Merlin - 1x07 "Gates of Avalon"

[starsthatshine]

Okay, I really really liked this episode. The humour was great and I think everyone gave good performances, the directing was awesome and so on. Of course, it wasn't flawless, but I thought it was very good. So good in fact, that I made a picspam.




Episode starts with Morgana seeing Arthur drown. At least this was a huge 'this is going to be a great episode' thing for me. It was just a feeling.


Arthur ponders his good intentions and Arthur decides to play matchmaker...


And Morgana is in for the surprise of her life when she realizes that the girl from her dreams is at Camelot.




Merlin notices that something is amiss...


And Morgana pretends like everything's fine although she doesn't do a very convincing job of it.


Arthur wants to get out of 'being a prince' duties to woo Sofia and uses the friends for life card and Merlin, who is kind of gullible, agrees. Oh Merlin, will you ever learn?


Meanwhile, Morgana feels as though she's living her worst nightmare, literary.

Now for the hilarity and what was undoubtedly one of the funniest moments:




Oh Merlin. Seriously. How often have you ended up there during the course of the show? Utter hilarity.


Random 'Arthur being pretty' cap.


Hello ship, you are killing me with angsty pictures. Was I the only one who was little disturbed by the fact that he didn't even look at her?


Apparently Morgana's been jealous before... Now that's interesting. Any theories, y'all?


"I had a dream... a nightmare." She's sort of admitting that she's worried and what does Arthur do? Laugh. Well, anyone would be angry at that.


Seriously.


Oh, OTP, I love you. Thank you for being so deadly pretty.



Also, utter hilarity. Merlin, keep coming with such great lines and we'll be friends for a very long time :)


Red eyes! Eeek! Suddenly it felt as though I was, for a second, transported into an episode of Supernatural.


Say what you want about Morgana's lack of action, but I think that it always seems as though she's the only one who is able to have an intelligent conversation with Uther and able to get through to him. I think that says something. My sister was annoyed by the lack of Morgana-doing-things-on-her-own, but I think that's something that's going to develop later on and I think that you kind of need to remember that women didn't even think of themselves as very proactive creatures. I think her 'well I don't need men to do my business' attitude is something that is going to emerge, the same way that Arthur's maturity is played. It's a process, not a flash of lightning.


I just needed to add this in because I think it really shows that Uther cares for Morgana and I think that's sweet.


Fast forwarding past a lot of drama, we end up with Morgana coming to see Merlin. Now, I'm of the conviction that these two are really cute and that Merlin obviously has a crush on the castle beauty. I'm basing this on Merlin's little crush-y behaviour when Gwen said that Morgana was born to be queen and his 'Arthur gets all the girls and glory' comment.


Thank you OTP for being so cute. I really appreciate it.

Now this was a really short picspam because I prepared it late last night and well... I'm off to write NaNoWriMo... What did you think of the episode?

Comments

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about Uther and Morgana's relationship. I love the way they play that. There isn't the antagonism that exists between him and Arthur. But he really does care, he listens to her, and not just when she has something important to say.

Also, I may ever so slightly ship Merlin/Morgana.

[aliasagent.livejournal.com]

Exactly. She seems more his equal in that corridor scene than anyone else.

Yay :D I'm not alone :D I'm determined to make everyone ship Morgana/Arthur/Merlin, because they are awesome. And Merlin's crush is undeniable ;) And I have a feeling that Morgana will be a lot more aware of Merlin's comings and goings in the future now that I think she's about halfway to discover his secret... :D

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

He clearly respects both her and her opinions, though there may be a reason for that, she may challenge him but I don't think she's ever defied him.

I honestly think Morgana is going to discover his secret before Arthur, she notices more than people give her credit for, and I agree that Merlin/Morgana/Arthur would be a devastating pairing :D

[aliasagent.livejournal.com]

I think that she's never had reason to defy Uther yet. But next episode looks sort of promising on the defying front, which makes me anxious. My biggest nightmare is that Morgana turns 'evil' and Arthur/Morgana is dropped forever *prays they'll be a little á la Mists of Avalon*

I think so too. And to be honest, Arthur, no matter how awesome he's going to be, is currently a bit of a prat and a bit self-centered, although he's clearly developing away from that.

Now I'm almost in the mood of forcing someone much more talented than myself to make a Morgana/Merlin/Arthur fic where Morgana and Merlin begin to spend more time together and Arthur gets a little jealous and so on. *claps hands* It would be so lovely!

Sadly, I have zero writing ability when it comes to this show. I've made an Arthur/Morgana fic but I think it was terrible.

I am so going to make icons :D :D

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree, I don't think she's really come up against him hard and felt the need to defy him. But the next episode does look very good on that front. But I hope they don't use a plot device to turn her evil, I think she's honestly more interesting in the position she's in.

If I thought for a moment I could do it justice I would attempt a complex Merlin/Morgana/Arthur, but at the moment I'm still poking my toes in and worriedly nibbling around characterisation. Because that pairing needs some great fic!

There's so many amazing icons coming out for this show :D

[aliasagent.livejournal.com]

If you want someone who can look through it, I can offer my services. I might not be the best grammar person in the world but I can look at characteristics and stuff if you want (and I'll be honest, I'm not one of those people who praise simply because). If you want to write it and stuff, because I'd love to see a fic :D :D :D *angeleyes*

She's on the list of 'heroes' on the official site so I guess that BBC wouldn't clearly mark her out to be one of the heroes if they were going to turn her evil, consodering it's a family show (it is, isn't it?) and the kiddies aren't supposed to be too confused and upset...

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

If I do tackle Merlin/Arthur/Morgana I might take you up on that, if you don't mind. I really like to get my characterisation right and brutal honesty on whether they all feel in character or not is the only thing that helps that in the end. I think I definitely would like to have a go at some point though.

I assumed from the beginning that they'd be gradually making her a villain but the show seems to be taking her in a completely different direction with the heroes, and I'm actually really glad of that. Instead they seem to have stolen Merlin's great love as the 'evil witch.'

[aliasagent.livejournal.com]

Nemas problemas, just comment on my LJ or email me at aliasagent [at] gmail [dot] com

Yeah, I was personally so anxious about them making Morgana the bad guy girl but thankfully that doesn't appear to be the case. I ♥ Morgana, so I'm all happy.

[humbuggirl.livejournal.com]

I loved the scene with Uther and Morgana walking down the corridor. It feels like the only time that we actually see Uther being anything other than a ruler is when he's talking with her.

[aliasagent.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I love that. (I like Uther, that's not wrong, is it?) And I think that Uther hasn't consciously like... raised Morgana to be Arthur's bride (even though he seemed pretty aware that there was *something* between them) but he does seem to groom her a bit as well for becoming a queen and the king's most trusted confidant (which is basically a queen's main role, aside from giving birth to offspring, if I remember correctly or something). He treats her much more like a grown-up than Arthur for example.

... don't know if that made sense

[humbuggirl.livejournal.com]

It made perfect sense - and I agree. :)