There's been lots of interesting reactions at
merlinxarthur about a letter in the
Radio Times championing Merlin and Arthur getting together. Honestly, I wasn't expecting it to be such a big deal, apart from the fannish glee over it being published at all. I mean, honestly surely no one really expects the writers to go 'they asked for it so we better obey'. But apparently it seems to have spiked a whole debate about whether or not the issue should even have been raised at all, as well as a hundred other issues.
Theres some interesting points in
this post at
franticsga's journal, basically saying that the letter shouldn't have described Gwen and Morgana as wastes (agreed) and that there's nothing wrong with having gay pairings in 'family shows' (agreed) so the mere idea alone should not be decried.
And actually, the BBC has, even before Dr Who, had gay couples in shows without (I presume) it being a big deal. The one that leaps to mind is
The Brittas Empire which had a gay pairing that was just another of the couples on the show (this stands out in my mind because I watched it knowing they were together without even really realised that there was something different or potentially controversial in it - before I really knew what gay was, I suspect).
And frankly, while I love Merlin and don't watch the show because I feel that one day Arthur and Merlin will fall into each others arms, the writers could at least put a little more effort into the Gwen/Arthur romance - sometimes it feels like they don't feel they need to try because we all know it is coming and it's somewhat of a fait acompli.
The other issue with this letter seems to be that fandom and slash is still somewhat of
'the love that dare not speak its name' and people see the letter as embarrassing. Again, I'm not sure how much I stand by that. Fandom is increasingly acknowledged, there are some aspects that make you cringe (the person that presented Tom Felton with a manip of him and Daniel R. naked being one such example) but more harmless things like this letter shouldn't cause too many ructions surely. I remember seeing a clip of Hugh Laurie being interviewed and someone in the audience asked who he thought House should end up with - Cuddy, Cameron or Wilson and Hugh laughed and said he was sure that, given long enough, House would work his way through all 3. And maybe HL is a special case, but there didn't seem to be any offence taken.
I'm not sure I'm being too coherent so I'll leave it here. I should really get up anyway!