Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5102537-20140217120328/@comment-110.174.240.54-20141212150059

The episode with the Disir, for me, is the turning point. If he had have told Arthur to accept magic, everything would have worked out differently. Because people who are using magic for bad purposes aren't really being stopped by the law. But people who want to use it to do good are being prevented. Can you imagine how much more effective Gaius would be as a healer if he was allowed to use all his knowledge? That moment, when Merlin tells Arthur that there can be no place for magic, instead of encouraging Arthur, that was the moment I think his destiny was talking about. He has magic, so he was sympathetic. He has served loyally and is someone Arthur not only trusts, but seeks an opinion from. He is also the only person there. So for me, Merlin failed in his destiny. In that moment, he was using the knowledge of a possible future to blind him to the real consequence of what he was doing, and what he was throwing away. He had the perfect opportunity to get Arthur to change, and he failed. It makes the rest of the season hard to watch, because you know he screwed up majorly, and now it's just a case of waiting for the end. It is especially frustrating because two other times he has been shown a glimpse of the future and both times he ended up causing it in trying to prevent it. He should have learned better by now. But he didn't.