Merlin

Perhaps it is a sign of fate that I saw the latest episode of the Merlin television series the day after the release of my Axis Mundi. Of course, when I started following the first season of this long outdated production — broadcast on BBC One from 2008 to 2012 — I never thought I’d spend a few words on it. Instead, perhaps because of the affection for the characters, or because of the change and evolution from season to season, now I leave Arthur and Merlin with regret and with a lump in my throat.

The series starts with a childish air and allure, it looks like one of those television stories for children of the 90s, to understand, “Fantaghirò”. But then it grows, season after season, until the fifth that reaches an epic status even in the choral and battle scenes. The characters also change, even in the physical aspect. At first little more than reckless boys, they eventually become what they have always represented in the myth, gigantic and heroic figures.

Everything is based on a bromance, or rather a story of asexual “almost love” between two male friends, Arthur and Merlin. Arthur (Bradley James) is handsome, noble and embodies royalty. He has a good heart hidden under haughty ways and he is a great and undefeated warrior. But the central figure is Merlin (Colin Morgan), with his elf face, his kindness, his apparent clumsiness, his simplicity and total humanity. Merlin, however, is also, secretly from everyone, Emrys, the greatest sorcerer who ever lived, the last dragon lord.

Arthur, who is upright but blind and clouded by the prejudices and arrogance instilled in him by his father, understands Merlin’s stature only in the finale. Only then will he understand how close Merlin was to him, how much he helped him, how many times he saved his life, how much maieutics he used to bring out his qualities to the point of making him the Great King. Even the famous drawing of the sword is devised by Merlin to help Arthur believe in himself.

Throughout his life, Merlin supports Arthur, he is by his side in every adventure, always unarmed and a step backwards, always seemingly inferior to the knights of the king and yet indispensable, always humble but capable of directing the sovereign towards the right choices. He does it with stubbornness and patience, never receiving thanks or due respect.

Merlin cannot reveal his magical powers to Arthur, as to no one else, in a realm from which magic is banned on pain of death. I suffered thinking about the force trapped inside the young magician who, until the last episode, was unable to show his nature and had to hide under a humble and clumsy aspect, what a part of him actually is. “I’m still the same person,” he tells to dying Arthur, after the latter finally finds out the truth.

Their relationship goes beyond easygoing brotherhood, it is pure destiny, it is myth. Arthur was born to be king and Merlin to help him in his task, “for the love of Camelot”. Merlin, therefore, does not have those powers for himself, but for a task that is inextricably linked to the fate of Arthur and of Albion as a whole. What happens to Arthur, for good but also for bad, is due precisely to Merlin, to his decisions, to his will to counter the nefarious prophecy that will see Arthur fall at Camlann at the hands of Mordred. The actions performed by Merlin will set the inevitable fate in motion, certain compassionate choices made by him will then be fatal. So Merlin is the one who helps Arthur but also who unwittingly decrees his end. Because that’s how it should be, because destiny has already been written.

Some relationships between characters are very interesting. Arthur is devoted to his father Uther Pendragon but is also dominated by him, unable to fully be who he is, a just and capable king, until after the death of his bulky and obtuse parent. Merlin, in turn, has a tender and filial relationship with the doctor / magician Gaius, and a controversial one with the splendid and noble dragon Kilgharrah, a wise and menacing beast like all those of his species.

Of course there are some inconsistencies in the plot, one wonders why everything Arthur and Merlin fight for is a reign of peace, prosperity and justice that lasts only three years. This happens because the authors don’t want to age the protagonists, because Arthur and Merlin have to remain the same as they were at the beginning: two boys. But it is suggested that Arthur will return, as it is in the actual prophecy of the Arthurian cycle. When Britain needs it, the sleeping king will reappear and therefore, in the last scene, we see an aged Merlin walking down a road today. He is waiting, we believe, for the return of the king that he will, once again, faithfully serve.