Or, The Futility of Lethally Endangering the Protagonist in his Origin Story
*Spoilers for season 4 of Merlin*
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Besides not having a magic reveal, my major disappointment in season 4 was the repetitive plot of someone trying to kill Arthur. We could have seen more diverse stories than the villain of the week with a plan to kill the King.
After one or two episodes where Arthur might have died, it’s silly to keep writing that sort of plot. The audience knows that Arthur can’t die because he hasn’t become the Once and Future King yet. Arthur, Merlin, and (probably) Gwen are safe in every episode.
We know they can’t die, so we know that they’ll make it through any trouble that comes up. It’s interesting to see the characters react to fatal situations, but the threat of danger does nothing for the audience. After we’ve seen what characters do when their friends are hurt, we’re done with that story and that development. There isn’t any more to cover there.
This is the difficulty in origin stories: you can’t do any permanent damage to the protagonist. You have to find a way to develop characters without putting them in danger all the time.
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