User blog comment:Fimber/Elements of classic literature and religion in "Merlin"/@comment-5995315-20130202160426/@comment-5102537-20130204140109

Very interesting thoughts. I had similar ones, but they were more focused on Arthur being the "messiah", especially when the finale aired on Christmas Eve.

However, I have a problem with those aspects (not with your theories but with the possible meaning of the story in case it was intended that way by the showrunners).

For example this:

"The parallels get stronger. Merlin (Christ) begins his ministry as a servant to Arthur, who stands in for all humans."

Arthur standing for all humans - and I mean in regard to the plot, not in regard to your theory because I think you're not so wrong about this - would be a bit ridiculous due to several reasons. It would mean that Arthur, a fickle man full of failures and lacking of a direction, represents humanity as a whole when there are actually much better, multifaceted and stronger humans in comparison to Arthur. As a simple and normal human being, mankind can't depend on him alone, can't be represented by him alone. I just see nothing that would qualify him for this "job" because humans are so very different from each other - and Arthur doesn't combine all of the human traits and characteristics withing himself. Arthur wasn't special enough to represent and speak for humanity. Neither can we assume that the rest of humanity would agree with Arthur. Moreover, it all only took place in Britain, or the equivalent of Britain, and as we know, the world is a little bigger than just Britain.

This is another  problem I have with how the show ended. Merlin and Arthur were given too much credit for things the simply didn't deserve credit for.

Merlin as Christ taking mankind's sins doesn't/didn't work for me either since he was too selfish, too callous and too obsessed in the last two seasons to just come even close to Jesus. As we saw, in the end Merlin wasnt very much interested in peace anymore, neither was he interested in bringing back magic. Not to mention that it wasn't actually mankind that sinned in regard to magic but the Old Religion istelf that tempted and seduced mankind, enslaved it and played its little games with people.

I like your idea of fighting the devil but also of the pure and good side of magic, like God vs Luzipher, for example. If the show had intended to state this out, and I agree that it probably was that way, it should have worked on it harder in order to let the viewers know that there are different forces within the Old Religion that oppose and maybe fight each other. Alas we learnt more and more how cruel the Old Religion actually was and that evil prevailed over good with the boss (the Triple Goddess) and her High Priestessess who caused mayhem and misery upon humans. Aside from Merlin, a few peaceful druids and Balinor we had no reason to assume that magic could be used for good, that it was a desirable goal to reach or that there was a good and mercyful power within the Old Religion itself.

So in case that your theory (and part of mine I had) is true it wasn't shown properly and there was too much undeserved heroism that left the viewers wonder what exactly had changed and what was achieved in the end. Same goes for Christianity and Jesus releasing mankind from their sins. We can assume that since Jesus took all our sins (according to the bible) but that our wars and fights and cruelties are still gong on nevertheless, that we all go to "heaven" when we die since we "know not what we do". According to this, in case it was supposed to be similar on "Merlin", all dead people and creatures are now released too, they are all at peace in the Spirit World and all suffering in the afterlife has come to an end.

But was this really the case? We'll never know.

Merlin and Arthur weren't "good" enough or qualified to represent mankind and to release everyone from their sins, so the show has failed to clearly state out that they actually were (supposed to be) mankind's saviours.