Well, I didn't see it anywhere 'official' but I did hear that S3 starts a week earlier than the last two seasons, AKA Sept. 11!

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~Set by Lembas~If we grow up we're all going to be famous.

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Illuminate the way to my heart,
It's twisting on a thread
+ COME RAISE THE DEAD +

SO excited. That's fantastic.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

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Illuminate the way to my heart,
It's twisting on a thread
+ COME RAISE THE DEAD +

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~~Siggy by Lembas~~

Guh, curse America. I'm still waiting for a usable link. I've been freaking out all day.



EDIT: I completely agree, fantastic. WORST cliffhanger I think that I have EVER seen, and I've watched all seasons of Lost. Did anyone notice that Arthur's dialogue just seemed like Bradley's personality? It struck me as odd.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

Just watched it!

SPOILERS. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED.



























Okay, first of all I have to say I'm so very glad Merlin is back. I've missed it so much. I liked the episode, especially evil plotting Morgana and the way she plays everyone on court.
What I didn't like, however, was all that copying from Lord of the Rings. Seriously, there were at least six scenes/dialogues which were a shameless imitation of LotR. Just look at the preview at the end... an army of the dead?! Oh come on. Merlin, you're better than that. Please don't go on copying LotR like that, or I'm going to be seriously disappointed.

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We've been forever
yet we've only just begun.
We have come full circle.

Does anyone know where S3 is available to watch online? I'm killing myself here trying to resist the spoilers.

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~Set by Lembas~If we grow up we're all going to be famous.

I watch here: http://merlin-streaming.blogspot.com/


FANTASTIC.


also, spoilers.


Well, FF, I mean, it is fantasy. Sometimes it happens. I think there's enough differences (such as the dead not being on Merlin's side) (and they look pretty skeletal, not ghostly) that it won't matter too much.

Was anyone else hoping that Morgana would realize Merlin had magic? Or Morgause? Maybe they'll realize next episode what with him being all not dead and all.

Also, I LOVED when [s]Bradley[/s] Arthur was making all his snipey comments. Like, he's letting loose a bit with his father thing. "What, drunk?" It was excellent. And Merlin making him lose the fight. Just so lovely.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Thanks, Nurr-I tried it but it doesn't seem to work for me-either it's my computer or maybe it's just not available in Canada. I dunno.

I did find it on Youtube, though.

SPOILERS










It's funny you should mention the army of the dead in connection with LotR, FF. I didn't think of RotK when I heard that phrase in the trailer, but when Merlin called the dragon and he came swooping in and saved Merlin, my mind was just screaming "The eagles are coming! The eagles are coming!"

Yeah, I was hoping Morgause would realize that too, Nurr. And I love some father/son love. I thought the scene between Gaius and Arthur was quite well done.

Morgana's cloak is fabulous, as is Morgause's red dress. And I liked that Gwen seemed to realize something is going on with Morgana. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that's the way Angel was playing it.

Also, Uther. You kill me. You spend a year searching desperately for your ward, who insulted and disowned you, and yet you drown children.

All in all, I loved it!

EDIT:

King Giles for the win! I watched an episode of Buffy for the first time about a week back and my first thought was 'Oh my gosh it's Uther with glasses!"

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~Set by Lembas~If we grow up we're all going to be famous.

SPOILERS


Giles and Uther are totally miles apart. I had a friend who was a fan of both and didn't even realize the connection till I made some offhand comment about it.

ANYWAY, I had two main problems with the episode.

One: I thought the whole "year has passed" thing would leave them open to make a lot of great changes with the script and characters, and they didn't take it. Virtually nothing had changed, and it wouldn't really have made any difference if it had been a year between seasons or a day. Morgana could have have been full-out evil in a month, not a whole year. I think it was an unnecessary time lapse, especially since they didn't do really ANYTHING with it.

Two: don't get me wrong: I adore Bradley. I adore Colin. But their dialogue (Bradley's in particular) seemed off all episode, and I think it was because Arthur's dialogue seemed so MUCH like Bradley. And I don't mean Bradley played it well, I mean it just seemed out of character. It was weird and jarring the whole episode.

HOWEVER, there were many redeeming qualities to the episode that make me so excited for this season. Anthony Head is finally getting to pull out some acting chops, and it makes me hopeful for more of that in the future. We're finally getting to see Arthur as something different, not as the arrogant prince, but as the terrified future king. Also, it's nice to see Merlin busting out his magic chops. I think that they relied so heavily on him using his magic pretty blatantly in this first episode that someone HAS to find out about it now. Which is also very exciting. Anyway. Woo. Yeah.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

SPOILERS















That was one of the other scenes I was referring to that have "LotR copy!" written all over them. I could mention more, like the scene when we get a glance of Celdred's (was that his name? don't remember) army approaching Camelot - they didn't even make an effort to disguise that it's just a copy of the glance that Merry and Pippin get of Saruman's army in TTT. Even the camera angle looked similar! I could mention more, especially some dialogue scenes. "The battle for Camelot it about to begin"... yeah, yeah, we get it.

Tar, I agree about your first point. The one year seems to have had virtually no effect upon any of the characters (except for Morgana, of course). Also, I imagined that a whole year of fighting and searching must have left Arthur in a much darker mood, more pensive and you know... darker. Yet there he was, joking with Merlin as if nothing had happened. It was.... strange.
About your second point, I'm not so sure. The dialogue seemed a bit inappropriate at times (like, immediately starting to banter with Merlin after finding a hundred dead soldiers), but it didn't strike me as out of character in itself. More like the usual Merlin-Arthur jokes that were going on all the time, really. Just that it didn't fit in sometimes, like I said.

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<center>


We've been forever
yet we've only just begun.
We have come full circle.

SPOILERS


That may have been more it, FF. The dialogue just seemed off. It was really distracting to me. Another scene that bothered me was Arthur after his epic training sequence did the whole "oh, look at me, I'm MERlin, buh buh buh" which seemed fitting to their relationship two years ago in the pilot, but most definitely out of place now. I think maybe the fact that a year had past played more into my mind at all times than I had thought, because I expected that the year, as you had said, would have made Arthur (and Merlin) a bit more pensive and sober. I would have expected a closer bond between the two of them, and what we got in return was some sort of disconnect between their characters. The chemistry was there, just not the previous bond we've seen. It was frustrating.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

I dunno I kinda loved the whole thing. Maybe it was just the excitement of having it back on tv. I had missed it so much.

I love....LOVE the direction there taking Morgana...FINALLY lol Katie is amazing.
Morgause is deliciously malicious and I love her to bits.
Merlin & Arthur banter.


I get what some of you are saying regarding the year between the finale and the S3 premiere. But it really didn't take me out of the show at all. Maybe they didn't want everyone on the show to be moping about. It had been a year and while they all missed Morgana terribly, there's only so long you can wait before you move on with your life.
I think it was all there to be seen in Arthur's eyes how much he missed Morgana when she emerged from the forest.

Uther is a basket case. I f'n love Tony Head so much. Even when he's being an utter *beep* he's just a joy to watch.

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I definitely do give credit to Katie. She was absolutely FANTASTIC, as was Anthony Head. It makes me super happy that the two of them finally got to act.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

SPOILERS








What did you think about episode 2? I was incredibly happy to see some Arthur/Gwen at last, and Morgana was AWESOME! But seriously, why didn't they just call this episode "The Siege of Gondor"? Because that would have been more truthful

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<center>


We've been forever
yet we've only just begun.
We have come full circle.