Episode IV.IV – Aithusa
We discuss Episode 4 of Season 4 of Merlin, Aithusa.
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13th May 2021 @ 10:31 pm
I was also not happy with the stew scene. I thought it was cruel and certainly not in keeping with Gwaine at least as his friend. I also thought the episode was really really uneven. Didn’t like Borden, I thought Merlin was incredibly naive about him, Gaius was the worst, and well, baby dragon looked good and Kilgharrah talked a good talk but vague spoilers—– Merlin would have been better off with Aithusa as an omelet. Although the Arthurian legend nod to white vs red dragon is wonderful.
While I was at Pierrefonds, I got to see them filming Merlin with the egg in his backpack and Arthur with the knights around him talking to him. FYI, it was late afternoon and it was getting dark. LOL. Right after that scene, they were all hanging around the trees waiting for another take, and Tom pulled on Eoin who pulled on Bradley and Tomiwa, and except for Colin and Rupert, they all tumbled into each other and rolled on the ground. It was a thing of beauty. Luckily I was able to film most of that. đ
29th March 2021 @ 9:33 pm
Hi everyone! I’m late posting here, so hopefully someone will see it đ I wanted to share one question on this page since it relates to this episode:
How is Merlin able to cook two plentiful-looking stews (with what looks like vegetables and meat) on consecutive days (and it would be three days if the third stew gag was kept from deleted scenes) for that many people? How is he carrying all these supplies?? From my minimal backpacking experience, this would take a lot of weight…are we to assume his packs are just full of dried vegetables and meat?
(and given the time and care Merlin puts into packing in and cooking the stew for the crew, this makes the bullying stew gag all the more stupid)
I’ve always been confused by this, but I know the show well enough to know that it won’t clarify this one for me!
30th March 2021 @ 11:24 am
hahaha no, the show definitely won’t clarify this for you, and I’m not sure how much I’m conflating the tv show and fanfic, but I feel there’s once or twice we are shown arthur and merlin to make camp, and then some rabbits being cooked, clearly implying that arthur went to hunt them, while merlin made the fire and set up the camp for the night. so you just have to extrapolate this to every outdoor adventure, where they don’t have time to show us arthur hunting for rabbits. And yes, having to feed 6 people rather than two is absolutely a huge amount of food, it does mean that there’s way more people able to go and find food, so in my head you’ve got percival off hunting squirrels, sir leon digging for potatoes, gwaine collecting herbs for flavouring… so the stew is really a team effort. which also makes them mocking it more stupid!
but yeah, as you say, there’s not a lot of logic to be found there, so… better look the other way and not try lol
M Xx
27th March 2021 @ 1:34 am
On a more serious note – this episode is one of the few where we see Merlin really align himself with Magic for the sake of Magic – and therefore, the magical part of himself – alone. Itâs not for Arthur, or even for Camelot. Perhaps itâs indirectly for this long promised âAlbionâ, but the episode seems to show Merlin being unusually self-oriented. His motivations to save the egg come from his own role as the last Dragonlord, which, since no one knows about this outside of Gaius, only he can understand. It is about saving dragon kind, yes, but itâs also about saving something that is unique to Merlin. After all, whatâs a Dragonlord without dragons?
More often, and much to my chagrin, Merlin seems to act in direct opposition to Magic and other magic users – even the Druids, who so far have been pacifistic (has anyone noticed how Merlin never says thank you to anyone when they give him magical advice? Itâs so annoying to me). So, to see him taking risks for the sake of something magical was actually really refreshing.
29th March 2021 @ 9:36 pm
I’ve also noticed that Merlin rarely says thank you to the druids when they give him advice. It doesn’t make sense! It makes Merlin out to seem ungrateful when he clearly is not; he is just taking time to process the new information, but an acknowledgment of the assistance he gets from others is really important. Emrys may be the legend but he is who he can be because of the help he receives from others.
30th March 2021 @ 11:20 am
you’re totally right, and this just brought back a very vague memory that we’ve had conversations about this on the website before, that there are a large number of times where merlin is just… a little bit unnecessarily rude. đ
24th March 2021 @ 7:34 am
As always, excellent comments all around, I agree with so many of them.
Ok, so, about these stew scenes…Iâm going to go out on a ledge here and posit that someone on the writing team has a food kink. Iâm serious. Between these stew gags of hunky knights moaning in Merlinâs ear while they eat and the scene where Arthur essentially dominates Merlin into eating rat stew just have FOOD KINK written all over them, in my opinion.
…No? Just me? Ok.
24th March 2021 @ 7:54 am
dunno if I’m ready to join you on that ledge, but it definitely gave me a good giggle just now, so thanks for that! đ đ
M Xx
25th March 2021 @ 7:05 pm
Anytime! <3
22nd March 2021 @ 4:43 pm
SPOILER ALERT
I liked this episode fine when it first aired, although I personally find the CG baby dragon to be badly done. My issue is that this episode sets up so many expectations and none of them ever amount to anything. Aithusa’s entire character could be left out of Merlin and it wouldn’t change much of anything as I recall. He’s supposed to be a good omen and, well… He never does anything good. I don’t understand what they wanted to do here but it seems like they scrapped any long-term plans they had for this story.
22nd March 2021 @ 6:24 pm
Once again this is the point where I must seriously question whether they had ANY long – term plans. Or if they did, what happens in future episodes and seasons makes me question why they thought THIS was the best way to go.
Sadly, I cannot disagree with anything you said, Magaly. Except, I do really like CGI baby dragon. At least it looks cute and Merlin, for once, gets to happy-cry.
22nd March 2021 @ 2:50 am
I mentioned that this is one of my favorite episodes of Merlin, but listening to the podcast this week started to make me question why. If you start to think a bit more, characterization, plot, etc. seem to fall apart a bit. But in rewatching, I realized I love this episode because of the hope it gave me the first time I watched the series. I am not particularly well-versed in Arthurian legends, so perhaps I missed the white dragon irony as EsmĂŠ pointed out. From someone without such knowledge, though, the ending of the episode gives the audience SO MUCH HOPE: hope for the dragons, hope for Merlin and Arthur, hope for Albion⌠Perhaps all the promises will come to fruition. Perhaps all the troubles from the times Merlin did not follow Kilgharrahâs advice will work themselves out because now Kilgharrah tells us brighter futures are ahead. Ruth is totally right about Kilgharrah supporting the things the audience wants to happen, and I felt that with the joy of Aithusaâs birth. Babies generally do give people a lot of hope because they have so much potential, and seeing that in dragon form just made me a thousand times more excited for the future of the show and where it would go next. On that note, I also totally agree with Ruth that the Dragonlord concept overall isnât as developed as it could be. This episode upon first watch really made me think it would be developed more, which again just added to my hope for the show.
I remember also being very worried that Boren was going to knock over the dragon egg. I think I have trust issues with this show haha. But on the idea of why a dragon needs to be given a name to come into the world (in the absence of a dragon mother, because we need that line for it to make sense), perhaps dragon eggs only break with magic. Gravity isnât a problem for dragon eggs, hence the pedestal not being a potentially catastrophic choice of placement for the precious egg and explaining Merlin/a dragon motherâs necessity in the process.
I am still very confused how the show expects the dragon species will be saved. There must be some super cool biology, or I need to head canon some stuffâŚ
Hooray! Merlin actually can heal people for once!! Again, I think a good outcome like this is part of what makes the episode so hopeful. At this point in the show, it made me think that perhaps Merlin can always save the day.
I know the scenes with the druids seemed superfluous, but I thought there was one particularly interesting line. One of the druids says, âThe legends tell a tail that only the druids know.â Well, thatâs an interesting precedent. Perhaps there are other legends only the druids know, such as Merlin also being called Emrys. The idea would help explain why Morgause and Morgana did/do not know Merlinâs identity.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:16 am
–I mentioned that this is one of my favorite episodes of Merlin, but listening to the podcast this week started to make me question why. If you start to think a bit more, characterization, plot, etc. seem to fall apart a bit. But in rewatching, I realized I love this episode because of the hope it gave me the first time I watched the series–
absolutely agree! Despite knowing where the shows going to go and what’s going to happen, I can watch Aithusa (when not discussing it in exhausting detail lol) and I still feel the joy and hope I felt when first watching it. Feeling like this is the moment where it all shifts. Which then actually very nicely carries over into this week’s episode, His Father’s Son. More hope for change…
—I am still very confused how the show expects the dragon species will be saved. There must be some super cool biology, or I need to head canon some stuff⌗
I remember fandom spent the entire off season between 4 and 5 spectulating on how long it was going to take for aithusa to grow up and be able to mate with kilgarrah, and aithusa in any fanfic pre S5 is female, because she had to be! I remember this as completely accepted fact. and then S5 rolled around, and aithusa was for the first time given a pronounce, and it was he, and wtf? how’s that going to work???
it’s like between seasons the show creators realised that they can’t really have the dragons not die out, because there aren’t any dragons in modern times, so we needed them to both be male. or something.
–One of the druids says, âThe legends tell a tail that only the druids know.â Well, thatâs an interesting precedent. Perhaps there are other legends only the druids know, such as Merlin also being called Emrys. The idea would help explain why Morgause and Morgana did/do not know Merlinâs identity.–
my memory fails me right now, but when Gaius first learns of the name Emrys, it’s a surprise to him, too, isn’t it? If I remember that correctly it supports the ‘druid only’ theory
M
22nd March 2021 @ 12:54 am
Was I the only one that autocorrected Aithusa to Athusala? or something similar? I was just shocked when I watched it that Aithusa was the baby dragon’s actual name. We only hear it once in Merlin’s drawn-out dragon call. I really wish this episode would have focused more on dragons and dragonlords so we could have a concrete idea of what their relationship is supposed to be or maybe even the lore of dragonlords before Merlin. But instead, we get a mixed bag of an episode with a lot of experimental or questionable beats that leaves me wanting a do-over. Most of the wonderful scenes are there for beauty alone and do not have a story purpose. The waterfall scene is the largest offender. In literature and entertainment, we as viewers have been trained to see water as rebirth, a life change, a washing away of old. In this scene, the visual cues us to look for that change and there is nothing! I am discovering why I never made it past season 2 of any Merlin rewatch I have tried before.
22nd March 2021 @ 3:22 am
I totally agree about wishing we had been given more dragonlord stuff in general. The premises in the show always have so much potential…
21st March 2021 @ 11:47 pm
This episode is a classic case of âthe deleted scenes tell us moreâ. Just like you guys said about Arthur not confiding in Gwen about his opinion on magic in âthe wicked dayâ, there was a literal deleted scene dedicated to that.
In âAithusaâ, Arthurâs opinion on the destructive nature of dragons and why they shouldnât be allowed back is further coined in a deleted scene in the âdarkest hourâ episodes where Arthur points out that the ruined castle they were about to make camp in was once the most powerful citadel in the lands, yet destroyed by dragons.
Also for continuity points, this episode should have kept in the deleted scene where Merlin is confiding in Arthur about his own father, as the area is where they last were together. Makes you also wonder if itâs a coincidence that the cave they go into looks very much like the one Balinor lived in, which has a secret exit at the back leading to a dragonâs egg. Instead of Balinorâs last advice to Merlin being âa dragonâs heart is on its right sideâ, it might have been more useful to tell him that another dragon was available to be hatched when he got the chance.
Another thing Iâd just like to add in is: my goodness, isnât Arthur made to look so idiotic! Heâs meant to be a brilliant tracker, yet everything obvious like horse poop and a clear footprint he completely misses. For Merlin to look extra intelligent, arthurâs IQ must drop.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:23 am
I wonder if anyone’s ever done an edit of the show, where they’ve added all the deleted scenes back in, and how that’s come out. hmmmm. seems like exactly the sort of fandom task that someone would undertake!!
Neither Ruth or I are big on watching deleted scenes, because of the unending frustration with deleted scenes as a concept, so apart from the really big ones that you couldn’t avoid in fandom at the time (arthur giving merlin his mother’s sigil in the dorocha episode for example) we don’t really know or remember them, so it’s super interesting to have people point out the various deleted scenes that would have made things make more sense.
đ
— Instead of Balinorâs last advice to Merlin being âa dragonâs heart is on its right sideâ, it might have been more useful to tell him that another dragon was available to be hatched when he got the chance.—
lol that would have been way too useful! can’t possible have that!!! haha
M Xx
21st March 2021 @ 10:41 am
I don’t know if I’m just tired and overworked at the moment, or if season 4 is doing this to me, but I am finding less and less to say about these episodes. Probably I’m just out of practice, but my notes for this episode were teeny tiny because had that quest-aspect of Eye of the Phoenix, with there being slightly different reasons for Merlin and Arthur being there, but without really building any relationships (apart from food-stealing ones…). It was a pretty functional episode but didn’t give me very much.
I did love the lighting when Merlin and Bordon are going to the dungeons- it feels quite comic-bookish which is fitting and cool, but then I think it is this episode where Arthur and Agravaine go to the dungeon in the day and there is light streaming in through a window? It is supposed to be underground but whatever, I know they did have to use a lot of the same sets and things.
When Bordon first comes to see Gaius he says ‘Ah that’s not what you taught me.’ at some point. As people have discussed here, Bordon is not a well executed character and so it is only in this scene where I wondered whether he was the old Merlin, Gaius maybe looked after him before Merlin came. This does not have any more evidence in the episode so I don’t think it’s worth thinking about too much, but it would be an interesting concept. Merlin often goes against what Gaius says and maybe Bordon could have served as a warning for if Merlin strayed tooo far from Gaius’ (the worst’s) guiding light.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:31 am
–I donât know if Iâm just tired and overworked at the moment, or if season 4 is doing this to me, but I am finding less and less to say about these episodes. Probably Iâm just out of practice—
I would guess a bit of everything. I just read a really interesting article on ‘late stage pandemic’ (exhaustion and what it’s doing to our brain) and while it didn’t fix anything, it did make me feel better to know that whole mind fog thing wasn’t just happening to me. the link is below in case you’re interested. It’s written in sort of blog style, so it makes for a nice, non exhausting read (which again, more important these days than it would have been 12 months ago)
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/what-pandemic-doing-our-brains/618221/
— I think it is this episode where Arthur and Agravaine go to the dungeon in the day and there is light streaming in through a window? It is supposed to be underground but whatever, I know they did have to use a lot of the same sets and things.–
hahaha oh god, you’re totally right. it’s a whole episode of bad lighting decisions. do you think they ran out of day-to-night budget???
–When Bordon first comes to see Gaius he says âAh thatâs not what you taught me.â at some point. As people have discussed here, Bordon is not a well executed character and so it is only in this scene where I wondered whether he was the old Merlin, Gaius maybe looked after him before Merlin came.–
oooooh.. interesting. He’s definitely too young to be Gaius’ peer, despite the fact that he’s been searching for this dragon egg for a billion years according to his own logic. And before that studied in camelot with (but yes, maybe ‘under’) Gaius. you really think gaius would be better by now…. he’s not. he’s the worst!!
M Xx
23rd March 2021 @ 10:03 pm
Oh thank you so much for sharing that article! I really feel that, I’m back at school at the moment and it’s like I’m still in a bubble, we all can see each other and talk but there is so much going on so grades, enthusiasm and mental health is just continually slipping. But we just have to push through I suppose and maybe the world will offer up something to be excited about.
For now it is so wonderful just to be able to come here where we can escape to a land of myth and a time of magic… I can imagine I am just a little medieval peasant running through the moors-with less plague and more dragons!
Thank you :))
24th March 2021 @ 7:53 am
I also take a lot of hope from the conclusion that our brains are really good at learning, and also unlearning things, and therefore all the ‘we just need to get back into the swing of things, once this is over’ that I’ve certainly been telling myself, feeling like it’s the biggest lie I try to get away with, might not be such a massive lie, after all. that was a very positive takeaway, also, so fingers crossed for that!
equally, escapism: ALWAYS VALID!!!
Xx
21st March 2021 @ 5:36 am
Hi! First time commenter but long-time listener here! I’m so excited that other people made the connection to the Vortigern legend! I’m a long-time Merlin, long-time Arthurian legend fan, but only just looked into the Vortigern story again recently and realized how closely this episode follows the legend as I was watching along with D+C. In the original story, I believe Merlin tells King Vortigern to release the red and white dragons from where they’re trapped in the ground because their fighting keeps causing a tower that Vortigern is trying to build to crumble. Merlin (from what I have noticed) tends to be a very, very loose adaptation of the medieval Arthurian tales, with Aithusa as an adaptation of the Vortigern story being no exception, BUT the connections between the medieval myth and this particular episodes seem more clear than most other Merlin episodes. I find this so interesting as Merlin was a child in this particular myth–Vortigern is the medieval version of the “before they were famous” pitch that BBC Merlin uses. Seems appropriate that of all the Arthurian stories the Vortigern one is the one adapted! (Wish that the red vs white dragon was used more clearly if at all in Merlin, but I digress)
21st March 2021 @ 11:55 pm
I love the vortigern stories, my goodness there should be an entirely new series made based on him alone. With his rickety relationship with both Briton AND Saxons leads to his downfall by his own son siding against him, whilst tying in some cameo appearances with a red dragon and Aithusa. How Kilgharrah could possibly say to merlinâs face the white dragon bodes well for Albion I do not know haha.
25th March 2021 @ 7:19 am
Oh, your comment has made me remember something! According to Nennius’s Historia Brittonum (an important source for Monmouth), Vortigern chose Merlin (named Ambrosius in Nennius’s version) because he had been told that the crumbling tower situation could only be solved by sacrificing a boy with no father:
“41. In consequence of this reply, the king sent messengers throughout Britain, in search of a child born without a father. After having inquired in all the provinces, they came to the field of Aelecti, in the district of Glevesing, where a party of boys were playing at ball. And two of them quarrelling, one said to the other, “” boy without a father, no good will ever happen to you.” Upon this, the messengers diligently inquired of the mother and the other boys, whether he had had a father? Which his mother denied, saying, “In what manner he was conceived I know not, for I have never had intercourse with any man;” and then she solemnly affirmed that he had no mortal father. The boy was, therefore, led away, and conducted before Vortigern the king. ”
He gives the prophecy about the pools and the dragons and stuff, then:
” “What is your name?” asked the king; “I am called Ambrose (in British Embresguletic),” returned the boy; and in answer to the king’s question, “What is your origin?” he replied, “A Roman consul was my father.” ”
Some versions (Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy comes to mind) stick close to this, making Merlin’s father a consul or king; some have him be the son of a devil or demon. BBC Merlin gives us a really interesting version by having Merlin’s father be both as powerful and important as a Roman consul (I mean “lord” of the Dragons is nobility in a sense) but perceived by Uther as evil (demonic? with evil powers?), and Merlin himself is perceived as fatherless by most. I’m sure I could come up with a proper interpretation if I wasn’t dealing with pandemic brain, but as it is the parallel is interesting!
25th March 2021 @ 9:09 am
That really is interesting. Thanks for doing the research, Esme!
I only knew the demon-as-father story and that Merlin was supposed to be sacrificed by Vortigern before he proved his usefulness by showing the King the lake under the tower and the fighting dragons. But, at the same time, Merlin also pronounced Vortigern’s doom and the rise of the Pendragon (I think). Anyway, the legends are really intriguing but also very weird. I’m glad the show found a better solution than devil-spawn for Merlin’s origin!
20th March 2021 @ 8:43 pm
So, I began taking notes while watching the episode but only got four bullet points down because my brain is fried (coursework is going… slowly). Here are those points? I guess:
1) “Surely you remember me” is a weird first thing for Bordon to say to Gaius – what prompted him to say that? (In hindsight, maybe I’m just bad at reading faces and Gaius’ face clearly said “I don’t know who you are” but it still felt weird and jarring)
2) Merlin and Gaius’s conversation was WEIRD (I don’t remember precisely what I meant by that but I stand by it)
3) Surely by now Merlin knows the guards well enough to not want them to get hurt? (You covered everything I wanted to say about this – it’s just an awful thing for the show to have Merlin do!)
4) WTF does “[dragons] are for the benefit of all” mean?! (again, you covered this – but I was so weirded out by it! Dragons are speaking, sentient creatures – this line made them sound like livestock!
I found myself feeling fairly neutral about this episode as I was watching it, but then I had this weird moment around ten minutes from the end where I looked to see how much longer was left and realised it was nearly over and was surprised – something about the pacing or the structure of the episode felt so wrong but I don’t know what! Nearly the whole episode until the dinner conversation with Merlin and Gaius felt like the start of an episode? Like it felt like the main conflict hadn’t started yet. That might just be me but it felt very strange.
I would say I hated the trousers scene, but I registered when it was coming and skipped it, so… I guess I can’t really comment. It’s been a long enough time since I saw it that I don’t remember the details and I’d prefer to keep it that way! It’s just not my sense of humour and the idea of Arthur being embarrassed in front of all those people makes me squirm.
Leon being mean to Merlin felt SO wrong. Like I agree with you about Gwaine being awful here, but I could almost buy that it’s within Gwaine’s established character to make a joke like this and take it too far, especially in an attempt to draw Merlin out of his shell (this wouldn’t be the way to do that, really, but I could accept it as a reasonable choice written poorly) but it’s SO out of character for Leon, and for some reason that’s what was really jarring for me about those horrible scenes.
Finally, the last line of the episode (“The white dragon bodes well for Albion, for you and Arthur, and for the land that you will build together”) made me think of this, from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain:
“As Vortigern, king of the Britons, was sitting upon the bank of the drained pond, the two dragons, one of which was white, the other red, came forth, and, approaching one another, began a terrible fight, and cast forth fire with their breath. But the white dragon had the advantage, and made the other fly to the end of the lake. And he, for grief at his flight, renewed the assault upon his pursuer, and forced him to reture. After this battle of the dragons, the king commanded Ambrose Merlin to tell him what it portended. Upon which he, bursting into tears, delivered what his prophetical spirit suggested to him, as follows:â
‘Woe to the red dragon, for his banishment hasteneth on. His lurking holes shall be seized by the white dragon, which signifies the Saxons whom you invited over; but the red denotes the British nation, which shall be oppressed by the white. Therefore shall its mountains be levelled as the valleys, and the rivers of the valleys shall run with blood. The exercise of religion shall be destroyed, and churches laid open to ruin. At last the oppressed shall prevail, and oppose the cruelty of foreigners. ‘”
(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Six_Old_English_Chronicles/Geoffrey%27s_British_History/Book_7)
Curious as to people’s thoughts about this?
20th March 2021 @ 9:14 pm
Hi EsmĂŠ: Oh, I completely made that link to the red and white dragon fight from legend as well. I think the fact that Aithusa is white is so on the nose that I didn’t even think to mention it. But yes, that scene from the History of the Kingd of Britain is probably at least part of their source material. Well, as far as Merlin used source material. They pluck out an element and then do something entirely different with it.
I think it’s not just the ‘they are for the benefit of all’ line – this episode contains so, so much bad writing! But that one is particularly disturbing (life-stock indeed) and inconsistent with the line just before (‘They belong to no man’ – why ‘man’. Why? It’s the whole conundrum with ‘Only the first-born SONS can inherit the drgaonlords’ powers all over again!). How much better this would have sounded if Merlin had said, “They belong to no one! If we let them roam free, all can benefit from them.” It’s also a little ridiculous that Merlin would maintain that dragons belong to no man when he is actually the man they belong to. Well, I guess they don’t belong to him but they owe him their aboslute obedience and if that isn’t slavery and if slavery doesn’t imply ownership, then I’ve got my history all wrong.
20th March 2021 @ 9:35 pm
-(âThey belong to no manâ â why âmanâ. Why? Itâs the whole conundrum with âOnly the first-born SONS can inherit the drgaonlordsâ powers all over again!)-
Haha I noticed that too! The only thing to do is to disregard it, I think đ (I may just be writing a nonbinary Merlin fic where precisely this question is asked đ Now I have even more incentive to write it!)
As to the legendary white dragon: knowing what’s going to happen with Aithusa, the idea that the White Dragon represents the Saxons is… interesting. But then, why is it “a good sign for Albion”? Argh. So many unanswered questions! (unless it’s “good” because the Saxons are the ancestors of the English, unlike those oldey-timey Celts, but that’s just mean)
21st March 2021 @ 7:34 pm
“the fact that Aithusa is white is so on the nose that I didnât even think to mention it.”
– right, it’s such an obvious reference that surely they’re saying SOMETHING with it…? right? But like Danuta said, if the white dragon represents the Saxons then… well, I don’t know what to think. Is the comparison meant to be that the Saxons are the Old Religion/magic people and creatures? In which case, is Merlin (and by extension Arthur, at least in that quote) being identified with the Saxons?!
And yeah the “they belong to no MAN” thing is disappointingly male-centric, and all of this is weird in relation to the fact that Merlin can literally control Kilgarrah… so many ethical quandaries and discomforting implications!
20th March 2021 @ 8:38 pm
Forgot something! Something that has creeped me out from the very first time I watched this episode (I remember distinctly) is the unspoken premise that the egg has to be rescued and the baby dragon hatched so that eventually Kilgarrah can have procreate with the baby dragon. I mean, I don’t know how exactly dragons do that – I have only got my human understanding of those things to go on – but either way, it gives the entire episode a certain uncomfortable undertone. And don’t say I made this up! It is in there: the first thing Merlin says after Borden has left Gaius’ chambers is that this is their ‘one chance of saving the dragons, of helping Kilgarrah preserve his kind.’ So, baby Aithusa is hatched to breed! Additionally, since it is Merlin who is most clear about the procreation aspect of Aithusa’s rescue, this becomes even more problematic since, as a dragonlord, he will in future be able to command the two dragons to…create baby dragons! Watching the hatching scene with that in mind, I don’t quite feel the same about sweet, wee Aithusa. đ
20th March 2021 @ 8:44 pm
Oh my god that’s a very very good point and I hate it. That is such a cursed mental image.
20th March 2021 @ 9:20 pm
Sorry! đ
23rd March 2021 @ 10:13 am
should I feel bad that it was always very clear to me that the hope that Aithusa brings to Albion, Kilgarrah, and Merlin is 70% tied up with the fact that Kilgarrah will be able to mate with Aithusa? To a point where everyone was utterly convinced that Aithusa was a girl, because she would have to be, to be able to conitnue the dragon species. and all fanfic written between this point and season 5 talks about Aithusa as female. And then season 5 rolled around and suddenly Aithusa is a boy and everyone just went WTF? So how will they make babies???
though i’d never thought as far as ‘merlin will command them to make babies’, that, as Esme says, is indeed a cursed mental image lol
24th March 2021 @ 5:55 pm
Aithusa is a boy? That’s news to me. When do they refer to her as him? And how can anyone tell? I mean, I don’t see that Merlin had time or expertise to check any reproductive organs…or whatever else indicates sex in dragons.
26th March 2021 @ 9:42 am
Until you just said this I would have sworn blind that in S5 Aithusa gets referred to as he/him, however I could not find anything on google just now O_o
I guess weâll have to go through S5 and see, because this may have been an entire fandomâs delusion otherwise…
20th March 2021 @ 8:17 pm
Ruth and Michelle, I have to admit that I was laughing so much when I heard you squirm because you couldnât comment on the dragonâs prediction that Aithusa is a good omen and bodes well for Albion and Merlin and Arthurâs destiny. Ruth was so, so close! I could really feel your painâŚand it was so funny! đ
Another thing that made me laugh and cringe in this episode is the part where Merlin almost runs into a tree branch and they play âterrible dangerâ music. Arthur drags him away by his shirt collar and Colin acts scared as if he almost died. Each time I watch this episode, I pause, looking for long thorns on the branch that would justify the music and reaction. Alas, there are none. Itâs so ridiculously NOT dangerous or epic! Even Merlin then comments, âWe can go around that,â to which Arthur shouts, âNo,â as if Merlin had almost stepped into a nest of vipers! Itâs just a tree branch! You are in a forest. Sorry, episode, but just because you give actorsâ epic-sounding lines, over-the-top acting directions and turn up the volume on your soundtrack doesnât mean âmehâ content becomes good!
I do quite genuinely laugh in the final scene between Merlin and Gaius where Gaius reads him like a book. Itâs so, so good!
I hate the stew bullying – it makes me so uncomfortable! Even Merlinâs smile when the knights show him the bowl they had hidden for him says more cringe than genuine amusement. Kind of like someone who is bullied and has to act like itâs okay so it doesnât get worse!
I also dislike that this episode is used as somewhat of a reset button for Arthur. Last we saw him, he was crowned a king, beginning a new day, a new and glorious reign. He had the most âKing Arthurâ of âKing Arthurâ moments and yet in this episode he is ridiculed because he doesnât wake up immediately when Merlin is jingling keys or has his trousers pulled down in front of his council. The last image we had of Arthur last episode was as the legendary King Arthur and here he is bullying Merlin, refusing to apologise for insulting him and encouraging his knights to treat Merlin likewise. The only reason I can come up with for this happening is that they needed to show Arthur as still very much flawed despite being now king, to give themselves scope to develop the story and his character. But they could have done this in a more sensitive way, I feel.
I actually really like that we are being consistent with Merlinâs sneaking. Maybe itâs because I myself am far too curious, I donât see Merlin creeping to the door to listen to Gaiusâ conversations as something weird. I think thatâs exactly what I would do – check out whether something interesting is going on, go back to bed if itâs not. I think itâs just a personality trait.
I think this episode stands out to me because it contains a great number of interesting ideas and lines. However, most of these are simply abandoned or brought to fruition in a really underwhelming way. Like I mentioned above, the actors often try to make underwhelming lines or events epic through their performances which is when the Dragoon/Sigan over-enunciation and over-acting becomes a problem! You pointed out that the tomb isnât really all that booby-trapped or that âYouâre going to have to be [a good liar]â doesnât go anywhere. Neither is the druidsâ ominous instruction that âOnly when the way forward seems impossible will you have found it.â They canât mean the cave, right? I mean, Arthur calls it a dead end but it very clearly isnât. There is no âimpossibilityâ about continuing – especially since Merlin and Arthur have been to this cave before and Arthur should remember. (But more of that later.) So, lots of lines and ideas that sound epic but are really shoddily executed or just abandoned at some point. (I have started to wonder whether that is going to be something we will be able to say about all of Merlin at the endâŚbut I wonât get there yet. And like you, I shall restrain myself from mentioning anything about Kilgarrahâs prediction when Aithusa hatches.)
My other problem with this episode is that I really donât like anyone in it very much or understand why they do what they do in the way they do it. Gaius says that he fears to think what Borden intends to do with the baby dragon and I feel so did the writers. They were so afraid that they couldnât bring themselves to think of anything specific that Borden wanted with the dragon. Your interpretation that he believed hatching a dragon would make him a dragonlord seems the most plausible. This has led me to the conclusion that Borden is so sketchily executed as a character because he is fundamentally pointless and doesnât have anything to do in the episode apart from informing Merlin about the egg and getting Arthur to go searching for it.
But there could have been any number of ways to get Arthur to start on his quest. Maybe Morgana had Agravaine steal the triskelion from the dungeon because she wants a baby dragon to fight on her side. Arthur thinks he pursues an unknown thief but Merlin has observed Agravaine stealing the keys and has to get there first to rescue the egg from Morgana. So, we would have no superfluous and underdeveloped Indiana-Jones wannabe, no Merlin who steals from Arthur and betrays him, no reason to âstew jokeâ and Agravaine and Morgana could have had something to do.
But actually, the best thing they could have done with this episode is to really lean into making this about Merlinâs father and Merlin consciously taking up the mantle and preserving Balinorâs legacy. They actually do that to some extend but again, it is not fully executed so I donât know how many people pick this up. The cave that apparently is âimpossibleâ to enter is VERY recognisably the dragonlord cave where Balinor lived the last 20 years of his life. I donât know why Arthur doesnât recognise it but the way Colin reacts to the cave makes me think that he realises the significance of the place. That means that Balinor wasnât just randomly hiding out in a cave – he was protecting the last dragon egg from intruders like Borden! Apart from the cave linking this episode to âThe Last Dragonlordâ there are also two deleted scenes that are much more direct in making this about Merlinâs father and Merlin trying to live up to is example. One is another fireside conversation with him and Arthur where Merlin remembers that this is where he last saw his father and that he was proud of his father and wants to make him proud also. Arthur then says that he can relate which would have worked so well connecting it to the previous and the following episode. It also is just a lovely friendship moment between Arthur and Merlin who, recently, havenât spent all that much time together. It really sees them connecting on an equal level through their fathers and how to deal with their legacy. Later, when they return from the quest, there is another deleted scene just as they ride into the castle where Arthur says that Merlin has made his father proud.
While I really wish these scenes were in the episode, I understand why they cut them. Last Merlin and Arthur spoke about this, Merlin said that he never met his father so Arthurâs calm reaction here to Merlin saying he met his father here does not make sense. If anything, Arthur should have put two and two together and remembered that this was the place where they hung out with that dragonlord Balinor. Also, Arthur complimenting Merlin at the end, saying that he would have made his father proud does not make sense as Arthur canât know any of what Merlin has done in this episode, of course. But I wish we could have had the Merlin taking up his fatherâs mantle theme as the central one in the episode. I believe the episode could have been a lot more focused and successful.
21st March 2021 @ 12:55 am
I like your idea on how it originally should have been Morgana’s plan. It really solves a lot of problems. My first thought was that it also makes the development we see later with Aithusa’s role make a lot more sense. It would have made it possible to predict the irony of Kilgharrah’s speech in the end in a way that isn’t too obvious. Instead of it coming out of the blue, it could have had a deeper meaning which we can immediately understand.
I really like your note on Merlin’s relationship to his father in this episode. I wasn’t aware of the deleted scene but as apparently the writers also wanted to make his father Merlin’s motivation. Sadly they seemed incapable to bring that into the show in a way that makes sense, even though I’m not sure why Merlin wasn’t able to mention it to Gaius for example. Wanting to do it with Arthur seems like such a stretch, even if it was just supposed to serve as a bonding moment. They saw this beautiful opportunity and instead of making the effort to make to work, it was discarded which is so sad because it could have made this episode so much more meaningful. It really feels like the writers were not up for the job with this episode for some reason.
21st March 2021 @ 7:26 am
I found a YouTube video for all deleted scenes for this episode :
https://youtu.be/R5LG9WgoexE
Start watching at 45 seconds – those are the scenes I mean. (Also, there is another stew scene before that which they cut. Three stew scenes… I really don’t understand what possessed them!!!)
21st March 2021 @ 12:41 pm
thank you!
Oh my, that was a beautiful scene at the campfire. So sad it doesn’t make a lot of sense because I would have loved to have those scenes in the episode.
And I want to vomit because of the third stew scene. I can’t believe they originally planned to put even more of that in the episode. Why did they think it was a good joke…
21st March 2021 @ 1:45 pm
Why didn’t they realise after they shot the third of these stew scenes that if they need to fill up their episode with stuff like this, there must be something wrong with the construction and content of the entire episode. Even Merlin shakes his head at the final stew scene!
23rd March 2021 @ 9:52 am
far be it from me to advocate for a third stew scene (argh!!) but at least with it being this level of overload in regards to botht he repetition, and how extreme their acting is around the happy yummy noises, it does make it a lot clearer that this is a joke that everyone (including merlin) is in on, and that the knights are being ridiculous on purpose, which gets us a lot closer to Ruth’s generous read of ‘the knights are trying to cheer merlin up’, so that wopuld be a good thing.
but yes, a better thing would be to just cut all the stew nonsense!!
M Xx
24th March 2021 @ 5:56 pm
I actually agree with you. At least the cut stew scene is so over the top that you really get that it’s just silliness. And Merlin didn’t react dejected or hurt but just puzzled by the knights.
21st March 2021 @ 2:54 pm
Oh, the scene by the campfire is beautiful! I’m so mad they cut it đ And Arthur’s face when Merlin says that “he [the dead father] will always be better than you” – the doubt in his eyes tells me all about how torn Arthur is by the image of his own father he has in his head!
I really think those two scenes could have been incorporated without it looking weird. After all, in the second scene, we have a classic example of Arthur meaning something else than Merlin. To Arthur, they destroyed the dragon egg = did something good –> Merlin’s father would be proud of him. To Merlin, he saved the egg –> his father would be proud.
Granted, it’s a bit harder to explain why Arthur doesn’t catch up that it’s Balinor Merlin’s talking about. But it still could be done, I think. After all, Arthur knows nothing about Merlin’s dad, maybe Merlin could come up with some non-dangerous explanation.
The third stew scene – WHY. JUST WHY.
21st March 2021 @ 4:51 pm
I wish they were in the episode as well – instead of the stew bullying! But I can’t really think of a way how they could have rewritten the campfire scene to make sense of the fact that Arthur doesn’t react to Merlin revealing that he met his father before his death in the same place where that dragonlord died. Maybe the scene could have been with Gwaine instead? HE knows that Merlin has met his dad before he died. But then Arthur would be missing from scene. The whole thing should have been set up in a previous episode then this could have worked beautifully. Maybe even in the previous episode – that was all about fathers anyway. If Merlin had spent a little less time as Dragoon, he and Arthur could have had time for a father-sons conversation.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:56 am
though, as Ruth has so often said, ‘what does Arthur know??’ – he doesn’t seem to have any knowledge about dragonlords on the lore surrounding them, so he probably has no idea that being a dragonlord is passed down, father to son…. I mean, I still think it would be a bad idea for Merlin to tell him about Balinor being his father!! but it would make it easier to get those deleted scenes back into the show.
Also, Arthur literally never remembers a single thing that happened last week, nevermind last year. We have to put up with that every time he’s an idiot about something, because he forgot the earlier thing that happened! why don’t we get to use that to our benefit, by letting us have this scene, and have arthur conveniently just not remember that they saw Balinor die here?? đ đ
24th March 2021 @ 5:59 pm
I agree. There are ways they could have worked this scene into the episode. If they had at all known what they wanted their episode to focus on or what their message ought to be. At least we got it as a bonus later on.
23rd March 2021 @ 10:09 am
—Each time I watch this episode, I pause, looking for long thorns on the branch that would justify the music and reaction. Alas, there are none. Itâs so ridiculously NOT dangerous or epic! Even Merlin then comments, âWe can go around that,â to which Arthur shouts, âNo,â as if Merlin had almost stepped into a nest of vipers! Itâs just a tree branch! You are in a forest. —
due to how the branch is positioned (the bend-y curvedness of it) it does always remind me of one of those… slingshot traps? I’m not sure that’s what they are called, but basically the thing that merlin and arthur end up in at some point later on, in the net, with the rabbits. which to be me is almost more of a problem because dude, arthur, come on! do you really think Borden had time to set up traps, between shooting at you with a crossbow and running away??? so yeah, either way, it’s not good.
— The only reason I can come up with for this happening is that they needed to show Arthur as still very much flawed despite being now king, to give themselves scope to develop the story and his character.—
as pretty much always, we have to reset arthur, because we can’t possibly develop him… I genuinly do not understand what their overall character arc thinking was at the start of the show, as they went on, and now at this point. Like, you’ve written all of season 4 at this point, or at the very least you’ve outlined it all, even if you’re still finishing up the scripts. and maybe you have no idea what you’re doing in season 5 (you should!!!!) but even within this season, what was your arc? what was your plan??
—I actually really like that we are being consistent with Merlinâs sneaking. Maybe itâs because I myself am far too curious, I donât see Merlin creeping to the door to listen to Gaiusâ conversations as something weird. I think thatâs exactly what I would do â check out whether something interesting is going on, go back to bed if itâs not. I think itâs just a personality trait.—-
totally! I don’t actually have an issue with Merlin’s sneaking, because that’s what Merlin’s do. It’s just hilarious when he is doing it for absolutely no reason and I wish that we had the time (cut all the stew scenes!!!!) to show him spying on something that turns out to be boring af and then have him pouting because he missed out on sleep for nothing lol
— âOnly when the way forward seems impossible will you have found it.â They canât mean the cave, right?—
hahahahaha I hope not! lol
I think with a lot of these ominous predictions, I’m never quite sure whether they are all meant to pay off within the episode, or whether they’ll have meaning in the greater story. yes, I appreciate that would require forethought, and clearly we do not do that on Merlin, so if there is a greated picture meaning it’s probably accidental, but it does have me think about the upcoming episodes, and how the season wraps up, and whether we can tie it in with that.
but no, you’re probably right, they probably did mean the IMPENETRABLE CAVE!!!
— This has led me to the conclusion that Borden is so sketchily executed as a character because he is fundamentally pointless and doesnât have anything to do in the episode apart from informing Merlin about the egg and getting Arthur to go searching for it.–
yeah, it’s lazy writing which I guess you do see most often with villains, because ultimately they have to be defeated, so why waste time and effort into their motivations and characteristics, if you’re just going to have them loose, anyway, right? =/ =/ =/
— and Agravaine and Morgana could have had something to do.–
and on top of that Morgana would have an active plan!!! rather than just sitting around until something fell into her lap that she could react to.
M Xx
24th March 2021 @ 6:11 pm
I wish that we had the time (cut all the stew scenes!!!!) to show him spying on something that turns out to be boring af and then have him pouting because he missed out on sleep for nothing lol –
Haha, that’d be awesome. Kind of like they had Gandalf cough while smoking in LOTR to show that smoking is bad. Merlin could be a little dull – eyed and frustrated to bring home that, “Sneaking is bad kids and almost never worth it.” Except that Merlin’s instinct to sneak seems to generally be spot on in terms of listening to just the right people.
I think with a lot of these ominous predictions, Iâm never quite sure whether they are all meant to pay off within the episode, or whether theyâll have meaning in the greater story. –
I’m afraid I still think that this was a specific ominous warning about the Tomb since their entire conversation had focused on the details about it in druid legend. It s all specific to this quest and the way to and within the tomb. I really think they meant the impenetrable cave which is why Arthur had to be brainless and suggest that it was a dead end. Stupidity for the sake of prophecy so to speak. Or whimsically alter character so your story can somewhat make sense.
26th March 2021 @ 9:46 am
Theyâre going to continue to massively struggle with the meaning of âimpenetrableâ (just as they struggle with the meaning of ârightfulâ) – remember all the impenetrable woods were going to encounter? That can be penetrated in less than 45 minutes no problem? đ¤Śââď¸
Oh, also, the perilous lands. A friendly magic dude on a bridge, some quicksand bog, and two measly wyverns. Genuinely less perilous than 90% of every other Merlin episode there is lol
19th March 2021 @ 11:13 pm
I thought this episode was very meh. It doesnât do a lot for me and it has some awful things in it like the stew, which just infuriates me. I just donât have a lot to say about this episode which is why most of this comment just builds on the stuff said in the podcast.
Iâm glad you commented on how uncomfortable the druids are sitting there to sleep.
When I watched this episode for the first time I thought the people in the cave were dead and we saw the aftermath of a massacre. I was like âmy god this is brutalâ and it took me a hot second to realise they were just sleeping.
The first half is so uncomfortable for me because Merlin is unreasonably stupid. Usually heâd notice the dude is shifty. The thing that annoys me most is how Merlin still believes Borden has some decency in him after betraying him. He still doesnât treat him like a villain after that. I also donât understand why he has to be so secretive about the whole thing after the betrayal. When Arthur figures out someone stole from him, why doesnât Merlin tell him he saw what happened and was hit on the head? This is a problem I have so often in this show and Iâll probably never stop complaining about it. Some openness and honesty would be nice.
During the woodworm scenes I kept asking myself why Arthur doesnât wake up earlier. Heâs a warrior. Surly he should be able to get on his feet as soon as thereâs anything going on around him. Merlin can literally fall on top of him and Arthur doesnât jump up. Iâm just guessing Arthur can sense itâs Merlin and that leads me to think very shippy thoughts, considering he should jump up with something like that, but when itâs Merlin⌠Anyway.
This is one of those episodes in which we see Merlin choose magic before his other duties, before Camelot and Arthur. He doesnât fail magic this time. It heals my heart after what he did last episode. He can feel worthy of being a warlock and a dragon lord again. Heâs ready to take up to responsibility that comes with his role, considering he could save the egg after all.
Thatâs also where I see his motivation for his rescue of the dragon egg coming from. He failed the magical community last episode. He was in the position in which he could influence Arthur in a very vulnerable and insecure state, in which he could have done something to get closer to the legalisation of magic. Rescuing the dragon egg could be reconciliation. Heâs helping the magical community by saving the life of a beautiful magical creature.
I was really excited about the knights this season. I was looking forward to seeing them all together for the first time and have a group dynamic and I forgot how awful much of it is. So far we either had a complete loss of personality or them being cruel to Merlin and it just makes me so sad. I donât remember exactly how itâll continue looking forward but we had enough time already to play around with that group dynamic in a fun and productive way. It just makes me sad. Thereâs so much potential now that we have a bigger group of named characters to play around with and weâre not using it. Instead it hurts a lot of scenes.
My last note of the episode was âAithusa is so cute aaaahâ. I think Michelle would agree
20th March 2021 @ 7:56 pm
Hi Denise – your note on the woodworm scene and Arthur not notcing until Merlin is half on top of him actually reminded me of the scene when the two of them are nearly robbed in their sleep at the inn in ‘The Last Dragonlord’. There, the thief made no noise whatsoever, yet Arthur was awake and had him tackled with a knife at his throat merely for silently reaching for Arthur’s back. Interestingly, here it is Merlin who doesn’t wake up until Arthur and the thief land half on top of him. And that’s character-consistent. Where have Arthur’s instincts and capabilities gone in ‘Aithusa’, I wonder?
21st March 2021 @ 12:32 am
If it isn’t just an inconsistency my only explanation is that Arthur is used to Merlin working around him when he’s sleeping. Even being on the bed isn’t an unusual occurrence apparently. Therefore his previously displayed instincts aren’t kicking in. He can drop the soldier inside himself when it’s Merlin.
We have seen Merlin in Arthur’s room when he’s sleeping before. It took Arthur a while to wake up then as well. Thinking of the castle of fyrien, where Merlin also walks around in the room and it takes him opening the curtains and talking to Arthur to wake up.
It’s still odd that it goes so far. Walking around the room is quite different to messing with the keys and falling on top of him.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:43 am
and the fact that arthur is established to not be a morning person and that a large part of merlin’s job seems to just be about bullying arthur out of bed hahaha it doesn’t 100% make sense, but I do buy that largely camelot castle is a safe place, and merlin is a presence in arthur’s life and in his room, that arthur is largely used to, and therefore his body doesn’t react to his presence. whereas of course when they are out on a mission or sleeping in a different castle or a tavern the unfamiliar surroundings and the risk of danger would have arthur on edge. And you can tell different people’s presence in your space, without seeing them. especially people you live with and therefore get incredibly used to.
it doesn’t fully justify the silliness, but mostly it’s cute, so i’ll allow it! lol
M Xx
23rd March 2021 @ 9:47 am
–This is a problem I have so often in this show and Iâll probably never stop complaining about it. Some openness and honesty would be nice.–
honestly I’m kind of glad, because i feel like I keep saying and complaining about the same things in each podcast episode, because it’s ongoingly frustrating!!!! so I’m glad I’m not alone, and that you also find it hard to put it aside and draw a line under it, because it IS ongoingly frustrating!!!
—I was really excited about the knights this season. I was looking forward to seeing them all together for the first time and have a group dynamic and I forgot how awful much of it is.—
next episode will be your moment!!! it will all be worth it, for the knights & merlin & arthur-ness of next episode <3
M Xx
23rd March 2021 @ 3:41 pm
I will be watching the episode tonight and I’m really excited! My brain deleted most of that episode for some reason even tho it has only been like 2 months since I first watched it, so I’m looking forward to all the goodness I forgot đ
18th March 2021 @ 11:58 pm
I feel like Merlin’s motivation comes from his father. It would make sense if Merlin was thinking about him here because Arthur just lost his father. The whole Dragonlord thing is the only thing connecting him to his father, and it makes sense to me that Merlin would be feeling his loss more keenly now than he has in a while.
I hate the white dragon bodes well for Camelot line. You’ll see why.
Borden says something about “you taught me” when talking to Gaius. Does this mean there’s like, a school? Was Gaius a teacher there? Like Camelot’s version of Hogwarts? I genuinely think this has to be the case, and now I’m even more upset that we never get Gaius’s backstory.
The stew thing never bothered me, I assumed it was something they did to everyone and this was just Merlin’s turn. It’s always made him feel more like part of the group to me.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:39 am
—I feel like Merlinâs motivation comes from his father. It would make sense if Merlin was thinking about him here because Arthur just lost his father. The whole Dragonlord thing is the only thing connecting him to his father, and it makes sense to me that Merlin would be feeling his loss more keenly now than he has in a while.—
and turns out there’s a deleted scene depicting exactly that! Mary put the link in a comment further up if you want to have a look.
–I hate the white dragon bodes well for Camelot line. Youâll see why.–
BIG SIGH
M Xx
18th March 2021 @ 10:14 pm
Also, your podcast inspired my imagination today and I pictured David Attenborough walking around the Merlin set explaining the mores of people of Camelot in his characteristic manner đ I bet he’ll have a lot to say about Merlins and their affinity for snooping!
23rd March 2021 @ 9:38 am
hahahaha love it!
18th March 2021 @ 4:49 pm
This episode is… okay. Like, it’s not great, it’s not terrible. Somewhere around the middle for me.
Okay, first, the jokes.
I HATE the pants-down scene. There is just no universe in which it could be funny! Arthur is a young, unseasoned, still emotionally vulnerable king who’s just trying to make some point to his councilors who are all his father’s age or older. Let’s humiliate him in front of them! Grr. đ (I also noticed that in the later seasons, there are more jokes at Arthur’s expense. It’s almost like Merlin is getting revenge, and I feel uncomfortable about it)
The stew joke is stupid on a different level. The first stew scene is not only cruel, but just… unclear? When Leon says “there is one more plate here” directly after the knights have loaded Merlin with plates to clean, it just sounds like yet another plate to clean, not some actual stew they saved for Merlin… which I’m sure wasn’t the intention, but it looks so much worse for it.
The woodworm joke, on the other hand, is adorable and I love it â¤
GAIUS IS THE WORST. He practically sets Arthur off on a hunt for the dragon egg. How easy would it have been for him to say “sorry, Sire, I’m not entirely sure what was in that box, I’ll have to do some research”, therefore giving Merlin time to catch up and deal with Borden? Instead, he tells Arthur everything he needs to know, and then promptly yells at Merlin that “now Arthur is going to destroy the egg and it’s your fault”. No, Gaius. It’s yours.
And the theme continues, sadly destroying the later scene with the egg which is otherwise genuinely adorable. I’m not really mad that Gaius has been written that way, actually. I’m just a bit mad that they never allowed Merlin to realize it. (Although, sadly, this is also more than realistic for people who grow up with such authority figures to be blind to their blatant gaslighting, so there’s that)
I actually like the fact that Borden is a bit ambiguous morally. It makes the plot in this episode a bit more interesting, not the usual “Merlin is fighting the bad murderous guy” kind of thing.
Also, so excited that you caught up on the scene with Merlin discovering the egg as something alike Excalibur! The soundtrack in that scene is precisely the Excalibur motif, and at first, I didn’t know why they used it. Now, it makes more sense to me – those artifacts have similar mythical quality.
Aand that’s all from me, I think. I loved the baby dragon, and I was quite entertained by this episode, but it’s just nothing special for me. Maybe it’s also because I know what happens later, which makes the dragon being a potential special character feel like a false lead.
Anyway, like always, love your podcast! ⤠I’m SO looking forward to next week! It’s going to be good â¤
19th March 2021 @ 12:07 am
I agree with you about the pants scene. I have to just fast forward through the scene because the whole thing is so unnecessary and uncomfortable.
The stew gags don’t bother me, I’ve always assumed that the knights just mess with and prank each other like this all the time, and that Merlin’s probably actually helped them get Arthur a few times, and this is just Merlin’s turn. I’ve always seen it as bringing him into the group.
My problem with Gaius is that the show doesn’t seem to realize how problematic he is. The show thinks he’s a good guy, the kind mentor/father-figure. The wise man who’s always right. None of this is true, and the show doesn’t seem to get it.
The white dragon is absolutely a false lead, and they absolutely knew that when they did it. You don’t introduce that without having a vague idea of where it will go, and that never again even pretends to go in a direction other than evil. It’s just dumb and infuriating on rewatches.
19th March 2021 @ 2:18 am
As to Gaius – yes, absolutely. I like headcannoning about Gaius, taking apart his character and thinking why he is the way he is, and a lot of that actually looks realistic when you take into consideration that he’s lived through the horrible trauma that was the Great Purge – but it all feels as if it was something that happened by accident (maybe through observation of real life people?), not like it was intentional.
As to the dragon being a false lead – yeah, I have no idea what the writers were thinking and I suppose we’ll never know. I wouldn’t have minded if the sign that was supposed to “bode well” ended up in tragedy through some series of misfortunes. The problem is, it kinda ended in… nothing. There was just not enough information: what happened to Aithusa? What was the motive behind the dragon’s actions? Why does Aithusa love Morgana? Etc. etc.
23rd March 2021 @ 9:38 am
we were once asked whether we’d want to interview the show creators and like… it would genuinly just be 5 hours of questions after questions after question abour their reasoning and motifs and can you please tell me what you were thinking when you did this??? which might be satisfying for us in the short term, but mostly would just be bullying ::facepalm::
M Xx
24th March 2021 @ 6:18 pm
Wait! You were given the opportunity to interview the producers and decided you didn’t want to ‘bully’ them and so you didn’t?
Or do you mean, you were asked whether, given the chance, you would interview the showrunners? (Something really dull in my mind now wonders whether I asked that question during an IG live…)
If you ever get the chance to interview them, please let your listeners suggest questions! I have so many, they’d fill the Tomb of Ashkenar!
26th March 2021 @ 9:49 am
Hahaha no, if given the chance, weâd totally do it, but yeah, we were asked who weâd interview if given the chance (this was pre Bradley and all) and shoe runner came up.
Do not fear. Anyone willing and offering to be interviewed WILL be interviewed lol
20th March 2021 @ 8:03 pm
You donât introduce that without having a vague idea of where it will go –
Scott, I have the unfortunate feeling that that’s actually very often what happened in the entire show of Merlin. Great ideas, vague notion of where they want them to end up but when they want to put them into practice, they realise that their plan doesn’t work out so they abandon it or they smudge over the inconsistent bits and simply tell the audience that this is now so. (See Morgana and all her smudged reasons and development why she is now evil, wants Camelot’s throne and Arthur dead!)