User blog comment:Fimber/Why I understand Uther's reasons for banning magic - and why no one is a saint on "Merlin"/@comment-5191335-20120613020311

"It seems as if everything was planned from the beginning. Merlin's destiny and fate has been determined since "the dawn of time" (which is a real looooong time...), so actually, his birth and his destiny to help Arthur was set in stone long before humans walked the earth, according to the "dawn of time"-statement. That means that Arthur's birth was planned too, which means that the hunt on magic was planned as well, otherwise Arthur's birth and destiny as well as Merlin's wouldn't be necessary. It would make sense if none of that would have been planned and if Merlin and Arthur were chosen somewehere along the way after their birth due to something that happened that didn't have to do with them. But that's not the case. Merlin's destiny was determined long before he or anyone else was born. And this means that Igraine's death and everything that followed this happening was planned and wanted or at least foreseen - therefore, everyone, Uther, Igraine, Gaius, Morgana, Arthur, Merlin, Hunith, Balinor, everyone... were and are manipulated and used. Their fate and everyone else's fate has never lied in their hands.

This all proves Uther right, actually. If the fates of countless people are predetermined and fully depend on what magic/The Old Religion plans for them, everyone is nothing but a slave for a higher power that decides over happiness and misery of the obviously totally powerless people. "

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In many ways, this idea is much akin to multiple religious beliefs. The strongest parallel I can point out is that of the Presbyterian Christian Denomination(s). These denominations (PCA and PCUSA are the ones I'm most familiar with) teach the idea of predetermination. Basically, this theory, originally explored by John Calvin (the father of Calvinism), is that God has a great master plan, often referred to as the "Perfect Plan," which was determined before He created the world and his Creation functions according to that plan. According to this belief, God predetermined all of thhe events, decisions, and actions of every person's life, including predestining who would go to Heaven (a finite, relatively small number when considering how many people have lived and died, and will live and die, in the entire history of the world) and who would go to Hell. Many rejet this theory as removing freewill. I, however, have always been comforted by the thought of it. I like thinking that an ultimately benevolent and loving Higher Power has control over my life and that I will be and already am a tool for a higher purpose. I like believing that everything that happens to me, even things which tear at my heart and soul, have some purpose more than happenstance and will be for the greater good, whatever that may be. I also believe that we have freewill, just the Higher Power either knew our choices beforehand or uses our choices, whatever they may be, to achieve the ends that were destined since before Creation.

Perhaps, in the show, the Great Purge and the time of the distrust of magic were similar the the Great Flood story which is evident in religions from multiple cultures and times (ie: Ancient Greek Paganism, Christianity, etc. - just go to wikipedia and type in "list of flood myths" for a detailed overview) or to the Christian tales of Sodom and Gomorrah (http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/a/Sodom-And-Gomorrah.htm for a very biased overview) or the Classical tale of the Trojan War (http://upge.wn.com/?t=ancientgreece/index24.txt for information). Maybe it was the way the Highest Power sought to use a mortal, human king to remove those who had become corrupt and were abusing the gifts that had been given them. Then, perhaps, this Highest Power preplanned to have Arthur act as a tool to end the time of distrust of all things magical. Perhaps, the show is correlating with these religious tales and is commentating, as those tales do, on how true harmony, true peace, would only be possible if all corruption were wiped from the Earth. In a large part, many Arthurian Legends contain this very theme, as do many folk tales ffrom around the world. In the show, the reuniting of Albion in peace will most likely only be accomplished through the destruction of the main opposers, those who are most corrupted, whether that be by power, greed, a thirst for venegence, rage, or any other thing. Morgana has come to manifest the most corruption. In many of the original tales, if my memory serves me well, both Morgan Le Fay (Morgana) and her son and counterpart, Mordred, were often used as illustrations of the potenial for evil which is inate in all human beings, manifestations of what destruction and corruption of which we are all capable. We may assume, based on Mordred's role in the original legends, that Mordred will come to represent this inate capacity for evil in the show as well. In the original tales, Arthur and Mordred kill eachother and Merlin destroys Morgan Le Fay (Morgana). If the show follows this template, then peace and harmony will finally be achieved when Morgana and Mordred, the main and most powerful opposers are destroyed. This, then, would be destined to occur. So, the mysterious Highest Power planned for Uther to purge to world of some corruption and for Arthur and Merlin to perform the final act of this by destroying the main opposers, thus ending the purge and allowing the world to reform itself as a harmonious, noncorrupt world of great peace between all people.

And that is my thoughts on the subject. I may write an even more thorough blog post on this topic at some point.

-Sybil