The very popular belief that magic in BBC Merlin being an allegory for being queer/love in general makes Arthur's character so interesting when you think about it. His father taught him from a very young age that not only is "magic" evil, but it's also dirty and corrupts those who "choose" to "practice" it. And that everyone one who uses "magic" is some form of inherently weak for "choosing" to use it. When Arthur's, most likely, first and only true friend is secretly a warlock who uses "magic" to save him over and over again. And Arthur, who multiple times after Uthers death, and sometimes before, questions what he was taught even when he can never truly break away from his father's teachings until he knows what Merlin did for him. Arthur can never accept that "magic" isn't as disgusting and inherently evil to him as it is to his father. After all, wouldn't that make him sympathetic to "magic" users? Wouldn't that mean he could even understand why they "choose" to use "magic"? How could he understand why people do that if he didn't relate/feel similar?
Im saying the closest is glass and that Arthur grew up in the medieval fantasy version of a super closed-minded and religious household with internalized-homophobia/"magic" phobia.
He never actively "practices" "magic", therefore, it's not a problem, and he's not accepting of it. Even though he exists because of magic because his father wanted a son more than he wanted anything else. But that's Uther's hypocrisy, not Arthur's problem. I also find it weird that Arthur got over "being made from magic" rather quickly...
