A/N: For a little while, I didn't think I was going to get this out today because I'm working on a top secret, hush hush, super secret surprise, never before done (as far as I've seen) Merlin fan-fiction of doom. But then I decided my regular fics come first, and I'll work on the super secret surprise in my spare time. :) So here we are with The Changeling Part 1. Thanks for all your reviews for the last one – again I apologize for it not being as funny, that's just a not-so-funny episode. I don't write the scripts, I just watch the finished product and then drool over it. :P Enjoy and don't forget to REVIEW!

About the chapter title, this is a short one (about 1/5 of what it normally would be) because I just can't seem to get inspired today but didn't want to leave you with nothing. I'll update before next Thursday with the other 4/5 of part 1 so part 2 should come in time. Sorry about the inconvenience, it's been a long week with school starting back and all. Hardly any time to write! :) Please review regardless!

Reflections

Chapter Fifteen: The Changeling Part 1/5 of 1 of 3

This has got to be one of my favorite comic episodes of the third season! And this episode only strengthens my belief that BBC uses ninjas with spy cameras, little cameras that look like jelly beans, or something to spy on me so they can model their characters after me and my friends.

Seriously.

First they modeled Arthur and Merlin's relationship off of mine with my best friend, April. No joke – before the idea of Merlin was even put out there, I was just like Merlin and she Arthur. She's sarcastic, can be bossy, calls me names (she called me a flea bag! A flea bag!), throws things at me, smacks me when I tease her (and even when I don't, bless her) and last time she came to my house, she sat on my bed and watched me as I cleaned up the mess! Is that not Arthur? And me – I'm clumsy, witty (at least in my own mind, ha ha!), sarcastic, and always get beat up by my friend and I can be a bit thick sometimes... Plus, I'm totally adorable. And modest. Yep. Completely modest.

Weird, huh?

And now they decided to spy on me again to get their inspiration for Princess Elena! I'm torn between being flattered and paranoid… What's next? They'll come out with a new show where the main character will be a quirky and sarcastic young woman who has no life and instead spends all her spare time writing fan-fiction? And she'll always say OF DOOM and make stupid jokes and… *panics* It's a CONSPIRACY!

Anyway, rabbit trail. Oooh, bunny! Where? Ahem.

So, this episode starts off like a fairy tale. Seriously… there's even a pink castle (my dream home, by the way…). PINK! At first I thought it was Camelot and I cracked up.

UTHER: Gaius, I'm thinking about remodeling the castle.
GAIUS: The castle, sire? But it's been this way for years. Why would you want to change it now?
UTHER: Because I'm getting in touch with my feminine side, Gaius! I've already made my bedroom lavender and I'm changing Camelot's colors to baby blue and periwinkle, and instead of a dragon on the crest, it's going to be a My Little Pony! And I'm changing my last name to My Little Pen-Pony. Oh oh oh! And instead of arrows, our bows will be stocked with flowers – not roses of course, because the thorns might hurt if they poke someone in the eye – and no more burning people at the stake! Instead, we'll hug them until the evil is smushed right out of them.
GAIUS: Hug the evil out? *shrugs* Aaaalright… come over here, you big lug! (Wraps Uther in a giant bear hug and picks him up off the ground.
UTHER: What are you doing?
GAIUS: You said to hug the evil out of people… forgive me sire, I have a feeling this embrace is going to last a long time…

Heehee… If that were the case, I'd SO claim Merlin was evil just so I could cure him of it with a never ending hug...

But anyway, the pink castle. So when it comes on the screen, Barbie's eyes are going wide and she's beating the crap out of Ken screaming, "THAT'S MY HOUSE!"

But the episode sets up very similar to a fairy tale – I got sleeping beauty vibes from it. A little baby – we're assuming she's a girl since she's in a pink bed in a pink room in a pink castle, unless she's a he and, like Uther, is trying to get in touch with his feminine side. And the baby is so cute! But her parents need to have some sense slapped into them. Who on earth leaves their little baby up in a lone room in a castle to fend for themselves with a window open, while devious blue fairies seek for a child to possess? I mean, seriously.

And when said devious blue fairy enters the room – the same blue fairy that wanted that Sophia chick to sacrifice Arthur to the Sidhe in season one episode seven (I know, I know, I'm a nerd) – and possesses the cute little baby whose parents left vulnerable, the baby wakes up and cries. I'd cry too if there was a tiny little man inside of me.

Oooh – buzz word! Do you know the word for "tiny little man?" It's homunculus! You can use it in all kinds of sentences, especially since most people don't have the first clue what it means. I personally think it should mean a clan of war-like squirrels from northern Canada that spend their spare time writing limericks about origami. When I wrote that definition out on my vocabulary test, my teacher sent me to a brain doctor for an evaluation. Go figure.

As I was saying, I'd cry too if I had a homunculus inside of me … or maybe I wouldn't. That would be kind of cool, don't you think, to have a little man living in you? I'd name my inner-homunculus Randalf and we'd play poker and sing duets and roast marshmallows and… Hmmm…. Now I'm jealous of little Elena. I wonder where I can get me one of these little blue homunculuses? Or homunculi?

I got a Sleeping Beauty vibe from the beginning, as I said. Sleeping Beauty: Little baby princess, destined for greatness, gets cursed by an evil witch as a child to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die on her sixteenth birthday. Homunculus Beauty: Little baby princess, destined for greatness, gets cursed (not to mention, possessed) by an evil winged blue man – we're going to call him Roy; he looks like a Roy – to be, well, un-princessy, I guess.

But honestly, even though Gaius claims she would feel better without the little dude inside of her, I think that Elena is AWESOME the way she is. I mean, come on, in every fairy tale, the princess wears beautiful, elaborate dresses, is graceful, refined, has manners, is charming… This girl is none of those things. First off, that dress she wears makes her look like a banana – and not a curvy, princess-esque banana either. Like a banana that's been left in the sun too long. And she's anything but graceful – almost as clumsy as me, but I don't think that's possible – not refined in the slightest, has no manners and is most certainly not charming.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a bad thing – I'm saying it makes her awesome because she's a non-conformist. She's sticking it to the man! She farts in public, picks her teeth, trips over nothing, sneezes on people, and eats live amphibians! How original is that for a princess? If I were a princess, I'd be like Elena (well obviously, since the BBC modeled her after me), except for the whole frog thing. I could've done without.

So after the whole pre-episode fairy tale curse of DOOM sequence, the title sequence comes on… and then when the show resumes there's a handy dandy little caption that informs us it's twenty years later. Whoa – I could have sworn the theme song only lasted thirty seconds, but in actuality, it's been twenty freaking years? No wonder I feel so achy – I'm old! (awkward silence) Oh… you mean that in the show, it's been twenty years? Not that it's actually been twenty years…? Oh, okay, right. *giggle snort*

The princess is no longer a baby, but twenty years old. She's getting ready for a trip, I suppose, and how does she do it? She walks – more like tromps – over to the mirror, picks her teeth, farts, eats a big chunk out of an apple, and stomps out of her room. Real classy, this girl is. But she's very likeable, as soon as she walked onto the screen I couldn't help but smile like a goof.

And just so you know, they didn't model her morning… ah, routine… after me. I also begin my morning with a loud and unladylike yawn, just to annoy those around me. He he. Kidding… or am I?

A/N: I know, I know, it's super short, not covering a whole lot, but I'm really having trouble getting all my funny to come to the surface today. I don't know if it's because I'm dead on my feet or what. Don't kill me, though, since I barely covered the first five minutes of the episode, I'll try to do the rest of part one before Thursday so I can continue with part two on time. I just didn't want to leave you with nothing. Sorry again! Since we haven't even seen Merlin or Arthur yet, obviously the burn meter hasn't changed, so… I'll try to update before the weekend is over with the other 4/5 of part 1. :)

~Emachinescat ^..^