User blog comment:Fimber/When family is what destroys you/@comment-67.239.100.57-20121123082221/@comment-5102537-20121123232632

No, I'm not offended by your opinion, don't worry. I'm just a little tired of repeating myself over and over again because? I've discussed this so many times here and elsewhere.

I think you missed my point in many ways, plus you ignored half of what I wrote about Uther being proud of Arthur for who and what he is even when he acted against Uther's wishes and traditions. Instead you base your opinion on the latest Uther-episode in which his character was changed and turned and that made a mockery of him. I gave you various examples where Uther demonstrated that his children came first and Camelot second, even though Arthur wasn't ready yet and even though he disobeyed Uther. It's a bit disappointing that you chose to ignore them because they are the basis of Uther's character. It is what made him likable and human as a contrast to his hatred for magic. If you don't want to consider such key-scenes but believe that his whole character was described in the Overman-epsiode only, written by the one who obviously hates Uther,? I guess our debate is invane.

I don't know if you have children of your own, but if you have, you know that there isn't a way of not loving your children "enough" when you even want to die for them several times. It's a bit confusing that you ignore the fact that Uther wanted to die for Arthur even though Arthur wasn't ready to be king and Camelot was in danger, as well as the fact that Uther gave up his life and his kingdom because of Morgana the year before he died. There is no chance and possibility whatsoever to get a mental breakdown and to give up your life and kingdom for someone you don't "love enough". Maybe you are too young to see this and maybe you think that when parents educate and criticise their children, they don't love them enough. I hope you will be proven otherwise when you get older.

Let me get some facts straight: Uther never directly threatened Morgana to kill her, not even in the conversation you quoted. I also think that in season one they hadn't planned to make Morgana Uther's daughter and they changed this all later, including his behaviour towards her. As you could see, Uther kept his promise he gave to Morgana at Gorlois' grave and grew softer towards her, never touched her again and gave her all the love and respect a father could ever give. It was Morgana who grew colder and it was Morgana who thought that Uther would kill her, not Uther. The fact that he didn't even try after the season three finale spoke volumes. He could have told Arthur to look for Morgana in order to kill her. Instead he gave up his own life and even offered it to Morgana in the cell in order to save the innocent people of Camelot. He wanted to give his life into the hands of a powerful sorcereress to save strangers. This was what described and actually concluded Uther's character, not the silly and stupid farce in "The Death Song..."

No, Merlin didn't do the morally right thing and desirable example when saving Uther for Arthur's sake. Merlin knew very well that Uther wasn't evil but that he had good reasons for his hatred. He knew that he was a broken man but not a villain. If Arthur didn't love his father but if Uther was a stranger, Merlin wouldn't have hesitated to let Arthur kill him - and that's the point. To regard a life as being valubale or to be destroyed only through one's own subjective opinion is just plain wrong! There is nothing to argue here. Uther was in Merlin's way. Merlin wanted to help Arthur. Merlin would have let Uther die if it wasn't for Arthur. Uther was a human being and not evil. Merlin knew that. The only right thing to do by a goodhearted "hero" would have been to state out that saving another's life was the priority and not only the feelings of his best friend. It doesn't matter if Merlin liked or disliked Uther, the only thing that mattered was to save a life, and to save it because of THEIR life and not because he didn't want Arthur to be unhappy afterwards. If you don't understand what I mean then I don't know how to explain it to you.

Yes, multifaced characters are the most interesting ones and yes, the old fairytales describe black & white situations. Here you missed my point again. I was criticising the fairytales but I also considered the fact that at least children see the differences between right and wrong in them. On "Merlin" they are having a hard time because all the multifaced characters suddenly turned into evil and two-dimensional characters and the so called heroes always banter around and slap and tease each other whenever they have done questionable things. Everything they do is downplayed by this in the end again. This so called family show presents the ones who do questionable things as the heroes and they make victims of offenders and offenders of victims.

Merlin is not a hero anymore, yet a lot of fans haven't noticed that yet.? Let's take a look at "The Disir", for example. Merlin is willing to let Mordred die only to save Arthur. The Disir/Triple Goddess demand Arthur to bow and to obey which means to give up his sovereignty, otherwise he will lose everone and everything he loves. Yet, even though Arthur tells Merlin clearly that the land was almost destroyed by magic when when Uther took the throne, Uther is the bad guy because he outlawed magic.? The show cant decide whether to show magic as something that should be restored or as something that should be eliminated because it's evil. Even when it's more than obvious and evident that the source of magic, the Triple Goddess, is evil and cruel, Uther is supposed to be the one who was in Merlin's way and who influenced Arthur. In the end, because of Merlin only, people think that magic should come back. But why when it it's cruel and cold and enslaves people and when it had almost destroyed the land before Uther conquered it? There is no moral direction anymore whatsoever, the entire show drowns in chaos meanwhile. The bad ones are right, the good ones do bad things, the evil ones are pardoned, the right ones are wrong. What the hell is going on here?

As for Uther returning to the afterlife, you missed my point again. I'm not saying that Arthur shoud have tried to keep Uther's spirit in the world of the living. What I was saying was that Arthur didn't give a damn about Uther's peace of soul. He didn't want to believe that it was his father who caused the mayhem in Camelot, so he knew that something was different. Yet he didn't even think for a minute that maybe Uther suffered in the spirit world and therefore was angry and vengeful. If I had the chance to talk to my loved ones after their death I woud do anything to give them their peace of soul. Obviously, Arthur doesn't care at all. Instead Arthur and Merlin were in the mood for some banter again. How I detest this silly, stupid and naive way of writing. It's a real farce. It was all about poor Arthur and ass*****le Uther. Totally ridiculous.

As for tormenting Gwen. Yes, he burnt some sorcerers at the stake. That's the point, it wasn't those who didn't use magic but those who who had magic. Gwen wasn't a sorceress and didn't use magic, therefore it was totally out of character for Uther to try to burn her alive and to torture her with things flying around and hurting her. What a rubbish! When he burnt sorcerers, the fire was supposed to eliminate the magic with the users. Of course it's cruel, no doubt about it, but it was canon in those times. In the real dark ages, the monarchs punished and killed people even crueler and with much more horrific things.? What I said was that Uther didn't torture them before they were killed either by hanging, fire or beheading. When he attacked Gwen with the things hitting her and then trying to burn her alive, it was nonsense because he didn't do that with magic-users (torturing them) and he never burnt those who didn't use magic.? So he had no reason to do such things to Gwen.

Yes, Uther was the one who was supposed to be responsible for Arthur's actions in His Father's Son because Arthur didn't question Agravaine's advice just for a second. Arthur knew that his father would have never done such a stupid thing because he wanted peace and not war, yet Arthur listened to Agravaine without objection. So the viewer was supposed to believe that Uther would have done the same which was emphasized later when Annis compared insane and evil Morgana to Uther, even though it was Uther who had a peace contract with Caerleon and Arthur was the one who broke it. The entire epsiode was aimed at Uther being the ass again and Arthur learning his lesson. And being rewarded for his homicide in the end ;-)

"Merlin" has become totally ridiculous. What a shame, it used to be such a great show.