User blog comment:Tns31091/Arwen Haters/@comment-5036924-20111217130938

I think you should be less quick to assume that Gwen's ethnicity has anything to do with it. You accused me of racism for not liking Gwen, which was frankly insulting and utterly unfair, so here's my explanation for why I don't particularly buy the Arthur/Gwen pairing.

I feel that the relationship sprang out of absolutely nowhere - in the course of perhaps one episode they went from being pretty much nothing to one another to this full on "I'D DIE FOR YOU" romance. There was no build up; it was a sudden, clumsily implemented relationship that I felt was merely to give Gwen more storylines since the way they'd written her in S1 seriously limited what they could do with her on her own. I would've far preferred to see a longer period in which they were getting to know one another before they jumped in with it all, and if this had happened I might be more inclined to believe the romance. As it is, I feel it's quite a forced, saccharine fairy-tale/Disney romance that doesn't interest me much.

I also feel that Gwen's character changed a lot between S1 and S2, and not for the better. Somehow she lost all flaws and became this rather soppy, perfect, goody-two-shoes character - I suppose she was meant to take on Morgana's role as the female voice of reason and Arthur's moral compass etc. but I felt that in the process, she lost that cute awkwardness she had in S1 and became rather one dimensional as a character - the same happened to Morgana, who became this cardboard cut-out villainess. I think for me the problem was the weird and disjointed change between series 1 and 2 in which pretty much everything they set up in S1 - Arthur and Morgana's flirtation, Gwen and Merlin's relationship - was completely reset and turned on its head.

I also think you need to stop assuming that it's always "hate" like you did with me. Sometimes people like a pairing, and sometimes people don't. It doesn't have to be either extreme adoration or severe hatred, and it's best not to get upset if other people don't happen to like the pairing you like. The bottom line is, Arthur/Gwen IS canon and is highly unlikely to stop being the principal pairing on the show, so why not just enjoy the fact that you get to see the pairing you like in each episode? You don't have to make the whole world like it too. :)