User blog comment:Fimber/Nine questions about "The Wicked Day"/@comment-4135736-20120625091758/@comment-4814726-20120627043524

I do see your viewpoint, but I don't think that Merlin was supposed to look like he was selfish or mean in that episode. One can only have so many emotions at once. He wasn't happy that Uther was dying, but he wasn't keening with sorrow either. Uther had proven that he was a terrible person becuz he only ever acted like a king, a king with maddening grief and guilt over his head too. When he let Gaius be tortured and sentenced him to death, it proved that he didn't hold value in friendship and cared the most about killing magic people becuz of his grief and guilt. Gaius is like a father to Merlin, and that probably made him dislike uther even more. So of course he's not going to sob his heart out for Uther.

When it comes to Merlin's approach to Arthur about all this, I do see your point in how he acted like he wasn't feeling pity at all for his friend's father's death. But I thought that was finally shown when he stayed outside the throne room all night. 'I didn't want you to feel that you were alone' That is showing concern for his friend. Of course Merlin will feel guilty about killing Uther for selfish reasons as well as selfless reasons. He had killed his best friend's dad. He had failed the dragon, he had failed destiny, he had failed his kin and he failed himself. There were lots of reasons for Melrin to feel guilty. But he couldn't exactly tell Arthur that becuz Arthur doesn't know he has anything to be guilty about. So instead he opted to comfort him rather than give him an apology for somethig only he knew he had done.

I am probably over-analyzing this but since I have nothing else to do this incredibly   boring- summer-so-far-w/out-any-good-tv-shows-to-watch I will conclude this comment of mine by saying I love Merlin, and I will probably continue to defend him until my fingersfly off. I sympathize with him, I can't help it. He just seems too defeated in this episode to really apply the words selfish and cold-hearted to hs character in my head. So for the millionth time this has probably been said lets agree to disagree. :)