30 Questions about Merlin
In this, our final hiatus episode prior to our return for season 3, we answer 30 questions about Merlin!
We love hearing from listeners! Come talk to us on Twitter and Tumblr, or email us and please review us on iTunes.
If you wish to support us, you can do so from $1 a month via Patreon, or as a one off, by buying us a Ko-Fi or two. Thank you.
9th September 2020 @ 12:19 am
Eye of the Phoenix is also one of my favorite Merlin episodes, mostly because of how awesome Gwaine is in it, and how it manages to shift effortlessly between funny and sad.
I absolutely agree that Gwaine’s character development was completely dropped starting with season four. It was like season three was about getting him to the point of being loyal to Arthur, and they didn’t feel the need to do anything interesting with him after that. I still love Gwaine in seasons four and five, because he’s hilarious and definitely works well as a comic relief character. However, I feel they could have done so much more in terms of narrative. That being said, I think this issues stems from the overwhelming nature of Merlin and Arthur’s relationship. The way the show is set up makes it so characters are mostly only important in the context of how they relate to either Merlin or Arthur— from the beginning, Gwaine was really Merlin’s friend, not Arthur’s. Merlin was the one who understood Gwaine as a nuanced and complex person, while Arthur, being you know a tiny bit self absorbed, didn’t understand him on that level. A trend on the show is that as time progresses and Arthur assumes more responsibility, Merlin becomes more committed to protecting him and fulfilling his destiny, sacrificing some of his other relationships in the process. So, by the time season four comes around and Arthur is the king, we’ve lost the relationship that added depth to Gwaine’s character. There’s an incredibly sad moment later on in the show (I can’t remember which episode it’s in) where Gwaine tries to offer Merlin help, hinting at how their friendship has disappeared in the process. This is my personal theory about why we lose a lot of Merlin’s relationships that were hinted at in earlier episodes: as the show progresses, it boils down to it’s essence, which is the merlin-arthur relationship (although I have to admit some of it is just lazy writing).
On a side note, I can’t wait for you guys to discuss the later seasons 🙂
16th September 2020 @ 6:29 pm
It is so sad that they just kind of drop Gwaine’s development after season 3. He does work so well as a comedic character and is much needed, but there are so any interesting aspects to him that were just left alone. I think it would have been really interesting so see him have to decide between Merlin and Arthur later on and see how Merlin dealt with it. Also his relationship with Morgana is super interesting because later on she kind of singles him out and keeps enslaving him??? I feel like there would definitely be something going on there if this a) wasn’t family TV and b) wasn’t so focused on the main two, but I think that would be really interesting to explore and there must be fanfic of it, but I wouldn’t know how to find it!
16th September 2020 @ 11:07 pm
It depends whether you are brave enough to just go out there and wade through the ship tag on AO3, without any further direction or recommendation… it’s less than 200 works, so it’s not NOT doable… lol
https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Gwaine*s*Morgana%20(Merlin)/works
16th September 2020 @ 11:03 pm
I completely completely agree Liza and I am curious, though also slightly worried to find out how much of my love for gwaine on closer analysis is actually going to turn out to be because of his depiction in fanfiction, and his potential and what he’s turned into in my head.
But yes, he is definitely a great comic relief character, it’s just that he could have been AMAZING. but yes, the show didn’t allow for any doubt in merlin and arthur’s relationship, to a degree of completely removing all other relationships. gwen gets to stay because she’s in the legends, but aside from that, she disappears, too. and don’t even get me started on the knights as a whole. like, what they do to elyan? at least percival didnt have a chracter from the start, so he could never really loose his character, but all the other knights absolutely did. at one point or other. grrr.
–where Gwaine tries to offer Merlin help, hinting at how their friendship has disappeared in the process.–
and season five… like, we cannot talk about it now, but urgh!! 2021 I will have things to say about things…
8th September 2020 @ 12:03 am
I had no idea when I watched the episode, but I saw somewhere (and Googled it, can confirm it’s true!) the actor who voices the goblin is Mark Williams! As in Mr Weasley on Harry Potter! Could not believe it but now when watching HP I do notice how he does sound a bit like the goblin. Still, I would have never linked them together, so great voice acting on his part.
8th September 2020 @ 12:40 pm
Actually now you say that it does sound like a thing I knew at some point! Good shout!
They got so many amazing guest stars.