User blog comment:Knightofthecart/Uther, the once and future king, part I/@comment-5102537-20130101112329/@comment-5102537-20130214120153

Yes, I agree with you on the power over life and death subject. The moment that Uther knew that a price will have to be paid, he should have reconsidered. Granted, he thought it wouldn't be such a high price and in the conversation with Gaius it turns out that Uther knew about a price but obviously not about the death of a person, let a lone of someone close to him.

I think that Nimueh lied when she told Uther that she didn't know about Igraine's death. In "Le Morte d'Arthur", Gaius and Merlin blame Nimueh of choosing the price herself. Gaius says:

GAIUS I offer a chance for you to atone for the death of his wife.

NIMUEH I have saved the life of her son. What more do you ask for?

GAIUS That this time, you take a just price. Merlin intends to offer his life for his mother's. I want you to take mine in his place.

If Nimueh hadn't known about Igraine or better, if she hadn't chosen her, she wouldn't have to atone for it. Gaius also says "That this time, you take a just price." It's very obvious that it was Nimueh all along. When Merlin accused her of being the one who chooses, she doesn't object at all.

The question is why did she lie to Uther? I suppose she wanted him to keep feeling guilty about Igraine's death and the Great Purge, of course. If Uther knew for sure that Nimueh chose Igraine, he would be convinced to be right in his doings even more so. As long as he thinks that it wasn't only Nimueh's fault but a bad coincidence, he has to fight with his own conscience and will be tormented by it. However, the reason for choosing Igraine in the first place and being responsibe for the Great Purge is a miracle. But it seems to be clear that those things were predetermined because Merlin's future has been written since the dawn of time, which means, his mission/fate/destiny was predermined long before anyone was even born, so the Great Purge and everything else was predetermined/predestined as well.

Also, there is the possibility that Nimueh was in love with Uther and wanted Igraine out of the way. We will never know.

"Perhaps Gaius was afraid that, if saving Morgana called for the balance of life and death to be restored, the most likely sacrifice would be one of her relatives and that, since Uther was the one who wanted her saved, the price would be one that it would hurt him to pay. If he didn't die, magic might have saved one of his children but taken the other."

I had a similar thought but I just can't imagine that Uther would ever risk to loose Arthur when saving Morgana. In my opinion, if it wasn't just a big plothole again, I think that with Nimueh's death the life for a life-policy has ended somehow. There were several occasions when Merlin saved Arthur who would have died without magic and there was never a price to pay.

When Gaius said "you can't risk everything" I had hoped for another background story that woud contribute to the overall plot, a secret that would come out one day. I don't know, maybe that Uther wasn't allowed to use magic for some reason or whatever.