#FictionalDeathsIWillNeverGetOver Part III

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arthurian legend, doctor who, fictionaldeathsiwillnevergetover, firefly, joss whedon, king Arthur, serenity

Lately, the hashtag #FictionalDeathsIWillNeverGetOver has been trending on Twitter. As soon as I saw that, I immediately thought of characters—whose deaths I will never get over. I could not let it pass and so I must tell you all about the imaginary deaths which shall haunt me forever.

The Tenth Doctor

Though there had been a prophecy given to the Doctor that “your death will knock four times,” I was totally shocked when I realized that he was actually going to die. One of the Doctor’s best qualities is his uncanny ability to get out of “certain death” situations unscathed. I thought for sure that he would be able to thwart fate once again. Though he regenerated as Matt Smith, after seeing the heartbreaking finale, I laid awake late into the night, staring up at the ceiling, feeling devastated, and unable to cry.

Wash

Wash, the ship’s pilot in the series Firefly, is the comic relief for much of the series. Though not much of a fighter himself, his wife Zoe is a real Amazon and her brooding sense of seriousness coupled with his light-hearted outlook made for a cute and dynamic duo. In the spin-off film, Serenity, the crew are being chased by Reavers with their ship badly damaged. Wash does the impossible, landing their ship without engines. Everything had just turned out okay when it wasn’t supposed to, but suddenly, a Reaver harpoon breaks through the windshield and skewers Wash to his seat. What the—?!?!?!?!?!

King Arthur

Yes, yes, yes, I know Arthur dies or goes into (nearly) perpetual sleep in just about every single freaking retelling of the story, but if a book is written right, I still get all sad and depressed at the end. For instance, in Gerald Morris’ The Squire’s Tales, my favorite rehashing of the Arthurian tales, the end was almost too much to take. Though 86% of the good people die, they are all gathered up to go into the Realm of Faerie, but my point is—they DIE. I was very much saddened by their fate, in spite of the ultimately happy outcome, and the death of King Arthur and the other characters of the Arthurian legends will continue to haunt me.

Thus concludes my list of Fictional Deaths I Will Never Get Over. To all these characters who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of plot or a writer’s fancy, I’ll never forget you! 😥

Love Triangles in Arthurian Lore

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arthur, arthurian legend, camelot, guinevere, love triangle, tristan and isolde

One might say that the love triangle is the most common theme in Arthurian lore. There is, of course, the one that everyone knows, the one between King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, and Queen Guinevere. However, there are also countless others that seem to go unmentioned.

The earliest triangle in the legends goes back before Arthur is even born. Uther Pendragon, the King of Britain, falls in lust with the Duchess of Cornwall, Igraine. Igraine is, however, already married to the Duke of Cornwall. So with the help of Merlin, Uther magically disguises himself as the duke and appears in the duchess’ bedchamber. Some stuff happens and the result is a baby who will become King Arthur.

Tristan and Isolde from the 2006 film

Perhaps the second most widely-known Arthurian love triangle is that of King Mark, Sir Tristan, and Queen Isolde. Sir Tristan was a Knight of the Round Table and his middle-aged uncle, King Mark of Cornwall (don’t ask me how it went from being a duchy to a kingdom), was to wed a young princess from across the sea. Sir Tristan, being a good nephew, agreed to fetch his future aunt, the lovely Isolde. Isolde’s father wished for her to have a happy marriage and gave her a love potion that she was supposed to give Mark on their wedding night. However, there was a bit of a mix-up on the sail back to Cornwall and Tristan and Isolde ended up drinking it, falling madly, completely and irrevocably in love. Their story ended predictably in tragedy.

The funny thing is, some people could be involved in more than one love triangle. Lancelot for instance, was in the triangle of Guinevere-Lancelot-Arthur plus the triangle of Elaine-Guinevere-Lancelot. Sir Gawain had a thing for the ladies and one might say he was in a love dodecagon until he was finally forced to marry a nice girl, settled down, and ultimately fell for her. And there are literally dozens more.

One must ask, why is the love triangle such a common theme? Well, it must be taken into account that many of the medieval texts documenting the Arthurian legends were written by writers on commission from noblewomen who had been pushed into arranged marriages. Most love triangles in Arthurian lore involve a married woman finding true love outside the bonds of wedlock, an idea those women would probably have found appealing. Not to mention that the male lovers in the stories tend to be obedient and devoted slaves to their ladies, something else that the noblewomen of the English courts probably enjoyed. Just hope that their husbands didn’t get a look at what their wives were reading…

But no matter. I will forever be grateful to those capitalist authors for preserving these (slightly altered) stories for future generations. Because without them, we would probably have no King Arthur, no Merlin, no Lady of the Lake, no Mordred, no Questing Beast, and a world without them would be a sad place indeed.

So what do you think of Arthurian love triangles? Love triangles in general?