Confused thoughts about Merlin promotional pics

[marguerite_26]

Remember my love/hate relationship with spoilers? Well I simply cannot resists promotional pics. Do they really qualify as spoilers? IDEK.



I know lots of people hate Gwen. I don't. Mostly I think that the writers have messed up with what could have been a really interesting and endearing character. But the same said for Morgana. I love the concept of both these female characters. I love their characterization in certain eps. But the overall execution leaves me wanting, but I have no hate of them. Merlin's my happy show and I'm happy to ignore a bit of shitty writing.

Yet when I saw these recent pics of Gwen and Gawain I couldn't help but thinking WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

I have no issues with Gwen flirting with and kissing various men for various reasons (some of my favourite characters are huge flirts who use their sexuality to their advantage and have no need for 'finding a man' - strong powerful women FTW!) but there are consequences to this type of characterisation.

1. If the writers want us to eventually believe that Gwen truly loves Arthur and that they are meant to be (even if temporarily) then they need to stop having her playing the field while she is 'in love' with him and he 'in love' with her. It's not helping the believability of their love.

2. If the writers want us to believe that Gwen’s true love is Lancelot, but she ends up marrying Arthur out of obligation or she’s settling, then they need to make her loyal to Lancelot at least.

3. If the writers want to give us a Gwen that is simply not good committing to one man (which there is nothing wrong with, faulted character can be good, too) then the consequence of that is that neither Gwen/Arthur, nor Gwen/Lancelot has very much emotional impact other than to make me feel sorry for the guys who are in love with a women who does not love them in the same way.

I know that promotional pics can be misleading, so yeah - we won't know until we see the ep. So I'm not ranting here... just looking for a discussion on what benefit the writers are looking for by putting Gwen in a romantic situation with yet another guy on this show. If all they are looking for is to make Arthur jealous... *sigh* It makes Arthur pitiable (which we already had from the L&G ep) and makes Gwen look like she cares less about Lancelot which... is actually really sad. :((( Gwen having an epic love of Lancelot was something I kinda loved. :(



I'm not spoiled for anything else - even future ep descriptions, so please don't spoil me. Thanks.

Comments

[ella-bane.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you've said here. I like Gwen, well, I like her in best S1, and in some parts of S2. I really hope the show ends with G/L. And then, at the very, very end, Merlin can be all, "You've still go me!" HEE.

It could be the promotional pics are misleading, like you said! *fingers crosssed*

[joan-waterhouse.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly! I love Gwen, I think she's warm and kind. And also really, really pretty. :) But the writers kept making really strange decisions when it comes to her character. :/ Fingers crossed that Gawain turns out to be more like a friend. But judging from these pics there's already more chemistry between them than Gwen/Lance and Gwen/Arthur combined. :/

[faynia.livejournal.com]

See the thing is I don't think Gwen IS in love with Arthur yet. She loves the man she sees in him but at this point its almost platonic and sort of has to be. On the other hand Arthur is basically ham-fisted in love with her breasts and cuteness and right now I don't mind that Gwen is trying to get some from places that can't really hurt her in the long run.

[leashy-bebes.livejournal.com]

You nailed my thoughts on Gwen perfectly. I wouldn't really have a problem with 1, 2, or 3 to be honest, if the characterisation didn't seem so confused an awful lot of the time.

On another note, I'm also a bit twitchy about Gawain in general cause I love him in the original legends. However, certain events in the legends (I never know what's considered spoilery when there are so many different canons) mean I'd love love love to see a well handled friendship between Gwen and Gawain.

/nerd

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

I think Gwen is basically really confused. First it seemed that Merlin was flirting with her and then it was Arthur, who put the big fat kibosh on that, and then Lance was interested, BUT it was very bad timing because she was still dealing with Arthur's I WANT YOU BUT I'M THE PRINCE issues, and THEN she was probably freaking out for an entire year worrying about Morgana, who totally treated her like shit when she came back.

I think Gwen should be the next Voldemort. I'd be getting tired of these people using me as an emotional dumping ground. Maybe she turns to Gawain in hopes she can have a NORMAL relationship?

[accioslash.livejournal.com]

Hm. Idk. After all, Gwen doesn't know what the audience does. Namely, that she is going to be the future Queen. So even if she were in love with Arthur (and I'm not sure she is yet, tbh), she has no reason to believe they can have a future together. And Lancelot is gone. He left without even saying goodbye. Why should she sit around pining for a man who she may never see again or another man who, despite having feelings for her, won't be able to offer her anything?

I admit I am no fan of Gwen since the end of season one. But it's because her character has really become quite boring and she's only called upon if someone needs a love interest or their flowers arranged. Such a waste of a potentially brilliant character.

I actually think the writers want to impress upon the audience that Arthur would be lucky to have such a well-loved Queen which becomes even more important than in the legends since she isn't nobility. So it becomes even more important that everyone - not just Arthur - adores her.

[ninja-orange.livejournal.com]

basically this :|
Gawain in legend is a huge flirt so I don't blame anyone if they go there.
BUT WHY GWEN?
She seem to just be used as the default girl for the knights to fall in love with. I found this super frustrating in S1 too. I don't really care what she does AS LONG AS SHE PICS ONE.

Epic love with Lancelot? Unfettered free woman? WHATEVER. BUT JUST PICK ONE PLEASE.

[arinna05.livejournal.com]

*butting in :)*

I get the constant feeling the writers don't know what to do with Gwen, because she started off wrong as the servant girl (unlike in the legend) and now she's not good enough for a princely love interest. She made a great character in the first season (are there Gwen haters? really? poor girl) and then she faded into the background. Not even her unexplained fallout with Merlin makes sense and the distance from Morgana was not gradual, it just happened at some point. And, just like that, the writers also remembered Arthur is supposed to stop ignoring her and go ahead and fall head over heels, so she gets called for the occasional meaningful glance and Arthur being awkward. She used to be this feisty, full of potential character and now only gets to stand there and be pretty and the Arthur/Gwen is treated - at least in theory - very 'courtly love', pining from afar, but basically sort of disconnected. And whatever happened to sword-wielding Gwen? Her character seems to be moving in the direction of 'demure damsel in distress prone to accidental love affairs'.

[shutupeccles.livejournal.com]

I was hoping Gawain would be a slashy threat to Arthur/Merlin but alas those hopes have been dashed against the bosom of Guinevere like a bucket of water against a braless bimbo in a white croptop at SummerNats.
What manner of fuckery is this?????

Dear the Adventures of Merlin writers,
please stop portraying Guinevere as a ho
We love her sassy attitude and the fact that she will take crap from no man, not even the deliciously irresistible Arthur or the fetid Hengist. We love her warm, open & friendly nature but do you really need to make it appear as though she'll open her legs for snog any fella who smiles at her?
FIX THIS NOW
love from me

[kayoko.livejournal.com]

*frowns* Who is Gawain? He's got that scruffy thing going on. Cute.

[yue_ix]

Hm, I don't know - we need to remember that this is all "a year later". Lancelot have disapeared for what - a year and a half now? - without a word, and Arthur has been on uncertain standby for about as long, with the very strong possibility of 'never, ever'. The life-span of someone in Camelot must be very short to start with, what with all these wars they have going on, so each year must be like a clock ticking. Considering all this, I don't see it as 'wavering' of her to look out for new prospects (one-nights or otherwise) when the others have all fallen out for all this time - and it might even finish the messy breaks properly with everyone happy. And even then, it's a huge extrapolation to think that because she smiles back at a known flirt, she's wanting to have somethnig steady with him, instead of simply enjoying a friend and a flower.

Though I must say that there's a lot of expressions used when describing Gwen's various love interests (even when they are one-sided) that put me on edge. Namely, that it's completely impossible to love two persons at once, to want or to consider safer someone or something that isn't the love of one's life, or that showing interest of any type of liking counts as flirting, that it is wrong to be able to seek love, companionship, and lust in different people in any combination, or that liking several people at once is a flaw and makes someone inconsistent and their love for any of these people less true.

People's definition of what romantic love is and isn't varies between everyone, but in mine these situations all make sense, and none make Gwen look like she cares less about Lancelot or Arthur. But some contexts could show she would like to. (I'm biaised though, because my current relationship falls under one of these umbrella. There's ways for any of these things to end up being what people are calling it right now, but it's not my default because I can see how it could work with everyone being happy, I guess.)

[phoenixacid.livejournal.com]

Since it's been a year since she's seen Lancelot and her romantic hopes (with Arthur) are dashed (at least to her) - it's perfectly alright that she's looking for another dude and all. HOWEVER, from a viewer's POV, it just make her seem awfully fickle-minded. Sometimes I get this feeling that the writers have no idea what they want to do with her character.