A Hopelessly Biased Competition

*Notice*
Please take note that in this blog post there are spoilers for Season 3 of the BBC series 'Merlin' as well as Season 1 of 'Camelot'. Yes, Larry, that means you.
*End of Notice*


It has been so long since I blogged :s So now that I've been inspired to add to my random collection of thoughts, here I am.


So recently I've finally caught up with the latest season of 'Merlin'. I just love the Arthurian legend so yeah, watching 'Merlin' is a rare treat for me. And since I haven't been watching the accursed channel 702 since they changed it from Hallmark to 'Diva', I completely missed it when they aired Season 3 of 'Merlin'. What a damned shame. Because Season 3 is freakishly awesome.


Even more recently, when I finished watching Season 3 of 'Merlin', I started watching this newer show 'Camelot' which of course is based in Arthurian legend too. Obviously I couldn't help myself and started watching it. 'Camelot' is....well let's just compare the two before I get into that, shall we?


Merlin vs Camelot


1. Obviously the first thing I noticed was the differences in the Merlins.


First take a look at the Merlin from 'Merlin'.

Isn't he adorable?


'Merlin' centres on a younger Merlin (played by Colin Morgan) and Arthur and Guinevere and well...everyone else so the Merlin we see here is a young boy, still struggling with his abilities with magic (he gets pretty good at it and there's magic in almost every episode, don't worry) and decision making. He is innocent to the point of naivete which makes him hopelessly endearing. He's also funny and is very conscientious, hesitating even to kill his enemies. And since magic was forbidden at the time, he has to resort to protecting Arthur by being his servant. He complains about Arthur's mistreatment of him often, only making me love him even more. It doesn't hurt that he's also kinda cute in a nerdy, helpless kinda way. I love Merlin from 'Merlin'.


Now let's take a look at the Merlin from 'Camelot'.

Did you just get freaked out? I sure did.


The Merlin from 'Camelot' (played by Joseph Fiennes) is a much darker and more complex character (as the picture so aptly shows *shudder*). He's very mysterious, not revealing much about himself and operating very...well, mysteriously. Apparently he doesn't age, so no one knows how old he is. Arthur thinks he's been around since the Romans were in Britain so that makes him pretty old. And he's quite useless, he never uses magic. At least he didn't until the fourth episode, by which time I was resigned to the fact that 'Camelot' Merlin was too useless for words. And guess what? When he finally starts to use magic (for a full minute and a half too), he suddenly becomes this lying, murderous psychopath. Riiiight. But he's pretty compelling and you want to know what's behind the intrigue that surrounds his character. And obviously Joseph Fiennes who plays him is unbelievably hot. He looks better with hair, but oh well.


Conclusion:
This one's a tough one.

I'm gonna have to go with Merlin from 'Merlin' though. Those baby blues had me the first time I saw them :)


So far we have the score at 1-0 to 'Merlin.


2. Let's compare Arthurs next :)


So here's the Arthur from 'Merlin'.

Oh. Be still, my beating heart. He is cute.


Okay, okay I'm calming down. But he is cute. The Arthur from 'Merlin' (played by Bradley James) is basically a spoilt prince (who tortures Merlin), but with an honest and fair judgement. Simply put, he's noble. And cute. He constantly has to put up with the stress of living up to his father's image as King of Camelot. And he's the one who does all the dangerous work for his father (who does nothing but sit in his throne and panic at the slightest hint of magic, but we'll come back to that later), going on quests and saving Camelot. He's the best swordsman in the series so far. He's slightly dense obviously, since Merlin gets away with performing so much magic right under his nose. And though he makes fun of Merlin a lot, he's very loyal to him, which makes him even cuter.  In the third season he becomes unbearably hot as his character evolves to become more kingly than princely. Arthur's pretty awesome.


So now here's the Arthur from 'Camelot'.

Okay. No need for my heart to be still or anything.


Arthur from 'Camelot' (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) annoys me. But before that, let me attempt to be unbiased. The Arthur from 'Camelot' was raised not knowing that he was heir to the throne. He was raised on a...farm? I don't know la but whatever it was, he didn't know King Uther Pendragon was his father. So he's a nobody. But when Merlin appears to tell him who he really is and stuff, he suddenly becomes Mr. I'm All That. This guy, who has a country to run and very little time for much else, can even yell at Merlin, threaten to kill him, think he knows more than him...*sigh*. So despite being a nobody, he's still a spoilt brat. But the biggest problem I have with him is that he has such huge things to worry about, what with having to turn a country's allegiance to him and all, but you know what he's concerned about? Guinevere. All he cares about is having sex and stealing her away from one of his knights, Sir Leontes, who she is married to. Urgh. Arthur sucks.


Conclusion:
I have to say, this one wasn't all that difficult. At all.

This one goes to *drumroll* Arthur from 'Merlin'!!!


And 2-0 to 'Merlin'!


3. Now let's take a look at the Guineveres.


This is the Guinevere from 'Merlin'.

So in 'Merlin' Guinevere (played by Angel Coulby), best known as Gwen, is actually a servant girl to Uther's ward, Morgana. She's really sweet and genuine. And the best part is, she's sensible. She's not the weepy type, even when Arthur was going to get married to someone else. She's strong and of course, unquestionably loyal to Arthur and has more faith in him than anyone else. Her loyalties are questioned more than once, but she always endures. Only thing is, everyone seems to fall in love with her lol. First Lancelot, then Arthur, then Gwaine...but oh well.


Then there's Guinevere from 'Camelot'.

Yes. She is incredibly pretty.


Guinevere (played by Tamsin Egerton) here is betrothed to one of Arthur's knights who she eventually marries. But she's attracted to Arthur for goodness knows what reason. And yes, she cheats on her husband with Arthur and then tries to be all Zen about it. She tries hard to come off as a kick-ass strong heroine type, but fails quite miserably. It may have something to do with the fact that she always looks like she's about to burst into tears. I don't know, I just hated her on sight.


Conclusion:
Is there even a doubt?

Guinevere of 'Merlin' I crown thee the true Queen of Camelot.


Oh wow, 'Merlin' really is running away with the prize at 3-0.


4. Next we have the evil witches of both the series.


Firstly, Lady Morgana of 'Merlin'.

What it comes down to is that Lady Morgana (played by Katie McGrath) is a spoilt rich kid with daddy issues. She's really pretty and she has pretty much everything but when she finds out that she has magic, she starts to hate herself because being King Uther's ward, she has grown up with the idea that magic is wrong and dirty and generally despised. So she then becomes evil and works against Uther to take the throne herself. Mid-season of Season 3, she finds out it won't be too difficult because Uther is her biological father. She makes the transition from good to evil pretty well. But sometimes she goes over the top. Morgana hating Uther is understandable of course, but suddenly she wants Arthur, who has done her no wrong, dead as well. And she becomes a little too heartless a little too fast. Her acting got a little lame in Season 3 too; all I saw was that stupid evil smirk on her face. It soon lost its power. So...Morgana isn't awful or anything, she just wasn't that convincing to me.


Then we have Morgan le Fay from 'Camelot'.

I have to say, the role of Morgan was carried out to perfection by Eva Green. She was totally believable as an evil, unfeeling and callous witch. She was banished by her own father so here the issues between King Uther and Morgan are a bit more obvious. She takes the more direct approach to taking the throne, killing Uther in the very first episode. And she's also devious and way more cunning than Morgana from 'Merlin'. She hatches her own plots while Morgana relies heavily on her magical ally, Morgause for schemes to take over the throne. Morgan gives me chills.


Conclusion:
This one was slightly tricky.

I sort of like them both but I'm gonna have to go with Morgan from 'Camelot'.


So now the score stands at 3-1 to 'Merlin'.


5. Now let's take a look at the good stuff. The chemistry between Arthur and Guinevere.


Okay so with Merlin it was kind of weird at first cause Guinevere had a crush on Merlin at first lol. And Arthur and Guinevere didn't even notice each other until this particular episode. Arthur was trying to prove to the kingdom that he didn't win tournaments and stuff because he was prince and people lost to him on purpose. So he had to stay at Gwen's house for some time so that he wouldn't be seen and suddenly...this happened.

It was so sweet :) Oh and I like this one too.

I love how they have this very innocent kind of love. And they're so sweet together.


Then we have Arthur and Guinevere from 'Camelot'.


Their story is less complex and all about sex. First he had a dream about her. The wet kind. Then they met and talked and then they had sex and then she got married to someone else. They don't really have that chemistry. When I see them its like looking at a teenage boy with his school teacher. Not in a good way.

Conclusion:
This one wasn't too difficult either.

Arthur and Gwen from 'Merlin' of course. Hopelessly biased, remember?


4-1 to 'Merlin'.


6. I think the funniest part of my entire post is right here. The dynamic between Arthur and Merlin.


Here's Arthur and Merlin from 'Merlin'.

Don't lie, I know you went 'awwwwww'.


Adorableness aside, Arthur and Merlin have a very lighthearted relationship in Merlin. But Merlin is devoted to Arthur and stands by him, while Arthur tries to hide the fact that he has a soft spot for Merlin. The way they communicate makes you think of brothers of sorts rather than master and servant.

This is one of my favourite videos where Merlin transforms himself with an aging spell to save Gwen from being burnt at the stake.

Goodness, these two are hilarious.


And then we have Arthur and Merlin from 'Camelot'.

Arthur and Merlin have a very serious and volatile relationship in 'Camelot'. There is not a single light moment, everything's dark and sad and tragic. It's quite depressing, really. Their communication basically consists of Merlin telling Arthur what to do and Arthur questioning everything that Merlin says. I couldn't find any videos, not that I looked very hard lol.


Conclusion:
Definitely the easiest choice.

And so Merlin wins with a whopping score of 5-1 :D


Okay now let me just say, this part I couldn't compare because only one series has it. But I have to mention it, I just have to. Watch this video and you'll know.

Oh the perfection that is Lancelot. That smile rocks my world upside down and inside out.

Lancelot alone could bring 5 points to the score. *drool* Not only is he hot, he's...well he's hot la. And 'Camelot' doesn't even have a Lancelot. It's practically a crime. 


So there we go. With Lancelot, 'Merlin' wins my little biased competition, thrashing 'Camelot' 6-1. Congratulations 'Merlin'.

A Happy Birthday

Wow. Crazy thought. Somewhere on the other side of the world, JC Chasez will be celebrating his birthday today. I'm so becoming a crazy stalker fan. So yes, it is the 8th of August, JC's birthday. He is...wow he's thirty-five. Thirty-five. But who cares, he's still just as hot as he was all those years ago on *NSync. If possible he's gotten even hotter with age. Yikes.


So anyway, I would just like to dedicate what I'm sure is going to be a shit-long post to the ever adorable, ever adored Mr. JC Chasez, without whom I would have way too much spare time to do useless things like study and do my chores :)


To all of you who never understood why I was madly in love with JC Chasez, I am about to start the attempt of a lifetime to explain it. It wasn't easy; there were just too many reasons. But if I don't try now I suppose I never will. And yes, I realise that I am extremely biased so I'm gonna let 'JC' do the talking. Figuratively of course.


*inhale and exhale* Well then, here it is.


Ode to Monsieur Chasez


I suppose it is ironic
That you will never know
How you've hit me with a sledgehammer
With your smile that charms me so.


The way your eyes crinkle up
Truly makes me sigh
The way you laugh so heartily
Makes me wish you never said 'Bye, Bye, Bye'.

Thank you for having the most beautiful eyes
That I've ever seen before
When you sing with your eyes open (which is rare)
I'm mesmerized to my very core.

When you're being funny I laugh like a hyena
And 'This I Promise You'
That no one's quite as funny as you are
No one could do it like you so easily do.

I love the way when you fool around
You look so adorable that I laugh
Then I wish you'd stop distracting me the next day
When I'm trying to study but of you, can't get enough.

Then the way you look so abashed when you admit
Something that people wouldn't guess
I could just do such damage when you say those famous words
That all fans of yours love, "because....yes"

But it is when you're embarassed that I truly appreciate
How devastatingly gorgeous a person could be
The way you laugh, practically admitting you're a clown
Makes me wish I'd been there to see.


(skip to the last part, around 4:18)

And then came the moment of glory
Where I wore a shocked frown
I knew you could sing in perfect tune
But I didn't know you could do it upside down.

You made me hate you that day when I saw
That walk like you owned the world
It just made me swoon and fall in love even more
I watched it again and again til my head whirled.

Then when I thought I could't possibly love you
Any more than I already did
You went and danced like the incredibly sexy Romeo  you are
*sigh* Who the hell was I trying to kid?

But still most of all what I truly appreciate
Is you letting me be a fan
For putting your music out there
And taking all that praise and adulation like a man.


It's amazing to see how you made that journey
From the Mickey Mouse Club to *NSync
As if that weren't enough you went solo and then ABDC
Your story's too priceless for pen and ink.

You'll continue to be my dream I'm sure
For days but hopefully not years to come
You'll be my faraway knight and I'll be the stalker fan
Watching you whenever I feel glum.


So here I conclude, though I could go all day
On why I love you so
But the truth is no matter how much I write
No justice on you does it bestow.

A Nice Lazy Sunday

Well it's the end of the weekend. I had a pretty good one. 


Today was normal I guess. Just went to church, stayed back after 8.30 service cause Leanne said she was coming. Thank goodness she did cause she came in time to save me from an hour long lecture from one of our church members :s So I was listening to the prologue of my lecture then when I was released and I was walking towards service this African guy comes up to me from the Book Corner and hands me a card, saying it was for me. It was super freaky. I thought he had been looking at me funny when I kept passing by that day but....*shudder*


So yeah I was hoping against hope that it was something that Auntie Jessica needed me to pass to mom or something but...no such luck. Let's just leave it at that.


Anyway lunch was nice :) Joash, Stephanie, Chris and me went to A&W and I had junk food after so long. And then as usual we'll never just eat and leave, we sat there and talked and laughed and only got home at around 4. After which I proceeded to sleep the rest of the afternoon away. When I woke up it was like magic; dinner was ready and no one was mad at me for sleeping until so late :)


I just watched the finale of Masterchef Australia today. Callum, who was my favourite of them all didn't win :( But he did get a pretty amazing prize in the end so yeah I was happy :)


And I just realised that Callum's name is Callum Hann which sounds so incredibly sexy and he has a blog that he apparently updates still. So yay :D Here it is. 


Callum's Kitchen


Guess that's all for today :) I'm just lazy la.

A Funny Saturday

Last night I had an awesome dream. I was a recipient of an awesome gift. An iPhone. And a Blackberry. And other awesome gifts. I was also at church sitting outside in the rain at a table in the parking lot with mom asking me why we weren't having bible study but let's forget that part. So yeah, I woke up in an incredibly good mood.


Somewhere between getting breakfast while sis was dusting the dining room (what??) and sitting to have breakfast in the living room while she attempted to clean the fan (HUH??? Did it possibly occur to her that cleaning the fan was not done while people were eating there? Lol!!) and hanging out the clothes and cleaning all the fans and sweeping the floor and screaming at Joash to get off his butt and do something and being so tired I almost died my good mood disappeared. Well, no surprise there lol.


I had a very funny thought when I was cleaning the fan in mom and dad's room. By this time I had already been at my chores for about an hour so I was all sweaty and disgusting. So I'm up there, my head next to the blades of the fan, standing very unstably on the ladder when I feel the sweat rolling down my back and I think to myself, "Damn, it's really hot. I should switch on the fan."


LOL. No, no I do not have a death wish. All that stress of impending finals must be getting to me. My mind is slowly...well, being lost.


The entire afternoon just rolled by without me realising that I was supposed to be studying for my Financial Econs test next week. I was watching a stupid Hindi movie on TV2 cause there was absolutely nothing else on called 'Do Knot Disturb'. It was the dumbest shit I've seen in a while now and I wished Shu and Larry were there so that we could all laugh at its ridiculousness and bitch about how Hindi movies suck. I didn't bother to watch the end, I switched channels to TV3 to watch another Hindi movie called 'Kambakktht Ishq'. I don't know what material they had on these people but they somehow convinced Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh to make special appearances. The movie sucked of course, but it was far better than bloody 'Do Knot Disturb'.


In the evening the whole family went for Uncle Joseph Manuel's birthday party at Selangor Club. It was really fun. It was an open bar (ahem, ahem) and the food was awesome. I've never tasted better fried brinjals with yogurt, or aloo ghobi, or fish cutlets :D And towards the end Auntie Jessica started dancing with everyone; dad, Uncle Tony, Rev Andrew. It was hilarious :D


Then when we came home mom, sis and me went through the four boxes of stuff that this church member, Karen Abraham was giving away. It was all this absolutely gorgeous clothes, most of which couldn't fit me. Which obviously renewed my zeal to lose some weight already. So yeah, I have new clothes now. Whoopeeee :D


Speaking of Karen Abraham, the church recently started this Home Fellowship thing, where church members meet in each other's houses and have little bible studies and have food and a good time. So yeah our particular group, who meets in Karen Abraham's house, just started on Wednesday. It was really fun, surprisingly. I thought it would be extremely boring and we'd have absolutely nothing to do there but I'm actually looking forward to the next meeting! We had awesome food and the bible study was kept very short. So it was mostly food and talking and wine. My kind of gathering :)


One funny moment was after the bible study was over, when Auntie Karen and Uncle Indra, her husband, asked if I wanted more wine. When I said yeah sure, mom was all like hey you have class in the morning. I was so surprised cause mom was having wine and she had to go teach a class the next day. All I had to do was sit in a class where the lecturer wasn't gonna bother whether I was paying attention or not. And my sister was already sitting there with a glass full and she had to go to the hospital the next day for her placement and treat patients. Sure Ma, I'm the one you should worry about lol.


Anyway tomorrow's church day. People better come. Oh wait, I mean later today :)


By the way, I've never really been a fan of Rihanna. I found her voice unremarkable and very lazy-sounding which used to piss the hell outta me. The only thing that saved her was the fact that her songs were catchy and extremely addictive. But this song I gotta admit that I really love. Maybe Rihanna ain't that bad after all. 


Rihanna - California King Bed

Damn that guy's so hot.WHY did he get so little screen time? Damn.


Anyway I guess that's it for this post, even though I have a weird feeling that I'm forgetting something. Night all :)

A Post About How I Suck

This morning, I was doing my online quiz at home. I was pretty much done too. And then my connection decided to die on me and all my answers disappeared. And I only have one attempt at the quiz. When I later managed to log back in, I discovered that my time had still gone on ticking and I only had like 24 minutes left. Which is not a lot when it comes to Loss Models. And in the end, just when I clicked on submit...


My connection died on me again. 


I was acting like a spaz, running back and forth between my modem and my laptop. And finally when there was like seconds left, my connection made its triumphant return to life. Just in time for me to log back in to my quiz, key in one answer, and watch the page transform into my quiz review, saying that I had gotten 0 out of 10. Aren't I awesome?


Then I realised that Shu and I were gonna be late for Business Law seeing as I spent so much time doing my online quiz and I hadn't done any chores yet. So while I had my shower Shu hung out the clothes and did my chores all, which was so nice of her.


Anyway I emailed my lecturer telling him what happened with my online quiz and he reset it for me. I have to remember to thank him later. So I just did it and got 5 out of 10. Aren't I awesome?


Oh, and I watched Captain America today with Aaron and Li Yeng. I was so looking forward to it and well, it didn't rock my world or anything. Such a disappointment.


You know what did rock my world though? The knowledge that it is officially the second day of JC month at jc-chasez.net! :) They're posting like a video a day on the website (It's a fansite, obviously), and as of today, they're posting videos that I've never seen before so yay. The videos aren't that great, it was mostly me staring at JC. But I did see something interesting.


It seems JC came on stage with Matthew Morrison again, this time in New York, to perform a duet (With Matthew Morrison) of 'This I Promise You' and then a solo 'Don't Stop Believing'. He just gets better every time I hear him. 


Matthew Morrison & JC Chasez - This I Promise You

Even Matthew Morrison sounds better this time around in 'This I Promise You'. And JC...gosh I love that man's voice. 


Okay I wanted to post 'Don't Stop Believing' but Blogger can't seem to find the video :( Oh well, just take my word for it that JC sounded awesome. It was at such a high pitch, and he obviously nailed it. Anyway this is just sort of a random interview (Actually not much of an interview also la) that I found of JC and 2 very lucky girls. 

Lucky girls. 


So yes, I'm still trying to decide my mood today. On one hand I'm ecstatic that its JC month and on the other hand I'm down in the dumps thinking about my awesome Loss Models online exam. So yeah. I'm confused today. It probably shows in my god-awful post today. I just realised how boring I sound. Oh well, I'm having an off day. It is the middle of the week after all.


Aren't I awesome?