When Arthur Finds Out

No spoilers here. Just my speculation.
Here's a scenario I'd like to see on Merlin when Arthur finds out that Merlin has magic.

The knights of Camelot, Lancelot, Arthur, and Merlin are away from Camelot, fighting a small army or maybe magical creatures. The knights are losing and Merlin knows he can save them all if he uses magic. Similar situation to that episode about his hometown. Problem is, he'll definitely expose himself. But Merlin can't let everyone die so he uses magic, defeats the bad guys, and saves everyone.

Everybody saw it. Everybody is stunned.

Arthur orders two knights to grab Merlin and bring him to Arthur.

"All this time, Merlin?" Arthur says.

Merlin looks at him and nods. "Yes."

Arthur takes a step back, rubs his hand across his face. "I thought I knew you. I trusted you."

Merlin doesn't say anything for a moment and then: "Arthur, look, I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you."

Lancelot hangs back, watches both Merlin and Arthur carefully.

"Merlin, all that time," Arthur answers. "You were in the castle. Close to Father. Close to me. And..."

"And what?"

"I don't know. What were you doing?"

Merlin stands up straight. "Serving you."

"Using magic."

Merlin sighs. "Yes, when I had to so that I could help you. To protect Camelot."

Arthur shakes his head once and steadies his voice. "You can never return to Camelot."

"What?" Merlin tries to step closer to Arthur but the knights hold him back.

"The king will have you executed if you do."

"Arthur--"

"No."

Lancelot steps in. "Arthur, Merlin just saved all of our lives."

"With magic."

"Yes, with magic. He's a brave man. He knew what you'd think but he did the right thing. And you're going to punish him for it?"

But Arthur won't listen. He orders the knights to ride back to Camelot. He tells Merlin not to follow them.

Then Merlin is in exile for a few episodes until he hears about some attack on Camelot and he has to go back to protect the castle. After Camelot is safe, Uther orders Merlin's execution. Uther questions Gaius to find out if he was helping Merlin keep his secret. Arthur doesn't say anything in public.

Then it's up to Arthur to save Merlin, to convince Uther that Merlin did nothing wrong. If Arthur can get over the way Merlin lied to him over the years.

-----

However the show deals with Arthur finding out, I want it to last a few episodes. We've seen the measures Uther takes to forbid magic in his kingdom. We've seen Arthur question Uther and evaluate the pros and cons of magic. All the while, we've seen a friendship between Arthur and Merlin that grows stronger. When Arthur finds out that Merlin has magic, they will have a messy problem. I don't want to see it tidied up nice and neat in one hour.

Up in the Air's product placement

I watched Up in the Air (2009) today and I noticed every single time the Hilton and American Airlines logos were on screen. I know that's the point. But I don't mind when logos and brand names are in the background. I don't mind if characters say a brand name instead of something generic. But I do mind when product placement is a prominent part of the plot. Ryan Bingham (played by George Clooney) always flies on American Airlines and stays in Hilton hotels, and he has special frequent customer privileges. That's most of the story.

Maybe I'm not being fair. The movie is well-made. Beautiful shots, well-edited, good performances. That's all true. A plot twist I didn't predict. Points for that. But I didn't find myself caring about the characters that much.

I felt distanced, but maybe that's me.

Finding the Little Guys

On April 24, Andrew Bravener posted this video:

He addresses the problems he sees within the YouTube community, and his biggest complaint is that people with low numbers of subscribers have a difficult time getting exposure on YouTube. His video has sparked an enormous discussion and 242 video responses have been uploaded so far.

In one of those response videos, finchiphile made a suggestion to start a Tumblr page where people can submit interesting content from new vloggers or vloggers who do not have a huge subscriber base. The hopes are to kickstart the YouTube community, have video conversations, and share the fun of making videos.

Regardless of what you think of the points Andrew made in his video, this Tumblr page that came out of the conversation is a neat idea. The page is a good place to find little-known YouTubers, and anyone can submit videos they think deserve more attention.

I've watched several of the video responses, so I don't remember who said YouTube has to cater to the masses in order to survive, but that's true. At least the people who are interested in the community aspect have a way to find each other on Tumblr.

Unsubscriptions

I went through my YouTube subscriptions and cut them down from 60 channels to 32. Some of the channels I unsubscribed from don't post videos anymore, but many of them post videos too often. They sit in my subscription box and I don't bother watching them. The thing is, I'll remember those YouTubers who post videos too often because they upload for the sake of uploading. If I feel like popping over to their channels to watch some of their videos, I'll do that. In the meantime, I don't care to keep up with everything they upload.

Reading List

I started a list on my fiction blog to keep track of the books I'm reading. This was inspired by Matthew Elmslie, whose blog you should check out.

Hearing what I can't see

I'm taking an intro to music class this semester that's basically a historical survey. We started in the Middle Ages and by the end of the semester we'll be talking about modern music. I haven't had a formal music class since 8th grade and since this is my last semester of college, I thought I should fit in one.

I'm a visual learner, so what's difficult for me about studying music is that all the things you learn about are things you hear. In a literature course, I can find passages and make connections between them. I can analyze film scenes. I can write out Spanish compositions.

I can't see music. The professor can explain where a chord change is but I still have to listen for it. We can talk about separate voices in imitative polyphony, but it's nothing I can point out.

These aren't difficult concepts, but they don't come naturally to me. I have to pay extra attention and take careful notes. It's funny how this 101 class takes more effort than my 400-level Spanish lit. But that's how it goes for me.

Apologetic Professors

I have a professor this semester who is really nice and a great teacher, but he constantly apologizes for the work we have to do for his class. What is that about? The whole point of college is reading, writing, and going to class. That's what full-time students do.

That soft attitude that apologizes for giving work is exactly why students get away with not doing any work. You don't have to do the reading if you know the professor won't call on you unless you raise your hand. You don't have to worry about answering questions incorrectly if you know the professor will sugar-coat his correction and move on. ("Well, that's one way of thinking about it but does anyone have a different idea?") You can BS and the professor won't call you on it.

I've had moments when I considered a teaching career. Students would hate me for calling on them randomly and making sure they do their work, but I think I'd be a good teacher.  My Spanish teachers in high school were like that: they expected us to do a lot of work, they called on us on the spot, and they weren't always nice about correcting us. I hated it sometimes but I also learned a lot.

I know in college your work is your own responsibility, but I would be delighted if professors called out students for not doing their work.

"What do you mean you don't know the answer? Did you do the reading?"

"No..."

"Then see to it that you do for the next class." Then the professor randomly calls on someone else. Repeat until he finds someone who knows the correct answer.

Keep doing that to students and they'll learn to do their work so they're not embarrassed in front of the whole class. I know I'm a little old-fashioned in the way I think students and teachers should be, but this easy-going attitude drives me crazy. People wonder why the U.S. is falling behind other countries in education. The reason is we have this education system that doesn't hold students accountable. We're more concerned with pleasing people than making sure students learn.