![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcThe Hallowe'en episode!
In all the speculation that was fueled by rumours of an unexpected returning guest star, I think Lancelot was the favourite with Morguase as the outsider. I didn't notice anyone suggest Uther at all!
A nice opening with Arthur saving a woman from being burnt at the stake. This ties into the subsequent story twice; not only does she give Arthur the horn that starts the whole mess off, but preventing a suspected witch from being burnt without trial is exactly the sort of thing Uther wouldn't do.
So Arthur gets to communicate with Uther, and discovers to his astonishment that all the things he's done that Uther wouldn't let him do when he was alive (marry Gwen, knight Lancelot, etc.) are things that Uther still disapproves of. More than that, Uther is firmly convinced that the fact the kingdom is stronger and happier since Arthur did these things is coincidence, and it's bound to all go wrong eventually.
Which could just be the set-up for an episode about Arthur's self-doubt, except that he's accidentally freed Uther, who goes Poltergeist on everything he disapproves of: the Round Table, common-born knights like Percival, and Gwen. This was genuinely spooky, and the bit where Gwen gets dragged backwards into the darkness was flippin terrifying! (Well, it was to me. Maybe I'm easily terrified. My niece didn't seem that bothered.)
Uther was nicely portrayed here (occasionally dodgy ghost makeup aside); even more vicious than he was when alive, but just as much a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believed everything he did was for the good of Camelot. And, as when he was alive, his one redeeming feature seems to be that he genuinely cares about Arthur ... until he decides that "the good of Camelot" overrides even that and decides to kill him. And that, I think is the moment when Arthur finally knows for absolute certain that he doesn't want to be the same sort of king Uther was.
Mythwatch: Valdis is a Norse death goddess, appropriately enough. The Horn of Cathbad is named after the chief druid of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle. Beltane is the Celtic name for Mayday, and traditionally one of the two times of year when the Otherworld opens its doors (the other, of course, being Samhain/Hallowe'en at the opposite equinox). The idea of not looking back probably comes from Orpheus and Euridyce, but for the opposite reason.
In all the speculation that was fueled by rumours of an unexpected returning guest star, I think Lancelot was the favourite with Morguase as the outsider. I didn't notice anyone suggest Uther at all!
A nice opening with Arthur saving a woman from being burnt at the stake. This ties into the subsequent story twice; not only does she give Arthur the horn that starts the whole mess off, but preventing a suspected witch from being burnt without trial is exactly the sort of thing Uther wouldn't do.
So Arthur gets to communicate with Uther, and discovers to his astonishment that all the things he's done that Uther wouldn't let him do when he was alive (marry Gwen, knight Lancelot, etc.) are things that Uther still disapproves of. More than that, Uther is firmly convinced that the fact the kingdom is stronger and happier since Arthur did these things is coincidence, and it's bound to all go wrong eventually.
Which could just be the set-up for an episode about Arthur's self-doubt, except that he's accidentally freed Uther, who goes Poltergeist on everything he disapproves of: the Round Table, common-born knights like Percival, and Gwen. This was genuinely spooky, and the bit where Gwen gets dragged backwards into the darkness was flippin terrifying! (Well, it was to me. Maybe I'm easily terrified. My niece didn't seem that bothered.)
Uther was nicely portrayed here (occasionally dodgy ghost makeup aside); even more vicious than he was when alive, but just as much a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believed everything he did was for the good of Camelot. And, as when he was alive, his one redeeming feature seems to be that he genuinely cares about Arthur ... until he decides that "the good of Camelot" overrides even that and decides to kill him. And that, I think is the moment when Arthur finally knows for absolute certain that he doesn't want to be the same sort of king Uther was.
Mythwatch: Valdis is a Norse death goddess, appropriately enough. The Horn of Cathbad is named after the chief druid of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle. Beltane is the Celtic name for Mayday, and traditionally one of the two times of year when the Otherworld opens its doors (the other, of course, being Samhain/Hallowe'en at the opposite equinox). The idea of not looking back probably comes from Orpheus and Euridyce, but for the opposite reason.
