Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Two/@comment-5102537-20130622090602/@comment-5102537-20130624085217

ReganX wrote: One thing I'd like to know was how aware Uther was of the way Aredian was questioning Morgana. Did he know that she was repeatedly questioned, to the extent that she was described to be close to breaking point, or was he under the impression that she just needed to clarify a few details about the treatment she received from Gaius for her nightmares?

Good question. I would think that he wasn't aware of the entire procedure because he was too overprotective of Morgana. He wouldn't have allowed anyone to harm Morgana in any way. Had Uther known that Aredian suspected Morgana he surely would have been desperate when fearing that his daughter might have magic, yet he didn't show any sign of concern about Morgana at all. So I'm convinced that he had no idea what was going on behind the scenes of Aredians little show, except that he knew about whatever methods that Aredian used to make Gaius talk.

Moreover, Morgana was only close to breaking point because of her being scared of her own powers. Aredian didn't mistreat her actually but only asked very unpleasant and intimidating questions. If Uther knew that she was put through the mill, he must have been sure that she had nothing to hide, therefore wouldn't suffer from being questioned at all.

Merlinarthur wrote: I understand what you mean by this. Why would Aredian incriminate himself? This scene also strangely reminded me of the scene in Valiant when Merlin summons the snakes from Valiant's shield. Yes, you're right, it was similar with Valiant. Although one could assume that Valiant used the snake to kill Arthur. Given that Uther was convinced that magic was evil by nature, he might have thought that Valiant didn't care whether or not others see him using magic in the end when Valiant supposedly was furious and completely corrupted, if not possessed by magic.

The only reason why Aredian supposedly exposed himself would have been that he lost control over his own magic or the magic he used. In the eyes of those who saw him. Any other thing wouln't make much sense. It would have been so easy to have Uther or Arthur mentioning this in just one sentence. This would have also emphasized again that Uther was convinced that magic can never be controlled and would always destroy anyone in the end.

I'm still disappointed that Arthur did nothing to help Gaius. When Gwen was accused of having used magic he at least tried to convince Uther that her magic was used for good. Given that Gaius was supposed to have practised very harmless magic that actually didnt hurt anyone, Arthur should have tried to defend Gaius too.