Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130413094642/@comment-5102537-20130419082240

Rubelle wrote:

One explanation, I can manage to think of is, Uther was much relieved to kill the wraith and whatever method it was, he did not want to give it much thought anymore. But he never questioned when he did not see Arthur with his new sword ever again.

Good point, you're right. As a matter of fact, Uther should have become suspicious when Arthur never used the sword afterwards and most of all when it could nowhere be found anymore. As  mentioned before, he should have wondered how he actually killed the Wraith when Tristan was undead and couldn't be killed by non-magical weapons.

At that point of time, I thought that the later epsiodes will refer to this subject, and maybe it was even planned that way - or maybe they at least left some possibilities open to refer to it later. From the point of view shot, when Uther drops the sword, we see Merlin and then Uther who seems to be looking into Merlin's direction. I don't know if this was done intentionally but when I watched "Excalibur" back then, I thought that Uther knew about Merlin having done something to enchant the sword. It would have been interesting if he had known about Merlin all along but tolerated him for Arthur's sake.

Yes, Excalibur in the wrong hands remains to be a mystery - or simply the result of overlooked previous storylines. When Freya became the Lady of the Lake, she obviously protected the sword, so it was available to her too. It's true, Kilgharrah told Merlin that it was meant to be for Arthur alone and no-one else.

However, everyone else who used it - Uther, Freya (when giving it to Merlin) and Merlin - didn't cause anything evil with it, but, on the contrary, saved Arthur and/or Camelot. So Kilgharrah seemed to be wrong about it or was afraid that Uther might kill immortal priests or priestessess by wielding it, maybe even the Triple Goddes? On the other hand, we only learnt in season five that all of a sudden, Morgana was immortal... nobody ever explained why (or did I  simply miss it?). She was very vulnerable and mortal in season three after all...

In my opinion, season one was the basis for some different stories that might have been planned. Characters and plots were changed later with the show progressing. At least that's my impression. Especially when taking a look at the Nimueh/Uther/Arthur storyline which was changed in season two.