User blog comment:Edrea/Why so many bad things happened because of Merlin?/@comment-5102537-20130618081836

Great blog post, Edrea :-) As much as I agree with you, I think it was the right thing to do to make Merlin being the kindhearted young man who wanted to save everyone - at least in the first three seasons when it all still made sense.

It also showed that he had a mind of his own, no matter the prophecy. His goodness prevailed over ruthless dogmas that the dragon told him. It's also almost impossible to understand the outcome and consequences of things that still lie in the future and of self-fulfilling prophecies. Merlin thought that life is priority and the well-being of others is more important than a construct and web of future possibilities and vague prophecies, and maybe he thought that with doing good things and with showing kindness and mercy, even hardened hearts can soften someday.

At that point of time he still had great compassion and empathy. I think this was a very important message which suddenly changed and was turned upside down since season four.

As we could see, he didn't learn from his mistakes. We were supposed to believe that he did when he suddenly grew colder and more ruthless and selfish, but "The Disir" at the latest proved that he not only repeated mistakes but made it even worse. I would even go so far to say that saving Morgana, Mordred and, of course, Uther wasn't a mistake in the first seasons but the only right thing to do, from an ethical point of view. Sacrificing others for the so called greater good that is yet to come or supposed to come, is as ruthless as the things that those he was supposed to let die did. It's the same difference. Uther sacrificed those he thought were evil (all magic-users) in order to stabilise the kingdom (the greater good); Merlin sacrificed those who he thought would cause evil (Mordred, Uther in "The Wicked Day") in order to establish magic back in Camelot (the greater good).

Shame they turned him into a selfish and more ruthless person later because I couldn't see much of a difference between him and those who were supposed to be the antagonists, except that he wasn't as cruel and insane as Morgana was (or better, as Morgana became all of a sudden).

Honestly, I don't think that the showrunners really intended to make him being the one who made a mistake in "The Wicked Day". You and ReganX are right, he definitely wanted to let Uther die in the beginning and then used him to reach his goal. But a lot of fans don't see this or don't want to see it but think that he either did the best he could or that he had good reasons to not help Uther anymore. The showrunners wanted to "surprise" the audience (by letting Uther die in the end) and to give Arthur a reason to hate magic.

Never mind common sense, character consistency and logic. A "tricky and "surprising" episode was more important.

What you said about the way Uther died, Edrea, to me it would have always been the best way to let him die for his children (if he has to die, that is - I would have preferred him to stay until the very end) because he was always defined by his love for his children, from the beginning of the show up until the weird and strange changed storylines in season four and five. So dying for Arthur (and/or Morgana) would be the best way to say good-bye, just not the way they did it in "The Wicked Day" with all this cruelty, the character inconsistencies, Uther's tremendous suffering, Merlin's sudden ruthlessness, the overall illogical behaviour of almost every character and that stupid humour that was totally misplaced. And, of course, not so soon!