#zy rewatchs merlin

[gaiusbunnymask]

the divine right of kings and the old religion: why arthur pendragon is the one and future king, and what the "two sides of the same coin" thing is all about

(disclaimer: this is my opinion and point of view, you are welcome to disagree. if someone else has already talked about this before, please let me know!)

throughout the show gaius displays extreme loyalty and servitude to uther and later arthur, the pendragons in general, though that loyalty doesn't inhibit him from lying and acting behind their backs if he thinks he has to. but his belief system establishes that even if uther is a tyrant, he must obey him, for uther is his king. gaius could have run away during the purge but he chose not to. was it because he considered uther his friend? or is there another reason?

later merlin will do things following gaius' example and instructions: act behind his king, protect him in secret with the use of magic, and put his loyalty to the king over everything else.

...but why????? (long meta below the cut!)

when gaius is asked in 1x01 if he practiced magic, he says "uther banned such work 20 years ago", meaning, what's important is what uther has sanctioned as monarch of camelot. yet he still thinks magic is a gift that must be used to do good, and somehow in his mind this equals to supporting the pendragon family, which has banned and persecuted magic for two decades. it also means that he finds merlin using his magic to support and protect arthur, the future king, perfectly plausible and aligned with his philosophy of life, even in a kingdom where being caught using magic will get you killed. his beliefs seem very contradictory and it's no wonder that a lot of sorcerers and the dragon hated him.

but i think there's something more to it

even with magic being outlawed gaius still thinks that the only magic that should be done is the one in service of his monarch. so if merlin does magic to do his chores is "bad", but if he uses sorcery to save uther that's "good".

this is why i think gaius was, intentionally or not, developed as a character with an intrinsic belief on the divine right of kings. at some point before the beginning of the show he must have sworn an oath of fealty to uther, which ties him indefinitely to the pendragon family. taking into account that the old religion was THE religion camelot lived by before the purge, that means that when gaius became uther's servant/sorcerer/court physician at the time, the old religion was pretty okay with the pendragons ruling. nimueh, a priestess of the old religion, was friends with uther, and was ruling alongside the king at the time. with this in mind we can safely conclude that, before the purge, in the eyes of the old religion, the triple goddess and its representatives, uther was a legitimate king.

this means a few things:

-gaius is a follower of the old religion; even if he has stop practicing magic, he grew up in it

-it was probably the custom that a monarch would have a priest/priestess in their court ruling alongside them; at the very least the magical/religious representative would have an official position in the court and a seat on the monarch's council. the ancient round table has a seat for magic placed on the right side of the king, which as the merlin wiki says, it "suggests that magic was held in great esteem in the time of the Ancient Kings".

-said magical/religious representative would legitimize the king's power, and in turn, said king would give the magical/religious representative status and power.

-because, functionally speaking, the old religion can be understood like any other religion in medieval times, meaning that the doctrine of the divine right of kings also applies here

-all this to establish that the subjects and authorities of the old religion, and the triple goddess, believe in the pendragon's divine right to rule over the land

-and that the old religion gave uther the right to rule before the purge

-but since uther has rebelled against the old religion and threw the balance into chaos, he must be punished and someone else must take his place and right his wrongs, bringing the world back to the goddesses'-ordained natural order (yey shakespeare reference!)

-uther's replacement must be legitimate, recognized as a rightful heir in the eyes of the old religion and the common people;

-and who are the easier candidates to choose from? the pendragon children, morgana and arthur

-but morgana is an illegitimate child in this feudal worldview, and therefore in the eyes of the old religion too. however, she is still a better prospect than uther, and even arthur, because she's both a pendragon and a priestess of the old religion, so she's able to gather subjects through the course of the story

-this brings us to why the old religion and it's followers believe that arthur must be the king to unite the land of camelot and "bring magic back to the land", which is code for legalizing and reinstating the old religion to its previous status:

he was born from magic, literally, which means he's literally a son of the old religion and its godesses and source of power (jesus parallelism lmao)

he is a pendragon, a family that had ruled with the blessing of the old religion in the past

he is a legitimate heir

and the role that merlin plays in all of this? he's supposed to guide arthur to do "the right thing", what the old religion wants him to do. he already comes with great status, what with him being emrys, which means his power and influence will be immortal. he is to take a position of authority, the same place that nimueh used to have, so that united with arthur the two of them will constitute a sort of dual power (secular and magical) that legitimize each other and bring back the natural order of things.

in this aspect, s3 morgana and morgause could be seen as arthur and merlin's counterpart; they encapsulate another dual power with the potential to rule rightfully. if only they hadn't chosen to kill so many innocent people...

and with arthur being the once and future king, and merlin being immortal, this means that they could hold this positions in the distant future, when arthur comes back. In conclusion: they have the potential to be perfect dual power, legitimate and eternal.

i think this is what the prophecy of the once and future king is about and where the two sides of the same coin thing comes from.

kilgahrrah, who loathed uther with all his enormous being, believed in arthur's divine right and the necessity of a dual power. gaius also believed this. the druids believed this, and the same can be said of almost every subject and creature of the old religion that we encounter throughout the show. most of the non-magical people also believe in the divine right of kings.

this is why it was so easy for merlin to believe his destiny is to serve arthur. the society, the religion and the environment he lived in reinforced these beliefs.

#zy rewatchs merlin #bbc merlin #merlin meta #the old religion #uther pendragon #arthur pendragon #merlin #gaius #two sides of the same coin #merthur #morgana pendragon

[gaiusbunnymask]

rewatch commentary: valiant

Valiant got his snake shield in some sort of black market. I'll assume the market where valiant met the sorcerer is not in Camelot since Merlin comments on the snakes being foreign. most likely it's from the western isles, the same place valiant comes from.

the sorcerer wasn't distrustful of Valiant and looked pretty relaxed while explaining how the snakes where used, thrilled even, so Valiant was not his first client, though he was certainly the last.

the thought of a black market were sorcerers sell their stuff discreetly is very intriguing.

"You see? This is how a true knight behaves, with gallantry and honour."

the scenes with Uther, Valiant and Arthur subtly hint at how much Arthur is feeling the pressure of needing to win to have his father's and the people's approval. and the fact that Uther acts so nice and welcoming to Valiant, even inviting him to be part of the knights of Camelot, seems like something designed to make Arthur feel threatened that someone is trying to take his place. Valiant already has his father's approval and Morgana's attention. Valiant and Arthur both did very well the first two days of the tournament, but Arthur didn't even get a nod from his father, whereas Valiant was openly congratulated.

Valiant winning would destroy Arthur's self-esteem.

so when Arthur summons the court it's not just to prove that Valiant is cheating; consciously or not, he also wants to prove himself to his father, make him see that the man he was clapping on the shoulder two knights ago is actually a fake, unworthy of the king's praise and approval.

which makes the humiliation that follows five times worse.

"The people expect their prince to fight. How can I lead men into battle if they think I'm a coward?"

i liked this shot quite a lot. this episode focuses a lot more on Arthur's struggles and his relationship with his father. when he wins and kills Valiant, the relief in his face it's clear. his father gives him a nod and the crowd cheers in approval. he proved everyone that he wasn't a coward and that he hadn't lied. but oh, the way he sat alone in his room after the humiliation at court. being bound to do what is expected of him no matter he wants or feels. this is all Uther's fault of course.

"And now they see you for what you really are."

the purge has not only made people fear associating themselves with any kind of magic or magic user, but for the last 20-21 years, and then in the canon timeline, they've only seen harmful and dark magic being used, so this helps build up the prejudice against it that sorcerers are bad people and that people that consort with them are equally dangerous. just look at valiant. the magic of the snake shield is exposed right in front of everyone, the king included, and it's being used by an ambitious man  for his own selfish gains.

said man then tries to kill their prince, but it's thankfully thwarted. people like Valiant and the sorcerers that make those types of weapons contribute to giving magic a bad reputation, especially in the eyes of the people that grew up with the magic ban (like Gwaine and the other knights, except Lancelot). most of the "good" sorcerers are probably dead or in hiding, and if they do anything good,  they probably keep it a secret. that makes dark magic the type of sorcery that the people in Camelot are more exposed to. this confirms their bias and inadvertently backs up Uther's claims that magic is a corrupting force that must be purged from the land.

Some more thoughts on the episode:

-ok NO ONE ever includes the part where Merlin beheads the snake as one of his coolest moments. he was SO badass in that scene, and he barely knew how to hold a sword correctly at the beginning of the episode!

-i think this episode is so underrated in terms of Merlin being bamf. he sneaks around, breaks into Valiant's rooms using a spell to unlock the door, perfected a difficult spell in one night.

-the Arthur x Morgana was rampant in this episode

-Arthur is not his father exhibit one: As he escorts Morgana to the feast he tells her that Uther will never apologize for not believing him about Valiant. Then not a minute later he goes to apologize to Merlin for sacking him.

-Merlin may not be good at thinking things through before acting but he sure is creative when it comes to solving problems.

#zy rewatchs merlin #bbc merlin #merlin meta #valiant #uther pendragon #arthur pendragon #merlin

[gaiusbunnymask]

rewatch commentary: the dragon's call

(look at this shot! I looks like a Renaissance painting)

"If I can't use magic, what have I got?"

Merlin arrives at Camelot feeling lost, inadequate and purposeless and I think that's what makes him vulnerable to Gaius and Kilgahrrah's ideas of destiny. EVEN if what the dragon is saying it's true, the timing is really suspicious.

He used to want recognition too, wanted to be someone. He thinks that his magic is the only thing that makes him special, that gives him power over bullies like Arthur, but since the world sees him as something strange and dangerous and rejects his existence, he wonders if he's a monster that shouldn't exist.

That's why it's so easy for him to believe everything the dragon tells him, because he wanted to have some higher purpose. He wanted someone to tell him he was born like that for a reason. It's the beginning of his tragedy.

"I saw how you saved Arthur's life. Perhaps that's his purpose."

Gaius' dubious beliefs/morality about purpose, destiny, and the purpose of Merlin's magic. He was on board with Merlin using his magic to protect Arthur even though he had reprimanded Merlin for using magic recklessly before, and that Arthur is the son of the man that started the Purge. He equals using magic for good to supporting the royal family, which is... not good actually.

My headcanon is that Gaius was/is against dark magic and the abuse of it, but the Purge did more than just condemn dark sorcerers and destroy objects with dark magic, and it turned into something he didn't expect and didn't fully support. Not saying he supported the Purge but he wasn't as pro-magic as Nimueh, for example. He may have helped others escape but he stayed in Camelot and served Uther for 20 years so that says a lot about him.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son!"

It seems to me that Mary Collins was a dark witch?? I'm guessing that practicing dark magic is what gave her that ghastly appearance (yes they also needed the audience to differentiate her from lady Helen because it was the same actress) but it says something about the state of magic in Camelot that most of the sorcerers we'll find later show the same signs of corruption.

Not saying Uther was right to attack all magic and all sorcerers for that, of course not, but Gaius did say that dark magic was running rampant before the purge, and honestly? It's not a surprise. If magic is a tool then people can use it to do bad things. This was probably what gave Uther leverage to carry on with the purge. Obviously the solution to that would be to have laws that condemn acts of dark magic that hurt people. But instead most dark sorcerers probably were able to lay low and hide whereas people like the druids and less powerful sorcerers where easy to capture and execute.

"When I came to this land this kingdom was mired in chaos."

Uther is a very very smart politician, at least on this episode. He beheads a sorcerer/the son of a witch, and right after the fact the announces a festival. This is a show of his power. It reinforces his authority and the idea that the persecution of magic is a good thing, that he's the savior of the land, the protector of the realm, for ridding it from the evil of sorcery. And since it's the anniversary of the capture of the great dragon, it also serves a a reminder.

"No, I'm his son, Arthur."

Arthur was not present at the execution of Mary Collins' son, nor is he there to welcome "lady Helen". Uther forced Morgana to attend but it seems that Arthur can skip it if he wants. I wonder why Uther allowed it? "Lady Helen" doesn't meet Arthur until the night of the banquet where she tries to kill him. I'm just wondering about Arthur, making it his mission to be absent from as many official occasions as possible.

It seems that he used to spend all his time training and bullying helpless servants. No wonder Merlin didn't recognized him as royalty the first time they met.

"He needed to be taught a lesson."

Merlin is very very impulsive. He falls for Arthur's taunts really easy, and he just got out of the dungeons! I think this is not the first time he put a bully in his place/taught them a lesson. He was at odds with the people in Ealdor, where it seems he used his magic more freely. If he was going around "taking bullies apart with one blow", no wonder Hunith was worried.

"The more brutal you are the more enemies you'll create."

Morgana's conversation with Uther was another scene I liked. It established the foundation of her character quite well. Her standing by the window staring at the chopping block for who knows how long it's a thought that haunts me.

It seems she copes by wearing pretty and scandalous dresses that make her look stunning.

Final thoughts:

I was surprised by how much I liked the episode. This is the third time I watched it and I didn't know I would find it enjoyable, but I did! the music, the cinematography, the script (its lovely plotholes ♥) the acting! (Eve Myles' performance was superb) the peak comedy! There was a lot of foreshadowing too. Merlin and Gaius, Merlin and Gwen, and of course Merlin and Arthur are great comedic duos. overall the first episode it's really fun.

#zy rewatchs merlin #bbc merlin #merlin #merlin meta #the dragon's call #merlin s1 #arthur pendragon #gaius #uther pendragon #I had forgot that Morgana used to care about people being executed unfairly ): #And Gwen was so pretty and cute! She has such an embarrassing crush on Merlin lmao

[gaiusbunnymask]

oh my god it's so difficult to watch the part were arthur gets humiliated at court.

#zy rewatchs merlin #valiant