Merlin

[teyla]

Is it just me, or did the rampant misogyny this season make anyone else's skin crawl?


Sigh. I used to really like this show. No, it was never very good, but it was fun and silly and slashy/femslashy and amusing. But evil!Morgana and the whole evil-witches plot this season . . . blergh. It doesn't help that Katie McGrath isn't exactly the master of subtle acting--but really, it's mostly the writing. All women are evil except Gwen, and Gwen is only good because she's playing the housewife role.

I wouldn't even mind the way they structured it all that much if Morgana and Morgause had been given at least a hint of subtlety and ambiguity. Like Uther--he's not a "good" character, but you're still sympathetic, to a degree. Morgana and Morgause, well. They're just evil. And ticking every evil-witch-stereotype box ever. It did make this season rather unenjoyable to me.

I hope they'll sort that out next season. I expect this level of old-fashioned gender stereotyping from SPN, but Merlin used to be better about it.

It does make me want to write some Morgana/Morgause femslash. Maybe an AU. Hm. I will have to think about this.

Comments

[kiwi-from-hell.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting points. I've not been following that closely and the episodes I do watch are combined with drinking parties. I have some sympathy for Morgana though; I very much liked her speech to Uther in this episode, about how it feels to know she is hated by him, and that he murdered innocent people for his bigotry. I think the real test will be in how they treat Morgana next series, and whether they have the other characters treat her with sympathy as they do Uther.

I fully support the femslash though. Morgana/Morgause would be a fucking awesome pairing.

[teyla]

Oh, yes, I have sympathy for Morgana as well, I just don't feel that the text supports it. The show is strictly putting all women who don't submit to the implied superiority of Arthur and his knights (who are all male) in the evil-antagonist box. Morgana's actions aren't portrayed as mistakes anymore; she's shown to be enjoying her betrayal and getting a kick out of harming and torturing not only Uther and the people who support him, but also innocent bystanders.

There's no ambiguity to her character--she's just evil. Take her relationship with Gwen, for example--she's never shown to regret the fact that Gwen turned against her, even though her relationship with Gwen was portrayed as fairly close in the first couple of seasons. All the reaction she has to Gwen's shift of loyalty is a celebratory "yay, another person I get to kill". With Uther, you can see where his hate of magic is coming from--sort of--and you can understand, if not sympathize. Morgana lacks that sort of ambiguity, and it's making me really uncomfortable.

I agree, though, it'll be interesting to see where they take it next season. Although, considering that the dragon, who's kind of the oracle of the show, calls her nothing but "the witch", and that the legend says that she's Merlin's greatest adversary, I sort of doubt that we're going to get to see anything but evil!Morgana in the future.

[uruhia]

They went and made Morgana totally evil? Bzuh? I've only watched the first three episodes—but the show seemed so happy and foursome-y and femslashy. That seems like an enormous tonal misstep.