Merlin Learnt Sword Fight Because His Father Died
Merlin wasn’t good at sword fighting at the beginning of the series. But he didn’t need to be good, he wasn’t expected to be good.
Merlin comes from Ealdor, a small village. Why would he need to learn sword fight in the beginning? Where would he even learn it? We see this in S1E10 “The Moment of Truth” too, no one in Merlin’s village is good at sword fighting. And no one would have expected them to be.
So all Merlin’s exposure with sword fighting is from Camelot. We see him get beaten up train with Arthur. He obviously would have picked up something with time from those trainings.
But Merlin is a gentle soul. I don’t think he actively tried to learn it, I don’t think he really paid attention to learn. He has his magic to protect him, and we have seen him rely on it countless times, even in S1E10, where his sword fighting skills fail, he uses his magic.
How good could he become solely by having exposure to it? By having the comfort of his magic that he knew he could use, how good could he become with that comfort?
Now, let’s get to season 2. Specifically, S2E13 “The Last Dragonlord”. Time has passed, he has presumably trained with Arthur many more times. But look at this smol bean:
Bam. Sword knocked out. Sword falls off his hand like a leaf. This is a GIF, but even in the whole scene he only lasts for 12 seconds. 12 SECONDS. We are in the last episode of season 2, a lot of time has passed since he came to Camelot.
But Merlin is still rubbish at sword fight.
The only thing that saved him was Balinor’s interference, which caused his death.
Now, fast forward, let’s see Merlin in season 3. Canonically a year has passed since S2E13 where Merlin’s father died. The first two episodes of season 3 are “The Tears of Uther Pendragon Part 1 / Part 2”
This is Merlin fighting against Morgana in Part 2.
Morgana is a skilled fighter. And she is going for a kill. She has sided with Morgause, she wants to see Camelot in ruins, and Merlin is the only thing that is trying to stop her. Merlin, who has poisoned her. She is going for a kill.
“What are you going to do? Kill me?”
“You don’t think I can?” And then she attacks.
We have seen her chop Camelot knights -skilled, old knights- left and right in at the end of season 4. She knocks the sword out of Gwen’s hand in a manner of seconds in S4E13 “The Sword In The Stone Part 2″. She jokes about being used to beat young Arthur. She is obviously good. But Merlin at the beginning of season 3, holds his own against her for minutes.
This same boy, had only lasted for 12 seconds against a regular soldier a year ago. Now, he is lasting for minutes against a skilled fighter.
To be fair, he does lose the sword and rely on his magic at the end.
But look at him. He doesn’t froze. Look at his eyes. He is calculating, he is cold and ready this time. He dodges. And dodges and dodges and dodges. In S2E13, he had just stared at the sword like a startled cat, even when the soldier attacked. But now he is ready. Morgana isn’t merciful, but he manages to protect himself till he can use magic.
Could he have improved this much if he hadn’t actively tried to learn? We don’t see much difference between S1 and S2, he is still rubbish in S2 but oh, in S3, even Arthur is surprised.
This is from S3E7 “The Castle of Fyrien”. He just… Knocks the guy out. Arthur stares a few seconds to comprehend this. He was going to help Merlin, he had just turned to help but Merlin, who has been helpless as far as he knows, doesn’t look so helpless now.
Arthur looks at him as if he has seen Merlin for the first time in his life. And in a sense, he has. Merlin had never shown any interest in learning sword fight. He is bad at it. Arthur even jokes to Gwen saying she should protect Merlin. But here, Merlin just knocked the guy. No hesitation.
He has somehow become good at it. He doesn’t hesitate, he doesn’t stare anymore.
Let’s have another example from S3E13 “The Coming of Arthur Part 2″.
Look. At. This. Boy. Fight.
He is fighting an immortal soldier. I couldn’t include the beginning but he has cat like reflexes. He explodes the man. Well, that part more has to do with Excalibur, but he injures the man, that’s how Excalibur does its trick. He might not have the perfect footwork but damn his eyes and his determination shows it all.
Look at him. He is waiting for a moment to kill the man and the takes it without hesitation.
Look how he watches behind Lancelot. Look how he fights. He is so cold and free of hesitation.
He fights like a fighter.
He doesn’t look ridiculous -as Arthur’s says- anymore.
And now, one of my favourite moments.
Lancelot gets hurt. Look how concerned he is, rightly so, for his friend.
He steps in to protect someone very dear to him and kills the immortal soldier within 11-12 seconds. A season ago, he was on the about to be killed side. A season ago, he needed to be protected and his father did it. A season ago, he was beaten in 12 seconds, now he kills in 12 seconds.
He fucking pulled the UNO reverse card.
I get that skills develop over time. It just might be Merlin got better in season 3 because more time passed. Or maybe he actively tried to learn sword fight because of guilt, because he wouldn’t let anything like what happened to his father ever, ever again.
Maybe, just because maybe, if he had known how to protect himself with a sword, his father would be alive. Merlin has a self-blaming nature and from his perceptive, if he was good at it, Balinor would have lived.
Balinor wasn’t too bad at sword fight. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t too bad.
Merlin sees his father fight.
Balinor dies when he steps in to protect Merlin. And don’t get me wrong, I could never, ever fault Merlin in such situation, poor boy has been through so much and now loses his father who he only had the chance to meet for a few days.
I am only trying to look from his perceptive.
Wouldn’t it be understandable if Merlin blamed himself and vowed to learn sword fight because just maybe, if he had known, Balinor would be still there? Would it be too extraordinary for him to pay close attention to trainings, how Arthur fights and become so determined to learn? And after a year, he improves so much, so drastically. An improvement we didn’t see till the beginning of season 3.
Maybe I am overstretching things. Maybe this is common knowledge. These are just my thoughts and I wanted to say them.
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