One thing I think I remember (though I very much could have this mixed up!) is that a lot of the animal parts were originally in the fifth book in the context of Merlin deciding he hadn't done a good enough job educating Arthur as a young man, and so coming back to him at a point in adulthood where Arthur was making what Merlin considered bad decisions about war, and sending him on these animal journeys to reconsider what war and power and so forth should look like. So it's a fascinating change of context to have them in the beginning instead of the end, from that point of view.
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Date: 2022-04-24 11:11 pm (UTC)So it's a fascinating change of context to have them in the beginning instead of the end, from that point of view.