Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130512091538/@comment-5102537-20130517120455

Selecasticon wrote: Merlin did not know of Uther's mistake up until "The Sins of the Father".

- He was only following an advise from a manupilating dragon.

- Receiving help from Nimueh, who he still remembers from the Cara incident.

To me he was not making a mistake because he has magic, and believes in it to solve his problems. There is a conflict between Excalibur, Le Morte d'Arthur and The Sins of the Father.

That is true. And to me, all would have been fine if Merlin hadn't suddenly forgotten about it all later in "The Sins of the Father". As you've stated already, there is a conflict between those three epsiodes, and ReganX has pointed out some inconsistencies too.

In season one and two, up until "The Sins of the Father",  I thought that the storyline was about the consequences of decisions without pointing a finger at just one person but by demonstrating all the shades of grey and also Merlin's own mistakes that broaden his mind and show him that he too was tempted by his powers/by magic and that things weren't always as they seemed to be. Sadly, they changed it in "The Sins of the Father" when they made Merlin claiming that Uther sacrificed Igraine willingly. Moreover, Gaius obviously didn't think it was necessary to clarify the situation to Merlin even though he knew the truth and witnessed the past happenings first hand. Yet he let Merlin believe that Uther sacrificed his own wife. Merlin should have remembered that he too ignored every warning and was willing to pay "any price" (his words) in order to have Arthur being healed. He had the nerve to blame Uther and ignored his own actions.

That was not only hypocritical but also illogical. Both he and Arthur put the word of a sorceress who slaughtered her way to the throne room and killed many innocents in the process over the word of Uther and over all logic and own experience. Neither Arthur nor Merlin could have been sure that Igraine was real and not only a trick by Morgause. And even if Igraine was real, Merlin should have immediately remembered what he was willing to do and what he indeed did when he saved Arthur, thus comparing his own actions to Uther's actions when he asked for magical help back then.

But no, Merlin played the innocent one and blamed another of whom he knew nothing about. Uther slaughtering sorcerers over guilt makes no sense if he allegedly sacrificed Igraine willingly. Why should he feel guilty then? And by not sacrifing her willingly but being convinced that Nimueh(the Old Religion) killed Igraine, he surely didn't blame entirely himself when Igraine was killed by magic and when he wanted her to be alive. Either way, it wasn't all only about guilt.

Shame that neither Arthur nor Merlin thought about it more carefully but ignored logic instead.