I think you have a very good point here. We might think Uther's been holding a grudge for far too long, but on the other hand these evil sorcerers and magic curses keep turning up week in and week out. He sees it as a continuing battle, not a fight he won 20 years ago - and, really, why shouldn't he?
I think this is partly due to the whole premise of the show. Merlin is the main character, and his main characteristic is magic, so the plots need to (mostly) revolve around magic - and the easy way of doing that is to have a Bad Guy with magic. Sometimes that's presented as a grey area (Anhora and the unicorns, though I definitely take your point about the people being harshly punished for Arthur's mistake) and sometimes it's about Merlin's own dilemmas (in Ealdor), but mostly it's a kids tv show and they go with the easy and visual option - an external bad guy.
Which, as you conclude, is a pity. I agree that we need to start having some more positive magic examples and role-models in the show!
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I think this is partly due to the whole premise of the show. Merlin is the main character, and his main characteristic is magic, so the plots need to (mostly) revolve around magic - and the easy way of doing that is to have a Bad Guy with magic. Sometimes that's presented as a grey area (Anhora and the unicorns, though I definitely take your point about the people being harshly punished for Arthur's mistake) and sometimes it's about Merlin's own dilemmas (in Ealdor), but mostly it's a kids tv show and they go with the easy and visual option - an external bad guy.
Which, as you conclude, is a pity. I agree that we need to start having some more positive magic examples and role-models in the show!