Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130323143713/@comment-5102537-20130330122445

What can I say? I agree with you, ReganX.

To me it seems that the showrunners didn't know what they actually wanted after the first two seasons. First they do anything to show us that there isn't only black & white and that magic was a dangerous thing that gave Uther very good reasons for fighting it, then they changed it all into the sacred and divine thing that Merlin has to restore at all costs, making Uther the monster and responsible for everything, and then they made magic and the freedom of sorcerers unimportant, told us again how cruel and uncontrollable magic is but still made Uther the monster by turning him into an evil pschopath and by continuing making him responsible for really everything, even when they showed us at the same time (again) that he freed the land from the destructive and oppressing power and rebuilt Camelot to the place we have seen, the place that Arthur ran to protect his people and that Gwen took over after Arthur's death.

Very weird.

In the beginning of the show, the viewer learnt (and actually knew already) that not every sorcerer is evil and that, on the other side, Uther wasn't evil either and that there were reasons for the entire situation. Merlin was the one who was supposed to unite the actually incompatible parties by showing us that there is a way to use magic responsibly and that there wasn't only Uther acting out of vengeance but also sorcerers/magic-users who did bad things and followed the same path and concept of vengeance and also of corrupted power.

And then, pooof, all gone. Magic is bad but Merlin is not, but Uther is bad too but Arthur and everyone else who supported the ban of magic aren't.

That's why I was also so annoyed by "The Sins of the Father" which could have been such an amazing epsiode if it hadn't been for overlooking season one, for Merlin's sudden amnesia and self-righteousness and for Arthur's sudden hatred for his father that caused him to believe a stranger and to try to kill Uther who he actually loved so much. This episode changed what was logical and fascinating before and started to slowly shift the show into a black & white story only.

While Igraine's death surely was the main reason for the hatred of magic, I too am convinced that her death was the trigger and the eye-opener for Uther. Given that magic had almost destroyed the land before he came to Camelot, Igraine's death showed him that magic was tempting and uncontrollable. He as the king couldn't control it and was seduced by it, plus the fact that a friend, Nimueh, betrayed him. No good came out of magic, except Arthur's birth that caused the death of an innocent person at the same time and showed him that magic can never be trusted and can never be resisted as long as it whispered sweet lies into your ears.