Vid: Unsteady Ground (Merlin)

[cherry]

Title: Unsteady Ground
Fandom: Merlin
Music: Unsteady Ground - Catherine Feeny
Summary: Morgana can see the shape of things to come. (Morgana, Ensemble)

Links: Download | Stream (YouTube)

"Merlin || Unsteady Ground" (Watch on YouTube)

Unsteady Ground
At night we plant bones
in the dark as you children sleep
you should know by now
there is always something moving
under your feet

Black water runs deep
underneath these titanic plates
where you build your homes
you tie up your safety nets

When these plates meet
it is mountains they make
yeah when these bones shift
there's an earthquake

Watch your step
you should keep your head down
you never know what tomorrow will bring around
hold onto what good fortune you have found
for you are walking on
unsteady ground

We will drill the earth
and you'll ride that slick
when it dirties your hands
it's a dirty trick

But it's like quicksand you know
to distinguish the top from the undertow
it gets harder
as your eyes and your bellies grow

Watch your step
you should keep your head down
you never know what tomorrow will bring around
hold onto what good fortune you have found
for you are walking on

You love God
yes, you love your president
you want them both
but we must keep them separate
the left hand don't know where the right hand is at yet
the children don't know yet that we're bombing Baghdad

Keep your head down
for we are walking on
we are all walking on

Notes: First of all, many thanks are extended to the always fantastic obsessive24 and elynross, for beta. Another round to wildmachinery, for audiencing and keeping me grounded.

As for notes related to the vid itself: When I was younger, despite being a voracious reader, I had trouble with Arthurian legend. I couldn't shake the foreknowledge of the tragedy awaiting everyone involved. Merlin is a fun show -- and as unfaithful as it may be to mythology and history, we as viewers already know how the story will end. It is something I can't shake myself. We have Morgana, who, as a seer, is likely beginning to see the shape of things that are to come. She's untrained, has little real knowledge of magic, and sees fragments of a future that must be horrifying.

This vid is my attempt to bring these characters and portents together, to look at some of the places where the cracks are already forming.

Comments

I'm sorry if I offended you.

[ender24]

no worries, i was not so much offended as amuse, since your part "as unfaithful as it may be to mythology and history" I have seen it an awful lot other merlin fans saying as well.
though its not confined to the merlin and arthurian legend and myth and history.

part of me thinks, its something generic in western audience of western shows, pointing out the *flaws* and *inaccuracy* of stories and shows build upon myths and legends of history. While all we have from events thousands of years ago, are all but vague names, dates, inaccurate locations, and even more vague versions of what might has happened...

I may have been born and grew up in a western country, but my family is half chinese/half vietnamese, so the other half of my life, that I spend with pop culture, I spend with Hongkong TV historical fantasy shows/dramas.
imagine something like Xena , only factor 100 with the fantasy and inaccuracy.
fictional characters interacting with historical kings and queens and heroes.
having magical superpowers all along, or that can be learned.
its not the myth that counts, but only the message you want to get across , by using the legends as a vehicle. its not about stories being truthful to events, that we never will know how it was anyway.
its not about vague facts, but about morals.

joining fandom about 7 years ago, that is about US shows (dont get me wrong, I have been watching US shows as much as HK shows since my childhood, so both are quite equal) , and therefore is US centric, made me just realize, how certain philosophies makes the audience reacting differently :)