Merlin - The Crystal Cave
Oct. 9th, 2010 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcThe plot thickens!
This was a really myth-heavy story. Starting with the titular Crystal Cave (which Arthurians will recognise as being where Nimue trapped Merlin) and Taliesin (who Welsh scholars will recognise as a legendary bard, associated with Arthur in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen). In this versin Taliesin is an ancient seer who gains his powers from the Cave, which shows the future. (The mythical Taliesin gained his powers from accidentally sucking a potion of wisdom off his thumb, in a total ripoff of Finn mac Cool and the salmon of knowledge.)
There's a brief glimpse of a man with a long white beard, which might be Merlin once he's grown into the legendary Merlin[1], but most of the visions Merlin gets are of the next couple of days. And they show Morgana about to kill Uther. So we get the classic prophecy plot, where everything Merlin does to prevent it just ensures it happens, until he stops it just after his visions ended.
In the middle of this we get the revelation that Morgana is Uther's daughter. Not a huge surprise that she and Arthur are half-siblings, of course, although the "standard" version has them sharing a mother. Since Ygraine has been firmly established as Arthur's mother, Gorlois's wife was apparently called Vivienne, which is one of the names given to the Lady of the Lake (or the name of one of the Ladies of the Lake, depending on your favoured version of the legend).
Very interesting bit where Uther authorises Gaius to use sorcery to save Morgana's life. It's entirely possible that learning Morgana is actually a sorceress would lead to him reconsidering his entire beliefs. (It's also possible, of course, that it wouldn't.)
Merlin calls the dragon to save Morgana, which given that the dragon has been advising him to kill Morgana for ages seems a little optimistic. The dragon isn't at all happy that Merlin forces him into it against his will. Apparently it's "abusing" his power to command dragons to command dragons, at least according to a dragon.
By at the end Morgana must realise there's a magic user on Uther's side, even if she doesn't know who it is.
[1]I would love to see a flashforward episode of Merlin with King Arthur and Queen Guenevere being advised by an openly magical Merlin, and defended by Sir Lancelot and Sir Gwaine.
This was a really myth-heavy story. Starting with the titular Crystal Cave (which Arthurians will recognise as being where Nimue trapped Merlin) and Taliesin (who Welsh scholars will recognise as a legendary bard, associated with Arthur in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen). In this versin Taliesin is an ancient seer who gains his powers from the Cave, which shows the future. (The mythical Taliesin gained his powers from accidentally sucking a potion of wisdom off his thumb, in a total ripoff of Finn mac Cool and the salmon of knowledge.)
There's a brief glimpse of a man with a long white beard, which might be Merlin once he's grown into the legendary Merlin[1], but most of the visions Merlin gets are of the next couple of days. And they show Morgana about to kill Uther. So we get the classic prophecy plot, where everything Merlin does to prevent it just ensures it happens, until he stops it just after his visions ended.
In the middle of this we get the revelation that Morgana is Uther's daughter. Not a huge surprise that she and Arthur are half-siblings, of course, although the "standard" version has them sharing a mother. Since Ygraine has been firmly established as Arthur's mother, Gorlois's wife was apparently called Vivienne, which is one of the names given to the Lady of the Lake (or the name of one of the Ladies of the Lake, depending on your favoured version of the legend).
Very interesting bit where Uther authorises Gaius to use sorcery to save Morgana's life. It's entirely possible that learning Morgana is actually a sorceress would lead to him reconsidering his entire beliefs. (It's also possible, of course, that it wouldn't.)
Merlin calls the dragon to save Morgana, which given that the dragon has been advising him to kill Morgana for ages seems a little optimistic. The dragon isn't at all happy that Merlin forces him into it against his will. Apparently it's "abusing" his power to command dragons to command dragons, at least according to a dragon.
By at the end Morgana must realise there's a magic user on Uther's side, even if she doesn't know who it is.
[1]I would love to see a flashforward episode of Merlin with King Arthur and Queen Guenevere being advised by an openly magical Merlin, and defended by Sir Lancelot and Sir Gwaine.
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Date: 2010-10-09 08:14 pm (UTC)Well, it's like how the Queen can command Parliament, but only if it was something Parliament was already wanting to do.
Only with more dragon.
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Date: 2010-10-09 09:43 pm (UTC)Uther was father to both Arthur and Mordred's mother (in this case, Morgause) in Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave. I don't remember whether Morgan and Morgause were full sisters in that - possibly not, in that Morgause was a bastard of Uther's, but I seem to recall it was made of that they were sisters incarcerated together once Arthur'd had his fill of them.