The Merlin that is not BBC's Merlin
Feb. 15th, 2011 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreWay back in high school (well, 12 years, which is a relative “way back”) I watched the Merlin miniseries by Hallmark when it first aired and, uhm, loved it. I rewatched it this week and, well, wished I was still watching it as an only semi-critical theme.
It is, shockingly, mostly about Merlin, and largely focuses on his combating the fae goddess Mab (Who, in this, is the sister of the Lady of the Lake, who I thought I remembered having a larger role than she did, though it’s possible some scenes were cut for the DVD release.) who is objecting to people, well, not worshipping her and following the “old ways” anymore. So she impregnates one of her followers with a half-fae child (Yup, Merlin has 2 mothers and no father. Literally. Sadly, this isn’t really explored.) who’s meant to e care of that for her, but then the ungrateful brat turns against her. With, uhm, pretty justified reasons.
It’s pretty fun and has some interesting ideas, and holds up better than I’d expected, but it’s also, uhm, really faily. I mean, the basic setup relies strongly on the “women represent the savage Old Ways that we should move past and men represent the enlightened New Ways that are our better future” that crops in so much Arthuriana, but in the first half it…isn’t so bad? I mean its there, but it doesn’t thwap you over the head with the theme the way later parts (especially the climax) do.
The first half of the series focuses on the pre-Arthur bits of mythology, with Rutger Hauer running around cheerfully chewing scenery as Vortigern (side note: My favorite thing with Rutger Hauer for Rutger Hauer is Ladyhawke, but the scene of his that I will never ever forget is from The 10th Kingdom, where he says he knew it was his destiny to follow the queen forever and ever when she gave him a magic crossbow and when he fired it, the bolt traveled through the entire forest to kill his son, showing him that it was his destiny to leave his old life behind and follow her. Talk about Issues.) and Uther not even showing up until late in the first half. The second half deals with the main Arthurian canon and…basically tries to cram everything in while still doing it’s own thing, and the plot rather falls apart and becomes rather disjointed there.
I remembered having issues with how Morgan and Nimue were portrayed here, and it didn’t take me long to remember why. I actually like both characters a lot, but the series strongly associates female self-worth with beauty. Early in the series, Nimue is scarred when Mab tries to kill her to punish Merlin for rejecting her, and she basically becomes unable to face the world at all because she’s scarred and it…kind of becomes focused on Merlin’s Guilt. (Mind you, I don’t think it affected his view of her at all, but the focus was very “This was done to you because of me ANGST!” and I think he kinda…makes it worse for her with that.) And that continues for the rest of the series. Meanwhile, Morgan is unattractive and enchanted to be beautiful. When she’s in her “natural” form, she’s dull and listless and seems to sit around, twiddling her thumbs. As soon as she’s beautiful, though, she’s clever and ambitious and driven and spirited. And while some of this with both can, of course, be chalked up to social norms and expectations re: beauty, this is such a major part of both their arcs that you can’t really get away from it. There’s also the presentation of Igraine and Guinevere as perfect, flawless beauties who basically look like porcelain and who men immediately want. Igraine (permanently rejected and sidelined everywhere but Mists of Avalon) is stuck in that POV, but Guinevere, at least, gets to break out of it a bit.
The big thing, though, is the women representing the bad old ways, and men representing the good new ways, and a lot of that is how Mab is viewed by the narrative, and how that changes. Initially, she’s “evil,” but it’s not really a case of good/evil as much as it is that she isn’t human and has no concept of human morality. She a goddess and is using humans as her conduits for maintaining power, and the good/bad is at least somewhat offset by her sister approaching the same conflict from the POV of adaptability, and it’s somewhat framed as the latest stage in a long dispute between them. As the series progresses, though, it shifts away from the sisters and the POV of Mab being something that exists outside of human comprehension, and the conflict becomes more of a direct Merlin v. Mab, and the more Mab interacts with humans, the more she’s portrayed as an evil, powerhungry person viewed by human standards, and so “women= old and bad v men= new and good” is played pretty straight by the end. The element is still there from the beginning, but it’s…far less blatant and central, and I think that the main plotline woulave been much stronger if it had focused more on the sisters each trying to use Merlin to promote their own philosophies.
Yet, it’s still fun? At least partly because it spends a lot of time outside of the most retold canon while tying into it well, even if the handling of the main canon falls apart. Also I…usually liked Merlin more than I usually do. He was snarky and usually all “Do I have to put up with these humans? Can’t I go back to sitting on my log in the forest? I have another picked out for Nimue and everything!”
There are also two things that watching all these movies have helped me…solidify a couple things I’ve always been aware of?
The first is that I’m…generally somewhat offended when Morgaine/Morguase/both (depending on the text) is portrayed as the Evil Other trying to destroy the awesome Camelot (or whatever it’s going by) because so much of her motivation is frequently wrapped up in Arthur’s “right” to rule coming from her father’s murder and her mother’s rape. (And, in a lot of versions, she also directly gets some pretty bad treatment too. Some versions that have her as the Evil Other also have Uther molesting her, or Merlin trying to have her killed so that she can’t cause trouble.) And I…think it’s telling that the more positive portrayals of her also remove as much of that aspect of her past as possible. Like, she can only be “good” if she no longer has a pretty justifiable reason to dislike how it’s all “Oh, glorious kingdom and the destined king!” And many of the negative portrayals even have her pointing this part of her past out.
Related to that, I’ve realized that, while my opinion of the Guinevere/Lancelot plot varies based on the individual version, I…don’t have many issues with the “and their love destroyed a kingdom!” bit when it shows up because, well, most versions have the kingdom and rule at least partly based on a woman being forced into something against her will and being used by men, so part of me can’t help but think that it’s just desserts if it all comes crumbling down because another woman is unsatisfied with the life that’s given her.
It is, shockingly, mostly about Merlin, and largely focuses on his combating the fae goddess Mab (Who, in this, is the sister of the Lady of the Lake, who I thought I remembered having a larger role than she did, though it’s possible some scenes were cut for the DVD release.) who is objecting to people, well, not worshipping her and following the “old ways” anymore. So she impregnates one of her followers with a half-fae child (Yup, Merlin has 2 mothers and no father. Literally. Sadly, this isn’t really explored.) who’s meant to e care of that for her, but then the ungrateful brat turns against her. With, uhm, pretty justified reasons.
It’s pretty fun and has some interesting ideas, and holds up better than I’d expected, but it’s also, uhm, really faily. I mean, the basic setup relies strongly on the “women represent the savage Old Ways that we should move past and men represent the enlightened New Ways that are our better future” that crops in so much Arthuriana, but in the first half it…isn’t so bad? I mean its there, but it doesn’t thwap you over the head with the theme the way later parts (especially the climax) do.
The first half of the series focuses on the pre-Arthur bits of mythology, with Rutger Hauer running around cheerfully chewing scenery as Vortigern (side note: My favorite thing with Rutger Hauer for Rutger Hauer is Ladyhawke, but the scene of his that I will never ever forget is from The 10th Kingdom, where he says he knew it was his destiny to follow the queen forever and ever when she gave him a magic crossbow and when he fired it, the bolt traveled through the entire forest to kill his son, showing him that it was his destiny to leave his old life behind and follow her. Talk about Issues.) and Uther not even showing up until late in the first half. The second half deals with the main Arthurian canon and…basically tries to cram everything in while still doing it’s own thing, and the plot rather falls apart and becomes rather disjointed there.
I remembered having issues with how Morgan and Nimue were portrayed here, and it didn’t take me long to remember why. I actually like both characters a lot, but the series strongly associates female self-worth with beauty. Early in the series, Nimue is scarred when Mab tries to kill her to punish Merlin for rejecting her, and she basically becomes unable to face the world at all because she’s scarred and it…kind of becomes focused on Merlin’s Guilt. (Mind you, I don’t think it affected his view of her at all, but the focus was very “This was done to you because of me ANGST!” and I think he kinda…makes it worse for her with that.) And that continues for the rest of the series. Meanwhile, Morgan is unattractive and enchanted to be beautiful. When she’s in her “natural” form, she’s dull and listless and seems to sit around, twiddling her thumbs. As soon as she’s beautiful, though, she’s clever and ambitious and driven and spirited. And while some of this with both can, of course, be chalked up to social norms and expectations re: beauty, this is such a major part of both their arcs that you can’t really get away from it. There’s also the presentation of Igraine and Guinevere as perfect, flawless beauties who basically look like porcelain and who men immediately want. Igraine (permanently rejected and sidelined everywhere but Mists of Avalon) is stuck in that POV, but Guinevere, at least, gets to break out of it a bit.
The big thing, though, is the women representing the bad old ways, and men representing the good new ways, and a lot of that is how Mab is viewed by the narrative, and how that changes. Initially, she’s “evil,” but it’s not really a case of good/evil as much as it is that she isn’t human and has no concept of human morality. She a goddess and is using humans as her conduits for maintaining power, and the good/bad is at least somewhat offset by her sister approaching the same conflict from the POV of adaptability, and it’s somewhat framed as the latest stage in a long dispute between them. As the series progresses, though, it shifts away from the sisters and the POV of Mab being something that exists outside of human comprehension, and the conflict becomes more of a direct Merlin v. Mab, and the more Mab interacts with humans, the more she’s portrayed as an evil, powerhungry person viewed by human standards, and so “women= old and bad v men= new and good” is played pretty straight by the end. The element is still there from the beginning, but it’s…far less blatant and central, and I think that the main plotline woulave been much stronger if it had focused more on the sisters each trying to use Merlin to promote their own philosophies.
Yet, it’s still fun? At least partly because it spends a lot of time outside of the most retold canon while tying into it well, even if the handling of the main canon falls apart. Also I…usually liked Merlin more than I usually do. He was snarky and usually all “Do I have to put up with these humans? Can’t I go back to sitting on my log in the forest? I have another picked out for Nimue and everything!”
There are also two things that watching all these movies have helped me…solidify a couple things I’ve always been aware of?
The first is that I’m…generally somewhat offended when Morgaine/Morguase/both (depending on the text) is portrayed as the Evil Other trying to destroy the awesome Camelot (or whatever it’s going by) because so much of her motivation is frequently wrapped up in Arthur’s “right” to rule coming from her father’s murder and her mother’s rape. (And, in a lot of versions, she also directly gets some pretty bad treatment too. Some versions that have her as the Evil Other also have Uther molesting her, or Merlin trying to have her killed so that she can’t cause trouble.) And I…think it’s telling that the more positive portrayals of her also remove as much of that aspect of her past as possible. Like, she can only be “good” if she no longer has a pretty justifiable reason to dislike how it’s all “Oh, glorious kingdom and the destined king!” And many of the negative portrayals even have her pointing this part of her past out.
Related to that, I’ve realized that, while my opinion of the Guinevere/Lancelot plot varies based on the individual version, I…don’t have many issues with the “and their love destroyed a kingdom!” bit when it shows up because, well, most versions have the kingdom and rule at least partly based on a woman being forced into something against her will and being used by men, so part of me can’t help but think that it’s just desserts if it all comes crumbling down because another woman is unsatisfied with the life that’s given her.