I truly believe Uther hated what Arthur became for some reason other than him being kind to his people. Now HEAR ME OUT.
So, I don’t ship Gaius x Uther that much but, throughout the show, no matter how much of an asshole Uther was, you can see he had a soft spot for Gaius and vice versa.
Uther literally g*cided the magic kin which Gaius belong to. Gaius had to be separated from his fiancé bc of him. Lost countless people he loved and cared for bc of him. But he still stayed and was loyal to him till the end. That type of devotion, although not the most bravest man to stand up for it, parallels what Merlin had for Arthur.
And then there’s Uther, it’s revealed in S01 E09 (Excalibur) that Nimueh was Uther’s friend too.
She says : “I was your friend. You welcomed me into Camelot.” And when things went south, she was hunted. Her kind was hunted. All the innocent magic practicers too. But not Gaius. Uther just decided to turn a blind eye to all magic Gaius did as long as he didn’t continue any of those. And Gaius just…..agreed?
This type of dumbass-ery is a great parallel to what happened in S05 E05 (The Disir).
Ahem-There’s-no-place-for-magic-in-Camelot-ahem. Going against everything he is in the name of devotion? Sounds familiar?
And come on Uther is no idiot either, he might’ve had suspicions as to how a lot of magic kin in the castle got away before the chase because some insider clearly had info of the list of them somehow, and that insider had to be someone who had the same close connection to the court and the royal family. Like Alice, okay his girlfriend but Morgause??? A princess. Balinor?? A dragonlord. And we don’t know how many others but it had to be someone with some influence inside and Uther knew this but he didn’t condemn Gaius for that.
If that’s not devotion, I don’t know what it is.
My point is, Uther too was a closeted bisexual with a hell lot of internalized homophobia. Like yeah he knew something was up with Merlin and Arthur from the get go. The fact that he’s “glad” when Merlin reveals he and Arthur has a special bond, etc etc. Like he wanted his son to have what he couldn’t but still he hated him for it too.
The whole getting mad over loving a servant, was not only directed towards Gwen but Merlin too because remember in the The Deaths Song of Uther Pendragon (S05 E03), he was attacking Merlin even before he revealed his magic. Yes it was partly because he interrupted him while trying to kill Arthur but I believe it’s partly because of that too.
Arthur was everything Uther couldn’t become. Kind, just, heroic and gay.
