Favorite Merthur Things
This scene:
*inhales and exhales deeply*
I think I know what they’re going for. I think they’re trying to show Merlin being worried about Arthur’s wound, that’s why he’s looking at him.
However, that is NOT what it looks like.
This isn’t even a context issue. I knew the context, but that’s not what I saw when I watched this scene. It’s still not what I see, even trying to look for that interpretation.
Breakdown Time:
From the beginning, the starting action of this scene is Arthur taking off his shirt. Makes sense, he usually sleeps shirtless and they’re clearly about to go to bed. Also works to let the wound breathe more and not be trapped under a sweaty tunic. Nothing wrong with this.
Then we get a deliberate shot of Merlin looking toward him following the action. Let’s see:
If it was simply a reaction to seeing movement, he probably wouldn’t have turned his whole head and most likely would’ve moved back once his brain registered it.
We can argue that he’s looking at the wound, which is definitely true to some extent, but the look on his face is not the typical “worried about Arthur” face he usually has. His features are too relaxed, too soft.
When Merlin’s worried about Arthur’s life or safety, he always looks very stressed and tense. He has no hesitations voicing his concerns. He never has!
And yet when he looks at the wound on Arthur’s back, there’s no reaction to it. He looks thoughtful rather than worried. Plus, if that’s what they wanted us to think, they could’ve had Arthur visibly or audibly show worse pain. If he had groaned or winced, Merlin’s attention on him makes sense, but Arthur really doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary.
Moving on, Arthur looks over his shoulder and sees Merlin looking at him. There’s nothing unusual about this situation, but Merlin averts his eyes like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t, or simply didn’t want Arthur to know he was doing.
There’s no real reason for him to look away if he was worried about the wound. Plus directly after that, when Arthur asks what’s wrong, he refuses to answer. Obviously we know there’s a bigger reason why he’s upset, but he ends up lying about it anyway, claiming to be worried about Camelot. Why not use the wound as an excuse? What? Is he nervous to bring it up, or worried it might irritate Arthur?
The next day he’s directly calling out the wound as a problem, so clearly he had no qualms about bringing it up. He’s definitely been paying attention to it the entire episode.
After this opening, the scene goes back to “normal” but for these few moments, there is something seriously off about the vibe.
I mean off in the way Merlin’s behaving, specifically toward Arthur. Obviously we know he’s stressed as fuck about meeting Balinor, so obviously that can be blamed, and we know that’s what’s bothering him once they start talking. If they wanted him to seem upset enough for Arthur to notice, he wouldn’t even have to look over at him. Honestly, having his back completely turned would probably be a red flag by itself.
There is something so weird about the energy right before their conversation. It’s a very strange choice if that weren’t intending for it to have subtext; they claimed that gayness wasn’t intentional basically up until the finale. Could they have been lying? Yeah, but who can know for sure?
Anyway, that’s another reason why these two never leave my brain!
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As someone who kinda enjoys the angsty aftermath of the shooting, the shooting scene itself doesn't work for me, it doesn't make alot of sense from rio and from the show.
Because what is rios motivation here? it's sure as shit isn't to help beth. Is it to punish her for kicking him out of bed? Is it to teach her a lesson, that she can't just quit a life of crime? Is it to fully make her a criminal?
Whatever his reasoning is, rios reaction, kidnapping beth from the front of her house with a bag on her head, yelling at her "shut your mouth bitch" in that way is too cruel and violent of a reaction from him in a way he's never felt/been this cruel and violent towards beth specifically! It's too cruel and violent considering it's coming from the same man who got beth her daughters blanket back, the same man who smiled fondly at her mismatched socks, the same man who kissed her in that way..
Rios portrayal in that scene and the way he yelled "shut your mouth bitch" while walking towards beth is so violent, abusive, misogynistic man who beats up defenseless women and that is SOO not who rio is.. and to me he truly didn't feel like that in any other scene for the entirety of the whole show, not when he put his gun to beths neck when he thought they were ripping him off, not when he got out of jail and beat up dean, not when he showed up in her bedroom after getting out of jail the second time, not ever, except for that fucking scene!!
to me it just feels like the writers were trying to tell a curtain storyline that starts with beth not being able to shoot rio and ends with her shooting him WHILE they simultaneously had to building up beth and rios relationship (to give the fans what they wanted) but at the end of the season they failed to make these two things work together..
And the fact that the show had to portray him like that for just that one scene, just to get beth to shoot him, just to set up season 3 is not good enough of a reason to do this to rios character.. It just doesn't make scene and i don't like it and i hate they did this to rios character for just ONE FUCKING SCENE!!
(I don't know if I'm making much sense because rio has been intimidating and life threatening in literally every season but it never felt this real (i guess?) Or this out of character..)
(I know that alot of people don't like that beth shot rio but that's literally the only thing that makes sense to me... Also beth shouldn't just feel guilty for shooting rio, she should also feel angry at him and the fact we never got a full conversation about that night and that they didn't give rio scars pisses me off!! Like fucking commit to it).
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