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swatkat+ Castle continues to be endearing. I love that his ringtone for Beckett is the Addams family theme.
+
Good things:
This episode was pure awesome. The fart jokes and dung were a bit too much for me, and I had to frequently look away during those scenes, but Uther's oblivious!happy!face after the troll reveal (with Arthur and Morgana's matching 'eww' faces) made the episode for me. That, and the dragon nearly rolling on the floor laughing.
- I wanted to TACKLEHUG Arthur, because it seems the only way he will allow himself to be hugged. His backbone! His desire to be a friend and a ruler! His hurt when he was disinherited! His emo in the scene with Gwen! His daddy issues! His continued belief that Merlin is a perv (O RLY ARTHUR, WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR ROOM, HMM?)! His desire to save Merlin's life!
- Nice little moment between Gwen and Arthur and Gwen and Gaius.
- Uther's many faces! (Especially the 'yes, get on with it' to poor Geoffrey.)
- Speaking of which, poor Geoffrey!
- Sarah Parish is awesome, and I do love that the troll found Uther extremely repulsive.
- Merln was awesome in this episode. Awesome. And the neckerchief had a role to play!
- This episode is clearly going to be a bridge for the next few episodes. The troll episode is going to be directly responsible for increasing Uther's paranoia, and hence the overcompensation and the witch-hunter. It must also undermine his authority to a huge extent, because the all toilet humour and general grossness does serve a very important purpose, that of bringing Uther down from his pedestal and making him laughingstock before his people (and a simultaneous rise for Arthur, who gets to nobly save the peasants from being exploited and then unjustly disinherited in favour of a troll). There was a lot of gratuitous grossness in the episode, but it seemed to me that the gratuitousness morphed into something else after the troll was outed, and there was much grossness in the court, in full view of everyone else, including servants other than Merlin. Now, instead of just being angry at Uther, his people will laugh at him, disrespect him and crack jokes about his troll bride, which almost irreparably damages the position he holds over his people. And because he is not their friend as well as their king, this kind of laughter can never be friendly, harmless laughter (like Merlin laughing at Arthur in, say, 1.05) - it's only the laughter of those underneath him. I loved the Arthur/Uther scene in the end - I liked that Uther was trying to talk and Arthur kind of spared him the embarrassment with a kind of playfulness we've only seen once in the past, in 'Excalibur', but surely it's not co-incidence that in an episode that was all about Uther's fall from the pedestal in public eyes (and Arthur's rise), Arthur is now comfortable enough to tease his father about his sexploits?
- Gaius made the potion of living death in this episode. They should start paying JKR royalties now. *g*
Not so good things:
- Ew gross.
- Gaius lying to Gwen. He has issues with women, doesn't he?
- - Morgana. Where was she? Would it have been so hard to cut down on the fart jokes and give her another line or two, especially in a two-parter that involves her family? Or are the writers just going to ignore her from now on except when it's Necessary For The Plot?
- Merlin in a closet. Arthur's semi-hug/Merlin's assumption of a hug (♥, BTW) = disturbing coding reminiscent of Gwen/Morgana in 2.04. It does not ruin my squee, but it's disturbing nonetheless.
+ Angel Coulby and Bradley James did a signing together, where Angel showed up with a flower in her hair and Bradley showed up with a beard. Pictorial evidence shows that Colin Morgan's facial hair >> Bradley James' facial hair, so the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
camelot_fleet people had a discussion on what would happen if Arthur tried to grow a beard.
+
Good things:
This episode was pure awesome. The fart jokes and dung were a bit too much for me, and I had to frequently look away during those scenes, but Uther's oblivious!happy!face after the troll reveal (with Arthur and Morgana's matching 'eww' faces) made the episode for me. That, and the dragon nearly rolling on the floor laughing.
- I wanted to TACKLEHUG Arthur, because it seems the only way he will allow himself to be hugged. His backbone! His desire to be a friend and a ruler! His hurt when he was disinherited! His emo in the scene with Gwen! His daddy issues! His continued belief that Merlin is a perv (O RLY ARTHUR, WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR ROOM, HMM?)! His desire to save Merlin's life!
- Nice little moment between Gwen and Arthur and Gwen and Gaius.
- Uther's many faces! (Especially the 'yes, get on with it' to poor Geoffrey.)
- Speaking of which, poor Geoffrey!
- Sarah Parish is awesome, and I do love that the troll found Uther extremely repulsive.
- Merln was awesome in this episode. Awesome. And the neckerchief had a role to play!
- This episode is clearly going to be a bridge for the next few episodes. The troll episode is going to be directly responsible for increasing Uther's paranoia, and hence the overcompensation and the witch-hunter. It must also undermine his authority to a huge extent, because the all toilet humour and general grossness does serve a very important purpose, that of bringing Uther down from his pedestal and making him laughingstock before his people (and a simultaneous rise for Arthur, who gets to nobly save the peasants from being exploited and then unjustly disinherited in favour of a troll). There was a lot of gratuitous grossness in the episode, but it seemed to me that the gratuitousness morphed into something else after the troll was outed, and there was much grossness in the court, in full view of everyone else, including servants other than Merlin. Now, instead of just being angry at Uther, his people will laugh at him, disrespect him and crack jokes about his troll bride, which almost irreparably damages the position he holds over his people. And because he is not their friend as well as their king, this kind of laughter can never be friendly, harmless laughter (like Merlin laughing at Arthur in, say, 1.05) - it's only the laughter of those underneath him. I loved the Arthur/Uther scene in the end - I liked that Uther was trying to talk and Arthur kind of spared him the embarrassment with a kind of playfulness we've only seen once in the past, in 'Excalibur', but surely it's not co-incidence that in an episode that was all about Uther's fall from the pedestal in public eyes (and Arthur's rise), Arthur is now comfortable enough to tease his father about his sexploits?
- Gaius made the potion of living death in this episode. They should start paying JKR royalties now. *g*
Not so good things:
- Ew gross.
- Gaius lying to Gwen. He has issues with women, doesn't he?
- - Morgana. Where was she? Would it have been so hard to cut down on the fart jokes and give her another line or two, especially in a two-parter that involves her family? Or are the writers just going to ignore her from now on except when it's Necessary For The Plot?
- Merlin in a closet. Arthur's semi-hug/Merlin's assumption of a hug (♥, BTW) = disturbing coding reminiscent of Gwen/Morgana in 2.04. It does not ruin my squee, but it's disturbing nonetheless.
+ Angel Coulby and Bradley James did a signing together, where Angel showed up with a flower in her hair and Bradley showed up with a beard. Pictorial evidence shows that Colin Morgan's facial hair >> Bradley James' facial hair, so the
camelot_fleet people had a discussion on what would happen if Arthur tried to grow a beard.
