User blog comment:Fimber/Why I understand Uther's reasons for banning magic - and why no one is a saint on "Merlin"/@comment-4814726-20120628000258/@comment-5102537-20120628184829

The question is what the Old Religion really is. Is it an entity or just some power without any kind of conscience? Is it "directed" by kind of higher beings that are even above the High Priests and Priestesses or are the Priests/Priestesses the ones who control the magic? In our religions, people believe in a higher being that controls and leads everything. If this is the case with The Old Religion, wether it's an entity or the High Priestesses, there is indeed at least someone who can be held responsible. If it's just a power like the power of nature, it can be controlled by mortal beings up to a certain point and used for evil that, as explained in my blog, can't actually be controlled and defeated by humans. Humans are at the mercy of those who control/navigate/use this kind of power.

Either way, Uther had tried to stop this, wether he could succeed or not. It's out of question that his methods and the fact that he killed everyone who had anything to do with magic was wrong and can't be justified, but I think that the magic we have seen so far was being described that way, more evil than good, for a purpose. At least in the first three seasons I had the feeling that the writers had much deeper thoughts about the entire concept, additionally to the attempt to provide thrill and drama. So I'm convinced that the destruction that magic had caused was intentionally brought into the entire plot of the show in order to show the grey zones instead of just good vs evil.

Of course, Gaius confessed because he was forced too. That's not what I meant. When Gaius told Uther that he sees foes where there are friends and sorcerers where there are mere servants, he lied. Morgana was a foe, although Uther didn't see it but Gaius was well aware of the fact that she was a great danger to him and the entire kingdom. Merlin is not just a mere servant but the greatest sorcerer ever, living right in Uther's kingdom. Gaius has betrayed Uther from the beginning when he pretended to be his friend and to support Uther, wether Gaius had good or bad intentions, that's irrelevant for this subject. What he did was constantly lying and betraying Uther, sometimes to help him, sometimes to help others, but after season two, he was not his friend anymore and I wonder if he ever was. Yes, Uther deserved the lecture but when you listen carefully, you will see that actually Uther was right with his suspicions on other occasions and Gaius pretended as if everyone was completely innocent. Gaius, although I like him, is not an honest or really trustable person. The only one he is always protecting is Merlin. He let down Uther who trusted Gaius and saw him as a friend and he let down Morgana. He doesn't tell Arthur the truth and constantly lies. Most of the time he has to and he surely has a good heart, but he has never been really honest and is most of the time just pretending. But his mission is to protect Merlin and Arthur up to a certain point, only to fullfill the prophecy (in regard to Arthur). If Gaius ever had to choose betwen Merlin and Arthur, I'm sure he would decide for Merlin and his destiny. This is not necessarily a bad thing but Gaius is not innocent and has used magic and supported magic while pretending to support Uther who had trusted him. So his speech towards Uther was actually a lie.

When Uther sent for the Witchfinder, he surely did not foresee that someone close to him could be the sorcerer/witch. Additionally, he was still in panic about sorcery in the kingdom. I agree, he shouldn't have allowed Aredian to torment Gaius, and he wasn't comfortable with this. But he did it because, as I've written in the blog, he thought that magic would corrupt anyone and was evil and he probably thought that if Gaius had caused all the magic, he was already corrupted and had therefore fallen for the evil. Lost his soul, so to speak. It's not okay that he let Aredian work that way, I totally agree, but considering Uther's point of view of magic, it was the only thing he could do to get rid of what he thought was the devil.