Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Three/@comment-5102537-20130810111259/@comment-5102537-20130811113605

I feel torn about these episodes. There are things I find really good and others that I wish they hadn't done.

In the beginning, when Gaius talks to Uther, asking him to end the search for Morgana, there are two important things showing. First, that Uther, like every ruler,  doesn't care about his soldiers much which is clear when he intends to continue the search, despite all the soldiers having died in the process.

The other thing is that here it's evident that Morgana is more important to him than his kingdom and that he would stop at nothing in order to save his daughter.

He risked his kingdom, which isn't good, of course, but he did it because of his love for Morgana. This should have proven to her that he indeed cares a lot about her because nobody would ever risk what's supposed to be the only important thing in his life when he doesn't love his child. I think it was quite silly for Morgana to ignore this (not to mention the later mentions in seasons four and five that Uther only cared about Camelot and nothing else. Plotholes again). She should have realised that he was willing to give up everything for her - which, on the other hand, was quite a bad situation for Camelot's inhabitants, of course. On the other hand, when Morgana is finally "found", Uther is naturally convinced again that the whole thing was worth it and that it was right to not give up, no matter the costs.

Anyway, with Morgana hiding for a year, she and Morgause succeeded in weaking Camelot, thus  giving Cenred a chance to attack. This was a good plan, but at the same time, both actually knew what Uther was going to do, meaning to sacrifice half of his army in order to find Morgana. This also shows that both knew how much he loved Morgana, so all the rants about Uther not caring was total rubbish. In case that they hadn't intended it but later only realised that Camelot was looking for Morgana for  a year, it's the same difference. Either way, Morgana finally knew what she meant to Uther but kept ignoring it vehemently - which continued even when Uther told the court at the feast what Morgana meant to him and what he would have done to find her.

Additionally, Morgause needed his tears for the spell with the mandrake root. So again, they knew exactly that he would be so happy to have Morgana back that it will bring him to tears. I doubt that Morgause and Morgana had planned on seeing Uther cry someday by coincidence due to whatever reason. They needed his tears as soon as possible, so they had planned on an emotional reuninion - which wouldn't have been possible if Uther didn't love Morgana and which they wouldn't have planned if they hadn't known that Morgana would cause this reaction due to his love for her.

So again: why did Morgana always claim that Uther didn't love her?

The tears that were needed for the spell was a great idea by the writers, in my opinion. They were a symbol for what tormented Uther's conscience and subconciouss which shows how much he suffered from having killed children and from the death of Igraine. Though I really hated that they made him having killed children because I think they took it a bit too far for a family show and described him differently in the first season, the visions he had due to the mandrake root proved clearly that he didn't take it easy but suffered from his own doings tremendously- which made him a human being with a conscience again.

I never understood why Morgana returned being so hateful and such a killer machine without any explanation. Something must have happened during the year with Morgause, alas they never ever told us or maybe didn't even gave it a second thought. It was total rubbish to blame Uther for everything because when Morgana almost died at the end of season two, Uther was uncounscious the whole time and didn't do anything to her, unlike Merlin who tried to kill her for good reasons. But even this wasn't reason enough for her to suddenly really hate everyone, including her close friends.

I also never understood why she suddenly took so much pleasure in torturing Uther (and later in torturing others as well). Someone who loves to see the one who loves her and almost sacrificed everything for her suffer so much can only be suffering from a serious mental disease. It's sadistical and the actions of a psychopath. It's one thing to hate someone and to wish to get rid of them, but another to enjoy the total misery and suffering of the person in question.

Even though Morgana has always been great in manipulating others, she was at her best here when she first fooled Merlin by pretending to understand him and then when she used Uther's love and trust against him by torturing him. Didn't she see that his misery caused by the mandrake root proved that he was not the cold and ruthless killer she always wanted to see in him? If he was just a selfish, ruthless and callous killer, then why did he scream like hell and collapsed when he saw Igraine in the well?

There must have been other reasons for Morgana to suddenly hate him and her friends so tremendously. It would have been a good idea if they had explained her change by a spell that Morgause used on her, maybe similar to Gwen when she was enchanted in season five. Gwen didn't care about how much Arthur and everyone else loved her during her enchantment, and it was the same with Morgana. It wasn't love that she wanted but she only followed her ridiculous hatred and her hunger for power. This wasn't normal at all and it couldn't be explained at all.

Shame that with season three they changed Morgana into a psychopath like they changed Uther into a psychopath in season five.

There is a lot more to say about these two episodes but I'll stop for now.