Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Three/@comment-5102537-20131019114834/@comment-5102537-20131028123422

I agree, ReganX. I was just wondering if the show adapted the right of nobles to knight others and was wondering if Arthur did that since he was still a knight himself but couldn't make his friends knights of Camelot but only make them nobles/knights in general. And then later knights of Camelot.

This finale had some great moments and there were quite some things I liked about it, yet it also had some annoying and disappointing moments.

The beginning of the first part, with Sir Leon being rescued by the druids, was one of the great moments. Fans were speculating about Sir Leon being immortal after having drunk from the Cup of Life but I think this is based on the assumption that the legendary Cup of Life was the Holy Grail. However, this Cup of Life obviously didn't work like the Holy Grail worked in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (for example), so Sir Leon remained being as mortal as Arthur (Arthur drank the water from the Cup of Life in season one). Once again, the life for a life-policy was overlooked here. When the druids healed Sir Leon with the Cup of Life and saved him from certain death, another life should have been taken in exchange according to the rules of the Old Religion, particularly in regard to the Cup of Life.

Leon had some nerve to tell Uther that he was being healed with magic by the druids. Obviously, he trusted Uther to realise that it wasn't his fault, and indeed, Uther didn't cast a stone at him but showed true concern for his well-being. I've always wondered what the relationship between Uther and Leon was like since Leon was most loyal and supported the ban of magic, even beyond Uther's death when Arthur continued persecuting sorcerers.

It was good to see that Uther didn't rant about Leon's magical healing (Julian Jones often managed to describe the characters with more depth than the show actually allowed most of the time) and to see him acting sensible when demanding to get and hide the Cup of Life in order to let it not fall into the hands of Cenred. Personally, I believe that it was safer with the druids, yet Uther had good reasons to take care of it and to not blindly trust others with such a powerful tool. Another interesting thing is that he had left the cup with the druids for so long even though he could have tried to get a hold of it much sooner, let alone desired to use it for his own purpose. The fact that he wasn't interested in using the cup and all the other magical tools he had buried in the vaults showed once again that power alone wasn't what he desired and that he stayed true to his own principles. Any other king/leader could have easily taken advantage of such powerful magical tools in order to defeat and/or conquer enemies and to become invincible, rich, most powerful, whatever....

Arthur and Merlin's journey to the druids was interesting, yet I think it was too easy for the slave trader to capture them. If it was so easy to kidnap the Prince of Camelot I wonder why Arthur hadn't been kidnapped and/or killed much sooner, given that he regularly went on a lot of missions. Anyway, meeting Gwaine again was a nice surprise.

Another surprise was that Arthur held a child hostage when they found the druids in the caves. Threatening a child, especially after having rescued Mordred, was so unlike him that I never believed for a second that he would have ever done any harm to the boy. Yet the scene told us otherwise. This was quite unbelievable to me and was completely out of character for Arthur. I think it would have been a good idea if he had mentioned later that he was just bluffing. I also missed an appropriate reaction of Merlin when his friend and prince threatened a child.

Arthur's infected wound was a refreshing realistic scenario. Shame that in the second part of this two-parter, Arthur wasn't only suddenly healed in the very beginning already but also that he, Gaius and Merlin were perfectly shaved and clean after having spent a week on the run in the woods and in the cave. One would think that they would at least have grown a beard since they had quite other problems than shaving. Same with Uther in the cell. When Arthur rescued him he was shaved too. I wonder if Morgana had sent a barber to him on a daily basis ;-)

The scene with Morgause and Morgana taking the throne while Arthur and Merlin watched Uther on his knees, as well as Uther realising that Morgana betrayed him and knew about her parentage really got under the skin. I felt very sorry for Uther since it was obvious that his whole world fell apart in just one second, most of all because of his love for Morgana and aside from losing the throne. It was horrible how much Morgana and Morgause enjoyed that Uther was defeated, given what they had in mind for his (short) future. This is what I've always disliked the most - the great satisfaction of the villains when they had managed to either kill, torment or defeat an enemy. This satisfaction was actually sadism. Sadistical villains are most uninteresting to me.

I also felt sorry for Arthur when he learnt about his sister, his father lying to him and seeing the kingdom and his father lost to Morgana, the one he had trusted and loved. I think this should have been dealt with better to state out what's going on in Arthur's mind. Shame that his conflict wasn't quite a subject.

What can I say about Morgause and Morgana raising an army of immortals and killing thousands of men in the process? Cenred's army was his army, loyal soldiers that protected and fought for the kingdom. They may have been Camelot's enemies, yet they were human beings that were being used by two powerful sorceresses and their king as tools when being turned into undead soulless zombies. Moreover, those undead soldiers that have lost their lives and families due to that also killed countless others on their way to and in Camelot. Men, women, children. All that in the name of magic and power. I've never understood how anyone could have ever compared Morgana to Uther when especially regarding this and also her satisfaction in torture and bringing misery upon others. Uther has never done such things.

I liked the return of Gwaine, Lancelot and Freya. I missed Lancelot and was happy to see him again. Freya's return as the Lady of the Lake was done perfectly well and really fit into the overall storyline. Merlin had the chance to see her again, plus Excalibur played a part again and connected the dots to previous plotlines. If it hadn't been for Tristan returning in season one, Excalibur hadn't been forged. And if it hadn't been for Uther wielding it, Merlin wouldn't have thrown it into the lake, thus Freya couldn't have returned it to him in order to defeat the immortal army and prevent Morgana and Morgause from ruling Camelot for any longer. It's interesting to see that even magical creatures/people like the druids and Freya didn't want Morgana on the throne but preferred to risk that Uther re-takes it.

It was one of the best scenes between Morgana and Uther on the entire show when they talked to each other in the cell. Uther being devastated about the innocents that were executed by Morgana, the knight's loyalty and Morgana struggling for their obedience was great. I think it was surprising and also fascinating that Uther offered his own life for the innocent citizens. After several attempts of showing him as a ruthless king who allegedly didn't care about his people, this scene proved otherwise. He was about to give his life and being killed by a powerful sorceress only to save strangers. I wonder if he had been relieved to be killed at the hands of his own daughter rather than a stranger or a disease. Had he been furious about Morgana being a sorceress and having kicked him off the throne he wouldn't have offered his own life. Obviously, all he cared about was what Morgana felt for him and he completely disregarded the fact that she had magic, killed thousands of people, imprisoned her father, kicked him off of the throne and took everything from him, endangered his son and allied with Morgause. When he aked her if she really hated him so much it showed that her love was the most important thing to him in this moment.

I think it was significant that he didn't even mention her magical powers and obviously didn't care. In this moment, not her powers broke him but her hatred and betrayal. This was the very moment, one of the moments, when Morgana should have realised that she was wrong about Uther and that he would have never harmed her because of her powers. He didn't cast a stone at her for having magic but made perfectly clear that he loved her when only her feelings for him mattered to him. Why in the world didn't she notice that? Or she noticed but ignored it. Had he been what she thought he was, Uther would have threatened her and blamed her for having magic, yelled at her or whatever. I think it was even beyond nature to not react that way after everything she had done. But it showed once again that his world turned around his family and not the kingdom. I think that if Julian Jones had been the only writer, the show would have gone into a different direction. A more pleasant and deeper one, in my opinion.

The introduction of the Round Table was done very well. I won't ride again on Arthur knighting commoners since we've already discussed it above. However, I wonder what ancient kings had used it since the show always told us that the land was in chaos and had been long before Uther took the throne. The misuse and corruption of magic and the almost destruction of the entire land didn't quite speak for something like the Round Table. Moreover, the lack of equality surely wasn't Uther's invention and tradition.

Cenred's death didn't come as surprise since it has always been obvious that Morgause only used him and took advantage of his interest in her. Although I disapprove of killing characters off I didn't really miss him after his death. Another thing I missed was Gwen's absence while Uther was imprisoned. I think it would have been a good idea if Gwen had at least tried to help him best she can since he was still Arthur's father and the smaller threat in comparison to Morgana. Aside from compassion for someone who is destroyed and defeated and also sentenced to death, Gwen surely didn't want Arthur to suffer from the loss of his father or from him being tortured (speaking of which, I wonder if Uther was being tortured by Morgana).

Leon dressing up as woman was quite funny, so was Gaius hiding in the closet. Loved those scenes. It was also great to see Gaius using such powerful magic when he stopped Morgause. Lancelot had some great scenes and him fighting side by side with Merlin was awesome.

Arthur rescuing a broken Uther was quite sad. Uther's only sentence - "I'm sorry" - summed up pretty much everything. Lying to his son about Morgana, having an illegitimate child and an affair with another woman, losing the kingdom, putting Arthur into danger, having lost his daughter, crumbling Arthur's world to dust, having been defeated by magic, being unable to protect the kingdom and his people, suffering great humiliation, having failed in pretty much everything. And maybe even his war against magic, given his mental breakdown especially in season four and depending on what was going on in his mind. Here it was also obvious that he knew very well of the new knights. He was surrounded by them after all.

I was a bit disappointed that Uther's screentime was reduced to only a few minutes when considering what happened to one of the main protagonists and that this should be the last time that he was able to rule the kingdom as a sane person. This is one of the reasons why I think that the finale should have been a three-parter. Especially the second episode seemed to be very rushed and this was continued in the following season. Everything was rushed and it felt like racing through the scenes as if there was no tomorrow. At the end of the finale I was positive that Uther would be back on his feet in season four again but the lack of scenes with him, the title of the finale and Arthur and Merlin's conversation in the courtyard should have given a hint about what was to come.

No matter how much I try, I can't bring myself to focus more on the scenes with Arthur, Merlin and the knights, simply because they often lacked of depth and development. There were some great scenes but most of them were so predictable. I also missed more of Arthur's reaction to the new situation regarding Morgana. As I said, it was all too rushed.

For some reason, the show failed in describing Arthur's emotions and motives well enough to make an impact whereas only a few seconds with Morgana, Gaius and Uther spoke volumes. And Merlin? Well, he was Merlin. What's more to say? More depth to the main protagonists would have been a good idea.