Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130512091538/@comment-5674726-20130822000057

Fimber wrote: I agree. As a matter of fact, "The Sins of the Father" was the epsiode that created the inconsistency whereas it still makes sense that in "Le Morte d'Arthur" Nimueh was the one who killed Igraine. She simply could have lied to Uther in "Excalibur" in order to burden his conscience even more. Maybe she just didn't expect Uther to freak out when Igraine dies and maybe she had personal reasons for killing her but the show didn't bother to explain later, especially when "The Sins of the Father" ignored the previous storylines all of a sudden and made Uther sacrificing Igraine willingly.

Based on what we know of Uther's love for Ygraine, that would be like going out in the rain without a coat or umbrella and then being surprised when you get wet.

That's why it never made sense to me that Nimueh would deliberately sacrifice Ygraine's life if she had the option of choosing somebody else. The Excalibur angle made the most sense to me, and there was a comparison to be drawn between Uther and Nimueh, who were perpetuating a cycle of vengeance that traced back to a tragedy that resulted from them both making an error in judgement by using magic to bring a life into the world that wasn't meant to be there. They were shouldering similar burdens; Uther knowing that his beloved wife died because he sought magical help to have a son, and Nimueh knowing that her attempt to help sparked the Great Purge that resulted in the deaths of her friends. Story wise, I found it very effective.