Merlin: Gwaine (S3E4)

I am teh cute.

This is Gwaine. Handsome, easygoing and skillful non-Nobleman fighter who saves Prince Arthur's dear life at a pubtavern-brawl-turned-ugly and make both of them a couple of new (and uglyyyy) enemies.

Gwaine's secretly of noble-birth but he hates noblemen and the King so he keeps his background a secret. Merlin finds out about it during their bonding time - being punished to clean the entire army's boots for making Arthur pay for Gwaine's crazy beer, meat and pickled eggs tab. (Arthur loves pickled eggs, by the way)

ALSO, I'm such a freaking spoiler. Do not read on if you plan on watching this episode. 

If you can't get the episode at the location you're residing but want little details regarding the plot, then, by all means, hallelujah, you've found a friend in me, so please read on!

Anyway, sorry for digressing. Let's get back to this episode. The two new enemies commission a sorcerer to forge them a couple of blunt-but-actually-really sharp swords - in other words, magical, evil swords! - and crystals that allow to them to take other people's forms. This is a tricky (and poor, sorry!) explanation, so let me elaborate on how the forgery is done:

• the two enemies must kill two people of their choice using the swords. 
• then they smear the blood of their fallen victims onto the crystals and wear the crystals around their necks
• the crystals will then change their appearances to those of the victims. Done.

The victims they choose are two noblemen and close allies of Prince Arthur who are invited to join the annual mêlée (friendly match? my french is bad. pardon.) at Camelot. I can't remember the two noblemen's names for the love of God so I'll just call them "fake nobles" here.

While Gwaine is busy falling in love with Gwen at first sight, Merlin discovers the fake nobles' secret, of course, and tries to do things his way aka mess things up. Thankfully Gwaine comes to the rescue and gets arrested for trying to fight the noblemen but he's forever exiled from Camelot :( Poor Gwaine. He shares similar fate with Lancelot, doesn't he? But Gwaine's cuter, of course. 

At the mêlée, Gwaine disguises himself as one of the participating noblemen and helps Arthur from peril yet again by finishing off the fake nobles and revealing their true identities. However, he decides to leave Camelot for Persia in the quest for more exciting places. Merlin is crestfallen because he loses a new buddy but he's convinced that Gwaine would return one day and be a knight when Arthur is king. Arthur reminds Merlin that "rules are rules" - only nobles can be knights; the tradition has always been that way and will stay that way.

As Gwaine walks out the gate of Camelot, watched by Arthur and Merlin from the castle's balcony, he meets Gwen and exchanges what seem to be friendly banter. It looks innocent enough but it is also enough to make Arthur jealous before Merlin quickly quotes Arthur that "rules are rules" and commoners like Gwen can't be with anyone other than commoners, much to Arthur's annoyance. 

This episode is pretty fun because I like the character Gwaine, Gwen doesn't get much screen time (hahaha) and the fight scenes are decent! hey-ho!

Merlin: Goblin's Gold (S3E3)

In this episode, magical creatures are back in the formula, this time just ONE very mischievous goblin whom Merlin accidentally releases from a lead-lined box while he is looking for a spell book in the library.

This goblin looks somewhat like Dobby from Harry Potter except his eyes are more sinister than afraid and he has HAIR. hahaha. I believe Dobby is bald, no? This Merlin version is like some Indian deity to me, partly because of the black hair tied up in a bunch and the gold accessories on him.

Goblin LOVES gold above everything else and once it's freed, this goblin goes around making a mess of the castle, vandalizing the rooms and oooooh, taking over Gaius' body when Merlin and him fail to seize the Goblin with the lure of Arthur's (stolen) gold coins!

So, what happens then?

• Gaius: starts going to Tavern, gambles, plays pranks on the people and even the knights and never having to worry that Merlin would harm him because if Merlin harms him, the one hurt will be Gaius' body and not the goblin.

• Gwen: stupidly conned into giving her gold coin for a fart potion! LOLLLLLL

• Morgana: Morgana lays low in this episode, reverting back to her usual request for sleeping draught from Gaius, but the goblin gives her the fart potion as well!

• Arthur: embarrassingly turned into a a donkey-man, complete with donkey ears and braying vocals, to Merlin's delight :)

• King Uther: becomes bald and given fart potion as well. The three victims all fart during an important court meeting. HAHAHA.

Meanwhile, Merlin sees no other way of getting the goblin out of Gaius' body willingly except by poisoning Gaius/goblin to near death. Risky business indeed.

This episode is full of LOLs and serves more as a filler than a progress of the main plot for Season 3 ,which is Morgana's efforts to turn Camelot over to the hands of wizards and witches, but it's sort of a nice breather because nobody likes overly-serious period dramas (cough*Tudor*cough).

Long live Merlin!

Merlin: The Tears of Uther Pendragon [Part2] (S3E2)

After being knocked out for three full days, Merlin wakes up to the Dragon, uh, nursing him. Then he makes use of the dragon to fly him back (what use is a grand pet with wings if you can't take advantage of it?) to Camelot to deliver speedy news that the King is under an enchantment.

the dragon has pretty, golden eyes.

Together with Gaius, they toast the little mandrake voodoo piece but the dangers are still beckoning. Cendred's army, sought by Morgeause's promise that she has a loyal minion (Lady Morgana) who's trustworthy and would help to overthrow Camelot, advances to the capital by hundreds of thousands. A siege!!!!

Meanwhile, Lady Morgana who thinks that Merlin must have been devoured by scorpions in the woods, is shocked to see him walking beside Arthur, helping to gather provision to counter the siege. She hurries off to Morgeause for more instructions and is handed a staff made from something from the Isle of the Blessed, which means it contains Old Magic and oh so powerful! It looks kinda like a stick fastened with a white coral on top for aesthetic purposes but that's just my opinion. The staff is so powerful, one doesn't need to know how to use it because it will guide the user on all the how-to.

As Cendred's army attacks Camelot's walls, Morgana sneaks to the basement where bones of knights are kept and she successfully revives them to do her evil bidding. Arthur's army, who is initially winning the battle, is overwhelmed by the enemy's magical reinforcements and is forced to back down little by little.

Merlin, the boy who saves all, or tries to, sprints to the basement and after given a lecture by Morgana and a little bit of no-magic-used struggle, he manages to cut off the staff and breaks the enchantments over the skeleton soldiers. All the bones all over Camelot fall in heaps and the city is saved once again. No credits to Merlin because to everyone's knowledge, he's supposed to be just a lowly servant.

King Uther even praises Morgana for being the one who cut off the staff and saved the kingdom because she is found under some rubble in the basement (after her struggle with Merlin) and everyone automatically thinks she risked her life to cut the staff. Hmms.

In this episode, Gwen the servant to Lady Morgana also gets more attention as she once again gives Arthur the strength to fight on just by a mere few words of encouragement. I sense more forbidden love blossoming in the future episodes even though I don't really fancy the Arthur x Gwen pair.

More magic and enchantments next episode!

Merlin: The Tears of Uther Pendragon [Part1] (S3E1)

It's been a year since Morgana went missing after trying to enchant and destroy Camelot. After an extensive search led by Arthur (Because King Uther is old) and many senseless killings later (woe is the small people), she is found in the woods and brought back to Camelot, much to Uther's rejoice.

She pretends to befriend Merlin again, something about wanting to start over and make peace but Merlin is apprehensive about it. After all, he tried to poison her...surely she won't forgive him that easily, right? His suspicions proved true later on.

Getting bullied by Prince Arthur is daily breakfast for Merlin.

Between getting bullied by Prince Arthur and running chores for Gaius, Merlin manages to find out that Morgana sneaks out of the castle every night to meet her white-trash-looking (I'm NOT kidding) half-sister and enchantress Morgeause to get a mandrake voodoo piece to cripple King Uther's control of the kingdom. The idea is to crush him mentally so the rest of his subjects would panic and terror would spread across the kingdom. It is so easy to incite terror in those days, it seems. Ever since magic is banned, any incidents involving some sort of enchantment will get the king soooooooo worked up to send the entire army to find and uproot the cause of the enchantment. Lather, rinse, repeat.

One night, the king starts to see illusions, faces of the people he has killed and most importantly, face of the dead queen. He breaks down and can't function so Prince Arthur has to take reign...which means more duties and bullying for Merlin (sucks to be him).

So, this mandrake voodoo thing takes a few days for the full effects to show. Merlin tails Morgana into the woods and is seized by Morgeause and bound by some enchanted chains so he can't move. Then the two women leave and let GIANT scorpions get a taste of Merlin. Since Merlin isn't a full-fledged powerful wizard yet, his feeble attempts to break the chains fail and he even get stung by one of the scorpions. ACK!! Poor boy. He does his best for Prince Arthur and Camelot and this has to be the end of his life story? Surely heavens have planned something else to save him.

Poisoned and slowly losing consciousness, what's a wizard boy got to do? Call on THE dragon, of course. In my opinion, that Dragon is the true hero in Merlin series. He tells Merlin what to do, every single time (because he's wise and ancient like that) but Merlin wouldn't listen and problems would arise. Repeat this for every single episode of Season 1 & 2. The Dragon is like, the God of all gossips and news in those seasons. I love it very much.

Anyway, back to the story. The Dragon swoops down from somewhere and barbeques all the scorpions to cinders. But there lies Merlin, all lifeless and chained up on the forest floor.

What will happen next?
Will he survive the poisonous venom?

Answers will be in Part 2/episode 2!