Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130309111322/@comment-5674726-20130408214700

''The only thing I really disapprove of was Uther crushing the flower that would heal Merlin. Even though I understand that he wanted to demonstrate to Arthur that his disobedience was out of line and also very dangerous (and actually plain wrong), I think that once the flower was found, Merlin deserved to be healed. On the other hand, Uther wanted to make clear that Arthur's actions have consequences. Season one was full of life lessons and interesting dilemmas.''

One change they could have made would be that, instead of Uther crushing the flower and dropping it, he crushes it in front of Arthur and walks away with it, telling him that he'll be let out in a week, at which point he can find himself another servant. Arthur gets to stew for a while and, when he's released, he finds that Uther brought the flower to Gaius to cure Merlin. Uther could make it clear that this wasn't a reward for Arthur's disobedience but he wasn't going to let a loyal servant die for for the sake of it.