World Enough and Time

Take two different stories in two different media, each about two young men in their teens.

In both stories, one of the two young men is a magician, but he has to hide his true identity. He is dark-haired, with high cheekbones. When he performs magic, he holds out his hands and light emanates from them. He wears a red bandana and a dark blue tunic.

The other young man is the magician's close companion: a royal prince with fair hair and extreme physical skills in combat.

The first story I am thinking of is the American comic book Young Avengers. The second story is the British TV show Merlin.

Compare them visually:

Colin Morgan in Merlin	Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) in Young Avengers

( Exhibit 2... )

( And look at the fair-haired Prince... )

I'm not arguing any cause and effect here, or even influence. Colin Morgan (who plays Merlin on the TV show) and Bradley James (Arthur) look the way they look. The comic book characters were created and drawn in 2005, two years or more before the TV show was cast. Maybe they look like archetypes of a young Prince and his companion Magician. Or maybe, taking the magicians as the dark, slim, Celtic types, they wanted a contrast with the Prince.

Still... I can't help wondering if the casting director reads Marvel comics.

Or were they both basing the look of their characters on another source that I'm overlooking?

There are of course differences. One set of characters lives in a mythical middle ages, the other in mythical modern times. The Skrull planet is not Camelot, so Arthur isn't a shapeshifter. And Merlin doesn't wear greaves.

Besides, Teddy and Billy are in love, while Merlin and Arthur only act that way.

Curious about what my friends were talking about, I watched the first two episodes of Merlin today.

What fun.

There's lots there to like, along with transparent stories and knee-deep clichés that you can see coming a mile away. I watched it with maaseru and maaboroshi, and we all laughed a lot, in a good way. The show has a lot of spirit - it's not smart or sophisticated, but doesn't need to be. Personable protagonists, a colourful situation, and two cute male leads who strike sparks off each other. It's to the show's credit that it needs no thought at all.( Specifically... )

Can someone point me to the slashfic? I know it must be out there already.