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File:Merlin bubble.png|Merlin is captured by Kale's dark magic in "[[Jewel Quest, Part I]]" |
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File:Melin magic.png|Merlin casts a spell to pull Kale into the [[Wild Magic]] in "[[Full Circle]]" |
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Revision as of 07:53, 29 August 2019
Merlin is a major character in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. He was inspired based on the Arthurian character Merlin and voiced by Bob Kaliban.
"Have Heart, Have Hope"
Merlin is an ancient and eternal wizard. For over a thousand years, he has dedicated himself to preserving the goodness of the kingdom of Avalon and punishing those who want to use its magic for dark purposes. But as the show begins, Merlin becomes banished into the wild magic by his upstart rival and former apprentice, the evil Lady Kale, so she can rule all the magic of Avalon and the kingdom itself.
Now, Merlin entrusts his current generation of young students—the titular Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders—to overcome the dark power of Kale's Dark Stone and rescue him in order to save the entire kingdom. In their mission, the girls are aided by Merlin's magic animal companion, a talking owl named Archie, and rely on Merlin's own infrequent advice and also his magic staff, now turned into the key to the Jewel Box.
"Darkness always returns, my child. But the strength and love of our friends will hold the darkness back."
In the show
Background
Merlin using his staff to display the royal Sun Stone in the book
Merlin's home outside New Camelot
Merlin is the great and wise wizard that is over one thousand years old who has dedicated to preserve the goodness of the magical land of Avalon. He has long ago harnessed and bound the wild magic, so he could create a wondrous and beautiful place where humans and animals could work and live in harmony. As such, he is known as the "Father of Avalon". It was also him who planted the Travel Trees through the lands and established the laws.
Some of the evil ancient wizards
A millennium prior to the beginning of the story, the evil Queen Morgana and her ancient wizards had plotted to betray and destroy Merlin during the Friendship Ring ceremony, but their plan did not work and Merlin won. Since then, he has continued protecting the magic of Avalon, living in his home near New Camelot and making sure its magic cannot fall into wrong hands. Merlin looks like harmless old man and usually is wonderfully kind and compassionate, but has no tolerance for whoever wants to use Avalon's magic to harm.[1]
Merlin has been training the Jewel Riders in the use of the Enchanted Jewels and watching over the royal family for generations. He also thought the gifted young princess Kale in the use of magic, but it was her kind sister Anya has been chosen to inherit the royal Sun Stone and the throne of Avalon. The power-hungry Kale has never forgiven him for what she thought was denying her birthright. She began scheming to not only replace Anya (for which she has been banished from New Camelot) but also take all that is Merlin's and reign over Avalon, forever.
Appearances
First season
Merlin's Words of Wisdom - Jewel Quest - Princess Gwenevere (Starla) and the Jewel Riders
Merlin being ambushed by Kale's wild magic monster in "Jewel Quest, Part I"
As the series begins, Merlin is suddenly overpowered by Lady Kale who has found the Dark Stone, a formidable jewel of evil magic that had been originally created by Morgana to specifically use against him. "You have taught me too well," she taunts Merlin caught in a glowing light sphere and held completely in her power. When Merlin refuses to give her the power over the magic of Avalon by denying her the key to his Jewel Box, Kale cruelly sends him hurling into wild magic to perish there. But, unknown to Kale, she has failed to destroy the old wizard, as he floated until the Gliders found him and brought him to the relative safety of the Cloud City. Soon, Merlin appears in Avalon to prevent her from stealing the Crown Jewels, but now he cannot return until all seven of them are collected again.
Merlin briefly appearing to advice the Jewel Riders in "Wizard's Peak"
Merlin is now forced to place all hope on the three young Jewel Riders led by Queen Anya's daughter Princess Gwenevere, sending them on a great quest to restore harmony in the magic and defeat Kale before she can become invincible.The girls are accompanied by his faithful talking owl familiar Archimedes, better known as Archie. With his guidance, the young heroines need to fight to stop the witch's power from growing stronger, and hopefully put an end to her dark ambition for good so they can bring back peace to the kingdom. After each of the Crown Jewels is secured by the girls, a projected image of Merlin appears for a short while to talk with them and say some words of advice. Meanwhile, Kale realized that she cannot control the Crown Jewels as long as Merlin still lives since "even from the Wild Magic he torments" her, so she works to find and get him out of her way once and for all.
Merlin and Lady Kale in a magical duel within the Wild Magic in "Full Circle"
Eventually (in the episode "Full Circle"), Merlin directly confronts the self-proclaimed 'Queen Kale' after she manages to take over Avalon and works to find and eliminate him so everything that is Merlin's would become hers. His implacable enemy, now more powerful than ever, is ready to do anything to rid of him, even declaring she shall destroy him "if it's the last thing I do." But Merlin outsmarts her in a gamble, as he only feigns being finished off in a ruse to trick Kale into thinking he is now gone and she can at last rule all of magic with the Crown Jewels, and Kale ends up vanquished by the activated great good magic of the Crystal Palace. But saving the kingdom from the reign of evil comes at the cost of Merlin's staff, and without it he cannot return and will have to remain exiled. (Merlin: "Sometimes we make sacrifices for our friends.") This leaves Queen Anya and the Jewel Riders with the task to find a way to still get him out of the Wild Magic somehow.
Second season
Merlin's loyal Jewel Riders facing the returning Morgana in "Shadowsong"
In the second season, Merlin is mostly absent. He is rarely able to communicate with the Jewel Riders or do anything until the very finale (the episodes "Morgana" and "Shadowsong" are two exceptions) as they fight his returning archenemy Morgana, now alive again but trapped in the Wild Magic. Morgana sends the also revived Lady Kale with her to secure and collect for him the Wizard Jewels that once belonged to his evil rivals but now are scattered across Avalon and the other realms. In "The Fortune Jewel", Merlin sends back one of the ancient wizards - his former friend Derek, back to Avalon in a cat form, so Derek can redeem himself by ensuring the Jewel Riders get his jewel.
Eventually, in "The One Jewel" ("The Last Dance"), after Gwenevere taken down her wicked aunt for good, Merlin at last appears and confronts Morgana and the summoned ghosts of several evil wizards in the showdown at the Center of the Wild Magic. It is revealed Merlin had been there since his staff was destroyed, trying to turn all the magic to good. But in the end, thanks to Gwen and her friends, Merlin emerges victorious over Morgana his other old enemies for the second time and this time completely. All of magic is made good forever and Merlin finally returns to Avalon with the supremely powerful One Jewel as his new personal jewel.
Behind the scenes
A different Merlin character, who however also served as the protagonists' mentor figure in their fight against Morgana, has previously appeared in King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, another Arthurian-themed animated series from the same production company. In Jewel Riders, Merlin was always shown with four fingers (including the thumb) in pre-production pictures, but has five fingers in the show. He is bald under wizard hat.[2] He was voiced by Bob Kaliban in English, Wolf Rahtjen in German, Roger Carel in French, and Maurizio Scattorin in Italian.
A storyboard sketch of Merlin and Kale's confrontation
In the Enchanted Camelot version scripts, Merlin is trapped in his bubble not by a deer apparition, but by a green cat. Lady Kale does not just throw Merlin into the Wild Magic, she full on vaporizes him into "Wizard Pixie Dust." When he appears after Gwen gets her Sun Stone, Merlin says he now exists in the "spiritual plane, flowing within the wild magic of Camelot."
Legacy
Avalon's Henry Gardener
Merlin from Jewel Riders inspired the Avalon: Web of Magic character of Henry Gardener.[3] Gardener was supposed to be mentor to the current mages, but was kidnapped by the Dark Sorceress before the current party even discovered their jewels; they found a hologram of him, but were not taught about their powers or mage levels.
Merlin’s speech in "Shadowsong" is actually a part of the books' Avalon prophecy. Furthermore, a character named Marlin also appears in the series.
References
- ↑ This is evident in the dweasels' lines when reacting to Kale's plans for Merlin in "Jewel Quest, Part I": "Merlin would fry us like little ants / Squash us like bugs / Tweek us like tomatoes / Burst us like bubbles."
- ↑ Greg Autore and the Toy Design of Jewel Riders - Part Two - The Jewel Riders Archive
- ↑ Character Comparison: Henry Gardener | The Avalon Archive
| Characters |
|---|
| List of characters List of episodic characters Main characters |
| Magic |
|---|
  Magic, Wild Magic, Jewel Quest, Jewel Armor |
