Even though I hadn’t seen
the TV show Merlin before, I sort of knew a lot about it because it was
everywhere on Tumblr a few years ago and it was kind of hard to escape. I never
really had an interest in the show at all, but the first episode sort of drew
me in. Great, now I have another show I have to watch and no time to watch it.
Anyway, my personal view
of Merlin has always been the eccentric old wizard from Disney’s version of The
Sword in the Stone, and when I found out we were going to read excerpts from
the book, I was expecting to find out that a lot had been changed from the book
to the movie. I was kind of surprised to find out that that wasn’t the case.
The whole aging backwards thing really confuses me and I still don’t completely
understand how that works, but maybe I would if I read the whole story.
Thinking about what was
removed from the story compared to the earlier Merlin stories, it makes sense
that Merlin’s origin story, being the son of a demon and getting his powers
from God and the demons would be removed in modern tales of Merlin, because
that is kind of a controversial detail. Also, I’m glad that creepy old Merlin
hitting on a fifteen-year-old girl does not seem to be a thing anymore. That
was a little bit too much for me to handle while reading the Prose Merlin. It’s
kind of interesting how Merlin has been dumbed down, in a way, though. As time
goes on and different adaptations are made, Merlin seems to know less and less
about the world and about his own powers, so that when the TV show came out,
this Merlin has no idea why he can do magic, and no longer has the knowledge of
either the past or the future. It makes me wonder what a future Merlin will be
like. Will he even have any magical abilities at all? I imagine he would have
to have some kind of magic, or he wouldn't be Merlin anymore.
On a side note, I laughed
when I realized one of Merlin’s incantations was just him asking Neptune to
make Wart a fish written backwards. Are you kidding me?
Even after reading and
watching these different versions of Merlin, I’m pretty sure the image in my
head is still of this guy:
And it probably always will be, since he was my first exposure to the character of Merlin, and The Sword in the Stone was my favorite movie when I was a kid.
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I liked the TV show, too! I really didn't think I would, but I keep finding myself wondering how his life is going to turn out throughout the show. I also found it interesting how much of Merlin's life changed as newer versions of him came out. I mean, it makes sense that the TV Merlin doesn't know where he gets his powers from because it adds suspense to the show, but I thought it was odd that a critical part of his original character disappeared through the years.
ReplyDeleteI love the TV show only because Merlin and that King Arthur are HOT HOT HOT!!!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I honestly can't grasp the thought of a young hot Merlin. The image of Merlin has been always an old bearded man with a pointed hat. I always think of the Disney's Sword in the Stone when I hear Merlin, every time.