Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Four/@comment-5102537-20131207132547/@comment-5102537-20131217130831

ReganX wrote: I think that a lot of the problem boils down to the fact that Uther had been established as a great King in his own right. He won the throne of Camelot and, by the sounds of things, united the noble families - who presumably each controlled territory - under his rule. He was the architect of a peace treaty between the Five Kingdoms, as well as having separate accords with Caerleon, Bayard and Cenred, and a friendship with Lord Godwyn. He built a mighty kingdom, the strongest in Albion. Even after what happened with Morgana weakened the kingdom and broke Uther's spirit, he was held in sufficiently high regard that Caerleon didn't make any moves against Camelot until after his death.

(--)

The only ways for the writers to make him look like he was half as great as he was allegedly destined to be were (a) to tell us, over and over, that he was a great King and destined to be an even better one in the years to come, and (b) to emphasise how much better he was than his father and sister.

I agree. While Arthur had indeed a good heart and would have made an honorouble and kind knight/noble, he wasn't exactly a great king, but in my opinion not because his kindness was a weakness - on the contrary, a kind king was what especially the dark ages needed - but because he had no real direction and often couldn't decide what was right or wrong. By making him blind to all the important things happening around him they turned him into an easy target for manipulation and into someone who never quite bothered to use his brain when it came to difficult situations that weren't about tactics and military matters.

Some fans used to say that Uther only kept peace and was seen to be strong by other kingdoms because they feared him and he oppressed them, ruled with an iron fist. Well, I wonder: what in the world could Uther have done to other kings/kingdoms to scare them off? Did he sneak into their bedrooms and threaten them with a sword or did he kidnap their loved ones and threatened to kill them or what? That's rubbish.

There are only three things that prevented other kings/queens from attacking/conquering Camelot (until Morgana joined forces with Cenred):

- Camelot was the strongest kingdom with the biggest/strongest army, so others saw no sense in attacking. This was perfectly legimtimate and necessary. A kingdom has to take care of strong defences.

- other kingdoms were Camelot allies

- some other kingdoms weren't allies but not interested in a war with another

That's it. It's not like any king or queen were afraid of Uther to growl at them. He had no chance whatsoever to scare other rulers personally but could only prevent them from attacking by leading a strong army that was capable of defending Camelot. That's not oppression at all.

Not just once did we see or hear Uther making a move to go to war or blackmail other kingdoms by threatening them with war - instead he united the Five Kingdoms and wanted and gained peace.

Ruling with an iron fist applied to his own kingdom and only in regard to sorcery.