Media Thoughts

[brigdh]

1. I saw the new Star Trek movie last night! I enjoyed it. I've never seen any other incarnation of Star Trek (though I'd absorbed some details as a result of it being the source for so much of fandom's history), and the main thing that I was struck by was how much fun it was, compared to Star Wars.

2. Re Merlin Episode 8 ("The Beginning of the End"): so, uh, do the characters keep acting as though Uther is your slightly eccentric, cranky uncle, and not a genocidal psychopath? Because it is causing me to keep having weird reactions to the tone of the episodes. They seem so cheery! Except for the death.

3. The Fashion Show aka Project Runway v2.0: eh. Not as fun as Project Runway, unsurprisingly. I feel like it's what would happen if you crossed Top Chef with America's Next Top Model. (Hmmm, that last sentence probably revealed way too much about my personal habits regarding reality TV.) Definitely an interesting group of designers for the season though, with Merlin (yes, there is actually a designer named Merlin. Also he spent the episode wearing a bright red cape and a hat with a feather that was longer than he was tall) at the top of the crazy heap. And it looks like Daniella will be the one I want to die in a fire.

4. The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency! I suppose I should have recommended this before the season finale. But it is so sweet and fun and lovely and awesome! I adore it.

5. True Blood is back with a second season starting in June! I am still hoping that Lafayette is not dead. Or he's a vampire. I could go with either, as long as his character is still on the show, as he is far and away the best part.

Comments

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

He's only killing magic users, not people capable of using magic who don't

But he tried to kill Mordred, and he hadn't done any magic (except the telepathy, but Uther didn't know about that). I guess you could say that he's a druid, and druids automatically do magic. However, he was eager to kill a child who had never done anything illegal within the boundaries of Uther's kingdom--at least that Uther could prove. Maybe it's not strictly genocidal, but it's close enough for my tastes. And it's definitely maniac territory.

The fact that he left Gaius alive doesn't surprise me at all. Uther likes Gaius, so Gaius gets to be the exception to the rule. It's easy to think like that when you've got supreme power. Plus, it probably helps that Gaius advised against using magic to conceive Arthur. Gaius isn't like every other sorcerer out there, so he can live.

Not that I think that Uther's tolerance extends all that far. If Gaius ever gets caught using magic, or if Uther finds out that he's sheltering a sorcerer, yeah, he'll be dead. But Uther might possibly feel kind of bad about it.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

But come on, druids are religious dissenters. Everybody kills religious dissenters, it's a thing. They're a threat to the kingdom's order, and to people's immortal souls besides in the appropriate belief systems.

-- But more seriously, it seems to me that if you consider historical context, Uther's not really out of expected bounds (which would explain why Arthur and the other characters don't treat him as an insane Idi Amin type). The ideas of due process and the rights of the accused come into our law fairly late, historically speaking; exterminating populations of heretics without regard to age continues fairly late as well; and as for human rights --

Consider, for example, Shakespeare's Henry V. Shakespeare is writing a kind of beau ideal of the English king, not a character study of a psycho killer. And Henry says in the first act, when the ambassadors from France ask him whether he'd rather they clothe the Dauphin's message in courteous words,

"We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind."

That is, we are to understand that he's not the kind of lowlife who'd blame the messengers for the fact that their prince has sent an insulting message, and punish them for it. As some kings would.

And here he is demanding the surrender of Harfleur:

"...If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defense, be thus destroy'd?"

That "guilty in defense" matters, because it turns out that the law of war in Shakespeare's time condones the sack of a city that refuses to surrender after the point when it is no longer militarily possible for it to fight off a siege. Allowing your troops to sack a defeated city this way would be a war crime now (and rightly so, to our minds). But here in the late sixteenth century, the Rape of Nanjing is authorized by international law and custom -- so much so, that here we see it referenced by a character the author is presenting as a hero.

In a context like this, I'm not sure Uther is really necessarily that much of a maniac. It's not as if he doesn't have reason to think that the unauthorized use of magic is a bad thing, if what we've seen onscreen so far is anything to go by. You could even make a case for him being a soft and tolerant ruler, by applicable standards -- after all, most of the time he tries to avoid the conclusion that magic is implicated in any situation unless and until it's absolutely forced on him, and there's no evidence that he's authorizing or condoning witchhunts.

Plus, if he doesn't have magicians on staff, how the hell is he keeping that dragon there? It can generate fire hot enough to re-forge a sword in moments. I'm thinking that a simple chain around its ankle isn't going to do the job all by itself, you know?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

The guilty in defense principle is the same one that denies the rights of civilians to fight against an occupying force, once their country's military has been defeated.
Which is current international law.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

veleda_k has said what I would have, which is that the episode about Mordred is where I personally would begin to use the word genocide. And hey, he looked under seven! Plenty of time to indoctrinate into your preferred religion. Also, I was under the impression that Uther didn't know Gaius was a sorcerer, but possibly that's just because I still haven't finished watching all the episodes.

I do very much agree with you about historical context, though. If I was reading about the same behavior in Geoffrey's history, it most likely wouldn't strike me as the ethical issue that it does in Merlin. Here it stands out to me because, despite the clothes and sets, most characters behave according to fairly standard modern Western moral codes and ways of thinking, and so Uther seems a jarring contrast. I think this is the kind of thing that can become really fascinating to explore in fanfiction, because it allows for a lot of different takes. Dorian's interpretation seems one that will be fascinating to read. I decided not to look at any fanfiction or other products of fandom until I finish watching, but I'm really looking forward to it. There seems to be a ton of good stuff.