Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Two/@comment-5102537-20130629093831/@comment-5102537-20130630105307

Hi Adelina, nice to see you again :-)

I would agree with both you and Edrea if Morgana and Morguase hadn't kept calling each other "sister". According to this and given that Uther was Morgana's father, Gaius and Uther must have known that Vivienne had had an affair with another man (before Uther).

I believe that they had originally planned different things with Morgause/Igraine/Uther/Morgana/Gorlois. When Morgause said that she knew Igraine very well, I thought at first that Morgause was Igraine and Gorlois' child before Gorlois married Vivienne, and maybe Morgause was the reason why Igraine couldn't conceive afterwards.

However, there would have been a problem: Morgause was approx. nine or ten years older than Arthur (given that Emilia Fox is almost ten years older than Bradley James). Even if she was maybe six years older than Arthur, Igraine would have been a much too young mother. Granted, in the dark ages, women were having babies as teenagers already but I don't know if the show had intended to take it that far. A woman giving birth to a child at the age of maybe fourteen (or so) would have been questionable for a family show.

If it hadn't been for the age, it would have made sense if Igraine was Morgause's mother and then later, Uther and Igraine fell in love with each other while Gorlois married Vivienne. This could have been the reason why Uther was led to believe that the child had died because illegitimate children were a big problem back then and perhaps Gorlois didn't want his and/or Igraine's reputation damaged, plus, the king marrying a woman with an illegitimate child would have been a scandal too, not to mention that adultery was punishable by death (depending on whether or not either Igraine or Gorlois were engaged otherwise already).

This is all just speculation because what we were actually shown on "Merlin" was that Morgause and Morgana were half sisters, related through Vivienne. This made Gorlois being the father of none of them and it made Vivienne a woman who had slept with at least three men: Morgause's father, Gorlois and Uther.

When Gaius said that they were half-sisters, he must have assumed that Gorlois was Morgana's father and person X was Morgause's father but Vivienne was the mother of both. Then later we learnt that Uther was Morgana's father and M&M kept calling each other "sister", which still proves that person X was Morgause's father but that Vivienne had at least one more man in her life.

Why Morgause was smuggled out by Gaius remains a miracle. They could have explained it by mentioning that Morgause was supposed to be trained by the Old Religion because she was too valuable to them. At that point of time, Arthur wasn't born yet and Uther was friends with Nimueh, so he had no reason to hate magic or to kill a child because of her powers. Maybe the Old Religion simply didn't want a powerful child being raised by normal humans, so they made Gaius swear to bring her to them and tell everyone that the baby died - which would make Gaius an even more questionable character. Another reason could have been that Gorlois knew that Vivienne had an affair with someone else (person X) and told Gaius to smuggle Morgause out in order to avoid a scandal.

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Now for the epsiode.

This could have been one of the best episodes to me if it hadn't been for changing the previous storylines, for Merlin and Gaius' sudden amnesia, for Arthur's exaggerated wish to suddenly kill his own father and for Merlin and Arthur believing the word of a sorceress who killed numerous men on her way to Camelot over the word of Arthur's father.

While Uther and Nimueh proved in a private (!) conversation that Uther had no idea that Igraine will die, "The Sins of the Father" suddenly changed this all and made Igraine claiming that Uther sacrificed her because he knew that the price would be another life. This wouldn't have been a problem if the episode had pointed out that Igraine either wasn't real or that she was simply led to believe that Uther sacrificed her.

Uther would have no reason to hate magic if he had sacrificed Igraine willingly. The very fact that he lost her and was shocked by it was the reason why he started to hate magic in the first place. And I doubt that he told Igraine "sorry dear, you are dying now because I made a deal and sold your life. Thanks for the son, see you". He loved Igraine and was devastated over her death, so he didn't sacrifice her and he didn't know that her life would be taken, as was evident in "Excalibur". Not to mention that Nimueh chose Igraine, as was evident in "Le Morte d'Arthur".

Arthur didn't even question the whole situation for a second. There is a stranger, a powerful sorceress who killed several people when invading the throne room, conjuring the ghost of his mother (if so), that coincidentally tells him that his father killed her and was to blame for everything. So Arthur rushes back home in total rage, forgets about the fact that his own "mother" just turned her son against his father and Arthur wants to kill the one he has been knowing all his life and who he loves and who wanted to sacrifice himself for him. All instead of giving it a second thought. Arthur couldn't really love his mother because she was a total stranger to him whereas Uther wasn not a stranger to him, yet he wants to kill him all of a sudden?

Even if Arthur would have been given proof that Igraine was real and was telling the truth, he couldn't just hate his own father for the sake of someone he has never seen before. A normal person would try to find a reason, to think about it all, to question it and to hear the other side of the story because, heck, it was his own father. There is a difference between being disappointed and angry or being in rage and in the mood for killing a parent.

Not to mention that Arthur blamed his father for killing people for the sake of the kingdom because he blamed them, but forgot that he himself was about to do the same: killing someone in rage because he (Uther) was supposed to be guilty. And the big difference is that Uther would have never hurt his own family whereas Arthur didn't even blink when trying to kill his own father.

As if this wasn't ridiculous enough, Merlin suddenly forgets about his own deal with Nimueh and has the nerve to accuse Uther. When Merlin saved Arthur from the Questing Beast's poison, he told Nimueh that he was willing to "pay any price", not knowing that his mother or Gaius would be the ones who will have to die. Yet he blames Uthers that he knew who will have to die? That doesn't make any sense. Merlin almost killed Hunith and Gaius when saving Arthur and making the deal with Nimueh. Why would Merlin believe that Uther knew about Igraine being the price and why did he cast a stone at him for having made the deal with Nimueh when a) Uther had no problem with magic at that point of time and b) Merlin himself did the same thing when saving Arthur?

And Gaius... why in the world didn't he tell Merlin the truth but simply nodded and made Merlin believe his own fairytale? Gaius was there back then and he was the one who asked Nimueh on Uther's behalf. He was the one who told Nimueh that she chose Igraine. Yet he lets Merlin believe that Uther sacrificed her?

It's a shame that this episode ignored and changed the previous season and made a mockery of the things we were being shown before. It also made a mockery of Uther's reason for hating magic because, as I said before, if he willingly sacrificed Igraine he wouldn't have had any reason to hate magic at all.

The fighting scene was great and to me the best swordfight on the entire show, but I have to forget about the reason why they fight to enjoy this moment.

It was clear that Morgause's intention was to turn Arthur against Uther, and if both Arthur and Merlin had used their brains, they would have known before Arthur tried to slaughter his father. Morgause must have known about what Igraine (or fake Igraine) was about to say, otherwise she wouldnt have summoned her in the first place. How could Morgause know?

I also disliked Gaius and Merlin talking about being tempted to kill Uther as if it was most normal thing to want someone to die but such a gracious and heroic thing to let him live. Uther's temper was always criticised but when Arthur tries to kill his own father, everything is okay?

Despite this all, I liked the final scene when Uther thanked Merlin. It showed his sense of honour and appreciation because given that magic was banned, it should have been normal for everyone to fight magic too (in Uther's eyes), so the king actually doesn't have to say thank you for a matter of course. The rare scenes between Uther and Merlin wers some of the best scenes on the show.