User blog comment:Fimber/Why I understand Uther's reasons for banning magic - and why no one is a saint on "Merlin"/@comment-5191335-20120613020311/@comment-5191335-20120619013407

I can see your point about how predestination may be seen as unfair and, quite possibly, cruel. I guess my religion, which is filled with lessons of balance and destiny, makes me see it differently. I've, personally, lead a life that many would term as filled with hardships. I have a condition which makes it necessary for me to use a wheelchiar, every member of my family has extreme, often life-threatening, medical conditions, I have had 4 major surgeries, been pronounced dead once, nearly died two other times, I haave extreme chronic pain, and my family and I live on a income limited by medical  bills for 5 people with disabilities or permanent illlnesses of some sort. However, my struggles are nullified by my blessings, which include living in a close, loving, and supportive family. I've also have the pleasure of seeing others tooucheed by my story, as I volunteer at different places, including an orphanage, a home of the elderly, and a children's hospital. Seeing people gain hope from knowing that a young lady with as much hardship as I'vee had can be not only content, but trully happy in life is inspirational to me! If my pain can bring some good to tthe world, it is worth it. Now, I'm not  saying that it isn't sometimes impossible to be grateful for one's  strife. I, certianly, have done my raging at the Higher Power! In September of this past year, I nearly died after being assaulted by a guy I had thought was my friend. I spent nearly 2 months in the hospital, one of those months in Intensive Care. Both of my femurs had been shattered and I became very depressed. I took a school term off and tried to heal. I was so angry at God. In fact, I thought that maybe God didn't exists and, if He did He either was cruel or just didn't care about His children. I nearly lost my faith, but something saved me. My grandfather, a man I had always been extremely close to, died during my recuperation. The night he died, he came to me in a dream and told me goodbye. He also told me that my suffering was not for nought. The next morning, my mother told me my grandfather had passed the night before. I went to his funeral in an ambulance, laying in excrutiating pain on a stretcher as my family buried our dear grandfather. After that, I started getting better. Now, I've seen good come from my experiences. I've seen peoplle gain hope from me, just as I've been inspired by other people's struggles. We can all get some hope from seeing others overcome strife. We can, hopefully, also learn that our pain could always be worse. I like to, also, believe that everyone has struggles, even if we can't see them. Like if you were to look at my family: only 2 of us have obvious disabilities (one of my brothers and I use wheelchairs), yet the other 3 have much more dangerous medical problems. Maybe one person lives in poverty while an other lives in wealth, but maybe the wealthy one has a less obvious strife (like: depression, a history of being abused, a child with a disability, etc.). I believe that Karma balances us out, that we all have ups and downs but in the end it will even out. But, those are my beliefs and I don't expect anyone to share them. One of the beautiful things about the world is we can  all believe something different!!!

As for in the show, I'm not sure if I want the Old Religion to have predestined the lives of the characters or not. However, a lot of the classic myths do have a large focus on destiny and I do think it is nice when the show uses elements from the classic legends!