Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Five/@comment-5102537-20140420094458/@comment-5102537-20140421130333

Issy5209 wrote: But at the same time again he states that though he thinks Arthur is a good man, he tells Deagal he'd probably have his head for having magic.

And here the incomprehensible belief in Arthur shows again. This sentence demonstrates better than anything that Arthur didn't do anything better than Uther, yet he was the one who Merlin considered to be so good. While Arthur did the same things with sorcerers his father did, Merlin didn't have to seem a problem with it, absolving Arthur of his wrongdoings but blaming Uther for the same things. Appearantly, Merlin understands and somehow tolerates Arthur's reasons for hating magic, which was the death of his parents at the hands of magic, but at the same time dismisses Uther's reasons for it which was the death of his wife and the chaos that magic brought to the land before Uther took the throne. So Arthur's loss is understandable but Uther's is not?

Unfortunately, Merlin never ever mentioned any reason why he believed that Arthur was such a good person and will change someday. The show should have questioned Merlin's confidence in Arthur at least once.

Well, the Sarrum: why in the world was he needed for peace among the Five Kingdoms? Why was the peace at risk? Was Sarrum part of the Five Kingdoms, and if so, where was he when Uther signed the treaty with the Five Kingdoms? What kingdoms exactly were the Five Kingdoms when all of a sudden there was no peace among them even though they had signed treaties in season two already and when Sarrum obviously had now a part in them? Why had Arthur to sign new treaties? With whom? Where were the kings of the Five Kingdoms, like Olaf, Align and the others who signed the treaty in season two, what part of the land was represented by Odin, for example, and was he suddenly also one of the Five Kingdoms, and if so, where was he in season two? Same with Annis, was she one of the Five Kingdoms? How many "Five Kingdoms" are there?

Merlin's cold attitude towards Daegal at first was quite unpleasant and demonstrated his sudden indifference towards the entire magic-issue. It took Daegal a while to convince Merlin to help him. How come? Why would Merlin sudenly let down a fellow magic-user in need? Wasn't this part of his destiny?

And why would Daegal show Merlin who he was when they've never met and when he couldn't know who Merlin was and that he could trust him? Merlin didn't know that it was Morgana's plan, so he should have been suspicious when Daegal showed him the druid sign. And what made Morgana so sure that Merlin would help a druid?

I found it disturbing that Arthur just accepted Sarrum's torture of Morgana. While I didn't expect Arthur to shed tears for his malicious half-sister after everything that she had done (though he still didn't know that she had reversed the spell and killed Uther) I wonder why he even considered Sarrum as his ally. A man who betrayed his friends and allies, who was even feared by Uther and therefore never had a treaty with (and we should remember that Sarrum hated magic too, even more than Uther, yet Uther didn't work together with him, but Arthur does??) and who took great pleasure in the misery and agony of others, of which even Gaius warned him. Imagine what Uther would have done with anyone who had harmed his daughter. He would have killed Sarrum on the spot.Yet Arthur didn't do anything but still seeked and alliance with Sarrum. This was completely incomprehensible.

At the same time it showed again that Uther wasn't the only one who hated and forbid magic. Sarrum was just one of the many people who hated sorcery, and he was even worse than Uther. I think it speaks for itself that Uther didn't have an alliance with Sarrum but maybe only a truce, even though he would have been a strong ally in the fight against magic. This also demonstrated that it wasn't so easy to simply allow magic, even if Uther had ever wanted to, given that most kingdoms outlawed and hated it. Things weren't as simple as the show often wanted to make the viewers believe. It also demonstrated that Uther was much wiser than Arthur. While he was cautious enough to not work with someone like Sarrum but managed to keep peace in spite of this, Arthur took the risk and ignored the upcoming consequences because he thought that he needed Sarrum.

It also raises the question why Morgana, Morgause and countless other sorcerers only always attacked Camelot when there were other kingdoms who banned and hated magic, too and when there was even somebody like Sarrum who seemed to be the worst one of all. Why was always Camelot the main target? Wouldn't it have been much more logical for Morgause and Morgana (and for others) to first take out Sarrum and some other kingdoms, to gain the power and army forces of them and THEN attack Camelot? Had they succeeded in taking over other kingdoms and eliminated the magic haters one by one, soon Camelot would have been alone in the fight against magic. Instead all those magical attackers never even mentioned other kingdoms that hated magic.

Morganas plans were once again so complicated that they had to fail. Like Issy5209 has already pointed out, Morgana left Merlin alive instead of killing him immediately. Even though she took pleasure in his agony, she could have waited until he was dead to make sure that he won't cross her plans again. The only logic in her plan was the fact that she wanted to eliminate both Arthur and Sarrum at the same time. Yet I don't understand why she never wanted to kill Sarrum before that. Never before she was captured by him and never before he came to Camelot, when he was the one who had tortured her. And why did she never wonder about the fact that Uther feared him and didn't work with him? Shouldn't this have shown her that Uther scrupled and wasn't as bad as she thought?

Why didn't Sarrum wonder that Gwen wanted Arthur dead? He trusted her although, from where he stood, it all could have been a test by Arthur. His own wife plots against him without giving Sarrum a valid reason. What Lord/king/warrior would ever believe such a thing?

There was so much more that was just so wrong, like, for example, Merlin leaving with evil Gwen next to Arthur, Arthur not being able to dress himself and Sarrum being able to capture Morgana and then Morgana being able to escape. How?

Poor Aithusa! I felt so sorry for him or her. He or she went through hell and back. And I felt sorry for Daegal. Shame that Merlin always had to lose almost everyone who knew of his powers.