Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Four/@comment-5102537-20140118143939/@comment-5102537-20140122113057

Areanna123 wrote:

I guess it irritated me that he knew that the druids were a peaceful people, and he didn't bother to change any laws regarding them, until one of his knights got in trouble because of it. Indeed.

Moreover, he didn't change anything afterwards in regard to a proper burial for sorcerers/magic-users, despite promising the druids freedom.

I liked that the druid boy forgave Arthur in the end but I didn't like that once again Arthur was being let off the hook so easily while at the same time Uther was once again blamed for other people's actions.

It was made clear that slaughtering the druid camp was Arthur's doing and that he had done it deliberately without Uther's orders. Yet, when Arthur spoke to the ghost of the druid boy, he hid behind Uther's back once more by saying that he only did it to prove himself to his father, blaming him for his own actions. Sure thing, Uther must had been satisfied with Arthur's decision back then, yet it wasn't his doing and he didn't order it.

In that regard, it was even more cowardly and disturbing that Arthur let everyone believe that the ghost wasn't after him but that he seeked revenge for Uther's doing. Except for Merlin who had found out himself already, everyone believed that it was Uther's fault that the ghost haunted Camelot, and even after Arthur had confessed to the ghost and offered his own life, he didn't bother to take the blame in order to restore his own father's honour. This wasn't the heart and soul of the greatest king ever. How can he be the Once and Future King when he saves his reputation by letting others blame his father for his own doings? Uther couldn't set things straight anymore and he couldn't redeem hisself as a dead one. It was Arthur's obligation and duty to take responsibility of his past actions so that people didn't believe anymore that the camp was slaughtered under Uther's orders and that the druid boy didn't came back because of him but because of Arthur.

I wonder why it was so easy to put a restless and suffering spirit at rest. Does that mean that if Uther had done it, all would have been forgiven? A little speech and offering the own life, and all would be fine again? I also wonder why there was only this one restless druid boy when the whole druid camp was slaughtered and hundreds of people died.

What's especially disturbing is the fact that after all Merlin and Arthur had done to bring peace to the vengeful ghost, they didn't even think about it for a second when Uther's vengeful spirit returned. They put the spirit of a stranger at rest, which was noble and understandable, but Arthur doesn't care at all about the peace of soul of his own father? Why didnt anyone at least think of a possibility to give Uther's spirit peace? Merlin brought back Lancelot's sould and gave him peace, Arthur and Merlin brought peace to the spirit of the druid boy even though he had tried to kill Arthur and possessed Elyan, but when it came to Uther, they didn't even mention it.

Nice.

And while nobody really wanted to believe that Elyan would ever do anything wrong which led to investigate the reasons for his very odd behaviour, the same people believed instantly that Gwen betrayed Arthur willingly. There's so much double-standard on this show that it's really irritating.