Lovely Blog Party: Arthur & Gwen

      Considered to be one of the greatest, but most tragic love stories in literature. The dramatic, romantic, advantageous love story of the Once and Future King of Camelot, King Arthur and his enigmatic consort, Queen Guinevere, who would be the downfall of both Arthur and Camelot.

     In the BBC show Merlin (2008-2013), the writers took a very different approach to Arthur and Guinevere. Unlike the original story, where Arthur is taken by Merlin and raised as a ward in a loving foster home, in the show he's a spoiled and rash crown prince. Rather than Guinevere portrayed as a young princess from Lyonesse, she's a ladies maid to Princess Morgana. At first you would think that there is absolutely no hope of any possible relationship between these two. 

     The whole basis of Merlin is actually getting Arthur on throne. He needs Merlin to guide to him, Morgana to challenge him and of course Gwen to support him. As the show progresses in season 1, Arthur becomes somewhat influenced by Gwen's character. Her devotion to her work as a lady maid, her friendship with Merlin and her loyalty to the people she loves. He as a prince shows fear at the idea of becoming king, yet Gwen shows utter courage when it comes to facing death for a crime she didn't commit. While their relationship in the beginning is primarily master/servant, Arthur begins to see a person  that could rule beside him as a queen.

      Throughout the show Arthur and Gwen fight their feelings for one another due to their social status' in Albion. However, (with Merlin's help) they come to the understanding that for Albion to need Arthur, he is going to need Gwen. He needs her practicality, compassion and generous nature to balance out his stubborn and at times reckless personality. Through Gwen, Arthur begins to exhibit traits of a merciful and noble king. She is someone who can walk alongside him and he can walk alongside her. And no rules or laws will stop Guinevere from sitting on the throne next to him. 

     However, Arthur is not Gwen's first love. In season 1, she is swept away by the handsome and gallant Lancelot Du Lac. A brilliant swordsman who lives by his trade. He himself is taken with the lovely lady in waiting. Yet, Lancelot never stays for long and soon leaves Gwen, but with a possible promise of returning. When he does return later on in season 3, Arthur and Gwen are in an established relationship with each, which he fully supports. Yet Morgana finally reaches into the deepest recesses of her dark mind and uses their former love to tear apart Arthur and Gwen. 

     Gwen is put under an enchantment by a powerful bracelet and commits an affair with Lancelot the night before her wedding to Arthur in season 4. She is banished from Albion for her betrayal to Arthur. While Arthur tries to forget about Guinevere, he cannot undo years of friendship and love between him and the woman he hoped would one day be his future queen. 

     True love is only its truest when challenged at every turn. Whether by dark magic, lies, deception or even war. Arthur forgives Gwen and asks her to stay; while neither one of them ever knew about the enchanted bracelet or that is was Morgana who had plotted this tragedy. I was always annoyed at the fact that no one ever figured out that Gwen had been enchanted. Arthur and the rest of Albion may always see Gwen's infidelity as a slight against her character. Yet, it also shows Arthur's forgiveness for a personal crime against him giving his character growth and maturity as well. 

     

     He was a prince he needed someone to set him straight. She was a servant girl with the heart of queen. In most Arthurian tellings, Guinevere is usually written as haughty, vain and shallow. So seeing this Cinderella take on her character in Merlin was very different. I enjoyed it though. Arthur and Gwen's journey from master and servant, companions, friends, lovers and ultimately King and Queen of Albion is paramount to Merlin's own journey to becoming the legendary sorcerer. 

      Their love united a kingdom, strengthened a people, defeated an ultimate evil and was eventually left to the most unlikely person imaginable. Upon Arthur's death, Albion rests in the hands of a former servant girl, who possessed the goodness to look beyond a spoiled, young prince and call out the Once and Future King. 

Lovely Blog Party: 5 Favorite Couples

     Back in 2016 I did a movie tag, 5 Favorite Couples. I had 5 categories that people had to choose their favorite movie couple from. It was a lot of fun and figured that even though I chose Arthur and Guinevere as my couple to write about, they are one of my favorite couples. And regardless of Arthur and Gwen, I though that reposting the tag would be fitting. 

1.) Period Drama Couple

Ross & Demelza Poldark

from Poldark (2015)

     By far the most difficult category for me! I have so many favorite period drama couples, but Ross and Demelza Poldark have taken the top spot...for now : ) What I love about their relationship was that it in the beginning of the story it was more convenient than conventional. A gentleman marrying a servant was unheard of, but Ross had long since stopped caring about what people thought about him and was desperate to rid himself of his feelings for Elizabeth.

      Demelza is the ultimate Cinderella, starting out as a raggedy waif, running away from her terrible family and finding unexpected love. Ross and Demelza have a very rocky relationship that overtime blossoms in true and devotional love. They both have to face a great deal, whether it's practical abject poverty, unfeeling relatives, long lost loves, scandal and the even the loss of their baby. Ross and Demelza soldier through and continue to come out from all of it stronger than before.

~ ~ ~

2.) Sci-fi/Fantasy Couple

Arthur & Guinevere

from BBC's Merlin

      There have been many retellings of King Arthur and his beautiful enigmatic queen, Guinevere, but BBC's Merlin, I believe. was the first time that Gwen was created as a servant. A rather fresh and more romantic take on their legendary love story. While sweet and sacrificial Gwen is terribly overshadowed by cruel and rebellious Morgana, I found her to be a wonderful heroine that deserves more praise than what she has received. 

     In the story, Arthur who starts out as a rash and spoiled prince who slowly begins to find himself falling in love with the beautiful lady in waiting. Gwen is honest and loyal and will never back down even when she is wrongfully accused. Arthur grows as a young prince as he witnesses her incredible courage and honor that is displayed every single day with random acts of kindness and generosity. And Gwen sees the king that Arthur is capable of becoming even when he cannot see it himself. Their road to love is hardly a fairy tale, but their story is bittersweet that brings both laughter and tears. 

~ ~ ~

3.) Superhero Couple

Clark Kent & Lois Lane 

from Smallville

      As with Arthur and Guinevere, there have been many takes on the love story between the Man of Steel and his love, Lois Lane. Smallville's rendition, by far, is my absolute favorite. What I enjoye the most is the fact that we meet them when they are both and unsure about their futures. They both go through a great deal of trial in their own personal love lives, as well as dealing with family, friends, work and no small amount of weird and unexplained alien encounters. However, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger in life and in love. 

     Lois' storyarch was beautifully written as she starts out as a rebellious former army brat who just wants to party and have fun. A major tare away from the usual by-the-book, all business Daily Planet journalist. Overtime she grows and matures and with growth comes pain and heartbreak, but it also brings her closer and closer to Clark Kent. By the time Lois and Clark fall in love, they're already best friends with each other and that is the sweetest part of the story, their friendship built from many years of hardship and happiness eventually became love. 

~ ~ ~

4.) Preferred Couple (from a love triangle)

Stefan Salvatore & Elena Gilbert

from The Vampire Diaries

      Those awful, sentimental, sappy love triangles that I try to avoid, but always end up getting sucked into. I've made it no secret that I will always prefer good and honorable Stefan Salvatoreover his dangerous and illusive brother Damon and that applies with his relationship with Elena.What Elena had for Stefan, I believe, was real love. A love that was strong enough to risk everything (even her life) to rescue him from destruction. At the same time, Elena is led by lust for Damon a bad boy who refuses to be good. 

     However, you may want to spell it out, for the time the Elena and Stefan were together on the show, I loved their early love story. Stefan loves Elena and protects her fiercely, but also respects her decisions (Damon did not). When Elena discovers that Stefan is a vampire, she demands she stays away and he complies without complaint. Yet, they are still brought back together over all the death and pain, and find a much needed peace and joy with one other. 

~ ~ ~

5.) Couple Ended Too Soon

Jack Bauer & Audrey Raines

from 24

      It's a truth universally accepted that Jack Bauer can never hold on to anything and whatever he touches dies. At least that's whats been told to him by his daughter and the former secretary of defense. Yet, you are either a patriot trying to save the world or a man trying live a normal life, you can't have both and sadly, in Jack's case, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Nobody understands that better than Audrey Raines who became Jack's most serious love relationship in the series. Both Jack and Audrey have governmental jobs and former tumultuous love relationships and it's those two understandings that make them a great couple.

     Of course, Jack and Audrey become separated for good at the end of season 6 (thanks to Audrey's ungrateful father), but Audrey really was the most perfect person for Jack; probably because there were many similarities to his first wife. While combating two difficult love triangle, believing that each other is dead, taking on terrorists and both becoming victims of the Chinese government, Jack and Audrey were a love story that brought a sense of completion to Jack's complicated life.

 

Lovely Blog Party Kick Off + Tag

The link to Cordy's Kick Off post is embedded in the picture

     The Lovely Blog Party hosted by Cordy and has started! Here's her introduction:

Good morning my friends!! :D Are you ready for a party? I'm expecting a crowd so gather around. ;) We have quite a lot of interest this year so I hope we'll enjoy ourselves.

For those of you wishing to participate, it's very simple. Use a fictional couple of choice and create a post dedicated to them. Once that post is made, come back to this post, like this one, the one you're reading, and leave a link to your post in the comment section. (FYI, you can be creative with the theme as your imagination dictates. There are some intended top ten lists as well as some musical additions headed to the party on other blogs so I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!) At the end of the month, and this party, I'll post a master list including all the links. Also, if you so desire, I'll be posting a tag for you to fill out and you can again leave the links to those posts in the comment section of this post.

I think that covers it. :) I'm looking forward to your posts!

I'm going to be doing King Arthur and Guinevere from Merlin. I love, love, love them! I may do more than one post on Arthur and Gwen, given their complex relationship throughout the series and that doesn't even include Lancelot and the infamous love triangle.

      Cordy has posted a fun, but very different kick-off tag to fill out.

I wanted to do something a little different with my tag for the month. Because of the varying lives of my readers (not all readers know the same couples and I don't want to spoil any stories), and because "fictional couples" is such a HUGE umbrella I decided to create a tag targetting "romantic stereotypes". (Basically questions about cliches and traditions that are so often considered romantic.) So, what I want you to do is answer the following questions all based off some stereotypes that I've selected. I hope that makes sense and proves entertaining in some way. So, without further ado, let's find out who actually considers these things to be romantic.

Isn't it romantic to be serenaded?

- To be honest...no. I've never found serenading to be romantic at all.

Isn't it romantic to have pet names for each other?

- I think so. I like simple names like darling, sweetheart, love, etc. 

Isn't it romantic if he wants you to look him in the eye?

- Yes! Absolutely! I have a hard time looking people in the eye and for him to want me to look him in the eye shows a personable interest.

Isn't it romantic to be carried across the threshold?

- Absolutely! There is great symbolism of bringing a woman into the house for her to create a home for her future family.

Isn't it romantic to receive flowers and chocolates?

- On occasion, but not too much. Well...the chocolate could be used about once a week.

Isn't it romantic to get caught in the rain?

- I've always had a soft spot for getting caught in the rain. 

Isn't it romantic to dance?

- YES! YES! YES! 

Isn't it romantic if he asks for your parent's permission to marry you?

- Not just romantic, but respectful as well.

Isn't it romantic to be rescued?

- I'm going to admit I'm a sucker for stories of woman who are rescued from men who want to harm them. Call it old fashioned or anti-feminist, but I find a man acting in accordance to how he was created to be truly romantic and desirable. 

Isn't it romantic to stargaze?

- No...well, maybe. I've never been much of a stargazer to be honest...