Adapting King Arthur
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- A look at the evolution of King Arthur and the ways we try to make Le Morte d'Arthur accessible over the last few decades.
To skip past the potentially triggering imagery go to 27:05
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Finally finally finally a comprehensive King Arthur video. Booktube is forever grateful for you.
Encroaching on your territory.
Yea! Another member of the "I forced myself to read le morte d'arthur, and regretted almost every minute of it!" club. I held a grudge against all Arthorian stories for years after having to read this in college.
It wasn't the absolute worst thing I've read, but it was nearly the hardest thing I had to read.
It is very difficult. I'm glad I read it and more glad that I will never read it again.
I had to read it for school and I thought I could do it because hey. I read some truly difficult old german literture. But no. It's just bad.
At least Faust 1 And 2 have literary value.
there's a lot of fun adaptations of the Arthur Myths. I like how a lot of modern adaptations treat Arthur's story more like a background genre to play in. Like Merlin! Or High Noon Over Camelot! Neither of those are movies though.
If anyone's looking for a really different (but still great) take on the Arthurian mythos, I'd really recommend listening to the album High Noon Over Camelot by the Mechanisms. It basically retells the legend of arthur as a space western, where Arthur is the sheriff of a town on this giant abandoned space station trying to keep the peace among the station's inhabitants. It's a really fun spin on the story and beautifully written as well!
I was obsessed with King Arthur as a little girl, to the point that when I was first learning about Remembrance Day and ANZAC Day, and they told us to have a minute's silence to think about war and sacrifice, I (a six year old) thought really damn hard about King Arthur, and particularly his final battle. I also completely believed King Arthur was going to return one day. And I also watched Excalibur a couple of times when I was waaaaay too young. Like, I just remember being incredibly bored by it? Needed more adventures and magic, fewer cocaine fueled monologues, and could people maybe wear clothes more often?
my all time favourite version of the story is "the fall of Arthur" written by J.R.R. Tolkien in old english alliterative verse, it is truly a beautiful text and i love it very much. i also really like that he tried to connect his own stories in the silmarillion with real world stories through this "fall of Arthur"
33:48 "now this is hardly extraordinary storytelling" damn then why am i tearing up already
Because Patrick Stewart is Merlin and he wants to give you a hug.
"I can't tell you how refreshing it was to read something that actually feels like a book again" how I felt reading Princess Bride after Les Miserable
It is hysterical to me that pages of these were dedicated to telling you who is present in the scene. That's just so funny to me and I don't know why
An Arthur adaption that I really recommend is (strangely) a concept-album released by a band called the Mechanisms called "High Noon Over Camelot." Featuring: King Arthur in Space! Except also it's the Wild West! Transgender Mordred! Polyamory with Arthur and Lancelot and Guinevere all together! Gawain being a roaming preacher! And more! While it's definitely not a *faithful* adaption of the Arthur tales, it definitely has the spirit of one, while keeping in line with the tragedies that the Mechanisms write. It's really fascinating, and has so many small allusions and references to pieces from the original stories that they're pulling from, including such gems as Arthur's 10 Caliber gun (written out as an X-Caliber gun) that he found from a woman in one of the flooded sectors.
(side note: the Mechanisms does this space-retelling for other stories as well, including fairy tales (Once Upon A Time In Space), the Odyssey (Ulysses Dies at Dawn), as well as Norse Mythology (The Bifrost Incident). Additionally, they have other albums with individual songs that re-imagine other stories (Frankenstein, Alice in Wonderland, Egyptian Mythology, Swan Lake, and more) and elaborate on the other concept albums as well. I highly recommend all of their albums, and you can find them on Bandcamp or Spotify, and even here on TH-cam. They're so much fun.)
"There's alloy more of you here then last time" who wouldnt want to be informed and challenged by a fabulous, handsome, intelligent ace lecturer such as your self David ! Keep up the grate work 😁
"You can't expect to wield extreme executive power just cos some watery tart threw a sword at ya!"
If I went around calling myself emperor because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away
I’m a sucker for Arthurian legend. maybe that’s why i’m sill praying for a merlin s6
One small thing; The Book of Merlyn was finished, and White wanted it published. He sent it at the same time as the fourth book to be printed togheter with revisions of the first three, but the publisher rejected it. So he instead reworked some parts of it into the revision of book one as a compromise.
Re: MAalory: read it with a screen reader as a first year undergrad in 2009. The disbelief suspension bridge kept collapsing when it read “buffet”, the preferred method of killing a knight, as the large spread of hot and cold food thing. Coronation chicken has blood on its hands.
The movie Excalibur did a really good job in trying to make Uther as a villain and how Arthur did everything in the exact opposite that he did. Uther stabbed the rock with Excalibur saying that it belongs to him before dying while Arthur decided to return it where it belongs so someone else can wield it in the future so that one day it will be needed again.
This was fantastic. I need to see the Kid Arthur film now, and I also did a "Yes" with a fistpump right on cue at the end of the Monty Python line :D
Glad you enjoyed it. Can't make a King Arthur video without a Holy Grail reference, that's just the rules.
I feel like unsuccessful adaptations of King Arthur forgets the most important aspect of the story: Hope. If Arthur's story is about anything, it's the hope that humanity can do better. It's a shame that it's cloaked in monarchism and "the great men" theory, but when you strip that away, you're left with, arguably, an ideal communist leader for as long as he wielded Excalibur (if I may use the Excalibur movie as a measurement of time, which is my favorite movie ever because it's beautiful, and it's so weird that it's unintentionally hilarious)
Also, fun fact about an early King Arthur story from around the 700s: His father had a maid who was named and King Arthur had a knight with almost the exact same name, only masculine. Arguably, King Arthur said "trans rights."
That's a big part of why I love Kid Who Would Be King. It's got a lot of stuff about how the hope of a child is all that can save this dark tired world.
@@DavidJBradley I'm going to check it out now, thanks for the recommendation. Also, Ace gang.
Glad to see you're still having fun painting your nails. They look great!
Thank you 🙂 Now that I've started they look weirder to me if they aren't painted.
A couple things I'm doing to change things around in the version I'm writing: Mordred is the main character. Morgan, her mother, is UTHYR's wife, and Arthur is illegitimately concieved with someone else, consensual affair stuff this time, and then ten years later Uthyr dies, and THEN like one year after that Morgan does some forbidden magic stuff to create a child of her own with Uthyr, Mordred. Mordred being the main character essentially needs to grow beyond her flaws and escape her mother's abusive controlling scheming. (Ok I'm doing a lot of other shit too but this is the basic setup for the character conflict.) (Side note I'm not including Lancelot x Guinevere, Lancelot already has a boyfriend based on some interactions between him and the king of a nearby breton kingdom who literally allies with Arthur in order to spend time with Lancelot.) (And yeah I'm making a bunch of other changes based on modern sensibilities. And to make it less fucking christian because this was like 450 AD where're all the pagans.)
You might want to read the book ‘Wicked Day’ which more or less tells the story through Mordred’s perspective. It is also a really friggin good book
@@AnnaPaulsonDramaChickReviews Hmm... I might give it a shot for inspiration, but essentially the angle I'm going for is "what if mordred was a trans girl and respecting her gender lead to a domino effect that saved the kingdom", the ending is eventually going to be happy. EVENTUALLY.
Then you want to look at the Celtic tradition of the legend as well as mythology and folklore. For that tradition actually has some very different things about gender and identity than the modern story. In fact in one of those stories king Arthur gives a man who has come to ask for his help a haircut... I am not joking this is real. (there are a lot more homo-romantic things as well, but it was not seen as that at the time.) There are also some Celtic myths where people do change gender and it isn’t seen as a bad thing. I can’t think of any stories off the top of my head, but they are out there
I am super into the idea of trans Mordred and compassion saving the kingdom
@@AnnaPaulsonDramaChickReviews I mean I have a bit of an advantage there in that I *am* a brythonic celtic pagan, so, time spent learning those myths isn't JUST research for the book :p. (I am however relatively new to this so I'm not familiar with very many of these stories off the top of my head.)
My hunger for Arthurian content will not be sated. MORE.
I'm so glad I found your channel because you do such a good job diving into whatever you're covering. Keep up the great work. 😊
The reason why the whole Guinevere cheating subplot/plot became a thing was because Lancelot was an OC that was later added to the canon, became a fan favourite, and everyone decided that he needed something to have bigger significance in the plot. The legend itself was created by King Gregor of an earlier version of England who either commissioned the original tale or wrote it himself, this is unclear. The history of the King Arthur legend is wild. I love it.
I watched Wizards: Tales of Arcadia a few weeks ago. It is practicly a "slap some Arthur on it" but still had many of the plot points of the Arthur story interpreted into a universe where trolls and aliens and other mystical elements exist. I'd reconmend it, but it's probably to strange watching it, if you haven't seen Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia and to a certain degree 3Below: Tales of Arcadia. Trollhunters already had some Arthur Elements like Merlin and Morgana, but Wizards dives into the myths via time travel and Merlins assistant beeing the main character.
Here for the Arthur Slap and the Frank cameo. High quality content. 👍🏻
Speaking as someone with a deep passion for medieval literature and an amateurish attempt at scholarship into the matter, i must agree with your assessment:
shits dull.
that being said, one of the few gripping scenes was one of dread and deep emotion-- that of Gawain killing his own brother and sobbing over his corpse.
loved the video.
For better or for worse (both...?) the most influential king arthur retelling for me was Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. There's kind of a lot going on with MZB and the larger world that book takes place in beyond just a retelling from a female perspective, but I certainly liked that angle. Got really into the neopagan mythology she had going around Avalon for a while there. I think MZB appealed to me a lot as a Jewish kid trying to figure out my place in a Christian world as well as a girl existing in patriarchy. Problematic fave to say the least, I guess.
This was an excellent video, well done!
I've always really loved Arthurian legend, though I'm not a proper scholar by any metric. One of my favourite things in the whole world is spotting where Arthur is, as you say, slapped in other stories. Belgarion of David Eddings' Belgariad & Mallorean is the barest of bones, but it's there; Star Wars, whether deliberately or not, is VERY Arthurian with Luke as Arthur; and one of my favourites was Babylon 5 literally just going ahead and spelling it out for me in one episode with Michael York playing a man who thinks he's Arthur. Sometimes I enjoy spotting a good Arthur Slap(tm) more than I enjoy watching actual Arthur adaptations.
Especially, perhaps, because so many Arthur adaptations aren't... good? I'm someone without nostalgia goggles, who doesn't slavishly adhere canon, who doesn't hate adaptations for not being the source material, who doesn't think source texts are sacred things. I just... I just want someone to make a good MOVIE or SERIES first and foremost, and unfortunately people have super struggled to do it with this story. One of my favourite adaptations of the story is actually Benedict Flynn's youngish-adult/family-friendly retelling but VERY SPECIFICALLY the audiobook read by one Sean Bean. Mostly because... Sean Bean.
Reference to murder husbands, art attack and many other things. I’m glad I subbed to you :)
This was brilliant.
Okay, putting aside my previous joke about being obligated to watch this video due to my own story, this was really helpful to me! It's definitely made me think about some of the choices I'm making to modernize and reinvent it, and gives me a lot of new ideas for how I can expand and connect things as the plot goes along (it's pretty episodic in general, but it does have long term story and character arcs which go through a lot of the more well known stories in the Arthur mythos). But I think more than anything it reminded me that there's a lot of different versions of Arthur out there, lot's of places to draw ideas from, and lots of different themes I can get across with those ideas, so long as I sit myself down and really think about what kind of story I want to tell (and it's always useful to have someone kick me into researching lol). Also, I gotta admit that when it comes to adapting an existing part of pop culture, it's much appreciated to have someone say that it can be okay to make changes ^^; I just need to make sure that I have a full understanding of the source material, because if I'm going to adapt King Arthur, I want it to really feel like I'm adapting it and not taking advantage of the it and preexisting audience that comes with it, and I'm glad this helped me keep that in mind.
Thanks so much for making this awesome video, it was absolutely worth the watch!
Also I love your nails ^^
Thanks so much, I'm glad it was helpful.
Not to detract from all this lovely analysis or anything, but I had to pick up my cat and give her a lil kiss when you smooched yours. 🥺
I want an Arthur adaptation based on the original Welsh poems. Where he was called the Red Ravager and Kay was called Cai and could grow gient like a power rangers monster and whoes hands where so hot they melted swords.
the adaption we need is the Oops All Jousting version. All jousting, all the time, like medieval eurosport
Hi, just came here to say that I've just recently found out about your
channel and I already adore it, specially the marxist reading of Sweeney Todd. Keep up with the good stuff.
this was especially interesting because my entire knowledge about athurian legend prior to this was based on one german audioplay and bbc merlin, which were wildly different and as it turns out that audioplay seems to be based on the t.h.white version from what i can tell
Your videos have such a comforting vibe im really glad youre making them.
This was really enjoyable. I've never really been much of a King Arthur person myself, but the manner in which its adaptations move away from the source material and become reinvented is actually what I love about fan fiction. Here, it was primarily about people liking the plot beats, and over time the characters developed recognizable personalities as opposed to the primary draw of fan fiction for me, wanting to see characters I love explore new worlds and do new things, but I can't help but see the similarities. Also, your cat is very very cute, a lovely palate cleanser.
So recently (literally yesterday) I watched Netflix's Wizards - Tales of Arcadia's 1st season, in which our heroes go back in time and meet Arthur who's doing a racism against magical creatures because some monster killed Guinevere.
I don't know if the age of the book necessarily means it's going to be difficult to read. Many ancient Greek plays and texts are very easy to read. Going back and reading stories across history, I've been surprised how accessible some stories are. Gilgamesh and Beowulf are pretty timeless.
I understand Disney may be re-adapting The Sword in the Stone. I would KILL for them to grovel to the Lerner and Loewe estate and get back the rights to the other two, so we can have a full multi-part adaptation of The Once And Future King. (I can envision it as a trilogy even though there are four books...aside from the formation of the Round Table and the conception of Mordred, nothing much HAPPENS in The Queen of Air and Darkness. The most important parts of it were dispensed with in a few SENTENCES in Camelot.)
This deserves more views!!
I'm still watching the video and I resent youtube for not showing me that you posted before (I'm doing the bell now), First, I love the nails! Second, I tried to read that book too but it's SO DULL XDDD You are truly a legend for reading the whole thing is two weeks!. Now back to the video!
I really want Sir Galahad's brothel in 'By Force Alone' to be called Castle Anthrax, but it probably isn't...
Okay, first off, I am sorry if this comment ends up really long. Mythology, folklore, and how the stories evolve over time is creative hobby of mine. (Insert nerd screaming meme here) So I could, and have, gone on about the Arthurian legend for days. I am wondering why you didn't say anything about the Mark Twain classic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail and how they deconstruct the story. (I am guessing that it will be a future video.)
Also, if you are looking for an awesome feminist retelling, look up the 'Mists of Avalon.' It is one of my top 10 versions.
Lastly, there is a reason Le Morte d'Arthur is such a hard book to read. Thomas Malory just took a ton of stories other people wrote and put them together. The only real thing he added to the story was the Pentecostal Oath. The reason Guinevere is saved by Lance three times, is because those are three separate stories written by three separate Frenchmen put together try and make them one story. I am actually very sad Malory didn't use the Grail story in which it is a random stone that keeps you young if you sit on it. (I am not kidding. It is a real story.)
By the way, check the date your version was published. There is a chance the part of the oath that more or less said 'Don't rape people cause it is bad' is not there. Malory's book was the first version to be printed on a printing press, and those men printing the books removed the line because the books were meant for rich merchants not nobles. So more risky stuff was removed to not hurt sales.
Sorry, I forgot to ask why or even if you heard of the comic series Camelot 3000 in which all of the Arthurian characters are reborn in the year 3000. Many in the bodies of different genders and ethnicities. I swear to God it is great retelling
It would help if they put in the context where Arthur's mother was happy that her baby was legit and her status was secure... and not from the .....
"jousted by"
u absolute genius
I loved the Merlin miniseries with Sam Neil. I watched it like a million times.
Yes I love that version! It's a little condensed, but Miranda Richardson and the whole mood where Merlin can only watch as all the bad things happen make up for it
If anyone is interested in reading great medieval arthurian myths check out Chrétienne de Troyes but specially the Lais of Marie de France, she was one of the only women who thrived as authors in the medieval era
The grail quest and the story of Lancelot's adultery started as separate stories, and Merlin as a distinct third. The fact that one isn't relevant to the others in old tellings is no surprise.
Just started and I'm so excited! Your videos are always so well done and interesting and I can't wait to see what you have to say rhis time
Please read the Mary Stewart series about Merlin (beginning with The Crystal Cave) and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Excellent additions to the tradition, beautiful books. Love your videos.
Ooh a new vid, going through and binging your vids
I just found your channel and i absolutely love it, i will be binge watching all of your content
King Arthur has always been in my wheelhouse. I love a few different adaptations, and one of my favourites is High Planes of Camelot by the Mechanists which is a steampunk music album where Arthur is the sherif of a western town on a broken down colony ship. Merlin is a former part of the ships AI, who gives warnings that no one believes, and Lancelot and Guinevere and Arthur actually end up together in a polyamorous relationship after a three way standoff at the end. Mordred is a trans-man (who was Arthur’s son by Morgana) who tries to bring peace to the whole ecosystem and fails miserably. It’s a beautiful and sad album, but hopeful at the end.
1:12 Holy Shit! I'm Canadian, and I had that EXACT same castle!
God I completely forgot about the kid who would be king! I saw it in the cinema with my dad and it was awesome!
(spamalot is my favourite musical though so that and monty python's holy grail will always be canon to me)
I really enjoyed this; I'll have to look into that Excalibur movie.
I'd like to know what you think about how The Wheel of Time uses Arthurian imagery. As someone who has also read Le Morte D'Arthur (and who agrees 100% with your review of it), I've found the first few books to be less of an Arthur-slap than a repeated Arthur-cudgel-to-the-side-of-the-head.
I have never read the series 🤷 I'm told it's pretty good, though.
I love your channel, but I remembered to like the video when the Monty Python reference appeared
You think T.H. White's depiction of GUINEVERE was misogynistic? Try his depiction of MORGAUSE! (Old T.H. had some SERIOUS mommy issues, and that went into his Morgause. And as bad as she is in the omnibus edition, the original stand-alone version of The Queen of Air and Darkness--The Witch in the Wood--made her even WORSE!)
Great video. Give yourself a cookie for the Monty Python reference and then eat the whole pack for slipping in the Art Attack joke. Masterful.
In answer to why Clive Owen was a Roman, that is influenced by a theory that the original Welsh stories that eventually became the Arthur story where possibly inspired by a historical person. The theory goes, that the original stories are about a half remembered warlord or local king (or even multiple people who got jumbled together) who held power in the period immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire in Britain in the 4th century. Someone who may have even been a former Roman soldier left behind when the legions left. With the stories starting as folk tales of his exploits that got passed down verbally until being written down in the Medieval era.
There is as far as I know, almost no evidence to back up this theory. Despite lots of efforts to link Arthur to either real people or real places from that period in British history. A search not helped by the almost total lack of any written records from the time.
But it makes for an interesting twist on the story and has been used by a number of writers. The screen writers of that largely forgettable film (I had forgotten it existed until you talked about it) for one. But another fun version is a historical fiction series by the writer Bernard Cornwall (author of the Sharpe series) who used actual historical events to build his stories about a 'historical' Arthur.
My favorite King Arthur adaptation is the Squires Tales Series by Gerald Morris. It's accessible to children (I read it in elementary school) but it still holds up when I've reread it as an adult. It's quite funny and honestly I'd call it pretty feminist. A lot of the books in the series are from women's perspectives and there's a lot of making fun of/calling attention to problematic or ridiculous behavior on the part of male characters
@Leanne I certainly am not trying to throw courtly love under the bus. Just saying that I read this book series as a kid that I really liked and was a pretty feminist adaptation of the King Arthur stories. It is an adaptation, though, so it's pretty different from the source text in lots of ways (including changing Arthur's characterization and splitting Lynette into two characters, among many other changes).
"Pure 80s cocaine movie" - that sounds like a John Boorman film alright. John Boorman unsettles me. Also oof. You read Malory in how much time? You have my sympathies. Excellent video.
9/10 needs more Arturia
Great episode. Nice nails. Say hi to Frank for us.
the sci fi spaghetti western concept album adaptation by The Mechanisms tho..
David: TOAFK is a really good book.
Me: *Graphic unicorn murder flashbacks*
(Thanks for this video. Always appreciate a good discussion of Arthuriana 👌)
But it's really well written graphic unicorn murder, though...
@@DavidJBradley Fair.
All hail the algorithm
The two dislikes are Thomas Mallory and Uther Pendragon.
Le Morte d'Arthur was never one I was chomping at the bit to read, but always thought I would at some point. But wow, it feels like the literary equivalent of stock footage. Also Thomas Malory reading off his patrons in the worst way possible.
The part that fascinates me so much about Once And Future King is the whole acknowledgement about the imagined enemies of Fascism being strong and weak at the same time. I know it's not a recently discovered trait, I'm like 80% sure 1985 referenced it, but the fact it pointed out that trait so explicitly during World War 2 feels very ahead of it's time to me, despite the parts that were... very not.
Wow; I actually got By Force Alone at the library a week or so ago. I'll definitely temper my expectations.
Well the section with the ants was written for The Book of Merlyn in the 50s. So there's the benefit of hindsight to it.
25:30 - Out of so many very interesting points raised throughout, I believe here you have hit upon the most nuanced, nay, hidden. The meaning is a level deeper, however. Not monarchy, but rather the status quo (as determined by those with the might and the will/nerve to employ that might to make what they wish be right, regardless how many it may wrong) will continue - Hurrah...?
27:19 - Perhaps the second most salient point, but I'm also a cat-loverrrrr
By Force Alone is the Arthus My Immortal AU then XDDD
2:40 OH no! Scary Ace man!
That's what they call me 😉
Why are Native Americans even mentioned in a version of King Arthur?
Hello, I really enjoyed this video, thank you. I was wondering if you have heard oh kaamelott ? It's a french comedy series about Arthur that is really good although it's not without its problems. It's really reaaly popular in France (it even has a kinda toxic cult like fan, but still it's good), it's even kinda weird to see a video about arthur not mentionning it for me xD ! I'm sure there is a subtitled version somehere, I would be curious to know your opinion about it !
Did you intentionally wear colours of the graygender flag or was this by accident? Either way, dapper! Also, your nail game is on point 🤟
Complete coincidence. My thinking behind the colours was grey for Excalibur and blue because The Once and Future King specifies that only Arthur can afford to wear blue and it's considered a royal/noble colour. Also just because I thought they looked nice.
I would love to see your reaction to the new Tales of Arcadia and Cursed, which both adapt King Arthur......in slightly different ways XDD
As someone whose been through sexual assault, I can imagine why this would give her peace. If you’ve also been through it, I wouldn’t recommend reading what I say here. If the child was not her currant husband’s stuff could happen to the child and to her. This means that she doesn’t have to worry about the future of her child or her reputation. The unfortunate world of women at the time of having to endure abuse only to stave off the idea of having MORE abuse. I suppose this is why they think women stupid because the atrocities that this does to the brain is horrific. It makes it impossible to think.
wait - why are native americans mentioned in a book set in 5th century europe?
YES, just yes.
I've studied this book (Literature major) and I feel like is protected for the "canon", yes maybe is fundamental for English mythology but is fake and not Iliald fake, is fake fake... I don't know why is so forbidden to talk about it in a bad way. we can do parody but respecting the original (?) most of the adaptations aren't based specifically on the novels. it has become only a "reference book" that no one is allowed to dislike. the argument of "product of its time" shouldn't be a reason for defending, assault, it should be a conversation with the source and the time, not justification...
what I'm trying to say is: this is a great video!!
(ps: Merlin is still buried alive in a cave, where is that movie??? )
Awh, was there much negging of der audio? (This vid the audio was amazing! Thank you so much
2:35 not even that anymore
I'm not surprised Lavie Tidhar's take on Arthur is bad, tbh. Have you read his Bookman series? They're not all sweary and graphic but they're not exactly good, either.
I'm not convinced they actually have any plot or are connected in any way.
If you're not all Arthur-ed out, I highly recommend "Here Lies Arthur" by Philip Reeve.
It works from a similar premise to the Keira Knightley version but it's told from the perspective of a side character, Arthur is typical for his time period (not heroic) and the whole book is about weaving the myth of Arthur and how the myth is more important than reality
I was sad you didn't talk about Kaamelott than I remembered it is a french tv comic show who never was translated to other languages....shit!
This is probably my 3rd watching of this video. I don't know why it doesn't have more views. Go tell your subscribers to go through your back catalog! Shame them! SHAAAAAAME!
I enjoy Arthurian legend, but not really because of Arthur. I always found the knights much more interesting than Arthur
The origins of these stories lie in storytelling culture, most of these stories were made up by the people who made their living telling them. No one owned intellectual property back then so anyone could add a story to the... expanded universe of king Arthur and his knights. The reciting of all the names in every scene was something you did to be able to speak with authority. After all you had to be a true scholar of the lore in order to know all those things. These stories were told and retold and thus changed subtly over the years in the same way as stories about the Norse gods did or the old fables that we now know as fairy tales did. In a way a re imagining of Arthurian legend in the modern times with knights running brothels is no less valid than any tale some bard added to the bundles of lore created back in the 5th century or whenever. No one owns these stories and no fidelity to "the source material" is required. The source material isn't the vision laid out by a single author, it is more disperse then even the last star wars trilogy, or even the entirety of the no longer cannon expanded universe. If that story is good is more important then if that story is consistent with what came before.
My favorite adaptation has to be "the mists of Avalon". If only because it does away with the whole "evil woman sorceress is bad" trope. The retelling while updating it to the current political climate is not new you see. It probably happened many times back in the 5th century as well. There could be entire early versions completely lost to us with entirely new and different story beats that we will never know.
It's also hard to discuss this topic without addressing how important these kinds of stories are to modern Nazi's. I mean the alt-right, sorry. Hate to mislabel you fascists... Arthurian legend and the divine right of kings and manifest destiny and all that crap has inherent a bunch of tropes and narratives that fascists find really important because it plays into their "Born superior, destined for great wars to fight against our evil and degenerate enemies" Shtick that they like to sell to young people to subvert their alienation and economic stress into their narrative of needing to fight the evil sub-humans and protect the white race. The whole thing also plays into their glorification of History and specifically that of "the west".
Does all that mean you can't enjoy an Arthurian legend based piece of media? Of course not. But we should be critical of story elements that villainize women or foreigners, that utilize destiny and chosen ones, and that espouse the divine right of kings and talk about how a good king makes the nation good and how a bad king makes the nation ill. All those narratives are toxic, false and help legitimize all that ultra-conservative royalist far right bull-shit. Just say no.
I don't know about Le Morte D'Arthur, but that 2017 film was utter garbage that never seemed to get relevant.
Such trash, so much, very.
Too bad you made this video before The Green Knight came out.
Forgot Mists of Avalon. 0/10
/hj
Please will people stop following up things they've prepared the audience for with sudden unannounced cats? There are Ailuraphobes in your audience! At least say that you're about to show a cat!
Is this how I get cancelled? Is this my career over as soon as it began?
@@DavidJBradley Sorry, I think quarantine is getting to me... I should have worded that more diplomatically, but this is the third video today and I lashed out in the comments; my apologies.
It's ok. I legit didn't know that was a thing. Sorry if it was upsetting to you.