Name: Wizards Vs. Cursed: How the Two Visions of Arthurian Legend Compare
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Wizards Vs. Cursed: How the Two Visions of Arthurian Legend Compare

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Arthurian legend is a cornerstone of Western storytelling tropes and its elements appear in franchises like , , and . In 2020, Netflix has adapted the adventures of Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and company in two different series,&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;.The gory, live-action Cursed&nbsp;is focused around the mythical Nimue. On the other side of the coin, Guillermo del Toro's animated kids' series&nbsp;Wizards: Tales of Arcadia adapts the Arthurian myth for the Pixar generation. Here's how the two shows deal with different elements of the&nbsp;mythos.CBR VIDEO OF THE DAYIn Wizards,&nbsp;Arthur is already the King of Camelot and at the height of his powers. Interestingly enough, both this Arthur and the one in&nbsp;Cursed&nbsp;are living in a world that hates magic. Consequently, both have pushed their magical sister, Morgana, into the shadows.That's where the similarities stop. Cursed's Arthur is young, strappy, hungry and Black, which challenges&nbsp;conventional notions of medieval legends in a good way. He has an open mind, he's able to love and forgive and he is more concerned with achieving balance than bending the world to his will.Wizard's Arthur is old, white and incredibly prejudiced, even against his own sister. His racist worldview swings wildly during the series. He's incapable of tolerance or nuance and he longs for a Camelot that never existed. Cursed's Arthur represents hope for the future, while Wizards' Arthur is destructive nostalgia.Both Cursed and Wizards feature deliciously complex Morganas, who are either&nbsp;canonically&nbsp;queer or coded as such. It's the demise of their first love which quickstarts their arc.Morgana from Cursed&nbsp;is introduced at a convent, where Arthur put her when she was a small child and she is now running an underground fairy railroad. While Morgana joins the rebels and her affiliation is squarely on the side of the good guys, when she learns about the death of Celia, her partner and lover, she starts falling into the darker side of magic.Cursed's Morgana is "cursed by dark gods," which is exactly what happens to the Morgana from Wizards -- she's rescued from death by powerful demigods who set her against her former friends and allies. Both Morganas have excellent reasons to go question the authority structures around them and to seek their own power, which makes their descents relatable, nuanced and tragic.Cursed's Merlin fits the trickster archetype, while Merlin in Wizards is an old mentor. Both series show Merlin's past history with Excalibur and Nimue, but the way they weave these elements is very different.In Wizards, Merlin trapped the Lady of the Lake/tentacle monster in a cave after stealing Excalibur for Arthur. In Cursed, Merlin wants to protect Nimue at all costs. The latter shows Merlin was the berserker leader of the army that fought the Roman invasion of the British Isles. When Merlin lost Excalibur, he lost most of his powers.While Merlin was Morgana's teacher in Wizards, in Cursed they only meet in the very last episodes.In Arthurian legend, the Lady of the Lake was Nimue, a powerful sorceress who was either Merlin's lover, apprentice or rival. She also saved Lancelot, gave Arthur his sword and became an ally to other Arthurian knights. When Arthur died, Nimue whisked him away to Avalon until the world&nbsp;needed him again.In Wizards, Nimue is an underwater-dwelling, tentacled monster who uses a human-shaped tentacle to communicate. This Nimue is not very relevant to the plot of Wizards, although she marks the spot where the new generation starts healing the world broken by the old one.Nimue is Cursed's protagonist, the legitimate wielder of Excalibur and leader of the fey. She's also Merlin's daughter and has an explicitly romantic connection with Arthur. Her connection to water is associated with bloodshed, not with healing.In Arthurian legend, Lancelot was King Arthur's right-hand knight and also his romantic rival for the heart of Queen Guinevere. Both Wizards and Cursed do away with this; in Wizards, Lancelot is a vain but loyal vassal, many years Arthur's junior, who has no connection to Guinevere at all.In Cursed, Lancelot is a self-hating fey allied with the Red Priests and connected with fire and ashes; instead of a dashing, charming Knight,&nbsp;he's&nbsp;a silent and sinister Crying Monk. Lancelot is also the same age as Arthur and -- up until the very last episode of the season -- intent on destroying the fey.The Arthurian cycle presented Excalibur as a magnificent weapon that lent legitimacy to the "true king"; depending on the version, Arthur got it from a stone, or from the Lady of the Lake. Both Cursed and Wizards go with the Lady of the Lake version, although in Cursed&nbsp;Nimue also pulls Excalibur from a stone.Wizards hints at the corruptive power of Excalibur, which Arthur wields to attack everything and everyone connected with magic, including his own sister -- and later to attack the human world in a gruesome overcorrection. Cursed makes this explicit: Excalibur's dark influence consumes its wielder's mind and morals. Merlin, who was Excalibur's owner before the show began, became a bloodthirsty king of war and he remembers that time with regret.Much like the One Ring, Excalibur seems to have its own mind, twisting the world to try to end in a man's hand -- be it Merlin, Arthur, or Uther Pendragon.

Arthurian legend is a cornerstone of Western storytelling tropes and its elements appear in franchises like , , and . In 2020, Netflix has adapted the adventures of Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and company in two different series,&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;.The gory, live-action Cursed&nbsp;is focused around the mythical Nimue. On the other side of the coin, Guillermo del Toro's animated kids' series&nbsp;Wizards: Tales of Arcadia adapts the Arthurian myth for the Pixar generation. Here's how the two shows deal with different elements of the&nbsp;mythos.CBR VIDEO OF THE DAYIn Wizards,&nbsp;Arthur is...

Wizards Vs. Cursed: How the Two Visions of Arthurian Legend Compare

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