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My Favourite Merlin Anachronism
I must apologise for the recent radio silence - first I got distracted by the last Dragon Age DLC when I finally got it, and then people kept asking me to LEAVE THE HOUSE and DO THINGS. Things like going to an awesome steampunk LARP, see my brother who was visiting from interstate and look at all the alpacas in the Melbourne show.
Anyway. Although I have not posted about it much here, I've been watching Merlin since the first season screened in Australia, and it's a show I greatly enjoy. I've been a fan of the Arthurian cycle all my life (possibly because my mother was reading The Dark is Rising when she went into labour with me) and Merlin is an entertaining take.
For someone with my educational background - for those coming in late, I have a degree in Renaissance history - part of the fun is mocking all the things that make no historical sense. And, Maker, there are a lot of them. I don't just mean the obvious ones like the fact that everyone's teeth are straight and white and everyone is too tall and clean, the stuff TV pretty much has to get wrong about the Middle Ages. I mean the stained glass windows and the faceted gems and the white bread and the underwire bras. (You can't actually see the underwire bras except maybe once or twice when a female characters is wearing a shift, but you can tell they are there.) You have no idea how much I laughed when it was explicitly stated that Camelot has TOMATOES AND POTATOES. None of this damages my enjoyment of the show - on the contrary, it adds a whole other level to the entertainment as I try to spot anachronisms I haven't taken note of before. My latest observation is that the historically improbable shorts Arthur wears to bed seem to have elastic in the waist.
My very favourite, however, is that Geoffrey of Monmouth is a character in the story, presiding over the castle's library. (Where there are a vast number of books that all seem to be written on paper. See, the fun never stops!) For those unfamiliar with the background details, Geoffrey was a real person who lived in the 12th century and wrote History of the Kings of Britain. He is now credited as one of the major shapers of the legends of Merlin and Arthur. However, since he lived six hundred years or so after the era in which they were vaguely presumed to have existed, he certainly never met them unless he was a Time Lord.
Therefore, my personal theory about Merlin is that it occurs in the dimension where the Meddling Monk went to hide from the Time War. He amused himself by setting things up so that he could watch the Arthurian story play out and still enjoy chips and take baths, then fobwatched himself so he wouldn't be found. That golden symbol Geoffrey has around his neck probably contains his Time Lord self in some fashion.
Anyway. Although I have not posted about it much here, I've been watching Merlin since the first season screened in Australia, and it's a show I greatly enjoy. I've been a fan of the Arthurian cycle all my life (possibly because my mother was reading The Dark is Rising when she went into labour with me) and Merlin is an entertaining take.
For someone with my educational background - for those coming in late, I have a degree in Renaissance history - part of the fun is mocking all the things that make no historical sense. And, Maker, there are a lot of them. I don't just mean the obvious ones like the fact that everyone's teeth are straight and white and everyone is too tall and clean, the stuff TV pretty much has to get wrong about the Middle Ages. I mean the stained glass windows and the faceted gems and the white bread and the underwire bras. (You can't actually see the underwire bras except maybe once or twice when a female characters is wearing a shift, but you can tell they are there.) You have no idea how much I laughed when it was explicitly stated that Camelot has TOMATOES AND POTATOES. None of this damages my enjoyment of the show - on the contrary, it adds a whole other level to the entertainment as I try to spot anachronisms I haven't taken note of before. My latest observation is that the historically improbable shorts Arthur wears to bed seem to have elastic in the waist.
My very favourite, however, is that Geoffrey of Monmouth is a character in the story, presiding over the castle's library. (Where there are a vast number of books that all seem to be written on paper. See, the fun never stops!) For those unfamiliar with the background details, Geoffrey was a real person who lived in the 12th century and wrote History of the Kings of Britain. He is now credited as one of the major shapers of the legends of Merlin and Arthur. However, since he lived six hundred years or so after the era in which they were vaguely presumed to have existed, he certainly never met them unless he was a Time Lord.
Therefore, my personal theory about Merlin is that it occurs in the dimension where the Meddling Monk went to hide from the Time War. He amused himself by setting things up so that he could watch the Arthurian story play out and still enjoy chips and take baths, then fobwatched himself so he wouldn't be found. That golden symbol Geoffrey has around his neck probably contains his Time Lord self in some fashion.
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It would explain everything, even the sandwichs. He probably has a gramaphone tucked away in the library somewhere.
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There are plenty of crossovers between the fandoms, but I'm pretty sure none of them involve this particular idea *g*. Maybe I should actually write something some day ...
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I keep expecting a llama to wander past in the background. (Given that we've already seen giant African naked mole rats, it would hardly be out of place.)
I don't have a degree in history, but I know enoughh to have spotted many things that are wildly anachronistic.
I get the feeling that I'd be laughing even more if I knew much about armour design or horse breeding.
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I very much enjoyed rubbishing the jousting armour on Tudors for this very reason.
"WHY IS THAT MAN NOT WEARING A GORGET?!"
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They also have jousting in Merlin, which is hilarious on multiple levels. The armour is probably about as accurate as you'd expect, although it's really not my field. (I do laugh a lot whenever there are people casually strolling around in what's mean to be full plate, though. They must breed them strong in Camelot)
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Not only that, but the books are all shelved upright in bookcases with their spines facing out, and the titles written on the spines! Just like at your nearest Waterstones!
Having once been forced to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in Latin, I have an irrational dislike toward the character.
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Indeed *g*. You know, I bet I could fill a whole episode just pointing and laughing at things that are wrong with the books. (Of course, it would have to be an episode with a lot of books in it.)
Having once been forced to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in Latin, I have an irrational dislike toward the character.
Awwww, poor Geoffrey. I quite liked reading him during my Latin course, probably because I was sick of Romans by that point and already knew the subject matter.
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I tell my family "I'm going to watch bad fic", when it comes on. If I watched it seriously, I'd've been driven around the bend, as I spent too much time in my youth as a medieval reenactor who was a bit OCD on doing research and being as accurate as possible in period garb and accessories.
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I am pretty sure I would quickly die of alcohol poisoning if I involved booze in the exercise *g*.
If I watched it seriously, I'd've been driven around the bend, as I spent too much time in my youth as a medieval reenactor who was a bit OCD on doing research and being as accurate as possible in period garb and accessories.
I don't actually know that much about the weapons and clothing (my interest was more in social and religious history) but I have enough background to see that nobody in the costume department is even trying to stick to an era. And yet it is still really fun.