Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130330123307/@comment-5102537-20130402150829

"@ReganX: Yes I too feel the same. Merlin did not intentionally chose to be a fool, infact he was not really happy with the idea either and offcourse he cherishes the memory of the other sides face when he says I am much more and display some magic."

I agree. I think that at first he wanted to be anything but a fool. Arthur's actions made him appear to be one when he had to cover up for Arthur. Also, as both of you have already mentioned, when Gaius always claimed that Merlin was in the tavern. Later, Merlin figured that being seen as an idiot covers him best and he didn't do much to prove people otherwise. He had to swallow his pride and live with the fact that Uther and Arthur and some others thought he was a simpleton. A nice one, but an idiot.

Speaking of which,  loved when Uther said "Someone with a brain". :-D

In this epsiode, the Sidhe were beautifully shot when flying over the lake. Season one often delivered interesting characters and stories and took the time to focus on them. The result was this beautiful scene at the lake when Merlin seemingly "slowed" time in order to see the Sidhe.

I do wonder, when regarding the fact that the Sidhe possessed princess Elena so that she can marry Arthur and give the Sidhe the opportunity to have one of them inside the walls of Camelot, why they tried or agreed to get Arthur's soul. If Arthur had died, their plan they had made 20 or so years ago wouldn't have worked. Why did they want one of them being in Camelot anyway? The only expanation would be that Elena was born during or after the Great Purge and the Sidhe wanted revenge. However, making a plan that would take decades until it works seems to be a bit unlikely, given that during that time thousands of people/sorcerers might die and by that strenghten Camelot when slowly erasing magic.

Anyway, Aulfric and Sophia were quite unsympathetic characters and once again proved the one-dimensional and "evil" and intriguing character of magic even when it had nothing to do with revenge on Uther. It was a mircale that nobody ever mentioned some sort of revenge on Camelot since Aulfric, Sophia and the rest of the Sidhe had good reasons to hold a grudge. Yet they had totally different and most of all selfish plans and wewre willing to sacrifice people in order to reach their goal. Like Edward, Aulfric and Sophia had reasons for their actions and could have been more likable characters but were presented as evil ones who all obviously deserved to die in the eyes of the viewer.

I liked Morgana being so protective of Arthur and I also liked Uther laughing and making jokes about Arthur having grown "close" to Sophia. Uther was perfectly right to forbid the marriage, even before anyone knew that Sophia had a cruel intention. He actually reacted quite understanding and too soft for a king of the dark ages whose son behaves way out of line in front of the court and wants to marry the first woman he thinks he has fallen in love with.

Too bad Morgana didn't tell Uther about her visions. I would have liked to see his reaction. I'm also amused by Uther's education methods which is putting a servant who keeps forgetting about important things and seems to be incapable of carrying out his duties in the pillory. Again a very soft and also amusing way of "educating" him in regard to the dark ages. The rare scenes between Merlin and Uther have always been some of the best scenes on the show to me.

And I wish Morgana had stayed the way she was in season one.