Sire… It Must Be… SAUCERY

Ahmed and his family are only trying to survive against the starvation that has taken all of Gaza by storm. Ahmed’s sister needs milk to feed her two small children, and Ahmed himself has even fainted from the hunger. Ahmed’s beloved cat has now died of hunger.

There is not enough food to go around. Those with food sell it at prices too steep for people in need to afford. Ahmed does not have much time. He and his family are already in critical condition from starvation and lack of shelter. He has already lost his cat, he cannot lose his family. He cannot lose his life.

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Hi!  Yeah, you’re right, I do really dislike the finale X)  And as for the magic reveal - aka the scene with the “i use it for you, only for you” line?  Yeah, it’s not really my cup of tea.

I try not to talk about the finale too much, because I mostly try to engage with Merlin in a positive way and the finale is something about which I really only have negative things to say.  It’s a failure of storytelling on a catastrophic scale, and I don’t think this scene is any better than the rest of it, personally.

It’s - it’s kind of hard for me to critique individual scenes in the finale, because for me the entire premise of the last two episodes is just so flawed that analyzing bits of it in more detail just feels silly, but some of the things I find unsatisfying about it are these:

- I don’t think Merlin would confess.  I just don’t.  Especially in a situation where it wasn’t unavoidably necessary.  There was no reason why Gaius couldn’t just tell Arthur “we need to get you to the Lake of Avalon to be healed; Merlin will take you.”  There wasn’t any inescapable need for Arthur to be told that Merlin has magic, and without being forced to, by circumstances beyond his control, I don’t believe Merlin would ever willingly give up his secret.  (Maybe later, when they’re approached by soldiers and Merlin has no choice but to use magic to fight them off - but I don’t think Merlin would ever reveal himself without his hand being forced.)

- I do not think Merlin desperately scrambling to justify his existence as a person with magic by saying “I use it for you; only for you” was the right tone for the writers to have him take at the end of this show.

- to clarify: I despise that line.  What message, exactly, are we trying to communicate here?  The point of the ‘liberate magic from oppression’ storyline was that we were trying to get to a spot where people with magic could proudly say it is not a crime to fight for the right to be who you are.  The story was supposed to be driving at the world’s recognition that there is nothing inherently wrong with having or using magic, and Merlin was supposed to be the one ultimately championing that cause.  But instead we chose to end on a flinching, desperate note of ‘i have magic, BUT!  i only use it for you, so it’s okay.  i’m not bad like all those other people.’

That’s bullshit.  Merlin should not have to provide a “but - ” at the end of “i have magic.”  That is not the message this show was driving at for the previous five seasons.  Merlin was supposed to reach a point where he could genuinely declare what Dragoon confuses Camelot’s dungeon guards with: i am who i am and i am who i was and i am who i always will be.  And Arthur was supposed to reach a point where he would acknowledge that magical folk do not need to apologize or make excuses for their existence.

Moreover - the line ‘i use it for you, only for you’ is untrue, no matter how much shippers love hearing it.  Merlin does not and has never used his magic solely for Arthur’s benefit.  Never.  Merlin uses magic for his own purposes, his own missions, for things he personally thinks are important.  He protects Ealdor, hides Freya, helps Lancelot become a knight, retrieves the dragon egg, releases Kilgharrah, saves his mother, heals Gwen’s father, rescues little Mordred.  He does his chores with magic so he can sit around and read books.  He cleans stained shirts with magic so he can show off for his friend.  He makes horses out of smoke and dragons out of sparks because it's fun.  His magic is not and has never been a gift for Arthur alone; it’s part of who Merlin is.

I just think the show missed the mark with this moment.  There is nothing about it that I find compelling or emotionally satisfying.  It does not take Merlin’s character anywhere near the place where he was ultimately supposed to go.  And trying to wrap up Arthur’s “change of heart” on magic in one episode was impossibly ill-conceived.  It doesn’t feel believable.  There is no way that a situation of this magnitude could have been resolved so quickly.  The way they zip Arthur from “magic bad” to “magic good” does his character a terrible disservice.  He’s never allowed to grow or come to the conclusion “magic good” on his own.  He never has to work for it, so his turnaround feels completely empty.  It’s not a victory.  It’s a waste of his potential.  He didn’t have to do any hard work to change himself, so he didn’t actually achieve anything.

Hi, nice to meet you! :D  So, I’ll admit right up front that the first part of my answer to this is gonna be super boring, because I am totally the worst person to ask about other ways this scene (or any scene, really) could have played out.  I’ve never had much interest in AU scenarios, so I virtually never think about them - I think the only exception is the “Will comes to Camelot” story that a few friends and I are perpetually playing around with, and that’s only interesting to me because it’s Will, and I enjoy pretty much anything where he’s concerned. X) 

But besides that, I don’t typically enjoy thinking about alternate pathways - I really like the way the canon Merlin story plays out up until the finale, so generally all I want to do is think about the canon.  I’ve never wanted to dream up new ways for things to go (I dunno why; I’ve just never gotten much interest out of it).  So unfortunately I don’t have any cool ideas about other ways this could have played out, but I know there are tons of people in this fandom who love making lots of AUs, so maybe if anybody has recommendations they can point you in the right direction in the replies here!

In terms of just general thoughts on 2.08, one of the most interesting things to me about this episode to me is how Morgause actually *is* lying (not completely, but enough.)  She doesn’t tell Arthur the whole truth about what happened with Uther, and she doesn’t even truly summon Ygraine; it’s an illusion of Morgause’s own making.  And we know that because “Ygraine” herself gives it away - earlier in this episode, Arthur says, “I never knew [my mother].  She died before I opened my eyes,” but then when the so-called Ygraine appears, the show specifically makes sure to have her say, “When I last held you, you were a tiny baby.  I remember your eyes.  You were staring up at me.”  Which is the tip-off for us - that’s not her.  

And because of this, Morgause has complete control over the framing of what Arthur hears in this scene.  It’s true that Uther went to Nimueh, and it’s true that he knew a life would have to be taken in return, but he didn’t know whose.  Morgause, though, through her illusion of Ygraine, specifically makes it sound like Uther knew Ygraine herself would die (”He sacrificed my life so the Pendragon dynasty could continue”), and I mean, it’s not that I think Uther’s decision is any better just because he was willing to sacrifice some random person’s life instead of his wife’s, but it’s relevant that Morgause embellishes the truth specifically to engineer a particular reaction from Arthur.

And, given this, it’s also relevant to note that Merlin doesn’t actually lie to Arthur at the end of this episode.  He says, “Morgause is lying.  She’s an enchantress.  She tricked you.  That wasn't your mother.  It was an illusion.  Everything, everything your mother said to you - those were Morgause's words.”  And that’s true.  Arthur makes the assumption that this means that the substance of Morgause’s words was all false - and Merlin allows him to think this - but Merlin never actually says as much.  

And to be honest, it shouldn’t even matter what Merlin says.  Afterwards, when Arthur asks Uther flat-out whether Merlin is right, Uther never actually denies the part he played in Ygraine’s death.  Arthur says, “Swear to me that it isn’t true, that you are not responsible for her death,” but Uther just replies, “I swear on my life, I loved your mother.  There isn't a day that passes that I don't wish she were alive.  I could never have done anything to hurt her.”  It’s a pretty clever bit of maneuvering, but it’s not a denial.  He swears that he loved her.  He doesn’t swear that he didn’t cause her death.  

And the thing is, Arthur is fully capable of realizing this.  Uther’s dodge is painfully obvious to everyone listening.  Arthur knows what he really asked his father, and he hears the evasion his father offers in response, same as everybody else in the room.  Regardless of what Merlin said previously about Morgause (all of which is technically correct!), Arthur is still completely capable of arriving at the truth on his own.  Uther’s own words make it very clear.  If Arthur would just think about it a little harder, or look at it a little deeper, he would see that.  

But he doesn’t want to.  He chooses not to examine it too closely.  It would be too hard to accept, and it would hurt too much, and the only way he can make all his difficult feelings go away is to fall back on a familiar, comfortable, “sorcery is evil” explanation.  It papers over the truth for him.  It allows him to continue on with his life without having to confront pain.

And that’s a problem, as I’ve said many times before.  We can rag on Merlin all we want for having the audacity to stop a friend from committing patricide, and we can blame him for arresting Arthur’s momentum and letting Uther live and sentencing the magical community to further suffering, but the ultimate fact of the matter is that Arthur is the one who ultimately chooses to look away here.  Arthur has all of the information he needs regardless of what Merlin says, and he chooses not to pursue it, because it would cause him too much pain.

And it’s not the first time he’s done this.  I talked about it before, in the tags of this post, when Arthur reacts to a so-called sorcerer who dies saving his life, and it’s the same exact progression - he’s confronted by something that challenges his worldview, and for a second he feels troubled/pained/guilty, and then, to escape those uncomfortable feelings, he retreats back into a framework that makes sense to him.  A framework that is easier for him.  A framework that hurts less, and, most importantly, a framework that doesn’t implicate him in any wrongdoing.

So what I’m saying is, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter if Merlin tells Arthur that Morgause was tricking him or not.  She was!  And Merlin’s acknowledgment of that fact isn’t enough to dissuade Arthur from attacking his father; Arthur is still pressing Uther to swear his innocence after Merlin says it.  It’s Uther’s words that make Arthur back down, but those words are also exactly what make Uther’s guilt apparent.