Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130512091538/@comment-5102537-20130822140126

ReganX wrote:

Fimber wrote: I agree. As a matter of fact, "The Sins of the Father" was the epsiode that created the inconsistency whereas it still makes sense that in "Le Morte d'Arthur" Nimueh was the one who killed Igraine. She simply could have lied to Uther in "Excalibur" in order to burden his conscience even more. Maybe she just didn't expect Uther to freak out when Igraine dies and maybe she had personal reasons for killing her but the show didn't bother to explain later, especially when "The Sins of the Father" ignored the previous storylines all of a sudden and made Uther sacrificing Igraine willingly. Based on what we know of Uther's love for Ygraine, that would be like going out in the rain without a coat or umbrella and then being surprised when you get wet.

Yes, we know that but maybe Nimueh didn't see it coming. Surely, a lot of people lost loved ones but the majority didn't start a Great Purge and killed countless sorcerers/people cecause of it.

Who knows, maybe it was the writers intention that Nimueh didn't like Igraine. Or maybe it was a test for Uther. Perhaps Nimueh was in love with him, perhaps she hated him due to whatever reason. Or maybe the entire Great Purge was indeed planned by the Old Religion, as weird as it sounds, given that Merlin's birth was planned in ancient times already which was necessary in order to help Arthur whose birth obviously was planned too and which caused the Great Purge...

Who knows, maybe Uther was supposed to accept really everything that the Old Religion did, even when losing his loved ones, in order to prove himself being worthy for them. Like God demanded Abraham to kill his son Isaac in order to prove his faith and love for God. The Old Religion might have tested Uther's worship for them that way and then abandoned him when he didn't submit but fought the Old Religion instead.

And in case that this was the original intention of the show, it would make sense that Nimueh had Uther believe that it wasn't she who chose his wife but really the Old Religion that chose Igraine - but not due to some personal reasons but only randomly. That way she could make Uther believe that things just happen and that in the end, the Old Religion is the almighty power and the very thing that should be respected and accepted, if not being worshipped since it has the power over life and death but supposedly no evil intentions. It would show Uther that humans are imperfect and make mistakes but that the Old Religion doesn't and that every attempt to fight fate is supposed to be pure arrogance of minor human beings/mortals. That way she probably thought that Uther wouldn't condemn her but keep her within the castle, plus he wouldn't think that magic corrupts but that it was just the way "nature" works and that there is no one to be held responsible.

Too bad that Uther saw it differently and decided to not submit and to fight the Old Religion since he put his own kind over magic and its evil powers and indeed held the Old Religion itself responsible for what happened.

When Merlin fought Nimueh in "Le Morte d'Arthur", he told her that he didn't want to have anything to do with her kind, which showed that he saw things differently too and disagreed with the dogmas of the Old Religion but obviously, at that point of time, wanted a better world with a mercyful and fair religion. He could have been the one to bring it on and to change the Old Ways into a new religion with magic that coexisted peacefully and respectfully with mortals/humans.

From this point of view, even Gaius' decision to stay in Camelot makes sense because he too was wary of the Old Ways but agreed with the "good" magic only and knew that Uther wasn't evil but only tried to fight what he thought was wrong, opressive and evil from the core. He didn't have to approve of the Great Purge, of course (and who could?) but he might have realised that the Old Ways and its dogmas were indeed not desirable anymore but that a new time had to come, something between Uther's hatred and Great Purge and the cruel Old Ways of the Old Religion.

Hadn't they changed it all later, staring with "The Sins of the Father" and continuing it in later seasons with Merlin suddenly changing, with Morgana becoming a comic strip-evil witch and with Uther being an evil psychopath all of a sudden in his last appearance while turning Arthur into a naive and sometimes even dumb king who didn't really know what to do and what was right and wrong, thus turning the show into a shallow action drama full of immature characters and black & white stories, the differences between "Excalibur" and "Le Morte d'Arthur" would have made perfect sense and could have been the beginning of a very intelligent and fascinating plotline.