Musing: tv - The problem of destiny (and lack of character development)

[wilderthan]

Destiny shows up a lot in two of the shows I'm watching at the moment: Supernatural and Merlin. And in both, it's pissing me off. It seems it's inescapable. So, here's a scenario. Someone tells you that your friend Jim is destined to destroy everything you've ever worked for. So, you decide to kill Jim, to prevent that coming about.

And apparently, you (and the canon) ignores that the very act of doing so could be what causes that destiny to come about. You kill Jim, he dies, and thus everything you've ever worked for is destroyed. Or, you try to kill Jim, and then Jim escapes, and understandably is a bit pissed off.

Okay, maybe Jim is going to go evil whether you do anything or not, but by trying to kill him, you've abandoned the moral high ground and you might have caused his betrayal.

I could also bitch about the way that nothing is developing from episode to episode in Merlin. In "To Kill The King", Morgana learned that Uther will listen to her. Uther promised to. S2, we get to "The Witch's Quickening", and Morgana and Uther are clashing in just the same way all over again. Arthur never really becomes less of a prat. Merlin's magic is never revealed. The whole show seems to be upholding the status quo, unable to rock the boat enough to provide any kind of satisfying character development.

Two episodes left of S2, and I hope they make me happier than the ones so far...

Comments

[auroraprimavera]

I agree with you on this. Destiny & Fate are just some pretty wonky things to deal with. The "if" of either one is enough to make my head spin.

Also - in S2, the last episode is probably the best in regards to development. But I'm with you there, it's just kinda....meh overall.

[briarwood]

Ah, the self-fulfiling prophecy paradox. That and the grandfather paradox are how to give yourself a migraine in two easy steps :)

Very few TV shows manage to deal with the paradoxes of destiny in a sufficiently intelligent manner. On the time-travel aspect of it SPN is better than many shows: I like the way events have played out each time in such a way that the time-travellers are essentially unable to change events, even though they act with free will. But the destiny one...so far the writers haven't shown the same level of intelligence with that.

Merlin...you know, as much as I like the show, I think it's trying too hard to be Smallville. For me, the real problem with Merlin is that the real story can't get started until Uther dies. I really, really want that to happen, so Arthur can actually become king and interesting things can happen. Until they get there, the show is just treading water. In season one I had some hope; although the season two finale did move the plot along, I'm left with little hope season three will follow up properly.

[wilderthan]

Yes! That's how I feel with Merlin. It's at a point now where it needs to take the next step and kill Uther. Has been for a while. And yet they just don't want to take that step. So they're repeating plots! How many "omg love spell" plots have we had now? Ughhh.