I mentioned in a post (that was, admittedly, quite a while ago) that I'd started watching BBC's Merlin. Well, I am proud to announce that after a whirlwind couple months spent huddled in front of watchseries and trying to avoid seeing too many spoilers on my tumblr dash I have finally finished Merlin! It was announced shortly after I started watching that the current series airing (series 5) would be the last. This almost made me stop watching because I knew that when/if I ever caught up the show would be over completely. I'm slightly heartbroken, but I'm glad I continued watching til the end regardless.
Excuse me for a moment.
Okay. I'm ready.
There will be NO SPOILERS in this blog post. At least not anything from the last season, but I consider the others fair game, though I'm going try and be very general about it all because it aired so recently and I know people may only now be starting to watch.
Merlin is a show about a young warlock--you guessed it--Merlin. Merlin is the same Merlin you're thinking of, though much younger, sassier, and ganglier than you probably had in mind. He leaves his mother and small village life to go to Camelot and apprentice for his mother's friend, Gaius, the court physician, despite magic being outlawed there by King Uther Pendragon. Almost immediately upon arriving, Merlin saves Gaius' life but reveals his magic in the process. Lucky for him, Gaius used to dabble in magic as well and promises not only not to hand him over for execution, but to guide him magically.
Merlin then accidentally gets on Prince Arthur's badside (the handsome prat) and then even more accidentally becomes his manservant, which is both the best and worst thing that ever happens to him. You might ask why he doesn't just leave, but a great dragon living under the castle told him it was his destiny to be by Arthur's side to protect him and help Arthur bring about the glorious days of Albion united. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up.
From there on out Merlin and Arthur gradually develop from mutual hatred to tolerance to friendship to full out bromance--which could be seen as less BRO and more just ROMANCE if you look closely (and by that I mean if you look at all). Seriously, browse the merthur tag on tumblr and you'll have gay feels comin out the wazoo.
Anyway. The show covers five series in which we follow Arthur on his journey to kinghood and Merlin on his journey of saving Arthur from every magical beast, spell, and ailment known to mankind. We meet several characters that you might recognize from the original legends including Morgana, Morderd, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Gwaine, though they are all adaptations.
My favorite is Gwaine.
I don't remember why. Maybe it has something to do with how he's such a good friend to Merlin, or how he doesn't fit into the nobility stereotype, or how he is very brave and courageous--no, no, that's not it. I'm sure it'll come to me later.
In all seriousness, I've really enjoyed watching Merlin. It is in turns hilarious, touching, and soul-wrenching. My absolute favorite aspect of the show is just watching the friendship between Arthur and Merlin, and watching them grow up. The show covers a good deal of time with them, and we see them struggle each in their own turns. Merlin struggles with the obvious problem of needing to hide his magic, but also with the guilt he feels lying to his friends and the conflict over whether he should reveal himself to them or not--whether he'll ever be able to. Arthur too struggles to redefine what it means to be a king through his friendship with Merlin, marriage to Guinevere, relationship with the commoners (especially in regards to the knights), and his stance on magic. Laughs and Guinevere's heaving breasts are all well and good, but as a reader I can't love anything more than seeing characters develop, and Merlin provided me with that.
If you needed any more encouragement to watch the show, there's always this:
If that doesn't convince you, nothing will.
In other news:
- I'm back in America. More specifically, I'm back in Clemson, SC getting ready to start school on the 9th. I've moved into my house, which is fantastic because I have my own bedroom and bathroom. yessssss
- I told y'all that I was doing Nanowrimo this year, but I neglected to mention that I WON! I completed 50,000 words on my WIP novel The Island. The book is nowhere near done yet (I would say I'm about 1/3 of the way through) and I haven't touched it since then, but my new year's resolution is to finish it, so there should be more to come.
- I'm currently reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Practchett, which is delightfully naughty. My other new year's resolution is to complete a challenge my mother has been doing for several years now to read one book for each letter of the alphabet. Of course I'll read more than that, naturally, but I wouldn't normally seek out books that start with the letter X, so it should be a nice challenge.
- Tumblr convinced me to watch Teen Wolf, so I'm in the second season of that now. I can't say I'm too thrilled (I want to shave Allison's hair off and make Scott eat it) but there's only two seasons so nbd
- ONCE UPON A TIME COMES BACK ON TONIGHT AND I'LL GET TO SEE MORE OF HOOK MY BABYYY!!! He and Emma totes belong together. OTP don't bash it.
