Merlin (TV series)/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • One for Uther in "The Gates to Avalon," in which he spectacularly shoots down Arthur's proposal to allow him and Sophia to marry. Particularly notable in that most of the time, Uther is just a bit lacking in the sympathetic portrayal department. If Sophia had been portrayed as even slightly sympathetic, this would have looked totally different - but because the audience is already aware that she's actually a Sidhe in human form planning to sacrifice Arthur for her own means, watching Uther tear into his son for being an idiot was extremely gratifying.
  • Merlin gets one when he defeats an entire group of raiders invading his home town with a miniature tornado.

Will: There's too many of them!
Merlin: Not for me.

    • Will gets a CMOA for that episode. Despite having professed his dislike for Arthur he pushes Arthur out of the way of a bandit with a crossbow who wasn't quite dead yet. Then, while dying, he covers for Merlin and takes the blame for the mini whirlwind
    • Also, Gwen saving Merlin's mother by hitting her attacker over the head with a shovel.
  • Arthur gets one by drinking the poisoned cup..
  • Merlin also kills Nimueh with a lightning bolt, defeats an entire group of sorcerers trying to kill the king, and kills a sorcerer who has been training his whole life and just destroyed Gaius in less than 20 seconds.
  • Merlin killing Nimueh should get its own entry, because it really does require elaboration for you to get how awesome it was. To set things up, Nimueh has pushed three of Merlin's Berserk Buttons (his best friend, his mother, and his mentor), and he's finally had enough and fires a magic bolt at her. She absorbs it easily, mocks him about his "childish tricks" being useless against her, and throws a fireball at him. He dodges, and she sends the second straight into his chest, leaving him for dead on the ground with a smoking hole in his shirt. Then no less than three of these kick in in less than a minute. All are done without a single incantation, which gives us the impression that these are Merlin's instinctive abilities.
    • Merlin gets up, completely unscathed, from a fireball to his chest. And this was before he became a dragonlord.
    • After delivering a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, Merlin lifts his hand towards the sky, summoning a massive storm. Then he pulls lightning down from the clouds, striking Nimueh repeating with it until she explodes in a flash of light.
    • Rain falls down from the clouds, and somehow Merlin harnesses the power of the Old Religion to trade Nimueh's life for Gaius'. No artifacts, no incantations, just Merlin manipulating an age-old magic by sheer force of will.
  • Gaius finally telling Uther off for the brutality of his anti-magic crusade in "The Witchfinder." Basically, any time Uther gets/almost gets what's coming to him.
    • Possibly defeated by Merlin's defeat of the Witchfinder. Through genuine cunning and a few well-placed spells, he manages to get him accused of being a sorceror himself, exposed as a fraud, and thrown out of a window. Oh, and he makes toads come out of his mouth.
  • Merlin is the most powerful warlock of all time, and despite being relatively untrained, he beats people in the league of Sigan, Nimueh, Morgana (while in his ancient form as well, making him much physically weaker than her, Morgause, Mordred (who confirmed to be strong than Morgana) sort of, and the great dragon.
  • Morgause's entrance into Camelot.
  • Arthur attacking Uther in "Sins of the Father," blaming him for his mother's death and telling him that magic is not evil. Awesomeness is somewhat dulled by the fact that later, Arthur forgives his father and blames magic for deceiving him.
    • Episode 8 of Season 2. CMOA for both Merlin and Uther. Uther for not drawing his sword on his son who then attacks him, he then proceeds to keep Arthur at bay. Merlin then gets HIS CMOA for breaking in to the room and managing to calm a previously completely homicidal prince down even though the death of Uther would make things far easier for Merlin.
  • The finale of Season 2. Even though he's devastated by the recent loss of his father, and previously his magic hasn't worked on the Great Dragon, Merlin faces and defeats a centuries old dragon. Then, instead of killing said dragon he sends it away, showing mercy even though the dragon has been killing innocent people.
  • In series three - Merlin riding the dragon. The dragon is his bitch now.
  • Gwen is out shopping with Morgana when she sees the disguised Morgause reflected in the mirror behind her, followed swiftly by Morgana clearly lying about what she was up to with "the old woman" of a few moments ago. Gwen keeps her cool, smoothly bluffs Morgana into thinking everything's fine, successfully conceals herself in Morgana's chambers and sees her practising dark magic, and then goes straight to a Reasonable Authority Figure to share what she knows. In a show that so often pushes the Reset Button and seems stuck on Status Quo Is God, it's immensely fitting that sensible Gwen is the one to finally refuse to ignore the obvious.
    • Topped only by her magnificent poker face in 3X12, when she assures Morgana that she's loyal to the new regime.
  • Pretty much all of 3x13. This troper spent most of the episode yelling, "that is so cool!" and blathering unintelligibly because there were no words for how epic everything was. Special points of interest include the round table, the knighting scene, and the sword in the stone.
    • All the heroes get their very own Crowning Moment of Awesome in 3X13:
      • Arthur says "screw the rules" and knights Gwain, Elyan, Percival and Lancelot before leading them into battle.
      • Gwen breaks Leon out of prison with blacksmith skillz and smuggles him out of Camelot in a dress.
      • Leon Outright defies Morgana and Morgause to their faces, states his unwavering loyalty to Uther and Arthur and goes as far as to smirk at Morgana mockingly when he believed she was about to have him executed. He later, with the help of Gwen, escapes prison and joins Arthur in his rebellion against Morgana.
      • Lancelot covers Merlin's back on his mission to destroy the Cup of Life against immortal soldiers.
      • Percival turns up the hell out of nowhere and causes a rockslide that saves the loyalists from Morgause's soldiers.
      • Gaius gets the first blow against Morgause with his often-hinted at but still completely unexpected command of magic.
      • Elyan is the first injured in the battle in the cells, but the first to jump back into the fray despite the fact that he hasn't got any armour.
      • Gwaine just...exists.
      • Merlin retrieves Excalibur, kills at least twenty immortal soldiers with it, quite possibly kills Morgause, and destroys the Cup of Life.
    • In a little bit of Fridge Brilliance, now that Elyan is a knight, Gwen is sufficiently highly-ranked to be a perfectly legitimate partner to Arthur. Their first fully-public kiss is just another jewel on this Crowning Episode of Awesome.
      • Well done, everybody. You totally deserved that slow-motion Glory March into Camelot.
  • This troper would like to nominate pretty much any scene in which Merlin fights without magic and still handles himself fairly well. The fighting leading up to the tornado in The Moment of Truth, and the Good Old Fisticuffs in the bar brawl in Gwaine were notable examples of Merlin subverting the Squishy Wizard trope.
  • Similar to the above Merlin is pretty awesome in the Season Four premiere, despite the issue that he's fighting an enemy he can't even use magic against. The fact that he went up against them at all is remarkable.
    • He doesn't just go up against them. He jumps in front of one so it will attack him instead of Arthur. And this is after Gaius has told him that no mortal has ever survived their touch. Bad. Ass.
  • Gotta give Morgana her due in the opening. She takes down four soldiers with magic, killing two of them.
  • In the same episode, Percival abandoning his torch--the only weapon against the Dorocha--to save three kids. And then Elyan shows up in the nick of time and saves him.
  • After Agravaine orders the city gates to be closed during a time of crisis, Gwen confronts the council and reasons that the refugees are bringing their own food to barter with the villagers, and that the city resources will only have to hold out for three more days before Arthur succeeds in his quest. Despite Agravaine, Gwen gets the entire council on her side, and wins the argument. That's the future queen right there!
  • The Wicked Day: Uther recovers from his Heroic BSOD long enough to take down the assassin threatening his son. And he has been bed/chair bound for a year at least.

Uther : It will take more than a coward like you to kill my son!

  • In Aithusa, when Merlin's trying to stop Borden from taking the dragon's egg. As awesome as it sounds.

Borden:What do you know? Your are but a serving boy!
Merlin:I am the last Dragonlord. And I am warning you: leave this egg alone.

  • In A Servant of Two Masters, Merlin (in his Dragoon disguise) dispatches the knights of Camelot. With haste. The best part: due to the effects of aging, he'd been having trouble climbing onto his horse. Three of the knights landed on top of each other, and he used them like stairs.
  • Gwen and Merlin in Lamia. Since the knights of Camelot were somewhat occupied, it was their turn to shine.

Gwen: *angry face* GET AWAY FROM HIM!!!

    • Merlin showed off his Badass Bookworm by acting as physician and keeping his cool in the face of a Lamia.

Lamia: I could have killed you at any time.
Merlin: What are you waiting for?

  • Merlin owning Agravaine and his men in the season four finale. He decided that enough was enough and showed them exactly who they were dealing with.
  • Arthur pulls Excalibur out of the stone in full view of all his people, thus proving himself a worthy leader and king.
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