A diamond in the rough?

Finales are a tricky thing. If they are done well and writers have been given plenty of warning, they can be wonderfully satisfying, where the work and the events leading up to that point feel necessary and complete. When it is done badly or rushed, everything is in shambles and the care and attention that existed before is overshadowed by how badly it ended. I have spoken once before about how good stories impact me and how I regard them. I have also mentioned how perceptions shift as time passes and you have an opportunity to think about things and consider events from a different perspective.

The final episode of ‘Merlin’ aired on Christmas Eve in the UK and because I once had a rant about what felt like sloppy writing, I thought that it might be a good idea to speak about how the final two episodes, entitled ‘Diamond of the Day’ held up in light of my previous uncertainties and overall expectations. Unfortunately, this will not be spoiler free so I will wait until you have returned.

There were many things that these two episodes promised and were hoped for. Not the least of which was Merlin’s revelation of his magic. We have spent five seasons with Merlin and Arthur, watching their relationship develop from uncertain strangers to the greatest of friends, which has been helped greatly by the chemistry that exists between the actors who play them. Colin Morgan and Bradley James have given these legendary characters great warmth, heart and conviction. We have shared their anxieties, triumphs and failures and watched with great anticipation for the moment when they became the characters of legend that we were familiar with, ready to stand shoulder to shoulder in the creation of Albion.

But, while the last few series have helped to lead them to that moment, there has been an element of uncertainty in regards to the Pendragons’ attitude to magic; that it is a great evil that must be purged from Camelot. So while we saw a great friendship develop between Merlin and Arthur, we have also felt anxious. After all, as I said once before, Merlin’s magic is as instinctive as breathing. He IS magic. And he spends his days serving (and saving) a Prince, a King and a friend who would feel betrayed when his secret finally came out. After all, it must.

Copyright of moody Merlin goes to the BBC and Shine

So how did I feel when the credits rolled for the final time?

Honestly, I felt a bit disappointed. Not because of the actors (who each did a beautiful job) but because of elements of the story. I will focus on the second part of ‘Diamond of the Day’ for a lot of this analysis, since this is where a lot of my problems lay.

The build-up to this finale has been magnificent. The war between Arthur and Morgana has been in existence since Morgana became a legitimate big bad back in series 4 (series 3 doesn’t count because Arthur was unaware of her allegiance at the time). Morgana’s discovery of Emrys’ true identity was something fans craved and dreaded, knowing that it would change everything we knew. When it came, it was handled beautifully and her plan to get rid of him was rather clever. Get rid of his magic, his only real form of protection, and then take him out. Of course it would have worked better if she had actually done her homework and made sure she didn’t trap Merlin in a place where he was able to re-access his magic tenfold, but she doesn’t have Gaius (aka the Knower of All Things) on her side so she can be forgiven for that.

So the battle starts, fighting takes place with a lot of slow-mo scenes, Aithusa breathes fire, Merlin is riding to king in Emrys-mode, does some fun lightning tricks and is generally awesome and epic…and Arthur gets stabbed by Mordred. Of course, Arthur is still a better fighter and takes out his attacker about ten seconds afterwards (unlike Mordred who seemed to miss all the vital body parts). Merlin finds him, hides him and finally, FINALLY, with emotion and utter exhaustion, reveals his magic to his friend.

I must take this opportunity to point out the acting of Morgan and James here. You can feel Merlin’s terror and relief as he tells his best friend everything he has wanted to tell him for so long from the way his voice quakes, while Arthur’s slow realisation and feeling of betrayal just kicks you in the gut. This is the one thing fans have feared the most; that the epic bromance we have grown to love between these characters would fall apart the minute the truth was revealed. It’s one of the reasons why I think this was so effective. Arthur is badly injured and HAS to rely on Merlin to keep him alive, which gives the pair time to get their equilibrium back.

However, I will admit that I was confused by the initial timing of this. After all, Merlin has had many opportunities in the past to reveal his magic and he was in disguise when actually doing his lightning tricks so why here? Why now? Well, consider the above. Morgana now knows his secret. Merlin knows she isn’t dead and she has attacked him once before. There is no time for secrets now. She will come after him again. Either Merlin reveals himself, or Morgana will force him to do so. But this is only a theory and I would gladly welcome other inputs if you want to share them.

Back in Camelot, of course, Gwen has guessed the truth (again, a moment of ‘Why now?’), Gwaine has to learn that his girlfriend is a traitor and watch her get executed and Gaius sends Merlin on a quest to save his king. All very important points but honestly, not the focus of this review.

I know that there are probably those who are wondering why I was so disappointed with this episode. Was it the fact that it felt a bit rushed at times, knowing that this was the final episode? Did my disappointment lie  in the death of Gwaine, who has pinballed between being one of my favourite knights to being the one I want to slap the most due to stupidity? Was it the death of Morgana, who went with a whimper or Arthur, who went with a sigh of gratitude? Was it Merlin’s failure to make everything right, the lack of reset button, Gwen’s heartbreak or the final scene of Merlin all on his own?

Yes and no.

Congratulations Leon! You managed to survive 'Merlin'.

My disappointment comes from expectations that have been built up during previous seasons and interviews. From the moment Arthur and Merlin started working together and becoming friends, I had been waiting for the day when Merlin would finally be allowed to be himself around his best friend. The day when the two could stand side by side with no secrets between them and kick some serious ass. This has not come to pass. Oh his destiny has been fulfilled, just not in the way I would have hoped.

And that is what disappointed me so much.

But after a few days of ranting, I realised something important. All of my hopes and expectations were not just my own, the actors or even the fans. I had been sharing my hopes with Merlin the entire time. He has spent so long in the shadows, disguised and hidden in plain sight. He has worked behind the scenes, nudging, tweaking, cleaning and protecting without any sense of gratitude or reward. Very few people knew what he did and they became fewer and fewer as time went on, leaving him more and more isolated. Being a sucker for happy endings, I hoped that this would eventually end, with Merlin getting the respect and honour he really deserved. And Merlin, hearing what he was prophesised to do, hoped for a day when he could finally be free to be himself, standing alongside his friends and allies to create a wonderful future.

In the end, he gets a breathless ‘Thank you’ and acknowledgement from his dying King and the respect and gratitude from his Queen and friend (although it is debatable if he knows this). He doesn't get a happy ending. He gets a seriously depressing one, with only a pinprick of hope at the end of a very long tunnel. And that makes me sad, especially when our last shot is of an old Merlin in the present day, walking past the lake alone, waiting for an unknown day when his friend will return.

It is up to the fans to decide what happened after Arthur’s death. I believe he wouldn't go back to Camelot for anything except a short visit. Maybe he would keep an eye on things from the side-lines but with the promise of Arthur’s return and the uncertainty of when this will happen, I'm of the opinion that he would stay close so he know the minute he was there and that is simply not something he could do from Camelot.

The episode itself is far from perfect and, as I have mentioned, feels rather rushed at times. In a way, I wish that Merlin's revelation to Arthur had come a few episodes earlier. The writers have never made it a secret that the end of 'Merlin' would come with the death of Arthur, but the I wonder if the tragedy would have been greater if we had been given a few episodes where the two are trying to find their feet again rather than the much quicker journey we had here. The writers and producers are apparently in negotiations with Shine to create some ‘Merlin’ movies and I watch the proceedings with a sense of hopeful caution. Whatever way they choose to go with these movies (if they are eventually made) there will be problems, mostly in terms of character development. Are we going to go backwards in terms of the story? Continue where we left off? Or reboot completely?

I guess only time will tell, but I don’t think my desire for Arthur and Merlin to stand as equals, with no secrets, is ever really going to fade.

Or my hopes for a happy ending for Merlin.

Reflections

So Christmas has come and gone for another year and all too soon we shall be entering 2013. Which makes this a good opportunity to look back on the last year and consider what has happened and what has been learned.

2012 was definitely a game changer in my life. Oh I graduated and started my publishing course in 2011 but this was the year where I completed and earned my postgraduate degree. I have those photos to prove I was there and the certificate that tells me and everyone who cares to know, that I am an MLitt (Master of Letters). It doesn't matter the amount of work you do to achieve something, the day you finally get it is the day you will remember. Unless, perhaps, you are me. While the graduation was something to remember, I was given a chance to do the one thing I wanted when I walked in the door for the Christmas holidays; celebrate with my family.

But what about my personal and professional life? Well, both received a bit of a shake when I started my new job in October and let me tell you, after the last year, I still find it incredibly startling to know that the financial side of things is more or less sorted. Every student will tell you that life is difficult financially. You need to skrimp and save as much as you can, or blow it all on nights out. You rely on a loan to help you survive. But it is almost harder to do this as a postgrad. Loans are not as readily available and it does become a struggle. It's one of the reasons why so few people do what I did, and start another degree so soon after the first one. I was lucky. And when the paycheck comes in, I feel even more lucky.

But of course, I am not the only one who has been affected by the last 12 months.

The world sat up and watched the Olympics and Paralympics in London this year. We watched our athletes with pride and admiration. We saw the superhumans achieving remarkable feats.Some were doing things that had never been attempted before (either by the games or their own countries). Some people were doing something they had been doing for many years, trying to improve on past performance. And others were doing something for the last time, choosing to step back after a long career.

We saw the best and worst of humanity exposed.

We cheered for successes, groaned at feats of stupidity and mourned tragic losses.

We saw hard work and creativity pay off and we saw others fail to do what they should have done.

I know there are many who would prefer to forget everything that happened in 2012 because it was hard or difficult or painful. To them I say, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the pain you have gone through/are going through. I'm sorry that things are not easy and I'm sorry that you are struggling.' For them, I hope that the next year is easier. I hope that the struggle pays off and that they can keep going despite everything.

For now, all I can do is offer them a hug and a promise that things will get better.

Truth be told? I see 2012, not as a year to remember, but as a year of survival and change. The end of the world came and went and we are still here.

Happy New Year everyone. May it grant you everything you need and may all your struggles be rewarded.

Hunger or satisfaction?

Considering this blog was originally supposed to be dedicated to publishing, I thought it was about time I actually started talking about it in a way. Considering my job is off limits, perhaps the best way to do this should be through the review of books that I have read recently.

Yes, I know many people are doing something similar so I'm not going to be doing actual reviews per say. After all, there's only so many times you can listen to people picking apart the same things over and over again. Instead, I'm going to do something a little bit more in depth if I can and write about something that struck me because of one thing or another.

So, how is this going to work?

I will take a book (or series) and give you my own opinions regarding it. Simple enough? Yes, but I will be assuming that other people have read whatever I'm talking about and while I will try to keep things as spoiler-free as possible, I will issue warnings when this is about to take place.

And what better place to start than with the Hunger Games trilogy?

I'm a bit late to the party with these but with one thing or another, I didn't get the opportunity to read them until this summer. And I will admit, I read these AFTER watching the film so my opinion may be a bit skewed in contrast to most people's.

I assume most people know the story so I will keep this section brief. Katniss Everdeen lives in Panem, a futuristic world (possibly America) that has been ravaged by war and has been divided into 12 districts. Every year, two children between the ages of 12-18 are chosen at random from each district to be Tributes for the Hunger Games, a brutal reality show that has the participants fighting to the death until only one remains. When Katniss' sister is chosen, Katniss volunteers to take her place and must survive the Hunger Games and the anger of the Capitol.

Just a warning, some spoilers may exist for a while. If you want to avoid them, skip to the section after the picture of the note.

ABANDON BLOG!!!

The character of Katniss rather impressed me in a number of ways. One, she is a survivor, feeding her family and generally making sure that the people she cares about are looked after, following the trend of a lot of Young Adult books (growing up too soon, the ineffective parent etc). But it's not just that she is a physical survivor that struck me, it was her mental capabilities as well.

In most books, the protagonist is pulled into a battle or a cause and fights for it because they believe in it. They were not looking for the cause, but now it is there, and they are going to make things right. But Katniss REALLY is not looking for a cause. She does not want The Cause. The Cause can find someone else because all she wants is to see tomorrow and make sure the people she loves survive. And that makes her appear cold and uncaring. But I can see where she's coming from. You never know what the Capitol may make you do next so you have to guard your heart in case something happens to someone you care about. So she makes that circle as small as she can.

The issue that most people seem to have with her lies in her effectiveness with The Cause of the book...or rather her ineffectiveness.

In the climatic moment of The Hunger Games, Katniss manages to defeat the Capitol by making sure that she and Peeta both survive, instead of just one of them. She has let Peeta into her circle and she doesn't want to let him go, but her action causes ripples and the world becomes just a little more unstable because of this. She doesn't realise the full implications until someone explains it to her and even then, she doesn't know just how deep this goes until it is too late and she is in the middle of it.

For several people I've spoken to about the book, their problem is that Katniss goes from being this kick-ass survivor to a political puppet that doesn't really do anything except gripe, moan and have emotional breakdowns.

But like I've said before, Katniss was a survivor because she had to be. She had time to learn how to survive and to understand how the world worked. What she could get away with and what she couldn't. In the space of two books (about a year or two), what she knows changes drastically. People she trusts turn out to have ulterior motives, others assume she knows more than she does and her own motivations are questioned. She doesn't have time to breathe or understand this new world. She's just pushed into it. She has to be one thing or another to protect the people she cares about and honestly? She is rarely given a moment to just 'be'.

As for the people she's around, her perceptions are screwed with over and over again. People she trusts become people she has to be cautious around and vice versa. Take Gale. Her best friend in the whole world and one constant in a world of uncertainty. She has to deny that relationship to protect him but eventually, that constant becomes something she doesn't like and cannot deal with. And Peeta? Her rival in the Games to her rock during the aftermath, he is eventually taken from her and altered, leaving her floundering and trying to cope in a situation without someone that she can really trust or even trusts her to the extent she requires. She is being pushed, prodded, manipulated and shaped into a figurehead. A lovestruck teen, a beautiful rebel and an eloquent speaker. But she is none of those things. Her words are not her own. Her looks are not her own. Even her fighting abilities are not her own since her rebellion insist that she not be placed in any danger. Her very sense of self is being pushed aside and her identity is being taken away from her by people who want to use her for their own ends.

Can you honestly blame her for having several breakdowns when all of this is happening?

Even when she tries to take charge and be proactive, she isn't really allowed to. She's a figurehead, not a leader. It's not about what she does as it is about what she is supposed to represent. It doesn't matter that her actions were motivated by her own selfish desire to survive and not have to take out her friend. To everyone else, her actions were a rebellion against the system that was holding them back and gave them the courage to speak out and to stop accepting things as they were.

Let's look at another symbol of hope. Harry Potter is 'The Boy who Lived' who eventually was seen as the hope against darkness. The difference here is that his actions took place when he was a baby. It wasn't a conscious action on his part and people understood that. He was given support and opportunities to prove himself. He made proactive decisions because they were the right thing to do and he fought the darkness on his terms. When Katniss eventually does it? She loses some valuable people and nothing much comes from it. Seriously, things blow up before she can really do anything. The one proactive thing she does is ensure that the circle of dictatorship doesn't continue.

I think that is why so many people have a problem with her. Because she started as a girl and then became a symbol. A symbol she did not mean to become or was really given an opportunity to understand. Harry had about seven years to get his head around what he was and to choose to take a particular path, even when people he trusted were manipulating him to a certain extent. But where Dumbledore tried to find another way and struggled to accept what Harry would have to do, the people around Katniss are manipulating her actions based on the greater good at the expense of her own welfare.So much of what happens to her, happens in spite of her. She is defined by one moment, not a series of incidences, and unlike Harry, she is very aware that she doesn't want to be there and that someone else would be much better suited for the role.

But more importantly, the trilogy is about her. The Harry Potter series was about Harry finding his place in the wider social context because it kept finding him and drawing him into it, helping him to grow from a symbol to a leader. The Hunger Games is not about the Capitol, or the rebellion or even the Games. It's about Katniss and how she copes. It's about how she is being broken by the rebellion the same way that Peeta is broken by the Capitol. The only difference is that the Capitol used more obvious methods to get what they wanted. Yes there is a wider context but that is all background information rather than a central theme and that is an important distinction to make.  Unless you understand that, you are going to be disappointed.

It's safe now

On the spoiler-free side of things, I think the trilogy is something you should check out if you haven't already. I know many consider the last book to be the poorest of the trilogy but think of it as a study of psychology rather than judging the characters based on what you see. It's a fascinating exploration of the human mind and a sobering look at our current culture.