Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130316141226/@comment-6905051-20130325131600

''And given that, I agree that Gwen had good reasons for not wanting to take care of Uther, of course. It was just way out of line and rude to say this in front of Arthur while he was desperate when his father was not only broken and destroyed but also dying of the stabbing wound. If she really loved Arthur she wouldn't tell him that she doesn't care about his father and leaving him alone with his grief and desperation by that. When you're sad and desperate, you want others, especially those you love to be by your side and to ease your pain instead of showing you their indifference. She did only her job and she left no doubt about it. That's what was tactless and cold. ''

Tactless and cold, yes. But still not wrong. It would make a saint to forgive everything Uther did to Gwen and I am sure she was in no mood to forget that, even for Arthur. As I said, she was treated above ordinary servants. If someone else, even Merlin had said that, the repercussions would have been different. But Arthur was a man in love. Nothing Gwen said or done would have turned him away from her, except offcourse adultery. Gwen being there and taking care of king was support enough for him,   and in this show that kind of standing by the side of your friend/ man is usually done by the knight friends and or Merlin. So you know showmakers to blame :P



''Besides, when a completely destroyed and helpless person suffers so visibly and then even dies, even someone like Gwen who held a grudge against him or, as she said, didn't feel anything for him, would feel at least a tiny bit compassion. Uther wasn't destroyed out of fun but because he lost his daughter and probably had reconsidered his actions towards those with magic. He was punished enough and Gwen knew that. ''

The thing is, human emotions and feelings do not really depend on cold, disspassionate logic by which we observe it. But I do think she felt compassion and kindness towards him, she looked after him quite well till the end, inspite of that tongue of hers.

Before I proceed to write anything else, let me say how I dislike the way the writers shaped up the character of Gwen. They should have let her be daughter of some nobleman lower than Uther or equal to Uther like in the normal legends I read and then proceed. In this process of creating a Cinderella story out of her, they basically lost direction with her character, made it full of contradictions and changes. Like Morgana’s character, hers was also one which was butchered as the show progressed. She was human in the beginning and then one d cartoon heroine in the end.  

''Moreover, I've always wondered why she thought Uther was a bad king before she lost her father when she obviously supported the ban of magic. ''

She was a free spirited girl and there were many things which she did not like the way it was. Maybe that was the reason why she thought Uther was a bad king. Maybe she did not like his strong views and stringent actions. Not very easy to like for someone who has no idea of how it feels to be responsible for a lot of people. It’s easier for her to judge him. No matter how wise she was for her position or age, if Arthur or Morgana could be such naïve idealists, she had even less exposure to big picture.

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">When she was sentenced and accused of having used magic, she knew that Uther acted according to the law. The law she supported. So what reasons did she have to think that Uther was so bad? His actions against her were never personal but only the actions of a king who had to protect his kingdom. Arthur wasn't so different later when he was king. He also persecuted sorcerers and didn't lift the ban of magic. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">   So was it all only about the very normal and common fact that royals weren't supposed to marry servants? Let alone that Gwen experienced first hand what magic did with Morgana, her former best friend. So she actually knew that Uther wasn't so wrong after all. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Huh! You expect her to follow logic and see sense with her father being executed and wrongly, she being on the dock multiple times? In all the occasions, Uther never really considered all sides of the story. It is perfectly possible for her to hold grudge for that. Even though, what Uther did was perfectly lawful and nothing terrible; it’s pretty hard to digest it.

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">As I said, I don’t really like the way creators made her character. There are so many contradictions and unexplained behavior. For a servant at that time, she was extremely outspoken, occasionally rude and forward. Was it because of her close association with Morgana who treated her like an equal and friend? Don’t know. She was somewhat of a female Merlin of the show. Endearing to us fans but not realistic at times.

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">And I wish they did not do all those leaps and we could see what she thought about Arthur’s stand on magic, but I doubt any of her actions were motivated for Uther and Arthur’s stand on magic so much as to Uther’s   stubbornness and refusal to consider any other side of a story. Granted he had his own experience to go by, but a godo and flexible leader should connect with the changing times and modfiy his views. He was extremely rigid. As a viewer I often felt stifled and wanted to strangle the show creators.

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<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">And when Arthur banned Gwen from Camelot and even threatened to kill her if she ever returns, she had no problem with that and married him later regardless. Uther banned Gwen in order to protect his son. Arthur banned Gwen out of personal feelings and hurt pride. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Yes. But you forget, Gwen was at fault there. Enchantment or not, she almost cheated on Arthur. You don’t do that two days before your wedding   even now, forget in those days, when the bride had to be of impeccable purity. And also she was in love with Arthur, the king, and that justifies all the crap she forgave. It’s stupid, but that’s how these romance angles usually work. *cliché alert*

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Unlike Gwen, Lancelot behaved most noble and considerate when he didn't want to cause trouble between father and son and then left Camelot. He respected both father and son and also the law and tradition. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Oh yes, there is a reason, the dragon called him the bravest and most noble. Except maybe Merlin, he was the noblest. And even Merlin had some questionable actions at times.

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">As for Arthur speaking ill of Uther, he compared his psycho sister several times to his father, which was a real joke. How could he ever compare his father he loved so much to an insane torture-loving killer who stops at nothing only out of personal reasons and insanity? Uther was far from being a saint but he never enjoyed what he did. That doesn't excuse it but he did what he thought he had to do to protect his family and kingdom, especially when considering the fact that magic had almost destroyed the land before he took the throne. Morgana enjoyed the misery of others. She didn't just accept it as a necessity but felt pleasure when she saw her "enemies" suffering. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Umm, Uther killed a lot of people, and as far as I understood, it was because of his personal reason. His wife died because of a calculated risk he took. And he even ordered killing of children. He might never enjoy it, but he certainly did not repent either. And there is no excuse for killing children or ordering their execution. Neither is better in this department. Only Morgana, by virtue of being the show’s primary antagonist, had to be twisted and torture loving. Uther however had many good qualities too. He was a good king when things run by the rule book, loved his children insanely.

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<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">She was not only worse than Uther but she was even the opposite of him because she didn't want to protect family and friends, but, on the contrary, wanted them to suffer and die. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Errm, when she was good, she did her best to protect her family and friends. She travelled with Merlin to his village, pleaded and fought with Uther to get Gwen back, served as Arthur’s moral compass in more than one instance. And in the episode, where she was the carrier of the plague, she was frightened and yet tried her best to help Merlin and Arthur keep Uther alive. Her bouts of I want to kill Uther came for various reasons and vanished too. I shall never forgive the storymakers for ruining such a character, with so much potential and layers and turning her into comic book villain.

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Arthur can't seriously think that his father was like her. Otherwise he wouldn't have tried to be like him and he wouldn't have loved him. He knew that Morgana destroyed his father and sent him to his own personal hell, yet he dared to compare him to her. But the show wanted us to believe that in the end, it was all Uther's fault and that Arthur was such a sweetheart. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">As I said before, both Morgana and Arthur were correct. They were more like Uther than they both cared to admit. From their stubbornness, to selfishness ( Arthur used magic to cure Gwen), to being firecely loyal and protective to those they cared for ( Morgana: Aithusa and Mordred, she went through terrible torture under Sarrum for Aithusa). None of them were pure white and pure black. The show, should have tried to highlight that more often.

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt">''<span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">I wish Lancelot had stayed until the very end because I'm sure, with him around, his point of view and real nobility, things would have been different. Actually, he would have made the prefect king. ''

<p style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-left: 72pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Georgia', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">But sadly, according to folklore, Lancelot would be banished and he would die in the end. But I wish he stuck around a while in the show. A noble brave guy, who knew who Merlin truly was. He could have persuaded Arthur to see magic is good too. Could have served as Arhur’s moral compass. *Sigh*

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