SPOILERS AS EVER
Picture the scene. Christmas Eve roles round. I’m at my mum’s house in Essex. My mum does Christmas very well. Chocolates and fancy biscuits all over the table; there’s flowing wine, baileys, Christmas-ey related drinks offered at every opportunity Christmas specials pre-recorded on the TV; decorations litter the house in a eclectic but homely fashion.
All in all a wonderful experience. So why, when my family is downstairs joking, laughing, enjoying this holiday experience, am I upstairs in my bedroom drinking my sorrows *and holding back tears staring at my computer?
Because of fucking Merlin, that’s why.
My family’s response to my geek sobbing
Seriously. You give us an average second half to the series, announce that it is the last series ever, then the day before Christmas, the day of joyous celebrations deliver us the episode that broke our hearts?
It was, of course, superb it literally had everything that anyone has ever wanted from Merlin as a whole and most of all, most of all, it made Merthur cannon.
Merthur
I’m not a shipper, but that ending was simply beautiful. Arthur dying in Merlin’s arms was of course, absolute fuel for the Merthur fan fics, but for me it was something more beautiful than that. I have been discussing how the show seems to shy away from any outward (hetero) sexual references but this ending was brilliant. It showed children that there is nothing to fear from two people of the same gender loving each other.
‘Just, hold me.’ The sentence that will haunt Merlin lovers forever
The whole of this episode is the dying Arthur’s acceptance of Merlin’s magic. He goes from mistrusting this person he thought he knew everything about, to realisation to acceptance. The final scene, with the two bracing each other shows so many children that it is ok to be different. Here is a man (Arthur) who represents everything that a man ‘should’ be. He is brave, he can fight, he is chivalrous, he is charming. He has a wife and a wicked one at that. For the whole of his life he has been taught that this evil of sorcery must be fought against and he has done so. And yet in his final moments he knew that the love of his friend was more important than anything else.
Look at this from a child’s point of view. Some children are different from others. In life, usually that means that that child gets picked on or if that not, spend their whole lives realising that they are not the same; abnormal. Imagine if you watched a programme on television, a programme that every child in your school watches and loves and identifies with on some level. Imagine, at the end of that programme that you see two men, one of whom has just revealed himself to be a sorcerer, embracing and loving each other in a way never really seen on children’s television.
It something for me that shows a more general acceptance of male love into society. I’m not trying to say that Merlin’s magic represents being gay because I think that that is a pretty lazy conclusion to make. But rather, Merlin’s ‘outing’ and Arthur’s death represents how now two grown men can embrace each other in a way that is platonic and everybody loves them for it.
Arthur didn’t die on the battle field covered in blood, he didn’t die with a weeping and saccharine soppy Gwen at his brow but in Merlin’s arms, accepting him for who he is and showing children everywhere that two men loving each other, platonic or otherwise, is a beautiful thing to be. It was a wonderful choice by the writers and one that I can kinda forgive them all those fart gags for.
Me
Gwen and Morgana
Despite the foggy middle, this series has been superb for Gwen and Morgana and the last episode was no different. Gwen ending up being Queen. The serving girl from the beginning of the series ending up being Queen and nobody doubts a brilliant one at that. Gwen was the only person ever to figure out that Merlin has magic. She was even grateful in the end that Merlin was with Arthur because she knew that he would be protected. Gwen went out to the war camp. Not only did she help stave Arthur’s nerves, but also made herself proper useful by helping tend to the wounded like a BAMF. All in all Gwen was magnificent. At this point I would like to thank the writers for not fucking that up.
BAMF
Morgana too saw her end. Even up until the last point, you saw Morgana not as this evil one sided manic, but a woman who is conflicted at every turn. She always put forward as second best to Arthur by Uther, because she was ‘the ward’. She discovers she has magic and is terrified of what it means for her. She truly believes that her father will kill her. She has to kill the only person in her life she could trust, Morgause. Morgana and Aithusa are imprisoned and essential tortured by being locked in a well. Mordred betrays her. Gwen’s (bewitched) friendship is yanked from her.
Everything that she has ever loved has been destroyed And she dies at Merlin’s hands, the man who tried to kill her before, the man who was constantly tailing her around the castle, the one man that she never knew she always feared. And that in the end was what made her a fantastic evil character. She is maniacal because she loves, and her loves are then destroyed. She only wants inner peace and constantly that is taken from her. She believed that getting Camelot would be the end of all her woe and misery. For her it wasn’t to be. And I love her for it.
So hot right now
DOCTOR WHO
Doctor Who Christmas episodes are notoriously hit and miss. For example, that one with the giant cyberman over victorian London. MISS. That one with Dumbledore and Katherine Jenkins singing to my soul. HIT. This Christmas episode? Ermmmmmmmm it was ok, maybe even sided towards good. However, I fear that the golden age of new who is behind us. Plot holes are the things of the future.
Clara
I liked Clara actually, which surprised me. I never set out to dislike her, its just the way she had been packaged to us was as this boob bouncing sassy, but will probably need rescuing tag along. She wasn’t. She was cool but still mysterious. She led, which is refreshing and she was sharp. One of my main fears is that Moffat will make her into one of these, female characters that are 2-D, but because they are smart we are meant to think that they are edgy. Cos we all know that women aren’t usually smart.
This picture doesn’t exactly feel me with hope for a new wonderful companion.
Also the kiss between her and the Doctor, necessary? And the small innuendoes here and there? Whatever, it seems these days you need to make a show into a 70’s sitcom to make it passable.
Space Lesbians
Vastra and Jenny were filling the hole that River normally fills by being the characters which know all the information and introduce the newbie, i.e. Clara into the complex enigma of the Doctor. For the most part I liked them, it’s nice to have a gay couple on children’s television as, like above, I feel its showing the more general towards queer couples in general media. I just wish they weren’t written in such a cliche way.
Nah it’s cool, all reptile lesbians touch this way
The problem with having gay couples on children’s television is that they are very rarely normal. For example when Vastra meets Clara for the first time she strokes her face in a slightly creepy way. It’s like, I’M GAY AND YOU MUST KNOW. There was also hints that it was maybe a tri-relationship, as Clara did say previously that she had ‘experimented’ (just being queer hell no, it MUST be experimentation).
I’m all for having more queer focused characters, Jack is a superb example of how a queer character can be written well. It seems that Moffat however, does try to elude to wonderfulness of having gay characters but never seems to pull it off. It nearly always ends up as queer baiting.
The Doctor and The Tardis
The Doctor has become mean and gnarled. He sits up in his Tardis not talking, not interfering He has become ancient, like the Time Lords of old Gallifrey had become when he, so long ago used to fight against them. This to me was an excellent portrayal and well written. So often in New Who does the Doctor feel like he’s losing everything only to be pulled back again by some miracle. At some point, in whatever state he has seen the ones he’s loved again. But not this time.
The finality of the Pond’s departure means that the Doctor has really lost it. Only the mystery that dead/alive Clara brings can take him out of his crippling depression. I liked this, it felt like the best of Old Who (in my opinion): 5 after the death of Adric, and 7 while trying to figure out that whole Fenric thing with Ace. **
I’m undecided on the new Tardis layout. On the plus side I love that he can open the doors and you can see the inside bigger than the outside straight away. Also, I love that it harks back to some of the old Tardis layouts, which used to look like the old knock off lego sets that my grandad had.
However, I really REALLY loved the previous layout. The copper, the eclectic feel, steampunk. I loved it all. Some parts of this Tardis really do seem like a crappy hipster theme park.
The Ending
IT’S RAINING TEARS.
I know it’s kinda a thing for Doctor Who episode to get super complicated then get solved in like two seconds but this kinda took the biscuit. I dunno, I think I’m still reeling from the Pond’s departure.
Weeping angels fastest creatures in the universe, but look at them and then turn to stone just like THAT!
Ain’t the statue of liberty made out of metal?
DID I FUCKING STUTTER.
Conclusion
All in all I spent my christmas weeping over television and then writing a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong blog post on it so thanks for reading.
Oh wait no one last thing.
The Sherlock references?
NOOOOOOOOPE.
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* I’m not even joking I actually had to have a drink to calm myself down before the episode began.
** I really really fucking love Ace.
ALL THOSE WONDERFUL PAINTINGS ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAINTDOKTAHWHO MY FAV THING 5EVA.
Nancy and Dorritt 