Merlin's Staff and Deal with the Higher Power
- Jul 17, 2017
- 4 min read
Merlin the Wizard, the ultimate kingmaker and Arthur's long-time friend and counsellor, has been introduced as the plot-twist character in “Transformers-The Last Knight”. A drunken “charlatan” as he calls himself, he goes all the way to the mountain to beg the twelve alien Knights of Iacon holed up in a big cave for an even bigger favour: to assist Arthur's army in crushing the Saxon tribe. The alien Knights agree and give him the all-powerful alien staff that has been stolen from Cybertron. Only the descendants of Merlin may wield the power of the staff.
Picture from http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/8/86/TLK_Knight_gives_staff.jpg
The 'Merlin-given-the-Staff' scene in "Transformers-The Last Knight" did not look like this picture.
However, when Merlin passes on, the Knights bury the staff with him. They go dormant, hiding in their Knights' Temenos warship, and awaiting for the 13th Knight to show up to restore them. As the staff lies hidden underwater in Merlin's coffin for1600 years, the family fortune twists and turns, evolving into a secret brotherhood, the Witwiccan Order, pledged to safeguard the secret history of the Transformers on earth.
The all-important alien staff now serves as the reason for the invasion of planet earth by the alien Transformers for the next 1600 years. It is the singular power house to revive the desolate Cybertron.
Fast forward to 21st century, the great great great great grand-daughter of the wizard, Vivian Wembly, manages to retrieve it. But before that, she has to lose her own father, in life and in death, to the secret.
Lord Edmund Burton
Picture from http://www.businessinsider.com/transformers-the-last-knight-is-it-good-2017-6/?IR=T
“It has been said through the ages, without sacrifice, there can be no victory.”
--Lord Edmund Burton
In a few scenes at the grand library inside Lord Edmund Burton's castle, peppered with a few quote-worthy lines from the venerable leader of the Witwiccan Order, the movie seems to suggest that family alienation, premature death and ”left-behind kids” are a few price tags that come with the Merlin-Iacon Knights pact.
“No sacrifice, no victory.”
The new tagline has been delivered a few times, from the beginning to the end of “Transformers-The Last Knight”. This line kind of sums it all up for making the deal with a higher power.
Imagine. Your great great great great great grandfather has already signed you up for a millennium-long battles of inter-galactic proportion—way before your grandparents were even conceived. Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, or whether you are ready to sacrifice for it or not, right here in the 21st century, the battle is full-on. And ignorance is no bliss, for “no sacrifice, no victory”.
With a “sozzled” and “ladies-man” ancestor like Wizard Merlin, who needs more enemy, really?
The“deal with the higher power” theme has been played out in several movies, books and games. The higher power may be the Good Angel or the Devil in Disguise, and the character who cuts the deal may be the protagonist or the antagonist. Its general idea is, there is no free lunch and nothing comes without a price tag attached.
Picture from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Doctor-Faustus-play
The classic examples of “deal with the higher power” are Christopher Marlowe's 16th century “The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus” and German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 18th century “Faust”, in which the erudite Faust, a scholar and an alchemist, made a deal with the Devil to have his desire for every wanton pleasure fulfilled in 24 years (Marlowe's version) and perpetual thirst for knowledge quenched (Goethe's version). Guess what? Perhaps, these classics might have been inspired by the Holy Bible as they bear a striking resemblance to the narrative arch in the “Book of Job”.
From these classics, the English Language derived the interesting expression “a Faustian bargain”.
How do we use the expression?
Here's an example from an opinion piece written by political observer, Mr David Brooks of “The New York Times”, published on January 31st 2017:
Republicans make Faustian bargain with Trump
Many Republican members of Congress have made a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump. They don’t particularly admire him as a man, they don’t trust him as an administrator, they don’t agree with him on major issues, but they respect the grip he has on their voters, they hope he’ll sign their legislation and they certainly don’t want to be seen siding with the inflamed progressives or the hyperventilating media.
Their position was at least comprehensible: How many times in a lifetime does your party control all levers of power? When that happens you’re willing to tolerate a little Trumpian circus behavior in order to get things done.
But if the last 10 days have made anything clear, it’s this: The Republican Fausts are in an untenable position. The deal they’ve struck with the devil comes at too high a price. It really will cost them their soul.....
(extract from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/opinion/the-republican-fausts.html?mcubz=0)
No prize for guessing who the “devil” is in this article. Just by reading these few sentences, one could figure the writer's tone, that is, his attitude towards the Trump presidency. More about this topic of tone at the next opportune time.
Picture from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/devils_advocate/
Picture from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829150/
To add, here are three Hollywood movie examples: “Spawn” (1997), “The Devil's Advocate” (1997) as well as “Dracula Untold” (2014). And who could forget the faustian-packed Corleone family in “The God Father” trilogy?
Picture from the Wikipedia
When it comes to video games, “Myth: The Fallen Lords” is one good example to illustrate “deal with the devil” theme. Here's a nice quote from the video game:
“History has proven a thousand times that no man has ever gained from a bargain with The Dark, yet cowards and fools continue to try, and the Dark never turns them away.”
-The Mayor, Myth: The Fallen Lords
If you are thinking of your next Creative Writing piece, why not try to spin a story around the “Deal with the Higher Power”?
Happy Writing!
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