Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24762954-20140731125438/@comment-5674726-20140806212218

Fimber wrote: Magic was presented to us as a very dangerous, ruthless and almost undefeatable power that was rightfully feared and hated. Only Merlin, some druids, Balinor and Freya represented a very small group of magic-users who didn't want to rule the world and oppress everyone.

Again, I think that was a direct consequence of the writers' desire to present Merlin as the hero warring with the idea that he was supposed to be restoring magic to Camelot and that this was a good thing. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't realise just how much of a threat they had made magic, and by extension how understandable Uther's crusade against it was, until later in the series, when they belatedly tossed in the idea that Merlin was somehow going to merge the old and new ways.