#so yeah.....'arthur will rise again' is just....merlin taking on the role of the once and future king and protecting | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lit-in-thy-heart · 3 years

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so to counteract some of the merlin angst that has been on my dash over the past few days, i just wanted to quickly talk about the hopelessly-devoted-to-gwen people in this scene:

yes i am pissed that they cut elyan out (i giffed this directly from iplayer, haven't edited it in any way) but we all know that he is grinning from ear to ear because his sister is queen and now can boss him about and he's never going to hear the end of it but he doesn't care right now

leon is smiling in a way that i don't think he's ever done. his whole face is quite literally illuminated...like even his beard seems to be beaming??? anyway. you can tell he's trying to keep a lid on it because he's a knight of camelot and has to be, in some respects, a machine, particularly when in the presence of other citizens (i'm not entirely sure exactly who is there but it's obviously more than just the knights, where he can let loose a little) -- but this is his childhood friend. two of them, really. he and gwen grew up together, especially with her mother serving in his household, and for him to be a knight and her to now be queen...he can't quite believe it. he looks so proud as well, and excited, like this is it, this is what we've been working towards. because gwen is so well-suited to the role and he knows it. and it gives them more opportunities to regularly interact with her and there will finally be a more constant and commanding voice of reason to help him out with the chaos of camelot's knights. he had always told her that she deserved the world, and now she's got it.

gwaine, shockingly, seems more composed than leon in terms of pure glee, but look at the way his head moves. maybe i'm projecting but it looks like he's rising on his tiptoes in an effort to see what's going on -- and he's raising his head to make eye contact with someone, perhaps? just that lil bounce i can't, you can see that he is actually thrilled and that smile is definitely more of a smirk -- though not a malicious one -- and i bet my ass that he's looking straight at gwen and thinking of a whole list of things to pass (good) comment on afterwards. most of them will include opportunities to take the piss out of arthur together (with merlin) because she can legally do that now. i wouldn't say that he's overwhelmed with joy, but he's definitely pleased. if he wasn't a knight then he would absolutely be turning around behind him and excitedly going 'i know her!!' and when he next goes to the tavern and gets slightly too drunk he will be telling people that he once flirted with the the queen but, being ever so humble and good, she didn't flirt back and it's a good job she didn't because then she wouldn't have become a kick-ass queen. and then he proceeds to ramble about how wonderful gwen is until merlin comes to collect him. but yeah in conclusion gwaine is happy but also very smug because percival owes him money (which is why he's out of shot because his barely contained annoyance at gwaine would ruin the celebratory vibe) because he fucking knew it would happen and he told half of camelot it would and now it has and he loves to be right. also gwen is great and is going to enjoy taking the piss out of arthur with the knights.

merlin just screams relief to me. obviously he's ecstatic, but the way that his smile sort of holds after he's shouted? and his eyes seem to be focusing on something different to the others? idk i just get the feeling that the others are looking at something and merlin is looking beyond it. as if he's running over the past few years and all the encouragement he's given these two people and is finally relieved that something hasn't blown up in his face for once. what's also interesting is where he's stood. obviously he's the protagonist so visually it makes more sense to have him there than on gwaine's shoulders to see over leon, but his placement at the front is like arthur and gwen are acknowledging the role he had in their relationship and saying you are important, thank you for what you've done. and merlin is seeing two of his closest friends marry, like leon, but he's also seeing the beginnings of the golden age that has been promised to him since he first arrived in camelot. in arthurian legend, merlin has the gift of foresight (for example he knows that nimue is going to trap him in a tree when he wants to have sex with her as soon as he sees her -- doesn't stop him from wanting to have sex with her but that's a whole other thing) and this gif sort of nods to that. he's not only seeing the ceremony, but he's seeing the future they will all build because of this marriage. because finally, finally, everything is starting to work out and he must be doing something right. and gwen! gwen is back! he can talk to her again!

in conclusion: everyone fucking loves gwen and is thrilled that she is officially joining the gang.

bonus: gaius is just glad that all the drama is over and that he's still alive

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sergeantsporks · 3 years

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[deep, deep, deep, deep, sigh]

Mmmmmmkay. Not sure this is going to be a popular post. In fact, probably going to be pretty darn unpopular (making the bold assumption that anyone will see it and/or care). But I want to talk about the PROBLEMS in the Tales of Arcadia writing.

Now, Tales of Arcadia has some diddly darn good writing. I like it. A lot. And most of it is fantastic and beautiful and makes me cry. All of the character arcs are 👌. Buuuuuuuuuuut as a whole, as a multi-show story, I do find issues with the plot.

Honestly, first off, I'm not going to bring 3below into this because 3below is a bit disconnected from the rest of the series. Maybe that will change Rise of Titans, but in general, the protagonists and conflict in 3below doesn’t really intersect much with Trollhunters and Wizards. Sure, it’s in the same world, and the characters interact, but the 3below plot is only minimally connected to the Trollhunters plot, and aside from Wizards picking up where 3below left off and Krel showing up and helping with the Hisirdoux’s Eternal Time Trap, the two shows don’t intersect at all, so. Moving on.

First of all, Trollhunters. Morgana, specifically. I have... issues... with the ending. I really, really, really felt like Jim and Gunmar kind of got sidelined for Claire and Morgana respectively. Now, is this issue biased by my dislike of Claire in general? Oh, definitely, I’m not going to deny that it factors in quite a bit. But even that aside, we’re given this protagonist, Jim, and they spend 3 seasons building up this big scary troll villain named Gunmar, and how there’s going to be this invasion/eternal night thingamabob where Jim’s gonna have to face off against Gunmar and-- PSYCH! Gunmar goes out like a little punk and we flip over to the universal story constant of “if there are two girls on the battlefield, they absolutely must find each other and fight.” And okay, Morgana was built up, too. She was, it’s not like they threw her in last minute. But she was built up as the MASTERMIND, as a puppeteer in the shadows, and I don’t know, it just sort of felt like she kind of lost her place in the story and became just another endgame boss. And I 100% absolutely DESPISE the fact that Jim got sidelined for Claire. Angor Rot coming in and holding Morgana? Fantastic. Superb. Again, the character arcs in this show are great. And Jim even stabbed Morgana! It was a great fight! The protagonist overcame harrowing ordeals, stabbed the-- oh, wait. Nope. She’s not dead. Now, let’s just knock Jim out cold (albeit in a very in-character way, taking the hit for his friends) and hand the reins over to Claire, who finishes her off. And I just [sighs again] it felt a little forced? Especially since in Wizards, we re-hashed the exact same thing and just made Morgana turn good instead of killing her. I felt like Morgana was rushed in as a villain when more time should have been taken, especially if they were just going to resurrect her and do it all over in Wizards. The pacing could have been better, that’s what I’m saying.

Speaking of Wizards and Morgana. Let’s talk about Wizards and Morgana. Again, it felt like they just re-hashed the ending of Trollhunters into Wizards and changed up the ending. Now, I have no problem with Claire fighting Morgana IN GENERAL. It’s cool. However, that being said, in Trollhunters, Morgana was built up to be a puppeteer character, then became the main villain that was just a cool final boss, like I already said. And since we brought the whole fight back up in Wizards, I feel like a better alternative would have been to yes have Claire fight Morgana in Trollhunters! But for that to be the side fight and the main fight to be the fight we were originally promised of Gunmar vs. Jim. For Gunmar to get beaten in something a little more epic than “One down, one more to go!” and then for Morgana, locked in her fight with Claire and seeing that the battle is being lost, slip away into the shadows and live to fight another day. Leaves a bit of intrigue, and keeps her initially-established role as a voice in the shadows intact. Granted, this does raise problems later in Wizards as to what zombie Arthur wants and why the Arcane Order would need to destroy the amulet, but I’m sure they could find a way around it, like that Morgana’s power was severely weakened by creating the eternal night and they were unleashing more power. Instead of “Hey, I liked being dead, it was quiet” it could be more of a “without my powers, I realized the error of my ways.” There are ways to fix the issue, is all I’m saying. Plus, to leave Morgana as an unsolved, living mystery would make it even more of a big deal to see her in the past in Wizards-- instead of Claire being “Grrrrrr, Morgana, that person I killed once!” it would be “Grrrrrr, Morgana, that person who’s still at large and we never managed to defeat!” Just makes more sense for you to be mad at an enemy you have unfinished business with than one you already defeated pretty soundly.

[Deep inhale]

Okay, let’s talk about the large, stone, elephant in the room. Troll Jim and his transformation back. Pure, honest, unadulterated opinion, right off the bat? Felt like a cop-out. Now, I have to sit here and constantly remind myself “It’s a kid’s show, it’s a kid’s show, remember that it’s a kid’s show,” but I’m sorry, I like my permanent things to be a little more permanent. I liked the fact that the Airbenders remained extinct in Avatar and we didn’t [gasp!] discover more! during the show (that changed in Legend of Korra obviously, but we’re not going to get into my feelings on that). It felt a bit cheap when there was a secret colony of living Alteans in Voltron. I know, I know, it’s a kids’ show, sometimes you like a happy ending, especially when the kids’ show is Wizards and ends up getting incredibly dark (what with the amulet getting destroyed, Merlin dying, the whole Beast-Jim thing, THE PROTAGONIST STRAIGHT UP DYING, all of the emotional/psychological darkness of the Arthur and Morgana arc) through the course of it! Yay, little bit of feel-good, Jim’s not a troll anymore. That being said, again. We got told that troll Jim was PERMANENT. There was no way out of it. Apparently Claire didn’t find a way to change that through whatever gap there was between Trollhunters and Wizards. And then it got fixed, by, uhhhhhhhhh, oh. They didn’t explain what exactly fixed it. Besides I guess the [heavy sigh] *low grumbling* power of love. Felt like a cop-out, and it felt like it cheapened Jim’s sacrifice at the ending of Trollhunters for it to just *poof* fix! at the end through the power of Claire’s love. Now, granted, Jim went through the absolute wringer of first turning into a great big monster and then getting turned to stone, so sure, give the boy a break and some therapy but it still felt like a cop-out.

Okay, all this to say. I ranted for like, three paragraphs about... two issues. I COMPLIMENTED parts of the writing WHILE I WAS BASHING OTHER PARTS. That is pretty dang good, guys. Yes, I have a whole essay on why there is a PROBLEM in this WRITING, but seeing as I could only find TWO THINGS that I had a problem with? That’s some pretty solid writing. Granted, they were two pretty big things that I had essays on, and that’s not great. But hey, two big plot issues versus a multitude of plot holes? Hot dang. Not bad. So, yeah, the character arcs are all fantastically carried out, and the plots in general are sound with the Sporks seal of approval on everything but two points. Thanks for reading through, I know it was long. Feel free to tell me exactly why I’m wrong about this being bad writing. I’d love to see someone else’s opinion and/or someone making me feel better about these issues that I have.

#toa #tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia meta #long post #tales of arcadia: trollhunters #tales of arcadia: wizards #meta

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