Board Thread:Series 5 Discussion/@comment-71.195.18.110-20130130220009/@comment-5102537-20130209152217

This is why I'm concerned when people justify either the murder of someone or watching someone die when a person they like do these things. It's all nothing but a subjective point of view, a matter of personal feelings.

Do you remember when in season one Merlin talked to Gwen about Uther and asked her if she would be glad if Uther just died? Gwen told him that this wouldn't make her any better than Uther. And this was exactly the point of it all. It's again all only a matter of personal feelings and subjective opinions. The reason is that those who hurt or kill others have personal and subjective reasons. Uther killed sorcerers because he was wholeheartedly convinced that all magic was evil, which he thought was proved when his wife, a totally innocent person, died.

Merlin wanted to let Uther die because he thought that Uther was in his and Arthur's way. Uther wanted to help not only himself but also all non-magic-users by eradicating magic once and for all. Merlin wanted to help not only himself but also those who practiced magic or were born with it by restoring it.

Both committed crimes, both were wrong and partly right. It's double standart to condemn the actions of one person but to justify the same or similar action of another.

Let's take a look at the reasons why magic was outlawed. It wasn't Uther who started the fight and war but it was the Old Religion and all those who misused the power of magic to oppress and/or kill/hurt others, as we learnt on the show. Uther committed mass murder during the Great Purge and so did the Old Religion/magic/sorcerers/magic-users/whatever long before he even came to Camelot. How can we say that what Uther did was wrong when we say at the same time that what the Old Religion/magic did was right and not so bad? The land was in chaos and almost destroyed by magic before Uther took the throne. Merlin knew that very well, yet he put magic above the life of the one who fought the very thing that almost destroyed everything.

There are always two sides to such things because it wasn't just about another race and a mass murderer who simply didn't like the hair colour of those of a nother race or something. Uther tried to free the land from what he thought was evil and from what indeed caused destruction and mayhem. The Triple Goddess just proved to Arthur, Merlin and the knights what her real motives were and how ruthless she/the Old Religion was. Even though Merlin told Nimueh in season one already that he didn't want to have anything to do with her kind (because of their cruelty) and even though he knew that magic/the Old Religion started it all in the first place, he wanted to restore it and wtached someone suffer and die - which was the very thing why he wasn't better than Uther in that case.

If Merlin wanted to be better than the one he disapproved of, he should have shown that he really was and that killing what is in your way or what you hate or what you are afraid of is not the right way.

Moreover, Uther wasn't a threat anymore due to the very fact that he was broken and almost catatonical. He was that way because he obviously saw that his whole fight against magic was invane and that he fought what he loved all the time, which was his own daughter. He gave up his fight against magic, which was evident when he went broken and depressive. He gave up his kingdom and even his own life. So Merlin and everyone else saw that he wasn't a threat anymore and that he even obviously has realised what he had done. Merlin and everyone else also saw that it was Morgana, the High Priestess of the Triple Goddess, who caused this chaos and malice, who tortured others, even her own father, who killed and oppressed. She was the one who broke the peace in Camelot by going to war. She was worse than Uther and she was a powerful sorcerers who was completely corrupted by her powers - the Old Religion and magic.

Merlin knew all this, yet he still wanted to restore magic and bring back the Old Religion and he even wanted to help Morgana in succeeding killing Uther by just standing by and watching him die. It would have been easier to deal with Uther than to deal with Morgana, especially since Uther had given up his fight on magic after Morgana's betrayal.

I guess we all agree that the Great Purge was a terrible thing, something which can't be justified at all. But neither can what magic did to the land and to hundreds of thousands of people, and neither can Merlin's actions when trying to get rid of Uther who wasn't threat anymore (even before he was stabbed by the Gleeman).

Aside from that, what I wrote before, Merlin let down his so-called best friend by not helping his father. It was selfish and plain wrong. You can't tell someone that you are his best friend and would do anything for him and at the same time let his loved die because you think that he is in the way or because you don't like him. A true friend doesn't do such things.

And speaking of Arthur who supposedly disapproved of Uther's ways, in regard to magic he wasn't very different. As we know, he also persecuted socrerers for which he was judged by the Disir/Triple Goddess and which he even admitted himself. For some reason Merlin didnt seem to have a problem with this. For some reason it was okay that Arthur did this but it wasn't that Uther did it. Weird. What did Merlin do to stop Arthur from persecuting sorcerers and from killing magic-users? Nothing. Going by the argument that Uther was the obsticle to Albion and the lift of the ban of magic, Merlin should have tried to kill Athur in order to free the land from oppressors. He didn't. Instead he supported Arthur in pretty much everything he did, loved him and submitted to him. And only because he loved Arthur but didn't like Uther. If it really was all about freeing the land from anti-magic-people, he would have really tried to stop Arthur one way or another. Speaking of personal feelings and subjective opinions again...

Arthur was naive and sometimes very dull. He just didn't think things through and he had no real direction. He told Merlin that magic was evil because both of his parents died at the hands of magic, which was very true. He persecuted sorcerers and even denied them a proper burial. But he told his father that his hatred came out of fear and that Arthur wanted to be better, yet he didn't change a single thing and continued the war against magic. It all didn't make the slightest sense. All Pendragons's died at the hands of magic. Igraine, Uther, Morgana, Arthur. So since when is magic the fluffy harmless thing that sings Kumbaya with everyone?

Merlin killed to serve his purpose, Uther killed, Arthur killed, Morgana killed, Mordred killed, the knights killed, everyone killed. Including the Old Religion. So one is right in killing and harming but the other isn't?

The most important problem is that this show started as a show full of ethics and morals with a main protagonist (Merlin) who followed a strong moral compass. It showed us from the very beginning that there are other ways to deal with things than just killing, that there isn't only evil and good, black & white and that Merlin was the one who wanted to be better and did it better than those who committed crimes, Uther and the Old Religion alike. Then, all of a sudden, they changed it and made Merlin a callous and selfish person who didn't care much for others anymore, who didn't care much for his own kind and who was only obsessed with Arthur until the very end. The show should have started like this from the beginning, then we wouldn't have followed Merlins morals but would have watched it like an average show about people who simply kill each other. Alas, this wasn't the case. Merlin used to be a role model and ideal especially to younger viewers - until he went selfish and killed others. This was definitely the wrong way. Compassion and helping those in need was put into the background, selfishness and indifference was what the last two seasons focused on. Shame.