User blog comment:Fimber/Why I understand Uther's reasons for banning magic - and why no one is a saint on "Merlin"/@comment-4650675-20120530111902

You did a wonderful job on this blog post, trying to justify or at least explain Uther's action. In fact, it's one of the best blog posts I've read on this wiki, so well done!

You have put a lot of thought in this post and all your points are really good. However, some of them can be argued, for example, why would Nimueh risk her head by not warning the king that his wife would die? If you look at her in "Excalibur", you can see that she is completely honest when she says that she did not want Ygraine to die. In addition, I believe she could only control the lives she would take using the cup of life, since she possessed it, but that may not have been the case with making Uther a father. Maybe the one to bear the child would be the one to die, or then again maybe Ygraine's life was coincidentally taken and Nimueh knew nothing about it. It is not safe to assume that she killed Ygraine willingly. In addition, I cannot see why Uther would let alive Gaius and Nimueh, the two people responsible for Ygraine's death and meanwhile kill thousands of innocents, even drowning children and babies born with magic.

I would not describe Morgana as neither maniacal nor mad. Sadistic, maybe. Actually, I think that all her actions can easily be explained and your blog post has inspired me to do the same about Morgana in the future! In my opinion, if you see episodes as "The Beginning of the End", Uther makes no sense at all, neither do his words.

You are right about Merlin. I've been thinking the same thing myself. Merlin is not on the "good" side, actually he is no different than Morgana. He would kill and trick as many people as it would take in order to make Arthur accept magic. The thing is, with Morgana on the throne, magic would be accepted so why try so hard to overthrow her? Perhaps he wants Arthur to meet his destiny as king and that is how magic should return.

I am surprised you actually did not talk about him using magic to save Morgana. That can hardly be explained, because even at series 1, the last episode, when Arthur was about to die Uther still did not look like he would use magic to save him. He even convinced himself that his son would die. However, with Morgana he asked Gaius to heal her with magic without hesitation. Also, another thing I cannot explain about him is his affair with Vivienne. Morgana and Arthur do not have a big age difference. No matter who is actually older, Arthur or Morgana, the truth is that Uther should have definitely met Igraine by then. So, how did he cheat on his beloved wife AND his best friend with another woman? I don't think that can easily be explained either. Finally, despite his hatred for magic, it is unacceptable how he did not like being challenged. He locked Morgana in dungeons and perhaps he killed his best friend (or did not send him any reinforcements) because he too, like Morgana, did not agree with his actions.

After all, as you said, his actions can certainly not be justified, but you are right that they can be explained. Although I'm not sure if the producers intentionally portrayed Uther like this, they made him a likeable character, or, if not likeable, at least the audience could feel pity for him and sympathise with him.