Honestly, I didn't notice much similarity beyond the basic tropes of the quest format. (If Knightmare had been like that on a regular basis, I'd expect to be much more traumatised than I actually am, along with most Britons my age.)
As far as Elyan goes ... I've been thinking about this, and perhaps I'm being overly generous, but it really does seem to me they'd written themselves into a corner.
The whole point of the episode is that Gwen is subjected to as much trauma as possible. And while she'd certainly have been shocked and saddened if Percival or Leon had been killed trying to rescue her, it wouldn't have had the same vicereal trauma as losing her brother. Arthur would have, but obviously that's not going to happen. And Lancelot might have worked, only they've already killed him off. So it has to be her brother. And her brother, of course, is black.
So we've got the ironic situation that they kill of the black secondary character because one of the primary characters is black...
(Of course, even as I write this, it occurs to me there's no reason there couldn't also have been a black knight who isn't related to Gwen...)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-11-16 04:42 pm (UTC)As far as Elyan goes ... I've been thinking about this, and perhaps I'm being overly generous, but it really does seem to me they'd written themselves into a corner.
The whole point of the episode is that Gwen is subjected to as much trauma as possible. And while she'd certainly have been shocked and saddened if Percival or Leon had been killed trying to rescue her, it wouldn't have had the same vicereal trauma as losing her brother. Arthur would have, but obviously that's not going to happen. And Lancelot might have worked, only they've already killed him off. So it has to be her brother. And her brother, of course, is black.
So we've got the ironic situation that they kill of the black secondary character because one of the primary characters is black...
(Of course, even as I write this, it occurs to me there's no reason there couldn't also have been a black knight who isn't related to Gwen...)