Board Thread:Series 5 Discussion/@comment-71.195.18.110-20130130220009/@comment-5102537-20130311155340

Merlin healed not 0nly Arthur but also Morgana and tried to help Freya. Not to mention that he had healed Uther before, for example in "A Remedy to Cure all Ills". He also helped Uther when Morgana used the mandrake root on him. Camelot was as much in danger at that point of time (due to Uther's mental condition) as it was when he was stabbed and the entire time when he was depressed and almost catatonic. He also saved Uther's life when Morgana wanted to have him killed in "To Kill the King",  when Arthur wanted to kill him in "The Sins of the father, when he was attacked  in "The Fires of Idirsholas", in "The Crystal Cave" and in "The Sorceres Shadow".

If it was Uther's fate to die because of Karma - a concept that I find quite disturbing and illogical and most of all very methaphysical and not yet even known in the dark ages in Europe  but being a part of the Indian religions - Merlin wouldn't have helped Uther before, but he did. It was his own very conscious descision.

Merlin used magic all the time, so respecting Uther's wish to not use magic in Camelot was not the case at all.

No-one needs a magical hypocratic oath in order to save someone's life. It was a part of Merlin's personality up until season four which was the very season that introduced us to Merlin's "darker" side, and with "The Wicked Day", according to the producers and also according to what we saw on the show, Merlin "grew up", which was unfortunately confused with simply becoming more indifferent and callous. The fact that he didn't want to heal Uther was deliberately done in order to show us that Merlin got darker and that he changed. "The Wicked Day" turned the entire show, it was a key epsiode, and from this epsiode on, "Merlin" wasn't what it used to be anymore. Merlin himself changed and wasn't the kind, helpful person anymore but a more callous and selfish man who was obsessed with Arthur. Remember, he also wanted Mordred to die, something which he would never have done during the first three seasons without trying a different way first.

Oh yes, it made very much sense that he used to help Uther (in the first three seasons) because it was important to show that hatred and fear is no reason to kill others or to let people die. By that, Merlin was shown being different from Uther, being "better" than him and more than just his subjective emotions. Unlike Uther who started to hate magic and started the Great Purge out of grief and fear (plus the fact that magic almost destroyed the land before he came to Camelot), Merlin even helped the one he had to fear. With the change in season four, Merlin became more and more a selfish person who sacrificed others for the sake of his own feelings, so he wasn't really any better than Uther, except that he didn't start a war. Ethically, he did what Uther did. And so did many others. Mordred, Arthur, Morgana, countless sorcerers....

It was Merlin's decision to get rid of Uther by the wound of the Gleeman's attack, a very cowardly attempt, by the way. He could have helped but he decided not to help. Therefore he betrayed his own personality and his so-called best friend. And most of all all morals and ethics.