Post by Arwen17 on May 16, 2022 13:23:12 GMT
I'm an avid reader of TVTropes. Here's the Merlin movie page: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/Merlin1998
I picked out the quotes I liked the best. See below.
Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you slow down the video during the flashing transition between the scene where Merlin confronts Arthur about Morgan and the one where Mab meets Nimue in Avalon, you will see three frames of Mab leaving Camelot after her and Frik's celebratory dance there and just one of Frik sitting alone in the castle afterwards looking sad. (Presumably because he has just handed over Morgan to Arthur.)
I did manage to find this clip they were talking about eventually. They've got this worded in such a strange way, I didn't understand what the hell they were talking about. Its in the transition flash between Merlin telling Arthur he slept with his sister Morgan and the start of the next scene with Nimue at Avalon about to meet Queen Mab. I took a screenshot: imgur.com/a/s2WbToX
Seems a bit strange Frik is just sitting there AFTER Merlin tells Arthur about the incest, since it's been hours since Arthur and Morgan slept together. Has Frik been contemplating this for hours?
I don't know what they're talking about in the phrase "you will see three frames of Mab leaving Camelot after her and Frik's celebratory dance there" WHAT? The only thing I could find is the secret frame of Frik sitting.
Screw Destiny: Both Mab and Merlin take this approach.
Affably Evil: She treats Merlin like a son who's disappointed her rather than an enemy, even when she's arranging for his girlfriend to be sacrificed to a dragon.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Genuinely loves Mordred, Merlin too to some extent, she thinks of both of them as her "sons" with Mordred as the loyal one and Merlin as the rebel. Also she has a very polite respectful attitude towards Nimue, akin to a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law.
Laser-Guided Karma: Repeatedly in the story she fails to use her magic to save someone from dying, get's called out for it and happily admits she could have saved them if she wanted to but chose not to. Then when Mordred is dying she realizes her powers have diminished too far and she no longer has the power to save him even though she wants to.
Then Let Me Be Evil: Mab defends herself this way. "With evil all around me, I can do nothing but evil, to survive."
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Doesn't consider herself evil, feels she she is fighting for her people and her way of life.
A cute example is Mab's interactions with Mordred as a child, namely when she and Frik first arrive and Mordred runs into her waiting open arms and she lovingly picks him up and cuddles him like a loving aunt visiting her nephew. This shows Mordred was one of the few, of only, people Mab genuinely cared about. This makes it even more heart-wrenching in the end when he dies in her arms after the final battle and she can't save him.
Alternative Character Interpretation / Well-Intentioned Extremist:
Did Queen Mab act selfishly, fighting a war and giving up any vestige of morality to save herself from being forgotten? Or are her motives more sympathetic; it could be argued her entire plot was only an answer to the prayers of an ordinary British human woman who prayed for the Old Ways to come back?
Was Merlin right to oppose Mab, providing justice for the countless innocent people she was killing in her desperation to survive? Or did Merlin spend the entire miniseries on a vengeance quest to destroy an entire religion for the crimes of one goddess even though he knew that the other members of the pantheon were good? Did he save hundreds of lives by helping Uther conquer Tintagel, or did he fail to live up to his own moral standards by becoming a knowing accomplice to a rape by fraud in order to help achieve his goals?
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The cutaway scene of Queen Mab and Frik laughing and dancing like delighted children over their latest scheme bearing fruit. You might expect it from Frik, and there is some grounding in myth for The Fair Folk acting like this, but seeing stoic Ice Queen Mab indulge in it too is downright bizarre, and neither character ever acts like this again.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Miranda Richardson's Queen Mab is a lot of people's favourite part of this miniseries, providing a powerful, compelling villain with a sympathetic motivation she pursues through unscrupulous means.
Fridge Logic:
If forgetting Queen Mab is the only thing that can ultimately defeat her, then isn't Merlin shooting himself in the foot by spending the rest of his life telling stories about her? Though it becomes Fridge Brilliance if you consider that the decline of the Old Ways and Mab's death in particular were very bittersweet for Merlin. He may be trying to keep them alive despite himself.
In the novelizations, Merlin doesn't include Mab in any of his stories, instead attributing her deeds to Morgan le Fay or Mordred, and Frik does the same thing. This is implied to be the thing that Frik noted was "omitted" from Merlin's story at the end.
Maybe he took a page from Terry Pratchett? When you tell stories about something, people know about them more, but believe about them less. Tell magical, fantastical stories about the Fair Folk today: next stop, nursery wallpaper.
There's also the fact that the stories would be telling people about Mab...but that she used to exist, and would include the ending in which she faded away. So even as they told people of Mab they'd be reinforcing the fact she is just a memory, a thing of the past.
I picked out the quotes I liked the best. See below.
Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you slow down the video during the flashing transition between the scene where Merlin confronts Arthur about Morgan and the one where Mab meets Nimue in Avalon, you will see three frames of Mab leaving Camelot after her and Frik's celebratory dance there and just one of Frik sitting alone in the castle afterwards looking sad. (Presumably because he has just handed over Morgan to Arthur.)
I did manage to find this clip they were talking about eventually. They've got this worded in such a strange way, I didn't understand what the hell they were talking about. Its in the transition flash between Merlin telling Arthur he slept with his sister Morgan and the start of the next scene with Nimue at Avalon about to meet Queen Mab. I took a screenshot: imgur.com/a/s2WbToX
Seems a bit strange Frik is just sitting there AFTER Merlin tells Arthur about the incest, since it's been hours since Arthur and Morgan slept together. Has Frik been contemplating this for hours?
I don't know what they're talking about in the phrase "you will see three frames of Mab leaving Camelot after her and Frik's celebratory dance there" WHAT? The only thing I could find is the secret frame of Frik sitting.
Screw Destiny: Both Mab and Merlin take this approach.
Affably Evil: She treats Merlin like a son who's disappointed her rather than an enemy, even when she's arranging for his girlfriend to be sacrificed to a dragon.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Genuinely loves Mordred, Merlin too to some extent, she thinks of both of them as her "sons" with Mordred as the loyal one and Merlin as the rebel. Also she has a very polite respectful attitude towards Nimue, akin to a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law.
Laser-Guided Karma: Repeatedly in the story she fails to use her magic to save someone from dying, get's called out for it and happily admits she could have saved them if she wanted to but chose not to. Then when Mordred is dying she realizes her powers have diminished too far and she no longer has the power to save him even though she wants to.
Then Let Me Be Evil: Mab defends herself this way. "With evil all around me, I can do nothing but evil, to survive."
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Doesn't consider herself evil, feels she she is fighting for her people and her way of life.
A cute example is Mab's interactions with Mordred as a child, namely when she and Frik first arrive and Mordred runs into her waiting open arms and she lovingly picks him up and cuddles him like a loving aunt visiting her nephew. This shows Mordred was one of the few, of only, people Mab genuinely cared about. This makes it even more heart-wrenching in the end when he dies in her arms after the final battle and she can't save him.
Alternative Character Interpretation / Well-Intentioned Extremist:
Did Queen Mab act selfishly, fighting a war and giving up any vestige of morality to save herself from being forgotten? Or are her motives more sympathetic; it could be argued her entire plot was only an answer to the prayers of an ordinary British human woman who prayed for the Old Ways to come back?
Was Merlin right to oppose Mab, providing justice for the countless innocent people she was killing in her desperation to survive? Or did Merlin spend the entire miniseries on a vengeance quest to destroy an entire religion for the crimes of one goddess even though he knew that the other members of the pantheon were good? Did he save hundreds of lives by helping Uther conquer Tintagel, or did he fail to live up to his own moral standards by becoming a knowing accomplice to a rape by fraud in order to help achieve his goals?
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The cutaway scene of Queen Mab and Frik laughing and dancing like delighted children over their latest scheme bearing fruit. You might expect it from Frik, and there is some grounding in myth for The Fair Folk acting like this, but seeing stoic Ice Queen Mab indulge in it too is downright bizarre, and neither character ever acts like this again.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Miranda Richardson's Queen Mab is a lot of people's favourite part of this miniseries, providing a powerful, compelling villain with a sympathetic motivation she pursues through unscrupulous means.
Fridge Logic:
If forgetting Queen Mab is the only thing that can ultimately defeat her, then isn't Merlin shooting himself in the foot by spending the rest of his life telling stories about her? Though it becomes Fridge Brilliance if you consider that the decline of the Old Ways and Mab's death in particular were very bittersweet for Merlin. He may be trying to keep them alive despite himself.
In the novelizations, Merlin doesn't include Mab in any of his stories, instead attributing her deeds to Morgan le Fay or Mordred, and Frik does the same thing. This is implied to be the thing that Frik noted was "omitted" from Merlin's story at the end.
Maybe he took a page from Terry Pratchett? When you tell stories about something, people know about them more, but believe about them less. Tell magical, fantastical stories about the Fair Folk today: next stop, nursery wallpaper.
There's also the fact that the stories would be telling people about Mab...but that she used to exist, and would include the ending in which she faded away. So even as they told people of Mab they'd be reinforcing the fact she is just a memory, a thing of the past.
