Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Four/@comment-5102537-20131207132547/@comment-98.193.78.231-20140121080022

I'm arriving VERY late to the party... but I had occasion to see this episode again recently, and had a thought about it that I literally cannot get out of my head.

On the matter of the Knights. Specifically, Gwaine.

This was one of the many season four episodes that I watched and, while enjoying it on a very basic, simplistic level, I nevertheless saw it as a huge missed opportunity to explore some of the secondary characters' backgrounds and histories.

I recalled Gwaine mentioning in his introduction episode that his father had died serving in Caerleon's army, and that it was Caerleon's refusal to help his mother that resulted in his dislike of nobles. And here we are, in this episode, presented with Caerleon (would it be the same Caerleon of Gwaine's father's generation? Or his son?)... and there's no association whatsoever. Imagine the potential if Gwaine had remembered this was the same guy who turned his widowed mother away, the same guy who'd provoked so much loathing that it compelled Gwaine to deny who he was. If we're talking fathers and sons, that's the sort of struggle I would have loved to see. Take Caerleon back to Camelot, and while everyone decides what to do with him (I mean, he'd live, of course), Gwaine's finally forced to come to terms with his heritage.

I'm not sure how the writers could have spun it or how it would have looked, but the whole nobility storyline was such an integral part of Gwaine's character, and it was a shame to see it abandoned and forgotten about--especially in favour of Arthur's repetitive internal debate about what Daddy would have done (clue for you, Arthur: it's rarely ever what you think), and the ridiculous skewing of Uther's character by a batsh** production team that clearly had no clue what it wanted this show to look like by the end.

But then, I tend to be of the opinion that the writers and show-runners missed a whole bag of tricks as far as the Knights are concerned. They were basically non-events. There was a great deal of potential with Elyan in regards to Guinevere's storyline this series--her relationship with Arthur, then her banishment, etc. But honestly, until "The Dark Tower," I'd come to forget that they were even related... and then he died. Leon and Percival were like empty shells. Leon's saving grace was that he was sorta-immortal, Percival's that he had nice arms.

I tend not to get too caught up in the analysis of this show, because by the time the fifth series rolled around I'd learned not to expect too much from it, and honestly felt like every episode was just an assault on my intelligence.

But the matter of the Knights was always the one thing that really bothered me, because I think a few of them on their own could have been really great, really interesting, and really complex characters.