Apologies for the lenght but what this blog is about needs (again) a little more space in order to explain my thoughts.
When "Merlin" started, the heart and soul of this show was demonstrated clearly: it was a show suitable for minors but also a show that entertained adults and provided them with some thought-provoking plots, yet it was delivered to the viewers as a pleasant, romantic and humurous story that made you feel good when watching it and that was only beginning to show how much potential it had. People wanted more, they wanted to see and to know where the plot and the characters are heading towards and what adventures they have to face on their way to their goals and some of them on their road to redemption. It was a family show but it wasn't chlidish at all.
As time moved on and new seasons followed, the show started to become darker, alas it didn't grow up but only changed plotlines and characters. Instead of letting the characters become wiser and mature, they were all torn apart. Morgana started to hate everyone and to become evil, she killed her own father. Arthur lost his father and his sister, Morgause used her half-sister by supporting her to become the villain, Morgana lost her half-sister Morgause and sacrificed her in order to destroy the world of the living, Afgravaine, Arthur's uncle, helped killing Uther and wanted to kill his own nephew Arthur, Arthur met his father again only to see that he hurt and attacked him which caused Arthur to send his father back to death by telling him that his time was over.
The family show turned into a show that demonstrated that family is the very thing that destroys you.
What weird message does this send out especially to the younger viewers? It's not only that obviously the family is not who you can trust and who deserves to be loved, but it's also about tormenting and torturing family members and/or friends and foes up until to the point of no return and where they can't even find peace in the afterlife.
Let's start with Morgana -
Morgana never ever mentioned her mother Vivienne but only Gorlois who she obviously admired and loved. Clearly, Morgana had a mother, yet she doesn't seem to play a role in her life even though she probably was the one Morgana inherited her powers from. She lost Gorlois and was then taken care of by Uther, her real father. She started to hate Uther and wanted to kill him in the first season already. Then she met her half-sister Morgause and was manipulated by her until she started to hate Uther even more and later even all of her friends and her half-brother Arthur. Whatever happened in the missing year with Morgause, Morgana lost her humanity and her desire to lead a happy life when turning into a brutal monster and mass murder who was only driven by hatred and revenge. Morgana lost her half-sister, the one who made her what she is now by helping her developing her powers and by turning her completely against everyone in Camelot. She feared her own father when thinking that he would kill her. Then Morgana tormented Uther with the mandrake root, manipulated him, lied to him, humiliated him, tormented him again, destroyed him physically and emotionally and then caused him an agonizing death. She still attempts to kill her half-brother Arthur, the only family member that is left. But she doesn't want him to die a quick death. She wants him to suffer first which she had already tried by having Arthur almost killed his beloved Gwen, and now she wants him to die slowly and painfully while turning his own wife into an evil equivalent of herself. So Morgana was manipulated and used by her half-sister, killed her own father and constantly tries to kill her half-brother.
How about Arthur?
Arthur never got to know his mother as a living person but only met her once as either a spirit, a shade or an illusion, telling him the lie that his own father sacrificed her willingly, trying to turn him against Uther. Their brief meeting wasn't a pleasant one but it was actually defined by hate towards Uther which must have been very hurting to Arthur, which was evident when he tried to kill his father in rage, based on what a spirit or an illusion summoned by magic told him. No matter how often Uther told Arthur that he was proud of him and that he loved him, Arthur always struggled for his father's love and acceptance, ignoring that he has had it all along. No matter how often Uther wanted to sacrifice himself for his son, Arthur still believed for some incomprehensible reason that his father disapproved of him. When Uther died, killed by his own daughter and by Arthur's half-sister, he lost the family member he was closest to, after witnessing Uther's total misery, being aware that his half-sister Morgana was responsible for Uther being broken and being a shadow of his former self. Several times he witnessed that Morgana wanted to kill him, his friends and his loved ones, knowing that he can't trust her anymore and that she has become his biggest enemy. Arthur's own uncle Agravaine, whom he trusted with his life and his kingdom, not only helped killing Arthur's father but also betrayed Arthur and almost succeeded destroying Camelot by conspiring with Morgana. Later, Arthur saw his almost-wife Gwen kissing another man and banned her from Camelot in rage, even threatened her to kill her if she ever returns. The only positive thing here regarding family was the fact that Arthur forgave Gwen without knowing that she was only enchanted when kissing Lancelot, and later married her. When Arthur summoned Uther's spirit because he missed him so much, he had to face the ridiculous fact that his own father thought of him as a failure, tried to kill Arthur's wife, to destroy what he had built up and in the end even attacked Arthur himself. His father who he loved so much and who loved Arthur, had turned into an evil psycho, totally disapproving of his son and putting the kingdom even before Arthur's life. So Arthur not only realised that his father actually didn't love him enough and wasn't on his side but he also knew that his own mother disapproved, if not hated his father. No family, no harmony. When Arthur sent Uther back to the Spirit World, he made clear that his father is now superflouse and unimportant because it's Arthur's turn now. The strong bond between father and son was destryoed forever.
Now Uther -
He lost his wife Igraine when asking for magical help in order to get an heir, Arthur. What actaully is the most natural and happy thing, having a child, turned out to be the most devastating happening when Igraine died in childbirth at the hands of magic. Even though he didn't know that Igraine would die and he wouldn't have asked for magical help in the first place if he had even the slightest idea about Igraine being the price for creating another life, Igraine, in case she was the real spirit of hers when meeting Arthur, seems to believe that Uther sacrificed her willingly and turned her own son against her own husband and Arthur's father which caused Arthur to try to kill his father in rage, the one who wanted to sacrifice himself for his son. Uther was being lied to and betrayed by both his children throughout the show until he died, sometimes because there was no other way, sometimes out of evil reasons in Morgana's case and sometimes to hide behind Uther's back. No matter how much Uther loved Arthur and wanted to sacrifice his life for him and told him that he was proud of him, Arthur never really believed it. No matter how often someone told Arthur that he is a better man than his father, Arthur never objected and never defended his father's honour. Uther loved his children, both Arthur and Morgana deeply, yet he was betrayed by Morgana from the very beginning of the show. Morgana tried to kill her father several times, totally rejected his love for her, tortured him with magic until he almost lost his mind, deceived him, lied to him, manipulated him, conspired with others to destroy him. Uther was being humilitated and tormented by his own daughter, the one he loved so much that he even almost sacrificed his entire kingdom for her and for whom he broke with his principles of never using magic when he asked for magical help in order to save her life. She imprisoned him, forced him to watch innocent people die for whom he offered his own life in order to save them. His own daughter told him that she hated him beyond imagination, took away his kingdom, his pride, his hope, his emotional health, destroyed him both mentally and physically and left him suffering in misery for a year until she finally killed him with magic, the one thing he had always feared the most. Uther had no chance for redemption when his daughter took away this chance from him. Even in death he seems to be suffering when ridiculously returning as an evil and vengeful ghost that tried to kill his son's wife and then attacked and threatened his own son after telling him what a failure he is. Obviously no reunion with Igraine, instead nothing but hate and misery, with a dead wife who despises him, a daughter that tortured him and caused him a painful death and a son who didn't care for his peace of soul but sent him back to the afterlife with telling him that his time is over and he has to hit the road, back to the Spirit World in which he will continue suffering from everything that torments his soul in regard to what is happening in Camelot and after dying a violent death. After Uther's death, Arthur blamed his father several times for Morgana's actions and heard others accusing his father for almost every cruel thing that has ever happened while never defending him but hiding behind his father's back, betraying his honour and ignoring other people's and his own responsibility for their actions.
Arthur and Uther learnt that there is no peace for both of them when Uther strongly disapproved of his son and when Arthur missed a father who even threatened and attacked him when they finally met again, which was totally unbelievable and out of character. It demonstrated that love is invane and not enough, which was ridiculously even claimed by Uther in the Spirit World. Family is not enough, emotional bonds are not enough. All that counts is ruthlessness, vengeance and indifference - and in the end, family is what hurts and destroys you, on all sides.
Characters are being tortured and killed, betrayed and lied to, family members destroy each other and are not to be trusted, instead friends are being shown as the ones who can be trusted, yet even those friends betray, lie and manipulate.
Is this a family show? In my opinion, not at all. To avoid showing blood doesn't qualify for a family show when emotional and physical torture is being shown so clearly. If "Merlin" had been like this from the very beginning, if the show had dealt with such drama for adults, the viewer would know that the emotional cruelty is not suitable for minors and that happy endings are not what "Merlin" is about. Alas, it started as a family show and still prides itself to be suitable for children at the age of twelve. While we see the "heroes" supposedly doing the right things, we are bombarded with the very questionable message that abandoning people, that not caring for other people's well-being, that killing, revenge, cruelty, indifference and hate even towards family members is the "right" thing, simply because it's the "heroes" that do such things. I'm very disappointed that the show has taken this direction and this is another reason why "Merlin" is not "Merlin" to me anymore.