Once Upon a Time and OUaT in Wonderland

"Once upon a time.
There was an enchanted forest filled with all the classic characters we know.
Or think we know.
One day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen.
Our world."

Once Upon a Time is a fairy tale based TV series. The series involves a plethora of characters taken from various fairy tales and other popular fictional tales (usually the Disney versions of most of them), but the main action is centered on Snow White and her family. With quite an interesting twist!

Robin Hood (Ridley Scott)

It's high time I started writing again, and my favourite archer has long been waiting in the wings for me to drop King Arthur for a while and dedicate some of my time to him! Part of the delay was because I wanted to start with the oldest stuff possible (books, legends), but I'm lost in a series of books that won't let me go and I don't know when I'll start reading about Robin Hood! Anyhow, the other day I was staring at my shelves, trying to decide which movie to watch, and my eyes kept coming back to Ridley Scott's 2010 movie Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. This version brings us an origin story (why are those still so popular?) with older characters and places the action a bit later in the historical context.

Who is this Robin Hood?

Robin Longstride is a man without a home, a family or a past. An archer in King Richard's army returning from the Crusades, he takes the place of Robert Loxley, a close friend of the Lionheart, whom he happens upon as he is dying from an ambush which was meant for the King (who was already dead). He impersonates him (and his companions take the place of other dead knights) in order to obtain passage to England on the Royal ship, take the Crown to London to inform them of the King's death and to take Loxley's sword back to his estranged father who lives near Nottingham.

Robin's companions (John, Will, Alan) are fellow soldiers from the Crusader army, Marion is Loxley's widow to whom she had been married barely a week when he set off for the Crusades. The Sheriff of Nottingham is the local (somewhat cowardly) tax collector who keeps trying to get Marion...

Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10573939/?claim=62c4b3bkxmr">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Just adding a bit of code to connect my blogs to Bloglovin'. I'm trying it out as I'm looking for a good app to access the blogs I follow on my iPhone, and while the Blogger app lets me write my own posts, it doesn't show me the blogs I follow and I've been so busy I haven't had time to sit down on my computer and read other blogs and I miss them!!! :p  Hopefully this should help me stay in touch a bit more...

SG-1: Camelot

Season 9 finale! Which of course will end on a cliffhanger... *sigh* :p

Walter Bishop Meurig

So while the rest of their allies (Tokra, Jaffa, Asgard) are searching for the new "supergate" the Ori will use to invade our galazy, SG-1 heads to the planet whose coordinates they discovered via the phase-shifting device in Arthur's Mantle. They're hoping to discover the anti-Ori weapon Merlin had created. They arrive in a small medieval town and are greeted by Meurig (John Noble!!!), the local Governor, who welcomes them "to Camelot (!). Past and future home of Arthur and his knights." :o)

The town is awaiting the return of Arthur and his knights who set off on a quest to find the Sangraal (a.k.a. Holy Grail). They believe that he will return once someone succeeds in pulling the sword from the stone... because yes! There is a sword in a stone in the centre of Camelot!!! :o)

"Only he who is pure of heart and true of spirit can pull the sword from the stone."

SG-1: Crusade

Season 9, episode 19. An episode which is pretty much all preparation for the Season finale.

We finally get to see Vala again (she was presumed dead after having been caught in the explosion that destroyed the Ori's supergate in episode 6 - Beachhead), but she's in Daniel's body! It's those crazy communication stones again!

Vala (in Daniel's body) sneaks up on Cam in the men's locker room!

The others see Daniel, we see a very pregnant Vala who's been living in a village in the Ori galaxy all this time. She was taken in by one of the villagers, Tomin, and married him when she discovered she was somehow pregnant! Something impossible she says as she "didn't do any of the necessary bits". She asks the others (Sam, Cameron, Teal'c, General Landry) if they've ever heard of anything like this before, and from the meaningful looks we fully expect some to reference the Virgin Mary. But Teal'c jumps out with Darth Vader (big laughs!) and then Cameron counters with King Arthur!!! Apparently he's been reading up on Arthurian Legend and studying all those books they found under Glastonbury Tor.

In the end the connection is severed, Vala is back with the Ori supporters (barely convincing her husband not to kill her after he kills the two "rebels" she was with), and our Galaxy is preparing for the massive Ori invasion fleet she warned them about. Sam, Cam and Daniel convince General Landry that the best thing for them to do is to go searching for the mysterious weapon developed by Merlin to kill ascended beings. But that will be for the next episode, and post! ;o)

Elements from Arthurian Legend:

• Just the one reference to Arthur's mysterious conception, which according to Legend was brought about by Merlin having "enchanted" the Queen, Arthur's mother. Our stories tell us she was enchanted to believe she was laying with her husband the Duke of Cornwall, when in reality it was Uther Pendragon. Here Cam implies Merlin's influence for an "immaculate" conception...

SG-1: Arthur's Mantle

Season 9, episode 18 starts out with Colonel Samanth Carter working in her lab on an Ancient device found in Glastonbury when Dr. Daniel Jackson, Teal'c and Col. Cameron Mitchell discovered the truth about the mythical Avalon in the season première. As she tries to calibrate something a bright light shines out and she and Cam disappear from our screens. And so another crazy Stargate adventure begins! :o)

Sam out of phase!

It turns out that the device has shifted Sam and Cam into another dimension (apparently there are 11 of them according to string theory, don't ask!), slightly out of phase with ours. This means they can see and hear everything, but can't touch anything or communicate with anyone as no one can see them! 

Cameron: "That was an alternate reality, this is an alternate dimension. Hell, all I need is a good time travel adventure and I've scored the SG-1 trifecta!"

Robin Hood at the Unemployment Office...

Just saw this on Facebook (page Les Indignés), dunno the actual origin point to give proper source but really wanted to share it so here goes!

Translation:

"I'm sorry Mister Hood but nowadays nobody takes money from the rich to give to the poor. But I can find you a training course to do exactly the opposite..."

Blogging plans

Just a couple more Arthurian posts and then I'm moving on to Robin Hood for a while! I got a new book a couple of months ago and I've been waiting impatiently to read it! But first I have to re-read the previous volumes in the series... So just need to wrap up Season 9 of Stargate SG-1 (on pause since Merlin and the rest of the regular TV season started) and do one post on a Once Upon a Time episode featuring Sir Lancelot! Then it's on to our favourite hooded bandit.

If anyone happening upon this blog would like to write a guest post about one of these characters, or about your own favourite fictional character who has been portrayed in various media, you'd be very welcome! Just mention it in the comments...

Merlin 512-513: The Diamond of the Day, series finale

Why oh why did they have to air the end of the series during the holidays?! Don't they know we're über-busy at that time of the year and can't properly enjoy the show or have time to write about it after?! *sigh* Fortunately I took notes while watching, and am just going to combine both episodes together in this one post.

In brief: this is THE END. If you know anything about Arthurian Legend then you know exactly what that means. The epic Battle of Camlann. Morgana and Mordred and their Saxon army against Arthur and his knights. With Morgana finally knowing that Merlin a.k.a. Emrys is the real threat, and so she first takes drastic measures against him. Be prepared, things get very bloody. There will be lots of significant deaths and you will cry!

Be warned: major spoilers from here on down! Read only once you've seen the episodes. Then share your thoughts at the end please!

Let's do this in parts:

Merlin 511: The Drawing of the Dark

"There are some paths woven so deeply into the fabric of the world Merlin that nothing can be done to change them."

It finally happened: Mordred has broken with Arthur and Morgana knows who Emrys is!!! The end is nigh indeed! The only thing missing is for Arthur to find out about Merlin, and based on the previews for next week I'm afraid that won't be until the final episode. *sigh*

Excellent episode! A story featuring a Druid girl wounded during an attack against Camelot soldiers finally got the ball moving on bringing the season series to its end (sniff!). At last we have the answer to the puzzle that is Mordred: is he just faking it to be close to Arthur in Camelot? Or does he truly believe in Arthur's vision (and the king himself) but something happens to make him break away and become the enemy? 

Merlin 510: The Kindness of Strangers

Drat! I saw this late, I'm reviewing it even later and my brain is all fuzzy because of a nasty cold that's allowing me to give Rudolph a run for his money! :o(

 

So in this episode Arthur is all lovey-dovey with Gwen, they're both obviously super relieved she's no longer Morgana's evil puppet! This of course leads to some funny moments with Merlin trying to help Arthur be romantic... not very successful I might add! :p

Merlin 509: With All My Heart

Well, now that we know that this is the final season of Merlin *sob*, I was doubly relieved to see this episode addressing the issue of brainwashed-Gwen so we can (hopefully) move on to more interesting things, like Arthur finding out about Merlin! Unfortunately as of this episode he still has no clue... And this would have been the perfect occasion for Arthur to HAVE to accept Merlin's sorcery as it was the only way to save Gwen! *sigh* Well, at least we got some good laughs with both aged "Emrys" and a female version, the "Dolma"! :p

Merlin as the aged Emrys (or Dragoon the Great) and in drag as the Dolma! :p

Merlin 508: The Hollow Queen

Hmmm... Merlin seems to be alternating between really good episodes and "meh" episodes (last week's) lately, and this was another good one! 

Although she still doesn't know Merlin is "Emrys" (and thus her mortal enemy), Morgana does realise he has done a lot to protect Arthur and foil her plans on many occasions and so finally launches a direct assault on him as a prelude to a plan to assassinate Arthur. She knows him well enough to find the perfect lure for a trap and he falls for it hook, line and sinker! Took me a while to see it coming and there were some moments that truly surprised me and had me going "woah!". Merlin really had me worried there! 

 

Merlin 507: A Lesson In Veangeance

Aha! Finally an episode in which Angel Coulby (Gwen) has something to do! Plus it's always great fun seeing Emrys (i.e. "old" Merlin) again, speaking in riddles! :o)

Merlin 506: The Dark Tower

This week's episode follows the pattern of a traditional quest to rescue -as Gwaine says- "a maiden in a tower, a damsel in distress" (to which he adds: "I was born for this moment." cocky much? lol!). The maiden in question is Guinevere, taken by Morgana to the Dark Tower. Except Gwen is no longer a maiden now that she's married, right? ;o)

The Dark Tower is place to be feared, where many young knights have met their end. Even better, to get there Arthur and his knights (and Merlin) must find a way through the Impenetrable Forest  followed by the Dolorous Plains, a desert full of the remains of dead knights. Hmmm... a princess -well, queen- in a tower at the other side of a forest of thorns? Sleeping Beauty anyone? Although poor Gwen can't sleep in this tower... :p