Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130413094642/@comment-5102537-20130415094059

Merlinarthur wrote: This episode was really good! It showed a lot about Arthur's and Uther's past, especially about Arthur's birth. I also loved the scene between Merlin and Uther because we have so very few of those!

I agree with you. This is one of my favourite epsiodes. Yes, the rare scenes between Merlin and Uther were some of the best and it's a shame that they only had a few. I'm especially disappointed that they deleted the scene in which Uther pushed sleeping Merlin off the chair.

This epsiode was  awesome in regard to characters and way they introduced Excalibur. Not only did we finally learn of one of Uther's main reasons for hating magic and got a glimpse of his and Nimueh's (and Gaius') past but we also saw a clever reason for Excalibur coming into existence.

Though I still wonder why Kilgharrah said that in Uther's hands it will only cause evil. In the end, Uther killed the wraith that was about to kill Arthur. Saving his son and killing an undead who killed several innocent knights isn't exactly evil. It's a shame that they never referred to it again. What evil could it cause with Uther using it? It was made to kill the undead and immortals. I suppose Kilgharrah feared that Uther, if he found out about Excalibur, might kill Kilgharrah with it. But why would he do that since he intentionally kept the dragon prisoner as an example for others?

It's also still a miracle why Uther hadn't killed but only banished Nimueh in the past. She was a High Priestess and he obviously blamed her - and she was the one who killed Igraine. So why only banishing her instead of trying to kill her?

Another miracle is the fact that Uther didn't wonder how he was able to kill the wraith when all the others had failed before. No mortal weapon could kill him but when he ran him through, the wraith suddenly exploded. At first I was sure that Uther actually knew about Excalibur's magical powers and I would have wished for an explanation later. Maybe they had planned on having him known about it.

Nimueh claiming that she didn't know about Igraine's death turned out to be a lie later on "Le Morte d'Arthur' when both Merlin and Gaius accused Nimueh of being the one who chooses who has to die, which wasn't objected by Nimueh. She indeed proved it by first choosing Hunith and then Gaius. No wonder Uther hated magic when it was so tempting but so cruel. Nimueh was the best example for corrupting magic since she was Uther's friend, yet she chose Igraine to die and by that was also responsible for the Great Purge and the persecution of sorcerers.

One of the most important scenes was Uther telling Arthur that he was much more important to him than his kingdom and even than his own life. A key scene of which they made a mockery of later when Arthur constantly repeated that he thought that Uther wasn't proud of him, and most of all when they brought Uther back as an evil  psycho-ghost in "The Death Song of Uther Pendragon". Such a shame!

"Excalibur" proved Uther's love for Arthur more than anything, yet they ruined it all later when contradicting their own story. Moreover, Uther obviously wanted to pay for his sins when facing the wraith. He told Gaius that Igraine gave her life for Arthur and that he has to do the same. It shouldn't have been a problem to capture the wraith - there was a whole army of Camelot, after all - yet Uther didn't try to capture and to bury him deep down where he couldn't escape but faced him in a duel, being well aware of the fact that he would die and being willing to give his life for his son.

And the conversation between Merlin and Uther was also fascinating and important because it showed Uther's trust in Merlin and his love for Arthur. This was the first time that Uther talked to Merlin like an equal and not like a king to a servant. It was actually a friendly conversation and showed Uther's other side as a normal man when he didn't behave like a king.

Additionally, this epsiode emphasized the paradox that occured with Arthur's birth. Arthur was the chosen one to end the ban of magic, but he was also the one who caused the ban of magic due to his birth in the first place (not his fault, of course!). If the Old Religion/Nimueh hadn't granted Uther's wish, Igraine wouldn't have died and the Great Purge wouldn't have started. The funny thing is that obviously, Arthur's fate and destiny was predetermined long before he was even born since Merlin's "future has been written since the dawn of time" - and Merlin's destiny was to protect Arthur.

Last but not least, I think it was ironical that the one who made the sword (Tom) that saved Arthur was killed by Uther later.

All in all, this was an awesome epsiode.

@Rubelle, at least Merlin told Uther where he got the sword :-)