didn't mind the 'modern day' ending scene, I would have preferred a Gaius/Merlin ending, or at least one involving Merlin coming back to Camelot and walking down the hall to see Gwen and Gaius, with all the knights crowding round afterwards and accepting Merlin's magic.

Mordred
Mordred was portrayed especially well this series, with brilliant acting on Alexander Vlahos' part. I loved 'The Drawing of the Dark', which was a wonderful episode: a true show of the acting skills of Merlin's amazing cast. I did always have, however, that horrible feeling where, no matter how nice the character, I knew he would kill Arthur, and so could not bring myself to like the character, which is obviously the intention of it. Yet again, not really any complaints!

The Dragons
I don't know quite what was going on with the dragons this series. Kilgharrah said 'I'm dying', then nothing happened and the dragons never had their big face off. Where did Aithusa go after the battle? Why was she supposed to be good for Albion? I don't know what to say really. This was the most disappointing aspect of the series, so I'm just going to leave it there!

Whilst I loved this Series, there were, undeniably, a number of plot-holes which did leave many people disappointed, especially the dragon issues. Whilst this is true, I cannot emphasise enough how amazing this series still was. I'm incredibly sad to see it go, as I believe a sixth series would have been the time needed to sort everything out, and perhaps let a reveal happen earlier, to fit in the reactions of the knights etc. But, hey ho. Which characters were you pleased/disappointed with?