Guinevere, queen of my heart. Also of Camelot.
Look,
it's Cutie Gwen and Queeny Gwen!
Now,
for me it was a close call between Gwen and Morgana. But Morgana has the issue
where she became really boring for me throughout season 3 and sporadically
through season 4. It was all the smirking. It's hard to stay interesting when
your reaction to everything is the same maniacal smirk.
So,
even though Morgana made up for all that with her utterly fascinating character
development in season 5, Gwen has to win this round. There was just never a
time when I was unhappy she was on my screen. I can't say the same for Morgana.
I
loved Gwen literally from the first moment she was on my screen. I just
couldn't stop smiling through her first interaction with Merlin. She was always
the most compassionate character on the show - it's an inherent trait that was
clear from the beginning. (She was often out-shined by Morgana, but Morgana was
all about grand gestures of compassion and not much else - she saved young
Mordred, for instance, one such grand gesture. But when Merlin was poisoned and
dying painfully, Morgana did nothing except briefly convince an uncertain
Arthur to seek the antidote. Meanwhile, Gwen, in her much less glamorous but
arguably more meaningful way, was constantly attending to a feverish and fading
Merlin). The constant verbal back-tracking and the adorable flustered-ness she
had was just a bonus, and kind of reminded me of early Willow, from Buffy the
Vampire Slayer ("Why? I mean hi. Did you want me to move?").
And
that all was cute and funny and brought a smile to my face, but does not a
rounded character make. Which is why she starts really catching my attention
after season 1. Not because of her sudden blooming romance with Arthur, mind
you, but because this is when she starts becoming more self-assured, more
confident in the powers she possesses and knowing how to use them (she knows
just how to convince Arthur to hear Merlin out re: the Witchfinder).
And
they keep layering queenly layers through the seasons until season 5. In season
3 she figures out by herself that Morgana has magic (it has always been a mild
irritant to me that she never quite managed to do the same with Merlin. The
signs are all there. Mind you, Merlin never acted quite as consistently
suspicious as the Morgana the Smirking Bandit). She does this without being
told by Gaius or recruited by either evil women of the season, and deals with
it and Morgana's betrayal in her own shrewd way that definitely contributed to
Arthur's ultimate success in the season 3 finale.
The
fact that by the time season 4 rolls around, she's considered to be a genuinely
wise counselor despite her actual rank of serving girl will always make me
happy.
And
what all this means is that, by the time she becomes queen, she's a
compassionate, self-assured, shrewd, wise ruler, who doesn't necessarily have to take responsibility for Camelot
when Arthur goes on one of his endless quests, but she is fully capable of
doing so, and she does so quite often and very well.
And
she never becomes less interesting with all the power she gains, which is
something I find remarkable. If she had, for example, become nothing but an
extension of Arthur, a queen who existed only in tandem with her king, not only
would I have been terribly disappointed, but it would have bored me to pieces.
But because she makes her own decisions while on the throne (arresting Sefa
while Arthur was seeking out Morgana comes to mind) and because she never loses
the humour I loved about her from the beginning (I have to laugh when she
pointedly thanks Merlin for a breakfast Arthur tried to take credit for making)
nor the sincerity that made her so strong.
Of
course, I may also be slightly biased due to the fact that I have a tendency to
love "heart" characters, which Gwen certainly is. I love that her
main power is about her moral authority - even though she shares the trait of
compassion with Merlin, she's the only one who can look at any given situation
and not impose her own agenda on it. (This isn't true all the time, but I'd say
most of it). (This also happens to be why I have a tendency to judge people
based on how they place Gwen in the inevitable "This is War" Merlin
fanvids. You know the bit in the song where they're naming archetypes - the
leader, the pariah, the victor, the messiah, etc. The only acceptable place to
put Gwen is "The Honest", for this exact reason, and I get
disproportionately offended when vids don't comply to my analyses).
Her
other strength, of course, is about her reading of other people, which is why
her relationships are such an important aspect of her character. And this was
something they did well, because her relationships are actually layered and
complex and make it interesting for her interpersonally savvy self to navigate.
In
terms of her relationships, I adore her friendship with Merlin - they just seem
so comfortable as friends, so good about knowing where the other is coming
from, even when Merlin isn't always coming completely clean. When she and
Arthur started becoming a thing, I was very pleased that the initial attraction
wasn't about "hey, he/she's pretty", but about "hey, she's smart
and self-possessed and doesn't just tell me what I want to hear/hey, he's
listening and learning from what I say and recognizing my validity",
because that made it a whole lot more interesting to watch and just made me
very happy. As for her, shall we say, rocky relationship with Morgana, it
always looked to me that Gwen was everything that Morgana ever wanted to be but
never could. Worshiped as queen, respected as a lady, loved for her kindness.
And then when Morgana never really gets any of what Gwen has, at least not for
long, she acts like she never wanted it anyway and says Gwen is
"simple" for it.
And
I love that she's a big sister. You can so tell, in her interactions with
Elyan, that she's the older sister. As an older sister myself, I suddenly found
myself relating to her a whole lot more.
I
just find that Gwen is one of those characters who make others better just by
being around her. Arthur's growth could probably make a pie chart where some of
it is attributed to Merlin, some to Gwen, and probably some to outside forces
(like Uther's untimely death). As far as Merlin is concerned, she's usually the
one that has him thinking things through - he's used ignoring Gaius on that
front, but he always listens to Gwen. Even Morgana had to at least pretend to
be a better person than she was (and whether or not she's truly pretending is a
question that makes me love The Dark Tower) in order to begin to break through
to Gwen, because that's just the sort of thing that she responds to.
That
all being said, let's not pretend that Gwen isn't flawed. She wouldn't be
interesting to me if she wasn't.
For
example, Gwen is very easily won over by flattery. This is fine when she's
Cutie Gwen, because then it's, well, cute, but later on, such as in The Darkest
Hour, it becomes a bit of a problem in that Agravaine wins her over with a few
comments about how wise she is, allowing her to ignore the fact that he acts
mega-creepy every time she's around and that he obviously has his own agenda.
The same thing happens later with Helios - she's not completely sucked in, as
she feeds him some cock and bull story about how her entire family was murdered
and she's on the run or something, but you definitely get the impression she
stayed longer at dinner with him than strictly necessary.
She's
quick to trust. It's a flaw, especially in a world where every second person is
a horrible murderer of some kind, but it's a rather endearing flaw.
Things that aren't inherently flaws (but can become such if used improperly):
her ruthlessness as queen. Arthur can afford to be warm as king because he was
born to it, and did all the princely and royal things that cut the path to the
throne. But Gwen was born a commoner, other royals are forever watching and
judging, and she needs to be showing constantly that she's worthy, and can take
that responsibility. And let's face it, if Gwen wasn't as pragmatic as queen as
she was, Sefa the traitor wouldn't have been caught until, I don't know, three
episodes in, at least. Gwen gets
things done.
And
I felt I needed to point that out because of the "where did my sweet Gwen
go? New Gwen is awful!" comments I see, and I don't understand them at
all. New Gwen is the same Gwen, she's just got more to do, more business to
take care of, and does it well.
I
really don't understand people who don't like Gwen. What reason could you
possibly have? She's constantly kind and compassionate, funny in comic scenes,
heart-wrenching in emotional scenes. She's brave, and devoted, and intelligent.
She's the moral compass of the show, and there's no one who suits it more.
This
is a character I love through every step of her journey. There are very few
characters about whom I can truthfully say that, but Gwen is one of them. I
love adorkable-totally-crushing-on-Merlin Gwen, and I love
strategic-and-level-headed-and-regal Gwen and everything that happened in
between. (Even when she was briefly brainwashed and villainous - I have to say,
she was one of the most enjoyable villains on the entire show).
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