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[snowystingray]

Okay, I swear I do watch Merlin for reasons other than dur hur hur Arthur/Merlin but come on now, what else am I supposed to do with this? While Arthur is under house arrest, the guards are standing outside his bedroom in the middle of the night listening to strange noises coming from the room as Merlin shouts, "There is no more rope!" and "I don't know if I can hold out much longer!", and the guards daren't peek inside to see what is going on?

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

In other news, man. Usually I am super behind all of the twisted Uther storylines, but between this ep and last week I'm kind of in a, "Dude, whatever, screw you," sort of mood about him. (Well, how much of Arthur's encounter with his mother are we supposed to take as truth? Did Uther really go behind Ygraine's back knowing full well what would happen, or is it closer to what Uther claimed in "Excalibur," that he went to Nimueh in an act of desperation with consequences he never foresaw? Or was he just trying to cover his ass then, too? OHHH DRAMA.) I mean, I still support any and all Pendragon daddy issues.



And I love it every time they remind us that, right, Uther is anything but a doddering paranoiac, and could in fact wipe the floor with any of his challengers.



...And, okay, apparently I am still somewhat attached to his character even if my affronted-on-behalf-of-poor-magical-Merlin side is telling me otherwise. (Seriously! That kid is like one giant heartbreak after another! First his ridiculously pathetic moment last week, all "I'm so depressed about having to hide my true self that I'll just make a quick ADORABLE PONY CLOUD to cheer myself up except, whoops, NOW GAIUS WILL BURN AT THE STAKE. MAN. FML;" and then the end of this ep in Arthur's chambers, having to know that he was thisclose to being open with Arthur about magic and yet it all ends up being one step forward, two steps back. MERLIN. YOUR GRAND NOBLE SACRIFICES ON ARTHUR'S BEHALF ARE GETTING TO BE A LITTLE HEAVY EVEN FOR ME.)

Conclusion: poooooor Merlin. :( :( :( :(

Comments

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I get the sense that Uther has always been so sappy about Ygraine that he wouldn't do that -- but then I stop and remember that I have no idea where I'm getting that from. I think it might have been, like, my own fanfiction. I only have the vaguest, vaguest memories of his scene with Nimueh back in season one -- but just from what I remember of the overall vibe of that, didn't it really seem like he didn't expect Ygraine to be the one life that'd be taken in exchange? MAN, I am clinging to that notion until the show forces me not to, because -- because -- Uther! It's hard to be irrationally sympathetic if he's gonna suck that much.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

That is exactly how I feel as well! Like, every time they bring up Ygraine he is so clearly O PERFECT LOST LOVE OF MY LIFE that it is completely horrifying to think that he knowingly signed her death warrant, but then maybe all of his gooey remembrances are overcompensation for the fact that he screwed her over big time and has been wallowing in the guilt ever since? I don't know! Augh! Okay, I actually went back and watched the bits from 1.09 where they discuss it:

Nimueh: I did as you asked! I used the magic you so despised to give your barren wife the son you craved.
Uther: [LIKE THE SINGLE MOST PAINED EXPRESSION EVER, I AM DYING A LITTLE JUST LOOKING AT IT] Don't... ever speak of her in that way. She was my heart, my soul, and you took her from me.
Nimueh: She died giving birth to your son! It was not my choice.
[...] [blah blah life for life]
Uther: You knew it would kill her!
Nimueh: No, you're wrong. If I had foreseen her death and the terrible retribution you would seek, I would never have granted your wish.
Uther: I wish you hadn't.

From this I gather that if Nimueh didn't foresee Ygraine's death, there's no way she could have told Uther, "Hey, I'll hook you up with a baby but you've got to say buh-bye to your Blondie Bear." One point in the Uther Didn't Know column, I guess? She did explain the magic-at-a-price concept to Uther, though, so it is possible that he suspected the possibility that it would cost Ygraine's life, but went through with it anyway out of denial/desperation (either that or he hoped it would kill of a random person he didn't know/care about, which isn't exactly doing wonders for his moral record here).

Then later when he's talking with Gaius (and, aside, but they are SO WONDROUSLY SHIPPY IN "EXCALIBUR," OH GOLLY):

Gaius: [being all conciliatory] You wanted an heir, you thought it was the only way.
Uther: [being all self-blaming] Nimueh told me there would be a price to pay.
Uther: You weren't to know that that price would be Ygraine's life.
[...] [blah blah Uther will fight in Arthur's place blah blah]
Uther: Ygraine gave up her life for him; so must I.

Interesting that in this scene Uther is for once taking the blame and responsibility on himself, and yet he still doesn't say, "Hey, I went sneaking behind my wife's back to trade her life for a princeling's." Maybe it's that he's willing to admit to some degree of wrongdoing, but not flat-out admit that he knowingly sacrificed Ygraine against her wishes? The last line almost makes it seem as if it was a decision that they both came to together, to mutually accept the consequences of taking this chance on Arthur's birth. And, again, here it is emphasized that, even though they knew there would be consequences, nobody ever thought that Ygraine would actually die.

...So! Anyway! No, I don't think we're in the wrong for having formed a slightly different version of Uther's culpability in events, but I don't know how much of that is, "Haha! Trickeroo! Uther really was that much of a horrid person all along and was just hiding it behind his guilt!" or "Haha! Trickeroo! Ghostly Ygraine was trying to incite Arthur and gave him the worst possible interpretation of events!"

(ETA: Also, have you seen Repo yet? I feel like there's a lot of crossover wife death/child overprotecting/guilt taken to horrifying extremes for ASH's characters in both. In fact, I'm pretty sure somebody posted some crack-ish crossover icons a while ago but I can't seem to find them again...)

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

Don't... ever speak of her in that way. She was my heart, my soul, and you took her from me.

OH, UTHER. See, this is clearly what I was remembering!!! Anyway: how awesome are you for transcribing these things? Answer: SO AWESOME. And, gosh, there is something about Uther/Ygraine and all this horrible sadness that totally gets me, and gosh darnit, I choose to believe that he did not trade her deliberately! I mean, maybe subconsciously he even knew what was going to happen, but just ... hoped ... a random person would fall down dead somewhere, much like that movie with Cameron Diaz and Jimmy Marsden that I saw 8937359873598 commercials for? I vote that.

(I have not seen Repo! I'm ... kinda scared of it. My roommate looooves it and I get the sense that she will probably lure me into watching it eventually, but I AM AFRAID.)

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

And, gosh, there is something about Uther/Ygraine and all this horrible sadness that totally gets me, and gosh darnit, I choose to believe that he did not trade her deliberately!

Just... yes. Yes yes yes. There are certain things that are integral to my understanding of Uther, and that is one of them. He's a right selfish bastard, but that's what makes him look after his own with such ferocity (...okay, so he's stuck both Arthur and Morgana in the dungeons, but he wasn't actually going to kill them). Oh, I don't know. Maybe they should just have Uther retire to the Ye Olde Tyrants Home before he can do any more damage (and I don't mean that euphemistically as "they should kill him," either. No, they should actually send him off to Boca Raton to be looked after by strong bodied nurses who feed him egg-white omelets for breakfast. With ketchup).

Haaaa, you are probably right to be scared of Repo. At the same time, though, that's kind of what makes it fabulous? Like, watch the At the Movies (http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/atm/reviews.html?sec=6&subsec=repo) video review for the film, and tell me that you are not secretly dying to know what could possibly be so offensive about it. There are of course things to be wary of... it very very very much earns its R rating with gore (goregoregoregore), brief nudity, implied incest/blowjobs/sexual acts with corpses, etc. etc.; but at the same time that it feels so hugely needlessly gratuitous, it also... doesn't, because it's so fitting with the landscape of the film. When Paris Hilton is playing a trampy drug/sex addict heiress, it's just implicit that at some point in the film she needs to be simulating sex whilst rolling around in a rainstorm of blood. I mean, it just is. Also, I'll just say that I'm usually squeamish as hell around blood/guts/gore, even when it's played for comedy (watched half of Shaun of the Dead behind my hands, augh), but I didn't really mind it at all in this film because, again, you're just so inundated with it right from the start that instead of focusing on the gross-out aspect of it, you focus on the absurdity of how desensitized the characters and in fact the film itself have become to it all (using awareness of audience expectation and reaction to build atmosphere instead of heavy-handedly shoving it all straight into the diegesis? A++++ APPROVED). So, yes, there are a lot of things about the way the film is made and the way the story is told that I actually reeeeally hugely love, which was rather unexpected for me because I mostly just thought it would be campy so-bad-it's-good entertainment with some bonus ASH. I think there's actually a lot of really clever stuff going on, though (don't want to spoil you for the plot until you've seen it, but... yeah. I'll admit that the storyline exposition starts out rather vague and confusing for the first 10-15 minutes, but it builds to a really killer ending and holds up well under repeat viewings [better, possibly, because I liked it a lot more the second time I watched it]). So! Anyway! I know it's probably one of those extremely polarizing films that you either love or hate, and if you know right now that you're probably in the latter group, I mean... I'm not gonna blame you, different strokes for different folks and all that, but it's such a unique experience and probably well worth watching at least once. Plus. ASH. Mmm hmmm. Awesome trailer, if you haven't seen it! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzgpU25C6fg)